What is gnostic? And what are the Gnostic gospels?

Answer 1

The information you seek may be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnostic_gospels

Answer 2

Dear Sugarbeet: I did read the Gnostics - long ago. I will try to give to you what I remember about them:

1. Gnostic means Knowledge and knowledge of spiritual truths

2. They are a collection of gospel-type writings written from around 150 AD up until around 300 AD (as I recall it).

3. They are written in the style of their times - meaning: people wrote anonymously, but used a chosen well-known name to the people of their era, as their OWN name - signing that to the message they offered. Scholars back this up.

4. It is a large work that offers many interesting insights with some excellent spiritual understanding.

5. Since they were not written by people who lived around the time of Jesus and do not always follow what the Synoptic Gospels said, people take it lightly. I found it interesting reading.

6. The strength of the Synoptic Gospels versus the Gnostic writings is that the Synoptics have a certain level of agreement, between them, as to what was said and what occurred. They are strengthened by this agreement. Also, they were written by people who lived during the time of Christ, although scholars say they were written at least 30 years after His death on up to around 80 years after His death. (This too, is approximate.)

I offered this in the hopes it would make it more clear for you.

Answer 3

Gnostic means simply to know. The Gnostic gospels were gospels that were esentially edited out of the bible.

Answer 4

Gnostic comes from the Greek word Gnossis, meaning knowledge. A gnostic is one who wants the actual experience of God, not through a minister or priest telling him about it. In other words, a gnostic wants to pray directly to God, and not go through a confessional, or a minister or priest. The early Roman Catholic church hated the gnostics because they wanted to be certain that an individual had to go through the military chain of command, individual to priest to saint to Virgin Mary to Jesus to God, and then the answer had to come back down the chain of command too. This way, the priests because powerful because they convinced the people that they could not go to God directly. Gnostic gospels are books and works written by people who taught that God heard you even if you were not a minister or priest. That anyone who believed in God and loved God could pray directly to God without having to go through a priest

Answer 5

one-sentence description of Gnosticism: a religion that differentiates the evil god of this world (who is identified with the god of the Old Testament) from a higher more abstract God revealed by Jesus Christ, a religion that regards this world as the creation of a series of evil archons/powers who wish to keep the human soul trapped in an evil physical body, a religion that preaches a hidden wisdom or knowledge only to a select group as necessary for salvation or escape from this world.

The term "gnostic" derives from "gnosis," which means "knowledge" in Greek. The Gnostics believed that they were privy to a secret knowledge about the divine, hence the name. (Huxley coined "agnosticism" on the basis that all knowledge must be based on reason. We cannot rationally claim to have access to knowledge that is beyond the powers of the intellect.)

There are numerous references to the Gnostics in second century proto-orthodox literature. Most of what we know about them is from the polemic thrown at them by the early Church Fathers. They are alluded to in the Bible in the pastorals (spurious Paulines of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus), for example 1 Tm 1:4 and 1 Tm 6:20, and possibly the entirety of Jude. Ignatius of Antioch writes against them as well as Docetism, a doctrine closely related to Gnosticism that stated that Christ was pure spirit and had only a phantom body. Second Clement is a document aimed at refuting early second century Gnosticism. Marcion was the most famous of the Gnostics, and he established a "canon" of the Pauline epistles (minus the pastorals) and a "mutilated" Luke (presumably considered so because it lacked proof-texts such as Lk 22:43-44). Justin Martyr mentioned him c. 150 CE, and Irenaeus and Tertullian wrote against him extensively in the late second century (in Against Heresy and Against Marcion, respectively).

Besides Marcion, other important Gnostics were Basilides and Valentinus. Some Gnostic documents are the Gospel of Truth, the Letter to Rheginus, Treatise on the Three Natures, Apocalypse of Adam, the Gospel of Matthias, Gospel of Philip, Acts of Peter, and Acts of Thomas. Although the Gnostics were prolific writers, most of their works have been burnt or lost in favor of proto-orthodox writings (and known only through patristic references).

Answer 6

gnostic gospels were written about 150 years after christ> they present a new theology of being saved by "secret knowledge", totally contrary to christain belief that we are saved by grace through Christ's blood> the gnostic authors never met christ, so they didn't know his true teachings> It is unclear when gnosticism started, but the gnostics used Christ's story to help thier religion> peace.

Answer 7

Gnostic's are those who are supposed to have some secret knowledge. gnostic Gospels are documents supposedly written in the 4th and 5th centuries claiming to be earlier documents with knowledge of Jesus. They are all fake. They exist-but they are false.

Answer 8

it is a part of believing a higher power, the tree of life....God as you understand the concept