Apocryphal books (New Testament); Christian heresies -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Gnosticism
It must be noted that nearly all the first part of this Document is full
of invocations or prayers couched in the apparent gibberish before
mentioned, that “Mary”—whether the Mother of Jesus or the Magdalene is
not stated—asks one question only, that the planet Venus is called
“Bubastis,” Egyptian, Greek, and Hebrew magic and astrology being
present in nearly every line, while there is some little trace of
Persian influence as well. It is also closely connected with one of the
documents of the _Bruce Papyrus_, where the peculiar sacrament here
celebrated by Jesus is described on similar lines and is followed by the
celebration of the other already mentioned; while in another Document of
the same Papyrus the name of Pistis Sophia is given in connection with a
place of repentance. The story of the Samaritan woman and of the spear
thrust at the Crucifixion is also mentioned in this Fourth Document,
these being the first unmistakable quotations from the Fourth Gospel to
be found in our text.
* * * * *
The FIFTH DOCUMENT is, as has been said above, the shortest of all, and
has lost its title in the gap of four leaves in the British Museum MS.
It is entirely concerned with the punishments assigned to different
sins; and as sedition, lust, and robbery with violence appear in the
Fourth Document as sins punishable in the Middle Way, but are not
mentioned in the present fragment, we may presume that they were dealt
with in the part lacking, and probably occupied at least three of the
missing pages. But the Baptism of Fire and the Holy Spirit which Jesus
is going to celebrate when the _lacuna_ occurs, if treated at the same
length as in the _Bruce Papyrus_, can hardly have taken up less than the
other five missing pages, and it is therefore plain that nothing in
addition to these punishments can have occupied the missing beginning of
this Document. After this the Fifth Document begins with a broken
sentence containing the punishment of the man who curses, and then goes
on to describe the punishment of the evil speaker, the murderer, the
habitual thief, the proud man, the blasphemer, the sodomite, and the
celebrant of the filthy parody of the Eucharist known as the Black
Mass.[39] In one or other of those cases, the four hells of Amente,
Chaos, the Middle Way, and the Outer Darkness are introduced, the
punishments in them being successive, and we read again here the names
of Ariel and Ialdabaoth who are mentioned in the Third Document, as
those of torturers in Amente and Chaos respectively. So, too, we hear
again of the cup of forgetfulness which in the Third Document is
administered to the soul after it has been shown the punishments in
order that it may profit nothing on reincarnation by its knowledge of
their terrors. But here the punishments are so different from those
formerly described that we see at once we are dealing with a different
author.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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