DeConick A.D

270
THE PI OF POLITICS
pointed to a Father beyond YHWH and to multiple sons of God (Irenaeus,
Against the Heresies 1.9.1).
Because of Gnostics’ high regard for ongoing revelation, the Apostolic
Catholics report that Gnostic leaders author their own transgressive
scriptures for their own communities. These writings contain fables about
Jesus. They are completely different from the scriptures that the Apostolic
Catholic Christians believe were handed down to them from the apostles.
The Valentinians even have a text called the Gospel of Truth, as if indeed
they knew the truth (1.20.1, 3.11.9).
The Apostolic Catholic writers criticize the Gnostics for their expansive
pluralism, remarking that they use any authority they can to validate their
systems. They use Homer’s texts authoritatively (1.9.4). They also rely on
the opinions of the heroes of Greek philosophy, astrologers who study the
stars, and physicians who autopsy bodies and teach about human physiology
(Hippolytus, Refutation 6.52.1–2). Gnostics take great satisfaction in
adapting medical knowledge of the brain to their understanding of human
nature and mind, as if the brain’s anatomy proved the veracity of their
claims about the spirit (4.51.10–14, 5.9.14–20).
The Apostolic Catholics consider the Gnostic use of biblical scripture
and other authorities to be perverse, wicked, and blasphemous (Irenaeus,
Against the Heresies 1.3.6, 1.9.4). Irenaeus characterizes their interpretation
as deceitful because it twists and mutilates scripture, altering it from
its natural shape into something perverse and unnatural. Even their use
of Homer is demonstrative of their transgressive style, he thinks. Homer’s
original meaning is twisted and reframed to reflect Gnostic interests. With
this trick of interpretation, Gnostics convince people who do not know
Homer’s work into thinking that the Gnostic interpretation is actually
what Homer meant (1.9.4).
Apostolic Catholic leaders identified Gnostic interpretation of scripture
as transgressive because they thought it reversed the meaning of words
that otherwise have straightforward meaning. Although the Gnostics recognize
the words, they dismantle the texts through a reverse interpretation
that transgresses the limits of previous interpretations. The cultural
rules and cues in the text are inverted by the Gnostic and the dissonant
oscillations within the text are engaged. Such transgressive reading crosses
the line of authority that had given the text its governed identity up until