All things to all people

“The Gnostic Paul” is a book by Elaine Pagels. It is more scholarly than “The Gnostic Gospels”, her most well-known work. In mainline Christianity, Paul is seen as anti-Gnostic, sometimes explicitly so (it depends on which Pauline epistles are accepted as genuine). Interestingly, the Gnostics themselves regarded Paul as Gnostic and interpreted him accordingly. Pagel's book details Gnostic exegesis of Paul, verse by verse, concentrating on the 2nd century Valentinians. Their leader Valentinus claimed to have been initiated into the secret gnosis of Paul by one of Paul's disciples, Theudas. Pagels have also taken the liberty in translating Paul's epistles in a “Gnostic” way. Thus the Greek words “gnosis” and “logos” remain untranslated, “pneumatikos” is rendered “pneumatic” rather than “spiritual”, pneumatics being the term for Gnostic initiates, and so on. I think this was the right decision, since it gives the reader an inkling of how the Gnostics saw Paul's texts. The Gnostics rejected the Pastorals (which explicitly attack “gnosis falsely so called”), but otherwise accepted the traditional Pauline corpus, including Ephesians, Colossians and Hebrews (which many modern historical-critical scholars deem non-Pauline). While the Gnostic exegesis of Paul is heavily allegorical, there is a kind of “method in madness” behind it. I also got the impression that the Valentinians were the “moderates” of the Gnostic milieu, since they belonged to the proto-orthodox Church and believed that even non-Gnostic Christians could be saved. In contrast to other Gnostics, Valentinus didn't regard the Demiurge (the God of the Old Testament) as evil, but rather as ignorant. Even the Demiurge is eventually saved by the true god and his Christ.

The followers of Valentinus argued that the original apostles, headed by Peter, only knew the exoteric message of Jesus. They interpreted Jesus and his passion in a “psychic” way. The deeper “pneumatic” message was revealed to Paul. The Church consists of both psychics and pneumatics, with the latter participating in all the rituals and sacraments of the former, while also meeting in separate groups to get initiated into the higher gnosis. In Paul's letters, “Jews” symbolize the psychics, while “Gentiles” symbolize the pneumatics. “Moses” is allegory for the Demiurge. When Paul attacks Jews or Judaizers, he is really criticizing psychics, who interpret the gospel message literally. However, Paul also admonishes the pneumatics not to create scandal in psychic circles. Thus, he writes that although “everything is permitted for me”, for the sake of those weak in faith, one should abstain from eating meat sacrificed to idols, etc. This also means that pneumatics should keep their gnosis secret from the uninitiated. The epistles speak to psychics and pneumatics at once, which explains their seemingly contradictory character. However, the real gnosis of Paul could only be given through oral instruction, and is therefore not to be found in the letters.

While the Valentinians seem to have accepted that Jesus was an actual historical person, they didn't emphasize this fact. Rather, the important thing was the spiritual significance of the death and resurrection. Baptism signifies the “death” of the old self. When the spirit of Christ dwells inside the pneumatic, he is “resurrected”. Christ is also “resurrected” in the form of the Church, making every believer a limb of Christ. Only at the consummation of the age will there be an actual apocalypse, during which pneumatics and psychics will be united and drawn into the Pleroma, the spiritual level of reality. However, it's not clear when this will take place. Indeed, the Valentinians believed that God had prolonged the age to permit the ingathering of as many people as possible. (On this point, the Valentinians resembled the proto-orthodox.) Sometimes, I get the impression that all of humanity will be saved at the end of the age, a difference with more radical Gnostics who believed in predestination, but also with many proto-orthodox, who regarded “the restoration of all things” (apokatastasis panton) as heresy. That being said, the Valentinians didn't believe in the literal resurrection of the body. Rather, the body falls away while the spirit is saved. It's not clear whether the spirits survive as individuals after the resurrection, or whether this even mattered to the Valentinians.

In their own esoteric conclaves, the Valentinians introduced additional sacraments, including offerings to “Sophia” and “Charis”. They were baptized on behalf of the psychics, a proxy baptism which was believed to save the psychics from damnation and eventually open up their hearts to the pneumatic message. The proof-text for this proxy baptism is Paul's baffling statement about “baptism for the dead”. In Valentinian exegesis, the dead are the spiritually dead.

While Valentinianism was very different from Catholicism, it's nevertheless intriguing to note the organizational similarity. Within medieval Catholicism in particular, the saints, monastic orders and clergy were de facto higher than the ordinary believers, and in a certain sense had access to “esoteric” knowledge, either through mysticism or through attempts to shield the celebration of the mass from the ordinary church-goers. Also, the ordinary believer is saved “by proxy” by appeals to the saints! A more direct parallel, of course, are secret societies of all kinds. It's also common in non-Christian religions to have esoteric groups with a supposedly higher level of initiation. Indeed, it seems to be the general tenor of most religious traditions. Protestantism did away with all esoteric or quasi-esoteric aspects of Christian religion, but it seems to have “popped up” again in the form of Freemasonry, popular in Protestant nations!

I consider “The Gnostic Paul” to be extremely interesting. While Valentinus might not have known The Truth, there *are* intimations of a secret message in Paul's letters. Occasionally, he is explicitly allegorizing the message of the Old Testament (what mainline exegetes call “typology”). There are also downright baffling statements about the Law and its repudiation, and instances of conflict with Peter and James. Rather than attempting to “harmonize” the various NT accounts, the Valentinians decided to wrestle with Paul's pneumatic innovations. However, it could also be argued that in the process, they perhaps forgot the “psychic” innovations of the four gospels…