io 8 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM
About the writings of the gnostic teacher Justin, however, we know some-
what more, thanks to Hippolytus of Rome. In his Refutation of All Heresies,
Hippolytus cites and paraphrases a gnostic text composed by Justin, the Book
of Baruch, although Hippolytus says it is the most abominable book he has
read. From Hippolytus's citations we learn enough to reconstruct large frag-
ments of Justin and his book. Kurt Rudolph describes the Book of Baruch as
"one of the most original and probably also the oldest testimonies of Gnosis." *
Strongly Jewish in its perspective, the book seems to propose a gnostic system
that is one of the earliest representations of gnosis. Robert Grant calls it "an ex-
ample of a gnosis that is almost purely Jewish,"^2 though in its present form, the
book also incorporates references to Greco-Roman deities, as well as to Jesus.
The Book of Baruch presents a gnostic system with three principles, two
that are male and one that is female. The most exalted manifestation of the di-
vine is called the Good, a male power; he is also called Priapos, the Greco-
Roman ithyphallic fertility god. The other powers take their names from
Hebrew tradition, the male Elohim from the Hebrew word for "god" and the
female Edem from the Hebrew for "earth."^3 The female principle Edem is
reminiscent of wisdom, Sophia, and she has many characteristics in the Book
of Baruch: she is earth; garden; Israel; creator of humans, beasts, and the soul;
and a symbol of Eve, who is her creation and double.
The story of Baruch is a tale of the love of Elohim and Edem, heaven and
earth, love that is expressed and is lost, with the author, Justin, employing
themes from Genesis to tell his gnostic story of the fate of humanity and the
emergence of evil in the world. Elohim, the heavenly father god and the cre-
ator of the world, is the lover of Edem, the earthly mother goddess. From their
impassioned sexual union come twenty-four angelic children, and the angels
in turn create humankind and paradise. These twenty-four angels seem to an-
ticipate the more developed portrayals of the realm of the divine fullness, or
pleroma, in Sethian and Valentinian gnostic systems. Elohim breathes spirit
(Greek pneuma) into Adam, and Edem breathes soul (Greek psyche). Baruch
(Hebrew for "blessed") is the good tree of life and the chief paternal angel, and
Naas (from nahash, Hebrew for "serpent")^4 is the evil tree of the knowledge of
good and evil and the chief maternal angel.
i. Rudolph, Gnosis, 145.- Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity, 19.
- The spelling Edem is used for Eden, as in the garden of Eden in Genesis, both in the Book of
Baruch and in the Septuagint translation of Genesis-hence also in our translation here. - i>ee the use of Naas among the Naassenes in this volume.