Texts in Conversation
The Gospel of Philip draws on John's image of bread from heaven, but presents Jesus as bringing the bread rather than being the bread. This shift makes the meal a gift through which people share in the life Jesus brought into the world.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
John 6:51
New Testament
47 I tell you the solemn truth, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that a person may eat from it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus began to argue with one another, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Gospel of Philip 2:27
Nag Hammadi
Before Christ came, bread was lacking in the world, just as in Paradise, the place where Adam dwelt, several trees existed as food for the animals. There was no wheat there to serve as food for the man. The man ate like the animals. However, when Christ came, the Perfect Man, he brought bread from heaven, in order that the man would be fed with food appropriate for the man. The archons were thinking it was through their power and their desire that they were acting as they did. However, the holy Spirit in secret was bringing about everything by means of them as she wished. Truth, which has existed from the beginning, is sown in all places, and many are they who see it when it is sown. However, few there are who see it when it is reaped.
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Notes and References
“... The verbal overlap between these passages is ‘bread from heaven,’ as well as a thematic overlap of Jesus identifying himself as ‘the living bread that came down out of heaven’ in John 6:51, and the Gos. Phil. indicates that ‘when Christ came, the perfect man, he brought bread from heaven’ (55.11–13).35 This saying is also similar to §93 (73.23–27), ‘It was from that place that Jesus came and brought food. To those who so desired he gave [life, that]36 they might not die.’ [...] While a Eucharistic interpretation of John 6:51 in §15 is likely, it does not explain the difference between Jesus being the ‘living bread that came down from heaven’ (John 6:51) where the bread is associated with his flesh, and the Christ who ‘brought bread from heaven’ (55.12–13) where the bread appears to be distinct from himself.38 ...”
Zelyck, Lorne R.
John among the Other Gospels: The Reception of the Fourth Gospel in the Extra-Canonical Gospels
(pp. 114-115) Mohr Siebeck, 2013
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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