Christian History Institute Presents More Stories: Gnosticism, The Da Vinci Code and The Gospel of Judas Part II © 2007

art I: Origin, Teaching and Opposition to Gnosticism
Part II: Some Gnostic Writings
Part III: Meaning of Gnosticism for Today
References

It is high time we describe the individual Gnostic writings. The Gnostic gospels are not gospels like Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. For the most part they do not consist of biographical information about Christ but rather dialogues and collections of sayings with only here and there something like an anecdote. All contain teaching contrary to Scripture. Several include depraved elements and androgynous gods. Sarcasm, blasphemy and mockery of the sacred is common to many.

• Gospel of Thomas. (Not to be confused with the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas which tells of Christ's childhood.) This is the most reputable of the Nag Hammadi finds. It is a collection of 114 sayings purportedly given by Christ as secret wisdom to Thomas. With typical Gnosticism the opening declares that anyone who understands these sayings will be saved. The arrangement of the sayings is no particular order. Many are close to those found in the four received gospels. Consequently certain scholars believe this book may actually echo some genuine statements of Christ not recorded in the gospels. However, since it contains lines of dubious merit and its authorship cannot be ascertained, there is no way that would be acceptable to most Christians to determine which sayings are authentic and which are not.
    None of the new Thomas stuff strikes me as particularly impressive. It does not resonate in my soul, perhaps because there is no context to give the statements force. Some of the sayings which have similarities to our four authentic gospels come across as lacking a punch line, others add a line that steals the punch. For example, when responding to the man who asks him "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me," Jesus uncharacteristically looks to his disciples for reaffirmation: "He said to him, 'O man, who has made me a divider?' He turned to His disciples and said to them, 'I am not a divider, am I?'" In the parable of the man who invites guests to a feast only to have them turn him down, the Gospel of Thomas elaborates on the excuses thus make the illustration tedious. In one of the most quoted sayings, Peter seeks to exclude Mary because of her sex, but Jesus says he will make Mary male.
• Gospel of Truth. The principle Valentinian work, this sermon may be by Valentinus himself. He teaches that error came from the Father and warps familiar New Testament terms, giving them a new meaning. Another work by the Valentinians is The Treatise on the Resurrection which says the resurrection, which is a spiritual rather than a physical resurrection, has already occurred for each believer by faith. Still another Valentinian work, the Tripartite Tractate, blames a rupture in the Godhead on the Logos (Word). This work offers a typical Gnostic scheme in which aeons beget aeons until a fallen world is introduced. The Logos splits and in conjunction with aeons emanates a savior. Two other Valentinian works are Interpretation of Knowledge and the Valentinian Exposition which contains ritual pronouncements. Interpretation of Knowledge deals with a community torn over spiritual gifts and the lack of knowledge of some. It employs Scriptural themes reinterpreted in Valentinian fashion.
• The Apocryphon [Secret Book] of James. In this dialog, Jesus appears to the disciples 550 days after his resurrection [the Bible limits the apperances to 40 days], singles out James and Peter for special knowledge which will no longer uttered in parables. He urges his followers to accept martyrdom and ascends into heaven. Peter and James attempt to follow but their concentration is broken before they can enter the third heaven.
• The Book of Thomas the Contender. This is a dialogue in which Thomas, called the identical twin of Jesus, is given special knowledge by Jesus. This knowledge advocates asceticism, especially avoidance of women. "Woe to you who love intimacy with womankind and polluted intercourse with them!"
• The Apocryphon [Secret Book] of John. The church father Irenaeus blasted a version of this work, three copies of which were found at Nag Hammadi-- all varying in detail. Jesus allegedly appeared to John in a blaze of light after his resurrection and gave him, among other things, a bizarre creation story based on Genesis 1. Like other such books, this declares that an evil archon created our world. It flatly contradicts the Genesis account that Eve was made from Adam's rib and teaches that she was seduced by the chief Archon (a godlike being) and had two children that she named with Old Testament names of God (Elohim and Yahweh). In the teaching of this book, Christ and Sophia (Wisdom) are emanations of God. Sophia attempts an impossible thing and becomes separated from the heavenly world and fragmented. Sparks from her still exist in those who will be saved, gathering themselves and returning to the heavenly world where they will reunite.
• The First and Second Apocalypse of James. Jesus tells his spiritual brother James that both of them must die. After facing the cross, he assures him he never suffered a thing. He instructs James in how to pass certain beings that will try to block him from reaching the divine realm. The second book ends with a graphic (and possibly useful) account of James' death at the hands of Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.
• The Apocalypse of Peter. In a trance, Peter sees the opponents of Christ as blind. When Jesus is crucified, there is someone laughing above the cross. "The Savior said to me, 'He whom you saw on the three [crosses], glad and laughing, this is the living Jesus. But this one into whose hands and feet they drive the nails is his fleshly part, which is the substitute being put to shame, the one who came into being in his likeness." In other words, this is a spirit Christ, an intellectual Christ, not a real human Christ, and this Crhist finds it a great joke that a real man is suffering what he is supposedly going through. This is certainly not the Christ we know.
• The Apocalypse of Paul. Paul ascends through the ten heavens.
• Second Treatise of the Great Seth. Jesus says that he escaped the crucifixion and did not die at all. Another person died in his place and he was laughing at the blindness of all who did not see what was going on.
• Gospel of Philip. This disjointed book presents a mysterious Jesus. Supposedly he loved Mary Magdalene more than the apostles and used to kiss her often. It ridicules Christians who take the resurrection literally and denies that the Virgin Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit (which it takes to be a feminine principle): "When did a woman ever conceive by a woman?"
• The Exegesis on the Soul. A myth of how the soul (feminine) falls from heaven, prostitutes itself, bears sickly children, repents, calls to the father, is transformed, married to her older brother (Christ), bears good children and is restored to heaven.
• Gospel of Mary. This book was found before the Nag Hammadi manuscripts. Mary relates the things Jesus told her alone about salvation after his resurrection, is disbelieved because they are new teachings, breaks into tears, is defended by Levi who says Jesus loved her more than the rest of them. He says they should listen to her and go out and preach the gospel, so they do. Christ's resurrection is taught to be a visionary, ecstatic thing.
• The Prayer of Thanksgiving. This short prayer thanks God for a knowledge which makes one divine. One sentence reads: "We rejoice because while we were in the body you have made us divine through your knowledge."
• Dialogue of the Savior. Jesus answers questions put him from the apostles and Mary, giving Gnostic answers. The words are largely elaborations and transformations of Christ's sayings known to us from the Bible. However, as in several of the Gnostic writings, it shows hostility toward women that far exceeds anything alleged against the New Testament writers: "Judas said, 'You have told us this out of the mind of truth. When we pray, how should we pray?' The Lord said, 'Pray in the place where there is no woman.'"
• The Acts of John. Discovered before Nag Hammadi, this denies the reality of Christ's body. John says he was unable to see that Christ left any footprints.
• The Trimorphic Protennoia. The Protennoia is supposedly God's first thought and descends to earth three times, first as father, then as mother and finally as son. Some scholars claim that the opening of John's gospel was influenced by this work, although it seems likelier to be the other way around. Be that as it may, this book teaches that Jesus was just a man. In it, Christ is the son of the villainous god who supposedly created our world, not of the true God who it says is different. Truth is brought to mankind by a female goddess who becomes incarnated as a human.
• The Concept of Our Great Power. As in the Protennoia describes three eras representative of the three beings in the Trinity. After an imitator deceives men, the end will come, apparently with the return of Christ (not named) in a final apocalypse. The great power is a god higher than the God of the Old Testament.
• The Letter of Peter to Philip. The disciples on the Mount of Olives see a great light. Jesus instructs them in secret Gnostic wisdom which is a shortened version of the teaching found in the Apocalypse of John and in the Hypostasis of the Archons.
• The Sophia [Wisdom] of Jesus Christ. The disciples are on a mountain, see a great light and Jesus appears as an angel of light to give them secret Gnostic instructions. [Bible believers will object at once that Satan comes as an angel of light and that Jesus is above angels.] This writing was modeled on Eugnostos the Blessed.
• The Testimony of Truth. Contains a passage sneering at God as He is revealed in the Genesis account of Adam and Eve's fall; exalts the serpent in the Garden of Eden as the revealer of life and knowledge; says orthodox Christians should not marry and procreate; rejects a bodily resurrection.
• The Authoritative Teaching. This book is about a soul (represented as a woman) which falls and finds its way through a hard search for knowledge back to immortal food. Her invisible soul cannot be destroyed by the dealers in bodies and is fed spiritually. Humans are compared to fish for whom a dragnet is cast by those who would destroy them. This book, as a work of fiction, is actually moving in places.
• The Thunder: Perfect Mind. Written somewhat in the style of the feminine wisdom of Proverbs 9, here a feminine voice speaks. What she says, though, is a wisdom of contradiction and riddles. "I am the whore and the holy one; I am the wife and the virgin...I am the mother of my father and the sister of my husband and he is my offspring..."
• Hypostasis of the Archons. This perverse book opens quoting Paul. It gives a creation account loosely based on Genesis, but denying that Eve was made from Adam's rib. When Adam wakens from ignorance, he declares that Eve has given him life. Spiritual beings attempt to rape her, but she turns into a tree and substitutes an image of herself for them to rape. The story then glorifies the serpent and Eve whom it tempted. The punishment of Adam and Eve is by lesser gods. The story then passes to Noah's wife who dominates her husband and burns the first ark he builds. An angel enlightens a questioner about the origin of things with a typical Gnostic explanation involving a wicked and ignorant creator god given the names "fool" and "god of the blind." Sophia (Wisdom) also appears. The God whom Jews and Christians know from the Old Testament is mocked because He claims to be "the only God" and "a jealous God."
• On the Origin of the World. Very similar at many points to the Hypostasis of the Archons. Eve is a virgin who produces her children without Adam. When spiritual beings attempt to rape her, she turns into a tree and substitutes an image of herself for them to violate. The image bears their offspring. Satan, who tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit is glorified as "the instructor." When heavenly beings come to punish the couple, they are unable to act against the instructor--he is too powerful for them. All they can do is curse him. Envious of the knowledge Adam and Eve have gained, the heavenly powers expel them from the garden. After many people came into being, the savior who is greater than all (the Logos) is sent to instruct them.
• The Gospel of the Egyptians (also known as The Sacred Book of the Great Invisible Spirit). Like the Origin of the World and Hypostasis of the Archons, this offers a myth in which emanations from God make the corrupt universe. It identifies lights and powers. Seth, son of Eve, puts on Jesus' body to save humankind.
• The Great Questions of Mary. One of the most despicable of the Gnostic books, it depicts Jesus as engaging in and justifying shocking sexual practices (Dart 27).
• Gospel of Judas. Reversing the gospel story, Judas is made the hero, the only one who understands Jesus. He betrays Jesus at His own request to liberate Jesus from his evil flesh and gets blamed for his obedience.
• The Apocalypse of Adam. A dying Adam imparts knowledge to his good son Seth, telling him that for a while he and Eve were higher than the god who made them but lost that knowledge in their fall. Three high beings brought him a secret knowledge which he is passing on to Seth. This manuscript is written from an Jewish perspective as are The Life of Adam and Eve, Eugnostos the Blessed, The Paraphrase of Shem, the Three Steles of Seth, Zostrianos, and Allogenes. The last named instructs how to overcome ignorance and fear and walk in revealed knowledge with the Gnostic and Sethian elements. Some of the instruction is given by a female deity. In the Paraphrase of Shem, John the Baptist is declared to be a demon; the destruction of Sodom is reversed in meaning. Shem ascends to the height of creation, receives instruction from an enlightened being named Derdekeas and returns to earth to tell others what he has learned. In the Three Steles of Seth, knowledge from the time of Seth (Adam's third son) is supposedly recovered. Zostrianos recounts a heavenly journey. Another Sethian writing, Melchizadek, purports to be a prophecy of the first coming of Christ.

Impressions

The overall impression I am left with is that in this literature there is a cloud of confusion: a creation and fall which take place in a dozen different ways; names and entities as evanescant as particles in a cloud chamber; an enlightenment that never comes clear; shape & role-shifting beings who are not even well characterized as fictions. All of this is embedded in a pastiche of contrarian ideas that are interlarded with remarks that remind one of irreverent schoolboys whom you can almost hear sniggering at their own cleverness which they think proves that they are superior to the decent things ordinary people believe.

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