By Jeff Smelser
Synopsis: Learning about the gnostic tendencies addressed in Colossians might seem pointless to some, but the same tendencies at work then are still a danger today.
Let’s begin with Marcus. He was a second century teacher, one of those men whom audiences find appealing, a man who endeared himself to women, especially wealthy women. He had a way with them, and he had his way with them.
With magician’s tricks, Marcus would convince them that he had some sort of special power. He would then urge them to partake of his “Charis”—that being the Greek word for grace—but also the name of one of the supernatural beings imagined by gnostics. With suggestive language, he would exhort a woman, “Receive Charis first from me and through me. Prepare yourself as a bride receiving her bridegroom, in order that you might be what I am, and I might be what you are. Set the seed of light in your bridal chamber.”
Then, telling her that she had received Charis, he would urge her to prophesy. She would demur, saying she didn’t know how, and he would urge her on, “Open your mouth, speak whatever, and you will prophesy!” Flattered and enthralled with her mentor, she would speak some nonsense, which she was led to believe was in fact prophecy. In gratitude, she would share her wealth, and herself, with him. Describing the damage done by such men as Marcus, Irenaeus borrowed Paul’s language when he said they deceived many “silly women.”
Paul’s first letter to Timothy was a guide to combatting what was “falsely called knowledge” (6:20). In Greek, “knowledge” is gnōsis. We sometimes talk about the thirty “Aeons” (supernatural beings such as “Charis”) imagined by gnostics as standing between the ultimate God and the physical world. Explanations of how they were inter-related—who begat whom—varied from one gnostic teacher to another. This is probably what Paul had in mind when he warned against “fables and endless genealogies” (1 Tim. 1:3).
Many of the gnostics believed the God of the Old Testament was not the ultimate God, but rather the ignorant offspring of a mis-begotten byproduct of one of those thirty Aeons. With such a conception of the God of creation, they claimed to despise the physical creation. Some of them denied Christ’s incarnation. They generally rejected belief in a future resurrection. Like Hymenaeus and Philetus, they said the resurrection was past already. They claimed the only resurrection is the spiritual one experienced when one first comes to know Christ.
Paul does not address all aspects of gnostic teaching in Colossians 2. Yet, there are indications he has in view the evolving gnostic influence, and there is relevance in our day.
In Colossians 2:8, Paul warns against being taken captive by “philosophy and empty deception.” Gnosticism was not an organized religion but a speculative philosophy, an amalgamation of eastern mysticism, Greek notions of deities, Judaistic influence in some cases, and a lot of Christian vocabulary. (The names given to the imagined 30 Aeons were such things as “Grace,” “Faith,” “Truth,” “Hope,” “Love,” “Assembly,” etc.) It was carnality deceptively disguised as spirituality.
There is another phrase in verse eight that we should notice. In the different versions of the NT, it is variously translated as “the elemental spirits of the world,” “the rudiments of the world,” “the basic principles of the world,” etc. More accurately, the phrase is simply, “the elements of the world.” That phrase was used by gnostics in referring to the physical creation, which they professed to despise. Paul takes their phrase and equates it with their own system. Paul says their teachings, which they exalted as being superior to the world, are the elements of the world.
“Fullness” was the word used by gnostics for the whole constellation of the 30 Aeons. They imagined the ultimate deity to be the beginning of the 30 Aeons. Christ, as explained by some of them, was a mere offspring of these 30 Aeons. For some of them, the idea that Christ was in a fleshly body was unthinkable. (cf. 1 John 2:22; 4:2.) Gnostics purported to disdain “bodily” things. Remember their phrase, “the elements of the world”? In fact, the full phrase they used was “the bodily elements of the world.” In Colossians 2:9, Paul says, “the fullness of Deity dwelt in Christ bodily.” In one sentence, Paul gives Christ preeminence and affirms His sojourn in the flesh, thus confronting gnostic teaching on two points.
“Self-abasement” is the phrase used in the NASB translation of Colossians 2:18 for the ascetic practices advocated by some gnostics. Saturninus and his followers preached against marriage and against eating meat. Remember that Paul warned Timothy that some would come opposing marriage and imposing dietary restrictions (1 Tim. 4:3). Already near the beginning of the seventh decade of the first century, Paul alludes to the ascetic rules some were promoting—“Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch”—and says these rules themselves are “elements of the world” (Col. 2:20-21).
Some gnostic teachers imposed strict rules on the unenlightened Christians who had not been initiated into the special gnostic knowledge while they themselves lived promiscuously. They reasoned that, with their special knowledge, they were above it all. You might think of the Corinthians’ motto, “every sin is without the body.” So also the enlightened gnostic supposed that whatever the body did was not sin; it was irrelevant, as long as he had the special gnostic enlightenment.
Paul rebukes this elitist attitude when he speaks of their being “inflated” by a “fleshly mind” (Col. 2:18). He is saying that the very people who thought themselves spiritually superior with their special knowledge, who attributed the creation of flesh to the work of an ignorant god, were themselves characterized by fleshly minds.
The spiritual elitism of the gnostics is seen again today in various ways. We see it in some who think they speak in tongues, who think the Holy Spirit speaks to them directly by means of a voice in their head (or a feeling in their heart) which no one else hears. Such people often think themselves immune to what the Holy Spirit has, in fact, said through the written word. A point of unwelcome Biblical teaching is dismissed: “Well, I know God. I have the Holy Spirit. If you had the Holy Spirit like I do, you would not be so hung up on your book religion.” Trivializing obedience to the written word as “book religion” while claiming a more intimate relationship with God is akin to the spiritual elitism that characterized the Gnostics so long ago. John said, “hereby we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3).
Some who identify themselves as “Messianic Jews” pride themselves in informing others that “there is no ‘J’ in Hebrew or Greek,” and in saying “Yeshua” instead of “Jesus.” (However, then they will use the word “Jews” and “Judaism,” both having a “J” in English!) They are also fond of using the Hebrew expressions for the various OT feasts, or to speak of the Sabbath. It is a human tendency to take pride in knowing something that others don’t know. We like to be the one who is in on the secret—in this case, “the real pronunciation.” This can be another manifestation of spiritual elitism.
Denying the resurrection is the defining trait of the realized eschatology movement, also known as the 70 AD doctrine. It seems to me that an elitist attitude sometimes accompanies this doctrine: “With my deeper understanding of Scripture, I see that the passages you take to be talking about a future resurrection are actually talking about something else.”
In a context where John is confronting gnostic influence, he warns against the pride that is of the world (1 John 2:16).
The speculative bent of the early gnostics is alive and well today. They enjoyed speculating about Aeons—which male divinity consorted with which female divinity to produce which offspring. I know of some today who are consumed with speculations in demonology, supposing they can identify by name which demon is responsible for a given misfortune. “End-times” speculation is rampant among many Evangelicals. Many cannot get motivated to study their Bibles unless they think they’re seeing some clue about the “end times,” some key to interpreting geopolitical events that will allow them to decipher the time of the Lord’s return. Such people are more interested in what God has not told us than they are in what God has told us.
Finally, Marcus has his kin today. Some men like to be in the pulpit because they like to be on stage; they like to be “the guy.” They project confidence and power, and that can be attractive to a woman. Such a man may also feed on the admiration of women. Then add to the scenario a vulnerable woman, dissatisfied with her own marriage, and you have a disaster in the making for the two of them and for the entire congregation.
Some people find it pointless to learn about the gnostic tendencies referenced in various NT passages, yet there is value in comprehending the nature of the error that Paul addresses in Colossians 2. The value is not merely historical and academic. We need to see that the human tendencies at work then are still a danger today.
