Pre-Christian Gnosticism in the Nag Hammadi Texts?

1979 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-141
Author(s):  
Edwin M. Yamauchi
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
New Materials ◽  
Nag Hammadi ◽  
Rudolf Bultmann ◽  
The New Testament

One of the most important and controversial issues in Gnostic studies is the age of Gnosticism. Was it a post-Christian heresy? Was it roughly contemporaneous with the rise of Christianity? Was it Christianity's twin, as someone has called it? Or was it a fully developed movement preceding Christianity and influencing it? Ingeneral, German New Testament scholars, under the influence of Rudolf Bultmann, have assumed a pre-Christian Gnosticism as the basis for their interpretation of the New Testament. Other scholars such as Charles H. Dodd and Robert M. Grant have questioned their heavy reliance upon late Mandaean texts to support such a conviction. With the recovery of the Coptic Gnostic texts from Nag Hammadi a number of scholars, most notably James Robinson, have hailed these new materials as evidence for Bultmann's hypothesis:

The Confession ‘Jesus is God’ in the New Testament

1957 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-299
Author(s):  
A. W. Wainwright
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Rudolf Bultmann ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
World Council

In a chapter of his book Glaube und Verstehen, recently translated into English under the title Essays Philosophical and Theological, Professor Rudolf Bultmann has discussed, by no means favourably, the Christological Confession of the World Council of Churches. The words of the Confession are: ‘The World Council of Churches is composed of Churches which acknowledge Jesus Christ as God and Saviour.’ Bultmann directs his attention chiefly to the confession that Jesus is God. In the New Testament he finds only one verse in which Jesus is un-doubtedly called God. That is John 20.28, in which Thomas addresses Jesus as ‘My Lord and my God!’ In contrast with this single example, there is in Bultmaann's opinion a great amount of evidence that the writers of the New Testament believed that Jesus was subordinate to His Father.

In the Beginning was the Word

2019 ◽  
pp. 101-148
Author(s):  
George Pattison
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
Rudolf Bultmann ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Michel Henry ◽  
John's Gospel ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Original Interpretation

Turning to the New Testament, the chapter examines the prologue to St John’s Gospel as an exemplary commentary on Christian vocation. However, this requires rejecting interpretations that have seen John’s logos in terms of Platonic ideas or ‘ratio’, as in much ancient and medieval commentary (Eckhart’s commentary is used for illustration). German Idealism (Fichte) refigures ratio in terms of will, and in the twentieth century, Michel Henry foregrounds ‘life’. A rediscovery of the word element is found in Ferdinand Ebner and Rudolf Bultmann. Their insights are used to develop an original interpretation of the Gospel, contrasting John’s existential focus on calling and the name with Platonizing interpretations.

scholarly journals Rudolf Bultmann as historikus

1987 ◽  
Vol 43 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 138-161
Author(s):  
Willem S. Vorster
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
Rudolf Bultmann ◽  
Academic Activities ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Scientific Circle ◽  
Contemporary Context

Rudolf Bultmann as historianThe work of Bultmann has had a rather negative reception in South Africa, partly because of the fact that little attention has been paid to his historical interpretation of the New Testament. Unfortunately his name is linked only to his use of philosophical categories in Biblical interpretation. After a few remarks about his early study years and the ideas which framed his later research, the article deals with his work as historian. First he is treated as a historian of religion and then as a literary historian. An attempt is made to understand and describe his views in his contemporary context. The description is done within the framework of the academic context in which he received his training, and the scientific circle in which he performed his academic activities. In conclusion a few remarks of evaluation are made.

Kingdom Sayings and Parables of Jesus in the Apocryphon of James: Tradition and Redaction

1983 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles W. Hedrick
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
The Other ◽  
Nag Hammadi ◽  
Apocryphal Gospels ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
One Step ◽  
The One

In a recent article Helmut Koester argues against the current practice of distinguishing between canonical Gospels, on the one hand, and apocryphal gospels, on the other, and treating the apocryphal gospels as ‘step children’ of New Testament research. Koester maintains that there are a number of the ‘apocryphal’ gospels which ‘belong to a very early stage in the development of gospel literature — a stage that is comparable to the sources which were used by the gospels of the New Testament.’ One of those texts to which he points is the Nag Hammadi tractate the Apocryphon of James. This paper is an attempt to legitimize one ‘step child’ of New Testament scholarship as a valid source for investigating the earliest levels of the Jesus traditions.

The New Testament in The Nag Hammadi Gospel of Philip

1963 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. McL. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Nag Hammadi ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Four Books

The purpose of this paper is to examine, so far as may be done in brief compass, the New Testament echoes and allusions in the Gnostic Gospel of Philip discovered at Nag Hammadi.1 These echoes and allusions are fairly numerous, although not always easy to detect. In some cases, indeed, what appears to one scholar a clear and unmistakable echo may to another seem quite insignificant. To take but two examples, when we read ‘Then the slaves will be free, and the captives delivered’ (133. 28–9 Labib), are we to think of Luke iv. 18? Or Rom. vii. 23? Or of Eph. iv. 8? Does a contrast of slave and son, with a reference to inheritance in the context, of necessity indicate a knowledge of Gal. iv. 7? As it happens, there is other evidence for the author's knowledge of three at least of these four books, and possibly for the fourth.

L'UTILISATION DES PARABOLES DANS L'INTERPRÉTATION DE LA GNOSE (NH XI,1)

2003 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-436
Author(s):  
Louis Painchaud
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Nag Hammadi ◽  
Good Samaritan ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Parable Of The Sower ◽  
Scholarly Attention

AbstractOf all the various Nag Hammadi texts that use parables drawn from the New Testament, the Interpretation of Knowledge (NHC XI,1) has attracted the least scholarly attention, no doubt due to the text's extremely lacunous state of conservation. But despite the fact that two thirds of the work have been lost, it is still possible to identify references to the parable of the Sower (IntKnow 5,16-19 ; cf. Mt 13,3b-9 and parallels) and the parable of the Good Samaritan (6,19-23 ; cf. Lk 10,29-35), as well as an amalgamation of allusions to the parable of the Lost Sheep (Mt 18,10-14 and parallels), that of the lamb which must be rescued on the Sabbath (Mt 12,11-12) and the tale of the Good Shepherd ( Jn 10,1-21), at IntKnow 10,20a-38. In this article, the function of this material in the Interpretation of Knowledge will be examined and its use will be situated within the wider context of both gnostic and non-gnostic exegesis in early Christianity.

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