The Apocryphon of John (NHC II, 1) and the Graeco-Egyptian Alchemical Literature

Abstract

The hermetic science known to us under the modern term of 'alchemy' was practised by Egyptian and Jewish 'lovers of wisdom' in the first centuries of the Christian era, as a sacred and mystical art of transformation, regeneration and ultimately of salvation, applied to the human soul as well as to the material elements, especially metals. The remaining Greek writings of these philosophers were collected and edited in 1888 by M. Berthelot, as the Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs. To the few scholars who, in the first half of the last century, devoted their attention to the study of these challenging texts, it appeared that there were links between the salvific doctrine of the alchemists and that of the so-called Gnostics described by the Church Fathers. The pur pose of the present article is, first, to introduce the reader to the alchemical lit erature and, second, to demonstrate that not only the doctrinal, but also the 'practical' side of alchemy shows significant similarities with the rituals of both 'Valentinians' and 'Sethians' communities, better known to us since the dis covery of the Nag Hammadi Library.