Anti-Origenist Redaction in the Fragments of theGospel of Truth(NHC XII,2): Theological Controversy and the Transmission of Early Christian Literature

Abstract

Ancient polemicists claim that apocryphal texts contributed to the enduring popularity of the Origenist “heresy” in fourth- and fifth-century Egypt. The anchorite Sopatrus associates “apocryphal literature” with “discussions about the image,” shorthand for Origenist debates over the loss of the image of God in humanity, and urges his hearers to avoid both apocryphal books and the theological controversy they incite. In his festal letter of 401 CE, the archbishop Theophilus of Alexandria rails against Origenist teaching and urges Christians throughout Egypt to reject “Origen's evils” and disregard “Scriptures called ‘apocrypha.’” Shenoute's association of Origenist themes with “apocryphal books” inI Am Amazeddemonstrates that non-canonical writings continued to occupy a central position in Origenist theological debates well into the fifth century.