Gnosticism

In the first half of the 20th century, many scholars argued that the Gospel of John had common elements with Gnosticism.  Gnosticism taught that salvation came from gnosis, a secret knowledge that had to be learned.  Christian Gnosticism did not fully develop until the mid-2nd century.  Christian Gnostics saw Jesus not as a savior, but as a revealer of knowledge.  Thus, 2nd-century Proto-Orthodox Christians examined it and refuted it.  To say that John contained elements of Gnosticism is to assume that Gnosticism had developed to a level that required the author to respond to it.  Examples of this Gnosticism in John would be the pre-existing Logos, and the duality of light versus darkness.  However, these themes may have come from the Book of Proverbs, that were developed in Hellenistic Judaism.  The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran verified the Jewish nature of these concepts.  Thus, maybe Gnostics read John but interpreted it differently from the way that non-Gnostics did.  Jesus spoke about a revealed wisdom, specifically the belief in Jesus.  The view that Jesus was a savior who came from an outside alien world could fit into their Gnostic view.  Perhaps the similarities between John and Gnosticism may spring from common roots in Jewish Apocalyptic literature.  Is religion about knowledge or belief?