Gnostics tended to be extreme dualists. They believed that the physical world was not simply inferior to the spiritual but was flat-out evil. One of the most telling examples can be found in the Gnostics’ attitude toward the Jewish Scriptures. In the Gnostic gospels, Jesus never referred to Judaism or the Old Testament, speaking instead from a framework drawn entirely from pagan philosophy and particularly from an extreme form of Platonism. This is rather unexpected behavior from someone who was a Jewish rabbi. What few references there are in Gnostic writings to Judaism are negative. In fact,
...more
