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About this book

Gospel of Philip

About this book

Divine Names and the Holy Spirit-Wisdom; Straying

Chapter 5

There were three who walked with the Lord continually: His mother Mary, and her sister, and Magdalene, who is called “his companion,” because Mary was his sister, and his mother, and his partner.⁠ The Father and the Son are single names. The holy Spirit is a double name, because they dwell everywhere, above, below, inside what is concealed, inside what is revealed. The holy Spirit dwells inside what is revealed, she being below. She dwells inside what is concealed, she being above. The holy ones are served through evil powers, because they have been blinded by the holy Spirit, in order that they will believe they are serving a man when they are serving the holy ones. Consequently, a disciple one day asked the Lord for some thing of the world. He said to him: “Ask your Mother and she will give to you from the others.” The apostles said to the disciples: “May our entire sacrifice have salt.”⁠ They called [Wisdom] “salt.”⁠ Without her, the sacrifice is not [rendered] acceptable. Wisdom, however, [is] barren, [without] child. Consequently, [she] is called [...] of salt, where they will [...] in their manner.⁠ The holy Spirit [...] [...], and many are her children. What the Father possesses belongs to the Son. Even the Son himself, while he is young, he is not entrusted with what belongs to him.⁠ Then, when he becomes Man, his Father gives him everything that is his. O you who err, that to which the Spirit gives birth is also made idle because of her. Consequently, because of that one Spirit, the lamp is lit and extinguished. Echamoth is one, and Echmoth is another. Echamoth is Wisdom as one, but Echmoth is the Wisdom of death, that is, the Wisdom who knows death, who is called the minor Wisdom.⁠ Some animals have been tamed by man, such as the calf, and the donkey, and yet others of this kind. Some others have not been tamed, living by themselves in the deserts. Man ploughs the field with the tame animals, and in this way he feeds himself and the animals, regardless of whether they are tame or not. This is the way of the Perfect Man: He ploughs with powers that have been tamed, in preparation for everything to come into existence, because on account of this everything perdures, whether good or evil, and right and left. The holy Spirit shepherds everything, and she governs [all] the powers that have been tamed, as well as those that have [not been tamed], and those that dwell alone by themselves, because truly she [...] corrals them, [in order that ...] want to, they will be unable to [escape]. [He who was] formed [...]. you would find his children to be noble beings. If he had not been formed, but begotten, you would find his offspring noble. However, he was molded, and he begot. What nobility this is! First, an adulteress appeared, and she was followed by a murderer, even he who was begotten of adultery, because he was the son of the serpent.⁠ Consequently, he was a murderer like his father as well, and he killed his brother.⁠ Every act of sexual union that has occurred between those who are unlike each other equals adultery.

Texts in conversation

Compare Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book 1 4:1 and Gospel of Philip 5:21

Early Christian · Nag Hammadi

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Summary

Against Heresies Book 1 explains why the Gospel of Philip gives Wisdom two similar names. The distinction between a higher Wisdom and one who knows death condenses a story about Wisdom's fall, pointing to two connected figures with different fates.

Passages

Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book 1 4:1

Early Christian
1 The following are the transactions which they narrate as having occurred outside of the Pleroma: The enthymesis of that Sophia who dwells above, which they also term Achamoth, being removed from the Pleroma, together with her passion, they relate to have, as a matter of course, become violently excited in those places of darkness and vacuity [to which she had been banished]. For she was excluded from light and the Pleroma, and was without form or figure, like an untimely birth, because she had received nothing [from a male parent]. But the Christ dwelling on high took pity upon her; and having extended himself through and beyond Stauros, he imparted a figure to her, but merely as respected substance, and not so as to convey intelligence.
175–190 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book 1

Gospel of Philip 5:21

Nag Hammadi
O you who err, that to which the Spirit gives birth is also made idle because of her. Consequently, because of that one Spirit, the lamp is lit and extinguished. Echamoth is one, and Echmoth is another. Echamoth is Wisdom as one, but Echmoth is the Wisdom of death, that is, the Wisdom who knows death, who is called the minor Wisdom. Some animals have been tamed by man, such as the calf, and the donkey, and yet others of this kind. Some others have not been tamed, living by themselves in the deserts. Man ploughs the field with the tame animals, and in this way he feeds himself and the animals, regardless of whether they are tame or not.
180–250 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gospel of Philip

References

“... The second part of this point in the typology is a little more difficult to connect with the Gospel of Philip. The Gospel of Philip does not contain a detailed account of the cosmogonic myth like we find in Irenaeus or in other Gnostic texts such as the Apocryphon of John or the Hypostasis of the Archons. The myth, however, is clearly assumed by a number of references. In the Valentinian story, it is not a war in heaven that is the catalyst for the creation of the material world, but the fall of Sophia with her subsequent creation of the Demiurge and his Archons. As a result of her fall, Sophia is separated into two distinct but related beings. Irenaeus identifies the two beings as the “first” or “upper” Sophia and the Sophia “which they also term Achamoth” (Hebrew khokmah; Haer. 1.4.1). Here we see a play on words where both the Greek sophia and the Hebrew khokmah mean “wisdom.” The Gospel of Philip contains evidence that it knows of Sophia’s fall and her two manifestations, although the termi- nology is slightly different from that used by Irenaeus. Here the name of Achamoth is applied to both manifestations, “although with a differ- ence of vocalization.” “Echamoth is one thing and Echmoth another. Echamoth is Wisdom simply, but Echmoth is the Wisdom of death which is the one which knows death, which is called ‘the little Wisdom’” (60.10–15). In another place we are told that “Wisdom who is called ‘the barren’” (a phrase which is equivalent to “little Wisdom”) is “the mother of the angels” (63.30–32; see 59.30–32). Schenke has shown that these angels must refer to the Demiurge and his Archons. ...”
Gaye Strathearn, “Reading the Gospel of Philip as a Temple Text,” (2013): 186.

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

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Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book 1 4:1 and Gospel of Philip 5:21

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