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A Nag Hammadi text, the Exegesis on the Soul (NHC 2.6), portrays the fall of the originally androgynous soul (= Sophia = Wisdom) from her “Father’s house” in heaven into the earthly world, and her subsequent return to her original position. This text has been taken as a rephrasing of the Valentinian myth of Sophia, but its narrative much more closely follows that of the Descent of Ištar to the Netherworld, to the extent that it could be considered a running commentary or a paraphrasis of the latter. The nature of the soul is feminine - she has a womb - but as long as she is in heaven with her Father, she is virginal and androgynous. After her fall to this world, she is trapped in a body and loses her virginity; she falls into the hands of “robbers” and defiles herself. Out of these impure relationships, she gives birth to feebleminded and sickly children. But when the Father sees her repenting, he has mercy on her, and moves her womb from outside to inside. As a result the soul is baptized and purified. The womb outside has been like the male genitalia signifying her pollution while being on earth whereas the womb inside is of female character and signifies the soul’s restoration to its original status.
After being purified, she begins to rage at herself like a woman in labour, but since she is a woman, she cannot beget a child on her own. Therefore, the Father sends her Christ as her bridegroom, her brother, the “first-born.” She cleanses herself, and sits in the bridal chamber filled with perfume waiting for her consort. But because of her fall, she has lost her memory of the time in her Father’s house in heaven, and consequently she does not remember she was once married to her brother. When the bridegroom arrives, he first decorates the bridal chamber, and there they unite with each other. Gradually the soul recognizes her brother-consort, and she rejoices and adorns herself even more so that he would want to stay with her. She gets from him the seed that is the life-giving spirit, in order to be able to bear healthy children. Now she is also able to return to her Father’s house with him: by her ascent to heaven, she is resurrected from death, i.e., from the state of ignorance.
Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Exegesis on the Soul, NHC 2.6
Bibliography
| Lapinkivi 2004, 168 | Lapinkivi, Pirjo. The Sumerian Sacred Marriage in the Light of Comparative Evidence. State Archives of Assyria Studies 15. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Coprus Project 2004. |
Pirjo Lapinkivi
URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001380.php
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