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Pistis Sophia
ZLATKO PLEŠE
A late compilation of Christian Gnostic
teaching (third to fourth centuries CE), Pistis
Sophia is the title assigned to the content of
a fifth-century Coptic codex named after its
first owner, A. Askew (Codex Askewianus),
acquired by the British Museum in 1785
(Ms. Add. 5114). The manuscript text consists
of four parts, the first three of which seem to
constitute a separate work originally entitled
The Rolls of the Savior. The present title is
a modern conjecture based on the heading of
the second part, The Second Book of the Pistis
Sophia, which is a later scribal addition. All
four parts are written in the question-and-
answer format (erôtapokriseis) – a collection
of the dialogues between the risen Jesus and
his disciples, most notably Mary Magdalene,
which took place after eleven years of his
postresurrection teaching.
Books 1 and 2, through chapter 82, contain
Jesus’ report on his victorious ascent through
hostile planetary and zodiacal spheres and his
rescuing of the fallen Pistis Sophia, the person-
ified cosmic soul, from the material realm
(Chaos), followed by her hymns of gratitude
(“repentances”), each interpreted by the disci-
ples citing passages from the biblical psalms
and the Odes of Solomon. The rest of Book 2
(83–101) gives a detailed account of various
types of souls and their diversified fate. Book 3
is a collection of questions and answers on the
value of renouncing the material world, the
destructive role of the “counterfeit spirit,” and
the outer celestial darkness and its twelve
places of punishment. The final book, which
opens with Jesus’ magical invocation of the
Father in the wake of his resurrection, dis-
cusses the negative influence of the celestial
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 5338–5339.
© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah05152
archons and discloses the content of a complex
baptismal ritual accompanied with magical
incantations and involving fire, vine branches,
loaves, wine, and water.
Pistis Sophia has been unfavorably portrayed
as “a dull romance of the heavenly powers” and
“an ‘old man’ Gnosticism,” primarily because
of its numerous redundancies, obscure allu-
sions, and doctrinal inconsistencies. The text
does, however, provide a wealth of information
about the Gnostic attitudes toward magic and
astrology, a unique Gnostic hymnal, and
a detailed description of Gnostic cosmology –
a multiple-tiered structure in whose middle
region, among manifold cosmic layers, dwells
the thirteenth realm of the repentant heroine
Pistis Sophia.
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Kragerud, A. (1967) Die Hymnen der Pistis Sophia.
Oslo.
Lattke, M. (1979–98) Die Oden Salomos in ihrer
Bedeutung für Neues Testament und Gnosis, esp.
vol. 1: 207–25. Freiburg.
Orbe, A. (1976) Cristologı́a gnóstica, 2 vols.
Madrid.
Schmidt, C., ed. (1925) Pistis Sophia, neu hrsg. mit
Einleitung nebst griechischem und koptischem
Wort- und Namenregister. Copenhagen.
Schmidt, C., ed. (1978) Pistis Sophia, trans.
V. MacDermot. Leiden.
Schmidt, C. (1981) Koptisch-gnostische Schriften 1.
Die Pistis Sophia. Die beiden Bücher des Jeû.
Unbekannt altgnostisches Werk, ed. W. Till and
H.-M. Schenke. Berlin.
Tardieu, M. and J.-D. Dubois (1986)
Introduction à la littérature gnostique, vol. 1:
65–82. Paris.
Vliet, J. van der (2005) “Fate, magic and astrology in
Pistis Sophia, chaps 15–21.” In A. Hilhorst and
G. H. van Kooten, eds., The wisdom of Egypt:
Jewish, Early Christian, and Gnostic essays in
honour of G. P. Luttikhuizen: Leiden.