T A O P A T T A The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles
as a Non-Christian Ascetic Allegory and Hellenic Satire The embodied (Soul) who has controlled his nature having renounced all actions by the mind dwells at ease in the City of Nine Gates, neither working nor causing work to be done. --- Bhagvad Gita 5:13
Introduction
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia

Introduction

In the following series of articles we will be examining an ancient text authored over 1600 years ago before being preserved in an earthen jar in a remote cave in Upper Egypt, near the modern city of Nag Hammadi. The title of the text is The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles hereafter referred to as TAOPATTA. It was bound in a book, along with another seven texts, all of which are non-christian. Another twelve books, variously containing christian and non-christian texts were in 1948 discovered in total at this site.

A number of discourses by Hermes, one of which being addressed to Ascepius, were to be found in the entire collection, and coincidentally, bound into the same book as our TAOPATTA. For further detailed information about the Nag Hammadi Library see this index page. For further background information on Asclepius, and other general comments about the Nag Hammadi codices, including a summary by Robert Lane Fox, and a statement of the general tendancy to view such writings as Gnostic, see this page.

Our position is that what appears on the surface to be a strange reading allegory about Jesus and the Apostles of the Christian ministry, is in fact a cleverly disguised satire of the failings of the Apostles of the Christian ministry in relation to the true gnosis (knowledge of this Pearl).

The Central Allegory of Lithargoel

The central figure of the text is not Peter but Lithargoel, a mysterious Pearl Man, who is a citizen and a physician domicile at a city called Nine Gates. If we can forget all about Peter and the Apostles for a moment, and I know that for some this may either be difficult or impossible, then we will examine the Acts of Lithargoel. The Pearl Man was a traveller in citt of Habitation (in the midst of the sea, surrounded by waves and high walls) but revealed to be a citizen of another city Nine Gates. Lithargoel's message is that the pearl is available at his city, and those wishing to seek the pearl - for sight thereof, or for possession thereof - an epic journey (involving ascetic practices) is indispensible.

As far as I know, no other commentator on this text has identified as an integral element of the allegory the name of this city Nine Gates as the human body. This association not only is warranted, but has in fact ancient precedent in many traditions which describe the ascetic path, including its occurrence in the Bhagvad Gita (above).

The Inner Pearl - The City of Nine Gates is the human body

We have two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and one mouth located on our head, and two lower gates - the sex organ and the anus - as part of our evolved human body structure. From the purely physical perspective, we appear to living creatures whose very surivial depends upon the exchange of food, water and air with the immediate physical environment. Our eyes and ears and other physical senses are instuments which have assisted us in these basic survival functions - all of which should be noted are able to be categorised as related to the elements of nature: earth (food), water (drink) and air (breath).

From a higher - and perhaps the word here is more evolved - perspective we are able also to exchange ideas and concepts through words and actions that are understood by our mind, traditionally represented as being associated with head. We are thus constantly and always necessarily associated always with the body - this city of Nine Gates. Such is the state described in the Bhagvad Gita as the embodied soul.

It is our thesis that the author of TAOPATTA is alluding to an ancient allegory of the embodied soul. This should not be surprising. But what is surprising is the actions of the truly enlightened embodied soul -- the citizen of Nine Gates -- the enigmatic yet central character Lithargoel. His actions are specifically that of adept of the Healing Tradition, quite possibly that of Asclepius, which was prevalent at that time in ancient history.

The Pearl of the Soul - The Ascetic Path and the Healer

Clearly the author is clearly associating the epic journey of the path of asceticism (dwelling within the body - withinin Nine Gates) with the role of a physician and healer. The question needs to be asked whether there is a pattern of similar facts surrounding communities that are established around the traditions of ascetic practice. Whether in fact the services of such (ascetic) communities as "local healers" or "providers of medical advice" or "interpreters of dreams", "etc" is recognised as an historical possibility. Even without regard to the Indian precedents in this issue, a study of the tradition associated with Ascelpius reveals that the temples of Asclepia, and the recuperative centers - the Ascepia - were centers of medicine and healing. Alexander the Great is purported to have left his breastplate at one as a token of his thanks. Archaeological relics all point to the same conclusion. The secret knowledge, which is not secret of course, is that the practitioners of this healing art were also practitioners of the ascetic path. Healing lore and ascetic practice were one path.

Peter and the Apostles have nothing to do with this.

The major theme is the pathway of ascetic practice and the tradition associated thereto - the tradition of healing, of the physicians of Apollo and Asclepius.

Outline of the Method of Critical Analysis

The text is distilled by removing the pearl, the healer, the name of the healer, and the poor of Habitation. We are left with the external husk of the pearl shell.

Wisdom like a pearl may be a subtle acretion of substance over along period of time. Like a pearl diver seeking a pearl in the belly of a pearl shell, the diver must first pluck the pearl from its shell. We therefore have simply broken the entire tractate up into its constituent 142 sentences, and simply extracted those sentences which are related to the message of the Pearl, the description of the Road to the City of Nine Gates and the description of the practice of the travelling Healer or physician. These form a total of 28 sentences -- possibly themselves being two sets of 14 sentences.

Once this text is removed, what is left to be done?

Another three sets of fourteen sentences, are able to be discerned other than the actual Acts of the Apostles. These relate to the Name of the Healer and the question as to the real historical or traditional or fictional identity of this physician of bodies and souls, dispenser of wisdom. Separately there is this Pearl Man Lithargoel - the enigmatic citizen of Nine Gates -- a description of this person, provided by Peter. Finally there are the shared issues relating to the Endurance of Habitation, the city and its poor set in the midst of the sea.

The External Husk of the Pearl Shell

Once the above issues are removed from the text, all that remains concerns the narrator describing the acts of Peter and the Apostles. When we examine each of these remaining sentences, all of them may be interpretted as being a consistent and unceasing attack on their non-ascetic practices (with reference to the extracted pearl) What we have left is a distillation which is uniquely characterised by its satire of the Christian ministry as depicted by the apostles. It resembles the husk and left-over once the pearl is removed.

Whoever authored this text (in the early fourth century CE) could string together invectives in satire which may have had the audience laughing at the ineptitude of the Christian apostles as hopeless examples of the ascetic path, and as hopelessly under-skilled physicians of the healing path. The parodies are consistent in their declamation of the Christian ministry to the rich. (The poor are remote and endure elsewhere).

The satire in the name of TAOPATTA

How many apostoles were there? Wasn't it twelve? Then why Peter and the twelve as the heading. As if this was not enough to arouse any form of a hint that someone was taking the mickey out the new Christian fourth century state religious ministry, the only reference within the text to the number of the twelve apostles is given in the sentence: "We comprised eleven disciples.". Hello? Could the apostles count?

A Performed satire - perhaps in Song and with Voices?

Why was this tract written? Was it to be orated or sung by different parts? Was there a list of questions behind the scenes to match the successive sentences of the narrative, and to assist in the explication of this hidden meaning in a hidden meaning behind the understanding of the early fourth century state Christian "church"? In fact, and if so, could this tract be one of the lost Songs of Arius - the possibility is indeed intriguing.

Conclusion

The text of TAOPATTA it is here argued is a complex statement. We have argued firstly and foremostly that it contains an ancient allegory of perennial wisdom explicating the embodied soul, the ascetic path and act of Healing. This core allegory is a postulate of all religions, and in fact a postulate of all philosophy. The core allegory is the human condition - the pearl and the embodied soul.

We have then argued that surrounding this true knowledge (gnosis) are the layers of meaning by which the Name of the Healer, the person of Lithargoel and the Palm Leaf civilisation in povery in the midst of the sea --- the environment in which Lithargoel operates. These layers are removed to reveal the husk of the shell. The external acts of the apostles.

Notably, the author states that the apostles do not enter the city of Nine Gates. They tarry by the gate, and abstract. The satire is against the citizenship enjoyed by the apostles as compared to the citizship enjoyed by Lithargoel. The apostles are totally concerned with the external world. They do not enter the city. They do not visit the city inside its gates. At the end, Lithargoel tells them to judge the rich.

And yet, it will be said "But Lithargoel is clearly Jesus"!

My response to this assertion is to return to my research in the field of ancient history.

Thesis (1) - The New Testament Apocrypha (NTA) were authored as Greek satires after Nicaea 325 CE

and

Thesis (2) - The NTA were largely authored by the satirist Arius of Alexandria (a non-christian).

TAOPATTA Index | Thesis Index | Mountain Man Graphics