The ''Hypostasis of the Archons'' or ''The Reality of the Rulers'' is an

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (logic), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern usage, ...

on the ''

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning") ...

'' 1–6 and expresses

Gnostic Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...

mythology of the divine creators of the cosmos and humanity.

Text's origin and content

The text was found among those included in the

Nag Hammadi library The Nag Hammadi library (also known as the " Chenoboskion Manuscripts" and the "Gnostic Gospels") is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. Thirteen leather-bound papyr ...

, in CG II, in 1945. It is tentatively dated in the third century CE and is thought to originate from a transitional period in Gnosticism when it was converting from a purely mythological state into a philosophical phase. The beginning and conclusion to the document are Christian Gnostic, but the rest of the material is a mythological narrative regarding the origin and nature of the archontic powers peopling the heavens between Earth and the Ogdoad, and how the destiny of man is affected by these primeval happenings. The work is presented as a learned treatise in which a teacher addresses a topic suggested by the dedicatee of the work. The treatise begins with a fragment of

cosmogony Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony refers to the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used i ...

, which leads to what is framed as a "true history" of the events in the Genesis creation story, reflecting Gnostic distrust of the material world and the demiurge that created it. Within this narrative there is an "angelic revelation dialogue" where an angel repeats and elaborates the author's fragment of cosmogonic myth in much broader scope, concluding with historical prediction of the coming of the savior and the end of days. Although the etymologies and puns on Semitic names suggest the author's close contact with

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

legends and interpretive traditions as well as knowledge of

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

and

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

practices, the myth is, according to Bentley Layton purposefully anti-Judaic. In addition, arguably, the work contains no Christian anti-Gnostic characteristics. The text, like all the texts in the Nag Hammadi Library, is believed to have originally been written in Greek. As the original Greek text has not been discovered, the only known version is the Coptic translation from Nag Hammadi.

Characters

* ''The Parent of the Entirety'': The invisible virgin spirit. * ''Incorruptibility'' * ''The Child'': Presides over the entirety. * ''The

Four Luminaries 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

'':

Eleleth In Sethian Gnosticism, a luminary is an angel-like being (or heavenly dwelling place in the ''Apocryphon of John''). Four luminaries are typically listed in Sethian Gnostic texts, such as the '' Secret Book of John'', the '' Holy Book of the Great ...

and three others. * ''The True Human Being'' * ''The Undominated Race'' * ''

Wisdom Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, ...

'': Sophia or

Pistis Sophia ''Pistis Sophia'' ( grc-koi, Πίστις Σοφία) is a Gnostic text discovered in 1773, possibly written between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The existing manuscript, which some scholars place in the late 4th century, relates one Gnostic g ...

. * ''Zoe (

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

)'': daughter of Sophia. * ''

Yaldabaoth Yaldabaoth, Jaldabaoth, or Ildabaoth is an evil deity and creator of the material world in various Gnostic sects and movements, sometimes represented as a theriomorphic, lion-headed serpent. He is identified as the Demiurge and false god who ke ...

'': The chief ruler also called Sakla and

Samael Samael ( he, סַמָּאֵל, ''Sammāʾēl'', "Venom/Poison of God"; ar, سمسمائيل, ''Samsama'il'' or ar, سمائل, label=none, ''Samail''; alternatively Smal, Smil, Samil, or Samiel) is an archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic ...

. * ''

Sabaoth Judaism considers some names of God so holy that, once written, they should not be erased: YHWH, Adonai, El ("God"), Elohim ("God," a plural noun), Shaddai ("Almighty"), and Tzevaot (" fHosts"); some also include Ehyeh ("I Will Be").This is ...

'': One of Yaldabaoth's first seven offspring. * ''

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

'': The first human being. * ''

Eve Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...

'': Adam's wife and counterpart. * ''

Cain Cain ''Káïn''; ar, قابيل/قايين, Qābīl/Qāyīn is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible. He wa ...

'': Eve's son begotten by the rulers. * ''

Abel Abel ''Hábel''; ar, هابيل, Hābīl is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He was the younger brother of Cain, and the younger son of Adam and Eve, the first couple in Biblical history. He was a shepherd ...

'': Eve's son begotten by Adam. * ''

Seth Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. A ...

'': a son through god. * ''

Norea Norea is a figure in Gnostic cosmology. Sometimes she is said to be the syzygy of Adam, or wife of Noah, and daughter of Eve. Norea is perceived within gnostic thought as Sophia after her fall from grace. For a long time, Norea was known fro ...

'': Eve's daughter.Layton (1995) 66.

Notes

References

*Bullard, Roger A. "The Hypostasis of the Archons." Berlin: De Gruyter, 1970. *Bullard, Roger A. Introduction to “The Hypostasis of the Archons”. In ''The Nag Hammadi Library in English'', Revised Edition. Edited by James M. Robinson, 161–162. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988. *Fallon, Francis T. "The Enthronement of Sabaoth: Jewish Elements in Gnostic Creation Myths". Leiden: Brill, 1978. *Fallon, Francis T. "The Gnostics: The Undominated Race". Novum Testamentum 21.3 (1979): 271–88. *Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid. "The Nature of the Archons: A Study in the Soteriology of a Gnostic Treatise from Nag Hammadi (CGII, 4)". Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1985. * King, Karen L. “Ridicule and Rape, Rule and Rebellion: The Hypostasis of the Archons”. In ''Gnosticism and the Early Christian World: In Honor of James M. Robinson''. Edited by James E. Goehring et al., Sonoma, California:Polebridge, 1990. *Layton, Bentley. ''The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions''. New York: Doubleday, 1995; 1987. * Layton, Bentley. “The Hypostasis of the Archons”.

Harvard Theological Review The ''Harvard Theological Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1908 and published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Harvard Divinity School. It covers a wide spectrum of fields in theological and re ...

67 (1974):351–425. *Layton, Bentley. “The Hypostasis of the Archons (Conclusion)”. Harvard Theological Review 69 (1976):31–101. *McGuire, Anne. "Virginity and Subversion: Norea Against the Powers in ''The Hypostasis of the Archons''". In ''Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism''. Edited by Karen L. King, 239–258. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988. * *

External links

;Online texts
Selection from James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, Translated by Bentley Layton

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hypostasis Of The Archons Biblical exegesis Gnosticism Early Christianity and Gnosticism 3rd-century Christian texts Texts in Coptic Nag Hammadi library Sethian texts