John and the Gnostics: the Significance of the Apocryphon of John for the Debate About the Origins of the Johannine Literature

Abstract

Irenaeus of Lyons (flor. AD 180), the first orthodox Christian writer to utilize the Fourth Gospel, claimed that it was written to refute heretics, particularly the Gnostics he describes in Adversus haereses 1.29 and 30. This article contends that careful analysis of the Gnostic myth underlying Adv. haer. 1.29 and the Apocryphon of John leads to the conclusion that it is fundamentally Christian and has already been influenced by Johannine ideas. It goes on to argue that Irenaeus's version represents a more original form which has been developed by the Apocryphon, whose myth, in turn, is reflected by the Trimorphic Protennoia, which has recently been claimed as the natural pre-Christian matrix of the Prologue. Thus, far from the Gnostic myth generating or influencing the Fourth Gospel and its Prologue in particular, it has been influenced by the Fourth Gospel.