[B-Greek] "Gnostic" and "agnostic"

A. J. Birch AJB1212 at ono.com
Mon Apr 11 16:57:29 EDT 2011


Dear Nichael,

Gnostics think that they know; agnostics know that they don't. (The initial 'a' turns knowing into not knowing.)

Andrew J. Birch
Palma de Mallorca, Spain


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Nichael Cramer 
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org 
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 10:45 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] "Gnostic" and "agnostic"?


All

[I realize that this is not, strictly speaking, a NTGreek question.
But given the collection of folks here, I thought that this might
be a reasonable place to ask my question.  But, feel free to ignore
if you think this is too far Off-topic.]

The other day I heard a lecture concerning the opening chapters of Genesis.
At one point the lecturer mentioned various interpretations that these
chapters had been given over history.  In this context the lecturer mentioned
"...a group from the first and second century C.E. called the "Gnostics".

All well and good.  But at this point, however, the lecturer added as an aside:
     "This is where we get the term 'agnostic'."

So, my question is:  Is there any reason to assume any connection
in the terms "Gnostic" and "agnostic", i.e. in their standard,
accepted meanings in English?

To make the obvious point, I'm certainly aware of the shared "root" etymology
of the two terms (i.e. GNOSIS) --but that's pretty much beside the point.
(Also I've done some quick OED searching and don't find any reason
to connect these terms.)

Anyway, this statement caused a bit of a "bump" in my ear
while listening to what was an otherwise obviously knowledgeable
and informative lecture.

Am I missing something?

Thanks,
Nichael

--
Nichael Cramer
Guilford VT
nichael at sover.net
http://www.sover.net/~nichael/ 

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