The canon of truth and the triumph of John - Part 6

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Part 5 concluded with the following words of Elaine Pagels:

 

(p.129) Irenaeus's vision of a united and unanimous " catholic church " speaks

more of what he hoped to create than what he actually saw in the churches he

knew in Gaul, and those he had visited or heard about in his travels through

Gaul, Asia Minor, and Italy. In those travels he encountered resistance from

those he called heretics, and when he urged them to return to the simple

baptismal faith, he says that they answered in words like this:

 

We too, have accepted the faith you describe, and we have confessed the same

things--faith in one God, in Jesus Christ, in the virgin birth and the

resurrection--when we were baptized. (p.130) But since that time, following

Jesus' injunction to " seek, and you shall find, " we have been striving to go

beyond the church's elementary precepts, hoping to attain spiritual maturity.

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas), Chapter 4, p.129-130.

 

Here now, is Part 6.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

The canon of truth and the triumph of John - Part 6

 

(p.130) Now that the discoveries at Nag Hammadi allow the heretics--virtually

for the first time--to speak for themselves, let us look at the Gospel of

Philip, to see how its author, a Valentinian teacher, compares his own circle

with that of those he considers " simpler " Christian believers. This author, whom

we call Philip, and his circle apparently had received baptism in a procedure

similar to the one that the church father Justin Martyr describes as customary

in Rome; [51] that is, the initiate, having repented of past sins, receives and

affirms the teachings of Jesus as taught by his followers, confesses the faith,

and promises to live accordingly. Then, led naked into the water, the initiate

is baptized as the divine names--God the Father; Jesus Christ, his son; and the

holy spirit--are pronounced; and finally, dressed in fresh garments, the new

Christian is anointed with oil and invited to participate in the eucharist. Like

Justin, Philip says that baptism effects spiritual rebirth; " through this

mystery we are 'born again' through the holy spirit. " [52]

 

But unlike Justin--or any other early Christian writer known to me--Philip then

asks, 'What happens'--'or doesn't happen'--when a person undergoes baptism? Is

baptism the same for everyone? Philip suggests it is not. There are many people,

he says, whose baptism simply marks initiation; such a person " goes down into

the water and comes up without having received anything and says 'I am a

Christian.' " [53] But sometimes, Philip continues, the person who undergoes

baptism " receives the holy spirit...this is what happens when one experiences a

mystery. " [54] (p.131) What makes the difference involves not only the

mysterious gift of divine grace but also the initiate's capacity for spiritual

understanding.

 

So, Philip writes, echoing Paul's Letter to the Galatians, many believers see

themselves more as God's slaves than as God's children; but those who are

baptized, like newborn infants, are meant to grow in faith toward hope, love,

and understanding ('gnosis'):

 

Faith is our earth, in which we take root; hope is the water through which we

are nourished; love is the air through which we grow; 'gnosis' is the light

through which we become fully grown. [55]

 

Thus, he explains, those who first confess faith in the virgin birth later may

come to a different understanding of what this means. Many believers, indeed,

continue to take the virgin birth literally, as if Mary conceived apart from

Joseph; " some say that Mary conceived through the holy spirit, " but, Philip

says, " they are in error. " [56] For, he explains, " virgin birth " is not simply

something that happened once to Jesus; rather, it refers to what may happen to

everyone who is baptized and so " born again " through the " virgin who came down, "

that is, through the holy spirit. [57] Thus, as Jesus was born to Joseph and

Mary, his human parents, and later was born 'spiritually' when the holy spirit

descended upon him at his baptism, so we, too, first born physically, may be

" born again through the holy spirit " in baptism, so that " when we became

Christians we came to have both a father and mother, " [58] that is, both the

heavenly father and the holy spirit.

 

(p.132) But Philip says that many people, whom he calls " the apostles and the

apostolic ones, " [59] are " in error, " since they remain oblivious of--even

offended by--this mystery. Such people, he continues, are also wrong about

resurrection, since they take this, too, as if it could be only a unique event

in which Christ died and rose bodily from the grave. Philip suggests instead

that Jesus' resurrection, like his virgin birth, is not only something that

occurred in the past but is a paradigm of what happens to each person who

undergoes spiritual transformation. Philip quotes Paul's famous teaching on

resurrection ( " flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God, " 1

Corinthians 15:50) to show that those who receive the holy spirit in baptism are

not only " born again " but also " raised from the dead. " [60]

 

Someone might object, however, that this cannot be what resurrection means:

didn't Jesus rise 'in the flesh'? Philip answers that, of course, " one must rise

'in this flesh,' since in this world everything exists in [the flesh]. " But he

challenges those who take bodily resurrection literally. After all, he asks,

" what is flesh? " In answer, he quotes from John's gospel to show that when Jesus

told his disciples to " eat my flesh and drink my blood " (John 6:53), he was

speaking in metaphor, since what he meant was that they were to partake of the

sacred meal of bread and wine, which conveys Jesus' " flesh, " that is, Philip

suggests, his divine 'word', and his " blood, " the holy spirit. [61]

 

Philip thus discriminates between nominal Christians--those who claim to be

Christians simply because they were baptized--and those who, after baptism, are

spiritually transformed. He sees himself among the latter but does not

congratulate himself for belonging to a spiritual elite; instead, he concludes

by anticipating that ultimately 'all' believers will be transformed, if not in

this world then in eternity. (p.133) Whoever undergoes such transformation, he

says " no longer is a Christian, but a Christ. " [62]

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas), Chapter 4, p.130-133

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'.

 

[51] The question of baptismal practice among Valentinian Christians has

provoked considerable debate; for discussion and references, and for a fuller

discussion of what is briefly summarized in this chapter, see Pagels, " Ritual in

the Gospel of Philip. " For a different viewpoint, see Einar Thomasson's recent

studies of Valentinian practice; for example, his article " How Valentinian Is

the Gospel of Philip? " in Turner and McGuire, 'Nag Hammadi Library After Fifty

Years', 251-279; and Martha Lee Turner, " On the Coherence of the 'Gospel

According to Philip', " 223-250. See also the excellent and detailed study by

Peter Lampe, 'Die stadtromischen Christen in den ersten beiden Jahrhunderten:

Untersuchungen zur Sozialgeschichte' (Tubingen, 1989).

 

[52] Cf. John 3:5; Gospel of Philip 69.4-6, in NHL 141.

 

[53] Gospel of Philip 64.22-26, in NHL 139.

 

[54] Ibid., 64.29-31, in NHL 139.

 

[55] Ibid., 79.25-31, in NHL 147.

 

[56] Ibid., 55.23-24, in NHL 147.

 

[57] Ibid., 71.3-15, in NHL 143.

 

[58] Ibid., 52.21-24, in NHL 132.

 

[59] Ibid., 55.30, in NHL 134.

 

[60] Ibid., 56.26-57.23, in NHL 134-135; for a fuller exposition of the text,

see Pagels, " Ritual in the Gospel of Philip. "

 

[61] Gospel of Philip, 57.4-6, in NHL 134.

 

[62] Ibid., 67.26-27, in NHL 140.