Book Description

A Coptic manuscript from late antiquity is known by the scientific name Codex Askewianus, attributed to Anthony Askew. He acquired it at a London market in 1785. His heirs later entrusted it to the curators of the British Museum. At the end of the nineteenth century, the manuscript was translated and from then on became known as the Gospel of the Pistis Sophia. The German translation by Carl Schmitt from 1905 is the basis for the later English translations by G.R.S Mead from 1921 and that by Violet MacDermot from 1978. This completely revised English translation is also based on the work of Carl Schmitt. To make reading easier, titles have been given to the chapters and the codex is treated as one scripture where a thematic distinction in six themes is added. Recent research by Erin Evans has made it very plausible that the scripture originates from a congregation once active in Egypt. It contains part of their teachings from the third to the fourth century of our era. An older scripture by them is known as the books of Jeu. Both scriptures are written in Coptic, most likely based on an unknown Greek original. Coptic is a language that came into vogue in ancient Egypt. It is Old Egyptian, called Demotic, written with Greek characters, supplemented with seven extra characters. A word that occurs frequently in this English version is the word repent. The original Greek word for it is metanoia, which literally means meta-thought or beyond-thought. Thus repentance has the meaning of a state of consciousness beyond the human thought. To repent, then, is to come to an awareness of what is beyond the world of thought, beyond the human mind. The repentance of the Pistis Sophia thus takes her beyond the spiritual powers of the darkness, with their archons and emanations of Authades, the mighty human willpower. Through consciousness she enters the thirteenth eon, after an outpouring of light has taken her there, as if she has grown wings and no longer needs to touch the darkness. From then on she brings back to mankind the wisdom from beyond the human mind, which once had become forgotten. What this scripture wants to tell the reader in our modern times is that on the basis of the inner intention to truly get to know the mysteries, a power appears to help in this process. The myth tells us the story of Jesus with his disciples on the Mount of Olives after the crucifixion; after the power of Jesus connected itself with mankind. The disciples are the people who start becoming conscious of this liberating power. For it is the act from true awareness that makes all the powers of the saviour active in the human life in the world of space and time. As soon as someone decides to be a disciple, there is a readiness to let the saviour guide this inner life. This is why the entire scripture is written as a dialogue between Jesus and his disciples. This dialogue begins on the Mount of Olives. From this place the holy city of Jerusalem can be seen. It is the state of consciousness of the disciples who are preparing themselves to enter into the holy city: Jerusalem, the treasury of the light. When Jesus has spoken the first words in the midst of the disciples and the disciples understand their privileged position, Jesus ascends, surrounded by a threefold light. He comes back with his garments of light from the treasury of the light. These garments of light contain all the mysteries, that is, all the hidden knowledge that need to be revealed to the disciples in order to enable them to enter the treasury of light themselves. Thus they gain a higher level of consciousness, beyond thought.