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In Genesis, God tells Abraham to leave his country and father’s house. Exegesis on the Soul, a Nag Hammadi text, applies this command to the soul, who must leave her earthly home and remember her heavenly Father.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 12:1
Hebrew Bible
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you. 2 Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, so that all the families of the earth may receive blessing through you.”
Exegesis on the Soul 4:13
Nag Hammadi
And the prophet said in the Psalms: “Hear, my daughter, and look, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty, for he is your lord.” ‒ (Psalm 45:10-11) For he commands her to turn her gaze away from her people and from the crowd of her adulterers, among whom she once dwelt, to dedicate herself to her king alone, her true Lord, and to forget her earthly father’s house, where the situation was appalling for her, and instead to remember her Father who is in heaven. Accordingly, it was also said to Abraham: “Go from your country and your kindred and from your father's house.” ‒ (Genesis 12:1)
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Notes and References
“... And the prophet said in the Psalms (45:10-11), Hear, my daughter, and see and incline your ear and forget your people and your father’s house, for the king has desired your beauty, for he is your lord. For he requires her to turn her face from her people and the multitude of her adulterers, in whose midst she once was, to devote herself only to her king, her real lord, and to forget the house of the earthly father, with whom things went badly for her, but to remember her father who is in heaven. Thus also it was said (Gn 12:1) to Abraham, Come out from your country and your kinsfolk and from your father’s house. ...”
Robinson, William C., Jr.; Scopello, Maddalena
"The Exegesis on the Soul (II,6)" in Robinson, James M. (ed.) The Nag Hammadi Library in English
(pp. 195-196) HarperCollins, 1990
* 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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