Full text in translation
In Christianity, Gnostic apocryphal gospel dating possibly to as late as the second half of the 3rd century.
The availble text, in Coptic language, is generally assumed to be a translation from the Greek. Philip is a collection of statements relevant to a Valentinian theology. The text can be understood as a collection of Gnostic sacramental catechesis.
AUTHORSHIP
The gospel is named after Philip, although the text does not make him the author. The naming is from Philip being the only apostle mentioned in the text.
CONTENT
The composition of Philip is unorganized. The story line of Philip is not chronological, from one passage to another the subject can change dramatically.
Central here is the concept of the 'bridal chamber', a mystery concept indicating the level of relgious awareness of the chosen. Anyone outside the bridal chamber is in Philip described entirely in negative terms.
Philip indicates that there are initiation rites made up of 5 steps, but do not describe these. Baptism is, however, clearly defined as one of them. Baptism happened with immersion, the initiate removes his clothes altogehter.
A central idea of Philip is that all things bad in this world comes from the division of humans into man and woman, which happened with the seperation of Eve and Adam.
