The Gospel of the Egyptians: Behind the veil of the great invisible spirit

“Who knows their origin, it ceases to be a slave to the world that it's hidden.”

1. What is an “apocryphal gospel” and where it fits the egyptians

In biblical criticism, is called apocryphal gospels writings on Jesus and early christianity not included in the canon of the New Testament, it is almost always because:

• Not from apostolic witness credible.
• They contain doctrines incompatible with what was defined as “orthodoxy.”
• Circulate in marginal groups: gnostics, encratitas, local sects, etc

The Gospels of the egyptians included in this set: texts used by currents ascetic and gnosticwhich the Fathers of the Church cited only to refute them, never as Writing.

2. The Greek Gospel of the egyptians

2.1. Status of the text and fonts

This gospel is lost: we do not have manuscript continued. What we know for:

• Clement of Alexandria (Stromata III, and the Excerpta ex Theodoto).
• Mentions brief Hippolytus of Rome and Epiphanius of Salamis.
• A general reference on Origins among other apocryphal books.

From these quotations it reconstructs a partial profile:

• Probable date: 120-150 d.C., first half of century II.
• Place of origin: almost certainly Egyptprobably Alexandria.
• Original language: Greek.
• Genre: dialog of Jesus with Salomein the form of questions and answers (erōtapókrisis), something very typical of the literature gnostic.

2.2. Content reconstruible

Only a few fragments are cited explicitly by Clement. From them it looks like:

• Jesus converses with Salome about:
  • Marriagesexuality and procreation.
  • The “dissolution” of the world and the end of the generation of flesh.
• One of the passages most often cited: the Savior declares that he has come to “destroy the works of the female”expression Clement interprets as a reference to the lust and procreation carnalnot to the woman as such.
• It underscores the idea that the cycle of birth–death it is linked to the sexual activity and the generationthat they should cease to the end of the domain of the corruption.

In summary: it is a gospel-centered such ascetic and mystical of Jesus, read by their users as a justification of the rejection of the marriage.

2.3. Theological trend: encratismo and gnosticism

Almost all studies agree that this gospel:

• It was used by groups encratitas (of enkrateia, “continence”), that:
  • Condemning the marriage.
  • They rejected the consumption of meat and wine.
  • Practiced a asceticism and sexual radical.
• Some ancient authors linked also to:
  • Naasenos (group a gnostic who worshipped the snake as a symbol of knowledge).
  • Sabellians (current modalista of the trinity).
  • Valentinians (although this is more controversial).

“The one who discovers the Great Invisible Spirit, it ceases to belong to the powers of the earth.”

The doctrine that is left to see:

• Radical denial of sexuality as “the work of the female”, that is to say, the lust and the generation of biodiversity.
• Ideal of a humanity without marriage or procreation, where the cessation of the cycle of death.
• Features gnostics:
  • Material world and the body linked to corruption and suffering.
  • Salvation as escape from the cycle of birth and death through knowledge (gnosis) and ascetic practice.

2.4. Reception patristic and “heresy”

For the Fathers of the Church:

• This gospel is quoted only for refuting it:
  • Clement is facing the encratitas who use it as an argument against marriage.
  • Epiphanius associates groups “heretics” that distort the christology and moral.
• Never appears in lists of canonical; on the contrary, he is mentioned among the apocryphal books suspicious or heretical.

That's why, in the later tradition, the Greek gospel of the egyptians it is classified clearly as:

• Apocryphal gospel of the century II,
• Of trend gnostic–encratita,
• Lostexcept for fragments patristic.

3. The Gospel the coptic egyptians: “the holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit”

3.1. Discovery and manuscripts

The second text known as the “gospel of the egyptians” is in reality:

The “holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit”, also called conventional way Gospel the coptic egyptians.

Key features:

• Found in the Nag Hammadi library (Egypt) in 1945.
• Preserved in two copies coptic:
  • Codex III, treaty 2
  • Codex IV, treaty 2
• Original title in the text itself: something like “The holy book of the Great Invisible Spirit”; the expression “Gospel of the egyptians” appears in the colophon and is the one that gave rise to the title of conventional.
• Language: coptic sahídico (translation of a Greek original now lost).
• Approximate date: mid-century III (original Greek maybe the end of the second century or the beginning of III).

3.2. Context is doctrinal: gnosticism sethiano

This gospel belongs to the current gnostic sethiana:

• Sethianos: current gnostic who saw in Setthe son of Adam, the progenitor of the “race incorruptible”opposed to the material world and its powers.
• Other texts sethianos in Nag Hammadi: Apocryphon of John, Hypostasis of the Archons, Three steles of Seth, etc

This gospel reflects a mythology highly developed, with:

• Eons, aeons of light, hierarchies of divine beings.
• A dualism marked between fullness divine and material world.
• A strong emphasis on Seth and his spiritual offspring.

3.3. Content outline

In short a lot, the The holy book of the Great Invisible Spirit presents something like this:

1. Prologue and doxology:
   • Invoked when Great Invisible Spirit, the Father transcendent unknowable.
   • Exalt your greatness beyond all name.
2. Emanation of the triad divine:
   • The Great Spirit arise three chief powers:
     • Father,
     • Mother (sometimes identified with Barbelo, or with a female principle),
     • Son.
   • This triad reflects a trinitarian structure gnosticnot identical to the Trinity orthodox christian, but in dialogue with it.
3. Creation of the eons and the Man incorruptible:
   • The Great Spirit, and of the triad emanate eons of light (Harmozel, Oroiael, Daveithai, Eleleth, etc).
   • Through the Logos, and other powers to create the Man incorruptible, Adamas, spiritual model of the human being.
4. Birth of Seth, and the “race incorruptible”:
   • The Son and the powers divine ask a descendant, and he is born Sethpresented as:
     • Son of Man incorruptible.
     • Head of the “race of eternal life”.
   • The sethianos saw themselves as spiritual offspring of Seth, carriers of the gnosis saving.
5. Liturgy and baptism gnostic:
   • The text includes hymns, litanies, and liturgical formulaswith a long series of names and angelic voices.
   • Describes a baptism or rite of passage, where they are invoked secret names to join the Great Spirit and the race is imperishable.
6. Eschatology and colophon:
   • The text announces that these disclosures are for the end of time and that have been placed on a mount hidden to be discovered.
   • The colophon attached the book to the great Seth, and explicitly calls “The holy book of the Great Invisible Spirit” and “Gospel of the egyptians”.

3.4. Features doctrinal key

In short, the gospel the coptic egyptians teaches:

• A supreme God, absolutely transcendent and invisibleabove the creator God of the material world.
• The material world, and their powers are the work of lower entities (typical gnostic scheme).
• The salvation consists of:
  • Remember the divine origin (the race of Seth).
  • To receive the gnosis and rites linking with the Great Invisible Spirit.
• There is a spiritual elite (race incorruptible) intended to be rescued from the world and returned to the fullness of the divine.

This gospel it is not a narrative as the canonical, but it is rather –mythological liturgical, a treatise on cosmology and cult gnostic.

“When you leave the work of the generation, start the work of the eternal life.”

4. Differences between the Gospel Greek and coptic

It is essential not to confuse them:

5. Relationship with the canonical gospels and the canon of the NT

None of the two “gospels of the egyptians” was accepted in the canon of the New Testament because:

1. Authorship:
   • Not been accused credibly to an apostle or co-apostolic.
   • Considered products in late of private schools.
2. Doctrine:
   • The Greek gospel denied de facto the marriage and sex lifein tension with the more nuanced view of Paul and the canonical gospels.
   • The gospel coptic presents a dualist cosmology where the God of creation is not the supreme, colliding with the theology of monotheistic mainstream christian.
3. Ecclesial reception:
   • Parents who know what they quote explicitly as apocryphal or heretical.
   • The lists of the canonical old (Laodicea, etc) are not included among the books read in the churches.

6. Importance of historical and theological today

Even though they are not canonical to the modern research these texts are crucial:

1. Show the diversity of early christianity:
   • The Greek of the egyptians illustrated the movement encratita, which pushes to the extreme the ideal of continence.
   • The coptic reveals a christianized version of gnosticism sethiano, where biblical categories are mixed with cosmology platonic mythology and mysticism.
2. Illuminate debates about sexuality and body:
   • The dialogue with Salome is key to tracing how certain groups were read by Jesus as absolute enemy of sexuality and the generationfront interpretations more integrated.
3. Help to understand the reaction of the “great Church”:
   • The controversy of Clement and the other Parents on how it was marking the boundary between “orthodoxy” and “gnosis heretical”.
4. Key to study Nag Hammadi:
   • The holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit is an important piece to rebuild the theology and liturgy sethiana and their integration in christianity egyptian of the III–IV century.

7. Synthesis

To keep the map clear of the Gospel of the egyptians:

• It is not a single text but two:
  1. Greek (s. II, lost):
     • Dialogue Jesus–Salomé.
     • Apocryphal gospel encratita, enemy of marriage, with the features of the gnostics.
     • Known only by quotations from Clement, Hippolytus, Epiphanius, Origen.
  2. Coptic (Nag Hammadi, s. III–IV):
     • Really “The holy book of the Great Invisible Spirit”.
     • Text gnostic sethiano: Great Invisible Spirit, eons, Adams, Seth, and the “race incorruptible”, liturgy of baptism gnostic.
     • Preserved in two manuscripts of Nag Hammadi.
• Both are considered apocryphal and heretical through the tradition of the christian majority and not form part of the New Testamentbut today, are the sources of the first order to understand:
  • The pluralism doctrinal the christianity of the II–III centuries.
  • The evolution of the biblical canon.
  • Tensions over the body, sexuality, cosmology and salvation in christian Antiquity.