DOCSLIB.ORG

Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies Editors Johannes van Oort & Einar Thomassen Editorial Board A. D. DeConick—W.-P. Funk—I. Gardner C. W. Hedrick—S. N. C. Lieu—A. Marjanen P. Nagel—L. Painchaud—B. A. Pearson S. G. Richter—J. M. Robinson—M. Scopello W. Sundermann—J. D. Turner—G. Wurst VOLUME 68 Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking Rethinking Sethianism in Light of the Ophite Evidence By Tuomas Rasimus LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rasimus, Tuomas. Paradise reconsidered in Gnostic mythmaking : rethinking Sethianism in light of the Ophite evidence / by Tuomas Rasimus. p. cm. — (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies ; v. 68) Revision of the author’s thesis (doctoral)—University of Helsinki and Université Laval, 2006. Includes bibliographical (p. ) references and indexes. ISBN 978-90-04-17323-1 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Sethians. 2. Ophites. I. Title. II. Series. BT1390.R38 2009 273'.1—dc22 2009029148 ISSN 0929-2470 ISBN 978 90 04 17323 1 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands CONTENTS Preface ................................................................................................. ix List of Figures, Tables and Plates ................................................... xiii Abbreviations ..................................................................................... xvii PART I: INTRODUCTION Prologue .............................................................................................. 3 Chapter One: Rethinking Sethianism ............................................ 9 1.1 Ophites in Heresiological Literature and Previous Scholarship ............................................................................ 10 1.2 Sethianism: A Problematic Category ................................ 28 1.3 Ophite Mythology in the Nag Hammadi Texts and Related Literature ................................................................. 41 1.4 Towards a New Solution .................................................... 54 PART II: MYTH AND INNOVATION Chapter Two: The Serpent ............................................................... 65 2.1 Ophite and Sethian Snake Speculations .......................... 66 2.2 Hippolytus and the Testimony of Truth .......................... 76 2.3 Other Evidence of “Gnostic” Snake Speculation ............ 82 Excursus: Eastern Christian and Islamic Sources ............ 93 2.4 Conclusion ............................................................................ 96 Chapter Three: The Creator and the Archons .............................. 103 3.1 The Names and Theriomorphism of the Archons ......... 103 3.2 Ophite Mythologoumenon about the Creator and His Offspring ........................................................................ 107 3.3 Comparison between Ophite and Sethian Speculations about the Archons ............................................................... 124 3.4 Conclusion ............................................................................ 127 vi contents Chapter Four: Sophia, Eve and Gnosis .......................................... 129 4.1 Jewish Wisdom Speculations and 1 Corinthians ........... 130 4.2 The Ophite Speculations about Sophia ............................ 132 4.3 The Sethian Speculations about Sophia ........................... 148 4.3.1 General Remarks ..................................................... 148 4.3.2 Rewriting of the Ophite Sophia Myth in the Apocryphon of John ................................................. 151 4.4 Conclusion ............................................................................ 154 Chapter Five: Adam and Christ ...................................................... 159 5.1 The Hellenistic Jewish Background of 1 Cor 15:45–47 160 5.2 The Creation and Animation of Adam ............................ 163 5.3 “Man Exists and Son of Man”—Speculations about Heavenly Men ...................................................................... 171 5.4 Conclusion: The Background of the Ophite Mythologoumenon about Adam ....................................... 183 Chapter Six: The Pillars of Seth: Sethianization of Ophite and Barbeloite Myths ............................................................................ 189 6.1 Sethian, Jewish and Ophite Traditions about Seth ........ 190 6.2 Appeal to Seth as a Transmitter of Secret Knowledge 194 6.3 Sethianization of Ophite and Barbeloite Myths ............. 198 6.4 Conclusion and Summary of Part II ................................ 202 PART III: RITUAL Chapter Seven: Evidence for Ophite Snake Worship .................. 211 7.1 The Heresiological Accounts ............................................. 212 7.2 Pagan and So-Called Original Gnostic Evidence ........... 216 7.3 The New Testament Evidence ........................................... 220 7.4 Conclusion ............................................................................ 222 Chapter Eight: Anathema Iesous: Origen on the Ophite Cursing of Jesus ............................................................................. 225 8.1 Origen’s Information .......................................................... 226 8.2 Other Heresiological Reports about Ophites and “Snake-Sects” ........................................................................ 228 8.3 Ophite Mythology in the Nag Hammadi Texts and Related Literature ................................................................. 231 contents vii 8.4 Negative Images of Jesus .................................................... 236 8.5 Conclusion: Cainite Gnostic Teaching Behind Origen’s Claim ...................................................................................... 239 Chapter Nine: The Ophite Seal, Sethian Baptism and the Johannine Prologue ....................................................................... 243 9.1 Celsus and the Nature of the Purported Ophite Rituals .................................................................................... 244 9.2 Anointing, Baptism and Ascension in the Ophite Mythology ............................................................................. 250 9.3 The Purported Sethian Rituals and the Fourth Gospel .................................................................................... 255 9.4 Conclusion ............................................................................ 277 PART IV: CONCLUSION Epilogue ............................................................................................... 283 Bibliography ........................................................................................ 295 Indices A. Index of Modern Authors ..................................................... 313 B. Index of Ancient Sources ....................................................... 318 C. Index of Subjects ..................................................................... 345 Plates 1–20 PREFACE This book is a revised version of my 2006 doctoral dissertation, com- pleted jointly at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and Université Laval, Québec, Canada. I had the good fortune to be able to work under the guidance of two experts on Gnosticism, Profs. Ismo Dunderberg and Louis Painchaud, as well as in two research projects devoted to the study of Gnosticism and early Christianity. My original project in Hel- sinki, “Myth and Social Reality in Gnostic and Related Documents,” was a sub-project of a larger one (“Formation of Early Jewish and Christian Ideology,” led by Prof. Heikki Räisänen) that was funded by the Academy of Finland as a Centre of Excellence. Prof. Dunderberg, together with Profs. Antti Marjanen and Risto Uro, were members of that project, and their always valuable criticism and keen observa- tions have often guided me through difficult phases in my research. The project at Université Laval, working on the French translations and new editions of the Nag Hammadi texts, Bibliothèque Copte de Nag Hammadi (BCNH), offered another great forum, where I was able to benefit from vivid scholarly discussions, especially in the project’s weekly translation seminars. For my doctoral dissertation, I was originally supposed to investi- gate the relationship between two closely related Coptic texts from the Nag Hammadi library, the Hypostasis of the Archons and On the Ori- gin of the World, a topic I had already dealt with in my Master’s thesis. However, Prof. Painchaud suggested to me that I should look more closely into what I had considered to be an insignificant detail: the mostly unexplored relationship between the Hypostasis of the Archons and another Nag Hammadi text, the Sophia of Jesus Christ. I took his advice and found many interesting links between the two texts, espe- cially concerning the Sophia myth, one of the most characteristic
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Clement's Gnostic Interpretation of the Old Testament
    Clement’s Gnostic Interpretation of the Old Testament: Divine Pedagogy as the Basis for Clement of Alexandria’s Biblical Interpretation by Robert Geoffrey Thomas Edwards A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Wycliffe College and the Biblical Department of the Toronto School of Theology. In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Theology awarded by the University of St. Michael’s College. © Copyright by Robert Geoffrey Thomas Edwards 2014 Clement’s Gnostic Interpretation of the Old Testament: Divine Pedagogy as the Basis for Clement of Alexandria’s Biblical Interpretation Robert Geoffrey Thomas Edwards Master of Arts in Theology University of St. Michael’s College 2014 Abstract Clement of Alexandria’s interpretation of the Bible is based on his theological understanding of divine progress. This progress, or divine pedagogy, begins with faith (πίστις) and culminates in knowledge (γνῶσις) – that is, acquaintance with God. Clement refers to the one who has acquired this γνῶσις as the “true Gnostic.” By examining Clement’s interpretation of three Old Testament passages (Psalm 1, Genesis 1:26-27, and the Ten Commandments [Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-21]) various facets of his gnostic interpretation become evident: his biblical interpretation is affected depending on the stage of the spiritual journey; the true Gnostic has privilege to interpret over and against the heretics; and Scripture is full of gnostic truths. This thesis contributes to the discussion of early “Alexandrian” biblical interpretation.
    [Show full text]
  • Secret Sects of Syria and the Lebanon
    SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA AND THE LEBANON BERNARD H. SPRINGETT SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA AND THE LEBANON SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA AND THE LEBANON • a CONSIDERATION OF THEIR ORIGIN, CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, AND THEIR CONNECTION WITH AND IN- FLUENCE UPON MODERN FREEMASONRY By BERNARD H. SPRINGETT, P.M..P.Z. LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1 INTRODUCTION A surprising amount of scorn and ridicule has been the reception accorded by Freemasons, both in Great Britain and in America, to previous attempts to place on record some very plain proofs that we are justified in saying in our Masonic Ritual that " we came from the East and proceeded to the West." The plain fact that much of what we now look upon almost entirely as Freemasonry has been practised as part and parcel of the religions of the Middle East for many thousands of years, lies open for anyone who cares to stop and read, instead of running by. But it is frequently and scornfully rejected by the average Masonic student, and this seems to betoken an unwillingness to credit Masonry with an existence of more than two or three hundred years at most. It is painful to those who, like myself, take a justifiable pride in the antiquity of Masonry, far exceeding that of any other religion in the world known to mankind, to hear it so frequently condemned as completely legendary. In the following pages I have attempted to bring together, from a very large number of sources, reliable evidence as to the prevalence amongst the inhabitants, ancient and modern, of Syria in general and the mountains of the Lebanon in particular, of various ceremonial rites, manners and customs.
    [Show full text]
  • Archons (Commanders) [NOTICE: They Are NOT Anlien Parasites], and Then, in a Mirror Image of the Great Emanations of the Pleroma, Hundreds of Lesser Angels
    A R C H O N S HIDDEN RULERS THROUGH THE AGES A R C H O N S HIDDEN RULERS THROUGH THE AGES WATCH THIS IMPORTANT VIDEO UFOs, Aliens, and the Question of Contact MUST-SEE THE OCCULT REASON FOR PSYCHOPATHY Organic Portals: Aliens and Psychopaths KNOWLEDGE THROUGH GNOSIS Boris Mouravieff - GNOSIS IN THE BEGINNING ...1 The Gnostic core belief was a strong dualism: that the world of matter was deadening and inferior to a remote nonphysical home, to which an interior divine spark in most humans aspired to return after death. This led them to an absorption with the Jewish creation myths in Genesis, which they obsessively reinterpreted to formulate allegorical explanations of how humans ended up trapped in the world of matter. The basic Gnostic story, which varied in details from teacher to teacher, was this: In the beginning there was an unknowable, immaterial, and invisible God, sometimes called the Father of All and sometimes by other names. “He” was neither male nor female, and was composed of an implicitly finite amount of a living nonphysical substance. Surrounding this God was a great empty region called the Pleroma (the fullness). Beyond the Pleroma lay empty space. The God acted to fill the Pleroma through a series of emanations, a squeezing off of small portions of his/its nonphysical energetic divine material. In most accounts there are thirty emanations in fifteen complementary pairs, each getting slightly less of the divine material and therefore being slightly weaker. The emanations are called Aeons (eternities) and are mostly named personifications in Greek of abstract ideas.
    [Show full text]
  • GNOSIS and NAG HAMMADI Anne Mcguire
    12 GNOSIS AND NAG HAMMADI Anne McGuire Introduction Introductory remarks on “gnosis” and “Gnosticism” “Gnosticism” is a modern European term that !rst appears in the seventeenth-century writings of Cambridge Platonist Henry More (1614–87). For More, “Gnosticism” designates one of the earliest Christian heresies, connected to controversies addressed in Revelation 2:18–29 and in his own day.1 The term “gnosis,” on the other hand, is one of several ancient Greek nouns for “knowledge,” speci!cally experiential or esoteric knowledge based on direct experience, which can be distinguished from mere perception, understanding, or skill. For Plato and other ancient thinkers, “gnosis” refers to that knowledge which enables perception of the underlying structures of reality, Being itself, or the divine.2 Such gnosis was valued highly in many early Christian communities,3 yet the claims of some early Christians to possess gnosis came under suspicion and critique in the post-Pauline letter of 1 Timothy, which urges its readers to “avoid the profane chatter and contradictions of falsely so-called gnosis.”4 With this began the polemical contrast between “false gnosis” and “true faith.” It is this polemical sense of “false gnosis” that Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons took up in the title of his major anti-heretical work: Refutation and Overthrow of Falsely So-Called Gnosis, or Against Heresies, written c. "# 180.5 Irenaeus used 1 Timothy’s phrase not only to designate his opponents’ gnosis as false, but, even more important, to construct a broad category of
    [Show full text]
  • Nag Hammadi Codex II in Its Fourth
    2 CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . 5 ABSTRACT . 8 DECLARATION AND COPYRIGHT STATEMENT . 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 10 1. INTRODUCTION . 11 The Nag Hammadi Codices after ‘Gnosticism’. 11 Order and Themes: Alternative Scripture? . 15 Pachomian Ownership? Arguments from Codicology . 21 Ideological Affinity? . 29 Introducing the Pachomian Sources . 29 Pachomian Ideology and Practice . 35 2. THE APOCRYPHON OF JOHN AS A THEMATIC PROLOGUE . 45 The Significance and Prominence of the Apocryphon of John . 45 The Narrative . 48 Sexual Complexity: Asceticism and Anti-Feminism? . 62 Carnal Union and Spiritual Unity . 64 Feminine Wiles: The Placement of Sexual Desire in Codex II . 67 Sex: Despicable or Distorted? . 72 Knowledge Revealed and Preserved . 77 The Struggle of the Soul . 79 3 3. ETHICS AND PRACTICE: ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE BODY, THE WORLD, AND OTHERS IN THE GOSPELS OF THOMAS AND PHILIP . 83 Defining ‘Asceticism’ . 83 The Gospel of Thomas . 86 Origins of the Text and the ‘Ascetic’ Argument . 86 The Counter Debate . 89 A More Nuanced Position? . 92 The Gospel of Philip . 108 Metaphorical Marriage? The Bridal Chamber . 108 ‘Appropriate’ Sexuality . 114 Social Responsibility and Attitudes towards Other Christians . 127 4. THE DEMISE OF COSMIC THREAT AND REWARD FOR THE DEVOTED: THE HYPOSTASIS OF THE ARCHONS AND ON THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD . 135 The Consequences of Earthly Actions . 135 The Hypostasis of the Archons . 138 Making a Mockery of Malice . 145 Sexuality: The Roles of Eve and Norea . 156 Reinterpreting the ‘Chosen Generation’ . 161 On the Origin of the World . 164 Eschatology Cosmic and Individual . 164 5. UNDERSTANDING AND LIBERATING THE SOUL: THE EXEGESIS ON THE SOUL AND THE BOOK OF THOMAS THE CONTENDER .
    [Show full text]
  • Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism and New Testament Interpretation
    Grace Theological Journal 8.2 (1987) 195-212 Copyright © 1987 by Grace Theological Seminary. Cited with permission. NAG HAMMADI, GNOSTICISM AND NEW TESTAMENT INTERPRETATION WILLIAM W. COMBS The Gnostic heresy alluded to in the NT and widely repudiated by Christian writers in the second century and after has been in- creasingly studied in the last forty years. The discovery in upper Egypt of an extensive collection of Gnostic writings on papyri trans- formed a poorly known movement in early Christianity into a well documented heresy of diverse beliefs and practices. The relationship of Gnosticism and the NT is an issue that has not been resolved by the new documents. Attempts to explain the theology of the NT as dependent on Gnostic teachings rest on ques- tionable hypotheses. The Gnostic redeemer-myth cannot be docu- mented before the second century: Thus, though the Gnostic writings provide helpful insight into the heresies growing out of Christianity, it cannot be assumed that the NT grew out of Gnostic teachings. * * * INTRODUCTION STUDENTS of the NT have generally been interested in the subject of Gnosticism because of its consistent appearance in discussions of the "Colossian heresy" and the interpretation of John's first epistle. It is felt that Gnosticism supplies the background against which these and other issues should be understood. However, some who use the terms "Gnostic" and "Gnosticism" lack a clear understanding of the movement itself. In fact, our knowledge of Gnosticism has suffered considerably from a lack of primary sources. Now, however, with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi (hereafter, NH) codices, this void is being filled.
    [Show full text]
  • EARL 8/2 No. 2
    ATTRIDGE/VALENTINIAN AND SETHIAN APOCALYPSES 173 Valentinian and Sethian Apocalyptic Traditions* HAROLD W. ATTRIDGE The paper reexamines the relationship between “apocalyptic” and “gnostic” traditions, on the assumption that global definitions of these phenomena are problematic. Valentinian and Sethian corpora in the Nag Hammadi collection display different appropriations of apocalyptic literary forms and conceptual schemes. Apart from a few late works with traces of Valentinian positions, this tradition largely ignores features characteristic of apocalyptic literature. Valentinian eschatology seems to be founded primarily on philosophical cosmology and psychology. Sethian texts preserve many features of Jewish revelatory literature, and many details associated with various eschatological schemes familiar from apocalyptic sources. The most extensive use of the characteristic “heavenly ascent” topos in Sethian literature, however, seems to be a third-century development, perhaps responding to contemporary forms of religious propaganda. It has been almost forty years since R. M. Grant made his famous, and frequently discussed, suggestion that Gnosticism was born out of disap- pointed apocalyptic hopes.1 While containing an element of truth, the very formulation seems curiously dated. At the end of the millennium we are much more aware of the difficulties of dealing with each term of *A version of this paper was presented to the joint session of the Nag Hammadi and Pseudepigrapha groups at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Orlando, November 22, 1998. The subject of the joint session was the relationship of “apocalyptic” and “Gnosticism.” 1. Robert M. Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959; rev. ed. 1966), 27–38.
    [Show full text]
  • A Commentary on Jerome's Contra Vigilantium by Amy
    A COMMENTARY ON JEROME’S CONTRA VIGILANTIUM BY AMY HYE OH DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classical Philology with a concentration in Medieval Studies in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Danuta Shanzer Professor Ralph Mathisen Professor Jon Solomon Professor Stephan Heilan, University of Osnabrück ABSTRACT Innkeepers inspired this dissertation. After working on ‘innkeepers’ as a topic for a research seminar paper, I soon discovered that the term caupo counted as an insult according to several church fathers, including Jerome. In the Contra Vigilantium, Jerome mocked his enemy, Vigilantius, by calling him a caupo who mixed water with wine; I wondered whether the title was true and the insult was deserved. What remained was to figure out who this man was and why he mattered. The dissertation is comprised of four parts: introductory chapters, a text with an en face translation, a philological/historical commentary, and appendices. The first chapter introduces Vigilantius, discusses why a commentary of the Contra Vigilantium is needed, and provides a biography, supported by literary and historical evidence in response to the bolder and more fanciful account of W.S. Gilly.1 The second chapter treats Vigilantius as an exegete. From a sample of his exegesis preserved in Jerome’s Ep. 61, I determine that Jerome dismissed Vigilantius’ exegesis because he wanted to protect his own orthodoxy. The third chapter situates Vigilantius in the debate on relic worship. His position is valuable because he opposed most of his contemporaries, decrying relics instead of supporting their translation and veneration.
    [Show full text]
  • 5 Fragments of a Forgotten Aiÿn an Outline on a Gnostic Myth
    Kervan – Rivista Internazionale di studii afroasiatici n. 2 – luglio 2005 FRAGMENTS OF A FORGOTTEN AIŸN AN OUTLINE ON A GNOSTIC MYTH di Ezio Albrile Gnostics regard the cosmos as the result of an «error» or of a hybris begotten in the transcendent world. Reality is perceived as a great dream intentionally moulded by the Demiurge in order to forget the Light concealed in the creations. By consequence, the power of the Demiurge consists precisely in being the creator and keeper of a level of existence limited in space and time. Gnostic imagination plastically depicts the homicide and ignorant Demiurge with the features of an abnormous creature with the head of a lion and wings, enveloped in the coils of a snake. Thus, Gnostics reinterpreted a key figure in the syncretic pantheon of late Hellenism, i. e. AiŸn, the god of endless eternity, the Saeculum, the Iranic Zurw…n, the Jewish ‚Ol…m. This means that AiŸn involved contacts with two different visions: the AiŸnes are the creations that populate the gnostic pl‡rŸma, immortal and eternal entities, and outside the pl‡rŸma the demiurgic AiŸn arises as the result of a divine «fault», a monstrous being whose somatic features can be found in the Orphic and Mithriac iconography. The central idea of Gnosticism, as of all the mystery religions, is that of salvation; a or inner knowledge was offered to the elect, through which the soul might be delivered from its condition of bondage. Salvation, as understood by Christianity is fundamentally ethical or «religious» in its meaning (Gnoli 1967: 290), but in Gnosticism the ethical aspect of redemption falls almost completely into the background of a ritual praxis.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nag Hammadi Library
    The Nag Hammadi Library The Apocryphon of John (The Secret Book of John - The Secret Revelation of John) Translated by Frederik Wisse The Apocryphon of John is commonly referenced by two other names: The Secret Book of John and The Secret Revelation of John, depending upon how the word "Apocryphon" is translated. Their are four surviving Coptic manuscripts of this text: two shorter version found in the Berlin Codex; and Nag Hammadi Codex III, and two longer version, found in Nag Hammadi Codex II and IV. This translation prepared by Dr. Wisse for the Nag Hammadi Library in English uses all four manuscripts to produce a single text. Separate translations of the short and long version, along with extensive additional resources, are available in the Apocryphon of John Collection of the Gnostic Society Library. Visit the Apocryphon of John Collection for more information The teaching of the savior, and the revelation of the mysteries and the things hidden in silence, even these things which he taught John, his disciple. And it happened one day, when John, the brother of James - who are the sons of Zebedee - had come up to the temple, that a Pharisee named Arimanius approached him and said to him, "Where is your master whom you followed?" And he said to him, "He has gone to the place from which he came." The Pharisee said to him, "With deception did this Nazarene deceive you (pl.), and he filled your ears with lies, and closed your hearts (and) turned you from the traditions of your fathers." When I, John, heard these things I turned away from the temple to a desert place.
    [Show full text]
  • Thrice-Male…Thrice-Powerful”: Gender and Authority in Apocryphon of John
    “Thrice-Male…Thrice-Powerful”: Gender and Authority in Apocryphon of John A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts in Religious Studies University of Regina By Roxanne Lee Korpan Regina, Saskatchewan January 2016 Copyright 2016: R.L. Korpan UNIVERSITY OF REGINA FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH SUPERVISORY AND EXAMINING COMMITTEE Roxanne Lee Korpan, candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in Religious Studies, has presented a thesis titled, “Thrice-Male…Thrice-Powerful”: Gender and Authority in Apocryphon of John, in an oral examination held on August 27, 2015. The following committee members have found the thesis acceptable in form and content, and that the candidate demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject material. External Examiner: *Dr. Heidi Marx-Wolf, University of Manitoba Supervisor: Dr. William Arnal, Department of Religious Studies Committee Member: Dr. Darlene Juschka, Department of Religious Studies Committee Member: **Dr. Franz Volker Greifenhagen, Department of Religious Studies Chair of Defense: Dr. Emily Eaton, Department of Geography & Environmental Studies *Via SKYPE **Not present at defense i Abstract The following paper examines Apocryphon of John through two different analytic frameworks that make this complex and at times, seemingly bizarre 2nd century C.E. Egyptian text intelligible: (Middle) Platonism and gender. First, the text is analyzed in continuity with the ideological content and rhetorical strategies of contemporary Middle Platonic literature. Next, the text is analyzed as a gendered piece of literature, with attention paid to the rhetorical usefulness of gender in deploying motifs of femininity, masculinity, and androgyny in Apocryphon of John and other contemporary literature.
    [Show full text]
  • Barbelo 1 Barbelo
    Barbelo 1 Barbelo Part of a series on Gnosticism History • Early • Syrian-Egyptic • Mandaeism • Manichaeism • Sabians of Haran • Modern schools Proto-Gnostics • Philo • Simon Magus • Cerinthus • Valentinus • Basilides • Menander Scriptures • Gnostic Gospels • Nag Hammadi library • Pseudo-Abdias • Clementine literature • Gnosticism and the New Testament Codices • Codex Tchacos • Askew Codex • Bruce Codex • Berlin Codex Lists • Gnostic sects • Gnostic terms Related articles • Gnosis • Jnana • Esoteric Christianity • Theosophy • Neoplatonism and Gnosticism • v • t [1] • e Barbelo 2 The Gnostic term "Barbēlō" (Greek: Βαρβηλώ)[2] refers to the first emanation of God in several forms of Gnostic cosmogony. Barbēlō is often depicted as a supreme female principle, the single passive antecedent of creation in its manifoldness. This figure is also variously referred to as 'Mother-Father' (hinting at her apparent androgyny), 'First Human Being', 'The Triple Androgynous Name', or 'Eternal Aeon'. So prominent was her place amongst some Gnostics that some schools were designated as Barbeliotae, Barbēlō worshippers or Barbēlōgnostics. The nature of Barbēlō Nag Hammadi Library In the Apocryphon of John, a tractate in the Nag Hammadi Library containing the most extensive recounting of the Sethian creation myth, the Barbēlō is described as "the first power, the glory, Barbēlō, the perfect glory in the aeons, the glory of the revelation". All subsequent acts of creation within the divine sphere (save, crucially, that of the lowest aeon Sophia) occurs through her coaction with God. The text describes her thus: This is the first thought, his image; she became the womb of everything, for it is she who is prior to them all, the Mother-Father, the first man (Anthropos), the holy Spirit, the thrice-male, the thrice-powerful, the thrice-named androgynous one, and the eternal aeon among the invisible ones, and the first to come forth.
    [Show full text]