An ancient religious movement emphasizing salvation through secret spiritual knowledge (gnosis) rather than faith or good works. Gnostics typically viewed the material world as evil and sought to escape it through mystical understanding.
From Greek 'gnosis' meaning 'knowledge,' specifically esoteric or mystical knowledge. The movement flourished in the 2nd-3rd centuries CE, blending Christian, Jewish, and pagan philosophical elements before being declared heretical by orthodox Christianity.
Gnostics believed the God of the Old Testament was actually an evil impostor, and that Jesus came to reveal the true divine realm hidden behind our fake material world—like a spiritual version of 'The Matrix'! Their secret gospels were buried in Egyptian deserts and only rediscovered in 1945.
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