Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] The Gospel of Philip an Example of a Valentinian Gnostic gospel by Bart D. Ehrman, read by John Paul Middlesworth.
[00:00:10] In my previous post discussing Valentinian Gnosticism, I mentioned an intriguing Valentinian text, the Gospel of Philip. Now I'd like to explain what it is and give you a bit of the opening section in translation so that you can get a taste of it yourself. Taken all this from the second edition of my book after the New Testament. The introduction is mine, but the translation comes from Marvin Meyer, referenced below.
[00:00:34] Introduction Even though The Gospel of Philip, also discovered at Nag Hamadi, is easily recognized as Valentinian, the book is notoriously difficult to understand in its details. In part, this is due to the form of its composition. It is not a narrative gospel of the type found in the New Testament or a group of self contained sayings like The Gospel of Thomas. It is instead a collection of mystical reflections that have evidently been excerpted from previously existing sermons, treatises and theological meditations brought together here under the name of Philip, presumably Jesus'own disciple. Since they are given in relative isolation without any real narrative context, the reflections are difficult to interpret. There are at any rate, extensive uses of catchwords to organize some of the material, and several principal themes emerge upon a careful reading. Among the clearest emphasis is precisely the contrast between those who can understand and those who cannot, between knowledge that is exoteric available to all and that which is esoteric available only to insiders, between the immature outsiders regular Christians called Hebrews and the mature insiders Valentinians called Gentiles. Those who do not understand, that is, the outsiders with only exoteric knowledge err in many of their judgments, for example, in taking such notions as the virgin birth or the resurrection of Jesus as literal statements of historical fact rather than symbolic expressions of deeper truths. Throughout much of the work, the Christian sacraments figure prominently. Five are explicitly named baptism, anointing, eucharist, salvation and bridal chamber. It is hard to know what deeper meaning these rituals had for the author, especially the quote unquote bridal chamber, which has stirred considerable debate among scholars or even what he imagined them to entail when practiced literally.
[00:02:34] It is difficult to assign a date to this work, but it was probably compiled during the third century, although it draws on earlier sources. So here's a taste of it for your dining pleasure. What do you think?
[00:02:48] The translation is from the Gospel of Philip, reproduced from Marvin Meyer the Non Hamadi Scriptures. San Francisco, Harper One, 2007. Used with permission of Harper One.
[00:03:00] The Gospel of Philip a Hebrew makes a Hebrew, and such a person is called a convert. A convert does not make a convert. Some people are as they are and make others like them, while others simply are.
[00:03:17] A slave, seeks only to be free, and does not seek the master's estate for a child, it is not enough to be a child, but a child claims the father's inheritance.
[00:03:29] Heirs to the dead are dead, and what they inherit is dead. Heirs to the living are alive and they inherit both the living and the dead. The dead inherit nothing, for how could a dead person inherit? If a dead person inherits the living? The living will not die and the dead will come to life.
[00:03:49] A Gentile does not die, never having been alive so as to die. One who has believed in truth is alive. But this person is at risk of dying just by being alive.
[00:04:02] Since Christ came, the world has been created. Cities have been beautified and the dead have been buried.
[00:04:10] When we were Hebrews, we were orphans with only a mother. But when we became Christians, we had a father and a mother.
[00:04:18] Whoever sows in winter, reaps in summer. Winter is the world, summer is the other. Eon the eternal realm. Let's sow in the world to reap in summer and for this reason we should not pray in winter.
[00:04:33] From winter comes summer. If someone reaps in winter, the person will not really reap, but will pull out. The young plants and such do not produce a crop. That person's field is barren, not only now, but on the Sabbath. Christ came to purchase some, to save some, to redeem some. He purchased strangers and made them his own. And he brought back his own whom he had laid down of his own will as a deposit. Not only when he appeared did he lay the soul of his own will as a deposit. But from the beginning of the world he laid down the soul for the proper moment according to his will. Then he came forth to take it back. Since it had been laid down as a deposit it had fallen into the hands of robbers and had been stolen. But he saved it and he redeemed the good in the world and the bad.
[00:05:25] Light and darkness, life and death. And right and left are siblings of one another and inseparable. For this reason the good are not good, the bad are not bad. Life is not life, and death is not death. Each will dissolve into its original nature. But what is superior to the world cannot be dissolved, for it is eternal.
[00:05:50] The names of worldly things are utterly deceptive for they turn the heart from what is real to what is unreal. Whoever hears the word God thinks not of what is real, but rather of what is unreal. So also with the words father, Son, Holy Spirit, Life, Light, resurrection, Church and all the rest. People do not think of what is real, but of what is unreal. Though the words refer to what is real the words that are heard belong to this world. Do not be deceived. If words belong to the eternal realm they would never be pronounced in this world, nor would they designate worldly things they would refer to what is in the eternal realm. Only one name is not pronounced in the world. The name the father gave the son. It is the name above all. It is the father's name. For the Son would not have become Father if he had not put on the Father's name. Those who have this name understand it, but do not speak it. Those who do not have it cannot even understand it. Truth brought forth names in the world for us and no one can refer to Truth without names. Truth is one and many for our sakes, to teach us about the one in love through the many.
[00:07:11] The rulers wanted to fool people. Since they saw that people have a kinship with what is truly good. They took the names of the good and assigned them to what is not good, to fool people with names and link the names to what is not good. So, as if they are doing people a favor, they take names from what is not good and transfer them to the good in their own way of thinking. For they wish to take free people and enslave them forever.
[00:07:39] And it goes on from here. I give the full translation in my book.
