Texts in Conversation
The Gospel of Philip uses Matthew's outer darkness for the final place of loss. A warning about a servant who fails his master becomes a boundary beyond which nothing else lies, connecting failed service with exclusion from the life found within.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Matthew 25:30
New Testament
26 But his master answered, ‘Evil and lazy slave! So you knew that I harvest where I didn’t sow and gather where I didn’t scatter? 27 Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received my money back with interest! 28 Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has 10. 29 For the one who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Gospel of Philip 8:16
Nag Hammadi
This is why the Lord called perdition, “the outer darkness,” and there is nothing further outside than it. He said: “My Father who is in secret.” He said, “Enter into your closet and close your door behind you, and pray to your Father who is in secret,” he who is the one inside all of them, but he who is inside all of them is the fullness, beyond which there is nothing else more interior. To describe this it is said, “what is above them.” Before Christ (came), some exited from where they could no longer enter, and they went to where they could no longer leave. Christ, however, came, and those who entered, he escorted them outside, and those who exited, he brought them inside.
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Notes and References
“... 69c. For it is rightly said: 'The inner, the outer, and what is outside the outer'. Because of this the Lord called perdition 'the outer darkness';** there is no other outside of it. 69d. He said: 'My Father who is in secret'. He said: 'Go into your chamber, shut your door behind you, and pray to your Father who is in secret'.*' which means: he who is within all. But that which is within all is the Pleroma. Beyond that there is nothing other within it. This is the one of whom it is said: 'He who is above them'. [...] 44. C f M t . 8:12; 22:13; 25:30. ...”
Schenke, Hans-Martin
"The Gospel of Philip" in Schneemelcher, Wilhelm; Wilson, R. McL. (ed.) New Testament Apocrypha, Volume 1: Gospels and Related Writings
(p. 197, 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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