“But I am afraid that, as the serpent in his craftiness deceived Eve, so your minds may be led astray from their single-heartedness and their fidelity to Christ.”
(2 Cor 11:3, WNT)
In the previous teaching we pointed out the pressing presence of Gnosticism in the early church as one of the main elements of the cultural context in which many of the New Testament letters had been written. Gnosticism hearkened back to the fall and attached certain mystic meanings to the knowledge which the snake had promised Eve – “Then the serpent said to the woman … ‘For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”
We know that the snake from Genesis is also the dragon from Revelations, is the Satan who was called the Morning Star before his fall, blinded by his desire for knowledge (Ezek 28:3-5), is now the devil, who is also called Satan (Rev 20:2). Gnosticism’s secrets – “falsely called knowledge” (1 Tim 6:20) thus had its origins long before man – it was merely used “so your minds may somehow be lured away” (2 Cor 11:3, GW) from the true Knowledge (Col 2:2-3) and Truth (1 Cor 1:24) – his Name is Jesus the Christ.
In his book The Gnostic Empire strikes back Peter Jones explains how Gnosticism has re-cast itself within New Age-garb, selling itself to the church today. In answer to R.C. & C.C. Krroeger’s controversial book I suffer not a woman, in which they discredit Paul’s statements about women from a feminist viewpoint, he makes the following important statement – “they dismiss his teaching for our day, since he was supposedly dealing with an extreme heresy that does not concern us. They fail to see that the heresy they describe has turned in an even more extreme form of New Age ‘Christian’ feminism, and that it is posing as much of a threat today as it did in the time of Paul.” (pp. 111-112).
Eve was thus merely the mediatrix for the Evil One’s teachings about women. In 1 Tim 2:14 Paul makes it clear that women have a greater aptitude to be deceived – “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.” (Also see 1 Kings 11:3.) It is then also an important accusation against the End time church who allows “that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols” (Rev 2:20). In the light of this it is very important to consider Paul’s statement about women not being allowed to teach. Within the greater influence of Gnosticism these women, “women professing godliness” (1 Tim 2:10, ASV), were responsible for preaching strange doctrine (1:3-9), many spoke of their mystic knowledge (6:20), they were not taught from the Word (1:1; 2:11) – there were even those who had left the faith altogether (2:15; 6:21). For this reason Paul wanted them to not teach (2:12).
- Sela: Read more about Gnosticism and think of ways in which it creeps into your community of believers.
- Read: Num 1-3
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: Num 1:17 (Tip: Do some research into the original meanings of names, and see how men are expressed by their names.)
