GNOSTICISM
896
GOAD
exception of the followers of ]Manes, wc have no evi- dence that the Gnostics ever attempted a distinct ec- clesiastical organization. ]Man\' of them were never excluded from the orthodox churches, within which they only sought to form schools and social circles. They practised baptism, and helieved that in this rite, as in the baptism of Christ, the higher spirit was more abundantly inipiirted, and tlie human spirit was eman- cipated from ti)c power of the Demiurge. Most of tiiem were inclined by tlieir poetic fancies and their love of sA'mbols to a gorgeous stjle of worship, but the more common ordinances and observances of the Church were neglected as useful only to such as were on the ground of mere faith. 8. Their ethics and prac- tical morality were usually dependent upon dualistic principles. Among the Hellenistic Gnostics it took the form of a struggle against matter, which not un- frequently ran into asceticism, and sometimes into the use of charms and astrological practices. The Ori- ental Gnostics, on the other hand, are said in many in- stances to have plunged into immoralities, sometimes with the view of showing their contempt for the Demi- urge and his laws, or because they regarded the body as an indifferent thing to a spirit united with the su- preme God, and sniiject to no inferior law. Saturni- nus, Marcion, and Manes rejected marriage ; but many Gnostics not only sulimitted to it, but looked upon it as the highest law of pneumatic natures. We have no evidence that the standard of moralitj' was lower among the Gnostics generally than among orthodox Christians in general.
One is amazed at the boldness, the fanciful nature, and the high pretensions of Gnosticism. In the course of a century and a half it comes and goes before us like a splendid vision. And j'et its influence upon Christianity was profound and permanent. It gave occasion to a great expansion of Christian thought, to a clearer idea of the historical relation of Christianit}' to earlier and surrounding religions, and to a better definition of the basis of true faith. It deserves a mare careful study than it has usually received.
VI. Literature. — The original authorities are the ec- clesiastical writers of the period generally, but espe- cialh' Irenajus and Epiphanius, Ado. hareses ; Tertul- lian, De priescript. Har.^ contra Gnost. scorp., adv. Val- entitiianos, adv. Marcianum ; Hippoh'tus, Kara iraty. a'ict. i'Xty ync, and the rhilosopkmmena usually ascribed to him ; Thcoduret, Jla'r. Fahh. Also Clemens Alex, and Origen in raanj^ passages ; Gnostic fragments in Grabe's Spicilegium ; Miinter's Odce Gnosticce (Kopenh. 1812) ; Pislis Sophia (a Gnostic work translated from a Copt. Codex by Schwartz and edited hy Petermann, Berlin, 1851) ; Cerdus iVasarmis (ed. by Norberg, and sometimes called the Bible of Gnosticism) ; Bardes'mes Gnosticus S;/rorum primus Ilymnologus, and Antitheses Marcioivs Gnosiici (two Gnostic works published bj' Aug. Ilahn, Leips. 1819, 1823); also tlic Neo-Platonist work of Plotinus, Ilpot,- r. yvwfjriKovQ (I'^mend. ii, lib. ix). The English reader can gain access to nianj- of these ecclesiastical writers by means of the Ante-Ni- cene Chr. Lib., edited by Drs. Ptoberts and Donaldson, now in course of publication at Edinburgh.
Tiie modern literature of Gnosticism is very abun- dant. Besides the general ecclesiasticiil histories of Gieseler, Neander, Hase, and Schaff, the doctrinal his- ttiries of Ilagenbach, F. K. Meier, F. C. Baur, A. Nean- der, L. Noack, and Shedd, and tlie histories of philoso- phy i)y H. Hitter, Tennemann, F. 1). Maurice, and the Frencli history translated by C. S. Henry, the more important special works on the subject are, A. Nean- 1 der. Genet. Entwichl. d. rorn. ffnn.<!t. St/st. (Berl. 1818) ;
Kosmologie d. Griech. Kirche (18G2) ; R. A. Lipsius, Gnos- ticismus, etc. (Le\\)s. 18G0) ; Norton's //i5<. of the Gnostics (184o) ; C. A. Lewald, l)e doctrina Gnost. (1818) ; H. Kossel, Gesch. d. Untersuch. ii. d. Gnost. in Theol. Nachl. (Berl. 1847). Articles on Gnosticism have been pub- lished by F. R. Lucke in Berl. theol. Zeitschr. (1819) ; J. C. L. Gieseler, in Hal. lit. Zeit. (1823) and Stud. u. Krit. (1830) ; F. C. Baur, Stud. u. Krit. (1837) ; H. T. Cheever, in Amer. Blbl. Repository, Oct. 1840 ; R. Bax- mann, in Deutsche Zeitschr. (1861), and transl. in Amer. Theol. Rev. Oct. 1862; and on the later history of the Nazoreans, or Mandai Jahia, in the Christian Review, Jan. 1855 : an excellent article bj' J. L. Jacohi may be found in Herzog's Real-Kncykloji.furprot. Theol. See also Appleton's, Brando's, and Chambers's Cyclopes- dias. (C. P. W.)
Goa, the largest of the Portuguese possessions in India, embracing the provinces of Salfette and Kan- kara and six islands. Its population was, in 1869, about 304,000, of whom two thirds were connected with the Roman Catholic Church. The city of Goa, the capital of Portuguese India, is the seat of an arch- bishop. The jurisdiction of the archbishop of Goa has been in modern times the suliject of a violent dispute between the popes and the kings of Portugal. See Portugal. (A. J. S.)
Goad C^'z'b^, malmeid', an instrument tor guiding; the Greeks used the term jSouXii^, Iliad, vi. 135, also ftoiiKivTQov, or simplv KiVT^tov; see Schcittgen, De stimulo bourn, Francof. 1717 ; Hager, De ttooq Kivroa XaKTi'Ctiv, Lips. 1738). " Shamgar, the son of Anath, slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox- goad" (Judg. iii, 31). Maundrell gives us the best account of the ox-goad, which is no doubt j the same as that used in the days of Sham- ' gar. "At Khan Leban the country people were now everywhere at plough in the fields in order to sow cotton. 'Twas observable that in ploughing they used goads of an extra- ordinar}' size ; upon measuring of several I found them to be about eight feet long, and at the bigger end six inches in circumference. They are armed at the lesser end with a sharp prickle for driving the oxen, and at the other end with a small spade or paddle of iron, strong and massy, to clear the plough from the clav that encumbers it in working" (^Journal of a Journey from Aleppo to Jemsalem, p. 11(1). This was in the north of Syria. Prof. Hack- ett says, " The ox-goads that I saw in tlie south I should judge to be quite as large. It is manifest that such an instrument, wielded by a strong arm, would do no mean execution. It is easy, therefore, to credit the account of Shamgar's acliievement. AVe maj' suppose, however (so fragmentary is the notice), that he was not entireh' alone ; that some others rallied to his aid with such instruments of la- bor as they could snatch at the moment" (11- lustratiuns of Scripture, p. 155). See Agriculture.