Nag Hammadi apocalypses: a study of the relationship of selected texts to the traditional Apocalypse

Nag Hammadi codices;Gnosticism;Nag Hammadi codices--Relation to the Bible

Shellrude, Glen M. ; Wilson, R. McL. (Robert McLachlan) ; Wilson, R. McL. (Robert McLachlan)

University:University of St Andrews

Department:Divinity (School of)

关键词: Nag Hammadi codices;    Gnosticism;    Nag Hammadi codices--Relation to the Bible;   

Others  :  https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/2649/GlenMShellrudePhDThesis.pdf?sequence=7&isAllowed=y

来源: DR-NTU

【 摘 要 】

Approximately sixteen texts in the Nag Hammadi codices canbe classified as apocalypses. The principal concern of thisstudy is to determine whether the genre of a selection of theseGnostic apocalypses was based on the traditional apocalypses(Jewish and Christian).In the first two chapters a new definition of the apocalypseis proposed and developed in relation to the Jewish and earlyChristian apocalypses. This definition states that an apocalypseis essentially a literary work structured around a first personnarrative account of a mediated revelation.Chapters three to five are devoted to a study of thoseGnostic texts that recount revelations which the risen Christ issupposed to have given his disciples. After a study of theliterature itself (chapter 3), there is a critique of Rudolph'shypothesis that the genre was based on Graeco-Roman dialoguegenres (chapter 4). The fifth chapter sets forth and examinesthe two most probable ways to account for the genre of thisliterature: 1. the genre could have been based on thetraditional apocalypse; 2. it is possible that the genre wascreated on the basis of post-passion traditions and was notdirectly modelled on any antecedent genre.In chapters six and seven it is argued that there issufficient evidence to establish that the authors ofApocalypse 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 ofAdam (V, 5). This text contains elements characteristic of twotraditional genres--the testament and the apocalypse. However inits present form ApocAd must be classified as a testament ratherthan an apocalypse. The last part of this chapter sets forth newevidence which establishes that ApocAd originated in Gnosticcircles which had been influenced by Christian and ChristianGnostic traditions.