Greco-Christian stream·Pistis Sophia·First Book — Post-Resurrection Discourses·Chapter 56
Andrew interpreteth the twelfth repentance from Psalm cviii
Instead of loving me they have slandered me · He loved cursing,--and it shall come unto him
Source context
- Theme
- post-resurrection discourse within the Gnostic Christian initiatory sequence, chapter 56 of 62
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Valentinian GnosticismValentinian post-resurrection dialogue literature (e.g., Pistis Sophia) structures the risen Christ's teachings as graduated revelations to initiates, a form cross-tradition congruent with the sequential discourse structure of this chapter's position late in a 62-chapter cycle.
- Neoplatonic ascent doctrineThe late-stage position of Chapter 56 within a post-resurrection discourse sequence exhibits cross-tradition congruence with Neoplatonic henological ascent, in which the soul's return to the One proceeds through progressively rarified stages of contemplation.
Chapter 56
CHAPTER 56
And Andrew came forward and said: "My Lord and Saviour, thy light-power hath prophesied aforetime through David concerning this repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, and said in the one-hundred-and-eighth Psalm:
"'1. God, keep not silent at my praise-singing.
Andrew interpreteth the twelfth repentance from Psalm cviii."'2. For the mouths of the sinner and crafty have opened their chops against me and with crafty deceitful tongue have talked behind me.
"'3. And they have surrounded me with words of hate and have fought against me without a cause.
"'4. Instead of loving me they have slandered me. But I prayed.
"'5. They showed evil against me for good and hate for my love.
"'6. Set a sinner over him, and let the slanderer stand at his right hand.
"'7. When sentence is passed upon him, may he go forth condemned and his prayer become sin.
"'8. May his days be shortened and another receive his overseership.
"'9. May his children become orphans and his wife a widow.
"'10. May his children be carried away and be driven forth and beg; may they be thrown out of their houses.
"'11. May the money-lender sift out all that he hath, |109. and may strangers plunder all his best efforts.
"'12. Let there be no man to back him, and no one to take pity on his orphans.
"'13. May his children be exterminated and his name blotted out in a single generation.
"'14. Let the sin of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and the sin of his mother be not blotted out.
"'15. Let them be ever present to the Lord and his memory be rooted out from the earth;
"'16. In that he hath not thought of using
mercy and hath persecuted a poor and wretched man and hath persecuted a sorry creature to slay him.
"'17. He loved cursing,--and it shall come unto him. He desired not blessing,--it shall stay far from him.
"'18. He clothed himself with cursing as with a vesture, and it entered into his bowels as water, and it was as oil in his bones.
"'19. May it be for him as a garment in which he shall be wrapped, and as a girdle with which he shall ever be girded.
"'20. This is the work of them who slander [me] before the Lord, and speak unlawfully against my soul.
"'21. But do thou, O Lord God, be gracious unto me; for thy name's sake save me.
"'22. For I am poor and I am wretched; my heart is tumult within me. |110.
"'23. I am carried away in the midst as a shadow which hath sunk down, and I am shaken out as grass-hoppers.
"'24. My knees have become weak from fasting, and my flesh is altered from [lack of] oil.
"'25. But I have become a mock unto them; they saw me and wagged their heads.
"'26. Help, O Lord God, and save me according to thy grace.
"'27. May they know that this is thy hand, and that thou, O Lord, hast fashioned them.'
"This is then the solution of the twelfth repentance which Pistis Sophia uttered, when she was in the chaos."