Jesus). Volume One, Titled Gospel Origins and Christian Beginnings

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Jesus). Volume One, Titled Gospel Origins and Christian Beginnings

These volumes also represent, in a sense, dividends from Robinson's investment in assembling teams of scholars to complete two enormous projects. The first was the publication of the Nag Hammadi codices, and the second the current ongoing reconstruction of the gospel's saying source ("Q"). The two volumes include essays by a number of Dr. Robinson's colleagues, including his wife, Dr. Gesine Robinson ("The Trimorphic Protennoia and the Prologueto the FourthGospel"),and several directors of Institute projects: Burton Mack of the Bible and Epic project ("Lord of the Logia: Saviour or Sage?"), Vincent Wimbush of the Ascetic Behaviorin Greco Roman Antiquity project ("Sophrosyne: James and Gesina Robinson with Sanders Greco-Roman Origins ofa Type ofAscetic Behavior"), Marv Meyer of the Coptic Jesus). Volume One, titled Gospel Origins Magical Papyri project("The Youth inSecret and Christian Beginnings, includes essays Mark and the Beloved Disciple in John"), on topics such as "Q", the Gospel of Thomas, Karen King of the Female and Male in and earlyChristian prophecy. VolumeTwo, Gnosticism project ("Ridicule and Rape, titled Gnosticism and the Early Christian Rule and Rebellion: Images ofGender in the World, includes essays on ascetic behavior Hypostasis of the Archons"), and Birger in Greco-Roman antiquity, early Egyptian Pearson of theRoots of Egyptian Christianity monasticism, and the Gnostic Nag Hammadi project ("The Apocalypse of Peter and library. Canonical 2 Peter"). 5 Jesus). Volume one, nueo Gospel Origins Magical Papyri project("The Youth inSecret.

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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 .
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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.
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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.
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THE JOHANNINE LEGACY: the GOSPEL and APOCRYPHON of JOHN John D. Turner University of Nebraska-Lincoln This Essay Explores the Po
THE JOHANNINE LEGACY: THE GOSPEL AND APOCRYPHON OF JOHN John D. Turner University of Nebraska-Lincoln This essay explores the possibility of an intertextual dialogue and a shared history-of-religions background and context for two late first and early second century sectarian movements: Johannine Christianity and Sethian Gnosticism, an early Gnostic movement presently attested in no less than eleven of the fifty-two treatises contained in the fourth- century Coptic codices from Nag Hammadi as well as in several patristic sources. In particular, I suggest that both movements may have originated as non-Christian baptismal sectarian movements that became Christianized during the second half of the first century and gradually came to sustain an increasingly polemical relationship to one another throughout the second century. Since it is the less-well-known of the two, I begin first with a sketch of the nature and history of the Sethian movement and then move to a discussion of the Apocryphon of John and the Trimorphic Protennoia as the two Sethian treatises that most clearly sustain close literary con- tacts with the Johannine gospel and letters. Since the intertextual con- tacts between these two treatises and the Johannine corpus become most obvious in the prologue of the Fourth Gospel, I then turn to an exploration of points of closest contact between them, namely the Trimorphic Protennoia and the Pronoia monologue concluding the Apocryphon of John. The remainder of this essay is devoted to a dis- cussion of two other distinctive aspects of the relationship of these two movements, namely the practice and theory of baptism and their com- mon characterizations of revelatory media, which leads to the con- cluding suggestion that the Apocryphon of John was in part intended as a concluding sequel to the Fourth Gospel, and that the Sethian and Johannine movements shared a parallel and interrelated history of development.1 1 For a recent, similar but different discussion of this relationship, see Rasimus 2009.
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Elaine Pagels – the Gnostic Gospels
Also by Elaine Pagels THE JOHANNINE GOSPEL IN GNOSTIC EXEGESIS THE GNOSTIC PAUL: GNOSTIC EXEGESIS OF THE PAULINE LETTERS ADAM, EVE, AND THE SERPENT VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, SEPTEMBER 1989 Copyright © 1979 by Elaine Pagels All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published by Random House, Inc., New York, in 1979. Since this page cannot legibly accommodate all acknowledgments to reproduce previously published material, they appear on the opposite page. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Pagels, Elaine H 1943- The gnostic gospels. Originally published in 1979 by Random House, New York. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Gnosticism. 2. Chenoboskion manuscripts. I. Title. BT1390.P3 1981 273’.1 80-12341 ISBN 0-679-72453-2 (pbk.) Manufactured in the United States of America 79C8 Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material: Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.: Excerpts from the New Testament. The Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952, © 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and used by permission. Wm. B. Eerdman's Publishing Co.: Excerpts from Tertullian, Iranaeus and Hippolytus. Reprinted from The Ante Nicene Fathers by permission of the Wm. B.
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Intertextuality, Isiac Features, and the Shaping of the Sacred Feminine in the Trimorphic Protennoia (Nhc Xiii, 1)
INTERTEXTUALITY, ISIAC FEATURES, AND THE SHAPING OF THE SACRED FEMININE IN THE TRIMORPHIC PROTENNOIA (NHC XIII, 1) Nicolò Sassi Indiana University – Bloomington The aim of this paper is to bring to light through intertextual analysis some dimensions of conti- nuity between the Hellenistic and Imperial theology of Isis and the figure of the Sacred Feminine as it appears in the Trimorphic Protennoia (NHC XIII, 1). Instead of attempting to establish a diachronic (=historical) relationship of dependence between sources (e.g., borrowing, allusion, influence), this study establishes correspondences that can be traced on the literary level. Through a reception-oriented analysis, it will be possible to show the continuity between the Isiac religion and the late ancient mysticism of the Trimorphic Protennoia. A late ancient reader would have experienced the Nag Hammadi text in dialogue with Isiac traditions, and this literary dialogue with the Isiac religion would have nurtured and shaped their understanding of the sacred feminine described in the Trimorphic Protennoia. INTRODUCTION Although, as Turcan (1989: 77–78) wrote, “les Grecs de Naucratis et, avant eux sans doute aussi, les marins phéniciens avaient commercialisé des scarabées, des amulettes, des statuettes, des oushabtis, des vases plastiques et autres articles de pacotille certes, mais qui divulguaient en Sicile, en Sardaigne et jusqu’en Espagne l’imagerie des dieux nilotiques,” major phenomena of inter-contamination between the Egyptian cults and other ancient Mediterranean religions did not take place until after the conquests of Alexander and the enthronement of the Ptolemaic dynasty.1 After that, the spread of these cults – and the consequent cross-religious fertilization with other spiritual traditions – was massive.
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History and the Historical Jesus in the Nag Hammadi Literature
Historr and the Historical Jesus in the Nag Hammadi Literature by Mark R. Fairchild In December 1945, two Egyptian brothers were digging at the base of a hill near Nag Hammadi for nitrates to fertilize their fields. While digging near a boulder one of the brothers discovered a large sealed earthenware jar. The jar contained thirteen Gnostic codices written in Coptic which date back to the fourth century. However, scholars do not always agree about the date of the original writings. Elaine Pagels claims: Some of them can hardly be later than c. A.D. 120-150, since Irenaeus, the orthodox Bishop of Lyons, writing c. 180, declares that heretics "boast that they possess more gospels than there really are," and complains that in his time such writings already have won wide circulation. I Helmut Koester believes that the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas actually antedate those in the canonical gospels. A comparison of the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas with their parallels in the synoptic gospels suggests that the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas either are present in a more primitive form or are developments of a more primitive form of such sayings. Indeed, the Gospel of Thomas resembles the synoptic sayings source, often called "Q" ... which was the common source of sayings used by Matthew and Luke.2 This collection of Gnostic primary sources comprises the largest and most important body of Gnostic writings yet known. Yet, these writings probably are not the works of a single Gnostic sect. George MacRae notes that different works probably belong to the Sethians, 4 History and the Historical Jesus in the Nag Hammadi Literature the Valentinians, and other Gnostic groups (including even the pagan Hermetic Gnostics).3 Nevertheless, bearing in mind the syncretism of Gnostic sects, it is likely that those at Nag Hammadi borrowed from many different areas.
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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.
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Trimorphic Protennoia (Nag Hammadi Codex XIII.1) | 1 TRIMORPHIC PROTENNOIA (Nag Hammadi Codex XIII.1)
Trimorphic Protennoia (Nag Hammadi Codex XIII.1) | 1 TRIMORPHIC PROTENNOIA (Nag Hammadi Codex XIII.1) This short Coptic text (sixteen pages of papyrus) forms a small booklet, clearly detached from a larger whole and slipped inside the leather cover of Codex II of the NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY. On its last page, the beginning of another Nag Hammadi treatise can be recognized, the anonymous treatise from Codex II of which Codex XIII no doubt contained a second version. The text of the Protennoia is probably complete, but the manuscript is badly damaged, containing considerable lacunae that hinder the interpretation of a work already very obscure. The work is a kind of hymn of revelation, of the “I am” type, strongly marked by mythological gnosticism. The work appears to belong to the same Gnostic sect as the APOCRYPHON OF JOHN, with which it has several points in common, and also could well be almost contemporary. The revelation consists of three clearly separated parts, each having a subtitle in the manuscript. The speaker is always Protennoia, that is, the First Thought of the Invisible. The three parts begin, respectively: (1) “I am the Protennoia, the Thought . .”; (2) “I am the Voice which was manifested . .”; and (3) “I am the Word [Logos]. .” This tripartite division broadly corresponds to the three modes of the manifestation of Protennoia, although the latter are not so sharply distinguished (in fact, the first section already introduces the threefold aspect of Protennoia). Like the Revealer in the Apocryphon of John, Protennoia is at once the Father, the Mother, and the Son.
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Session Four
Session Four THE PHENOMENON AND SIGNIFICANCE OF GNOSTIC SETHIANISM BY HANS-MARTIN SCHENKE ONE of the most important insights bestowed upon us by the Nag Hammadi Library comes in the form of the discovery, or rather the elucidation, of a variety of Gnosticism that may be well compared to Valentinianism in both extent and historical importance.* In the Nag Hammadi codices there exists a constellation of texts that clearly stand apart as a relatively close-knit group (however much they may also be related to other Nag Hammadi writings). Clear membership in the group is enjoyed not only by the texts that are central to it, but also by those that are peripheral. This text group includes: The Apocryphon of John (CG 11,1; III,]; IV,J; plus the BG version and the parallel in Irenaeus Haer. 1.29) The Hypostasis of the Archons (11,4) The Gospel of the Egyptians (111,2; IV,2) The Apocalypse of Adam (V,5) The Three Ste/es of Seth (Vll,5) Zostrianus (VIII,]) Melchizedek (IX,1) The Thought of Norea (IX,2) M arsanes (X) Allogenes (Xl,3) The Trimorphic Protennoia (XIII) In the light of the above-mentioned text group, still other writings can be seen to belong to this variety of Gnosticism. These are, of original Gnostic writings (besides the aforementioned BG,2), the Untitled Treatise of the Codex Brucianus; and from the domain of antiheretical literature (besides the aforementioned system of Irenaeus • Heartfelt thanks are due to my colleague and friend Bentley Layton for translating this paper into English.
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Gnosticism 2016 Syllabus Gnosticism
3/21/2018 Gnosticism 2016 Syllabus Gnosticism Religion 222b, Haverford College, F 2016 Prof. Anne McGuire, [email protected]; 8961028 T Th 12:30 pm This syllabus will be updated regularly. Students should check before every class and follow the links to any additional assigned or recommended materials. Course Description Course Description: This course offers a critical examination of "Gnosticism" through close reading of selected texts from the Nag Hammadi library and other ancient writings. The meaning and usefulness of the category "Gnosticism" are currently under debate among scholars. In this course we'll use the term "Gnosticism" to designate a particular type of religious movement and worldview that emerged within the culture of the ancient Mediterranean world, and is represented in the writings we will examine. Crucial to these sources is an emphasis on the saving power of "gnosis," secret or esoteric knowledge, grounded in spiritual experience and in revelations which often take the form of mythic narratives of creation and redemption. One classic text of Christian Gnosticism, for example, states: "It is not baptism alone that makes us free, but the knowledge (gnosis) of who we are, what we have become; where we were; where we have been cast out of; where we are bound for; from what we are delivered; what birth is; and what rebirth is." [Excerpts from Theodotus 78.2]. Those who possess such "gnosis" understand themselves to have been redeemed from ignorance and evil and and to have achieved salvation through their acquisition of gnosis and their participation in rituals of rebirth and redemption.
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The Trimorphic Protennoia
THE TRIMORPHIC PROTENNOIA BY ROBERT McL. WILSON It would of course be quite impossible, within the limits of a short communication, to deal in detail with the problems relating to this text. One of the translations to be mentioned already has some twenty pages of notes in addition to sixteen of introduction. The purpose of this paper is simply to draw attention to a few points which seem to deserve notice, and to raise some questions for consideration. The text became available with the publication of the Facsimile Edition volume containing Codices XI, XII and XIII,l and trans lations into French and German have already been published.2 A cursory examination and comparison will reveal broad agreement as to structure and content, the more to be expected since the three main divisions are clearly marked in the text itself, but at the same time a considerable degree of variation in points of detail. A line by line comparison of a single Coptic page yielded some twenty variants in thirty-five lines of text. The first point to be made, therefore, is that the study of this text is still only beginning. We are not yet at the stage of definitive editions and accepted versions. Seeking an explanation for the variations, we may note that several arise from the same cause: MIle Janssens has restored the text only where she is fairly confident about filling the lacunae, whereas the Berlin group have consistently endeavoured to present a complete and unbroken text, except when several consecutive lines are completely missing, as is the case from p.
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