Pistis Sophia

Pistis Sophia — G. R. S. Mead — Section 38

An examination of the MS. does not entirely substantiate the strictures of Amelineau on the careless writing of the scribe ; the writing though hurried is fairly consistent, while the first dozen pages are most admirably written. The faults of spelling only prove that this particular scribe did not know Geeek, a likely enough thing if the copy was made in Upper Egypt and not at Alexandria. I am, there- fore, far from convinced by any one of the reasons Ame- lineau brings forward. V. 1891. Haruack (A.). Uber das gnostische Buch Pistis Sophia (Leipzig). I have already given Harnack's views on the date ; he attributes the authorship to a modified Ophite origin. He suggests that Book I. only is properly Pistis Sophia ; Book II. should be called the Questions of Mary (p. 94). w. 1892. Schmidt (C). Gnostische Schriften in koptischer Spraclie aus dem Codex Brucianus, herausgegebeu, ilbersetzt und bearbeitet, pp. 680, 8vo ; in von xliv INTBODUCTION. Gebhardt and Harnack'sTexte und Untersuchungen zur Geschiclite der alt christlichen Literatur (Leip- zig), viii. Band. Schmidt agrees with Harnack as to date, and thinks that tlie Pistis Sophia niay be attributed to an Ophite school. In the works of the three writers referred to above there is a mass of infonnation with regard to the Pistis Sophia, but as only the date and to some extent the authorship are being dealt with in this Introduction, the further consideration of their views must be postponed until a Commentary to form a complement to the present translation is attempted. [THE FIRST BOOK OF PISTIS SOPHIA.] (i) It came to pass, when Jesus had risen from the dead, that he passed eleven years speaking with his disciples, and in- hitherto . instructeth structmg them up to the regions of his dis- 1 r" IT ciples only the nrst statutes only, and up to up to the the regions of the first mystery, the the first mystery within the veil, within the ^^^ ^^' first statute, which is the four and twentieth mystery, and below those which are in the second space of the first mystery, which is before all mysteries — the father in the likeness of a dove.