Eternal Marriage as found in early Christian writings and other ancient documents

From Hugh Nibley's "Old Testament and Related Studies" Chapter 5:

And so we find the celestial order of marriage resorted to again in the meridian of time. From the earliest writings both defending and attacking Christianity, it is clear that the relationship between the sexes was something very special with them. Outsiders were shocked and scandalized, for example, by the promiscuity implied in the Christian practice of calling each other brother and sister- A more-than-ordinary emphasis on family life is apparent in the warnings of First Clement to the leaders of the church that they are neglecting to pay sufficient attention to their own families and the bringing up of their children in the church. The more recent discoveries of early Christian documents allow us insights into the nature of the teaching that incurred the wrathful criticism of an immoral age that did not understand it at all. Thus we learn in the Gospel of Philip and the Apocalypse of Adam how Adam and Eve were united in celestial union before the creation of the world but, upon descending to the earth, became separated, with death entering into the scene. Christ came to earth, says the Gospel of Philip, "for the express purpose of bringing them together in eternal life. Thanks to him those who are united in the Bridal Chamber will never more be separated." The ordinances here are symbolic, but the images are important models to be followed. Let us recall how often the Lord refers to himself as the Bridegroom. The symbols we have here are indeed meager compared with the perfect glory. The things we do in symbols merely hint at things as they are, "for there is glory above glory and power upon power .... The Holy of Holies and the Bridal Chamber, these are the ultimate .... Though sin still enslaves us, when the truth is revealed the perfect life will flow for everyone . . . that those who were separated may be united and fulfilled .... All who enter the Bridal Chamber may beget in the light--not after the manner of nocturnal mating .... Whoever becomes a Son of the Bridal Chamber will receive the light . . . and when he goes out of the world he shall already have received the true instruction through types and images."

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From Hugh Nibley's "Mormonism & Early Christianity" Chapter 2 footnotes:

80. Aristides, Apology 17, 2; Minucius Felix, Octavius 8-10, in PL 3:266-76. The charges were "not altogether without foundation," R. M. Wilson, The Gospel of Philip (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), 21-22, though the nature of the rites cannot be surmised either from the anti-Christian scandal stories or from the Gnostic distortions. The famous passage about the "two becoming one," etc., is not the abolition of the sexes (the later Fathers often puzzle about the survival of the sexes in the resurrection), but the overcoming of all prurient distinction and rivalry, the two becoming one "in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:11); Gospel of Thomas 85: 25-35 (=NHLE 37:25-35, p. 121); Gospel of Philip 113:1-26 (=NHLE 65:1-26, p. 139), 118:13-22 (=NHLE 70:13-22, p. 142); Acts of Thomas 14, in ANT, 370; Oxyrhynchus Frg. 655; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata III, 13, in PG 8:1192; III, 9, in PG 8:1165-69; Clement, Second Epistle to the Corinthians 12, in PG 1:345-48.

81. Robert M. Grant, "The Mystery of Marriage in the Gospel of Philip," Vigiliae Christianae 15 (1961): 140, argues that this consisted in "literalizing" the orthodox ideas. But Irenaeus's stock charge against the Gnostics is that they de-literalize everything, their marriages of the Aeons being a good example, Against Heresies I, 28, 1, in PG 7:690-91; I, 21, 3, in PG 7:687. Tatian, Orations 8, in PG 6:821-25, maintains that marriage is defilement, as in the Acts of Thomas 12. In a conversation of the 40 days Salome wrongly "imagined that it is wrong to have children," Clement of Alexandria, Stromata III, 9, 66, in PG 8:1165-69. p2 82. While in a sense the synagogue is a shadow of the temple and preserves or rather cherishes aspects of its rites and teachings, the essential qualities of the latter are lacking in the synagogue, as we indicated in Hugh Nibley, "Christian Envy of the temple," Jewish Quarterly Review 50 (1960): 230-33, 239. The temple's "rich cosmic symbolism which was largely lost in later Israelite and Jewish tradition," William F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1942), 154-55, 88-89, 167, included, as Alfred Jeremias, Sigmund Mowinckel and others have shown, such elements as its cosmic orientation, its significance as a place of contact with other worlds above and below, the ritual drama of creation, fall, and victory over death, rites of initiation and purification, etc. These basic elements of Near Eastern "patternism" have been recently discussed with special reference to the Jerusalem cult by the authors of Samuel H. Hooke, ed., Myth, Ritual, and Kingship (Oxford: Clarendon, 1958). The relation of these things to early Christian thought and practice is discussed by N. Dahl, "Christ, Creation, and the Church," 422-43. Even the Christian sacral meal which Cullmann believes was meant to supplant the temple worship, Oscar Cullmann, "Le Temple de Jérusalem," New Testament Studies 5 (1959): 171, is now traced to the temple itself by Adam, "Ein vergessener Aspekt des frühchristlichen Herrenmahles," 9-20. The problem of just what went on in the temple at Jerusalem at various periods calls for extensive investigation.

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From Hugh Nibley's "Since Cumorah" Chapter 7 footnotes:

9. Gospel of Philip 106:11-13. In IE 69 (March, 1966): 197, 232-33, the following extended discussion appeared:

"The newly found Apocryphon of James has a remarkable parallel to Alma's teaching of the growth of faith in terms of a seed. Henri-Charles Puech and Gilles Quispel, `Les écrits gnostiques du Codex Jung,' VC 8 (1954): 13-14. When we read in the Gospel of Thomas, `Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel and they all spoke about thee,' Gospel of Thomas 52, we think of the words of Helaman: `Even since the days of Abraham there have been many prophets that have testified these things; . . . and also almost all of our fathers . . . have testified of the coming of Christ.' (Helaman 8:19, 22).

"The very existence of many of the basic concepts in these early Christian and Jewish writings has always been denied up until now, for the ideas have been repugnant to all the established churches. The idea of a small and elect `Israel within Israel' runs counter equally to rabbinic teachings and to all fundamental Christian doctrine that with the coming of Christ the Church became universal, embracing all mankind, wheat and tares, good and bad, indiscriminately. The concept of the Lord's preaching to the spirits in prison and the vicarious work by which they were to be liberated has usually been denounced as a Gnostic aberration. The idea of a strict hierarchical organization of the Church and careful concern for rites and ordinances is completely opposed to the conventional view of the primitive Church as a spontaneous brotherhood of love devoid of all set forms. The idea of any secrecy or reticence in the preaching of the gospel is, as we have seen, offensive to the present-day Christian teachers.

"Peculiarly obnoxious to the churchmen of the past is that great concern for progeny, which is a mark both of the Scrolls and of the Coptic writings, the latter having much to say about a very special ordinance of marriage; in fact according to the Philip, the main purpose of Christ's coming to earth was to reunite Adam and Eve in a covenant of marriage which would last for the eternities, Gospel of Philip 116, 118 (70). Reunite? To be sure, for the doctrine of the pre-existence, vigorously condemned by the doctors of the church from the 4th century on, runs like a red thread through the Nag Hammadi writings and the Dead Sea Scrolls alike.