The canon of truth and the triumph of John - Part 2

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 1 with the following:

 

(p.117) Heretics, Irenaeus warns, read wildly, concentrating on the enigmas,

mysteries, and parables they find in the Scriptures, rather than on passages

that seem plain; often they read incoherently, or in conflict with the obvious

meaning of the text. [12] (p.118) Although some write commentaries, many more

respond to what they find in Genesis, in Isaiah's oracles, Paul's letters, the

Psalms, and the gospels by coming up with songs, poems, visions, and

" revelations " of their own--even liturgical dance. As we shall see, the texts

discovered at Nag Hammadi bear out Irenaeus's suspicions, as well as his

conviction about what was at stake: what is spiritual truth, and how it may be

discerned.

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas), Chapter 4, p. 117-118.

 

Note:

 

[12] See Perkins, " Spirit and Letter, " 307-327.

 

 

Here now, is Part 2.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

The canon of truth and the triumph of John - Part 2

 

(p.118) Let us look, then, at a few of these " wild readings " to see how the

Gospel of John became a center of controversy. Despite its simplicity of style,

few readers have found John's gospel easy to understand. Especially in the

context of the synoptic gospels, even its earliest admirers noticed, for

example, that it sometimes contradicts Matthew, Mark, and Luke. For example, as

we noted, John begins with the story of Jesus attacking the money changers and

merchants in the Temple, a scene whose violence John increases by adding that

Jesus " knotted a whip out of small cords " and wielded it as he " drove them all

out of the Temple, and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers'

money, and overthrew the tables. " [13] The other gospels, as we have seen, all

place this incident at the end of Jesus' life, when it must logically have

happened, since this act, according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, was what

impelled the chief priests to have Jesus arrested and turned over to the Roman

authorities to be killed. When Origen, the brilliant Egyptian " father of the

church " (later accused of heresy himself), was asked about this, he explained,

as we have seen, that although " John does not always tell the truth 'literally',

he always tells the truth 'spiritually' [14]--that is, symbolically. Origen even

suggests that the holy spirit inserted such contradictions into John's gospel in

order to startle the reader into asking what they mean, and to show that these

stories are not meant to be taken literally; he agreed with Valentinus and his

disciples that the reader has to plunge beyond the shimmering surface of John's

words--or those of any of " the scriptures " --to seek their hidden meanings.

 

(p.119) Valentinus, a poet himself, loved the power of biblical images,

especially John's. Though orthodox Christians later sought to destroy his

teachings, the surviving fragments show that he took the story of the cleansing

of the Temple, for example, as a parable showing how, when God shines into our

hearts, he shatters and transforms what he finds there to make us fit dwellings

for the holy spirit. [15] Another fragment suggests that Valentinus's own

spiritual awakening occurred when he received a revelatory dream in which a

newborn child appeared and said to him, " I am the 'logos' " [16]--in John's

language, the divine 'word' revealed in human form.

 

Let us look at several examples of what Irenaeus calls " evil exegesis, " and then

consider what he finds objectionable. Irenaeus identifies Valentinus as the

author of what he calls the Gospel of Truth, and if this is the same one

discovered at Nag Hammadi, we now can see, for the first time, how Valentinus

praised the " hidden mystery, Jesus the Christ. " [17] Whether written by

Valentinus or, more likely, by one of his followers, the Gospel of Truth depicts

a world devoid of God as a nightmare, a world like the one Matthew Arnold

described nearly two thousand years later:

 

....the world, which seems

to lie before us like a land of dreams,

so various, so beautiful, so new,

hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help

for pain;

and we are here as on a darkling plain

swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight

where ignorant armies clash by night. [18]

 

(p.120) The Gospel of Truth, too, pictures human existence, apart from God, as a

nightmare, in which people feel

 

as if...they were fleeing, or, without strength they come from having chased

after others; or they are...striking blows, or...receiving blows themselves; or

they have fallen from high places, or they take off into the air, though they do

not even have wings;...or as if people were murdering them, though there is no

one pursuing them, or they themselves are killing their neighbors, for they have

been stained with their blood. [19]

 

But 'unlike' Arnold, the author of this gospel believes that we can awaken from

horror to discover God's presence here and now; and when we wake up, the terror

recedes, for the divine breath--the spirit--runs after us, " and, having extended

a hand, lift [us] up to stand on [our] feet. " [20] Thus, the Gospel of Truth

continues, echoing John's prologue, the " 'word' of the Father,...Jesus of the

infinite sweetness...goes forth into all things, supporting all things, " and

finally restores all things to God, " bringing them back into the Father, and

into the Mother. " [21]

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas), Chapter 4, p.118-120

Elaine Pagels

Vintage Books, New York, U.S.A

ISBN: 0-375-70316-0

Notes:

For fuller and more technical discussions of the research summarized in this

chapter, see Elaine Pagels, " Irenaeus, the 'Canon of Truth' and the Gospel of

John: 'Making a Difference' Through Hermeneutics and Ritual, " in 'Vigiliae

Christianae' 56.4 (2002), 339-371; also Pagels, " Ritual in the Gospel of

Phillip, " in Turner and McGuire, 'Nag Hammadi Library After Fifty Years',

280-294; " The Mystery of Marriage in the Gospel of Phillip, " in Pearson, 'Future

of Early Christianity', 442-452; and 'Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis'.

[13] John 2:13f.

[14] Origen, 'Commentary on John' 10.4-6; for fuller discussion and references,

see Wiles, 'Spiritual Gospel', 96f., and Pagels, 'Johannine Gospel in Gnostic

Exegesis', 66-113.

[15] Valentinus 2, in Clement of Alexandria, 'Stromateis' 2.14.3-6 (for

discussion, see Markschies, 'Valentinus Gnosticus?' 54ff).

[16] Valentinus 7, in Hippolytus, 'Refutation of All Heresies' 6.42.2.

[17] Gospel of Truth 29.9-25, in NHL 43.

[18] Opening lines of " Dover Beach. "

[19] Gospel of Truth 29.9-25, in NHL 43.

[20] Ibid., 30.16-21, in NHL 43.

[21] Ibid., 24:5-9, in NHL 41.