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Evangelium Eeritatis and the Epistle to the Hebrews

a
S⊘ren Giversen
a
University of Copenhagen ,
Published online: 22 Aug 2008.

To cite this article: S⊘ren Giversen (1959) Evangelium Eeritatis and the Epistle to the Hebrews, Studia Theologica - Nordic
Journal of Theology, 13:1, 87-96, DOI: 10.1080/00393385908599797

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 Evangelium Veritatis
and the Epistle to the Hebrews.
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By

SØREN GIVERSEN.

From several points of view it would seem to be useful to compare

parts of the Gospel of Truth with ideas to be found in the New Testa-
ment. It is possible that the author of the Gospel of Truth knew the
Epistle to the Hebrews; at all events, some of the thoughts expressed
in the former are sufficiently close to the thoughts in the latter to
make a comparison of the two useful.
The whole question of whether the New Testament was known to
the author of the Gospel of Truth (hereafter referred to as EV) has
been discussed by W. C. van Unnik in his "Het Jcortgeleden ontdekte
'Evangelie der Waarheid' en het Nieuwe Testament"1). Van Unnik's
conclusions are so well supported by illustrations that there can be
little doubt that his study will remain one of the most solid contribu-
tions made to the understanding of an important problem concerning
the Gospel of Truth 2 ).
Two of van Unnik's illustrations may perhaps usefully be mentioned
here. With reference to the expression in EV 20,10, that Jesus is merci-
ful and faithful (Coptic: muj&.ngHT nmicroc IHC), he points out
that while the latter epithet appears several times in the Revelation
of St John the combination of the two appears only in Hebrews 2,17.
Another illustration given by van Unnik is from EV 25,35 ff. Here

1) Mededelingen der koninklijke nederlandse akademie van wetenschappen, afd.

lettcrkunde. Nieuwe reeks, deel 17, No. 3. Amsterdam 1954.—Translated into English
in: The Jung Codex, London, 1955, p. 79-129: The "Gospel of Truth" and the New-
Testament.
2
) Van Unnik's conclusion is (p. 97): "Duidelijk blijkt het dat de Schrijver van het
E. V. de evangeliën, de paulinische brieven, Hebr. en Apoc. gekend heeft, terwijl er
sporen van Hand., 1 Joh. en 1 Petr. zijn".—Cf. The Jung Codex p. 122.
Studia Theologica. Vol. XIII. — 7
 88 Soren Giversen

the text speaks of "the judgment which has come from on high, which
has judged each one, a drawn two-edged sword which cuts on both
sides", and seems, according to van Unnik, to be echoing the passage
in Hebrews 4,12, dealing with God's word, which is "sharper than any
two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit,
of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and
intents of the heart."
It seems appropriate, however, to draw the full conclusions of van
Unnik's research, and examine the view that make their appearance
in the Gospel of Truth. The two illustrations mentioned were taken
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from the Epistle to the Hebrews, and an attempt to describe these

ideas in the Gospel of Truth may thus fittingly take the form of an
investigation of the Gospel of Truth, and the Epistle to the Hebrews,
which supplies several parallels in thought. We will therefore collate
phrases and conceptions in the two texts.
Several phrases and expressions in EV seem to echo passages in
the Epistle to the Hebrews, though without approaching a word-for-
word rendering. Moreover, in EV these thoughts have a different
flavour, and follow another line, so that there is reason to aebate
whether the author of the Gospel of Truth misunderstood the Epistle
to the Hebrews—always assuming that he had it in mind—, or whether
he deliberately interpreted it in his own way, and perhaps even dis-
torted its orginal meaning, or finally whether the resemblance of the
two texts has come about purely by chance. Lastly, certain concep-
tions from the religious life that underlie the two texts provide an
interesting basis for comparison.

I.
We read in Heb. 1,5: "For unto which of the angels said he at any
time,
Thou art my Son,
This day have I begotten thee?"
This is a quotation from Psalm 2,7, and occurs in NT also, in Heb. 5,5,
in the D-variant of Luke 3,22, and in Acts, 13,33. Now, we find a
very close parallel in EV 38,10-12: "He engendered him as a Son. He
gave Him His name which belonged to H i m . . . " (Coptic: &.q.M.ecTCj
imoirajHpe· ^.q^V neqpen. a».pô«.q ετε ne oiriÏTeq). It seems remini-
scent of Heb. 1,5. It can of course also be compared with the wording of
one of the other above-mentioned passages, but when the context of
 Evangelium Veritatis and the Epistle to the Hebrews 89

EV 38.103) and Heb. 1,5 is studied it seems evident that the wording
of EV is here closer to Heb. 1,5: the idea in Heb. 1,1-5 is that in
Christ God has given his highest revelation, for Christ is the Son who,
having purged our sins, has become so much better than the angels
that he by inheritance has obtained a more excellent name than they
(v. 4), as the OT says (v. 5). But the text also says (v. 1) that God has
spoken to us by his Son. The thought in the context of EV 38,10 is
not very different from this. Here also the Father has revealed him-
self: "For they do not pronounce the name of the Father, but he
reveals himself by his Son" (EV 38,21-24; cf. Heb. 1,1-2). Here also
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the Father has given him an excellent name, namely his own ("He
gave him his name which belonged to him", EV 38,11). This name is
here presumably not "obtained by inheritance" as in Heb. 1,4, but is
nevertheless his property (the "name which belonged to him" EV
38,11).
This very passage in the Gospel of Truth contains some interesting
speculations on the name—e.g. EV 38,6-7: "But the name of the
Father is the Son", and EV 38,8-12: "It is he who first named him
who went forth from him, and who was himself, and whom he begot
as his Son. He gave him his name, which belonged to h i m . . . " This
speculation as to the name does not appear to derive, ultimately at
least, from the Epistle to the Hebrews, but to have originated in a
speculation, widespread even in heretical circles, on the "name" of
God ; the thought found in the Gospel of Truth is probably drawn from
the same source as, for instance, the Second Book of Jeu, but it looks
as if the Gospel of Truth has here been able to make a connection with
Heb. 1,4-5. The thought in the Gospel of Truth seems to be that the
name is God himself, and since the name is God himself and the Son
is the Father's (i.e. God's) name, the Son is the manifestation of
God's revelation, a manifestation that wholly and perfectly expresses
the nature of the Father. The thought here is one common in the his-
tory of religion : that the name is the expression of the man who bears
it, and that it contains within itself all the vigour and force possessed
by the bearer; see for instance Genesis 32,27-29.
In the Old Testament "the name" is occasionally of a special,
independent character, suggesting the possibility that in some pas-
sages—e.g. Isaiah 30,27ff., Exodus 23,20—"name" is to be taken as
expressing an independent hypostasis of God. We even read that Jahve
3) For the context, see the comments on the text in Soren Giversen, Sandhedens
Evangelium (Gad's Forlag, Copenhagen 1957), p. 111-115.
 90 Soren Giversen

himself lives in heaven, but his "name" in Jerusalem, as appears

particularly clearly from I Kings 8, where it is stated, not once but
in several verses, that the temple is for "the name", while God him-
self dwells in heaven. I t is also stated here that the temple erected to
"the name" will be filled with the "glory" of the Lord. There is a
close connection between the glory of the Lord, and the name of the
Lord, as can be seen, for instance, from Exodus 33,18-19: "And he
[i.e. Moses] said, Shew me, I pray thee, thy glory. And he [i.e. the
Lord] said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and will
proclaim the name of the Lord before t h e e . . . " ; or from Psalm 8,1 :
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"O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who
hast set thy glory upon the heavens." It is not clear· how far this
hypostasis can be taken as independent, but it seems evident that it
is to expressions of this very type that later heterodox speculations
as to "the name" would be attached.
Such a speculation as to "the name" and "the glory" might also be
attached to Heb. 1,1-5, as has probably been done by the author of
the Gospel of Truth in Heb. 1,4: τοσούτω κρείττων γενόμενος των
αγγέλων δσω διαφορώτερον παρ* αυτούς κεκληρονόμηκεν όνομα, and
perhaps to the elevation in Heb. 1,3 (the elevation being in fact a
favourite subject of speculation in gnostic circles): έκάθισεν έν δεξιά
της μεγαλωσύνης εν ύψηλοΐς. Christ has inherited the name, according
to Heb. 1,3, because he is "the effulgence of his glory, and the very
image of his substance" (ος ών απαύγασμα της δόξης καΐ χαρακτήρ
της υποστάσεως αύτοο). Thus according to the Epistle to the Hebrews
Christ is the complete expression of God; he is "the very image" of
him; he is the revelation of God, and he is what man sees of God.
If we now turn to the Gospel of Truth, it appears—e.g. from
EV 38,6-28—that here too the son is the expression of God, since the
name expresses the Father: "But the name of the Father is the Son"
(EV 38,6-7 : n p e n -2>.e ΤΑπίωτ· n e nujHpe). The son is here the revea-
led, the visible being: " I t is possible for them to see him, but the name
on the other hand is invisible" (EV 38,15-17); "For, indeed, they do
not name the Father, but he reveals himself by a Son" (EV 38,21-24).
Thus it seems that in 38,6-28 the Gospel of Truth not only plays
upon or refers to the quotation from the psalm in Heb. 1,5, but is
parallel to Heb. 1,1-5 in it s whole train of thought that Christ is the
highest revelation of God, and his very image, who has spoken to man-
kind. The Gospel of Truth also conceives Christ as a revelation. But this
revelation, as EV understands it, can hardly be described as transcen-
 Evangelium Veritatis and the Epistle to the Hebrews 91

dent in the usual sense of the term ; there is no real transition from one
sphere to another ; she underlying myth of the Gospel of Truth seems
best expressed by saying that Jesus has fetched the vital book4), the
knowledge, Christ.
The Gospel of Truth, however, also reveals a tendency entirely
different from that of the Epistle to the Hebrews. For all its doctrine
of the central position of Christ, the Epistle also states (1,1): "God,
having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers
portions and in divers manners hath at the end of these days spoken
unto us in his Son . . . " In the Gospel of Truth, on the other hand,
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God speaks only once, namely through the Son; and those who are
to be saved, the pneumatics as one may call them, are therefore com-
pletely ignorant of the Father (EV 16,39-17,1 : " . . . for the salvation
of those who were ignorant of the Father . . . " , Coptic: Js.itc.OTe imeei
ÜTOigp »..TCOTTCon ηΐωτ) until the unique revelation that takes place in
the Son (EV 38,18 : " . . . that alone is the mystery of the Invisible . . . " ;
cf. EV 29,25-27). Whether this should be taken as a deliberate repu-
diation by the Gospel of Truth of all talk of a revelation in the Old
Testament, and thus also of what the Epistle to the Hebrews says
about the earlier communications, is open to discussion. It does not
seem to me to be the case, however, the more so since the Gospel of
Truth does not appear to have a polemical aim. But it is reasonably
obvious that the text lays heavy stress on the uniqueness of him who
communicates the secret gnosis, who fetched the mystical book,
"the living5) book of the Living . . . " (EV 19,35-36)6).

II.
20,5-39 appears to be an important passage in the Gospel of Truth.
It contains an account of the gnostic process of salvation. The central
idea is the obtaining of the mystical book of knowledge, followed by
an account of how Jesus, the bringer of gnosis, fetched it. This ac-
count can be compared with a passage, 9,15-28, in the Epistle to the
4
) E V 19,34-20,14; see t h e c o m m e n t s i n S. Giversen, Sandhedens Evangelium,
p . 87-89.
5
) F o r t h e special Valentinian use of t h e word " l i v i n g " , see t h e comment of t h e
Valentinian Heracleon on J o h n 4,12 in t h e C o m m e n t s on J o h n of Origin, X I I I , 10
(Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller, Origenes 4. B a n d , Johanneskommentar
p . 234-235.
6
) Concerning t h e " n a m e " , se also G. Quispel: Christeliche Gnosis a n d j ü d i s c h e
Heterodoxie, Evangelische Theologie 1954, p . 1-11 a n d G. Quispel: De Joodse A c h t e r -
g r o n d v a n de Logoschristologie, Vox Theologica 1954, p . 4 9 .
 92 Seren Giversen

Hebrews. According to EV 20,10-14, Jesus was to fetch the book of

knowledge, gnosis, which is hidden in heaven; he undertook this
task, and carried it out with patience in his suffering. In Heb. 9,11-12
Jesus is the high priest who has entered the sanctuary, with his blood
as an offering, and brought about redemption. EV 20,13-14 says that
the death of Jesus was "life for many", Heb. 9,12 that Jesus by his
blood won "eternal redemption". EV 20,15ff. speaks of the significance
of a testament, as does Heb. 9,15ff. In both Jesus is the necessary
intermediary for carrying out the testament. EV 20,29-39 is obscure,
but it is evidently a further development of the passage immediately
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preceding: while EV 20,5-28 explains that the deed done by the

redeemer for the elect, the pneumatics, was the bringing of gnosis,
which he brought by his death, EV 20,29-39 tells of his return with
the elect, who have now acquired knowledge. Heb. 9,28 also speaks of
the second appearance of Christ after he has once been offered.
It would be going too far to assert that the whole account in the
Gospel of Truth is deliberately reminiscent of Heb. 9,15-28, nor is it
my intention to do so here ; but the two texts present so many paral-
lels in thought that certain comparisons may with profit be made
between the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Gospel of Truth, in order
to cast light on the latter. Heb. 9,28 speaks of an offering, Heb. 9,15
of a testament and of the death of the mediator. EV 20,6 also speaks
of a sacrifice ("slaughtered"—or"sacrificed" ?—Coptic : ñceg^.guj3V.cJ) ;
EV 20,15 mentions a testament, and EV 20,11-13 the death in suf-
fering of the redeemer.
The tone and the trend of thought in the Gospel of Truth are
however quite different from those in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In
EV what must be banished is not sin, nor offences, as in the Epistle
to the Hebrews, but ignorance, and what must be brought in order
that man may be redeemed is not atonement but the mystical book,
gnosis, knowledge of the real nature of the Father. The difference can
also be briefly summarized as follows : In the Epistle to the Hebrews
God is angry, and Christ brings atonement; in the Gospel of Truth
man wrongly believes that God is angry, and Jesus brings the redeem-
ing knowledge that this is not so.

III.
It is not without interest to compare the context, in EV 25,35-
26,6 of the word as a two-edged sword with the context of Heb.
 Evangelium Veritatis and the Epistle to the Hebrews 93

4,12; this according to van Unnik is one of the clearest indications of

EVs acquaintance with the Epistle to the Hebrews. Such a comparison
may suitably be extended to Heb. 3,7-4,12 and EV 24,11-26,15').
The train of thought in Heb. 3,7-4,12 seems to be as follows:
3,7-19: the believers must take care that they do not suffer the same
fate as the Israelites in the wilderness, who could not enter into rest;
4,1-11: the promise of entering into his rest has now been made to
those who believe, and the believers now expect the fulfilment of the
promise, in accordance with the words of the Old Testament; 4,11-12:
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the believers are therefore exhorted to labour to enter into rest, and
to beware of disobedience, for the word of God is quick, and sharper
than any two-edged sword.
The Epistle thus contains an exhortation, a promise of rest, and a
warning reference to the judgment of the word.
The line of thought in EV 24,11-26,15 can be sketched as follows:
24,11-25,19: the Father revealed his son in order to bring true know-
ledge to man, so that man might rest in the Father, away from the
world, which only came into existence through lack of knowledge, and
which therefore lost its reality with the coming of true knowledge,
being dissolved by knowledge and its want filled by unity with the
Father; 25,19-25: since these things have been experienced by the
elect, the exhortation runs, they should strive to remain in this state;
25,25-26,15: what is surprising is that, as the Father himself has
shown by his sharp word of judgment, there were vessels that were
good, and vessels that were bad.
Thus EV 24,11-26,15 also speaks of rest as a state of blessedness,
and includes an exhortation to the elect and a reference to the word of
God as a two-edged sword.
It is worth noting that there is no eschatological meaning attached
to rest, the state of blessedness, in the Gospel of Truth, as opposed to
the Epistle to the Hebrews. On the contrary, to the Gospel of Truth
this rest has already begun (cf. EV 25,19: " . . . these things have been
experienced . . . " Coptic: «aieei &e. «jume) and is a reality, not a
possibility. Hence the exhortation in EV has a different tone : they are
not to labour to enter into rest, as in Heb., but to strive to remain in
it, and the reference to the word as a sword is here not a threat, but
a solemn reminder of what has happened.
The use of the word "rest" is one of the most important clues to an
7) EV 24,11-26,15, see the comments in S. Giversen, Sandhedens Evangelium
p. 97-101.
 94 Seren Giversen

understanding of the religious ideals underlying the whole message of

the Gospel of Truth 8 ). It will however be useful first to examine the
use of the word in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Here rest with God is
denoted by κατάτταυσις (Heb. 3,11; 3,18; 4,1 ; 4,3; 4,5; 4,10; 4,11), and
in one instance by σαββατισμόξ (Heb. 4,9). In the Sahidic translation
of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the first word is translated as MTOK
corresponding to the Subachmîmic ΛΙΤΪΚΗ found in EV. The late
Judaistic conception of "rest" for the chosen is eschatological and
closely connected with the expectation of the Messiah. According to
Josephus Ant. 20,188, a pretender to the title of Messiah was able to
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lead a whole multitude of people into the wilderness by promising

them "rest". Here, in Heb. 3,7-4,12, "rest" seems to be the essence
of redemption itself: Christ is the new Moses, who leads the chosen to
the promised Sabbath rest. God himself is characterized by "rest"
(Heb. 4,4 and 4,10). The fate of the disobedient according to the
Psalm, says Heb. 3,11 and 3,18, is that they shall not enter into rest
(cf. the fate of the unclean spirit in Matt. 12,43 and Luke 11,24, and
that of the damned in Rev. 14,11). But this rest is a rest into which
believers will enter at some time in the future, or in the last days, and
it is therefore of an eschatological nature.
A suitable starting-point for an investigation of what the Gospel
of Truth means by "rest" is to be found in EV 24,20-22. It is there
stated : "This is rest : that he fulfilled the want and dissolved the form."
By the word form (in the Coptic text the Greek loanword σχήμα is
kept) is probably meant the form of the want, as appears from the
following sentence, which runs: "The form is the world in which he
served" (EV 24,22-24). This "world" has come into existence solely
as a result of the lack of knowledge ; it derives from ignorance and the
consequent fear, as appears from EV 17,9 ("This ignorance of the
Father produced dread and fear"), and EV 17,19-20 ("It (i.e. the
error) arose in the created being and with power in beauty formed a
substitute for truth"). This happened because the universe sought for
the origin of everything (EV 17,5), and so it came to an end together
with this desperate search. Rest can therefore also be described as
the opposite of this search, as is the case in EV 42,21-25: "But they
rest in him who rests, and they suffer not, nor are they troubled by

8
) "Rest" is of importance in the Gospel of Thomas also, and the word is used
four times in the Gospel of Thomas; see Soren Giversen, Thomasevangeliet (Gad's
Forlag, Copenhagen 1959), p. 93, 94, 101 and 122.
 Evangelium Veritatis and the Epistle to the Hebrews 95

seeking after truth." One must here bear in mind the whole explana-
tion given in the Gospel of Truth: the universe was in the Father
without knowing it, and without knowing him, and this ignorance
brought about existence outside the Father ; the whole of this existence
is therefore in reality a lack, or absence, and what is absent is know-
ledge of the Father; this knowledge is in the Father, and he who
attains it becomes perfect, and is one with the Father, and rests in him ;
it is knowledge that brings rest to the elect, as we see in EV 40,30-34:
"For this reason he sent him out, that he might speak of the place and
of his place of rest, from which he had come."
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Let us now return to EV 24,20-22, which speaks of the form of the

want, which is the world. With knowledge this want is ended, for
when the Father is known the want from that moment will no longer
exists, and they will rest in unity with the Father (EV 25,15), a unity
beyond "the substance" (Ολη). Here there is a negative note in the
rest, as in Heb. 4,10, where the blessed rest from their works. In the
Gospel of Truth it is rest from the agonized search for the Father
(EV 24,17-19)—in other words, also something negative ("cease
from"). Thus both texts mean something negative by the word rest.
But how else can rest really be defined ? And yet the background of
the rest is widely different in the Epistle to the Hebrews and the
Gospel of Truth. In Hebrews the rest is a rest from work, from toil,
not from the world (and Hebrews is allegorizing the Old Testament) ;
the rest is not a rest from the world because to the author of Hebrews
God himself created the world (Heb. 1,2), and did so by means of his
Son. In the Gospel of Truth, however, the rest is a rest from the world,
and the word "works" in 17,32 (the Coptic has kept the Greek έργον)
must mean not the work itself, but the product of the work. There is
thus no contradiction in the statement in EV 32,18: "Even on the
Sabbath he worked . . . " , and in EV 32,22-25: " . . . so that you may
know in your hearts . . . what the Sabbath is, on which it is not fitting
that salvation be inactive . . . " According to EV the world is not a
result of the work of the Father, but is dissolved by the knowledge
that comes from him.
The essential difference between the csnceptions of rest in the two
texts is, however, that in Hebrews the rest of redemption is eschato-
logical (Heb. 4,9), while in the Gospel of Truth the redemption is
completed, and the rest has already come; it is worth noting in this
connection that EV 25,19 expressly uses the perfect tense, "these
things have happened" (aiieej &e. ujwne, the perfect I). The exhorta-
 96 Sor en Giversen

tion in EV 25,19-25 is therefore also expressed in the form that one

ought to strive to keep the house holy and quiet 9 ).
In the Gospel of Truth the word "quiet" (Coptic: Cfyp^gj) also
belongs to the conceptual complex of "rest". In the Sahidic transla-
tion of the Bible it expresses the Greek ήσύχιος, which in NT is
closely connected with the thought of rest, but not identical with it;
in NT it has a more ethical note than κατάτταυσίΐ and àvcnrccuaiç,
which are used rather in an eschatological sense, and it is. also used in
exhortations (1 Thess. 4,11, and 2 Thess. 3,12). Here in EV 25,24,
where it is used in connection with the word holy (Coptic : oTJ^tj) or
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pure, it also has an ethical note; but it must be borne in mind that
just as the word "holy" or "pure" is used in contrast to the state of
being involved with this world and its powers and demons, so the
word "quiet" is used as a contrast to the restless, painful search for
the Father, and thus describes the contented rest in the Father.
Throughout the Gospel of Truth, fear is contrasted with this rest,
the quiet bliss experienced by the gnostic who has attained full
knowledge, so that in a way it becomes the opposite of rest, and the
idea of fear thus helps to describe EVs conception of rest. The fear in
question is fear of God but to the Gospel of Truth it is a delusion,
and an evil delusion. Whereas according to Hebrews the believers
are to fear God, and no others, to EV fear of the Father is the grea-
test disaster, deriving from ignorance of the Father, and it is fear
that keeps men from unity with the Father (EV 17,13-14), This fear,
arising from ignorance has been increased by error (EV 17,31-32),
yet it is groundless, and naught (EV 17,23-24). The darkness of
ignorance has inspired men with fear, but when the light of knowledge
has dispersed the darkness of ignorance, fear will be replaced by rest.
The Epistle to the Hebrews, however, also knows a fear that must
be removed, as the speaker in EV wishes his fear removed—namely,
the fear of death (Heb. 2,15). But this is a fear very different from
that in EV : not fear of God, but fear of death. In the Gospel of Truth
fear is what separates men from the Father, until by knowledge they
learn to look on him "not as bitter, and not as angry, but in no way
evil, imperturbable . . .("EV 42,5-7).
9
) A parallel is to be found in a letter from Valentinus, according to Clemens
Alexandrinus, Stromta II, 114,3-6 (W. Völker, Quellen zur Geschichte der ehr. Gnosis,
Fragment 2): Professor J. Munck has drawn my attention to a parallel in Philo,
De praemiis et poenis, § 65-66.