The Gnostic Gospels (Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction Books)

CHAPTER THREE

1. Where the God of Israel is characterized as husband and lover in the Old Testament, his spouse is described as the community of Israel (e.g. Isaiah 50:1; 54:1–8; Jeremiah 2:2–3; 20–25; 3:1–20; Hosea 1–4, 14) or as the land of Israel (Isaiah 62:1–5).

2. One may note several exceptions to this rule: Deuteronomy 32:11; Hosea 11:1; Isaiah 66:12 ff.; Numbers 11:12.

3. Formerly, as Professor Morton Smith reminds me, theologians often used the masculinity of God to justify, by analogy, the roles of men as rulers of their societies and households (he cites, for example, Milton’s Paradise Lost IV.296 ff., 635 ff.).

4. Gospel of Thomas 51.19–26, in NHL 130.

5. Hippolytus, REF 5.6.

6. Irenaeus, AH 1.11.1.

7. Ibid., 1.13.6.

8. Ibid., 1.13.2.

9. Ibid., 1.13.2.

10. Ibid., 1.14.1.

11. Hippolytus,REF 6. 18.

12. Ibid., 6.17.

13. Irenaeus, AH 1.11.5; Hippolytus, REF 6.29.

14. Apocryphon of John 1.31–2.9, in NHL 99.

15. Ibid., 2.9–14, in NHL 99.

16. Ibid., 4.34–5.7, in NHL 101.

17. Gospel to the Hebrews, cited in Origen, COMM. JO. 2.12.

18. Gospel of Thomas 49.32–50.1, in NHL 128–129.

19. Gospel of Philip 52.24, in NHL 132.

20. Ibid., 59.35–60.1, in NHL 136.

21. Hippolytus, REF 6.14.

22. Ibid., 5.19.

23. Irenaeus, AH 1.14.7–8.

24. Gospel of Philip 71.3–5, in NHL 143.

25. Ibid., 71.16–19, in NHL 143.

26. Ibid., 55.25–26, in NHL 134.

27. Hippolytus, REF 6.38.

28. Apocalypse of Adam 81.2–9, in NHL 262. See note #42 for references.

29. Irenaeus, AH 1.2.2–3.

30. Ibid., 1.4.1.-1.5.4.

31. Ibid., 1.5.1–3. For discussion of the figure of Sophia, see the excellent articles of G. C. Stead, “The Valentinian Myth of Sophia,” in Journal of Theological Studies 20 (1969), 75–104; and G. W. MacRae, “The Jewish Background of the Gnostic Sophia Myth,” in Novum Testamentum 12.

32. Clemens Alexandrinus, EXCERPTA 47.1.

33. Irenaeus, AH 1.13.1–6.

34. Ibid., 1.30.9.

35. Ibid., 1.30.10.

36. Trimorphic Protennoia 35.1–24, in NHL 461–462.

37. Ibid., 36.12–16, in NHL 462.

38. Ibid., 42.4–26, in NHL 465–466.

39. Ibid., 45.2–10, in NHL 467.

40. Thunder, Perfect Mind 13.16–16.25, in NHL 271–274.

41. Hippolytus, REF 6.18.

42. Genesis Rabba 8.1, cited in an excellent discussion of androgyny by W. A. Meeks, “The Image of the Androgyne: Some Uses of a Symbol in Earliest Christianity,” in History of Religions 13.3 (February 1974), 165–208. For a discussion of androgyny in gnostic sources, see Pagels, “The Gnostic Vision,” in Parabola 3.4 (November 1978), 6–9.

43. Irenaeus, AH 1.18.2.

44. Clemens Alexandrinus, EXERPTA 21.1.

45. Hippolytus, REF 6.33.

46. Irenaeus, AH 1.5.4; Hippolytus, REF 6.33.

47. Ibid., 1.29.4.

48. Apocryphon of John 13.8–14, in NHL 106.

49. Irenaeus, AH 1.30.6.

Note the collection of passages cited by N. A. Dahl in “The Gnostic Response: The Ignorant Creator,” prepared for the Nag Hammadi Section of the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, 1976.

50. Hypostasis of the Archons 04.21–95.7, in NHL 158.

51. Hippolytus, REF 6.32.

52. Irenaeus, AH 1.13.5.

53. Ibid., 1.13.3.

54. Ibid., 1.13.4.

55. Ibid., 1.13.3.

56. Hippolytus, REF 6.35; Irenaeus, AH 1.13.1–2.

57. Tertullian, DE PRAESCR. 41.

58. Tertullian, De Baptismo 1.

59. Tertullian, De Virginibus Velandis 9. Emphasis added.

60. Irenaeus, AH 1.25.6.

61. This general observation is not, however, universally applicable. At least two circles where women acted on an equal basis with men—the Marcionites and the Montanists—retained a traditional doctrine of God. I know of no evidence to suggest that they included feminine imagery in their theological formulations. For discussion and references, see J. Leipoldt, Die Frau in der antiken Welt und im Urchristentum (Leipzig, 1955), 187 ff.; E. S. Fiorenza, “Word, Spirit, and Power: Women in Early Christian Communities,” in Women of Spirit, ed. R. Reuther and E. McLaughlin (New York, 1979), 39 ff.

62. Luke 10:38–42.

Cf. Romans 16:1–2; Colossians 4:15; Acts 2:25; 21:9; Romans 16:6; 16:12; Philippians 4:2–3.

63. See W. Meeks, “The Image of the Androgyne,” 180 f. Most scholars agree with Meeks that in Galatians 3:28, Paul quotes a saying that itself belongs to pre-Pauline tradition.

64. Romans 16:7.

This was first pointed out to me by Cyril C. Richardson, and confirmed by recent research of B. Brooten, “Junia … Outstanding Among the Apostles,” in Women Priests, ed. L. and A. Swidler (New York, 1977),141–144.

65. I Corinthians 11:7–9.

For discussion of I Corinthians 11:7–9, see R. Scroggs, “Paul and the Eschatological Woman,” in Journal of the American Academy of Religion 40 (1972), 283–303, and the critique by Pagels, “Paul and Women: A Response to Recent Discussion,” in Journal of the American Academy of Religion 42 (1974), 538–549. Also see references in Fiorenza, “Word, Spirit, and Power,” 62, n. 24 and 25.

66. See Leipoldt, Die Frau; also C. Schneider, Kulturgeschichte des Hellenismus (Munich, 1967), I, 78 ff.; S. A. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves (New York, 1975).

67. Cf. C. Vatin, Recherches sur le mariage et la condition de la femme mariée à Vépoque hellénistique (Paris, 1970).

68. J. Carcopino, Daily Life in Ancient Rome, trans, by E. O. Lorimer (New Haven, 1951), 95–100.

69. Ibid., 90–95.

70. L. Swidler, “Greco-Roman Feminism and the Reception of the Gospel,” in Traditio—Krisis—Renovatio, ed. B. Jaspert (Marburg, 1976), 41–55; see also J. Balsdon, Roman Women, Their History and Habits (London, 1962); L. Friedländer, Roman Life and Manners Under the Early Empire (Oxford, 1928); B. Förtsch, Die politische Rolle der Frau in der römischen Republik (Stuttgart, 1935). On women in Christian communities, see Fiorenza, “Word, Spirit, and Power”; R. Gryson, The Ministry of Women in the Early Church (Minnesota, 1976); K. Thraede, “Frau,” Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum VIII (Stuttgart, 1973), 197–269.

71. Leipoldt, Die Frau, 72 ff.; R. H. Kennet, Ancient Hebrew Social Life and Custom (London, 1933); G. F. Moore, Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era (Cambridge, 1932).

72. I Timothy 2:11–12.

73. Ephesians 5:24; Colossians 3:18.

74. I Clement 1.3.

75. Leipoldt, Die Frau, 192; Hippolytus of Rome, 43.1, ed. Paul de Lagarder (Aegyptiaca, 1883), 253.

76. Leipoldt, Die Freu, 193. Emphasis added.

77. Gospel of Philip 63.32–64.5, in NHL 138.

78. Dialogue of the Savior 139.12–13, in NHL 235.

79. Gospel of Mary 17.18–18.15, in NHL 473.

80. Pistis Sophia 36.71.

81. I Timothy 3:1–7; Titus 1:5–9.

82. Apostolic Tradition 18.3.

83. Book of Thomas the Contender 144.8–10, in NHL 193.

84. Paraphrase of Shem 27.2–6; in NHL 320.

85. Dialogue of the Savior 144.16–20, in NHL 237.

86. Ibid., 139.12–13, in NHL 235.

87. Gospel of Thomas 51.23–26, in NHL 130.

88. Ibid., 37.20–35, in NHL 121; 43.25–35, in NHL 124–125.

89. Gospel of Mary 9.20, in NHL 472. Emphasis added.

90. Clemens Alexandrinus, Paidagogos 1.6.

91. Ibid., 1.4.

92. Ibid., 1.19.

93. Tertullian, DE VIRG. VEL. 9.