stephan huller

The number of thirteen aeons appears in the Nag Hammadi treatise Zostrianos and is at the core of the Pistis Sophia as Mead explains:

After these explanations the Master continues the narrative of his heaven journey. All the great powers of the Æonic Spaces, when they saw what had happened to their Tyrants, adored and sang hymns to the interior of the interiors. And so He passed inward to the veils of the Thirteenth Æon. Here, outside this Space, He found Pistis Sophia, sitting alone, mourning and grieving because she had not been brought into the Thirteenth Æon, her proper region in the height. She was grieving because of the sufferings brought upon her by Arrogant, one of the three Triple Powers. But when she saw the radiant light-vesture of the Master, containing the whole glory of her mystery, the mystery of the Thirteenth Æon, she began to sing a song to the light which is in the height, which she had seen in the veil of the Treasure of Light. And as she sang, the veils of the Thirteenth Æon were drawn apart, and her syzygy, and her two-and-twenty fellow-emanations within the Æon, making together four-and-twenty emanations who came forth from the Great Invisible Forefather and the two other great Triple Powers of that Space, gazed upon the light of His vesture.

Hereupon follows the mystic story of the sufferings of Pistis Sophia. In the beginning she was The Myth of Pistis Sophia. in the Thirteenth Æon with her companion Æons. By order of the First Mystery, she gazed into the height and saw the light of the veil of the Treasure of Light, and desired to ascend into that glorious realm, but could not. She ceased to do the mystery of the Thirteenth Æon and ever sang hymns to the Light she had seen.

Hereupon the Rulers in the Twelve Æons below hated her, because she had ceased to do their mystery--the mystery of intercourse or sexual union--and desired to go into the height and be above them all.

And Arrogant, the disobedient one, that one of the three Triple Powers of the Thirteenth Æon who The Enmity of Arrogant. refused to give the purity of his light for the benefit of others, but desired to keep it for himself and so be ruler of the Thirteenth Æon, led the onslaught against her. Arrogant is apparently the conservative power of the "matter" of this Space. He joined himself to the number of the Twelve Æons and fought against the Sophia. He sent forth a great power from his light and other powers from his matter, the reflections of the powers and emanations above, into Chaos; and caused the Sophia to look down into the lower regions, that she might see this power and imagine it was the real Light to which she aspired. And so in ignorance she descended into matter, saying: "I will go into that region, without my consort, to take the light, which the Æons of Light have produced for me, so that I may go to the Light of lights, which is in the Height of heights."

The Fall into Matter.Thus pondering she went forth from the Thirteenth Æon and descended into the Twelve; but they pursued her, and so she gradually descended to the regions of Chaos, and drew nigh to the light-power which Arrogant had sent below, to devour it. But all the material emanations of Arrogant surrounded her, and the light-power of Arrogant set to work to devour all the light-powers in the Sophia; "it expelled her light and swallowed it, and as for her matter they cast it into Chaos." This light-power of Arrogant is that Ialdabaōth "of which," says the Master, "I have spoken to you many times."

And so Sophia was greatly weakened and beset and "cried out exceedingly, she cried on high to that Light of lights which she had seen in the beginning, in which she had trusted [hence is she called Pistis (Faith) Sophia], and began to sing songs of repentance," whereby she might be converted or taken back to the Light.

The lengthy incident of the Pistis Sophia occupies pp. 42-181 of the Coptic translation, and her thirteen repentances and songs of praise are a mystical interpretation of a number of the Psalms of the Second Temple collection and of five of the Odes of Solomon.

To attain to the knowledge of the Light, the human soul (as the world-soul before it) has to descend into matter (hylē). Hence the Sophia, desiring The Descent of the Soul. the Light, descends towards its reflection, from the Thirteenth Æon, through the Twelve, into the depths of Chaos or Unorder, where she seems in danger of entirely losing all her own innate light or spirit, being continually deprived of it by the powers of matter. Having descended to the lowest depths of Chaos, she at length reaches the limit, and the path of her pilgrimage begins to lead upward to spirit again. Thus she reaches the middle point of balance, and still yearning for the Light, rounds the turning point of her cyclic course, and changing the tendency of her thought or mind or nature, recites her penitential hymns or repentances. Her chief enemy is the false light--presumably the counterfeit spirit of which we shall hear later on--the desire-nature, which is assisted by four-and-twenty material powers, the reflections of the supernal projections, powers or co-partners of the Sophia, the whole looked at from without making an ordering into forty-nine.

The Sophia first utters seven repentances. At the fourth of these, the turning point of some sub-cycle of Its Repentance and Redemption. her pilgrimage, she prays that the image of the Light may not be turned from her, for the time is come when "those who turn in the lowest regions" should be regarded--"the mystery which is made the type of the race."

At the sixth the Light remits her transgression; viz., that she quitted her own region and fell into Chaos. This perhaps refers to the dawning of the consciousness of the higher ego in the lower personality. But as yet the command has not come from the First Mystery to free her entirely from Chaos. This may refer to the higher illumination when the consciousness of the true spiritual soul is obtained.

Therefore at the conclusion of her seventh repentance, where she pleads that she has done it all in ignorance, through her love for the Light, Jesus, her syzygy (without the First Mystery) raises her up to a slightly less confined region in Chaos, but Sophia still knows not by whom it is done.

It is only at the ninth stage that the First Mystery partly accepts her repentance and sends Jesus in the form of the Light to her help, so that she recognises it.

Her next four hymns are sung knowingly to the Light, and are of the nature of thanksgiving, and of declaration that justice will shortly overtake her oppressors, while at the same time she prays to be delivered wholly from her "transgression"--the lower desire-nature.

The Degrees of Purification.After the thirteenth repentance, Jesus again, of himself, without the First Mystery, emanated a brilliant power of light from Himself, and sent it to aid Sophia, to raise her still higher in Chaos, until the command should come to free her entirely. There are, therefore, as it seems, three degrees of purification from the chaotic elements of the lower nature.

stephan huller

I notice that a later Patriarch of Alexanadiria named Cyril is described as not only the thirteenth apostle but also the fifth gospel writer:

http://books.google.com/books?id=9Mt...%22%20&f=false

stephan huller

Apparently the modern Serbian bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic is similarly identified as 'fifth evangelist' and 'thirteenth apostle':

http://books.google.com/books?id=XAE...tle%22&f=false

The praise apparently came first from the bishop's student the Archimandrite Justin Popovic

stephan huller

Tolstoy was similarly identified in the lectures of Ivan Panin:

http://books.google.com/books?id=h2Y...tle%22&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?id=eJl...tle%22&f=false

stephan huller

I am looking at a letter from the 97th Patriarch of Alexandria which uses the same epithet. It is said Gabriel:

http://books.google.com/books?id=wpg...ual%22&f=false

If this stands up it would imply that both 'thirteenth apostle' and 'author of the fifth gospel' applied to Mark at least in the eyes of the Copts. Hmmm ....

stephan huller

In the Ethiopic Contending of the Apostles:

http://books.google.com/books?id=tRf...page&q&f=false

stephan huller

Bien curieuse aussi la légende du voyage de saint Athanase à Séleucie (fragm. 5 et suiv.), qui rappelle les vieilles légendes apostoliques, celle de saint Philippe, par exemple « ... le Saint Esprit a prévenu de l'arrivée d'Athanase un juste de Séleucie, et celui-ci d'annoncer à ses concitoyens que Dieu leur envoie un treizième apôtre. ...

Also curious is the legend of the voyage of St. Athanasius to Seleucia (Fragm. 5 et seq.), which recalls the old legends apostolic of St. Philip, for example "... the Holy Spirit has warned of the arrival of the righteous Athanasius of Seleucia, and the latter to announce to his people that God sends thirteenth apostle ..."

http://books.google.com/books?id=aio......%22&f=false

stephan huller

Apparently Jerome identified James as 'the thirteenth apostle' too:

http://books.google.com/books?id=eI4...ing%22&f=false

The reference is here "Jerome calleth him decimum tertium apostolum, the thirteenth apostle (in Isai. lib. v. cap. 7)"

From what I can read this sounds like a fascinating - even Marcionite - interpretation of James's original significance likely from some sectarian tradition. Can anyone get a hold of this passage?

mountainman

This source also states that both Athanasius and Chysostom were called "Thirteenth Apostles" on account of the ministry of their teaching. However there is no doubt that they were followers of Constantine and not precursors, and perhaps with their own eyes saw Constantine buried as the "Thirteenth Apostle", amidst the steles of the twelve apostles in the Church of the Holy Apostles. This source also states that Paul (also) was regarded as the thirteenth apostle to the gentiles.

stephan huller

Of course Paul, Mark and James who were all identified at one time or another as 'the thirteenth apostle' were really created in the image of Constantine rather than vice versa. It is logical to assume that someone identified Constantine as an addition to a group of twelve that existed three hundred years before him AND THEN the idea that Paul, Mark and James - ACTUAL companions of the apostles - were developed from that implausible association. The fact that countless figures who also lived hundreds of years from the apostles were also called 'the thirteenth apostle' (Tolstoy, the Serbian bishop, a French bishop etc.) does nothing to convince you that it was an epithet that was ALWAYS used in imitation of actual companions or contemporaries of the apostles. No, of course not. That would actually be sensible.