DOCSLIB.ORG

The Paraphrase of Shem (NH VII,1)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Paraphrase of Shem (NH VII,1) Th e Paraphrase of Shem (NH VII, 1) Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies Editors Johannes van Oort & Einar Th omassen Editorial Board J.D. BeDuhn, A.D. DeConick, W.-P. Funk, I. Gardner, S.N.C. Lieu, A. Marjanen, P. Nagel, L. Painchaud, B.A. Pearson, N.A. Pedersen, S.G. Richter, J.M. Robinson, M. Scopello, J.D. Turner, G. Wurst VOLUME 72 Th e Paraphrase of Shem (NH VII, 1) Introduction, Translation and Commentary By Michel Roberge LEIDEN • BOSTON 2010 Th is book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Paraphrase of Shem. English. Th e paraphrase of Shem (NH VII, 1) : introduction, translation, and commentary / by Michel Roberge. p. cm. — (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies ; v. 72) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-90-04-18202-8 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Paraphrase of Shem— Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Roberge, Michel. II. Title. III. Series. BT1392.P35A3 2010 229’.9—dc22 2010000328 ISSN 0929-2470 ISBN 978 90 04 18202 8 Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e 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 Th e Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands CONTENTS Foreword ............................................................................................. vii List of Abbreviations ......................................................................... ix Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 A. Th e Manuscript and Language of the Tractate .................. 1 B. Th e Literary Genre .................................................................. 4 C. Th e Narrative Procedures ...................................................... 20 D. Outline of the Paraphrase of Shem ...................................... 23 E. Th e System ............................................................................... 31 F. Th e Cosmogony ...................................................................... 32 G. Th e Anthropogonic Myth ...................................................... 59 H. Soteriology and Eschatology ................................................. 65 I. Situation, Provenance, and Date of the Paraph. Shem ..... 77 Preliminary note on the translation ............................................... 97 Translation .......................................................................................... 99 Commentary ....................................................................................... 129 Bibliography ........................................................................................ 143 Appendix ............................................................................................. 159 Indices .................................................................................................. 161 A. Index of Modern Authors ..................................................... 161 B. Index of Mythological Names .............................................. 164 C. Index of Ancient Sources ...................................................... 165 D. Index of Subjects ..................................................................... 179 FOREWORD Th e Paraphrase of Shem is the fi rst tractate of Codex VII in the papy- rus collection that was discovered near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in December 1945. Despite its title, the tractate is in fact an apocalypse. Jean Doresse, one of the fi rst scholars to obtain access to these manu- scripts, described it as “the most extraordinary of the apocalypses in our whole library. It is also, perhaps, one of the most important of all the writings that were in use by the Gnostics” (Th e Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Texts, Rochester, Vermont 2005, 116). It is also a text that has a reputation for being highly complex and largely incomprehensible: “It is the longest and most obscure of all the 52 writings . .” (G. Quispel, review of the French edition, Vigiliae Chris- tianae 54 [2000] 444); “de tous les textes gnostiques parvenus jusqu’à nous, il reste le plus diffi cile, le plus impénétrable, le moins étudié” (M. Tardieu, Annuaire de l’École pratique des hautes études, Ve section, 1983–84, 357). Twenty years later, Tardieu’s remarks have lost none of their rele- vance. Th e editions of this text that have so far been published, whether in English (1996), German (2003) or other languages, off er only very brief introductions and minimal annotation. Th e French edition pub- lished by M. Roberge in 2000 in the series Bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi, the result of more than twenty years of work, represents the fi rst, and until now the only, interpretation of this important text. Th is was underlined by the reviewer R. McL. Wilson: “. his book, justly claimed as the fi rst comprehensive interpretation of the document, is the fruit of many years of research; it also marks an advance on anything hitherto available . for the present this a very solid contri- bution” (Journal of Th eological Studies 52 [2001] 872–875). Roberge’s extensive introduction analyses the manuscript, the language of the tractate, its literary genre and the narrative procedures employed by the author, and he reconstructs in detail the plan of the work. Above all, however, his in-depth study of the system shows that the tractate articulates a coherent vision of the world, whose elements have been drawn from the Bible, Stoicism and Middle Platonism, especially that of Numenius of Apamea and the Chaldaean Oracles. Even though the author of the Paraphrase borrows a number of the elements of viii foreword his system from other known varieties of gnosticism, notably from Valentinianism and Hermetism, the fi nal synthesis remains entirely original, anticipating Manichaeism on several points. Th e English translation of Roberge’s book which is presented here addresses a larger audience than that of the French version. For this reason, the part of the Introduction that deals with the details of the manuscript and the language have been omitted, as is also the case with the Coptic text and the Coptic and Greek indices. Besides, in order to facilitate the reading of the English translation of the Coptic text, the author has divided the text into sections and added notes that incorporate the results of his most recent research. In addition, the bibliography has been updated and adapted to an English readership. Th e English translation of the Introduction has been made by Professor Kevin Coyle of the University of St. Paul in Ottawa. Th e translation of the Coptic text was made directly from Coptic into English by Michel Roberge and was revised by Kevin Coyle. Th e indi- ces have been compiled by Mr David Joubert-LeClerc. Th is transla- tion does not simply duplicate the English translations that have been published already, since, as R. McL. Wilson observes, “For the proper understanding of these texts we need to consider and compare the versions produced by several diff erent translators, for each may yield some new insight into the meaning.” And, aft er surveying various instances where Roberge’s translation diff ers from the rest, he adds: “A whole series of such small translation variants will of course make a material diff erence to the fi nal result” (loc. cit. 873, 975). Th is volume will certainly be of interest to the specialists in the his- tory of religions and in philosophy. As a point of special interest for the history of ancient philosophy, the links discovered by the author between the present text and the Chaldaean Oracles should be under- lined. Besides, the detection of numerous features of the system that point in the direction of Manichaeism suggests that we are here in the presence of a particularly signifi cant juncture on the road leading from the various gnostic systems to that of Mani. Overall, this study assuredly provides a solid groundwork that will be able to feed the discussion about a text whose importance scholars have only begun to gauge. Louis Painchaud ABBREVIATIONS TO PERIODICALS, REFERENCES WORKS, AND SERIALS AH Irenaeus, Adversus Hæreses (D. Unger, St Irenaeus of Lyons: Against the Heresies: Volume I: Book I, with further revisions by John J. Dillon, Ancient Christian Writers 55, New York: Paulist Press, 1992) ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (Berlin: W. de Gruyter) Aug Augustinianum BA Biblical Archaeologist Bailly Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris, 1950 BASP Th e Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists BCNH Bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium BSAC Bulletin de la Société d’Archéologie Copte BZNW Beiheft e zur Zeitschrift für die neutestament- liche Wissenschaft CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly CH Corpus hermeticum (Nock-Festugière) CMC Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis (Koenen- Römer) CRUM W.E. Crum, A Coptic Dictionary, Oxford, 1972 CUF Collection des Universités de France De an. procr. in Tim. Plutarch, De animae procreatione in Timaeo
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 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]
  • The Gnostic Myth of Sophia in Dark City (1998) Fryderyk Kwiatkowski Jagiellonian University in Kraków, [email protected]
    Journal of Religion & Film Volume 21 Article 34 Issue 1 April 2017 4-1-2017 How To Attain Liberation From a False World? The Gnostic Myth of Sophia in Dark City (1998) Fryderyk Kwiatkowski Jagiellonian University in Kraków, [email protected] Recommended Citation Kwiatkowski, Fryderyk (2017) "How To Attain Liberation From a False World? The Gnostic Myth of Sophia in Dark City (1998)," Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 21 : Iss. 1 , Article 34. Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol21/iss1/34 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Religion & Film by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. How To Attain Liberation From a False World? The Gnostic Myth of Sophia in Dark City (1998) Abstract In the second half of the 20th century, a fascinating revival of ancient Gnostic ideas in American popular culture could be observed. One of the major streams through which Gnostic ideas are transmitted is Hollywood cinema. Many works that emerged at the end of 1990s can be viewed through the ideas of ancient Gnostic systems: The Truman Show (1998), The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Others (2001), Vanilla Sky (2001) or The Matrix trilogy (1999-2003). In this article, the author analyses Dark City (1998) and demonstrates that the story depicted in the film is heavily indebted to the Gnostic myth of Sophia. He bases his inquiry on the newest research results in Gnostic Studies in order to highlight the importance of definitional problems within the field and how carefully the concept of “Gnosticism” should be applied to popular culture studies.
    [Show full text]
  • This Is a Digital Copy of a Book That Was Preseived for Generations On
    This is a digital copy of a book that was preseived for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online. It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover. Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the publisher to a library and finally to you. Usage guidelines Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying. We also ask that you: + Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for personal, non-commercial purposes. + Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google 's system: If you are conducting research on machine translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us.
    [Show full text]
  • Resistance to Christianity. the Heresies at the Origins of the 18<Sup
    Library.Anarhija.Net The Resistance to Christianity. The Heresies at the Origins of the 18th Century Raoul Vaneigem Raoul Vaneigem The Resistance to Christianity. The Heresies at the Origins ofthe 18th Century 1993 Retrieved on December 21, 2009 from www.notbored.org Published by Editions Artheme Fayard in 1993. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! All footnotes by the author, except where noted. March 2007. Thanks to Christopher Gray and Kim Paice for material support and encouragement. To Contact NOT BORED! [email protected] ISSN 1084–7340. Snail mail: POB 1115, Stuyvesant Station, New York City 10009–9998 lib.anarhija.net 1993 Contents Translator’s Introduction 10 Foreword 20 Chapter 1: A Nation Sacrificed to History 33 Chapter 2: Diaspora and Anti-Semitism 54 Jewish Proselytism and Anti-Semitism . 57 Chapter 3: The Judean Sects 65 The Sadduceans ....................... 65 The Pharisians ........................ 68 The Zealot Movement .................... 72 Chapter 4: The Men of the Community, or the Essenes 82 History of the Sect ...................... 83 Monachism and Ecclesiastic Organization . 87 Essenism is the True Original Christianity . 91 The Messiah ......................... 92 The Essene Churches .................... 97 A Dualist Tendency . 100 Towards a Judeo-Christian Syncretism . 102 Chapter 5: The Baptist Movement of the Samaritan Messiah Dusis/Dosithea 105 Shadow and Light from Samaria . 105 The Messiah Dusis/Dunstan/Dosithea . 107 2 • Wiesel, W., “Bibliography of Spiritual Libertines,” in Religion Chapter 6: Simon of Samaria and Gnostic Radicality 113 in Geschicte und Gegenwort. The So-Called Disciples of Simon . 126 • Wilker, R.-L., Le Mythe des Origines Chretiennes, Paris, 1971. Chapter 7: The phallic and fusional cults 129 The Naassenes or Ophites .
    [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]
  • Philostratus, the Cup of Tantalus and the Bowl of Buddha
    Philostratus, the cup of Tantalus and the bowl of Buddha ATTILIO MASTROCINQUE University of Verona 1. The bowl of Tantalus We know of several wondrous objects producing endless food. The cornucopias are famous and they are images of a horn of the goat Amalthea which fed the baby Zeus. Serapis had a basket (kalathos) on his head to symbolize that he granted corn for the humans. This god was identified with the biblical Joseph, who stored corn during the period of abundance and distributed it during the years of famine.1 Another famous multiplication of food was that of loaves and fishes by Jesus: thanks to the miracle, five loaves and two fish were multiplied and fed 5000 peo- ple.2 Here we will discuss a less famous multiplication and a scarcely known in- strument for multiplying, the cup of Tantalus. We will see that this legendary cup was conceived after the model of the bowl of Buddha and testifies to a knowledge of Buddhist beliefs in the first half of the 3rd century AD and to an unexpected transformation of Indian thought within Greek culture. The only description of this magical cup is that of Philostratus, in his Life of Apollonius of Tyana where a discourse of Iarchas, the leader of Indian ascetic men, is reported: ————— 1 Mussies (1979). I thank my friends Patricia Johnston, Gaius Stern, and the reviewer of Ancient Narrative for their suggestions and criticism. 2 The Gospels (Marc. 6.30-44; Matth. 14.13-21; Luc. 9.10-17; Joh. 6.1-15) reports the mir- acle; a similar miracle with seven fish a few loaves fed 4000 people (Marc.
    [Show full text]
  • Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies
    Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies Editors Johannes van Oort & Einar Thomassen Editorial Board J.D. BeDuhn, A.D. DeConick, W.-P. Funk I. Gardner, S.N.C. Lieu, A. Marjanen P. Nagel, L. Painchaud, B.A. Pearson N.A. Pedersen, S.G. Richter, J.M. Robinson M. Scopello, J.D. Turner, G. Wurst VOLUME 76 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/nhms Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices Studies for Einar Thomassen at Sixty Edited by Christian H. Bull, Liv Ingeborg Lied and John D. Turner LEIDEN • BOSTON 2012 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mystery and secrecy in the Nag Hammadi collection and other ancient literature : ideas and practices : studies for Einar Thomassen at sixty / edited by Christian H. Bull, Liv Ingeborg Lied, and John D. Turner. p. cm. — (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies ; v. 76) Includes index. ISBN 978-90-04-21207-7 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Nag Hammadi codices. 2. Gnostic literature—History and criticism. 3. Gnosticism. 4. Manichaeism. 5. Mystery. 6. Secrecy. I. Thomassen, Einar. II. Bull, Christian H. III. Lied, Liv Ingeborg. IV. Turner, John Douglas. V. Title. VI. Series. BT1391.M97 2012 229’.9—dc23 2011030294 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities.
    [Show full text]
  • Christians, Gnostics and Platonists: an Overview of the Ethos of Late Antiquity
    NORTH-WEST UNIVERSITY (POTCHEFSTROOM CAMPUS) in association with Greenwich School of Theology UK Christians, Gnostics and Platonists: An overview of the ethos of late antiquity by Theodore Sabo BTh, MMin #21768404 Dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Theology at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University Supervisor: F Z Kovács Co-Supervisor: P H Fick November 2010 ABSTRACT Christians, Gnostics, and Platonists attempts to characterize the ethos of late antiquity (100-500 CE) as one that despised matter and the body. It operates within the assumption that there are four criteria which establish this characterization, namely an emphasis on the evil of life, a distrust of the sociopolitical world, asceticism, and an interest in the supernatural. These four criteria are evident in the Platonists, Christians, and Gnostics of the period. As Chapter Two reveals the dissertation understands the concept of ethos in the context of R. C. Trench’s discussion of aiōn: “all the thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, impulses, and aspirations present in the world at any given time.” In Chapter Three Plato and the Middle Platonists are viewed as bequeathing to late antiquity its world-denying philosophy which the Gnostics preached more incessantly than the Platonists and the Christians practiced more conscientiously than the Gnostics. The Neoplatonists were the Platonists of late antiquity. In the writings of such figures as Plotinus and Porphyry the hatred of matter and the body is boldly expressed, and it is only slightly less apparent in later philosophers like Iamblichus and Proclus. In Plotinus we discern a profound distrust of the sociopolitical world and in Proclus a thoroughgoing asceticism paired with an interest in the supernatural.
    [Show full text]
  • The Thirteenth Daimon: Judas and Sophia in the Gospel of Judas
    The Thirteenth Daimon: Judas and Sophia in the Gospel of Judas Marvin Meyer Like my colleague and friend Professor April DeConick, author of The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says, I too recently read a text that interested me greatly but caused me to believe something went terribly wrong.1 The text DeConick read was the translation of the Gospel of Judas prepared by the National Geographic team of translators, which included Rodolphe Kasser, Gregor Wurst, François Gaudard, and myself. The text I read was DeConick’s own book, which puts forward a revisionist interpretation of the Gospel of Judas. In her book, Professor DeConick attempts to correct what she regards as our oversights and to put forward the real meaning of the Gospel of Judas. What she produces, she is convinced, points to a totally different gospel than anything we might have imagined—a gospel of tragedy that is more dysangelium than evangelium. I personally find the thesis of Professor DeConick’s book, that the Gospel of Judas is a gospel parody, to be interesting and provocative, and in principle I remain open to a document, ancient or modern, that functions as a tragic or even nihilistic text. In her book there are a number of points about the interpretation of the Gospel of Judas, including her comments on the critique of apostolic succession in the text, that merit serious consideration. But what initially bothered me—and continues to bother me—about DeConick’s book is that everything we know about ancient gospels flies in the face of her basic thesis.
    [Show full text]
  • Gnostic Goddess, Female Power, and the Fallen Sophia ©2010 Max Dashu 1
    The Gnostic Goddess, Female Power, and the Fallen Sophia ©2010 Max Dashu 1 Thou Mother of Compassion, come Come, thou revealer of the Mysteries concealed... Come, thou who givest joy to all who are at one with Thee Come and commune with us in this thanksgiving... —Gnostic hymn [Drinker, 150] Before the Roman triumph of Christianity, serious disagreements had already appeared among the believers. Gnostics were the first Christians to be expelled from the church as heretics. But not all Gnostics were Christian. Jewish Gnosticism predated Christianity, and pagan Gnostics who praised Prometheus and the Titans for opposing the tyranny of Zeus. [Geger, 168; Godwin, 85] Persian dualism, Hellenistic Neo-Platonism, and Egyptian mysticism were all influential in shaping Gnosticism. There was no one unified body of Gnostic belief. Though some Gnostic gospels were among the earliest Christian texts, all were banned from the orthodox canon that became the New Testament. Most people don't realize that the New Testament is a carefully screened selection from a much larger body of Christian scriptures. The others were not simply excluded from the official collection, but were systematically destroyed when Christianity became the state religion. [Epiphanius, in Legge, xliii] Egyptian Gnostics managed to protect an important cache of scriptures from the book-burners by burying them in large jars. Until the discovery of these Nag Hammadi scrolls in 1947, what little was known of the Gnostics came mostly from their sworn enemies, the orthodox clergy. [Pagels 1979: xxxv, xvii; Allegro, 108; Wentz, 363fn, lists a few surviving manuscripts known by 1900.] One of the few scriptures that did survive intact is the Pistis Sophia, while others are known fragmentarily from quotations in orthodox writings, especially those of Irenaeus and Hippolytus of Rome.
    [Show full text]
  • Similarities Between Sethian Baptism and the Bridal Chamber of Thomas Gnosticism and Valentinianism
    Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies Volume 1 Number 1 Inaugural Issue Article 3 2009 Similarities Between Sethian Baptism and the Bridal Chamber of Thomas Gnosticism and Valentinianism Darren Iammarino Claremont Graduate University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/imwjournal Recommended Citation Iammarino, Darren "Similarities Between Sethian Baptism and the Bridal Chamber of Thomas Gnosticism and Valentinianism." Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 1, no. 1 (2009). https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/imwjournal/vol1/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Iammarino: Sethian Baptism 23 Darren Iammarino Darren Iammarino is a PhD candidate at Claremont Graduate University in the field of Philosophy of Religion. His areas of interest are broad within both religion and philosophy and hence, most of his academic work is focused on comparative studies. He is currently working on his dissertation entitled, Cosmosyntheism: A Paradigm of Multiple Religious Ultimates. In addition, he is currently working on two other books, with one, the Compass Path a Guide to Self Cultivation, due to be published in early winter. 24 IMW Journal of Religious Studies Vol. 1:1 Darren Iammarino Similarities Between Sethian Baptism and the Bridal Chamber of Thomas Gnosticism and Valentinianism Over the years many theories have been proposed to explain the nature and function of Sethian baptism and the bestowal of the five seals in Gnostic tradition.
    [Show full text]