Gnosticism · ≈2nd century CE
Basilides
Gnosticism · the Alexandrian school · Exegetica (fragments)
An Alexandrian sage who began not with God, but with what stands above the very word "God."
The essence of the teaching: Behind all names and spheres stands an unknowable source, of which one cannot even say that it is. The seed of light is scattered through the world and slowly ascends back, each part to its own nature.
Transmission
Basilides taught that the beginning of all things lies beyond words. Not God, for "God" is already a name – but that of which nothing can be said, not even that it is. From this unfathomable source the seed of the world was sown, and in the seed was everything: light, soul, matter, tangled together. Ever since, each part slowly rises to its proper place, as a grain reaches toward the light. The son of light ascends to the light, the subtle to the subtle, the coarse settles down. And you need not tear yourself from the world by force – you need only know of what kind you are, and let the spark rise to where it came from.
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