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THE APOCALYPSE OF ZOSTRIANOS (NAG HAMMADI VIII .

1)
AND THE BOOK OF THE SECRETS OF ENOCH

BY

MADELEINE SCOPELLO

The Coptic Apocalypse of Zostrianos (Nag Hammadi VIII. 1)1 is the


account of a heavenly trip during which divine mysteries are revealed to
the initiate, Zostrianos, by an angelic being. The framework of revelation
of this gnostic treatise seems to be linked with similar frameworks used in
several Jewish Pseudepigrapha, describing the ascensio ad caelum of the
Patriarchs. We find in these Jewish texts, as well as in Zostrianos, traces
of a ritual of royal enthronement2 of Mesopotamian origin that has be-
come, in late Jewish, Jewish-Christian and gnostic writings, a ritual of the
heavenly ascension of the initiate. The initiate, taken from earth by an
angel, is led to heaven, where he ascends progressively through the levels
of aeons. Taken in charge by an angelic entity, he is purified, anointed,
clothed with heavenly garments, crowned and enthroned. He receives a
certain number of revelations, until he reaches the highest knowledge that
God commands him to record in order to hand it down to his genos after
having come back to earth.
While this framework of the heavenly trip employed in Zostrianos
generally recalls Jewish Pseudepigrapha, two elements of this heavenly
trip refer to a precise text. In fact, the episode of the identification of
Zostrianos with the angelic Glories (Zostrianos VIII. I. 5.1 S-20) and that of
the revelation of the mysteries (VIII. 1. 128.15-20) seem to us to have been
taken, or, so to say, quoted, from the Slavonic Book of the Secrets of
Enoch (II Enoch)3. Let us examine these two passages of Zostrianos.
Zostrianos, accompanied by an angel of light, passes through the thir-
teen aeons of the inferior sphere without being stopped by their archons.
After this first ascent, he receives a baptism. We read in VIII. 1.5.15-20:
"I was baptised and I received the image of the Glories there. I became
like one of them. I left the airy earth and passed by the copies of aeons,
after washing there seven times in a living water, one for each of the
aeons". Let us recall now what is said in II Enoch ch. IX. Enoch, having
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ascended to the seventh heaven, is put before the face of the Lord. The
Lord exhorts his Glorious Ones to let Enoch stand before Him: "and the
Lord said to Michael: take Enoch and take him out of his earthly gar-
ments and anoint him with good oil and clothe him in garments of glory.
And Michael took me out of my garments and anointed me with good
oil,... and I looked at myself and I was as one of his Glorious Ones and
there was no difference of aspect" .4 The relation between the two formulae
is evident:

Zostrianos II Enoch
I received the image of the Glories I looked at myself and I was as
there. I became like one of them. one of his Glorious Ones and
there was no difference of aspect.

These formulae call for some commentary. The two passages tell us
that both Zostrianos and Enoch become equal to the Glories (or the
Glorious Ones in II Enoch). First of all, who are these Glories and what is
the consequence for the initiate of becoming himself a Glory? According
to the angelology of the author of II Enoch, the Glorious Ones are the
highest order of the Archangels: we read in II Enoch IX: "they serve the
Lord, not leaving him by night, nor going away by day, standing before
the Lord's face and doing his will".5 Michael and Gabriel have to be
counted, according to this text, among the Glorious Ones. Also in
Zostrianos, the class of the Glories has a privileged position among the
angelic categories: the Glories are the positive counterpart of each aeon
and it is their mission to save the initiate: "they are perfect thoughts that
do not perish, being models of salvation" (VIII. I.46.20).s 6
The identification of the initiate with the Glories is found at two differ-
ent moments of the heavenly trip in II Enoch and in Zostrianos.
In the Jewish Pseudepigraphon, the identification with the Glorious
Ones is the final result of the Patriarch's ascent. Enoch, having by then
reached the seventh heaven and after having overcome the hostility of the
angels, is clothed with heavenly garments and anointed by Michael. From
this moment on, Enoch can understand the divine revelations that Vreveil
communicates to him on the order of God, and write them down. Having
accomplished this task, Enoch will have the right to sit on the left of God,
closer to God than Michael.
In Zostrianos, on the contrary, the identification with the Glories takes
place at the beginning of the heavenly trip. To become like a Glory is, in
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the gnostic treatise, the conditio sine qua non for passing through the
copies of the aeons (VIII. 1.5.19) and attaining knowledge.
The allusion to the passage of II Enoch concerning the identification
with the Glories, is loaded in Zostrianos with a typical gnostic content: it
is the opposition of the archons that Zostrianos can overcome by his
identification with the Glories. This idea was already announced in II
Enoch, which alluded to the hostility of the angels surrounding God at the
sight of the privileged ascent of a man, Enoch.7 It is probable that the
mention of the angels's hostility in the Jewish Pseudepigraphon, led the
gnostic author of Zostrianos to insert the formula of the identification
with the Glories from the Book of the Secrets of Enoch into his own text.
With the help of an angel of light, Zostrianos passes through the thir-
teen aeons of the atmosphere without being seen. This provokes the reac-
tion of the archons, but Zostrianos, now like a Glory, can face the wicked
guardians of laeimarmene and say : "I became like one of them, I left the
airy earth and passed by the copies of aeons" (VIII. 1.5.18-20). The theme
of the unnoticed ascent to heaven which appears in Jewish-Christian
literature, e.g., in the Ascension of Isaiah,8 probably goes back to more
ancient times. However, it becomes in Gnosticism the object of a partic-
ular reinterpretation, being applied to the figure of the Savior. 9
The Apocalypse of Zostrianos exemplifies this gnostic tendency of inter-
pretation : Zostrianos assumes the characteristics of a Savior; it is his role
to be a mediator between the highest world and the elect seed of Seth; the
seed will be saved by the revelations that Zostrianos will communicate to
him, after having come back to earth.

A second passage of the Apocalypse of Zostrianos recalls again the


Book of the Secrets of Enoch. We are now at the end of the heavenly trip
of Zostrianos to whom the mysteries of each aeon and the angelic entities
ruling them have been revealed. After the revelation of the four aeons
Autogeneis, Zostrianos is told that those who exist in matter will fade
away, because they have been ignorant of God (VIII. 1.128.15). The text
goes on as follows: "Behold, Zostrianos, you have heard all these things
that the gods do not know and which are unattainable to the angels".lo
We find the same idea of a revelation made to a human being but ignored
by angels, in II Enoch, in a formula quite close to the one in Zostrianos.
We read in II Enoch XI: "And the Lord summoned me and put me on
His left, nearer than Gabriel, and I adored the Lord. And the Lord told
me: all you have seen, Enoch, that stands without movement and that
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moves, and that has been accomplished by me, I shall explain to you even
before it appeared in the beginning, all that I created from non-being, and
from invisible to visible. For not to my angels have I explained my secret
and I have not told them their rise and they have not known my endless
and unknowable creation, and to you I explain it today".11 The central
part of the two formulae is strikingly similar:
'
Zostrianos II Enoch
Behold, Zostrianos, you have Not to my angels have I explain-
heard all these things that the ed my secret and to you I explain
gods do not know and which are it today.
unattainable to the angels.

In II Enoch, this formula, uttered by God himself, is placed after the


identification of Enoch with the Glorious Ones, and introduces the
account of the revelations communicated by God to the Patriarch. In the
gnostic treatise, on the contrary, the above formula closes the account of
the mysteries told to Zostrianos. God does not enter directly into contact
with the initiate, according to the gnostic canons of an Agnostos Theos.12
It is by a mediating entity, Youel, strictly linked to Goad, 13that Zostrianos
learns what is unknown both to the gods and to the angels. Let us notice
the addition of the "gods" mentioned along with the angels in the Apoc-
alypse of Zostrianos. These gods merely constitute one of the numerous
categories of angels filling the Pleroma that are listed by the author of
Zostrianos: judges, lights, revealers, powers, spirits, angels who bless, and
so on. 14 This multiplication of the inhabitants of the highest world is in
line with a gnostic speculation that aims at removing the divinity as far as
possible from the world, as we have just noticed in Zostrianos, by the
insertion of numberless angelic beings.
After having attained knowledge, Zostrianos participates to the un-
animous blessing of the angels glorifying the Hidden Aeon, the Virgin
Barbelo and the Invisible Spirit (VITL 1.129.10). Thus he becomes all-
perfect, is written in glory, is sealed, and receives a crown of perfection.
Could we affirm that the author of Zostrianos has taken the two passa-
ges we have just examined from II Enoch? The relation between the two
passages of Zostrianos with those of the Jewish Pseudepigraphon is con-
siderable and permits us to suggest that the gnostic author could have
known the Book of the Secrets of Enoch, or, at least, some books related
to II Enoch.
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The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, written by a Jew in Egypt in the


Roman period 15 could have been part of the stock of knowledge of a
cultivated man such as the author of Zostrianos. This case is not, how-
ever, an isolated one. Some works of Enochic literature were in fact
known in the gnostic milieu. Texts such as the Kore Kosmou,16 a gnosticis-
ing writing composed in Egypt, and the Apocalypse of Asclepiusl' counted
among their sources I Enoch (Ethiopic Enoch).18 Similarly, Pistis Sophia,
of Egyptian origin as well, did not ignore the speculations about the tree
of life of I Enoch, but made explicit reference to it.19
We can therefore remark that a whole gnostic milieu in Egypt knew the
Enochic literature and had made it the object of careful reflection.
The Apocalypse of Zostrianos, with its two allusions to II Enoch which
we have just analysed, gives us a further confirmation of the diffusion of
Enochic literature in a gnostic milieu.

However, the Book of the Secrets of Enoch is not the only instance of
contact between Zostrianos and Jewish intertestamental literature. In
fact the language of Zostrianos is partly built on expressions and formulae
that have a clear Jewish background. In this perspective, let us read the
passage of Zostrianos VIII. 1.3.15-24. After having left the somatic dark-
ness and the femininity of desire, Zostrianos judges negatively the dead
creation within him and the Cosmocrator of this world. This guilty con-
science leads him to question himself about the upper world and the
nature of God:
"I was meditating to understand these matters / and I kept bringing
them up daily, according / to the custom of my race, to the God / of my
fathers. I kept uttering the praise / of all these, because my Patriarchs /
and my fathers have sought (and) have found. / As for me, I did not cease
seeking / a place of rest worthy of my spirit / as I was not yet bound in the
perceptible world."
This passage cannot but recall the customs of the Essenic Congregation
and some of its elements deserve a commentary. First of all, the medita-
tion. Zostrianos devotes himself to the meditation of divine matters in
order to understand them. The language employed in these lines of
Zostrianos emphasizes the effort of knowledge to comprehend the heaven-
ly secrets. Let us remember that a Book on Meditation is mentioned several
times in the Qumran texts and seems to have constituted the basic instruc-
tion for the members of the Congregation. Meditation in Zostrianos
3.15-24 is described as perpetual, daily, continuous. Some writings
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describing the customs of the Essenes use the very same language and
accent on meditation as Zostrianos and call for attention : "and let always
be present where are the Ten, a man studying the Law day and night, con-
stantly" (Rule of the Congregation VI.6-7); "I shall bless Him and I shall
meditate on His strength" (ibid., X.16); "according to your knowledge I
shall meditate on your truth the whole day" (Hymn R = X.20) 21 and,
most of all, chapter XXII.5-6 of the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum of
Pseudo Philo: "et quare non docuistis filios vestros verba Domini quae
audistis ex nobis? Quia si erant filii vestri in meditatione legis Domini,
non seducebantur sensus eorum post sacrarium manufactum... et ideo
nunc euntes effodite sacraria quae edificastis vobis, et docete legem filios
vestros et erunt meditantes earn die ac nocte, ut fiat eis per omnes dies
vitae eorum Dominus in testimonium et iudicem".22
Some Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament have to be
compared with this passage of Zostrianos. Consider Tobit 4.5 ; 4.19 ; 12.
17-19 as well as Judith 11.17 on daily meditation and prayer.
Another expression in the quoted passage of Zostrianos must be ex-
amined. It is the expression "the God of my Fathers", to whom Zostrianos
addresses his prayer. This formula has a clear Jewish origin too, and finds
several parallels: LXX Ode 7.26, Ode 8.51-52, Ode 12.1, I Esdras 1.50;
4.60; 8.25.58; 9.8; 3 Maccabees 7.16 ; 4 Maccabees 12.18 ; Wisdom 9.1;
Tobit 8.5 ; Judith 5.8; 7.28; 9.12; 10.8; Daniel 2.23 ; 3.26; Jubilees 31.31;
44.5; the Testaments of the XII Patriarchs : Ruben 4.10 ; Simeon 2.8 ; Juda
19.3 ; Dan 1.9a; Gad 2.5 ; Joseph 1.4 and 6.7; History of the Captivity of
Babylon 19.5; 34.823. Josephus,24 Pseudo Phil025 and the Story of Joseph
and Aseneth26 also show frequently the formula "the God of my Fathers",
most often in a context of prayer.
The insistence on tradition which can be heard in the expression "the
God of my Fathers" recurs in the allusion to the Patriarchs (Zostrianos
3.19). The Coptic expression sorp neiote (literally: the first fathers)
seems to be a semitism ('aboth harisonim = the first fathers) designating
the Patriarchs (as e.g. in Jeremiah 11.10 and in Isaiah 43.27).27 This ex-
pression, when used by Zostrianos, leads us to understand that its author
saw himself in continuity with a specific tradition, that of the Fathers of
Israel. But besides the use made by the author of Zostrianos of this Jewish
formula, we must emphasize the extent of his reinterpretation. The
Patriarchs become here Adamas, the Primordial Man, and Seth, his son,
from whom an elect seed and genos have been generated (Zostrianos
30.5-10). It is this genos that will be saved, the text tells us in Zostrianos
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131.11-20, by the revelations of Zostrianos. It is the customs of this race28


that must be followed in order to reach salvation.
The expression "place of rest" and "perceptible world" (Zostrianos
3.20-25) must also be noticed. Both have parallels in Judaism.29 They are
taken over in Zostrianos and used to symbolize the two opposite poles of
the gnostic story of salvation, from the bondage of Heimarmene to the
Anapausis of Pleroma.
Finally, the expression "holy men" in Zostrianos 4.13 ("do you re-
member that you are the father of your race... a messenger of God to you
through holy men?") cannot but evoke the Essenian literature, where the
"ishhaqodesh" functions as a technical formula to design the members of
the Congregation. 30

In conclusion: The author of the Apocalypse of Zostrianos, by his allu-


sions to the Book of the Secrets of Enoch on the one hand, by his language
based on Jewish formulae on the other, invites us to think that he might
have known the Jewish literature that developed in an Essenic milieu.
To these formulae, to these allusions, the author of Zostrianos gives a
gnostic seal, as we tried to point out. The elements of the Jewish tradition
taken up in Zostrianos, have been reinterpreted in the light of a new
ideology, the gnostic one.
The analysis of the Apocalypse of Zostrianos, as well as that of other
Nag Hammadi texts, when done in comparison with the Pseudepigrapha,
can cast a new light upon the controversial problem of the existence of a
Jewish gnosticism.

NOTES

1 The text of the Apocalypseof Zostrianos is published in The Facsimile Edition


of the Nag Hammadi Codices, Codex VIII (Leiden 1976) 1.1-132.9. A translation by
J. Sieber is published in The Nag Hammadi Library in English,ed. J. M. Robinson (San
Francisco 1977)368-393.
2 More precisely, two Jewish texts have to be quoted: The Testament of Levi ch.
VIII and II Enoch ch. IX. I treated this problem in Un rituel idéal d'intronisation dans
trois textes gnostiquesde Nag Hammadi in Nag Hammadi and Gnosis,papers read at the
First International Congress of Coptology, Cairo, December 1976, ed. R. McL. Wilson
(Leiden 1978)91-95. The Jewish background of the Testamentof Levi is controversial:
M. Philonenko, Les interpolations chrétiennes des Testaments des XII Patriarches in
Cahiers de la Revued'Histoire et de PhilosophieReligieuses,n° 35 (Paris 1960)sees it as
an Essenic text. G. Kretschmar, Beiträge zur Geschichteder Liturgie insbesondereder
Taufliturgiein Ägypten, in Jahrbuch für Liturgik und Hymnologie 8 (1963) 1-54, sees
Test. Levi as a Jewish-Christian work.
383
3 Edition and translation by A. Vaillant, Le Livre des Secrets d'Hénoch, (Paris
1952).
4 In A. Vaillant, op. cit., 26.18-27.2.
5 Ibid., 23.11-13.
6 For the angelic category of the Glories, see also The Gospel of Egyptians, NH
III.2.41.22; 43.12; 44.15; 50.7; 53.22; 54.4.25; 55.24; IV.2.51.14; 54.24; 55.5.6; 56.14;
57.5; 58.1; 62.7; 65.16.22; 66.13; 73.22; 78.15. Allogenes, NH XL3.50.20; 52.14;
55.13.18.34; 57.25.
7 We read in II Enoch IX (ed. A. Vaillant, 25.16-18): "and the Lord tried his
servants and told them: let Enoch ascend and stand before my face for ever". Let us
note that in II Enoch the good angels themselvesreact against the Patriarch. The theme
of the protest of the angels, seeing Enoch's ascension and of God's preference towards
him (revelation of the mysteries), is largely attested in III Enoch (ed. H.Odeberg,
3 Enoch or the Hebrew Book of Enoch, repr. New York, 1973), ch. 1.3: "Lord of the
Universe, I pray thee... be valid for me in this hour, so that Qasfiel(the guardian of the
seventh hall), the prince, and the angels with him may not get power over me nor throw
me down from the heavens" and in 1.7-8: "as soon as the princes of the Merkaba and
the flaming Seraphim perceived me, they fixed their eyes upon me. Instantly trembling
and shuddering seized me and I fell down and was benumbed by the radiant image of
their eyes and the splendid appearance of their faces; until the Holy One, blessed be
He, rebuked them, saying: my servants, my Seraphim and my Ophannim! cover ye
your eyes before Ishmael, my son, my friend, my beloved and my glory, that he tremble
not nor shudder!". Cf. also 3 Enoch II.2; IV.7-8; VI.2-3 (the protest of the angels
against the revelation of secrets to Enoch); XI. 1; XII.1; LXVIII (D).7.
8 Ascensionof Isaiah (ed. G. H. Box, The Apocalypseof Abrahamand the Ascension
of Isaiah, London, 1919, pp. 29-62) X.8-11: "go forth and descend through all the
heavens, and Thou wilt descend to the firmament and that world: to the angel in Sheol
Thou wilt descend but to Haguel Thou wilt not go. And Thou wilt become like unto the
likeness of all who are in the five heavens. And thou wilt be careful to become like
the form of the angels of the firmament. And none of the angels of that world shall
know that Thou art Lord with Me of the seven heavens and of their angels". Cf. also
X.20.25.26.27.29.30.31;XI.26.27.28.29.30.
9 The same theme appears in some texts of the Nag Hammadi Library: The
Apocalypse of Adam, NH V.5.77.13; The Paraphrase of Shem, NH VII.1.19.22 and
especially The IInd Treatise of the Great Seth, NH VII.2.55.36-56.32: "their Ennoias
did not see me, for they were deaf and blind and I subjected all their powers. For as I
came downward, no one saw me. For I was altering my shapes, changing from form to
form. And therefore, when I was at their gates, I assumed their likeness. For I passed
them by quietly, and I was viewing the places and I was not afraid nor ashamed for I
was undefiled". Cf. ibid., 51.24ss. See also Testimonyof Truth, NH IX.3.74.20-26 and
Pistis Sophia I, ch. 28 (ed. C. Schmidt, translation V. Macdermot, Nag Hammadi
Studies IX, Leiden, 1978).
10 Analogous formulae can be found in the IInd Apocalypseof James, NH V.4.
56.17ss: "my beloved! behold, I shall reveal to you those things that (neither) the
heavens nor their archons have known. Behold, I shall reveal to you those (things)
that he did not know".
11 In A. Vaillant, op. cit., 29.1-9. A
parallel text can be found in 3 Enoch XI.1:
"Henceforth the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed to me all the mysteries of Tora and
all the secrets of wisdom and all the depths of the Perfect Law; and all living beings'
thoughts of heart and all the secrets of the universe and all the secrets of creation were
revealed unto me even as they are revealed unto the Maker of creation".
12 Cf. E. Norden, Agnostos Theos,
Untersuchungenzur Formengeschichtereligiöser
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Rede (Leipzig 1913)and A. J. Festugière, La Révélationd'Hermès Trismégiste,vol. IV,


Le Dieu Inconnuet la Gnose (Paris 1954).
13 Youel, "the one pertaining to the
Glories", described as a male virgin revealing
mysteries to the initiate, can be found in some texts of the Nag Hammadi Library:
Gospelof Egyptians, NH III.2.50.2; 53.25; 55.22; 62.6; IV.2.56.20; 59.23; Zostrianos,
NH VIII.1.52.14; 54.17; 63.11; 125.14; Allogenes,NH XI.3.50.20; 52.14; 55.18.34;
57.25. The name Youel cannot but remind the name of Iaoel, the privileged angel that
conducts Abraham on his celestial journey, and whose name contains the Tetragram-
maton, in the Apocalypseof Abraham ch. X: "I am called Iaoel by Him who moveth
that which existeth with me on the seventh expanse upon the firmament, a power in
virtue of the ineffable Name that is dwelling in me" (translation by G. H. Box, op. cit.,
46-47). The Gospelof Egyptians (NH III.2.65.23-26) preserves the Jewish tradition of
Iaoel-Iouel associated with the Name of God. In the Nag Hammadi texts, Iouel seems
to have been identified with Barbelo, the feminine entity emanating from the First
Power. I dealt with this topic in a paper "Youel et Barbélo dans les textes de Nag
Hammadi", read at the ColloqueInternational sur les textes de Nag Hammadi, Univer-
sité Laval, Canada, August 1978, to be published in the Acts of this Colloque in 1980.
G. Quispel already identified Barbelo (Abr-belo) as Iaoel in C. C. Jung und die Gnosis,
in Eranos Jahrbuch XXXVII (1968) 293. Cf. also A. F. Segal, TwoPowers in Heaven,
Early Rabbinic Reports about Christianity and Gnosticism(Leiden 1977) p. 65 n. 20,
p. 170, 196, 197on Iaoel.
14 Cf. SophiaJesu Christi, NH III.4.102.5ss ("he created for himself gods and
angels
and archangels"); parallel text in Eugnostosthe Blessed,NH II.3.77.20ss; Sophia Jesu
Christi, NH III.4.11.15ss: "for by his concurrence and his thought the powers were first
revealed who were called gods. And the gods of the gods by their wisdom revealed
gods; by their wisdom they revealed lords; and the lords of the lords revealed lords by
their thinking. And the lords by their power revealed archangels. The archangels by
their words revealed angels". Parallel text in Eugnostos, NH III.3.87.10. Cf. The
Conceptof our Great Power, NH VI.4.37.10 (gods and angels) and ibid., 39.8 (the gods
and the angels and the powers); Melchizedek,NH IX.1.2.9-10 (female gods and male
gods together with their archangels). See also Epiphanius, Panarion 37.4.1 (the world is
created by aeons, gods, virtues, angels), quoted by H. Ch. Puech, "Fragments retrouvés
de l'Apocalypse de l'Allogène" in En quête de la Gnose, I La Gnose et le Temps(Paris
1978)286, note 2.
15 On the origin of II Enoch, see J. T.
Milik, Problèmes de la littérature hénochique
in HTR 64 (1971) 333-378, and A. Caquot, La pérennité du sacerdoce in Mélanges
offerts à Marcel Simon.Paganisme, Judaisme, Christianisme(Paris 1978) 109-116.
16 Kore Kosmouin Hermès
Trismégiste, Corpus Hermeticum, Fragments extraits de
Stobée, ed. A. J. Festugière, vol. IV (Paris 1954) 1-22.
17 Apocalypse of Asclepius, in Corpus Hermeticum,
op. cit., vol. II (Paris 1960)
296-355, also found in Nag Hammadi Codex VI.8.65.15-78.43.
18 On the Jewish sources of these two
writings, see M. Philonenko, La plainte des
âmes dans la Koré Kosmou,in Proceedingsof the International Colloquiumon Gnosticism
(Stockholm 1977) 153-156 and, of the same author, Une allusion de l'Asclepius au
Livre d'Hénoch in Christianity, Judaism and other Graeco-Roman Cults, Studies for
Morton Smith at sixty, ed. J. Neusner, II, Early Christianity (Leiden 1975) 161-163.
19 Pistis Sophia, ed. cit., book II, ch. 99
(p. 247) and book III, ch. 134 (p. 349).
20 Cf. A. Dupont-Sommer, Les Écrits Esséniens découverts
pres de la Mer Morte
(Paris 31968)85-86.
21 Cf. also Rule of the CongregationX.9-10: "I shall
sing in the knowledge ... when
day and night will arrive, I shall enter in the Alliance of God". Hymn P=IX.7: "my
soul was meditating on your marvels". Hymn S=XI.5-7: "on my tongue a song of
385

blessing .... I sing your graces and meditate the whole day. I shall bless constantly your
Name". Hymn U=XII.3-4: "I shall bless your Name ... with blessings and actions of
grace and with prayer ... supplying you constantly".
22 Ed. C. Perrot, P. M. Bogaert, D. J. Harrington, Pseudo-Philon, Les Antiquités
Bibliques, I-II (Paris 1976). The problem of the controvers (Essenic?) origin of the
LAB is discussed in the vol. II of C. Perrot, pp. 30-31.
23 Ed. K. H. Kuhn, A Coptic Jeremiah Apocryphon in Le Muséon LXXXIII (1970),
95-135 and 291-350.
24 See K. H. Rengstorf, A Complete Concordanceto FlaviusJosephus (Leiden 1975)
II, at vεóς.
25 Liber AntiquitatumBiblicarum 10.4; 22.3.5.7; 25.6; 43.7; 47.1.2.
26 Joseph and Aseneth8.10, ed. M. Philonenko, Joseph et Aséneth(Leiden 1968)157.
27 Isaiah 43.27 has the expression in the singular: "your first father has sinned".
The LXX translate with a plural: oi πατεπες υµων πρωτoi. Cf. also Deuteronomy
19.14where the hebrew "the first" becomes oi πατερεςin LXX.
28 The formula "according to the custom of my race" has a quite evident Jewish
background too. Cf. Judith 13.10:
See also Judith 6.20; 8.33; 9.14; 12.3 on the race. Josephus and
Philo employ often the expressions such as or
(for Josephus, see K. H. Rengstorf, op. cit., II, at εvoς.For Philo, see
I. Leisegang, PhilonisAlexandrini Opera quae supersunt, Indices ad Philonis Alexandrini
Opera (Berlin 1930)VII.2, at εvoς).
29 For the place of rest, cf. Joseph and Aséneth, ed. cit., 22.9; cf. 8.11 and 15.7. For
the perceptible world (6 αiσvητòςκóσµoς), in Greek in Zostrianos, see Philo, De
CongressuEruditionisgratia 117; De Ebrietate 30; Quod Deus sit immutabilis31.
30 Rule of the CongregationV.13.18; VIII.17.23 ;IX.8. Cf. also Psalms of Solomon
III.8b ( ); IV.6.8; VIII.23;
X.6; XIII.10.12; XIV.3.10. On these Psalms, probably of Essenic origin, see A.
Dupont-Sommer, Compte-rendu des conférences, Annuaire de l'École Pratique des
Hautes Études, IVème section, 1964-1965,pp. 137-144.

Strasbourg, Faculté de Théologie Protestante, Palais Universitaire 67084

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