1st Apocalypse of James
Home > Gnostics > 1st Apocalypse of James 1st Apocalypse of James At a Glance Apocalypse Genre: (2/5) ** Reliability of Dating: (3/5) *** Length of Text: Coptic Original Language: Ancient Translations: Modern Translations: English Estimated Range of Dating: 180-250 A.D. Chronological List of Early Christian Writings Discuss this text on the Early Writings forum. Text English Translation by William R. Schoedel Books James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library in English (San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins 1990), pp. 260-268. Wilhelm Schneemelcher, ed., translation by R. McL. Wilson, New Testament Apocrypha : Gospels and Related Writings (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1992), pp. 313-326.
Recommended Books for the Study of Early Christian Writings Information on 1st Apocalypse of James William R. Schodel writes (The Nag Hammadi Library in English, p. 260): The manuscript names this writing The Apocalypse of James. We refer to it here as The (First) Apocalypse of James to distinguish it from the next writing (V, 4) which the manuscript also entitles The Apocalypse of James. Our apocalypse is an excellent example of a "revelation dialogue." The partners in the dialogue are the Lord and James the Lord's brother (though the latter is said to be the Lord's brother only in a purely spiritual sense). In the first part of the writing (20,10-30,11) James addresses questions to the Lord that reflect his anxiety at the suffering soon to overtake both himself and the Lord, and the Lord provides James consolation in terms of standard gnostic teaching about the place of man in the universe.
An oblique and very brief reference to the crucifixion in 30,12-13 serves as the turning point in the account. After the reappearance of the Lord, the story is dominated by a series of formulae transmitted to James to enable him to meet the challenges of the hostile powers who will attempt to block his ascent to "the Pre-Existent One" after his martyrdom (32,23-36,1). These formulae represent a dramatized version of texts that appear elsewhere in the context of rites for the dying in the forms of Valentinian Gnosticism (Irenaeus, Haer. 1.21.5; Epiphanius, Pan. 36.3.1-6). It is worth noting, however, that at least one characteristic line that appears here ("I am an alien, a son of the Father's race") has a close parallel in the Corpus Hermeticum (13.3).
Other interesting matters taken up in the second part of our apocalypse include the directions concerning the handing on of the teaching in secret (36,13-38,11), the comments about the value of women as disciples (38,15-41,18), the mention of James' rebuke of the twelve disciples (42,20-24), and the relatively lengthy account (now much mutilated) of James' martyrdom at the conclusion of the writing. Wolf-Peter Funk writes (New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 1, p. 315): If we are already reduced to conjectures with regard to the original language, this naturally holds also for the date of the translation into Coptic. It must have taken place at the latest in the first half of the 4th century, yet scarcely earlier than the second half of the 3rd.
This still does not say much about the original formation of the document. Here we are reduced to conclusions which result from the content of the text. The Valentinian theologoumena utilised in it (cf. especially the doctrines of an upper and a lower Sophia, or of 'Sophia' proper and 'Achamoth', which also occur in the text outside the mystery formulae quoted: p. 36.5, 8) seem to presuppose the fully-developed Valentinian system, and therefore suggest the composition of the document at the earliest towards the end of the 2nd century. The rejection of a bodily fraternal relationship between Jesus and James (p. 24 15 f.), evidently already presupposed, points in a similar direction.