Texts in Conversation
The Gospel of Philip appears to expand Ephesians' description of marriage as a great mystery by stressing its role in producing life. The shared marriage image connects Jesus and the church with a union through which human life and the world continue.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ephesians 5:32
New Testament
28 In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one has ever hated his own body, but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great—but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Gospel of Philip 7:17
Nag Hammadi
[The] symbolic image of marriage [is] great, because [apart from] it the world would [not] have [come into existence], because [the c]ontinuance of th[e wor]ld [are] [hu]mans. However, the arrangement [... the] marriage. Contemplate [sexual union ...] defiled because it possesses [...] power. Its image dwells with [defilement]. [The forms] of unclean spirits include males and females. The males are those that unite with the souls that are of female form, and the females are those who mingle with those of male form. This results from the need to mingle. Further, no one can avoid their embraces if he does not obtain a male power as well as a female one, this being the bridegroom and the bride, and one obtains (this) from the symbolical bridal chamber.
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Notes and References
“... To further complicate the matter, the Gospel of Philip describes marriage and the bridal chamber four times as a “mystery” (64.31–65.1; 67.27–30; 71.3–15; 85.22–86.19).15 These statements seem to be a reflec tion on Ephesians 5:31–32: “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery.” But the statements also reflect the marriage language that was associated with the Dionysiac, Eleusinian, Isiac, and Mithraic mysteries.16 This all suggests that only those who were initiated into the mysteries could fully understand references to marriage and the bridal chamber. ...”
Strathearn, Gaye
The Valentinian Bridal Chamber in the Gospel of Philip
(p. 90) Brigham Young University, 2009
* 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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