Marsanes
Home > Gnostics > Marsanes Marsanes 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: 270-330 A.D. Chronological List of Early Christian Writings Discuss this text on the Early Writings forum. Text Marsanes Offsite Links French Translation Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia: Marsanes Nag Hammadi Codices IX and X Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity Sethian Gnosticism and the Platonic Tradition 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 Marsanes Birger A. Pearson writes, "The prophet Marsanes is known from two other sources. He, together with another prophet named Nicotheus (or Nikotheos), is named in the 'Untitled Text' of the Bruce Codex (ch. 7). As noted above, Nicotheus is also mentioned in Porphyry's Life of Plotinus (ch. 16). In the Bruce Codex, Marsanes and Nicotheus are said to be 'great ones' who have seen heavenly verities and revealed them to others. Epiphanius, in his discussion of the Archontics, mentions two prophets honored by them, Martiades and Marsianos, who had been snatched up to the heavens and had come down after three days (Panarion 40.7.6).
('Marsianos' and 'Marsanes' are two different ways of rendering in Greek a name of Syriac origin.) Visionary ascent is certainly a prominent feature of what remains of the Nag Hammadi tractate Marsanes. In this tractate Marsanes gives advanced instruction to a group of his followers who have already been initiated into gnosis. The author of the tractate may be the Gnostic prophet Marsanes himself; alternatively he may be an otherwise unknown teacher who claims to be writing in the name of the prophet Marsanes. Marsanes reflects a good deal of the Platonist school tradition that we have seen in Steles Seth, Zostrianos, and Allogenes." (Ancient Gnosticism, pp. 92-93) John D.
Turner writes, "All scholars who have had occasion to comment on Marsanes in relation to other Sethian literature have called attention to its unique postulation of a new supreme principle, the Unknown Silent One, which transcends the Invisible Spirit, who is otherwise the supreme principle of all the other Sethian treatises. This modification of Sethian theology is parallel to a similar phenomenon that occurs in Iamblichus (cf. Damascius On First Principles 1.21,11-14; 25,21-22) and his disciple Theodore of Asine (Proclus Commentary on Plato's Timaeus 2,274,10-20), who placed an ineffable One absolutely unrelated to anything else at the summit of all reality - including Plotinus's supreme One, which was at least 'present to' subsequent reality.
Of course, at least in the case of Marsanes and Theodore, this supreme One nevertheless has some relation to its inferiors, since for Theodore, the 'second One' was the aspiration ('breathing'), self-contact, and intelligibility of the first One, and for Marsanes, the Invisible Spirit (which 'has no breath,' 15,1-4; 15,29-16,2) seems to share both the silence and the activity of the Unknown Silent One. On these grounds as well as the presence of the prophet's name in the Bruce Codex, one might date Marsanes to the late third or early fourth century, contemporary with Iamblichus and Theodore." (The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, p. 631) Some Contemporary Texts Gregory Thaumaturgus (265-282 A.D.) Pope Felix (269-274 A.D.) Victorinus of Pettau (270-310 A.D.) Methodius (270-312 A.D.) Marsanes (270-330 A.D.) On the Origin of the World (270-330 A.D.) De Recta in Deum Fide (270-350 A.D.) Hesychius (280-300 A.D.) Pierius (280-310 A.D.) Go to the Chronological List of all Early Christian Writings Please buy the CD to support the site, view it without ads, and get bonus stuff!