THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS
discovered in 1945 in a
cave near Nag Hammedi, Egypt
(Extracts presented in a book by the same name by Elaine Pagels, PhD.
Harvard)
Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within
you, what you bring forth will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring
forth will destroy you."
Jesus said, "I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become
drunk from the bubbling stream which I have measured out...He who will drink
from my mouth will become as I am: I myself shall become he, and the things
that are hidden will be revealed to him."
If spirit came into being because of the body, it is a
wonder of wonders. Indeed, I am amazed
at how this great wealth [the spirit] has made its home in this poverty [the
body].
Simon Peter said to them [the disciples]: "Let
Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of Life." Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her,
in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit, resembling
you males. For every woman who will
make herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
Interprets Jesus' words; "Whoever does not hate
his father and his mother cannot be my disciple" by adding that "my
(earthly) mother gave me death, but [my] true [Mother] gave me life."
Jesus said "There is light within a man of light,
and it lights up the whole world. If he
does not shine, he is darkness."
Jesus declares that when he came into the world:
"I
found them all drunk; I found none of them thirsty. and my soul became
afflicted for the sons of men, because they are blind in their hearts and do
not have sight; for empty they came
into this world, and empty they seek to leave this world. But for the moment
they are drunk."
Jesus said, "Let him who seeks continue seeking
until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes
troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over all things."
Jesus said, "Rather, the Kingdom is inside of
you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will
be known, and you will realize that you are the sons of the living Father. But
if you will not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and it is you who
are that poverty."
His disciples said to him, "When will...the new
world come?" He said to them, "What you look forward to has already
come, but you do not recognize it."...His disciples said to him,
"When will the Kingdom come?" Jesus said, "It will not come by
waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying 'Here it is' or "There
it is.' Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men
do not see it."
Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, "These
infants being suckled are like those who enter the Kingdom." They said to
him, "Shall we, then, as children, enter the Kingdom?" Jesus said to
them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the
outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when
you make the male and the female one and the same...then you will enter [the
Kingdom]."
Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to
someone and tell me whom I am like." Simon Peter said to him, "You
are like a righteous angel." Matthew said to him, "You are like a
wise philosopher. "Thomas said to him, "Master, my mouth is wholly
incapable of saying whom you are like."
Jesus said, "I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have
become drunk from the bubbling stream which I have measured out."
"Whoever will drink from my mouth will become as
I am, and I myself will become that person, and the things that are hidden will
be revealed to him."
They said to him, "Tell us who you are so that we
may believe in you." He said to them, "You read the face of the sky
and of the earth, but you have not recognized the one who is before you, and
you do not know how to read this moment."
His disciples said to him, "Twenty-four prophets
spoke in Israel, and all of them spoke in you." He said to them, "You
have ignored the one living in your presence, and have spoken (only) of the
dead."
His disciples questioned him and said to him, "Do
you want us to fast? How shall we pray? Shall we give alms? What diet shall we
observe?" Jesus said, "Do not tell lies, and do not do what you
hate..."
“Blessed are the solitary and the chosen, for you will
find the Kingdom. For you are from it, and to it you will return."
Gospel of Philip
(A follower of Valentinus)
...the companion of the [Saviour is] Mary
Magdalene. [But Christ loved] her more than
[all] the disciples, and used to kiss her [often] on her mouth. The rest of [the disciples were
offended]...They said to him, "Why do you love her more than all of
us?" The Saviour answered and said
to them, "Why do I not love you as (I love) her?"
"Those who say they will die first and then rise
are in error." Instead they must
"receive the resurrection while they live." The author says ironically that in one sense, then, of course
"it is necessary to rise ‘in this flesh,’ since everything exists in
it!"
Jesus took them all by stealth, for he did not reveal
himself in the manner [in which] he was, but in the manner in which [they
would] be able to see him. He revealed
himself to [them all. He revealed himself to] the great as great...(and) to the
small as small.
Names can be very deceptive, for they divert our
thoughts from what is accurate to what is inaccurate. Thus one who hears the word "God" does not perceive
what is accurate, but perceives what is inaccurate. So also with "the Father," and "the Son," and
"the Holy Spirit," and "life," and "light," and
"resurrection," and "the Church," and all the rest - people
do not perceive what is accurate, but they perceive what is inaccurate...
Here again, the Spirit is both Mother and Virgin, the
counterpart - and consort - of the Heavenly Father; "Is it permitted to
utter a mystery? The Father of everything united with the virgin who came
down" - that is, with the Holy Spirit descending into the world. But because this process is to be understood
symbolically, not literally, the Spirit remains a virgin. The author goes on to explain that as
"Adam came into being from two virgins, from the Spirit and from the
virgin earth" so "Christ, therefore, was born from a virgin: (that
is, from the Spirit). But the author ridicules those literal-minded Christians
who mistakenly refer the virgin birth to Mary, Jesus' mother, as though she
conceived apart from Joseph: "They do not know what they are saying. When
did a woman ever conceive by a woman?"
Instead, he argues, virgin birth refers to that mysterious union of the
two divine powers, the Father of All and the Holy Spirit.
...God created humanity; [but now human beings] create
God. That is the way it is in the world - human beings make gods, and worship
their creation. It would be appropriate for the gods to worship human beings!
Truth brought names into existence in the world
because it is not possible to teach it without names. But truth must be clothed
in symbols: "Truth did not come into the world naked, but it came in types
and images. One will not receive truth in any other way." Each word refers to a specific, external
phenomenon; a person "sees the sun without being a sun, and he sees the
sky and the earth and everything else, but he is not these things."
...You saw the spirit, you became spirit. You saw
Christ, you became Christ. You [saw the Father, you] shall become Father...you
see yourself, and what you see you shall become.
Whoever achieves gnosis becomes "no longer a
Christian, but a Christ."
For I am the first and the last. I am the honoured one and the scorned
one. I am the whore and the holy
one. I am the wife and the virgin. I am (the mother) and the daughter. I am she whose wedding is great, and I have
not taken a husband. I am the barren
one, and many are her sons...I am knowledge and ignorance...I am shameless, I
am ashamed. I am strength, and I am
fear...I am foolish and I am wise...I am godless, and I am one whose God is
great. I am the silence that is
incomprehensible...
I am the utterance of my name.
Do not suppose that resurrection is an apparition
[phantasia; literally, "fantasy"].
It is not an apparition; rather it is something real. Instead, one ought to maintain that the
world is an apparition, rather than resurrection. It is...the revealing of what truly exists...and a migration
[metabole-change, transition] into newness.
Are you - the real you - mere corruption? ...Why do you not examine your
own self, and see that you have arisen?
(Insofar as Jesus was the "Son of Man,"
being human, he suffered and died like the rest of humanity. But since he was
also "Son of God," the divine spirit within him could not die: in
that sense he transcended suffering and death.)
"Since it has been said that you are my twin and
true companion, examine yourself so that you may understand who you are...I am
the knowledge of the truth. So while
you accompany me, although you do not understand (it), you already have come to
know, and you will be called 'the one who knows himself'. For whoever has not known himself has known
nothing, but whoever has known himself has simultaneously achieved knowledge
about the depth of all things."
As the Gospel of Mary opens, the disciples are
mourning Jesus' death and terrified for their own lives. Then Mary Magdalene stands up to encourage
them, recalling Christ's continual presence with them: "Do not weep and do
not grieve, and do not doubt; for his grace will be with you completely, and
will protect you." Peter invites
Mary to "tell us the words of the Saviour which you remember." But to Peter's surprise, Mary does not tell
anecdotes from the past; instead, she explains that she has just seen the Lord
in a vision received through the mind, and she goes on to tell what he revealed
to her. When Mary finishes, she fell
silent, since it was to this point that the Saviour had spoken with her. But Andrew answered and said to the
brethren, "Say what you will about what she has said. I, at least, do not believe that the Saviour
has said this. For certainly these teachings are strange ideas!"
Peter agrees with Andrew, ridiculing the idea that
Mary actually saw the Lord in her vision.
Then, the story continues:
Mary
wept and said to Peter, "My brother Peter, what do you think ? Do you
think that I thought this up myself in my heart? Do you think I am lying about the Saviour?" Levi answered and said to Peter,
"Peter, you have always been hot-tempered...If the Saviour made her
worthy, who are you to reject her?"
Finally Mary, vindicated, joins the other apostles as
they go out to preach. Peter,
apparently representing the orthodox position, looks to past events, suspicious
of those who "see the Lord" in visions. Mary representing the gnostic, claims to experience His
continuing presence.
Zostrianos (explaining how
enlightenment is achieved)
He relates that, first, he had to remove from himself physical desires, probably by ascetic practices. Second, he had to reduce "chaos in mind," stilling his mind with meditation. Then, he says, "after I set myself straight, I saw the perfect child" - a vision of the divine presence. Later, he says, "I was pondering these matters in order to understand them...I did not cease seeking a place of rest worthy of my spirit..." But then, becoming "deeply troubled," discouraged with his progress, he went out into the desert, half anticipating being killed by wild animals. There, Zostrianos relates, he first received a vision of "the messenger of the knowledge of the eternal Light," and went on to experience many other visions, which he relates in order to encourage others: "Why are you hesitating? Seek when you are sought; when you are invited, listen...Look at the Light. Flee the darkness. Do not be led astray to your destruction."
Begins as John tells how he went out after the
crucifixion in "great grief":
Immediately...the
[heavens were opened, and the whole] creation [which is] under heaven shone,
and [the world] was shaken. [I was
afraid, and I] saw in the light [a child]...while I looked he became like an
old man. And he [changed his] form
again, becoming like a servant...I saw... an image with multiple forms in the
light...
As he marvelled, the presence spoke:
"John,
John, why do you doubt, and why are you afraid? You are not unfamiliar with
this form, are you?...Do not be afraid!
I am the one who [is with you] always...[I have come to teach] you what
is [and what was], and what will come to be."
In his madness...he said, "I am God, and there is
no other God beside me," for he is ignorant of...the place from which he
had come...And when he saw the creation which surrounds him and the multitudes
of angels around him which had come forth from him, he said to them, "I am
a jealous God, and there is no other God beside me." But by announcing
this he indicated to the angels...that another God does exist, for if there
were no other one, of whom would he be jealous?...Then the mother began to be
distressed.
...he boasted continually, saying to (the
angels)..."I am God, and no other one exists except me." But when he
said these things, he sinned against all of the immortal ones...when Faith saw
the impiety of the chief ruler, she was angry...she said, "You err, Samael
(i.e., "blind god"). An enlightened, immortal humanity [anthropos]
exists before you."
After the day of rest, Sophia [literally, "wisdom"]
sent Zoe [literally, "life"], her daughter, who is called Eve, as an
instructor to raise up Adam...When Eve saw Adam cast down, she pitied him, and
she said, "Adam, live! Rise up upon the earth!" Immediately her word
became a deed. For when Adam rose up, immediately he opened his eyes. When he saw her, he said, "You will be
called 'the mother of the living,' because you are the one who gave me
life."
[The Saviour] said to me: "...put your hands upon (your) eyes...and say what you
see!" But when I had done it, I
did not see anything. I said, "No
one sees (this way)." Again he told me, "Do it again." And there came into me fear with joy, for I
saw a new light, greater than the light of day. Then it came down upon the Saviour. And I told him about the things which I saw.
Others...outside our number...call themselves bishops
and also deacons, as if they had received their authority from God. Those
people are waterless canals.
...I saw him apparently being seized by them. And I said, "What am I seeing, O Lord? Is it really you whom they take? And are you holding on to me? And are they hammering the feet and hands of another? Who is this one above the cross who is glad and laughing?" The Saviour said to me, "He whom you saw being glad and laughing above the cross is the Living Jesus. But he into whose hands and feet they are driving the nails is his fleshly part, which is the substitute. They put to shame that which remained in his likeness. And look at him, and [look at] me!"
When the disciples asked Jesus "What is the place
to which we shall go?" he answered, "the place which you can reach,
stand there!"
...If one does not [understand] how the fire came to
be, he will burn in it, because he does not know his root. If one does not
first understand the water, he does not know anything...If one does not
understand how the wind that blows came to be, he will run with it. If one does not understand how the body that
he wears came to be, he will perish with it...Whoever does not understand how
he came will not understand how he will go...
The lamp of the body is the mind.
Matthew asks Jesus to show him the "place of
life," which is, he says, the "pure light." Jesus answers,
"Every one [of you] who has known himself has seen it." Here again,
he deflects the question, pointing the disciple instead toward his own
self-discovery. When the disciples,
expecting him to reveal secrets to them, ask Jesus, "Who is the one who
seeks, [and who is the one who] reveals?" he answers that the one who
seeks the truth - the disciple - is also the one who reveals it. Since Matthew
persists in asking him questions, Jesus says that he does not know the answer
himself, "nor have I heard about it, except from you."
And the spirit-endowed Woman came to Adam and spoke
with him, saying, "Arise, Adam."
And when he saw her, he said, "It is you who have given me life;
you shall be called "Mother of the living" - for it is she who is my
mother. It is she who is the Physician,
and the Woman, and She Who Has Given Birth.'...The Female Spiritual Principle
came in the Snake, the Instructor, and it taught them, saying, "...you
shall not die; for it was out of jealousy that he said this to you. Rather, your eyes shall open, and you shall
open, and you shall become like gods, recognizing evil and good."...And
the arrogant ruler cursed the Woman...[and] ...the Snake.
Both the mother
(Wisdom) and her daughter (Life) objected when, in the creator's vain claim to
hold an exclusive monopoly on divine power, he became arrogant, saying,
"It is I who am God, and there is no other apart from me."...And a
voice came forth from above the realm of absolute power, saying, "You are wrong,
Samael" [which means, "god of the blind"]. And he said, "If
any other thing exists before me, let it appear to me!" And immediately,
Sophia (Wisdom) stretched forth her finger, and introduced light into matter,
and she followed it down into the region of Chaos...And he again said to his
offspring, "It is I who am the God of All." And Life, the daughter of Wisdom, cried out; she said to him,
"You are wrong, Saklas!"
The gnostic teacher Justinus describes the Lord's
shock, terror, and anxiety "when he discovered that he was not the God of
the universe." Gradually his shock gave way to wonder, and finally he came
to welcome what Wisdom had taught him.
The teacher concludes: "This is the meaning of the saying, ' The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.'
Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth (Levels of ascent to higher knowledge)
"...I see! I see indescribable depths. How shall
I tell you, O my son?...How [shall I describe} the universe? I [am mind and] I
see another mind, the one that [moves] the soul! I see the one that moves me
from pure forgetfulness. You give me power! I see myself! I want to speak! Fear
restrains me. I have found the beginning of the power that is above all powers,
the one that has no beginning...I have said, O my son, that I am Mind. I have
seen! Language is not able to reveal this. For the entire eighth (level), O my
son, and the souls that are in it, and the angels, sing a hymn in silence. And
I, Mind, understand."
Gospel of Truth
(Valentinus)
...God gave a command to Adam, "From every tree you may eat, but from the tree which is in the midst of Paradise do not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will surely die." But the serpent was wiser than all the animals that were in Paradise, and he persuaded Eve, saying, "On the day when you eat from the tree which is in the midst of Paradise, the eyes of your mind will be opened." And Eve obeyed...she ate; she also gave to her husband.
..."Behold, Adam has become like one of us,
knowing evil and good." Then he said, "Let us cast him out of
Paradise, lest he take from the tree of life, and live forever." But of
what sort is this God? First [he] envied Adam that he should eat from the tree
of knowledge...Surely he has shown himself to be a malicious envier.
...Ignorance brought about anguish and terror. And the
anguish grew solid like a fog, so that no one was able to see. For this reason
error is powerful...
Those who live in oblivion – [or (Pagels) in
contemporary terms, unconsciousness], remain unaware of their own selves, they
have "no root." Such
existence is a nightmare and those who live in it experience "terror and
confusion and instability and doubt and division, being caught in "many
illusions." So, according to the passage scholars call the "nightmare
parable" they lived:
…as if they were sunk in sleep and found themselves in disturbing dreams. Whither (there is) a place to which they are fleeing, or, without strength, they come (from) having chased after others, or they are involved in striking blows, or they are receiving blows themselves, or they have fallen from high places, or they take off into the air though they do not even have wings. Again, sometimes (it is as) if people were murdering them, though there is no one even pursuing them, or they themselves are killing their neighbours, for they have been stained with their blood. When those who are going through all these things wake up, they see nothing, they who were in the midst of these disturbances, for they are nothing. Such is the way of those who have cast ignorance aside as sleep, leaving [its works] behind like a dream in the night...This is the way everyone has acted, as though asleep at the time when he was ignorant. And this is the way he has come to knowledge, as if he had awakened.
...As with someone's ignorance, when he comes to have
knowledge, his ignorance vanishes by itself; as the darkness vanishes when
light appears, so also the deficiency vanishes in the fulfilment.
Conformity
to the rule of faith attempts to limit all Christians to an inferior ideology:
"They say, 'Even if an angel comes from heaven, and preaches to you beyond
what we preach to you, let him be accursed!'" Faith in the sacraments
shows naive and magical thinking: catholic Christians practice baptism as an
initiation rite which guarantees them "a hope of salvation,"
believing that only those who receive baptism are "headed for life."
Against
such "lies" the gnostic declares that "this, therefore, is the
true testimony: when man knows himself, and God who is over the truth, he will
be saved." Only those who come to recognize that they have been living in
ignorance, and learn to release themselves by discovering who they are,
experience enlightenment as a new life, as "the resurrection."
Physical rituals like baptism become irrelevant, for "the baptism of truth
is something else; it is by renunciation of the world that it is
found."
"Whoever
is able to renounce them [money and sexual intercourse] shows that he is from
the generation of the [Son of Man], and that he has power to accuse
[them]."
...If one has knowledge, he receives what is his own,
and draws it to himself...Whoever is to have knowledge in this way knows where
he comes from, and where he is going.
...Say, then, from the heart that you are the perfect
day, and in you dwells the light that does not fail...For you are the
understanding that is drawn forth...Be concerned with yourselves; do not be
concerned with other things which you have rejected from yourselves.
The gnostic becomes a "disciple of his own
mind," discovering that his own mind "is the father of the
truth." He learns what he needs to know by himself in meditative
silence. "And he is patient with
everyone; he makes himself equal to everyone, and he also separates himself
from them."
All things originate from "the depth", from
the unconscious. From that "depth" emerge Mind and Truth, and from
them, in turn, the Word (Logos) and Life. And it was the word that brought
humanity into being.
Wisdom, youngest daughter of the primal couple, was
seized by a passion to know the Father which she interpreted as love. Her
attempts to know him would have led her to self-destruction had she not
encountered a power called The Limit, "a power which supports all things
and preserves them," which freed her of emotional turmoil and restored her
to her original place.
The Gospel of Truth is a joy for those who have
received from the Father of truth the grace of knowing him...For he discovered
them in himself, and they discovered him in themselves, the incomprehensible,
inconceivable one, the Father, the perfect one, the one who made all things.
...end the sleep which weighs heavy upon you. Depart
from the oblivion which fills you with darkness...Why do you pursue the
darkness, though the light is available for you?...Wisdom calls you, yet you
desire foolishness...a foolish man...goes the ways of the desire of every
passion. He swims in the desires of life and has foundered...he is like a ship
which the wind tosses to and fro, and like a loose horse which has no rider.
For this (one) needed the rider, which is reason...before everything
else...know yourself...
...Bring in your guide and your teacher. The mind is
the guide, but reason is the teacher...Live according to your mind...Acquire
strength, for the mind is strong...Enlighten your mind...Light the lamp within
you.
Knock on yourself as upon a door and walk upon
yourself as on a straight road. For if you walk on the road, it is impossible
for you to go astray...Open the door for yourself that you may know what
is...Whatever you will open for yourself, you will open.
Have a great number of friends, but not
counsellors....But if you do acquire [a friend], do not entrust yourself to
him. Entrust yourself to God alone as father and as friend.
9/93
Keith and Marnie Elliott’s “REMEDY”
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