As I mentioned a day or two ago, Alin Suciu has proposed that a Coptic text in a papyrus in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow is in fact the remains of a lost work by the 2nd century writer Melito of Sardis. His article will appear in Adamantius sometime later this year or early next. But the first page of it is on Academia.edu here, and begins as follows:
In the early 1990s, Alla Elanskaya published a fragmentary Sahidic papyrus codex housed at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow[1]. The manuscript contains a homily which provides elaborate speculations on baptism, the elements, and the human being as a microcosm of creation. The authorship of the homily remains uncertain due to the dilapidated condition of the manuscript and the absence of its initial section, which presumably contained the title and author. Elanskaya tentatively titled the text the Treatise on the Symbolics of Baptism and the Elements, based on the surviving contents.
Despite its sophisticated theology, the homily published by Elanskaya attracted little scholarly attention,….
Like most Coptic manuscripts in Moscow, the fragmentary codex published by Elanskaya was once part of the collection of the Russian Egyptologist Vladimir Golenishchev (1856-1947). Unfortunately, neither the circumstances of Golenishchev’s acquisition of the papyrus nor its original provenance can be documented. However, the orthographic features suggest a Middle Egyptian, probably Fayyumic, origin for the codex. …
- A.I. ELANSKAYA, Coptic Literary Texts of the Pushkin State Fine Arts Museum in Moscow (StudAeg 13), Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest 1991, 48-83, 223 and plates 7-25. Republished in ID., The Literary Coptic Manuscripts in the A.S. Pushkin State Fine Arts Museum in Moscow (SVigChr 18), Brill, Leiden – New York – Köln 1994, 167-200 and plates 59-77.
The second publication, The Literary Coptic Manuscripts in the A.S. Pushkin State Fine Arts Museum in Moscow, is in fact online at Archive.org here. I had never heard of Golenishchev – I must learn some more! – or this publication, but the volume is full of interesting material as a glance at the table of contents makes plain.
Better still, every text in the book comes with an English translation of all the texts included in the volume. Including this one! It’s on page 193 ff. The translation printed is intended as an aid to working with the papyrus, but the various brackets and marks make it hard to read. Furthermore it is not necessarily the case that the pages are in the right order. But let’s omit the markings and brackets, and see what we have. Unfortunately the result still does not make very much sense.
Note that each number below indicates a page in the papyrus manuscript, which is written in two columns.
1. … There came the shepherds to worship him, together with the magi. The powers that are above glorified him and the angels worshipped him … He came unto John to the Jordan to be baptized in order to purify water by the Spirit, and as for the world, in order to cleanse it from impurity, and man, for his part, to liberate him from sin; since sin permeated man in the womb of the world after the manner of a child who is polluted in the womb of his mother. Also like … lest … should let him … Thus also man was polluted in the womb of the world in fornication, and gluttony, and covetousness, and the love of money, and uncleanness, and idolatry …
2. … that is in the womb, and when he is born it is not the soul that is washed from sin, but it is the body that is washed from pollution. And he who is born in the desires of the world, that is he who does impure deeds of the world, it is not only his body that he has defiled in uncleanness … but his soul also he has polluted … but … soul … Spirit… be … together … they touch … and the Spirit touches it; his body, however … touches it … of baptism … in … Reason, too, is inferior to the Spirit, so that the body may be washed in water, while the soul, for its part, in the Spirit, or rather they both may be washed in the Spirit, because when the soul is purified by the Spirit, the body also becomes purified as soon as the nipples have been anointed. And when it (scil. the body) is anointed by the Spirit, it …
3. … of the soul, that is the words, holy and true and pure, with their superior wisdom. The ark, too, keeps the Law, that is, a wooden box overlaid with pure gold on the inside and outside that it may keep the salutary Tables of the Law. Such is also the nature of anointing and washing which were created for the salvation of the mankind, it (scil. the salvation) being effected by two elements, that is, the Spirit and water. Be not surprised that the Holy Spirit is united with the senses of the soul … This is the wind. Then how will man, too, be not moved by the Holy Spirit, he who is made superior to all other species in the whole material world? I am speaking about man. It is not by material spirit, that is, the wind, that he is moved, but by the Holy Spirit… man … that is … Spirit…
4. liken (?) them to those things that produce water. Fire is hot and dry and, at the same time, it is spiritual, because it soars up high. It is, furthermore, moved by the spirit, that is, the wind. That is why it was said that it was spiritual. Water, however, and the air are wet and psychic. That is why … and … wet … The wind (raises?) waves … the first one, because the wind, this one alone associates with water. The following entities, however, are hostile to each other, namely the entities wet and dry, that is, liquid and dry, and cold and hot, that is, those things that produce cold and those that produce heat. And the earth is a receiver of them all together, because it is supported by water and fire and the air, having effected a perfect harmony of those who are hostile to each other through the communion of the Spirit…
5. … those which are hostile to each other, that is, … and those things that … of matter. And they … they are assembled together by … the earth. And man is a receiver of both classes, the dry as well as the wet substances. He is the domicile of the soul. It is necessary that man should be washed through the Spirit and water, that is, those, through which he gained strength and became pure into his salvation. Because if the soul is from the Spirit of God, for it is written thus: “…” … And as for the flesh, he made it out of the ground, while the soul, it is in the flesh. Out of all these man came into being. It is necessary that the Spirit and water should be united with the flesh, that which is out of the ground. And the Spirit … before …
6. … to the Spirit. The Spirit is from God, and man, too, was made by the hand of God. And if the Spirit is beloved by God and water is sanctified by the Spirit, the earth is made firm by … and man is united with the Logos … and therefore is immortal, too. And if he is immortal, then he is the Son of God, having been … many … God, whose image and likeness is his creation, the Spirit and the soul. And he also accepted the True Logos, through whom he became immortal after his resurrection from the dead. And if immortal he is, then he is a god, and … is a god … God …
7. … of this sort … Christ Jesus and those who will rise from the dead. And if you become immortal, O man, through faith and baptism and through the Holy Spirit. Since it is for you that the descent of the Spirit took place, and Christ’s coming down into the water, and the voice of John the Baptist, and the acceptance of the Lord in the Jordan, and the communion of baptism; and since fire is destined to consume the universe on account of sin … is water; and the Spirit brings to naught salvation because of sin; and the wings, it is a flight from the evil things. That is why our Saviour came into the world. He prepared a spiritual laver out of Holy Water and Pure Spirit, that, in which, after the immersion of his creature in it, he kept him (i.e. man) hidden like Noah … the world … man … in … in order that…
8. … will ascend into the midst of the pure on the right side of the Father who reigns forever. And that this washing is not alien to man, and that the mystery of baptism is not polluted, either, and that the doctrine of baptism is not new, I shall show it in truth with the help of examples … and the full image of the world. He laid a division between each element according to … that they all may exist in good order. The flame of fire he divided from the height, and the dry land he divided from water, and the sea he surrounded with the land. And the air, liquid and wet, he placed it spread over the earth … And fire is a hot essence. He put it within them all … move them in their …
9. … and … divide … among the elements. When you see them keeping their communion with one another through … in the order of the movement, because they have a regular movement and a perfect harmony. You will observe these (i.e. the movement and the harmony) among them if you pay attention to their relationship to one another. For the sky kisses the earth, secretly, by shedding light on it, day and night. That is properly why the earth … its … the form of a mat (i.e. a smooth surface, plane) in the middle of a row (line?), because the sky always goes round the earth. And the air, too, was liquid and wet, from its communion with the dry land, it spreads and flows and produces the wind that nourishes the earth, so that it may bring forth fruits and all kinds of animals. And the earth, too, being …
10. and you see, furthermore, the sun on high. This one, through the rotation of its fire, goes down onto the ocean and immerses itself into it after the great toil of its daily course, in order that the sun hidden in the ocean may receive a new force by the cooling and that it may thus find strength enough to pierce through the thickness of the air. And when it goes up into the air on the dazzling chariot and when it completes its course of the day … of their course on account of their sympathy towards those which produce cold to be come wet … are tools. They struggle with them and look for the substance that produces cold … they … the essence of fire that has a communion and a fellowship with the wet essence that produces cold. And if fire is hot and dry, having a communion and a fellowship with those which struggle with it, namely, the wet and those which produce cold, then why does the flame come forth from the earth … ? …
11. … the rational soul by the Holy Spirit. Because the pure soul is holy and it can receive … of God, exactly as the earth can receive the elements all together … Water cannot receive them all and neither can the air accordingly. And the earth alone can receive all the elements, because it is a receiver of fire, since fire is from stone and stone belongs to the earth, and it (scil. the earth) is also a receiver … from the sky by the dew, and it is a receiver of the breath of the wind, for it is moved by the spirit of the wind. If, however, the earth is a receiver of the elements that are hostile to one another, that (scil. the earth) which was created by the word of God, then in a much greater degree will man, who was moulded by God, be a receiver, too, of… but… of God … his soul … by … to receive …
12. He (scil. man) is a partaker of the Spirit through God. The essence, however, of the soul is spirit. That is why man has so much in common with the Spirit and water, those, in whom having been purified, he became the immortal son of God. For many reasons which are as follows: on account of … of God … the soul … because of … image of… of the Logos … he … namely … of water … the whole world. For if he could endure fire and water and the Spirit … therefore … of God … new, this one, in him he combined and united the elements with the Divinity into a unity, having shown by this act that man was superior to the whole world, because he is rational and has nothing in common only with stone, but … immortality … because …
13. and he lacks … body and soul. He arrayed himself in the robes of immortality and put on the imperishable panoply. If man, however, became immortal, he also became god. And if he becomes god after his resurrection from the dead, through the Spirit and water, it means that he has already partaken of them. As for me, I … in … imperishable … the soul … while he … while they
14. … life … rise … who will receive the … of baptism … He who came to the Jordan, the one (scil. the Holy Spirit) who danced round Christ like a virgin and like a dove, the one, too, who preached to the Apostles, the one who abides in the churches, the one who appears over him who is baptized … again … know
15. … If you do not lie … you are born anew. If you do not worship idols, you are born anew. If you, furthermore, are not possessed with the lust for pleasures, you are born anew. If you are washed from many impure passions, you are born anew. If you remove the burden of sin from yourself, you are born anew. If you divest yourself of … “Cease from doing your evil deeds. Learn to do well; relieve the oppressed one; judge the orphan, justify the widow, and come, and let us have an agreement together”, said the Lord, “and if your sins are like purple dye, I shall make them white like snow If you are willing and obedient to me, the good of the land you will eat.”[Is. 1:17-18] It is of the purity of baptism that he is speaking, because divesting yourself of evil means arraying yourself in good …
16. … passion … and the false father, he confesses the Father in truth He goes from the belligerent tyrant and enlists himself as warrior under the King of peace. He divests himself of his suit of armour and arrays himself in the panoply of peace. He divests himself of slavery and arrays himself in freedom. He divests himself of fornication and arrays himself in purity. He divests himself of ruin and arrays himself in immortality … like the sun, which is blazing in the rays of justice. He, however, who is superior to all these, he rises, shining, and is confessed as Godly Son. It is for your sake, O man, that the confession of the Father came upon the Son at the time when it was signified from the heavens to those who were there (scil. on the bank of the Jordan at the time of Christ’s baptism) …
17. … move … wash … “The river of God was filled with water.” And again: “You visited the earth, you watered it. May its furrows be watered! Multiply its seed! It will rejoice in the drops and sprout up. You will bless the crown of the year with your goodness,”[Ps. 64 (65):9-11] Even as a river which was filled and a … and a crown which … and a man? …
18. … if … he … Moses … a sweet source and he quenched the thirst of the people of Israel, so that they glorified God through Moses the wise prophet. And again, when Naaman the Syrian, the captain, had washed himself seven times in the Jordan, he cleansed himself from leprosy and arrayed himself in salvation …
I omit the translations of tiny fragments.
Not incredibly helpful stuff, so clearly there is much room for work to be done on this.
Possibly I’ve spent too much time reading patristics and the Gnostic-adjacent texts. Certain trains of thought in what you’ve posted are recognizable from that. When the Christian message hit Greek-schooled minds, they were interested in how the “elements” (earth, air, fire, water) were shown in Scripture, and if we trace the Spirit symbolism in Scripture we find that 3 of the elements (air, fire, water) are associated with the Hoy Spirit, while earth is associated with man (made out of earth, returns to earth, all that). Also they showed some interest in how exactly the waters of baptism are empowered to make such changes and one early theory went that Jesus’ baptism changed the baptismal waters. Similar to how water can change clothes with dyes, but only if the dye is in the water first, so Jesus had to get in the water before it could change us. The “Gospel of Philip” has some of that in it if you’re curious to see how that idea shows up in another text.
If that’s any help.
Take care & God bless
Anne / WF
Gosh thank you. That is really interesting – and again suggests a 2nd century origin.
From the texts I’ve seen, my sense is that the Gnostic-ish works began as a regional phase when minds trained in Greek philosophy tried to make sense of the New Testament message. Greek philosophy had some religious/mystical schools that had branched away from the Greek pantheon into rational-yet-esoteric branches. To me, it looks like many of the “Gnostic” gospels are nearly AU-fanfics (pardon) of “How do you understand Christ if your Old Testament is Plato & friends instead of Isaiah & friends?” So, yes, extended treatments of how the element of fire (for instance) enhances our understanding of baptism, given the NT associations between baptism and fire and Spirit, that’s totally in keeping with that context. If reading from a certain angle, that possibly-Melito treatise that you’ve posted is actually fairly edifying.
I very much appreciate the true scholarship on this site!
Take care & God bless.
Anne / WF
Good thoughts – thank you!