The Gnostic Gospels

Also by Elaine Pagels THE JOHANNINE GOSPEL IN GNOSTIC EXEGESIS THE GNOSTIC PAUL: GNOSTIC EXEGESIS OF THE PAULINE LETTERS ADAM, EVE, AND THE SERPENT VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, SEPTEMBER 1989 Copyright © 1979 by Elaine Pagels All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published by Random House, Inc., New York, in 1979. Since this page cannot legibly accommodate all acknowledgments to reproduce previously published material, they appear on the opposite page. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Pagels, Elaine H 1943- The gnostic gospels. Originally published in 1979 by Random House, New York. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Gnosticism. 2. Chenoboskion manuscripts. I. Title. BT1390.P3 1981 273’.1 80-12341 ISBN 0-679-72453-2 (pbk.) Manufactured in the United States of America 79C8 Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material: Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.: Excerpts from the New Testament. The Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952, © 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and used by permission. Wm. B. Eerdman's Publishing Co.: Excerpts from Tertullian, Iranaeus and Hippolytus. Reprinted from The Ante Nicene Fathers by permission of the Wm. B. Eerdman's Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.: Excerpts from The Nag Hammadi Library by James M. Robinson. Copyright © 1977 by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. Reprinted by permission of E. J. Brill and Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Harvard University Press: Excerpts from Clement and Ignatius, in The Apostolic Fathers, 1912, The Loeb Classical Library, translated by Kirsopp Lake. Reprinted by permission of Harvard University Press. Lutterworth Press and The Westminster Press: Excerpts from New Testament Apocrypha, Volume I, edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher and Edgar Hennecke. English translation edited by R. McL. Wilson. Published in the U.S.A. by The Westminster Press, 1963. Copyright © 1959 J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen. English translation © 1963 Lutterworth Press. Excerpts from New Testament Apocrypha, Volume II, edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher and Edgar Hennecke. English translation edited by R. McL. Wilson. Published in the U.S.A. by The Westminster Press, 1966. Copyright © 1964 J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen. English translation © 1965 Lutterworth Press. Used by permission. Oxford University Press: Excerpts from The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, translated by Herbert Musurillo. Copyright © Oxford University Press 1972. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press. To Elizabeth Diggs and Sharon Olds in loving friendship ACKNOWLEDGMENTS T HE WRITING of this book began several years ago with research into the relation between politics and religion in the origins of Christianity. The first four chapters have been published in more technical form in scholarly journals (specific references precede the footnotes of each chapter). In preparing this volume I have generally chosen to follow the translations offered in The Nag Hammadi Library, e