From our vantage point in time, 1500 years after the Christian religion became the official state religion of the Roman Empire and orthodoxy was imposed by the state, we have a hard time conceiving of the diversity of Christian thought in the first few centuries of the Common Era. In various parts of the Roman Empire, Christian factions that were later to be called heresies by the Catholic faction that eventually came to dominate the rest often exercised more earthly power and influenced more Christian people's thinking than the Catholic faction. Many theological points that are widely accepted today as orthodox were fervently discussed 1800 years ago. The Gnostics were one group of Christians that would eventually be viewed as heretics.

      Comparing Catholic and Gnostic beliefs is difficult, in no small part because the Gnostics believed that there was no right way of viewing God, Christ, and morality: they had no fixed dogma and believed that one correct dogma could not be developed. Rather, they believed that humankind was constantly improving both its morality and its understanding of the Superior Being by building on the work of earlier teachers, such as Jesus. They believed that Jesus's teachings should be the starting point, not the final word, on theological matters. With the caveat, then, that what we say about "the Gnostics" refers only to some Gnostic writers at some point in their search for enlightenment, let us compare Gnostic thought with Catholic thought.

      Catholics and Gnostics viewed God in fundamentally different ways: to Catholics, God is wholly "other," an omnipotent being, separate and apart from this world; while to Gnostics, God is inside each person and can be discovered through self-knowledge. To Catholics, man was perfectly created to live in Paradise with no need for labor and without suffering or death: suffering, labor, and death entered the world through human sin and Christ came to redeem us from that sin. To Gnostics, man was created imperfect to live in an imperfect world: through the teachings of a wise guides, over time humankind could learn to improve itself. To the Gnostics, then, Christ was a spiritual guide, not a suffering redeemer, and each person could attain the same status as Christ as soon as s/he became as enlightened as Christ. Further, the Gnostic God obeyed the laws of nature: to them, there was no physical resurrection for it would have violated natural law. Rather, the resurrection was understood as a symbolic resurrection.

      Because the Catholics and the Gnostics viewed the Christ and the godhead in such different ways, they also viewed religion, the church, and the role of clergy in essentially different ways. Forever unchanging, Catholic doctrine was originally revealed by Christ, passed on to the next generation by the apostles' personal testimony, and preserved for future generations through the fixed cannon of Holy Scripture. One role of the church was to pass on to future clergy the apostolic teachings. A teacher - student relationship required a professional clergy and a hierarchical church structure. Because the canon and theology were forever fixed, the liturgy was ritualistic and fixed for all time.

      In contrast, Gnostics believed that revelation, prophecy, inspiration, and personal experience were legitimate methods to pursue enlightenment. Each person and each generation were encouraged to continually increase the knowledge of the godhead and to pass that knowledge on to future generations in the form of new canonical texts. Because knowledge of the divine was found in each individual, not in a written text, each person had the same access to enlightenment and there was no need for either a professional clergy or a church hierarchy. Worship services were often charismatic and chaotic: each time the Gnostics met for worship, liturgical tasks were assigned by drawing lots. Sermons, scriptural readings, hymns and other forms of worship were determined on the spot at the time it was required by whoever was assigned the task at that meeting.

      Finally, Catholics and Gnostics viewed mankind and womankind in very different ways. The Catholics emphasized the difference is the creation of man and woman: Adam was first created from the dust of the earth, Eve was later created from Adam's rib. Man and woman were created at different times from different materials in different ways and consequently were basically different. The Gnostics believed that the original human was an androgynous human being, containing both male and female parts. The story of Eve being taken from Adam's side is an allegorical story of the original androgynous human being split into its male and female parts. Because the original human being had both male and female parts and because humanity was created in the image of God, God must have both male and female parts. Unlike the Catholics, the Gnostics took the idea of a female component of the godhead very seriously. The female component of the godhead was personified by the female Holy Spirit which they called Sophia, Holy Wisdom. To the Gnostics, women and men were fundamentally equal and each had equal access to the god inside of her/him. Consequently, women had the same rights to leadership positions in the church that men had. To the Catholics, women were basically excluded from the priestly hierarchy. All Christian factions that allowed women in leadership positions, including the Marcionites, the Montanists, and the Carpocratians, were deemed to be heresies, even if their doctrines agreed with Catholic doctrines in all other respects.

Table 1: Comparison of Catholic and Gnostic Beliefs
Orthodox	Gnostic
God wholly other	In-dwelling God
Christ suffering redeemer	Christ spiritual guide
Physical resurrection	Symbolic resurrection
Suffering, labor, and death caused by man's sin	Part of natural order of creation
Apostolic succession	Revelation, prophecy, inspiration
Fixed canon	No fixed canon
Static doctrine	"Continual increase in knowledge"
Apostles' testimony	Personal experience
Ritualistic	Charismatic
Hierarchical	Egalitarian
Fixed liturgy	Extemporaneous spiritual instruction
Professional clergy	Laity in place of professional clergy
No female divinity	Female component of deity - Sophia, Holy Wisdom Thunder Perfect Mind
Separate creation of man and woman	Androgynous creation
No women in leadership	Women in leadership
Women inferior to men	Women equal to men

      There are three extant versions of the Gnostic creation story, each one giving more details than the story of Adam and Eve found in Genesis. They are found in The Hypostasis of the Archons, On the Origin of the World, and Testimony of Truth. These long, involved, and complex creation stories share the same themes although some of the details differ. To the Gnostics, like the Catholics, the spiritual world is a hierarchical world populated with supernatural creatures, some good and some bad. The head of the Gnostic supernatural world is Sophia, Holy Wisdom, the female instructing principle. Under Sophia, are the lessor beings: the creator Gods, the angels, the archangels, devils, and Satan.

      The creators of physical things, collectively named God, are flawed and created a flawed world. The physical part of humanity was created by the bad part of the supernatural world, but the breath of life, the human spirit, came from Sophia-Holy Wisdom, the good part of the supernatural world. The bad supernatural creatures feared that their creation, with the help of the good supernatural creature's aid, would eventually become more powerful than they. In a jealous fit, seeking to hobble humankind, the bad supernatural powers warned Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But the female instructing principle, Sophia - Holy Wisdom, entered the body of the snake and encouraged Eve to eat of the fruit in order to become a more moral being. Sophia abandons the body of the snake. Warning his audience to be wary of the bad supernatural creator being and encouraging his audience to embrace Sophia-Holy Wisdom, is how the creation story ends, according to the writer of Testimony of Truth.

      "It is written in the Law concerning this, when God gave a command to Adam, "From every [tree] you may eat, [but] from the tree which is in the midst of Paradise do not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will surely die." But the serpent was wisest than all the animals that were in Paradise, and he persuaded Eve, saying, "On the day when you eat from the tree which is in the midst of Paradise the eyes of you mind will be opened." And Eve obeyed, and she stretched forth her hand; she took from the tree and ate; she also gave to her husband with her. And immediately they knew that they were naked, and they took some fig leaves (and) put them on as girdles.

      But [God] came at the time of [evening] walking in the midst [of] Paradise. When Adam saw him he hid himself. And he said, "Adam, where are you?" He answered (and) said, "[I} have come under the fig tree." And at that very moment God [knew] that he had eaten from the tree of which he had commanded him, "Do not eat of it." And he said to him, "Who is it who has instructed you?" And Adam answered, "the woman whom you have given me." And the woman said, "It is the serpent who instructed me." And he cursed the serpent, and called him "devil." And he said, "Behold, Adam has become like one of us, knowing evil and good." Then he said, "Let us cast him out of Paradise lest he take from the tree of life and eat and live for ever."

      But of what sort is this god? First [he] maliciously refused Adam from eating of the tree of knowledge. And secondly he said, "Adam, where are you?" God does not have foreknowledge; (otherwise), would he not know from the beginning? [And] afterwards he said, "Let us cast him [out] of this place, lest he eat of the tree of life and live for ever." Surely he has shown himself to be a malicious grudger. And what kind of a God is this? For great is the blindness of those who read, and they did not know him. And he said, "I am the jealous God; I will bring the sins of the fathers upon the children until three (and) four generations." And he said, "I will make their heart thick, and I will cause their mind to become blind, that they might not know nor comprehend the things that are said." But these things he has said to those who believe in him [and] serve him!" pages 454-455

      As an added bonus, here are some excerpts of the extraordinary Gnostic poem/hymn, Thunder: Perfect Mind, which celebrates the female instructing principle, Sophia - Holy Wisdom.

"I was sent forth from [the] power,
	and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
	and I have been found among those who seek after me.
Look upon me, you [pl.] who reflect upon me,
	and you hearers, hear me.
You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.
And do not banish me from your sight.
And do not make your voice hate me, nor your hearing.
	Do not be ignorant of me anywhere or any time. Be on your guard!
	Do not be ignorant of me.

For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am  and the daughter.
I am the members of my mother.
I am the barren one
	and many are her sons.
I am she whose wedding is great,
	and I have not taken a husband.
I am the midwife and she who does not bear.
I am the solace of my labor pains.
I am the bride and the bridegroom,
	and it is my husband who begot me.
I am the mother of my father
	 and the sister of my husband,
	and he is my offspring.
I am the slave of him who prepared me.
I am the ruler of my offspring.
	But he is the one who [begot me] before the time on a birthday.
	And he is my offspring [in] (due) time, 
	and my power is from him.
I am the staff of his power in his youth,
	[and] he is the rod of my old age.
	And whatever he wills happens to me.
I am the silence that is incomprehensible
	and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.
I am the voice whose sound is manifold
	and the word whose appearance is multiple.
I am the utterance of my name. 

Why, you who hate me, do you love me
	and hate those who love me?
You who deny me, confess me,
	and you who confess me, deny me.
You who tell the truth about me, lie about me,
	and you who have lied about me, tell the truth about me.
You who know me, be ignorant of me, 
	and those who have not known me, let them know me.

For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am shameless; I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace.
Give heed to me.
I am the one who is disgraced and the great one.

Give heed to my poverty and my wealth.
Do not be arrogant to me when I am cast out upon the earth,
	[and] you will find me in ]those that] are to come.
And do not look [upon] me on the dung-heap
	nor go and leave me cast out,
	and you will find me in the kingdoms.
And do not look upon me when I am cast out among those who
	are disgraced and in the least places,
	nor laugh at me.
And do not cast me out among those who are slain in violence.
But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel. . . .

For I am the wisdom [of the] Greeks
	and the knowledge of the barbarians.
I am the judgment of the Greeks and of the barbarians.
I am the one whose image is great in Egypt
	and the one who has no image among the barbarians.
I am the one who has been hated everywhere.
I am the one whom they call Life,
	and you have called Death.
I am the one whom they call Law,
	and you have called Lawlessness.
I am the one whom you have pursued,
	and I am the one whom you have seized.
I am the one whom you have scattered, 
	and you have gathered me together.
I am the one before whom you have been ashamed,
	and you have been shameless to me.
I am she who does not keep festival,
	and I am she whose festivals are many.
I, I am godless,
	and I am the one whose God is great.
I am the one whom you have reflected upon,
	and you have scorned me.
I am unlearned,
	and they learn from me. 
I am the one whom you have despised,
	and you reflect upon me.
I am the one whom you have hidden from,
	and you appear to me.
	But whenever you hide yourselves,
		I will appear.
	For [whenever] you [appear],
		I myself [will hide] from you. . . ." pages 297-300

References:

      James Robinson (ed.), The Nag Hammadi Library, p. 454-455

      Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospel, Vintage Books, 1979

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