HISTORICAL DEBATE: The Beginning of Gnosticism

Is Plato the Founder Father of Gnosticism?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines gnosis specifically as "a knowledge of spiritual mysteries," but it is also seen as that illuminating spiritual spark that might be possessed by a saint or some other elevated and enlightened soul. Plato refers to gnostike techne, which could reasonably be translated as "the art of knowing", or perhaps even "the art of managing things that are known."

He is very specific about this term because he suggests that any king or ruler who had this quality would be "like a god come down to rule mankind." To illustrate this Plato created a fictitious dialogue between the young philosopher Socrates and a stranger. In this long conversation Plato makes Socrates expound on the virtues of the political ruler who has true gnosis.


And most importantly did Plato prophesy the coming of Christ?


The modern commentator Morton Smith in his book "Studies in the Cult of Yahweh," sums up the meaning of this long passage and Plato's ideas about the king who has gnostike techne by saying:

"(In Plato) this individual would be the ideal king, the only man capable of knowing God, who would therefore act as the mediator between God and man; he would be, in effect, the nous (the divine intellect) of his subjects in whom he would restore their lost contact with the heavenly world from which he came."

For Plato the ideal king is a mediator between God and Man, and he invented a term to describe the “Christ.” It is entirely correct to translate Christ as Messiah. But the Greek word could also correspond to “the Good” or better yet “the Right One.” Messiah could either mean the king of the Jews or the risen Christ, which re-present Jesus as the Son of God.

Few people at the time would have seen Jesus as a likely candidate to be the Jew Messiah, unless of course he had been able to surround himself with a suitable army, throw the Romans out of Judea and be proclaimed as the new king of Israel.