Monad (Gnosticism)
TheMonadinGnosticismis an adaptation of concepts of theMonad in Greek philosophyto Christian gnostic belief systems.
Overview[edit]
The termmonadcomes from the Greek feminine nounmonas(nominativesingular, μονάς), "one unit," where the ending-sin the nominative form resolves to the ending-dindeclension.[1]
In some gnostic systems, the Supreme Being is known as theMonad,the One,the Absolute,Aiōn Teleos(the PerfectAeon,αἰών τέλεος),Bythos(Depth or Profundity,Βυθός),Proarchē(Before the Beginning,προαρχή),Hē Archē(The Beginning,ἡ ἀρχή), theIneffable Parent,and/or theprimal Father.
Prominentearly Christiangnostics likeValentinustaught that the Monad is the high source of thePleroma,the region of light constituting "the fullness of the Godhead." Through a process ofemanation,various divine entities and realms emerge from the One. Arranged hierarchically, they become progressively degraded due to their remoteness from the Father. The various emanations of the One, totaling thirty in number (or 365, according toBasilides), are calledAeons.Among them existJesus(who resides close to the Father) and the lowest emanation,Sophia (wisdom),whose fall results in the creation of the material world.[2]
According toTheodoret's book on heresies (Haereticarum Fabularum Compendiumi.18), the Arab ChristianMonoimus(c. 150–210) used the term Monad to mean the highestgodthat created lessergods,or elements (similar to Aeons). In some versions of Christian gnosticism, especially those deriving from Valentinius, a lesser deity known as theDemiurge(see alsoNeoplatonism,Plotinus) had a role in the creation of the material world separate from the Monad. In these forms of gnosticism, the God of theOld Testament,YHWH,is often considered to have been the Demiurge, not the Monad,[3]or sometimes different passages are interpreted as referring to each.
Apocryphon of John,writtenc. 180,gives the following description:
The Monad is a monarchy with nothing above it. It is he who exists as God and Father of everything, the invisible One who is above everything, who exists as incorruption, which is in the pure light into which no eye can look. "He is the invisible Spirit, of whom it is not right to think of him as a god, or something similar. For he is more than a god, since there is nothing above him, for no one lords it over him. For he does not exist in something inferior to him, since everything exists in him. For it is he who establishes himself. He is eternal, since he does not need anything. For he is total perfection.[4]
Historical background[edit]
According toHippolytus of Rome,this view was inspired by thePythagoreans,for whom the first existing thing was theMonad,which begat thedyad,which begat thenumbers,which begat thepoint,begettinglines,and so on.[5]Pythagorean andPlatonic philosopherslikePlotinusandPorphyrycondemned the "gnosis"that would later characterize Gnostic systems for their treatment of the Monad or One (seeNeoplatonism and Gnosticism).
For a long time, legend persisted that a young man by the name ofEpiphanes,who died at the age of 17, was the leader of Monadic Gnosticism. However, scholars think the legend may have come from misunderstanding of the Greek wordepiphanēswhich may have been mistaken as a personal name if in text, when in fact the Greek meansdistinguished,as in adistinguished teacher.[6]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Francis E. Peters Greek Philosophical Terms: A Historical Lexicon 1970 p. 42.
- ^Louis P. Pojman, "Valentinus," inThe Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy,3rd ed., ed. Robert Audi.
- ^Louis P. Pojman, "gnosticism," inThe Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy,3rd ed., ed. Robert Audi.
- ^"The Apocryphon of John - Frederik Wisse - the Nag Hammadi Library".
- ^Diogenes Laërtius,Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.
- ^Mead, G.R.S. 1900."Epiphanes,Fragments of a Faith Forgotten,pp. 232–235,available online by The Gnostic Society Library.