Could Jesus have been a Gnostic teacher?

The claim that Jesus had a special relationship with Mary Magdelene comes from an obscure Gnostic book called “The Gospel of Mary Magdelene,” a part of the Nag Hammadi Library collection. On pages 246-248 of The Da Vinci Code there are a number of references to Gnostic writings which seek to highlight the conflict between Peter and Mary Magdelene as to who was the rock that the church was built on. There is also the claim that Jesus and Mary Magdelene were in a close union, implying marriage. Another reference to Gnosticism was on page 308 where the claim is made that physical union creates “gnosis” or knowledge of the divine. It seems that Dan Brown is trying to make a connection between ancient paganism and historic Christianity through the bridge of Gnosticism.

Could it be possible that Jesus and his disciples were Gnostics and that Christianity was hijacked by antignostics who replaced the Gnostic gospels with what we have today in the New Testament? There has been a revival of interest in Gnosticism today and in the next few paragraphs I will attempt to define Gnosticism and contrast it with historical Christianity.

Gnosticism has its roots in the first Century. Its greatest threat to orthodox Christianity was during the second century when a number of Gnostic Gospels were written. The backdrop for a number of the books of the New Testament was to clarify Christian teaching and correct early forms of Gnostic heresies.

The exact origins of Gnosticism have been debated by those who have written on this religion. Gnosticism is syncretistic and draws from a variety of religions. It seems that there were teachers of the first century who liked the person of Jesus and also believed in the dualistic philosophy of Greek thought. The roots of Gnosticism seem to be in the first Century. Gnosticism’s greatest challenge to the church was in the second century and communities of Gnostics thrived well into the fifth century.

As an interesting side story, a community of modern Gnostics have been uncovered to us in the West since the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. This group of Mandaeans (manda means ‘knowledge’ in Arabic) were written about in US News and World Report recently and they have practiced Gnosticism continuously since the first century. They follow John the Baptist and shun any worship of Jesus. They have elaborate baptism practices and are overtly anti-Christian and anti-Jewish.

Gnosticism is difficult to define because it has a loosely associated core of beliefs that differ from group to group. Some central beliefs include: a dualism between a Good God and an evil being – Demiurge; Demiurge created the world so matter is inherently evil and the spirit realm is good; God is unknowable and unconcerned with the world; and Salvation is through gnosis, meaning knowledge, of ourselves, the universe, and the nature of God. There are a variety of views about Jesus. Most Gnostic teachers taught that Jesus was a reveler of wisdom. Some taught that the divine ‘Christ’ entered the human Jesus at baptism and left at the crucifixion.

The teachings of Gnostics were unique to different schools of thought. There was no definitive book used by Gnostics and Gnostics were very good at reading what they wanted into texts of other religions, including Christian texts. The Gnostic movement has a number of parallels to the modern, so called ‘New Age’ movement. The followers of Gnostic philosophy did not need to join a church or adhere to a set of doctrines. One could pick and choose from a variety of beliefs and practices. There is clearly a revival of this form of eclectic religious beliefs in our culture today. Therefore it is not surprising that there is significant interest in ancient Gnosticism.

This form of religion is very different to the historic Christian faith system which is founded on a perfect Savior and an inspired book. We Christians have certainly had our differences of beliefs, but many of our differences are on a surface level with almost all Christians sharing a common view of the nature of Jesus and the uniqueness of the Bible. Various schools of Gnostic thought hold to fundamentally contradictory beliefs and practices.

One of the claims implied in The Da Vinci Code is that Gnostic writings have been wiped out by the church, including recent discoveries of Gnostic writings that apparently have been silenced by a conspiracy to hide the truth. It is true that very few copies survived through the years. Much of what was known about Gnosticism until 100 years ago was learned through the writings of the Church Fathers. Irenaeus wrote extensively against Gnosticism, often including long quotes from their writings. We do not know if Gnostic teachers wrote responses to the Church Father’s critics of their systems of thought.

A significant Gnostic teacher was Marion, who was the son of a Christian bishop, but converted to a form of Gnosticism in 140 AD. He believed that the God of the Jews was evil and the God of the New Testament was good. He rejected the Old Testament and much of the New Testament. He was left with 10 letters of Paul and the book of Luke, excluding the birth narrative. Marion was excommunicated by the church in 144 AD and went on to start a movement of heretical churches. What made Marion a greater threat to the orthodox church was the fact that his belief system was closer to the church than most schools of Gnostic thought. Marion was also rejected by many Gnostics as being too Christian.

Gnostic belief lead to two extremes regarding sexual ethics. Because Gnostics believed the spirit world to be good and the material world to be evil, earthly pleasures were either practiced without regulation, because God did not care, or earthly pleasures were denied as a hindrance to deeper knowledge. Marion’s followers were forbidden to marry or have sexual relations. The reason for abstaining was a revolt against the evil creator of this world. Christian asceticism seeks to draw closer to God through denial of earthly pleasures. Gnostic asceticism believes all pleasure is evil.

The most important archeological find for Gnostic literature was in 1945 when the Nag Hammadi library was found in Egypt. It has been a slow process in bringing this fourth century library to the rest of the world. The hold up has had little to do with the Vatican, or any other Christian group, and more to do with government and museum rights. Most of the contemporary Christian world has little interest in this discovery. Christian scholarship has a natural curiosity, stemming from an awareness of the Church Father’s theological debate with Gnostics.

The analogy has been used in Christian circles that if you want to avoid being counterfeited, study the original. It is better to spend time studying a real twenty dollar bill than to look at ten counterfeit bills. For myself as a Christian, I read my Bible every day and plan to continue studying the 66 books of the Bible for the rest of my life. When I spent a few minutes reading “The Gospel of Mary Magdelene,” it was easy to see a contrary message to my Bible. There are thousands of religious books in the world. I am convinced that there is no other book that compares to the Bible.

I would end this section with two passages from the New Testament that seem to be a first century response to Gnostic ideas. Paul writes to his disciple Timothy, in the early 60s AD, “Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge (gnosis), which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith.” (I Tim 6:20,21) It was consistently believed by Christians in the first four centuries of the church that to embrace Gnosticism was to leave the community of faith.

An even stronger condemnation of Gnosticism is found in John’s writing around 90 AD which states:
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world (I John 4:1-3). Early first century Gnosticism often taught that Jesus was not human, only divine. In our context we would find it an odd test of orthodoxy to test if a teacher believed that Jesus lived in a human body. In the context of Gnostic teaching in the late first century, it was a line in the sand between true teachers and heretics.

There is significant evidence to show that Gnosticism has been consistently refuted by church leadership throughout its history.

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Who was Mary Magdelene?