GNOSIS • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Gnosis

... opinions by those who studied the Eastern philosophy of the Magi; and Egypt seems to have been as much its native soil as India. The name of Gnostic, says Weber, was generally given to those who distinguished between belief on authority and gnosis, i.e., between the ordinary comprehension and a higher knowledge only granted to a few gifted or chosen ones. They were split up into different sects, according as they approached more nearly the Eastern theosophy or the platonic philosophy; but in general the Eastern conception, with its symbols ...

— History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 11 (of 12) • S. Rappoport