Post by Dave on Feb 8, 2013 20:19:07 GMT -5
The Exegesis on the Soul
Again this ancient text refers to the soul as female.
From the introduction by, Maddalena Scopello:
The Exegesis on the Soul is a short tale (ten pages of papyrus) narrating the Gnostic myth of the soul from her fall into the world to her return to heaven. .. The use of biblical as well as of Homeric references shows that Greek and Jewish wisdom had the same prophetical value for the author. Both of them expound the Gnostic doctrine in a comprehensible way to a Christian, Jewish, or pagan public.
… Now concerning the prostitution of the soul the Holy Spirit prophesies in many places. For he said in the prophet Jeremiah 3:1-4: If the husband divorces his wife and she goes and takes another man, can she return to him after that? Has not that woman utterly defiled herself? ‘And you prostituted yourself to many shepherds and you returned to me!’ said the Lord. ‘Take an honest look and see where you prostituted yourself. Were you not sitting in the streets defiling the land with your acts of prostitution and your vices? And you took many shepherds for a stumbling block for yourself. You became shameless with everyone. You did not call on me as a kinsman or as father or author of your virginity’
(“Jeremiah 3:1-4 (ASV) 1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, will he return unto her again? will not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith Jehovah. 2 Lift up thine eyes unto the bare heights, and see; where hast thou not been lain with? By the ways hast thou sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. 3 Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; yet thou hast a harlot's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed. 4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?”)
Again it is written in the prophet Hosea 2:2-7: Come, go to the law with your mother, for she is not to be a wife to me nor I a husband to her. I shall remove her prostitution from my presence, and I shall remove her adultery from between her breast. I shall make her naked as on the day she was born, and I shall make her desolate like a land without water, and I shall make her longingly childless. I shall show her children no pity, for they are children of prostitution, since their mother prostituted herself and put her children to shame. For she said, ‘I shall prostitute myself to my lovers. It was they who gave me my bread and my water and my garments and my clothes and my wine and my oil and everything I needed.’ Therefore behold I shall shut them up so that she shall not be able to run after her adulterers. And when she seeks them and does not find them, she will say, ‘I shall return to my former husband, for in those days I was better off then now.’
(Hosea 2:2-7 (ASV) Contend with your mother, contend; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her whoredoms from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts; 3 lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 4 Yea, upon her children will I have no mercy; for they are children of whoredom; 5 for their mother hath played the harlot; she that conceived them hath done shamefully; for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. 6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she shall not find her paths. 7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now)
Again he said in Ezekiel 16:23-26: It came to pass after much depravity, said the Lord, you built yourself a brothel and you made yourself a beautiful place in the streets. And you built yourself brothels on every lane, and you wasted your beauty, and you spread your legs in every ally, and you multiplied your acts of prostitution. You prostituted yourself to the sons of Egypt, those who are your neighbors, men great of flesh.
(Ezekiel 16:23-26 (ASV) And it is come to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord Jehovah,) 24 that thou hast built unto thee a vaulted place, and hast made thee a lofty place in every street. 25 Thou hast built thy lofty place at the head of every way, and hast made thy beauty an abomination, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredom. 26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians, thy neighbors, great of flesh; and hast multiplied thy whoredom, to provoke me to anger.)
But what does “the sons of Egypt, men great of flesh” mean if not the domain of the flesh and the perceptible realm and the affairs of the earth, by which the soul has become defiled here, receiving bread from them, as well as wine, oil, clothing, and the other external nonsense surrounding the body – the things she thinks she needs.
But as to this prostitution the apostles of the savior commanded - Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25; I Th 4:3; I Co 6:18; 2 Co 7:1.
Guard yourself against it, purify yourselves from it, speaking not just of the prostitution of the body but especially of that of the soul. For this reason the apostles write to the churches of God, that such prostitution might not occur among us.
Yet the greatest struggle has to do with the prostitution of the soul. From it arises the prostitution of the body as well. Therefore Paul, writing to the Corinthians (1 Cor 5:9-10), said, ‘ I wrote you in a letter, ‘Do not associate with prostitutes,’ not at all meaning the prostitutes of this world or the greedy or the thieves or the idolators, since then you would have to go out from the world.
Here it is speaking spiritually – For oue struggle is not against flesh and blood – as ghe said (Ep 6:12) – but against the world rulers of this darkness and the spirits of wickedness.
(I Cor 5:9-10 (ASV) I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators; 10 not at all [meaning] with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world:)
( Ep 6:12 (ASV) For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places].)
Again this ancient text refers to the soul as female.
From the introduction by, Maddalena Scopello:
The Exegesis on the Soul is a short tale (ten pages of papyrus) narrating the Gnostic myth of the soul from her fall into the world to her return to heaven. .. The use of biblical as well as of Homeric references shows that Greek and Jewish wisdom had the same prophetical value for the author. Both of them expound the Gnostic doctrine in a comprehensible way to a Christian, Jewish, or pagan public.
… Now concerning the prostitution of the soul the Holy Spirit prophesies in many places. For he said in the prophet Jeremiah 3:1-4: If the husband divorces his wife and she goes and takes another man, can she return to him after that? Has not that woman utterly defiled herself? ‘And you prostituted yourself to many shepherds and you returned to me!’ said the Lord. ‘Take an honest look and see where you prostituted yourself. Were you not sitting in the streets defiling the land with your acts of prostitution and your vices? And you took many shepherds for a stumbling block for yourself. You became shameless with everyone. You did not call on me as a kinsman or as father or author of your virginity’
(“Jeremiah 3:1-4 (ASV) 1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, will he return unto her again? will not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith Jehovah. 2 Lift up thine eyes unto the bare heights, and see; where hast thou not been lain with? By the ways hast thou sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. 3 Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; yet thou hast a harlot's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed. 4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?”)
Again it is written in the prophet Hosea 2:2-7: Come, go to the law with your mother, for she is not to be a wife to me nor I a husband to her. I shall remove her prostitution from my presence, and I shall remove her adultery from between her breast. I shall make her naked as on the day she was born, and I shall make her desolate like a land without water, and I shall make her longingly childless. I shall show her children no pity, for they are children of prostitution, since their mother prostituted herself and put her children to shame. For she said, ‘I shall prostitute myself to my lovers. It was they who gave me my bread and my water and my garments and my clothes and my wine and my oil and everything I needed.’ Therefore behold I shall shut them up so that she shall not be able to run after her adulterers. And when she seeks them and does not find them, she will say, ‘I shall return to my former husband, for in those days I was better off then now.’
(Hosea 2:2-7 (ASV) Contend with your mother, contend; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her whoredoms from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts; 3 lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 4 Yea, upon her children will I have no mercy; for they are children of whoredom; 5 for their mother hath played the harlot; she that conceived them hath done shamefully; for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. 6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she shall not find her paths. 7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now)
Again he said in Ezekiel 16:23-26: It came to pass after much depravity, said the Lord, you built yourself a brothel and you made yourself a beautiful place in the streets. And you built yourself brothels on every lane, and you wasted your beauty, and you spread your legs in every ally, and you multiplied your acts of prostitution. You prostituted yourself to the sons of Egypt, those who are your neighbors, men great of flesh.
(Ezekiel 16:23-26 (ASV) And it is come to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord Jehovah,) 24 that thou hast built unto thee a vaulted place, and hast made thee a lofty place in every street. 25 Thou hast built thy lofty place at the head of every way, and hast made thy beauty an abomination, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredom. 26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians, thy neighbors, great of flesh; and hast multiplied thy whoredom, to provoke me to anger.)
But what does “the sons of Egypt, men great of flesh” mean if not the domain of the flesh and the perceptible realm and the affairs of the earth, by which the soul has become defiled here, receiving bread from them, as well as wine, oil, clothing, and the other external nonsense surrounding the body – the things she thinks she needs.
But as to this prostitution the apostles of the savior commanded - Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25; I Th 4:3; I Co 6:18; 2 Co 7:1.
Guard yourself against it, purify yourselves from it, speaking not just of the prostitution of the body but especially of that of the soul. For this reason the apostles write to the churches of God, that such prostitution might not occur among us.
Yet the greatest struggle has to do with the prostitution of the soul. From it arises the prostitution of the body as well. Therefore Paul, writing to the Corinthians (1 Cor 5:9-10), said, ‘ I wrote you in a letter, ‘Do not associate with prostitutes,’ not at all meaning the prostitutes of this world or the greedy or the thieves or the idolators, since then you would have to go out from the world.
Here it is speaking spiritually – For oue struggle is not against flesh and blood – as ghe said (Ep 6:12) – but against the world rulers of this darkness and the spirits of wickedness.
(I Cor 5:9-10 (ASV) I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators; 10 not at all [meaning] with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world:)
( Ep 6:12 (ASV) For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places].)