Fragments of a faith forgotten.: Some short sketches among the gnostics, mainly of the first two centuries

Fragments of a faith forgotten.: Some short sketches among the gnostics, mainly of the first two centuries

G.R.S. Mead

Theosophical Publishing Society: London

1906

The therapeuts -- The earliest Christians of Eusebius -- The Pseudo-Philo theory -- Its death-blow -- An interesting question of date -- The title and context -- Philo on the contemplative life -- The Essaeans -- The name therapeut -- Their abandonment of the world -- Their retreats -- the Mareotic colony -- Their dwellings -- The original meaning of the term monastery -- Their prayers and exercises -- The nature of their books -- Their mode of meeting -- The sanctuary -- Their rule -- Fasting -- The seventh-day common meal -- Housing and clothing -- Their sacred feasts -- The banquet on the fiftieth day -- Seniority -- The women disciples -- The plain couches -- The servers -- The fugal fare -- The president -- The instruction -- The interpretation of Scripture -- The singing of hymns -- Bread and salt -- The sacred dancing -- The morning prayer -- A note on the sacred numbers -- Philo's connection with the therapeuts -- The lay disciples -- The variety of communities -- Jewry -- The influence of Babylon -- The writing of Scripture-history -- The mythology of history -- Honest self-delusion -- The spiritualizing of Judaism -- Zealotism -- Pharisaism -- The Chassidim and Essenes -- The inner schools -- Alexandria -- A bird's-eye view of the city -- The populace -- The library -- The museum -- The schools of the Sophists -- The dawn-land -- The new religion -- Jewish and Christian schools -- General Gnostic Christianity -- The evolution of Catholic Christianity -- The canon -- The gospels -- The letters of Paul -- The gentilization of Christianity -- The Ebionites -- The Nazoraeans -- The poor men -- The Ebionite tradition of Jesus -- The Essenes -- Their manner of life -- The degrees of holiness -- Points of contact with Christianity -- The tendencies of Gnosticism -- The "secularizing" of Christianity -- Yahweh not "the father" of Jesus -- The inner teaching -- Various classes of souls

The person of Jesus -- The main doctrines -- The literature and sources of Gnosticism -- Literature -- Indirect sources -- Direct sources -- The gnosis according to its foes -- some Gnostic fragments recovered from the polemical writings of the church fathers -- No classification possible -- The "Simonians" -- The origin of the name -- Dositheus -- A follower of John the Baptist -- The pre-Christian Gnosis -- "Simon Magus" -- The Ebionite "Simon" -- The "Simonian" literature -- The "Simonian" system of Irenaeus -- The great announcement -- The hidden fire -- The fire tree -- The Aeons -- Menander -- His date -- His doctrine -- A link with Zoroastrianism -- Saturninus -- The chain of teachers -- Asceticism -- Summary of doctrines -- The making of man -- The "Ophites" -- The obscurity of the subject -- The term "Ophite" -- The serpent symbol -- The myth of the going-forth -- Pseudo-philology -- An anonymous system from Irenaeus -- The spiritual creation -- Yahweh Ialdabaoth -- O.T. exegesis -- Christology -- Jesus -- An early "Ophite" system -- Justinus -- The book of Baruch -- Baruch -- Christology -- The Naasseni -- Their literature -- Their mystical exegesis -- The Assyrian mysteries -- The Egyptian -- The Greek -- The Samothracian -- The Phrygian -- The mysteries of the great mother -- The fragment of a hymn -- The Peratae -- The source of their tradition -- The three worlds -- A direct quotation -- The meaning of the name -- Psychological physiology -- The lost books of Hippolytus -- The Sethians -- Seth -- An outline of their system -- The mysteries -- The Docetae -- God -- The Aeons -- Cosmos and man -- The savior -- Monoimus -- Number theories -- How to seek after God -- The so-called Cainites -- The obscurity of the subject -- The enemies of Yahweh the friends of God -- Judas -- A scrap of history -- The Carpocratians -- Their idea of Jesus -- Reincarnation -- "Epiphanes" -- The moon-god -- communism -- The Monadic gnosis -- Cerinthus

The scape-goat for the "pillar-apostles" -- The over-writer of the apocalypse -- Nicolaus -- "Which things I hate" -- Cerdo -- The master of Marcion -- Marcion -- The spread of Marcionism -- The "higher criticism" -- The gospel of Paul -- Eznik -- A Marcionite system -- The title Chrestos -- Apelles -- His wide tolerance -- Philumene -- Her visions -- The Basilidian gnosis -- Basilides and his writings -- Our sources of information -- The divinity beyond being -- Universality beyond being -- Ex Nihilo -- The sonship -- The Holy Spirit -- The great ruler -- The Aetherial creation -- The sub-lunary spaces -- Soteriology -- The mystic gospel -- The sons of God -- The final consummation -- Jesus -- Karman and reincarnation -- The theory of "Appendages" -- Moral responsibility -- A trace of Zoroastrianism -- The spurious system -- Abrasax -- The Valentinian movement -- The "great unknown" of Gnosticism -- "They are Valentinus" -- The so-called Eastern and Western schools -- The leaders of the movement -- The synthesizing of the gnosis -- Sources of information -- Valentinus -- Biography -- Date -- Writings -- The fragments that remain -- concerning the creation of the first race of mankind -- On the pure in heart -- Concerning one of the powers of the perfect man -- Ye are sons of God -- The face of God -- Concerning the people of the beloved -- The Galilaeans -- The wisdom of the "little ones" -- The chain of being -- The Ariadne's thread out of the maze -- Some outlines of Aeonology -- Towards the great silence -- The depth beyond being -- The Aeon world -- The Platonic solids -- A living symbolism -- The "fourth dimension" -- The eternal atom -- The law of Syzygy -- The law of differentiation -- The three and the seven -- The twelve and ten -- The dodecahedron -- The decad -- Chaos -- Theos -- Mythology -- The Sophia-mythus -- The mother of many names -- Hippolytus' account of one of the variants of the Sophia-Mythus -- The father of all -- The parents of the Aeons -- The names of the Aeons -- The world-mother -- The abortion -- The term "only-begotten" -- The cross -- The last limit -- The mystic or cosmic Jesus -- The grief of Sophia -- The sensible world -- Its demiurge

"Words" or minds -- Souls -- Bodies -- The new man -- The mystic body of the Christ -- Soteriology -- The number-symbolism -- Sources -- Number-letters -- Kabalism -- The great name -- The echo of the name -- The symbolic body of the man of truth -- The numbers -- Gospel exegesis -- The creation of the sensible world -- The tetraktys -- Theological arithmetic -- Jesus the master -- The "moving image of eternity" -- From the Marcosian ritual -- Ptolemy -- The letter to flora -- The "higher criticism" -- The source of Moses' inspiration -- The proem to the fourth gospel -- Heracleon -- His commentary on the fourth gospel -- Heracleon -- His commentary on the fourth gospel -- Bardesanes -- Biography -- Writings -- Indirect sources -- From his hymns -- The book of the laws of countries -- Karma -- Fortune and nature -- The right and left -- The hymn of the soul -- The hymn of the robe of glory -- Some traces of the gnosis in the uncanonical acts -- Foreword -- The Gnostic acts -- Catholic over-working -- Early collectors -- From the acts of Thomas -- A hymn to wisdom -- Its meaning -- Two sacramental invocations -- A note thereon -- The palace that Thomas built -- From the acts of John -- A recently-published fragment -- The rationale of docetism -- The evolution of tradition -- Mystic stories of Jesus -- The Christ speaks with Jesus -- An early form of one of the great miracles -- A ritual from the mysteries -- The doxology -- The mystery of the cross -- The interpretation thereof -- The initiation of the cross -- The higher and lower selves -- A prayer of praise to Christ -- John's farewell address to his community -- John's last prayer -- The story of John and the bugs -- From the acts of Andrew -- Address to the cross -- From the travels of Peter -- The descent of man -- The mystic redemption through the cross -- Afterword -- The gnosis according to its friends -- Some Greek original works in Coptic translation -- The askew and Bruce Codices -- The askew codex -- The Bruce codex -- Translations -- The difficulty of the subject -- Programme -- Summary of the contents of the so-called Pistis Sophia Treatise -- The teaching of the eleven years -- The mystic transfiguration and ascent in the twelfth year -- The master returns to his disciples -- The mystic incarnation of the twelve -- That the soul of Elias is born in John the Baptist -- Of his own incarnation -- Concerning the robe of glory -- The hymn of welcome "come unto us" -- The three vestures of light -- The journey into the height -- The master robs the Aeons of a third of their light -- The question of Mary -- Why the rulers have been robbed -- The shortening of the times -- The heaven-journey continued

The myth of pistis Sophia -- The enmity of arrogant -- The fall into matter -- The descent of the soul -- Its repentance and redemption -- The degrees of purification -- The light-crown -- The final victory -- An otherwise-unknown story of the infancy -- Of the glory of them of the thirteenth Aeon -- The scale of light -- The perfect shall be higher than the emanations of light in the kingdom -- The "last" shall be "first" -- The three supernal spaces of the light -- The inheritance of light -- The mystery of the first mystery -- The gnosis of Jesus, the mystery of the ineffable -- The disciples lose courage in amazement at the glories of the gnosis -- The highest mystery is the simplest of them all -- Concerning the one word of the ineffable -- The glory of him who receiveth the mystery -- Of the thrones in the light-kingdom -- There are other logoi -- The degrees of the mysteries -- The boons they grant -- The limbs of the ineffable -- The thousand years of light -- The books of Ieou -- Ye are Gods -- Of souls in incarnation -- The preaching of the mysteries -- The burden of the preaching -- The boundary marks of the paths of the mysteries -- The after-death state of the uninitiated righteous -- Of those who repent and again fall back -- The added glories of the saviors of souls -- Concerning the irreconcilables -- Of the infinite compassion of the divine -- Of those who mimic the mysteries -- Can the pains of martyrdom be avoided -- The mystery of the resurrection of the dead -- The transport of the disciples -- That this mystery is to be kept secret -- The constitution of man -- The evil desire which constraineth a man to sin -- The after-death state of the sinner -- And of the initiated righteous -- "Agree with thine enemy" -- The stamping of the sins of the souls -- The burning up of the sins by the fires of the baptism-mysteries -- The infinite forgiveness of sins -- But delay not to repent -- For at a certain time the gates of the light will be shut -- "I know not whence ye are" -- The dragon of outer darkness -- The draught of oblivion -- The parents we are to leave -- The books of Ieou again -- The Christ the first of this humanity to enter the light

"Tis he who holds the keys of the mysteries" -- Summary of the extracts from the books of the savior -- The immanent limbs of the ineffable -- The Christ is the ineffable -- The gnosis of the Christ -- The initiation of the disciples on the mount -- The first veil is drawn aside -- They enter the way of the midst -- The ordering of the fate-sphere is described -- All mysteries up to the light-treasure are promised them -- The punishments of the ways of the midst -- the duration of the punishments -- The disciples pray for mercy to sinners -- They enter an atmosphere of exceeding great light -- The vision of the baptism-mysteries -- They return to earth -- The celebration of the mystic Eucharist -- The mysteries that are to be revealed -- The punishment of sinners in the lower regions and the evil bodies they receive when reborn -- The cup of wisdom -- The note of a scribe -- Summary of the fragments of the book of the great logos according to the mystery -- The books of the gnosis of the invisible God -- The hidden wisdom -- A dark saying is explained -- The flesh of ignorance -- The mysteries of the treasure of light -- To be revealed to the worthy alone -- The lesser mysteries -- The good commandments -- The greater mysteries -- The powers they confer -- The mystic rite of the baptism of the water of life -- The baptism of fire -- The baptism of the Holy Spirit -- The mystery of withdrawing the evil of the rulers -- The powers of lesser mysteries confer -- The mystery of the forgiveness of sins -- The powers it confers -- The ordering of the light-treasures -- The great light -- Invocation to the true God -- Invocation to the unapproachable -- The mystery of the twelve Aeons -- The thirteenth Aeon -- The fourteenth Aeon -- The three great rulers -- Concerning Ieou the emanatory of the middle light-world -- The tetragrammaton -- The type of the treasures -- The type of the true God Ieou -- The mystic diagrams

Cosmic embryology -- The seal on the forehead of Ieou -- General characteristics of the diagrams -- The twelve the order of Jesus -- Hymn to the first mystery sung in the thirteen Aeons -- The thirteenth Aeon -- The sixty treasures -- The little idea -- The name of the great power -- Hymn to the unapproachable God sung in the seventh treasure -- The great Logoi according to the mystery -- The universal idea -- Hymn to the mystery -- The way of the midst -- Selections from the untitled apocalypse of the codex Brucianus -- The first being -- The second being -- The supernal being -- The twelve depths -- The primal source -- The unmanifested -- The manifested, the Pleroma -- Three-faced and two-faced space -- The view of the commentator -- Marsanes, Nicotheus, and Phosilampes -- The creative logos -- The descent of the light-spark -- The Spiritual atom -- Hymn to the logos -- The Christ -- The glorified of the Logos -- The at-one-moment -- Soteriology -- The ineffable vesture -- The purification of the lower nature -- The world-savior -- The promise -- The powers of the light-vesture -- The mothers of men -- The song of praise of the mother above -- The hidden worlds -- The man -- The Lord of splendor -- His promise to them who believe -- The prayer of the earth-born -- The power of discrimination are given them -- The ladder of purification -- The son of God -- Hymn to the light -- Notes on the contents of the Bruce and Askew Codices -- The kinship of the titled treatises -- Date -- Authorship -- The titles -- The books of Ieou -- The probable author -- The obscurity of the subject -- The original Pistis Sophia treatise -- The Coptic translation -- the books of the savior -- The copyist -- The scheme pre-supposed in these treatises -- An appreciation of the untitled treatise -- Not to be attributed to a single author -- Its apocalyptic basis -- The over-working -- The akhmim codex -- The MS and its contents -- The gospel of Mary -- The wisdom of Jesus Christ -- Irenaeus quotes from the Gospel of Mary -- An examination of his statements -- The father -- The mother -- The pentad -- The decad -- The Christ -- The Egyptian origin of the treatise -- The opinion of Harnack -- The importance of the MS -- Some forgotten sayings -- Rejected Logoi -- The Oxyrhynchus Papyri -- Conclusion -- Afterword -- Bibliographies -- General Bibliography -- Early works -- Critical studies prior to 1851 -- Works subsequent to the publication of the philosophumena in 1851 -- The Coptic Gnostic works -- Reviews and articles in English and American periodicals -- Uncanonical acts -- Gnostic gems and abraxas-studies -- Gnostic works mentioned by ancient writers -- The most recent texts of the Haeresiological church fathers and their English translations.

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