[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Religion
One of the most interesting developments in the history of religion in late antiquity was the emergence of certain forms of religious expression and practice that modern scholarship usually classifies under the rubric “Gnosticism,” or “Gnosis,” or “the Gnostic religion.” The term “Gnosticism” seems to have originated in the eighteenth century. On the other hand, the words “gnosis” and “gnostic” are Greek terms that are actually found in some of the ancient sources that either describe or represent examples of certain of the religious forms in question. However, when used for the modern category “Gnosticism,” “Gnosis,” or “the Gnostic religion,” none of these terms has an ancient equivalent. Antiquity quite literally had no word for the persons who are the subject of the present study—that is, no single word. The category is a modern construction.
By way of contrast, we might note that Greek words like Christianos (the noun “Christian”), Christianikos (adjective), or Christianismos (“Christianity”) do begin to appear in ancient literature not too many generations after Jesus of Nazareth. And at least in some cases, their function in the ancient texts is essentially the same as that of their modern equivalents: to designate individuals and communities whose religious tradition and devotion presuppose a central role or place for Jesus. In antiquity as in modern times, there might be argument about what counts as “legitimate” Christianity, but the point is that in both instances there is a category “Christianity.”
This was not true for “Gnosticism,” nor even, as we will see, for “Gnosis” or “the Gnostic religion.” This is not to deny the existence of the persons or writings themselves that are usually treated under this modern category. They did exist, and their story constitutes one of the most intriguing chapters in the history of ancient religion......
