Gnosticism has appeared at the end the first century, first in Palestina,

afterwards everywhere where the Christianity had spread. The founders of

gnosticism has their roots from Simon the Magus, they claimed that they kept a
secret knowledge, „gnosis” received secretly from apostles, „gnosis”, which no
ordinary Christian can understand, but only the initiated ones. (gr. gnostikon =
initiated). The morpheme „gnosis” has been used in of classic Greek language in
order to express „the action of knowledge”, where ever its substantivized form
knowledge comes from. Gnosis has functions and characteristics of fundamental
ontological viewed from philosophical approach, or from a moral-theological
approach for the human nature. Gnosis was a knowledge which not everybody
has the skill to understand. Paul the Apostle, named gnosis like a false
knowledge. (gr. Pseudonomos gnosis). What gnosis is ? A way to be, a lifestyle
and concrete conduct or existential which presents itself to be on absolute
knowledge which saves, redeems by itself. It presents itself like divine
revelation, which appeals all the time to ancestral mission which would be
transmited over through initiated ones.
This initiated people, no matter of their philosophical, religion or cultural
approach, they are named gnostics. Gnosticism is known through the work of
those who tried to discourage it (Hegesip. Irineu, Hipolit, Adamantiu, Tertullian,
Epifaniou, Filastriu de Brescia, Teodoret de Cyr) and from Clement
Alexandrin’s and Origen’s works. The very rich gnostic literature was lost all
most entirely. From this literature has been kept some bits from 7 volumes from
Greek Patrology of. J.P.Migne. It has been kept another writing named Faith,
Wisdom. The knowledge of gnosticism is relative because all Christian’s
writings which did combat gnostic trend hasn’t been kept. Gnosticism is a
sistem of heresy, strange and complicated through the multitude and variation of
its ideas.
The founders (pioneers) of gnosticism were people with philosophical
inclinations or those with a philosophical background, they tried to work out a
sincretism of all the religious and all the philosopher up to then, under the Jesus
Christ’s guidness, a kind of ecumenism of human origin. The old Christian
writers have perceived the origin of gnosticism in antic philosophy mostly the
platonical ones. From gnostic trend came out: orientalism (has been discovered
even budist elements) Persan dualism, the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries,
Egyptinian Mysteries, blended with magic, babilonian astrology, Platon’s
philosophy, stoical philosophy, Pitagora’s philosophy, Judaism cabbala (a
mystic concept of numbers semnification), the element’s of Christian thinking.
Gnosticism was a religious phenomenon with syncretic character, embracing
ideas from different old denominations, with some of them even from Judaism
and Christianity.