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Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies

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Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity 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 81 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/nhms Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity Under Pitiless Skies By Nicola Denzey Lewis LEIDEN • BOSTON 2013 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lewis, Nicola Denzey, 1966- Cosmology and fate in gnosticism and Graeco-Roman antiquity : under pitiless skies / by Nicola Denzey Lewis. page cm. – (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies, ISSN 0929-2470 ; 81) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-24548-8 (hardback : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-90-04-24576-1 (e-book) 1. Gnosticism. 2. Cosmology. 3. Fate and fatalism. I. Title. BT1390.L49 2013 299'.932–dc23 2012048689 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. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 0929-2470 ISBN 978-90-04-24548-8 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-24576-1 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. 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. This book is printed on acid-free paper. For my girls, Lola and Isobel Nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam. Naturam rerum; tanta stat praedita culpa. “Had God designed the world, it would not be A world so frail and faulty as we see.” —Lucretius, De rerum natura, 5.198–199 CONTENTS Acknowledgements . ix Abbreviations. xi Introduction . 1 1. Were the Gnostics Cosmic Pessimists? . 13 2. Nag Hammadi and the Providential Cosmos . 29 3. ‘This Body of Death’: Cosmic Malevolence and Enslavement to Sin in Pauline Exegesis . 53 4. Heimarmene at Nag Hammadi: The Apocryphon of John and On the Origin of the World .............................................. 85 5. Middle Platonism, Heimarmene, and the Corpus Hermeticum...... 103 6. Ways Out I: Interventions of the Savior God . 127 7. Ways Out II: Baptism and Cosmic Freedom: A New Genesis . 145 8. Astral ‘Determinism’ in the Gospel of Judas ......................... 165 9. Conclusions, and a New Way Forward . 181 Selected Bibliography . 193 Subject Index . 203 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book began long, long ago, as my 1998 doctoral dissertation at Princeton University under the expert guidance of Elaine Pagels, John Gager, Ted Champlin and Peter Brown. The combined skills, breadth of knowledge, and sheer brilliance of these scholars made for perhaps the most intimidating dissertation committee known to humanity, and I was daily humbled by the experience. Any successes of this book I owe to them; its shortcomings, on the other hand, remain entirely my own. The extraordinarily congenial and interdisciplinary environment of Princeton’s Program in the Ancient World also brought me into the orbit of three other outstanding Princeton scholars whom I must thank here. The first is Martha Himmelfarb, whose excellent work on Jewish pseudepi- graphical and ascent texts undergirds what I learned about second-century Christian apocalyptic. Over the past decade in particular, I have been so grateful for what I learned from her as I read early Christian material. Bob Lamberton deserves credit for actually setting me on the path to this book by raising the specter of ‘cosmic pessimism’ as a wholly constructed worldview, and by setting aside the conventional classicist’s biases as limited to a more normative canon of texts and approaches. Garth Fowden’s expertise in the Hermetica reminded me to look beyond Christian and Jewish materials to Graeco-Roman religious materials, providing me with a much wider palette of texts and ideas than I would have been aware of without his insights. Within the circles of those who work primarily on Gnosticism, I have found enduring support. Papers based on this book were presented, over the years, at the Society of Biblical Literature’s Nag Hammadi and Gnos- ticism section. Through that section, I have been fortunate to have been guided, corrected, and inspired by a coterie of outstanding scholars. Chief among those who must be singled out are John Turner, Michael Waldstein, Michael Williams, Birger Pearson, Hans-Martin Schenke, Frederik Wisse, Einar Thomassen, Louis Painchaud, and Paul-Hubert Poirier. I’ve turned often to April DeConick’s fabulous work on ascent and mysticism in Gnos- ticism, and never failed to be revivified by her insights. Her recent congress on the Judas Codex in Houston (2008)—masterfully executed—reignited my passion for all things cosmic in the second century. Tuomas Rasimus’s work on the Ophites pushed me to clarify my own views on ancient ascent in ways I appreciate. Finally, both Karen King and Ismo Dunderberg have x acknowledgements repeatedly (and occasionally relentlessly) expressed their desire to see this book in print, as has, most recently, David Brakke. I thank them for having faith in its value in those darker moments of losing my own sense of direc- tion. Chapter eight of this book, on sidereal determinism in the Gospel of Judas, is largely a reprint of my essay “Fate and the Wandering Stars: The Jew- ish Apocalyptic Roots of Astral ‘Determinism’ in the Gospel of Judas” that appeared in April DeConick’s Codex Judas Papers. When I first completed the manuscript of this book, the Gospel of Judas had not yet reached even the scholarly community. The language of the stars and sidereal enslave- ment thoroughly saturates this text, and thus no book on astral fatalism can be complete without some reference to it. At the same time, the term heimarmene nowhere appears in the Gospel of Judas, and I remain con- vinced that this text draws upon a very different set of conceptual materials than the others which I discuss throughout this volume. I trust that this essay’s re-appearance here will clarify how it does and does not relate to the main argument of this book. I thank Brill for permission to re-publish the essay here. Institutionally, I could not have done without the support of Harvard University’s Committee on the Study of Religion under the direction of Diana Eck, where, when I was not teaching, I was a Research Associate so as to luxuriate in the immense riches of Widener Library. At Brown University, thanks to the delightful combination of Susan Ashbrook Harvey and Ross Kraemer, I was given another marvelous luxury: a research assistant of my own; without Robyn Walsh’s help, this project would have languished for much longer. At Brill, I would like very much to thank Einar Thomassen for his sage advice, and the keen eye and wise observations of the manuscript’s anony- mous reader. I have endeavored to incorporate the suggestions and correc- tions which s/he pointed out; needless to say, all errors that remain are my own. As ever, I am thankful for the support of my family—particularly my mother’s insistence that everyone needs to know about this material, how- ever obscure—and of my wonderful husband, Tal Lewis, whose patience and intellectual curiosity provide constant inspiration. ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations for some frequently cited books, collected works and series are listed below. Abbreviations employed in the bibliography for special- ist journals conform to those used in L’Année Philologique, sometimes ex- panded for ease of comprehension, so that they need not be repeated here. Nag Hammadi Tractates (Note: The line references to most Nag Hammadi works in this book are prefaced by the codex number (NHC = Nag Hammadi Codex) to allow for more precision in citing, since some treatises exist in more than one recension in the Nag Hammadi Library itself.) 1stApJas (First) Apocalypse of James ApJn Apocryphon of John Disc. 8–9 Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth Exeg.Soul Exegesis on the Soul GosEg Gospel of the Egyptians GosPhil Gospel of Philip Hyp.Arch. Hypostasis of the Archons Orig.Wld On the Origin of the World SJC Sophia of Jesus Christ Treat.Res. Treatise on the Resurrection Tri.Prot. Trimorphic Protennoia Tri.Trac. Tripartite Tractate Val.Exp. A Valentinian Exposition Other Gnostic and Hermetic Texts Asclep. Asclepius BG Papyrus Berolinensis Exc.Theod. Clement of Alexandria, Excerpta ex Theodoto GosJud Gospel of Judas Poim. Poimandres (CH 1) PS Pistis Sophia xii abbreviations Jewish, Heresiological and Early Patristic Texts 1st Ap. Justin Martyr, First Apology 2nd Ap. Justin Martyr, Second Apology Ad Graec. Tatian, Oration to the Greeks Adv.Haer. Irenaeus, Against Heresies Ant. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews Bellum Josephus, Wars of the Jews Civ.Dei Augustine, City of God Conf. Philo, On the Confusion of Languages de Mig.Abr. Philo, On the Migration of Abraham Dial.Tryph. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho Ecl.Proph. Clement of Alexandria, Prophetic Eclogues EH Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History Her. Philo, Who is the Heir of Divine Things? Leg. Athenagoras, Embassy to the Greeks Pan. Epiphanius, Medicine Chest Prep.Ev.
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