Gospel of Philip - Definition and Overview

Among Early Christian writings of the Gnostic traditions, the Gospel of Philip, written c. AD 180–350, is a series of logia or pithy aphoristic utterances, most of them apparently quotations and excerpts of lost writings, without any attempt at a narrative context. The main theme concerns the value of sacraments. Scholars debate whether the original language was Syriac or Greek. The text has been interpreted by Wesley W. Isenberg (The Nag Hammadi Library in English, p. 141) as a Christian Gnostic sacramental catechesis. Bentley Layton (The Gnostic Scriptures, p. 325) identified it as a Valentinian anthology of excerpts. It is dismissed by Ian Wilson (Jesus: The evidence, p.88) who argues it "has no special claim to an early date, and seems to be merely a Mills and Boon-style fantasy of a type not uncommon among Christian apocryphal literature of the third and fourth centuries."

A single manuscript of the Gospel of Philip, in Coptic, was found in the Nag Hammadi library, a cache of documents that was secreted in a jar and buried in the Egyptian desert at the end of the 4th century, when Gnostic writings and pagan ones were being burned by the official church.

The text's misleading title is modern; the only connection with the Apostle Philip is that he is the only apostle mentioned (at 73,8). The text makes no claim to be from Philip.

Among the mix of aphorisms, parables, brief polemics, narrative dialogue, biblical exegesis (especially of Genesis), and dogmatic propositions, Wesley Isenberg has enumerated seventeen sayings (logia) attributed to Jesus, nine of which are citations and interpretations of Jesus' words already found in the canonical gospels (55,33-34; 57,3-5; 68,8-12; 68,26-27; 72,33-73,1; 77,18; 83,11-13; 84,7-9; 85,29-31). The new sayings (55,37-56,3; 58,10-14; 59,25-27; 63,29-30; 64,2-9; 64,10-12; 67,30-35; and 74,25-27), "identified by the formula introducing them ('he said', 'the Lord said', or 'the Savior said') are brief and enigmatic and are best interpreted from a gnostic perspective," Isenberg has written in his Introduction to the text (see link).

Philip emphasizes the sacral nature of the embrace between man and woman in the nuptial chamber.

External links

• Wesley W. Isenberg, translator, Gospel of Philip (http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gop.html)
• Original coptic transliterated (http://www.metalog.org/files/till.html)
• Coptic-english interlinear (http://www.metalog.org/files/philip1.html)
• Early Christian writings: (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gospelphilip.html) Gospel of Philip brief introductions and e-texts
• Theology Website Gospel of Philip: (http://www.theologywebsite.com/etext/naghammadi/philip.shtml) translation and complete introduction by Wesley W. Isenberg

Reference

• Leloup, The Gospel Of Philip: Jesus, Mary Magdalene, And The Gnosis Of Sacred Union 2004.