Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PAUL, PRAYER OF THE APOSTLE

An early Christian writing, most likely produced in Greek in the late 2nd or early 3rd century, surviving in Coptic in the 4th-century Nag Hammadi codices. It most likely emerges from Valentinian Gnostic Christianity, as indicated by both its language and theology.

The work is a magical invocational prayer that is primarily concerned with attaining perfection (“redemption”), specifically revelatory knowledge and unity with the spiritual realm. It contains a string of invoked names or titles (attributed to Jesus). The five requests (which have an ascendancy from least to greatest) may reflect the five Valentinian sacraments listed in the Gospel of Philip (baptism, chrism, eucharist, redemption, bridal chamber), although the exact terms vary between these two Valentinian texts.

The Prayer illustrates the importance of Paul among early Christians and provides insights into early Christian rituals, views on holiness, use of magic, and mystical (visionary) experiences.

Bibliography. M. R. Desjardins, Sin in Valentinianism. SBLDS 108 (Atlanta, 1990); D. Mueller, “Prayer of the Apostle Paul I, 1: A.1–B.10,” in Nag Hammadi Codex I, ed. H. W. Attridge. NHS 22 (Leiden, 1985), 5-11; K. Rudolph, Gnosis (San Francisco, 1987).

Philip L. Tite

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PAUL, PRAYER OF THE APOSTLE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)