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

LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM 333

PRAYER OF THE

MESSENGER PAUL

1

Grant me your mercy.^2

My redeemer, redeem me,

for I am yours.

I came from you.

You are my mind:

give me birth.

You are my treasure:

open for me.

You are my fullness:

accept me.

You are my rest:

give me unlimited perfection.

I pray to you,

you who exist and preexisted,

in the name exalted above every name,^3

through Jesus the anointed,

lord of lords,

king of the eternal realms.

Give me your gifts, with no regret,

through the human child,

the spirit,

the advocate of truth.

Give me authority, I beg of you,

give healing for my body, as I beg you,

i. The Prayer of the Messenger Paul: Nag Hammadi Codex I (I,i, pp. i-B, 10), translated from
the Coptic by Marvin Meyer. For an additional example of gnostic prayer, see the Hermetic
Prayer of Thanksgiving; also see the Three Steles of Seth.

2. Two or three lines of the Coptic text are missing at the very beginning of the prayer, and the
   first line here is partially restored. The missing line just before may read something like the fol-
   lowing: "Fill me with your light."


3. Philippians 2:9.