Excerpt from the Introduction...
The Gnostic Discoveries:
The Impact of the Nag Hammadi Library
by Marvin Meyer
HarperSanFrancisco, 2005, pp 1-11
Introduction
Gnostic Wisdom Ancient and Modern
SINCE THE DISCOVERY of
the ancient texts that comprise the Nag Hammadi library, the world of
the historical Jesus, the schools of Judaism and Greco-Roman religion,
and the varieties of Christianity has begun to look remarkably different
than it did once upon a time.
In this book,
The Gnostic Discoveries, I
seek to assess the character of that world of Jesus, Judaism,
Greco-Roman religion, and early Christianity in the light of the Gospel
of Thomas, the Secret Book of John, the Gospel of Truth, and other texts
unearthed in the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library and to suggest the
extent to which a new understanding of that ancient world may impact our
modern world.' Many of the texts found in the Nag Hammadi library and
related collections, such as the Berlin Gnostic Codex, represent a
mystical spirituality commonly called "gnosticism," a term derived from
the Greek word gnosis,
"knowledge."' Hence the title of this book.
BEFORE THE NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY
Prior to the discovery
of the Nag Hammadi library, "gnosticism" typically was considered to be
an early and pernicious Christian heresy,
and much of
our knowledge of gnostic religion was gleaned from the writings of the
Christian heresiologists, those authors who attempted to establish
orthodoxy and expose heresy in the early church. The Christian
heresiologists disagreed vehemently with Christian gnostics on matters
of faith and life, and as a result they portrayed gnostic believers as
vile heretics. Without a doubt the polemical intentions of the
heresiologists influenced their understanding — or misunderstanding — of
the gnostics. In the latter part of the second century, Irenaeus of Lyon
composed a work entitled Against
Heresies (Adversus haereses) in which he accuses those
practicing gnostic religion of heresy and attempts to combat their
"falsely so-called knowledge." In the early third century, Hippolytus of
Rome wrote his Refutation of All
Heresies (Refutatio omnium haeresium) to refute all those he
considered to be followers of falsehood, giving special attention to
gnostic heretics. Later, in the fourth century, Epiphanius of Salamis
authored a particularly nasty piece, even by heresiological standards,
entitled Panarion, or
Medicine Chest, with an
orthodox antidote for every gnostic malady.' From these and other
heresiological writers, who were bristling with righteous wrath against
their gnostic opponents, we can hardly expect to read a fair and
balanced account of gnostic religion, and before the discovery of the
Nag Hammadi library this heresiological bias permeated much of the
discussion of gnosis.
Nevertheless,
in the writings of the heresiologists and other early Christian authors,
there are presentations of gnostic ideas and citations of gnostic texts
that may provide at least some understanding of who the gnostics were,
and scholarly commentators on gnostic life and thought prior to the Nag
Hammadi discovery relied on these presentations and citations. Although
the heresiological accounts are biased and apparently distort many
features of gnostic religion, a careful and critical reading of these
accounts may shed light on significant gnostic figures from the first
and second centuries, such as Simon Magus, Helena, Marcellina,
Basilides, Valentinus, and Marcus, and the gnostic movements they
represent. Upon occasion the heresiologists quote from or paraphrase
gnostic sources. Hippolytus cites two sayings that come from a version
of the Gospel of Thomas as well as a text often referred to as the
Naassene Sermon, and he quotes long passages from a work entitled the
Book of Baruch said to be written by a gnostic teacher named Justin.
(Hippolytus calls the Book of Baruch the most abominable book he has
read; today, as a result of our modern sensibilities, we may have quite
a different evaluation of the text.) Within the apocryphal Acts of
Thomas is the "Hymn of the Pearl," and within the apocryphal Acts of
John is the "Round Dance of the Cross." These texts, found in the
heresiologists and early Christian writers, were used, before the
discovery of the Nag Hammadi library, to gain as much insight as
possible into gnostics and gnostic religion.'
Before the
Nag Hammadi texts were known, there were also a few other gnostic
sources that could be examined by those who wished to explore gnostic
traditions. In the codex, or ancient book, called the Askew Codex is a
sprawling work titled Pistis Sophia, and in the Bruce Codex are three
difficult texts, two Books of Jeu and an untitled gnostic text.' To
these may be added other texts, such as Hermetic works from the Corpus
Hermeticum, Mandaean texts from the Middle East, and perhaps Manichaean
texts from the Mediterranean region and throughout Asia.' A few scholars
have also studied magical gems with possible gnostic motifs — figures
with heads of roosters or donkeys and serpents for legs and feet,
accompanied by engraved names, also known from gnostic texts, such as
Yao Abrasax Sabaoth Adonaios.
On the basis
of these ancient sources, some biased, some obscure, some uncertain,
scholars and authors studying gnostic religion before the Nag Hammadi
discovery reflected upon the traditions and did their best to describe
and evaluate the gnostics with what they had available. In spite of the
limitations, some of the contributions have proved valuable and
insightful. Of the books written about Gnostics
before the
discovery of the Nag Hammadi library, by scholars and nonscholars alike,
mention may be made of The Four Zoas
by William Blake, The
Seven Sermons to the Dead (Septem Sermones ad Mortuos) by
Carl Jung, History of Dogma
by Adolf von Harnack, Orthodoxy
and Heresy in Earliest Christianity by Walter Bauer,
The Gospel of John by Rudolf
Bultmann, and Gnosis und spätantiker
Geist and The Gnostic
Religion by Hans Jonas.
The works of
Hans Jonas have proved to be especially influential. In his scholarship
on gnostic religion Jonas draws a distinction between the gnostic
principle ("the spirit of late antiquity") and the gnostic movement. He
maintains that gnostic religion is a religion of knowledge, with "a
certain conception of the world, of man's alienness within it, and of
the transmundane nature of the godhead."' This knowledge is expressed
through a mythology that borrows from other religious traditions and
employs an elaborate series of symbols. Jonas suggests that the result
of gnostic reflection is the articulation of religious dualism,
dislocation, and alienation, of "the existing rift between God and
world, world and man, spirit and flesh." Some gnostics (for example,
Valentinians) sought to derive this dualism from a primordial oneness;
others (for example, Manichaeans) founded their system upon two ultimate
principles in opposition. For Jonas, the manifestations of gnostic
dualism can be interpreted in terms of modern philosophical
existentialism. The gnostic drama emphasizes the self-understanding of a
human being as "thrownness,"
Geworfenheit, that is to say, the abandonment of the self in
the world. At the same time, Jonas admits, "There is no overlooking one
cardinal difference between the gnostic and the existentialist dualism:
Gnostic man is thrown into an antagonistic, anti-divine, and therefore
anti-human nature, modern man into an indifferent one. Only the latter
case represents the absolute vacuum, the really bottomless pit.' Ancient
gnostics and modern existentialists may both be nihilistic, but modern
people encounter the more profound abyss — the uncaring abyss. For
gnostics, there is light in the darkness and hope in the abyss.
Hans Jonas
wrote his books on gnostic thought just as word of the Nag Hammadi
discovery was emerging. In The
Gnostic Religion he was able to include a supplement to the
second edition: "The Recent Discoveries in the Field of Gnosticism"
(chapter 12)." We may question Jonas's preoccupation with dualism as the
basic characteristic of gnostic religion, but his observations remain
helpful. And although Jonas was able to include in his discussion
last-minute thoughts about the texts that were becoming known, even he
could hardly have imagined how these texts would revolutionize the way
we now look at gnosis and the world from antiquity and late antiquity to
modern times.
ANCIENT TEXTS FROM THE NILE VALLEY
Since the
discovery of the Nag Hammadi library and related texts, the study of
gnostic religion and its impact upon ancient and modern religion has
been fundamentally transformed. When the Egyptian Muhammad Ali
discovered the Nag Hammadi codices in late 1945, he uncovered a
collection of thirteen codices with over fifty ancient texts, most of
them previously unknown. A goodly number of these texts may be
classified as gnostic texts — texts in the Thomas tradition, texts that
are Sethian, Valentinian, Hermetic, and some texts that cannot be easily
classified. Complementing the Nag Hammadi find are other discoveries of
ancient texts, such as the texts in the Berlin Gnostic Codex, various
documents found in a rubbish heap at ancient Oxyrhynchus, and, most
recently, a newly available codex with more texts in it, including a
Gospel of Judas.
The
availability of so many new religious texts has attracted the
enthusiastic attention of scholars and others interested in gnostic
religion from antiquity and late antiquity. Three major scholarly
research teams were formed to undertake the arduous task of translating
the Coptic texts of the Nag Hammadi library and the Berlin Gnostic
Codex: an American team, constituting the Coptic Gnostic Library
Project, based at the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity in
Claremont, California; a German team, the Berliner Arbeitskreis fin
koptisch-gnostische Schriften; and a French-Canadian team, centered at
Université Laval in Quebec and formed to produce the Bibliotheque copte
de Nag Hammadi. In addition, individual scholars and students of ancient
and late antique religions have turned their attention to these texts,
and through their scholarly labors a large number of articles and books
have appeared. David Scholer, a biblical scholar and professional
bibliographer, has compiled two hefty volumes listing contributions in
Nag Hammadi studies: Nag Hammadi
Bibliography 1948-1969 and
Nag Hammadi Bibliography 1970-1994.
Between volumes he has published bibliographical installments annually
in the periodical Novum Testamentum.
In short, scholars and authors have been productive in the
study of these texts from Egypt, and articles and books have been
published in impressive quantities.
Of the
contributions, some more scholarly, some more literary and artistic,
created by those whose interest in Nag Hammadi has addressed a wider
audience beyond the academy — Gnosis
by Kurt Rudolph, a professor at Philipps Universität,
Marburg; The American Religion
by literary critic Harold Bloom;
Valis by Philip K. Dick; the
film Stigmata, directed
by Rupert Wainwright; the Wachowski brothers'
Matrix film trilogy; and so
on — two authors have piqued the interest of readers in a special way:
Elaine H. Pagels and Dan Brown.
Elaine Pagels
is a distinguished scholar of gnostic and early Christian religion with
a fine literary style and a rare ability to communicate difficult
religious themes with clarity and grace. In her books
The Gnostic Gospels and
Beyond Belief, Pagels has
invited readers into the exciting world of gnostic spirituality,
Christianity, and ancient religions, and through her discussion of Nag
Hammadi texts and other religious documents from the world of early
Christianity these texts come alive. (For her efforts she was accused by
one reviewer of engaging in the "greening of the gnostics" — a charge
recalling the old heresiological perspective.)
In
The Gnostic Gospels Pagels
introduces the texts of the Nag Hammadi library by emphasizing the
social and political concerns reflected in the texts. As the New
Testament scholar Robert M. Grant has put it, "She has a genius for
detecting social realities amid what look like the speculative fantasies
of the gnostics."' Thus, when gnostic texts proclaim multiple
manifestations of God as father and as mother, they affirm, Pagels
observes, the authority of all people of knowledge, male and female, in
opposition to the commitment of the emerging orthodox church to one God
— a father in heaven — and
one bishop — a male authority figure. Pagels concludes that these and
similar concerns are still being addressed today:
All the
old questions—the original questions, sharply debated at the beginning
of Christianity—are being reopened. How is one to understand the
resurrection? What about women's participation in priestly and episcopal
office? Who was Christ, and how does he relate to the believer? What are
the similarities between Christianity and other world religions?'
In
Beyond Belief, Pagels
focuses attention on the Gospel of Thomas from the Nag Hammadi library.
She identifies the differences between Judas Thomas, the twin brother of
Jesus, in the Gospel of Thomas and doubting Thomas in the Gospel of
John, and she contrasts the gospel of enlightenment proclaimed in the
Gospel of Thomas with the gospel of belief in Jesus proclaimed in the
Gospel of John. The Gospel of John won the day in the battle for
legitimacy, Pagels admits, but the good news of enlightenment as found
in the Gospel of Thomas, the Secret Book of John, and other gnostic
texts remains a significant form of Christian proclamation. Pagels moves
the discussion of Thomas and John beyond accusations of who is right and
who is wrong: "What Christians have disparagingly called gnostic and
heretical sometimes turn out to be forms of Christian teaching that are
merely unfamiliar to us — unfamiliar precisely because of the active and
successful opposition of Christians such as John.'
More
recently, the novelist Dan Brown has published
The Da Vinci Code, a volume
that has attracted an unprecedented number of readers internationally to
a tale developed from texts in the Nag Hammadi library and the Berlin
Gnostic Codex, chiefly the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Philip.
Brown's book is a novel, and it should be read as such, I would
emphasize, in spite of the occasional historical claims of Brown and the
comments — and complaints — ofsome of his readers.
The Da Vinci Code develops
the sort of research and wild speculation found in the book
Holy Blood, Holy
Grail,' yet it is based upon
ancient texts and authentic themes in those texts. In the novel Brown
has Sir Leigh Teabing show Sophie Neveu passages from the Gospel of
Philip and the Gospel of Mary, and then they discuss what is said about
Mary Magdalene and Peter:
"The woman
they are speaking of," Teabing explained, "is Mary Magdalene. Peter is
jealous of her."
"Because
Jesus preferred Mary?"
"Not only
that. The stakes were far greater than mere affection. At this point in
the gospels, Jesus suspects He will soon be captured and crucified. So
He gives Mary Magdalene instructions on how to carry on His Church after
He is gone. As a result, Peter expresses his discontent over playing
second fiddle to a woman.
I
daresay Peter was something of a sexist."
Sophie was
trying to keep up. "This is
Saint
Peter. The rock on which Jesus built His Church."
"The same,
except for one catch. According to these unaltered gospels, it was not
Peter
to whom Christ gave directions with
which to establish the Christian Church. It was Mary
Magdalene."
The issues of
the roles of Mary and Peter, although presented in a provocative fashion
in The Da Vinci Code, are
the issues of the Gospels of Mary and Philip and other gnostic texts. As
the reception of the novel indicates, they remain powerful issues today.
THE IMPACT OF GNOSTIC WISDOM
The Gnostic Discoveries
explores the impact of the gnostic
wisdom in the Nag Hammadi library, the Berlin Gnostic Codex, and related
texts. Chapter 1, "Fertilizer, Blood Vengeance, and Codices," recounts
the memorable stories of the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library and
other texts, and notes how the archeological and codicological efforts
that followed the discoveries provide a new perspective on the history
of Christianity in the Nag Hammadi region, the nature of bookbinding,
and the compilation of the Nag Hammadi codices. Chapter 2, "Coptic Texts
from the Sands of Egypt," presents the documents from the ancient
collections under consideration and evaluates their contents. Chapter 3,
"They Will Not Taste Death," takes up the most famous text from the Nag
Hammadi library, the Gospel of Thomas, along with other texts in the
Thomas tradition, and suggests how these texts provide compelling ways
of looking at Jesus of Nazareth. Chapter 4, "The Wisdom of Insight,"
discusses a classic among gnostic texts, the Secret Book of John, and
other texts in the Sethian tradition, which proclaim salvation through
insight, wisdom, and knowledge. Chapter 5, "Valentinus the Christian
Mystic," discusses the Christian leader Valentinus and texts composed by
him and his followers. The Valentinian texts include the Gospel of
Truth, a sermon probably composed by Valentinus himself; this Christian
sermon and the other Valentinian works from the Nag Hammadi library
raise thought-provoking questions about the nature of Christian
mysticism. Chapter 6, "Hermes, Derdekeas, Thunder, and Mary," presents
figures, male and female, who aid in salvation in several additional Nag
Hammadi texts. In the Appendix, "The Texts of the Nag Hammadi Library
and the Berlin Gnostic Codex," all the texts in these collections are
briefly described and characterized in order to provide an overview of
the actual contents of all these extraordinary documents.
A goodly
number of translations of Nag Hammadi texts and other works are included
in this book. Unless otherwise indicated, the translations are my own.
They are taken from The Gospel of
Thomas, The Gospels of Mary, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus, or
a work in preparation, in collaboration with other scholars,
The Nag Hammadi Scriptures.
Most of the translations of other scholars cited in this book will also
appear in The Nag Hammadi
Scriptures. Numerical references for Nag Hammadi texts and
the texts in the Berlin Gnostic Codex refer to Coptic page numbers,
except for the Gospel of Thomas, where the numbers refer to sayings.
Square brackets indicate textual restorations and angle brackets
indicate textual emendations. Notes and Bibliography are added to
acknowledge the contributions of other scholars and to offer suggestions
for further study.