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sophiaserpentiaThe final form of the homework i'm turning in on The Reality of the Rulers, somewhat edited from last week's version.
The Reality of the Rulers is one of several texts in the Nag Hammadi library offering a variation on the story of Genesis 2-7. The text has two parts (which reflect very different styles and were perhaps written separately) in a Pauline-Christian "shell." The first part is a narrative about Adam’s and Eve’s creation by the Rulers (archons), and their spirit-inspired rebellion. The second is a first-person account of instruction given to Norea by the angel Eleleth. This treatise is esoteric, intended to be read only by initiates, but also bears strong political overtones.
The author is an ascetic who wants us to reject the "false garden" constructed by "the Rulers." On one level, the false garden refers to pleasures of the flesh and materialism. Human life in this false garden means ignorance of the true God and his reality (agnosia, being without gnosis) and is shown in the narrative as a deep sleep which the Rulers cause to fall over Adam.
In the instruction of Eleleth, the Rulers are depicted as misguided demigods, blind to the nature of the "true God" who is outside of this world. Because they do not have spirit as human beings do, the Rulers will ultimately fail in their attempts to bind and rule human beings; that failure will be sealed with the arrival of "the true man, within a modeled form" (a reference to Jesus as the embodied Logos, cf. John, chapter 1).
The narrative starts with a swipe at the chief Ruler for claiming, in ignorance and arrogance, "It is I who am God; there is none apart from me." This points to the first commandment in the decalogue (Ex. 20:2-3, Deut. 5:6-7), implying that Jehovah is the chief Ruler.
This swipe may have its origins as a vehement anti-Temple polemic from before the Jewish War. If so, this goes beyond the anti-Temple polemics characteristic of Jewish heterodoxy, such as that of the Dead Sea Scrolls or the preaching of Jesus and John the Baptist. It shows not just a rejection of the Temple leadership and priestly class, but also of the Law of Moses which is their claim to power, and even of the God said to be the source of that Law! The Law, they believed, did not come from the true God, but was given by the Rulers to deceive people and lead them away from awareness of the true God, by promoting marriage, reproduction, and material fruitfulness.
It may also be intended here as an oblique swipe at the Roman Emperor as well, for claiming status as a god, and implicates the entirety of Greco-Roman civic and economic order. Originally, "archons" were the leaders of the Hellenistic city-state. The use of the word in this context invites us to consider the text as a polemic against civil authority. The Roman authorities, who promoted the hierarchical patronage system, backing this up with military power and brutal suppression of dissidents, would also fit the role of misguided, arrogant demigods creating a false garden. In this case, the false garden is made of opulent temples paid for by conquest, plundering, and oppression. People who participate in the evil edifice of the Empire, even those who condone its existence as members of the workforce, are said to be in a sleep-like ignorance and are called to a life of monastic, ascetic rejection wholly outside of civil society.
The text is striking in several other respects. In revising the story of Genesis 2-7, the author of the Adam and Eve narrative turned literally everything on its head. The creator is now evil, and not good; the serpent is now good, and not evil; the serpent brought truth and freedom, and not deception and imprisonment; and Eve is the bringer of liberation to humankind, and not a hapless deceived innocent.
The text strongly suggests a female viewpoint. Elaine Pagels wrote in The Gnostic Gospels that many early Christian women were drawn to some of the Gnostic groups, where they appear to have had greater opportunities to participate and teach, and where they found a theological atmosphere less hostile towards femininity. (This does not hold for all Gnostic groups, to be sure.) The strongly pro-female slant of Reality of the Rulers provides a witness for this.
A distinction is drawn between "spirit" and "soul," a characteristically Valentinian concept. But here spirit is identified with woman, not with man, in stark contrast with most ancient thought (even most Gnostic thought), which upheld masculinity as the ideal. Here, spirit and instruction are passed mainly from woman to woman; male figures are hapless or outright hostile.
The passage of spirit begins with "Incorruptibility" (very likely a figure of Sophia) whose image reflected in the waters inspires the Rulers to build a hylic simulacrum. The Rulers, who possess only soul, cannot imbue Adam with spirit. Instead that spirit is imbued by Incorruptibility. When the Rulers draw out Eve from Adam (opening him "like a living woman," suggesting that Adam had female genitalia, at least temporarily, making him at least part-female during the passage of spirit), spirit goes out of Adam with her, and she becomes the bearer of it.
Instruction also passes from woman to woman. "The female instructive principle" enters the snake and educates Eve. The next recipient of instruction is Norea, daughter of Adam and Eve, described by Eve as "an assistance to humankind" (and not Seth - a polemic swipe at the Sethian Gnostics?). Norea's instructor is the angel Eleleth. In Reality of the Rulers, Eleleth is male, but John D. Turner of the University of Nebraska suggests that the name "Eleleth" may be etymologically related to the name Lilith. Supposing a Syrian origin for Reality, the introduction of Eleleth/Lilith as a giver of wisdom here may suggest a memory (or revival) of an ancient Syro-Babylonian female-centric wisdom tradition.
In contrast, the Rulers, who are creatures only of soul but not of spirit, are singularly oppressive in their treatment of women. First they attempt to capture the reflection of Incorruptibility. Then they seek to rape Eve, succeeding only in raping her physical form but leaving her spirit untouched. Interestingly, this parallels a kind of disassociation often experienced by victims of rape -- which may even reflect the author's personal experience. The "stamp of [Eve's] voice" was also defiled; this sounds like a reference to coerced oral sex, but suggests the experience also of being silenced under oppression. Later, the Rulers sexually harass Norea as well, provoking her into begging God for rescue.
Adam, also a creature of soul but not of spirit, is here only a hapless recipient; he receives the Rulers' actions towards him, he receives the spirit from Incorruptibility, he receives life and instruction from Eve. Whereas in Genesis Adam is the primary focus, here he is simply a prop.
The instruction of Eleleth summarizes a part of the complex Valentinian cosmology, specifically the role of Sophia and her daughter Zoe in the birth of Rulers, and the Rulers' creation of the material world in the realm of chaos. This instruction is entirely esoteric and does not contain the political or woman-centered overtones of the narrative. It culminates in an eschatological passage reminiscent of Paul's treatment in I Corinthians 15:23-28.
The Reality of the Rulers is one of several texts in the Nag Hammadi library offering a variation on the story of Genesis 2-7. The text has two parts (which reflect very different styles and were perhaps written separately) in a Pauline-Christian "shell." The first part is a narrative about Adam’s and Eve’s creation by the Rulers (archons), and their spirit-inspired rebellion. The second is a first-person account of instruction given to Norea by the angel Eleleth. This treatise is esoteric, intended to be read only by initiates, but also bears strong political overtones.
The author is an ascetic who wants us to reject the "false garden" constructed by "the Rulers." On one level, the false garden refers to pleasures of the flesh and materialism. Human life in this false garden means ignorance of the true God and his reality (agnosia, being without gnosis) and is shown in the narrative as a deep sleep which the Rulers cause to fall over Adam.
In the instruction of Eleleth, the Rulers are depicted as misguided demigods, blind to the nature of the "true God" who is outside of this world. Because they do not have spirit as human beings do, the Rulers will ultimately fail in their attempts to bind and rule human beings; that failure will be sealed with the arrival of "the true man, within a modeled form" (a reference to Jesus as the embodied Logos, cf. John, chapter 1).
The narrative starts with a swipe at the chief Ruler for claiming, in ignorance and arrogance, "It is I who am God; there is none apart from me." This points to the first commandment in the decalogue (Ex. 20:2-3, Deut. 5:6-7), implying that Jehovah is the chief Ruler.
This swipe may have its origins as a vehement anti-Temple polemic from before the Jewish War. If so, this goes beyond the anti-Temple polemics characteristic of Jewish heterodoxy, such as that of the Dead Sea Scrolls or the preaching of Jesus and John the Baptist. It shows not just a rejection of the Temple leadership and priestly class, but also of the Law of Moses which is their claim to power, and even of the God said to be the source of that Law! The Law, they believed, did not come from the true God, but was given by the Rulers to deceive people and lead them away from awareness of the true God, by promoting marriage, reproduction, and material fruitfulness.
It may also be intended here as an oblique swipe at the Roman Emperor as well, for claiming status as a god, and implicates the entirety of Greco-Roman civic and economic order. Originally, "archons" were the leaders of the Hellenistic city-state. The use of the word in this context invites us to consider the text as a polemic against civil authority. The Roman authorities, who promoted the hierarchical patronage system, backing this up with military power and brutal suppression of dissidents, would also fit the role of misguided, arrogant demigods creating a false garden. In this case, the false garden is made of opulent temples paid for by conquest, plundering, and oppression. People who participate in the evil edifice of the Empire, even those who condone its existence as members of the workforce, are said to be in a sleep-like ignorance and are called to a life of monastic, ascetic rejection wholly outside of civil society.
The text is striking in several other respects. In revising the story of Genesis 2-7, the author of the Adam and Eve narrative turned literally everything on its head. The creator is now evil, and not good; the serpent is now good, and not evil; the serpent brought truth and freedom, and not deception and imprisonment; and Eve is the bringer of liberation to humankind, and not a hapless deceived innocent.
The text strongly suggests a female viewpoint. Elaine Pagels wrote in The Gnostic Gospels that many early Christian women were drawn to some of the Gnostic groups, where they appear to have had greater opportunities to participate and teach, and where they found a theological atmosphere less hostile towards femininity. (This does not hold for all Gnostic groups, to be sure.) The strongly pro-female slant of Reality of the Rulers provides a witness for this.
A distinction is drawn between "spirit" and "soul," a characteristically Valentinian concept. But here spirit is identified with woman, not with man, in stark contrast with most ancient thought (even most Gnostic thought), which upheld masculinity as the ideal. Here, spirit and instruction are passed mainly from woman to woman; male figures are hapless or outright hostile.
The passage of spirit begins with "Incorruptibility" (very likely a figure of Sophia) whose image reflected in the waters inspires the Rulers to build a hylic simulacrum. The Rulers, who possess only soul, cannot imbue Adam with spirit. Instead that spirit is imbued by Incorruptibility. When the Rulers draw out Eve from Adam (opening him "like a living woman," suggesting that Adam had female genitalia, at least temporarily, making him at least part-female during the passage of spirit), spirit goes out of Adam with her, and she becomes the bearer of it.
Instruction also passes from woman to woman. "The female instructive principle" enters the snake and educates Eve. The next recipient of instruction is Norea, daughter of Adam and Eve, described by Eve as "an assistance to humankind" (and not Seth - a polemic swipe at the Sethian Gnostics?). Norea's instructor is the angel Eleleth. In Reality of the Rulers, Eleleth is male, but John D. Turner of the University of Nebraska suggests that the name "Eleleth" may be etymologically related to the name Lilith. Supposing a Syrian origin for Reality, the introduction of Eleleth/Lilith as a giver of wisdom here may suggest a memory (or revival) of an ancient Syro-Babylonian female-centric wisdom tradition.
In contrast, the Rulers, who are creatures only of soul but not of spirit, are singularly oppressive in their treatment of women. First they attempt to capture the reflection of Incorruptibility. Then they seek to rape Eve, succeeding only in raping her physical form but leaving her spirit untouched. Interestingly, this parallels a kind of disassociation often experienced by victims of rape -- which may even reflect the author's personal experience. The "stamp of [Eve's] voice" was also defiled; this sounds like a reference to coerced oral sex, but suggests the experience also of being silenced under oppression. Later, the Rulers sexually harass Norea as well, provoking her into begging God for rescue.
Adam, also a creature of soul but not of spirit, is here only a hapless recipient; he receives the Rulers' actions towards him, he receives the spirit from Incorruptibility, he receives life and instruction from Eve. Whereas in Genesis Adam is the primary focus, here he is simply a prop.
The instruction of Eleleth summarizes a part of the complex Valentinian cosmology, specifically the role of Sophia and her daughter Zoe in the birth of Rulers, and the Rulers' creation of the material world in the realm of chaos. This instruction is entirely esoteric and does not contain the political or woman-centered overtones of the narrative. It culminates in an eschatological passage reminiscent of Paul's treatment in I Corinthians 15:23-28.
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Opacity
Date: 2005-10-20 09:24 pm (UTC)Re: Opacity
Date: 2005-10-21 01:17 pm (UTC)