Hypostasis of the Archons

"The Hypostasis of the Archons" or "The Reality of the Rulers" is an exegesis on the "Book of Genesis" 1-4 and expresses Gnostic concerns of cosmogony and anthropogony, the creation of the cosmos and humanity. The text was found among those included in "The Nag Hammadi Library" in 1945.

The text essentially is a retelling of the Genesis creation story, recast to reflect Gnostic distrust of the material world and the demiurge that created it. The author of "The Hypostasis" is explaining how Genesis 1-4 really does include the story of how Gnostics came to exist, revealing through the text the spiritual struggle hidden in Genesis 1-4, which comes to the surface when a person is aware of how the cosmos was created.

Scholars have found that the sources that the author uses to shape his interpretation of Genesis are Jewish legends and interpretive traditions as well as Greek mythology. The key to the Gnostic interpretation, though, and the choice of the sources used, is the inversion of the text. The creator god that was benevolent in the Genesis text is now evil and the steps to enlighten humanity to the nature of the creator and the creator's world are the beginning of the Gnostic generation. In this manner, Eve and her daughter Norea play critical and complicated roles.

Male characters, such as Adam and Seth, are largely absent and less significant. The text concludes with the archangel Eleleth revealing to Norea the future arrival of Jesus Christ as Messiah and Savior, thus making this ultimately a Christian text.

Online texts

* [http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/hypostas.html Selection from James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, revised edition. HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1990]

References

*Bullard, Roger A. "The Hypostasis of the Archons." Berlin: De Gruyter, 1970.
*Bullard, Roger A. Introduction to “The Hypostasis of the Archons.” In The Nag Hammadi Library in English, Revised Edition., Edited by James M. Robinson, 161-162. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988.
*Fallon, Francis T. "The Enthronement of Sabaoth: Jewish Elements in Gnostic Creation Myths." Leiden: Brill, 1978.
*Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid. “Family Structures in Gnostic Religion.” In Constructing Early Christian Families: Family as Social Reality and Metaphors, 235-249. London: Routledge, 1997.
*Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid. "The Nature of the Archons: A Study in the Soteriology of a Gnostic Treatise from Nag Hammadi (CGII, 4)." Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1985.
*King, Karen L. “Ridicule and Rape, Rule and Rebellion: The Hypostasis of the Archons.” In Gnosticism and the Early Christian World: In Honor of James M. Robinson. Edited by James E. Goehring et al, 3-24. Sonoma, California: Polebridge, 1990.
*Layton, Bentley. “The Hypostasis of the Archons.” Harvard Theological Review 67 (1974): 351-425.
*---. “The Hypostasis of the Archons (Conclusion).” Harvard Theological Review 69 (1976): 31-101.
*McGuire, Anne. “Virginity and Subversion: Norea Against the Powers in "The Hypostasis of the Archons". In "Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism". Edited by Karen L. King, 239-258. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988.
*Robinson, James M., ed. The Nag Hammadi Library in English. Revised Edition. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988.