Go to Related Reading
About this book

Gospel of Philip

About this book

Baptism, Chrism, and Eucharist

Chapter 4

With water and fire are all things purified, the revealed with the revealed, the concealed with the concealed, there being some that are concealed with the revealed. Water is inside water, fire is inside chrism. Jesus overcame them all with concealment, because he did not appear as he was. Instead, it was as [they were] capable of seeing him that he appeared. [All of these], he appeared to them. He [appeared] to [the] large as large. He [appeared] to the small as small. He [appeared] [to the] angels as an angel, and to humans as a human. Consequently, his Logos concealed itself from everyone. Some saw him, imagining they saw themselves. When he, however, appeared to his disciples in glory on the mountain, he was not small; he became large.⁠ He, however, made the disciples large, in order that they could see him as large. He said on that day during the Eucharist: “He who has joined the perfect, the light, together with the holy Spirit, may he join together the angels also with us, together with the images.” Despise not the lamb, because without it no one can see the door. No one can approach the king naked.⁠ The heavenly man possesses more children than the earthly man.⁠ If the children of Adam are many, despite (the fact) that they die, how many more will be the children of the Perfect Man, these who die not, but are born perpetually? 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.

Texts in conversation

Compare Barnabas 10:8 and Gospel of Philip 4:24

Early Christian · Nag Hammadi

Share:

Summary

The epistle of Barnabas and the Gospel of Philip associate the mouth with life but with opposite meanings. Barnabas uses it to condemn sexual impurity while Philip makes the kiss a means of receiving grace and the birth of new life.

Passages

Barnabas 10:8

Early Christian · Epistle of Barnabas
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.
70–135 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Barnabas

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.
180–250 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gospel of Philip

References

“... 30. All who are begotten in the world are begotten of nature. And the others are in [this one] from [whom] they are begotten, [and] are nourished there. - Man rec[eives nour]ishment from the promise, (to enter 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 mouth 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 us. [...] 19. Cf. Plutarch, Is. et Os. 74; Barn. 10.8; Physiologus 21; Philo, Rer. Div. Her. 51; Paraphrase of Shem (NHC VII 1) 23.16ff.; Hippol. Ref. VI 10.2. ...”
Hans-Martin Schenke, “The Gospel of Philip,” in New Testament Apocrypha, Volume 1: Gospels and Related Writings, ed. Wilhelm Schneemelcher and R. McL. Wilson (Cambridge: James Clarke, 1991), 191–192, 207.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Your feedback

Barnabas 10:8 and Gospel of Philip 4:24

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library