The Apostle Paul's mystical ascent to the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12 has remained one of early Christianity's most enigmatic moments, but the Gnostic interpretation of Paul's teachings reveals a radically different understanding of his message. This video explores how Gnostic Christians, particularly the Valentinians, read Paul's letters as containing hidden wisdom and secret knowledge meant only for spiritual elites. We examine the Apocalypse of Paul from the Nag Hammadi library, where Paul encounters the Demiurge and cosmic Archons while ascending through the celestial spheres, and analyze how Gnostics interpreted key Pauline passages about the "god of this world," the resurrection, and spiritual liberation. Drawing on Elaine Pagels' scholarship, we reveal how early Gnostic communities saw Paul as a two-way teacher who spoke publicly about faith while privately teaching gnosis, the experiential knowledge of the divine that promised escape from the material prison of the Demiurge. Discover how the Gnostic Paul transformed Christian theology from institutional religion into a mystical path of inner transformation and cosmic escape.
