Basilideans
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The Basilideans were a Gnostic sect founded by Basilides of Alexandria in the 2nd century.
Doctrine
Basilides claimed to have been taught his doctrines by Glaucus, a disciple of St Peter. The sect had three grades – material, intellectual and spiritual – and possessed two allegorical statues, male and female. The sect's doctrines were very similar to those of the Ophites and also had similarities to Jewish Kabbalism. Members wore stones or gems cut in various symbolic forms, such as the heads of fowl and serpents. The Basilideans worshipped a supreme god called Abraxas (or Abracax) and claimed that Jesus Christ was only a phantom sent to earth by him.The fundamental theme of the Basilidian speculation is the question concerning the origin of evil and how to overcome it. The answer is given entirely in the forms of Oriental gnosis, evidently influenced by Parseeism. There are two principles, untreated and self-existent, light and darkness, originally separated and without knowledge of each other. At the head of the "kingdom of light" stands "the uncreated, unnamable God." From him divine life unfolds in successive steps. Seven such revelations form the first ogdoad, from which issued the rest of the spirit-world, till three hundred and sixty-five spirit-realms had originated. These are comprised under the mystic name Abrasax, whose numerical value answers to the number of the heavens and days.
Being seized with a longing for light, darkness now interferes. A struggle of the principles commences, in which originated our system of the world as copy of the last stage of the spirit-world, having an archon and angel at its head. The earthly life is only a moment of the general purification-process which now takes place to deliver the world of light from darkness. Hence everything which is bad and evil in this system of the world becomes intelligible when regarded in its proper relations. Gradually the rays of light find their way through the mineral kingdom, vegetable kingdom, and animal kingdom. Man has two souls in his breast, of which the rational soul tries to master the material or animal. For the consummation of the process an intervention from above is necessary, however.
The Christian idea of the manifestation of God in Jesus Christ is the historical fact which Basilides subjects to his general thoughts. God's "mind" descended upon Jesus as dove at the Jordan, and he proclaimed salvation to the Jews, the chosen people of the archon. The suffering of Jesus, Basilides admitted as a historical fact, but he did not understand how to utilize it religiously. The Spirit of God is the redeemer, not the crucified one. Jesus suffered as man, whose light-nature was also contaminated through the matter of evil. But the belief in the redemption which came from above lifts man beyond himself to a higher degree of existence. How far the individual can attain it depends on the degree of pure entanglement in former degrees of the spirit-world. In the perfected spirit-world the place will be assigned to each which belongs to him according to the degree of his faith.
References
- This article includes content derived from the public domain Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914.
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