Egyptian Roots of Early Christian Gnosticism

EGYPTIAN PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY AS A SYNCRETISTIC THREAD IN
THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY CHRISTIAN GNOSTICISM

by

David Falk

B.A., University of British Columbia, 1993

A THESIS

Submitted to the faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
MASTER OF DIVINITY
Concentration in Church History and
Ancient Near Eastern Religions and Biblical Languages
at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Deerfield, Illinois
December 2009

ii
Accepted:

______________________________
James Hoffmeier

______________________________

iii

ABSTRACT

Current scholarship in the study Gnosticism places its genesis as either the result of a
competing Christianities according to Von Harnack or resulting from pre-Christian Jewish
heresy according to Friedlnder. These views are dependent upon the integration of Neo-
Platonism as the formative philosophy to the genesis of Gnosticism. The lack of early Neo-
Platonic textual evidence presents a problem that prevents a solid case for the Jewish heresy
view. Yet, the evidence overwhelmingly supports the identity of pre-Christian Gnostic sects.
In this thesis, the Jewish heresy view will be defended; however, the evidence
supporting it will be derived from Egyptian source literature. The thesis contributes to the
dialogue on the development of Gnosticism by introducing Egyptian literature with
philosophical undercurrents that could have led to the development of Gnostic doctrine and
contrasting this against Gnostic doctrines that are otherwise absent from Greek literature of
the period, e.g., Aeons and soul entrapment. Late Heliopolitan and Hermopolitan Theologies
provide a set of philosophical constructs and literary traditions necessary for the genesis and
development of first century BC Gnostic sects; such as, the Ophites and Sethites. As an
example of the kind of literary tradition involved, the rise of the Hermopolitan theology will
be traced from the first dynasty of the pharaohs through the literary traditions of Egypt until
it developed into Gnostic and Hermetic thought.

iv
This thesis will neither try to prove that Gnosticism developed from these doctrinal
threads nor will it try to disprove other views, instead it will strive to determine competitive
plausibility. A data set will be developed that will inductively provide a more plausible
explanation for the development of Gnosticism. This data set will add a link in an already
established causal chain using a standard methodology, which is consistent with the
conservative nature of Egyptian textual traditions.

To my beloved bride Kiara who has been my partner

and equal in scholarship and life

to the glory of God.

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS......vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS....viii

Chapter

1. FRAMING THE PROBLEM........1

Problems Encountered in Contemporary Gnostic Studies..3

Survey on the Views of Gnostic Genesis...10

Gnosticism Defined........24

2. FROM THE EGYPTIAN PRE-SOCRATICS TO MIDDLE PLATONISM .....35

Middle Platonism...36

Egyptian Thought in Hellenism ........50

Egyptian Pre-Socratics ..........................57

3. FROM THE THOTH CULT TO HERMETIC THOUGHT...73

Geographic Distribution of Thoth Worship.......74

Theological Trajectory of the Thoth Cult......83

The Alexandrian Synthesis........94

ANALYSIS......110

Appendix

LEIDEN HYMN CC........116

GLOSSARY...... 119

BIBLIOGRAPHY..............121

vii

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure Page
1. Punnett Square of Probable Outcomes.......................15
2. Map of the Thoth Cult Centers.......82

viii
ABBREVIATIONS

ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers

COS Context of Scripture

NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers

1

CHAPTER 1

FRAMING THE PROBLEM

The origin of Christian Gnosticism remains one of the enigmatic problems in the field
of Patristics. Christian Gnosticism arises in the second century AD from virtual obscurity
only to fade away a few centuries later. Yet, the impact of the movement resonates in the
Church throughout her history. Adolf Harnack characterizes the rise of orthodox Christianity
as the transition from universalistic Judaism to acute Hellenism.
1
Harnack ascribes the
genesis of Valentinianism (a particular sect of Egyptian Gnosticism) to a developmental dead
end resulting from the same kind of baptized Hellenism from which orthodox Christianity
developed.
2

By far the best-publicized view in the present crop of scholarship, the history of
dogma school, characterizes Gnosticism as one of many competing forms of Christianity. A
modern variation of this school espoused by Elaine Pagels, superimposing relativistic truth
upon the structure of Gnosticism,
3
holds that there were many equally valid Christianities

1
Adolf Von Harnack, History of Dogma (trans. Neil Buchanan. New York: Dover
Publications, 1961), 1:228-231, 244, 288-291.

2
Harnack, History of Dogma, 1:255-256.

3
Elaine Pagels, Gnostic Gospels. (New York: Random House, Inc., 1979), 137.
Pagels characterization of Gnosticism in relativist terms is unsupported and may be more
closely tied to her feelings regarding early Christianity in general. See, James G. Williams,

2

and that only by suppressing gnosticism did orthodox leaders establish that system of
organization which united all believers into a single institutional structure.
4
This view holds
to a late date for the formation of Gnosticism in the middle first to early second centuries AD
and that the later political and theological interests of an entrenched episcopacy caused one to
prevail over the others. The idea behind this view is that after the death of Christ many
gospels were written by Jesus followers forming communal religious groups:

And then, as a coup de grace, this victorious party rewrote the history of the
controversy, making it appear that there had not been much of a conflict at all,
claiming that its own views had always been those of the majority of Christians at all
times, back to the time of Jesus and his apostles, that its perspective, in effect, had
always been orthodox.
5

Harnack himself thought that Gnosticism was nothing but an acute secularizing or
Hellenizing of Christianity in the second century,
6
but he also admits that Gnosticism plays
no role in mainstream Christianity.
7
Yet if the ontology of Gnosticism does not emanate
from the communal teachings of Jesus, then that pattern may not be one Christianity among

review of Origin of Satan: The New Testament Origins of Christianitys Demonization of
Jews, Pagans and Heretics, by Elaine Pagels, Theology Today 53 (1996): 400.

4
Pagels, 142.
5
Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We
Never Knew (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 4.
6
Harnack, History of Dogma, 1:227, 241.
7
Harnack, History of Dogma, 1:253. Antti Marjanen, What is Gnosticism? From
Pastorals to Rudolph, Was There a Gnostic Religion (ed. Antti Marjanen. Helsinki: Finish
Exegetical Society, 2005), 33.

3

many but may be a manifestation of Egypts many mystery religions. This thesis will
challenge the post-Christian genesis view on the origins and development of Gnosticism by
examining the movements philosophical roots.
In The Way to Nicaea, John Behr characterizes the Apostolic Faith as being Christ as
he is portrayed in the Old Testament.
8
Behr asserts that the Apostolic Faith developed from
a specific Judaic hermeneutic (originating in Israel proper) that tended to view a high
Christology through the Hebrew Scriptures.
9
The result of this hermeneutical tradition is that
heretical movements were determined to have deviated from the Apostolic Faith by
employing a different hermeneutic from a different religious tradition. It is my contention
that Gnosticism is more than just a baptized Hellenism and that Gnosticism taps into many
systems of thought including pagan Egyptian thought for its hermeneutical tradition.

Problems Encountered in Contemporary Gnostic Studies
The origins of Gnosticism have largely been the purview of Semitics and Classics
scholars that have connected the development of Gnosticism to the advent of
Neoplatonism.
10
However, scholars who specialize in Gnosticism note that there are

8
John Behr, Way To Nicaea (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, 2001),
22.

9
Behr, 47.

10
The examples of specialists with a proclivity towards Semitics and the Classics are
plentiful. Bart Ehrman is a Greek textual critic. Edwin Yamauchi is a semiticist. Birger
Pearson is a classicist. Rudolf Bultmann was a New Testament theologian.

4

chronological problems with this analysis.
11
One of the greatest difficulties is the fact that
Gnosticism in form is clearly Neoplatonic as opposed to Middle Platonic; however, all
schools on the origins of Gnosticism will place the advent of Gnosticism at least a hundred
years before the birth of Neoplatonism. The study of classical Greek literature has even
failed to resolve an issue as fundamental as the origin of allegorical method.
12
Even with the
difficulties presented by Hellenistic sources, the scholarly community has been reticent to
consider other corpora. Douglas Parrott said that the scholastic community has largely
dredged the bottom of the Platonic corpus, while at the same time ignoring the wealth of
Egyptian literature:

Despite the fact that Egypt has provided the most abundant sources for the study of
Gnosticism and the occasional mention of Egypt and things Egyptian in those
sources, scholars have neglected Egyptian religion as a significant influence in the
origin and development of Gnosticism.
13

Scholars prior to the discovery at Nag Hammadi had relied upon Mandaean literature as
being a nascent form of Gnosticism preferable to the Greek sources but were stymied by the

11
Pearson, Gnosticism as a Religion, Was There a Gnostic Religion, 83.

12
Robert McL. Wilson, Gnostic Problem: A Study of the Relations between
Hellenistic Judaism and the Gnostic Heresy (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co. Limited, 1958),
17.

13
Douglas M. Parrott, Gnosticism and Egyptian Religion, Novum Testamentum 29
(1987): 93.

5

late date of the Manichaean and Mandaean texts.
14
Additionally, when examining
contemporary scholarship surrounding the origins of Gnosticism, one encounters seven
roadblocks (labeled a-g):
(a) The term Gnosticism was not coined until the seventeenth century. While as a
religious movement, it is alluded to by the Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria,
15

the term Gnosticism was first coined by Henry More (1614-1687).
16
This presents important
historiographical concerns. An implication of this is that Gnosticism is more likely to be an
amorphous movement as opposed to a static monolithic religion. Yet, Irenaeus refers to
these religious groups collectively as gnosis (,vot).
17
Michael Williams asserts that there
is no consistency between these groups, and as such there is no Gnostic religion and hence it
would be more useful to dispense with the term.
18
There does seem to be a loose association
based upon a common belief structure between the groups. Yet there was something about
all these systems which has made it possible for writers ancient and modern to treat them

14
Karen L. King, What is Gnosticism? (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 2003), 171.

15
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3.2 (ANF 2:382-383).
16
Marjanen, What is Gnosticism? From Pastorals to Rudolph, Was There a
Gnostic Religion, 1.

17
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.23.4 (ANF 1:348).
18
Michael A. Williams, Was There a Gnostic Religion? Was There a Gnostic
Religion, 77.

6

together, to call them Gnostic.
19
These beliefs include the following: hierarchical
henotheism; second-degree separation of God from the creation (i.e., a Demiurge); physical
world and the body are evil; entrapment of souls; ignorance as the fundamental problem of
mans fallen state; knowing the right phrases and words can allow one to transcend the
corruption of the world; antinomian ethics; and a practice of magic. And given this loose
association, referring to them collectively can be justified.
(b) It is assumed that there is little or no interaction between Egyptian and Hellenistic
thought. Behind this is the ideology that Egyptian thought was too ossified and too barbaric
for the Greeks, and Hellenistic philosophy did not interest the pagan mind.
20
Yet, this
assertion is dubious given there are also many examples of interpenetration between the two
cultures.
21

(c) The subject matter is normally approached as a comparative study to the other
literature of the Semitic or Hellenistic world. King comments that the lack of language skills
has led to problems in the field of Gnostic studies:

19
Grant, R. M., Gnosticism and Early Christianity, Rev. Ed. (New York: Harper &
Row, Publishers, 1966), 7.
20
Ian S. Moyer, Herodotus and an Egyptian Mirage: The Genealogies of the Theban
Priests, Journal of Hellenic Studies 12 (2002): 70-71. Martin Bernal, Afrocentric
Interpretation of History: Bernal Replies to Lefkowitz, Journal of Blacks in Higher
Education 11 (Spring 1996): 88.

21
Jean-Pierre Vernant, Origins of Greek Thought (Ithica, NY: Cornell University
Press, 1982), 15-16. C. F. Macfarquhar, Early Greek Travellers in Egypt, Greece & Rome,
2nd series, 13 (1966): 108-109. Thomas W. Africa, Herodotus and Diodorus on Egypt,
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 22 (1963): 254-256.

7

Reitzenstein, Bousset, and many who followed them were not themselves Orientalists
and were not acquainted with the languages in which their sources were written.
They relied on the work of philologists, such as Lidzbarski and Mauch, but in so
doing they made mistakes that would prove devastating to their philologically based
motif history.
22

The integration of Egyptian texts provides a unique challenge for these scholars. The
Egyptian language is part of the Hamitic language group and is thus a different language
group than either Greek (Indo-European language group) or Hebrew (Semitic language
group).
23
Also, the Egyptian corpus is significantly larger than the Hebrew corpus with often
less return in religious language that can be directly applied to the popular study of religions.
(d) It is usually taken for granted that Gnosticism is an intellectual movement. The
problem is that this assumption discounts the implications of other external factors such as
cultural or political currents.
24
An example of such a factor is the influence of Hellenistic
rule over native Egyptian institutions after the conquest of Alexander the Great.
(e) Investigation into the origins of Gnosticism is discouraged as being fruitless to the
understanding of Gnosticism. Seeking the origins of Gnosticism is asserted to lead to a

22
King, 138.

23
James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of
Hieroglyphics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 1.
24
Birger A. Pearson, Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity (Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1990), 27-28.

8

potentially infinite regress of ever remoter origins that will not contribute to our
understanding of Gnosticism.
25

(f) Until recently, Alexandria, the birthplace of several Gnostic cults was inaccessible
to archaeologists.
26
Most of the ancient city sank as a result of earthquake subsidence.
While we do not have enough direct archaeological evidence to determine definitively the
nature of Alexandrian Gnosticism, we do have enough from documents found scattered
throughout Egypt to piece together clues that can give us insight into the early days of
Gnosticism.
(g) By the third century AD, Gnosticism had multiple scions. Gnosticism is not a
cohesive movement, which can make generalizations difficult. While there are several
branches of Gnosticism (Egyptian, Syrian, and Mandaean), the Egyptian branch presents us
with the archetypal syncretistic form. The task is further aided by the fact that Egyptian
Gnosticism has a well-attested and documented theological structure.
27
The earliest Gnostic
writings and textual evidence is also Egyptian.
28
Harold Green suggests that nearly a third of

25
Elaine Pagels, Gnostic Gospels (New York: Random House, Inc., 1979), xxxv.

26
David J. Blackman, Review Article: Is Maritime Archaeology on Course?
American Journal of Archaeology 104 (2000): 594.

27
Ruth Majercik, Existence-Life-Intellect Triad in Gnosticism and Neoplatonism 42
(1992): 475.

28
Carl B. Smith, II, No Longer Jews: The Search for Gnostic Origins (Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson Publishers, 2004), 232.

9

the Nag Hammadi library can trace its providence to the region where it was found.
29
These
factors make Egypt the logical geographic focus for such a study.
30

In spite of the above roadblocks, my thesis will attempt to examine native Egyptian
textual sources, e.g., the Leiden Hymns and the Book of Thoth, which might have contributed
to the philosophical tradition leading to the development of Gnosticism in the Ancient Near
East. Donald Redford has determined that Egypt had three major theological systems:
Heliopolitan celebrating Re and the Osirian cult of the dead, Memphite representing Ptah and
teaching that creation comes from the will and that all that exists is mind, and Hermopolitan
describing the primal element as infinite in size and completely hidden.
31
Special attention
will be paid in this thesis to the role of Hermopolitan theology as a primary thread in the
development of ancient Gnosticism. In particular, this research will attempt to determine the
geographic scope of Hermopolitan thought and show the trajectory of the development of
Hermopolitan thought from its earliest roots in the first dynasty until the its final
transformation into the philosophy that defined the key doctrines of Gnosticism.

29
Henry A. Green, Economic and Social Origins of Gnosticism (Atlanta, GA:
Scholars Press, 1985), 9-10.

30
Carl B. Smith, 231.
31
Donald B. Redford, Akhenaten: The Heretic King (New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1984), 157-158.

10

Survey on the Views of Gnostic Genesis
The problem with assessing modern theories of Gnostic origins is that each has
features that best assesses certain aspects of the known data. The modern theories may not
be absolutely exclusive but may be partially complementary. It will be my contention,
however, that some theories will be more correct than others. I will outline each of these
four views and their chief proponents, and I will suggest the strengths and weaknesses of
each.
(1) The oldest of the four views holds that Gnosticism rose out of Hellenistic
philosophy. This theory represents the old orthodoxy and was held by Von Harnack as the
history of dogma school and characterizes Gnosticism as one of many competing forms of
Christianity that had become Platonized, Hellenized, or both. This view holds to a late date
for the formation of Gnosticism in the middle first to early second centuries AD and that the
later political and theological interests of an entrenched episcopacy caused one to prevail
over the others.
(2) Another view holds that Gnosticism gets its origin from oriental philosophy in
particular Mandaean and Manichaean sources. Rudolf Bultmann suggested that Christianity
was a development from the Mandaean Gnostics originating in Mesopotamia,
32
but this view

32
Rudolf Bultmann, Die Bedeutung der neuerschlossenen mandischen und
manichischen Quellen fr das Verstndnis des Johannesevangeliums, Zeitschrift fr die
neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der lteren Kircke 24 (1925): 100-146.

11

was conclusively refuted by Colpe and Schenke in 1961 and 1962 respectively,
33
both
showing that Gnostic beliefs are not to be found in any Persian religious material.
34

(3) The Jewish heresy view, originally espoused by Moritz Friedlnder in 1897 and
now maintained by Birger Pearson, holds that Gnosticism is a pre-Christian development
from Judaism. For Pearson, Gnosticism is not a Christian heresy but a Jewish heresy, dating
to the first century BC, which adopted the trappings of Christianity when it came to Egypt.
Pearson argues that the earliest Gnostic sects found in Egypt date to the first century BC.
35

These sects (the Cainites and Ophites) are relegated to Jewish communities, but they employ
doctrines that are not characteristic of historic Israelite religion. Pearson contends that
Jewish Gnosticism developed from Philos allegorical hermeneutic combined with the Jewish
scriptures and traditions and syncretized with middle Platonism.
36
And despite it not being a

33
Carsten Colpe, Die religionsgeshichtliche Schule: Darstellung und Kritik ihres
Bildes von gnostischen Erlsermythus (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1961). Hans-
Martin Schenke, Nag-Hamadi Studien II : Das System der Sophia Jesu Christi, Zeitschrift
fr Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 14 (1962): 263-278. Has-Martin Schenke, Der Gott
Mensch in der Gnosis: Eine religions-geschichtliche Beitrag zur Diskussion ber die
paulinische Anschauung von der Kirche als Leib Christi (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck and
Ruprecht, 1962).
34
Marjanen, What is Gnosticism? From Pastorals to Rudolph, 38. Clinton E.
Arnold, Powers of Darkness: Principalities and Powers in Pauls Letters (Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 175.

35
Pearson, Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity, 13.
36

12

proven hypothesis, the Jewish heresy view has majority support among modern Gnostic
scholars.
37

(4) There is also a polyphyletic view espoused by Hans Jonas, and in part defended
by R. M. Grant and to some extent by Yamauchi, contending that Gnosticism developed in
parallel in multiple regions in the first and second centuries AD.
38
The view contends that
there are several Gnosticisms from Syria, Pontus, Egypt, and later on, through
Manichaeism.
39
This view depends upon the idea that the philosophy needed for Gnosticism
was a persistent feature of the ancient Near East, and that wherever Christianity went
Gnosticism sprung up as a heretical side-effect. Yamauchi holds to a view similar to Grants;
the principal difference is that Yamauchi holds that the persistent philosophy was the result
of the heterodox Judaism of the second century AD.
40

The Church Fathers have been used to support the polyphyletic view; however, the
patristic evidence is not without significant problems. Justin Martyr held that Marcion
spread the doctrine of the Demiurge while Simon the Samaritan and Menander used magic to

37
Carl B. Smith, 38.

38
Hans Jonas, Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of
Christianity. 2nd Rev. Ed. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963), 24-27, 33. Grant, 3. Edwin M.
Yamauchi, Jewish Gnosticism? (eds. Van Den Broek, Roelof, and M. J. Vermaseren,
Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions [Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981], 494). King, 11.
39
G. Van Groningen, First Century Gnosticism: Its Origins and Motifs (Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1967), 6-7.

40
Edwin M. Yamauchi, The Decent of Ishtar, the Fall of Sophia, and the Jewish
Roots of Gnosticism, Tyndale Bulletin 29 (1978): 143-175.

13

convince others to worship Simon as a god.
41
Few patristic scholars today would regard
Marcion as a Gnostic since belief in the Demiurge alone is insufficient to make one a
Gnostic.
42
Irenaeus held that from Simon of Samaria is the source of many Syrian Gnostic
heresies.
43
Yet, later he lumps Simon into a group with other Gnostic teachers.
44
Grant tries
to make a case for there being three different Simons operating in the Asia Minor area, but
cannot definitively prove they are not one in the same.
45
Tertullian contributes to this by
holding to the novelty of the Gnostic heresy, while simultaneously arguing for the antiquity
of the apostolic faith.
46

Yamauchi concurs with Grant rejecting the idea of pre-Christian Gnostics or of any
early forming Gnostic group. He concludes that Gnosticism resulted from progressive
paganization of Christianity, as it was dispersed in various countries. It was not from
Egypt, Iran, Syria, or Mesopotamia that Gnosticism originated, but to these areas that
Gnosticism was dispersed.
47
His justification for this was driven by interpretive concerns

41
Justin Martyr, First Apology 26 (ANF 1:171).

42
Grant, 125.

43
44
45
Van Groningen, First Century Gnosticism, 11.
46
Tertullian, Against Marcion 5.19 (ANF 3:470); On Prescription Against Heretics
35 (ANF 3:260).
47
Edwin M. Yamauchi, Pre-Christian Gnosticism: A Survey of the Proposed
Evidences 2nd Ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1983), 20.

14

regarding Bultmannian demythologization of the Christian gospels, i.e., that the canonical
gospels could be seen as a transformed pre-Christian Gnosticism.
48

With the current state of New Testament scholarship leaning towards the Q-source
and the Gospel of Thomas, Yamauchis concerns were supplanted by criticisms emerging
from a proposed post-Christian Gnosticism genesis where the Gospels are considered to be
one of many competing Christianities.
49
The problem does not appear to rest on a pre-
Christian or post-Christian Gnostic genesis per se but upon the prima facie assumption that
Christianity is a derivative work of a non-Jewish culture. If a Punnett square is constructed
(Figure 1), we can see the probable outcomes from each combination of assumptions
concerning Gnostic genesis (pre-Christian derivative, pre-Christian non-derivative, post-
Christian derivative, and post-Christian non-derivative). Thus, the case is made that the
chronological precedence of Gnosticism alone does not imply the ontology of orthodox
Christianity. Given that either a pre-Christian or a post-Christian Gnostic genesis could be
construed into a problematic stance, it would seem best to set aside such concerns and focus
instead upon where the data leads.

48
Yamauchi, Pre-Christian Gnosticism, 30.
49
Robert McL. Wilson, Jewish Gnosis and Gnostic Origins: A Survey, Hebrew
Union College Annual 45 (1974): 186.

15

Christianity a Pagan Derivative?
G
n
o
s
t
i
c

O
r
i
g
i
n
s
Yes No
P
r
e

P
o
s
t
Gnosticism
equals
Christianity
Christianity
derives from
Gnosticism
Gnosticism
derives from
Christianity
Chistianity and
Gnosticism
developed in
parallel

Figure 1. Punnett Square of probable outcomes of assumptions concerning Gnostic genesis.

The strength of the history of dogma and polyphyletic views is that they account for
the distributed nature of Gnosticism by asserting that wherever Jesus followers went, there
also are the Gnostics. Hence, this view can account for Gnosticism rapidly showing up in
Egypt, Syria, Rome, and Persia within a relatively small period of time.
50

50
Arthur C. Headlam, Harnack on Early Christian Literature, Classical Review 7
(1893): 62.

16

Nevertheless, the history of dogma view has to make some serious qualitative and
quantitative leaps. The first leap is that it must divorce proto-Gnosticism from Gnosticism in
order to maintain the idea of Jewish moralism leading to an acute Hellenism.
51
While the
case could be made that antinomianism is just an overly simple Jewish moralism, it is much
harder to establish other Gnostic beliefs from first century AD Israelite Judaism. The second
leap is that if Gnosticism is simple Jewish moralism and Christianity is acute Hellenism,
then the view chooses to ignore the evidence that second century Gnosticism incorporates
more Hellenistic philosophy than does fourth century Christianity. The third leap is that
acute Hellenization as an explanation for the genesis of Gnosticism pegs it as merely a
problem of Christian heterodoxy.
52
Recent discoveries, e.g. Nag Hammadi, have suggested
that the syncretistic implications of gnosis are much more nuanced and historically broad
than are suggested by the history of dogma school. The fourth leap is that of quality. The
history of dogma view implies that religious doctrines become not only more complex but
qualitatively better over time.
53
This means that there is an evolutionary progression
superimposed over the data. While the progression from simplicity to complexity has been
all but refuted, the history of dogma school does not explain (a) the apparent reversal from

51
R. M. Grant, Gnosticism, Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible. Vol. 2 (New
York: Abingdon Press, 1962), 404.

52
Jonas, 11.

53
King, 78-89.

17

monotheism to henotheism, and (b) why Gnosticism is theologically more complex than its
more successful rivals.
The strength of the Jewish heresy view is that it provides continuity with the proto-
Gnostic groups in Alexandria. It also provides a textual and philosophical tradition that can
explain some of the features of later Gnosticism. For example, by placing the source of
Gnosticism in Alexandria, Friedlnder can show a syncretistic environment that will be
necessary when it comes in contact with Christianity.
54

While the Jewish heresy view has fewer problems than the history of dogma
view, it also has shortcomings. The first problem is that it relies heavily on Philo, both his
allegorical method and his inferential criticisms to the Cainites/Ophites, to establish the
existence of Jewish heresy; the problem lies not in the use of Philo, but in the use of
inference that sometimes goes beyond the text.
55
The second problem is that the Jewish
heresy view does not cleanly explain the distributed nature of second century Gnosticism in
the same way as the history of dogma view, although it could be explained as being
transported along the trade routes from Egypt to Persia, though pursuing that line of research
is beyond the scope of this thesis. A final problem is that the Church Fathers treated the
Ophites/Sethites as nothing but a Christian heresy.
56

54
55
Pearson, Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity, 12-13, 17.

56
Birger Pearson, Early Christianity and Gnosticism in the History of Religions,
Studia Theologica 55 (2001): 98.

18

The early church fathers had no full-fleshed theories on the origin of Gnosticism so
they are not endorsing any of the modern views. To say otherwise is to misunderstand their
intent. When the fathers refer to Simon Magus as the father of heresy, they are not saying
that all heresies have their ontological origins from Simon through direct descent from his
teachings. The Book of Acts says little about Simon except in regards to his attempt buy the
Apostles power with money. The church fathers would have been aware of others who were
heretical besides Simon.
For example, while Irenaeus ascribed to Simon from whom all sorts of heresies
derive their origin,
57
he attributes specific Gnostic doctrines to a variety of groups;
58

however, caution needs to be shown because Irenaeus purpose was not to catalog
Gnosticism but all kinds of heresy,
59
thus, he was not necessarily calling Simon a Gnostic.
Furthermore, Jerome attributes the source of Gnosticism to Basilides.
60
In light of a lack of
unanimity, I would hold that the better interpretation of Simon Magus as the father of
heresy is archetypal instead of ontological. A nuanced view of Simon is that he represents a
spiritual father of heresy as an archetypal heretic par excellence. This would be similar to the
superlative treatments in the New Testament of say Judas as a sinner par excellence.

57

58
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.23-31 (ANF 1:347-358).

59
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.22 (ANF 1:347).

60
Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men 21 (NPNF
2
3:368).

19

Both the history of dogma and the Jewish heresy views, however, fall short in another
respect. While both views make great use of the influence of Platonism, Gnosticism has a
complexity that can be attributed to neither Judaism nor Platonism. This complexity owes its
source to other influences such as hermetic thought and Egyptian paganism, to wit neither
view has adequately amplified.
61
Pearson also notes that Gnosticism is guilty of
multiplying first principles beyond what other Middle Platonists would contend.
62

Nevertheless, as cited previously, Colpe and Schenkes critique constrain the geographic
origins of Gnosticism in that it excludes Persia as a possible locale for its genesis. This
restriction eliminates both Bultmanns and the polyphyletic hypothesis and appears to restrict
the origins of Gnosticism to the region of Egypt or Syria. Even though the polyphyletic
hypothetic adequately accounts for how gnosis became assimilated into Christianity via the
interchange of cultural and religious ideas, this ability to interchange ideas appears to be
restricted by their absence in certain cultures, such as, in Greece and Mesopotamia. My
research will concur with Pearsons conclusion that Christian Gnosticism is a development
out of first century BC Jewish Gnostic sects. This is consistent with my Egyptian hypothesis
since the birthplace of these groups is Alexandria. However, Pearsons use of Middle
Platonism as his pre-Gnostic textual tradition lacks almost all the salient features of
Gnostic thought; this makes how he arrived at his conclusions less than persuasive.

61
Brian Brown, Wisdom of the Egyptians (New York: Brentanos Inc., 1923), 184-
187.

62

20

Nevertheless, Yamauchis critique has gained traction among more conservative
scholars because Pearson has been unable to provide evidence to show that the doctrines of
Gnosticism appear in pre-Christian Hellenistic literature.
63
This has re-energized the
Mandaean origins hypothesis. Simone Ptrement suggests that the lack of evidence in pre-
Christian literature points to a post-Christian view where Gnosticism and Christianity should
not be seen as separate religious movements.
64
She maintains that Gnosticism can only be
understood in light of Christianity. These problems, around which Gnostic speculation
turns, are posed by Christianity and by it alone. They are not posed either by Hellenism or
Persian religion or Judaism or by any other tradition that has been posited as a source of
Gnosticism.
65
While she would technically side with Jonas that these religious movement
are parallel developments, she would also side with the History of Dogma view on the
equality of Gnosticism and Christianity.
66
Besides these points, she also adheres to a narrow

63
Alan F. Segal, Reviewed work(s): The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels, Journal
of the American Oriental Society, 102 (1982): 203.

64
Simone Ptrement, Le Colloque de Messine et le problme du gnosticisme,
Revue de Mtaphysique et de Morale 72 (1967): 371.
65
Simone Ptrement, Separate God: The Origins and Teachings of Gnosticism (trans.
Carol Harrison. San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1984), 15. It is interesting to note
that in Ptrement includes all corpora except the one being discussed in this thesis.
66
Ptrement, Separate God, 3-4.

21

definition of Gnosticism, which allows her to state without prejudice that the New Testament
is devoid of Gnostic influence.
67

Given these premises, Ptrement is then compelled to date any Jewish Gnostic sect to
the post-Valentinian Christian era around AD200. She is able to conclude that Gnosticism
developed from Carpocrates and Basilides in Syria, matured in Valentinianism, and then
spun off the Sethites and Ophites.
68
Of course, this would require not only the Jewish sects
rejection of Christianity but also its assimilation as well. While it is possible, it does seem
unlikely. It is a possibility that seems even less likely given the repudiation of Judaism that
followed the Jewish revolt in Egypt in AD115-117.
69
Furthermore, she must come to terms
with the fact that Valentinianism is by and far the most complex Gnostic system, and the
Sethites/Ophites would not have so much developed as regressed. Additionally, her thesis
suffers from counterfactuals such as the Platonic belief creeping into Judaic literature that
can be reliably dated to the pre-Christian era.
70

67
Simone Ptrement, La notion do gnosticisme, Revue de Mtaphysique et de
Morale 65 (1960): 387.

68
Carl B. Smith, 22.
69
Joseph Mlze Modrzejewski, Jews of Egypt: From Rameses II to Emperor
Hadrian (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), 161.
70
Alan F. Segal, Some Observations about Mysticism and the Spread of Notions of
Life after Death in Hebrew Thought, Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers 35
(1996): 392-394.

22

Yamauchis critique of the pre-Christian view is somewhat subtler than Ptrements,
although he uses Ptrement to imply a post-Christian view. His critique narrows the
definition of Gnosticism to a two-point criterion: (a) explicit dualism and (b) a heavenly
redeemer figure.
71
His argument also relies upon Mandaean sources being the primary
source material for Gnosticism. He rejects the early provenance of Egyptian sources because
any connection made to Mandaean sources cannot be maintained. In previous generations,
dissociation with Mandaean literary sources was seen as discrediting evidence in regards to
Gnosticism. When Reitzenstein mistakenly connected Hermetic thought with Mandaean
Zoroastrians and his error was exposed, the Hermetic data became tainted from future
consideration.
72
Of course, now that it is the primacy of Mandaean sources that is
discredited, the influence of the Hermetica should be reconsidered.
From Mandaean foundations, Yamauchi built a historical reconstruction that uses
non-Jewish sources. He maintains that the Mandaeans settled in Syria speaking Aramaic,
and when Christian fled Jerusalem in AD66, they interacted with the Mandaeans.
73
The
residents held out to the fleeing Christians salvation through gnosis as hope.
74
Yet,
Yamauchi lacks the evidence to support this view. Thus, he commits the same faux pas of

71

72
Yamauchi, Pre-Christian Gnosticism, 22-23.

73
Yamauchi, Pre-Christian Gnosticism, 140-141.

74

23

building an elaborate hypothesis upon ambiguous evidence for which he previously criticizes
the pre-Christian proponents.
The bulk of the Yamauchi critique is based upon negative attacks upon the pre-
Christian evidences particularly post-Christian texts. But as long as such texts are lacking,
elaborate attempts to prove pre-Christian Gnosticism on the basis of post-Christian evidences
must be viewed with critical suspicion.
75
But caution needs to be exercised since attacking
another point of view is not the same as having solid supporting evidence for ones own
view. Nevertheless, Yamauchi has exposed a serious problem with not only the pre-
Christian view but with all views of Gnostic genesis (including post-Christian views), which
is a lack of early textual evidence.
Pearson uses a single Neoplatonic document, the Marsanes, as a proof text. At first
he thought that the Marsanes was an early first century AD document; however, most
scholars (Pearson included) now hold that the Marsanes is a text from the third century
AD,
76
leaving Pearson with the notion that the Platonizing Nag Hammadi texts allude to
earlier texts that has yet to be discovered.
77
Instead of taking Pearsons approach via the
Classics, I maintain that a non-derivative pre-Christian origin of Gnosticism can be defended

75
76
Birger A. Pearson, Ancient Gnosticism: Traditions and Literature (Minneapolis,
MN: Fortess Press, 2007), 94. John F. Finamore, Iamblichus, the Sethians, and Marsanes,
Gnosticism and Later Platonism (eds. John D. Turner and Ruth Majercik. Atlanta, GA:
Society of Biblical Literature, 2000), 225.

77
Pearson, Ancient Gnosticism, 78.

24

using a variety of Egyptian sources including literary sources such as Leiden Hymns, the
Hermetica, and various fragmentary references to Hermopolitan theology. Given the tight
space constraints of this thesis, only select texts will be chosen which reference the cult of
Thoth, Hermopolitan theology, or pre-Socratic Egyptian philosophy.

Gnosticism Defined
Nearly as controversial as the origins of Gnosticism is the debate over the definition
of Gnosticism. Fundamental issues have yet to be resolved as to the nature of Gnostic belief
and what makes it distinct. Even as to whether Gnosticism is primarily religious or
philosophical is up for grabs. Wilson will conclude that Gnosticism is the result of religious
syncretism with Hellenistic Judaism as its main source.
78
Van Groningen holds that unlike
Christianity, which is religious in foundation, Gnosticism begins with philosophical or
scientific imperative that puts God at the service of man.
79

There are many definitions of Gnosticism and corresponding lists of Gnostic
doctrines. The cataloging and critique of all these views is an area where further research
can be done. Suffice it to say that this thesis will review only some of the options then
suggest a provisional definition that can be used as a framework for further discussion.

78
Robert McL. Wilson, Gnostic Problem, 256.
79
Van Groningen, First Century Gnosticism, 24.

25

Bultmann proposed a narrow definition of Gnosticism as part of his program of
demythologizing the New Testament.
80
His definition was driven by a hermeneutical
imperative to show Christianity as a synthetic derivation of Gnosticism. As such, Bultmann
held that Gnosticism is primarily defined by the centrality of the Gnostic redeemer myth.
81

Yamauchi responded to Bultmann by saying that Gnosticism is defined by both explicitly
dualistic worldview and the Gnostic redeemer myth. Both Bultmann and Yamauchi
represent minimalist definitions.
Since Nag Hammadi, the idea of a Gnostic redeemer myth is presumed to be a
modern Christian gloss over Gnostic dogma:

The abstraction of particular motifs from their literary and historical contexts had led
to serious misunderstandings, resulting in an artificially constructed myth that had
never existed as such in antiquity. The pre-Christian Gnostic redeemer myth was the
invention of modern scholarship; it is inadequate, when not entirely misleading, for
reading ancient materials.
82

Despite this the Mandaeans clearly have a redemptive figure:

the third of the Adamite
utria, Shitil (Seth). When his father Adam was a

thousand years old it was time for him to die. But Adam fought death, and suggested
to the angel of death that Shitil, only eighty years old, die in his place. Shitel accepts
this fate, sheds his body, and puts on a radiant robe and turban, outshining the sun.
Shitil asks that the earthly binders be removed from Adams eyes so that he can see a
vision of his son. This is granted, and Adam then desires immediate death. In this

80
Pearson, Early Christianity and Gnosticism in the History of Religions, 81.

81
Pearson, Early Christianity and Gnosticism in the History of Religions, 82.

82
King, 138.

26

story Shitil becomes the very first soul to ascend to the Light, and his journey is
paradigmatic of that of future Mandaean souls.
83

Sects such as the Sethites and Ophites have salvific but not redemptive figures, and it is
debatable if other Gnostic systems even have a concept of redemption. Since most systems
of Gnosticism lack the idea of moral obligation, they likewise lack the need for redemptive or
penal atonement. Even in Valentinian thought, the key salvific figure Jesus is the one who
provides the knowledge for salvation but does not redeem others through his crucifixion,
Jesus showed the way to knowledge of the Father, but he is persecuted for his teaching and
nailed to the tree of the cross.
84

As opposed to the minimalist approach, Bousset uses an expansive approach by
creating a shopping list of characteristics. This list includes the following:
85
(i) sharp
dualism derived from Platonism, (ii) radical pessimism towards the lower material world,
(iii) alienation from the higher spiritual realms, (iv) God is alien, (v) elitist anthropology
where one belongs to the exclusive retinue of God, (vi) radical religion of redemption
deriving from a unrestrained yearning for redemption,
86
(vii) salvation by participation in

83
Pearson, Ancient Gnosticism, 321-322.

84
King, 155.

85
Wilhelm Bousset, Kyrios Christos: Geschichte des Christusglaubens von den
Anfngen des Christentums bis Irenaeus (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1913),
245-254. King, 97-98.

86
Bousset, 249.

27

the mystic society through its revelations, rituals, and sacraments, (viii) esoteric secret
revelation, (ix) myth as a replacement for history, and (x) docetic Christology as it is
inconceivable to the Gnostic mind that an Aeon (higher being) would take on the matter of
the lower world.
Has Jonas defines Gnosticism using several theological distinctions that sets it apart
from other forms of Christianity. Jonas defined seven distinctive characteristics of Gnostic
religions:
87
(i) Emphasis on knowledge, including the events that led to the creation of the
world, (ii) dynamic character of the divine self leading to downward evolution, (iii) mythic,
non-philosophical thought from blessed freedom to enslaved by ignorance, (iv) dualistic
worldview, (v) acts of aggression and impiety to the texts of other religions, e.g. God of Old
Testament is characterized as the evil Demiurge, (vi) myth made up of borrowed elements,
and (vii) Gnosticism came into being because of syncretizing Hellenism. Yet, this list is only
partial to the character of Gnosticism. While Jonas list shows us some traits of Gnosticism,
more can be said about the theological distinctives.
This expansive approach used by Jonas is helpful in that it defines Gnosticism by
belief as well as practice. It would be difficult enough to define Christianity by a minimalist
approach let alone a religion with the complexity of gnosis. Also, this approach carries the
advantage that if one distinctive is invalidated, as happened with the Gnostic redeemer myth,
the definition (and thesis) would remain supported by the other valid characteristics.

87
Jonas, 34-47.

28

For the purposes of this thesis, we will select a more expansive approach, defining
Gnosticism using eight primary characteristics. (a) Gnosticism is hierarchical henotheism.
88

Most varieties of Gnosticism hold to a second-degree separation of gods from the creation.
The highest god is pure light who creates other gods with less light in a chain. The last god
in the chain is almost pure evil and is the creator of the physical world; he is called the
Demiurge (n|tcu,c).
89
The Demiurge, which translates as craftsman or artificer, is a
name borrowed from Platos Timaeus.
90
But while the name is borrowed from Plato, the
concept behind it is anything but Platonic. The Demiurge of Plato does not create matter but
forms the universe from matter that exists in the four elements.
91
Furthermore, the Platonic
Demiurge is not necessarily an evil being, but the child of other gods who is compelled to
complete the creation, and as he goes from the creation of the soul of the universe towards
the souls of men, his creation became not, however, pure as before, but diluted to the second
or third degree.
92
Thus, the Gnostics borrowed the word, Demiurge, but ascribe to it a

88
J. N. D. Kelley, Early Christian Doctrines. Rev. Ed. (New York: Harper Collins
Publishers, 1978), 23-24.

89
Kelley, 24.
90
Plato Timaeus 41a (Bury, LCL). While Plato does say creation becomes diluted, he
does not specify how or by what creation becomes diluted.

91
Albert M. Wolters, Creatio ex nihilo, Hellenization Revisited: Shaping a
Christian Response with the Greco-Roman World (ed. Wendy E. Helleman. Lanham, MA:
University Press of America, Inc., 1994),115.
92
Plato Timaeus 41a-d (Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, eds., Plato: Collected
Dialogues. [New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1961], 1170).

29

different meaning. Pearson comments that this presents us with a radical form of dualism
going beyond anything we find in the Platonism of antiquity.
93
(b) The physical world and
the body are corrupt.
94
This is unlike Genesis, which says that after God created the world
he saw it and it was good. (c) Ignorance is seen as the fundamental problem of mans fallen
state, and thus, the soteriology is that one is saved by knowledge.
95
By knowing the right
phrases and words, one can transcend the corruption of the world. (d) The use of a radical
method of allegorical hermeneutic. Biblical texts are read in such a way as to derive
alternative meaning than would be derived through a surface reading. The role of history is
replaced with mythology. (e) Because of the focus on gnosis as soteriology and allegory as
hermeneutic, Gnostics tend to be antinomian in ethic. Thus, the role of the Old Testament
and the Law are diminished. Yamauchi maintains that antinomianism sets Gnosticism apart
from the Hermetic writers.
96
(f) There is a practice of magic. Gnosticism has a history of
using words of power or magical incantations as an attempt to manipulate nature or spirits.
97

93
Birger A. Pearson, Gosticism as a Religion, Was There a Gnostic Religion, 83.

94
Kelley, 14.
95
Edwin M. Yamauchi, Gnostic Ethics and Mandaean Origins (Cambridge, Mass:
Harvard University Press, 1970), 14. Ignorance as the cause of mans fallen state and gnosis
as his redemption is to be found in the Gospel of Truth that was found in the Nag Hammadi
corpus. Also, Pearson, Gnosticism as a Religion, There a Gnostic Religion, 84.
96
Yamauchi, Gnostic Ethics and Mandaean Origins, 25.
97
Richard Smith, Ritual Power in Coptic Gnostic Texts, Ancient Christian Magic:
Coptic Texts of Ritual Power (ed. Marvin Meyer. San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers,
1994), 60-62.

30

Irenaeus cites the use of love-potions, philters, familiar spirits, and demons among the
followers of Carpocrates.
98
This tie to magic is derivative from the pagan Egyptian
worldview that bled, not only into Gnosticism, but also throughout Coptic Christianity.
99

Magic is not unique to religion in Egypt but can be found throughout the Hellenistic
world.
100
In the Hellenistic world, Divine power and guidance were considered to be
readily available. most people sought to distinguish between miracle and magic in terms
of the source of divine power.
101
We can then see that a magical worldview evokes not
only the power of deity but also the intrinsic forces of nature. (g) Jesus did not come in the
flesh and thus there is no real resurrection. While this is not an issue for non-Christian
Gnostics, it becomes a pivotal identifying characteristic for Gnostic sects that adopted
Christian trappings during the first and second centuries AD. Because of the deprecation of
the flesh, Jesus is seen as a docetic manifestation from the Pleroma.
102
In some cases, Jesus
is not even the center of their faith, Under these circumstances, it was not a man from

98
99
Edmund Meltzer, Old Coptic Texts of Ritual Power, Ancient Christian Magic,
17-18.
100
Michael O. Fape, Powers in Encounter with Powers: Spiritual Warfare in Pagan
Cultures (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2003), 45.
101
Pheme Perkins, Gnostic Dialogue: The Early Church and the Crisis of Gnosticism
(New York: Paulist Press, 1980), 6.
102
George W. MacRae, Why the Church Rejected Gnosticism, Studies in Early
Christendom: A Collection of Scholarly Essays (ed. Everett Ferguson. New York: Garland
Publishing, Inc., 1993), 385-387.

31

Nazareth but, for some Gnostics, the serpent of Eden who had appeared on earth as Christ the
savior.
103
(h) Gnosticism is characterized by the syncretizing of other myths and belief
systems into its own. Gnosticism has imported elements from Hebrew, Greek, and other
oriental sources with necessary disregard to overall consistency.
104
According to Yamauchi,
the debasing of God as an active agent in the world, that is a God who is only active at the
creation and consummation but is otherwise uninvolved, opens Gnosticism up to
extravagant syncretism.
105
This is not to imply a parasitic relationship between Gnosticism
and other belief systems as much as it recognizes the somewhat epicurean tendency to take
what is pleasing and re-mythologize borrowed ideas so that they read Gnostic.
106

Hermetists
107
are similar to Gnostics in that they hold similar views; however, it is
important to keep in mind that the fundamental difference between the two groups is
primarily soteriological and ethical. Unlike the Gnostics that see gnosis as saving by solving
the problem of ignorance, Hermetists see the salvific problem of mankind to be sexual desire,

103
Dan Merkur, Gnosis: An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 111.

104
Ptrement, Separate God, 16-17.

105

106
Jonas, 33.

107
Hermetism is a parallel philosophical religion similar to Gnosticism in most
respects. It emerged at roughly the same time as Gnosticism and shares commonalities in
beliefs and written texts. The major difference between Hermetism and Gnosticism rests
primarily in soteriology and ethics.

32

which they believed failed to recognize the divine in the medical process.
108
Therefore, the
restraint from sexual desire is to prevent impiety in regards to a divine mystery (|uotntcv),
The mystery simply functions as a revelatory act which is done in secret,
109
and should not
be mistaken for complete sexual abstinence. As a result, Hermetists subjected themselves to
a generally, but not completely, ascetic lifestyle. This strongly contrasts the Gnostic mindset
that sees nothing divine in the physical. The two groups, however, overlap in their literary
corpora. Hermetic works have been found in Gnostic literary collections.
110
A link perhaps
exists between Hermetic asceticism and Egyptian monasticism; however, research to that end
is beyond the scope of this thesis.

Conclusions
The current state of Gnostic studies seems inadequate for the explaining the genesis
of Gnosticism. Of the four views discussed, only the Jewish heresy view remains viable
given the current state of research. Pearsons view while not as historically influential as the
history of dogma represents the current mainstream of Gnostic research. While Pearsons
view seems to fits what we know about Gnosticism as far as its geographic locale and

108
Richard Valantasis, Spiritual Guides of the Third Century: A Semiotic Study of the
Guide-Disciple Relationship in Christianity, Neoplatonism, Hermetism, and Gnosticism
(Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1991), 79.

109
Valantasis, 81.

110
Valantasis, 63.

33

chronology is concerned, the hypothesis is incomplete in that Pearson attempts to justify his
hypothesis using Greek Neoplatonic literature that is clearly anachronistic.
Yet, the implacable question remains if Gnosticism is acute Hellenism and its
influence by Platonic thought is beyond doubt,
111
why is it that Gnosticism flourished in
Egypt and Syria and floundered in Rome and Greece? Places where both Christian and
Middle Platonism thrived equally proved hard ground for the seeds of Gnosticism to take
root. Perhaps, it is time to re-evaluate what has been assumed as being beyond doubt in
order to pursue other lines of evidence that could explain why Egypt became the cradle of
Hermetism and Gnosticism.
In pursuing this line of research, we raised the possible problems that could be
encountered in the contemporary study of the origins of Gnosticism. None of these potential
issues proved an insurmountable problem for pursuing this research. The preliminary data
suggests a geographic genesis of Gnosticism where deeper study would warrant the
consultation of Egyptian source material.
The remainder of this thesis will explore the literature from the Egyptian pre-
Socratics that could have contributed to the development of Gnosticism and in doing so
develop a data set that will inductively provide a more plausible explanation for the data.
This thesis will neither deductively prove that Gnosticism developed from this doctrinal
thread, nor will it attempt to disprove other views, instead it will attempt to establish

111
Pearson, Ancient Gnosticism, 104.

34

competitive plausibility. This thesis will aggregate a data set that will inductively provide a
more plausible explanation for the development of Gnosticism using Egyptian philosophical
thought that formed a cultural context that inspired the allegorical method and syncretism.

35

CHAPTER 2

FROM THE EGYPTIAN PRE-SOCRATICS TO MIDDLE PLATONISM

Gnosticism by the second century AD had a complexity that far surpassed other
Middle Platonic systems. In every view of Gnostic origins, Neoplatonism post-dates the
advent of Gnosticism. Because of its similarity to Neoplatonism, much has been made of the
influential role Neoplatonism played in Gnostic thought. Yet there has been little textual
evidence to support this anachronistic view. Historically, Gnosticism appears at least a
century prior to Neoplatonism and fits squarely in what can be described as nothing other
than Middle Platonism. Complicating matters is that the aspects of Gnostic thought that
appear to be Neoplatonic do not have parallels in any contemporaneous Middle Platonic
literature.
As mentioned in passing earlier, there is evidence to suggest that there is native
Egyptian Platonic thought that pre-dates Plato dating as far back as the Ramesside period,
a thousand years before Plato. In this chapter, this native pre-Socratic thought will be
explored. The chapter will present possible alternatives, derived from the native culture, that
could have contributed to the Neoplatonic thought within Gnosticism. I will not, however,
contend that Neoplatonism developed from Egyptian thought since it is beyond the scope of
this thesis although with further research such a case might be established. The influence

36

between pre-Socratic Egyptian thought and Greek thought is not, however, linear. This
chapter of my thesis will examine the interaction between Egyptian literature and Hellenistic
philosophical thought.

Middle Platonism
In this section, I will give a brief summary of Middle Platonism and its relationship to
gnosis as it would have existed in Hellenistic Egypt. The scope of studies on Middle
Platonism is truly enormous with multiple specializations within the field of Classics. It
would be impossible to cover every aspect of Middle Platonism, so we will constrain this
analysis to its relation to the Gnostic doctrines defined earlier.
Plato was born around 428 BC and died around 348 BC.
112
His philosophy shaped
the Hellenistic world being carried throughout the ancient Near East by the conquests of
Alexander the Great. Middle Platonism is defined roughly as that philosophy that
immediately follows Plato and continues until the advent of Neoplatonism. Yet, we are also
not dealing with a static philosophy when it comes to Middle Platonism but a textual
tradition that extends approximately seven hundred years.
Plato, himself, provides the foundation for Platonism when he defines that objects in
the world also have a presence in the spiritual realm, which is their true presence, i.e., the
world of Ideas. Ideas (also called forms) from the Greek, tsa, is the complete and

112
Huntington Cairns, Introduction, Plato: Collected Dialogues, xiii.

37

unchanging substance and structure of thing, seen and unseen, but is not necessarily its
appearance.
113
He held that corporeal sensible things are inherently ephemeral and only the
Ideas behind corporeal things are truly real.
114
The Demiurge reduces chaos of the cosmos
using Ideas as models to form particulars,
115
which are the instances of Ideas. The Ideas
and the Particulars exist in the mind and actualities simultaneously. Plato will suggest that
the concept of an Idea is essentially monistic with the all-encompassing Idea being the
uacotaot or the One, which is over all other Ideas.
116
Hence, the Middle Platonists taught
that the Ideas originated from a single source.
Platos successors felt that this system of forms did not get to the true reality. But in
contact with Platonic philosophy, the Gnostics will accommodate the Ogdoad (a group of
eight gods representing the primal forces of nature) to the idea of uacotaot but will use
mythology to say that there are many hypostases not just the One as the Middle Platonists
suggested. The 3
rd
century AD Alexandrian philosopher, Plotinus (the founder of
Neoplatonism)
117
said that there are four fundamental hypostases, but he objected to the

113
Paul Friedlnder, Plato, Vol 1 (trans. Hans Meyerhoff, New York: Pantheon
Books Inc., 1958), 17.

114
Plato Republic 479b-e.

115
Plato Timaeus 28a-38a.

116
Plato Republic 509d.

117
John Herman Randall, Jr., Intelligible Universe of Plotinus, Journal of the
History of Ideas 30 (1969): 3.

38

Ogdoad of Gnosticism because it is based not upon philosophy but religion.
118

Neoplatonism is significant to the interactions between Egyptian and Hellenistic cultures
because it was conceived in Egypt, in the afterglow of ancient Egyptian culture and
religion.
119

Now that we have established the basic working parameters of Middle Platonism, we
can proceed to look in detail at each major doctrinal distinctive of Gnosticism and compare
them to what is known of Middle Platonism. These distinctives were taken from the working
definition of Gnosticism that was defined in chapter one of this thesis.

Hierarchical Henotheism.
When looking at the issue of hierarchical henotheism, there are several aspects to this
that need to be fleshed out. Hierarchical henotheism in terms of Gnosticism must include the
following elements: (1) multiple gods known as Aeons, (2) lower gods are created from
higher gods, (3) the lowest and most evil god is the creator, and (4) an allegiance to the
highest god.
Platos Timaeus satisfies the condition of multiple gods being and that these gods are
created from other higher gods:

118
Plotinus Against the Gnostics 14. Roelof Van Den Broek, Studies in Gnosticism
and Alexandrian Christianity (New York: E. J. Brill, 1996), 6.
119
Karl W. Luckert, Egyptian Light and Hebrew Fire: Theological and Philosophical
Roots of Christendom in Evolutionary Perspective (Albany, NY: State University of New
York Press, 1991), 198.

39

In ts kat Ouavcu aats Oksavc ts kat Tn0u s,svso0nv. tcutv s
4cku Kcvc ts kat Psa kat coct |sta tcutv. sk s Kcvc kat Psa
Zsu Ha ts kat aavts cocu to|sv asccu s,c|svcu autv. stt ts
tcutv acu sk,cvcu.
120

These are the titans, i.e., G and Uranus who in turn gave birth to other titans who in turn
gave birth to the gods of the Greek pantheon. This would satisfy the first element, which is
the Gnostic idea of multiple gods; however, these gods are in fact created by the creator god
(n|tcu,c) and are addressed as an audience.
121
Rather than being the lowest creation of
the gods, Platos idea of the Demiurge sits as creator over all the gods. With few exceptions,
the Greek gods were considered to be more moral and more powerful that the titans they
supplanted.
Plato will maintain that there is only one prime mover.
122
But, the Demiurge will
create a god for each individual star as a measure of each celestial bodys permanence.
123
He
also makes a clear statement that a god or divine being, he cannot be an evil thing.
124

Whereas the Middle Platonists will hold that there is only one Idea but many gods, the

120
Plato Timaeus 40e-41a (Bury, LCL). Of G and Uranus were born the children
Oceanus and Tethys; and of these, Phorkys, Cronos, Rhea, and all the go with them; and of
Cronos and Rhea were born Zeus and Hera and all those who are, as we know, called their
brethren; and of these again, other descendents.

121
Plato Timaeus 41a.

122
Aristotle Politics 1325.b.24. Aristotle Metaphysics 1074.a.25-32.

123
Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1074.b. Aristotle, Physics, 258.b.10-259.a.10.

124
Plato, Phaedrus, 242e (Hamilton and Cairns, 490).

40

Neoplatonists will backtrack from Plato on polytheism affirming that there are many Ideas
but only one god.
125

The Demiurge that Plato introduces has marked similarities to the god of the
philosophers to whom Plato would ultimately owe allegiance. The Gnostics would maintain
that their allegiance to the highest god is similar to Platos suggestion but that god would not
be the creator of the material universe.

Physical World and the Body Are Corrupt
In Gnosticism there is a radical dualism between the material and spirit. And the
supreme god has no direct connection with the material universe. This is based upon the
idea that matter is evil and the product of a god with the least amount of light. We find in
Middle Platonism no second-degree separation between the highest god and the creation:

The double theology of Gnosticism, with its distinction between a meta-cosmic
supreme God who has no connection with matter, and a subordinate world-creating
demiurge, cannot be explained from Platonic or Middle Platonic theology, nor as a
deformation of Jewish monotheism.
126

Abraham Bos contends that the second-degree separation between a supreme god and the
creator god is to be found in Aristotle. Bos shows that there is an intellectual distinction
between the perfect intellect (vcu) and the ruler (acv) of the cosmos, citing Aristotle from

125
Feibleman, 153, 158. Plotinus Enneads 1.8.1-2.

126
Abraham P. Bos, Cosmic and Meta-cosmic Theology in Greek Philosophy and
Gnosticism, Hellenization Revisited: Shaping a Christian Response with the Greco-Roman
World (ed. Wendy E. Helleman. Lanham, MA: University Press of America, Inc., 1994), 7.

41

Cicero.
127
However, Bos is unable to prove his contentions from existing extant texts and
must appeal to his lost writings stating, It is supposed that for centuries in antiquity
Aristotle was highly admired on the basis of writings which did not contain his true
philosophy.
128

Bos view has not gained a lot of traction probably because it flew in the face of what
is known about Aristotle. In making Aristotle more Platonic than Plato, they ignore
Aristotles main criticism of Plato, which is that universals cannot be separated from matter
(cuota) and to be separable is to have substance.
129
Aristotle is not in contention as a source
for Gnosticism as he did not have any influence until the thirteenth century AD:

Aristotles own religious ideas are too thoroughly Greek, too metaphysically realistic,
too naturalistic, too anti-Orphic, too rational, to be anything but incompatible with a
transcendental, super-natural and revealed religion, which all three of the western
group are. This antagonism, which is inherent in Aristotles religion, has usually
been passed over; and the inconsistency of adopting his metaphysics, which is
consistent with his religious ideas, which at the same time rejecting those religious
ideas, is simply ignored.
130

127
Bos, 10.

128
Bos, 7-8.

129
David E. Hahm, Origins of Stoic Cosmology (Columbus, OH: Ohio State

130
James K. Feibleman, Religious Platonism: The Influence of Religion on Plato and
the Influence of Plato on Religion (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Publishers, 1959), 94-
95.

42

Aristotle contended that the soul was inseparable from the body leading to a kind of
materialism.
131
Thus, if Aristotelian philosophy applied to Gnosticism, the implication
would infer that the supreme god would be as much matter as the created world, which
would be an unacceptable proposition for a Gnostic. Yet, Aristotle and succeeding Middle
Platonists will not go quite as far as strict materialism. They will contend that the Intellect is
separable from the body but cannot have full cognition without it.
132
Plotinus and the
Neoplatonists will argue vigorously against this diminished view of the soul, re-establishing
the body/soul dichotomy.
133

It can be said with certainty that Plato did not regard matter as evil.
134
But
Gnosticism regards matter as being inherently evil. The Gnostic view of matter is tied with
its anthropology. Gnosticism views the souls as the sparks that formed from the creation of
the Aeons (gods). These souls when they fell to earth became trapped in human bodies. The
Gnostic purpose of mankind is to shed off evil matter and rejoin the Aeons. The Platonic
response to the idea of soul migration is agnosticism. Plato said little about the soul after
death, mentioning in passing that the soul fades after death.
135

131
Aristotle On the Soul 413.a.4-5.

132
Lloyd P. Gerson, Aristotle and Other Platonists (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press, 2005), 139.

133
Plotinus On the Immortality of the Soul 4.7.8.5.

134
Feibleman, 32, 156.

135
Plato Symposium 196a-b.

43

Nevertheless, Plato did regard the flesh as a kind of prison from which one was to be
liberated. Most scholars will agree that Plato's view of the soul surviving death was result of
Orphic influence.
136
The Orphic religion held that that the soul transmigrated to become a
god.
137
Plato was clearly familliar with their thought because he quotes them using Orphic
phraseology of the body acting as a prison or a tomb.
138
H. D. F. Kitto remarks that the
sharp distinction between body and soul is not typical of Greek thought.
139
The matter of the
origins of Orphic thought is complicated by its clear Egyptian roots. Orpheus, an important
figure of Greek mythology and the supposed founder of the Orphic religion, was said to have
gone to Egypt and brought back Egyptian sun worship to Thrace.
140
This then calls into
question as to whether the deprecation of the flesh and the transmigration of souls is really a
platonic idea or an idea that has direct descendency from Egyptian thought, since essentially
Orphism is a Thracian religion imported from Egypt that was then exported to Greece.
141

136
Feibleman, 63.

137
Feibleman, 51.

138
Plato Phaedo 62b. Plato Gorgias 493a.

139
H. D. F. Kitto, The Greeks, Rev. Ed. (Baltimore, MD: Penguin, 1957), 173.

140
Feibleman, 52.

141
Robert Graves, Greek Myths, Rev. Ed., Vol.1 (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin,
1960), 112-114.

44

Soteriology that One Is Saved by Knowledge
The problem of soteriology with regards to Middle Platonism is that it is difficult to
derive answers for questions that the focal writers did not ask. While Plato and Aristotle saw
problems with the way men reasoned, they did not see this as problem that posed any sort of
eternal threat in the afterlife. Thus, we can discuss to some very limited extent the
epistemology of knowledge as understood by Plato, but we cannot reflect upon the
soteriology of knowledge by Plato since it is clearly absent from his thinking.
We have from Xenophon a portrayal of Socrates as one who says that the things of
nature cannot be delved into as it would be not pleasing to the gods.
142
Nevertheless,
Xenophon was not as close to Socrates as Plato who was his closest student. Platos view,
contrary to Xenophon, was that knowledge itself is divine and that the only evil is
ignorance.
143
While later Middle Platonists will view Ideas as being the thoughts of God, it
is important to point out that Plato believed in reason above all rather than revelation.
144

Gnosticism requires revelatory knowledge as the means for being saved, but the kind of
knowledge suggested by the Middle Platonist, even if it was salvific, which it is not, would
be inadequate for the salvific needs of gnosis; the Gnostics do not just need knowledge to be

142
Kathleen Freeman, God, Man and State: Greek Concepts (Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, Publishers, 1970), 42.

143
Feibleman, 81.

144
Feibleman, 97.

45

saved but special knowledge that only comes through revelation which equips the soul for its
journey after death.
145

Radical Allegorical Hermeneutic
While Neo-Pythagorean writers of the first and second centuries BC will employ a
kind of the allegory,
146
the allegorical method was only in a nascent form when compared to
the conservative Stoic interpretations of Homeric mythology.
147
The allegorical hermeneutic
is not a feature of Hellenism as much as it is a feature of the Alexandrian locale. An
important first century AD source is the Alexandrian Stoic and Egyptian priest Chaeremon
who states that the allegorical method was not first taught by either the Stoics or Greek
philosophers but instead came directly from Egyptian teachings.
148

145
Jonas, 44-45.
146
David T. Runia, Philo of Alexandria and the Timaeus of Plato (Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1986), 284.
147
Harry Austryn Wolfson, Philo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism ,
Christianity, and Islam, Vol. 1. (Cambidge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962), 132.
David Dawson, Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient Alexandria (Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 1992), 3.
148
Tzetes Exegesis of the Illiad 1.193 (trans. Pieter Willem van der Horst,
Chaeremon: Egyptian Priest and Stoic Philosopher [New York: E. J. Brill, 1987], 7).
Chaeremon while unknown to many modern readers was considered to be an authoritative
source in the first century given his impeccable academic credentials. He was head of the
Alexandrian school of grammarians, keeper of the Museum in Alexendria, which happened
to include the sacred books collection of the Library of Alexandria, and was tutor of Nero
(Van der Horst, ix).

46

As a hermeneutic, allegory is only used within certain literary contexts by the Neo-
Pythagorean writers and is not applied to most forms of literature. As such we will examine
this characteristic in detail in chapter three when the contribution of Philo of Alexandria is
played against his cultural milieu. Suffice it to say that, strictly speaking, Middle Platonism
deprecated any form of allegorical interpretive methodology.

Antinomian Ethic
Middle Platonism is concerned with ethical principles even if it struggles to define
them. Plato, in his dialogues, defines reason guides moral action.
149
Intelligence is closer to
the good and is better than pleasure; and the use of good depends on knowledge of the
good.
150
He states that to suffer wrong is better than to do wrong.
151
The Middle Platonists
had a definite standard of right and wrong even if it was not always well defined. For
example, Plato suggests that to cheat someone (even unintentionally) is a definite wrong and
so too is it to be in debt to a god.
152
Yet, Plato rated justice higher than the good and said
that any society that found its law overruled or obsolete was headed to ruin.
153
Simply put,
Plato held that morality matters; a person who lives righteously has a better lot in the afterlife

149
Plato Gorgias 527e.

150
Plato Republic 505b-c.

151
Plato Gorgias 469c. Plato Crito 49c.

152
Plato Republic 331a-b.

153
Plato Laws 715c-e (Hamilton and Cairns, 1306-1307).

47

than one who does not.
154
Aristotle took ethics a step beyond Plato. He defined the good as
being the golden mean by which he considered the middle ground between ethical
extremes.
155

Gnosticism, as opposed to Middle Platonism, is indifferent to morality at best and
antinomian at worst. Gnosticism derives much of its ethic from its deprecation of the
material world and its reinterpretation of borrowed mythological elements. Whereas Middle
Platonism tries to define ethics in terms of reason, Gnosticism with its mythological
underpinnings rejects any need for morality.
156

Practice of Magic
The use of magic was ubiquitous in not only the Hellenistic world but in the ancient
world in general;
157
however, there is little evidence to suggest that early Middle Platonism
employed magic as part of its philosophical system. Plato acknowledges the reality of magic
spells and incantations but shows little interest in it.
158
Later Middle Platonism, however, is

154
Plato Phaedrus 248e-249a.

155
Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 2.4.4-5 (Rackham, LCL).

156
Jonas, 46-47. Edwin M. Yamauchi, Gnostic Ethics and Mandaean Origins, 25-27.
Philo, On the Migration of Abraham, 89-93 (trans. C. D. Yonge, Works of Philo: Complete
and Unabridged, Rev. Ed. [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1993], 261-262).

157
Jonathan Z. Smith, Here, There, and Anywhere, Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in
the Ancient and Late Antique World (eds. Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, and Brannon Wheeler.
University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003), 21.

158
Plato Laws 933a.

48

much more explicit in this regard mixing magic with Platonic philosophical principles;
159

however, this is not by any means universal of Middle Platonism. The Neoplatonist writer,
Plotinus, explicitly steers away from the use of magic in conjunction with philosophy.
160

There is currently nothing in the literature to suggest where Gnosticism could have picked up
the practice of ritual magic. Ritual magic is found in practically every culture in the ancient
near east, and without intensive research into a comparative study of Gnostic, Hellenistic,
and Egyptian magical practices, the origin of Gnostic magic cannot be determined. While
the study of Gnostic magic could lend insights into its origins, the amount of material
available for Gnostic magic ritual as well as ancient near eastern and Greek magic ritual is
vast to the degree of being virtually inexhaustible.
161
This presents an area where further
research can be pursued.

No Incarnation of Divinity and No Resurrection
In one sense the Gnostics held to a notion of incarnation. They believed that the
sparks, i.e. souls, from the creation of the Aeons became unwillingly trapped in human flesh.
However, the kind of special incarnation that is being discussed here is the voluntary

159
Joseph G. DeFilippo, Curiositas and the Platonism of Apuleius Golden Ass,
American Journal of Philology 111 (1990): 474.

160
Richard C. Marback, Rethinking Platos Legacy: Neoplatonic Readings of Platos
Sophist, Rhetoric Review 13 (1994): 39-40.

161
Derek Collins, Magic in the Ancient Greek World (Malden, MA: Blackwell
Publishing, 2008), 166.

49

incarnation of a divine being into human flesh. Platonism has no need to deny this kind of
doctrine since it was outside its scope of inquiry. Within the religious context of Alexandria,
Plotinus will come out against special incarnation, but he will also come out against myth,
magic, allegorical hermeneutic, and special creation.
162
Like the Gnostics, Plato held to the
pre-existence of the soul, which can travel the universe and once arriving upon Earth the soul
loses its ability to travel becoming a composite structure of body and soul.
163
In the
Phaedrus, the soul becomes less perfect in exchange for stability, but this is not explicitly
because it comes in contact with the evil of the material universe.

Syncretism
Although some faiths codify the boundaries of their beliefs through antisyncretistic
doctrines, syncretism itself tends to be more of a practice than a doctrine. Being that it is
more of an issue of orthopraxis than orthodoxy, it may not be reasonable to expect
syncretism as a part of Middle Platonist writing. Nevertheless, we can confirm that
syncretism was a part of the age even if not part of the doctrines:

Apparently he [Apuleius] saw no contradiction between initiation into the priesthood
of Isis and Platonic philosophy.
In fact there was no great contradiction, especially in view of the syncretistic
tendencies of the first and second centuries A. D. Not only was there no

162
Randall, 3.

163
Plato Phaedrus 246c-e.

50

contradiction, but one might almost say that it was the most natural thing in the world
for a Platonist to be converted to Isis.
164

Steven Heller also makes the observation The tendency of Middle Platonism to exaggerate
the distance between God and man must have enhanced the need for personal salvationa
need that was felt acutely by the men of the first centuries A.D.
165

* * *
From the survey of Gnostic characteristics, we can determine that Middle Platonism
alone is insufficient to explain the metaphysical basis for Gnostic genesis. While there is
little doubt that Platonism played some role in the development of Gnosticism, other
considerations must be brought into play given that the Gnosticism takes root in the
proximity of Alexandria. We must now turn to alternate data that can explain the Socratic
features of Gnosticism without necessarily appealing to Greek philosophy.

Egyptian Thought in Hellenism
After the conquest of Alexander the Great, Egypt was ruled by a Ptolemaic dynasty
from 305 to 30 BC.
166
It was during the Ptolemaic period that Platonic thought was

164
Steven Heller, Apuleius, Platonic Dualism, and Eleven, American Journal of
Philology, 104 (1983): 323.
165
Heller, 323.
166
Mark Greenberg, ed., Alexandria and Alexandrianism (Malibu: CA: J. Paul Getty
Muesum, 1996), 302.

51

supposedly brought to Egypt. Yet, the tracing the influence of Platonism is not exactly
obvious. Sometimes it can be difficult to gauge what is Egyptian versus Hellenistic thinking,
since there is good information to suggest that Egyptian thought influenced Plato:

Hkcuoa tctvuv ast Nau kattv tn At,uatcu ,svso0at tv s kst aaatv
ttva 0sv. cu kat tc cvscv tc tscv. c n kacuotv t|tv aut s cvc|a t
at|cvt stvat Osu0. tcutcv s atcv at0|c v ts kat c,to|cv sustv kat
,s|sttav kat aotcvc|tav. stt s asttsta ts kat ku|sta. kat n kat
,a||ata |aots au tcts cvtc At,uatcu cn Oa|cu ast tnv |s,anv
actv tcu av tcacu. nv ct Envs At,uatta On|a kacuot. kat tcv
A||va.
167

However, Plato was not alone as a Greek who learned from the Egyptians.
According to Diodorus (first century BC), besides Plato, other influential Greeks that
visited Egypt included Orpheus, Musaeus, Melampus, Daedalus, Homer, Lycurgus of Sparta,
Pythagoras of Samos, Eudoxus (a famous student of Plato), Democritus of Abdera, Solon of
Athens, and Oenopides of Chios.
168
The Egyptians had economic relations with Greece as

167
Plato Phaedrus 274c-d (Fowler, LCL). I heard, then, that at Naucratis, in Egypt,
was one of the ancient gods of that country, the one whose sacred bird is called ibis, and the
name of the god himself was Theuth [Thoth]. He it was who invented numbers and
arithmetic and geometry and astronomy, also draughts and dice, and, most important of all,
letters. Now the king of all Egypt at that time was the god Thamus, who lived in the great
city of the upper region, which the Greeks call the Egyptian Thebes, and they call the god
himself Ammon [Amun]. (Fowler, 561-563). This passage is cited by Tertullian, Treatise
on the Soul 2 (ANF 3:182), as well as Augustin, City of God 8.4 (NPNF
1
2:146), where
Augustine claims that Plato learned from the Egyptians whatever they held and taught as
important. This claim seems to be justified to some extent given Platos own testimony in
the dialogues. It is significant to note that Amun is also the most important god of the
Hermopolitan Ogdoad as will be seen later.
168
Diodorus Library of History 1.96-98.

52

far back as the fifteenth century BC but curbed their involvement with other countries in the
thirteenth century.
169
From about 1340 B.C. to approximately 1230 there was a decline in
Greek importations, postulating diminution of contact.
170
After the fall of the Mycenaean
Greek civilization, Naucratis, a Greek trading colony, was established in the Nile Delta as
early as the sixth century, which flourished until the Roman period.
171
Clearly, the
relationship between Platonic and Egyptian thought is more complicated than has been
previously assumed. From this we can be reasonably assured that showing an evolutionary
tree for tracing dogmas would be less profitable than showing its interaction.
Fowden suggests that the attempt to show Egyptian and Greek cultural intermingling
can be seen as problematic given the conscious efforts of the two groups to live in mutual
isolation, Undeniably, attempts to demonstrate a fusion of Egyptianism and Hellenism run
the constant risk of being undermined by a considerable body of evidence that the two
cultures often contrived, especially in the Ptolemaic period, to exist in contiguous
insolation.
172
However, Iverson remarks there has been a marked tendency to

169
James Whitley, Archaeology in Greece, 2004-2005, Archaeological Reports 51
(2004-2005): 103.
170
Ruth Ilsley Hicks, Egyptian Elements in Greek Mythology, Transactions and
Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 93 (1962): 92.

171
E. R. Price, Pottery of Naucratis, Journal of Hellenic Studies 33 (1924):181. H.
Idris Bell, Antinoopolis: A Hadrianic Foundation in Egypt, Journal of Roman Studies 30
(1940): 139-140.
172
Garth Fowden, Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 17.

53

underestimate and downgrade the possibilities of an influence from Egyptian sources, and to
regard the Egyptological efforts to draw attention to it with marked suspicion and sepsis.
173

With that said, it is tempting to then hold, along with Van Den Broek, that the Gnostics and
Hermetists believed in what are merely expressions of Plato.
174
Van Den Broek maintains
that Gnosticism and Hermetism are expressions of Stoicism and later Platonism; however, he
ascribes the creation of both traditions to the late third and early fourth centuries AD.
However, Van Den Broeks analysis is problematic in that other sources attribute
Gnostic and Hermetic views to dates previous to at least the first or second centuries AD.
The earliest reference to Hermetica in the Church Fathers can be found in Justin Martyr (d.
AD 165), who uses a citation from Hermes Trismegistus.
175
There are also early references
to Gnostics that date to the late second century AD in Irenaeus.
176
And based on growing
scholarship and despite his misgivings, Fowden suggests that the connection between
traditional Egyptian thought and the two traditions may be closer than has been previously
thought.
177
Bowman, however, suggests that despite the social structures that were in place
that segregated the Greek elite from the Egyptian populace, the two cultures interpenetrated

173
Erik Iverson, Egyptian and Hermetic Doctrine (Copenhagen: Museum
Tusculanum Press, 1984), 29.
174
Van Den Broek, Studies in Gnosticism and Alexandrian Christianity, 8-9.
175
Justin Martyr, Hortatory Address to the Greeks 38 (ANF 1:289).
176
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2.21.1-2 (ANF 1:389-390).
177
Fowden, xv.

54

each other and that this penetration was most profoundly asserted upon the Greeks by the
Egyptian culture.
178

The problem is made significantly more complex by the fact that Pearson dates
Gnosticism to a first century BC Jewish heresy, where he attributes the Platonism of early
Alexandrian Jewish Gnostic sects (e.g. the Cainites and Ophites) to the Platonizing of the
Jewish scriptures by Philo.
179
But as sound as Pearsons thesis is that these early Jewish
Gnostic groups held to beliefs that would manifest in later Gnosticism, his use of Philo does
not present a clean case, as Philo must act contemporaneously as both the source and chief
critic of these early Gnostic sects.
180
Furthermore, while Philo is a neat source for classicists
for the use of the Demiurge and second-degree separation, the Gnostics adopt features of
Neoplatonism that are not in Philo, such as, souls becoming entrapped in human bodies and
multiple hypostases. Therefore, the critical problem seems to be how Gnosticism and
Hermetism can adapt to a specific kind of Platonism that post-dates either of these Hellenistic
philosophic movements.

178
Alan K. Bowman, Egypt After the Pharaohs: 332 BC-AD 642 from Alexander to
the Arab Conquest (Warwickshire, United Kingdom: University of California Press, 1986),
124-125.
179
Pearson, Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity, 12-13, 17.

180
Birger A. Pearson, Philo, Gnosis and the New Testament. New Testament and
Gnosis: Essays in Honour of Robert McL. Wilson (eds. A. H. B. Logan and A. J. M.
Wedderburn, New York: T&T Clark International, 2004), 77-78. Pearson, Gnosticism,
Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity, 18-19.

55

Ascribing the source of Gnostic thoughts to Plato, however, is hardly new. Plotinus
remarks that the Gnostics essentially stole their thought from Platonism.
181
But this view
also harkens to the idea that what Plato did was original to him. A more recent view suggests
that Plato recapitulated early Pythagorean philosophy or at the very least was the most
eloquent thinker of the Pythagorean School. Aristotle informs us that Plato followed the
Italians (i.e., the Pythagoreans) in most things. Plotinus tells us that Plato was not the first to
say the things that in fact we today identify as Platonism, but he said them best.
182
Early
Pythagoreanism was marked by its secrecy;
183
thus, a comparative study of Plato with the
broader spectrum of Pythagorean thought can be difficult. Yet, Platos use of the Ideas
resonates with what writings are extant from the Pythagorean School.
184
And if Platonic
philosophical thought has its origins with Pythagoras, as it probably does, and if Pythagoras
learned much of what he did from the Egyptians (cited earlier), then it would be reasonable
to expect Pre-Socratic thought in Egyptian literature of the period.
Perhaps, the influence of Egyptian pre-Socratic thought may not be confined to Plato
alone, although this is as far as I need to go for this thesis. The very character of Greek

181
Plotinus Against the Gnostics 6.

182
Gerson, 24-25.
183
Mi-Kyoung Lee, Epistemology After Protagoras: Responses to Relativism in
Plato, Aristotle, and Democritus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 84.

184
Harold North Fowler, General Introduction, Plato: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito,
Phaedo, Phaedrus, xi.

56

thought may be Egyptian at the fundamental level of its methodology. Diodorus credits the
Egyptians and in particular the god Hermes with teaching the Greeks how to expand their
thoughts.
185
Yet, among the ancient writers, Diodorus is not alone in this view. The
testimony of Sophocles (496-406BC) here is particularly valuable:

aavt skstv tct sv At,uat vc|ct
cuotv katstkao0svts kat |tcu tcca
skst ,a ct |sv aosvs kata ots,a
0akcuotv totcu,cuvts. at s ouvvc|ct.
186

When Sophocles wrote Oedipus at Colonus around 406BC, Plato was in his very early
twenties and had not yet returned from his twelve-year stint of travel from Asia Minor and
Egypt.
187
We see in Sophocles criticism a contemporary insight into the effect that
Egyptian philosophical thought had on the culture of Athens, where the men ceased taking
part in common labor in favor of philosophical pastimes while the women labored to put
food on the table. This statement is also significant in that it tells us that philosophic
pastimes were also a part of Egyptian culture.

185
Diodorus Library of History 1.16.2.

186
Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus, 337-340 (Storr, LCL). Their thoughts and
actions all are framed and modelled[sic] on Egyptian ways. For there the men sit at the loom
indoors while the wives slave abroad for daily bread.

187
Harold North Fowler, General Introduction, xiii.

57

Egyptian Pre-Socratic Thought
In this section, we will examine a potential Egyptian precursor to Greek Platonic
thought. We will not take the take the traditional approach in assuming that it is a one-way
penetration from the Platonic into the Egyptian because, as was demonstrated in previous
sections, using this approach for over a century has failed to show significant penetration of
Hellenistic literature into Egyptian source material. Instead, we will assume with Bowman
that it was the Egyptian that had influence upon the Hellenistic thought.
188
Bowman bases
this assumption upon social factors present in the Ptolemaic period leading to the eventual
breakdown of the restrictions controlling Greek institutions.
189
The Greeks adopted
Egyptian religion even if they gave the deities Greek names; on the other hand it is rare to
find a Greek serving as an Egyptian priest.
190
Bowman also observed that in situations of
Greek/Egyptian intermarriage the children were usually given Egyptian names. If we
proceed with the assumption that Egyptian culture penetrated the Greek, then there should be
Egyptian literature that fits the Platonic pattern without being Platonically influenced.
As we examine Egyptian history for the flower of its philosophy, one particular
period stands out above the rest. The Ramesside period represents not only the height of

188
While this may appear inherently circular prima facie, it is a starting place. The
normal assumption that Greek thought penetrates Egyptian is also circular but is the currently
accepted standard in late pagan scholarshipsauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

189
Bowman, 125-127.
190
Bowman, 124.

58

Egyptian hegemony and material power, but it also around this time that the cults of Egypt
become entrenched in fierce competition with one another for intellectual supremacy.
191
The
source of this competition finds its roots in the way Atenism was introduced as a state
religion by Akhenaton precipitating a religious power struggle. Akhenaton revoked royal
support for the temple cults and moved his capitol to Akhetaten (modern Tel El Amarna).
192

The net effect was that the temples of Egypt fell into disrepair, and the cults were unable to
support the livelihoods of the priestly caste.
193
This caused strife and resistance to
Akhenatons initiatives as Akhenaton withdrew the capital to an unfamiliar setting.
194

Moreover, Akhenatons religion was no simple monotheism. Aten played little role
than to provide paternal justification for Akhenatons and Ayes own divinity.
195
There was
nothing inherent to Atenism that required the worship of Aten by the people; veneration of

191
John L. Foster, trans., Hymns, Prayers, and Songs: An Anthology of Ancient
Egyptian Lyric Poetry (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1995), 55.

192
John Ray, Akhenaten: Ancient Egypts Prodigal Son? History Today 40 (1990):
26-27.
193
F. J. Giles, Ikhenaton: Legend and History (Madison, WI: Fairleigh Dickinson
194
William J. Murnane and Charles C. Van Siclen III, Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten
(New York: Kegan Paul International, 1993), 169-171.

195
Akhenatons Hymn to Aton line 1 (trans. John L. Foster, Hymns, Prayers, and
Songs: An Anthology of Ancient Egyptian Lyric Poetry [Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1995],
103). There in the Sun, you reach to their boundaries, making them bow to your Son, whom
you love.

59

Akhenaton and his queen du jour was sufficient recognition of the deity. While it was
normative for the king to also be high priest and in doing so act on behalf of the people
towards the god,
196
Akhenatons role as high priest was to act as the sole spokesman on
behalf of the god.
197

Akhenatons impiety towards the native religion and priesthood was overt. In a
fragment found in the Akhenaten Temple Project, Akhenaten provocatively challenges the
existence of the Egyptian pantheon:

Look, I am speaking that I might inform [you concerning] the forms of the gods, I
know [their (?)] temples [and I am versed in] the writings, (namely) the inventories of
their primeval bodies and [I have beheld them] as they cease, one after the other,
(whether) consisting of any sort of precious stone or , [except for the god who
begat] himself by himself, no one knowing the mysteries
198

The fact that the Aten hymns lacked theological depth and are cynically contrived made it
plain that it was the power of the king that made Atenism a force with which to be
reckoned.
199
This theological vacuity also revealed the theological shallowness of other

196
James K. Hoffmeier, The King as Gods Son in Egypt and Israel, Journal of the
Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 24 (1994): 31.
197
Cyril Aldred, Akhenaten: Pharaoh of EgyptA New Study (New York: McGraw-
Hill Book Company, 1969), 190.

198
A Royal Speech from Amenhotep IVs Earliest Building at Karnak (trans.
William J. Murnane, Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt [Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press,
1995], 31).
199
Nicholas Reeves, Akhenaten: Egypts False Prophet (New York: Thames &
Hudson Ltd., 2001), 145.

60

Egyptian cults. Thus, philosophical superiority became a weapon in the struggle for religious
dominance.
Following the restoration decree by Tutankhamun, Atenism as the dominant religion
rapidly fell out of favor and the worship of Amun was restored.
200
The royal dynasties
shifted religious allegiance between a creator god, Ptah, located in Memphis and the sun god
and cult of the dead represented by Re in Heliopolis. The effect of forty years of Atenism
was that the temples of Egypt were in general disrepair. After Akhenaton, there was
competition for resources among the royal religions, providing pressure to clarify and expand
their theological constructs. This period of theological change seemed to apply chiefly to
more aristocratic cults; however, even some popular religions, like the Thoth cult, were
greatly affected by Atenism. However, Hermopolis Magna was quick to recover as well, as
the cult of Thoth pillaged the temples at Akhetaten to facilitate its own temple repairs.
201
At
the same time, Hermopolis Magna refined the philosophical aspects of Amunism (Amun
being one of the gods of the Ogdoad), which it adapted from the tradition of Thoth (god of
writing).
Prior to the Amarna Period, possibly as far back as the Old Kingdom, the cult of Ptah
refined its theology by virtue of the gods role as creator in response to the ascendancy of

200
Ray, 30.
201
John Ducey Cooney, Amarna Reliefs from Hermopolis in American Collections.
(New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1965), 1-3.

61

Heliopolitan religion.
202
The Shabaka Stone reveals the Memphite theology as Ptah the self-
created god who creates by the power of his thoughts. This drew a contrast against the
Heliopolitan theology where Re created via ejaculation of semen; a comparison with the
Memphite theology would have made the Heliopolitan theology seem archaically crude.
203

The Heliopolitans appear to have responded simultaneously to the Memphite
challenge by merging an erudite Amunism into the Re cult forming the composite god
Amun-Re at least as early as the twelfth dynasty.
204
This merging of inconsistent elements
juxtaposed Re as the sun god that is normally seen with Amun who the hidden god that is
unseen. The priests attempted to reconcile philosophically these inconsistent elements by
creating theological complexity. This effort resulted in works of literature that tied together
many of the features of what will be later recognized as Platonic thought but were not
influenced by Platonism itself.
A prime example of this is the Leiden Hymns. The hymns date at least as far back as
the papyri on which they were found, which is the fifty-second regnal year of Ramesses II
(ca. 1227 BC).
205
Among these Hymn CC stands out as a particularly well-suited candidate

202
Ragnhild Bjerre Finnestad, Ptah, Creator of the Gods: Reconsideration of the
Ptah section of the Denkmal, Numen 23 (1976): 82-83.
203
Finnestad, 84.

204
See the edifice of the White Chapel of Senusret I (1971-1926BC).
205
John L. Foster, trans., Ancient Egyptian Literature: An Anthology (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 2001), 149.

62

for this kind of examination because it integrates the salient features of post-Amarna
Heliopolitan hymnity in a single source document. The hymn talks about the god of
wonders has many forms,
206
The thought that this could be similar to Platos
idea of the forms is supported by the next sentence, All gods boast their origin in him.
207

While the god being discussed in this context is Amun or Amun-Re, Foster suggests that the
Leiden Hymns are discussing the mysteries of the One god.
208
As early as the Old
Kingdom, Egyptian religion had tended to attribute supreme power to one god, and to
subordinate other gods to him.
209
Hornung suggests that this was not pantheism because it
did not compromise the individual identities of the deities into the fabric of all creation.
210

He cites Leiden Hymn CCC as an example text of this: All gods are there: Amun, Re, Ptah,

206
Leiden Hymn CC 2 (Authors translation). Original text from Jan Zandee, De
Hymnen aan Amon van Papyrus Leiden I 350 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1948), Plate 4.

207
Leiden Hymn CC 4 (Authors translation). A literal rendering of this line is,
All gods, they boast therefrom him. Foster translates this line as, All gods boast they
share in His nature, (Foster, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 163).
208
Foster, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 149.
209
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings. Vol. 2.
(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1976), 89.
210
Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many.
(trans. John Baines, Ithica, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996), 128.

63

they have no equal. His name is hidden as Amun, he is perceived as Re, and his body is
Ptah.
211

If this is the case, then the idea of the One being the ontological source of the forms
of other gods is essentially the same as the Middle Platonist idea of the forms. John Baines
aptly demonstrates that the Egyptians had a concept of a hypostasis.
212
Jan Assmann
recognizes the validity of this interpretation in relation to this Leiden Hymn, The temporal
relationship of unity and multiplicity was transformed into an ontological one. The one and
the hidden one inhabits an ontological but not a temporal Beyond.
213
While Assmann
focuses on the de-temporalised characteristics of the Amun multiplicity,
214
the
ontologicality of the panoply is a crucial component of the hymn, which simply cannot be
deferred in favor of the temporal aspect.
Later Leiden Hymn CC states, he is the Craftsman [

] who is in Heliopolis
[

].
215
This is highly significant because Plato calls the creator God a Demiurge,

211
Leiden Hymn CCC (Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The
One and the Many, 219).

212
John Baines, Fecundity Figures: Egyptian Personification and the Iconology of a
Genre (Chicago, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1985), 65.
213
Jan Assmann, Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun, and the
Crisis of Polytheism (trans. Anthony Alcock. New York: Kegan Paul International, 1995),
139.
214
Assmann, 142.

215
Leiden Hymn CC 7 (Authors translation).

64

which translates as craftsman or artificer.
216
The Gnostics borrowed the word,
Demiurge, but ascribe to it a different meaning. Pearson with Platonism in mind comments
that the Gnostic Demiurge presents us with a radical form of dualism going beyond
anything we find in the Platonism of antiquity.
217
But while the Gnostics borrowed name
from Plato, the concept behind it is anything but Platonic. As mentioned earlier, the Platonic
Demiurge is not necessarily an evil being, but a child-like god who is compelled to complete
the creation, and as he goes from the creation of the soul of the universe towards the souls of
men. Thus, given that the early Platonic version of the Demiurge lacks malevolent intent, it
reasonable to also expect the early Egyptian motif of the Craftsman deities, i.e. Ptah, Khnum,
and Amun-Re, to also lack the evil inclination that would be possessed by the later Gnostic
concept. In Plato, assuredly, matter is not evil. Matter is lesser in reality, it is true, than the
Ideas, or matter is space; matter sometimes a kind of non-being, though non-being is not
nothing, it is positive otherness, as least in the Sophist.
218

The hymn further states that Another of his forms [ ] is the gods of
Hermopolis [ ]. He is the progenitor [

] of the primeval gods
delivering Re.
219
In the next chapter, I will discuss the role of the Ogdoad in Hermopolitan

216
Plato Timaeus 41a.
217
Pearson, Gnosticism as a Religion, Was There a Gnostic Religion, 83.

218
Feibleman, Religious Platonism, 156-157.

219
Leiden Hymn CC 10-11 (Authors translation).

65

theology and its role moving into Gnosticism. However, for the current discussion, of
greater significance the transitory nature of those forms where Amun procreates the primal
deities.
220
This is highly reminiscent of a hypostasis, which is more than a god in the
ancient pagan sense, but a real essence or highest principle of reality resulting from an
issuance from a primary divine source; Wallis suggests that for the Neoplatonist, a hypostasis
is not just limited to an external but something real that is within the human mind, e.g., the
soul.
221

As mentioned earlier, the idea of multiple hypostases is not a feature of Middle
Platonism but is found in both Gnosticism and Neoplatonism. Yet, the hymn also says that
the source is His soul [ ], they say, is that one above.
222
The idea that there is One
source of the forms is a salient feature of Middle Platonism, as noted by Gersh, the notion
of a One above Being derived from the interpretation of Platos Parmenides is found in
certain so-called Neopythagorean writers of the first century B. C. and the first century A.
D. such as Eudorus and Moderatus.
223
Schenck remarks that even though Eudorus credits

220
Leiden Hymn CC 11 (Foster, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 163).
221
Richard T. Wallis, Neo-Platonism (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1972), 2.

222
Leiden Hymn CC 14 (Authors translation).
223
Stephen Gersh, Middle Plationism and Neoplatonism: The Latin Tradition (Notre
Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986), 37.

66

Pythagoras with the idea of a supreme principle, the terminology of the One or monad rests
with Eudorus who was the Alexandrian that began Middle Platonism.
224

Additionally, the hymn says, The one, Amun [ ] who is hidden [ ]
from all of them, concealing [ ] himself from the gods, whose
characteristics [ ] cannot be known.
225
This could reflect the attitude that
the One is something behind the forms and is thus hidden by a metaphysical veil. But the
idea here is not exclusively Platonic. It does allude to a kind of the One that is beyond
anything that can be called god and is similar to the Jewish conception of a supreme deity.
But the hymn ends with the following: He is excessively greater than counsel about him,
more powerful than knowledge of him. No god knows him by means of it [his name].
God is a spirit [ ]. Hidden is his name. His likeness is mysterious.
226
For
the Egyptian mind, the true name of a being carries power over that person. By asserting
this, the author of the hymn is saying that the One cannot be coerced through the invocation
of his name. An example where a name is used to manipulate the gods is PT 534, where the
gods are dissuaded from their bad coming by invoking their true names.
227
The hymn is

224
Kenneth Schenck, Brief Guide to Philo (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox
Press, 2005), 53.

225
Leiden Hymn CC 18-19 (Authors translation).
226
Leiden Hymn CC 25, 28-29 (Authors translation).
227
James P. Allen, Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (Atlanta: Society of Biblical
Literature, 2005), 166.

67

essentially saying that the One is too powerful to be manipulated by his name because his
secret name cannot be known. This is consistent with what Bickel sees as the Middle
Kingdom transition from the lonely one, , to a god that both beneficent and
terrifyingly destructive, From the Eighteenth Dynasty onwards, the creator is the supreme
god, the king par excellence in the realm of the gods and on earth.
228

From the evidence presented with Leiden Hymn CC, it is clear that there is a nascent
Platonism extant in the New Kingdom five hundred years before the birth of Plato. Yet,
seeing elements of Platonic philosophy is not without precedent, Plutarch discovers in
the Isis myth the philosophy of Platos Timaeus.
229
While the accuracy of Plutarchs
statements has been contested, Lattimore holds that Plutarch believed that the Greek gods
were borrowed from Egyptian sources and that he bases this belief upon the information his
Egyptian sources provided him.
230
In addition to this, Griffiths has demonstrated that to
some extent Herodotus statements regarding the Egyptian origins of Greek deities can be

228
Susanne Bickel, Changes in the Image of the Creator God During the Middle and
New Kingdoms, Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists (ed. C.
J. Eyre. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters Publishers & Department of Oriental Studies, 1998), 170,
172. Interestingly, Leiden Hymn CC also portrays this god as having the the terrible power
of His godhead.
229
Roger Miller Jones, Platonism of Plutarch and Selected Papers (New York:
Garland Publishing Inc., 1980), 25.
230
Richard Lattimore, Herodotus and the Names of Egyptian Gods, Classical
Philology 34.4 (Oct 1939): 364-365.

68

reconciled with Old and Middle Kingdom theologies.
231
For example Griffiths uses reason
to reconcile Pan with Ddwt:

the Egyptian Pan is said by the Mendesians, and by the Egyptians in general, to be
one of the eight gods. He is stated (II, 46, 2) to be represented with the head and legs
of a goat, and to be called Mendes in Egyptian-that is, presumably, he bore the same
name as the nome. Mendes as a god is previously mentioned in II, 42, I, where it is
said that those who possess a temple of his or belong to the Mendesian nome will
sacrifice sheep but not goats. A comparison of these statements with remarks by other
Greek writers shows that Herodotus is at one with them in describing the Mendesian
god as a goat-god. Mendes was in the East Delta, and according to Ball was on the
site of the modern Tell el-Rub'. Its Egyptian name was Djedet, and when Herodotus
states that both the goat and the god are called Mendes in Egyptian, he implies that
the place-name is also similar. Assuming that the ram is the animal really referred to,
and that Greek tradition had already replaced it by the goat for the reason suggested
above, we may then see a possible basis for the remarks about the names: the
Egyptian for ram was ba, the god was called Ba-neb-Djedet (the ram, the lord of
Mendes), so that the two names began at any rate in the same way.
232

A further example shows Herodotus connecting the god Amun with the Greek god Zeus.
233

Leiden Hymn CC is fairly typical of late Heliopolitan literature, a synergy of religion
and philosophy. While the hymns contain many of the features of Platonism, other Egyptian
New Kingdom and Late Period literature provide other glimpses of these features. These
philosophical features, however, are not limited only to the New Kingdom. For example,

231
J. Gwyn Griffiths, Orders of Gods in Greece and Egypt (according to
Herodotus), The Journal of Hellenic Studies 75 (1955): 23. In support of his case, Griffiths
cites Herodotus, II.4, II.7, II.42-43, II.46, II.144-145, and VI.108.

232
Griffiths, 22.

233
Herodotus 2.55.

69

from the First Intermediate Period, we see what is perhaps a prolegomena to philosophy from
the Wisdom of Merikare that says, There is no pure reason who is caused to be hidden, and
it is good to act on behalf of posterity.
234

Nevertheless, after the conquest of Alexander the Great, the influence the Greeks had
on the Egyptian mind appears to have entrenched their thinking upon the past themes of the
national religious identity; much of this was probably due to the harsh rule of the Ptolemaic
regimes.
235
Greek philosophical thought appears to have recapitulated elements already
present in Egyptian religious literature. However, the data suggests that there is little
penetration into Egyptian religious literature by that which is unique to Greek philosophical
thought.
236

While it is difficult to show that Greek philosophy influenced Hellenistic Egyptian
literature, Egyptian literature influencing Hellenistic Greek philosophy is relatively easy to
show.
237
There are numerous additional examples of Egyptian influence creeping into

234
R. O. Faulkner, Edward F. Wente, jr., and William Kelly Simpson, Literature of
Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, and Poetry (New Haven, CT: Yale
235
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings. Vol. 3.
(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1980), 3-4.
236
A. S. Hunt and C. C. Edgar, Select Papyri (LCL; Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1964), 1:x. The only place I could find Greek penetration into Egyptian
literature is in the instance of legal documents and civil contracts, e.g., the Oxyrinchus
Papyri, where the Greek forms intruded into the daily affairs of Egyptian life.
237
Ian Rutherford, Genealogy of the Boukoloi: How Greek Literature Appropriated
an Egyptian Narrative-Motif, Journal of Hellenic Studies 120 (2000): 106. What I want to

70

Platonic thought. In the 3
rd
century AD, Plotinus makes a distinction between the One,
which he calls Osiris, and the Dyad (a dualism of forces), which he calls Seth.
238
During the
Ptolemaic period, the Greeks even assimilated Egyptian deities and temple decoration into a
familiar religious environment.
239

Besides the literature where the Egyptian culture penetrated Greek literature, there is
a class of literature where the two merge, the Gnostic and Hermetic literature. While
Hermetic literature has been found in the Gnostic corpus, i.e., the Nag Hammadi library, and
while the two share pivotal doctrines (e.g. Atv), the exact nature between Hermetism and
Gnosticism has yet to be established.
240
While it is definitely true that the form of the
Hermetica was influenced by the dialogues of Plato, the Hermetica also contains significant
portions of pagan thought, which Lagrange argues is from its connection to the Egyptian
mystery religions.
241

do, rather, is draw attention to a single motif that might have made its way from Egyptian
narrative fiction to the Greek novel. Hicks, 93ff. Hicks reasons that the Greeks imported
Egyptian elements during the Mycenaean period and the 26
th
dynasty (664-525 B.C.) (p. 92).
238
Gersh, 38.
239
Jean Bingen, Hellenistic Egypt: Monarchy, Society, Economy, Culture (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2007), 261.
240
William C. Grese, Corpus Hermeticum XIII and Early Christian Literature
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1979), 54.
241
Grese, Corpus Hermeticum XIII and Early Christian Literature, 58-59.

71

When the Greeks come into contact with the Egyptians, some Middle Platonists adopt
not only the ideas but also the methods that are used by the Egyptians. As early as the New
Kingdom, the Egyptians will use animal fables, e.g., Lion in Search of a Man to teach lessons
as allegory.
242
While the Greeks had allegory in the form of the tales of Aesop as early as
the 6
th
century BC, it appears to have been used primarily for pedagogic training. Lichtheim
also infers that some of the Aesop fables may have been lifted from Egyptian sources; she
argues for pre-Hellenistic antiquity of animal allegory and states, The final episode of the
fable, the encounter of lion and mouse, occurs in a shorter version among the Fables of
Aesop.
243
In Against Heresies, Irenaeus connects Egyptian thought with Gnostic belief,
Cerinthus, again, a man who was educated in the wisdom of the Egyptians, taught that the
world was not made by the primary God, but by a certain Power far separated from him, and
at a distance from that Principality who is supreme over the universe, and ignorant of him
who is above all.
244

Conclusions
We have compared the major features of Gnosticism to the Middle Platonism as it
would have existed in Hellenistic Egypt. Greek philosophy in general, and Middle Platonism

242
Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol. 3, 157.
243
Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol. 3, 157.
244

72

specifically, is insufficient to explain the metaphysical basis for Gnostic genesis. Yet,
Gnosticism has features that are clearly Platonic although not Middle Platonic. Added to this
evidence is the testimony of the pre-platonic Greek writers who allude to their Egyptian
roots.
A native-spawned pre-Socratic thought that parallels Greek Platonism flourished in
Egypt during the Ramesside period. This pre-Socratic religious philosophy, as typified by
Leiden Hymn CC, is found in varying aspects in a broad scope of the hymns, the cataloging
of which is beyond the limited size and scope of this thesis. And it is this religious
philosophy that penetrated into the cultural undercurrent of Egyptian thought. The nature of
this philosophy sets forth a kind philosophical thought that is remarkably similar to the
Neoplatonism of the third century AD. This divergence between Egyptian pre-Socratic
philosophy and Greek Middle Platonism provides a plausible explanation for why
Gnosticism has predominantly Neoplatonic characteristics.

73

CHAPTER 3
FROM THE THOTH CULT TO HERMETIC THOUGHT

This chapter discusses the development of the syncretistic Thoth cult in Egypt and the
role it had to play in both popular religions and specifically its ultimate development into
Gnostic and Hermetic thought. The Thoth cult was one of major popular religions in
Egypt
245
and had the ability to syncretize to the degree that the religion developed in several
intermediate stages. The major tenets of this theological movement would develop into
Hermopolitan Theology that will have its most lasting achievement in the scribal tradition
that continued a kind of theological and philosophic conservatism that is similar to the scribal
traditions found in other Egyptian textual traditions.
The worship of the Thoth cult is notable for being one of the oldest and most
geographically distributed cults in Egypt with multiple cult centers found across the land.
This chapter will locate and identify the geographic locations of the major cult centers that
either assumed the name of Hermopolis or showed clear evidence of be a locale of Thoth
worship. The importance of Hermopolitan theology and the Thoth cult in light of broader
geographic considerations is particularly important given the influence it had upon other

245
Richard H. Wilkinson, Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (New
York: Thames & Hudson, Inc., 2003), 217.

74

Egyptian theological systems. Furthermore, this thesis will show the trajectory of the
development of Hermopolitan thought from its earliest roots in the first dynasty until its final
transformation into the Christian era philosophies of Hermetism and the key doctrines that
define Gnosticism. During the conflict between the Pagans and Christians of the fourth
century AD, the Thoth cult became the symbol of all things pagan when Theophilus bishop
of Alexandria used a baboon-headed statue of Thoth as the object of mockery in his
confrontation with the Alexandrian pagan priests.
246

Geographic Distribution of Thoth Worship
The name of Hermopolis appears in the Greek as E|cact, E|cuact, and
E|cu act. The meaning of the name is City of Hermes with Hermes being the name of
the Greek god that was closely associated with the Egyptian god Thoth, or
.
247
The name Hermopolis was assigned to cities in the Hellenistic period following the
conquest of Alexander the Great that appear to have links to the Thoth cult. One of the
issues that is encountered here is that the names of these cities were not consistent prior to
Hellenization or following the fall of Egypt to Islam. Yet, ubiquity of towns named
Hermopolis lends itself to questions regarding the widespread distribution of the Thoth cult,

246
Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History 5.16 (NPNF
2
2:126).

247
Patrick Boylan, Thoth the Hermes of Egypt: A Study on Some Aspects of
Theological Thought in Ancient Egypt (New York: Oxford University Press, 1922), 1, 62.
Also see Boylan (pp. 1-5) for his extensive list of epithets for Thoth.

75

which is uncharacteristic of other Egyptian cults that tend to be centrally localized. While
the distribution of Greek religious geographic nomenclature alone is insufficient to prove
religious ubiquity as it may not necessarily have parity with Egyptian religious geographic
nomenclature, for example a particular town of Hermes may have originally had a Horus
name, the Greek nomenclature is highly suggestive of the religious practice that may have
been present in the city at the time of it being rededicated. Given that there are multiple
Hermopoli distributed in both Upper and Lower Egypt, the Thoth cult could be regarded as
an early form of universal religion:

the moon-god Thoth, i.e. a god of cosmic format, must have been worshipped
almost universally right from the beginning. Naturally there were a number of minor
gods in ancient Egypt whose importance did not rise beyond their local horizons, but
it is evident that the moon-god Thoth was universally worshipped.
248

And given the fact that temples to Thoth have been found at Zifta, El-Kab, and Qasr-el-Agz,
it can be concluded that Thoth worship was ubiquitous in Egypt.
249

The largest and most important of the major Thoth cult centers was called
Hermopolis Magna, n |s,an, which is located in Upper Egypt. Hermopolis Magna is
known by the ancient Egyptian name of Khmennu, , and was named after the Ogdoad,
i.e. the eight, which are the eight gods that overtook the worship of the native hare

248
C. J. Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures of the Ancient Egyptian
Religion (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973), 114.
249
Bleeker, 151.

76

goddess. The city was located near modern El Ashmnein, which preserves the ancient
Egyptian name. It is one of two Hermopoli identified by Aelois Herodian (second century
AD); the other being Hermopolis Parva (I).
250

Geographically, Khmennu is situated in central Upper Egypt (Middle Egypt) as the
capitol of the Wn (Hare), , nome.
251
The town is situated south of Heracleopolis
Magna and north of Phylacae along the Nile River. The citys centrality along the Nile
allowed it to passively transmit its theology throughout Egypt without incurring the problems
associated with political struggles. By the early New Kingdom (c. 1550 BC), Hermopolis
Magna is recognized as an important cult center even within theological systems that do not
hold Thoth worship among its core beliefs: Hail to you, Souls of Hermopolis! Know that
Re desires the plume which grows and the Red Crown which is complete at this temple, and
rejoice at the allotting of what is to be allotted.
252

250
Aelois Herodianus De Prosodia Catholica 3.1.92.8-25.
251
Alan H. Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onomastica. Vol. 2. (New York: Oxford
252
Raymond O. Faulkner, trans., Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going
Forth by Day. 2
nd
Rev. Ed. (San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1998), 114. The plume in
this cited passage could be a reference to Maat; the goddess Maat was usually considered to
be the wife of Thoth (Wilkinson, 150).

77

A surface site survey in 1980 revealed a Late Period temple to Thoth, a Ramesside
temple to Amun, a temple dedicated to Domitian, and two churches.
253
After the Amarna
Period, repair crews from Hermopolis Magna crossed the Nile to ransack the temples of
Akhenaten for stone to be used in the building and restoration of the local temples; many of
the reliefs that remain from the Amarna Period were found at Hermopolis Magna.
254

Archeological evidence further suggests that in the Macedonian period the Greeks restored
pharaonic monuments at Hermopolis Magna.
255
During the reign of the Ptolemies, this city
also served as very important source for taxation both as a trade route tariff collection post
and as source of collecting a poll tax from its residents.
256
In the Christian era, Hermopolis
Magna became synonymous with the practice of magic and Pagan traditions to the extent that
this reputation became intertwined with Coptic martyrology.
257
The city itself persisted until

253
A. J. Spencer, Excavations at El-Ashmunein I: The Topography of the Site
(London: British Museum Publications, Ltd., 1981), 6-7.
254
Cooney, 1-3.
255
Steven Snape and Donald Bailey, Great Portico at Hermopolis Magna: Present
State and Past Prospects (London: British Museum Publications, Ltd., 1988), 7.
256
H. Idris Bell, Constitutio Antoniniana and the Egyptian Poll-Tax, Journal of
Roman Studies, 37 (1947): 17.
257
Alexandra Von Lieven, Wissen, was die Welt im innersten Zusammenhlt oder
Faust in gypten? Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions, 2 (2002): 75-77.

78

the Muslims burned the city to the ground in the seventh century AD taking the stone and
burning it into lime for building projects elsewhere.
258

Lower Egypt, because of its relation to the Nile delta where the ibis was common,
had more than one Thoth cult center. Hermopolis Parva (I),
259
which is also called
Hermopolis Mikra, n |tka, is located near modern Damanhr in the Ament nome of Lower
Egypt
260
and was originally a city dedicated to Horus (Egyptian: Dmi-n-Hrw) but late in
antiquity became associated with Thoth and is that Hermopolis Parva (I) which is located
only 70km from Alexandria at the point where the Taly River branch of the Nile divides from
the Agathodaemon branch.
261
Ptolemy in his geography conveniently mentions both a
Hermopolis Parva near Alexandria and a Hermopolis Magna.
262
While there is no serious
doubts regarding the identification of modern Damanhr as Hermopolis Parva, one of the

258
Steven Snape and Donald Bailey, 48.
259
Because there is more than one Hermopolis Parva referred to by ancient
geographers, I have decided to number them (I) and (II) accordingly. Another Hermopolis,
which I will call Hermopolis (West), has no other affectation but is noted to in the west.

260
Gardiner, 197. Gardiner recognizes the traditional identification of Damanhr
with Hermopolis Parva (I) but rejects it based upon the preservation of the Horus name.
261
John A. Wilson, Buto and Hierakonpolis in the Geography of Egypt, Journal of
Near Eastern Studies 14 (Oct 1955): 210. John Ball, Egypt in the Classical Geographers
(Cairo: Government Press, Bulq, 1942), 117.
262
Claudius Ptolemy Geography 4.5. Ptolemys location for Hermopolis Parva (I) is
particularly compelling since he not only places Hermopolis Parva (I) in the same nome as
Alexandria but also supplies numeric coordinates with his identification.

79

mysteries regarding Hermopolis Parva (I) is how a Thoth name used in the Hellenistic period
can be reconciled with the Horus name used in the Arabic period. How Thoth overtook
Horus as central deity of Dmi-n-Hrw during the Ptolemaic period remains an unanswered
question in Egyptian religion given that Horus was seen as the superlative deity for the
Pharaohs, the priesthood, and the cult of the dead.
263

There is also another Hermopolis Parva (II), not to be confused with Hermopolis
Mikra mentioned previously, located in the Ibis nome of Lower Egypt, which is probably the
oldest center of the Thoth cult in the Delta.
264
The exact location of this town has yet to be
discovered by archaeologists. Nevertheless, Strabo mentions three different Hermopoli in
the Nile delta: one in the country between the Sebennytic and Phatnitic mouths;
265
Stephanus
Byzantinus locates this Hermopolis near Thmuis (kata O|cutv); and Ravenna concurs
situating a Hermopolis following a town named Theomis.
266
Montet views Strabos writings
as giving clear indication that there are three Hermopoli in the Nile Delta, Strabon connat

263
Edouard Naville, Ahnas el Medinah (Heracleopolis Magna) with chapters on
Mendes, the Nome of Thoth, and Leontopolis (London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1894), 23-
24.
264
Bleeker, 109.

265
Strabo Geography 17.1.18.
266
Stephani Byzantii Ethnica 278.6-9, 539.4-9. Ravenna Anonymi Cosmographia
3.2. Naville, 23-24. Ball, 64.

80

trios villes de Thot, trios Hermopolis dans le Delta.
267
However, I think it is clear from the
ancient geographers that the location of Hermopolis Parva (II) lays in the eastern delta
region.
Another Hermopolis is mentioned by Strabo that places the town on a river near
Mareotis and the town of Butus.
268
What is different about this particular Hermopolis (West)
is that it is identified to be on an island presumably in Lake Buticus. None of the other
Hermopoli in the Nile Delta region are located on islands within a lake. Even though it is
tempting to identify this Hermopolis (West) with Hermopolis Parva (I) because of its
westerly coincidence, there no question that Hermopolis Parva (I) is the most westerly
Hermopolis located on the west bank of Agathodaemon branch of the Nile; to the west of
Hermopolis Parva (I) is nothing but desert and few minor Nile tributaries. So, I find it
incredulous to think that the ancient writers would have confused Hermopolis Parva (I) as
being a city that is island-bound.
Thus, we find that there are at least four towns named Hermopolis in Egypt: one in
Upper Egypt and three in the Nile Delta. At the same time, the distribution of the Thoth cult
is not limited to those religious centers. In addition to the Hermopoli, there are two major
temples in Upper Egypt (El-Kab and Qasr-el-Agz) and two in Lower Egypt (Letopolis and

267
Pierre Montet, Gographie De Lgypte Ancienne (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale,
1957), 138.

268
Strabo Geography 17.1.18.

81

Zifta)see Figure 2 for the specific geographic distributions of these towns. Furthermore, in
Pyramid Text 534 from the pyramid of Pepi I, there is reference to a Thoth cult-center called
hri-dhwti, which Allen speculates might be a major center situated near Letopolis in the
Khensu nome.
269
And a statue of Ramesses II bears an inscription that mentions Thoth as
Lord of Punt, , possibly placing the southern-most frontier of the Thoth cult
in Somalia.
270

The importance of Hermopolitan theology and the Thoth cult must be set in light of
broader geographic considerations. It is helpful to establish as best as possible the nature
Hermopolitan theology. Donald Redford has determined that Egypt had three major
theological systems: Heliopolitan celebrating Re and Osirian cult of the dead, Memphite
represented by Ptah and a creation comes from the will and all that exists is mind, and
Hermopolitan describing the primal element as infinite in size and completely hidden.
271

Unlike the Memphite theology where the theology is summarized in a single place
(e.g. the Shabaka Stone) and Heliopolitan theology where there is plenty of source material,
Hermopolitan theology cannot yet be isolated to a single native summation. And also unlike

269
Allen, Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, 438, 442.

270
M. L. Bierbrier, ed., Hieroglyphic Texts from Egyptian Stelae. Vol 12. (London:
British Museum Press, 1993), 7, Plate 5.
271
Redford, Akhenaten: The Heretic King, 157-158.

82

Figure 2: Map of the Thoth Cult Centers

83

the other two theologies, which became embroiled in the political intrigues of competing
dynasties, Hermopolitan theology went along largely untouched by war. Some of this is
undoubtedly caused by Hermopolitan theologys ability to syncretize with almost any
religious system, but some of this may be due to the fact that the leadership of Hermopolis
Parva (I) and Hermopolis Magna were also able administrators and negotiators especially
during times of crisis.
272
The distributed approach having several cultic centers throughout
Egypt, able administrators, and the syncretizing power of Hermopolitan theology probably
all contributed to the lasting cultural influence of Hermopolitanism.

Theological Trajectory of the Thoth Cult
The earliest appearances of Thoth include dog-headed baboon statuary from the first
dynasty
273
and the reliefs of the ibis standard that were found on pre-dynastic palettes.
274
A
common epithet used in the worship of Thoth is the thrice-great Thoth,

.
This epithet is one of the oldest theological epithets in the history of Egypt and is found in
the Stepped Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara dating to the third dynasty.
275
This thrice-great

272
Hermann Kees, Ancient Egypt: A Cultural Topography (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1977), 280.
273
Denise M. Doxey, Thoth, Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion
(ed. Donald B. Redford. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 353.

274
Wilkinson, 215.
275
I. E. S. Edwards, Pyramids of Egypt (London: Max Parish, 1961), Plate 3b.

84

epithet continued to be used into the Roman Period as Hermopolitan theology spread and
syncretized with Hellenistic belief systems becoming extant in works such as the Book of
Thoth and the Hermetica.
276
Evidence in Old Kingdom inscriptions alludes to the idea that
Thoth was not a native Egyptian deity but perhaps a deity native to the Sinai. From the
mortuary temple of Sahure dating to the fifth dynasty, the king is given a theophoric epithet
of (he is) Thoth, the Lord of the Pillar people
277
an allusion to the nomadic peoples of
the Eastern deserts and Sinai.
278
An inscription found in the Wadi Maghara by Nyuserra
(fifth dynasty) describes Thoth as lord of the foreign lands (JE 38570).
279

In the Pyramid Texts, Thoth makes several appearances in his developing roles.
While the Pyramid Texts are overwhelmingly influenced by Heliopolitan theology, we see a
partial syncretism of Hermopolitan theology that leaves traces of a Hermopolitan origin.
Already in these early texts we find allusions to Thoth as the Lord of the Ogdoad. [Neith]
is the eight [of them].
280
In PT 301, we also find mention of both Amun and Amaunet as a
pair of gods, two of the constituent members of the Ogdoad.

276
Grese, 35.

277
Nigel C. Strudwick, Texts from the Pyramid Age (Atlanta: Society of Biblical
Literature, 2005), 85.

278
Strudwick, 504.

279
Strudwick, 136.
280
Allen, Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, 312.

85

An initial theme we find in the pyramid texts is Thoth acting as a kind of vengeful
enforcer for the other gods. In the Unas pyramid text, Thoth is asked for protection along
with Seth, Kherti, and Nephthys (PT 534). In Pepi Is pyramid, Thoth is called the gods
forceful one (PT 710C) and as he avenges and ascends to the sky (PT 539).
281
Thoth acts
as an avenger for the pharaoh, Thoth, have no mercy on all who hate my father (PT 542).
Thoth is portrayed in a familial relationship with the gods of the Osirian pattern, as an
early attempt at syncretism. Thoth acts a cleansing god along with Horus and Seth (PT 23)
and is portrayed as the brother of Seth (PT 218). Yet later in Tetis pyramid, he is also seen
as the one who drives back the followers of Seth (PT 356), and he is the one who kills all
Horus enemies.
282
He is further integrated into the Osirian myth by making him responsible
for raising Osiris from the dead (PT 477).
283

Incantation PT 534 has a bad coming where the god can act with evil intentions and
that one can ward away cranky gods by invoking a gods true name, in the case of Thoth this
was revealed to be You Have No Mother.
284
Unlike the other Gods who have a father or
mother, Thoth is revealed to be motherless; hence, there are allusions to Thoths role as a
creator deity. Yet, the syncretism by the Heliopolitans is incomplete as PT 511 shows that

281
282
283
284

86

Horus, Isis, and Thoth were made or begotten. In other texts, Thoth claims to be the eldest
son of Re.
285
The fact that he can be warded off with magic, , is also interesting
given that PT 691F describes him as Lord of magic.
The last theme found in the Pyramid Texts has Thoth portrayed as a moon god,
appearing in the Pyramid Texts no less than seventeen times.
286
In PT 210, Thoth is shown
circumnavigating the sky, like Re, presumably in his role as a moon god.
287
In this spell,
Unas is requesting to sail in both Res and Thoths boats. Hence, during the period of the
Pyramid texts, Thoth is seen as being a parallel to Re and in many ways equivalent to other
Orisian gods.
Thus, during the Old Kingdom period, we see the essential building blocks of the
Hermopolitan theology already in place. We see Thoth as a creator, celestial traveler,
powerful avenger, and Lord of magic. There is also an Ogdoad represented by four pairs,
and the beginning of the rise of Amun, , from among the eight. From this we can
conclude that Hermopolitan theology already had substance prior to the syncretizing effects
of other religious systems in the Old Kingdom.
During the First Intermediate Period, Khmennu becomes the dominant center of the
Hermopolitan theology. Khmennu originally worshiped a goddess Wenut who disguised

285
Bleeker, 112.

286
Amanda-Alice Maravelia, Les Astres dans les Textes Religieux en gypte Antique
et dans les Hymnes Orphiques (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2006), 302.
287

87

herself as a hare, then during the Old Kingdom Khmennu adopted Thoth as their focal
diety.
288
This hare deity was deposed by the Ogdoad then Thoth eclipsed the Ogdoad as its
creator.
289
In the mythology, Thoth arose from the primordial chaos to create the eight gods
of the Ogdoad. The Ogdoad represented four elemental forces in male/female pairs: Nun and
Naunet (primordial waters), Huh and Hauhet (eternity and infinite space), Kuk and Kauket
(darkness), and Amun and Amuanet (air or invisibility). The Hermopolitans took abstract
concepts and personified them into gods.
290

After the First Intermediate Period, Thoths role as a powerful avenger will diminish
and be recast as a messenger of the gods, eventually leading to a reprisal of his role focusing
heavily on wisdom, writing, and magic. While aspects of these roles are extant in the
Pyramid Texts, e.g. in the pyramid of Neith (sixth dynasty), Thoth is also identified as
Thoth, Lord of Magic (PT 691F); during the Middle Kingdom the wisdom aspect of Thoth
comes to the fore. And it is during this period that Hermopolitan theology begins to heavily
syncretize with other religious systems as is attested to by the Coffin Texts.
From the Book of Two Ways, Lesko observes that Thoth, To some extent he is as
important as the other gods providing as he does a goal for the deceased, but since all the

288
Wm. Stevenson Smith, Paintings of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom at Bersheh,
American Journal of Archaeology 55 (Oct 1951): 321.
289
Bleeker, 113-114.
290
David P. Silverman, Divinity and Deities in Ancient Egypt, Religion in Ancient
Egypt, 34, 39.

88

coffins having these texts are from his city this is not surprising.
291
But Hoffmeier correctly
observes that the Book of Two ways has only one reference to the Ogdoad, few appearances
of Thoth, and no reference to Khemennu.
292
However, the problem with assessing the
influence of Hermopolitan theology is that, as we have already seen, it is ubiquitous in
distribution.
Nevertheless, during the Middle Kingdom, the dominance of Heliopolitan theology in
the cultic death rites will eventually affect Hermopolitan theology by making Thoth a
messenger for Re and Osiris, obscuring his previous role as a powerful avenging god. In
Coffin Text spell 9, Thoth is portrayed as the head of a tribunal that makes peace between the
gods, becoming more conciliatory than avenging.
293
In CT 1094, Thoth is portrayed as
residing in the suite of Re.
294
He will be no longer seen as navigating his own boat as moon-
god; instead, he will be shown riding in Res bark, acting a Res navigator in his baboon
form. Also, the Thoth-cult will show signs of identifying with the common religion. There
are two versions of CT 1098, one where Thoth has common folk in his entourage.
295

291
Leonard H. Lesko, Ancient Egyptian Book of Two Ways (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1972), 6.
292
James K. Hoffmeier, Are There Regionally-Based Theological Differences in the
Coffin Texts? World of the Coffin Texts (ed. Harco Willems, Leiden: Nederlands Instituut
Voor Het Nabije Oosten, 1996), 49.
293
R. O. Faulkner, Ancient Coffin Texts (Warminster, England: Aris & Phillips, Ltd,
1973), 1:6.
294
Lesko, 96.
295
Lesko, 100.

89

Bleeker maintains that while Re and Osiris played important roles in kingship and funerary
rites, Hathor and Thoth are paradigmatic to the Egyptian religious practice of the living.
296

Other coffin texts will dramatically point out this syncretism. In Coffin Text spell 76,
Hermopolitan theology is syncretized with the Heliopolitan cult. In this spell, Atum is shown
as the creator of the Ogdoad, but also as creator of the other Osirian pattern deities, such as
Geb and Nut.
297
In spells 79 and 80, Atum creates Shu who then creates the Ogdoad, and
then Atum gives the everlasting attribute to Shu and the eternity attribute to Tefnut.
298

In the Middle Kingdom, Hermopolitan theology will prove to be highly adaptable to
the changing political currents. During the twelfth dynasty, Amun from the Ogdoad was
merged with Re of Heliopolis to form Amun-Re and thus retained ties to Thoth. We can see
this transition with Amun having supplanted Thoth in an eighteenth dynasty magic spell
found in Papyrus British Museum 10042, Words to be said of Amun the Ogdoad <at> his
right and his left side, adoring him.
299
This composite deity Amun-Re will be regarded as
the king of the gods while not initially being regarded as a creator god.
300
In Leiden Hymn

296
Bleeker, 2.
297
Faulkner, Ancient Coffin Texts, 1:77-78.
298
Faulkner, Ancient Coffin Texts, 1:77-78.
299
Curse Against the Crocodile Maga (trans. J. F. Borghouts, Ancient Egyptian
Magical Texts [Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1978], 87).
300
Susanne Bickel, Changes in the Image of the Creator God during the Middle and
New Kingdoms, Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists (ed. C.
J. Eyre. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters Publishers & Department of Oriental Studies, 1998), 170.

90

LXXX dating to the fifty-second regnal year of Ramesses II, Amun-Re portrayed as sole
creator:

The Eight Great Gods were your first incarnation You were the alone
You began the unfolding of cosmos, before was no being, no void. World without
end was in you and from you, yours on that First Day. All other gods came after.
301

Despite the exalting Amun-Re by the Heliopolitans as creator of the cosmos, the Pharaohs of
the New Kingdom will also bring the worship of Thoth and the Ogdoad to Thebes. From the
twenty-first dynasty Papyrus of Her-Uben, Thoth is referred to as Lord of Divine Words,
Scribe of Truth of the Ennead, He who is in the name of Thebes, city of Amon.
302
But
adapting Hermopolitan theology was not only done by the Heliopolitans, Memphite theology
was reconciled to the Hermopolitan Ogdoad to form the Khonsu Cosmogony. The
abstraction derived through the forces personified by the Ogdoad was maintained through
syncretism with the similarly abstract deity Ptah who created through thoughts and utterances
of speech, supplanting Thoth as creator.
303
Thus, both the Memphites and the Heliopolitans
will attempt to integrate Hermopolitan thinking into their own theological systems.

301
Foster, 159.
302
Alexandre Piankoff, Mythological Papyri (New York: Pantheon Books Inc.,
1957), 72.
303
Leonard H. Lesko, Ancient Egyptian Cosmogonies and Cosmology, Religion in
Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice (ed. Bryon E. Schafer. London: Cornell
University Press, 1991), 105-106.

91

In the Book of the Dead, which was the product of New Kingdom scribes collating
the Coffin Texts,
304
Thoth will be characterized as Thoth, judge of truth, to the Great
Ennead which is in the presence of Osiris....
305
Yet, while the Thoth cult was, by this point,
a widely distributed belief system across Egypt, the Book of the Dead imposes a localist idea
upon the Thoth cult, the Great Ennead to Thoth which in Hermopolis [

]. Hence,
when Hermopolitan theology is syncretized, the system ingathering Hermopolitanism
imposes its own understanding upon the theology.
Nevertheless, this ability to merge with other systems of thought would allow
Hermopolitan theology to syncretize with more than just other Egyptian cults. After the
conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, Hermopolitan theology would recapitulate with a
system that it had a hand in the development of, i.e., Middle Platonism. Hermopolitan
theology will turn towards wisdom literature as it begins to encounter the philosophic
writings of the Hellenistic world with its particular philosophical imperatives. The Demotic
Book of Thoth dating from the first century BC to the second century AD will extol the
disciple of Thoth to seek after knowledge, , and will explicitly name Thoth as the
thrice-great one, , or Trismegistus.
306
While some scholars dismiss any

304
Ogden Goelet, Introduction, (Raymond O. Faulkner, trans., Egyptian Book of
the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day. 2
nd
Rev. Ed. [San Francisco, Chronicle Books,
1998]), 14.
305
Faulkner, Egyptian Book of the Dead, Plate 3.
306
Richard Jasnow and Karl-Theodor Zauzich, Book of Thoth? Proceedings of the
Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists (ed. C. J. Eyre. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters
Publishers & Department of Oriental Studies, 1998), 612-613, 617.

92

Egyptian connection between the Book of Thoth and Hermetic literature, e.g, Andr-Jean
Festugire,
307
there does seem to be literary connections between the Demotic Book of Thoth
and the Greek/Coptic Hermetica in content as well as form;
308
such connections include
references to deities, e.g., Thoth, Osiris, and Isis, as well as the literary format of the student
posing a question and the deity responding and vice versa,
309
and salvation by special
knowledge.
310
These connections support the Hermetists own claims that their writings are
translations from the Egyptian:

E|n... ss,sv ctt cst tct svtu,avcuot |cu tct |t|tct aacuotatn
stvat n ouvtat kat oacn. sk s tv svavtt v aoacn cuoa kat
ksku||svcv tcv vcuv tv c,v scuoa. kat stt aoacsotatn. tv Envv
uotscv |cun0svtv tnv n |stsav tasktcv st tnv ttav |s0s|nvsu oat.
cas sotat tv ,s,a||svv |s,totn taotccn ts kat a oacsta.
311

307
Andr-Jean Festugire, La rvlation d'Hermes Trismgiste. Vol. 3. (Paris:
Gabalda, 1953), 36-62. Festugire essentially is looking at the Hermetica through an almost
exclusive Platonic lens to the extent that non-Platonic features of the text are glossed over.

308
Jasnow and Zauzich, Book of Thoth? 617-618. Richard Jasnow and Karl-
Theodor Zauzich, Ancient Egyptian Book of Thoth: A Demotic Discourse on Knowledge and
Pendant to the Classical Hermatica, Vol. 1 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), 65.
309
Jasnow and Zauzich, Ancient Egyptian Book of Thoth, 55-56.

310
Fowden, 99. Jasnow and Zauzich, Ancient Egyptian Book of Thoth, 56-57, 61-63.

311
Asclepius to King Ammon 1 (ed. A. D. Nock, Corpus Hermeticum. Vol. 2. [Paris:
Socit dEdition, 1960], 231-232). Fowden (p. 37) translates this passage, Hermes often
used to say to me that those who read my books will think that they are very simply and
clearly written, when in fact, quite on the contrary, they are unclear and hide the meaning of
the words, and will become completely obscure when later on the Greeks will want to
translate our language into their own, which will bring about a complete distortion and
obfuscation of the text.

93

In time Hermopolitan theology would re-synchronize with Middle Platonism. The
resultant philosophical writings, dating from the second century BC to the third century AD,
would become known as the Hermetica.
312
Many of these writings will be influenced by
later Gnostic thought, but the earliest of the Hermetic writings, the Kor Kosmou, is of
special interest to us since it contains the features of Gnostic thought while having no trace of
Christian influence. The Kor Kosmou contains references to souls being imprisoned into the
bodies of men, gods forming the world for them, and the body representing corruption.
There is also mention of the Aeon as principle kind of deity and the reward of Horus is the
final dissolution of the body is a return to the happiness of their first state.
313
The exact
point of this transition in the demotic corpus between the Book of the Dead, Book of Thoth,
and the Hermetica will require more space than can be afforded by the length of this thesis;
however, the surface similarities are strong enough to warrant further research.
314

Hermopolitan theology is a form of early universal religion. While there are cult
centers for this theology, it is ubiquitous in scope and appeal, covering the entire range of
Egyptian history from the pre-dynastic until the rule of Islam. The trajectory and
development of Hermopolitan theology can be mapped from its inception as the avenging
moon-god through its syncretism of the Middle and New Kingdoms and even its syncretism

312
Grese, 35.
313
Brian Brown, Wisdom of the Egyptians (New York: Brentanos Inc., 1923), 184-
187.

314
Jasnow and Zauzich, Ancient Egyptian Book of Thoth, 65-71.

94

with philosophy of Amun-Re and wisdom literature that eventually became manifest as
Gnosticism.

The Alexandrian Synthesis
Unlike the Greeks the Egyptians did not secularize their philosophy. The task of
transmitting philosophy settled into the hands of Egypts native institutions, the religious
temples. We see philosophical thought being preserved and passed on through the royal
nursery and scribal schools via demotic writings such as the Book of Thoth. The content of
these writings will eventually get reformulated into the Greek as Hermetism. And it is
against this literary context that Alexandria provides a melting pot for many diverse cultural,
philosophic, and religious elements.
With the establishment of a Greek ruling dynasty in Egypt, Hellenistic and Egyptian
cultures become polarized with Jewish culture becoming incorporated into Hellenism.
Drawing a line of demarcation between Jewish and Pagan cultures, Joseph Modrzejewski
states categorically, Whatever the degree of the Jews acculturation, there were never any
signs of Judeo-pagan syncretism. The proof of this assertion can be found in what has come
down to us of Jewish synagogue practice in Egypt.
315
Of course, what Modrzejewski has
done is define a lack of syncretism by Jewish orthopraxis. Runia maintains that the line
between participation and assimilation appears to have been preserved; recorded cases of

315
Modrzejewski, 87-88.

95

actual apostasy are rare.
316
Some have asserted that if Judaism syncretized then it would
cease to be Judaism and become something else.
317
Thus, by this reasoning there cannot be
anything such as an apostate Jewish sect because its essential character as Judaic would have
changed. This, of course, raises the question of what is Judaism. The issue then becomes a
problem of nomenclature. Obviously to label gnosis of the first century BC as Christian
Gnosticism would be anachronistic, yet to declare there was no apostasy at all in the face of
the counterfactuals previously cited defies reason. Ayad takes an opposing view to
Modrzejewski stating that when the Jewish people immigrated to Egypt, the Jews began to
follow other gods and as a result pagan cults became proliferate.
318

Yet, syncretism can infiltrate through vectors other than liturgical practice. Even
Modrzejewski notes that in the daily lives of Jewish settlers in Egypt, Egyptian pagan
practice became incorporated into the daily Jewish living. For example a letter written by
Shawa son of Zekhariah (399BC) wished his friend well by the power of all the gods.
319

In Elephantine, there was a Jew who swore an oath by the Egyptian goddess Sati and another
who sent blessings in the name of Ptah.
320
Further evidence is presented in the form of a

316
Runia, 34.
317
Gilles Quispel, Gnostic Studies, Vol 1. (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het
Nabije Oosten, 1974), 221.
318
Boulos Ayad Ayad, Jewish-Aramaean Communities in Ancient Egypt (Cairo:
Institute of Coptic Studies, 1975), 67.
319
Modrzejewski, 43.
320
Ayad, 138-139.

96

demotic papyrus that takes Psalm 20 in the Aramaic and alters it for use as a hymn to
Horus.
321

The blending of Judaism with Hellenism began early in the second century BC with
Demetrios, who attempted to make historiographies of the Greeks and the ancientness of the
Jewish histories consistent with each other.
322
However, this blending will become
syncretism as other writers adopted the native hermeneutical practices. This means that the
syncretism of the Ptolemaic period was fundamentally different from the Persian period in
that we start seeing a blend of Egyptian mythological constructs and secularized
philosophies.
Artapanus was an early Alexandrian Jewish writer who was perhaps the first to
implement this kind of Jewish/native synthesis. Little is known about the life of Artapanus
except that he predates Alexander Polyhistor (ca. 50BC).
323
Artapanus held that the Pagan
religions that surrounded the Jews in Egypt were no threat to their religious tradition. He
goes so far as to state, incorrectly, that the religious traditions of the Egyptians derive their
origins from Moses:

321
Charles F. Nims and Richard C. Steiner, Paganized Version of Psalm 20:2-6 from
the Aramaic Text, Journal of the American Oriental Society 103 (1983): 261-262. Hershel
Shanks, Bibles Psalm 20 Adapted for Pagan Use, Biblical Archaeology Review 11 (1985):
20-23.
322
Modrzejewski, 66.
323
Carl R. Holladay, Fragments from Hellenistic Jewish Authors, Vol. 1 (Chico, CA:
Scholars Press, 1983), 189.

97

This Moses became the teacher of Orpheus. When he reached manhood, he bestowed
on humanity many useful contributions, for he invented ships, machines for lifting
stones, Egyptian weapons, devices for drawing water and fighting, and philosophy.
He also divided the state into thirty-six nomes, and to each he assigned the god to be
worshipped; in addition, he assigned the sacred writings to the priests. The gods he
assigned were cats, dogs, and ibises.
324

Artapanus even suggests that Moses founded the city of Hermes, i.e., Hermopolis Magna,
where the Ibis is venerated.
325

The syncretism of the second century BC led to the adoption of the allegorical
method of exegesis by Jewish writers. And even though there are implicit glimmers of
allegorical exegesis in Hellenistic thought, it is in Alexandrian teaching that it is found
explicitly. By allegorical teaching we mean the interpretation or composition of works that
refer to something other than what is being explicitly said.
326
Heraclitus, a first century BC
stoic not be confused with the pre-Socratic philosopher of the same name, allegorized the
writings of Homer. Yet, his method of exegesis was not arbitrary. In the Homeric
Allegories, Heraclitus lets his readers know that the purpose of allegorical interpretation is to
make unclear texts clear.
327
He insisted that allegorical interpretation should only be applied

324
Artapanus, Fragment of Concerning the Jews; quoted in Eusebius, Praeparatio
Evangelica 9.27.3-9.27.4 (Holladay, Fragments from Hellenistic Jewish Authors, 210-211).
325
Artapanus, Fragment of Concerning the Jews (Holladay, 213).
326
Dawson, 3.
327
Heraclitus Homeric Allegories 41.12.

98

to poetic devices yet interprets non-poetic devices literally, which was far more conservative
than what would be done by later allegorists.
328

While the allegorical method of Heraclitus was repudiated in cities such as Rome
where writers such as Cicero and Seneca criticized it,
329
it became fashionable in Alexandria.
The introduction of Heraclitus to Alexandria does, however, seem less like a new concept to
the Alexandrians and more like an affirmation of what already existed in the cultural milieu.
The allegorical method appears to have been well established in Egyptian culture by the third
century BC; a temple to Homer has a relief with Arsinoe pictured as the world and Ptolemy
as chronos.
330
And while the deification of concepts is well-extant since the earliest
dynasties both as abstraction and symbolism,
331
it is significant to observe that Hellenistic
writers such as Plutarch notes the use of Egyptian allegory as allegory in the portrayals of Isis
with the Earth and Osiris with the Nile.
332
Hence, we see that the Egyptians were well aware
that they made their interpretations through the use of allegory.

328
Dawson, 40-41.
329
Circero De Natura Deorum 1:39-63. Seneca De Beneficiis 1:3-4.
330
Taylor, 128.
331
David P. Silverman, The Gods, Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and
Personal Practice (ed. Bryon E. Schafer, London: Cornell University Press, 1991), 33.
Leonard H. Lesko, Cosmogonies, Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal
Practice, 112.

332
Plutarch Isis and Osiris 363d-e. Baines, 26-31.

99

Nevertheless, by the first century BC, allegory had taken on a mystique where no
interpretation was considered complete unless it was also interpreted allegorically.
Chaeremon, who was an Egyptian Stoic priest and a maintainer of the pagan literature
collection at the Library of Alexandria, claimed that Egyptian priests used allegory as a
means to teach complex ideas to the religiously uninitiated, kata |sv ,a actnttknv
autcvc|tav kat astav. nv atcu tcu At,uattcu cnotv c Xatn|v taat
0scvta t an,ctv kat |u0v ta ast tv |s,av kat unv tct
atssotsct taokstv.
333
He maintained that both the allegorical method and the ascetic
in philosophy derived their origins from the Egyptian priesthood.
334
And despite being more
similar than different in their methodological concerns, Chaeremon and Philo (20 BC AD
50) would come to intellectual blows over the superiority of Egyptian religious practice
versus the practices of Judaism as tensions rose between Hellenistic and Jewish populations
in Alexandria.
335

333
Tzetes Exegesis of the Illiad 1.193 (Van der Horst, Chaeremon, 7). For
according to poetic license and freedom, which Chaeramon says the Egyptians were the first
to teachsince they wanted to teach the great and lofty things to the uninitiated by means of
allegory and myths.
334
Taylor, 115.

335
Van der Horst, xi. Chaeremon was in all likelihood a member of the anti-semitic
delegation that had been sent to Rome. Letter of the emperor Claudius to the Alexandrians
14-21 (Van der Horst, Chaeremon, 3) states Tiberius Claudius Barbillus, Apolloni(u)s son
of Artemidorus, Chaeremon son of Leonidas your ambassadors, presented me with the
decree and spoke at length about the city.

100

As opposed to his contemporaries, Philo of Alexandria was the premier allegorist of
his age. Philo left us a large corpus of writing that implemented a fully fleshed allegorical
method. And because Philo left us so much writing and his predecessors have left little more
than fragments, it can be tempting to ascribe the invention of the allegorical method to Philo;
however, David Winston observes that Philo alone could not have been responsible for such
a complex system:

Philo could hardly have been single-handedly responsible for the exuberantly rich
exegesis exhibited in his scriptural commentaries. The enormous variety, the great
subtlety, and the sheer quantity of his exegesis, in addition to his own many
attestations of his predecessors, make it virtually certain that much of his commentary
derived from a rich body of scholastic tradition.
336

Yet in some ways Philo also acted as a restraining force to the use of allegory. The use of
allegorical interpretation does appear to be normative within Philos intellectual context, but
at the same time he also railed against the antinomian ethics that arose from contemporary
Jewish sects whom he contrasted against the Therapeutea, which were allegorist but not
antinomian.
337
These Jewish sects would adopt the same methods of interpretation as Philo
advocated but also drove those methods to their logical conclusions in the form of
antinomianism, while Philo polemicized for strict adherence to the Mosaic Law as a
deontological ethical standard.

336
David Winston, Philo and the Contemplative Life, Jewish Spirituality from the
Bible through the Middle Ages (ed. Arthur Green, New York: Crossroad, 1986), 200.
337
Philo De Vita Contemplativa 1-3, 11-13. Pearson, Friedlnder Revisited, 24.

101

Concerning this discussion of the allegorical method and Jewish Gnostic sects, Philo
for the most part post-dates what had already happened Alexandrian intellectual culture. As
such, he is not so much forming the allegorical method (or its accompanying ethic), as he is
trying to refine it into something better than his predecessors. Nonetheless, by the time Philo
arrives on the scene there will be a number of Jewish Gnostic groups already in operation.
And while the derivation of Christian Gnosticism from Jewish Gnosticism is the most
plausible theory concerning its genesis, we must pay special attention to the fact that
Gnosticism requires the abandonment of the most fundamental tenet of Judaism, which is
monotheism itself.
338
If anything, this exposes the degree of syncretism that had taken place
within the Alexandrian Jewish community, as Gnosticism demands both a good god of light
and an evil creator god.
Probably the oldest of the Jewish Gnostic groups in Egypt is the Ophites. John
Turner dates this Gnostic system to well before AD100 with the earliest recensions of the
Apocryphon of John.
339
Those who hold to the post-Christian hypothesis regarding the
development of Gnosticism will try to demonstrate a patristic consensus with Simon Magus
being the father of Gnosticism;
340
however, Hegesippus (quoted by Eusebius) states that

338
Carl B. Smith, 43.
339
John D. Turner, Sethian Gnosticism: A Literary History, Nag Hammadi,
Gnosticism, and Early Christianity: Fourteen Leading Scholars Discuss the Current Issues in
Gnostic Studies. (eds. Charles W. Hedrick and Robert Hodgson, Jr., Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson Publishers, 1986), 60. In all likelihood, this sect probably existed as early as
the mid-second century BC.
340

102

false gnosis was around even in the time of the apostles and Philo was clearly aware of
sects of Gnostics.
341
Philos description of gnosis in De Gigantibus is particularly vivid and
alludes to familiarity with these groups:

Some souls, therefore, have descended into bodies, and others have not
thought worthy to approach any one of the portions of the earth; and these, when
hallowed and surrounded by the ministrations of the father, the Creator has been
accustomed to employ, as hand-maidens and servants in the administration of mortal
affairs. And they having descended into the body as into a river, at one time are
carried away and swallowed up by the voracity of a most violent whirlpool; and, at
another time, striving with all their power to resist its impetuosity, they at first swim
on the top of it, and afterwards fly back to the place from which they started.
These, then, are the souls of those who have been taught some kind of sublime
philosophy, meditating, from beginning to end, on dying as to the life of the body, in
order to obtain an inheritance of the incorporeal and imperishable life, which is to be
enjoyed in the presence of the uncreate and everlasting God. But those, which are
swallowed up in the whirlpool, are the souls of those other men who have disregarded
wisdom, giving themselves up to the pursuit of unstable things regulated by fortune
alone, not one of which is referred to the most excellent portion of us, the soul or the
mind; but all rather to the dead corpse connected with us, that is to the body, or to
things which are even more lifeless than that, such as, glory, and money, and offices,
and honours, and other things which, by those who do not keep their eyes fixed on
what is really beautiful, are fashioned and endowed with apparent vitality by the
deceit of vain opinion.
342

The above quote shows that during the life of Philo, gnosis already had soul entrapment,
Aeons, and salvation through knowledge. While the exact date of the division of the first

341
Eusebuis, Church History 3.32.8 (NPNF
2
1:164). Eusebuis, Church History
4.22.7-8 (NPNF
2
1:200). Philo On the Migration of Abraham 86-93. Pearson, Friedlnder
Revisited, 25. Irenaeus was also aware of the Cainite sect, Against Heresies 1.31.1-2 (ANF
1:358).

342
Philo De Gigantibus 12-15 (C. D. Yonge, Works of Philo: Complete and
Unabridged, 152-153).

103

Gnostic sects cannot be exactly determined, it is probable that the Ophites predated the
Sethites based upon the following textual evidence:

While exact dates of the Ophites remain uncertain, they seem to predate the
Sethites as there is a (1) lack of Christianized Gnosticism being spawned from their
ranks as can be found with other Gnostic groups and (2) the Sethites appear to borrow
from the literary sources of the Ophites in writings such as Eugnostos.
343

The Ophites are primarily interested in the snake speculations and Genesis 3, while the
Sethites temper these speculations to make them compatible with Seth, the Biblical son of
Adam, as a salvific figure. According to Theodoret, the Ophites were antinomian in ethic
and venerated the serpent as the revealer of salvific knowledge (,vot).
344
Additionally,
the Ophites reaction to Christ appears to be nothing less than utter repudiation; Origen in
Contra Celsum remarks that the Ophites disdain Christ in the same way that Celsus did.
345

The Ophites also appear to have abandoned monotheism very early, believing that there were
multiple gods (or archons) that were responsible for creation.
346
This idea that there were
lesser beings responsible for creating evil things is repeated by Philo, Therefore God
deemed it necessary to assign the creation of evil things to other makers, reserving that of

343
Tuomas Rasimus, Ophite Gnosticism, Sethianism and the Nag Hammadi
Library, Vigiliae Christianae 59 (2005): 236.
344
Theodoret, Haereticarum Fabularum Compendium 1.14. Pearson, Gnosticism,
Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity, 13.
345
Origen, Contra Celsum 3.13 (ANF 4:469-470). Birger A. Pearson, Did the
Gnostics Curse Jesus? Journal of Biblical Literature 86 (1967): 302.
346
Quispel, 42.

104

good things to Himself alone.
347
The Ophite role of the prophets is that each prophet acts as
a spokesperson for a particular god; evil gods of the lower cosmos speaking to men.
348
In
contrast to the later Sethites who will hold Seth as their central figure, the Ophites will raise
up the serpent as the symbolic redeeming principle that is passed down to the children of
Adam. The Ophites felt they owed a debt of gratitude to the serpent because for them it is
knowledge that saves, and it was the serpent that taught man to eat from the tree of
knowledge coming into conflict with the evil Demiurge.
349
Moreover, the Ophites borrowed
heavily from Judaic lore incorporating Ialdabaoth (the Jewish Demiurge), Leviathan, and
Behemoth into their own mythology.
350
Welburn concludes, From this, as well as from the
parallels in the Apocalypse [of Adam], we may deduce that Ophite Gnosticism arose in an
environment permeated by esoteric Jewish teaching, which it took over and adapted to the
framework of dualistic gnosis.
351

347
Philo De fuge et inventione 70 (Warmington, LCL).
348
Francis T. Fallon, Prophets of the OT and the Gnostics: A Note on Irenaeus,
Adversus Haereses, 1.30.10-11, Vigiliae Christianae 32 (1978): 191.
349
Rosalie Gershenzon and Elieser Slomovic, Second Century Jewish-Gnostic
Debate; Rabbi Jose Ben Halafta and the Matrona, Journal for the Study of Judaism in the
Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period 16 (June 1985): 12-13.
350
Andrew J. Welburn, Reconstructing the Ophite Diagram, Novum Testamentum
23 (1981): 277.
351
Welburn, 278.

105

Another important Jewish Gnostic sect that arose in Egypt is the Sethites, which
appear to be a splinter group from the Ophites. Rasimus contends that the Sethites drew
upon Ophite mythology when they composed some of their key literature.
352
The Sethites
venerate Seth (son of Adam and Eve, not the Egyptian god of evil) as a kind of messianic
figure who held the secret knowledge that he received from Adam to save mankind.
353

Unlike the Ophites, the Sethites reviled the Serpent and instead venerated Seth as the seed of
the woman. They are mentioned by several Church Fathers including Irenaeus by description
and explicitly by Hippolytus and Epiphanus.
354

The textual evidence from the Apocalypse of Adam as found in the Nag Hammadi
Library reveals that the Sethites actually predate the introduction of Christianity into
Egypt.
355
The practice of secondarily Christianizing already existing texts appears to have
been a common practice among Gnostic sects.
356
When they are eventually introduced to
Christianity in the early second century, they will subordinate Jesus as a lesser figure to that

352
Rasimus, 235.
353
Birger A. Pearson, Egyptian Seth and Gnostic Seth, Society of Biblical
Literature Seminar Papers 11 (1977): 30.

354
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.30.1-9 (ANF 1:354-356). Hippolytus, Refutation of
All Heresies 5.14-15, 10.7 (ANF 5:64-67, 142-143). Epiphanus, Panarion 38.
355
Charles W. Hedrick, Apocalypse of Adam: A Literary and Source Analysis (Chico,
CA: Scholars Press, 1980), 214.
356
Daniel Rathnakara Sadananda, Johannine Exegesis of God: An Exploration into
the Johannine Understanding of God (New York: Walter de Gruyter, Inc., 2004), 169.

106

of Seth. Yet, it is also clear that the Sethite hermeneutic interprets the seed of the woman
in Genesis 3:15 as the literal seed of the woman Eve instead of the Christian view that
ascribes Jesus as the seed. Sethite religion despite its early origins is fully Gnostic in
character: These are the revelations which Adam made known to Seth his son. And his son
taught his seed about them. This is the hidden knowledge of Adam which he gave to
Seth.
357

After the introduction of Christianity into Egypt, the Sethite sect adopts the trappings
of Christianity while retaining their peculiar theology. Yet, the adoption of secondary
Christianity by the Sethites also led to the spinning off of splinter groups; for example, the
Archontics will reject the Christian trappings that the Sethites adopted forming their own
group.
358
The Sethites eventually fragmented into a multitude of smaller groups including
the Audians, Borborites, Phibionites, Stratiotici, and Secundians; some of these groups will
survive into the medieval period.
359

Alexandria provided a pluralistic culture where first century BC Judaism syncretized
into the Egyptian pagan background. This syncretism adopted the forms of the allegorical
hermeneutic, which the Jewish colonies in Egypt integrated as their own. Compared to the

357
Apocalypse of Adam, 5.85.19-24; quoted in George W. MacRae, Seth in Gnostic
Texts and Traditions, Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers 11 (1977): 18.
358
Rasimus, 235.
359
Turner, Sethian Gnosticism: A Literary History, Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and
Early Christianity: Fourteen Leading Scholars Discuss the Current Issues in Gnostic Studies,
86.

107

relative theological homogeneity of Jerusalem, Alexandria exemplified religious diversity
that fostered pluralism and novel theologies.
360
The emergence of the allegorical
hermeneutic from the fragmentary evidence beginning in the third century BC until Philo
shows the penchant of that hermeneutic to drift towards antinomianism.

Conclusions
This thesis has sought to examine native Egyptian textual sources, e.g., the Leiden
Hymns and the Book of Thoth, which might have contributed to the philosophical tradition
leading to the development of Gnosticism in the Ancient Near East. The thesis explored
literature from the Egyptian pre-Socratics that could have contributed to the development of
Gnosticism and in doing so develop a data set that will inductively provide a more plausible
explanation for the data.
Practically, every theological distinctive that is considered to be Gnostic owes a debt
to Egyptian philosophy for its foundations. Yet, caution needs to be applied in respect to
suggesting direct borrowing. Research recently done by Christopher Partridge suggests that
religious movements develop not so much from explicit borrowing but indirectly through
enculturation. Partridge discovered that both religious and cultural ideas become thrown into
a pool of ideas which he calls occulture and that new religious movements are more apt to

360
King, 164-165.

108

form in a process of idea exchange drawn from this reservoir of ideas.
361
His research has
shown that the sharing of ideas in the formation of religions can be attributed to what is in the
background culture as much as it can be through direct borrowing.
362

In order to provide competitive plausibility to the notion of Gnostic genesis, one
needs to be able to show that the necessary ideas are in the pool of occulture. The writings of
Philo and Hegesippus have demonstrated that gnosis was around at the time of the Apostles
and thus must have emerged from a pool of ideas that contains elements that could be used to
construct Gnostic doctrine.
Thus, let us sum up the evidence in the previous two chapters in light of the Gnostic
doctrines presented in chapter one. The idea of hierarchical henotheism, i.e., the second
degree separation between a god and the creation, is found in the Hermopolitan Ogdoad
where a greater god (Thoth) created lower gods that in turn created the world from the
waters. This is clearly an Egyptian concept not found in Greek philosophies. The idea that
the physical world and body are corrupt is found through orphic ideas that have their origins
in Egyptian sun worship. The aspects of Gnosticism that appear to be Neoplatonic could be
attributed to the hypostatic forms found in the Leiden Hymns. The Book of Thoth and

361
Christopher Partridge, Disenchantment and Re-enchantment of the West: The
Religio-Cultural Context of Contemporary Western Christianity, Evangelical Quarterly, 74
(2002): 244. Christopher Partridge, Alternative Spiritualities, Occulture and the Re-
enchantment of the West, Bible in TransMission, (Summer 2005): 1-2.

362
Christopher Partridge, Re-Enchantment of the West: Alternative Spiritualities,
Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture. Vol. 1. (London: T&T Clark International,
2005), 84-85.

109

Hermetica demonstrate the notions of salvation by knowledge and a direct literary tradition
that led to the development of Gnosticism as evidenced by the discovery of Hermetic works
found at Nag Hammadi. The allegorical method of teaching and interpretation was well
established in the Egyptian cultural milieu by the third century BC. Added to all this we find
the practices of magic and religious syncretism that was part of the Thoth cult and
Alexandrian pluralism.
In conclusion, Hellenistic philosophy alone lacks the ideas needed to spawn a gnosis.
The birthplace of Gnosticism was not Greece or Rome, places where Platonism and Greek
philosophies were accepted with gusto. We also do not find the philosophical ideas
necessary to derive gnosis from Mesopotamia. Egypt proves to be the most likely
geographic and cultural source for Gnostic genesis, and native Egyptian philosophy has all
the ideas needed to create the reservoir of ideas necessary for the development of
Gnosticism.

110

ANALYSIS

The origins of Gnosticism most likely resulted from what it borrowed from the
religious and philosophical thought of its cultural context. The Thoth cult was strategically
distributed across Egypt. Much of the success of the religious system is based upon its
ability to rise above its simplistic polytheism into a fully fleshed philosophical system. It is a
system that becomes the ancestor of first Jewish Gnositic sects such as the Cainites and the
Ophites (1
st
century BC) then to Christian Gnostic sects such as the Valentinians (2
nd
century
AD). These sects were founded in Alexandria, and its close neighbor, Hermopolis Parva (I)
asserted its own brand of culture upon Alexandria. Unlike other Egyptian cults and cities
that tried to retain strict separation between Egyptian and Greek cultures, cities controlled by
the Thoth cult opened themselves to both Greek and Egyptian alike; for example, Thoth
temple cult hymns were found in both Greek and Egyptian at Hermopolis Magna.
363

The Hermopolitan theology and the cult of Hermes-Trismegistus would persist well
into the Christian period extending beyond the fourth century A.D.
364
The Gnostics will take
the salient features of Hermetic/Hermopolitan theology and cover them with the trappings of

363
Georges Mautis, Hermoupolis-la-Grande (Lausanne: Imprimerie La Concorde,
1918), 56.
364
B. B. Rees, Papyri from Hermopolis: And Other Documents of the Byzantine
Period, (London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1964), 2.

111

Christianity. When Christians and Gnostics begin to clash, it will be over the issue of the
interpretive model for the Old Testament. The Christians will employ an objective Messianic
interpretation to verses such as Gen 3:15, whereas the Gnostics will employ a subjective
allegorical methodology. Ultimately, movements seen as heretical could be shown to employ
a different hermeneutic from a different religious tradition.
Irenaeus primarily charges the Gnostics with abandoning the truth of the Old
Testament and resorting to myths and fabrications as an interpretative framework.
365
Jonas
concurs with the assessment that Gnosticism is based largely upon mythic non-philosophical
thought made up from borrowed elements.
366
In the syncretizing climate of Alexandria and
in addition to the trappings of Christianity, Gnosticism contains elements of Judaism, Middle
Platonism, and Hermetism.
367
Pearson summarizes the implications of this aberrant
hermeneutic as follows:

But the main tendency in Gnositicism is to subject texts of the Hebrew Bible to
critical scrutiny and offer interpretations that run counter to the traditional ones. So
the author of Ap. John can base an elaborate mythology on the opening passages of
Genesis and other biblical texts while at the same time suggesting that Moses got it
wrong, or didnt understand what he was writing.
368

365
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.8.1 (ANF 1:326). Behr, 32.
366
Jonas, 36-37. Antti Marjanen, What is Gnosticism? From Pastorals to Rudolph,
Was There a Gnostic Religion, 42-43.
367
Pheme Perkins, Gnostic Dialogue: The Early Church and the Crisis of Gnosticism
(New York: Paulist Press, 1980), 15.
368
Birger A. Pearson, Ancient Gnosticism, 101-102.

112

Hence, when talking about the Gnostic sects, we are not talking about equally valid
Christianities where the orthodox faith is really just a winner that re-wrote history, which is
postulated by scholars like Ehrman.
369
Instead, these are two totally distinct religions where
the fundamental difference is in the interpretation of the Old Testament. Gnosis reluctantly
reveals its distinctiveness through its corpulent interpretive baggage. Gnosticism in the
strictest sense attempted to buy into the trappings of its more successful rival. It is in this
intended respect that the Church Fathers are correct in saying that Simon Magus is the father
of the Gnostics. The Gnostics tried to purchase the power of the followers of Christ by re-
mythologizing the Christian faith.
We should then surmise two outcomes from this conclusion. The first is that the
writings of the Church Fathers need to be read in light of hermeneutical imperatives. The
Church Fathers given their propinquity to the Apostles exercised much of the same deft and
interpretive subtlety that we find in the Biblical writers. A simplistic reading of the Church
Fathers is susceptible to same sort of false conclusions that a simplistic reading of the Bible
would also engender. The Fathers were highly literate men, many of whom were part of the
ancient near eastern context that is shared with the Apostles. It should behoove us to give
these writings only a casual surface reading when the context from which they wrote
demanded wrestling with a text. Our modern textual style demands that our writing be
presented from the vantage of simplicity and clarity to facilitate skimming, while the textual

369
Ehrman, 4.

113

style of the ancients was one of complexity and subtly to facilitate depth. As we read the
Church Fathers in the context of gnosis, we need to ask how then to interpret statements that
ascribe both an ancient legacy to gnosis and an inference to it as a new invention.
The second outcome that can be surmised from this research is that what makes
Christianity distinct is its distinctiveness from the culture. Gnosticism became a chameleon
to whatever culture in which it found itself. In Hellenistic Egypt, gnosis became as the
Egyptians. Among the Jews, it became as the Jews. Among the Persians, it became as the
Persians. Christianity stood apart appealing through the expressions of the culture but never
compromising its core message.
In our postmodern relativist culture, we find the Christian church changing its core
message to appeal to the broader culture. The core message is impoverished then given a
back seat to cultural affectation in a marketing effort more akin to advertising executives than
to messengers of the gospel. If the power of the gospel becomes impotent to answer the
questions of the human heart because of the compromise of its messengers, then the Church
will also share in the fate of those who in the past also capitulated to the culture. The
Christian church cannot compete with the marketing hype of Pepsi-Co, because the gospel is
not a product and does not supply the instant gratification of a saccharine bubbly drink. The
greatest struggle that church has today is not against a postmodernity that few beyond the
rarified air of academia are even cognizant, but it is against heathenism caused by media-
driven popular occulture that is constantly driving all things sacred to banal mediocrity.

114

Gnosticism leverages off of the trappings of its culture in a pluralistic setting. At its
most basic level, gnosis offers salvation by knowing the right facts or rituals. I attended a
conference at a Christian academic institution listening to a rebuttal when the speaker, a
professor at that institution, said, you must know these four things to be saved. While this
professor is not a Gnostic, Gnostic thought entered into her argumentation. In the late
1990s, equidistance letter sequencing (abbr: ELS), also known as the Bible codes, became
a popular practice in the church. Even though ELS is a kind of divination for special
knowledge using the Bible and even though it has no predictive power, the practice became a
mainstay of church bookstores. Yet, Irenaeus shows that ELS is a practice of gnosis and
something that is antithetical to the Christian life.
370

As the Christian church has become secularized and spiritual things are extricated
from religious life in favor of fads, gnosis will invariably creep in to fill the void left by ritual
excised of its sacred significance. New religious movements not so much born from a
theological imperative as much as it is imported from a specific set of religious concepts that
have become part of the exchange of pagan cultural ideas.
371
A church consumed with
doling out practical advice and platitudes to the exclusion of spiritual things will create a
vacuum that will pull aspects of occulture into the Church, Gnosticism notwithstanding.

370
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.14-15 (ANF 1:336-341).

371
Christopher Partridge, Re-Enchantment of the West: Alternative Spiritualities,
Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture. Vol. 1 (London: T&T Clark International,
2005), 84-85.

115

The Church Fathers were not struggling to assert their supremacy over the Gnostics in
a religious power struggle where might makes rightthe Gnostics had their elite group of
followers and the Church had their own. By definition gnosis was an elite following with
few actual adherents. However, their influence was put into play through the appeal that
their writings had upon the literate cultural elite. Irenaeus was less concerned that gnosis was
stealing sheep from the flock than he was that the message of gnosis was spilling over into
the culture at large diluting the Christian message. Their struggle was to declare that the
gospel is special, unique, and without equal.

116
APPENDIX
LEIDEN HYMN CC
1. hwt mht 200

2. staw hprw thnt irw
3. ntr biyty s hprw
4. ntr nb bsn imf
5. r sysn m nfrwf mi ntryf

6. R dsf smw m dtf
7. ntf p wr imy Iwnw
8. iw ddytw ttwnn irf
9. Imn priw m Nnw ssmwf hrw

10. ky hprwf m hmnwy
11. pwti pwtiw smsy R
12. tmf sw m Itmw hw w hnf
13. ntf Nb-r-dr s wnnt

14. bf pw hrtw p nty m hrt
15. ntf p nty m dwt, hnty ibtt
16. bf m pt dtf m imntt
17. hntyf m Iwnw smw hr wts hwf

18. w Imn imnw-sw rrsn
19. shpw-sw r ntrw bw rhtw inwf
20. wiw-sw r hrt mdw-sw r dt

21. bw rh ntrw nbw qif m
22. nn ssmwf prhw hr ssw
23. nn mtrtw irf
24. sw stw r kfw sfytf

25. sw y r ndndf, wsr r rhf
26. hrw hr- m mwt n hr-n-hr
27. n wd rnf stw hmw nn rhw

28. nn ntr rh nis sw imf
29. by ntr imn rnf mi stwf

117

118

119

GLOSSARY

AEONS: A Gnostic lesser god. An aeon is within a hierarchy of gods ranging in content of
light and dark from the supreme god being all light to the Demiurge being almost
complete darkness.

AMUN: An Egyptian creator god; a humanoid god known for being hidden.

CAINITE: A first century BC Jewish Gnostic sect.

DEMIURGE: The creator god of Platonic philosophy. Within Gnostic mythology, the
demiurge is almost complete darkness and evil.

GNOSTICISM: A religious and philosophical religion broadly defined by salvation by
knowledge and a view that material universe is evil.

HELIOPOLITAN THEOLOGY: The theology originating from Heliopolis, characterized by the
worship of the sun god Re. This religion focuses on the cult of the dead.

HERMETISM: A parallel religious and philosophical system similar to Gnosticism in most
respects. The major difference between Hermetism and Gnosticism rests primarily in
soteriology and ethics.

HERMOPOLITAN THEOLOGY: The theology originating from Hermopolis Magna. A highly
syncretizing religion characterized by the worship of the god of knowledge and magic
Thoth. It postulates that the primordial element is infinite in capacity and completely
hidden.

HORUS: The Egyptian god representing the king; pictured as a falcon.

HYPOSTASIS: The Platonic concept of the real essence or highest principle of reality resulting
from an issuance from a primary divine source Idea.

IDEA: The Platonic concept of the complete and unchanging substance and structure of thing,
seen and unseen, but is not necessarily its appearance

MEMPHITE THEOLOGY: The theology originating from Memphis. A religious system
characterized by the worship of a creation god Ptah who creates through the power of
his will. Existence is predicated upon the mind.

120

MIDDLE PLATONISM: The philosophy of Plato that carried on after the death of Plato. The
philosophy attributes the source of the physical to a single source in a spiritual world
of forms.

OGDOAD: A group of eight gods representing the primal forces of nature.

OPHITE: A first century BC Jewish Gnostic sect.

NEOPLATONISM: The succeeding philosophy to Middle Platonism. The philosophy ascribes
the source of physical things not to a single source of forms but to multiple sources.

PYTHAGOREANISM: The Greek philosophy that strives to establish the underlying reality of
the universe using first principles and mathematics.

RE: The Egyptian sun god; pictured as a falcon.

STOICISM: The Greek philosophy concerning the denial of suffering.

THOTH: The Egyptian god of magic and knowledge; pictured as a baboon or ibis.

VALENTINIANISM: A Gnostic sect religious of the second century AD characterized by the
integration of the New Testament and the allegorical method.

121
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Egyptian Roots of Early Christian Gnosticism

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EGYPTIAN PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY AS A SYNCRETISTIC THREAD IN

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY CHRISTIAN GNOSTICISM

utria, Shitil (Seth). When his father Adam was a

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