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
Schmidt’s study of the Bruce Papyrus with a full text and translation
was published in the _Texte und Untersuchungen_ of von Gebhardt and
Harnack under the title _Gnostische Schriften in Koptischer Sprache
aus dem Codex Brucianus_, Leipzig, 1892. He republished the
translation of this together with one of the _Pistis Sophia_ in the
series of early Greek Christian literature undertaken by the Patristic
Committee of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences under the title
_Koptisch-Gnostische Schriften_, Bd I. Leipzig, 1905. His arrangement
of the papyrus leaves makes much better sense than that of Amélineau,
but it is only arrived at by eliminating all passages which seem to be
inconsequent and attributing them to separate works. The fragments
which he distinguishes as A and B and describes as “gnostischen
Gebetes,” certainly appear to form part of those which he describes as
the two “books of Jeû.”
Footnote 648:
Amélineau, “Notice sur le Papyrus gnostique Bruce,” _Notices et
Extraits des MSS. de la Bibl. Nat._ etc. Paris, 1891, p. 106. This
would seem to make matter the creation of God, but the author gets out
of the dilemma by affirming (_op. cit._ p. 126) that “that which was
not was the evil which is manifested in matter” and that while that
which exists is called αἰώνιος, “everlasting,” that which does not
exist is called ὕλη, “matter.”
Footnote 649:
Amélineau, _op. cit._ p. 231.
Footnote 650:
This word arrangement (οἰκονομία) occurs constantly in the _Pistis
Sophia_, as when we read (p. 193, Copt.) that the last παραστάτης by
the command of the First Mystery placed Jeû, Melchisedek, and four
other powers in the τόπος of those who belong to the right hand πρός
οἰκονομίας of the Assembly of the Light. There, as here, it doubtless
means that they were arranged in the same order as the powers above
them in pursuance of the principle that “that which is above is like
that which is below,” or, in other words, of the doctrine of
correspondences. From the Gnostics the word found its way into
Catholic theology, as when Tertullian (_adv. Praxean_, c. 3) says that
the majority of simple-minded Christians “not understanding that
though God be one, he must yet be believed to exist with his
οἰκονομία, were frightened.” Cf. Hatch, _H.L._ p. 324.
Footnote 651:
Perhaps the House or Place of Ἀλήθεια or Truth many times alluded to
in the Μ. τ. σ.
Footnote 652:
Aerôdios is shortly after spoken of as a person or power, so that
here, as elsewhere, in this literature, the _place_ is called by the
name of its ruler.
Footnote 653:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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