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The New Testament in The Nag Hammadi Gospel of Philip

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

R. McL. Wilson
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Extract

The purpose of this paper is to examine, so far as may be done in brief compass, the New Testament echoes and allusions in the Gnostic Gospel of Philip discovered at Nag Hammadi.1 These echoes and allusions are fairly numerous, although not always easy to detect. In some cases, indeed, what appears to one scholar a clear and unmistakable echo may to another seem quite insignificant. To take but two examples, when we read ‘Then the slaves will be free, and the captives delivered’ (133. 28–9 Labib), are we to think of Luke iv. 18? Or Rom. vii. 23? Or of Eph. iv. 8? Does a contrast of slave and son, with a reference to inheritance in the context, of necessity indicate a knowledge of Gal. iv. 7? As it happens, there is other evidence for the author's knowledge of three at least of these four books, and possibly for the fourth.

Type
Short Studies
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , April 1963 , pp. 291 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1963

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References

1 Photographic edition: Labib, P., Coptic Gnostic Papyri in the Coptic Museum at Old Cairo (Cairo, 1956), plates 99–134.Google Scholar German translation: Schenke, H. M., T.L.Z. (1959);Google Scholar reprinted in Leipoldt-Schenke, , Koptisch-gnostische Schriften aus den Papyrus-Codices von Nag-Hamadi (Hamburg-Bergstedt, 1960).Google Scholar English translation: de Catanzaro, C. J., J.T.S. XIII (1962), 35ff.Google Scholar English translation with introduction and notes: McL. Wilson, R., The Gospel of Philip (London, 1962).Google Scholar Edition of Coptic text: Till, W. C., Das Evangelium des Philippus. Koptischer Text mit Übersetzung und Wörtervereichnis (Berlin (de Gruyter)); to be published shortly. References in this paper are given according to the plate and line of Labib's photographic edit on.Google Scholar

1 Koester, (N.W.T.S. VIII (1962), 323) concludes that Paul in Phil. iii. 10–11 is arguing ‘against a group which thinks of the resurrection as already achieved’, and similar conclusions have been drawn from passages in other letters. A few pages later (art. cit. p. 329) Koester finds in Col. iii. I a presupposition which would have been quite unacceptable to Paul, in whose genuine letters ‘the resurrection of the believer remains a future expectation’. It would not however be difficult for a reader to draw from Rom. vi. I ff. the conclusion that as we have been buried with Christ, and Christ is now risen, so we too have the resurrection now behind us; we are dead to sin and live to God. This may be a distortion of Paul's teaching, but Paul is not the only author to have suffered misunderstanding and misinterpretation.Google Scholar

2 Die Interpretation des Neuen Testaments in der valentinianischen Gnosis (TU 37. 3, Leipzig, 1911).Google Scholar

3 Op. cit. p. 68.Google Scholar

4 Cf., 103. 23 ff.;Google ScholarBarth, , op. cit. 71 f.Google Scholar

5 Op. cit. p. 52: ‘Erkenntnis der Wahrheit ist für den griechisch empfindenden Menschen gleichbedeutend mit Leben und Wirken in der Wahrheit. Die tiefe, sittliche Empfindung für den Zwiespalt zwischen Erkennen und Handeln, der ein Paulus die erschütternden Worte verlieh [here Rom. vii. 18 f. is quoted], ist für ihn verwischt. “Der Unwissende glaubt nicht” [quoted from the Corpus Hermeticum], “denn die Intelligenz ist der Glaube. Nicht glauben, das heilßt nicht verstehen. Die, die göttlichen Worte verstehen, haben den Glauben, die nicht verstehen, sind die Ungläubigen.” Früh ist diese Stimmung ins Urchristentum eingedrungen’ [then follows a quotation of John Viii. 32].Google Scholar

1 In contrast, the title σΩτήρ, often considered the hall-mark of a Gnostic text, appears to occur only once (112. 3).

2 See further Puech in Hennecke-Schneemelcher, , N. T. Apokryphen, I (Tübingen, 1959), 198.Google Scholar

1 J.B.L. LXXIX (1960), 10.Google Scholar

2 Attention was drawn to this point by Grant (Vig. Chr. xv (1961), 136,Google Scholar n. 24), who refers for the text of Matt. to Jülicher, , Die Gleichnisreden Jesu 1 (Tübingen, 1910), pp. 180–1.Google Scholar The reference is presumably to the second volume, which was not available for reference (cf., II (1899), 180-I); there is nothing relevant in the first volume at the pages quoted.Google Scholar

3 Jülicher, (op. cit. II (1899), 180 f.) had already noted the possibility of Gnostic influence.Google Scholar

4 With the closing words cf., Ign. Trall. viii. I, Rom. vii. 2, where a different identification is proposed.Google Scholar