Gnostic or even gnosticizing thought. Gnostic dualism can be adduced to explain the sexual libertinism and the asceticism in the congregation and the denial of the bodily resurrection. Seeing Gnosticism behind the New Testament letters was once a very popular enterprise, but few scholars find the Gnostic theory convincing today. Full-blown Gnosticism was a second-century phenomenon and it should not be read into the New Testament. Nor is it warranted to posit incipient Gnosticism behind what we see
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