page_title: Pistis Sophia
section_title: Text
hierarchical_section_title: Pistis Sophia / Text
caption_attribution_description: English: The miracle of the Catch of 153 fish by Duccio, 14th century Source: http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/SODimages3/134_Duccio_Sienna.jpg Artist died long ago, 2d art
context_page_description: Pistis Sophia is a Gnostic text discovered in 1773, possibly written between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The existing manuscript, which some scholars place in the late 4th century, relates one Gnostic group's teachings of the transfigured Jesus to the assembled disciples, including his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Martha. In this text, the risen Jesus had spent eleven years speaking with his disciples, teaching them only the lower mysteries. After eleven years, he receives his true garment and is able to reveal the higher mysteries revered by this group. The prized mysteries relate to complex cosmologies and knowledge necessary for the soul to reach the highest divine realms.
  Much of the first two books of the manuscript are dedicated to outlining the myth of the fall and restoration of the figure known as Pistis Sophia, in particular giving detailed parallels between her prayers of repentance and particular Psalms and Odes of Solomon.
  Although in many Gnostic texts and systems Sophia is a major female divinity, in Pistis Sophia she originates and dwells outside of the divine realm.
context_section_description: The work as a whole shows clear signs of having been compiled from multiple sources, with only the first two books following directly on each other.  Even within a single book, occasionally multiple, differing accounts of a single event or cosmological outline appear, suggesting the use and preservation of several sources.  Changes in terminology and cosmological description between books also shows that it is a compilation of texts that may have been written over a period of some time.
  The bulk of the text (Books 1-3) is in the form of a dialogue between Jesus and the disciples, both male and female.  Mary Magdalene is the most featured disciple, who provides many questions and scriptural interpretations; John “the Virgin” is the second most prominent.  Other figures named as followers include Andrew, Bartholomew, James, John, Mary the mother of Jesus, Martha, Matthew, Peter, Philip, Salome, Simon the Canaanite, and Thomas.
caption: Jesus appears to his disciples after the resurrection
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