EPILOGUE 767
Coptic, old Persian, and even Chinese, along with a few major works in Greek
and Syriac, notably the pagan Corpus Hermeticum, dating from the second
and third centuries, which includes Poimandres, attributed to Hermes Tris-
megistos, and the Songs of Solomon, a book of gnostic psalms. For many
generations of scholars and seekers, knowledge of gnosticism came primarily
from the works of early church fathers, whose writings, even when fairly reli-
able in terms of stating gnostic tenets, were composed as fiercely unsympa-
thetic refutations of gnosticism. Then in 1945 in the sands of Egypt was
found the Nag Hammadi library, consisting of the great treasure of fourth-
century translations into Coptic of earlier Greek texts. These fifty-plus docu-
ments constitute a bible of classical gnosticism.
Among modern scholars who have had their say about gnostic parentage,
Bentley Layton, in The Gnostic Scriptures, sensibly sees gnosticism rooted pri-
marily in classical Sethian philosophers, but he also speaks of the gnostic
presence in the Greek-speaking synagogues and in early Christianity (notably
in Simon Magus, Acts 8:9-12). The leading scholar of Jewish mysticism and
Kabbalah, Gershom Sholem, looks to a Jewish origin of gnostic notions in his
Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition, and his near
contemporary, Hans Jonas (gnosticism's first major interpreter), asserts that
gnosticism began in radical circles in Samaria. The Italian historian Giovanni
Filoramo notes that "many scholars propose a Jewish origin for Gnosticism,"
and that the Nag Hammadi gnostic texts confirm a Jewish influence, yet he
finds the whole Jewish thesis shaky, for lack of corroborating scripture.^2 Yet
some major corroborating scriptures strengthen a Jewish thesis of origin: the
Book of Baruch of Justin, the Secret Book of John, and parts of the Gospel of
John. The Book of Baruch is primarily a Jewish-gnostic text (Baruch is an
angel of Elohim), with Christian and pagan main characters, including
Moses, Jesus, and Hercules. It may be that Baruch in its earliest form was a
purely Jewish scripture, and the extraordinary work we have now is a some-
what Christianized version redacted during the Christian-Jewish period. Even
the Christianizing effort is tentative, since its ecumenical editors have gener-
ously acknowledged the pagan origins of gnosticism by bringing the god
Hercules into the cast.
As for the views of early church fathers on the source of gnosticism, Ire-
naeus of Lyon, in his Adversus haereses (Against Heresies), excoriated both the
- Filoramo, History of Gnosticism, 145.