Gnosticism (from the Greek word, gnosis, which means knowledge) was a widespread cultural phenomenon in the Greco-Roman world.  This religious and philosophical system was quite diverse, but was generally unified by its insistence that a special class of people had been privileged with unique insight (gnosis) that set them apart spiritually from other less-gifted persons.  The evidence is ambiguous, but Gnosticism may have grown out of Christianity or it have origins elsewhere.  Even if it arose independently of Christianity, some versions of Gnosticism quickly merged with some forms of Christianities which existed in the first three centuries of Christianity. 

            In any case, many persons in the second and third century of the common era identified themselves both with Gnostic ideas and with Christian ideas.  These people created a great host of documents which other Christians rejected.  By the fourth century, with the unification of Christianity under Constantine, it became impossible to be Christian and Gnostic.  At that point, Gnosticism began to offer itself as an alternative to the emerging Great Church of Constantinian Christianity.

10/8/05