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Sleep and Awakening in Gnostic Texts

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Sleep and Awakening in Gnostic Texts SLEEP AND AWAKENING IN GNOSTIC TEXTS BY GEORGE MAcRAE The correlative Gnostic themes of sleep and awakening have been studied with such thoroughness by H. Jonas 1) that it might seem superfluous to discuss them further. But there are several 'textbook' examples of this imagery in the published Nag Hammadi works which can be used as a key to unlock some observations on the evolution of Gnostic systems and the origin of the imagery itself. The most outstanding occurrence of the 'call of awakening' in the new material is to be found in the longer ending of the Apo­ cryphon ofJohn (AJ) in Codd. II, IV. 2) This passage describes, in the first person, the repeated descents of 'the perfect Pronoia of the All' into the lower world to awaken someone from his deep sleep, and it has rightly been recognized as in some degree extraneous to the main body of the AJ narrative.3) Jonas suggests that we have here an intrusion of the 'Iranian' type of Gnosis into a 'Syrian' context,4) but I should like to propose that the reason for the apparent hetero­ geneity of the passage lies elsewhere. Where the narrative ends in the shorter version of the Berlin Codex (BG) and Cod. III, the Savior in the longer version seems to identify himself as the perfect Pronoia of the All, the richness of the light, the remembrance of the Pleroma (or of the Pronoia), etc., epithets which hardly seem appropriate to the Savior himself. But the introductory framework of the book presents him appearing to John as the Father, the Mother and the Son;5) the implication of 1) Gnosis und spatantiker Geist, vol. I, 3rd ed. (Gi:ittingen 1964), pp. 113-139; The Gnostic Religion, 2nd ed. (Boston 1963), pp. 68-91. 2) Cod. II, 30:11-31:25; Cod. IV, 47:1-49:6 (fragmentary); M. KRAUSE and P. LABIB, Die drei Versionen des Apokryphon des Johannes, ADAIK I (Wiesbaden 1962). 3) E.g. by J. DORESSE, The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics (London 1960), pp. 209-211; S. GIVERSEN, Apocryphon Johannis, ATD V (Copenhagen 1963), pp. 270-273. 4) Gnosis, p. 390; Gnostic Religion, p. 306. 5) Cod. II, 2:14. SLEEP AND AWAKENING IN GNOSTIC TEXTS 497 the work is that the Savior is Christ, though this is not stated.1) The concluding passage of Cod. II, therefore, is not extraneous to the work in that it identifies the revealer as a female figure. For the writer of this version, it was indeed the Savior who, as the Pronoia of light, penetrated three times into the world.2) The first time, 'the foundations of chaos were shaken, and I concealed myself from them because of their wickedness, and they did not know me.' The second time the shaking of the foundations threatened to crush the inhabi­ tants of chaos: 'And again I fled up to my root of light so that they would not be destroyed before the time.' But the third time the mission was successful: I said, 'He who hears, let him arise from his deep sleep.' And he wept and shed many heavy tears. He wiped them away and said: 'Who is it who calls my name? And whence has this hope come to me while I am in the bonds of prison?' And I said, 'I am the Pronoia of the pure light, I am the thought of the Virgin Spirit who raises you up to the glorious place. Arise and remember that you are the one who has heard, and dwell at your root-which is I, the merciful-and protect yourself from the angels of poverty and the demons of chaos and all who cling to you. And be in a state of watchfulness against the deep sleep and the entangle­ ment 3) of the inside of the underworld.' And I raised him up (or: awoke him) and sealed him in the light of the water with five seals so that death would have no power over him from that time on.4) This is a classic example of the call of awakening which Jonas has described principally on the basis of Mandean and Manichean exam­ ples. The one to be awakened is imprisoned in darkness in the material world of the body; he receives a call from beyond that world and is awakened. Even the three elements which Jonas has outlined as the content of the call are present here: 5) the soul is told to remember his divine origin (the 'root'); the promise of salvation is present in the note of hope; and the moral instruction to stay awake follows. If we 1) In fact it is not improbable that the figure of Christ in AJ was superimposed at a secondary stage in its composition. On the inessential role of Christ in the work see W. C. VAN UNNIK, Newly Discovered Gnostic Writings, SBTh 30 (London 1960), pp. 76-77. 2) The world is called the darkness, the prison, the chaos, Amente: ' ... in gnostic thought the world takes the place of the traditional underworld and is itself already the realm of the dead, that is, of those who have to be raised to life again,' Jonas, Gnostic Religion, p. 68; cf. Gnosis, p. 113. 3) So Giversen translates the Coptic ca/es as a form of ca!j meaning 'entangle­ ment'. The Coptologist J. DRESCHER has privately pointed out to me the resem­ blance of the word to the Akhmimic }ales, Sahidic Joo/es meaning 'moth' or 'cor­ ruption,' which might be a more apt translation. 4) Cod. II, 31: 5-25. 5) Gnosis, p. 127; Gnostic Religion, p. 81. NuMEN, Suppl. XII 32 .
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