The canon of truth and the triumph of John - Part 4

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 3 with these words from the Gospel of Truth:

 

(p.121) This gospel takes its name from the opening line: " The gospel of truth

is joy, to those who receive from the Father the grace of knowing him, " [26] for

it transforms our understanding of God and ourselves. Those who receive this

gospel no longer " think of [God] as petty, nor harsh, nor wrathful " --not, that

is, as some biblical stories portray him-- " but as a being without evil, " loving,

full of tranquility, gracious, and all-knowing. [27] The Gospel of Truth

pictures the holy spirit as God's breath, and envisions the Father first

breathing forth the entire universe of living beings ( " his children are his

fragrant breath " ), then drawing all beings back into the embrace of their divine

source. [28] Meanwhile, he urges those who " discover God in themselves, and

themselves in God " to transform 'gnosis' into action:

 

(p.122)

 

Speak the truth to those who seek it,

And speak of understanding to those who have

committed sin through error;

Strengthen the feet of those who have stumbled;

Extend your hands to those who are sick;

Feed those who are hungry;

Give rest to those who are weary;

And raise up those who wish to rise. [29]

 

Those who care for others and do good " do the will of the Father. "

 

Notes:

 

[26] Gospel of Truth 16.31-33, in NHL 37.

 

[27] Gospel of Truth 42.1-10, in NHL 48.

 

[28] Gospel of Truth 33.35-34.35, in NHL 44.

 

[29] Gospel of Truth 32.35-33.30.

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas), Chapter 4, p.121-122

 

Here now, is Part 4.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

 

The canon of truth and the triumph of John - Part 4

 

(p.122) A second example of what Irenaeus calls " evil interpretation " --the

so-called Round Dance of the Cross--illustrates what he means by " heretics " who

often add " their own inventions " to the gospels. The anonymous follower of

Valentinus who wrote the Round Dance offers to fill in a scene missing from

John's gospel, in which Jesus chanted and danced with his disciples " on the

night he was betrayed. " [30] The Round Dance author notes that John's gospel

'leaves out' an account of the last supper in which Jesus tells his disciples to

eat bread as his body and drink wine as his blood--that scene which Matthew,

Luke, and Paul all regard as central, for it shows believers how to celebrate

the " Lord's supper. " But in John's account of that night, something quite

different happened. After dinner, according to John, Jesus

 

got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a cloth around himself.

Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to

wipe them with the cloth that was tied around him. [31]

 

(p.123) John means to say that this act is significant--even necessary--for

anyone who wants to share communion with Jesus, for as he recounts it, when

Peter protested that his teacher must not wash his feet like a slave, Jesus told

him that " you do not now recognize what I am doing, but later you will

understand, " and added, " Unless I wash you, you have no share in me. " [32] From

ancient times to the present, many Christians have reenacted 'this' scene as if

it, like the last supper, offered directions for a ritual; so, on the Thursday

before Easter, the pope of the Roman Catholic Church takes the role of Jesus and

ritually washes the feet of his cardinals. Within the Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-day Saints, the church's president washes the feet of the Mormon

" elders " ; and to this day many other Christian groups--various Orthodox churches

and many Protestant groups, including some Baptists and Pentecostalists--do

likewise.

 

Whoever wrote the Round Dance of the Cross boldly revised John's account of that

night by adding a different episode--apparently meant to be kept secret. In the

Round Dance, which is found in the Acts of John, a second-century collection of

stories and traditions inspired by John's gospel, John begins the story of

Jesus' final night where the gospel account leaves off, and says that Jesus

invited his disciples to dance and sing with him:

 

Before he was arrested...he assembled us all, and said, " Before I am delivered

to them, let us sing a hymn to the Father, and so go to meet what lies before

us. " So he told us to form a circle, holding one another's hands, and he himself

stood in the middle and said, " Answer Amen to me. " [33]

 

(p.124) Then, as the disciples circled him, dancing, Jesus began to chant a hymn

in words that echo the Gospel of John:

 

" Glory to you, Father. " And we, circling around him,

answered him, " Amen. "

" Glory to you, Logos; glory to you, Grace. " " Amen. "

" Glory to you, Spirit; glory to you, Holy One.... " " Amen. "

" We praise you, Father; we thank you, Light, in whom

dwells no darkness. " " Amen.... "

" I am a light to you who see me. " " Amen. "

" I am a mirror to you who know me. " " Amen. "

" I am a door to you who knock upon me. " " Amen. "

" I am a way to you, the traveler. " " Amen. " [34]

 

Although the phrase about the mirror could have come straight from the Gospel of

Thomas, the primary source for the last two, as well as many of the others, is

the Gospel of John.

 

Whoever composed this hymn, then, clearly found in John's gospel inspiration for

the kind of teaching we more often associate with Thomas; for here Jesus invites

his disciples to see themselves in him:

 

" '[W]hich I am about to suffer is your own'. For you could by no means have

understood what you suffer, unless I had been sent to you as word ['logos'] by

the Father...if you knew how to suffer, you would be able not to suffer. " [35]

 

(p.125) Thus, in the Round Dance of the Cross, Jesus says that he suffers in

order to reveal the nature of human suffering, and to teach the paradox that the

Buddha also taught: that those who become aware of suffering simultaneously find

release from it. Yet he also tells them to join in the cosmic dance: " 'Whoever

dances belongs to the whole.' 'Amen.' 'Whoever does not dance does not know what

happens.' 'Amen.' " [36]

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas), Chapter 4, p.122-125

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'.

 

[30] I Corinthians 11:23.

 

[31] John 13:4-5.

 

[32] John 13:7-8.

 

[33] " Round Dance of the Cross, " in Acts of John 94.1-4. For a recently edited

Greek text with French translation and notes, see E. Junod and J.P. Kastli,

'Acta Johannis: Praefatio-Textus in Corpus Christiane' (Turnhout, 1983). Here I

am following the recent English translation published by Barbara E. Bowe in her

article " Dancing into the Divine: The Hymn of the Dance in the 'Acts of John', "

'Journal of Early Christian Studies' 7:1 (1999), 83-104.

 

[34] " Round Dance of the Cross, " in Acts of John 94.9-95.50.

 

[35] Ibid., 96.1-15.

 

[36] Ibid., 95.27-30.