Life After Death_ A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion - Alan Segal [336]
This connection has import not only for individuals but for communities. Mary Douglas has suggested that the body is particularly rich vehicle for expressing the implications of social and political life, the “body politic.” Such is also the case with regard to the early Christians. The “orthodox” valorized martyrdom while the “Gnostics” eschewed it as unnecessary. The orthodox insisted on bodily presence but the “Gnostics” either did not or said it was of no ultimate importance. It is not a casual symbol but one that runs to the heart of their religious life.40
The Testimony of Truth suggests that the martyrs have misunderstood Christ’s true nature:
The foolish think in their heart that if they confess, “We are Christians,” in word only [but] not with power, while giving themselves over to ignorance, to a human death, not knowing where they are going, nor who Christ is, thinking that they will live, when they are (really) in error-hasten toward the principalities and authorities. They fall into their churches because of the ignorance that is in them. (31.22-32.8)41
The author ridicules the notion that martyrdom brings salvation. If that were true, everyone would be martyred, confessing, and being saved. The pretensions of the orthodox, no matter how affecting and brave, are merely illusions:
are [empty] martyrs, since they bear witness only [to] themselves … When they are “perfected” with a (martyr’s) death, this is what they are thinking: “If we deliver ourselves over to death for the sake of the name, we shall be saved.” These matters are not settled in this way…. They do not have the Word which gives [life.] (33.25-34.26)42
The stories of the orthodox martyrdoms are punctuated by complaints from the heresiologists that the Gnostics show no willingness to undergo martyrdom as do the orthodox, therefore their faith is weak. From a sociological perspective, nothing builds up commitment to a specific canon of principles faster than persecution, torture, suffering, and death, provided that the community itself survives. The commitment of the orthodox to the canons of the faith must have been enormous. And so too were the promises of restored bodily existence that awaited them.
The Spirit and Martyrdom
FOR THE GNOSTICS the converse must have been just as true. Anyone who refused martyrdom by sacrificing to the emperor’s genius would have had to develop strong justifications for refusing this ultimate sacrifice. The notion that the body was unimportant, not the essential part of Christian commitment, paralleled the Gnostic stance that martyrdom was not necessary. And so too were the promises of restored spiritual existence that awaited them. The Gnostics likely did not build up the same kind of commitment to a single set of principles as communities suffering martyrdom.
If the body was to be left behind and the spirit (pneuma) was the carrier of identity, why make such a pretense about acknowledging the Christian commitment publicly? Could one not equally advance as far by acknowledging gnōsis, understanding the secret and hidden meaning in the Christian stories understood as allegories? The myths of other religions might as easily contain the truths of Gnosticism. We find many allusions to other religions-classical, mystery, Jewish, Zoroastrian-in the Nag Hammadi library. Then who would need to die for one of them because they are equally understandable in the stories of other religions as well?
Since truth could be found everywhere, Gnostic writers disliked the way the orthodox clergy encouraged ordinary Christians to resign themselves to execution:
These are the ones who oppose their brothers, saying to them, “Through this [martyrdom] our God shows mercy, since salvation comes to us from this.” They do not know the punishment of those who are gladdened by those who have done this deed to the little ones who have been