Texts in Conversation
Barnabas and the Gospel of Philip connect the mouth with conception but give the image opposite meanings. Barnabas uses it to condemn sexual impurity; Philip makes the kiss a means of receiving grace, turning the same idea toward the birth of new life.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Barnabas 10:8
Epistle of Barnabas
Early Christian
7 Again, you shall not eat the hyena. ‘You shall not,’ He says, ‘become an adulterer or a fornicator, nor resemble such people.’ Why so? Because this animal changes its nature each year, sometimes male and sometimes female. 8 Moreover, He has hated the weasel as well, and rightly so. ‘You shall not,’ He says, ‘become like those of whom we hear do evil with their mouth for impurity, nor shall you associate with impure women who commit sin with their mouth.’ For this creature conceives through its mouth. 9 Concerning foods, then, Moses received three decrees with this meaning and spoke them in a spiritual sense; but they accepted them in accordance with fleshly desire, as if referring to actual eating.
Gospel of Philip 4:24
Nag Hammadi
The Father begets a Son, and the Son is unable to beget a Son, because someone who has been begotten is unable to beget. The Son, by contrast, gets brothers, not sons. Everyone who is begotten in the world is begotten by means of what is physical. Also the others with [...] are begotten through what [...] from there. To the man [...] with the [...] from above. [...] him from the mouth, [...] the word came from there, he would be nourished from the mouth, [and] he would become perfect, because it is with a kiss that the perfect conceive and beget. Consequently, we, also, kiss each another, conceiving from the grace that dwells inside each other.
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Notes and References
“... 30. All who are begotten in the world are begotten of nature. And ihe others are in (this one] from [whom] they are begotten, [and] are nourished there. - Man rec[eives nour]ishment from die promise, (toenter in) to [the place] above. [ ] it (the promise?) from the mouth. [And if] the Logos came forth there, (p. 59) he would be nourished from the moudi and become perfect. 31. The perfect conceive through a kiss and give birth. Because of this we also kiss one another. We receive conception from the grace which we have among u s . " [...] 19. Cf. Plutarch. Is et Os. 74; Bam. 10.8; Miysiologus 21; Philo. Rer Div. Her. 51; Paraphrase of Shem (NHC VII I) 23.l6ff.; Hippol. Ref. VI 10.2. ...”
Schenke, Hans-Martin
"The Gospel of Philip" in Schneemelcher, Wilhelm; Wilson, R. McL. (ed.) New Testament Apocrypha, Volume 1: Gospels and Related Writings
(pp. 191-192, 207) 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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