Gnosticism in the context of Thomasines

Aramaic (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: ארמית, romanized: ˀərāmiṯ; Classical Syriac: ܐܪܡܐܝܬ, romanized: arāmāˀiṯ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written and spoken in different varieties for over 3,000 years.

Aramaic served as a language of public life and administration of ancient kingdoms and empires—particularly the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Neo-Babylonian Empire, and Achaemenid Empire—and as a language of divine worship and religious study within Judaism, Christianity, and Gnosticism. Several modern varieties of Aramaic are still spoken. The modern eastern branch is spoken by Assyrians, Mandeans, and Mizrahi Jews. Western Aramaic is still spoken by the Muslim and Christian Arameans (Syriacs) in the towns of Maaloula, Bakh'a and Jubb'adin in Syria. Classical varieties are used as liturgical and literary languages in several West Asian churches, as well as in Judaism, Samaritanism, and Mandaeism. The Aramaic language is considered endangered, with several varieties used mainly by the older generations. Researchers are working to record and analyze all of the remaining varieties of Neo-Aramaic languages in case they become extinct.

Sophia (Koine Greek: Σοφíα "Wisdom", Coptic: ⲧⲥⲟⲫⲓⲁ "the Sophia") is a figure, along with Knowledge (γνῶσις gnosis, Coptic: ⲧⲥⲱⲟⲩⲛ tsōwn), among many of the early Christian knowledge theologies grouped by the heresiologist Irenaeus as gnostikoi (γνωστικοί), "knowing". Gnosticism is a 17th-century term expanding the definition of Irenaeus' groups to include other syncretic faiths and the Greco-Roman mysteries.

In Gnosticism, Sophia is a feminine figure, analogous to the human soul but also simultaneously one of the feminine aspects of God. Gnostics held that she was the syzygy, or female twin, of Jesus, i.e. the Bride of Christ, and the Holy Spirit of the Trinity. She is occasionally referred to by the term Achamōth (Ἀχαμώθ, Hebrew: חכמה chokmah) and as Prunikos (Προύνικος). In the Nag Hammadi texts, Sophia is the highest aeon or anthropic emanation of the godhead.

Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith).

According to Christianity, Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This action introduced death and sin into the world. This sinful nature infected all his descendants, and led humanity to be expelled from the Garden. Only through the crucifixion of Jesus, humanity can be redeemed.

Titus Flavius Clemens, also known as Clement of Alexandria (Ancient Greek: Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; c. 150 – c. 215 AD), was a schematic Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature. As his three major works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular, by Plato and the Stoics. His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism as well. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, claiming that both Plato and Pythagoras were taught by Egyptian scholars.

Clement is usually regarded as a Church Father. He is venerated as a saint in Coptic Christianity, Eastern Catholicism, Ethiopian Christianity, and Anglicanism. He was revered in Western Catholicism until 1586, when his name was removed from the Roman Martyrology by Pope Sixtus V on the advice of Baronius. The Eastern Orthodox Church officially stopped any veneration of Clement of Alexandria in the 10th century. Nonetheless, he is still sometimes referred to as "Saint Clement of Alexandria" by both Eastern Orthodox and Catholic authors.

The cult of Dionysus consisted of devotees who involved themselves in forms of ecstatic worship in reverence of Dionysus. An ecstatic ritual performed by the cult included the orgeia, a forest rite involving ecstatic dance during the night. The Dionysia and Lenaia festivals in Athens were dedicated to Dionysus, as well as the phallic processions. These processions often featured villagers parading through the streets with large phallic representations. The cult of Dionysus traces back to at least Mycenaean Greece, since his name is found on Mycenean Linear B tablets as 𐀇𐀺𐀝𐀰 (di-wo-nu-so). However, many view Thrace and Phrygia as the birthplace of Dionysus, and therefore the concepts and rites attributed to his worship. Dionysian worship was especially fervent in Thrace and parts of Greece that were previously inhabited by Thracians, such as Phocis and Boeotia. Initiates worshipped him in the Dionysian Mysteries, which were comparable to and linked with the Orphic Mysteries, and may have influenced Gnosticism. It is possible that water divination was an important aspect of worship within the cult.

The cult was strongly associated with satyrs, centaurs, and sileni, and its characteristic symbols were the bull, the serpent, tigers/leopards, ivy, and wine. One reason for Dionysus's association with the silent is that Silenus, a chief figure among them, was said to have taught Dionysus the art of wine-making. Dionysus himself is often shown riding a leopard, wearing a leopard skin, or in a chariot drawn by panthers, and is also recognized by his iconic thyrsus. Besides the grapevine and its clashing alter-ego, the poisonous ivy plant, both sacred to him, the fig was another one of his accredited symbols. Additionally, the pinecone that topped his thyrsus linked him to Cybele, an Anatolian goddess. The Dionysian effect the god had on women also bores a resemblance to Krishna, an Indian god who enchanted female gopis with music to venture into the forest in the night.

Paganism is commonly used to refer to various religions that existed during Antiquity and the Middle Ages, such as the Greco-Roman religions of the Roman Empire, including the Roman imperial cult, the various mystery religions, religious philosophies such as Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and more localized ethnic religions practiced both inside and outside the empire. During the Middle Ages, the term was also adapted to refer to religions practiced outside the former Roman Empire, such as Germanic paganism, Egyptian paganism and Baltic paganism.

From the point of view of the early Christians, these religions all qualified as ethnic (or gentile, ethnikos, gentilis, the term translating goyim, later rendered as paganus) in contrast with Second Temple Judaism. By the Early Middle Ages (800–1000), faiths referred to as pagan had mostly disappeared in the West through a mixture of peaceful conversion, natural religious change, persecution, and the military conquest of pagan peoples; the Christianization of Lithuania in the 15th century is typically considered to mark the end of this process.

The religions of the ancient Near East were mostly polytheistic, with some examples of monolatry (for example, Yahwism and Atenism). Some scholars believe that the similarities between these religions indicate that the religions are related, a belief known as patternism.

Many religions of the ancient near East and their offshoots can be traced to Proto-Semitic religion. Other religions in the ancient Near East include the ancient Egyptian religion, the Luwian and Hittite religions of Asia Minor and the Sumerian religion of ancient Mesopotamia. Offshoots of Proto-Semitic religion include Canaanite religion and Arabian religion. Judaism is a development of Canaanite religion, both Indo-European and Semitic religions influenced the ancient Greek religion, and Zoroastrianism was a product of ancient Indo-Iranian religion primarily the ancient Iranian religion. In turn these religious traditions strongly influenced the later monotheistic religions of Christianity, Mandaeism, Druzism, Gnosticism, Islam, and Manicheanism, which inherited their monotheism from Judaism and Zoroastrianism.

Manichaeism (/ˌmænɪˈkiːɪzəm/; in Persian: آئین مانی, romanized: Āʾīn-i Mānī; Chinese: 摩尼教; pinyin: Móníjiào) was a major world religion founded in the third century CE by the Parthian Iranian prophet Mani (C.E. 216–274) in the Sasanian Empire. Variably described as a Christian heresy and a Gnostic movement, Manichaeism was an organized and doctrinal religious tradition in its own right. It taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good spiritual world of light, and an evil material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process that takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of the divine.

Mani's teachings were intended to integrate, succeed, and surpass the "partial truths" of various prior faiths and belief systems, including Platonism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Marcionism, Hellenistic and Rabbinic Judaism, Gnostic movements, Ancient Greek religion, Babylonian and other Mesopotamian religions, and mystery cults. Some forms of Manichaeism see Mani as the final prophet after Zoroaster, the Buddha, and Jesus. The Manichaean scriptural canon includes seven works attributed to Mani, written originally in Syriac. Manichaean sacramental rites included prayers, almsgiving, and fasting. Communal life centered on confession and the singing of hymns.

In Christian theology, original sin (Latin: peccatum originale) is the condition of sinfulness that all humans share, which is inherited from Adam and Eve due to the Fall, involving the loss of original righteousness and the distortion of the Image of God. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (the story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden), and in texts such as Psalm 51:5 ("I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me") and Romans 5:12–21 ("Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned").

The specific doctrine of original sin was developed in the 2nd century struggle against Gnosticism by Irenaeus of Lyons, and was shaped significantly by Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD), who was the first author to use the phrase "original sin". Influenced by Augustine, the Councils of Carthage (411–418 AD) and Orange (529 AD) brought theological speculation about original sin into the official lexicon of the Church.

Philosophical pessimism is the view that life and existence are of negative value. It is often expressed as the claim that life is not worth living and that non-existence would, at least in many cases, be preferable to coming into or remaining in existence. Other formulations focus on claims that suffering and other harms have more impact or severity than pleasure and other goods; that the amount of bad in the world exceeds the quantity of good; or that existence lacks inherent value or purpose and can at most be fleetingly beneficial or limitedly meaningful.

Themes associated with pessimism appear in a range of religious and philosophical traditions, including parts of Buddhism, the book of Ecclesiastes, certain forms of Gnosticism, and the work of Hegesias of Cyrene. In the 19th century, Arthur Schopenhauer gave pessimism a systematic form in his The World as Will and Representation, and later German thinkers such as Eduard von Hartmann and Philipp Mainländer developed their own versions. In the 20th and 21st centuries, authors including Peter Wessel Zapffe, Emil Cioran, Thomas Ligotti, David Benatar, Julio Cabrera and Drew Dalton have revisited pessimistic ideas using arguments from ethics, psychology and the natural sciences.

Plotinus (/plɒˈtaɪnəs/; Ancient Greek: Πλωτῖνος, Plōtînos; c. 204/5 – 270 CE) was a hellenised Egyptian Platonist philosopher, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher was the self-taught philosopher Ammonius Saccas, who belonged to the Platonic tradition. Historians of the 19th century invented the term "neoplatonism" and applied it to refer to Plotinus and his philosophy, which was vastly influential during late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Much of the biographical information about Plotinus comes from Porphyry's preface to his edition of Plotinus' most notable literary work, The Enneads. In his metaphysical writings, Plotinus described three fundamental principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His works have inspired centuries of pagan, Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, and early Islamic metaphysicians and mystics, including developing precepts that influence mainstream theological concepts within religions, such as his work on duality of the One in two metaphysical states.

Mandaeans (Mandaic: ࡌࡀࡍࡃࡀࡉࡉࡀ) (Arabic: المندائيون al-Mandāʾiyyūn), also known as Mandaean Sabians (الصابئة المندائيون al-Ṣābiʾa al-Mandāʾiyyūn) or simply as Sabians (الصابئة al-Ṣābiʾa), are an ethnoreligious group who are followers of Mandaeism. They believe that John the Baptist was the final and most important prophet.

They may have been among the earliest religious groups to practise baptism, as well as among the earliest adherents of Gnosticism, a belief system of which they are the last surviving representatives. The Mandaeans were originally native speakers of Mandaic, an Eastern Aramaic language, before they nearly all switched to Mesopotamian Arabic or Persian as their main language.

Irenaeus (/ɪrɪˈneɪəs/ or /ˌaɪrɪˈniːəs/; Ancient Greek: Εἰρηναῖος, romanized: Eirēnaîos; c. 125 – c. 202 AD) was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the development of Christian theology by opposing Gnostic interpretations of Christian Scripture and defending orthodoxy. Originating from Smyrna, he had seen and heard the preaching of Polycarp, who in turn was said to have heard John the Evangelist.

Chosen as Bishop of Lugdunum, now Lyon, Irenaeus wrote his best-known work Against Heresies around 180 as a refutation of gnosticism, in particular that of Valentinus. To counter the doctrines of the gnostic sects claiming secret wisdom, he offered three pillars of orthodoxy: the scriptures, the tradition said to be handed down from the apostles, and the teaching of the apostles' successors. He is the earliest surviving witness to regard all four of the now-canonical gospels as essential.

Mandaeism (Classical Mandaic: ࡌࡀࡍࡃࡀࡉࡅࡕࡀ‎ mandaiuta), sometimes also known as Nasoraeanism or Sabianism, is a Gnostic, monotheistic and ethnic religion with Greek, Iranian, and Jewish influences. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Noah, Shem, Aram, and especially John the Baptist. Mandaeans consider Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem, and John the Baptist prophets, with Adam being the founder of the religion and John being the greatest and final prophet.

The Mandaeans speak an Eastern Aramaic language known as Mandaic. The name 'Mandaean' comes from the Aramaic manda, meaning knowledge. Within the Middle East, but outside their community, the Mandaeans are more commonly known as the صُبَّة Ṣubba (singular: Ṣubbī), or as Sabians (الصابئة, al-Ṣābiʾa). The term Ṣubba is derived from an Aramaic root related to baptism. The term Sabians derives from the mysterious religious group mentioned three times in the Quran. The name of this unidentified group, which is implied in the Quran to belong to the "People of the Book" (ahl al-kitāb), was historically claimed by the Mandaeans as well as by several other religious groups in order to gain legal protection (dhimma) as offered by Islamic law. Occasionally, Mandaeans are also called "Christians of Saint John", in the belief that they were a direct survival of the Baptist's disciples. Further research, however, indicates this to be a misnomer, as Mandaeans consider Jesus to be a false prophet.

Manichaeism (/ˌmænɪˈkiːɪzəm/; in Persian: آئین مانی, romanized: Āʾīn-i Mānī; Chinese: 摩尼教; pinyin: Móníjiào) was a major world religion founded in the third century CE by the Parthian Iranian prophet Mani (216–274) in the Sasanian Empire. Variably described as a Christian heresy and a Gnostic movement, Manichaeism was an organized and doctrinal religious tradition in its own right. It taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good spiritual world of light, and an evil material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of the divine.

Mani's teachings were intended to integrate, succeed, and surpass the "partial truths" of various prior faiths and belief systems, including Platonism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Marcionism, Hellenistic and Rabbinic Judaism, Gnosticism, Ancient Greek religion, Babylonian religion, other ancient Mesopotamian religions, and the Greco-Roman mysteries. Some forms of Manichaeism viewed Mani as the final prophet after Zoroaster, the Buddha, and Jesus. The canon of Manichaean scripture included seven works attributed to Mani, written originally in the Syriac language. Manichaean sacramental rites included prayers, almsgiving, and fasting. Communal life centered on confession and the singing of hymns.

Alawism (Arabic: علوية, romanized: ʿAlawiyya), also known as Nusayrism (Arabic: نصيرية, romanized: Nuṣayriyya), is an offshoot of early Shia Islam with influences from ancient Iranian, Christian, and Gnostic traditions. Its adherents, called the Alawites, are estimated to number around 4 million and are primarily concentrated in the Levant. Alawites venerate Ali ibn Abi Talib, the "first imam" in the Twelver school, as a manifestation of the divine essence.

Alawite beliefs are centered in a divine Trinity, comprising three aspects of the one God, the ma'na (meaning), the ism (name), and the bab (door). These emanations are understood to have undergone reincarnation cyclically seven times in human form throughout history, the last seventh incarnation being that of Ali, Muhammad and Salman the Persian. Alawite practices include consecration of wine in the form of Mass, entombing the deceased in sarcophagi, observing cultural holidays such as Akitu, Christmas, Nowruz, Mawlid and Gazwela.

The ghulāt (Arabic: غُلَاة, lit. 'exaggerators, extremists') were a branch of early Shi'a Islam. The term mainly refers to a wide variety of extinct Shi'i sects active in 8th- and 9th-century Kufa in Lower Mesopotamia, and who, despite their sometimes significant differences, shared several common ideas. These common ideas included the attribution of a divine nature to the Imams, metempsychosis (the belief that souls can migrate between different human and non-human bodies), a particular gnostic creation myth involving pre-existent 'shadows' (azilla) whose fall from grace produced the material world, and an emphasis on secrecy and dissociation from outsiders. They were named ghulat by other Shi'i and Sunni Muslims for their purportedly "exaggerated" veneration of Muhammad (c. 570–632) and his family, most notably Ali (c. 600–661) and his descendants, the Imams.

The ideas of the ghulat have at times been compared to those of the late antique gnostics, but the extent of this similarity has also been questioned. Some ghulat ideas, such as the notion of the occultation (ghayba) and return (raj'a) of the Imam, have been influential in the development of Twelver Shi'ism. Later Isma'ili Shi'i authors such as Ja'far ibn Mansur al-Yaman (died c. 957) and Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani (died after 971) also adapted ghulat ideas to reformulate their own doctrines. The only ghulat sect still in existence today are the Alawites, historically known as Nusayris after their founder Ibn Nusayr (died after 868).

The concept of the anima mundi (Latin), world soul (Ancient Greek: ψυχὴ κόσμου, psychḕ kósmou), or soul of the world (ψυχὴ τοῦ κόσμου, psychḕ toû kósmou) posits an intrinsic connection between all living beings, suggesting that the world is animated by a soul much like the human body. Rooted in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, the idea holds that the world soul infuses the cosmos with life and intelligence. This notion has been influential across various systems of thought, including Stoicism, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, and Hermeticism, shaping metaphysical and cosmological frameworks throughout history.

In ancient philosophy, Plato's dialogue Timaeus introduces the universe as a living creature endowed with a soul and reason, constructed by the demiurge according to a rational pattern expressed through mathematical principles. Plato describes the world soul as a mixture of sameness and difference, forming a unified, harmonious entity that permeates the cosmos. This soul animates the universe, ensuring its rational structure and function according to a divine plan, with the motions of the seven classical planets reflecting the deep connection between mathematics and reality in Platonic thought.

Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge (γνῶσις, gnōsis, f.). The term was used among various Hellenistic religions and philosophies in the Greco-Roman world. It is best known for its implication within Gnosticism, where it signifies a spiritual knowledge or insight into humanity's real nature as divine, leading to the deliverance of the divine spark within humanity from the constraints of earthly existence.