In what year did the heresy Gnosticism begin?

In what year did the heresy Gnosticism begin?

before they finished writing the new testament ... actually it's much older than Christianity..

edit:

Mahala: see http://www.unl.edu/classics/classics_courses.shtml#CLAS410810
-- in 100 BCE there was gnosticism

see also http://www.halexandria.org/dward206.htm around 600 BCE people tried to be enlightened through knowledge

The Gnostics were a community in Turkey in the 2ND century. I don't know if they identified themselves before that.

(Crazy Pirate is giving you the answer of those who hate Christians are try every way they can to undermine our religion. Ask him for evidence. He's probably afraid to offer it to me.)

Prior to Christianity......though christian Gnostic's were common as well.....Read Mark to see the presence of gnosticism in your bible.

1st century.
Exact year??? don't know.

it's old, Prue-christian, but if you're speaking of the gnostic gospels, then i would say that they began to creep into the newly christian church in and around 50-70AD. Paul, the apostle, speaks of them and strongly disputes their teachings.

When Paul wrote to the Colossian church, one of the issues he addressed was a Gnostic heresy. This letter was written ca. 60 A.D.

John the beloved also wrote his letter addressing Gnosticism, and was written ca. 95 A.D.

"Christian" Gnosticism was full-blown in the 2ND Century A.D.

to Jane,

The reality of a mystery does not suggest Gnosticism.

Jesus did nothing in secret. Everything that he did and said was out in the open.

As he made his followers to see, if one is not willing to become humble then one cannot see the truth.

Gnosticism wasn't just one sect. It was basically an umbrella term that seemed to cover a variety of religions and philosophies around the Mediterranean from as far back as the 3rd century BCE to about the 3rd century CE. The general idea is that human beings are divine souls trapped in the material world by an imperfect god (The Demiurge). The Gnostics believed that beyond this flawed world and it's flawed god was a higher spiritual reality. It was a synergistic religious movement, which incorporated Egyptian, Greek (especially Neoplatonism), Roman, Jewish, and later, Christian ideas and symbolism. While it was considered a "heresy" by the early Church, there is quite a bit of Gnostic influence on the New Testament. The Gospel of John, and the Pauline Epistles especially show some Gnostic ideas.

A.. Not "heresy."
B... a few hundred years before Jesus called Christ was born. In fact, the original Gnosticism was to Greek and Egyptian Gods and Men called "Christs." (Christ is sort of like a Greek Enlightened Buddha... Messiach is what Jesus claimed to be) There was Pathagorus Christ, who we still honor because of his holy Mathematics, and Hermes Trimagesterius.