The central and most repeated accusation levelled at the Gnostic Christians by Literalist Christians was that they were essentially little different from Pagans. Irenaeus, the great heresy-hunter of early Literalism, condemns the Gnostics for patching together a new garment out of the useless old rags of Greek philosophy.
Tertullian, another author of fanatically anti-Gnostic works, compares the Christian initiations offered by the Gnostics to the Pagan initiations practised at Eleusis. Hippolytus, a disciple of Irenaeus, tells us of a Gnostic group called the ‘Sethians’, of whom he asserts:
‘They took the whole content of their teaching from the ancient [Pagan] theologians Musaeus, Linus, and Orpheus, who especially made known the rites and Mysteries.’
Irenaeus is outraged that Gnostics venerated pictures of Christ alongside ‘images of worldly philosophers such as Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle and the others’.
Gnostics attended Pagan festivals and welcomed Pagans to their own Christian meetings, leading Tertullian to comment reproachfully: ‘It has been observed that heretics have connections with very many magicians, itinerant charlatans, astrologers, and philosophers.’
Although such Literalist Christians grotesquely misrepresented the Gnostics, this was one thing about which they were undoubtedly right: Gnosticism did indeed resemble the Pagan Mysteries. Unlike Literalists, however, Gnostics did not see Paganism as the enemy and so openly acknowledged this debt and encouraged the study of the great philosophers of antiquity. Indeed, Pagan works were discovered alongside Christian texts in the Gnostic library in Nag Hammadi.
Clement of Alexandria was steeped in Pagan philosophy, which he regarded as a divine gift to lead men to Christ. He explains:
‘Greek philosophy purges the soul, and prepares it beforehand for the reception of faith, on which the Truth builds up the edifice of Gnosis.’
Origen, likewise, instructed his pupils that perfect piety required a knowledge of Pagan philosophy, which he calls a fine meal prepared for sophisticated palates. In comparison he claims that Christians ‘cook for the masses’.”