約翰密傳
维基百科，自由的百科全书
《約翰密傳》是帶有基督教色彩，成書於二世紀關於秘密教導的諾斯底主義（靈知主義）的有兩個不同版本的作品。此書的開首如此寫﹕「這是救主的教訓，是奧秘的啟示，也是隱藏在靜寂中的事；他教導他的門徒約翰的這些事也是如此。」約翰在此書中隨即被稱為「西庇太的兒子，雅各的兄弟約翰」。其中的一個版本被認為是原版，而另一份則被認為是增修版。雖然兩個版本的主題相同，但較晚的版本被重寫以致兩個版本的《約翰密傳》中只有很少的字眼和語句是相同的。
目录 |
[编辑] Overview
The opening words of Secret Book of John are "The teaching of the saviour, and the revelation of the mysteries and the things hidden in silence, even these things which he taught John, his disciple." The author John is immediately specified as "John, the brother of James — who are the sons of Zebedee." One of the two distinct versions is thought to be the original on which the other was a large embellishment. The later version is also restructured to the extent that although both versions have the same themes, there is very little of the words and verses in common between them.
Many Christians in the 2nd century hoped to receive a transcendent personal revelation such as Paul was able to report to the church at Corinth (2 Corinthians 12:1 – 4) or that John experienced on the isle of Patmos, which inspired his Revelations (Pagels 2003, p 97 and bibliography at note 69). As Acts narrates what happened after the time Jesus ascended to heaven, so the Apocryphon of John begins at the same point but relates how Christ reappeared to the apostles, with private information that he imparted to Peter and John, "five hundred and fifty days since he had risen from the dead", thus specifically countering Luke's forty days and implying to its original hearers that the possibility of authentic revelation remained open.
The remainder of the book is a Rapture, in its original spiritual and rhetorical sense of a raptus, an ecstatic experience of heaven in the flesh, truly inspired in the sense "full of the spirit". At the book's conclusion
- Peter and I gave thanks and sent our hearts upward toward heaven. We heard with our ears, and saw with our eyes, the noise of war, trumpets blaring and a great turmoil. And when we had passed beyond that place, we sent our minds farther upwards, and saw with our eyes and heard with our ears... angels rejoicing, as we too rejoiced. (Nag Hammadi Library, quoted by Pagels 2003 p 99)
[编辑] History
A book called the Apocryphon of John was referred to by Irenaeus in Adversus Haereses, ca 185 AD among the writings that teachers in 2nd century Christian communities were producing, "an indescribable number of secret and illegitimate writings, which they themselves have forged, to bewilder the minds of foolish people, who are ignorant of the true scriptures" (A.H. 1.20.1) — scriptures which Irenaeus himself was establishing as no more and no less than four, the "Fourfold gospel" that his authority helped make the canonical four. Among the writings he quotes from in order to expose and refute them, which include a Gospel of Truth and even a Gospel of Judas, is this secret Book of John (Pagels 2003, p. 96 etc).
No more was known of this text until 1945, when a cache of papyrus codices that had been hidden away in the 4th century, was fortuitously discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt. The Apocryphon of John was among the texts, in three Coptic versions translated from the Greek. Two of the versions are very similar and represent one manuscript tradition; they incorporate a lengthy excerpt from a certain Book of Zoroaster appended to the Apocryphon (as chapters 15:29 – 19:8f) A shorter version of the Apocryphon from Nag Hammadi does not contain the interpolation and represents a second manuscript tradition. A third papyrus, in Berlin (acc. no. 8502), represents yet another manuscript tradition, while the variant that had been quoted by Irenaeus in order to display its inadequacies represents a fourth. The fact that there were at least four independent manuscript "editions" show how widely read this text had been in early gnostic Christian circles.
[编辑] Influence
The Apocryphon, set in the framing device of a revelation delivered by the resurrected Christ to John the son of Zebedee, contains among the most extensive detailing of classic dualistic Gnostic mythology that has survived, and is one of the principal texts of the Nag Hammadi library; as such, it is an essential text of study for any party interested in Gnosticism. Frederick Wisse, who translated it, asserts that "The Apocryphon of John was still used in the eighth century by the Audians of Mesopotamia" (Wisse p 104).
The creation mythology it details has been the object of study of numerous modern figures, including Carl Jung and Eric Voegelin. The Apocryphon of John has become the central text for studying the gnostic tradition of Antiquity.
More recently, Tori Amos drew on the Gnostic mythology described in the Apocryphon of John in her album, The Beekeeper.
[编辑] See also
- Johannite
[编辑] 外部連結
- Early Christian Writings: Apocryphon of John
[编辑] 參考文獻
- Davies, Stevan, . Secret Book of John: The Gnostic Gospel, Annotated and Explained ISBN 1-59473-082-2
- Logan, Alastair H. B. 1996. Gnostic Truth and Christian Heresy. Based on the Apocryphon of John.
- Pagels, Elaine, 2003. Beyond Belief.
- Wisse, Frederick. The Nag Hammadi Library in English.
- 羅賓遜 史密夫編，楊克勤譯﹕《靈知派經書 卷上》，香港﹕漢語基督教文化研究所，2000年，ISBN 9628322230
- 羅賓遜 史密夫編，楊克勤譯﹕《靈知派經書 卷中》，香港﹕漢語基督教文化研究所，2004年，ISBN 9628322427
- 羅賓遜 史密夫編，楊克勤譯﹕《靈知派經書 卷下》，香港﹕漢語基督教文化研究所，2004年，ISBN 9628322877
