protoGnosticism

Proto-Gnosticism is a term used to describe the early development of Gnosticism, a spiritual movement that emerged in the 1st century AD. The term "proto-Gnosticism" was coined by philosopher and historian Hans Jonas to describe the earliest forms of Gnosticism before it became a distinct religious movement.

In the 1st century AD, the Jewish Apocalyptic movement was a significant influence on the development of proto-Gnosticism. Jesus and his earliest followers, including the apostle Paul, drew on Jewish Apocalyptic traditions that emphasized the substitution of divine redemptive events with historical and mythological events. These narratives often featured a savior figure, similar to the one described in the Gnostic gospels.

Early Christian writers, such as the author of the Gospel of Thomas, began to write texts that departed from traditional Christian orthodoxy, emphasizing Pauline and Jewish traditions. These writers saw Jesus as a divine being, rather than the son of God born as a human, as described in the New Testament. They also revered a form of the divine feminine known as the Sophia (Wisdom) in their texts.

The texts associated with early Christianity, notably the Gnostic texts such as the Nag Hammadi library, demonstrate a tradition that rejected traditional Jewish and early Christian orthodoxy. Proto-Gnostic texts often disputed the identification of any single figure as the unified divinity or rejected the status of material creation as first good.

Proto-Gnosticism denotes the philosophical and theological groundwork that over time would evolve into the distinct christological and ontological leadership enthrallment present in the earliest of Gnostic literature typically composed in Greek (from approximately 100 AD onwards).