Texts in Conversation
Hebrews and the Gospel of Philip use food to explain who can receive advanced teaching. Hebrews describes infants becoming adults, while Philip separates animals, slaves, and children, making readiness depend on the kind of person being taught.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Hebrews 5:12
New Testament
8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through the things he suffered. 9 And by being perfected in this way, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 and he was designated by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek. 11 On this topic we have much to say, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in hearing. 12 For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food. 13 For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness because he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.
Gospel of Philip 11:58
Nag Hammadi
This is the way of the disciple of God. If he be wise, he will know what being a disciple is. The forms of the body will not fool him, but he will assess the condition of each individual soul, and will speak with him. Many animals in the world are in the form of humans. If he recognizes them, he will throw acorns to the pigs, but he will pitch barley, and chaff, and hay to the cattle. He will throw bones to the dogs. To the slaves he will give what is preliminary, and to the children he will give what is perfect.
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Notes and References
“... It is interesting to see that in both Judaism and Christianity we find many texts in which differentiation of food is connected with differentiations in teachings, especially the teaching of divine wisdom, be it of esoteric kind or “plainly” Torah. For example, in several of his works, the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE-c. 50 CE) uses the metaphor of food differentiation, comparing a tripartite scheme consisting of milk (babies), soft food (infants), and stronger meat (adults) to three levels of education: pre- education, school subjects, and philosophy.1426 In the New Testament, this imagery can be found in Hebrews 5:11-14, among others, in which those who are “dull in understanding” are compared to an infant (νήπιος) who lives on milk, while those who can distinguish good from evil are mature (τελείων) and can process solid food. In this section, we focus, however, on 1 Corinthians as we hope to show that the Gospel of Philip and the first letter to the Corinthians play with similar but not identical imagery. ...”
* 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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