The Second Apocalypse of James

Introduction

Somewhere beneath the sands of Upper Egypt, in a clay jar sealed against the dry desert air, a collection of ancient manuscripts survived nearly two thousand years of silence. When those jars were discovered near the town of Nag Hammadi in 1945, the world of religious scholarship was shaken to its foundations. Among the fifty-two texts unearthed that December afternoon was a document so extraordinary, so intimate in its portrayal of early Christian spirituality, that it demanded an entirely new way of thinking about what the earliest followers of Jesus actually believed, taught, and experienced. That document is the text you are about to read — a Coptic translation of a Greek original that scholars believe dates to the second century of the Common Era, a text that speaks across millennia with a voice of startling urgency and unexpected tenderness.

The ancient world was saturated with revelation. Prophets, seers, and visionaries populated every corner of the Mediterranean basin, and the tradition of apocalyptic literature — texts that claimed to unveil hidden truths about the cosmos, the divine, and the destiny of the human soul — was one of the most vital and widespread genres of antiquity. Yet even within this rich tradition, the document presented in this volume stands apart. It is not primarily concerned with the end of the world in the dramatic, cataclysmic sense that modern readers might expect from the word 'apocalypse.' The Greek word apokalypsis means, quite literally, an uncovering or a revealing. What is revealed here is something far more intimate and far more radical than celestial warfare or the opening of cosmic seals. What is revealed here is a conversation — a series of profound exchanges between a teacher and his most beloved student — and the martyrdom of a man who chose truth over survival.

To read this text without preparation is to enter a foreign country without a map. The landscape is recognizable in some ways — there are figures from the early Christian world, there are prayers and teachings and moments of spiritual crisis — but the terrain is organized according to principles that differ dramatically from the Christianity most modern readers know. The God of this text is not the omnipotent creator of Genesis. The cosmos is not a benevolent gift but a prison of sorts, constructed by lesser divine beings who mistake themselves for ultimate reality. And salvation, in this framework, is not a matter of faith in a sacrificial death but a matter of knowledge — gnosis — the direct, experiential recognition of one's own divine origin and nature. To encounter these ideas with an open mind is one of the great intellectual and spiritual adventures available to any reader of ancient literature.

James, the central figure of this revelation, is one of the most fascinating and most overlooked personalities of the ancient Christian world. Known in early sources as 'James the Just' and 'the brother of the Lord,' he led the Jerusalem community of Jesus's followers for decades after the crucifixion, earning a reputation for extraordinary piety and moral integrity that even his opponents found difficult to dismiss. The Jewish historian Josephus records his death with evident sympathy. The early church historian Eusebius preserves traditions about his ascetic lifestyle, his perpetual prayer, and the calluses on his knees that had grown thick as a camel's from the hours he spent prostrate before the Temple. He was, by every ancient account, a man of towering spiritual seriousness — and he was killed for it, stoned to death by the religious authorities of Jerusalem in the year 62 CE, just a few years before the catastrophic Roman-Jewish war that would destroy the Temple he had prayed in all his life.

Yet despite this remarkable historical profile, James has been consistently marginalized in the mainstream Christian tradition. The reasons for this marginalization are complex and historically layered, but they are not accidental. James represented a version of early Christianity — Jewish, wisdom-oriented, centered on the living teachings of Jesus rather than the theology of his death and resurrection — that lost the political and theological battles of the second and third centuries. The Christianity that eventually became the religion of the Roman Empire was largely shaped by the Pauline tradition, with its emphasis on faith, grace, and the salvific power of the crucifixion. James, whose letter in the New Testament famously insists that 'faith without works is dead,' stood for something different. The Gnostic communities that produced the texts found at Nag Hammadi saw in James a kindred spirit — a guardian of the inner, esoteric teachings that the Risen Christ had imparted to those capable of receiving them.

This is why James appears not once but twice in the Nag Hammadi library. The First Apocalypse of James and the text you hold in your hands together constitute a diptych of Gnostic devotion to this extraordinary figure — a literary monument to a man and a tradition that the emerging orthodox church worked hard to suppress and forget. Reading these texts is, in a very real sense, an act of historical recovery. It is the restoration of a voice that was deliberately silenced, the reconstruction of a spiritual map that was deliberately burned.

Mareim's Account of James's Setting

This is the discourse that James the Just spoke in Jerusalem, which Mareim, one of the priests, wrote down. He had told it to Theuda, the father of the Just One, since Theuda was a relative of his. He said, "Hurry! Come with Mary, your wife, and your relatives, and bring this to him — he will understand. For a multitude are stirred up against him and are greatly angry at him, and they are praying against him. For he would often speak these words, and others as well."

James's Discourse and Martyrdom

"He used to speak these words while the multitude of people were seated. But he entered and did not sit in his usual place. Instead, he sat above the fifth flight of steps, which is held in honor, while all our people listened to his words."

"I am he who received revelation from the Pleroma of Imperishability — he who was first summoned by the one who is great, and who obeyed the Lord. He who passed through the worlds, he who stripped himself and went about naked, he who was found in a perishable state, though he was about to be brought up into imperishability. This Lord who is present came as a son who sees, and as a brother he was sought. He will come to the one he produced, and he unites and makes him free — he who came to bring freedom."

"Now again I am rich in knowledge and I have a unique understanding, which was produced only from above and comes from the heights. I am the one whom I knew. What was revealed to me was hidden from everyone and shall be revealed through him. These two who see — they have already proclaimed through these words: 'He shall be judged with the unrighteous.' He who lived without blasphemy died by means of blasphemy. He who was cast out, they cast out."

"The flesh — it is by knowledge that I shall come forth from the flesh. I am surely dying, but it is in life that I shall be found. I entered in order that they might judge me. I shall come forth in judgment. I do not bring blame against the servants of his. I hasten to make them free and want to take them above the one who wants to rule over them. If they are helped, I am the brother in secret, who prayed to the Father until he established the reign of imperishability first and forever."

I am the first son who was begotten.

He will destroy the dominion of them all.

I am the beloved.

I am the righteous one.

I am the son of the Father.

I speak even as I heard.

I command even as I received the order.

I show you even as I have found.

Behold, I speak in order that I may come forth. Pay attention to me in order that you may see me!

"If I have come into existence, who then am I? For I did not come as I am, nor would I have appeared as I am. For I used to exist for only a brief period of time."

"Once when I was sitting and deliberating, he opened the door. The one whom you hated and persecuted came in to me. He said to me, 'Hail, my brother; my brother, hail.' As I raised my face to stare at him, my mother said to me, 'Do not be frightened, my son, because he said "My brother" to you. For you were nourished with this same milk. Because of this he calls me "My mother." For he is not a stranger to us. He is your step-brother.'"

"These great words I shall find, and they shall come forth. But I am the stranger, and they have no knowledge of me in their thoughts, for they know me only in this place. Yet it was fitting that others come to know through you."

"You are the one to whom I say: Hear and understand — for a multitude, when they hear, will be slow to grasp it. But you, understand as I shall be able to tell you. Your father is not my father. But my father has become a father to you."

"This virgin about whom you hear — she is the true virgin. Know this, for it is profitable for you. Your father, whom you consider to be rich, shall grant that you inherit all these things that you see."

"I proclaim to you and tell you these things that I shall speak. When you hear, therefore, open your ears and understand and walk! It is because of you that they pass by, activated by the one who is glorious. And if they want to make a disturbance and seize possession, he did not begin it, nor did those who are coming — those who were sent forth by him to make this present creation. After these things, when he is ashamed, he shall be troubled that his labor, which is far from the aeons, amounts to nothing. And his inheritance, which he boasted to be great, shall appear small. And his gifts are not blessings. His promises are evil schemes. For you are not a product of his compassion — rather, it is through you that he does violence. He wants to do injustice to us, and will exercise dominion for the time allotted to him."

"But understand and know the Father who has compassion. He was not given an inheritance that was limited, nor does it have a number of days, but it is as the eternal day — it is to be perceived as such. For in truth he is not one of them, and because of this he is despised by them. Because of this he boasts, so that he may not be reproved. For because of this he is superior to those who are below — those by whom you were looked down upon. After he imprisoned those who belong to the Father, he seized them and fashioned them to resemble himself. And it is with him that they exist."

"I saw from the height those things that happened, and I have explained how they happened. They were visited while they were in another form, and while I was watching, they came to know me as I am, through those whom I know."

"Now, before those things have happened, they will make a move against this place. I know how they attempted to come down here so that he might approach the small children, but I wish to reveal this through you and the spirit of power, in order that he might reveal it to those who are yours. And those who wish to enter, and who seek to walk in the way that is before the door — open the good door through you. They follow you; they enter and you escort them inside, and you give a reward to each one who is ready for it."

For you are not the redeemer nor a helper of strangers.

You are an illuminator and a redeemer of those who are mine, and now of those who are yours.

You shall reveal; you shall bring good among them all. They shall admire you because of every power. You are the one whom the heavens bless. He who has called himself your Lord shall envy you.

I am among those who are instructed in these things with you. For your sake they will be told these things, and will come to rest. For your sake they will reign and become kings. For your sake they will have pity on whomever they pity. For just as you were the first to clothe yourself, you are also the first who will strip himself, and you shall become as you were before you were stripped.

And he kissed my mouth. He took hold of me and said, "My beloved! Behold, I shall reveal to you those things that the heavens and their archons have not known. Behold, I shall reveal to you those things that he did not know — he who boasted, 'There is no other except me. Am I not alive? Because I am a father, do I not have power over everything?' Behold, I shall reveal to you everything, my beloved. Understand and know them, that you may come forth just as I am. Behold, I shall reveal to you him who is hidden. But now, stretch out your hand. Take hold of me."

And then I stretched out my hands and did not find him as I had expected. But afterward I heard him saying, "Understand, and take hold of me." Then I understood, and I was afraid. And I was exceedingly joyful.

Therefore I say to you, judges: you have been judged. You did not show mercy, yet you were shown mercy. Be sober — you did not know.

He was the one whom the creator of heaven and earth, who dwelled within it, did not see. He was the one who is the life. He was the light. He was the one who is yet to come. And again he shall provide an end for what has begun, and a beginning for what is about to end. He was the Holy Spirit and the Invisible One, who did not descend upon the earth. He was the virgin, and whatever he wills happens to him. I saw that he was naked, and there was no garment clothing him. Whatever he wills happens to him.

Renounce this difficult way, which is changeable, and walk in accordance with him who desires that you become free men with me, after you have passed above every dominion. For he will not judge you for the things that you did, but will have mercy on you. For it was not you who did them — it was your Lord. He was not a wrathful one, but a kind Father.

But you have judged yourselves, and because of this you will remain in your fetters. You have oppressed yourselves, and though you will repent, you will profit nothing at all. Behold him who speaks, and seek him who is silent. Know him who came to this place, and understand him who went forth. I am the Just One, and I do not judge. I am not a master, but a helper. He was cast out before he stretched out his hand.

And he allows me to hear. Play your trumpets, your flutes, and your harps in this house. The Lord has taken you captive from the Lord, having closed your ears so that they cannot hear the sound of my word. Yet you will be able to pay heed in your hearts, and you will call me the Just One. Therefore I say to you: Behold, I gave you your house — the one you say God has made, in which he promised to give you an inheritance. This I shall doom to destruction and to the derision of those who are in ignorance. For behold, those who judge are deliberating.

On that day all the people and the crowd were disturbed, and they showed that they had not been persuaded. And he arose and went forth speaking in this manner. He entered on that same day and spoke for a few hours. And I was with the priests and revealed nothing of the relationship, since all of them were saying with one voice, "Come, let us stone the Just One." And they arose, saying, "Yes, let us kill this man, that he may be taken from our midst. For he will be of no use to us."

And they went and found him standing beside the columns of the temple, beside the mighty cornerstone. And they decided to throw him down from the height, and they cast him down. They seized him and struck him as they dragged him upon the ground. They stretched him out and placed a stone on his abdomen. They all placed their feet on him, saying, "You have erred!"

Again they raised him up, since he was still alive, and made him dig a hole. They made him stand in it. After covering him up to his abdomen, they stoned him in this manner.

And he stretched out his hands and said this prayer — not the one he was accustomed to say:

My God and my Father, who saved me from this dead hope, who made me alive through a mystery of what he wills — do not let these days of this world be prolonged for me, but let the day of your light remain in salvation. Deliver me from this place of sojourn! Do not let your grace be left behind in me, but may your grace become pure! Save me from an evil death! Bring me from a tomb alive, because your grace — your love — is alive in me to accomplish a work of fullness! Save me from sinful flesh, because I trusted in you with all my strength, because you are the life of the life! Save me from a humiliating enemy! Do not give me into the hand of a judge who is severe with sin! Forgive me all my debts of these days, because I am alive in you and your grace is alive in me. I have renounced everyone, but you I have confessed. Save me from evil affliction! But now is the time and the hour. O Holy Spirit, send me salvation in the light.

After he had spoken these words, he fell silent, and the discourse came to an end.