Jane

“Like a Buddhist master, Rheginos’ teacher, himself anonymous, goes on to explain that ordinary human existence is spiritual death. But the resurrection is the moment of enlightenment: “It is … the revealing of what truly exists … and a migration (metabolē—change, transition) into newness.”45 Whoever grasps this becomes spiritually alive. This means, he declares, that you can be “resurrected from the dead” right now: “Are you—the real you—mere corruption? … Why do you not examine your own self, and see that you have arisen?”
― Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels

“Orthodox Jews and Christians insist that a chasm separates humanity from its creator: God is wholly other. But some of the gnostics who wrote these gospels contradict this: self-knowledge is knowledge of God; the self and the divine are identical. Second, the “living Jesus” of these texts speaks of illusion and enlightenment, not of sin and repentance, like the Jesus of the New Testament. Instead of coming to save us from sin, he comes as a guide who opens access to spiritual understanding. But when the disciple attains enlightenment, Jesus no longer serves as his spiritual master: the two have become equal—even identical.”
― Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels

“Paul describes the resurrection as “a mystery,”16 the transformation from physical to spiritual existence.”
― Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels

“Many gnostics, on the contrary, insisted that ignorance, not sin, is what involves a person in suffering.”
― Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels