Scholar Explains: WHAT IS A GNOSTIC?

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]But you can also, what a Gnostic is, a Gnostic is a spiritual kind of a individual who says, "Listen, I recognize that all the religions have gods, but I worship the god above god, and that god is only good." And that's the fundamental idea that is the basis of everything. So, it's fundamentally an an optimistic view of the world. Sometimes you'll hear that, "Oh, well, the Gnostics, they were very negative and very pessimistic."

[00:00:31]Well, yes, of course they were pessimistic about the world. I mean, anyone who watches the news is pessimistic about the world, but they were fundamentally optimistic about the course of human history, that great arc of of history which, you know, moves us toward greater justice and moves us toward greater enlightenment. They were absolutely positive about that. They believed that these religions, whether they be, you know, Abrahamic religions or or whatever religions, they believed that all human religions would would die away at some point, and that we would all be enlightened and become superhuman, knowing the true god beyond god. That's a fundamentally positive view of of reality.

[00:01:11]>> Yeah, cuz when I first heard the idea from my producer, it sounded negative, like, "Oh, god's evil." But then hearing that and some of the readings, it's like, "Oh, you want to worship a good god, not an evil god." Um on the cover of your book, I was looking at it yesterday. I don't know if all the books have the same cover, but it looked like an Egyptian god, almost like Set or like an old ancient god.

[00:01:31]>> Yeah, that's So, Set is Set is like uh an ancient model for talking about the creator. Now, some people refer to the creator as god by kind of a habit, but the reality is that's not actually precise. Uh what we have to do is just call him by some other name. So, for instance, the Marcionites referred to the creator or the cosmocrator, they they tried to avoid the language that the creator was God, and that's very important. And in Egyptian religion, you know, Seth is is obviously a god, but they don't they don't recognize or try to promote him as the god above gods. He's just as as you say, he's just he's something lower. And so, what we have in in terms of the history of religion is this tendency where we've got a set of lower gods. You can call them evil or mischievous or or whatever.

[00:02:27]And above them is is a god above gods.

[00:02:29]And that model of religion is known even in even in ancient Egypt. So, you know, they also it if if you were a philosopher or priest in Egypt, you also would have imagined there to be a supreme god above all the other gods.

[00:02:43]And the animal-headed gods are kind of like the lower tier.

[00:02:48]And they, you know, you worship them locally, but you don't confuse them with the the true and and uh all-good and all-light god, basically.

[00:02:59]>> Yeah, and that explains why there's so much evil in the world. And you'd be like, why would God let a family member die or this and that? But it's like the creator wasn't good, but the god above him was good. So, I think it helps put some I know some people speak negatively of Gnostic, but it seems like it helps put a lot of this stuff in perspective.

[00:03:17]>> No.

[00:03:17]>> Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, Christianity's biggest problem, as well as Judaism and Islam's biggest problem, is that they can't explain why kids get cancer and why people die, why why there are these horrible diseases, and you know, terrible natural disasters. It just doesn't make sense given that they believe supposedly in one good creator.

[00:03:41]Well, you know, this world is is full of death and suffering. So, that's that's not a very good explanation. So, you've You've to have some kind of you've got to have some kind of attempt to distinguish an evil from a good being. And what the Orthodox came up with is is they had a a Satan figure.

[00:04:03]And they made up a Satan figure who could fill the role of an evil agent in the cosmos. And the Satan figure was like an like an angel.

[00:04:14]But essentially this is like this is just like rehash, right? Because in the Gnostic worldview there's a god above gods and then there's a lower creator.

[00:04:24]And in the Orthodox view there's a god who's a creator and then a lower evil figure called Satan. It's structurally similar so they're not radically different. But one is riffing [clears throat] on the other and it's difficult to know who's riffing on the other. That that explanation for evil is is kind of similar.

[00:04:47]But ultimately unsatisfying I would say in the in the Orthodox camp because you know Satan Satan doesn't create anything. He's just a dude in the sky somewhere going back and forth and tempting people. He doesn't actually create cancer.

[00:05:03]You know that's that's the creator's flaw. That's a flaw built into creation.

[00:05:08]>> Yeah and if he's perfect how would he have made these flaws? To me I think it makes a little more sense. I was always just told you know works in mysterious ways. Don't question this or they would say well the New Testament comes comes and fulfills this and makes this the Old Testament doesn't count. So why would there be a testament that doesn't count?

[00:05:24]It always seems a little bizarre. So um you guys also break quite a bit on Jesus Christ, correct?

[00:05:32]>> No.

[00:05:33]>> Well definitely I I think for for Gnostics Jesus is he's more of an emissary. You know the true god doesn't need blood dripping off of a cross in order to be satisfied because he's pissed off basically. I mean, that whole idea of appeasing God's rage doesn't make sense in a Gnostic worldview because God doesn't have any rage. There's nothing to appease. And you know, they wouldn't think that it was some kind of magical you know, formula where you know, if some guy bleeds to death on a cross or you know, like that that God would all of the sudden be like, "Okay, well now I'm just going to magically forgive you once everyone's sins because you know, some guy died on a uh on a on a tree uh and I'm satisfied with his blood." I mean, that in itself is kind of like a ridiculous idea when you think about it and no one really would come to that idea naturally. It's based on very primitive mythology.

[00:06:32]And it's it's just so far away from anything that anyone ever thinks of today. It It basically sounds like magic.

[00:06:39]So in the Gnostic worldview, Jesus comes as an emissary.

[00:06:43]He doesn't die for your sins. Uh you know, he gives you a message of gnosis. And so in that respect, he's he's much more like uh what I would say like Buddha, you know, where he's he's an enlightened figure.

[00:07:00]And he comes into this world and he he gives us enlightenment. And that enlightenment or gnosis, which is just the Greek word for insight or this special experiential knowledge is what brings us into the the new world, which they called the new aeon.

[00:07:18]>> [snorts] >> Yeah, so you didn't even So Jesus wasn't born of like a virgin Mary. He was just more like from the sky or the stars in the Gnostic text.

[00:07:27]>> Well, they don't mind that he's born of a virgin. I mean, they don't they're not trying to totally rewrite the narrative necessarily.

[00:07:35]But their argument is more is more like it they have to get clarity on what his purpose was.

[00:07:44]Obviously, I think you know some Gnostics would be uncomfortable with Jesus taking on you know taking on the total kind of shall we say the blood and guts kind of scenario where he's just like a normal guy who you know you you can like punch him in the face and and But I but I think that ultimately it's it it doesn't matter that Jesus has flesh from Mary. Like that's not the key issue. The key issue is that there is a message that is transmitted and Jesus is the messenger and once that message is given then that gnosis that you get is is instant. And of course you know