Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation Read Free Page B

that could be translated as “primordial consciousness”), Mother, even Mother-Father or Holy Spirit. 31
    Why, then, do so many people live ignorant of God, hopeless and despairing? John says that Christ answered with a creation story: when the divine Mother brought forth heavenly beings to rule over the heavens—sun, moon, and stars—these luminous powers conspired to dominate the human race. Since they hoped to obliterate awareness of the transcendent God and attract worship to themselves instead, they cast fear and desire “like nets” over human beings, so that nearly every culture mistakenly worships the sun, moon, and stars. Yet because God originally created humankind “in his image,” the celestial powers failed to eradicate every trace of “the luminous
epinoia,
” that is, the capacity for spiritual insight, hidden deep within each one of us.
    Hearing this, John takes heart: “I said, ‘Christ, will everyone’s soul live in the pure light?” Jesus replies, “You have gained great insight.… Those on whom the Spirit of life will descend … will be saved … and purified … from all evil.” 32 John keeps questioning: who will be saved? Does God’s spirit come to everyone, or only to certain people? Jesus answers that salvation is available to
everyone,
since God’s spirit is essential for life: “The power enters into every human being, for without [the spirit] they could not even stand upright.” 33 The Secret Revelation concludes as Jesus says to John, “I have told you all these things so that you might write them down, and give them secretly to your kindred spirits, for this is the mystery of those who become spiritually stable.” 34 Thus the Secret Revelation suggests that what is revealed to John is potentially available to all people, since all have received thesame spirit—or, at least, to all who are receptive to what the spirit teaches.
    The Secret Revelation (Apocryphon) of James, discovered in a volume found with others that contain copies of the Secret Revelation of John, says that James, Jesus’ brother, copied this book in response to a request
    that I send you a secret book [in Greek,
apocryphon
] that was revealed to me and Peter by the Lord, and I could neither deter you nor deny what you ask; but I have written it in Hebrew, and have sent it to you, and to you alone.
     
    James adds that “I sent to you, ten months ago, another secret book which the Savior had revealed to me.” The author of the Secret Revelation, speaking as James, tells how the disciples, after Jesus’ death, began to write down what they had heard him teach, some writing “open” books and others “secret” books, like this one:
    The twelve disciples were all sitting together and recalling what the Savior had said to each one of them, whether in secret or openly, and putting it into books. 35
     
    While the disciples were busy writing, James says, and “I was writing what was in my book,” suddenly, to their astonishment, “the Savior appeared, having departed from us as we gazed after him.” Here the author deliberately recalls—and challenges—what many Christians believe, having read the New Testament Book of Acts. For the Book of Acts says that after Jesus died, he appeared to his disciples in resurrected form and continued to speak withthem
for forty days,
but that then he ascended bodily into heaven: “As they were watching … a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going … they were gazing upward toward heaven.” 36 Traditionally, Christians have taken this to mean that
after
that time, those seeking access to Jesus could find it only indirectly, through “apostolic tradition,” as they called the oral and written accounts that the apostles were said to have handed down for the benefit of those born too late to ever speak directly with Jesus.
    This Secret Revelation pictures “the twelve disciples” writing down what Jesus had told them, to hand down his teaching