A word can be understood in different meanings, depending upon ther context it is used. Each meaning of a particular word tells a person's state of being - physically, intellectually, or spiritually. Elaine Pagels, in her book, The Origin of Satan, uses the word "gnosis" which, she says, literally and most commonly translated as "knowledge." But, she says, "the translation is somehwat misleading, since gnosis differs from intellectual knowledge (as in phrases like "they know mathematics," which is characterized in Greek by the word "eidein," from which we derive the English word "idea." The English language, she says, is "unusual within its language group in having only one verb, "to know," to express, or mean, different kinds of knowing. The Greek word "ginosko" from which "gnosis" derives, refers to the knowledge of personal relationship, as in the phrase, "We know Christ," or in the words, "Know thyself." She offers a better term - and meaning - of "gnosis" as "insight," or "wisdom." A teacher, she says, "encourages his/her students to seek "gnosis" within themselves." To understand "gnosis" as wisdom or insight within oneself could then mean, to the one speaking, something much deeper and more personal. It reveals "who we are, and who we have become; where we are going; whence have we come; what is birth, what is rebirth." She goes on to say that to know "is that the gospel of Christ can be perceived on a level deeper than the one shared by all Christians." That the gospel, she says, is "more than a message about repentance and forgiveness of sins; it becomes a path of spiritual awakening, through which one discovers the divine within." (p.167). When one knows onself "at deepest level, one comes to know God as the source of one's being."
Elaine Pagels cites the author of the Gospel of Philipn(one of the Christian literatures suppressed by the bishops who were authorized to determine the New Testament Canon). The writer of the Gospel of Philip, is one of the followers of Valentinus, (gnostic teacher). In the Gospel of Philip, Pagels says, the author uses "gnosis" to mean as "a natural progression from faith."
"Unlike the radical Christians of the "Reality of the Rulers," or the Secret Book of John" (all these gospels were excluded in the NT canon), Valentinus and his followers did not reject the moral injunctions taught by priests and bishops; they did not despise or invert the Hebrew Bible, nor they did deny openly the authority of the priests and bishops. Instead, they accepted all these, but with a crucial qualification: they accepted the moral, ecclesiastical, and scriptural consensus as binding upon the majority of Christians, but not upon those who had gone beyond mere faith to gnosis - those who had become spiritually mature'". (p.167)
Valentinus is a Gnostic teacher who, together with his followers said that in the churches during their time "there were two different kinds of Christian. One kind is what they call, "ecclesiastic," or "psychic" Christian (p.168), that is, those who "function on the level of psyche" - which means the gnosis of Irenaeus, and the rest of what the Orthodox Christian Churches, know or believe, are "not deep enough," or "mature enough."
Valentinus and his followers offers another meaning of "gnosis" as "insight" or "wisdom," which, Elaine Pagelsa says, a secret initiation called "redemption" henceforth regarded themselves as "mature" Christians, they who have "advanced from mere faith toward spiritual understanding of "gnosis."(p.168)
Elaine Pagels mentions that Irenaeus and Tertullian, both representing the orthodox Christian churches's beliefs, are the true defenders of the true and "mature" faith of Christians, not Valentinus and his followers. This is why Irenaeus and Tertullian, and the rest of the orthodox Christian churches (which was of the majority group) won over Valentinus and his followers. And this also explains why the bishops who were recognized by the majoritynas ntheir officially designated "experts"(jnr) to determine the final NT Canon, which excluded many, if not all, the works of Valentinus and his followers.
But, thank you, Elaine Pagels, for letting us know how the New Testament Canon was determined. They were chosen, not because the books represented the Truth, and the only Truth, but the NT Canon, as we have it now, were finally decided because of a "majority" vote. As I learned before, voz populi is not always voz dei (the voice of the people (majority) does not necessarily mean the voice of God).
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Source: The Origin of Satan," by Elaine Pagels
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