Poetics of the Gnostic Universe: Narrative and Cosmology in the Apocryphon of John

Zlatko Plese, Ph.D. (1996) in Classics, Yale University, is Associate Professor of Graeco-Roman Religion and Early Christianity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has published on Plutarch, Middle Platonism, Gnosticism, Coptic literature, and early modern Latin historiography, and is currently working on a critical edition of the seventh volume of Shenoute's Discourses.

The monograph examines the cosmological section of the "Apocryphon of John," a fully narrated version of the classic Gnostic myth. The author argues that the "Apocryphon"'s 'world hypothesis' is inseparable from the epistemological, theological, and aesthetic debates within contemporary Platonism.

Contents Preface Introduction ... Chapter One. Narrative and Composition The Frame Narrative Manuscript Witnesses Authorship and Narrative Voices Dramatis Personae John's Failed Inventio John's Vision: Form and Content The Revelatory Monologue: Narrative Structure, Plot, Voices Dispositio: What Is-What Has Come to Be-What Will Come to Pass Plot: The Logic of the Savior's Narrative Dissonant Voices, Consonant Models: Plato, Sophia, Moses ... Chapter Two. The Realm of Being Agnostos Theos Praising Oneness: A Literary Analysis The God without Qualities Kataphasis Formation of the Spiritual Realm The Language of Procession in the Apocryphon of John ... Chapter Three. The Realm of Becoming Sophia "Our Sister" (Prov 7:4) Sophia the Lowest Aeon Sophia's Miscarriage Sophia's Motivation: The Soul "in Travail of Birth" Cosmogony, Part One: The 'Gnostic' Demiurge Ialdabaoth in the Luminous Cloud Ialdabaoth the Villain Ialdabaoth the Demiurge "Let Us Make a Man" Ialdabaoth the Jealous God Cosmogony, Part Two: Sophia's Repentance Narrative Function of the Episode Other 'Gnostic' Interpretations of Genesis 1:2b Sophia's Movement and Wisdom Literature Temporal Coordinates of Sophia's Movement: Sophia, Ialdabaoth's Assistant Spatial Coordinates of Sophia's Movement: Metanoia, Its Meaning and Function "What Will Come to Pass"-Diakrisis, or Final Separation ... Conclusion Bibliography Index locorum potiorum Index nominum et rerum