The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit
Home > Gnostics > The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit At a Glance Treatise Genre: (5/5) ***** Reliability of Dating: (5/5) ***** Length of Text: Greek Original Language: Ancient Translations: Modern Translations: Estimated Range of Dating: 200-350 A.D. Chronological List of Early Christian Writings Discuss this text on the Early Writings forum. Text The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit Offsite Links French Translation Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia: The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit The facsimile edition of the Nag Hammadi Codices The Nag Hammadi Library in English The Gnostic Bible Gnostic Writings on the Soul: Annotated & Explained Conceptual Blending and Early Christian Imagination Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit Books Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation With Annotations and Introductions (Doubleday 1987) Marvin Meyer, ed., The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (HarperOne 2009) Birger A.
Pearson, Ancient Gnosticism: Traditions And Literature (Fortress Press 2007) Recommended Books for the Study of Early Christian Writings Information on the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit Although some refer to this text as the Gospel of the Egyptians (possibly causing confusion with a text of that name known through quotations), John D. Turner comments in this regard: "The two Coptic versions of the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit (III,2; IV,2) are copies of independent translations of basically the same Greek text; both copies are heavily damaged, the one in Codex IV more than the one in Codex III, but enough survives in them to be able to reconstruct about 90 percent of the text.
The actual title of the text is preserved as 'The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit' in the subtitle and colophon of Codex III and in hte initial lines of each copy, although since the late 1940s it has become customary to refer to it inappropriately as the 'Gospel of the Egyptians,' a title based on the name given to it at the beginning of the colophon in III 69,16-17." (The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, p. 247) On the purpose of the author, John D. Turner says, "the emphasis of the Holy Book seems to lie upon the well-defined ritual of baptism and the invocatory prayers that conclude the work (III 63,4-68,1; cf. IV 74,17-80,15), while the preceding sections seem to provide a mythological justification for them in the form of an elaborate theogony.
In the second part, the three advents (parousiai) of Seth are summarized, namely, his descents at the flood, at the conflagration (of Sodom and Gomorrah), and at the judgment of the archons, to save his seed ('saints') who have gone astray in the world, a scheme of three descents similar to those of the illuminator in the Revelation of Adam. It is on his third descent that Seth is said to descend in a body begotten by the Word (Logos) and prepared for him by the 'virgin' (probably Barbelo), put on Jesus, and defeat the powers of the thirteen aeons." (The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, p. 247) The text contains evidence concerning baptism, as Turner observes: "The account of this bestowal is followed by a lengthy list of various figures that are invoked in the course of the baptismal rite (III 64,9-65,26), which includes a multitude of new names, most of which show up in the baptismal sections of Zostrianos, alongside the more traditional ones, such as Micheus, Michar, Mnesinous, Gamaliel, and Samblo (in both the Revelation of Adam and Three Forms of First Thought), and Abrasax and Yesseus Mazareus Yessedekeus (in the Revelation of Adam), not to mention the Self-Generated and his companion Adamas, Seth and his companion Jesus, the seed of Seth, and 'the souls of the children,' who reside in the Four Luminaries Harmozel, Oroiael, Daveithe, and Eleleth, respectively (as in the Secret Book of John or Three Forms of First Thought).
Thereafter follows the renunciation (of the world and the hostile powers of the thirteen aeons) and the receipt of those who receive them into the divine world (probably the ministers of the Four Luminaries). The concluding baptismal prayer (III 66,8-22) and postbaptismal profession (66,22-68,1) consist of two separate hymns of five strophes each, perhaps reflecting the Sethian baptismal tradition of the Five Seals known from the Secret Book of John and Three Forms of First Thought, which enumeration may also figure in the fivefold repetition of the doxologies demarcating the stages of the theogony in the first part of the Holy Book as well as the Pentad of being comprisng the Doxomedon aeon.