Barbelo Gnostic

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A Barbelo-Gnostic is an orientation within Gnosticism . It can be proven from the beginning of the 2nd century and merged the teachings of Valentine with oriental dualism and Old Testament , Christian and apocryphal motifs.

etymology

The etymology of Barbelo is uncertain. Possibly the term derives from the Hebrew of “Barbhe Eloha” (“in the four is God”), another explanation relates the name to Baal . Barbelo denotes a female aeon (emanation of the highest deity) of Gnosticism , which has the highest position and represents a kind of world mother.

The term Barbelo (or Barbeloth, Barthenos, Barbero) occurs in several Gnostic groups, such as the Nicolaitans , Sethians , Phibionites, Stratiotics, Leviticists, Borborites, Koddians, Zakchaeans and Barbelites. He is mentioned in an apologetic way by Irenaeus , Epiphanius of Salamis and Theodoret .

swell

The most important information about the Barbelo Gnostics goes back to Epiphanius of Salamis , who came into contact with a Gnostic sect in Egypt in 335. After allowing himself to be enthusiastic about these teachings for a while, he finally turned away from them in horror and defamed many members by name of the bishop of the city. Eighty members are expelled from the church as a result. Later, Epiphanius describes the teachings and practices of the Barbelo-Gnostics from his subjective-negative attitude and even claimed a phibionite meal consisting of cooked children, honey and spices.

Content identification

In the Barbelo Gnosis, as in all Gnostic currents, there is the supreme divine, which is unknowable and inaccessible, while creation is caused by a feminine principle, the Barbelo. She represents the supreme deity in her feminine aspect and possesses many aspects of the Gnostic Sophia . The Barbelo is neither a “person” nor a god figure, but a pre-creative principle of the deity and thus the basis for all subsequent creation.

The Barbelo is thematized in several of the writings found in Nag-Hammadi :

  • In the Apocryphon of John it is described as the first power, perfect beauty of aeons and glory of revelation. There it continues: “This is the first thought, its image. She became the womb of the universe because she is the one who is before all of them, the mother-father, the first man, the holy spirit, the triple-male, the triple-powerful, the triple-named male-female and the eternal aeon with the invisible and the first coming out. "
  • The barbelo is also mentioned in several places in the Gospel of Egypt.
  • The concept of the Barbelo is given the most detailed description in The Three Steles of Seth , here in the 2nd stele: "Great is the first eon, (the) male, virgin Barbelo, the first glory of the invisible Father, she who is called '' perfect '. You (fem.) First saw that he who truly exists first is without essence. And from him and through him you first came into being in eternity, who (you) are without being from an undivided threefold [power]. ... "
  • In Zostrianos , reference is made to the Barbelo in many places.
  • The Letter of Peter explicitly contains the term "Barbelo", but does Lüdemann in his introduction to this document, a reference forth ". It is probably a Gnosistyp basis that conforms to the Barbelognosis"
  • In Melchizedek twice, the second passage in a Melchizedek prayer: "Holy are [you], holy are [you], [holy are you, mother of] aeons, Barbelo, for ever and ever, [Amen]."
  • Marsanes : several places.
  • Allogenes : many places.
  • Finally in The Triune Protennoia , here even in a first- person form: "He gave aeons to the Father of all aeons, which I am, the Father's thought, Protennoia, that is Barbelo, the [perfect] glory and the [immeasurable] invisible, that is hidden. I am the image of the invisible spirit, and through me the universe assumed an image; and (I am) the mother (and also) the light that she instituted as a virgin called 'Meirothea', the inaccessible womb, the inconceivable and immeasurable call. "

In the Gospel of Judas, Judas says to Jesus: "... You come from the eternal kingdom of Barbelos ..."

From the Nag Hammadi writings we know today that the entire material realm of human existence, including separate sexuality and sexuality, together with further measures, represent attempts by Yaldabaoth (the demiurge or creator god) to bind people in such a way that the latter cannot exceed him (Jaldabaoth) in his thinking and consequently cannot ascend to his originally designed divinity.

In the Barbelo Gnosis man is bound to the material plane of existence through forgetting . As soon as he inwardly turns to the spirit of life (which never condemns, but strives to undo the mistake of Sophia, the creation of Yaldabaoth), nothing stands in the way of his ascent to light (see also the redemption in the John Apocryphon ).

Christian polemics

The orthodox-Christian polemics accused the Barbelo-Gnostics of various debauchery and abnormalities, among others. A. in the Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis . In contrast, one looks in vain for such degrading accusations against those who think differently in the Gnostic Nag Hammadi writings; In the writings that can be assigned to the Barbelo Gnosis, Old Testament teachings are at best dealt with argumentatively or by comparison.

See also

literature

  • Kurt Rudolph (ed.): Gnosis and Gnosticism . Scientific book company, Darmstadt 1975, (= ways of research 262).
  • Klaus Koschorke: The polemics of the Gnostics against ecclesiastical Christianity with special consideration of the Nag Hammadi treatises “Apocalypse d. Petrus ”(NHC VII, 3) and“ Testimonium Veritatis ”(NHC IX, 3). Brill, Leiden 1978, ISBN 90-04-05709-9 , ( Nag Hammadi studies 12), (also: Heidelberg, Diss., 1976).
  • Hans Leisegang : Die Gnosis , Leipzig, 1924, 5th edition, Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1985, ISBN 3-520-03205-8 , ( Kröner's pocket edition 32), Chapter V, Die Barbelo- Gnostiker, pp. 186-195
  • Alexander Böhlig : Gnosis and Syncretism. Volume 1. Mohr, Tübingen 1989, ISBN 3-16-145299-2 , ( Scientific studies on the New Testament 47), pp. 289-311.
  • Bible of the Heretics: the Gnostic Scriptures from Nag Hammadi . Introduced, translated and commented by Gerd Lüdemann and Martina Janßen. Radius, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-87173-128-5 .
  • Micha Brumlik : The Gnostics. The dream of human self-redemption . Philo, Vienna a. a. 2000, ISBN 3-8257-0189-1 , ( Philothek ).
  • Christoph Markschies : The Gnosis . Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-44773-2 , (especially chapter IV 3 = pp. 95-101).

Web links

Individual evidence

Lüdemann & Janßen refers to the heretics' Bible given in the literature list .

  1. ^ Hans Leisegang: Die Gnosis , Leipzig, 1924, 5th edition, Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1985, ISBN 3-520-03205-8 , (Kröner's pocket edition 32), Chapter V, Die Barbelo-Gnostiker , p. 186
  2. ^ Hans Leisegang: Die Gnosis , Leipzig, 1924, 5th edition, Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1985, ISBN 3-520-03205-8 , (Kröner's pocket edition 32), Chapter V, Die Barbelo-Gnostiker , p. 186
  3. ^ Hans Leisegang: Die Gnosis , Leipzig, 1924, 5th edition, Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1985, ISBN 3-520-03205-8 , (Kröner's pocket edition 32), Chapter V, Die Barbelo-Gnostiker , p. 186 ff .
  4. ↑ Joska Pintschovius: To hell with the witches. Farewell to the wise women. Ullstein, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 978-3-550-06519-4 , p. 158 f.
  5. ↑ Lüdemann & Janßen. P. 107.
  6. ↑ Lüdemann & Janßen. P. 230 ff.
  7. ↑ Lüdemann & Janßen. P. 454 ff.
  8. ↑ Lüdemann & Janßen. P. 460 ff.
  9. ↑ Lüdemann & Janßen. P. 499.
  10. ↑ Lüdemann & Janßen. P. 513.
  11. ↑ Lüdemann & Janßen. P. 535 ff.
  12. ↑ Lüdemann & Janßen. P. 572 ff.
  13. ↑ Lüdemann & Janßen. P. 604.
  14. ↑ Bernhard Siebert. S. 2. ( Linked as PDF in the Gospel of Jude.)
  15. ↑ Epiphanius of Salamis: Panarion (Adversus Haereses) 15:16; 25.2ff.