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The classic explanation does leave some problems unsolved,
however. Little doubt exists that there are ideas, attitudes,
and practices incorporated into many of the gnostic heresies
that are found outside of Hellenistic thought and much earlier
than the second century of the Christian era. In particular, the
ultimate goal of the Gnostics--to return to the absolute deity
beyond matter and to be in some sense absorbed into the deity--
belongs to near eastern pre-Christian mystical thought and not
primarily to the Hellenistic world. The existence of such non-
Hellenistic features in the gnostic sects has occasioned studies
of the possibility of there being a pre-Christian gnosticism
which could be understood in itself rather than as an heretical
offshoot of the Christian faith. Some researchers came to the
conclusion that there was a full-fledged, organized, pre-
Christian gnostic religion with a literature and most crucially
--the hope of a redeemer who