348 michael kaler
summarize these two aspects of the latter focus mentioned above. in
neither work is there an emphasis on asceticism or withdrawal from the
world, but in both of them paul is presented as a master of esoteric infor-
mation, albeit coming by that information in different ways. in the Prayer,
this information is linked with knowledge: paul is someone who seeks the
gifts of spiritual perception that will enable him to perceive things and
their meanings that are hidden to others. he is an apt student of eso-
teric wisdom, who knows enough to know what more to ask for, but who
recognizes the need of a teacher to take him beyond his limitations and
into new realms of knowledge, in which he will learn “what no angel eye
[has] seen and no archon ear has heard and what has not entered into the
human heart” (A 25–29). This emphasis on learning and study, augmented
by inspiration, and the acquisition of esoteric knowledge would have been
very convivial to the collectors and readers of the nag hammadi collec-
tion, to judge both by the size of their collection—testifying to a deep
interest in esoteric literature—and its contents. This stress on perception
is not absent from the Apocalypse of Paul—after all, the spirit does tell
him to “let your mind awaken... so that you may know the hidden things
in those that are visible” (19.10–14). however, generally in this work, the
emphasis is placed on paul’s apocalyptic experiences, his adventures
through the fourth to tenth heavens, in the course of which he acquires
his insight, his mission, and the liberating secrets that he passes on to the
work’s readers. in the Apocalypse of Paul, then, he is a visionary and an
apocalyptic hero—and, furthermore, an unwontedly active one. whereas
the heroes of Judeo-christian apocalyptic works tend to be the more or
less passive recipients of their experiences,23 in the Apocalypse of Paul we
have a protagonist who takes the lead. The number of visionary, apoca-
lyptic works in the nag hammadi collection, making up between a third
and a half of the collection depending on one’s definitions, testifies to the
importance of this theme for our overall understanding of the collection;
paul, here, is a powerful representative of this tradition, a potential model
for his readers.
As exemplified in these two pseudepigraphical works, then, paul
becomes a figurehead for, or an authoritative representative of, the quest
for both experienced and intellectual esoteric enlightenment so charac-
23 see dean-otting, Heavenly Journeys, 274; and also cyril of Jerusalem’s discussion
of this aspect of apocalyptic ascension in his Baptismal Catechisms 14.25, showing that
the passivity of apocalyptic visionaries was acknowledged in ancient as well as modern
contexts.