Apocrypha
Pistis Sophia
Wisdom of Faith
3 chapters · read and listen
Reading note
An apocryphal or pseudepigraphal text — outside the canon of the Western churches, yet widely circulated among ancient Jews and Christians. Published here from a public-domain translation, edited for continuous reading.
Chapters
Dossier
Jesus, eleven years after the resurrection, teaching the disciples what he could not teach before — with Mary Magdalene asking most of the questions.
Where this text comes from
Coptic, 3rd or 4th century AD, preserved in the Askew Codex, bought by a London bookseller in the 18th century. It is one of the most extensive gnostic texts to survive, and it reached Europe even before the Nag Hammadi discovery.
Why it is not in the Bible
Never in any canon. It is a late gnostic work, written when the boundaries between church and gnostic schools were already drawn.
What you will find
- It opens eleven years after the resurrection, with Jesus still teaching the disciples — the strangest frame in this literature.
- The vocabulary is that of initiation: the First Commandment, the First Mystery, the Twenty-Fourth Mystery.
- The text admits the disciples did not follow: they thought that Mystery was the head of everything that exists.
- The structure is that of a class — question, answer, and a check on who kept up.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Pistis Sophia a gnostic gospel?
- It is a gnostic text, but not in gospel form: it is a long teaching dialogue between the risen Jesus and the disciples, from the 3rd or 4th century.