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Moral Progress in Early Christian Stories of the Soul*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2013

Ismo Dunderberg
Ismo Dunderberg*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Theology, P.O.B. 4, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. email: [email protected].
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Abstract

This article explores the ways the story of the soul's present plight and its return to the divine realm is narrated in different Nag Hammadi treatises, and to what effect. The soul's condition is a central concern in two types of stories: there are (1) demiurgical myths, in which the soul's origin is ascribed to an inferior creator-god, and (2) plainer stories of the soul, which are solely focused on the soul, without a creation narrative. The main sources for the latter type are the Exegesis on the Soul (NHC II, 6) and Authoritative Teaching (Authentikos Logos, NHC VI, 3). In addition to these texts, three demiurgical myths from Nag Hammadi Codex II, are drawn into the discussion: The Secret Book of John, The Nature of the Rulers, and On the Origin of the World.

The soul pestered by emotions is one of the themes that connects these stories with the long-standing philosophical tradition, starting from Plato's dialogues. The portrayals of this theme become increasingly ‘demonic’, but even the soul's battle against demons is first and foremost a battle against emotions. A new element in these stories is the emphasis placed upon repentance as bringing about transformation in the soul. Although strong sexual imagery is used in these texts to describe both the mythic past and the soul's present plight, the analysis suggests that sexual lust is not the only moral concern in them. Some texts discussed in this article show far greater concern with wine, luxury, good looks, pride, and arrogance than with illicit sex.

Keywords

Nag Hammadi LibraryPlatonic Christianitymythmakingemotionsluxury
Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , April 2013 , pp. 247 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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Footnotes

*

This article is based upon a main paper read at the 65th SNTS General Meeting (31 July –4 August), Leuven. My thanks for many helpful comments go to the present ‘Gnostic’ team in Helsinki (Antti Marjanen, Risto Auvinen, Outi Lehtipuu, Ivan Miroshnikov, Ulla Tervahauta); Barbara Aland; John Barclay; Tua Korhonen; Heikki Räisänen; Gregory Snyder; Risto Uro, and Margot Whiting. The clear-sighted observations and suggestions by the anonymous reader of NTS proved valuable for making this article, I hope, more focused on the subject matter than it was originally.

References

1 The term ‘library’ is potentially misleading in this connection since the Nag Hammadi hoard comprises a number of smaller collections of texts. For different views about which individual codices originally belonged together, see, e.g., Khosroyev, Alexandr, Die Bibliothek von Nag Hammadi: Einige Probleme des Christentums in Ägypten während der ersten Jahrhunderte (ASKÄ 7; Altenberge: Oros, 1995) 20–2Google Scholar; Williams, Michael A., Rethinking ‘Gnosticism’: An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 1996) 242–4Google Scholar.

2 Passions and Moral Progress in Greco-Roman thought (ed. Fitzgerald, John T.; London: Routledge, 2008Google Scholar).

3 Onuki, Takashi, Gnosis und Stoa (NTOA 9; Freiburg, Switzerland: Universitätsverlag, 1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Scholten, Clemens, Martyrium und Sophiamythos im Gnostizismus nach den Texten von Nag Hammadi (JACE 14; Münster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1987) 120–33Google Scholar; Williams, Michael A., The Immovable Race: A Gnostic Designation and the Theme of Stability in Late Antiquity (NHS 29; Leiden: Brill, 1985) 127–9Google Scholar.

4 Scopello, Madeleine, ‘The Exegesis on the Soul (NHC II, 6): Introduction’, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition (ed. Meyer, Marvin; New York: HarperOne, 2007) 223–6Google Scholar, esp. 224, 226. For other scholars maintaining that Exegesis should be understood as a Gnostic text, see, e.g., Aland, Barbara, Was ist Gnosis: Studien zum frühen Christentum, zu Marcion und zur kaiserzeitlichen Philosophie (WUNT 239; Tübingen: Mohr 2009) 39Google Scholar; Sevrin, Jean-Marie, ed., L'Exégèse de l'Âme (NH II, 6) (BCNHÉ 9; Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 1983) 39–41Google Scholar. For scholars affirming that Exegesis is not a Gnostic text, see Kulawik, Cornelia, Die Erzählung über die Seele (Nag-Hammadi-Codex II, 6) (TU 155; Berlin: de Gruyter) 7–9Google Scholar; Hugo Lundhaug, Images of Rebirth: Cognitive Poetics and Transformational Soteriology in the Gospel of Philip and the Exegesis of the Soul (NHMS 73; Leiden: Brill, 2010) 134–40Google Scholar. Instead of a Gnostic reading of Exeg. Soul, Lundhaug proposes that this text ‘would also have been amenable to the interests of the Pachomians and even to those of Shenoute's monastic community’ (149).

5 Scopello, Madeleine, ‘The Authoritative Discourse (NHC VI, 3): Introduction’, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (ed. Meyer) 379–82Google Scholar, esp. 382; cf. also Scopello, , Femme, Gnose et Manichéisme: De l'espace mythique au territoire du réel (NHMS 53; Leiden: Brill, 2005) 155Google Scholar. For non-Gnostic interpretations of the Auth. Disc., see van den Broek, Roelof, Studies in Gnosticism and Alexandrian Christianity (NHMS 39; Leiden: Brill, 1996) 206–34Google Scholar; Ulla Tervahauta, ‘A Story of the Soul's Journey in the Nag Hammadi Library: A Study of Authentikos Logos (NHC VI,3)’ (Th.D. diss., University of Helsinki 2013).

6 For critical analyses of the scholarly usage of the term ‘Gnosticism’, from two different perspectives, see Williams, Rethinking ‘Gnosticism’; King, Karen L., What Is Gnosticism? (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2003)Google Scholar; for my summary of this discussion and how it should change our understanding of the school of Valentinus, see Dunderberg, Ismo, Beyond Gnosticism: Myth, Lifestyle, and Society in the School of Valentinus (New York: Columbia University, 2008) 14–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 John 16.12, 25; Ptolemaeus Letter to Flora 33.7.8–10.

8 For such ‘scripts’, both in theory and as applied to early Christian literature, see Czachesz, István, ‘Rewriting and Textual Fluidity in Antiquity: Exploring the Socio-Cultural and Psychological Context of Earliest Christian Literacy’, Myths, Martyrs, and Modernity: Studies in the History of Religions in Honour of Jan N. Bremmer (ed. Dijkstra, J., Kroesen, J., and Kuiper, Y.; Leiden: Brill, 2010) 426–41Google Scholar.

9 It goes without saying that Plato's other dialogues, most prominently Timaeus, contain a large number of passages which are also reflected in some of the texts to be discussed below, especially in the Secret Book of John; I will add references to these other dialogues in the course of my analysis below. For most comprehensive surveys of allusions to Plato's dialogues in Sethian texts, see Turner, John D., Sethian Gnosticism and the Platonic Tradition (BCNHÉ 6; Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2001)Google Scholar; King, Karen L., The Secret Revelation of John (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2006) 191–214CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a recent analysis of the Platonic ingredient in the Gospel of Thomas, see Patterson, Stephen J., ‘Jesus Meets Plato: The Theology of the Gospel of Thomas and Middle Platonism’, Das Thomasevangelium: Entstehung—Rezeption—Theologie (ed. Frey, Jörg, Popkes, Enno Edzard, and Schröter, Jens; BZNW 157; Berlin: de Gruyter 2008) 181–205Google Scholar: ‘Thomas’ distinctive voice, which I have at times called “Gnostic” or “Gnosticizing”, and at other times, more vaguely, “esoteric”, can be characterized more precisely as Platonic' (183). For a similar shift from a Gnostic to a Platonic interpretation in the study of the Book of Thomas (NHC II, 7), see Turner, John D., ‘The Book of Thomas and the Platonic Jesus’, L'Évangile Selon Thomas et les textes de Nag Hammadi (ed. Painchaud, Louis and Poirier, Paul-Hubert; BCNHÉ 8; Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2007) 599–633Google Scholar.

10 Phaedr. 248d. Plato's image of the soul's loss of its wings became persistent among later interpreters of different bents; cf., e.g., Plutarch Virt. prof. 77b; Plotinus Enneads 4.8.1; Tatian Graec. 13–14: ‘When one becomes obedient to Wisdom’, God's spirit draws near and makes the soul immortal, ‘giving it wings with which to fly heavenward to God’ (cf. Patterson, ‘Jesus’, 188); Book Thom. 140 (cf. Turner, ‘The Book of Thomas’, 612–17).

11 Plato portrays a hierarchy of no fewer than nine classes of people where the soul can end up before it is downgraded into the bodies of animals (Phaedr. 248c-e: [1] philosopher; lover of beauty; a musical or loving person; [2] lawful king; warlike ruler; [3] politician; merchant; financier; [4] gymnast; medical doctor; [5] prophet; leader of mystic rites; [6] poet; artist; [7] craftsman; farmer; [8] sophist; demagogue; [9] tyrant). In Timaeus, Plato infamously lists only three stages: men, women, and animals (42bc).

12 Cf. Phaedo 84a: it is not acceptable that the philosopher's soul is first made free, and then it slips back into ‘delight and distress’ (ἡδοναῖς καὶ λήθαις).

13 For a similar emphasis in Plutarch's works, see now van Hoof, Lieve, Plutarch's Practical Ethics: The Social Dynamics of Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University, 2010) 22–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 This looks like a tongue-in-cheek argument. The comments Socrates makes later in Phaedrus (265b–266a) on his narrative illustrations of the soul's origin and goal should caution us against taking too literally any of the stories Plato uses to make his teaching more accessible. (I owe this remark to Tua Korhonen.)

15 Phaedr. 249a, 249c.

16 Phaedo 83.

17 Phaedo 79c.

18 Phaedo 83c-e; cf. Gilhus, Ingvil Sælid, Animals, Gods, and Humans: Changing Attitudes to Animals in Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Texts (Oxford: Oxford University, 2006) 86–7Google Scholar. The soul's love of the body is one of the explanations for its fall mentioned in Albinus, Didask. 25; other possible reasons he discusses are ‘the will of God’, and ‘wantoness’; cf. Dillon, John, ‘The Descent of the Soul in Middle Platonic and Gnostic Theory’, The Rediscovery of Gnosticism (ed. Layton, Bentley; 2 vols.; SHR 41; Leiden: Brill, 1981) 1.357–64Google Scholar.

19 Phaedo 83b.

20 Phaedo 84a-b.

21 This aspect of ancient philosophy has become subject to intense scholarship in recent years; cf., e.g., Nussbaum, Martha, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics (Princeton: Princeton University, 1994)Google Scholar; Knuuttila, Simo, Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for a concise introduction to this theme, see now Fitzgerald, John T., ‘The Passions and Moral Progress: An Introduction’, Passions and Moral Progress (ed. Fitzgerald) 1–25Google Scholar.

22 For a synoptic comparison of the main sources of the Stoic classification of emotions, see Onuki, Gnosis und Stoa, 35–8.

23 Nussbaum (The Therapy of Desire) has been essential in demonstrating the importance of the soul's healing in all ancient schools of philosophy.

24 Cf. Engberg-Pedersen, Troels, ‘The Concept of Paraenesis’, Early Christian Paraenesis in Context (ed. Starr, James M. and Engberg-Pedersen, Troels; BZNW 125; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2004) 47–72Google Scholar, esp. 54–9.

25 Perf. Disc. 75–76. The distinction between the creator-God Zeus and ‘the one who truly is’ is made clearer in this version than in the parallel text preserved in Asclepius (27).

26 To this group belong at least the Acts of Peter and 12 Apostles, the Authoritative Discourse and the Concept of Our Great Power.

27 It would seem that Thunder, in which a divine revealer is introduced by using the same style of ‘I am’-sayings as one finds in Isis aretalogies, could be placed in this group. Nevertheless, this text also draws upon Jewish sapiental traditions; thus, most recently, Tilde Bak Halvgaard, ‘Linguistic Manifestations of Divine Thought: An Investigation of the Use of Stoic and Platonic Dialetics in the Trimorphic Protennoia (NHC XIII, 1) and the Thunder: Perfect Mind (NHC VI, 2)’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Copenhagen, 2012) 115–17.

28 Cf. Williams, Michael A. and Jenott, Lance, ‘Inside the Covers of Codex VI’, Coptica—Gnostica—Manichaiaca: Mélanges offerts à Wolf-Peter Funk (ed. Painchaud, Louis and Poirier, Paul-Hubert; BCNHÉ 7; Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2006) 1025–52Google Scholar; see also Williams, Rethinking ‘Gnosticism’, 257–9.

29 Auth. Disc. 22, 27–28.

30 For the healing metaphor used in this text, see Molinari, Andrea Lorenzo, The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles (NHC 6.1): Allegory, Ascent, and Ministry in the Wake of the Decian Persecution (SBLDS 174; Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000) 214–29Google Scholar.

31 At this point, my understanding of the text differs from Molinari's. He maintains that the healing of the body and that of the soul are of equal importance in this text. This interpretation is essential to his claim that Acts can be dated to the Decian persecution: ‘The two types of healing by our text (body and soul) may refer to the community's task in the wake of the Decian persecution: (1) caring for the sick…and (2) healing the hearts of those who apostasized’ (226). As far as I can see, the text contains no clear references to persecution, nor to apostasy. The theme of healing is too universal to qualify as a proof for this setting.

32 Acts Pet. 12 Ap. 8, 10–11.

33 Perf. Disc. 66, 67. The idea of healing of emotions is more emphatically present in the Nag Hammadi version of the Perfect Discourse than in the parallel of this passage in Asclepius 22. The latter speaks of ‘vices’ instead of ‘passions’. Nevertheless, healing is also referred to in Asclepius: ‘Scorn for the vices—and a cure for those vices—comes from understanding the divine plan upon which all things have been based… Tainted and corrupted by (the vices), the soul grows inflamed as if poisoned—except the souls of those who have the sovereign remedy of learning and understanding’ (trans. Brian Copenhaver, emphasis added).

34 In his seminal study on Auth. Disc. (above n. 5), van den Broek traces a number of close contacts between this text and Middle Platonist teachings. His observations are mainly related to terminological affinities in cosmology and anthropology, while he pays less attention to the ethical aspects, which are in focus in my analysis.

35 For emotions in Auth. Disc., see also Scholten, Martyrium und Sophiamythos, 120–5.

36 Auth. Disc. 23.15–16.

37 Auth. Disc. 23.29–34.

38 Auth. Disc. 30.34–31.5.

39 Auth. Disc. 24.14–16.

40 Auth. Disc. 25.9–10.

41 This usage is prominent in the passage based upon fishing metaphors (including fish, baits, hook, and good-smelling food) in Auth. Disc. 29–31; cf. Tervahauta, ‘A Story of the Soul's Journey’, Ch. 6.1.2.

42 Tervahauta's detailed reading of this passage suggests that the author is here in fact critical of two different kinds of Christian, that is, the ignorant ones who ‘do not take their quest seriously enough and aim at hindering others’, and the foolish ones, ‘who are too lazy to make a serious effort in worship and lifestyle’; cf. Ulla Tervahauta, ‘Criticism of the Ignorant People, Foolish Persons and Pagans in Authentikos Logos (NHC VI,3): A Case-Study of Intra-Christian Polemic and Portrayal of the Other from the Nag Hammadi Library’ (a paper read at the 2011 EABS International Meeting, Thessaloniki, 8–11 August 2011).

43 As Tervahauta (‘A Story of the Soul's Journey’, Ch. 6.2.1) details, this unusual phrase can be understood as referring to slave traders.

44 Tervahauta (‘A Story of the Soul's Journey’, Ch. 6.2.1) points out that, while this term is unique in the Nag Hammadi Library, close analogies to it can be found in Clement (Strom. 7.14; Exc. Theod. 14) and Origen (Cels. 4.57). Tervahauta maintains that the invisible spiritual body should be understood as ‘a go-between that enables the ascent of the immaterial soul after it discards its material body’.

45 Cf. Tervahauta, ‘A Story of the Soul's Journey’, Ch. 6.2.1.

46 Cf. Leonhardt-Balzer, Jutta, ‘On the Redactional and Theological Relationship between the Gospel of Thomas and the Apocryphon of John’, Das Thomasevangelium (ed. Frey et al.) 251–71Google Scholar: ‘There appears to be a double arrangement cosmology—human life; cosmology—human life’ (255). Leonhardt-Balzer also points out that, in comparison with the other representative of the long version of Secret John in Codex IV, there is added ‘interest in the application of the myth’ in the Codex II version of this text (262).

47 The arrangement of the two latter demiurgical texts, Rulers and Origin, next to each other implies a special sense of their belonging together, which quickly comes to mind in light of a number of close affinities between them; large parts of Origin can be read like an expanded version of the story told in Rulers.

48 Secr. John II 25–26; Book Thom. 142–43. Khosroyev leaves such thematic connections unmentioned when he suggests that the Book of Thomas was included in Codex II simply because it was of the right length to be fitted into the remaining final pages of the codex; cf. Khosroyev, Die Bibliothek von Nag Hammadi, 14–15.

49 Thus Eduard Iricinschi, ‘The Scribes and Readers of Nag Hammadi Codex II: Book Production and Monastic Paideia in Fourth-Century Egypt’ (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 2009) 163 (cf. also 203). (I am grateful to Dr Iricinschi for providing me with a copy of his exceptionally well-argued and informative doctoral thesis.)

50 For the Christian usage of kinship language to denote the soul's true origin, see also Tatian Graec. 13.2 (συζυγία); 20.2–3 (συγγένεια); both terms express the need for the soul's reunion with the spirit; cf. Reis, David M., ‘Thinking with Soul: Psychē and Psychikos in the Construction of Early Christian Identities’, JECS 17, no. 4 (2009) 563–603Google Scholar, esp. 577–81. The way the soul's story is related in Exegesis helps us see similar features in other texts included in Codex II. The bridal imagery looms large both in the Gospel of Thomas and in the Gospel of Philip. In light of Exegesis, the passage in Philip describing the attempts of ‘ignorant’ women and men to mingle with, and defile, the people they see sitting alone (65.3–26) could easily be understood as an allegory of the evil powers threatening the soul from within. Just like the soul is united with its male counterpart in Exegesis, in Philip the man and wife standing together illustrate the soul's ideal state that makes it immune to the attacks of evil spirits. The subsequent passage in Philip steers the discussion to one's mastery over emotions—desire, fear, envy are specifically mentioned—and then the discussion again turns to the threats posed by unclean spirits and demons. This combination suggests that emotions are the method the demons use in trying to affix the soul to the ‘flesh’. In addition, it is affirmed in this passage that the soul cannot resist the demons on its own but must be aided by the Spirit: ‘If they had the holy spirit, no clean spirit would cleave to them’ (Gos. Phil. 64–5). This affirmation also suggests that the previous description of a married couple standing strong against adulterers should be understood as a metaphor for the soul joined with the divine spirit.

51 Phaedr. 254b-e. In Republic 588–89, this unruly horse is identified with desire (ἐπιθυμία); cf. Gilhus, Animals, Gods, and Humans, 205.

52 The negative stance towards books this passage betrays is somewhat unexpected in Nag Hammadi Codex II, where positive value is often attached to other books; for a detailed analysis of the ‘bookish’ orientation in this codex, see Iricinschi, ‘The Scribes and Readers of Nag Hammadi Codex II’, 99–113.

53 Cf. Lundhaug, Images of Rebirth, 132–4. The importance of God's mercy in this text is correctly emphasized by Aland, Was ist Gnosis, 41, yet I believe she does not sufficiently emphasize the importance of a person's repentance as evoking this mercy. Tervahauta (‘A Story of the Soul's Journey’, Ch. 1.3) sees here a crucial difference between Exeg. Soul and Auth. Disc.: the latter ‘puts more emphasis on the soul's progress, whereas in the Exegesis on the Soul, repentance and the aid received from the heavenly father or bridegroom is more emphatic’.

54 Cf. Wisse, Frederik, ‘On Exegeting “the Exegesis of the Soul”’, Les Textes de Nag Hammadi (ed. Ménard, J.-É; NHS 7; Leiden: Brill, 1975) 68–81Google Scholar, esp. 79; Stroumsa, Guy G., Barbarian Philosophy: The Religious Revolution of Early Christianity (WUNT 112; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999) 274Google Scholar; pace Kulawik (Die Erzählung über die Seele, 169), who assumes that the reference to baptism at this point is to that with water; for a carefully nuanced discussion also pointing in this direction, see Lundhaug, Images of Rebirth, 94–5, 128–9. In my opinion, the text's concern with purity does not necessarily imply the importance of a baptismal ritual for the soul's ascent. As Kulawik (166) points out, Plato already emphasized the soul's purity (e.g. Phaed. 67), which he defined in intellectual rather than ritual terms. Plato also linked together the ideas of the soul's purity and the soul's turning inside; cf. Rohde, Erwin, Psyche: Seelenkult und Unsterblichkeitsglaube bei den Griechen (2 vols.; Freiburg, 2d ed. 1898 [repr. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1991]) 2.282–9Google Scholar.

55 Cf. Lundhaug, Images of Rebirth, 84–6.

56 My comments on this text are based upon the long version available in NHC II. The very fragmentary version of this text in NHC IV, 1 stands close to that in NHC II, whereas considerably shorter versions are offered in two other available manuscripts including this text (NHC III, 1; BG 8502, 2).

57 As van den Broek (Studies in Gnosticism and Alexandrian Christianity, 74–7) demonstrates, Secret John's detailed account of different powers contributing to the creation of Adam's soul follows very closely Plato's account of the composition of the human body in Timaeus 73b–76e.

58 Phaedr. 245c–246a, 246c; for the importance of this idea for Plato's view of the soul, see Davis, Michael, The Soul of the Greeks: An Inquiry (Chicago: Chicago University, 2012) 194–5Google Scholar. Plato offers a more ‘pessimistic’ version of the same idea in Timaeus, where it is described how the body moved by the soul staggers, so training is needed to make this human being ‘sound and faultless’ (44b-c); cf. Patterson, ‘Jesus’, 202–3.

59 ‘Standing up’ is a crucial detail since the erect posture differentiates humans from animals: ‘Man is the only animal that stands upright, and this is because his nature and essence are divine’ (Aristotle Parts of Animals 686a; cf. Gilhus, Animals, Gods, and Humans, 38–9).

60 This passage also emphasizes that awakening is only possible with the help of divine instruction. Not only is Providence identified with ‘the remembrance’ of the divine reality, but it also awakens humans ‘from the deep sleep’, and urges them to be on guard ‘against the angels of poverty, the demons of chaos, and all those who ensnare you’.

61 Cf. Plato Timaeus 31b, 32b.

62 Cf. King, Karen L., ‘Reading Sex and Gender in the Secret Revelation of John’, JECS 19, no. 4 (2011) 519–38Google Scholar, esp. 525–6. It is notable, however, that sexual intercourse between Adam and Eve is not directly mentioned in this passage. Hence it is also possible to understand the text as saying that ‘Adam produced Seth, apparently without Eve's help’; thus Iricinschi, ‘The Scribes and Readers of Nag Hammadi Codex II’, 218.

63 Secr. John II 29–30. In their critical edition of the text, Waldstein and Wisse translated (29.33) as ‘things’; cf. Michael Waldstein and Frederik Wisse, The Apocryphon of John: Synopsis of Nag Hammadi Codices II,1; III,1; and IV,1 with BG 8502,2 (NHMS 33; Leiden: Brill, 1995). This translation hides what seems to be a deliberate Platonic allusion to the allure of ‘visible things’.

64 Cf. Pearson, Birger A., ‘1 Enoch in the Apocryphon of John’, Texts and Contexts: Biblical Texts in their Textual and Situational Contexts (FS Lars Hartman; ed. Fornberg, Tord and Hellholm, David; Oslo: Scandinavian University, 1995) 355–67Google Scholar, here 363. Pearson remains puzzled ‘why this detail is found in Ap. John’; a full recognition of this text's ethical concern, going back to a longstanding philosophical tradition, probably offers the answer.

65 Cf. King, The Secret Revelation of John, 109.

66 Cf. Plato Republic 9.579: the soul's most inferior part (epithumia) seeks money and pleasures and the ‘willing’ middle part seeks honor, whereas the rational part seeks knowledge.

67 Cf. Tardieu, Michel, Codex de Berlin (Ecrits Gnostiques 1; Paris: Cerf, 1984) 313–16Google Scholar; Onuki, Gnosis und Stoa, 30–46. The author of this passage in the long version of Secret John implies that the classification comes from a literary source, identified as the Book of Zoroaster.

68 Reincarnation is not a distinctly Gnostic idea in early Christian literature; as Gilhus (Animals, Gods, and Humans, 89) points out, Origen also flirted with this idea.

69 The Platonic metaphors are, again, used here to describe both the soul's poor condition and its salvation.

70 Nat. Rul. 88; Orig. World 114–15. There are notable differences in details. While in Secret John Yaldabaoth transmits the spirit into a body (consisting of soul) by blowing into its face, in Rulers Adam receives only a soul at this point (the Spirit descends upon him later), and in Origin it is ‘Sophia Zoe’ who breathes on Adam who had no soul. While in Secret John the presence of the divine Spirit in Adam not only mobilizes him but also makes him radiant, in Origin the divine breath just barely enables Adam to move: ‘He began to crawl on the ground, but he could not stand up’. Even Adam's lowly posture, however, suffices to trigger the powers' agitation and admiration in front of him. The latter difference between Secret John and Origin suggests that they draw upon the two different Platonic traditions described above: Secret John builds upon the Phaedrus version, in which the soul simply activates the body, whereas Origin follows the Timaeus version, according to which the body bestowed with a soul staggers and therefore needs instruction.

71 Nat. Rul. 89.16; Orig. World 114.10.

72 Nat. Rul. 92–93.

73 Nat. Rul. 95–96; Orig. World 103–106.

74 The ensuing remark on Sabaoth's ‘four-faced chariot of cherubim’ is certainly based upon Jewish tradition; cf. Fallon, Francis T., The Enthronement of Sabaoth: Jewish Elements in Gnostic Creation Myths (NHS 10; Leiden: Brill, 1978) 57–9Google Scholar. Nevertheless, in this particular context describing Sabaoth's ascent, the remark may also evoke the image of the chariot of Zeus, which Plato used in his discussion of the soul's ascent (Phaedr. 246e).

75 Crislip compellingly proposes that the sequence from envy to death in the Sabaoth myth goes back to Wis. 2.24 (‘through the devil's envy death entered the world’); cf. Crislip, Andrew, ‘Envy and Anger at the World's Creation and Destruction in the Treatise without Title “On the Origin of the World” (NHC II,5)’, VigChr 65 (2011) 285–310Google Scholar, on 303.

76 The tendency towards narrative expansion is typical of Origin's version in comparison to that of Rulers; cf. Fallon, The Enthronement of Sabaoth, 24, 121.

77 Samellas, Antigone, Death in the Eastern Mediterranean (50–600 A.D.): The Christianization of the East: An Interpretation (STAC 12; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002) 72–81Google Scholar, concluding: ‘The wailing of women belied the promises of Jesus and rendered the consolations of priests redundant. Their mourning was incompatible with the Christian experience of grief, as this was defined by the bishops’. Women were often described as being more prone to excessive display of emotions than men; cf., e.g., Plutarch Mor. 113a; 139; for further examples, see von Gemünden, Petra, Affekt und Glaube: Studien zur historischen Psychologie des Frühjudentums und Urchristentums (NTOA 73; Göttingen: Vandehoeck & Ruprecht, 2009) 139–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

78 The affinity between the powers and emotions is also illustrated in the description of the powers' sentimental lament over their defeat in Orig. World 125–26.

79 An excursus discussing why ‘the excessive desire for sexual intercourse’ () is aroused by wine drinking, how this desire was triggered by Eros, and how all beings, including ‘the first soul’, fell in love with this god (Orig. World 109–11), probably suggests that this desire is a thing to be avoided, but the text is not very explicit about this either. The only passage in this section containing what looks like a real argument against sexual desire is a reference to ‘the tree of knowledge’, identified as Adam's ‘female companion similar to him’ (). Whereas he loved this true companion, he ‘condemned and loathed other kinds of copies’. The relevant section (110.29–111.2) is introduced as stemming from the (otherwise unknown) Holy Book. The section is part of a larger whole (Orig. World 109–11) that may be of Manichaean origin; cf. Onuki, Takashi, ‘Das Logion 77 des koptischen Thomasevangeliums und der gnostische Animismus’, Das Thomasevangelium (ed. Frey et al.) 294–317Google Scholar, esp. 313–14.

80 The soul's need for help from outside may seem an addition to Plato's description of the soul's ascent, but this aspect does not place the texts discussed here outside Platonic tradition. As Gregory Shaw details, later Platonists were divided over this issue. According to Plotinus, the soul's fall was not complete; a part of it remains stored in the divine reality. Hence the soul's recollection of that reality can be refreshed through intellectual contemplation. Iamblichus assumed a more radical break. Since he taught that the soul fell in its entirety, it follows that the soul has no natural ability to restore the lost connection. Therefore, what is needed for the soul's ascent is divine revelation and participation in rituals, adjusted to the different stages of its return. Cf. Shaw, Gregory, ‘The Soul's Innate Gnosis of the Gods: Revelation in Iamblichean Theory’, Revelation, Literature, and Community in Late Antiquity (ed. Townsend, Philippa and Vidas, Moulie; TSAJ 146; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011) 117–29Google Scholar. In consequence, the emphasis on the need for divine instruction in Nag Hammadi stories of the soul places them, not outside the Platonic spectrum, but at one end of it.

81 For this interpretation, based upon a Valentinian eschatological myth preserved in Clement Exc. Theod. 63–64, see Dunderberg, Ismo, ‘Valentinian Theories on Classes of Humankind’, Zugänge zur Gnosis (ed. Markschies, Christoph, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

82 For a similar point that becoming free from most tangible passions does not mean that you have conquered all passions, see Seneca Ep. 75: there are people who have already become free of some passions, such as sensual desire and avarice, but who are still troubled by some other passions, including fear, ambition, and pain.

83 Most things listed here (except for olive oil) are stock items in early Jewish and Christian moral discourse (which, of course, does not mean that these things didn't matter!). For Clement's teaching on how meat and wine make the soul heavy, dull, and prone to evil thoughts (Paed. 2.1.11 etc.), and for his critical remarks on too luxurious lifestyles, see Shaw, Theresa M., The Burden of Flesh: Fasting and Sexuality in Early Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998) 51–2Google Scholar; for similar examples in Evagrius, see Brakke, David, Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early Christianity, (Cambridge: Harvard University, 2006) 52–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Another body of literature where similar concerns are expressed is the Testaments of 12 Patriarchs. The texts included in this collection customarily include warnings against desire, envy, wine, debauchery, greed, and luxury; cf., e.g., Test. Reuben 2–6 (promiscuity; insatiability of stomach; strife; flattery and trickery; arrogance; lying; injustice); Test. Simeon 3 (deceit; envy; promiscuity); Test. Levi 9 (promiscuity); Test. Judah 12–18 (excessive wine-drinking; promiscuity; love of money; beautiful women); Test. Issachar 4–7 (gold; fancy foods; fine clothes; envy; avarice; excessive wine-drinking; beautiful women); Test. Dan 3–4 (anger); Test. Gad 3–6 (hatred, slander; arrogance); Test. Benj. 5–8 (wealth; hatred; promiscuity). One also finds in this corpus of texts a similar emphasis on repentance as the key moment of moral improvement; e.g., Test. Sim. 2.13 (repentance; weeping; prayer); Test. Gad 5: ‘What it has not learned from human agency, it understands through repentance’.