admin
Shingai Rukwata Ndoro Chiseling the Debris
WHILE the Hebrew Scriptures present Eve as emerging physically from Adam’s body (Genesis 2:21-23), the Gnostic version has parts in which the mythical Eve emerges from the unconscious depths of the sleepy mythical Adam.
Eve first emerges into liberating consciousness and then calls forth to the sleeping Adam, “I entered into the midst of the dungeon which is the prison of the body. And I spoke thus, He who hears, let him arise from the deep sleep.”
And then he (Adam) wept and shed tears. After he wiped away his bitter tears he spoke, asking, “Who is it that calls my name, and whence has this hope come unto me, while I am in the chains of this prison?”
And I spoke thus, “I am the Pronoia of the pure light; I am the thought of the undefiled spirit… Arise and remember…and follow your root, which is I…and beware of the deep sleep.” The Secret Book of John − The Secret Revelation of John.
“The Hypostasis of the Archons” found in 1945 among the Nag Hammadi Library texts, “And the spirit-endowed woman came to Adam and spoke with him saying, ‘Arise, Adam.’
And when he saw her, he said, ‘It is you who has given me life. You shall be called mother of the living, for it is she who is my mother. It is she who is the physician and the woman, and she who has given birth’…
In another Gnostic scripture from the same collection entitled, “On the Origin of the World”, one finds further amplification of this theme.
Here the figurative Eve whose esoteric name is Zoe, meaning life, is shown as the daughter and messenger of the feminine Divine, Sophia, and an underlying reality or substance of the Divine, “Sophia sent Zoe, her daughter, who is called “Eve,” as an instructor in order that she might raise up Adam, in whom there is no spiritual soul so that those whom he could beget might also become vessels of light.
When Eve saw her companion, who was so much like her, in his cast down condition she pitied him, and she exclaimed, “Adam, live! Rise up upon the earth!”
Immediately her words produced a result for when Adam rose up, right away he opened his eyes. When he saw her, he said, “You will be called ‘mother of the living’, because you are the one who gave me life.”
In the same scripture, the Creator and its companions whisper to each other while Adam sleeps, “Let us teach him in his sleep as though she (Eve) came to be from his rib so that the woman will serve and he will be lord over her.”
The tale of Adam’s rib is thus revealed as a way intended to advance a sexist attitude of male superiority. It goes without saying that such an attitude would have been more difficult among the Gnostics, who held that man was indebted to woman for bringing him to life and to consciousness.— Hoeller (1997). In the treatise “The Apocalypse of Adam,” the Gnostics presented us with a scripture that tells of the superior status of Eve, “The disclosure given by Adam to his (third) son Seth in his seven hundredth year.
And he said, “Listen to my words, my son Seth. When (the Divine) created me out of the earth, along with Eve your mother, I went along with her in a glory, which she had seen in the aeon (heaven) from which she came forth. She taught me the word of Gnosis of the eternal (Divine). And we resembled the great eternal angels, for we were higher than the (the Divine) who created us.” — Hoeller(1997).
From the above, it can be noticed that women are not inferior. Female and male principles are representatives of both nature and nurture – “wisdom” (receptive, the heart) and “will” (expressive, the mind) and a balanced combination of the two creates “beauty.”
The balanced combination of the use of the heart (wisdom, intuition/emotion) and mind (strength, thought) creates a happy life glory and splendour.
This shows that the whole Sumerian (Epic of Gilgamesh) and ancient Egyptian (Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts) are indicative of the glory of natural and gradual self-discovery, self-improvement and self-evolution of humanity. This is the allegorical narrative of the Scriptures.
After many generations of struggle and toil, “In which human will and determination, man-laid plans and experiments, and man-made discoveries and inventions played a dominant role,” humanity painfully moved from being a naked beast who roamed the wilds with other animals.
It became a nomadic gatherer-hunter, a settled cultivator of plants, domesticator of animals and later city dweller who got involved in monumental architecture and constructed marvellous buildings. Human beings’ wearing of clothes (clothing made of skins of plant fibers) and creation of surplus food freed other fellow man to apply their minds in discovering and developing arts and sciences. Science and technology were discovered to improve humanity’s life by way of experimentation, keen observation of nature, testing, and trial and error to make natural life nurtured and bearable.
“They (ancients) also recognised a hero as a (person) striving towards greater accomplishments than those of ordinary people, in spite of the limitations imposed by chance and destiny (fate).” — Foster(2001).
Resources:
Dirk Gillabel, ‘Gnosticism, answers to who we are’
The Secret Book of John – The Secret Revelation of John, translated by Frederik Wisse,
www.gnosis.org/naghamm/apocjn
On the Origin of the World translated by Hans-Gebhard Bethge and Bentley Layton,
www.gnosis.org/naghamm/origin
Stephan A. Hoeller, “The Genesis Factor” (1997) www.gnosis.org/genesis.
Benjamin R. Foster, “The Epic of Gilgamesh” (2001).
Email feedback at [email protected]. Agallery of previous articles is found at www.sundaymail.co.zw/author/shingairukwata
Online Reporter