THE HYMN OF THE PEARL
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Chapter 5. The "Hymn of the Pearl"
In the Simonian doctrine we have introduced a specimen of what we shall call the Syrian-Egyptian gnosis. We follow this with an introductory example of the other main type of gnostic speculation, which for reasons to be explained later we shall call the Iranian one. Strictly speaking, the text chosen for a first representation of this type is not a systematic but a poetic composition, which clothes the central part of the Iranian doctrine in the garment of a fable apparently dealing with human actors, and in concentrating upon the eschatological part of the divine drama omits its first, cosmo-gonic part. It is nevertheless in its vividness and subtle naivete' such an immediately captivating document of gnostic feeling and thought alike that no better introduction to the whole type could be provided. The more theoretical, cosmogonic chapter of the doctrine will be supplied later in the account of Mani's teaching. After the calculated brazenness of Simon Magus, the moving tenderness of the following poem will come as a striking contrast.
The so-called "Hymn of the Pearl" is found in the apocryphal Acts of the Apostle Thomas, a gnostic composition preserved with orthodox reworkings that are relatively slight: the text of the Hymn itself is entirely free of these. "Hymn of the Pearl" is a title given to it by modern translators: in the Acts themselves it is headed "Song of the Apostle Judas Thomas in the land of the Indians."1 In view of the didactic intention and narrative form of the poem, "hymn" is perhaps not exactly appropriate. It is with the rest of the Acts extant in a Syriac and a Greek version, the Syriac being the original one (or an immediate descendant of the original, which was doubtlessly Syriac). In our rendering, based mainly on the Syriac text, we shall disregard the metrical divisions and treat the text as a prose narrative.
1 Supposed to have been composed when he was imprisoned there.
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(a) THE TEXT
When I was a little child and dwelt in the kingdom of my Father's house and delighted in the wealth and splendor of those who raised me, my parents sent me forth from the East, our homeland, with provisions for the journey.2 From the riches of our treasure-house they tied me a burden: great it was, yet light, so that I might carry it alone. . . .8 They took off from me the robe of glory which in their love they had made for me, and my purple mantle that was woven to conform exactly to my figure,4 and made a covenant with me, and wrote it in my heart that I might not forget it: "When thou goest down into Egypt and bringest the One Pearl which lies in the middle of the sea which is encircled by the snorting serpent, thou shalt put on again thy robe of glory and thy mantle over it and with thy brother our next in rank be heir in our kingdom."
I left the East and took my way downwards, accompanied by two royal envoys, since the way was dangerous and hard and I was young for such a journey; I passed over the borders of Maishan, the gathering-place of the merchants of the East, and came into the land of Babel and entered within the walls of Sarbug. I went down into Egypt, and my companions parted from me. I went straightway to the serpent and settled down close by his inn until he should slumber and sleep so that I might take the Pearl from him. Since I was one and kept to myself, I was a stranger to my fellow-dwellers in the inn. Yet saw I there one of my race, a fair and well-favored youth, the son of kings [lit. "anointed ones"]. He came and
2 We have met this symbol already in the Mandaean literature (see above p. 79), where differently from here the provision is intended for the return of the souls, but for this purpose also brought down by the alien man in his own journey: it is the transmundane spiritual instruction, the gnosis, which he communicates to the faithful. A similar symbolic meaning has probably to be assumed for the "burden" from the heavenly treasure-house mentioned in the next sentence.
8 The burden as described in the ommitted lines consists of five precious substances, which clearly connects the "Prince" of this tale with the Primal Man of Manichaean speculation: see below, p. 216 f.
4 For the symbolism of the garment, see above, p. 56.
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attached himself to me, and I made him my trusted familiar to whom I imparted my mission. I [he?] warned him [me?] against the Egyptians and the contact with the unclean ones. Yet I clothed myself in their garments, lest they suspect me as one coming from without to take the Pearl and arouse the serpent against me. But through some cause they marked that I was not their countryman, and they ingratiated themselves with me, and mixed me [drink] with their cunning, and gave me to taste of their meat; and I forgot that I was a king's son and served their king. I forgot the Pearl for which my parents had sent me. Through the heaviness of their nourishment I sank into deep slumber.
All this that befell me, my parents marked, and they were grieved for me. It was proclaimed in our kingdom that all should come to our gates. And the kings and grandees of Parthia and all the nobles of the East wove a plan that I must not be left in Egypt. And they wrote a letter to me, and each of the great ones signed it with his name.
From thy father the King of Kings, and from thy mother, mistress of the East, and from thy brother, our next in rank, unto thee, our son in Egypt, greeting. Awake and rise up out of thy sleep, and perceive the words of our letter. Remember that thou art a king's son: behold whom thou hast served in bondage. Be mindful of the Pearl, for whose sake thou hast departed into Egypt. Remember thy robe of glory, recall thy splendid mantle, that thou mayest put them on and deck thyself with them and thy name be read in the book of the heroes and thou become with thy brother, our deputy, heir in our kingdom.
Like a messenger was the letter that the King had sealed with his right hand against the evil ones, the children of Babel and the rebellious demons of Sarbug. It rose up in the form of an eagle, the king of all winged fowl, and flew until it alighted beside me and became wholly speech. At its voice and sound I awoke and arose from my sleep, took it up, kissed it, broke its seal, and read. Just as was written on my heart were the words of my letter to read. I remembered that I was a son of kings, and that my freeborn soul desired its own kind. I remembered the Pearl for which I had been sent down to Egypt, and I began
to enchant the terrible and snorting serpent. I charmed it to sleep by naming over it my Father's name, the name of our next in rank, and that of my mother, the queen of the East. I seized the Pearl, and turned to repair home to my Father. Their filthy and impure garment I put off, and left it behind in their land, and directed my way that I might come to the light of our homeland, the East.
My letter which had awakened me I found before me on my way; and as it had awakened me with its voice, so it guided me with its light that shone before me, and with its voice it encouraged my fear, and with its love it drew me on. I went forth. . . .5 My robe of glory which I had put off and my mantle which went over it, my parents . . . sent to meet me by their treasurers who were entrusted therewith. Its splendor I had forgotten, having left it as a child in my Father's house. As I now beheld the robe, it seemed to me suddenly to become a mirror-image of myself: myself entire I saw in it, and it entire I saw in myself, that we were two in separate-ness, and yet again one in the sameness of our forms. . . .6 And the image of the King of kings was depicted all over it. ... I saw also quiver all over it the movements of the gnosis. I saw that it was about to speak, and perceived the sound of its songs which it murmured on its way down: "I am that acted in the acts of him for whom I was brought up in my Father's house, and I perceived in myself how my stature grew in accordance with his labors." And with its regal movements it pours itself wholly out to me, and from the hands of its bringers hastens that I may take it; and me too my love urged on to run towards it and to receive it. And I stretched towards it and took it and decked myself with the beauty of its colors. And I cast the royal mantle about my entire self. Clothed therein, I ascended to the gate of salutation and adoration. I bowed my head and adored the splendor of my Father who had sent it to me, whose commands I had fulfilled as he too had done what he promised. ... He received me joyfully, and I was with him in his kingdom, and
5 The stages of the return journey correspond to those of the descent.
6 We pass over an extensive description of the robe.
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all his servants praised him with organ voice, that he had promised that I should journey to the court of the King of kings and having brought my Pearl should appear together with him.
(b) COMMENTARY
The immediate charm of this tale is such that it affects the reader prior to all analysis of meaning. The mystery of its message speaks with its own force, which almost seems to dispense with the need for detailed interpretation. Perhaps nowhere else is the basic gnostic experience expressed in terms more moving and more simple. Yet the tale is a symbolic one as a whole and employs symbols as its parts, and both the total symbolism and its component elements have to be explained. We shall begin with the latter.
Serpent, Sea, Egypt
If we take it for granted that the Father's house in the East is the heavenly home and defer the question as to the meaning of the Pearl, we have to explain the symbols of Egypt, the serpent, and the sea. The serpent we meet here for the second time in the gnostic world of images (see above, p. 93 f.); but differently from its meaning in the Ophitic sects, where it is a pneumatic symbol, it is here, in the form of the earth-encircling dragon of the original chaos, the ruler or evil principle of this world. The Pistis Sophia (Ch. 126, p. 207, Schmidt) says, "The outer darkness is a huge dragon whose tail is in its mouth." The Acts themselves, in a passage outside the Hymn, offer a more detailed characterization of this figure through the mouth of one of its dragon-sons:
I am the offspring of the serpent-nature and a corrupter's son. I am a son of him who . . . sits on the throne and has dominion over the creation beneath the heavens, . . . who encircles the sphere, . . . who is outside (around) the ocean, whose tail lies in his mouth.
(para. 32)
There are many parallels to this other meaning of the serpent in gnostic literature. Origen in his work Contra Celsum (VI. 25. 35) describes the so-called "diagram of the Ophites," where the seven
circles of the Archons are placed within a larger circle which is called the Leviathan, the great dragon (not identical, of course, with the "serpent" of the system), and also the psyche (here "world-soul"). In the Mandaean system this Leviathan is called Ur and is the father of the Seven. The mythological archetype of this figure is the Babylonian Ti'amat, the chaos-monster slain by Marduk in the history of creation. The closest gnostic parallel to our tale is to be found in the Jewish apocryphal Acts of Kyriakos and Julitta (see Reitzenstein, Das iranische Erlosungsmysterium, p. 77), where the prayer of Kyriakos relates, also in the first person, how the hero, sent out by his Mother into the foreign land, the "city of darkness," after long wandering and passing through the waters of the abyss meets the dragon, the "king of the worms of the earth, whose tail lies in his mouth. This is the serpent that led astray through passions the angels from on high; this is the serpent that led astray the first Adam and expelled him from Paradise. . . ." 7 There too a mystical letter saves him from the serpent and causes him to fulfill his mission.
Sea or waters is a standing gnostic symbol for the world of matter or of darkness into which the divine has sunk. Thus, the Naassenes interpreted Ps. 29: 3 and 10, about God's inhabiting the abyss and His voice ringing out over the waters, as follows: The many waters is the multifarious world of mortal generation into which the god Man has sunk and out of whose depth he cries up to the supreme God, the Primal Man, his unfallen original (Hip-pol. V. 8.15). We quoted (p. 104 f.) Simon's division of the One into him who "stands above in the unbegotten Power" and him who "stood below in the stream of the waters, begotten in the image.'* The Peratae interpreted the Red Sea (Suf-Sea), which has to be passed on the way to or from Egypt, as the "water of corruption,'* and identified it with Kronos, i.e., "time," and with "becoming'* {ibid. 16. 5). In the Mandaean Left Ginza III we read: "I am a great Mana . . . who dwelt in the sea ... until wings were formed for me and I raised my wings to the place of light." The apocryphal Fourth Book of Ezra, an apocalypse, has in chap. xiii.
'In the Ada Thomae (para. 32) these and many other acts of seduction are attributed to the son of the original serpent, from whose speech we have quoted the description of his progenitor.
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adad.molo