Gospel of Philip · 10 of 12

The Symbolic Meaning of the Sacraments

1. [Jesus had to] descend into the [water, in order for] him to redeem himself. [...], namely those who have [been baptized] in his name,

2. because he said: “[This is the way] we will perform all righteousness.”

3. Those who say they will die first, and they will rise, are mistaken.

Insight

Those who say they will die first and then rise are mistaken. If they do not first obtain the resurrection while they are alive, they will not obtain anything after they die. Philip returns to this teaching a second time because it's the hinge of his whole gospel. Postponed resurrection is no resurrection at all. Whatever awakening you are going to have, you have to have it now, in this body, under these conditions. It's the same teaching Zen has spent a thousand years pressing its students against: you cannot push the matter off. Ramana Maharshi gave his version of the line to anyone who asked when liberation would come: it is already here; the only remaining question is when you will notice.Cross-references Philip ch 3 §16; Ramana Maharshi, 'Talks'; classic Zen formulation in Hakuin's 'Song of Zazen.'

4. If they do not first obtain the resurrection while they are alive, they will not obtain anything after they die.

5. This is also how they talk about baptism, saying that baptism is something great, because if they obtain it, they will live.

6. Philip the apostle said: “Joseph the carpenter planted a garden because he needed wood to carry out his trade.

7. He was the one who made the cross from the trees he had planted, and his seed hung on what he had planted.

8. His seed was Jesus, and the plant was the cross.”

9. However, the Tree of Life dwells in the midst of the garden, and from the olive tree came the chrism, and from it came the resurrection.

10. This world is a corpse-eater.

Insight

The world is a corpse-eater, Philip says, and everything eaten in it dies. Truth is a life-eater, and no one who feeds on truth dies. He's talking about what you consume. The ordinary diet of the world (news, ambition, gossip, entertainment, most of what passes for knowledge) leaves the consumer unchanged or diminished. A different kind of food is available, and what makes it different is that it enters the eater and transmits life rather than depleting it. Jesus made the same distinction about the bread from heaven in John 6. Check what you have been feeding on. Some of it leaves you alive and some of it leaves you spent, and the difference compounds over years.John 6:27–58 parallel on bread that perishes versus bread that gives life; similar dietary-of-soul teaching in Ignatius of Loyola's 'Spiritual Exercises.'

11. All that are eaten in it will die as well.

12. Truth is a life-eater.

13. Consequently, not one of those who feed on [truth] will die.

14. From that place came Jesus, and from there he brought food, and those who desired, he let them [eat, in order that] they would not die.

15. [God planted a] garden, [man ...] garden.

16. Some there are [...] dwell with [...] of God in [...] those in [it ...].

17. I wish that [garden is the place where it] will be said to me: [“... eat] this,” or, “do not eat [that,” as you] desire.

18. This is the place where I will eat everything, where the Tree of Knowledge dwells, the one that killed Adam.

19. However, the Tree of Knowledge here has restored life to man.

20. The Law was the tree.

21. It was able to bestow knowledge of good and evil.

22. It neither took away from him evil, nor did it establish him in what is good.

23. Instead, it produced death for those who ate of it, because when he said, “eat this,” “do not eat that,” it was the origin of death.

24. The chrism surpasses baptism, because from the chrism we were called “Christian,” not on account of baptism,

Context

The chrism surpasses baptism, Philip says, because from the chrism we were called Christian. A small etymological sermon: Christos in Greek means the anointed one, and the chrism is the anointing oil. So to be called Christian is, strictly, to be called "of the anointed" — to share in the oil that flowed from the Father to the Son to the apostles and down to you. Philip is pushing against a tendency to make water-baptism the central sacrament and reminding his readers that anointing carries the name. Eastern Orthodox theology, which still uses chrismation as a full sacrament distinct from baptism, preserves this ancient emphasis better than most Western traditions.On chrismation in early Syriac and Eastern Christianity see Sebastian Brock, 'The Holy Spirit in the Syrian Baptismal Tradition.'

25. and it was owing to the chrism that “Christ” was named, because the Father anointed the Son, and the Son anointed the apostles, and the apostles anointed us.

26. He who has been anointed possesses all things.

27. He possesses the resurrection, the light, the cross, the holy Spirit.

28. The Father granted him this in the bridal chamber.

29. He obtained it, and the Father came to dwell inside the Son, and the Son inside the Father.

30. This is [the kingdom] of Heaven.