Gnosticism refers to religions that were diverse and syncretistic and believed that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world. This material world created by an imperfect God (demiurge) which is identified with the Abrahamic God rather than the Godhead.

This religion was dualisitic influenced by Hellenic philosophy, Judaism and Christianity.

The faith was considered by some scholars as a heretical branch of Christianity. Alternate theories have proposed traces of this religion existed some centuries before the Christian Era. Sects may have existed earlier than the First Century BC, thus predating the birth of Jesus.


Beliefs were:

The notion of a remote, supreme monadic divinity, source - this figure is known under a variety of names, including Pleroma, Bythos and Abyss.



Due to this, salvation does not occur either entirely or partially through any human behavior or agency; this stage in the divine emanation is usually enacted through the recurrent Gnostic figure of Sophia (Greek, "wisdom"), whose presence in a wide variety of Gnostic texts is indicative of her central importance.


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