Gospel of Philip

Euangelium Philippi (coptice)

Standard abbreviation: Gos. Phil.

Other titles: none

Clavis numbers: ECCA 318; CANT 20

VIAF: 181778886

Category: Ministry Gospels

Related literature: Gospel of Thomas, Coptic Revelation Discourse of Jesus

Compiled by Emily Laflèche, University of Ottawa ([email protected])

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Laflèche, Emily. “The Gospel of Philip.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/gospel-of-philip/.

Posted February 2017.

1. SUMMARY

The Gospel of Philip belongs to Codex II in the Nag Hammadi Library. Though it is believed to have been composed in Greek in the late second or early third century, it is now available only in Coptic. Gos. Phil. is not a gospel in the canonical sense, as it does not have the narration of an apostle proclaiming the good news of Christ. It does, however, contain 17 sayings of Jesus, eight of which are not found in the canonical Gospels, and proclaims good news in the broader sense of the term. Scholars believe the gospel to be a product of the school of Valentinus, a second-century Egyptian Christian teacher who was later declared an arch-heretic. One of the main themes in Gos. Phil. is the bridal chamber ritual. This ritual consists in joining a male and a female to each other, and to the divine, in a marriage. There is scholarly speculation over whether this marriage in Gos. Phil. would have included a sexual element and whether the bridal chamber was a part of a larger ritual.

Named historical figures and characters: Abraham (patriarch), Adam (patriarch), archons, Cain, Echmoth, Echamoth, Eve,Holy Spirit, Jesus, Joseph (of Nazareth), Levi (the Dyer), Mary (Virgin), Mary Magdalene, Mary (wife of Clopas), Philip (apostle), Wisdom.

Geographical locations: Jordan River, Paradise, temple (Jerusalem).

2. RESOURCES

2.1 Use in Popular Culture

Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code: A Novel. 1st ed. New York: Doubleday, 2003 (ch. 58 features a passage from Gos. Phil. said to indicate that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene).

2.2 Web Sites and Other Online Resources

“Gospel of Philip.” Early Christian Writings. Administrator: Peter Kirby (Features several English translations and a brief bibliography).

“Gospel of Philip.” Wikipedia.

“L’évangile selon Philippe (NH II, 3).” Bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi. Administrator: Eric Crégheur (features a French translation by Louis Painchaud).

“Metalogos: Coptic Gospels of Thomas, Philip, Truth.” Ecumentical Coptic Project. Administrator: Thomas Paterson Brown. Features English, Spanish, and Greek translations and a hypertext interlinear.

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

3.1.1 Coptic

Cairo, Coptic Museum, Inv. 10544 (Nag Hammadi Codex II) (4th cent.)

Layton, Bentley (ed.). Nag Hammadi Codex II, 2-7: Together with XIII, 2*, Brit. Lib. Or. 4926(1), and P. OXY. 1, 654, 655. 2 vols. NHS 20–21. Leiden: Brill, 1989.

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

Ehrman, Bart D. “The Gospel of Philip.” Pages 38–44 in Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It into the New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Isenberg, Wesley W. “The Gospel of Philip (II,3),” Pages 141–60 in The Nag Hammadi Library in English. Edited by James M. Robinson. 3rd ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFranscisco, 1990.

Meyer, Marvin W. “The Gospel of Philip.” Pages 161–86 in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures. Edited by Marvin W. Meyer. New York: HarperOne, 2007.

Layton, Bentley (ed.). Nag Hammadi Codex II, 2-7: Together with XIII, 2*, Brit. Lib. Or. 4926(1), and P. OXY. 1, 654, 655. 2 vols. NHS 20–21. Leiden: Brill, 1989.

Schenke, Hans-Martin. “The Gospel of Philip.” Pages 179–208 in New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. 1, Gospels and Related Writings. Edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher. Translated by Robert McLachlan Wilson. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1991.

3.3.2 French

Painchaud, Louis. “Évangile selon Philippe (NH II, 3).” Pages 343–76 in Écrits gnostiques: La Bibliothèque de Nag Hammadi. Edited by Jean-Pierre Mahé and Paul-Hubert Poirier. Paris: NRF, 2007.

Létourneau, Pierre. Le Dialogue du Sauveur (NH III, 5). Bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi, Section “Textes” 29. Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval/Louvain-Paris: Peeters, 2003.

3.3.3 German

Schenke, Hans-Martin. “Das Evangelium nach Philippus.” Pages 526–57 in Antike christliche Apokryphen in deutscher Übersetzung. Bd. 1. Edited by Christoph Markschies and Jens Schröter. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012.

Schenke, Hans-Martin. “Das Evangelium nach Philippus.” Pages 140–63 in Nag Hammadi Deutsch. NHC I–XII, Codex Berolinensis 1 and 4, Codex Tchacos 3 und 4. 3rd ed. Edited by Ursula Ulrike Kaiser and Hans-Gebhard Bethge. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013.

3.3.4 Spanish

De Santos Otero, Aurelio. Los Evangelios Apócrifos. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Christianos, 19561, 200010 (pp. 715–47).

3.3 General Works

Borchert, Gerald L. “Insights into the Gnostic Threat to Christianity as Gained Through the Gospel of Philip.” Pages 79–93 in New Dimensions in New Testament Study. Edited by Richard N. Longenecker and Merrill C. Tenney. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1974.

Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. “Conceptual Models and Polemical Issues in the Gospel of Philip.” ANRW 25.5:4167–94. Principat 25.5. Edited by H. Temporini and W. Haase. New York: de Gruyter, 1988.

Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. “‘The Holy Spirit is a Double Name’: Holy Spirit, Mary, and Sophia in the Gospel of Philip.” Pages 211–27 in Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism. Edited by Karen L. King. Studies in Antiquity and Christianity. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988.

Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. “A Cult-Mystery in the Gospel of Philip.” JBL 99 (1980): 569–81.

Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen, and Deirdre Joy Good. “Sacramental Language and Verbs of Generating, Creating, and Begetting in the Gospel of Philip.” JECS 5 (1997): 1–19.

DeConick, April D. “The True Mysteries: Sacramentalism in the Gospel of Philip.” VC 55 (2001): 225–61.

DeConick, April D. “Entering God’s Presence: Sacramentalism in the Gospel of Philip.” Pages 483–523 in Society of Biblical Literature 1998 Seminar Papers. SBLSP 37. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1998.

Dunderberg, Ismo. “Valentinus and his School.” Revista catalana de teología 37 (2012): 131–51.

_________. “Valentinian Views about Adam’s Creation: Valentinus and the Gospel of Philip.” Pages 509–527 in Lux Humana, Lux Aeterna: Essays on Biblical and Related Themes in Honour of Lars Aejmelaeus. Edited by Antti Mustakallio. Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society 89. Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society/Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005.

Eijk, Ton H. C. van. “Gospel of Philip and Clement of Alexandria: Gnostic and Ecclesiastical Theology on the Resurrection and the Eucharist.” Vigiliae Christianae 25 (1971): 94–120.

Franzmann, M. “The Concept of Rebirth as the Christ and the Initiatory Rituals of the Bridal Chamber in the ‘Gospel of Philip.’” Antichthon 30 (1996): 34–48.

Grant, Robert M. “The Mystery of Marriage in the Gospel of Philip.” Pages 183–94 in After the New Testament. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1967.

Heimola, Minna. Christian Identity in the Gospel of Philip. Suomen Eksegeettisen Seuran Julkaisuja 102. Helsinki: The Finnish Exegetical Society, 2011.

Houziaux, Alain. “Marie-Madeleine était-elle la compagne de Jésus-Christ?” ETR 81 (2006): 167–82.

Iricinschi, Eduard. “If You Got It, Flaunt It: Religious Advertising in the Gospel of Philip.” Pages 253–72 in Heresy and Identity in Late Antiquity. TSAJ 119. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008.

King, Karen L. “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife . . .’: A New Coptic Papyrus.” HTR 107 (2014): 131–59.

_________. “The Place of the Gospel of Philip in the Context of Early Christian Claims about Jesus’ Marital Status.” New Testament Studies 59 (2013): 565–87.

Laine, Minna. “Gnosis, Love and Resurrection: Interpretation of Pauline Epistles in the Valentinian Gospel of Philip.” Pages 415–35 in Lux Humana, Lux Aeterna: Essays on Biblical and Related Themes in Honour of Lars Aejmelaeus. Edited by Antti Mustakallio. Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society 89. Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society/Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005.

Leloup, Jean-Yves. The Gospel of Philip: Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the Gnosis of Sacred Union. Translated by Joseph Rowe. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2004.

_________. L’évangile de Philippe. Spiritualités vivantes 201. Paris: A. Michel, 2003.

Lundhaug, Hugo. “Begotten, Not Made, to Arise in This Flesh: The Post-Nicene Soteriology of the Gospel of Philip.” Pages 235–71 in Beyond the Gnostic Gospels: Studies Building on the Work of Elaine Pagels. Edited by Eduard Iricinschi, Lance Jenott, Nicola Denzey Lewis, and Philippa Townsend. STAC 82. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013.

Menard, Jacques E. L’Évangile selon Philippe : Introduction, texte, traduction, commentaire. Paris: Letouzey & Ané, 1967.

Meyer, Marvin W. “Gospel of Philip.” Pages 235–242 in The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook: Sacred Texts of the Mystery Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean World. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987.

Os, Bas van. “The Gospel of Philip as Gnostic Initiatory Discourse.” Pages 91–112 in Practicing Gnosis: Ritual, Magic, Theurgy, and Liturgy in Nag Hammadi, Manichaean and Other Ancient Literature: Essays in Honor of Birger A. Pearson. Edited by April D. DeConick, Gregory Shaw, and John D. Turner. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 85. Leiden: Brill, 2013.

_________. “Was the Gospel of Philip Written in Syria?” Apocrypha 17 (2006): 87–93.

Pagels, Elaine H. “Ritual in the Gospel of Philip.” Pages 280–91 in The Nag Hammadi Library After Fifty Years: Proceedings of the 1995 Society of Biblical Literature Commemoration. Edited by John D. Turner and Anne McGuire. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 44. Leiden: Brill, 1997.

_________. “The ‘Mystery of Marriage’ in the Gospel of Philip Revisited.” Pages 442–54 in The Future of Early Christianity: Essays in Honor of Helmut Koester. Edited by Birger A. Pearson. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991.

_________. “Pursuing the Spiritual Eve: Imagery and Hermeneutics in the Hypostasis of the Archons and the Gospel of Philip.” Pages 187–210 in Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism. Edited by Karen L. King. Studies in Antiquity and Christianity. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988.

Painchaud, Louis. “‘Joseph le charpentier planta un jardin . . .’ (EvPhil 73,8-9): Sens apparent et sens caché dans l’Évangile Selon Philippe.” Pages 107–17 in Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices: Studies for Einar Thomassen at Sixty. Edited by Christian H. Bull, Liv Ingeborg Lied, and John D. Turner. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 76. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

_________. “La composition de l’Évangile selon Philippe (NH II,3): Une analyse rhétorique.” Pages 35–66 in Society of Biblical Literature 1996 Seminar Papers. SBLSP 35. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1996.

_________. “Le Christ vainqueur de la mort dans l’Évangile selon Philippe : Une exégèse Valentinienne de Matt 27:46.” NovT 38 (1996): 382–92.

Schenke, Hans-Martin. Das Philippus-Evangelium: (Nag-Hammadi-Codex II,3). Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1997.

_________. “Zur Exegese des Philippus-Evangeliums.” Pages 123–37 in Coptology: Past, Present, and Future: Studies in Honour of Rodolphe Kasser. Edited by S. Giversen, M. Krause, and P. Nagel. OLA 61. Leuven: Peeters, 1994.

Scopello, Madeleine. “The Gospel of Philip.” Pages 157–60 in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures. Edited by Marvin W. Meyer. New York: HarperOne, 2007.

Strathearn, Gaye. “The Valentinian Bridal Chamber.” PhD diss., Claremont University, 2004.

_________. “The Valentinian Bridal Chamber in the Gospel of Philip.” Studies in the Bible and Antiquity 1 (2009): 83–103.

Stroud, W. J. “New Testament Quotations in the Nag Hammadi Gospel of Philip.” Pages 68–81 in Society of Biblical Literature 1990 Seminar Papers. Edited by D. J. Lull. SBLSP 29. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990.

Thomassen, Einar. “Gos. Philip 67:27-30: Not ‘in a Mystery.’” Pages 927–939 in Coptica, Gnostica, Manichaica: Mélanges offerts à Wolf-Peter Funk. Edited by Louis Painchaud and Paul-Hubert Poirier. Bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi, Section “Etudes” 7. Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval/Louvain: Éditions Peeters, 2006.

_________. “How Valentinian Is the Gospel of Philip?” In The Nag Hammadi Library After Fifty Years: Proceedings of the 1995 Society of Biblical Literature Commemoration. Edited by John D. Turner and Anne McGuire. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 44. Leiden: Brill, 1997.

Till, Walter C. Das Evangelium nach Philippos. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1963.

Tripp, D. H. “The ‘Sacramental System’ of the Gospel of Philip.’” Pages 251–260 in Studia Patristica: Vol. XVII in Three Parts. Edited by Elizabeth A. Livingstone. Studia patristica 17. Oxford: Pergamon, 1982.

Turner, John D. “Images of Rebirth: Cognitive Poetics and Transformational Soteriology in the Gospel of Philip and the Exegesis on the Soul.” VC 67 (2013): 106–10.

Turner, Martha Lee. “On the Coherence of the Gospel According to Philip.” Pages 223–50 in The Nag Hammadi Library After Fifty Years: Proceedings of the 1995 Society of Biblical Literature Commemoration. Edited by John D. Turner and Anne McGuire. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 44. Leiden: Brill, 1997.

_________. The Gospel according to Philip: The Sources and Coherence of an Early Christian Collection. New York: Brill, 1996.

Unnik, Willem Cornelis van. “Three Notes on the Gospel of Philip.” Pages 238-243 in Sparsa collecta: The collected Essays of W. C. van Unnik, Vol. 3, Patristica, Gnostica, Liturgica. NovT Sup 31. Leiden: Brill, 1983.

_________. “Three Notes on the Gospel of Philip.” NTS 10 (July 1964): 465–69.

Wilson, R. McL. The Gospel of Philip. London: Mowbray, 1962.

_________. “The Gospel of Philip.” Pages 98–103 in Papers Read at the First Winter and Summer Meetings of the Ecclesiastical History Society. Edited by C. W. Dugmore and Charles Duggan. SCH 1. London: Nelson, 1964.