549 - The Gospel Of Truth; A Valentinian Meditation On the Gospel

The Gospel Of Truth;
A Valentinian Meditation On the Gospel
Translation from the Coptic and Commentary by Kendrick Grobel
206 pp. New York, Abingdon Press, 1959. $4.50.

The very fact that one volume of the recently discovered library of Nag Hammadi had been smuggled out of Egypt has enabled European scholars to start with the publication of a critical text and translation of the "Gospel of Truth." (See our discussion in THEOLOGY TODAY, XV, I (April 1958), pp. 131-135.) There is at present wide consensus of opinion that the Jung Codex is the Evangelium Veritatis, which in the Valentinian gnosis was held in high esteem. Some scholars, like Dr. Schenke of Berlin, have questioned the authorship of Valentinus and would assign the work to a somewhat later date. But Dr. Grobel, of Vanderbilt University, following W. C. van Unnik of Utrecht, offers cogent reasons for Valentinus as author. That would imply that the book was composed sometimes between A.D. 140 and 170.

Dr. Grobel first of all gives a new rendition of the Gospel of Truth. His own extensive scholarship in the field of Coptic studies enables him not only to point out many of the ambiguities of the Coptic text, but also to offer a considerable number of fresh renderings. Thus his own work is not a mere revision of his predecessors' translation but rather an entirely new rendition. By means of paraphrasing a number of passages which European scholars had rendered literally he offers to the reader an opportunity to penetrate more profoundly into the meaning of a work whose stilted language seems often to defy comprehension. To his translation he adds a commentary that is largely devoted to philological problems, without, however, completely neglecting the interpretation of the text. But since the commentary proceeds line by line, it is

550 - The Gospel Of Truth; A Valentinian Meditation On the Gospel

not easy for the reader to piece too-ether his comments and to get a total picture of the author's views, particularly since the brief introduction does not help much in that respect.

Like the original editors, Dr. Grobel espouses the view that Gnosticism, or at least the gonosis of the Gospel of Truth, is a kind of existentialism. But the successful translator of Bultmann's Theology of the New Testament seems occasionally too much inclined to identify the Gnostic existentialism with that of the Marburg scholar. According to Dr. Grobel, the whole work is a meditation on the Gospel. I am not so sure that meditation is the purpose of the book. The style is highly poetical, and as Grobel himself indicates, a good deal of the composition is praise both of the work of the Savior and of the redeeming gnosis brought by him. There is a clearly recognizable order in which the material is arranged, a fact that Dr. Grobel has underscored in his translation by giving headings to each portion. But that is not the way meditation proceeds. The book strikes me as being a didactic hymn in praise of "Truth" written for the benefit of the initiate, and perhaps even memorized by them.

The fact that such a characteristic feature of the Valentinian school as the doctrine of the thirty eons should not explicitly be stated in this hymn can therefore hardly be interpreted as indicating a relatively early stage of this type of Gnosticism. References to several of the eons occur in the poem, and the way Valentinus speaks of them discloses an established terminology. Likewise, the adoption of cosmological features is evident. Several times, Dr. Grobel utters amazement about the occurrence of Hebrew words and ideas. He is probably right that Valentinus did not know Hebrew. But that would only confirm Grant's suggestion that the background of this Gnosticism is to be sought in Hellenistic Judaism.

According to Valentinus, the goal of gnosis is self-realization. But that goal is not interpreted in the manner of Socratic-Platonic philosophy, according, to which the individual finds all truth in himself self, if only he makes an effort to overcome his congenital ignorance. The Greek view starts from the metaphysical conviction that man's existence is basically rationality, and the latter is considered as being unreservedly good. The rational individual finds himself in a world of becoming, which does not share the ontological goodness of the mind. Hence this earthly world serves merely as material upon which the individual, who has thinkingly realized himself, operates.

Valentinus, however, holds that it is not man's innate goodness which prompts him to engage in self-realization, but rather it is God who has assigned him that goal when making him. Hence the state of ignorance in which the ordinary person finds himself is described as horror and confusion, that is, as existential despair, an outlook completely opposed to

551 - The Gospel Of Truth; A Valentinian Meditation On the Gospel

Socrates' joyful exploration of the roads, to truth. Unless in Christ man had been given the revelation of his true image, he would never be able to emerge from his meaningless activities. For the Greek view, individual existence is the basis of meaningfulness, and true meaning is to be found in knowing one's place among the other individuals. Valentinus, however, strongly emphasizes the fact that all individuals are constantly changing. Hence there is no firm basis, on which thinking could be established or life could be rendered meaningful. Everything is in a Heraclitean flux.

The solution is not to be found, however, by stepping out of the realm of time and becoming and by turning towards the timeless sphere of the ideas but rather a typically Biblical view-by realizing that we are made for a goal. By this change of perspective, Valentinus overcomes the otherwise unbearable dualism between the world of things and the realm of images, implied in ordinary, unenlightened existence. For no matter how highly I may think of my rational faculty, I am an Ego with a body and thus part of this world. But gnosis, offers hope. Valentinus, will point out that it is not existence in time and becoming that is evil, but rather the erroneous view that becoming is a process without a goal, and in which man is unable to encounter an unmovable point towards which his life can be orientated. God is not over against the creatures but on their side.

The God of Valentinus is not a substance or a supernatural person who from the outside interferes with human life. Rather the Father is the origin which is never directly given but merely manifests himself in the existence of the creatures and their becoming, an idea which will later on form the center of Plotinus' Neoplatonism. The idea of origin (arche) precludes the infinite regress in the search for meaning that is inevitable when God is regarded as substance. Rather, says Valentinus, God is will that wills the realization of that which is not himself, and who thus is love. True existence in turn does not consist in doing this or that but rather in the assurance that I am destined to become a child of God. With his conception of true existence as rooted in God's will, Valentinus, appears before our eyes as one of the most powerful thinkers of the Hellenistic age. It is equally obvious, however, that the Church in Rome found it impossible to endure him, and also that no modern church could do so without losing its Christian substance. For beautifully as he talked about the sweetness and the compassion of Jesus, Valentinus refused to walk with him on the road the Master had trod. With his view of existence, the Gnostic wanted to save his life without previously losing it.

Otto A. Piper
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, New Jersey