Basilides
Basilides was an early Christian Gnostic religious teacher in Alexandria, Egypt who, according to Clement of Alexandria, was active between 117–161 AD, and claimed to have inherited his teachings from the apostle Saint Matthias. He was a pupil of either the Simonian teacher Menander, or a disciple of Peter called Glaucias. He is believed to have written over a 24 book long commentary on the Christian Gospel as reported by Agrippa Castor entitled Exegetica, making him one of the earliest Gospel commentators. Origen of Alexandria informs us of a Gospel according to Basilides but his report is probably nothing more than a distortion of the well-known fact that Basilides had composed a collection of commentaries on the Gospel, his Exegetica. Jerome and Ambrose similarly follow this error.
The followers of Basilides, the Basilideans, formed a movement that persisted for at least two centuries after him – Epiphanius of Salamis, at the end of the 4th century, recognized a persistent Basilidian presence over the Nile Delta in Egypt. It is probable, however, that the school melded into the mainstream of Gnosticism by the latter half of the 2nd century.
Doctrine
The two main sources for the mythological and philosophical system of Basilides are from the writings of Irenaeus and Hippolytus of Rome. However, these two sources starkly contradict one another. The consensus of historians previously favored the account of Hippolytus as more authentic, but the matter has become more contested in recent years, and some even consider both accounts as unreliable.Theogony
According to Irenaeus, Basilides believed that the ungendered Father was the first principle. From the Father came a total of five emanations: the Nous originated from the Father, the Logos emanated from the Nous, Phronesis emanated from the Logos, Phronesis Sophia emanated from Phronesis, and Dynamis emanated from Phronesis Sophia. Clement of Alexandria specifies that Basilides believed in a primal Ogdoad, or eight primordial deities. This octet of beings is composed by "Justice" and its offspring "Peace". A second source confirming the belief in an Ogdoad by Basilides is the Testimony of Truth from the Nag Hammadi library. Basilides may have received the idea of an Ogdoad from a Jewish gnostic work in Alexandria.Cosmology and cosmogony
Irenaeus reports that Basilides believed that Sophia and Dynamis created a group of angels, and these angels were responsible for the creation of the first heaven. Emanations of the first angels then created the second heaven. Emanations from the second angels created the third heaven, and so on, until 365 heavens were created. This, for Basilides, also explains why the number of days in a year was set at 365. This system of creator-angels creating a series of heavens in accordance with the number of days in a calendrical year is found in several other cosmologies, like that of Saturninus of Antioch, the Epistle of Eugnostos, and the long version of the Apocryphon of John. The world as it is known to humans corresponds to the final heaven, and was created by the final angelic emanation. The chief of this final set of emanations is, in the view of Basilides, the God of the Jews, so called because he favors the Jewish people.Jesus
Basilides and his followers largely accepted the biography of Jesus found in the canonical Gospels. One possible deviation, however, is claimed by Irenaeus: that Jesus was substituted on the cross with Simon of Cyrene during the walk to Golgotha. Simon was commissioned to carry the cross of Jesus during this walk, but at some point, their physical features were swapped. Simon was then crucified, while Jesus stood by, laughing and ridiculing them. However, M. David Litwa has argued that Irenaeus has confused the views of Basilides with those of others, such as the views found in the Second Treatise of the Great Seth. Irenaeus elsewhere reports that the Basilidean view was that the body of Jesus suffered on the cross, which is also confirmed by Clement of Alexandria's Stromata. The image of Jesus in the initial report of Irenaeus also does not fit well with the character of Jesus in Basilides' canonical sources and matches more with the attempts of other heresiologists, like Tertullian, to paint their opponents as rejecting the salvific death of Jesus.Faith and Election
Like other gnostics, Basilides taught that salvation comes through knowledge and not faith. This knowledge, or gnosis, was considered esoteric, a revelation to human beings by the divine being, Jesus Christ. Faith played no part in salvation. Indeed, Basilides believed faith was merely "an assent of the soul to any of the things which do not excite sensation, because they are not present". He also believed faith was a matter of "nature," not of conscious choice, so that men would "discover doctrines without demonstration by an intellective apprehension". Basilides also appears to have accumulated forms of dignity in accordance with ones' faith.Because Basilides believed faith was a matter of nature, doubtlessly he pushed election so far as to sever a portion of mankind from the rest, as alone entitled by Divine decree to receive a higher enlightenment. In this sense it must have been that he called "the elect a stranger to the world, as being by nature supermundane".
Metempsychosis
Basilides likewise brought in the notion of sin in a past stage of existence suffering its penalty here, "the elect soul" suffering "honourably through martyrdom, and the soul of another kind being cleansed by an appropriate punishment." To this doctrine of metempsychosis the Basilidians are likewise said to have referred the language of the Lord about requital to the third and fourth generations; Origen states that Basilides himself interpreted in this sense,However, if there be any who suffers without previous sin, it will not be "by the design of an power", but as suffers the babe who appears to have committed no sin. The infant is said to receive a benefit when it is subjected to suffering, "gaining" many hardships.
Hell
Origen complained that Basilides deprived men of a salutary fear by teaching that transmigrations are the only punishments after death.Martyrdom
Because Basilides held to a fatalistic view of metempsychosis, he believed the Christian martyrs were being punished not for being Christians, but for sins they had committed in the past. This is why Origen says that he depreciated the martyrs.Passions
The Basilideans were accustomed to call the passions Appendages, stating that these are certain spirits that append themselves to rational souls in a certain primitive turmoil and confusion. Then, they imitate the actions of those they are appended to, and not only acquire the impulses of the irrational animals, but even imitate the movements and beauties of plants. These Appendages can also have characteristics of habit , as the hardness of a diamond.Practices
Marriage
Reciting the views of different heretics on marriage, Clement gives specimens of the teaching of Basilides and his son Isidore, by way of rebuke to the immorality of the later Basilidians. He first reports the exposition of , in which there is nothing specially to note except the interpretation of the last class of eunuchs as those who remain in celibacy to avoid the distracting cares of providing a livelihood. He goes on to the paraphrase of, interposing in the midst an illustrative sentence from Isidore, and transcribes the language used about the class above mentioned.Epiphany
Although we have no evidence that Basilides, like some others, regarded Jesus's Baptism as the time when a Divine being first was joined to Jesus of Nazareth, it seems clear that he attached some unusual significance to the event. St. Hippolytus of Rome implied that Basilides regarded the Baptism as the occasion when Jesus received "the Gospel" by a Divine illumination."They of Basilides," says Clement, "celebrate the day of His Baptism by a preliminary night-service of readings." The Venice MS. states that the Basilideans celebrated the night before the Epiphany singing and flute-playing in a heathen temple at Alexandria: so that probably the Basilidian rite was a modification of an old local custom.