Apocryphon of John
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The Secret Book of John (Apocryphon of John) is a 2nd century Sethian gnostic text of secret teachings, which are given a Christian context. It describes Jesus reappearing and giving private information to the apostle John after having ascended to heaven.
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[edit] Overview
The opening words of Secret Book of John are "The teaching of the saviour, and the revelation of the mysteries and the things hidden in silence, even these things which he taught John, his disciple." The author John is immediately specified as "John, the brother of James — who are the sons of Zebedee." One of the two distinct versions is thought to be the original on which the other was a large embellishment. The later version is also restructured to the extent that although both versions have the same themes, there is very little of the words and verses in common between them.
Many Christians in the 2nd century hoped to receive a transcendent personal revelation such as Paul was able to report to the church at Corinth (2 Corinthians 12:1 – 4) or that John experienced on the isle of Patmos, which inspired his Revelation (Pagels 2003, p 97 and bibliography at note 69). As Acts narrates what happened after the time Jesus ascended to heaven, so the Apocryphon of John begins at the same point but relates how Christ reappeared to John.
The remainder of the book is a vision of spiritual realms and the prior history of spiritual humanity.
[edit] History
A book called the Apocryphon of John was referred to by Irenaeus in Adversus Haereses, ca 185 AD among the writings that teachers in 2nd century Christian communities were producing, "an indescribable number of secret and illegitimate writings, which they themselves have forged, to bewilder the minds of foolish people, who are ignorant of the true scriptures" (A.H. 1.20.1) — scriptures which Irenaeus himself was establishing as no more and no less than four, the "Fourfold gospel" that his authority helped make the canonical four. Among the writings he quotes from in order to expose and refute them, which include a Gospel of Truth and even a Gospel of Judas, is this secret Book of John (Pagels 2003, p. 96 etc).
Little more was known of this text until 1945, when a cache of thirteen papyrus codices (bound books) that had been hidden away in the 4th century, was fortuitously discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt. The Apocryphon of John was among the texts, in three Coptic versions translated from the Greek. Two of the versions are very similar and represent one manuscript tradition; they incorporate a lengthy excerpt from a certain Book of Zoroaster appended to the Apocryphon (as chapters 15:29 – 19:8f) A shorter version of the Apocryphon found at Nag Hammadi does not contain the interpolation and represents another manuscript tradition. Still another version of this short edition of the text was discovered in an ancient Coptic Codex acquired by Dr. Carl Reinhardt in Cairo in 1896. This manuscript (identified as the "Berlin Gnostic Codex" or BG 8502) was used along with the three versions found at Nag Hammadi to produce the translations now available. The fact that four manuscript "editions" of this text survived -- two "long" versions and two "short versions" -- suggests how important this text was in early gnostic Christian circles. It should also be noted that in the three Nag Hammadi codices containing the Apocryphon of John, it is the first text of the collection.
[edit] Influence
The Apocryphon, set in the framing device of a revelation delivered by the resurrected Christ to John the son of Zebedee, contains among the most extensive detailing of classic dualistic Gnostic mythology that has survived, and is one of the principal texts of the Nag Hammadi library; as such, it is an essential text of study for any party interested in Gnosticism. Frederick Wisse, who translated it, asserts that "The Apocryphon of John was still used in the eighth century by the Audians of Mesopotamia" (Wisse p 104).
The creation mythology it details has been the object of study of such writers as Carl Jung and Eric Voegelin. The Apocryphon of John has become the central text for studying the gnostic tradition of Antiquity.
Tori Amos drew on the Gnostic mythology described in the Apocryphon of John in her album, The Beekeeper.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Nag Hammadi Library (at the Gnosis Archive): Apocryphon of John, translated by Frederik Wisse
- Early Christian Writings: Apocryphon of John
[edit] Sources
- Davies, Stevan, . Secret Book of John: The Gnostic Gospel, Annotated and Explained ISBN 1-59473-082-2
- Logan, Alastair H. B. 1996. Gnostic Truth and Christian Heresy. Based on the Apocryphon of John.
- Pagels, Elaine, 2003. Beyond Belief.
- Wisse, Frederick. The Nag Hammadi Library in English.de:Apokryphon des Johannes
fi:Johanneksen salainen kirja it:Apocrifo di Giovanni nl:Geheime Boek van Johannes zh:約翰密傳
