Read Lost scriptures: books that did not make it into the New Testament Online
Authors: [edited by] Bart D. Ehrman
Tags: #Biblical Reference, #Bible Study Guides, #Bibles, #Other Translations, #Apocryphal books (New Testament), #New Testament, #Christianity, #Religion, #Biblical Commentary, #Biblical Studies, #General, #History
minds did not see me, for they were deaf
the height, will not speak about the error
and blind. But in doing these things, they
which is here, nor transport itself from
render judgment against themselves.
these aeons, since it will be transported
As for me, on the one hand they saw
when it becomes a free person and expeme; they punished me. Another, their farience nobility in the world, standing bether, was the one who drank the gall and fore the Father without trouble and fear,
the vinegar; it was not I. They were hitalways mixed with the mind of ideal ting me with the reed; another was the
power. They will see me from every side
one who lifted up the cross on his shoulwithout hatred. For while they see me, der, who was Simon. Another was the
they are being seen, being mixed with
one on whom they put the crown of
them. As for me, since they did not put
thorns. But I was rejoicing in the height
me to shame, they were not shamed. As
over all the riches of the archons and the
for me, since they were not afraid before
offspring of their error and their conceit,
me, they will pass by every gate without
and I was laughing at their ignorance.
fear, and they will be perfected in the
And all their powers I brought into subthird glory. I was the one whose cross the jection. For when I came down no one
world did not accept, (my) apparent exsaw me. For I kept changing my forms altation, my third baptism in an apparent
above, transforming from appearance to
image, when they had fled from the fire of
appearance. And on account of this,
the seven authorities. And the sun of the
when I was at their gates I kept taking
powers of the archons set, darkness overtheir likeness. For I passed them by quitook them, and the world became poor.
etly, and I was viewing the places, and I
After they bound him with many redid not fear nor was I ashamed, for I was straints, they nailed him to the cross, and
undefiled. And I was speaking with them,
they fastened him with four nails of
mixing among them through those who
bronze. The veil of his temple he tore
are mine, and I tread on those who are
with his hands. There was a trembling
harsh to them jealously, and the fire I
that overcame the chaos of the earth, for
extinguished.
the souls which were in the sleep below
THE SECOND TREATISE OF THE GREAT SETH
85
were released, and they were resurrected.
worldly concerns and discarded worship,
They walked about boldly, having laid
being few (and) uninstructed.
aside jealousy of ignorance and unlear
They do not accept for themselves the
nedness beside the dead tombs, having
nobility of the truth, hating the one for
put on the new man, having come to
whom they exist and loving the one for
know that blessed and perfect one of the
whom they do not exist. For they did not
eternal and incomprehensible Father and
know the Gnosis of the Greatness, that it
of the boundless light, which I am. When
is from above and (from) the fountain of
I came to my own and joined them with
truth. And it is not from slavery and jealmyself, there was no need for many ousy and fear and love of worldly matter.
words, for our thought was with their
For that which is not theirs and that which
thought; on this account they understood
is theirs they use without fear and with
what I was saying, for we took counsel
freedom. They do not covet because they
concerning the destruction of the arhave authority and a law from themselves chons. And on this account I did the will
over the things which they would desire.
of the Father, which I am.
But those who do not have are poor,
When we went forth from our home,
namely, those who do not possess somewhen we came down to this world and thing and yet they desire it. And they lead
came into being in the world in bodies,
astray those who through them are like
we were hated and persecuted, not only
those who have the truth of their freedom,
(by) those who are ignorant, but by those
so as to constrain us under a yoke and
also who think that they are advancing
compulsion of concern and fear. This one
the name of Christ, since they are vain in
is in slavery. And this one who is brought
ignorance. They do not know who they
by compulsion of violence and threat has
are, like unreasoning beasts. Those who
been guarded by God. But the noble-born
were set free by me they persecute, since
one of the Fatherhood is not guarded,
they hate them—those who, if they shut
since he guards that which is his own by
their mouth, would weep with groaning
himself, without word or compulsion. He
without profit because they did not know
is united with his will, this one who is of
me completely. Instead, they served two
the thought alone of the Fatherhood, that
masters, even a multitude. But you (pl.)
(the Fatherhood) may become perfect
will be victorious in everything, in war
and unutterable through the living water,
and battles and schism of jealousy and
if it exists in wisdom among yourselves
anger. But in the uprightness of our love
not only in word of hearing but in deed
we are without deceit, pure, good, having
and fulfilled word.
the mind of the Father in an ineffable
For the perfect are worthy to be estabmystery. For it (the world) was a laughlished in this way. And they are joined ingstock. It is I who bear witness that it
with me in order that they may not share
was a laughingstock—since the archons
in any enmity. In a wholesome friendship
do not know that it is an ineffable union
I accomplish everything in the Good
of undefiled truth, like that which exists
One, for this is the joining of truth, that
among the children of the light, of which
they should have no adversary. But
they made an imitation, proclaiming the
everyone who causes division—and he
doctrine of a dead man and falsehoods to
will learn none of their wisdom because
resemble the freedom and purity of the
he causes division and is not a friend—
perfect assembly, uniting themselves in
he is an enemy to them all. But the one
their doctrine to fear and slavery and
who lives in agreement and friendship of
86
NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS
brotherly love by nature and not by dein order to know him, until they come to cree, wholly and not in part, this one is
know the Son of Man.
truly the will of the Father. This one is
But concerning my Father, I am the
the universal and the perfect love.
one whom the world did not know, and
For Adam was a laughingstock, and he
on this account, it rose up against me and
was created from the image of a pattern
my brethren. But we are innocent with reof a man by the Hebdomad, as though he spect to it; we did not sin. For the Archon
had become stronger than I and my brethwas a laughingstock because he said, “I ren. We are innocent with respect to him,
am God, and there is none greater than I.
since we did not sin. And Abraham was a
I alone am the Father, the Lord, and there
laughing stock, and Isaac and Jacob,
is no other beside me. I am a jealous God,
since they were given a name by the Hebbringing the sins of the fathers upon the domad, namely “the fathers from the imchildren for three and four generations,”3
age,” as though he had become stronger
as though he had become stronger than I
than I and my brethren. We are innocent
and my brethren. But we are innocent
with respect to him, since we did not sin.
with respect to him; for we did not sin.
David was a laughingstock since his son
Though we mastered his doctrine in this
was named the Son of Man, having been
way, he lives in conceit, and he does not
activated by the Hebdomad, as though he
agree with our Father. And thus through
had become stronger than I and the
our friendship we prevailed over his docfriends of my race. But we are innocent trine, since he is arrogant in conceit and
with respect to him; we did not sin. Soldoes not agree with our Father. For he omon was a laughingstock, since he
was a laughingstock with (his) judgment
thought that he was Christ, having beand false prophecy.
come arrogant through the Hebdomad, as
O those who do not see! You do not see
though he had become stronger than I and
your blindness that this is who was not
my brethren. But we are innocent with reknown. Neither did they ever know him, spect to him; I did not sin. The 12 prophnor did they understand him. Concerning ets were laughingstocks, since they have
him they would not listen to a valid recome forth as imitations of the true port. On this account they trained in a
prophets. They came into being from the
judgment of error, and they raised their
image of the Hebdomad, as though it had
defiled, murderous hands against him as
become stronger than I and my brethren.
if they were striking the air. And the
But we are innocent with respect to it,
senseless and the blind are senseless alsince we did not sin. Moses was a laughways, being slaves always of law and ingstock, a “faithful servant,” being
worldly fear. I am Christ, the Son of Man,
named “the friend”; they bore witness
the one from you (pl.) who is in you. I am
concerning him in iniquity, since he never
despised on your account, in order that
knew me. Neither he nor those before
you yourselves may forget what is
him, from Adam to Moses and John the
changeable. And do not become female,
Baptist, none of them knew me nor my
lest you give birth to their evils and kinbrethren. For a doctrine of angels is what dred things: to jealousy and schism, anarose through them, to keep dietary rules ger and wrath, fear and a divided heart
and bitter slavery. They never knew truth
and vain coveting which is not fulfilled.
nor will they know it, for there is a great
But I am an ineffable mystery to you. . . .
deception upon their soul, and they have
no ability to find a mind of freedom ever,
3Isa 45:5–6; Exod 20:5.
The Secret Gospel of Mark
The Secret Gospel of Mark is a longer edition of Mark’s Gospel that has been known only since 1958.1 While cataloguing manuscripts in the library of the Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Saba, located south-east of Jerusalem, an American scholar, Morton Smith, came upon a seventeenth-century edition of the letters of Ignatius. According to Smith’s own account,2
the final blank pages of this volume had been used by an eighteenth-century scribe to copy a portion of a letter allegedly from Clement of Alexandria, a church father who lived at the end of the second century and the beginning of the third. In this letter, Clement indicates that Mark had produced two versions of his Gospel, one for church members at large and the other for the spiritual elite who could grasp the full mysteries of the Kingdom.
Clement indicates that this second expanded edition, the so-called Secret Gospel, had been entrusted to the Christians of Alexandria, his own city, but that it had come to be misused by members of the Carpocratian sect, a group of Gnostic Christians known for their illicit sexual rituals.
Clement then narrates two of the accounts found in the Secret Gospel.
The contents of the stories, especially the first, show why this version of the Gospel could have seemed so dangerous to the church at large, and so interesting to the Carpocratians. Jesus raises a youth from the dead, who then loves Jesus and begs to be allowed to stay with him (the story is reminiscent of both the raising of Lazarus in John 11 and of the story of the “rich young man” of Matt 17:16–22 and Mark 10:17–31). After six days, the youth comes to Jesus in the evening, clothed with nothing but a linen garment over his naked body (cf. Mark 14:51). They spend the night together, with Jesus teaching the youth the mystery of the kingdom of God.
The highly unusual character of this story—in particular its homoerotic overtones—have led scholars to debate virtually every aspect of the
“Secret Gospel.” Did Clement of Alexandria actually write this letter, 1For a full account, which focuses to some extent on the question of whether or not the Secret Gospel, and the letter of Clement that contains it, were forged, see Ehrman,
Lost
Christianities
, 67–89. 2See
The
Secret
Gospel:
The
Discovery
and
Interpretation
of
the
Secret
Gospel
according
to
Mark
(New York: Harper & Row, 1973).