Basilides of Alexandria
Basilides was an early Christian teacher who worked in Alexandria in the first half of the second century, probably during the reign of Hadrian. He belonged to the diverse intellectual world in which Christian scripture, Greek philosophy, Jewish thought, and the emerging Gnostic schools met. Ancient reports connect him with secret teaching attributed to Matthias or to Glaucias, a follower of Peter, but these lines of transmission cannot be verified.
Teacher and School
Basilides appears to have founded a school whose followers were called Basilidians; his son Isidore continued the work. Agrippa Castor, cited by Eusebius, says that Basilides wrote the Exegetica, a twenty-four-book interpretation of the Gospel. The work is lost, but the report places him among the earliest known Christian commentators on Gospel tradition. His community remained identifiable for generations in Egypt.
Teaching
Very little survives in Basilides’ own voice. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus, Origen, and later writers preserve reports or fragments, but their accounts do not fully agree. The most reliable picture is therefore provisional. Basilides appears to have reflected on a transcendent first principle, the layered orders of the invisible world, the place of the cosmos within a larger divine order, and the soul’s restoration through awakened knowledge—gnosis. The number 365 and the name Abraxas are closely associated with his school in ancient accounts.
His Place in Christianity and Gnosticism
Basilides stands within the formative second-century Christian world, before a fixed canon and orthodox theology had fully taken shape. He was not simply an outsider using Christian language, but a Christian teacher whose interpretation of Christ, creation, and salvation differed sharply from the theology later affirmed as catholic orthodoxy. Alongside Valentinus, he is one of the most important representatives of Alexandrian Gnosis. His school demonstrates how widely early Christians differed over the nature of God, the material cosmos, Christ’s saving work, and the path of redemption. The responses to Basilides and similar teachers also helped Irenaeus and other early writers define the boundaries of emerging orthodox Christianity.
A Note on the Sources
Basilides’ writings have largely vanished. Claims about his cosmology, ethics, or view of the crucifixion should be read with care: they may come from hostile opponents, later Basilidian circles, or reports that preserve conflicting forms of the teaching.