ORIGIN
........Whereas formerly Gnosticism was considered mostly a
corruption of
Christianity, it now seems clear that the first
traces of Gnostic systems can be discerned some centuries before
the Christian Era. Its Eastern origin was already maintained by
Gieseler and Neander; F. Ch. Bauer (1831) and Lassen
(185
sought to prove its relation to the religions of
India; Lipsius (1860) pointed to Syria and Phoenicia as its home,
and Hilgenfeld (1884) thought it was connected with later Mazdeism.
Joel (1880), Weingarten (1881), Koffmane (1881), Anrich (1894), and
Wobbermin (1896) sought to account for the rise of Gnosticism by
the influence of Greek Platonic philosophy and the Greek mysteries,
while Harnack described it as "acute Hellenization of
Christianity".
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06592a.htm