Gnosticism and AD 70

In a book published in 1959, R. M. Grant attempted “to explain Gnosticism as arising out of the debris of apocalyptic-eschatological hopes which resulted from the fall or falls of Jerusalem.” According to a reviewer in Theology T0day , “Grant stresses the Jewish element which, as he rightly says, has in the past been unduly neglected; but lie is fully aware that this was not, the only element in the very complex phenomenon which we know as Gnosticism. Jonas in his recent book The Gnostic Religion says that nothing as yet has convinced him of ‘the judaistic thesis,’ rightly if this means a theory which sees in Judaism the sole fons et origo ; but in regard to the importance of the Jewish contribution Grant surely provides evidence enough and to spare. The second chapter finds confirmation for the theory in the ways in which the Gnostic picture of the heavenly world emerged from speculations characteristic of Jewish apocalyptic, while the third deals with the traditions relating to Simon Magus and with some other systems which show similar attitudes to the Jewish Law. The fourth chapter is concerned with ‘the Syrian Gnosis specifically related to Christian ideas of salvation,’ and the fifth with the major systems of the second century. Here Grant takes issue with the thesis of Bultmann and Jonas, that Gnosticism begins in mythology and ends in philosophy. Finally the closing chapter discusses Gnosticism and early Christianity, and a brief conclusion completes the book.”