THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

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alienness in this sense, as well, perhaps, as a need on their part to be seen as alien. Their obscurity, mythopoeic extravagance, and historical affronts to Roman rule, both political and ecclesial, were deliberate, the very message, at least in part, of the same rhetorical medium which generated The Acts of the Pagan Martyrs, or the Hermetic Asclepius . Behind such revolutionary posturings, however, are the traditional Egyptian aspirations for the salvation of the soul, and we cannot but believe that the Gnostic perpetuation and revivification of the ancient oriental emanationist theogonies were genuinely held to. The Gnostics in Egypt were, afterall, heirs to a millennia of religious thought focused, like no other before or since, upon a wordempowered afterlife. Egyptian Gnostic thought could not help but build upon and embellish the textual foundations of this antiquity: schooled in Egyptian wisdom and having learnt such wisdom from them, they bore this sort of fruit.
Appendix A A Survey of Gnostic Primary Sources, non-Christian and Christian, as cited by Gnostic Studies GS 1 PCG 2 ASG. 3 NHG 4 IF 5 OG 6 1. Gnostic Non-Christian: On the Origin of the World [30] 0 1 17 14 5 33 Eugnostos [20] 0 4 7 8 1 12 The Para. of Shem [49] 0 5 8 2 2 9 The 3 Steles of Seth [9] 9 0 10 9 2 3 Zostrianos [132 (-)] 19 0 17 15 10 5 Thought of Norea [3] 0 0 7 1 5 1 Marsanes [68] 0 0 3 6 1 2 Exegesis on the Soul [10] 0 1 3 10 21 7 Apocalypse of Adam [21] 12 15 9 37 2 22 Allogenes [24] 2. Gnostic w/ Marginal Christian Glosses: 7 0 9 11 0 3 Books of Jeu [94] 0 0 3 6 0 3 Pistis Sophia [356] 0 0 11 3 3 12 Untitled text [62] 0 0 0 3 0 0 Hypostasis of the Archons [11] 11 1 17 83 59 20 Tripartite Tractate [87] 0 0 29 7 19 7 Gospel of the Egyptians [29] 19 0 29 21 8 9 2nd Treatise of Great Seth [21] 9 0 4 1 3 2 Valentinian Exp. [27] 0 0 1 1 3 4 Trimorphic Protennoia [15] 14 5 8 56 8 5 3. Gnostic with Enhanced Christian Elements: 0 0 0 0 0 0 Gospel of Truth [27] 14 0 23 112 2 13 Apocryphon of John [32] 28 3 78 75 53 41 Sophia of Jesus Christ [29] 0 3 14 14 5 9 Melchizidek [27] 4. Gnostic Christocentric: 0 0 4 5 1 2 Gospel of Thomas [19] 23 7 5 56 10 32 Gospel of Philip [35] 28 0 14 3 54 18 1 Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures. Indicators are number of pages devoted to work, either in commentary or actual translation. 2 Edwin M. Yamauchi , Pre-Christian Gnosticism: A Survey of the Proposed Evidence, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983). Indicators are number of pages devoted to work, either in commentary or actual translation. 3 Pétrement, A Separate God. Indicators are number of pages devoted to work. 4 Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, & Early Christianity, eds. C.W. Hedrick and Robert Hodgson, Jr. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1986). Indicators are number of lines per text listing in the index. 5 King, ed,. Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism. Indicators are number of citations in work. 6 Bianchi, Le Origini Dello Gnosticismo: Colloquio di Messina, 13-18 Aprile, 1966. Indicators are number of page citations.
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THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC
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VC Vigiliae Christianae ZÄS Zeitsc
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Part I - Problems of Interpretation
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underworld demonic forces. A fragme
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Gnosis, in its most advanced Hellen
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ackground of those scholars who tur
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ased textual exclusivity for the Na
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lown Christian-Gnostic text make, a
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originations 26 ; finally, the Pist
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esentment against pernicious Fate a
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which supply the earliest examples
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etween a temporal and spatial Sourc
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creator-god Atum can be seen as the
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Let us note the remarkable link bet
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dualism in outlook, one which resul
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this positioning of intelligence, a
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in the Heliopolitan version, is the
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disruptive act which has major theo
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of an event”. 66 This distinction
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projects, who are king’s sons”.
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evolution, a priori or posteriori a
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sparked by the unruly impulse of fr
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The Egyptian netherworld is filled
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Chapter Three: Dualism in pre-Alexa
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1) The physical realm is inferior t
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equates the notion of “evil Demiu
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views were aired amongst the litera
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were intermarrying with Egyptian wo
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imperial unity. This, in part, was
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individual involved the “discover
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the regime was committed to support
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third century B.C.E. Alexandria, 46
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focus upon the library of Alexandri
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Plutarch, writing around 118 C.E.,
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This was accomplished at ground lev
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Alexandria before the Syrian garris
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in the ancient world supplied the
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Chapter Five: The Magical Papyri In
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Janet Johnson, in her accompanying
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We note that the idea of the theogo
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Name”and “The Archangelic (Book
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I list out the skills or qualities
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This is the knowledge of the living
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Hear me, my Father, thou father of
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all, also separating himself from t
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alteration of name-endings. 82 The
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What liberates is the knowledge of
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Chapter Six: The Development of Cop
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Egyptians in the language of Egypt
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“Early Coptic”, and as a workin
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must constantly bear in mind, howev
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I turn now to examine very briefly
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In Coptic we have the spoken langua
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environment of Alexandria, and her
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Christians eventually chose Coptic
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and mysterious texts of Egypt must
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It is an interesting feature of Mid
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Ammonius Saccas (c. 210 C.E.) of Eg
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formlessness and disorder”. 22 Th
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The picture here is in accord with
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House of Glory agreed with her word
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the Didaskalikos (Guide to the Doct
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Father, thereby receiving the Forms
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doctrines in Egypt. The fact that h
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different philosophical positions,
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Atum is depicted as lying inert in
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of countable aspects of time”. 91
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tradition, arises from the percepti
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Other examples follow: Then when sh
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wished to make a world. I say ‘he
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The Books of Jeu, whose mind revels
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disciples is flattened by the ideat
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12 syzygies (pairs of aeons) The la
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descends to earth. Once on earth, H
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pre-date Mani - likely a part of a
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ineffable one, the invisible one, t
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And in what way did the unbegotten
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etween priesthood and laity in cult
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this while professing “perfect in
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of the temples. 72 This socio-econo
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Chapter Nine: Egyptian Manichaeism
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There has also been a strong tenden
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I have not been deaf to the words o
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suppressed other divinities (and co
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(Keph. 65 161.12) 33 ...it shows al
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Ho all living upon the earth, and t
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hath worshipped the sun or any of t
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is a level beneath the Treasury of
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is used twice in association with t
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south, a more “worldly” stance
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Part III - The Egyptian Foundations
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The King was fashioned by Nu at his
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existent. In essence, the whole iss
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The appearance of the female creati
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informed those who live in the Abys
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But Kalyptos is a single aeon; he h
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Ennead: Parent=Deep=NUN Demiurge/Pa
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Such stories of the heavens you wou
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Chapter Eleven: The Heliopolitan Th
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abble - shall I say, of criminals o
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It is revealing, to say the least,
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formation of human syzygies, or “
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so arbitrary to Irenaeus is also on
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manuscripts we shall be examining d
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Egypt” and who claims that “I a
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Pleroma, not without leaving her da
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There does not yet exist in English
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The core myth is not substantially
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NHC II,1 20.14-28 41 And he sent, b
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without male involvement: “I have
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Chapter Thirteen: The Seth Principl
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Egyptian word khenenu “confusion
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tractate reveals a solid Heliopolit
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The “Seth-principle” also perta
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Page 234 and 235: of course it attains a distinct res
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Page 238 and 239: ... I restored the Eye after it had
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Page 242 and 243: I am the name of the sound and the
Page 244 and 245: If we defined “theology” as “
Page 246 and 247: aura of power about the philologist
Page 248 and 249: used in different ways, even if it
Page 250 and 251: transforming process and how the pr
Page 252 and 253: The nhh/dt split shows up in Hermet
Page 254 and 255: shall destroy itself [........] The
Page 256 and 257: Plotinus’ philosophical explorati
Page 258 and 259: used in different ways, even if it
Page 260 and 261: transforming process and how the pr
Page 262 and 263: The nhh/dt split shows up in Hermet
Page 264 and 265: shall destroy itself [........] The
Page 266 and 267: Plotinus’ philosophical explorati
Page 268 and 269: Greek syncretistic endeavours in Eg
Page 270 and 271: the patristic writers for having an
Page 272 and 273: of political texts, and it either t
Page 274 and 275: Christianity (this due to the fact
Page 276 and 277: virtual Bakunins of the time whose
Page 278 and 279: language itself. It is clear that t
Page 282 and 283: Book of Thom. the Contender [7] 9 0
Page 284 and 285: well-preserved original manuscript,
Page 286 and 287: Appendix B A Genealogy of Egyptian
Page 288 and 289: 6. Speusippus ( ca. 407-339 B.C.E.)
Page 290 and 291: 9. Plutarch ( ca. 85 C.E.) MONAD IN
Page 292 and 293: 12. The Valentinian Theogony Accord
Page 294 and 295: Ennead: Parent=Deep=NUN Demiurge/Pa
Page 296 and 297: NHS, vol.XXXI: Nag Hammadi Codices
Page 298 and 299: Arthur, Rose Horman. The Wisdom God
Page 300 and 301: Betz, Hans Dieter. “The Formulati
Page 302 and 303: Brown, Peter. “The Diffusion of M
Page 304 and 305: de Buck, Adriaan, De Godsdienstige
Page 306 and 307: Fairman, H.W. The Triumph of Horus.
Page 308 and 309: Griffith, F. Ll and Herbert Thompso
Page 310 and 311: Johnson, Janet H. The Demotic Verba
Page 312 and 313: Lesko, Leonard H. The Ancient Egypt
Page 314 and 315: Meyer, Marvin W. The Ancient Myster
Page 316 and 317: __________ Mythological Papyri: Tex
Page 318 and 319: Robinson, James M., ed. The Nag Ham
Page 320 and 321: Sethe, Kurt. “Das Verhältnis zwi
Page 322 and 323: Till, Walter C. and Hans-Martin Sch
Page 324: Yamauchi, Edwin M. Pre-Christian Gn
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