First, it is a Greek word, and it means "learned" or "knowledged". A person who admits that "I do not know" may be called an "agnostic", from the same root, though this would translate perfectly into Latin as "ignoramus", keeping its true meaning in the Roman understanding, rather losing it in ours!
The Gnostics believed that the material world was created by the Demiurge, and that it should be shunned; instead the spiritual world should be embraced - and it is a matter of debate whether their concept of that spiritual world was "God's world" in the Judeo-Christian sense, or something rather closer to the Buddhist.
The concept of Gnosis (which incidentally yields both "diagnosis" and "prognosis") can be understood as "knowledge" or "enlightenment" in the rational-empirical sense, or as "salvation", "emancipation" or even "oneness with God" in the spiritual sense; either way it promulgates philanthropy even to the point of personal poverty, complete sexual abstinence for initiates and limited sexual abstinence for others, while elevating to the highest pedestal the diligent pursuit of wisdom through the helping of others. To achieve Gnosis the practitioner must abandon the material world created by the Demiurge, the world of flesh, the world of time, the locus of imperfection and ephemerality, and seek the higher realm of the soul where neither the physical nor the temporal has existence. Applying all available human knowledge, the soul may aspire to obtaining the kingdom of God. The Buddhist concept of Nirvana, and the Jewish Kabbalah, follow similar precepts. This is not a philosophy that accords well with Amerian Capitalism.
The link here will take you to Elaine Pagels monumental work on all the Gnostic Gospels, including this one.
The link here will take you to Elaine Pagels monumental work on all the Gnostic Gospels, including this one.
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