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A Modern Gnostic from Paul Carus's 'History of the Devil' (p.137-156)

 

Gnostic Societies and Congregations

 

(p.137) The transition from the Old to the New Testament is an age of unrest.

The Jews had become familiar with the civilisation of Assyria and Babylonia, and

enjoyed friendly relations with the Persians. But the intercourse and general

exchange of thought among the nations of Western Asia became more extended and

grew livelier since Alexander the Great's time, for now Greek as well as Indian

views mixed and produced a powerful fermentation in the religious beliefs of the

people. We may fairly assume that the doctrines of the Hindu reached Syria in

vague and frequently self-contradictory forms, but they were new and attractive,

and apt to revolutionise the traditional ethics of the people. Formerly

procreation of children was regarded as a duty and the acquisition of wealth as

a blessing, now it became known that there were also people who sought salvation

in absolute chastity and poverty. The highest morality of the monks of India was

no longer the strength of maintaining oneself in the struggle for existence, but

the surrender of all strife and a radical renunciation of self.

 

(p.138) There are especially three ideas which dominated the whole movement and

acted as a leaven in the dough: the idea of the spirituality of the soul, the

hope of the soul's escape from bodily existence, and the method of obtaining

this liberation by wisdom (σοφία) or enlightenment (γνῶσις).

 

The realisation of the Gnostic ideal was called πληÏῶμα or fulfilment,

which was either expected by the soul's attainment of salvation after the

fashion of the Buddhist Nirvana, or for the whole world through the appearance

of a savior--a messiah.

 

The spirit of the times showed itself in the foundation of various religious

societies, which originated somewhat after the fashion of the modern

theosophical movements. There were bands of students of the new problems in

almost all larger cities, who investigated the doctrines of salvation and

immortality, and in addition there were enthusiasts who tried to apply the new

principles in practical life. The former called themselves μαϑηταί,

learners or disciples, the latter holy ones (ἅγιοι), or healers

(θεÏαπευταί, therapeutae). [138:1]

 

With regard to the problem of evil, the most peculiar sect were the Gnostics of

Syria whom the Church fathers called serpent-worshippers or Ophites, because on

becoming acquainted with the Biblical books they regarded Yahveh, the demiurge

or author of this visible and material world, as an evil deity while the serpent

(p.139) with his promise of giving knowledge or gnosis to man, appeared to them

as a messenger of the true and good God. This God of goodness, they declared,

was unlike Yahveh free of passions and full of love and mercy. He was, as

Irenaeus informs us, triune, being at once the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

The Father is the prototype of man, an idea which is carried out in the Cabala

as the Adam Kadmon; the Son is the eternal reason or comprehension

(Ἒννοια), and the Spirit is the female principle of spiritual generation.

 

Similar ideas concerning the triune Godhead and the salvation from evil are

reported of other sects and especially of Simon Magus who is mentioned in the

Acts as having been baptised by St. Peter and condemned for his opinion that the

Holy Ghost could be bought with money.

 

We know of sects in Judea, the Nazarenes, the Sabians [139:1] or Baptisers, the

Essenes, and the Ebionites, which were born of the same seeking spirit of the

age. But we must bear in mind that the members of these societies (p.140)

belonged exclusively to the poorer class of society and formed a third party

which was quite distinct from the orthodox Pharisees and the liberal Sadducees.

[140:1] They are to us of importance, however, because from their midst

proceeded the man who was destined to become the standard bearer of a new faith

and the representative incarnation of the new religion--Jesus of Nazareth.

 

 

The Apocrypha of the Old Testament

 

The literature of this period was no longer received into the canon of the Old

Testament and is therefore in spite of many good qualities even to the present

day regarded as apocryphal.

 

(p.141) The new world-conception which emphasised the contrast between body and

soul developed a new moral ideal; and the conception of evil underwent the same

subtle changes as the conception of goodness. Since the lower classes began to

make their influence felt, it is natural that in the Apocryphal Books of the Old

Testament the conception of Satan grew more mythological and at the same time

more dualistic. He developed into an independent demon of evil, and now, perhaps

under the influence of Persian views, the adversary of man became the adversary

of God himself.

 

In the story of Tobit (150 B.C.) an evil spirit called Asmodi plays an important

part. His name which in its (p.142) original form is Aeshma Daeva, indicates a

Persian origin. He tries to prevent Sarah's marriage, because he is in love with

her himself. In the Talmud, Asmodi develops into the demon of lust.

 

Very valuable books among the Apocrypha are the book of Daniel and the two books

of Esdras; but the noblest thoughts are mixed with Judaistic chauvinism and

bitter hatred of the Gentile nations.

 

Esdras anticipates the general eschatology as well as many smaller details of

the Christian doctrines in a more definite shape than any other author of the

period. He even proclaims (2 Esdras, vii. 28) the name of the Saviour whom the

Lord calls " my son Jesus. " [142:1]

 

Esdras mentions two abysmal beings, Enoch and Leviathan, but they do not take

any part in the production of evil. He might as well have omitted to mention

them. In the name of God, an angel explains to him the origin of evil as follows

in a simile which reminds us of both the Buddhist parable of the city of Nirvana

and Christ's Sermon on the Mount:

 

" A city is builded, and set upon a broad field, and is full of all good things:

The entrance thereof is narrow, and is set in a dangerous place to fall, like as

if there were a fire on the right hand, and on the left a deep water: And one

only path between them both, even between the fire and the water, so small that

there could but one man go there at once. If this city now were given unto man

for an inheritance, if he never shall pass the danger set before it, how shall

he receive this inheritance?'

 

" And I said, 'It is so, Lord.'

 

" Then said he unto me, Even so also is Israel's portion. (p.143) Because for

their sakes I made the world: and when Adam transgressed my statutes, then was

decreed that now is done. Then were the entrances of this world made narrow,

full of sorrow and travail; they are but few and evil, full of peril and very

painful. For the entrances of the elder world were wide and sure, and brought

immortal fruit. If then they that live labor not to enter these strait and

painful things, they can never receive those that are laid up for them.' " (2

Esdras, vii, 6-14.)

 

A peculiarly interesting apocryphal work is ascribed to the patriarch Enoch.

 

The book of Enoch undertakes to explain in allegorical form God's plan of the

world's history. The book is not yet Christian but shows many traces of

doctrines professed by the sects which appeared at the beginning of the

Christian era as competitors of Christianity.

 

While Enoch's demonology [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonology ] smacks

of the religious myths of the Gentiles, his ideas of salvation from evil betray

Gnostic tendencies.

 

We read, for example, in Chapter 42:

 

" Wisdom came to live among men and found no dwelling-place. Then she returned

home and took her seat among the angels. "

 

We read of the Messiah, commonly designated " the son of a woman, " sometimes " the

son of man, " and once " the son of God, " that he existed from the beginning:

 

" Ere the sun and the signs [in the zodiac] were made, ere the stars of the

heavens were created, his name was pronounced before the Lord of the spirits.

Before the creation of the world he was chosen and hidden before Him [God], and

before Him he will be from eternity to eternity. "

 

(p.144) " All the secrets of wisdom will flow from the thoughts of his mouth, for

the Lord of the spirits has given wisdom unto him and has glorified him. In him

liveth the spirit of wisdom, and the spirit of Him who giveth comprehension, and

the spirit of the doctrine and of the power, and the spirit of all those who are

justified and are now sleeping. And He will judge all hidden things, and no one

will speak trifling words before Him, for He is chosen before the Lord of the

spirits. He is powerful in all secrets of justification, and injustice has no

place before Him. "

 

And God says of the sons of the earth:

 

" I and my son shall unite ourselves with them for ever and aye in the paths of

righteousness for all their lives. "

 

The spiritualistic views in the Book of Enoch, especially the supernatural

personality of the Messiah, are not peculiarly Christian, but Essenic or

Gnostic, standing even in contradiction to the idea that the Messiah would

become flesh and live among men as a real man.

 

It is a pity that we do not possess the original, but only an Ethiopian version

of the Book of Enoch, which has been translated into German by Dr. A. Dillmann,

for it is of great interest to the historian. It breathes the spirit of a

Judaistic Gnosticism, and it is probable that the original Book of Enoch was

written in the year 110 B.C. by a Jew of the Pharisee party. [145:1]

 

 

The Book of Wisdom and the Gnostic Trinity Idea

 

The Book of Wisdom, a product of Alexandrian Judaism, showing traces of both

Greek and Eastern influences, speaks of the Devil as having through envy

introduced death into the world. We read:

 

(p.147) " God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own

eternity; nevertheless, through envy of the Devil came death into the world, and

they that do hold of his side do find it. "

 

The Wisdom literature shows many traces of Indian influence. The very word

wisdom, or sophia, seems to be a translation of the term bodhi. At the same

time, the trinity idea begins to take root in the Jewish mind, the oldest form

of it being moulded after the pattern of the family, which consists of father,

mother, and child. The Wisdom books represent the relation of Sophia to God as

his spouse and the Messiah as their son. Many Gnostics used the terms Sophia,

Pneuma, and Logos as names for (p.148) the second person of the Deity, who

represented the divine motherhood of the God-man. But during the first period of

the development of the Christian Church, the ideal of a God-mother was

abandoned, the Logos was identified with God the Son, who now became the second

person of the Trinity; and the name Pneuma or spirit was alone retained for the

third person. The Gnostic Trinity-conception, however, left its trace in the

Christian apocrypha, for in " the Gospel according to the Hebrews " Christ spoke

of the Holy Ghost as his mother. [148:1]

 

The Trinity idea is of a very ancient origin. We encounter it in the religion of

Babylon, [see p.40 in this URL]:

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/evil/hod/hod06.htm#page_40

 

in Brahmanism [see p.75 in this URL]:

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/evil/hod/hod09.htm#page_75

 

and in Buddhism. The Buddhists take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the

Sangha, called the three jewels, representing (1) Buddha the teacher, (2) the

Buddhist religion or the good law, and (3) the Buddhist brotherhood or Church.

The Trinity doctrine is not contained in the New Testament, all (p.149) the

passages which seem to involve it being spurious; but it forms an integral part

of almost all Gnostic systems, where it either appears as three abstract

principles, or as the family relation of Father, Mother, and Child, viewed as

one.

 

The Trinity idea of God as a divine unity of Father, Mother, and Christ-child

was retained among the Oriental Christians to the days of the rise of

Mohammedanism. The Koran knows as yet nothing of the spiritualised Trinity

conception of the Western Church, but represents the Christian Trinity as

consisting of God, Christ, and Mary. And this Gnostic Trinity-conception is a

natural ideal which in the further development of Christianity proved strong

enough to influence the Roman Catholic Church in her devotion to Mary, the

mother of Christ, whose personality was sometimes superadded to the Trinity, and

sometimes even suffered to replace the Holy Ghost.

 

The more abstract form of the Trinity, emphasising it as a triunity, found its

artistic expression in pictures (p.150) of God as possessed of three faces. The

most striking among these productions is an old oil painting which was

discovered by a German artist at Salerno and published for the first time in

'Die Gartenlaube' (1882, No. 47). The four eyes in their meditative attitude

make a weird impression on the spectator, the three elongated noses show a

freedom from sensuality, the brown hair and beard indicate strength, the broad

forehead wisdom.

 

 

A Modern Gnostic

 

Jacob Bohme's philosophy is, in this connexion, of interest because it

represents a revival of the spirit of Gnosticism in its best and most typical

form. It may serve as a substitute to characterise by way of example the modes

of thought of the ancient Gnostic systems and their comprehension of the problem

of evil.

 

Jacob Bohme was a German mystic, born in 1575 at Alt-Seidenberg near Gorlitz in

Silesia. Like David he was in his childhood a shepherd. Having served from his

fourteenth year as a shoemaker's apprentice and being (p.151) affiliated with

the shoemaker guild, he established himself as a master shoemaker in Gorlitz in

1599. Later on in his life he changed his trade for that of a glover. His books

circulated during his life-time in manuscript-form only, but even this sufficed

to make his name known beyond the limits of his native town. He died on Sunday,

November 17th, 1624, at his home in Gorlitz, much admired by his friends and

persecuted by some narrow-minded enemies who showed their malice even after his

death by defacing the monument of the deceased philosopher. The best evidence,

however, of his genius and the recognition which his honest aspirations found

among his fellow citizens appears in the fact that the son of the Rev. Gregorius

Richter, the pastor primarius of Gorlitz and the bitterest antagonist of Jacob

Bohme, edited a collection of extracts from his writings, which were afterwards

published complete at Amsterdam in the year 1682.

 

The similarity of Jacob Bohme's speculations to Gnosticism is apparent, but the

coincidence is almost (p.152) spontaneous. His education was very limited, and

he was only superficially familiar with the theories of Paracelsus (Theophrastus

Bombast von Hohenheim, 1493-1541), Kaspar Schwenkfeld (1490-1561), and Valentin

Weigel (1533-1588). His own system is original with him. It is mainly due to a

reflection on the Bible, which he read with a deeply religious spirit but

preserving at the same time great independence of thought.

 

Jacob Bohme conceives God as the unfathomable ground of existence, as the

'Ungrund'. His biographer in the Encyclopedia Britannica, says of his

philosophy:

 

" Nature rises out of Him, we sink into Him.... The same view when offered in the

colder logic of Spinoza, is sometimes set aside as atheistical.

 

" Translating Bohme's thought out of the uncouth dialect of material symbols (as

to which one doubts sometimes whether he means them as concrete instances, or as

pictorial illustrations, or as a more 'memoria technica') we find that Bohme

conceives of the correlation of two triads of forces. Each triad consists of a

thesis, an antithesis, and a synthesis, and the two are connected by an

important link. In the hidden life of the Godhead, which is at once 'Nichts'

[Nothing] and 'Alles' [Everything], exists the original triad, viz., Attraction,

Diffusion, and their resultant, the Agony of the unmanifested Godhead. The

transition is made; by an act of will the divine Spirit comes to Light; and

immediately the manifested life appears in the triad of Love, Expression,

(p.153) and their resultant Visible Variety. As the action of contraries and

their resultant are explained the relations of soul, body, and spirit, of good,

evil, and free will; of the spheres of the angels, of Lucifer, and of this

world.

 

" It is a more difficult problem to account on this philosophy for the

introduction of evil. . . . Evil is a direct outcome of the primary principle of

divine manifestation--it is the wrath side of God. "

 

The problem of the idea of evil is very prominent in Jacob Bohme's philosophy,

and has found a monistic solution. Without identifying good and evil, he arrives

at the conclusion that the existence of evil is intrinsically necessary and

unavoidable; it is ultimately rooted in the nature of God himself. The yearning

for self-realisation constitutes a suffering in God himself, and in the act of

revealing himself his will manifests both the bright and the dark aspect of

life.

 

Jacob Bohme anticipates Schopenhauer. He says, in his book on " The Threefold

Life of Man, " p.56 [153:1]:

 

(p.154) " For all things stand in the will, and in the will they are conducted.

If I do not conceive a will to walk, my body remaineth at a stand-still.

Therefore my will beareth me, and if I have no desire for [moving to] some

place, there is no will in me. But if I desire something else, it is of the

essence the will. "

 

" The eternal word is the eternal will. " --'Ibid'., p. 17.

 

Materiality and sensuality are identified with sin, and sin begins not with the

actual fall but with lusting, sleep being a symptom of this condition.

 

" Before his sleep Adam was in the form of an angel, but after his sleep he had

flesh and blood, and there was a clod of the ground in his flesh. " --'Die drey

Principien', p. 221.

 

With all his gnostic tendencies Jacob Bohme is not a dualist but a monist. The

duality of life viewed under the aspect of a higher unity constitutes a trinity

whose three principles are represented in the frontispiece of Jacob Bohme's book

on the subject [154:1] as two overlapping spheres which by meeting produce a

third domain. There is an eternal goodness, and there is an eternal badness, and

there is an eternal mixture of both. The eternal goodness contains the divine

spirit and all the angels. But the sphere of badness is no less eternal. It is

in its ultimate constitution the materiality of the world. The original Adam (a

kind of Platonic prototype of man) was spiritual: his fall begins with his

falling to sleep (p. 124), the result of carnal desire which changes his nature

and leads to the creation of the woman to tempt him.

 

But Jacob Bohme is not a dualist, for he conceives of the three spheres as being

one. He says in his book on The Threefold Life of Man, p. 16:

 

(p.155) " We remind the God-loving and seeking reader to recognise this of God.

He should not concentrate his mind and senses to seek the pure Godhead in

loneliness, high above the stars, as living solely in the heavens.... No, the

pure Godhead is everywhere, entirely present in all places and ends. There is

everywhere the birth of the Holy Trinity in one Being, and the angelic world

reaches unto all the ends wherever thou mayest think; even into the middle of

the earth, stones, and rocks; consequently also into Hell; briefly, the empire

of the wrath of God is also everywhere. "

 

Jacob Bohme does not believe in the letter but in the spirit of the Bible; and

although he is counted a mystic, the illumination which he seeks is as sober as

you can expect of a man of his culture. He freely utilises the Scriptures, but

urges good Christians to seek the key to the problems of existence deeper. He

says: " No one can come to God except through the Holy Ghost, " and by the " Holy

Ghost " he understands this spiritual illumination of heart and mind. He says

('ibid'., 15-16):

 

" Search for the ground of nature. Thus you will comprehend all things. And do

not madly go for the mere letter of the histories, nor make any blind laws

according to your own imaginings wherewith you persecute one another. In this

you are blinder than the heathen. Search for the heart and spirit of the

Scriptures that the spirit may be born in you, and that the center of the Divine

Love may be unlocked in you. Thus you may recognise God and speak of him

rightly. For out of the histories merely, no one shall call himself a master,

cogniser, and knower of the Divine essence, but out of the Holy Ghost which

appeareth in another principium in the center of man's life, and only to him who

searches rightly and seriously. "

 

Jacob Bohme condenses his philosophy in his explanation of the frontispiece of

his 'Threefold Life', where he says:

 

(p.156) " Every work indicates by its form, essence, and character, the wisdom

and virtue of its maker. Now if we contemplate the grandly marvellous edifice of

the visible heaven and earth, consider their motions, inquire into their

efficiencies and forces, and judge of the differences of the bodies of the

creature, how they are hard and soft, gross and subtile, dark and radiant,

opaque and pellucid, heavy and light: we shall at once discover the twofold

mother of the revelation of God, viz., darkness and light which have breathed

themselves out of all their forces and sealed miracles and form themselves

together with the firmament, the stars, the elements, and all the visible

conceivable creatures, where life and death, goodness and evil are at once in

each thing. That is the third of the two hidden lives and it is called time

contending with vanity. . . .

 

" Thus this world standeth in the mixed life of time between light and darkness

as a genuine mirror of the two, in which the marvels of eternity are revealed in

the form of time through the Word, as John announces. All things were made by

it, and without it was not anything made that was made. "

 

The Gnostic movement and especially its Jewish phase, manifesting itself in

sectarian life and in the post-canonical literature, is of greater importance

than is generally admitted, for it prepared the way for Christianity. Many

Christian dogmas, such as the bodily resurrection of the dead, the Messiah as

the soul of man, the approach of the day of judgment, are in the Old Testament

Apocrypha, as it were, tentatively pronounced. A comprehensive formulation of

the new religious ideals begins to be needed; and the people find at last in

Jesus of Nazareth a leader whose powerful personality affords a centre around

which the fermenting innovations can crystallise into an organised institution,

the Christian Church, destined to become a new and most influential factor in

the history of the world.

 

A Modern Gnostic from Paul Carus's 'History of the Devil' (p.137-156)

 

 

Footnotes:

 

138:1 - Philo explains the name " therapeutae " also as " worshippers. " The

genuineness of Philo's book De vita contemplativa and with it the very existence

of the therapeutae has been doubted by p. E. Lucius, whose views, however, are

thoroughly refuted by Fred. C. Conybeare, Philo About the Contemplative Life

(Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1895)

 

139:1 - St. John the Baptist was a Sabian. The name is derived from

â€×¦Ö¸×‘ָע‎ (tsabha); to baptise.

 

140:1 - The word Essenes, or Essees (in Greek Ἐσσηνοί and in the Latin

Ἐσσαῖοι (Esseni) is derived by Ewald from חַצָּו, a rabbinical

term meaning preserver, guardian; they called themselves " watchers, guardians,

servants of God. " Others derive the word from â€×ָסָ×‎ (to heal). Both

derivations would remind one of the Therapeutae.. The root הָסָה‎ (to

fly, to take refuge) seems to be quite probable, philologically considered,

especially as the word is used in the sense in which the Buddhist takes refuge

in the Dharma, which is illustrated in such phrases as â€×—ַסָה בַּ

יהוה‎ (to take refuge in God), Psalms ii. 12; v. 15; vii. 2; xxv. 20;

xxxi. 2; xxxvii 40, etc. A fourth derivation is from â€×—ָסָר‎ (to be

pious, enthusiastic, zealous in love). Philo says they are called " Essenes " on

account of their holiness (παÏá½° τὴν á½ÏƒÎ¹ÏŒÏ„ητα) and uses the

term ὅσιοι, i. e., " the saints, " or " the holy ones, " as a synonym for

Essenes. This hint, however, is of little avail, as it would suit almost any one

of the various derivations.

 

The word Ebionites â€×ֶבְינִי×‎ means the poor.

 

The early Christians seem to have been most closely allied with the Nazarenes,

for as early as in the year 54 of our era (see Harnack's Chronologie, p. 237)

St. Paul was accused by the Jewish authorities of being a ringleader of the sect

of the Nazarenes. (Acts, xxiv. 5.)

 

The name ÎαζωÏαϊοι (sometimes ÎαζαÏηνοί) has nothing to do

with the name of the town of Nazareth (ÎαζαÏέϑ), which was presumably

written with a â€×¦â€Ž (Tsaddi) or sharp ts sound. The name Nazareth is nowhere

mentioned in its original Aramaic form, and occurs only in the New Testament

whence it made its way into the patristic literature of later Christianity.

Neither must the name Nazarene be confounded with Nazarite â€× Ö¸×–ִיר‎ an

abstainer, who as a visible sign of his vow let his hair grow; both words may

have been derived from the same root â€× Ö¸×–ַרי‎, the former in the sense

of " Separatist. " The Niphel of the verb means " to separate oneself from others;

to abstain. to vow, to devote oneself to. "

 

142:1 - The passage is of course subject to the suspicion of being a later

interpolation.

 

145:1 - See Dillmann, Das Buch Henoch, p. xliv.

 

148:1 - Hieron. adv. Pelag. III., 2.

 

153:1 - Hohe und teife Grunde von dem Dreyfachen Leben des Menschen nach dem

Geheimnuss der drey Principien gottlicher Offenbahrung. Geschrieben nach

gottlicher Erleuchtung, Amsterdam, 1682.

 

154:1 - Beschreibung der drey Principien gottlichen Wesens. Amsterdam, 1682.

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/evil/hod/hod11.htm#page_151