The Gospel of Philip

[frangipani]

I was reading in the Gospel of Philip and thought this would be interesting to share some thoughts.
A householder and Food.
There was a householder who had everything: children, slaves,cattle,dogs,pigs,wheat,barley,chaff,fodder,oil,meat and acorns. The householder was wise and knew the food for each. He fed the children baked bread and meat. He fed the slaves oil and grain. He fed the cattle barley, chaff and fodder. He threw the dogs some bones. He fed the pigs acorns and gruel.
So it is with the disciples of God. If they are wise, they understand discipleship. Bodily forms will not deceive them, but they will examine the condition of each person's soul and speak appropriately with that person. In the world many animals have human form. If the disciple of God identify them as pigs. they feed them acorns. If cattle, they feed them barley, chaff and fodder. If dogs, they throw them bones. If slaves they feed them preliminary. If children they feed them what is complete.

 

[ELoWolfe]

It seems like a more bolstered parable that Paul originally had, when he talked about the childish and adult things. This makes sense with the development of Gnosticism compared to Paul's original gnosis. To Paul, there was the three - Psychic, Pneumatic, or Hylic. To Phillip, there is more distinction between the two.

So you could have, for example, Pneumatic, but also Psychic-Pneumatic (someone sympathetic but hasn't quite reached the pneumatic phase), Psychic-Psychic (someone who have earnest belief, but does not understand nor want to understand the concept of gnosis) and Psychic-Hylic (believes, but is still more focused on the world).

That is my thought, anyways. I had to reflect on this a lot.

 

[frangipani]

Yes, I agree, certainly it would be rare for a seeker to leap from worldliness to true understanding. It is a growing and learning experience where the learning is applied to the development of the spirit. It is a transitional and individual journey. And there are those who discover certain portions of Christian knowledge and become comfortable with that portion and for whatever reason see no need to journey further. I think though that salvation doesn't come with a partial belief. This is why I believe there are so many established variants of the Christian church.