Quick Answer
Basilides was a Gnostic teacher active in Alexandria c. 117–138 AD, under the emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. He developed one of the earliest and most philosophically ambitious Gnostic systems — a cosmology of 365 heavens and an utterly unknowable God — which survives only in hostile summaries by Irenaeus and Hippolytus.
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Quick Facts
- Taught in Alexandria in the early 2nd century AD
- His cosmology: an unnameable God emanates 365 heavens; the lowest heaven's ruler is the God of the Jews
- His son Isidore continued the school and wrote commentaries on Gnostic scripture
- No authentic Basilidean texts survive — only descriptions by opponents