Gospel of Truth
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The Gospel of Truth is a significant text within Gnosticism, a diverse religious movement prominent in the 2nd century CE. Gnosticism generally posits a distinction between a supreme, transcendent God and an inferior creator deity (the demiurge) responsible for the material world, which is seen as flawed or evil. Salvation, in Gnosticism, is achieved through gnosis, or esoteric knowledge, which awakens an individual's divine identity.12
The Gospel of Truth is attributed to Valentinus, a key figure in Gnosticism who founded schools in Rome and Alexandria. This text is considered a fusion of Christian theology, particularly the teachings of St. Paul, with Gnostic principles. It was discovered in a 4th-century Coptic papyrus, the Jung Codex, found in Egypt. Unlike traditional Christian emphasis on redemption through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, Gnosticism focuses on a revelation that reawakens divine knowledge.31
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biblical literatureImpulse toward canonization from heretical movements…Gnostic writings, such as the Gospel of Truth (mentioned by Irenaeus) and now found in Coptic translation in a collection of Gnostic writings from Egypt; it is a Coptic manuscript of a Valentinian Gnostic speculation from the mid-2nd century—i.e., a work based on the teachings of Valentinus, a Gnostic teacher…
Read More…Gnostic writings, such as the Gospel of Truth (mentioned by Irenaeus) and now found in Coptic translation in a collection of Gnostic writings from Egypt; it is a Coptic manuscript of a Valentinian Gnostic speculation from the mid-2nd century—i.e., a work based on the teachings of Valentinus, a Gnostic teacher…
Read More- biblical literatureGospels
…Gospel of Perfection; and the Gospel of Truth, published in 1956 and perhaps identical to the book that St. Irenaeus (c. 185), bishop of Lyon, said was used by the followers of Valentinus, a mid-2nd-century gnostic teacher. The Gospel of Truth is a mystical-homiletical treatise that is Jewish-Christian and, possibly,…
Read More…Gospel of Perfection; and the Gospel of Truth, published in 1956 and perhaps identical to the book that St. Irenaeus (c. 185), bishop of Lyon, said was used by the followers of Valentinus, a mid-2nd-century gnostic teacher. The Gospel of Truth is a mystical-homiletical treatise that is Jewish-Christian and, possibly,…
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