appeared in 1828 in the work by Protestant historian of gnosticism JacquesMatter [fr] (1791–1864), Histoire critique du gnosticisme (3 vols.). The term
Ernest Anton Lewald proposed Persian and Zoroastrian origins, while JacquesMatter described Gnosticism as an intrusion of eastern cosmological and theosophical
causes confusion and longing to return to it. Because of these longings, matter (Greek: hylē, ὕλη) and soul (Greek: psychē, ψυχή) accidentally come into