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1 PAPER the Gospel of Truth PAPER The Gospel of Truth: Spiritual Enrichment in the Valentinian East Robert Williams B. H. Carroll Theological Institute 2 December 2020 Introduction The Gospel of Truth, the third document in the first of the thirteen Nag Hammadi codices, pages 16-43, some dozen pages in Marvin Meyer’s translation,1 is a gospel not in the sense of the NT genre. Einar Thomassen classifies it instead a “homily,”2 “the proclamation of the revealer’s message,” as described by Harold Attridge and George MacRae,3 a proclamation of truth, in contrast to error. As a homily, the discourse intersperses paraenesis with proclamation. “The good news about the appearance of the Savior on earth and the message he brought to humanity”4 may be understood as “a literary homily for Christian spiritual reading and not for delivery in a specific situation.”5 In contrast to the lengthy and systematic Tripartite Tractate, concluding Codex I and classified a “theological treatise” by some,6 and which I have proposed as showing pre-baptismal catechetical purposes,7 our document is an “exhortation,” aiming “to exhort the faithful,” “to change the outlook and behavior of its audience.”8 This presentation will show, as I have also proposed for Excerpta ex Theodoto9 and The Tripartite Treatise,10 that The Gospel of Truth offers a more realized eschatology in Christian experience than one finds in the NT. Attridge and MacRae in a structural overview note that the document explains that revelation from the Father effects this more realized state along three lines, spiritually in restoring unity with the Father, sociologically in enriching the “knowing” community, and psychologically in 1 “The Gospel of Truth,” in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition (ed. M. Meyer; New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 36-47. 2 “The Gospel of Truth” in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, 34. 3 “The Gospel of Truth,” in Nag Hammadi Codex I (The Jung Codex): Notes (NHS XXIII; Harold W. Attridge, ed.; Leiden: Brill, 1985), 39. 4 Thomassen, “The Gospel of Truth,” 31. 5 Harold W. Attridge and George W. MacRae, “The Gospel of Truth,” in Nag Hammadi Codex I (The Jung Codex): Introductions, Texts, Translation, Indices (NHS XXII; Harold W. Attridge, ed.; Leiden: Brill, 1985), 81. I shall follow the Coptic and the ET of this volume except where otherwise noted. 6 Harold W. Attridge and Elaine H. Pagels, “The Gospel of Truth,” in Nag Hammadi Codex I (The Jung Codex): Introductions, Texts, Translation, Indices (NHS XXII; Harold W. Attridge, ed.; Leiden: Brill, 1985), 176. Thomassen, “The Gospel of Truth,” 60. 7 Robert Williams, “The Tripartite Tractate: Religious Experience in the Valentinian East” (paper presented at the annual meeting of the SBL, San Diego, Cal., 23 November 2019), 5. 8 Thomassen, “The Gospel of Truth,” 34. 9 Robert Williams, “Excerpts from Theodotus: Social Significance of Apostolic Identity and Boundaries,” (paper presented at the Eighteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies, Oxford, U.K., 23 August, 2019), 14, 23. See SP (forthcoming). 10 Williams, “The Tripartite Tractate,” 1, 9, 11. 1 experiencing authentic individual existence.11 The author indicates the person Word/Son/Jesus/Savior as the agent for the changes, alluding to activities of teaching, baptism, anointing, and eucharist for implementation in the human community. We shall proceed by first elucidating the contours of eschatology in four allusions, where the unity, authentic existence, and return to the Father become manifest, then, second, explaining the role of the Word and related terms, and, third, noting the ritual allusions to activities of spiritual initiation and growth. A. Realized Eschatology Eschatological hints reveal realized experiences of those who “know.”12 We discover four vignettes. First, the Spirit brings people to life in spiritual rebirth. Then revelation initiates an eight-step ordo salutis in the person bringing “rest.” Third, revelation effects individual and social reintegration. Finally, the author indicates that he has achieved the much cherished “rest.” The four vignettes pointing the hearer or reader toward realized eschatology are the rebirth (30.17-30), the eight-step process leading to “rest” (21.30-22.12), revelation effecting individual and social reintegration (25.19-24), and achieving the “resting-place” (42.41-43.2). First in logical progression of vignettes is 30.17-30. The Spirit awakens the person (19), raising him (21-23) and granting him “the means of knowing the knowledge of the Father and the revelation of his Son” (24-26).13 The Spirit, earlier identified as the “bosom of the Father,” reveals protologically to the cosmic aeons the Son, hidden in the Father, enabling them to find rest from their search for the Father (24.10-21).14 The Spirit’s identification as the bosom of the Father suggests a role in nourishing the searcher in infancy, as his knowledge begins.15 As the Father’s “tongue” he enables the aeons to understand the Father’s Word (26.36) “in the whole process of the coming of Truth and the unification with the Father through the Spirit.”16 This is prelude to such activity with human creation. The “awakening” employs the insufflation imagery of Genesis 2.7,17 with the “raising” suggesting the spiritual resurrection in Paul’s new creation (2 Cor 5.17). The author bypasses forgiveness of sins for the concept of knowing the unknown Father, a more immediate intimacy and unity than generally evident in the NT. Next, just as the Spirit’s protological activity brought rest to the aeons, an eight-step process sequences a human’s coming to “rest” in history, 21.30-22.12. The Father enrolls 11 “The Gospel of Truth,” in NHS XXIII, 70. 12 Two brief allusions to future eschatology are noted at the end of the section. 13 See the Spirit earlier, 24.10-11, 26.36, 27.4. 14 Einar Thomassen, The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the ‘Valentinians’ (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2006), 152-3. 15 See Attridge and MacRae, “The Gospel of Truth,” in NHS XXIII, 72. 16 Ibid., 79. 17 Ibid., 86. 2 “in advance”18 in “the book of the living”19 those to receive knowledge (21.2-23). The eight stages of development in spiritual relationship with the Father read as follows: “If he is called, he hears, he answers, and he turns to him who is calling him, and ascends to him. And he knows in what manner he is called. Having knowledge, he does the will of the one who called him, he wishes to please him, he receives rest” (21.4-12). The hearing, answering, turning and ascending are modeled on Paul’s terminology of Christ’s post- resurrection response to God, Eph 4.8-10,20 and the servant John’s visionary ascents, Rev 4.1, 11.12.21 Doing the will, patterned after Jesus and the likeminded (John 7.17)22 and wishing to please, a Pauline pattern (2 Cor 5.9) and exhortation (1 Th 4.1),23 historical activity of the called ones, suggest that the sequence, consummated in “rest,” is realized in earthly experience, not delayed until the eschaton. Again, then, we find from the author an apparently earthly sequence surpassing in some ways the Christian experience recorded in the NT. Third, revelation effecting individual and social reintegration emerges in the historical life of the Gnostic, 25.8-24. The text reads as follows: In time Unity will perfect the spaces. It is within Unity that each one will attain himself; within knowledge he will purify himself from multiplicity into Unity, consuming matter with himself like fire, and darkness by light, death by life. If indeed these things have happened to each one of us, then we must see to it above all that the house will be holy and silent for the Unity. Attridge and MacRae explain Unity in the following way: “It characterizes the transcendent realm of the Father (23.15, 24.26-27), and it is the ultimate state to which all beings which have come from the Father will return (25.10-19).”24 The social and spiritual harmony and coherence, therefore, results from knowledge of the Father. They earlier explain, “By learning about the transcendent Father (18.7) the recipient of revelation also learns about his or her ‘root’ (28.16-18), the source and goal of his or her own existence (21.14-15, 22.13-15).”25 “Attaining himself” then restores one “to the primordial unity.”26 “Purifying himself,” if used as in Irenaeus (Haer. 1.2.4), refers to liberating oneself from passion.27 We find that the author considers these developments accomplished to some extent. The protasis, “If these things have happened to each one of 18 Ibid., 62. 19 Biblical sources underlie the term (ibid., 57, citing Jacques-É. Ménard, L’Évangile de Vérité [Leiden: Brill, 1972], 95). Cf. Ex 32.32; Ps 69.28; Phil 4.3; Rev 3.5, 5.2-9, 13.8, 20.12, 15; 21.27. 20 Cf. Ps 68.18. 21 References from Ménard (L’Évangile, 106), cited by Attridge and MacRae, “The Gospel of Truth,” in NHS XXIII, 72. 22 Reference from Ménard (L’Évangile, 106), cited by Attridge and MacRae, “The Gospel of Truth,” in NHS XXIII, 64. 23 References from Kendrick Grobel, (Gospel of Truth [New York: Abingdon, 1960], 79) and Ménard (L’Évangile, 106), cited by Attridge and MacRae, “The Gospel of Truth,” in NHS XXIII, 64. 24 “The Gospel of Truth” in NHS XXIII, 54. 25 Ibid., 47. 26 Ibid., 74. 27 Ménard (L’Évangile, 123), cited by Attridge and MacRae, “The Gospel of Truth,” in NHS XXIII, 74. 3 us,” is a first-class condition, “since these things have happened.”28 Attridge and MacRae interpret this to mean, “The reintegration into the primordial unity is achieved, at least proleptically, for the Gnostic upon reception of the revelation.” They compare this to Jesus’ assertions that already now “the dead will hear the voice of God and live” (John 5.25) and “true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth (4.23).”29 We also find the author writing sociologically, to a community, not just an individual.
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