Gnosticism and Kabbalah

A short time after the beginning of Humanistic Hebraism and Christian Kabbalah, the first reflections about the Kabbalah and Gnosticism appear. Cornelius Agrippa, with little sympathy for either, claims that “Ophites, Gnosticks, and Valentinians” came from kabbalistic superstitions. As an example of kabbalistic speculation in Gnosticism, he mentions the “Body of Truth,” in which the Anthropos is composed of letters, as envisioned by Marcus, Valentinus’s disciple (Agrippa, De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum declamatio invectiva [1531], pp. 64v-65f). This example remains relevant in modern discussions on the topic. Over time, the concept of the connection between Gnosticism and Kabbalah gained some popularity, especially during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Stroumsa 1993). Hegel describes Kabbalah and Gnosticism as two connected doctrines stemming from Philo (Hegel 2006: 327–9)