Basilides
Basilides (early 2nd century) was a Gnostic Christian religious teacher in Alexandria, Egypt. He taught a dualistic theology which emphasized spiritual realities and promoted a complex understanding of the origins of the universe and man's place in it. His followers formed the Gnostic sect known as the Basilideans.
Historians know of Basilides and his teachings only through the writings of his detractors, especially Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, and Hippolytus of Rome, whose accounts of his teachings do not always agree with each other.
Basilides was a pupil of a hearer of St. Peter, Glaucias by name, and may also have been a disciple of Menander of Antioch. He taught at Alexandria during the reign of Hadrian (117–138). Some believe the best known second-century Gnostic teacher, Valentinus, studied with Basilides and took his teachings to Rome, further developing and popularizing them. Criticism of his movement by his detractors as engaging in immoral sexual practices is dismissed by most modern scholars as unfounded by evidence.
Because of the sketchy and conflicting nature of the sources concerning Basilides, it is difficult to characterize his teachings precisely or to draw a clear line between them and the corpus of known Gnostic literature. However, many of the concepts described by the Church Fathers as belonging to Basilides are found in the Nag Hammadi library of Gnostic works found in Egypt in the mid twentieth century.
In later centuries, some of Basilides' teachings, or those of his followers, influenced Egyptian mystical and magician traditions, and may have had an impact on Jewish mystical ideas as well. Several twentieth century writers have also drawn upon Basilidean traditions.
Teachings
As practically nothing of Basilides' writing is still extant and he is not mentioned in the Gnostic sources, the teaching of this patriarch of Gnosticism must be gleaned primarily from his Christian opponents. Unfortunately, the accounts of Basilides’ theology provided by such writers as Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolytus of Rome and Irenaeus do not always agree with each other. According to Irenaeus, Basilides was apparently a dualist and an emanationist, and according to Hippolytus a pantheistic evolutionist.
Ireneaus' view
Seen from the viewpoint of Irenaeus, Basilides taught that Nous (mind) was the first to be born from the Unborn Father. From Nous was born Logos (reason); from Logos, Phronesis (prudence); from Phronesis, Sophia (wisdom) and Dynamis (strength); and from Phronesis and Dynamis came the Virtues, Principalities, and Archangels. By these angelic hosts the highest heaven was made, by their descendants the second heaven, and by the descendants of the denizens of the second heaven came the inhabitants of third heaven, and so on until the number of the heavens reached 365. Hence the year has as many days as there are heavens.
The angels, who hold the last or visible heaven, brought about all things and peoples that exist in our world. The highest of these angels identical with the God of the Jews. As this deity wished to subject the Gentiles to his own chosen people, the other angelic principalities strongly opposed him.
The Unborn and Nameless Father sent his first-born, Nous (known to history as the Christ) to deliver humans from the power of the angelic beings who had built the world. Christ seemed to be a man and to have performed miracles, but he was actually beyond all association with the physical body. Indeed, it was not Christ who suffered, but rather Simon of Cyrene, who was constrained to carry the cross for him, assumed Jesus' form, and was crucified in Christ's place. As Simon was crucified, Jesus returned to His Father. Through the gnosis (knowledge) of Christ the souls of men are saved, but their bodies perish. There is thus no physical resurrection, for it is only the spirit which requires redemption.
From the writings of Epiphanius and Tertullian these additional concepts can be derived: The highest diety—that is, the Unborn Father—bears the mystical name Abraxas, as origin of the 365 heavens. The angels that made the world formed it out of eternal matter, but matter is the principle of all evil. Moreover, to undergo martyrdom in imitating Christ is useless, for it is to die for Simon of Cyrene, not for Christ.
Hippolytus' view
Hippolytus of Rome sets forth a somewhat different version of the doctrine of Basilides. Some commentators account for the difference by the idea that Hipppoytus' version based on later Basilidean writers rather than Basilides himself. Hippolytus provides the following fragment reportedly from the pen of Basilides:
There was when naught was: nay, even that "naught" was not aught of things that are... Naught was, neither matter, nor substance, nor voidness of substance, nor simplicity, nor impossibility of composition, nor inconceptibility, imperceptibility, neither man, nor angel, nor God; in sum, anything at all for which man has ever found a name, nor by any operation which falls within range of his perception or conception.
There was a thus time (although time itself is also included) when nothing existed, neither matter nor form. Even the deity himself was beyond existence. This deity is referred to as the "Not-Being God" (ouk on theos), whom Aristotle called the "Thought of thought" (noesis tes noeseos)—without consciousness, perception, purpose, passion, or desire. From this "Not-Being God" came the seed that became the world. From this, Panspermia, as in the the parable of the mustard seed, all things eventually evolved.
According to Hippolytus, Basilides distinctly rejected both emanation and the eternity of matter: "God spoke and it was." The transition from Non-Being to Being is accounted for through the idea of the Panspermia (All-seed) of the manifest world. The Panspermia contained in itself three types of elements: the refined Leptomeres, the less spiritual Pachymeres, and a impure Apokatharseos deomenon.
These three "filiations" all ultimately return the Not-Being God, but each reaches him in a different way. The first rose at once and flew with the swiftness of thought to Him. The second wished to imitate the first, but failed because it was too too gross and heavy. It thus took up wings, which are provided by the Holy Spirit, and almost reached the Not-Being God and becomes the "Boundary Spirit" (Methorion Pneuma), between the Supermundane and the Mundane. The third element, meanwhile remained the Panspermia.
Now there arose in the Panspermia the Great Archon, or Ruler. He sped upwards, and thinking there was nothing above and beyond, though still contained in the Panspermia, fancied himself Lord and Master of all things. He created to himself a Son out of the heap of Panspermia. This was the Christ and being himself amazed at the beauty of his Son, who was greater than his Father, made him sit at his right hand. Together, these two created the ethereal heavens, which reach unto the Moon. The sphere where the Great Archon rules is called the Ogdoad. The same process is repeated, and thus evolves a second Archon and his Son. The sphere where they rule is the Hebdomad, beneath the Ogdoad.
This sets the stage for the grosser elements, the third "filiation," to be raised to the Not-Being God. This took place though the Gospel. From Adam to Moses, the Archon of the Ogdoad had reigned (Romans 5:14). In Moses and the prophets, the Archon of the Hebdomad had reigned, known to history as Yahweh, the God of the Jews. Now in the third period the Gospel must reign.
This Gospel was first made known through the Holy Spirit to the Son of the Archon of the Ogdoad. The Son told this his Father, who was astounded and admitted his pride in thinking himself the Supreme Deity. The Son of the Archon of the Ogdoad then informed the Son of the Archon of the Hebdomad, and he again told his Father. Thus both spheres, including the 365 heavens and their chief Archon, Abraxas, know the truth. This knowledge was then conveyed through the Hebdomad to Jesus, the son of Mary, who through his life and death redeemed the third "filiation" of the material world. In this process yet another three-fold division is found: that which is material must return to the Chaos; that which is is "psychic" to the Hebdomad; and that which is is spiritual to the Not-Being God. When the third filiation is thus redeemed, the Supreme God pours out a blissful Ignorance over all that is. This is called "The Restoration of all things."
The Basilideans
Because of Basilides' emphasis on the mystical Non-Being (oukon) of the utterly transcendent deity, his followers came to be known as the Oukontiani. Reflecting their theology's emphasis on the number three, the Basilideans had three grades—material, intellectual and spiritual. Members reportedly wore stones or gems cut in various symbolic forms, such as the heads of fowl and serpents. The Basilideans worshiped Abraxas as their supreme deity, and honored Jesus Christ as their savior-teacher in the Gnostic sense of bringing to them the special knowledge necessary for enlightenment.
According to Clement of Alexandria faith was the foundation of the spiritual life of the Basilideans. However this faith it was not a submission of the intellect to the doctrines of the church as in orthodox tradition. Rather, faith is a natural gift of understanding (gnosis) bestowed on the soul before its union with the body, which some possessed and others did not. Nevertheless, the Basilideans clearly sought to enlighten themselves through various spiritual exercises and study. Faith is thus a latent force, which manifests its energy through the coming of the savior, as a ray of light will set a flammable liquid on fire.
Irenæus and Epiphanius reproach Basilides and his followers for immorality, and Jerome calls him a master and teacher of sexual debaucheries. However, they provide no direct evidence of these alleged moral crimes. On the other hand, Clement of Alexandria and Epiphanius have preserved a passage of the supposed writings of Basilides' son and successor which counsels the free satisfaction of sensual desires in order that the soul may find peace in prayer. In addition, Justin Martyr in his first Apology (xxvi), suggests to the Roman emperors the Gnostics are guilty of those immoralities of which Christians are falsely accused. Modern scholars tend to take the view that while there may have been occasional cases of licentiousness in both Orthodox Christian and Gnostic Christian circles, there is inadequate evidence to convict Basilides and his followers generally of this charge.
Legacy
Basilides' movement was apparently influential in the Christian movement of the second century, especially in Egypt. However, their ideas were also known in Rome and other parts of the empire, and the orthodox churches thus formed their doctrines and creeds partly in reaction to the challenge posed by Basilides and other Gnostic teachers.
In the Gnostic writings unearthed at Nag Hammadi in the mid twentieth century can be found many ideas similar to those described as being taught by Basilides. However it is difficult to assign any of them as belonging specifically to him. In addition the recently published Gospel of Judas takes a stance similar to that of the Basilideans in denigrating those Christians who insisted that martyrdom brought them closer to Jesus.
Basilidean tradition combined with various other Egyptian ideas into a system of numerology based on the 365 days of the year and contemplation of the name of mystical name of Abraxas.
The Non-Being God of Basilides also bears some resemblance to the Jewish kaballistic concept of Tzimtzum according to which God "contracted" his infinite light in a void, or "conceptual space," in which a the finite world could exist.
Twentieth-century psychoanalyst Carl Jung attributed his Seven Sermons to the Dead to Basilides. The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges was interested in Irenaeus' account of Basilides' doctrine and wrote an essay on the subject: "A Vindication of the False Basilides" (1932). Basilides is also mentioned in Borges's short story "Three Versions of Judas" (1944), which opens with the striking passage "In Asia Minor or in Alexandria, in the second century of our faith, when Basilides published that the Cosmos was a reckless or evil improvisation by deficient angels... "
See also
Basilides or, to be more precise, "the Gnostic Gospel of Basilides", is also mentioned in Borges' story "A Library of Babel".
- Christian mystics
External links
- "Basilides" by T. Apiryon
- Seven Sermons to the Dead
- Fragments of Basilides
- Fragments of his son Isidore
- Catholic Encyclopedia: a point-of-view from a conservative orthodox Catholic position
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- This article includes content derived from the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914, which is in the public domain.
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