Why I Am an Anti-Gnostic Gnostic
Two schools of Gnosticism and their conflicting missions
People often tell me after reading my articles that they do not recognize my work as a form of Gnosticism. I usually try to explain this incongruence by claiming that I am a Thomasine gnostic as opposed to a Johannine gnostic.
As I see it, originally there were the Thomasine gnostics. They almost certainly didn’t call themselves gnostics and they may not have known that their work would eventually become associated with Thomas. It is this group that created the synoptic Gospels with such enigmatic verses as:
11 He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables
12 so that, “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”
(Mar 4:11–12 NIV)
The thing is, when people read that text, they assume that they understand it properly, not like the outsiders, but like an insider who has been initiated into the inner secrets of Christianity.
13 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?
14 The farmer sows the word.
15 Some people…
