Texts in Conversation
The Gospel of Philip and Contra Celsum 6 connect anointing oil with the tree of life. Philip makes it the source of resurrection; Origen reports the same tree in a disputed ceremony, placing Philip's image beside a claim about oil used to receive life.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Gospel of Philip 10:9
Nag Hammadi
Philip the apostle said: “Joseph the carpenter planted a garden because he needed wood to carry out his trade. He was the one who made the cross from the trees he had planted, and his seed hung on what he had planted. His seed was Jesus, and the plant was the cross.” However, the Tree of Life dwells in the midst of the garden, and from the olive tree came the chrism, and from it came the resurrection. This world is a corpse-eater. All that are eaten in it will die as well. Truth is a life-eater. Consequently, not one of those who feed on [truth] will die.
Origen, Contra Celsum 6 27:1
Against Celsus
Early Christian
After the matter of the diagram, he brings forward certain monstrous statements, in the form of question and answer, regarding what is called by ecclesiastical writers the seal, statements which did not arise from imperfect information; such as that he who impresses the seal is called father, and he who is sealed is called young man and son; and who answers, I have been anointed with white ointment from the tree of life,— things which we never heard to have occurred even among the heretics. In the next place, he determines even the number mentioned by those who deliver over the seal, as that of seven angels, who attach themselves to both sides of the soul of the dying body; the one party being named angels of light, the others 'archontics;' and he asserts that the ruler of those named 'archontics' is termed the 'accursed' god.
Date: 248 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... 92. But the tree of life stands in the midst of paradise. And indeed (it is) the olive-U'ee. From it came the chrism. Through it '* the resur- rection." [...] 59. cr Ps.-Clem. Recog. 145; the Ophites (according to Origen. c. Cels. VI27). where die newly initiat«l must say: 'I have been anointed with white ointment from the tree of life'; and Bousset, Hauptprohleme, pp. 304r ...”
Schenke, Hans-Martin
"The Gospel of Philip" in Schneemelcher, Wilhelm; Wilson, R. McL. (ed.) New Testament Apocrypha, Volume 1: Gospels and Related Writings
(p. 200, 208) 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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