31. The Naassene Sermon
T
- n his Refutation of All Heresies, the Christian heresiologist Hippolytus
I of Rome describes certain second-century gnostics, termed Naassenes,
JL. from the Hebrew word nahash, "serpent." Such serpentine terminol-
ogy recalls Justin's Book of Baruch, earlier in this volume, and the gnostics
called Ophites or Ophians, that is, "snake people," who are sometimes linked
with Sethians. Like many gnostics, the Naassenes apparently sought spiritual
truths from a variety of sources. Hippolytus claims that they were especially
attracted to the mystery religions of antiquity and late antiquity, which typi-
cally stressed mystical experience in the context of a dying and rising deity
and which the Naassenes interpreted in such a way as to elucidate their own
beliefs. These were alternative forms of religion in a post-Olympian world.
When the Olympian gods and goddesses no longer captured the hearts and
minds of people, many turned for their religious experience to the myster-
ies of Demeter and Kore; or Dionysos; or the Great Mother and Attis, the
Phrygian fertility god; or Isis and Osiris; or Mithras—or Jesus Christ, whom
people like Clement of Alexandria understood to be a deity of Christian
mysteries.
The Naassenes, according to Hippolytus, attended the mystery celebra-
tions—for example, the mysteries of the Great Mother and Attis—to gain
insights into religious knowledge and life. In presenting materials on the
Naassenes, Hippolytus cites hymns to Attis and a Naassene sermon that ex-
plains how themes from the mysteries contribute to their understanding of
their own religion of gnosis. As Hippolytus portrays the Naassenes, he notes
two sayings (one of which, he explicitly says, comes from the Gospel of