Gnosticism: Hinduism’s Alias

Elaine Pagels’ The Gnostic Gospels aids readers in understanding a recently discovered view of Christianity and, by close association, its lord, Jesus. Curiosity piques when people hear about the mysterious, alluring texts that she discusses in her book, the same texts that the arch Bishop, Irenaeus, excluded from the Bible for brandishing “heretic” teachings (Pagels xix). These heretic Christians, who believe in the interpretations of the Gnostic gospels as the “secret” but true teachings of Jesus, are called Gnostics. The term “Gnostic” derives “from the Greek word gnosis, usually translated as ‘knowledge’…not primarily rational knowledge…[but rather] knowing through observation or experience” (Pagels xix). Her facts-only book puts the contents of certain religious fiction novels on the spot: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, although undoubtedly entertaining and enlightening in some respects, claims from a quote in The Gospel of Philip that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were intimate. On the contrary, Pagels reveals to her readers that the Dialogue of the Savior testifies that Jesus only included Mary Magdalene as one of his favored disciples (fore she was, according to these excluded scriptures) because “she, along with Judas and Matthew, reject[ed] the ‘works of femaleness’–that is, apparently, the activities of intercourse and procreation” (66). Pagels forces Brown’s audience to question where Brown thinks babies come from and puts da Vinci’s alleged code to a startling halt–not “beneath the starry skies” of Paris at the Louvre (Brown 489). Pagels’ intent, however, is to do more than just amuse Brown’s readers: “I intend here to show how gnostic forms of Christianity interact with orthodoxy–and what this tells us about the origins of Christianity itself” (xxxiv). To elaborate, the author clarifies, saying, “What we call Eastern and Western religions, and tend to regard as separate streams, were not clearly differentiated 2,000 years ago” (xxi). From reading The Gnostic Gospels, one can make this conclusion: The Gnostic understanding that “to know oneself, at the deepest level, is simultaneously to know God” and other such concepts compare much more closely with Hinduism than any other religion, which, therefore, fabricates the vast chasm that separates Gnosticism from Orthodoxy.

Orthodox Christians, according to the Nicene Creed, “believe in one god, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth” (Pagels 28). This single statement rejects the faith of gnostic Christians as they base their beliefs on Marcion, who “concluded that [the God mentioned in the Old and New Testaments] must be two different Gods” (Pagels 28). This interpretation by most Gnostics establishes the belief in multiple gods, a belief that parallels Hinduism. Like Gnostics, Hindus believe that the creator god they call Brahma and the Supreme Lord (Krishna, in their case (Miller 48)) are two individual gods, although the understanding of Brahman or the “absolute reality” encompasses all this polytheistic religion’s gods into one God and makes it, in turn, a monotheistic religion (Knott 18). Gnostics share a similar understanding, although they do not see what the Hindus call Brahman as a person or encompasser of all gods. Rather, Brahman for a Gnostic is simply a higher existence. Pagels unveils a passage from Hypostasis of the Archons where Wisdom, the Father’s female counterpart (45), chastises her son, the Creator God, for thinking that there were no gods before or besides Him. The passage reads: “And a voice came from above the realm of absolute reality, saying, ‘You are mistaken, Samael,’ which means, ‘god of the blind’” (29, emphasis added). Interestingly, no one chastises Krishna when He claims the title of Supreme Lord. The absolute reality, for a Hindu, “[abides] in the heart of all creatures” (Miller 48) fore Brahman and the atman (the Self or soul (Knott 124)) are synonymous. Pagels, though she speaks of Gnostics, seems to paraphrase this exact belief: “Self knowledge is knowledge of God; the self and the divine are identical” (xx). This common belief between these two seemingly divided religions breaks Gnosticism away from Orthodox Christianity entirely, earning Gnostics the title “heretic,” because “orthodox Jews and Christians insist that a chasm separates humanity from its Creator: God is wholly other” (Pagels xx). For a person (a person besides Jesus, that is) to claim any resemblance to the divinity of the Father who is the Creator commits blasphemy, and, in doing so, belittles God. To claim anything besides what is written in the Nicene Creed is blasphemous.

Gnostics, according to Elaine Pagels, do not seem to care about the Orthodox version of blasphemy. The only blasphemy they see committed is done by the Orthodox themselves because they never “[came] to recognize that they have been living in ignorance, and [never learned] to release themselves by discovering who they are…” (Pagels 111). Likewise, Hindus also believe that ignorance serves as the sin in their religion. Rita Dasgupta Sherma‘s chapter on Hinduism in the text Sex and Religion reveals in one of ten theological Hindu highlights that not knowing the “truth” keeps a person under the shadow of the cycle of life and restricts him in his attempted attainment of moksha or liberation of rebirth, which merges a believer with Brahman (19). Although Pagels does not provide a detailed account on where a Gnostic believes the hereafter will take him, her talk of “release” sounds similar to the goal in Hinduism. Gnostics, it seems, desire the vindication from the evil, material world and the connection to the “kingdom,” which, according to Jesus in The Gospel of Thomas, dwells within them (Dart 28). Although Orthodox Christians consider so many different experiences and actions sinful, the one commandment prominent in Jesus’ two greatest ones is love. Ironically, the claimed followers of “love your neighbor as yourself” (Journey 1290) are the same people who “hated and persecuted” the Gnostic Christians for their different way of life (Pagels 102).

Orthodox Christians confess that “Jesus is Lord” in their Nicene Creed, but Gnostics confess no such belief. Rather than adapting to the Orthodox faith that Jesus was God incarnate, Pagels explains that the Gnostics understood the concept that “[Jesus] was a spiritual being who adapted himself to human perception” (73). The Gnostics present Jesus “not as Lord, but as spiritual guide,” who came to show his followers how to accomplish enlightenment–or achieve moksha (Pagels xxi). Furthermore, a true Gnostic would refer to himself as Jesus’ twin spiritually because “when [a] disciple attains enlightenment, Jesus no longer serves as spiritual master: the two have become equal–even identical” (Pagels xx). In learning their true identity, Gnostics discover that the Father’s better half is none other than–drum roll, please–the Holy Spirit, according to the Apocryphon of John. This particular Gnostic gospel presents an alternate version of the holy trinity, featuring God, the Father; God, the Mother; and their son, Jesus (Pagels 52). “‘Christ, therefore, was born of a virgin’ (that is, from the Spirit)” explains Pagels in The Gnostic Gospels (53). This shows the Gnostic belief that, although he “was a spiritual being,” Jesus wrapped himself in a human cocoon, being the product of both Mary and Joseph. The Gnostic belief in Jesus, even this unconventional one, slightly separates Gnosticism from Hinduism, but the separation seems a mere crack in the foundation these two religions sit on in comparison to the canyon between Orthodoxy and Gnosticism.

Works Cited

Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code. New York: Anchor Books, 2003. Print

Dart, John and Ray Riegert. The Gospel of Thomas: Unearthing the Lost Words of Jesus. Ed. J.K. Elliott. Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press, 2000. Print.

The Journey: A Bible for Seeking and Understanding God. NIV. Grand Rapids, MI: ZondermanPublishingHouse, 1996. Print.

Knott, Kim. Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.

Miller, Barbara Stoler, trans. “Selections, Bhagavad Gita.” The Ways of Religion, 3^rd ed. Ed. Roger Eastman. New York: Oxford UP, 1999, 40-53. Print.

Pagels, Elaine. The Gnostic Gospels. Vintage Books Edition. New York: Random House, Inc., 1989. Print.

Sherma, Rita Dasgupta. “Hinduism.” Sex and Religion. Ed. Christel Manning and Phil Zuckerman. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2005. 18-40. Print.