gospel-philipnag-hammadi
Gospel of Philip 1
The chapter opens three tiers of covenant standing — the proselyte who is satisfied, the slave who seeks only freedom, and the son who claims the inheritance — then anchors that hierarchy in the Living One: only those who inherit life can receive what is living. What follows works out the implications: becoming Christian is receiving both Father and Mother, not merely a mother as Hebrew orphans had. The Father's name, given to the Son, is the one name not uttered in the world — yet it is the name above every name, the name the Son takes on that constitutes His Sonship. Deceptive worldly names, including the names God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, point past themselves toward what is established in the eternal realm. The rulers who contend against man's salvation did not know that the Holy Spirit worked through their own acts. Christ's atoning work is treated as originating not merely at Golgotha but from the foundation of the world — His life was pledged then, received back at the moment He chose.
1
A Hebrew man maketh a Hebrew, and such an one is called a proselyte. But the proselyte maketh not another proselyte. The proselyte is what he is, and is satisfied to be so.
2
But the slave seeketh only to be free, and seeketh not after the estate of his master. The son, on the other hand, is not only a son: he claimeth the inheritance of the father.
3
They that inherit the dead are themselves dead, and they inherit dead things. They that inherit the Living One are alive, and they inherit both the Living and the dead. The dead inherit nothing — for how shall the dead inherit? If a dead man inherit the living, the living shall not die, but the dead shall be made alive.
4
A Gentile dieth not, for he hath never lived, that he should die. He that hath believed in the truth hath begun to live, and he is in danger of dying — for he liveth, since the day Christ came.
5
The world was created. The cities were adorned. The dead were carried out. When we were Hebrews we were orphans, having only a mother. But when we became Christians we received both Father and Mother.
6
They that sow in winter reap in summer. The winter is the world; the summer is the other age. Let us sow in the world, that we may reap in the summer. For this cause it is not fitting that in winter we should pray for the harvest. The summer is what cometh after the winter.
7
But if any reap in winter, he shall not reap, but only pluck out the seed; for such an one will not gather a harvest. Not only doth not the seed yield him fruit at his sabbath, but it profiteth not at all.
8
Christ came to ransom some, to save others, and to redeem still others. Them that were strangers He ransomed, and made them His own. He set apart His own, whom He had pledged of His own will, when it pleased Him.
9
Not only when He appeared did He lay down His life when He chose, but from the day the world existed He laid down His life. Then, at the moment which pleased Him, He came forth to receive it again — for it had been pledged. It had fallen among robbers, and was taken captive; but He saved it, and ransomed both the good and the evil that were in the world.
10
The light and the darkness, life and death, the right and the left, are brethren of one another. They are inseparable. Therefore the good are not good, neither are the wicked wicked, neither is life life, nor death death.
11
For this cause each one shall be dissolved into his original beginning. But they that are exalted above the world are indissoluble; they are eternal.
12
Names given to worldly things are exceedingly deceptive, for they turn the heart away from what is established to what is not established. He that heareth the word God thinketh not of what is established, but of what is not established. So also with the words Father, Son, Holy Spirit, life, light, resurrection, church, and all the rest. They do not perceive what is established; rather, they perceive what is not — except they have come to know what is established.
13
The names heard in the world deceive. If they had been in the eternal realm, they would never have been used in the world. They would not be set among worldly things. They have an end in the eternal realm.
14
One single name is not uttered in the world, the name which the Father gave unto the Son. It is the name above every name — the Father's name. The Son would not have become the Father had He not put on the name of the Father.
15
They that have this name know it, but they speak it not. They that have it not know it not. But the truth begat names in the world for our sake, that no man might come to know it without these names. Truth is one; she is many for our sake, to teach us this one thing in love by means of many things.
16
The rulers wished to deceive man, since they saw that he had a kinship with them that are truly good. So they took the name of them that are good, and gave it to them that are not good, that by means of names they might deceive him and bind him to them that are not good.
17
And afterward, what a benefit they did for him! They made him to depart from them that are not good, and placed him among them that are good, even those whom they knew. For they wished to take the free man, and make him a slave to them forever.
18
There are powers that contend with man, not wishing him to be saved, that they may continue to be. For if man is saved, sacrifices shall not be offered, and animals shall not be brought up unto the powers — for it was unto them the animals were brought up alive. When they brought them up, they died. But man they brought up unto God dead, and yet he lived.
19
Before Christ came, there was no bread in the world, even as Paradise (where Adam was) had many trees for food for the beasts, but no wheat for the food of man. Man ate as the beasts. But when Christ came, the perfect man, He brought bread from heaven, that man might be fed with the food of man.
20
The rulers thought they did the things they did by their own power and will. But the Holy Spirit was secretly working all things through them as she willed.
21
Truth is sown everywhere — she that hath been from the beginning. And many see her sown, but few see her reaped.
22
Some said: Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit. They are mistaken. They know not what they say. When did a woman ever conceive by a woman? Mary is the virgin whom no power defiled. She is a great anathema unto the Hebrews, that is, unto the apostles and them that were apostles. This virgin whom no power defiled — the powers defiled themselves.
23
And the Lord said: My Father which is in heaven. He would not have said My Father had He not had another father. He would have said simply My Father.
24
The Lord said unto the disciples: Enter ye into the house of the Father, but take nothing in the house of the Father, neither carry away anything from it.
25
Jesus is a hidden name; Christ is a revealed name. Therefore Jesus is rendered in no other tongue, but His name is called Jesus as it is. But the name Christ in the Syriac is Messias, and in the Greek is Christos. Surely all the others have it according to each one's own tongue. The Nazarene is the manifest of that which is hidden.
