Reflections on Teaching Gnosticism V: Blade Runner

March 27, 2008 by Tony

For our penultimate class in Gnosticism we took a bit of a break and watched Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner: The Final Cut (2008). For those in-the-know, Blade Runner is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Dick had an avid interest in Gnosticism and, though the film takes some liberties with his book, it is still suffused with Gnostic imagery and themes. Blade Runner was originally released in 1982 . Unfortunately, the film flopped but it became a cult classic and led to several further incarnations, including a Director’s Cut in 1992 and now the “Final Cut.” For more information on the film’s history, check out its WIKIPEDIA page.

After the film, we had a short discussion of the Gnostic themes and imagery we were able to observe. Several excellent ideas arose, including the identification of Replicant Roy Batty as a saviour figure (the nail in the palm and the ascending dove were tip-offs), Tyrell as Demiurge, the post-apocalyptic city as the dark earthly realm of matter, Rachael as the archetypal Gnostic seeking salvation, etc. Another observation made was that there are no children in the film. This led me to think further of my own take on it; so I thought I’d post that here to stimulate some discussion outside of the classroom. Note, however, that I have not consulted any commentaries on the film, so my comments risk being unintentionally similar to others and/or pitifully naïve.

As mentioned, the post-apocalyptic city represents …

The Apocryphal Jesus on Film

March 16, 2008 by Tony

I have been trying to catch up on some news items I’ve been sitting on for a while. I’ll begin with some information on three apocrypha-related films.

The first is “The Messiah,” an Iranian movie that looks at the life of Jesus from an Islamic perspective. One of the sources used in the film, besides the Qur’an and other Muslim traditions, is the Gospel of Barnabas, a fourteenth-century Muslim anti-gospel hailing from Italy. Of interest in this text is the story of Jesus’ crucifixion. Like several early Gnostic Christian texts (including the Apocalypse of Peter, Second Treatise of the Great Seth, and, according to Irenaeus, Basilides), Barnabas states that someone else was crucified in Jesus’ place. The full text can be read HERE, but here is an excerpt of the relevant section (ch. 216):

1. Judas entered impetuously before all into the chamber whence Jesus had been taken up. And the disciples were sleeping. Whereupon the wonderful God acted wonderfully, insomuch that Judas was so changed in speech and in face to be like Jesus that we believed him to be Jesus. And he, having awakened us, was seeking where the Master was. Whereupon we marvelled, and answered: 'You, Lord, are our master; have you now forgotten us?' And he, smiling, said: 'Now are you foolish, that know not me to be Judas Iscariot!'

2. And as he was saying this the soldiery entered, and laid their hands upon Judas, because he was in every way …

The Christ Files

March 10, 2008 by Tony

“The Christ Files,” a four-part documentary on the Historical Jesus to air in the Australia beginning March 21, begins with an episode titled “Gnostics and Romans.” A 2-disc DVD will be released on the same day. The documentary is based on the book by the same name by Dr. John Dickson, Director of the Centre for Public Christianity and Honorary Associate of the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University, Australia. As he criss-crosses the globe, Dickson interviews such noted scholars as Tom Wright, Richard Bauckham, and James Charlesworth. Visit the official site HERE, and see a short clip on the Gospel of Philip.

The Contributions of the Christian Apocrypha to the Study of the Historical Jesus

March 6, 2008 by Tony

As mentioned in my previous post, the Wedgewood Baptist Church have sent me some questions to answer regarding the Christian Apocrypha. Here is another one (and I'd be interested to see what other scholars think of the question):

Could you name two or three contributions Christian Apocrypha (CA) have made to the historical study of Jesus?

I assume that should read the “study of the historical Jesus.” If so, only a few CA texts have been used in the effort to find authentic Jesus traditions outside the canonical gospels. These are Gospel of Thomas, the Egerton Gospel, and the Gospel of Peter. The agrapha (i.e., isolated sayings, which can include the citations from the lost Jewish-Christian gospels) are also a good source, though very few of them have been considered early (mind you, that is because the investigators have ruled out some of them as authentic only because they are so different from canonical sayings; and that is a spurious argument). Of the three gospels, GT has made the greatest contribution; even conservative scholars have been forced to admit that some of its unique sayings may be authentic, though they often state that these sayings do not change the image we have of Jesus from the canonical gospels. The CA have made a contribution also in widening the available pool of evidence for the historical Jesus; once one makes the ideological leap to consider that these might have authentic Jesus traditions, then our investigations are taken to …

Reflections on Teaching Gnosticism IV: The Gospel of Thomas

March 6, 2008 by Tony

This week's Gnosticism lecture focused on the so-called School of Thomas. Our discussion looked at evidence for dating the text (whether early or late) and the implications this has for its study. As a way to present some of this discussion, I thought I would include here a condensation of my own thoughts on the Gospel of Thomas that I prepared for another forum. The Wedgewood Baptish Church in Charlotte, North Carolina contacted me several months ago asking if I would respond to questions about the Christian Apocrypha put forward by members of their congregation. I just obtained these questions (thirteen in total), and one of them deals specifically with the Gospel of Thomas. Here is the question and my response:

Do you agree with Crossan that the Gospel of Thomas comes from the first century and is possibly contemporaneous with “Q”? If not, why?

I am open to the possibility that apocryphal gospels could be early texts, or at least could contain early traditions. I do not dismiss the possibility a priori as some scholars do. But we need to look at the evidence:

1. What do we mean by the “Gospel of Thomas”? The only complete version of the text we have is a fourth-century Coptic manuscript. Our other evidence comes in three Greek fragments of the late second and third century. The Greek evidence is quite different from the Coptic; obviously it has gone through some development in the intervening years (and even the Greek fragments may …

Panel on Secret Mark

March 3, 2008 by Tony

Chris Zeichmann over at Thoughts on Antiquity (HERE) has posted a summary of a panel discussion of Secret Mark that took place at Claremont Graduate School last week (February 28). Among the panelists were Marvin Meyer, John Dart, Birger Pearson, and Dennis MacDonald.