On the Origin of the World:
Selected Portions and Exegesis
Included in this brief exposition are the passages from OW which prove the most pertinent for understanding the Eve of Gnostic Christianity. Here the reader is exposed to what the Gnostics knew that the orthodox Christians did not.
And when they had finished Adam, he abandoned him as an inanimate vessel lest the true man enter his modelled form and become its lord. For this reason he left his modelled form forty days without a soul on the fortieth day Sophia Zoe sent her breath into Adam, who had no soul. He began to move upon the ground. And he could not stand up. (115:3-15)
The seven rulers or authorities - to put it too simply, these rulers - are rather low-level supernatural figures connected to the physical creation, made the body of Adam. However, they determined that Adam, if given a soul, could be more powerful than they; therefore he was created as an inanimate being. Sophia Zoe, a figure seemingly superior to the seven rulers in Gnostic cosmology, gave Adam life through her breath. This ontologically transforming endowment shocked and angered the rulers.
But the giving of life did not empower or liberate Adam fully: he was still relegated to crawling on the ground.[13] His weakness appeased the seven rulers who then took him and placed him in Paradise, then retreated to their heavens. At this point in the story, Eve enters:
When Eve saw her male counterpart prostrate she had pity upon him, and she said, "Adam! Become alive! Arise upon the earth!"
The ouroboros, among the Gnostics a symbol of the aeon, this image from Horapollo, Selecta Hieroglyphica, 1597
Immediately her word became accomplished fact. For Adam, having arisen, suddenly opened his eyes. When he saw her he said, "You shall be called 'Mother of the Living'. For it is you who have given me life." (116:1-7)
[14]
Obviously, roles reverse in the Gnostic version of the creation story, though they will address the lack of knowledge of this reversal related through the other telling in Genesis. Rather than Eve's life being created from Adam's rib, Adam's soul is endowed by Eve – she becomes the active giver of life, rather than the passive receiver from Adam.
Eve's role continues to develop in OW :
Then the authorities were informed that their modelled form was alive and had arisen, and they were greatly troubled. They sent seven archangels to see what had happened. They came to Adam. When they saw Eve talking to him they said to one another, "What sort of thing is this luminous woman? For she resembles that likeness which appeared to us in the light. Now come, let us lay hold of her and cast our seed into her, so that when she becomes soiled she may not be able to ascend into her light. Rather, those whom she bears will be under our charge. But let us not tell Adam, for he is not one of us. Rather let us bring a deep sleep over him. And let us instruct him in his sleep to the effect that she came from his rib, in order that his wife may obey, and he may lord over her." Then Eve, being a force, laughed at their decision. She put mist into their eyes and secretly left her likeness with Adam. She entered the tree of acquaintance and remained there. And they pursued her, and she revealed to them that she had gone into the tree and become a tree. Then, entering a great state of fear, the blind creatures fled. (116:8-34)
Another Eve:
A Case Study in the Earliest Manifestations of
Christian Esotericism
Laura Hobgood-Oster
Southwestern University
No comments:
Post a Comment