Illuminating the Secret Revelation of John

Catching the Light

Shirley Paulson

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781666721232
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

Buried for more than a thousand years in the sands of Egypt, the Secret Revelation of John has stayed a secret far longer than it should have.Even now, more than seventy-five years after its discovery in 1945, it eludes easy understanding even as it shines with the message of God's loving presence amid suffering and violence. Illuminating the Secret Revelation of Johnis the first study written for the curious public, as well as for scholars who have not yet plumbed its depths.The ancient Secret Revelation of John unearths three gems of healing wisdom that have been encrusted in a millennium of doubt and theological limitation.This new work explores the many facets of these gems with a historical setting and background, a contemporary paraphrase, and a study section that invites pondering of and conversation about new questions to explore.

1

Alexandria! Not Rome, Not Jerusalem

A strange and ancient book has been moving from the bookshelves of scholars and into the hands of curious and (often) Christian thinkers and spiritual seekers. Even though scholars have been able to read the Secret Revelation of John1 since it came to light in 1945,2 the odd images of the Yaldabaoth god, the Mother Barbelō, and the unwise Wisdom have left most modern readers scratching their heads.3 The title is rather obscure, its logic appears to run in circles, and many people say it's one of those “gnostic” heresies. Understandably, many churchgoers have found little incentive to pick it up. But since scholars have been chipping away at these outer obstacles and polishing the rough gems, they’ve come to realize this book is of great value, especially to those who love the Bible!

The purpose of this book is to pick up the polished gems and look at them carefully in the light of our modern experiences and historical perspectives. To do so, we’ll drop in for a visit in the city where all the forces came together to give it birth in the second century. Religion teachers, philosophers, Christ-followers,4 Jews, and students flocked to this cultural center of the world. No, not Rome, and not Jerusalem. But they converged on Alexandria, the great city situated along the north coast of Egypt and founded by Alexander the Great centuries before Jesus was born. All the constituent parts of the Secret Revelation of John cohabitate in second-century Alexandria, as we’ll see after we listen to a few of the people we encounter.

figure 1

Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Rome (courtesy of Manna Bible Maps)

After getting acquainted with second-century Alexandrian life, we’ll look at the way the Secret Revelation of John speaks to the heart of twenty-first-century readers as well. Then we’ll start to explore the text itself. The bulk of the book is organized like a kind of literary museum, where we can pause to think about some of the most important contributions to our lives today. We won’t be able to see all the possibilities, but there will be enough to whet our appetite for returning again and again.

Welcome to Second-Century Alexandria

We want to start our tour in second-century Alexandria, because the Secret Revelation of John was written for people who were looking for answers to life’s tough questions of the time, a period of formidable upheaval. In the midst of political and social turbulence, people tend to seek a deeper understanding of their own identity, their communities, the divine Being, and the universe. This is the state of Alexandria we are about to encounter.

Alexandrians understood well the confluence of Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Jewish customs. This city, known for its attraction to writers and thinkers, seems to have been the perfect spawning ground for the radically new, but Christ-based, ideas in the Secret Revelation of John.

If we could walk through the neatly laid out streets of this bustling port city in the second century, we might be startled to discover such a visible blending of the multicultured way of life. The great Library, the cultural center of the city, explains much of the draw for teachers and students throughout the Mediterranean area who are eager to learn philosophy, rhetoric, religion, science, or some other scholarly subject. The Library, a part of the vast Alexandrian Museum complex, holds the largest collection of papyrus scrolls in the world and functions like a modern interactive research center with a zoo, an observatory, and a medical laboratory. Greek philosophers belonging to all sorts of schools from Stoicism to Epicureanism have flocked to Alexandria and mingle readily with the Egyptian cosmologists and those who practice mystery religions. A large community of Jews have settled here too, since the destruction of their temple in 70 CE forced even more of them to flee Jerusalem, augmenting the numbers already in Alexandria.

figure 2

Interior of the Great Library of Alexandria. Nineteenth-century artistic rendering by O. van Corven, based on some archaeological evidence (Wikimedia Commons; image in the public domain).

But the very success of this great metropolis may have also become the source of its heartache. Rome, over a thousand miles away, has installed its military authority throughout the Mediterranean area, but it is especially tough with Alexandria. Compared with Alexandria’s fertile ground for research, questioning, thinking, and writing, Rome and its preoccupation with conquest and gladiator entertainment presents a stark contrast. Here is an image of Roman attitudes toward success:

figure 3

Gemma Augustea: Roman cameo, onyx, 9–12 CE. Gold frame, seventeenth century. Vienna. Photo courtesy of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

This Roman cameo, known as the Gemma Augustea, was carved in approximately 10–20 CE. It poignantly captures the contrast between the superior and dominant Romans (in the top half) and the people they have subdued throughout the Roman Empire (in the bottom half). In the image, the beam lifted in the lower left was the type used in victory parades with one of the prominent captives bound to it for display in the parade.

However, all the measures of Alexandrian success continue to threaten the Roman imperialists, who retaliate with ever-tighter domination over this second-largest city in the world. We can’t miss the heavy imprint of Rome’s conquest in everyday life. Ever since the Romans gained control of Egypt, some thirty years before Jesus’s birth, Alexandria’s huge production of grain and its largest port in the world had together made it the breadbasket for Rome. A century later, when the Flavian dynasty (69–96) controlled Egypt, the emperor had become so dependent on the produce from its wealthiest city, Alexandria, that he took it for granted as his personal territory.

From beyond Rome in the West to Asia in the East, this Mediterranean jewel attracted attention. A thriving Jewish community had already settled in Alexandria long before, along with Greeks and other foreigners. No wonder multitudes of Jews found their way to this prospering city hundreds of miles away when Emperor Titus destroyed their temple in Jerusalem and the city along with it in the year 70! The new migrant Jews joined those already established, tried to rebuild their lives, and contributed to the Alexandrian prestige. It had become the world center of Jewish religion and culture.

But the next Jewish-Alexandrian generation could no longer tolerate intensifying Roman oppression. When exploitation reached the breaking point, rebellion became the next alternative. Failing to find any relief, thousands of Jews rose up in desperate rebellion once again. But they ultimately perished at the overpowering hands of the Roman military during the so-called Rebellion of the Exile of 115–117.

By now, the Jewish communities in Egypt are effectively diminished. And yet we understand why they’re still fighting. It’s a fight for survival against the incessant oppression of and aggressive control over Jews. Above all, though, they’re fighting for their God, the God who brought them out of bondage a couple of millennia before.

Many of the Jews who had become faithful followers of Jesus probably perished along with their fellow rebelling Jews,5 but the painful losses for everyone rearranged precarious relationships among the people of Alexandria as they searched in all directions for solace and guidance. A mounting anti-Jewish attitude has been pressuring the Jewish Jesus-followers to separate themselves from their traditional Jewish colleagues, causing them to sort out their own relationships with their Greek and Roman neighbors.

These Jews are eager to engage in conversation with the ubiquitous Greek philosophers and teachers of religion, as all of them respond to the human outcry. As they look more deeply in...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Permissions and Credit Lines
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Alexandria! Not Rome, Not Jerusalem
• Chapter 2: The First Gem
• Chapter 3: The Second Gem
• Chapter 4: The Third Gem
• Chapter 5: The Secret Revelation of John in the Twenty-First Century
• Chapter 6: A Paraphrase of the Secret Revelation of John
• Appendix A: Demons and Their Powers over the Body
• Appendix B: Questions for Pondering Alone or in Study Groups
• Glossary
• Sources Cited