THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

Chapter Fifteen: The return to dt-supernal time from nhh-earthly time in
the Egyptian Gnostic Afterlife
At this point I attempt to answer a question was raised earlier, one concerning
the universalisation of Egyptian gods and goddesses into Hellenistic hypostases.
While we can see Nun, the Heh-gods, Hathor, Tefnut, and Isis, a demiurgic Re, a
redeemed and recalcitrant Seth for example, present in Gnostic thought, it is
significant that this continuation of central Egyptian divine figures strips them of their
traditional identification: why? In answering this we must once again look to the
socio-historical context that gave rise to these religious developments, in particular
the sense of religious crisis that lay upon Egypt in Graeco-Roman times. If “Ma’at has
fled to a higher supernal realm”, if the physical world has been desacralised, then this
dualism of fallen world and Higher spiritual source would require a soteriology of
eventual ascent. Douglas Parrott, one of the few scholars in Gnostic Studies to look at
this problem, has expressed this very well:
Another development is the transformation of a theology rooted in Egyptian
historical myth into one of universal, transcendent realities. The names of the
deities, which marked them as Egyptian, are gone, replaced by those of a more
universal character. There is no reference to the snake Kematef or his son. No
reference to Thebes, the Nile journey, the cities visited on the way, or the return
to Thebes and burial at Medinet Habu. It is as though the realm of history itself
– that is, the realm of particular events, times and places – has lost its interest,
and attention has turned to events beyond time. 1
In this chapter I hope to show that it is not that the Gnostics in Egypt turned to
events “beyond time” in the strict sense, rather they focused upon a higher archetype
of Time and universalised, or hypostasised, the traditional identities of their divinities
in the process. For “events beyond time” is an oxymoron, as there can only be one
event beyond time, that of a beginningless, endless stasis. This state was seen to
generate its own latent impulse towards differentiation, well-appreciated by Egyptian
theologians as the dt eternal, the boundless and inert qualities of Nun. Theogonic
extension and finally historical event arose from this latent eternal state. The failure,
indeed the demonisation, of the nhh in Egyptian theological terms, the literal
overthrow of the divine power of Re made manifest in historical rule through the
pharaoh, underlies the entire rise of Gnosis in Egypt.
The division into nhh-time and dt -time is accepted by enough Egyptologists
for us to no longer doubt that it was often intended. Zabkar’s point that the terms are
often used interchangeably is well-taken 2
– the words, afterall, were used in close
proximity and so there inevitably arose an inclination to use them as synonyms;
however the fact remains that there are two original conceptions for eternity and are
1
Douglas M. Parrott, “Gnosticism and Egyptian Religion,” NT 29 (1987): 89-90.
2
Louis V. Zabkar, “Some Observations on T.G. Allen’s Edition of The Book of the Dead,”
JNES 24 (1965): 77.