On the evening of 9 April 2006, the National Geographic Society aired a documentary, The Gospel o... more On the evening of 9 April 2006, the National Geographic Society aired a documentary, The Gospel of Judas: The Lost Version of Christ's Betrayal. The movie showed the scholars who were members of the National Geographic team tell their stories about the recovery, reconstruction and interpretation of the 'found' Gospel of Judas. They said that this gospel presents us with a very different story of Judas Iscariot, one in which Judas is the hero, not the villain. As Jesus' 'soul-mate', Judas was asked by Jesus to kill him in order to release Jesus' spirit and bring about salvation. This opinion formed the basis for the team's book, The Gospel of Judas, released on the same day. In many ways, this line of interpretation reclaimed and affirmed the opinion of Epiphanius who said that Judas, in his gospel, betrayed Jesus because he was a strong Power from above whose knowledge was supreme. Judas knew if he betrayed Jesus, that Christ's crucifixion would d...
Because the gnostic heresy is a social construction imposed by the early Catholics on religious p... more Because the gnostic heresy is a social construction imposed by the early Catholics on religious people they identified as transgressors of Christianity, scholars are entertaining the idea that ancient gnostics were actually alternative Christians. While gnostics may have been made into heretics by the early Catholics, this does not erase the fact that gnostics were operating in the margins of the conventional religions with a countercultural perspective that upset and overturned everything from traditional theology, cosmogony, cosmology, anthropology, hermeneutics, scripture, religious practices, and lifestyle choices. Making the gnostic into a Christian only imposes another grand narrative on the early Christians, one which domesticates gnostic movements. Granted, the textual evidence for the interface of the gnostic and the Christian is present, but so is the interface of the gnostic and the Greek, the gnostic and the Jew, the gnostic and the Persian, and the gnostic and the Egypt...
Initiatory structure of Gnostic initiation; therapeutic goals of Gnostic initiation; ritual pract... more Initiatory structure of Gnostic initiation; therapeutic goals of Gnostic initiation; ritual practices and positive cognitive changes. Engages the movie, "Altered States."
Narratives of soul flights are common in ancient Mediterranean literature, sharing many similarit... more Narratives of soul flights are common in ancient Mediterranean literature, sharing many similarities such as the movement of the soul along a vertical path that is associated with life and death. But they also display significant differences such as peculiar accounts of cosmic realms, idiosyncratic reasons for soul flights, and wild diversity of associated rituals. Historical critical studies of soul flights have been unable to address successfully this problem of comparison, which remains unable to explain structures that are engineered consistently in cultural productions. Cognitive explanations are more helpful in this regard. Yet current cognitive explanations struggle to account for the differences. How can both the similarities and the differences be accounted for within the same parameters of the operations of human cognition? This paper presents a model called cognitive ratcheting to address this problem. It is a theoretical formulation of the natural mental process through which concepts take shape and are innovated when they are mentally mapped onto spatial orientations, then ratcheted up with intuitive cognition, and finally elaborated into many cultural variations by reflective thought. This process acknowledges that, at the same time a concept is diversified through reflective elaboration and ratcheted up within different cultural contexts, it retains deep structures, especially with regard to spatial orientations, intuitive processes, and reflective recursion.
Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, 2010
Like its sibling Judaism, Christianity understands itself as a revealed religion, as a religion t... more Like its sibling Judaism, Christianity understands itself as a revealed religion, as a religion that was not only disclosed through direct and immediate divine-to-human communication, but whose dogma reveals to humans the Hidden God and his will. With such a selfidentity, mysticism can scarcely be far away. Yet early Christian mysticism traditionally has been understood as a relatively late Platonic and philosophical product of patristic theology, marked particularly by Denys the Areopagite who, in the late fifth century, taught the apophatic way, where the soul escapes the created order to unite with the Unknowable God. 1 The first generations of Christianity and their foundational memories and narratives are casually brushed aside as "background" to a mysticism arising later from Christianity's fusion with neo-Platonism. 2 Although it is true that a particular strand of Christianity fused with neo-Platonism produced the type of mysticism taught and practiced by Denys, it is also true that long before Denys lived there was a rich tradition of Christian mysticism already in place, a mysticism that grew out of even older Jewish mystical traditions as I have described elsewhere. 3 It was this Christian brand of early Jewish mysticism that was the root structure which produced and sustained the new movement. It was this Christian brand of early Jewish mysticism which eventually yielded a pliable branch for a neo-Platonic graft to take hold, such as it did in the teachings of Denys. In many ways we are dealing here with the problem of semantics. When historians of Christianity talk about mysticism, it is defined by them in such a way that it explains a certain data set, particularly 1 Louth 1981:159. 2 Louth 1981. Cohn-Sherbok-Cohn-Sherbok 1994. Although McGinn does not wish to neglect the Jewish origins of Christian mysticism, his treatment of the Jewish materials hinges on fourteen pages before turning to a discussion of the Greek materials: McGinn 1992: 9-22. 3 For a treatment of the major characteristics of early Jewish and Christian mysticism, see DeConick 2006b: 1-24.
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche, 2008
The Gospel of Thomas has been a thorn in the side of biblical scholars for many years. No matter ... more The Gospel of Thomas has been a thorn in the side of biblical scholars for many years. No matter how we look at it~ it just doesn't fit the conventional categories or constructs that we have built to support our reconstruction of biblical history and literature since the Enlightenment. It is problematic because it doesnlt make sense to us in the interpretative framework we are familiar with from our training as biblical scholars either in divinity schools or university departments. It is "off' every so slightly. Jesus' words aren't remembered in the same way that they are recorded in the Synoptics. He talks about revealing ~~mysteries" to a few worthy people, rather than preaching ethics openly to crowds. He focuses on internal spirituality, turning upside down traditional apocalyptic images. He speaks favorably about singlehood, not just preferring it to marriage, but demanding it. And so forth.. Because it is "off" it is puzzling what to do with it. The easiest solutton, and one of the first in the history of interpretation on the Gospel ~f Thomas, is to understand it as a deviation from canonical tradition. If 1t doesn't match the canonical picture which we have traditionally understood to mean "orthodox" than it must be "heretical." Who were the great_ heretics? The Gnostics. So it must be a Gnostic perversion of the genu1~e ~ords of Jesus found in the canonical gospels. 1. This Is an easy solution until we start tugging at the loose fnn?es around the edges: when we realize that our category "Gnosticism" 15 a 1 Th. . dee opmlOn that the Gospel of Thomas emerged out of Naasene Gnosticism was ~elope~ by severa~ international scholars in a variety of early publications: ,~ran;~ Notes , 170-180; td./Freedmafit Secret Sayings• Schoedel "Naasene Themes ' 22. 234• Smyth, "G • • " ' ' 04 The on-. ' nostlClsm , 189-198; Comelis, "Quelques elements", 83-1 • g~ns of the Gospel of Thomas in the Valentinian Gnostic tradition was pioneere.d .b~ t thre~ scholars: Cerfaux/Garitte, "Paraboles" 307-327• Gartner Theology. The opiruW~l at 1ts th 1 ' ' ' h 1 • 1so ,. eo. ogy represents a generic Gnosticism was argued by many sc o, ars.
The correspondences between the apostles and the archons shows a progressive social demarcation o... more The correspondences between the apostles and the archons shows a progressive social demarcation over four centuries that begins as a religious lodge movement, an esoteric gathering for hierophantic teaching, attended by Jews and Christians who were still affiliated with local synagogues and churches. Ultimately, this progression culminates in the establishment of a new religious movement that can properly call Gnosticism, a movement that produces at least two great Gnostic religions, Manichaeism and Mandaeism, but also the handbook compendia of Jeu and Pistis Sophia . Pistis Sophia is dependent on the late third century Gnostic texts called the Books of Jeu . Together they comprise a compendium of Gnostic instructions about ascent and salvation. The teachings in these books do not represent a single school of Gnosis, but rather are an eclectic blend of Sethian, Valentinian, and Manichaean instructions, complete with diagrams and magical seals. Keywords: apostles; archons; Books of Jeu ; Christian literature; Gnosticism; Mandaeism; Manichaeism; Pistis Sophia ; Tchacos Codex
Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices, 2012
It very significant that Hippolytus' own description of the Peratics as a mystery cult appear... more It very significant that Hippolytus' own description of the Peratics as a mystery cult appears to be sympathetic with the Peratic author he quotes. This chapter offers brief examination of the Peratics as the first in a long-term series on the subject of Gnostic initiation as it charts the precise katabatic and astrological roads into and out of the cosmos that the Gnostics claim to have discovered and traveled during their initiations. From the information culled from Hippolytus and the Peratic book he excerpts, it is observed that the Peratics' initiation journey was structured around three, mysteries or stages of initiation. Like initiations in some of the ancient mystery cults that culminated in a revelatory vision, the Peratic initiates are told to gaze further above them to the very top of the celestial sphere where they lay their eyes on Draco, the image of the perfect serpent. Keywords:Draco; Gnostics; Hippolytus; mystery; Peratics
In 178ce, Celsus, a Greek philosopher, wrote a scathing criticism of Christianity called Logos Al... more In 178ce, Celsus, a Greek philosopher, wrote a scathing criticism of Christianity called Logos Alethes or The True Doctrine. Origen, seventy years later, wrote a massive eight-volume reply called Against Celsus. Descriptions of the diagram run throughout Origen's refutation: the description that Celsus made of the diagram in The True Doctrine alongside the description of a copy of the diagram that Origen possessed. Origen appears to be giving us more information about the contents of the diagram than does Celsus' extant description in Against Celsus. The standard historical-critical approach has not known how to envision a cultural production like the diagram described by Origen outside a linear model of origin, causation, and consequence. The Mithraic cultists depict a nocturnal pattern of ascent through the houses that has striking similarities to the ideas of Numenius and the practices of the Ophians. Keywords: Celsus; Christianity; historical-critical approach; Logos Alethes; Mithraic; Ophians; Origen
Judas' betrayal is a "righteous act, one that earns him the right to surpass" all t... more Judas' betrayal is a "righteous act, one that earns him the right to surpass" all the other disciples. In early Jewish and Christian apocalyptic traditions the concept of the daimon is amalgamated with the demonic host and evil spirits that war against God and possess human beings, tempting, tormenting and corrupting human souls. The identification of the daimon with Satan and the fallen host of angels from apocalyptic mythology are made even stronger in Sethian mythology where the heavens surrounding the earth are populated by evil archons who create and rule this world. The Gospel of Judas contains a remarkable "midrash" on the story commonly known as Peter's Confession, first spun by the Markan author. The identity of the ascender is unclear because of the fragmentary nature of the text. Jesus' laughter is the laughter of the Gnostic Christian.Keywords: early Christian literature; Gospel of Judas; Judas betrayal
The Gospel of Thomas (GT) is an ancient Christian text whose peculiarities are fiercely debated a... more The Gospel of Thomas (GT) is an ancient Christian text whose peculiarities are fiercely debated among scholars. Keywords: Christianity; literature; manuscripts
On the evening of 9 April 2006, the National Geographic Society aired a documentary, The Gospel o... more On the evening of 9 April 2006, the National Geographic Society aired a documentary, The Gospel of Judas: The Lost Version of Christ's Betrayal. The movie showed the scholars who were members of the National Geographic team tell their stories about the recovery, reconstruction and interpretation of the 'found' Gospel of Judas. They said that this gospel presents us with a very different story of Judas Iscariot, one in which Judas is the hero, not the villain. As Jesus' 'soul-mate', Judas was asked by Jesus to kill him in order to release Jesus' spirit and bring about salvation. This opinion formed the basis for the team's book, The Gospel of Judas, released on the same day. In many ways, this line of interpretation reclaimed and affirmed the opinion of Epiphanius who said that Judas, in his gospel, betrayed Jesus because he was a strong Power from above whose knowledge was supreme. Judas knew if he betrayed Jesus, that Christ's crucifixion would d...
Because the gnostic heresy is a social construction imposed by the early Catholics on religious p... more Because the gnostic heresy is a social construction imposed by the early Catholics on religious people they identified as transgressors of Christianity, scholars are entertaining the idea that ancient gnostics were actually alternative Christians. While gnostics may have been made into heretics by the early Catholics, this does not erase the fact that gnostics were operating in the margins of the conventional religions with a countercultural perspective that upset and overturned everything from traditional theology, cosmogony, cosmology, anthropology, hermeneutics, scripture, religious practices, and lifestyle choices. Making the gnostic into a Christian only imposes another grand narrative on the early Christians, one which domesticates gnostic movements. Granted, the textual evidence for the interface of the gnostic and the Christian is present, but so is the interface of the gnostic and the Greek, the gnostic and the Jew, the gnostic and the Persian, and the gnostic and the Egypt...
Initiatory structure of Gnostic initiation; therapeutic goals of Gnostic initiation; ritual pract... more Initiatory structure of Gnostic initiation; therapeutic goals of Gnostic initiation; ritual practices and positive cognitive changes. Engages the movie, "Altered States."
Narratives of soul flights are common in ancient Mediterranean literature, sharing many similarit... more Narratives of soul flights are common in ancient Mediterranean literature, sharing many similarities such as the movement of the soul along a vertical path that is associated with life and death. But they also display significant differences such as peculiar accounts of cosmic realms, idiosyncratic reasons for soul flights, and wild diversity of associated rituals. Historical critical studies of soul flights have been unable to address successfully this problem of comparison, which remains unable to explain structures that are engineered consistently in cultural productions. Cognitive explanations are more helpful in this regard. Yet current cognitive explanations struggle to account for the differences. How can both the similarities and the differences be accounted for within the same parameters of the operations of human cognition? This paper presents a model called cognitive ratcheting to address this problem. It is a theoretical formulation of the natural mental process through which concepts take shape and are innovated when they are mentally mapped onto spatial orientations, then ratcheted up with intuitive cognition, and finally elaborated into many cultural variations by reflective thought. This process acknowledges that, at the same time a concept is diversified through reflective elaboration and ratcheted up within different cultural contexts, it retains deep structures, especially with regard to spatial orientations, intuitive processes, and reflective recursion.
Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, 2010
Like its sibling Judaism, Christianity understands itself as a revealed religion, as a religion t... more Like its sibling Judaism, Christianity understands itself as a revealed religion, as a religion that was not only disclosed through direct and immediate divine-to-human communication, but whose dogma reveals to humans the Hidden God and his will. With such a selfidentity, mysticism can scarcely be far away. Yet early Christian mysticism traditionally has been understood as a relatively late Platonic and philosophical product of patristic theology, marked particularly by Denys the Areopagite who, in the late fifth century, taught the apophatic way, where the soul escapes the created order to unite with the Unknowable God. 1 The first generations of Christianity and their foundational memories and narratives are casually brushed aside as "background" to a mysticism arising later from Christianity's fusion with neo-Platonism. 2 Although it is true that a particular strand of Christianity fused with neo-Platonism produced the type of mysticism taught and practiced by Denys, it is also true that long before Denys lived there was a rich tradition of Christian mysticism already in place, a mysticism that grew out of even older Jewish mystical traditions as I have described elsewhere. 3 It was this Christian brand of early Jewish mysticism that was the root structure which produced and sustained the new movement. It was this Christian brand of early Jewish mysticism which eventually yielded a pliable branch for a neo-Platonic graft to take hold, such as it did in the teachings of Denys. In many ways we are dealing here with the problem of semantics. When historians of Christianity talk about mysticism, it is defined by them in such a way that it explains a certain data set, particularly 1 Louth 1981:159. 2 Louth 1981. Cohn-Sherbok-Cohn-Sherbok 1994. Although McGinn does not wish to neglect the Jewish origins of Christian mysticism, his treatment of the Jewish materials hinges on fourteen pages before turning to a discussion of the Greek materials: McGinn 1992: 9-22. 3 For a treatment of the major characteristics of early Jewish and Christian mysticism, see DeConick 2006b: 1-24.
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche, 2008
The Gospel of Thomas has been a thorn in the side of biblical scholars for many years. No matter ... more The Gospel of Thomas has been a thorn in the side of biblical scholars for many years. No matter how we look at it~ it just doesn't fit the conventional categories or constructs that we have built to support our reconstruction of biblical history and literature since the Enlightenment. It is problematic because it doesnlt make sense to us in the interpretative framework we are familiar with from our training as biblical scholars either in divinity schools or university departments. It is "off' every so slightly. Jesus' words aren't remembered in the same way that they are recorded in the Synoptics. He talks about revealing ~~mysteries" to a few worthy people, rather than preaching ethics openly to crowds. He focuses on internal spirituality, turning upside down traditional apocalyptic images. He speaks favorably about singlehood, not just preferring it to marriage, but demanding it. And so forth.. Because it is "off" it is puzzling what to do with it. The easiest solutton, and one of the first in the history of interpretation on the Gospel ~f Thomas, is to understand it as a deviation from canonical tradition. If 1t doesn't match the canonical picture which we have traditionally understood to mean "orthodox" than it must be "heretical." Who were the great_ heretics? The Gnostics. So it must be a Gnostic perversion of the genu1~e ~ords of Jesus found in the canonical gospels. 1. This Is an easy solution until we start tugging at the loose fnn?es around the edges: when we realize that our category "Gnosticism" 15 a 1 Th. . dee opmlOn that the Gospel of Thomas emerged out of Naasene Gnosticism was ~elope~ by severa~ international scholars in a variety of early publications: ,~ran;~ Notes , 170-180; td./Freedmafit Secret Sayings• Schoedel "Naasene Themes ' 22. 234• Smyth, "G • • " ' ' 04 The on-. ' nostlClsm , 189-198; Comelis, "Quelques elements", 83-1 • g~ns of the Gospel of Thomas in the Valentinian Gnostic tradition was pioneere.d .b~ t thre~ scholars: Cerfaux/Garitte, "Paraboles" 307-327• Gartner Theology. The opiruW~l at 1ts th 1 ' ' ' h 1 • 1so ,. eo. ogy represents a generic Gnosticism was argued by many sc o, ars.
The correspondences between the apostles and the archons shows a progressive social demarcation o... more The correspondences between the apostles and the archons shows a progressive social demarcation over four centuries that begins as a religious lodge movement, an esoteric gathering for hierophantic teaching, attended by Jews and Christians who were still affiliated with local synagogues and churches. Ultimately, this progression culminates in the establishment of a new religious movement that can properly call Gnosticism, a movement that produces at least two great Gnostic religions, Manichaeism and Mandaeism, but also the handbook compendia of Jeu and Pistis Sophia . Pistis Sophia is dependent on the late third century Gnostic texts called the Books of Jeu . Together they comprise a compendium of Gnostic instructions about ascent and salvation. The teachings in these books do not represent a single school of Gnosis, but rather are an eclectic blend of Sethian, Valentinian, and Manichaean instructions, complete with diagrams and magical seals. Keywords: apostles; archons; Books of Jeu ; Christian literature; Gnosticism; Mandaeism; Manichaeism; Pistis Sophia ; Tchacos Codex
Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices, 2012
It very significant that Hippolytus' own description of the Peratics as a mystery cult appear... more It very significant that Hippolytus' own description of the Peratics as a mystery cult appears to be sympathetic with the Peratic author he quotes. This chapter offers brief examination of the Peratics as the first in a long-term series on the subject of Gnostic initiation as it charts the precise katabatic and astrological roads into and out of the cosmos that the Gnostics claim to have discovered and traveled during their initiations. From the information culled from Hippolytus and the Peratic book he excerpts, it is observed that the Peratics' initiation journey was structured around three, mysteries or stages of initiation. Like initiations in some of the ancient mystery cults that culminated in a revelatory vision, the Peratic initiates are told to gaze further above them to the very top of the celestial sphere where they lay their eyes on Draco, the image of the perfect serpent. Keywords:Draco; Gnostics; Hippolytus; mystery; Peratics
In 178ce, Celsus, a Greek philosopher, wrote a scathing criticism of Christianity called Logos Al... more In 178ce, Celsus, a Greek philosopher, wrote a scathing criticism of Christianity called Logos Alethes or The True Doctrine. Origen, seventy years later, wrote a massive eight-volume reply called Against Celsus. Descriptions of the diagram run throughout Origen's refutation: the description that Celsus made of the diagram in The True Doctrine alongside the description of a copy of the diagram that Origen possessed. Origen appears to be giving us more information about the contents of the diagram than does Celsus' extant description in Against Celsus. The standard historical-critical approach has not known how to envision a cultural production like the diagram described by Origen outside a linear model of origin, causation, and consequence. The Mithraic cultists depict a nocturnal pattern of ascent through the houses that has striking similarities to the ideas of Numenius and the practices of the Ophians. Keywords: Celsus; Christianity; historical-critical approach; Logos Alethes; Mithraic; Ophians; Origen
Judas' betrayal is a "righteous act, one that earns him the right to surpass" all t... more Judas' betrayal is a "righteous act, one that earns him the right to surpass" all the other disciples. In early Jewish and Christian apocalyptic traditions the concept of the daimon is amalgamated with the demonic host and evil spirits that war against God and possess human beings, tempting, tormenting and corrupting human souls. The identification of the daimon with Satan and the fallen host of angels from apocalyptic mythology are made even stronger in Sethian mythology where the heavens surrounding the earth are populated by evil archons who create and rule this world. The Gospel of Judas contains a remarkable "midrash" on the story commonly known as Peter's Confession, first spun by the Markan author. The identity of the ascender is unclear because of the fragmentary nature of the text. Jesus' laughter is the laughter of the Gnostic Christian.Keywords: early Christian literature; Gospel of Judas; Judas betrayal
The Gospel of Thomas (GT) is an ancient Christian text whose peculiarities are fiercely debated a... more The Gospel of Thomas (GT) is an ancient Christian text whose peculiarities are fiercely debated among scholars. Keywords: Christianity; literature; manuscripts
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