Analogue 60

Analogue 60 

The Sacred Nature of the Human Body

Sacred beings are entirely holy, including their bodies. If such persons receive the Bread and Wine, they sanctify it, and everything else they touch is also purified. How is it possible then, that the body would not be pure as well?

It was in just this way that Yeshua perfected the water of baptism by emptying death out of it. For this reason we are made to go down into the water, not so that we might die, but in order that the spirit of this world might be poured away from us. For wherever the winds of the world blow it is always winter, but when the sacred Spirit breathes it turns to summer.

SYNOPSIS

• The opening paragraph of this analogue directly challenges the gnostic tendency to denigrate the body as less worthy or less pure than any other aspect of a human being. 
• Somatic greatness and honor is given to the physical body. 
• The body as Temple is honored and revered, and other material things to into it like bread and wine. 
• The Eucharistic feeding sanctifies the body, and in return, the body sanctifies the elements.  
• The touch of the physical body does not pollute or corrupt the Eucharistic feast. 
• As an analogy, Yeshua’s body touched the waters of baptism and empties death out of it. 
• Instead of thinking of the baptismal waters as death-dealing (a plunge into death as Paul does), the pollutants of this world are poured off and carried away.  
• The final analogy concerns the warming breath of Sprit as it turns winter into summer, even here in this world of mixed realities. 
• This analogue is similar to Analogue 3 which contrasts winter and summer. Summer is the season of Spirit, and winter is the season where the warmth of the divine breath is absent.

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COMMENTARY

Beyond Gnosticism

In this analogue, we see how deeply the theological viewpoint of its author differs from other occidental streams of early Christianity. We also understand why this text cannot be labeled as gnostic as it has been historically understood. It is not part of the first and second century tradition of Gnosticism in the Common Ear. It is also clear that, rooted in the Jewish rites of baptism and Passover, this Gospel is extending the effects of these rituals beyond time into transcendence which is  metaphorically related to the images of summer and winter previously described in Analogue Three. This return to the metaphysics of the Great Age of the Eternal Now is juxtaposed with the chronological flow of time as we know it now. It also puts focus on the work of the Sacred Spirit relating both to the body and human consciousness. 

The analogue begins by speaking about the embodied state of humankind not as something to be rejected or discarded, but as something altogether sacred—a form of holiness. This is very different from the viewpoint that the body is somehow unclean or of no consequence and the sooner we escaped it into the realms of Spirit beyond the body the better off we are. This denial of embodiment and of the material world was a prevalent notion in what is often called second century Gnosticism, but was also given credence in the early writings of the Apostle Paul. In this analogue the exact opposite is expressed since the body is sanctified in and by life, and human beings, in their embodied state, bring sanctity to what they touch and experience. Whatever comes into contact with the body is sanctified, such as the intake of the bread and wine in the Eucharistic feast. When the body, as a sacred entity, touches these natural elements there is an exchange of holiness, for the sacred is extended through the embodied soul, making everything else holy. 

The Priestly Body

In an embodied state, each individual acts as a priest, sanctifying the bread and wine—the elements of the Passover and the Eucharist. This signifies a strange reversal. It is not the sacred elements that make a person holy. The opposite is true. These elements are sanctified, set apart, and made holy by the embodied soul. The holiness of physical beings in their sacredness co

nsecrate these natural elements.

When the body, as a sacred entity, comes into contact with the natural elements there is said to be a transfer of holiness, or the sacred is extended through the embodied soul, making everything else holy. 

This contradicts the way that sacramental theology is typically understood. In this new understanding, human beings are priests in the world, setting it apart for holy use by the very body which ingests it. We might imagine that the body is seen here, then, to be a true Temple (with its interior Bridal Chamber) so that whatever is taken into it is made holy. These images completely annul the notion of the body as unclean, contaminating whatever it touches. This challenges the very foundations of many gnostic teachings. It also give weight to the idea that this is a fully Jewish-Christian text which honors the physical form of a human being, counting it worthy as a bearer of the sacred in its own fundamental way. 

Death Poured Off

Interestingly, notions about the meaning of baptism that appear to be at the heart of Pauline teaching, are seen in an entirely different light because of this analogue. By entering the baptismal waters, one is not dying but coming alive through the living water. Because Yeshua emptied out its death-dealing properties, he sanctified the waters of baptism as a wholly life-giving act. The only thing that dies through baptism are the affects of this world upon the human soul, which are said to be poured out or washed away. What remains is cleansed, becoming whole and holy once again. This is also because of the effects of the breath of Spirit, which blows upon time itself, the passing of its seasons, turning the winter of this world into a summertime. 

Future in Time and Sacramental Reversals

Though only briefly mentioned, the text returns to the earlier theme of summer coming from winter; that which has been planted in winter is fully realized in summer. This means that even in this world an individual can begin to taste the first-fruits of the realization of the produce of summertime which has been planted in wintertime. As a result, there is the enjoyment of the future coming back into the here and now. This is called realized eschatology—the end is tasted and experienced in the middle of time. This mystery concerning the end of time (what is seen in the future which is outside of time), is enjoyed now in time. This is part of the visionary nature of this Gospel. What we consider to be normal and ordinary concerning the flow of time is being experienced in an extraordinary way. Fundamentally, this is the activity of Spirit which is operative in space-time as well as upon us physically in an embodied state. In all these activities the Spirit is bringing us into contact with Transcendence through sacramental doorways in the material world, including through our own bodies. 

The roots of the Christian Eucharist mentioned in this analogue are, of course, found in the Jewish rituals of Passover where both bread and wine are used. Whole constellations of meaning, history and metaphor surround and are symbolized by these sacred acts. What is clear is that in our material world, as forms of matter, these elements provide entry points where something transcendent touches us. Yet, these very exchanges, interacting with Spirit, become in themselves sanctifying acts. These are interesting reversals, challenging both Pauline teaching as well as Gnostic philosophy.

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. The Gnostic idea that the material world is evil and that only the spiritual world is sacred was a common idea for many ancient people. How do you see or relate to this understanding in your own world? 
2. The sense that the material world or the human body is less sacred is disputed in this analogue. What is your response to this teaching? Although perhaps strange to you, how might this teaching expand your understanding? 
3. How do you think that the body makes other things and even people sacred or sanctified beings? Does this notion contradict your understanding or enhance it?
4. How do you perceive yourself to be a priestly being who sanctifies the world?

 

NOTES FOR FURTHER STUDY 

AND REFERENCE

1. The theological positions taken in this analogue contradict accepted understandings of sacramental theology in western tradition. This reversal is a clear indication that the Gospel of Philip is challenging both Pauline and Gnostic ideation and laying out a counter-narrative in both cases. Once again It may be that the Gospel of Philip is attempting a challenge to tendencies which it sees as encroaching on the early vision of Yeshua. Ascetical piety, radical physical self-denial, and austerity became the preferred paths understood to be the highest ascetical ideals across Christendom. This happened gradually in both Occidental and Oriental Christianity, taking multiple forms, but the outcome was the same, to create monastic enclaves that protected these ideals as the privileged form of spirituality, often denying the sacred nature of ordinary life, the natural world, and the physical body. It was in this milieu that Islam arose, becoming perhaps a corrective, restoring the value of ordinary, non-monastic life. This historical development is, of course, outside the purview of this text, but surely an important historical response to these tendencies in later Christian development. 
2. Gnostic notions about the inferiority and impurity of the body, some of which may have roots in earlier Jewish traditions about sin, purity laws, and and the need for cleansing, also form another historical backdrop for this analogue. In addition, during this period of early Christian history, there were also the Stoic ideals of the Greeks concerning moral purity and sexual abstinence which because part of Christian identity in the first centuries of Occidental Christianity. All of these crept into later Christian theology and its theological viewpoints. The material world was understood to be sinful and fallen and a burden upon the soul. The temptations of sexuality, particularly those which came in feminine form, were highlighted and marriage itself was considered an obstacle to true spirituality—a lesser path opposed to the higher path of celibacy. Women were denied positions of authority and placed both in subservience and a negative light, beginning with the Corinthian letters of Paul. This entire adverse perspective gradually gained ground and the Christian tradition moved more deeply into a sin-based, anti-materialist and anti-feminine position, very distant from the vision that the Gospel of Philip presents. 

Notes On the Translation

• In this analogue the terms “holy” and “sacred” translate the same original word.
• The word “wine” used in this translation is from “the cup” understood to be filled with wine.
• In the second paragraph the word “emptying” translates “poured out.”