DeConick A.D

274
THE PI OF POLITICS
such by the surrounding group. What is transgressive to one group may
not be marked as transgressive by another group. This makes it a relative
notion, dependent on the ways that the group maps its standards (8).
Who Is in the Know?
When we interrogate the early Apostolic Catholic testimonies, we discover
what the Apostolic Catholics living in the Roman society valued. In this
highly structured and stratified society, certain differences were valued
more than others. These value markers helped to frame the beliefs and
behaviors of the Gnostic Christians as less valuable, as things that ought
to be avoided. This judgment of value is what set in place the negative
classifications that made up the structure of transgression in their society
and then placed the Gnostic squarely within that structure.
The conflict between the Gnostic Christians and the Apostolic Catholics
is a fight over knowledge—what and whose knowledge is the most
valuable. Gnostics claim superior knowledge that is at once mystical and
revelatory. Gnostics think that truth is not really delivered by means of
a written document, or even an established religious tradition (Irenaeus,
Against the Heresies 3.2.2). Rather, the essence of truth is imparted by
the “living voice” (3.2.1). Because of this, they were occupied with questions
that others were not asking, and they believed that they were able
to discover answers to these questions even though other people could
not (2.26.3).
The Gnostics’ most prized knowledge is direct experience of God as
revealed through shamanic initiations (Irenaeus, Against the Heresies 1.6.1;
Hippolytus, Refutation 5.1–4, 5.23.2–3). It is viewed by them as a kind of
omniscience, as perfect knowledge of everything (Irenaeus, Against the
Heresies 2.9.2). This is the most valuable knowledge, and it draws people
away from the Creator YHWH (1.pref.1). Because they so highly value
their extreme religious experience of the transcendent God, they imagine
that, on their own, they have discovered more than the apostles of the
church. In fact, given what they know about God, they are convinced that
the apostles must have preached the Gospel while still under the influence
of Jewish opinions (4.26.2).
This type of mystical knowledge, then, is not so much acquired
through book learning as it is attained through ecstatic religious expe-