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Section Five “… in order to authoritatively present a gnostic understanding of the cosmos and the Pauline writings” Introduction We have examined above the significance of the genre of the Apocalypse of Paul and the way in which its author works with that genre. We have also examined its protagonist, Paul, and the way in which its unknown author works with—or perhaps we ought to say “constructs”—the figure of the Apostle to the Gentiles. In this section we examine the use to which the author of the Apocalypse of Paul puts the authority that she has (hopefully) gleaned from the protagonist and the genre of her work. This has, naturally, been a subtext of our discussion all along, but in this section we will focus on the topic, examining the ways in which her text teaches her readers how to read Paul’s writings, how to read apocalyptic writings , and how to understand their membership in the Christian community. The Story The point of the Apocalypse of Paul is to tell a certain story, or more precisely to present a certain myth, and to have it be accepted as authoritative. While much of the background to this story must remain shadowy for us, owing to the lack of detail provided by the text (which, we must remember, contains fewer than two hundred lines), nonetheless we can sketch out some of the main themes of the story it tells. As is the case with many gnostic tales, the story has a U-shaped arc and starts at the lowest point. It begins in ignorance and confusion, with Paul lost on a mountainside. And this confusion is total. The answer to his problem is unknown; indeed, even his understanding of that problem is flawed. He 191 thinks he must go to the earthly Jerusalem when, in fact, his real destination is the post-cosmic realm—and we must remember that the Ogdoad could also be referred to as “Jerusalem” by Valentinians.1 This establishes the basic ontological quandary that oppresses all of us. Paul is enabled to escape from this quandary through the intervention of the Spirit, which reveals to him the true nature of the cosmos. At this point the tale’s arc starts moving upwards along the U-pattern. Simultaneously we discover that Paul’s current low estate is the result of a fall from a previous higher state. This sketches the background of Paul’s ignorance and confusion. As in many apocalyptic writings, the cosmos proper is made up of seven levels, or heavens. But whereas the apocalyptic authors were interested in the contents of these heavens, for the author of the Apocalypse of Paul they are of note only with regard to the obstacles they contain. This severe and strictly functionalist approach to the heavens—one might speak of a paranoid cosmology—sends a clearly anti-speculative message to its readers. These heavens are ruled by angelic beings, and these beings, too, are discussed only insofar as they impede the soul’s upward progress. Finally, in the seventh heaven, we find the ruler and creator of the cosmos, and he as well is concerned only with making sure that his subjects stay within his realm. In short, everything in the Apocalypse of Paul to do with the cosmos is related to entrapment and oppression. In what is unfortunately an extremely lacunous section toward the start of the work (the end of page 18 and the start of page 19), the Spirit gives Paul what appears to be a lecture on the cosmos and its rulers. Based on what remains of this section, it appears that here as well the focus is on the means by which the heavenly rulers exercise their power over the trapped souls. With this sort of a backdrop, it is natural that liberation should be the focus of most of the tale. The author’s vision of the cosmos involves stagnant immobility, to which the only response is flight. Paul’s initial, horizontal trip to Jerusalem is recast as a vertical trip out of the cosmos, and it is revealed in the seventh heaven that his destiny, his function as an apostle, is to overcome the captivity that keeps us subject to the archons. This captivity relies on, first, ignorance, and, second, force, to maintain its hold over us. The ignorance is overcome when one discovers the real nature of the cosmos, and the fact that one does not belong to it, and...

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