# QUESTION: Proto-Gnostics of the first century: were they anarchists?



## vcannon (Jan 8, 2011)

Greetings, friends. I have a question associated with first-century culture and politics that I’m hoping someone can help me with. In particular, it concerns the proto-Gnostics that had infiltrated the early Church.

Both Bo Reicke and Michael Green (commentators on Jude) make a statement as historical fact that I was unaware to have occurred. I am looking to confirm or falsify this truth claim they have made, but have been unable to do so in any of my books or online searches for information.

In the first century, proto-Gnostic libertines infiltrated the Church and infected it with their heresy – this is an undisputed fact. We have a very well-documented understanding of the first-century proto-Gnostic beliefs and the fully matured mid-second-century Gnosticism that resulted. One aspect that Reicke and Green submit was a component of the proto-Gnostic ideology was anti-social behavior and anarchistic ambitions. This component, they claim, stimulated more hostility against the Church from Roman authorities than there would otherwise have been, resulting in more persecution and killing of genuine Christians along with the infiltrating subversives.

There is evidence of anarchistic tendencies in later Gnosticism, but it is in relation to the proto-Gnostics of the first century that I am looking to confirm or falsify. The heresy of these reprobates was addressed directly by Paul, Peter, John, and Jude in the New Testament.

The practical application of this idea is obvious – when we compromise and allow our churches to be infiltrated by the ungodly, then we subject ourselves to consequences caused by this ‘mixed multitude.’ Reicke and Green discuss this anti-social and anarchistic element of the proto-Gnostics in association with Jude’s text about them going “the way of Cain” as a murderer of the brethren. The attitude and actions of the infiltrating proto-Gnostics (Cain) resulted in the death of the brethren (Abel.)

Here is a pertinent section from Reicke:


> “…there is good reason to argue that their [the infiltrator’s] anarchistic and antinomian propaganda compromised the believers so that they were exposed to persecution from society and even drive to martyrdom…their antisocial behavior aroused the hostility of the Romans and forced the authorities to take active measures against the church. They thereby aggravated the sufferings of the Roman Christians in whose name the author writes. In this sense they and the heretical teachers in Jude are fratricides, and walk in the way of Cain. That the basis of the comparison lies in their subversive propaganda is confirmed by v. 16 [of Jude], in which the teachers of heresy are flatly accused of showing and arousing dissatisfaction with society.” Bo Reicke, The Epistles of James, Peter, and Jude, pp. 205-206.



Does anybody know of any historical record that can back up the assertion of Reike and Green that the proto-Gnostics were anarchists?


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## PuritanCovenanter (Jan 18, 2011)

Bump.... for a friend.


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