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

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Apr 11 17:03:38 EDT 2011


On Apr 11, 2011, at 4:45 PM, Nichael Cramer wrote:

> 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?

I don't think so. It would appear to me that this is a case of adding 2 
and 2 and getting 5. There's no doubting the proper derivation from Greek
roots and formative elements: alpha privative, adjectival stem GNWST-,
adjectival infix -IK/ -- but my dictionary doesn't indicate usage of the
English word "agnostic" before 1830. I would look to evidence cited
by the OED -- but you don't see any connection indicated there.

Etymological guessing-games are pretty risky, it would seem.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






More information about the B-Greek mailing list