P. Derek Overfield PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

the self-abasement of the Incarnation.
This brief survey of the evidence supplied
by both scholar and NT text alike enables us to draw
the following conclusions.
There is no agreement
amongst exegetes as to a working definition of
Gnosticism and far less agreement over what texts are
in fact proof of a pre-Christian Gnosticism.
In most
cases, though admittedly not in all, the so-called
'Gnostic' features are quite capable of a comp16tely
different interpretation.
And it is at the same
time extremely doubtful if any of the texts cited thus
far demand a Gnostic interpretation as being th3 only
one admissible exegetically.
We must then concl~de
that the textual evidence for a first century
Gnosticism, at least in any developed form, finding
its way into the New Testament is at least of
dubious quality.
With this summary type conclusion in
mind we can now turn our attention to Eph 4:8-10
and the possibility of the presence in this text of
the Gnostic Redeemer Myth. 194 Of all the texts that
we have previously cited, the most remarkable
resemblance to the Myth appears in this text.
The
Myth, if present, is found in vv. 9f where the author
has attempted to explain what he believes the &'vo.!3a.CV€{\I
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