Paul and Gnosticism
Tertullian calls Paul "the apostle of the heretics",[78] 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.[79] Paul wrote to the Corinthian church members as "having knowledge" (Greek: τον εχοντα γνωσιν, ton echonta gnosin).[80] James Dunn claims that in some cases, Paul affirmed views that were closer to gnosticism than to proto-orthodox Christianity.[81]
According to Clement of Alexandria, the disciples of Valentinus said that Valentinus was a student of a certain Theudas, who was a student of Paul,[81] and Elaine Pagels notes that Paul's epistles were interpreted by Valentinus in a gnostic way, and Paul could be considered a proto-gnostic as well as a proto-Catholic.[61] Many Nag Hammadi texts, including, for example, the Prayer of Paul and the Coptic Apocalypse of Paul, consider Paul to be "the great apostle".[81] 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.[82] The Naasenes, Cainites, and Valentinians referred to Paul's epistles.[83] Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy have expanded upon this idea of Paul as a gnostic teacher;[84] although their premise that Jesus was invented by early Christians based on an alleged Greco-Roman mystery cult has been dismissed by scholars.[85][note 22] However, his revelation was different from the gnostic revelations.[86]
