Nag Hammadi apocalypses: a study of the relationship of selected texts to the traditional Apocalypse
Abstract
Approximately sixteen texts in the Nag Hammadi codices can
be classified as apocalypses. The principal concern of this
study is to determine whether the genre of a selection of these
Gnostic apocalypses was based on the traditional apocalypses
(Jewish and Christian).
In the first two chapters a new definition of the apocalypse
is proposed and developed in relation to the Jewish and early
Christian apocalypses. This definition states that an apocalypse
is essentially a literary work structured around a first person
narrative account of a mediated revelation.
Chapters three to five are devoted to a study of those
Gnostic texts that recount revelations which the risen Christ is
supposed to have given his disciples. After a study of the
literature itself (chapter 3), there is a critique of Rudolph's
hypothesis that the genre was based on Graeco-Roman dialogue
genres (chapter 4). The fifth chapter sets forth and examines
the two most probable ways to account for the genre of this
literature: 1. the genre could have been based on the
traditional apocalypse; 2. it is possible that the genre was
created on the basis of post-passion traditions and was not
directly modelled on any antecedent genre.
In chapters six and seven it is argued that there is
sufficient evidence to establish that the authors of
Apocalypse of Peter (VII, 3) and the Apocalypse of Paul (V, 2)
based their genres on the traditional apocalypse.
The final chapter is devoted to a study of The Apocalypse of
Adam (V, 5). This text contains elements characteristic of two
traditional genres--the testament and the apocalypse. However in
its present form ApocAd must be classified as a testament rather
than an apocalypse. The last part of this chapter sets forth new
evidence which establishes that ApocAd originated in Gnostic
circles which had been influenced by Christian and Christian
Gnostic traditions.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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