The Modern Gnostic Priesthood

The Modern Gnostic Priesthood

The following is written by Tomas Kindahl

It’s either paleo-Gnostic (old Gnostic) Mandaeans tarmidas, like these:

or it is neo-Gnostics (new Gnostics), for example like these guys (Ecclesia Gnostica):

The only surviving paleo-Gnostics are the Mandaeans, they branched from Judaism probably before Jesus. They refer John the Baptist — not Jesus.

The neo-Gnostics are (almost always) Christians that has added some beliefs from what’s considered Valentinian scriptures in the Nag Hammadi library. Among them are a lot of annoying New-Age self-elected prophets. There are many branches among the neo-Gnostics.

There are a lot of pseudo-Gnostics (fake Gnostics) too: the common trait being that they don’t care about the Mandean Scriptures nor the Nag Hammadi scriptures, but instead refer to some self-elected prophet, either Aleister Crowley, or Gurdjieff, or Victor Gomez-Rodrigues (calling himself Samael Aun Weor). They’re not in any way useful.

To be “gnostic” means that you claim to have “secret knowledge;” in other words, knowledge revealed only to you which you are meant to reveal to the world in your own time and your own way.

This is a direct contradiction of ancient Christian belief which says that public revelation - that is, new knowledge revealed by God for all people - ended with the death of the last Apostle, the last person given authority directly by Christ.

Thus, a “gnostic priest” is not a “mystic,” which is a person who studies and lives the depth of the public revelation given to the Church (both in Sacred Tradition and in Scripture), but is simply a person who claims to have knowledge from God that no one else has

These people should be avoided, for the sake of your soul.

Been to that church several times. They consider themselves to be Gnostic-Catholics, which, to be sure, is a contradiction. They borrow a lot from orthodox Christian liturgies (both Roman or Protestant) and remold them to better fit the Gnostic heresy. 

Of course, it’s all anachronistic confusion. 

Ancient gnostics had their own liturgical practices and elaborate rituals. And, of course they were basically corruptions of the Christian liturgies of that time. 

Gnosticism is not Christianity though, no more than Islam is Christianity.

The Mandaeans

The Mandaeans

The only surviving gnostic sect today is that of the Mandaeans, who are not Christians but rather trace their religion back to John the Baptist and earlier prophets. The Mandaeans teach that this world was created by "the ruler of darkness," a demiurge known as Ptahil. The name Ptahil is derived from the ancient Egyptian Ptah, the Egyptian creator deity, and El, the Semitic term for God. Alongside Ptahil are two other quasi-demiurgic figures, Yushamin and Abathur. Ptahil, as the demiurgic creator and power of darkness, stands in contrast to the power of light, the true God. Thus, Mandaeism is a dualistic religion, akin to Zoroastrianism.

The proto-gnostic movement seems to have had a schism over the roles of John the Baptist and Jesus. The Mandaeans followed the teachings of John the Baptist and regarded him as a messianic figure, but they regarded Jesus as a "false messiah." The Mandaeans also rejected Moses and the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible).

 In Mandaeism, the laity are called mandaiia, "gnostics," while initiates into the priesthood are called naṣuraiia (naṣoreans).

Jewish Origins of the Mandaean People

Jewish Origins of the Mandaean People 

who are the Mandaeans

Mandaeans derived from Aramaic, the word mandayye, from which they take their name, means “gnostic" Kurt Rudolph, Mandaeism (Lieden: Brill, 1978), 29.

They live in Persia and Arabia, especially at Bassora; and regard religion as consisting principally infrequent, solemn ablutions of the body, which their priests administer with certain ceremonies

The Europeans call them "Christians of Saint John", because they have some knowledge of Christ. By the Oriental writers they are called Sabbi or Sabians

The Clementina speak of John the Baptist as a Hemerobaptist, and the disciples of John are accordingly called "Hemerobaptists" ("Homilies," ii. 23; comp. "Recognitions," i. 54); similarly, Banus, the teacher of Josephus ("Vita," § 2), was a Hemerobaptist. Hegesippus (see Eusebius, "Hist. Eccl." iv. 22) mentions the Hemerobaptists as one of the seven Jewish sects or divisions opposed to the Christians. Justin ("Dial. cum Tryph." § 80) calls them simply "Baptists."

The proto-gnostic movement seems to have had a schism over the roles of John the Baptist and Jesus. The Mandaeans followed the teachings of John the Baptist and regarded him as a messianic figure, but they regarded Jesus as a "false messiah." The Mandaeans also rejected Moses and the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible). 

In Mandaeism, the laity are called mandaiia, "gnostics," while initiates into the priesthood are called naṣuraiia (naṣoreans).

Epiphanius in his Panarion, takes care to note that the heterodox Jewish group of Nasarenes were different than the Christian group of Nazorenes, whom he also describes. He states that they lived primarily on the east side of the Jordan, that they practiced circumcision, observed the Sabbath and the Jewish feasts, honored the patriarchs, but rejected the law of Moses (the Pentateuch).

The existence of the Nasarenes is significant, because the Mandaean version of that term, Nasoraean, is used often in the most ancient Mandaean literature.

In the texts, not only historical persons such as John the Baptist, but also heavenly beings such as Hibil, Sitil and Anos (Enos-Uthra), who symbolize the faith of the Mandaeans are called the Nasoraeans.

l am inclined to look upon these Christians of St. John, as descendants of those Hemerobaptists who were a Jewish sect about the time of Christ.

First, they profess to be Jews ; and say, their ancestors lived on the banks of the Jordan.

The early church writer Epiphanius mentions the Masobotheans and the Hemerobaptists. Besides the fact that they were part of the baptist movement, very little can be said for sure about them. It is likely, however, that at least the Hemerobaptists were very similar to the group of John the Baptist, as the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies refer to him as “one John, a hemerobaptist who was also . . . the forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ

It is commonly supposed, that this John was John the Baptist, Christ's forerunner mentioned in the Scriptures.

Hence many conclude, that the Sabians are descended from the disciples of John the Baptist.

The Sabians as they are called by the Orientals, or the Mandaeans (mandayye), i. e., Disciples of St. John, as they call themselves, or the Christians of St. John as they are called by Europeans, though they perhaps have some imperfect knowledge of Christ, seem to be a Jewish sect, and the descendants of the ancient Hemerobaptists mentioned by the early Christian writers. At least, that John whom they call the founder of their sect, was altogether unlike John the Baptist, and bore a far stronger resemblance to the John whom the ancients represented as the father of the Jewish Hemerohaptists

Those who believe (in the Qur'an), And those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), And the Christians, and the Sabians—Any who believe in Allah, And the Last Day, And work righteousness, Shall have their reward With their Lord."