Gnosticism

Gnosticism, derived from the Greek word for "knowledge" (gnosis), refers to a religious movement which claimed that salvation was based on secret knowledge conveyed to the elect by a heavenly revealer. Gnostic teachings posed a strong challenge to the emerging orthodoxy in the Christian church, since its teachers claimed that they, not the orthodox bishops, possessed the secret revelations which Jesus had transmitted to individual disciples after his resurrection. They differentiated the evil god of the world (who is identified with the god of the Old Testament) from a higher more abstract good revealed by Jesus Christ. Gnosticism regards this world as the creation of powers who wish to keep the human soul trapped in the evil physical body.