Gnostic

nos′tik, n. ( theol. ) one of a sect in the beginning of the Christian era which maintained that knowledge ( gnōsis ) and not faith ( pistis ) was the way of salvation, allegorised away the great facts of Christ's person and work, and represented individual life as the result of a proce of emanation from the original e ence.— adj. having knowledge: knowing, cunning: pertaining to the Gnostics.— ns. Gnō′sis , knowledge: mystical knowledge; Gnos′ticism , the eclectic doctrines of the Gnostics. [Gr. gnōstikos , good at knowing— gignōskein , to know.]