s kai nekrous]. We know that Marcion, who
may already be mentioned here, referred the whole eschatological
expectations of early Christian times to the province of the god of the
Jews, and we hear that Gnostics (Valentinians) retained the words
[Greek: sarkos anastasin], but interpreted them to mean that one must
rise in this life, that is perceive the truth (thus the "resurrectio a
mortuis", that is, exaltation above the earthly, took the place of the
"resurrectio mortuorum"; See Iren. II. 31. 2: Tertull., de resurr.
carnis, 19). While the Christian tradition placed a great drama at the
close of history, the Gnostics regard the history itself as the drama,
which virtually closes with the (first) appearing of Christ. It may not
have been the opinion of all Gnostics that the resurrection has already
taken place, yet for most of them the expectations of the future seem to
have been quite faint, and above all without significance. The life is
so much included in knowledge, that we nowhere in our sources find a
strong expression of hope in a life beyond (it is different in the
earliest Gnostic documents preserved in the Coptic language), and the
introduction of the spirits into the Pleroma appears very vague and
uncertain. But it is of great significance that those Gnostics who,
according to their premises, required a real redemption from the world
as the highest good, remained finally in the same uncertainty and
religious despondency with regard to this redemption, as characterised
the Greek philosophers. A religion which is a philosophy of religion
remains at all times fixed to this life, however strongly it may
emphasise the contrast between the spirit and its surroundings, and
however ardently it may desire redemption. The desire for redemption is
unconsciously replaced by the thinker's joy in his knowledge, which
allays the desire (Iren. III. 15. 2: "Inflatus est iste [scil. the
Valentinian proud of knowledge] neque in coelo, neque in terra putat se
esse, sed intra Pleroma introisse et complexum jam angelum suum, cum
institorio et supercilio incedit gallinacei elationem habens....
Plurimi, quasi jam perfecti, semetipsos spiritales vocant, et se nosse
jam dicunt eum qui sit intra Pleroma ipsorum refrigerii locum"). As in
every philosophy of religion, an element of free thinking appears very
plainly here also. The eschatological hopes can only have been
maintained in vigour by the conviction that the world is of God. But w