I’m pleased to publish three posts by guest blogger David Litwa, one of the most prolific scholars of New Testament and Early Christianity over the past ten years.  David was a graduate student at Duke some years ago and took a couple of my PhD seminars over at UNC.  He is now at Boston College.  (See:  M. David Litwa – School of Theology and Ministry – Boston College (bc.edu)

Each of these posts is a tantalizing introduction to a (different) book he has written for a general audience.  This one starts off with a blast!  Let us know what you think!

******************************

 

It is the only Christian group in antiquity to be accused of homosexual sex, of worshipping a snake, and of attending the mysteries of the Great Mother (Cybele). They worshiped God as Human, explored the Phrygian deity Attis as a manifestation of Jesus, and directly called themselves “gnostics.” They are known through a gossamer thread of tradition, a report preserved only in a worm-eaten medieval manuscript tucked away on Mount Athos, where no woman has stepped, apparently, for over a thousand years.

I refer to the mysterious group called “Naassenes.”

The Naassene report is an explosion of imagery, a cornucopia of intertextuality, a thrilling and sometimes infuriating venture into Christian allegory. Now for almost two hundred years, readers have been overwhelmed, impressed, confused, and surprised by this text—a text so jam-packed with data it offers new vistas on every encounter. Classicists will find here a range of poetic and literary allusions to Greco-Roman authors. Philosophers will find an idiosyncratic fusion of Platonic, Stoic, and Aristotelian tenets. Students of early Christianity will discover combinations of Synoptic verses seamlessly mixed with Johannine and Pauline tags. Literary theorists can approach this text to understand its notion of allegory, intertextuality, and etymology. Students of the mystery cults will find sacred hymns, words, and stories often related nowhere else. The Naassene discourse affords a feast to feed a whole range of readers.

The Naassenes: Exploring an Early Christian Identity is the first ever comprehensive historical presentation of Naassenes myths, rites, hymns, and beliefs written for a popular audience. The story begins with the discovery of a manuscript entitled Refutation of All Heresies, attributed to an “anti-pope” in early third-century Rome. In this manuscript was discovered the only copy of transcripts from eight otherwise unknown Christian groups, first among them the “Naassenes” (or Snake People).

In The Naassenes, the original Naassene “sermon” is reconstructed and translated into English for the first time. It serves as the basis for the following chapters focusing on (1) Who were the Naassenes and where did they come from? (2) How can we distinguish what the Naassenes wrote from the​ critic who copied down their words? (3) What did the Naassenes believe about God, Jesus, humankind, and salvation? (4) What did the Naassenes read as scripture and did they canonize Greek mythology? (5) Did the Naassenes worship Christ as a snake or otherwise engage in snake-handling rituals? (6) What were the rites of the Naassenes and how did they differ from other churches at the time? (7) What were the Naassene hymns, and what can we tell from what survives of them? (8) Were Naassenes homosexuals and what did the mean by “the mystery of blessed pleasure?” (9) Were the Naassenes Christians and did they preserve traditions about Jesus more authentic than what we possess today?

The Naassenes are represented by a single, nameless preacher and religious entrepreneur. This Preacher, who revealed great “mysteries” to others, is himself an enigma. Part sophist and part philosopher, the Preacher was an Alexandrian polymath who could cite a range of poets and philosophers including Anacreon, Aristotle, Empedocles, Heraclitus, Homer, and so on. He—or she—knew cultural and religious lore stemming from diverse places like Syria, Libya, Samothrace, and Phrygia.

The Preacher’s library included books from the Mosaic law and the Hebrew prophets, along with a few gospels—perhaps a gospel harmony—and letters of Paul. Also on the shelves were volumes now classified as “apocryphal”: gospels attributed to Thomas, James and Mariamme, the Gospel according to the Egyptians, and the Ascension of Isaiah. The Preacher had a penchant for books relating foreign mythology—the Phrygian Attis, the Syrian Adonis, the Egyptian Isis, and so forth. By displaying a seamless fusion of Hellenic and Christian erudition, the Preacher advertised a wide-ranging expertise. Expertise at his level indicates that he had attained the heights of Hellenic education.

Naassenes were “gnostics” insofar they claimed “to know (ginōskein) the depths.” Paul of Tarsus implicitly claimed to know “the depths of God” in 1 Corinthians 2:10-12 inasmuch as he possessed the Spirit. Paul also hymned the “depth” of God’s riches—to which he had apparent access—in Romans 11:33.  The Preacher did claim to have gnosis (in the sense of secret and enlightened wisdom), and he spoke to perfected (or initiated) “gnostics.” Probably, then, the Preacher spoke to an actual group of Christian knowers.

The structure of the group probably included persons of greater perceived holiness (those who made more ascetic commitments). Naassenes were likened to castrated priests of Cybele. This point does not prove that they worshiped the Great Mother as their personal goddess. What it does indicate is that at least some members of the group practiced celibacy. The Preacher advocated spiritual sex, a “mystery of blessed pleasure” in which bodiless minds (coded as “male”) had intercourse with other minds. In such intercourse, dying flesh and mortal generation was left far behind.

The Naassenes present nothing less than a new kind of Christianity. It is still commonly believed that conversion to Christianity demands a complete break with one’s religious past. Typically, when a Hellene became a Christian, the sacred lore of the gods became myths and fiction; the veneration of cult statues became idolatry; attendance at religious festivals became fellowship with demons, and mystery cults became public pollutions. The Preacher is the only second-century Christian theologian who presents a theory about how to completely integrate Hellenic religion into the structure of Christian thought and spirituality.

The Preacher’s discourse helps to break down common stereotypes about Christianity being an exclusive religion from the start, a cult which played a zero-sum game with truth and hereticalized those who disagreed. In the modern world of cultural crisscrossing, the Naassene discourse stands as an important witness to a kind of Christianity which ought no longer be marginalized in the study of Christian history: an open, free-thinking, cosmopolitan type of Christianity that has, since the faith’s first beginnings, and in every generation, never lacked a witness.

The Naassenes is joined by a companion course, which you can access here: https://bc-6561.freshlearn.com/Naassenes

———-

Dr. M. David Litwa (MDiv, Emory University; ThM, Duke University; PhD, University of Virginia, 2013) is a scholar of ancient Mediterranean religions with a focus on the New Testament and early Christianity.