For most comprehensive surveys of allusions to Plato's dialogues in Sethian texts, see Turner, John D., Sethian Gnosticism and the Platonic Tradition (BCNHÉ 6 Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2001) Google Scholar King, Karen L., The Secret Revelation of John ( Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2006) 191– 214 CrossRef Google Scholar. Soul, Lundhaug proposes that this text ‘would also have been amenable to the interests of the Pachomians and even to those of Shenoute's monastic community’ (149).ĩ It goes without saying that Plato's other dialogues, most prominently Timaeus, contain a large number of passages which are also reflected in some of the texts to be discussed below, especially in the Secret Book of John I will add references to these other dialogues in the course of my analysis below. For scholars affirming that Exegesis is not a Gnostic text, see Kulawik, Cornelia, Die Erzählung über die Seele (Nag-Hammadi-Codex II, 6) (TU 155 Berlin: de Gruyter) 7– 9 Google Scholar Hugo Lundhaug, Images of Rebirth: Cognitive Poetics and Transformational Soteriology in the Gospel of Philip and the Exegesis of the Soul (NHMS 73 Leiden: Brill, 2010) 134–40 Google Scholar. For other scholars maintaining that Exegesis should be understood as a Gnostic text, see, e.g., Aland, Barbara, Was ist Gnosis: Studien zum frühen Christentum, zu Marcion und zur kaiserzeitlichen Philosophie (WUNT 239 Tübingen: Mohr 2009) 39 Google Scholar Sevrin, Jean-Marie, ed., L'Exégèse de l'Âme (NH II, 6) (BCNHÉ 9 Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 1983) 39– 41 Google Scholar. Meyer, Marvin New York: HarperOne, 2007) 223–6 Google Scholar, esp. Some texts discussed in this article show far greater concern with wine, luxury, good looks, pride, and arrogance than with illicit sex.Ĥ Scopello, Madeleine, ‘ The Exegesis on the Soul (NHC II, 6): Introduction’, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition (ed. Although strong sexual imagery is used in these texts to describe both the mythic past and the soul's present plight, the analysis suggests that sexual lust is not the only moral concern in them. A new element in these stories is the emphasis placed upon repentance as bringing about transformation in the soul. The portrayals of this theme become increasingly ‘demonic’, but even the soul's battle against demons is first and foremost a battle against emotions. The soul pestered by emotions is one of the themes that connects these stories with the long-standing philosophical tradition, starting from Plato's dialogues. In addition to these texts, three demiurgical myths from Nag Hammadi Codex II, are drawn into the discussion: The Secret Book of John, The Nature of the Rulers, and On the Origin of the World. The main sources for the latter type are the Exegesis on the Soul (NHC II, 6) and Authoritative Teaching ( Authentikos Logos, NHC VI, 3). The soul's condition is a central concern in two types of stories: there are (1) demiurgical myths, in which the soul's origin is ascribed to an inferior creator-god, and (2) plainer stories of the soul, which are solely focused on the soul, without a creation narrative. This article explores the ways the story of the soul's present plight and its return to the divine realm is narrated in different Nag Hammadi treatises, and to what effect.
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