the heretics’ apostle and two pauline pseudepigrapha 345
Codices I, XI, and VII
These three codices are linked, as can be seen most clearly through the
alternation of scribes. louis painchaud and i have argued that the three
codices form a “triptych,” a unified set whose purpose is to lead the reader
through (or dramatically portray the reader’s passage through) a sequence
of education and revelations that would result in the reader’s discovering
a new sense of self and a new understanding of history.17 for the present
purposes, however, i will largely confine myself to discussing the Prayer’s
role with specific regard to codex i.
Among the nag hammadi codices, codex i is perhaps the most “theo-
retical” in terms of its contents. it does contain the Apocryphon of James, a
revelation dialogue set in the post-passion, pre-ascension period of Jesus’
career, but the other works—the Gospel of Truth, the Treatise on the Res-
urrection, and the long and dense Tripartite Tractate—are all detailed
instructional works, containing technical material and hidden informa-
tion rather than stories. codex i is a codex for serious students of esoteric
knowledge, laying out the theoretical framework for a new understand-
ing of the universe that will be shown as it is actualized in terms of the
reader’s community relations and personal transformation in codex Xi.
paul’s Prayer, introducing the codex with a timeless appeal for the ability
to understand mystical and hidden things, fits perfectly in this context.
The vocabulary used by the author of the Prayer corresponds very
closely with—indeed, previews—the material to be presented in the rest
of the codex, and therefore might well have been composed by the com-
piler or one of the scribes of the codex.18 whether or not this argument is
accepted, it is clear that, in general, the sentiments expressed by paul in
the Prayer are appropriate to the position of any reader opening codex i
and hoping to be able to understand the material contained within.
Through attaching these sentiments to paul, the codex as a whole is put
under his aegis; furthermore, paul is invoked as a model for the reader in
his or her own path to enlightenment.
The other apostles explicitly invoked in the codex are James and paul,
in the Apocryphon of James; however, both of these figures are firmly
17 for detailed discussion of the triptych and the reasons for believing that the codices
are linked, see louis painchaud and michael Kaler, “from the Prayer of the Apostle Paul to
the Three Steles of Seth: codices i, Xi, and Vii from nag hammadi Viewed as a collection,”
Vigiliae Christianae 61 (2007): 445–69.
18 see Kaler, “The Prayer of the Apostle Paul.”