THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

all, also separating himself from them. And that which anyone desires he brings
to him so that he might become complete and holy. (NHC IX,3 43.29-44.19) 69
The testimony of Chaeremon, a first-century Egyptian priest, is an important
one to consider alongside Gnostic and magical aspirations. The strong presence of
Egyptian mythological elements in the magical papyri, in particular the identification
of gods and sacred animals, the setting of standards for initiates, and interpretations of
dreams or visions, are all activities which can hardly be considered far-removed from
Chaeremon’s priestly milieu. 70
A case for a fair degree of overlap can certainly be
made and, even acknowledging Chaeremon’s undoubted desire to idealise the
Egyptian priesthood, we cannot but doubt that main gist of his testimony concerning
priestly ascetic practices reflect the actual “pure” life of the priesthood of the time. 71
At the end of a long and very detailed description of the ascetic observances of
Egyptian priests as described by Chaeremon, Porphyry makes the following
interesting comment: “But the rest – the crowd of priests, shrine (?) bearers, temple
wardens, and assistants – practice the same rites of purification for the gods, yet not
with such great accuracy and self-control”. 72
This is precisely the sub-class of the
Egyptian priestly hierarchy where we would expect a number of bilingual Egyptians
with some sort of Greek background to stand as “revisionists”; indeed, it is clear that
Chaeremon wants it understood that this class is less pure than the inner priestly
circle. 73
PGM III.583-610 74
contains a rather eloquent entreaty to god for gnosis and is
to be found in the Hermetic Asclepius in its entirety, also surfacing in the Nag
Hammadi corpus as “The Prayer of Thanksgiving” (NHC VI,7) alongside the other
two Hermetic tractates Asclepius ( NHC VI,8) and The Discourse on the Eighth and
Ninth (NHC VI,6). 75
The rather odd notion of eating gnosis is to be found in both PGM XIII.910
where the seven vowels are licked off a gold lamella, and in Gnostic practice where,
69
Coptic transcription from NHS, vol. XV., 152, 154.
70
A fine example of Egyptian priestly piety is to be found upon the walls of the tomb of
Petosiris, a sage of Hermopolis who lived around 350-330 B.C.E. The inscriptions testifies
that, “Every night the spirit of god was in my soul, and at dawn I did as he willed. I practiced
justice [Ma’at], I detested evil.” Serge Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt (London:
Evergreen, 1960), 13. Porphyrius (233-304 C.E.), writing on the Egyptian priests in On
Abstinence, described how “they practice simplicity in living and in dress, temperence,
austerity, justice, and non-attachment...” (IV, 6-8).
71
“Nothing impunes the essential authenticity of what survives.” Fowden, The Egyptian
Hermes, 54.
72
Chaeremon, Fragment 10, 17.
73
With respect to the authors of the magical papyri, A.A. Barb makes exactly this point about
revisionary priestly activities in a bilingual context: “The demotic texts can hardly have
been written by anybody but an Egyptian priest or scribe, the Coptic ones were probably a
lucrative sideline of unscrupulous monks.” “Mystery, Myth, and Magic,”160.
74
Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri, 33-34.
75
See Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes, 83.