Grace
Theological Journal 8.2 (1987) 195-212
Copyright © 1987 by Grace
Theological Seminary. Cited with permission.
NAG HAMMADI, GNOSTICISM
AND NEW TESTAMENT
INTERPRETATION
WILLIAM W. COMBS
The Gnostic heresy alluded to in the
NT and widely repudiated
by Christian writers in the second century and
after has been in-
creasingly studied in the last
forty years. The discovery in upper
formed a poorly known movement in early Christianity
into a well
documented heresy of diverse beliefs and practices.
The relationship of Gnosticism and
the NT is an issue that has
not been resolved by the new documents. Attempts to
explain the
theology of the NT as dependent on Gnostic
teachings rest on ques-
tionable hypotheses. The Gnostic
redeemer-myth cannot be docu-
mented before the second
century: Thus, though the Gnostic writings
provide helpful insight into the heresies
growing out of Christianity, it
cannot be assumed that the NT grew out of Gnostic
teachings.
* * *
INTRODUCTION
STUDENTS
of the NT have generally been interested in the subject
of Gnosticism because of its consistent appearance
in discussions
of the "Colossian heresy" and the
interpretation of John's first epistle.
It
is felt that Gnosticism supplies the background against which these
and other issues should be understood. However,
some who use the
terms "Gnostic" and "Gnosticism"
lack a clear understanding of the
movement itself. In fact, our knowledge of
Gnosticism has suffered
considerably from a lack of primary
sources. Now, however, with the
discovery of the Nag Hammadi
(hereafter, NH) codices, this void is
being filled.
The NH codices were discovered in
1945, a year before the
comparatively little attention from
conservative scholars. Unfortu-
nately, political problems and
personal rivalries have caused numerous
196
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
delays in the publication of the NH texts. Thanks
mainly to the
efforts of Professor James Robinson, English
translations of all thir-
teen codices have at last been published in a single
volume.1 Photo-
graphic reproductions of the papyus
pages and leather covers are
now also available.2 A complete
eleven-volume critical edition of the
codices entitled The Coptic Gnostic Library
began to appear in 1975.
The
amount of literature on NH is already quite large and growing at
a rapid pace.3
The manuscripts from NH have
importance for a number of
scholarly disciplines, including Coptic itself,
since the entire library is
in that language. Also, because the vast majority
of the library is
composed of Christian Gnostic writings, it is now
possible to study
this movement from primary sources, rather than
having to rely upon
the secondhand accounts given by the early Church
Fathers or
"Heresiologists." Most important for
Biblical studies, of course, is the
relationship between NH and the NT.
CONTENTS OF
THE LIBRARY
According to the best evidence, the
discovery of the NH codices
took place in December 1945.4 Three brothers, Abu
al-Majd,
Muhammad,
and Khalifah Ali of the al-Samman
clan, were digging
at the base of a cliff for soil rich in nitrates
to use as fertilizer. The
cliff, Jabal al Tarif, is about ten kilometers northeast of Nag Ham-
madi, the largest town in
the area. Abu al-Majd actually unearthed
the jar; but his older brother, Muhammad, quickly
took control of it,
broke it open, and discovered the codices. Having
wrapped the books
in his tunic, he returned to his home in the
village of al-Qasr, the site
of the ancient city Chenoboskion5 where
Saint Pachomius was con-
verted to Christianity in the
fourth century and where one of his
1 James M. Robinson, ed.,
The Nag Hammadi
Library in English (
Harper and Row, 1977).
2 James M. Robinson, ed.,
The Facsimile Edition of the Nag Hammadi Codices
(Leiden: Brill,
1972-84).
For a complete list, see B. A. Pearson and J. E. Goehring,
eds., The
Roots of Egyptian Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986) xiii.
3 David M. Scholer's bibliography runs to nearly 2,500 items (Nag Hammadi
Bibliography 1948-1969 [
Testamentum (1971-).
Over 3,000 additional items have been listed by Scholer
since
1971.
4 The most up-to-date and
thorough account of the discovery is by James M.
Robinson, "The Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices," BA 42 (1979) 206-24. This
should be supplemented by his "The Discovering
and Marketing of Coptic Manu-
scripts: The Nag Hammadi
Codices and the Bodmer Papyri," in Egyptian Christianity,
2-25.
5 Robinson believes the
name should be spelled Chenoboskia.
COMBS:
NAG HAMMADI AND NT INTERPRETATION 197
monasteries was located. Muhammad Ali dumped the
codices on top
of some straw that was lying by the oven to be
burned. His mother
thought they were worthless and burned some of
the pages in the
oven (probably Codex XII of which only a few
fragmentary leaves
remain6).
The books were eventually sold for a
few piasters or given away
until their value was later realized. Most of them
went through the
hands of a series of middlemen and were sold on the
black market
through antiquities dealers. Having arrived by
various means in
the majority of the library was either purchased by
the Coptic
Museum
or confiscated by the Egyptian Department of Antiquities
when attempts were made to smuggle some codices out
of the country.
Most
of Codex I was taken out of
dealer. It was unsuccessfully offered for sale in
Arbor in 1949. Finally, in May 1952 it
was purchased by the Jung
Institute
of
had found its way to the
to publish the entire codex (six volumes from 1956
to 1975), the
Coptic
Museum.7 Today the entire NH library is in the Museum.
The first scholar to examine the
codices was a young Frenchman,
Jean
Doresse, who had come to
monasteries.8 Because his wife had
been a student in
Mina,
the Director of the
see the codices and in January of 1948 announced
their discovery to
the world. The death of Mina and subsequent
political upheavals in
ancient place name of Chenoboskion
to the discovery, but it never
caught on. Later scholars have called the discovery
NH, probably
because this location has served as a base camp
for all who have
come to investigate the origin of the library.9
In 1956 the new Director of the
made plans for a facsimile edition of the library,
but only one volume
appeared. An English translation of The Gospel of
Thomas was
published in 1959. Because Labib
allowed relatively few scholars to
have access to the library, only a few parts of it
were published until
1972.
In 1961 under the auspices of UNESCO, an agreement was
6 Robinson, The Nag Hammadi
Library in English, 23.
7 For details about the
intrigues of the Jung Codex, see J. M. Robinson, "The Jung
Codex:
The Rise and Fall of a Monopoly," RelSRev 3 (1977)
17-30; Egyptian Chris-
tianity, 2-25.
8 Doresse
has written an account of his experiences in The Secret Books of the
Egyptian Gnostics, trans. P. Mairet (New York: Viking, 1960) 116-36.
9 James
M. Robinson, "Introduction," BA
42 (1979) 201.
198
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
worked out with the Egyptian government to publish a
facsimile
edition of the entire library. The project was
delayed until 1970 when
an International Committee for the NH Codices was
formed under
the leadership of James Robinson. By 1977 the
entire library was in
the public domain.
Description
A list of the tractates in the NH
library can be found in Table 1.
Listings
of the library refer to thirteen codices; however, the eight
leaves of Codex XIII form a separate essay or tractate
that was
tucked inside the cover of Codex VI in antiquity.10
Much of Codex
XII
is missing, probably lost or destroyed since the discovery of the
library. The library contains a total of
fifty-two tractates of which six
are duplicates. Of the forty-six remaining
tractates, six are texts of
which a complete copy existed elsewhere, so there are
forty tractates
that are extant only in the NH library. Fragments of
three of these
were already extant, but these fragments were too
small to identify
their contents until NH provided the full text.11
About ten of the
tractates are.in poor
enough condition so as often to obscure the train
of thought. In terms of pages of text, Robinson
estimates that out of
1,239
inscribed pages that were buried, 1,156 have survived at least in
part.12
Each codex was originally bound in
leather; the covers of Codices
I-XI
have survived. These were lined with papyrus pasted into thick
cardboards (called cartonnage)
in order to produce a hardback effect.
Study
of this used papyrus, which consists mostly of letters and
business documents, has produced names of persons
and places as
well as dates that help to date the collection of
the library to the mid-
dle of the fourth century.
Of course, this does not determine the date
of the origin of the individual tractates except
in respect to the
terminus ad quem. Some are known to have
been written as early as
the second century.13
The language of the codices is
Coptic, which simply means
"Egyptian"
(the consonants CPT in "Coptic" are a variant of those in
10 James M. Robinson,
"Inside the Cover of Codex VI," in Essays on the Nag
Hammadi Texts in Honour of Alexander Bohling, ed. Martin Krause (
1972)
74-87.
11 James M. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi
Codices (2nd ed.;
Institute
for Antiquity and Christianity, 1977) 3-4. Greek papyri fragments discovered
at Oxyrhynchus in 1897
and 1904, called the "Logia" by B.P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt,
turn out to be the Greek text of the Coptic Gospel
of Thomas. See J. A. Fitzmyer,
Essays on the Semitic
Background of the New Testament (Missoula: Scholars, 1974)
355-433.
12
Robinson, Nag Hammadi
Codices, 4.
13 Edwin M. Yamauchi, Pre-Christian Gnosticism (2nd ed.;
Eerdmans,
1983) 101-2.
COMBS:
NAG HAMMADI AND NT INTERPRETATION 199
TABLE 1
Tractates in the NH
Library
Codex
Tractate Title
I I The
Prayer of the Apostle Paul (+ colophon)
I 2
The
Apocryphon of James
I 3
The
Gospel of Truth
I 4
The
Treatise on Resurrection
I 5
The
Tripartite Tractate
II 1
The
Apocryphon of John
II 2
The
Gospel of Thomas
II 3
The
Gospel of Philip
II 4
The
Hypostasis of the Archons
II 5
On
the Origin of the World
II 6
The
Exegesis of the Soul
II 7 The
Book of Thomas the Contender (+ colophon)
III 1
The
Apocryphon of John
III 2
The
Gospel of the Egyptians
III 3
Eugnostos
the Blessed
III 4
The
Sophia of Jesus Christ
III 5
The
Dialogue of the Savior
IV 1
The
Apocryphon of John
IV 2
The
Gospel of the Egyptians
V 1
Eugnostos
the Blessed
V 2
The
Apocalypse of Paul
V 3
The
First Apocalypse of James
V 4
The
Second Apocalypse of James
V 5
The
Apocalypse of Adam
VI 1
The
Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles
VI 2
The
Thunder. Perfect Mind
VI 3
Authoritative
Teaching
VI 4
The
Concept of Our Great Power
VI 5
Plato, Republic
588B-589B
VI 6
The
Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth
VI 7 The Prayer of Thanksgiving (+ scribal
note)
VI 8
Asclepius
21-29
VII 1
The
Paraphrase of Shem
VII 2
The
Second Treatise of the Great Seth
VII 3
Apocalypse of Peter
VII 4 The Teaching of Silval1us (+ colophon)
VII 5 The Three Steles of Seth (+ colophon)
VIII 1
Zostrianos
VIII 2
The
Letter of Peter to Philip
IX 1
Melchizedek
IX 2
The
Thought of Norea
IX 3
The
Testimony of Truth
X 1
Marsanes
XI 1
The
Interpretation of Knowledge
XI 2
A Valentinian
Exposition
XI 2a
On
the Anointing
XI 2b
On
Baptism A
XI 2c
On
Baptism B
XI 2d
On the Eucharist A
200
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
TABLE I (continued)
Codex
Tractate Title
XI 2e
On
the Eucharist B
XI 3
Allogenes
XI 4
Hypsiphrone
XII 1
The
Sentences of Sextus
XII 2
The
Gospel of Truth
XII 3
Fragments
XIII 1 Trimorphic Protennoia
XIII 2
On
the Origin of the World
"Egyptian,"
GPT). However, two dialects are used, Sahidic for
most
of the library and Subachmimic
for Codices I, X, and part of XI.14
Although
written in Coptic, it is almost the universal opinion of
scholars that the library is a translation of
Greek originals. Almost
nothing is known about those who translated the
tractates into
Coptic,
those who produced the extant copies, or those who buried
them. Robinson has attempted to connect the library
with the
Pachomian monastery that was located at Chenoboskion, but this
link is now questioned.15
In listings of the codices the Berlin Codex
8502, which dates
from the fifth century, is sometimes included. Its
four tractates are
similar to those found at NH; in fact, two are
duplicates. Although
discovered in 1896, it was not published until
1955.16
Subject Matter
The tractates represent a diverse background
that includes non-
Gnostic,
non-Christian Gnostic(?), and Christian Gnostic works.
The
question of which, if any, of the tractates fall
into the non-Christian
Gnostic
category is widely debated (see below).
14 IDBSup, S.v.
"Nag Hammadi,"by George W. MacRae, 613.
15 The
Nag Hammadi Library in English, 13-21; The Nag Hammadi
Codices, 1-2.
Robinson's
view that the NH library came from a Pachomian
monastery was based on
the preliminary study of the cartonnage
by the late John W. B. Barns, "Greek and
Coptic
Papyri from the Covers of the Nag Hammadi
Codices," in Essays on the Nag
Hammadi Library, ed. M. Krause (Leiden: Brill,
1975) 9-18. Further study has cast
serious doubts about whether the monks mentioned
in the cartonnage are Pachomian.
See
J. C. Shelton, "Introduction," in Nag Hammadi Codices: Greek and Coptic Papyri
from the Cartonnage of the Covers, ed. J. W. Barnes, G.
M. Browne, and J. C. Shelton
(Leiden: Brill, 1981) 11. Though the Pachomian origin of the NH library has also been
supported by F. C. Wisse,
C. Hedrick, and J. E. Goehring, authorities on Pachomius
question it. See A. Veilleux,
"Monasticism and Gnosis in
anity, 278-83 and P. Rosseau, Pachomius (Berkeley: University of California, 1985) 27.
16 "Nag Hammadi,"by George W. MacRae,
615.
COMBS:
NAG HAMMADI AND NT INTERPRETATION 201
Since
it is not feasible to discuss the contents of each tractate, it
may be helpful to present at least a preliminary
classification of the
library according to the various genres
represented therein.
Literary
Genres
The
library contains a wide variety of literary genres. Some of
these are typical of Gnostic literature, while others
are imitative of the
genres in Christian and other literature. Some of the
tractates are
representative of more than one genre.
The following classifications
are taken from MacRae.17
Gospels. Of the four tractates that bear the title
"gospel," The
Gospel
of Truth, The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Philip,
and
The
Gospel of the Egyptians, none actually correspond to the gospel
genre of the NT. The most important of these, The
Gospel of Thomas,
is a collection of 114 logia or sayings attributed
to Jesus. The Greek
original was probably composed in
Apocalypses. A number of tractates are titled
"apocalypses":
The
Apocalypse of Paul, The First Apocalypse of James, The
Second
Apocalypse
of James, The Apocalypse of Adam, and Apocalypse of
Peter.
Also in this category would be Asclepius 21-29, The
Hypostasis
of the Archons, and The Paraphrase of Shem. In one
of the most
important of these, The Apocalypse of Adam, the
future course of
Gnostic
history is received by Adam in a revelation and transmitted
to his son Seth. This tractate is claimed to
display a non-Christian
Gnosticism.19
Acts. One tractate in the Nag Hammadi
library uses the name
"acts"in its title, The Acts
of Peter and the Twelve Apostles. Actually,
another work, The Letter of Peter to Philip has
closer parallels to the
NT book of Acts.
Letters. Some of the tractates, such as The Treatise on Resur-
rection and Eugnostos
the Blessed, have occasionally been referred to
as epistles because they are addressed to pupils
from their teacher.
However,
they fall more into the category of treatises. None of the
tractates are imitative of the Pauline letter
form.
Dialogues. MacRae notes
that "one of the most characteristic
genres of Gnostic literature is the dialogue between
the risen Jesus
17 "Nag Hammadi," by George W. MacRae,
616-17.
18 ISBE, 1979 ed., s. v. "Apocryphal Gospels," by Edwin M.
Yamauchi, 186.
19 IDBSup, S.v.
"Adam, Apocalypse of," by George W. MacRae,
9-l0.
202
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
and his disciples in which Gnostic teaching is
revealed.”20 The Sophia
of Jesus Christ and The Dialogue of the Savior are
excellent examples
of this genre in the NH library. Parts of several
other tractates also
fall within this category.
Secret Books. The word "apocryphon"
is used in the titles of two
works, The Apocryphon of
James and The Apocryphon of John.
Strictly
speaking, this category is not a separate genre since these two
works fall into the apocalyptic and revelational discourse classifications.
Speculative treatises. The most important of
these is On the
Origin of the World. In addition, Eugnostos the Blessed and a few
other tractates have affinities with this genre.
Wisdom Literature. The two examples of this genre in the NH
library, The Teachings of Silvanus
and The Sentences of Sextus, are
both non-Gnostic writings. The latter tractate is a
Coptic translation
of a well-known ancient work which is extant in
Greek, Latin, and
several other languages.21
Revelational
discourses.
A number of works come under this
heading in which a revealer speaks in the first
person. Sometimes, as
in the case of The Thunder, Perfect Mind, and Trimorphic Pro-
tennoia, the revealer is a
female.
Prayers. There are examples of Christian and non-Christian
prayers in the library. Three of these are The
Prayer of the Apostle
Paul,
The Prayer of Thanksgiving, and The Three Steles of
Seth.
Types of Gnosticism
The NH library has made available a wealth of
primary Gnostic
material; however, it has probably generated more
questions than it
has answered. Doresse's
preliminary investigations led him to con-
clude that the library was
primarily a Sethian Gnostic collection.22
A
study by Wisse has now
demonstrated that Doresse was premature in
his assessment of the library and, in fact,
virtually none of the
tractates corroborates in detail the accounts of Sethian Gnosticism
given by the Church Fathers.23 Some
scholars now question the
reliability of patristic testimony regarding
Gnosticism. Evans has I
20 "Nag Hammadi," by George W. MacRae,
616.
On the genre of dialogues, see
Pheme Perkins, The Gnostic Dialogue
(New York: Paulist, 1980).
21
IHammadi
Library in English, ed. James M. Robinson, 454.
22 Doresse, The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics,
249-51. I
23 Frederick Wisse,
"The Sethians and the Nag Hammadi
Library," in Society of
Biblical
Literature 1972 Proceedings, vol. 2, ed. Lane C. McGaughy
(n.p.: Society of
Biblical
Literature, 1972), 60 1-7.
COMBS:
NAG HAMMADI AND NT INTERPRETATION 203
observed that "liberal scholars treat the
Fathers with reserve while
conservative scholars tend to see
the new source material providing
some confirmation of the Fathers.”24
However, the inability to correlate every facet
of Gnosticism
found in the library with the patristic testimony
should not be viewed
as unusual. There was great variety in Gnostic
systems. For example,
Irenaeus (ca. A.D. 180) noted that the Valentinians "differ among
themselves in their treatment of the same points,
and in regard to the
things they describe and the names they employ, are at
variance with
one another.”25 Also, it appears that
the Heresiologists, rather than
intentionally distorting Gnostic
thought, seemed to have sometimes
misunderstood it.
Although it is true that some of the NH
materials cannot be
identified with the well-known Gnostic systems of
the second and
third centuries, a number of the tractates do show
clear correspon-
dences.26 MacRae
would classify all of Codex I, The Gospel of Philip,
and The Apocalypse of James as representative of
the Valentinian
sect.27 The Apocryphon
of John is in general agreement with the
teachings of the Barbelo-Gnostics
as reported by Irenaeus.28 Other
tractates have been identified with the Sethians and other Gnostic
sects, but most of these suggestions are only
tentative at this early
stage in the study of the library.
Non-Gnostic Material
One of the greatest surprises in the library was
the presence of
non-Gnostic tractates such as Plato's Republic and The Sentences of
Sextus, a series of ethical
maxims attributed to the philosopher
Sextus. Three tractates from
Codex VI, The Discourse on the Eighth
and Ninth, The Prayer of Thanksgiving, and Asclepius 21-29, are
clear-cut examples of Hermetic literature.29
The Hermetica are tradi-
tions from
Trismegistos, the
Egyptian god of wisdom.
Since most of the library is composed of
Christian Gnostic
works, the question arises as to why non-Christian
and even non-
Gnostic
documents, such as a portion of Plato's Republic, would be
included in the library.
24 C. A. Evans, "Current Issues in
Coptic Gnosticism for New Testament Study,"
Studia Biblica et
Theologica 9 (1979) 97.
25 Against Heresies,I.II.I.
26 For information on the
various Gnostic systems, see Hans Jonas, The Gnostic
Religion (Boston: Beacon, 1958).
27 "Nag Hammadi," by George W. MacRae,
617.
28 Wemer Foerster,
Gnosis: A Selection of Gnostic Texts,
vol. 1: Patristic Evidence,
ed.
R. McL.
29 IDBSup, s.v,
"Hermetic Literature," by Edwin M. Yamauchi, 408.
204
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
The answer is found in understanding the gnostic approach to inter-
pretation. For them, truth lies
at two levels. At the literal and obvious
level truth is accessible to
all, but at the deeper level one finds truth
which only the Gnostic can
discern. Such an approach is assumed by
the Gospel of Thomas (II,
2): "Whoever finds the interpretation of
these sayings will not
experience death." Therefore, documents which
represent a variety of traditions
(Plato, Hermetica, Sextus, Silvanus)
may be interpreted at a
deeper (i.e., gnostic) level.30
ISSUES IN NT
INTERPRETATION
The NH library was discovered forty years ago,
but because most
of the tractates have only been published in
recent years, the inter-
pretation of the library is just
beginning. Already, however, some
major issues of interpretation in relation to the NT
have arisen.
Pre-Christian Gnosticism
Probably most of the discussion about the
contents of the library
has centered around its contribution to the
question of pre-Christian
Gnosticism. Until the twentieth century, the
prevailing view of Gnos-
ticism was that of the Church
Fathers, who held that it was a heresy
that developed out of Christianity. Early in this
century this view was
challenged by the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule or
History of
Religions
School.31 This approach
represents the most thorough-going
application of a naturalistic histor-
icism to the study of the
Bible. It assumes that biblical religion, in both
the Old and New Testaments,
passed through stages of growth and
evolution like all ancient
religions, and in this evolution was heavily
influenced through interaction
with its religious environment. This
method involves the consistent
application of the principle of analogy
to biblical religion: the
history and development of biblical religion
must be analogous to the
history and development of other ancient
religions.32
The leading spokesmen of the History of
Religions School,
Wilhelm
Bousset (1865-1920) and Richard Reitzenstein
(1861-1931),
argued upon the basis of Hermetic, Iranian, and Mandaean docu-
ments, all of which postdated
the NT, that Gnosticism existed prior
30 Evans, "Current Issues in Coptic
Gnosticism," 97.
31 For an excellent discussion of the
History of Religions School, see George E.
Ladd,
The New Testament and Criticism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967) 195-214.
32 Ladd, New Testament and Criticism, 196.
33 Edwin M. Yamauchi, "Some Alleged
Evidences for Pre-Christian Gnosticism,"
in New
Dimensions in New Testament Study, ed. Richard N. Longenecker
and Merrill
C.
Tenney (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1974) 47.
COMBS:
NAG HAMMADI AND NT INTERPRETATION 205
to Christianity.33 Rudolf Bultmann adopted the idea of pre-Christian
Gnosticism
and sought to explain NT Christianity as the result of a
syncretistic process that included
Gnostic ideas.34 Most German NT
scholars, because of the influence of Bultmann, have assumed a pre-
Christian
Gnosticism as a basis for their interpretation of the NT. For
example, one of Bultmann's
students, Walter Schmithals seems to be
able to find Gnosticism in almost every Pauline
letter.35 A number of
scholars who agree with Bultmann
are attempting to use the NH
library in order to verify his view of NT
Christianity. MacRae has
accounted in a recent article: "It is my
contention here that such
evidence as we have now in the Nag Hammadi library tends to
vindicate the position of Bultmann.”36
Problem of Definition
A vital consideration with regard to the
question of pre-Christian
Gnosticism
is the need for defining Gnosticism itself. Evans has noted
that “if Gnosticism is defined broadly then its
origins are found to be
much earlier and its roots quite diverse. However,
if it is defined
narrowly, Gnosticism may be viewed as an early
Christian heresy and
thus subsequent to the origin of Christianity.”37
that one solution to the problem of definition would
be to distinguish
between Gnosticism and Gnosis: "By
Gnosticism we me'an the
specifically Christian heresy of the
second century A.D., by Gnosis, in
a broader sense, the whole complex of ideas
belonging to the Gnostic
movement and related trends of thought.”38
Unfortunately, some
scholars feel that such distinctions are too
confining. MacRae refuses
to abide by
inology that matters most.”39
Bultmann uses the term die Gnosis, but
34 Rudolf Bultmann,
Theology of the New Testament, 2 vols., trans. Kendrick
Grobel (New
York: Scribner's, 1951-55) 1.164.
35 See his Gnosticism in
and Paul and the Gnostics, trans. John E. Steely
(Nashville: Abingdon, 1972).
36 George W. MacRae,
"Nag Hammadi and the New Testament," in Gnosis:
Festschrift fur Hans
Jonas,
ed. Barbara Aland (
1978) 146.
37 Evans, "Current Issues in Coptic
Gnosticism for New Testament Study," 98. On
the issue of defining Gnosticism broadly, see K.
Rudolph, "'Gnosis' and 'Gnosticism'-
the Problems of their Definition and their Relation
to the Writings of the New
Testament,"
in The New Testament and Gnosis, ed. A. J. M. Wedderbum and A. H. B.
Francisco:
Harper and Row, 1983).
38 R. McL.
9.
See also his presidential address to the Studiorum
Novi Testamenti Societas in
39 MacRae,
"Nag Hammadi and the New Testament," 146.
206
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
his translators render it into English by the term
"Gnosticism."
German
scholars prefer to use the term die Gnosis in the widest
possible sense.
For the sake of clarity it is essential to
follow the distinctions
between Gnosis and Gnosticism suggested by
if the term "Gnosticism" is restricted
to the second and third century
sects, it is still difficult to come up with a
definition that will
incorporate the variety of developed Gnostic
systems. Yamauchi
believes that the essential "element of any
developed Gnosticism
would be a radical dualism between the divine and the
created,
inasmuch as a fundamental Gnostic tenet is the
view that the creation
of the world resulted from ignorance and error.”40
gested a four-point summary of
the second century movement:
(1) A distinction between the unknown and
transcendent true God on
the one hand and the
Demiurge or creator of this world on the other,
the latter being commonly
identified with the God of the Old Tes-
tament; (2) the belief that
man in his true nature is essentially akin to
the divine, a spark of the
heavenly light imprisoned in a material body
and subjected in this world
to the dominance of the Demiurge and his
powers; (3) a myth narrating
some kind of pre-mundane fall, to account
for man's present state and
his yearning for deliverance; and (4) the
means, the saving gnosis, by
which that deliverance is effected and man
awakened to the consciousness of
his own true nature and heavenly
origin. . . This deliverance, and the eventual return of the imprisoned
sparks of light to their
heavenly abode, means in time the return of this
world to its primordial
chaos, and is strenuously opposed at all points
by the hostile powers.41
in formulating a definition of Gnosticism that
will include all the
second century sects. The question then is whether the
NH library
provides any support for pre-Christian
Gnosticism.
Nag Hammadi
Evidence
The basic argument for pre-Christian Gnosticism
that has
been deduced from the NH library is the presence of
supposedly
non-Christian Gnostic tractates. Of
the most commonly suggested
examples of non-Christian Gnostic works, three
are particularly
noteworthy.
A number of scholars believe that Eugnostos the Blessed is a
non-Christian Gnostic tractate from
which was created the Christian
Gnostic work, The Sophia of Jesus Christ. The Nag Hammadi Library
40 Yamauchi, "Some Alleged Evidences
for Pre-Christian Gnosticism,"47.
41
COMBS:
NAG HAMMADI AND NT INTERPRETATION 207
in English prints the texts side by side for comparison. Although
there was initially some debate about the priority of
Eugnostos, the
work of Krause has convinced most scholars that
Sophia is a re-
working of Eugnostos.42 However, it
is not clear that Eugnostos is
wholly free from Christian influence.
possible NT and Christian allusions in Eugnostos.43
Included among
them is Son of Man, Saviour,
and the Church. Also, the name
Eugnostos appears in only one other tractate, The
Gospel of the
Egyptians, where Eugnostos
is a Christian.
Yamauchi believes that
the Christian Eugnostos
is the same person referred to in Eugnostos
the Blessed.44
The Apocalypse of Adam has also been hailed by
some scholars
as a clear example of a non-Christian Gnostic
work. This tractate
purports to be a revelation of Adam to Seth that
recounts the
salvation of Noah from the Flood and the salvation
of Seth's seed
from destruction by fire. The story ends with the
coming of the
mighty "Illuminator." It seems clear, however,
that this Illuminator-
who is punished in his flesh, does signs and
marvels, is opposed by
powers, and has the Holy Spirit descend upon him-is
none other
than Jesus Christ.45
Another supposedly non-Christian Gnostic
document is The
Paraphrase
of Shem in which a figure named Derdekeas gives a
revelation to Shem. However, a number of scholars
have pointed to
parallels between Derdekeas
and Christ.46 Also, the presence of a
bitter polemic against water baptism (37, 14-25) is a
problem for
those who maintain the non-Christian character of the
tractate.47
Even
if it could be proven that any of the previously discussed
works or, for that matter, any of the NH tractates
are non-Christian
Gnostic
documents, that would not in itself be evidence for
pre-
Christian Gnosticism. Non-Christian is not
necessarily pre-Christian.
MacRae's admission is worth noting:
The NH library does nothing to resolve the
classic chronological
challenge to Gnostic sources. That is to say that
those who demand a
chronologically pre-Christian Gnostic
document in order to accept the
42 Martin Krause, "Das
literarische Verhaltnis des
Eugnostosbriefes zur Sophia
Jesu Christi," in Mullus: Festschrift fur Theodor Klauser,
ed. A. Stuiber and A.
Hermann (
43
44 Edwin M. Yamauchi,
"Pre-Christian Gnosticism in the Nag Hammadi
Texts?"
CH 48 (1979) 138.
45 Yamauchi, "Pre-Christian Gnosticism
in the Nag Hammadi Texts?" 132, and.
Pre-Christian Gnosticism, 107-15,217-19.
46 Yamauchi, "Pre-Christian Gnosticism
in the Nag Hammadi Texts?" 136.
47 John Dart, The Laughing Savior (New York: Harper and Row, 1976) 100. See
also Yamauchi, Pre-Christian
Gnosticism, 221.
208
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
argument that Gnosticism is
older than the second century A.D. will not
be shaken by the
publication of a mid-fourth-century collection of
Coptic translations. And even if we are on
solid ground in some cases
in arguing the original
works represented in the library are much older
than extant copies, we are
still unable to postulate plausibly any pre-
Christian dates.48
Unfortunately,
MacRae, Robinson, and a number of others either
discount or ignore the fact that their arguments
for pre-Christian
Gnosticism
are based upon late sources.
The Descending-Ascending
Redeemer Myth
Bultmann and his followers have
argued that the Christian con-
ception of Jesus as a
descending-ascending saviour figure was derived
from the Gnostic redeemer myth. The classic
description of the myth
was set forth by Bultmann
in a 1925 article.49 He outlined twenty-
eight characteristics that he considered to have
constituted the original
myth. Yamauchi has conveniently summarized those
characteristics:
1. In the cosmic drama
a heavenly 'Urmensch' or Primal Man of Light
falls and is torn to pieces by demonic powers. These
particles are
encapsuled as the sparks of light
in the 'pneumatics' of mankind.
2. The demons try to stupefy the 'pneumatics' by
sleep and forgetfulness
so they will forget their divine origin.
3. The transcendent Deity sends another Being of
Light, the 'Redeemer,'
who descends the demonic spheres, assuming the deceptive
garments
of a bodily exterior to escape the notice of the demons.
4. The Redeemer is sent to awaken the
'pneumatics' to the truth of their
heavenly origins and gives them the necessary 'gnosis' or
'knowledge'
to serve as passwords for their heavenly re-ascent.
5. The Redeemer himself re-ascends, defeating
the demonic powers, and
thereby makes a way for the spirits that will follow him.
6. Cosmic redemption is achieved when the souls
of men are collected and
gathered upward. In this process the Redeemer is himself
redeemed,
i.e.,
the Primal Man who fell in the beginning is reconstituted.50
Bultmann believed that the writer of the Fourth
Gospel was a
Christian
convert from a Gnostic baptist
group, who Christianized
the descending-ascending redeemer myth in applying
it to the his-
torical Jesus. This myth also
became the source of the redemptive
idea in Paul's theology.
48 MacRae,
"Nag Hammadi and the New Testament,"
146-47.
49 "Die Bedeutung
der neuerschlossenen mandaischen und manichaischen
Que11en
ftir das
Verstandnis des Johannesevangeliums,"
ZNW24 (1925) 100-146.
50 Yamauchi, Pre-Christian Gnosticism,
29-30.
COMBS:
NAG HAMMADI AND NT INTERPRETATION 209
Bultmann's proof for the pre-Christian nature of
the Gnostic
redeemer myth was based on texts that
considerably postdated the
NT,
a fact that has not gone unnoticed by a number of scholars.51
However,
some of Bultmann's followers have suggested that the
NH
library provides new evidence which demonstrates
that he was
tially correct. Robinson has
stated:
The
Apocalypse of Adam,
a non-Christian Jewish Gnostic interpreta- .
tion of Genesis, presents
the redeemer as coming to the world, suffering,
and triumphing. It or
traditions it used may have been composed in the
Syrian-Jordan region during the First Century
A.D.--much the same
time and place as the Dead
Sea Scrolls and the Gospel of John!52
While
it is true that The Apocalypse of Adam
and several other NH
texts present a descending-ascending redeemer figure,
it has not been
clearly demonstrated that any of these tractates
are free from
Christian
influences, as was previously discussed. Even if it could be
shown that The
Apocalypse of Adam was not influenced by the NT,
there is absolutely no historical evidence that it
was composed in the
first century, and thus influenced John's Gospel.
Yamauchi has
demonstrated that The Apocalypse of
Adam could not have been
written before the second century.53
The Gospel of Thomas
When it was published in 1959, this document
prompted curiosity
about a "fifth gospel." Actually, it is a
random series of 114 sayings
attributed to Jesus. About half of these correspond
to sayings of
Jesus
in the canonical Gospels, but scarcely any are
completely
identical. Some sayings are similar to those known
previously from
patristic literature while about forty are new
sayings.54 It is possible
that genuine agrapha (sayings of Jesus not found in the canonical
Gospels)
may be found in Thomas since the canonical Gospels do not
claim to be exhaustive (John
parallel to those in the Oxyrhynchus
papyri, which can be dated to
51 The most devastating criticisms have
come from Carsten Colpe, Die religions-
geschichtliche Schule: Darstel/ung
und Kritik ihres Bildes vom gnostischen
Erlosermy-
thus (Gottingen:
Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht,
1961). Also, see Henry A. Green, "Gnosis
and Gnosticism: A Study in Methodology," Numen 24 (1977)
95-134.
52 Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Codices, 15.
53 Yamauchi, "Pre-Christian Gnosticism
in the Nag Hammadi Texts?" 132-35 and
"The
Apocalypse of Adam, Mithraism, and Pre-Christian Gnosticism," in Etudes
Mithriaques, Textes et
Memoires, ed. Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin
(Teheran-Liege:
Bibliotheque Pahlavi,
1978) 4.537-63.
54 Andrew K. Helmbold,
The Nag Hammadi
Gnostic Texts and the Bible (Grand
Rapids:
Baker, 1967) 57-58.
210
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
about A.D. 150, most scholars believe that the Greek
original of
Thomas
was written about A.D. 140.55
Robinson believes that The Gospel of Thomas
provides evidence
for the literary genre of the so-called Q (from the
German Quelle,
meaning "source") material, a
hypothetical written document that
was the source of the material common to Matthew
and Luke but not
found in Mark.56 Both Robinson and Helmut
Koester believe that
Thomas
is independent of the canonical Gospels and may even repre-
sent an earlier form of Jesus' sayings.57
However, the independence of
Thomas
seems to be a minority opinion. Even Koester admits that
the number of scholars who oppose his view is
impressive.58 Gundry's
study of the problem led him to conclude that
"the much later date of
The
Gospel of Thomas and the undeniable wholesale interpolation of
Gnostic
ideas and sayings tip the scales in favor of Gnostic editing of
mostly canonical sources.59 Thus, if Thomas
is dependent upon the
canonical Gospels, its literary genre is much
later than Q. There is
also an important difference between Q and Thomas: Q
would have
included narrative material, whereas Thomas has
none.60
Prologue of the Fourth
Gospel
The problem of determining the historical
background of the
prologue of John's Gospel has long preoccupied a
number of NT
scholars. In the past, scholars have been divided
into two camps.61
One
camp, represented by C. H. Dodd, held that the backdrop for
the prologue was to be found in Rabbinic and Philonic materials,
together with the Hermetica.
Dodd argued "that in the Prologue a
basic Jewish (OT) theme has been interpreted in the
light of the
conceptuality of Hellenistic Jewish
thought.”62 The other camp,
55 ISBE, 1979 ed., s.v. "Agrapha," by Edwin M. Yamauchi, 1.69.
56 James M. Robinson, "LOGOI SOPHON: On
the Gattung
of Q," in Trajectories
through Early Christianity, with Helmut Koester (Philadelphia: Fortress,
1971) 71-113.
57 Helmut Koester, "One Jesus and Four
Primitive Gospels," in Trajectories
through Early Christianity, 186.
58 Helmut Koester, "GNOMAI DIAPHOROI: The
Origin and Nature of Diversi-
fication in the History of Early
Christianity," in Trajectories
through Early Christianity,
130.
59 Robert H. Gundry, "Recent
Investigations into the Literary Genre 'Gospel,'" in
New Dimensions in New
Testament Study,
106.
60 Donald Guthrie, New Testament Introduction (3rd ed.;
Inter-Varsity, 1970) 152. See also the important
new study by G. Quispel, "The Gospel
of Thomas Revisited," in Colloque international sur les textes
de Nag Hammadi, ed. B.
Barc
(Quebec: Laval University, 1981) 218-66.
61 Robert Kysar,
"The Background of the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel: A
Critique of Historical Methods," CJT 16 (1970) 250-55.
62 Ibid., 252.
COMBS:
NAG HAMMADI AND NT INTERPRETATION 211
represented by Bultmann,
pointed to Gnostic sources behind the
prologue. While Dodd relied heavily on the Hermetica, Bultmann
drew parallels from the Odes of Solomon, neither of
which can be
dated earlier than the second century A.D. Kysar has aptly observed:
Both Dodd and Bultmann
follow the practice of using later literature
as evidence of a
thought-form which, in its earlier expressions, pre-
sumably influenced those
responsible for the Prologue. It would seem
that such a principle, if
allowed at all, opens innumerable possibilities
for claiming an influence
on the New Testament for ideas found only in
post-fIrst-century literature.63
Robinson has again come to the rescue of Bultmann by sug-
gesting that a NH tractate, the
Trimorphic Protennoia,
demonstrates
that the prologue did indeed have a Gnostic
background.64 Robinson
attempts to draw thirteen parallels between Protennoia and John's
prologue, but they are not convincing.
Furthermore, Turner dates the
Protennoia to around A.D. 200.65 Thus,
if there are any parallels
between the two texts, it seems more likely that
the prologue of
John's
Gospel was the source for Protennoia and not vice
versa.66
CONCLUSION
The thirteen NH codices have significantly
impacted the study of
early Christianity. Gnosticism is no longer known
only from the
outside, from what opponents of the movement
recorded. Now the
Gnostic
teachings can be read firsthand in the forty tractates unique
to the NH library. And thus, the growth of
Christianity and attendant
heresies are better documented and more clearly
understood.
The NH library also provides helpful background
to the NT.
Heresies
are already being confronted in the NT, and though evidence
is lacking to identify those heresies clearly with
the Gnosticism of the
second century, similarities in some of the false
teachings are un-
mistakable. However, students of the NT should be
careful not to
interpret NT references to concepts such as
dualism and docetism,
which later became elements in the doctrine of the
second century
Gnostic sects, as evidence of Gnosticism in the
first century.
It is true
63 Ibid., 254.
64 James M. Robinson, "Gnosticism and
the New Testament," in Gnosis:
Festschrift
fur Hans Jonas, ed. Barbara Aland (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1978)
128-31.
65 John D. Turner, "Introduction to
the Trimorphic Protennoia,"
in The Nag
Hammadi Library in English, 461.
66 Edwin Yamauchi, "Jewish Gnosticism?
The Prologue of John, Mandaean
Parallels,
and the Trimorphic Protennoia,"
in Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic
Religions, ed. R. van den Broek and M. J. Vermaseren (Leiden: Brill, 1981) 467-97.
212
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
that the roots of Gnosticism can be found in the
Judaism, Christianity,
and paganism of the first century, but classical
Gnosticism has not yet
been documented before the second century.
In this article it has only been possible to
touch on several of the
specific areas of NT interpretation where the NH
library is now being
appealed to as a source of new light. Since the
interpretation of the
library is still in its infancy, students of the
NT will undoubtedly be
hearing more about NH in the future. However, an
important issue
for NT studies will continue to be the question of
pre-Christian
Gnosticism. Now that all the tractates have been
published, we can be
assured, as Yamauchi has put it, "that
there are no unexploded
bombshells.”67 Although it is possible
that a strong case may yet be
made for non-Christian Gnosticism in some of the
texts, non-
Christian
is not necessarily pre-Christian. Furthermore, NH has not
produced any Gnostic documents that are prior to
or even con-
temporary with the birth of Christianity.
Although Bultmann's
hypothesis-that the source of Pauline and
Johannine theology can be found in Gnostic
literature-has been
adopted in some reference works, such as the
Theological Dictionary
of the New Testament, the evidence is
unconvincing. In response to
Bultmann, Guthrie's statement that Gnostic
studies have "little value"
for students of NT theology is apropos.68
The distinction, then, is
between background and source. The NH library is
useful to the NT
scholar as a background for the growing problem
in the church with
heresy, but Gnosticism was not the source for the
teachings of the
NT.
67 Yamauchi, "Pre-Christian Gnosticism
in the Nag Hammadi Texts?" 130.
Yamauchi
has not changed his mind since that statement was made in 1979. See his
"Pre-Christian
Gnosticism, the New Testament and Nag Hammadi in
Recent Debate,"
Themelios 10 (1984) 22-27.
68 Donald Guthrie, New Testament Theology (
Varsity, 1981) 68.
This material is cited with gracious
permission from:
Grace Theological Seminary
www.grace.edu
Please report any errors to Ted
Hildebrandt at: thildebrandt@gordon.edu