What was the Gnostic position toward the literal meaning of sacred texts?
Gnostic Christians did not believe that the literal meaning of sacred texts were important. There was secret information hidden within the words that needed to be deciphered in order to reach salvation. The texts had little authority, therefore, the Gnostic Christians were not bound by any particular writings.
For gnostics salvation required escape from matter (this includes the literal meaning of the words of sacred texts); they believed that a god from the divine realm temporarily entered the mortal body of Jesus so he could teach us the gnosis (special knowledge) we need so as to escape from evil matter and when Jesus' body dies, the god "escapes."Their view of Jesus's divinity as trapped in a mortal body parallels their view of secret special knowledge trapped in words.
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