The language of Greek medicine in the first Christian cosmogonies

Abstract

In the early days of Christianity, cosmogonies were based on the Genesis account of
creation combined with the theories of Middle Platonism regarding the supposed
eternity of matter. The Setian Gnostics, on the other hand, drew on the medicine of their
time to develop the myth of Fallen Wisdom, from which the cosmos was formed. In this
regard, the Nag Hammadi texts belonging to this branch of Gnosticism reveal the use of
technical language from the methodical school of medicine, with an emphasis on the
embryological and gynecological doctrines of Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen.