God is a dyer. The background and significance of a puzzling motif in the coptic Gospel According to Philip (CG II,3)

Museon

Volumn 114, Issue 1-2, 2001, Pages 41-50

  Charron, Régine ^a   Painchaud, Louis ^a  

^a UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL   (Canada)

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 66449106149     PISSN: 07716494     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2143/MUS.114.1.146     Document Type: Review

References (26)

1. See B. LAYTON, The Gnostic Scripture, Garden City, 1987, p. 336
2. B. LAYTON and W.W. ISENBERG, The Gospel According to Philip, in B. LAYTON (ed.), Nag Hammadi Codex II,2-7 together with XIII,2, vol. 1 (Nag Hammadi Studies, 21), Leiden, 1989, pp. 162-163
3. SCHENKE, Das Philippus-Evangelium, p. 304
4. C.J. DE CATANZARO, The Gospel According to Philip, in JTS, 13 (1962), p. 45
5. followed by W.W. ISENBERG, The Gospel According to Philip. A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Division of the Humanities in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (University of Chicago), 1968, pp. 173 and 364
6. see L. PAINCHAUD, La composition de l'Évangile selon Philippe (NH II,3): une analyse rhétorique, in SBL Seminar Papers, Atlanta, 1996, pp. 35-66
7. "good dyes last as long as the materials they are used to dye; God's dyes, however, are immortal, therefore whatever is dipped in them (i.e. those who are baptized) is likewise immortal." R.McL. WILSON, The Gospel of Philip: Translation from the Coptic Text with an Introduction and a Commentary, London, 1962, p. 107
8. see also J.B. BAUER, De Evangelio secundum Philippum coptico, in Verbum Domini, 41 (1963), p. 292
9. NARSAI OF EDESSA, Homily 21
10. see R.H. CONNOLLY, The Liturgical Homilies of Narsai translated into English with an Introduction (Texts and Studies, 8) Cambridge, 1916, p. 46
11. see ISENBERG, The Gospel According to Philip, p. 173, and H.-G. GAFFRON, Studien zum koptischen Philippusevangelium unter besonderer Berü cksichtigung der Sakramente. Evangelische Theologische Dissertation (Bonn: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität), 1969, p. 324. This text by Narsai, as many others would do as well, provides an argument for the proposed emendation of the last sentence of the Coptic text of the Gos. Phil
12. ISENBERG and LAYTON, The Gospel According to Philip, p. 163
13. See also the recent editions: H.M. JACKSON, Zosimos of Panopolis. On the Letter Omega (Texts and Translations / Society of Biblical Literature, 14 [Graeco-Roman Religion Series, 5]); Missoula, 1978
14. R. HALLEUX, Les alchimistes grecs, Tome I. Papyrus de Leyde. Papyrus de Stockholm. Recettes, Paris, 1981
15. re partie. Zosime de Panopolis. Mémoires authentiques, Paris, 1995
16. C. VIANO, Olym-piodore l'alchimiste et les présocratiques: une doxographie de l'unité (De arte sacra, §18-27), in Alchimie. Art, histoire et mythes (ed. by D. KAHN and S. MATTON, Paris/ Milan, 1995, pp. 95-150
17. See e. g., Olympiodoros, CAAG II 77,20-78,1
18. On this matter, see AJ. HOPKINS, Alchemy, Child of Greek Philosophy, New York, 1934, pp. 86-88; 121-123
19. J.P. HERSHBELL, Democritus and the Beginnings of Greek Alchemy, in Ambix, 34 (1987), pp. 5-20
20. VIANO, Olympiodore, pp. 126-134
21. CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS, Protr., X 106,2, etc
22. On this expression, unattested in the New Testament, see Th. SCHERMANN, Zur Erklärung der Stelle epist. ad Ephes. 20, 2 des Ignatius von Antiocheia: in TQ, 92 (1910), pp. 6-19
23. Arabic Infancy Gospel, ch. XXXVII, in E. HENNECKE, W. SCHNEEMELCHER, R.McL. WILSON, New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 1. Gospels and Related Writings, Philadelphia, 1963, pp. 400-01
24. See also the much expanded version in the Armenian Infancy Gospel, ch. XXI: P. PEETERS, L'évangile de l'enfance: rédactions syriaques, arabe et arméniennes {Textes et documents pour l'étude historique du christianisme, 2) Paris, 1914, pp. 232-246
25. The motif is also attested in the badly damaged Coptic manuscript 88 of the John Rylands Library dated from the X-XI cent., see W.E. CRUM, Catalogue of the Coptic Manuscripts in the Collection of the John Rylands Library, Manchester, Manchester/London, 1909, pp. 43-44
26. On this motif and its developments in the medieval ages, see recently, M. PASTOUREAU, Jésus chez le teinturier: couleurs et teintures dans l'Occident médiéval, Paris, 1997