Gnostic and esoteric exegesis of I Cor. 2:4-13

From the Valentinian standpoint, this passage from First Corinthians was of primary importance. My exegesis will compare and contrast the ancient Valentinian view with the hermeneutic of my modern "Renewal Gnosticism."


[I Corinthians 2:4] My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power,
[5] so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

Paul says here that it is not words or reason that will convince someone that what he is saying is true, but a demonstration of the pneumatic power. IOW, someone has to have the experience of Gnosis for herself. This will be clarified in the coming verses, but the important part here is that Gnosis means direct apprehension of divine presence, and does not stem from "men's wisdom" -- which I read to mean any and all religious teaching.


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crossposting to cp_circle and crossposting to my journal

(no subject)

Hmm, to what do I owe the honor?

kkk_membership

I think I see a few patterns...

For quite some time LJ has been confronted with the question of how to force someone to take you off their friend's list. At the moment there is no way to do this. But I see this sort of thing happening more in the future until LJ admits that eliminating the invite codes has opened LJ up to all kinds of spam and trolling.