The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics (Pocket Essential series) by Sean Martin

Author:Sean Martin [Martin, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 1842436937
Publisher: Oldcastle Books
Published: 2010-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

The Laughing and Dancing Jesus

Jesus is portrayed in the canonical scriptures and later Christian art as the Man of Sorrows, and also as a man who apparently never laughed or smiled. Consequently, the Church has been a humourless place, with laughter being almost regarded as sinful.149 As we might expect from Gnostic authors, their version of Jesus is somewhat different. The Gospels of Thomas and Philip, two of the most striking Gnostic gospels, invite parallels with Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism and Taoism, but there are other Gnostic texts that portray Jesus in a rather more Hellenistic manner. To put it another way, some Gnostic texts seem to have been influenced by Graeco-Roman mystery schools, and therefore the Jesus they portray has accordingly more in common with the priesthood of a mystery religion.

The Acts of John, a Greek version of which was discovered at Oxyrhynchus in the 1890s, could have been composed some time in the second century, with some traditions holding that the Gnostic chronicler Leucius Charinus was its author, although this attribution isn’t certain.150 Leucius was said to have been a young disciple of the aged St John, from whom he received secret teachings and stories about Jesus. The Acts of John is an account of the activities of the apostle in Asia Minor some time after the crucifixion, its most celebrated passage being the so-called ‘Round Dance of the Cross’. This scene takes the form of a sermon delivered by John to a crowd of people, probably in Ephesus, where much of the Acts of John takes place. John recounts the events of the night before Jesus was arrested. In canonical accounts, Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, but in the Acts of John,151 he instead commands them to dance and respond with an ‘Amen’ to his praises to God:

He then began to sing a hymn, and to say:

‘Glory be to you, Father!’

And we circling him said, ‘Amen’

‘Glory be to you, Word! Glory be to you, Grace!’

‘Amen’ […]

We praise you, O Father. We give thanks to you, light, in whom darkness does not abide.’

‘Amen.’152

As the disciples continue to respond to Jesus, he begins to dance and instructs them to do the same:

‘The whole universe takes part in the dancing.’

‘Amen’

‘He who does not dance, does not know what is being done.’

‘Amen’

Jesus’s hymn now becomes a series of paradoxes, stating that he will flee and stay, adorn and be adorned, unite and be united. The hymn ends with some beautiful mystical statements:

‘I am a lamp to you who see me.’

‘Amen.’

‘I am a mirror to you who perceive.’

‘Amen.’

‘I am a door to you who knock on me.’

‘Amen.’

‘I am a way to you, wayfarer.’

‘Amen.’

Jesus then encourages the disciples to understand the dance by seeing him within themselves, which echoes the Gospel of Philip’s statement that those who have achieved gnosis are ‘no longer a Christian, but Christ,’153 and also the Gospel of Thomas, in which Jesus declares:

‘Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me.

I myself shall become that person,

and the hidden things will be revealed to that one.

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