Basilides
{{Gnosticism}}
Basilides (early 2nd century) was an
early Christian religious teacher in
Alexandria, Egypt. He apparently wrote twenty-four books on the
Gospel and promoted a dualism influenced by
Zoroastrianism. His followers formed a
Gnostic sect, the
Basilideans. Historians know of Basilides and his teachings only through the writings of his detractors,
Agrippa Castor,
Irenæus,
Clement of Alexandria, and
Hippolytus of Rome. It is impossible to determine how reliable these hostile accounts are.
Basilides
Basilides was a pupil of an alleged interpreter of
St. Peter, Glaucias by name, and taught at
Alexandria during the reign of
Hadrian (117–138). He may have been previously a disciple of
Menander at
Antioch, together with
Saturnilus. The
Acta Archelai state that for a time he taught among the
Persians. He composed twenty-four books on the
Gospel, which, according to
Clement of Alexandria were entitled
Exegetics. Some fragments, preserved by Clement and in the
Acta Archelai, supplement the knowledge of Basilides furnished by his opponents.The oldest refutation of the teachings of Basilides, by
Agrippa Castor, is lost, and we are dependent upon the later accounts of
Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, and
Hippolytus of Rome, who in his
Philosophumena, gives a presentation entirely different from the other sources. It either rests on corrupt accounts, or, more probably, on those of a later, post-Basilidian phase of the system. Hippolytus describes a
monistic system, in which
Hellenic, or rather
Stoic, conceptions stand in the foreground, whereas the genuine Basilides is an Oriental through and through, who stands in closer relationship to
Zoroaster than to
Aristotle.
Theological system
Basilides assumed the existence of two principles, not derivable from each other:
Light and Darkness. These had existed for a long time side by side, without knowing anything 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,
(1) 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.When Light and Darkness first perceived each other, the Light had only looked and then turned away; but the Darkness, seized with a longing for light, 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" (
Nous) descended upon Jesus as dove at the Jordan, and he proclaimed salvation to the Jews, the chosen people of the Archon. The Spirit of God is the redeemer, not the crucified one: Jesus suffered only as man (or was it
Simon of Cyrene?), 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.
Popularity
Although Basilides is mentioned by all the Fathers as one of the chiefs of Gnosticism, the system of
Valentinus seems to have been much more popular and wider spread, as was also
Marcionism. Hence, though anti-Gnostic literature is abundant, we know of only one patristic work, which had for its express purpose the refutation of Basilides, and this work is no longer extant. Eusebius
(2) says: "There has come down to us a most powerful refutation of Basilides by Agrippa Castor, one of the most renowned writers of that day, which shows the terrible imposture of the man." With the exception of a few phrases given by Eusebius we know nothing of this Agrippa and his work.
Writings
Nearly all the writings of Basilides have perished, but the names of three of his works and some fragments have come down to us.
- The Gospel of Basilides. Origen(3) states that Basilides had dared to write a Gospel according to Basilides. St. Jerome and St. Ambrose(4) adopt this state of Origen; and St. Jerome, in the Prologue of his Commentary on St. Matthew, again speaks of an "Evangelium Basilidis". In all likelihood this "Gospel" was compiled out of the canonical Gospels, the text being curtailed and altered to suit his Gnostic tenets, a diatessaron on Gnostic lines.
- A Gospel Commentary in twenty-four books. Fragments of this Commentary have come down to us (in Stromata, IV, 12-81, sqq.; Acta Arch., lv; probably also in Origen, Commentary on Romans V, i).
- Hymns. Origen in a note on Job, xxi, 1 sqq., speaks of "Odes" of Basilides.
- Other fragments are known through the work of Clement of Alexandria:
- The Octet of Subsistent Entities (Fragment A)
- The Uniqueness of the World (Fragment B)
- Election Naturally Entails Faith and Virtue (Fragment C)
- The State of Virtue (Fragment D)
- The Elect Transcend the World (Fragment E)
- Reincarnation (Fragment F)
- Human Suffering and the Goodness of Providence (Fragment G)
- Forgivable Sins (Fragment H)
Isidorus
Basilides never formed a school of disciples, who modified or added to the doctrines of their leader. Isidorus, his son, is the only one who elaborated his father's system, especially on the anthropological side. He wrote a work on the
Psyche Prosphyes or Appendage-Soul; another work, called
Ethics by Clement and
Paraenetics by Epiphanius; and at least two books of
Commentaries on the Prophet Parchor. Isidorus set up celibacy, though in a modified form, as the ideal of the perfect.
(5) It is remarkable too that Isidorus held the existence of two souls in man, a good and a bad
(6); with which may be compared the teaching of
Mani about the two souls, and also the teaching of the
Pistis Sophia.
Influence
Twentieth-century
psychoanalyst Carl Jung wrote his
Seven Sermons to the Dead and attributed them to Basilides. The Argentine writer
Jorge Luis Borges was interested in Irenaeus' account of Basilides' Gnostic doctrine and wrote an essay on the subject: "A Vindication of the False Basilides" (1932). Basilides is also mentioned in Borges's short story "Three Versions of Judas" (1944), which opens with the striking passage "In
Asia Minor or in Alexandria, in the second century of our faith, when Basilides published that the Cosmos was a reckless or evil improvisation by deficient
angels... "
See also
Basilides or, to be more precise, "the Gnostic Gospel of Basilides", is also mentioned in
Borges' story "
The Library of Babel".
External links
{{Wikisourcepar|The Seven Sermons to the Dead}}
Notes
-
[Greek: Ογδοάδα or Οκτάδα (means:eightsome)]
-
[Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., IV, vii, 6-8]
-
[Origen, Homilies on Luke 1.1]
-
[Ambrose, Expositio, Euangelii, Lucae i.2]
-
[Clemens, Strom. iii. 1 § 1, &c.]
-
[Clemens, Strom. ii. 20 113]
References
- {{Catholic}}
- {{1911}}
- {{Schaff-Herzog}}
Basilides (Gnostiker)BasílidesBasilideBasílidesBasilideBaszileidészBasilidesバシレイデースBazylides (gnostyk)BasílidesBasilides z AntiochieВасилидBasilides
(...as imported from WP)
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