Pistis Sophia
Pistis Sophia ( Gr. Πίστις : "Faith" and σοφία : "Wisdom") is one of the most important Coptic - Gnostic texts. He reproduces doctrinal conversations that Jesus is said to have held with the disciples after his resurrection .
Tradition and dating
The tradition of the Pistis Sophia is limited to the Coptic translation of the original Greek work, which is preserved in a single manuscript, the Codex Askewianus , which is named after the British doctor and book collector Anthony Askew. The British Museum acquired this manuscript in 1795. The Pistis Sophia got its name wrongly from Karl Gottfried Woide , who was the first to examine the codex. The later authors kept the name habitually, however, so Carl Schmidt suggested Τεύχη του Σωτῆρος as a better heading, i.e. H. Books of the Savior or Books of the Savior. The origin of the original work can be dated to a period from the second to the third century. Scripture is particularly significant because it is one of the few direct testimonies to ancient Gnosticism , alongside the Nag Hammadi writings that were found much later , that does not come from patristic apologetic writings against the Gnostics condemned as heretics .
author
Woide attributed this writing to the Christian Gnostic teacher Valentinus , whom the older scholars followed, such as La Croze , Schwartze and Amélineau , also Mead . The later, especially the German research after Karl Reinhold von Köstlin is skeptical to rejecting this view and rather connects the script with the ophitic gnostics , including Adolf von Harnack .
content
The Pistis Sophia reports that Jesus Christ was still working on earth eleven years after the resurrection and was able to teach his disciples the first stage of the mysteries . The text begins with an allegory of the death and resurrection of Christ, which at the same time describes the ascent and descent of the soul. Later the most important figures of Gnostic cosmology are dealt with and 32 carnal desires are enumerated which must be overcome in order to attain salvation. The Pistis Sophia gives the Archon Sabaoth her daughter Zoe, the Sophia of life , as a female complement.
expenditure
The first edition of the Coptic text and a Latin translation based on the Codex Askewianus was carried out by Moritz Gotthilf Schwartze and was published posthumously in print in 1851 by Julius Heinrich Petermann , who used Schwartze's transcriptions and notes. The first German translation with numerous improvements to the text compared to Schwartze's edition was carried out in 1905 by Carl Schmidt . A second edition of the Coptic text followed, delayed by the war, by Schmidt in 1925.
literature
- Moritz Gotthilf Schwartze , Pistis Sophia , opus gnosticum Valentino adiudicatum e codico manuscripto coptico Londinensi. Descripsit et latine vertit MG Schwartze, edidit JH Petermann, Ferd. Dümmler´s Buchhandlung, Berlin 1851. First edition of the text in Coptic and Latin. Schwartze's work was published posthumously by Julius Heinrich Petermann .
- Karl Reinhold Köstlin : The Gnostic System of the Book Pistis Sophia . Tübingen 1854. In: Theological yearbooks edited by Ferdinand Christian Baur, E. Zeller. Vol. 13, Jg. 1854, pp. 1-105; 137-196.
- Carl Schmidt (ed.): Coptic-Gnostic writings. Vol. I. The Pistis Sophia . The two books of Jeû. Unknown old Gnostic work, Leipzig 1905. 4th, around d. Advance ext. Edition, Berlin 1981 (Coptic Gnostic Writings; Vol. 1: The Greek Christian Writers of the First Centuries). First German translation.
- Carl Schmidt: Pistis Sophia reissued with an introduction together with Greek and Coptic word and name indexes. Gyldendalsk Boghandel-Nordisk Forlag, Hauniae 1925. (German foreword, Coptic text, text-critical apparatus)
- Carl Schmidt (Ed.): Pistis Sophia, an original Gnostic work of the third century, translated from Coptic. In a new version with introductory studies and indices edited by D. Dr. Carl Schmidt, Professor of Theology at the University of Berlin, Hinrichs, Leipzig 1925 (German translation)
- GRS Mead : Pistis Sophia, a Gnostic gospel (with extracts from the books of the Savior appended) originally tr. From Greek into Coptic and now for the first time Englished from Schwartze's Latin version of the only known Coptic ms. and checked by Amélineau's French version with an introduction by GRS Mead ... Published 1896 by The Theosophical publishing society [etc., etc.] in London, New York. English first edition.
- GRS Mead: Pistis Sophia: a Gnostic miscellany : being for the most part extracts from the books of the Savior, to which are added excerpts from a cognate literature; englished (with an introduction and annotated bibliography), Watkins, London 1921.
- Philip Jenkins: Le Jésus des sectes: Comment le Christ ésotérique devint le Christ des universitaires . Conference par Philip Jenkins (Colloque CESNUR 2000 - Riga, Lettonie)
- Marcello Craveri: I Vangeli apocrifi . Einaudi tascabili - Classici.
- Luigi Moraldi: Testi Gnostici . Classici UTET editore.
- Valentinus : The Gospel of Pistis Sophia , Bad Teinach-Zavelstein 1987, ISBN 3-925072-03-9
- Alexander Böhling: Mysterion and Truth. Brill, Leiden 1986. p. 139.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Carl Schmidt, Coptic Gnostic Writings, p. XIV digitized version
- ↑ Carl Schmidt, Coptic-Gnostic Writings P. XVII digitized
- ^ Carl Schmidt, Coptic-Gnostic Writings, p. XIII digitized
- ↑ Carl Schmidt, Coptic-Gnostic Writings P. XVII digitized
- ^ Mead Pistis Sophia, a Gnostic Gospel p. XXX. Digitized
- Jump up ↑ Moritz Gotthilf Schwartze , Pistis Sophia , opus gnosticum Valentino adiudicatum e codico manuscripto coptico Londinensi. Descripsit et latine vertit MG Schwartze, editit JH Petermann, Ferd. Dümmler's bookstore, Berlin 1851.
- ^ Carl Schmidt: Coptic Gnostic writings. Vol. I. The Pistis Sophia . The two books of Jeû. Unknown ancient Gnostic work, Leipzig 1905.