Re: Seven Veils (Garments of Shame)
Posted: Wed May 26, 2021 11:54 am
Reading the 1934 German version of Hans Jonas, I came to Prof. Dalgaard on Melchizedek as a Demiurge-Corrector of Man (our Creator). The Five Archons each give smthg of their being, hence five veils here.
The thirteenth and final Melchizedekian tradition in the Pistis Sophia occurs in 3.131. Here Jesus once again describes what transpires when souls descend from the Pleroma; the five archons of the great Heimarmene give the soul a cup of forgetfulness. Drinking this causes the soul to forget all the places it has previously visited. The cup transforms into the body that surrounds the soul as a spirit counterpart. Should the soul be new, it either comes from the sweat, tears, or breath of the archons, in which case the archons knead it together, or else, if it is dregs of what is purified of the light, it is forcefully taken from the archons by Melchizedek. In this convoluted and difficult passage, Jesus discloses to his disciples that new souls are made of the fluids of the archons, by the archons, if the soul is far (or destined to be far) from reaching the Treasury of the Light. Should the soul be close to (or destined to be) the light, it is pulled from the archons by Melchizedek.
Precious fluids!
I know the Pistis Sophia is a compilation from multiple sources and should be dated to c.250 AD; I presume the underlying material is much older. Melchizedek myths are certainly older than Jesus; by c.250 AD, Jewish myths had already transferred the 'Melchizedek' functions to Michael, Yahoel and Metatron. Inconsistencies and self-contradictory descriptions about Melchizedek in varied incongruous ways betray the compilation of older material from different sources and decades/centuries. The Christos addition had likewise begun replacing Logos-Melchizedek (which Philo referenced, c.35 AD) around the time Epistle to the Hebrews was written (c.55 AD). An important role for Melchizedek suggests a date closer to 50-100 AD for that element, but the PS author was assembling many different things hundreds of years later. The Melchizedek mythos, basically divorced from Judaism, survived another 3-4 generations in areas that had had strong Melchizedekian traditions. Faithful Christians shouldnt have worried about the Archons! And the Hermetic references here are brazen: PS is an Egyptian hodge-podge, cobbled together of library materials, with a very thin veneer of Jesus Christianity.
If the Egyptian 'Gospel to the Hebrews' dates 125-150 AD, note that Archangel Michael has already replaced Melchizedek*.
* I have argued elsewhere that the 'Melchizedek' mythos is essentially 'Egyptian Jewish' and of the living culture, 150 BC - 100 AD. The mythos began declining c.50 AD and rapidly disappearing after 75 AD. However, the existence of old papyri floating around insured the literary 'meme' of Melchizedek would pop up repeatedly in later times, fodder for commercial Not Jewish book writers. Contra the heresiologists' paranoia, exploitation of the trope never resurrected the cult of Melchizedekians.
Was the 'Secret Gospel of Mark' (assumed) composed c.125 or as late as 170 AD, w/ Melchizedek purged already?