Th e
Gno st ic
Scr ip t u r e s
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John J. Collins
GENERAL EDITOR
The
Gnostic
Scriptures
SECOND EDITION
TRANSL ATED WITH ANNOTATIONS
AND INTRODUCTIONS BY
Bentley Layton
WITH ADDITIONS AND REVISIONS BY
David Brakke
AY B R L
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CONTENTS
Preface to the First Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Preface to the Second Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
General Introduction
The Contents of This Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Gnostic Scripture and the Christian Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xvii
Scripture, Canon, and Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xvii
Gnostic Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
Valentinian Writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxii
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
The Nature of the Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
Sources in Greek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
Sources in Other Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
Irenaeus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
Ancient Translations of Scripture Manuscripts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
Select Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxvii
Editorial Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix
Explanation of Typographical and Reference Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi
Other Accepted Names for the Works in This Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxv
Ancient Sources and Manuscripts of Works in This Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxix
List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xliii
List of Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlv
vi
CONTENTS
GNOSTIC SCRIPT*R+S
I
CL ASSIC GNOSTIC SCRIPTURE
Historical Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The Secret Book According to John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The Gospel of Judas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The Revelation of Adam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
The Reality of the Rulers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
The Thunder—Perfect Intellect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
First Thought in Three Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit; or, The Egyptian Gospel . . . . . . . . . 137
Zōstrianos (excerpts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
The Foreigner (excerpts). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
The Three Tablets of Seth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Satorninos (according to St. Irenaeus) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209
The Gnostics (according to St. Irenaeus) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
“Other” Gnostic Teachings (according to St. Irenaeus) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
The Gnostics (according to Porphyry) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
The Sethians (according to St. Epiphanius) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
The Archontics (according to St. Epiphanius) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
The Gnostics (according to St. Epiphanius) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
II
THE WRITINGS OF VALENTINUS
Historical Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Valentinus’s Myth (according to St. Irenaeus) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Fragments of Lost Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
The Divine Word Present in the Infant (Fragment A) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
On the Three Natures (Fragment B) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Adam’s Faculty of Speech (Fragment C) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Adam’s Name (Fragment D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Jesus’ Digestive System: Epistle to Agathopous (Fragment E) . . . . . . . . . . 295
Annihilation of the Realm of Death (Fragment F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
CONTENTS
vii
The Source of Common Wisdom: On Friends (Fragment G) . . . . . . . . . 299
The Vision of God: Epistle on Attachments (Fragment H) . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Summer Harvest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Appendix: A Later Allegorical Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
The Gospel of Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
III
THE SCHOOL OF VALENTINUS
Historical Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Ptolemy’s Version of the Gnostic Myth (according to St. Irenaeus) . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
A Prayer of Paul the Apostle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
The Tripartite Tractate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Ptolemy’s Epistle to Flora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Treatise on Resurrection (Epistle to Rheginus) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .448
The Gospel According to Philip: A Valentinian Anthology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Clement of Alexandria’s Excerpts from Theodotus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
R+L AT+D WRITINGS
IV
THE SCHOOL OF ST. THOMAS
Historical Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
The Hymn of the Pearl; or, The Hymn of Jude Thomas the Apostle
in the Country of the Indians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
The Gospel According to Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
The Book of Thomas: The Contender Writing to the Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
V
OTHER E ARLY CURRENTS
Historical Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
The Writings of Basilides
Historical Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .607
Basilides’ Myth (according to St. Irenaeus) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
Fragments of Lost Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618
viii
CONTENTS
The Cosmological Fragments
The Octet of Subsistent Entities (Fragment A) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
The Uniqueness of the World (Fragment B) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
The Ethical Fragments
Election Naturally Entails Faith and Virtue (Fragment C) . . . . . 623
The State of Virtue (Fragment D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
The Elect Transcend the World (Fragment E) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
Reincarnation (Fragment F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
Human Suffering and the Goodness of
Providence (Commentaries, 23) (Fragment G) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
Forgivable Sins (Fragment H) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
The Hermetic Corpus (excerpts)
Historical Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
Tractate 1: Poimandrēs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
Tractate 7: That the Greatest Human Evil Is
Unacquaintance with God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
Index of Names and Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661
Index of Scripture References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .704
PR EFACE TO
THE FIR ST EDITION
In this book I have tried to make a readable, coherent collection of the scriptures of ancient gnostic religion and its relatives. The works in this collection are
heretical—a heretical counterpart of the holy scripture of Christianity and Judaism (which gnostics also read). But despite their highly unorthodox character
these works shed great light on the theology, atmosphere, and literary traditions
of ancient Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism. The gnostic movement did not
simply share in the culture to which early Christianity belonged. Gnostics in
fact made up one of the earliest and most long-lived branches of the ancient
Christian religion, as Map 2 makes abundantly clear; it was only after centuries
of struggle that they could be eradicated by the established church. After the
official Christianization of the late Roman empire ( A .D. 313–81), theological
objections to the gnostic scriptures were given the force of law, and most copies
of these scriptures were banned and eventually perished. By a lucky accident of
preservation and the careful efforts of modern scholars, the gnostic scriptures
have now begun to be known again.
Orthodox Christian doctrine of the ancient world—and thus of the modern
church—was partly conceived of as being what gnostic scripture was not. For
this reason, a knowledge of gnostic scripture is indispensable for anyone who
hopes to understand the historical roots of Christian theology and belief. Moreover, the gnostic myth grew up in an intimate dialogue—though often a hostile
one—with Jewish learning of the Greek-speaking synagogue. Thus the gnostic
scriptures cannot fail to increase, however obliquely, our knowledge of the foundations of classical Judaism.
Gnostics did not have a fixed bible, as church and synagogue do today: the
selection of what to include in this book has had to be my own, based on principles set forth in the “General Introduction” that follows. Accordingly, a number
of works sometimes labeled “gnostic,” though only in a vague and looser sense,
have been deliberately omitted.
All English translations in this book are my own, made from revised editions
of the original texts. My aim has been to translate all important terms in a similar way, so that readers can confidently compare the wording of one work with
another. I have also tried, so far as possible, to avoid theological jargon or mere
transcription of Greek terms in these translations. Except for a few deliberate
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PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
obscurities, gnostic scripture was coherent in antiquity; there is no reason why
it should not be so today.
At the publisher’s suggestion I have written this book for the general public
as well as students and scholars, without the usual network of references to primary and secondary sources. Instead, the annotations are simply meant to help
the reader understand the immediate sense of the text; such annotations are especially needed with gnostic literature. Although they lay a foundation for close
study of the text, these annotations do not try to decide what gnostic scripture
ultimately meant: readers must make that important decision for themselves.
The historical introductions to the five parts of this book and the introductions to individual works are meant to help interpreters, but not to impose any
particular theological or philosophical point of view. Interpreters will also find
help in the many select bibliographies, scattered throughout the book, which list
scholarly studies that are accessible, broadly relevant, and sound in their manner of approach. But the general reader and the student must be cautioned that
in a field as controversial as this one, where much of the evidence was published
only in recent years, there are no standard or accepted lines of interpretation.
In particular, three famous questions about the works translated in this book
still remain to be answered: (1) In which religious milieu (Jewish? Christian?
other?) was classic gnostic myth and religion born? (2) Did such a thing as
the gnostic myth exist in the day of St. Paul or St. John, and if so can it be seen
reflected in their writings? (3) In what sense is a historian justified in speaking
of a general pattern, whether psychological or philosophical, called gnosticism?
These ultimate questions have troubled scholarship for more than two hundred
years. Because the third question has never gotten a satisfactory answer I prefer
not to start from a philosophical description of something called “gnosticism.”
Rather, I begin my exploration of this theme concretely, with the first coherent
sect that actually called itself “gnostic,” then trace its historical and ideological
evolution into a later form. I believe that this essentially historical method of
description takes the reader to the real heart of the gnostic phenomenon and
that it sheds considerable light on the broader concepts of “gnosticism,” “gnostic
religion,” and “gnōsis.”
ACK NOW LEDGMENTS
Because this book contains no footnote references to the scholarly literature,
I must emphasize my great indebtedness to the colleagues and predecessors who
laid its foundations by their own research. Most are mentioned by name in one
or another of the select bibliographies, but their contribution to my understanding of the gnostic scriptures goes beyond the books and articles listed there.
When biblical texts are quoted in the ancient scriptures in this book, I have
conformed my translation to the Revised Standard Version insofar as the context
allows. The fundamental historical thesis of this book—that Valentinus was a
Christian reformer of the classic gnostic tradition—was enunciated sketchily in
antiquity by St. Irenaeus (about A.D. 180) and in the twentieth century by Gilles
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
xi
Quispel and others; it was the organizing principle of an International Conference on Gnosticism, at Yale University, which I directed in 1978. The coherence
and identity of the classic gnostic sect are defended in essays by Hans-Martin
Schenke, which should be read in combination with a recent article by Morton
Smith. I have also been inspired by a Yale Ph.D. dissertation by Anne McGuire,
in which these issues were explored in considerable detail.
My firsthand study of the ancient Coptic manuscripts was made possible by
the generosity and cooperation of Egyptian and American colleagues over the
seven years that I was able to work in Cairo. James M. Robinson and other
members of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, H.-M. Schenke, and the
Berlin (GDR) Arbeitskreis were always generous with information, support, and
prepublication copies. Stephen Emmel cast a careful eye over all the material
translated from Coptic and saved me from many slips. Professors Jonas Greenfield, Wayne A. Meeks, Hans-Martin Schenke, Mark Smith, and John Strugnell
preserved me from error or ignorance at many points, as did Martin Bloomer
and Alan Scott; various other friends have also made valuable suggestions here
and there. Jane Greenfield gave me advice on the graphic planning of the illustrations. The extremely useful indexes to this book are the work of David
Dawson. The maps were compiled and designed by myself and then drafted by
Mr. Rafael D. Palacios. John A. Miles, Jr., formerly of Doubleday, is responsible
for the original concept of the book; my New York editors, Theresa D’Orsogna,
Viera Morse, and Glenn Rounds, have also contributed style and learning to this
work. To all these people I express sincere gratitude.
Finally, it was the persistence of my students—including beginners without a
specialist’s training—that led me to see how gnostic scripture is in its own way
coherent, beautiful, and possessed of an extraordinary kind of sense. May this
book repay the debt I owe to them.
Bentley Layton
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PR EFACE TO
THE SECOND EDITION
Since its publication in 1987, Bentley Layton’s The Gnostic Scriptures has
served numerous students, scholars, and general readers as a clear introduction
to the literature that survives from the gnostic school of thought and related
movements of the first three or four centuries A .D. In preparing this second
edition, I had three goals. First, I have corrected known errors, added missing
references, and made a small number of revisions made necessary by developments of the past thirty years, especially the publication of Codex Tchacos.
Second, I have updated the select bibliographies for each document. The number of publications has grown significantly, and scholars now have available
to them multiple tools for discovering and obtaining sources. Therefore, the
new bibliographies include primarily works in English that I recommend to
students and general readers who wish to explore a source or subject further, as
well as works in any language that contributed significantly to the translation of
a source or its introduction. Third, I have added three ancient works either that
have appeared since the publication of the first edition (The Gospel of Judas)
or whose absence I and other teachers and users of the book have particularly
noted (The Tripartite Tractate and Clement of Alexandria’s Excerpts from Theodotus). In translating these sources, I have tried to follow the principles that
guided Layton’s work.
Otherwise, however, the book remains a collection of primary sources and
testimonies that reflect a specific historical thesis about so-called gnosticism and
the relationships among the persons and groups traditionally associated with
it. Elaborations of that thesis since 1987 may be found in Layton’s contribution
to the Wayne Meeks Festschrift and in my own monograph, both listed in the
select bibliography to the General Introduction.
It remains to thank those who have helped me during my work. The Ohio
State University provided the necessary time and financial support. Dylan
Burns, Ismo Dunderberg, Paul Linjamaa, Stephen Patterson, Einar Thomassen, and the anonymous reviewers of both the proposal and the manuscript
offered constructive criticism and suggestions. Students in my classes on gnosticism at Indiana University and Ohio State tested earlier versions of my translations. Heather Gold, the editors of the Anchor Yale Bible, and the staff of Yale
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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
University Press have shown remarkable support and patience; Dorothea Halliday, Susan Laity, and Joyce Ippolito gave exceptional care to a complicated manuscript. Above all, I am grateful to Bentley Layton, who trusted me to undertake
this project, gave me critical advice as I worked on it, and taught me the skills
that I needed to complete it.
David Brakke
David Brakke