Dialogue of the Saviour

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The Dialogue of the Savior is one of the New Testament apocrypha texts that was found within the Nag Hammadi library of predominantly gnostic texts.

The text is somewhat peculiarly constructed, containing also a few large interruptions seemingly out of place within, and only superficially edited into, the dialogue. Starting with a series of questions ultimately concerning esoteric knowledge and its pursuit, the text abruptly turns to a description of the origin of the world, interrupted briefly by a return to dialogue. Having expounded the description of creation, it returns to the gnostic question and answer session about how to achieve salvation via gnosis, but is abruptly interrupted by a natural history list of the Four Elements, the powers of heaven and earth, and so forth.

After the history list, there is an apocalyptic vision, in which Didymous Judas Thomas, Mary, and Matthew, are shown hell from the safety of the edge of the earth, and an angel announces that the material world was an unintended evil creation (see Yaltabaoth). Finally, the text returns to the question-based dialogue.

The rather artificial manner in which other texts (the vision of hell, the natural history list, and the creation theory) appear to have been inserted into a question-based dialogue, and the abrupt change half way through from referring to Jesus as Lord to referring to him as Saviour, has led many to propose that it is based on four or five different original works. However, due to the damage that the text has suffered, study of it has so far proven too difficult to identify what these texts might be (although the dialog shares an affinity with the Gospel of Thomas).

Although the text appears to be misogynist in its command to destroy the works of femaleness, it is generally considered that this was a reference to destroying sexuality and thus reproduction, thus suppressing carnal desire.

Text and date

The text was found within in a single Coptic codex, and is heavily damaged, resulting in numerous missing words, phrases, and sometimes entire passage. Enough of the text is intact, however, to discern its basic outline and teaching.

The surviving portions indicate that the general content is a dialogue with Jesus, in a similar manner to the Gospel of Thomas. However, most scholars who have studied the text believe it to be a composite work, consisting of the original dialog between Jesus, Matthew, Mary (Magdalene), and Judas (either Dydumus Judas Thomas or Judas Iscariot). A lengthy introduction appears to have been added to this, and other material as been inserted into the dialog, interrupting its flow.

Some writers, such as Helmut Koester and Elaine Pagels, hold the core of the work to be quite early, possibly as early as the first century and preceding the Gospel of John. Other consider it to have been written in the early to mid second century. The current text appears to have been copied in sometime in the third century. The Nag Hammadi texts as a whole were buried sometime in the fourth century, possibly as a result of an episcopal edict commanding their destruction. They were discovered by Arab peasants in Egypt digging for fertilizer in 1945.

Summary

Introduction

The text open with "the Savior" speaking to his diciples, in which he explains that the time has already come "for us to abandon our labor and stand at rest. For whoever stands at rest will rest forever." Anger in particular must not be aroused.

Those who know the Father are "the elect and solitary," who have believed the truth. In a manner reminiscent of the Lord's Prayer, the Savior instructs the disciple to pray:

Hear us, Father, just as you heard your only-begotten son, and received him, and gave him rest... You are the thinking and the entire serenity of the solitary... Through your sacrifice, these will enter; through their good works, these have saved their souls from these blind limbs, so that they might exist eternally. Amen.

The prayer is interpreted by some commentators as an invitation to an initiation, either baptism or the gnostic ceremony of the "bridal chamber," both of which are referred to later on in the text.

The Savior continues, teaching his disciples about "the time of dissolution" which is soon arrive, during which they must adhere to the truth and pass through the fearful "crossing place" with a "single mind." Unfortunately, the text here is badly damaged.

The diaolog

At this point, the dialog begins in earnest. Matthew, Mary, and Judas take turns asking Jesus questions, to which he responds with answer that appear extremely cryptic to modern readers unfamiliar with the gnostic cosmology presupposed by the text, which seems to be intended for catechumens who have already received basic instruction and are preparing for initiation.

"The lamp of the body is the mind," Jesus says. "As long as the things inside you are set in order... your minds are luminous."

Judas asks to be told "what was before the heaven and the earth existed." The Lord replies, hearkening back to the story of Genesis, that "There was darkness and water, and spirit upon water." He continues, however, in a more recognizably gnostic vein: "When the Father established the cosmos... and his word came forth from it, and it inhabited many [...]" Unfortunately again, the text becomes impossible to follow again, speaking of a "great fire encircling them like a wall... a great and powerful light... (which was) scattered... above and below." Judas is so enthralled by these words that, "he bowed down... and offered praise to the Lord."

Matthew request "to see that place of life, where there is no wickedness, but rather, there is pure light!" Jesus replies that "you will not be able to see it as long as you are carrying flesh around," and explains that in the meantime, the highest calling is to know oneself: "Everyone who has known himself has seen it in everything given to him to do."

In response to a question from Judas, Jesus teaches that "Whoever does not know the work of perfection, knows nothing." Perfection seems to indicate perfect knowledge, gained from living in the physical body and material world, but coming ultimately to transcend them:

If one does not stand in the darkness, he will not be able to see the light. If one does not understand how fire came into existence, he will burn in it... If one does not first understand water, he knows nothing, for what use is there for him to be baptized in it? If one does not understand how blowing wind came into existence, he will blow away with it. If one does not understand how body, which he bears, came into existence, he will perish with it.

Interlude

At this point, the dialog is temporarily halted, as Matthew, Mary, and Judas are found at the "edge of heaven and earth," where they behold a fearful vision of "an exceedingly high place and the abyss below." Here, the Son of Man greets them and summarizes the gnostic cosmology:

"A seed from a power was deficient, and it went down to the abyss of the earth. And the Greatness remembered it, and he sent the Word to it. It brought it up into his presence, so that the First Word might not fail."

This teaching amazes them, and they accept it as a matter of faith. The disciple now below two spirts bring a sing soul with them in a great flash of lightining. The Son of Man commands that a special garment be given them, "and the small one became like the big one." He promises the disciples that they may see the "Eternal Existent," which he describes as "the great vision."

Judas complains that "the governors dwell above us, so it is they who will rule us," apparent referring to the gnostic concept of unenlightened aeons and principalities which stand in the way of the believer and the "great vision." The Lord replies that "It is you who will rule over them! But when you rid yourselves of jealousy, then you will clothe yourselves in light and enter the bridal chamber." Judas asks how one the garments of the bridal chamber will be provided, and the Lord responds that they will indeed be given. However, he warns that "the garments of life were given to man because he knows the path by which he will leave. And it is difficult even for me to reach it!"

Here Mary enters the dialog not with a question but a comment relating the Lord's teaching to several well-known biblical phrases: "Thus with respect to 'the wickedness of each day,' and 'the laborer is worthy of his food,' and 'the disciple resembles his teacher.'" The narrator relates that "She uttered this as a woman who had understood completely."

Conclusion

Jesus now hints at the difficult path by which one can escape being trapped in this evil world and obtain the garments of life. "Whatever is born of truth does not die," he explains. "Whatever is born of woman dies." This refers to the idea that the physical body is the prison of the soul, but could also related to a doctrine found in some gnostic communities that the truly enlightened must refrain from sex and procreation.

Mary again speaks, not as questioner, but fellow teacher with the Lord: "There is but one saying I will speak to the Lord concerning the mystery of truth: 'In this have we taken our stand, and to the cosmic are we transparent.'"

She soon returns to the role of questioner, drawing the Lord out on another mystery. "Of what sort is that mustard seed?" she asks. "Is it something from heaven or is it something from earth?" Jesus replies: "When the Father established the cosmos for himself, he left much over from the Mother of the All. Therefore, he speaks and he acts."

Judas seeks clearer guidance: "How should we pray?" Jesus replies simply: "Pray in the place where there is no woman." Matthew explains to Judas that this means the same as "Destroy the works of womanhood." It it not, he explains, because there is any other manner of birth into this world, but "because they will cease giving birth." Judas agrees: "the works of womanhood will dissolve." (Here, it become apparent that a doctrine of refraining from procreation is intended.)

Jesus confirms that the men finally have begun to understand. "Right... Now behold! A true Word is coming forth from the Father to the abyss, in silence with a flash of lightning, giving birth... It belongs to the Father and the Son, because they are both a single [...]. And you will go via the path which you have known. Even if the governors become huge, they will not be able to reach it. But listen - I tell you that it is difficult even for me to reach it!"

The conclusion of the dialog's text, once again, is badly damaged. It concludes with an admonition that these teachings have been given "so that you will not lead your spirits and your souls into error."

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