THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

It is revealing, to say the least, that this influential early Christian figure has had to
wait seventeen centuries to have his view more fully brought to light. 14
In examining
the Hippolytan version of Basileides (see Appendix B.10 where this version and the
Irenaean Basileides are both detailed), one is struck once again by the usual theogonic
progression of entities from the “Non-Existent God” in his Void, to the Egyptian
model of the egg (with which they very effectively conceptualised the idea of
latency), to the appearance of “threeness” exactly where it should appear, in the usual
Atum – Shu – Tefnut configuration. Following this is the normative development of
numerical aeonial patterns, in this case an ogdoad (whether or not it is Hermopolitanderived
is impossible to say from the text), and a hebdomad. The system described by
Irenaeus (see Appendix B) has enough in common to be sure that it comes from the
same constellation of “Basileidean thought” – whether it is a younger or older
Basileides, a contemporary disciple, or later follower, does not matter. The emphasis
upon a Memphite Ptah Word-generated cosmos, the naming of Abrasax as ruler of the
365 heavens in both texts, leave little room for doubt.
Hippolytus also reports on the Naasenes, their name derived from the Hebrew
word nahash for serpent. Their system, expressed in a gospel which has not survived
entitled According to the Egyptians, describes the tripartite division of Man whose
archetype is bisexual. 15
The Egyptians, in the view of this group, “are of greater
antiquity than all mankind”. 16
Whether or not this was a group of Egyptian Gnostics
is impossible to say; however, their dependence upon Egyptian mythology is quite
striking according to Hippolytus :
And this is the great and secret and unknown mystery of the universe, concealed
and revealed among the Egyptians. For Osiris (the Naasene) says, is in temples
in front of Isis; and his pudendum stands exposed, looking downwards, and
crowned with all its own fruits of things that are made... And the Greeks,
deriving this mystical (expression) from the Egyptians, preserve it until this
day. 17
Cerinthus, a Gnostic active outside of Egypt in the first or second century, is
reported by Irenaeus to be “a man who was educated in the wisdom of the Egyptians”.
Cerinthus postulated the demiurge removed from the Primal Source, one ignorant of
the realms above him. 18
14
I do not wish to ignore the work of those early scholars, mentioned elsewhere in this work,
who turned their sights upon this possibility. However, Amélineau and others, obviously
lacked the philological foundations, not to say extant Gnostic texts, to pursue this thesis
adequately; nor do I wish to enter into the debate as to whether Hippolytus actually existed.
See Vallée, A Study in Anti-Gnostic Polemics, 41.
15
Ref. V.II. Refutatio IV.XLIII, trans. J.H. MacMahon, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. V, 49.
16
Ibid., 50.
17
Ibid., 50.
18
Adv.Haer. I.XXVI.1. trans. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. I, 351-
52; also reported in Hippolytus to be “disciplined in the teaching of the Egyptians”,
Refutatio VII.XXI, trans. J.H. MacMahon, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. V, 114.