Forerunners and rivals of Christianity : $b being studies in religious history from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D., Vol. 2 (of 2)Legge, Francis
Religion
Forerunners and rivals of Christianity : $b being studies in religious history from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D., Vol. 2 (of 2)
Legge, Francis
Christianity and other religions; Religions
agreed that the Coptic Papyrus is a translation from Greek originals;
and M. Amélineau does not put this too far forward when he suggests that
it was made in the IInd and IIIrd century of our era[661]. Dr Schmidt is
probably nearer the mark when he puts the actual transcription of the
Papyrus as dating in the earliest instance from the Vth century. His
earliest date for any of the Greek originals is the first half of the
IIIrd century[662].
If now we put these later documents—the _Texts of the Saviour_ and those
contained in the Bruce Papyrus—side by side, we notice a marked, if
gradual, change of tendency from the comparatively orthodox Christianity
of the _Pistis Sophia_ proper. In the _Texts of the Saviour_ notably,
the fear of hell and its punishments is, as we have seen, present
throughout, and seems to be the sanction on which the author relies to
compel his readers to accept his teaching. In the documents of the Bruce
Papyrus this is also to be found in more sporadic fashion, nearly the
whole of the book being occupied by the means by which men are to escape
the punishment of their sins. These methods of salvation are all of them
what we have earlier called gnostical or magical, and consist simply in
the utterance of “names” given us in some sort of crypto-grammatic form,
and the exhibition of “seals” or rather impressions (χαρακτῆρες) here
portrayed with great attention to detail, which, however, remain utterly
meaningless for us. Thus to quote again from what Dr Schmidt calls the
Second Book of Jeû, Jesus imparts to His disciples the “mystery” of the
Twelve Aeons in these words:
“When you have gone forth from the body and come into the First
Aeon, the Archons of that Aeon will come before you. Then stamp upon
yourselves this seal AA, the name of which is zôzesê. Utter this
once only. Take in your two hands this number, 1119. When you have
stamped upon yourselves this seal and have uttered its name once
only, speak these defences; ‘Back! Protei Persomphôn Chous, O
Archons of the First Aeon, for I invoke Êazazêôzazzôzeôz.’ And when
the Archons of the First Aeon shall hear that name, they will be
filled with great fear, they will flee away to the West, to the Left
Hand, and you will enter in[663]”:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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