THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

descends to earth. Once on earth, Hathor takes the form of a lioness (Sekhmet),
unleashing a terrible slaughter upon humankind:
That is how the Powerful One (Sekhmet) came into being, the Confused One in
the night, to wade in their blood as far as Heracleopolis. 35
The decisive similarity here with the Pistis Sophia, besides the obvious lion-figure, is
the depiction of it operating as an independent force of evil, for Re becomes alarmed
at her excessive will in this regard. Re is forced to send emissaries and devise a ruse
whereby Hathor/Sekhmet would desist in her sanguine activities: the point is that she
was no longer an extension of his will, but was effectively saying “non serviam”. As
with the later Sophia myths, this terrible lower aspect of the goddess Hathor/Sekhmet
is later redeemed by Re as she assumes the higher form of his Eye once again. The
eye of Re in this capacity, is also to be found in the Book of the Dead. This is one of
two critical Egyptian myths that form the main Sophia myth in Valentinian thought,
for example, and the same derivation in the Pistis Sophia is quite apparent.
The calendar used in the Pistis Sophia is based upon the Egyptian civil
calendar in widespread use until 239 B.C.E. Even after the Ptolemaic decree, in which
the 360 day +5 calendar was to be replaced by a 365.25 day calendar, it is argued that
the traditional Egyptian calendar continued to be used in Egypt. Other specific
calendrical references in the Pistis Sophia show that the calendar is indisputably the
Egyptian civil calendar. 36
Apart from these compelling factors, there is the emphasis at various junctures
upon the sacred sound of the name; there are the passwords given the ascending soul,
that it may pass beyond the lower regions into eternal life; there is the ascent of the
master to heaven and his return to teach; finally, the whole collection could easily be
entitled a “Book of the Dead” given the emphasis placed upon the soteriology of the
individual soul – this involves understanding a specific cosmological system, a
scheme of things rather alien to orthodox Christianity. The nine zones of course
suggests the traditional Egyptian emphasis upon the ennead, and the primacy of the
initial three reinforces this.
The syncretism with various Greek mythical figures, as with the connection
made with Bubastis “who is called Aphrodite in the cosmos” (Book IV.140), suggests
an Alexandrian context; as well, the heavy reliance upon the psalms – which for
rhetorical effect are likely to have been presumed as a donné in the reader/listener –
may indicate a strong Jewish influence. 37
Alexandria, again, had its influential Jewish
community, a community that was headed towards complete assimilation and this
Geschichte und Altertumskunde Aegyptens, vol. 5 (reprint; 1912, Hildesheim: Georg Olms
Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1964), 119-56.
35
The Book of the Divine Cow in Alexandre Piankoff, The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon,
Bollingen Series XL.2 (New York: Panthen Books,1955), 28.
36
Przybylski, “The Role of Calendrical Data in Gnostic Literature,”57.
37
However, these attributes are limited to Books IV and II respectively and cannot be
generalised for the entire text.