Table Of ContentThe Origins and Teachings
Gnosticism
of
The definitive statement that Gnosticism
II
emerged from within Christianity. "
- Birger A. Pearson
.,
SIMONE PETREMENT
A Separate God
The Christian Origins
of Gnosticism
Simone Petrement
Translated by Carol Harrison
III HarperSanFrancisco
A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers
Originally published in French as Ie Dieu separe: les origines du gnostic;sme by
Les Editions du Cerf, Paris, 1984.
Copyright © 1984 by Les Editions du Cerf. Translation copyright © 1990 by
Harper & Row. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No
part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical
articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Publishers,
10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.
FIRST U.S. EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Petrement, Simone.
[Dieu scparc. English]
A separate God: the Christian origins of gnosticism / Simone
Pctrement.-lst U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Translation of: Le Dieu separc.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-06-066501-7:
1. Gnosticism. I. Title.
BT1390.P4513 1990
273'.I~c20 89-45551
CIP
90 91 92 93 94 HAD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This edition is printed on acid-free paper that meets the
American National Standards Institute Z39.48 Standard.
Contents
Introduction: The Problem of Gnosticism 1
Part 1. Christianity and Gnosticism 27
1. Can the Principal Gnostic «Myths" Be Understood
on the Basis of Christianity? 27
I. The Demiurge 29
II. The Seven Creator Angels 51
III. The Mother 75
IV. The God "Man" 101
II. Can the Principal Characteristics of the
Gnostic Doctrines Be Understood on the
Basis of Christianity? 127
I. Salvation by "Knowledge" 129
II. Christian Savior and Gnostic Revealer 140
III. Docetism 144
IV. Realized Eschatology 157
V. Gnostic "Dualism" 171
VI. Freedom by Grace 181
Conclusions of Part 1 211
Part 2. How Gnosticism Could Have Been Formed 215
Introduction 217
I. The "Gnosis" of Simon the Magician 233
II. The "Gnostics" at Corinth 247
III. The Possible Sources of Apollos's Teaching 265
IV. The Signs of Gnosticizing Heresies at Ephesus 271
Vi CONTENTS
V. (Excursus)
Apollos and the Fourth Gospel 276
VI. Cerinthus 298
VII. Menander 315
VIII. Saturnilus 329
IX. Basilides 336
X. Carpocrates 347
XI. Valentinus 351
XII. The "Apocryphon of John" 387
XIII. On the So-Called Non-Christian Works Found
at Nag Hammadi 420
XIV. Brief Remarks on the So-Called Pagan Gnoses,
"Gnostic" Jewish Christianity, Mandeism, and
"Jewish Gnosticism" as Pre-Christian 462
Conclusions of Part 2 482
Notes 488
Author Index 529
Subject Index 535
Abbreviations
AEPHE Annuaire de l'Ecole pratique des hautes etudes. Paris
BG Berolinensis gnosticus (papyrus 8502 du Musee de Berlin,
publie par W. Till : Die gnostischen Schriften des koptischen
Papyrus Berolinensis 8502, Berlin, 1955)
BJRL Bulletin of The John Rylands Library. Manchester
CA Cahiers archeologiques. Paris
CBQ The Catholic Biblical Quarterly. Washington
a
CG Cairensis gnosticus (bibliotheque de XIII codices decouverte
Nag Hammadi et conservee au Musee copte du Caire;
contenant des ecrits, gnostiques pour la plupart, traduits en
copte)
CH Corpus Hermeticum
ChH Church History. Chicago
CSCO Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium. Paris and
Louvain
CSEL Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum. Vienna
ETh Evangelische Theologie. Munich
FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen
Testaments. Gottingen
GCS Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei
Jahrhunderte. Berlin
HThR Harvard Theological Review. Cambridge
[renee Irenee, Adversus haereses
JA Journal asiatique. Paris
JAC Jahrbuch fUr Antike und Christentum. Munster
JAOS Journal of The American Oriental Society. New Haven
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature. Philadelphia
JQR The Jewish Quarterly Review. Philadelphia and Leyden
JThS Journal of Theological Studies. Oxford
Kair. Kairos. Salzburg
Mus. La Meseon. Louvain
NHL The Nag Hammadi Library in English, ed. J. M. Robinson,
San Francisco and Leyden, 1977
NHS Nag Hammadi Studies. Leyden
NovTest Novum Testamentum. Leyden
NTS New Testament Studies. Cambridge
Num. Numen. Leyden
OChr Oriens christianus. Wiesbaden
viii ABBREVIATIONS
OG Le Origini dello gnosticismo, colloquio di Messina ... 1966,
ed. U. Bianchi, Leyden, 1967
OLZ Orientalische Literaturzeitung. Berlin
PW Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopadie der klassischen Alter-
tumswissenschaft. Stuttgart .
RAC Reallexikon fUr Antike und Christentum. Stuttgart
RB Revue biblique. Paris
REA Revue des Etudes augustiniennes. Paris
RecSR Recherches de science religieuse. Paris
RevSR Revue des sciences religieuses. Strasbourg
RG The Rediscovery of Gnosticism, Proceedings of The Inter
national Conference on Gnosticism at Yale ... 1978, ed.
B. Layton, Leyden, I-II, 1980-1981
RGG Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Tiibingen
RHPhR Revue d'histoire et de philosophie religieuses. Strasbourg
RHR Revue de I'histoire des religions. Paris
RMM Revue de metaphysique et de morale. Paris
RSPhTh Revue des sciences philosophiques et theologiques. Paris
RSR Religious Studies Review. Macon, GA
RTh Revue thomiste. Paris
SR Studies in Religion. Toronto
ThLZ Theologische Literaturzeitung. Berlin
ThR Theologische Rundschau. Tiibingen
TU Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen
Literatur. Berlin
VChr Vigiliae Christianae. Amsterdam
ZDMG Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft.
Wiesbaden
ZNTW Zeitschrift fUr die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft. Berlin
ZPE Zeitschrift fiir Papyrologie und Epigraphik. Bonn
ZRGG Zeitschrift rur Religions - und Geistesgeschichte. Cologne
ZThK Zeitschrift fiir Theologie und Kirche. Tiibingen
A Separate God
Introduction
The Problem of Gnosticism *
As is well known, Gnosticism is a religious and philosophical movement
that came into being in the Roman Empire, and in the East beyond that
empire, during the first centuries of our era. Up until our time, this move
ment was known almost solely by the battle that the Fathers of the Church,
who regarded it as a Christian heresy, waged against it. Numeruus refuta
tions of this heresy had survived, while the writings of the Gnostics them
selves, hunted down and destroyed during the centuries, had almost all
disappeared. This situation has now markedly changed. Previously we were
reduced to the information given by heresiologists for the earliest time in
which Gnosticism must have appeared. Now, however, we have a number
of original Gnostic works, most of which have only been discovered or
made accessible within the last hundred years. The main stages of this
rediscovery have been: first, beginning in 1904, the publication of Mani
chean writings found in central Asia (Manicheism is one of the branches
issuing from Gnosticism); then the translations of the most important
Mandean writings, which were published by Lidzbarski in 1915, 1920,
and 1925 (Mandeism is also a form of Gnosticism); following that, the
publication, from 1934, of Manichean manuscripts dug up about 1930 in
the Fayum, Egypt; most recently, the discovery in 1945 of fifty or so Gnos
tic works, again in Egypt, at Nag Hammadi, and the publication of these
works, which was completed in 1977.1
The rediscovered texts are almost all written in Oriental languages,
having been either originally written in these languages or translated from
Greek texts, the original of which is now lost. The abundance of Coptic
texts is partly due to a fluke of dimate, which meant that the manuscripts
buried in Egypt were preserved without much damage. The preponderance
of Asiatic languages is due to the fact that from the fourth century, when
the Church had triumphed in the Roman Empire, it was only in countries
not controlled by the Church that this sort of doctrine could hold its own
and spread.
Gnosticism was not a single doctrine. This name covers a large number
of widely differing doctrines. It is modern scholars who speak of Gnosti-
• With a few alterations, this introduction reproduces an article published in RMM 85
(1980), 145-77.
2 INTRODUCTION
cism; the ancients spoke of Simonians, of Menandrians, of Saturnilians, of
Basilideans, of Carpocratians, of Valentinians, of Marcionites, Ophites,
and Sethians, to name a few.2 Nevertheless, there is a justification for this
single name because despite great differences, the doctrines of all these sects
betray certain common traits. Insofar as they have these features in com
mon, they can be placed in the same genre and under the same name.
The question of the origin and essence of this genre is one of the most
obscure, the most complex, and the most difficult to be raised in the history
of ideas. Despite intensive and painstaking work, and despite heated dis
cussions among scholars, an overall view that can be considered as defini
tively established has certainly not been arrived at.
The picture of Gnosticism that the Fathers of the Church have handed
down to us, that is, the conception of these doctrines as Christian heresies,
has been called into question by modern research, especially since the be
ginning of this century, or thereabouts. Even before this time, a few schol
ars, struck by the truly singular, truly strange character of certain Gnostic
doctrines, had turned to the East to look for their source. But it was above
all Reitzenstein who, in 1904, seemed to have brought decisive proof
against the connection of Gnosticism and Christianity when he 'made the
observation that there is at least one pagan work (or one appearing as
such) that contains a system of ideas very similar to that which character
izes the Gnostics as described by the heresiologists.3 The work in question
is the Poimandres, the first treatise of the Corpus Hermeticum. The exis
tence of such a work, at once Gnostic and pagan, seemed to imply that
Christianity was not an essential factor in Gnosticism. In actual fact, for
the evidence to be absolutely certain, it is necessary to be sure that the
author of the Poimandres did not know of the speculations of Gnostic
Christians and was not influenced by them. One cannot be sure of that.
Nevertheless, the discovery of an apparently pagan gnosis made a great
impression on historians of religion and theologians. Not long after, an
other scholar, Bousset, published a work in which, deconstructing gnosis,
cutting it up, as it were, into a certain number of principal themes, he
demonstrated that each of the themes shows a certain analogy with some
pre-Christian religious or philosophical theme.4 Thus, Gnosticism seemed
to be a collection of diverse elements, older than Christianity and indepen
dent of it, a syncretism. Reitzenstein conceived it in much the same way
and a little while afterwards came to think that in this syncretism the
dominant element was a Persian doctrine, an, "Iranian mystery of salva
tion," which he considered to be very old.s For Bousset also, Iran had
played a large role: for him Gnostic dualism was a combination of Persian
Zoroastrian dualism and Greek Platonic dualism.6
Until about 1950 this orientalizing, Iranianizing theory was accepted
by a good number of scholars. But afterward its success declined; it needed
to be revised. Some of Reitzenstein's arguments have shown themselves to
be ill-founded.7 Also, the idea of gnosis as being essentially a syncretism
