Editing Gnosticism (section)

===Buddhist parallels===
{{main|Buddhism and Gnosticism}}
In 1966, at the Congress of Median, Buddhologist [[Edward Conze]] noted phenomenological commonalities between [[Mahayana Buddhism]] and Gnosticism,{{sfn|Verardi|1997|p=323}} in his paper ''Buddhism and Gnosis'', following an early suggestion put forward by [[Isaac Jacob Schmidt]].{{sfn|Conze|1967}}{{refn|group=note|The idea that Gnosticism was derived from Buddhism was first proposed by the Victorian gem collector and numismatist [[Charles William King]] (1864).<ref>Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Clare Goodrick-Clarke ''G. R. S. Mead and the Gnostic Quest'' 2005 p. 8. Quote: "The idea that Gnosticism was derived from Buddhism was first postulated by Charles William King in his classic work, The Gnostics and their Remains (1864). He was one of the earliest and most emphatic scholars to propose the Gnostic debt to Buddhist thought."</ref> [[Henry Longueville Mansel|Mansel]] (1875)<ref>H. L. Mansel, ''Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries'' (1875); p. 32</ref> considered the principal sources of Gnosticism to be Platonism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism.<ref>''International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E–J'' ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley&nbsp; (1982). Quote: "Mansel&nbsp;... summed up the principal sources of Gnosticism in these three: Platonism, the Persian religion, and the Buddhism of India." p. 490.</ref>}} The influence of Buddhism in any sense on either the ''Gnostikos'' Valentinus (c.{{nbsp}}170) or the Nag Hammadi texts (3rd century) is not supported by modern scholarship, although [[Elaine Pagels]] called it a "possibility".{{sfn|Pagels|1989|p=21}}