Texts in Conversation
The Gospel of Philip connects Romans' claim that the Law reveals sin without making people righteous with the tree of knowledge. Knowing good and evil becomes different from doing good, carrying Paul's limit on the Law back into the story of Adam.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Romans 3:20
New Testament
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (although it is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed— 22 namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Gospel of Philip 10:20
Nag Hammadi
I wish that [garden is the place where it] will be said to me: [“... eat] this,” or, “do not eat [that,” as you] desire. This is the place where I will eat everything, where the Tree of Knowledge dwells, the one that killed Adam. However, the Tree of Knowledge here has restored life to man. The Law was the tree. It was able to bestow knowledge of good and evil. It neither took away from him evil, nor did it establish him in what is good. Instead, it produced death for those who ate of it, because when he said, “eat this,” “do not eat that,” it was the origin of death.
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Notes and References
“... So Paul explains in 3:19 that “‘whatever the law says, it says to those in the law {to the psychic Jews’) so that the whole cosmos (the psychic cosmos) may become liable before God.” Origen’s Valentinian opponents explain from 3:20 that since the law evokes “awareness of sin" the ideas of sin, liability, and judgment, emerge dialectically with the idea of law.*' The author of the Gospel of Philip expresses a similar conception in metaphor; he describes the law as the ‘tree’ which ‘has power to give knowledge of good and evil,”’ but cannot help man to implement this knowledge (see n. 51). ...”
Pagels, Elaine Hiesey
The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters
(pp. 21-22) Fortress Press, 1975
* 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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