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The Gospel of Philip interprets Matthew's outer darkness as the furthest point outside the Father's hidden presence. This gives the warning about exclusion from the kingdom's feast a place in Philip's contrast between what is outside and what is within.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Matthew 8:12
New Testament
10 When Jesus heard this he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel! 11 I tell you, many will come from the east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; just as you believed, it will be done for you.” And the servant was healed at that hour.
Gospel of Philip 8:16
Nag Hammadi
This is why the Lord called perdition, “the outer darkness,” and there is nothing further outside than it. He said: “My Father who is in secret.” He said, “Enter into your closet and close your door behind you, and pray to your Father who is in secret,” he who is the one inside all of them, but he who is inside all of them is the fullness, beyond which there is nothing else more interior. To describe this it is said, “what is above them.” Before Christ (came), some exited from where they could no longer enter, and they went to where they could no longer leave. Christ, however, came, and those who entered, he escorted them outside, and those who exited, he brought them inside.
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Notes and References
“... In keeping with this, there is significant quotation of canonical language. In a baptismal context as in Matthew, Jesus says, “[This is how] we are to fulfil all righteousness.”14 There is reference by Jesus to “my Father in heaven,”15 to “the outer darkness,”16 and the instruction: “Go inside into your chamber and close the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.”17 On the cross, Jesus in the Gospel of Philip utters a slight variation on the cry of dereliction: “My God, my God, why o Lord have you forsaken me?”18 As Watson has noted, this is an unusually “straight” repetition of a canonical saying: “The Gospel of Philip applies the cry of derelic- tion solely to the earthly event, not to any heavenly analogy.”19 As is evident here, Matthew is a clear influence. There is also Johannine language, however: “If you know the truth, the truth will set you free.”20 To that extent there is what one might call absorption of the ...”
Gathercole, Simon
"Afterword: Reading Gospels with the Gospel of Philip" in Pierce, Madison N.; Byers, Andrew J.; Gathercole, Simon (ed.) Gospel Reading and Reception in Early Christian Literature
(p. 237) Cambridge University Press, 2022
* 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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