Dr. Jeremiah Mutie publishes a fascinating journal article investigating Valentinian Gnosticism and its reinterpretation of gnostic ideas into the passion of Christ.
The paper argues that, although Valentinian Gnosticism talks about the death of Christ and His work on the cross using NT terminology, in the final analysis, it ascribes an overly-spiritualized and mythological meanings to these events, meanings that are perhaps foreign to NT authors. Additionally, there seems to be a demonstrable progression in the Valentinian interpretation of the death of Christ from a more historical interpretation with the earliest writings to more mythological interpretations in the latter treatises.
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