DeConick A.D

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PLEASANTVILLE RELIGIONS
But there is hope. A brand-new monograph by Dr. Erin Evans (2015)
is devoted to understanding these texts. Evans bases her analysis on the
hypothesis that this collection was not penned by one author, at one time,
but instead represents snapshots of what the community believed and
practiced over the course of two hundred years. This means that their
ideas and practices shifted over time as the community interacted with
other religious groups or was exposed to new revelation.
In her reconstruction, the sequence of writings begins with the first
book of Jeu, followed by the second book of Jeu. Written later are the
four sections of Pistis Sophia. The first chapters to be composed were
136–143, followed by chapters 144–148, 102–135, and 1–101. Because their
thought and practices are unique in their worship of Jeu, Evans calls these
Gnostics Jeuians. Evans’s brilliant analysis has laid the groundwork for
my own reading and understanding of these church handbooks, which I
offer here.
The earliest text in the collection, the first book of Jeu, represents the
views of a group of Egyptians who have blended their reading of the Gospel
of John with the practices of an Egyptian solar cult. This new religious
movement likely emerged in the middle of the second century, at the same
time similar groups, such as the Peratics and the Ophians, came online.
In the book, Jesus is a revelatory figure, the living Jesus, who comes
from the true God, the Father. He reveals that the Father lives in the farthest
reaches of the universe, in a realm of light. This Father speaks a word
and produces his son, Jeu, who is his spitting image. The word that the Father
actually pronounces is Jeu’s secret name, Ioeiaôthôouichôlmiô. This
is Jeu’s name of power, which the congregation memorizes and guards.
Once produced, Jeu in turn becomes the author of creation, forming
sixty “treasuries” of light. These treasuries represent all the realms in the
sky populated by the stars. In their book, the Jeuians record all the names
of the star deities who live in these celestial realms or treasuries. Each
treasury has three guardians of the gates, twelve powers, and one ruler
who is a progeny and image of Jeu.
The names of these rulers vary, yet they follow a standard pattern.
Their individual names are suffixed with Jeu’s name, Ieou. So the ruler of
the first realm is Ieouaieaôieou-Ieou; the second ruler is Ôêeaêôiot-Ieou.
There are sixty named rulers, whose names are constructed following this
suffixing pattern.