world and God, there was this vast series of emanations. Before the soul could rise to God, it had to get past the barrier of each of these emanations. To pass each barrier, special knowledge and special passwords were needed; it was these passwords and that knowledge that the Gnostics claimed to give. This meant two things. (a) It meant that salvation was intellectual knowledge. To meet that, Paul insists that salvation is not knowledge; it is redemption and the forgiveness of sins. The Gnostic