Gnosis 8 (2023) 1–2

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Preface
Special Issue: Sources of Gnostic Texts, Gnostic Texts as Sources

The present monographic special issue of Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies

focuses on specific aspects of the relationship between Gnostic writings, their
sources, and later texts and traditions. The analysis carried out in the follow-
ing five articles takes into consideration a wide range of texts, including the
second-century Greek sources and the later Nag Hammadi codices.
Andrea Annese surveys the reception of the Gospel of John in the Pistis
Sophia (Codex Askew) – and particularly ps 4.141, where a cluster of references
to the Fourth Gospel is found – concluding that this writing may have elabo-
rated its soteriology also in response to criticisms from “mainstream” Christian-
ity and in dialogue with certain developments that occurred in Sethianism and
Valentinianism.
Fernando Bermejo-Rubio’s paper examines several ancient strategies of
(self)deification (namely that envisaged in Herakles’s myth; the Platonic view
of ὁμοίωσις θεῷ; and the divinization of Jesus of Nazareth in Christian circles)
to show that the self-deifying claims contained in some Nag Hammadi writings
present basic structural similarities with those other strategies.
Francesco Berno argues in favor of the dependence of Valentinus’s fragment
1 on the Greek text of the Book of the Watchers, paying careful attention to the
heresiarch’s recourse to specific expressions of the latter, and, in particular, to
his “technical” use of the term φόβος and of the verb ἀφανίζω, and throwing a
new light on the fascination that the Enochic material must have exerted on
such a learned theologian as Valentinus.
Christian H. Bull re-evaluates the Egyptian background of Thunder: Perfect
Mind (nhc vi,2). He considers that the text is a demythologized, Platonic-
Stoic adaptation of a literary form and theology that pertains to the Egyp-
tian goddess Isis-Neith. Further, he proposes that this Nag Hammadi writing
lies behind the common source of the self-predicative passage of two other
Nag Hammadi texts: On the Origins of the World and The Hypostasis of the
Archons.
In his contribution, Przemysław Piwowarczyk explores the relations be-
tween the luminaries – the four spiritual powers associated with the figure of
Autogenes that constitute a collective agent of praise in some Sethian sources

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2 preface

of the Nag Hammadi corpus – and their presence in several “magical” texts of
ritual power in Coptic.
These five papers exhibit a common feature, insofar as all of them highlight
the fact that the authors of Gnostic texts were engaged in an active discussion
with “pagan,” Jewish, and Christian works. In some cases texts use and rewrite
former sources; in other, ideas proceeding from earlier texts simply survive in
later traditions. In this way, the present collection of articles helps to clarify how
ancient “Gnostic” texts should be read in dialogue with surrounding culture(s).
Although “Sources of Gnostic Texts, Gnostic Texts as Sources” places itself
(and understandably so) in the wake of former – both classic and recent –
research, a further common thread of the contributions gathered in this special
issue is the choice of specific topics which had not been object of thoroughgo-
ing study so far. The present collection is thus characterized by the survey of
original and innovative themes, thereby opening new perspectives in this field.

Fernando Bermejo-Rubio | orcid: 0000-0001-5626-5428

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (u.n.e.d.), Madrid, Spain
fbermejo@geo.uned.es

Gnosis 8 (2023) 1–2

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