the Latin translation of the work), seems originally to
have been called On the Detection and Refutation of
the Knowledge (gno ̄ sis) Falsely So-Called(Rousseau
and Doutreleau 1979: I, 31–5). Hence it is common to
talk in English of Gnosis as the search for this special
knowledge; to call those engaged on this quest Gnostics;
and to describe the whole religious phenomenon as
Gnosticism (see, however, the case study at the end of
this chapter). Both Irenaeus and Hippolytus make it
clear that there were several groups of Gnostics. In par-
ticular, Irenaeus is concerned to refute a group that he
calls the Valentinians after the teacher Valentinus whose
doctrines they followed. However, both heresiologists
were aware that there were other teachers of Gnosis,
meaning that modern scholars have often failed to pin
down a single, easily identifiable phenomenon that
might be called Gnosticism. Problems directly related
to this issue will be explored in more detail in the case
study at the end of this chapter.
(2)Debates on the nature of Jesus Christ. It was not only
the nature of Jesus’ teachings but also the character of
his very existence that provoked debate. It is a common-
place of modern Christianity to talk of Jesus as both
human and God incarnate at the same time. This seems
to have been a difficult concept for some early Chris-
tians to accept: in particular, the brutal, public death of
Jesus on the cross seemed difficult to reconcile with his
divinity. Some groups, therefore, suggested that God
had not actually taken on real human flesh in Jesus,
but had only given the appearance of doing so: in
Greek, the word do ̄ kesisis used for this appearance,
from which this doctrine is called docetism. The early
presence of docetic tendencies is apparent from the
letters of Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius argued that
docetic doctrines undermined Christian hopes of salva-
tion and eternal life through Jesus’ suffering, death, and
ORTHODOXY AND ORGANIZATION IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY1
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