Gnosticism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Paul and Gnosticism=== [[Tertullian]] calls [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] "the apostle of the heretics",{{sfn|Dunn|2016|p=107}} because Paul's writings were attractive to gnostics, and interpreted in a gnostic way, while Jewish Christians found him to stray from the Jewish roots of Christianity.{{sfn|Dunn|2016|pp=107–108}} In [[I Corinthians]] ({{bibleverse|1|Corinthians|8:10|NKJV}}), Paul refers to some church members as "having knowledge" ({{lang-gr|τὸν ἔχοντα γνῶσιν}}, ''ton echonta gnosin''). [[James Dunn (theologian)|James Dunn]] writes that in some cases, Paul affirmed views that were closer to Gnosticism than to proto-orthodox Christianity.{{sfn|Dunn|2016|p=108}} According to [[Clement of Alexandria]], the disciples of Valentinus said that Valentinus was a student of a certain [[Theudas (teacher of Valentinus)|Theudas]], who was a student of Paul,{{sfn|Dunn|2016|p=108}} and Elaine Pagels notes that Paul's epistles were interpreted by Valentinus in a gnostic way, and Paul could be considered a [[Proto-Gnosticism|proto-gnostic]] as well as a proto-[[Catholic]].{{sfn|Pagels|1975}} Many Nag Hammadi texts, including, for example, the ''Prayer of Paul'' and the Coptic ''Apocalypse of Paul'', consider Paul to be "the great apostle".{{sfn|Dunn|2016|p=108}} The fact that he claimed to have received his gospel directly by revelation from God appealed to the gnostics, who claimed ''gnosis'' from the risen Christ.{{sfn|Dunn|2016|p=109}} The [[Naassenes]], [[Cainite]]s, and [[Valentinianism|Valentinians]] referred to Paul's epistles.{{sfn|Dunn|2016|pp=109–110}} [[The Jesus Mysteries|Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy]] have expanded upon this idea of Paul as a gnostic teacher;<ref>Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, ''[[The Jesus Mysteries]],'' 1999</ref> although their premise that Jesus was invented by early Christians based on an alleged Greco-Roman mystery cult has been dismissed by scholars.<ref>[[Bart D. Ehrman|Ehrman, Bart D.]] (2012). [[Did Jesus Exist? (Ehrman)|'' Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth'']]. New York: HarperCollins. pp. 25–30. {{ISBN|978-0-06-220644-2}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|The existence of Jesus is explored in other Wikipedia articles, such as: [[Christ myth theory]], [[Historicity of Jesus]], [[Sources for the historicity of Jesus]], [[Historical Jesus]], [[Quest for the historical Jesus]]}} However, his revelation was different from the gnostic revelations.{{sfn|Dunn|2016|p=111}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page