![]() ![]() ![]() The bulk of the text (Books 1-3) is in the form of a dialogue between Jesus and the disciples, both male and female. Changes in terminology and cosmological description between books also shows that it is a compilation of texts that may have been written over a period of some time. Even within a single book, occasionally multiple, differing accounts of a single event or cosmological outline appear, suggesting the use and preservation of several sources. The work as a whole shows clear signs of having been compiled from multiple sources, with only the first two books following directly on each other. Jesus appears to his disciples after the resurrection The purpose of these heresiological writings was polemical, presenting gnostic teachings as absurd, bizarre, and self-serving, and as an aberrant heresy from a proto-orthodox and orthodox Christian standpoint. ![]() Aside from these primary sources, everything written about gnosticism before the Nag Hammadi library became available is based on quotes, characterizations, and caricatures in the writings of the enemies of Gnosticism. Until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945, the Askew Codex was one of three codices that contained almost all of the Gnostic writings that had survived the suppression of such literature both in East and West, the other two codices being the Bruce Codex and the Berlin Codex. Additionally, the codex contains two fragments in a later hand that are not directly connected to any of the main books. The most common view is that the work consists of four books, but some scholars have posited as many as five or six books. The work is divided into several parts, with scholarly debate as to the number of parts. Its female name is designated 'All-begettress Sophia'. Its male name is designated 'Saviour, begetter of all things'. The perfect Saviour said: "Son of Man consented with Sophia, his consort, and revealed a great androgynous light. Both the Berlin Codex and a papyrus codex at Nag Hammadi have an earlier, simpler Sophia wherein the transfigured Christ explains Pístis obscurely:Īgain, his disciples said: "Tell us clearly how they came down from the invisibilities, from the immortal to the world that dies?" To some later Gnostics, Sophia was a divine syzygy of Christ, rather than simply a word meaning wisdom, and this context suggests the interpretation "The Faith of Sophia", or "The Loyalty of Sophia". The expression Pístis Sophía is obscure, and its English translations varied: "The Wisdom of Faith", "Faith Wisdom", "Wisdom in Faith", or "Faith in Wisdom". Carl Schmidt suggests Τεύχη τοῦ Σωτῆρος "Books of the Saviour", based on a title found at the end of the same book. The Greek title Pístis Sophía was assigned by Carl Gottfried Woide, based on a title at the beginning of Book 2, "The Second Book of the Pistis Sophia," which was added by a later hand. This " Askew Codex" was purchased by the British Museum (now British Library) in 1785 from collector Anthony Askew. Pístis Sophía has been preserved in a single Coptic language manuscript originally comprising 178 leaves of parchment, but currently consisting of 174 leaves. The phrase "Jesus, who is called Aberamentho" in the original Coptic Her fall and redemption parallel that found in versions of the Sophia myth such as that in the Apocryphon of John, but the actions all take place in the material aeons, and she can only be restored to her place in the thirteenth aeon, outside the Kingdom of Light. ![]() Much of the first two books of the manuscript are dedicated to outlining the myth of the fall and restoration of the figure known as Pistis Sophia, in particular giving detailed parallels between her prayers of repentance and particular Psalms and Odes of Solomon.Īlthough in many Gnostic texts and systems Sophia is a major female divinity, in Pistis Sophia she originates and dwells outside of the divine realm. The prized mysteries relate to complex cosmologies and knowledge necessary for the soul to reach the highest divine realms. After eleven years, he receives his true garment and is able to reveal the higher mysteries revered by this group. (In this context, "transfigured" refers to Jesus after his death and resurrection, not the event during his life where he spoke to appearances of Moses and Elijah on a mountain.) In this text, the risen Jesus had spent eleven years speaking with his disciples, teaching them only the lower mysteries. The existing manuscript, which some scholars place in the late 4th century, relates one Gnostic group's teachings of the transfigured Jesus to the assembled disciples, including his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Martha. Pistis Sophia ( Koinē Greek: Πίστις Σοφία) is a Gnostic text discovered in 1773, possibly written between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. ![]()
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