Texts in Conversation
2 Clement and the Gospel of Philip connect what is outside with what is inside through a saying about making them alike. Clement applies it to truth and good deeds; Philip places it beside baptism and the bridal chamber, giving it a role in ritual.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Clement 12:2
Early Christian
2 For the Lord Himself, being asked by a certain person when His kingdom would come, said, “When the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male with the female, neither male nor female.” 3 Now the two are one when we speak truth among ourselves, and in two bodies there shall be one soul without hypocrisy. 4 And by ‘the outside as the inside’ He means this: by the inside He means the soul, and by the outside the body. Therefore, in the same way that your body is visible, let your soul be manifest by its good works. 5 And ‘the male with the female, neither male nor female,’ means this: that a brother seeing a sister should have no thought of her as female, and a sister seeing a brother should not think of him as male.
Date: 130-160 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Gospel of Philip 8:14
Nag Hammadi
The Lord [performed] all things with a symbolic meaning, (including) baptism, and chrismation, and Eucharist, and redemption, and bridal chamber. [...] he [said]: “I have come to make [what is below] like what is [above, and what is outside] like what is [inside, and to unite] them together in the place [...] here with [types ...].” Those who say, “[...] one is above [...,” they] are mistaken, [because] what is revealed is what [..., what] is called “what is below,” and what is secret pertains to what is above it, because it is good, and they say “inside” and “what is outside” and “what is the outermost.” This is why the Lord called perdition, “the outer darkness,” and there is nothing further outside than it.
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Notes and References
“... 68. The Lord [did] everything in a mystery: baptism, chrism, eucharist, redemption and bridal chamber. New Tesument Apocrypha 69a. [Because of this] he said: 'I ain come to make [the lojwer like the uplper and the oujter like the in[ner]*' [and to] unite them at th[atl place.' [But he spoke in these] places through sym[bols and images). 69b. Those who say: '[There is a heavenly one. and) there is one above [her]' are in error. - F[or] so far as the visible is concemed. that (p. 68) heav[enly] one is die one who [is] called 'the lower'; and the one to whom the hidden realm belongs, he is the one who is above him. [...] 43. Cf Gospel ofThomas. logion 22; 2 Clem. 12.2; Acts of Philip 34 (cf also above, p. 120. and below, pp. 212r). ...”
Schenke, Hans-Martin
"The Gospel of Philip" in Schneemelcher, Wilhelm; Wilson, R. McL. (ed.) New Testament Apocrypha, Volume 1: Gospels and Related Writings
(pp. 196-197, 208) James Clarke & Co., 1991
* 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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