Hypostasis of the Archons

The text proclaims to describe the reality of the authorities or the powers of darkness that are in conflict with the spirit of truth. The author directly quotes Ephesians 6:12:[2][6] "our contest is not against flesh and blood; rather, the authorities of the universe and the spirits of wickedness." The chief of the authorities is Samael, who proclaims himself as God but is actually blind and mistaken. The authorities create a man out of soil from the earth, but they are powerless to give him life until the spirit comes forth from the Adamantine Land and breathes life into him. The man is named Adam and is put in the Garden to cultivate it, with a warning not to eat from the tree of recognizing good and evil.

The rulers cause Adam to fall into a deep sleep, then they open his side and create his female counterpart. When the spirit-endowed woman comes to him and speaks with him, the rulers become agitated and pursue her, but they defile only her shadowy reflection, because her incorruptible Spirit passes to the snake.[2] The snake instructs the carnal woman to eat from the tree of recognizing good and evil, and she convinces Adam to do the same. Doing so causes their imperfection to become apparent, and they recognize their nakedness of the spiritual element.

The chief ruler comes to Adam and asks him where he is. Adam tells the ruler that he was afraid because he was naked and had hidden. The ruler accuses Adam of eating from the forbidden tree, and Adam blames the woman for giving him the fruit. The woman, in turn, blames the snake for leading her astray. The ruler curses the woman and the snake, with the snake's curse specified as being "until the all-powerful man was to come." Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden. Eve gives birth to Cain as the result of her defilement by the rulers[2] and then later gives birth to Abel from having sex with Adam. Cain becomes jealous of his brother Abel and kills him, and God punishes Cain for his sin.

Eve then gives birth to Seth and Norea, who is said to be a virgin that the forces did not defile. The rulers plan to cause a flood to destroy all flesh, but the ruler of the forces warns Noah and instructs him to build an ark to save himself, his family, and the animals. Norea tries to board the ark but is initially denied, and when the rulers try to lead her astray, she resists and calls upon God for help.

The great angel Eleleth appears to Norea, saves her from the lawless, and promises to teach her about her root. Eleleth claims to be one of the four light-givers and states that the rulers have no power over Norea and cannot prevail against the root of truth. Norea asks Eleleth about the origin of the authorities and their faculties. Eleleth explains that Sophia created a product like an aborted fetus that became an arrogant beast resembling a lion. The ruler created seven offspring and called himself god of the entirety. However, Zoe, the daughter of Sophia, cast the ruler, named Yaldabaoth, down into Tartaros. His offspring Sabaoth repented and was given charge of the seventh heaven.

Sabaoth creates a four-faced chariot of cherubim. Sophia places her daughter Zoe on his right and an angel of wrath on his left. The left side comes to represent unrighteousness while the right side represents life. Yaldabaoth becomes envious and produces an androgynous offspring, envy, that engenders death. Eleleth says that Norea is from the primeval father, out of the imperishable light. The text ends with Eleleth's prediction of the true man revealing the spirit of truth and the children of the light being truly acquainted with the truth, the father of the entirety, and the holy spirit.[7]

Hypostasis of the Archons is considered to be a compilation of two earlier works, edited together and introduced by a later Christian Gnostic. The first is a heterodox interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis, told as a third-person narrative. The second source, called the Apocalypse of Norea, focuses on the creation and eventual destruction of the archons. In contrast to the first section, the Apocalypse is presented as a dialogue between Norea and Eleleth, narrated in the first person from Norea's perspective.[8][9][10] Hans-Martin Schenke proposes that the original version of the Apocalypse was also incorporated into On the Origin of the World, explaining the textual similarities between Origin and Hypostasis.[11]

Although both sections are linked by the character of Norea, Roel van den Broek notes that they "have been connected in this text in a not entirely successful way"[9] and Roger Bullard comments that "the sudden unexpected change into the first person is startling."[12]

The combined text is usually dated to the early third century.[4][13] However, van den Broek argues that "most scholars assume on rather shaky grounds that the text originated in Alexandria in the first half of the third century. But in fact there is no reason why the work could not have been written in the second century."[14] Turner advocates an earlier date of 100-125 CE for the original sources and 185-200 CE for the edited whole.[15]

Hypostasis of the Archons draws heavily on Jewish traditions and scripture, but often challenges or subverts them. Its retelling "characteristically 'inverts' the meaning of Genesis."[16] Norea is not named in Genesis, but Birger A. Pearson identifies her as a reinterpretation of Naamah, noting that "her role as a seductress of the 'sons of God' has, in fact, been transposed in the gnostic literature, in a typically gnostic hermeneutical inversion".[17] Samael takes the role of God, and his proclamation of divinity directly quotes Isaiah 45:6. Hypostasis rebukes this proclamation, and by extension rebukes Isaiah's view of God.[18]

These re-interpretations can be interpreted as anti-Jewish.[5] However, John Turner argues that Hypostasis reflects an early version of Sethian Gnosticism rooted in "a disaffected and heterodox Judaism."[19] Roger Bullard agrees that these inversions "[do] not necessarily give the document any anti-Jewish animus, however, in spite of Isaiah 46:9 being quoted as a self-proclamation of the jealous and inferior God of the Old Testament. Jews in some heterodox tradition, such as that handed down from the community at Elephantine, could even have had a hand in the formation of this tradition, and probably did."[20] Roel van den Broek interprets Sabaoth's repentance and elevation to heaven "an attempt to make the gnostic interpretation of the Jewish Bible more acceptable for Jews."[14] Ross Kraemer argues that Hypostasis closely parallels the "unambiguously Jewish" text Joseph and Aseneth.[21]

The author of Hypostasis of the Archons approvingly quotes Ephesians and refers to Paul as "the great apostle".[22] Although Jesus is not mentioned explicitly, Eleleth's description of the True Man is "distinctly Johannine"[23] and likely refers to him.[24]

It's unclear whether these elements reflect a substantial Christian influence. Charles Hedrick considers them an "extremely thin veneer of Christianizing" by a later editor.[25] Roel van den Broek argues that the Ephesians quotation is merely "an introductory remark by the text’s last redactor,"[26] and Roger Bullard considers the allusion to Jesus out of place, noting that "at no other point in this section is there any reference to the eschatological or prophetic implications of the events narrated".[27]

In contrast, Elaine Pagels argues for a more fundamental Christian influence, believing that the references to Paul signal "the author's intent to read Genesis through Paul's eyes (and not, as others have suggested, a superficial attempt to christianize other sources, or glosses tacked onto non-Christian material by a hypothetical redactor). Following this opening, the Hypostasis of the Archons proceeds to tell the 'story behind the story' of creation, using as its basis 1 Corinthians 15".[28]

Hypostasis is considered a Sethian text.[29] John Turner speculates that the dialogue between Norea and Eleleth, along with similar dialogues in the Apocryphon of John, may have been used as a catechism among Sethian Gnostics.[30]

Unlike in other Sethian texts, Seth himself barely appears in the Hypostasis, and he is only identified as a son of Adam and Eve, not a heavenly figure as in e.g. the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit.[29] Instead, far more attention is given to his sister Norea, who Birger Pearson identifies as Seth's "feminine counterpart".[31].

• Bullard, Roger (1970). The Hypostasis of the Archons: The Coptic Text with Translation and Commentary. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter & Co.
• Pearson, Birger (1988). "Revisiting Norea". In King, Karen (ed.). Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism (1st Trinity Press International ed.). Harrisburg: Trinity Press International. p. 273.
• Turner, John (2001). Sethian Gnosticism and the Platonic Tradition. Quebec: Les Presses de l'Universite Laval.
• van den Broek, Roelof (2013). Gnostic Religion in Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139620413.