Gnostic creation myths

photo: actress Gina Torres

Background: Gnosticism was sort of a variant of Christianity that existed until the late fifth century. It was more rooted in Greek philosophical traditions (and in the Syrian version of Zoroastrianism) than in Judaism. There wasn't really one single religion called Gnosticism, but rather a series of movements generally characterized by a belief in a secret knowledge ("Gnosis") imparted by God for the salvation of humanity, and an extreme duality between the material (which is very bad) and the spiritual (which is very good). Some went so far as to say that the Old Testament Creator of the Earth was really Satan, distinct from the divine and heavenly God of the New Testament. Under this circumstance they viewed death by self-inflicted starvation was the only correct answer. The point is that many of these people thought the bodies they lived in were horrible and irredeemable weights on their immortal souls.

Gnostics had a wide array of creation myths. One Gnostic myth says that humans existed in the distant past, but were destroyed by Darkness (or Satan or any of a number of evil Greek gods). Darkness then created Adam and Eve as a corrupted image (i.e. one in which the sinful/materialist acts like sex, eating, and the like are involved) of these ancient humans. Jesus was sent by God with secret gnosis to redeem these creatures from their evil, corporeal selves.

Another is the story of the 2nd century AD Egyptian Greek writer Hermes Trismegistus. He said man was created in the image of God, who is androgynous. God also created the Demiurge, who was the god of the material world. Man fell in love with the reflection of God in the waters of the material world, and went to look at it. This brought man under then control of the Demiurge, who created gender, the need for food, and so forth.

Most other Gnostic creation myths follow the general theme of a good, spiritual Creator God and a material seducer. The most interesting point is that the main creator is almost always the evil counterpart to God. Some scholars claim that the creation story in the Book of John ("In the beginning was the Word") is a variant on the Gnostic creation story, but I have not been convinced of this. "Logos" (Greek for "word") is a Gnostic construct, but using one Gnostic buzzword did not a Gnostic make.

Source: a half dozen religious studies classes and "Encyclopedia of Creation Myths" by David Adams Leeming with Margaret Adams Leeming (Denver: ABC-CLIO, 1994).