The Truth of The Beautiful

Marcus,(a) student of Valetinus ((c. 150AD)), who went on to become a teacher himself, tells how he came to his own firsthand knowledge of the truth. He says that a vision “descended upon him ... in the form of a woman ... and expounded to him alone its own nature, and the origin of things, which it had never revealed to anyone, divine or human. The presence then said to him, ‘I wish to show you truth herself; for I have brought her down from above, so that you may see her without a veil, and understand her beauty.’”

-- Eileen Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, 20