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Van Den Broek R more information - www.cambridge.org/9781107031371 Spec SD1 Date 26-july GNOSTIC RELIGION IN ANTIQUITY Gnostic religion is the expression of a religious worldview which is dominated by the concept of Gnosis, an esoteric knowledge of God and the human being which grants salvation to those who pos- sess it. Roelof van den Broek presents here a fresh approach to the gnostic current of Late Antiquity within its historical and religious context, based on sources in Greek, Latin and Coptic, including discussions of the individual works of preserved gnostic literature. Van den Broek explores the various gnostic interpretations of the Christian faith that were current in the second and third centuries, whilst showing that despite its influence on earlyC hristianity, gnos- tic religion was not a typically Christian phenomenon. This book will be of interest to theologians, historians of religion, students and scholars of the history of Late Antiquity and early Christianity, as well as specialists in ancient gnostic and hermetic traditions. roelof van den broek is Emeritus Professor of History of Christianity at the University of Utrecht. His books include Studies in Gnosticism and Alexandrian Christianity (1996), Dutch transla- tions, with introductions and notes, of ancient hermetic and gnostic texts (2006 and 2010) and Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem, On the Life and the Passion of Christ: A Coptic Apocryphon (2013). He is co-editor of several books, the most recent being the Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, 2 vols. (with Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Antoine Faivre and Jean-Pierre Brach, 2005). Spec SD1 Date 26-july GNOSTIC R ELIGION IN ANTIQUITY ROELOF vaN DEN BROEK Spec SD1 Date 26-july cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107031371 © Roelof van den Broek 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. © First edition in Dutch: Roelof van den Broek, Gnosis in de Oudheid. Nag Hammadi in context. Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan 2010. ISBN 978-90-716-27-8. www.ritmanlibrary.com. English translation by Anthony Runia. First published 2013 Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by the MPG Books Group A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Broek, R. van den. Gnostic religion in antiquity / Roelof van den Broek. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes. ISBN 978-1-107-03137-1 (hardback) 1. Gnosticism. I. Title. BT1390.B735 2013 299′.93–dc23 2012029712 ISBN 978-1-107-03137-1 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Contents Preface page vii List of abbreviations viii 1 Gnosis and gnostic religion 1 2 Gnostic literature I: tradition 13 The Greek tradition 13 The Coptic tradition 16 3 Gnostic literature II: texts 25 Classification 25 Non-gnostic or hardly gnostic writings in gnostic collections 29 The Gospel of Thomas and related texts 37 The Barbelo myth and the gnostic exegesis of Genesis 44 The Barbelo myth and heavenly journeys 71 Valentinian texts 91 Polemical texts 108 Other mythological traditions 116 4 Anti-gnostic literature 126 Irenaeus 126 Hippolytus 129 Epiphanius 132 Plotinus and his pupils 133 5 Gnosis: essence and expressions 136 The gnostic experience 136 God and his world 150 Mankind and its world 168 Salvation 184 6 Backgrounds 206 The quest for the source 206 Greek philosophy (Platonism) 207 Judaism 211 v Spec SD1 Date 6-july vi Contents Christianity 220 The spirit of the age 226 Bibliography 232 Index of ancient sources 248 Index of names and subjects 253 Preface This book is a thoroughly revised and expanded version of the introduc- tion to my Dutch translation of five gnostic texts from Nag Hammadi, which was published in 2010. Its primary aim is to provide information about the gnostic movement in Antiquity, with emphasis on its literature and forms of expression. I have tried to let the sources speak for themselves and to avoid detailed academic discussions as much as possible, though differences of opinion among scholars have been recorded and evaluated. It was unavoidable, however, to make my position clear with respect to two hotly debated issues in gnostic studies, the definition of the gnostic phenomenon and the question of its origin. The English translations of Latin, Greek and Coptic texts are my own; biblical texts, however, have been quoted after the Anglicized Edition of the New Revised Standard Version. My thanks are due to Mrs. Rosalie Basten, who made the translation from the Dutch possible, and to Mr. Anthony Runia, who realized it. vii Abbreviations AH Adversus Haereses BCNH-É Bibliothèque Copte de Nag Hammadi. ‘Études’ BCNH-T Bibliothèque Copte de Nag Hammadi. ‘Textes’ BG Berlin Gnostic Papyrus (Papyrus Codex 8502) EPRO Études Préliminaires aux Religions Orientales dans l’Empire Romain FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und des Neuen Testaments GCS Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies NHC Nag Hammadi Codex (cited as, for example, NHC i, 4 = Nag Hammadi Codex i, tractate 4; NHC i, 51, 1 = Nag Hammadi Codex i, page 51, line 1) NHMS Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies (continu- ation of NHS) NHS Nag Hammadi Studies NRSV New Revised Standard Version, Anglicized Edition NTOA Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus OBEO Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis PGM Papyri Graecae Magicae (Greek Magical Papyri) RAC Reallexicon für Antike und Christentum RGRW Religions in the Graeco-Roman World SC Sources Chrétiennes SHR Studies in the History of Religions (Supplements to Numen) STAC Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum TU Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der alt- christlichen Literatur VC Vigiliae Christianae viii Spec SD1 Date 6-july List of abbreviations ix WUNT Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament ZAC Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum ZPE Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik Spec SD1 Date 6-july chapter 1 Gnosis and gnostic religion Around 100 ce a Christian who posed as the apostle Paul wrote: ‘Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the profane chatter and con- tradictions of what is falsely called knowledge; by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith’ (1 Tim. 6:20–21). It is impossible today to find out what exactly these people taught. Apparently they advo- cated a view of Christianity centred on the possession of a special kind of knowledge, though the author believes that they have thus strayed from the traditional faith. The word ‘knowledge’ is represented here by the Greek word gnōsis. Pseudo-Paul’s opinion gathered a following, for towards the end of the second century Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, wrote a work in five parts entitled On the Detection and Overthrow of What Is Falsely Called Gnosis. He thus targeted an influential movement in contemporary Christianity which taught that not the faith of the Church but gnosis, spiritual know- ledge, was necessary for salvation. Irenaeus saw this as a dangerous her- esy requiring refutation. Partly thanks to his influence, the view of the Christian faith which he defended and a corresponding deprecation of gnosis became dominant in the Christian Church. This book mainly gives a voice to the supporters of gnosis, the gnostics. In 1945 in Egypt a Coptic library of the fourth century was discovered containing a large number of works from their circles. Though a few such books were found in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the great diversity of the Nag Hammadi discovery made it extremely important. It finally ended the situation that our knowledge of ancient gnosis depended almost entirely on its adversaries. But these original sources also revealed something else: the views of the gnostics turned out to be much more varied than the reports of their opponents suggested. It is typical that none of the new writings fits snugly into the gnostic schools and systems described by the gnostics’ opponents. This raised a question still para- mount in research today: how reliable are the reports of the anti-gnostic 1 Spec SD1 Date 6-july 2 Gnosis and gnostic religion authors? This question will be addressed in the fourth chapter of this book. Another question to arise was: given the great diversity of gnostic views, can the phenomenon of gnosis still be clearly defined? Anyone who writes about the Nag Hammadi finds should therefore explain what he means by ‘gnosis’ and what is usually called ‘Gnosticism’. The Greek word gnōsis means ‘investigation, knowledge, insight’, and the corresponding verb is gignōskein or (later form) ginōskein, ‘to come to know, to know’. Initially, in the Greek world, this concerned only rational knowledge, as a product of mind (nous) and reason (logos), in combination with sensation and experience, knowledge which leads to truth. But in the centuries around the beginning of the Christian Era the concept of gnōsis was considerably broadened. In certain religious circles it took on the meaning of ‘knowledge of the divine world and the true nature of things’; this knowledge was no longer seen as the product of correct rational argu- mentation, but of a divine revelation, an inner enlightenment.1 It is this knowledge to which the apostle Paul refers when he says that God has shone in our hearts ‘to give the light of the knowledge [gnōsis] of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2 Cor.
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