The Gnostic Bible: Gnostic Texts of Mystical Wisdom form the Ancient and Medieval Worlds

LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM 259

Probably written in the third century, in Greek and possibly in Syria, the
Gospel of Philip exists in Coptic translation in the Nag Hammadi library.

THE GOSPEL OF PHILIP

1

CONVERTS

A Jew^2 makes a Jew whom we call a convert.^3

A convert makes no convert.

Some are and make others like them,

while others simply are.

SLAVES

A slave longs for freedom

and doesn't hope to own a master's estate.

A child claims the father's legacy,

but those who inherit the dead are dead.

Heirs to the living are alive

and are heirs to life and death.

The dead are heirs to nothing.

How can the dead inherit?

Yet if the dead inherits the living,

the living won't die and the dead will survive.

GENTILES, JEWS, CHRISTIANS

A gentile doesn't die, never

having been alive to die.

i. The Gospel of Philip: Nag Hammadi Codex 11,3, PP- 5i>29 to 86,19; translated by Wesley W.

Isenberg, "Gospel of Philip" (Robinson, ed., NagHammadi Library in English, rev. ed., 141-60);

revised in verse by Willis Barnstone.

2. Or "Hebrew," here and below.


3. Or "proselyte."