The Authoritative Teaching, another [Gnostic] text discovered at Nag Hammadi, also offers vehement attack on catholic Christianity. The author tells the story of the soul, who originally came from heaven, from the "fullness of being," but when she "was cast into the body" she experienced sensual desire, passions, hatred, and envy. Clearly the allegory refers to the individual soul's struggle against passions and sin; yet the language of the account suggests a wider, social referent as well. It relates the struggle of those who are spiritual, akin to the soul (with whom the author identifies), against those who are essentially alien to her. The author explains that some who were called "our brothers," who claimed to be Christians, actually were outsiders. Although "the word has been preached" to them, and they heard "the call" and performed acts of worship, these self-professed Christians were "worse than... the pagans," who had an excuse for their ignorance.
On what counts does the gnostic accuse these believers? First, that they "do no seek after God." The gnostic understands Christ's message not as offering a set of answers, but as encouragement to engage in a process of searching: "seek and inquire about the ways you should go, since there is nothing else as good as this." The rational soul longs to
see with her mind, and perceive her kinsmen, and learn about her root... in order that she might receive what is hers...
What is the result? The author declares that she attains fulfillment:
...the rational soul who wearied herself in seeking—she learned about God. She labored with inquiring, enduring distress in the body, wearing out her feet after the evangelists, learning about the Inscrutable One.... She came to rest in him who is at rest. She reclined in the bride-chamber. She ate of the banquet for which she had hungered.... She found what she had sought.
Those who are gnostics follow her path. But non-gnostic Christians "do not seek":
...these—the ones who are ignorant—do not seek after God.... they do not inquire about God... the senseless man hears the call, but he is ignorant of the place to which he has been called. And he did not ask, during the preaching, "Where is the temple into which I should go and worship?"
Those who merely believe the preaching they hear, without asking questions, and who accept the worship set before them, not only remain ignorant themselves, but "if they find someone else who asks about his salvation," they act immediately to censor and silence him.
Second, these "enemies" assert that they themselves are the soul's "shepherd":
...They did not realize that she has an invisible, spiritual body; they think "We are her shepherd, who feeds her." But they did not realize that she knows another way which is hidden from them. This her true shepherd taught her in gnosis.
Using the common term for bishop (poimen, "shepherd"), the author refers, apparently, to members of the clergy: they did now know that the gnostic Christian had direct access to Christ himself, the soul's true shepherd, and did not need their guidance. Now did these would-be shepherds realize that the true church was not the visible one (the community over which they preside), but that "she has an invisible, spiritual body"—that is, she included only those who were spiritual. Only Christ, and they themselves, knew who they were.