Paul the Initiate Gnostic

The central human figure in the founding of Christianity is Jesus' prophet

Paul's great speech to the Corinthians (1 Cor 2:1-16)about his spiritual credentials

1. '' You saw me, fellow Christians, not a powerful orator, nor a wise man.
2. Its not what you know, its whether you Know Christ Jesus crucified.
3. You saw me: weak, fearful, and trembling.
4. Not speaking normally, but in Mystic Transport
5. Follow my revelation, not so-called wise men.
6. For we Initiates impart the Gnosis in our Mysteries - but not merely the lower knowledge of the short lived Powers of the Physical and Psychic Worlds,
7. No, we teach the Secret, Divine & Ageless Truth which God gave so all Humanity could grow to Perfection.
8. Not even the Psychic Powers have this Gnosis, else they would not have crucified the Psychic Christ.
9. Remember, the Divine Secret is only understood bythe Spirit, the highest part of man
10. only our Spirit knows our deepest thoughts, so only God's Spirit knows his thoughts
11. and our Spirit is divine, so we may understand our own human divinity.
12. we impart our Gnosis through this divine Spirit, not in worldly words, but by
13. meeting on the Spiritual level.
14. without a mature Spirit you cannot receive the Gnosis
15. with a mature Spirit, you stand above the Psychic Judges, not below.
16. How do we know? we know the Spiritual Christ. ''

The Gnostic view of the planes or worlds or levels of existence appears to have been somewhat like this:

1. Divine
2. Pneumatic (spiritual)
3. Psychic (formal)
4. Astral (hylic, sidereal, etheric)
5. Physical (choic, material)

Elsewhere (1 Cor 3:10)Paul describes himself in a key phrase (used only this one time in the whole Bible):

'' According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master-builder I laid a foundation... ''

Later (2 Cor 12), he describes a great spiritual experience:

1. '' I must boast; there is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord
2. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven - whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.
3. And I know that this man was caught up into Paradise - whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.
4. and he heard things that cannot told, which man may not utter... ''

The context has Paul boasting of his exploits (e.g. the escape from Damascus), here he establishes his spiritual credentials - literally Spiritual- the Spiritual Plane being the the 3rd Heaven.

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:

1. 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 ''
2. 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)
3. Ptolemy, Heracleon and Theodotus revere Paul as '' the apostle ''
4. 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).
5. 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.
6. And they say they are following Paul's example when they offer gnosis to the initiates ''
7. 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.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Gnostics say:

• Tertullian and Irenaeus admits the Gnostics say they practice the Pauline teaching to '' test all things''
• Tertullian even admits that some '' unstable and unlearned brothers ''(Pauline Christians) have distorted Paul's teachings.
• Irenaeus admits that Valentinians teaching is plausible.
• Tertullian compare the Valentinian initiation to the Eleusinian
• Origen admits Ambrose became Valentinian Initiate to better understand the '' deeper mysteries ''of scripture. Marcion rejects many Gospels and Epistles as false.

i.e. the Anti-Gnostics themselves confirm some of the Gnostic ideas.

This interesting essay from Joseph P. Macchio discusses the Christos as Archetypal Man or Adam Kadmon

Paul's Dual language

Paul is said to '' teach two ways at once ''(Theodotus, from Pagels).

Paul contrasts two types of man (e.g. 1 Cor. 2:14) '' the psychic human does not receive the gifts of the pneumatic '', Greeks vs  barbarians, wise vs foolish.( Rom. 1:14), Jew vs uncircumcised ( Rom.2:28)

• Pneumatic (~spiritual, elect, wise, Greeks, Gentiles, uncircumcised, by faith/grace, chosen few, initiate, one who does not work)
• Psychic (~formal, children, foolish, Jew, barbarians, uncircumcised, by works, the many called, outsiders, sarkic, physical, one who works)

The Psychic (or sarkic) are the lesser order. '' But I could not address you as Pneumatics, but as sarkic, as children in Christos ''( 1 Cor 3)

Paul describes this dichotomy (here Jew vs uncircumcised) as spiritual, not literal: '' a Jew is not outwardly.. circumcision is not physical.. a Jew is inwardly... circumcision is of the heart - pneumatic, not literal ''( Rom 2:28)

Paul is an initiate, a pneumatic, a spiritual, '' I worship in my spirit (pneumati) .. I long .. to share with you a certain spiritual (pneumatic) charisma to establish you ''( Rom 1:9,11). He means to pass on Initiation be word of mouth '' We speak the Gnosis among the Initiates ''( 1 Cor. 2:16)

Paul describes his two ways of teaching ( Rom.1):

David is the Demi-urge, the lower power of creation of form - the King who creates form in the Kingdom of the physical world through the medium of the ether, the seed of Yesod.

Paul warns against the materialistic and describes the elect '' look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the true circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christos Jesus. ''( Phil.)

Paul talks about Christ's death and life - in THAT order. '' for if [we were earlier re-conciled] by the death of his Son, much more, now shall we saved by his life ''( Rom. 5)

i.e. Paul sees the sequence as:

1. (from time imemorial) Christos as the Son-Of-God
2. Christ died in the mythic past
3. was raised and is now alive

Teachings

'' we speak the Gnosis among the Initiates ''( 1 Cor.)

The two bodies of humans: '' if there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body ''( 1 Cor.)

The lower and higher bodies of humans: '' if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from god, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, here indeed we groan and long to put on our heavenly dwelling ''( 2 Cor.)

The crucifixion as portrayed publicly in front of the eyes of the Galatians '' ...you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. ''

An esoteric poem Col. 1:15-20, refers to Jesus as

Christos doctrine : '' God made known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory( Col.). '' Do you not realize that Jesus Christos is within you?( 1 Cor.). '' I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me( Gal.).

The 2nd Century Dichotomy

The picture that emerges from the 2nd century is startling:

Two totally opposing schools of thought claim Paul as their founder and base their beliefs on his writings, each claiming to be the real heirs of Paul -

• The Gnostics
• The Anti-Gnostics

The Anti-Gnostics eventually won, and became orthodox Christianity, in what Kuhn calls the Shadow of the Third Century- most certainly worth a read - its online. His Who is This King of Gloryis also apposite to this discussion and perhaps his best work.

Gnosticism lost and went underground, (even literally) as the Gnostic books were buried, to surface again 16 centuries later, to make a birthday present for one of the great Gnostics of recent times - Jung - fascinating story.

In sum:

Much evidence from the 2nd century supports a Gnostic Paul who was inspired by a spiritual Christ, but who wrote ambiguously and whose message was later mis-interpreted only literally.

http://qdj.50megs.com/Paul-Initiate-Gnostic.html

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