Post by worthily on Dec 30, 2004 5:10:23 GMT -5
do you want to talk about people being gnostic?
the apostle Paul, was he a gnostic initiate?
www.africawithin.com/massey/gml1_paulpeter.htm
excerpt:
Paul the Gnostic
Most interesting indeed is the picture which emerges from the Gnostics - many of whom regard Paul as the founding Gnostic. Indeed, the first book from the Jung Codex is called The Prayer of the Apostle Paul, and Paul is cited often as a key founding Gnostic Father. These Gnostic books are full of Pauline exegesis, and also have much in common with the major pagan mystical work of the times, the Corpus Hermeticum.
Tertullian and Irenaeus, and the recently revealed Nag Hammadi Library, are the main sources of the Gnostic's viewpoint, which shows:
The Valentinians claim their secret tradition is based on Paul's own Gnostic teaching '' they say that Valentinus was a hearer of Theudas... a disciple of Paul ''- noting Paul's key phrase '' we speak wisdom among the telioi ''
The Naassenes and Valentinians revere Paul as the Apostle who was a Gnostic Initiate. The Gnostic Library of Nag Hammadi contains key works attributed to Paul (e.g. Prayer of the Apostle Paul), many citing or alluding to him ( The Epistle to Rheginos, Tripartite Tractate, Gospel of Philip, The Interpretation of the Gnosis)
Ptolemy, Heracleon and Theodotus revere Paul as '' the apostle ''
The Gnostics accuse the Anti-Gnostics of being unaware of the secret tradition, and of using the sources un-critically (i.e. not testing as Paul enjoined).
Furthermore the Gnostics claim their opponents read the surface literal meaning of the teachings, without understanding the deeper meaning, which they understand through Paul's Gnosis and their initiation there-in.
And they say they are following Paul's example when they offer gnosis to the initiates ''
they also defend their libertarian approach by pointing to Paul's freedom from the law as expressed by 1 Cor 6:12e.g.
So, the Gnostics make a clear argument for a Gnostic Paul, and for the literalist Christians having missed the whole point - and the Gnostics were right at the centre of the Christian movement, only later are they seen as outsiders, e.g. Valentinus, (who claimed to have been personally initiated by one Theudas, an initiate of the Apostle Paul), was perhaps considered for Pope - many Christians followed Valentinus in his time.
---------------------------------------------------------
Actually there is speculation that the original Enoch manuscript is written Aramaic although the general assumption would be to come to that conclusion.
the apostle Paul, was he a gnostic initiate?
www.africawithin.com/massey/gml1_paulpeter.htm
excerpt:
Paul the Gnostic
Most interesting indeed is the picture which emerges from the Gnostics - many of whom regard Paul as the founding Gnostic. Indeed, the first book from the Jung Codex is called The Prayer of the Apostle Paul, and Paul is cited often as a key founding Gnostic Father. These Gnostic books are full of Pauline exegesis, and also have much in common with the major pagan mystical work of the times, the Corpus Hermeticum.
Tertullian and Irenaeus, and the recently revealed Nag Hammadi Library, are the main sources of the Gnostic's viewpoint, which shows:
The Valentinians claim their secret tradition is based on Paul's own Gnostic teaching '' they say that Valentinus was a hearer of Theudas... a disciple of Paul ''- noting Paul's key phrase '' we speak wisdom among the telioi ''
The Naassenes and Valentinians revere Paul as the Apostle who was a Gnostic Initiate. The Gnostic Library of Nag Hammadi contains key works attributed to Paul (e.g. Prayer of the Apostle Paul), many citing or alluding to him ( The Epistle to Rheginos, Tripartite Tractate, Gospel of Philip, The Interpretation of the Gnosis)
Ptolemy, Heracleon and Theodotus revere Paul as '' the apostle ''
The Gnostics accuse the Anti-Gnostics of being unaware of the secret tradition, and of using the sources un-critically (i.e. not testing as Paul enjoined).
Furthermore the Gnostics claim their opponents read the surface literal meaning of the teachings, without understanding the deeper meaning, which they understand through Paul's Gnosis and their initiation there-in.
And they say they are following Paul's example when they offer gnosis to the initiates ''
they also defend their libertarian approach by pointing to Paul's freedom from the law as expressed by 1 Cor 6:12e.g.
So, the Gnostics make a clear argument for a Gnostic Paul, and for the literalist Christians having missed the whole point - and the Gnostics were right at the centre of the Christian movement, only later are they seen as outsiders, e.g. Valentinus, (who claimed to have been personally initiated by one Theudas, an initiate of the Apostle Paul), was perhaps considered for Pope - many Christians followed Valentinus in his time.
---------------------------------------------------------
Actually there is speculation that the original Enoch manuscript is written Aramaic although the general assumption would be to come to that conclusion.