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Document Details :

Title: The Intriguing Absence of God in the Apocalypse of Paul
Author(s): KALER, Michael
Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses
Volume: 94    Issue: 2   Date: 2018   
Pages: 235-240
DOI: 10.2143/ETL.94.2.3284877

Abstract :
Apocalyptic writings serve many purposes; one of those is to establish a divine hierarchy overseeing the cosmos. The Apocalypse of Paul, a gnostic ascension apocalypse from Nag Hammadi Codex V, is unique in that it does not do this; rather, its highest heaven contains the apostle Paul’s 'fellow spirits', with no indication that its author thought that there were any divine forces above them. This may require us to rethink our understandings of the ascension apocalypse genre; at the very least, it permits us to read Nag Hammadi Codex V differently than we might otherwise have done.

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