The Thunder, Perfect Mind: A Heraclitean Interpretation

Perhaps the most enigmatic of all of the ancient texts recovered at Nag Hamadi is The Thunder, Perfect Mind. It is wholly unlike the other texts in this cache of ancient Gnostic texts. Based on the meter of the text, it was probably composed in Greek. Our copy is a translation into Coptic.

There aren’t other surviving ancient Western religious texts like it either, except, perhaps for one: the philosopher Heraclitus’ book, On Nature, of which we now only have fragments.

I propose that Thunder, Perfect Mind was originally a philosophical text produced by a follower of Heraclitus. It takes up Heraclitian themes and is written in Heraclitus’ style. However, the last part of the text is material that has been added on by a different writer to alter the overall meaning of the text to steer it towards Gnostic themes.

The Pyrrhonist philosopher Aenesidemus wrote extensively about Heraclitean philosophy and its similarities with Pyrrhonism, setting off a revival of interest in both philosophies. Aenesidemus was active in Alexandria, Egypt in the middle of the 1st century, BCE. It’s plausible that The Thunder, Perfect Mind could have been written sometime after that by an Egyptian follower of Heraclitus.

Aenesidemus claimed in a now-lost work that Pyrrhonism was a way to Heraclitean philosophy because Pyrrhonist practice helps one to see how opposites appear to be the case about the same thing. Once one sees this, it leads to understanding the Heraclitean view of opposites being the case about the same thing.

The Thunder, Perfect Mind has several features that parallel Heraclitean philosophy.

• Its title seems inspired by something Heraclitus said: “It is the thunderbolt that steers the course of all things.” Thunder follows after thunderbolts, as understanding follows after the course of things is observed. If this understanding is attained, the mind is then perfected.

• Its narrator repeatedly claims to have diametrically opposite attributes simultaneously. Heraclitus claimed that opposites were the case about the same thing.

• The text is purposely written to be enigmatic and oracular - the same style Heraclitus used.

• The text urges readers not to be ignorant of the idea it is conveying — the oneness of all things. Heraclitus mocked people for being ignorant.

• From the Platonic Dialogues, we know that Cratylus, a follower of Heraclitus, believed that names arrive from divine origins. This idea appears in The Thunder as “I am the utterance of my name” and “I am the name of the sound and the sound of the name.”

The first sentence of The Thunder, Perfect Mind is:

I was sent forth from Mystery,

And I will come to them that reflect upon me,

For those that seek me, shall find me.

The Mystery is what Heraclitus calls the Logos. It is the order behind everything we experience. It is a mysterious order. Reflecting upon this mystery is the call of philosophy.

Following this introduction, the text gives statements unifying one opposite after another. The Mystery is the thing in which opposites are unified. Here are just the first three of these many unifications of contradictions:

I am the First and the Last.

I am the blessed one and the forsaken one.

I am the whore and the holy one.

These are clear examples of opposites being the case about the same thing.

The text moves on to ever more complex forms of contradiction, but occasionally it intersperses things that are not exactly contradictions, such as these:

I am the Silence beyond knowing,

And the Idea of continuous recollection.

I am the Voice whose tongues are legion,

And the Word whose forms are many.

I am the Oracle, whose utterance is my name.

Why have you hated me, you Greeks?

Do you think I am a barbarian among the barbarians?

I am the wisdom of the Greeks,

And the knowledge of the barbarians!

I am the judgement of the Greeks and of the barbarians.

The section that appears to be tacked onto the end of the text is where the topic is changed from the Mystery to who created the Mystery. At this point, new topics such as angels, miracles, sins, and ever-lasting life are rapidly introduced. Instead of contradiction, this section is one-sided. It is incongruent with the rest of the text. Here’s how that section begins:

…the one who created me.

And I will speak his name.

Look then at his words

and all the writings which have been completed.

Give heed then, you hearers

and you also, the angels and those who have been sent,

and you spirits who have arisen from the dead.

Here are some things that Heraclitus said that are similar to parts of The Thunder, Perfect Mind. I suggest reading these, then reading The Thunder, Perfect Mind. I think you, too, will come to the conclusion that the text may well have been written by a Heraclitean.

Heraclitus on the Opposites

We step and do not step into the same rivers; we are and are not.

It is wise to hearken, not to me, but to my Logos, and to confess that all things are one.

Couples are things whole and things not whole, what is drawn together and what is drawn asunder, the harmonious and the discordant. The one is made up of all things, and all things issue from the one.

The straight and the crooked path of the fuller’s comb is one and the same.

The way up and the way down is one and the same.

Mortals are immortals and immortals are mortals, the one living the others’ death and dying the others’ life.

Fire is want and surfeit.

God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, surfeit and hunger; but he takes various shapes, just as fire, when it is mingled with spices, is named according to the savour of each.

It scatters and it gathers; it advances and retires.

Men do not know how what is at variance agrees with itself. It is an attunement of opposite tensions, like that of the bow and the lyre.

Heraclitus on Wisdom

The wise is one only. It is unwilling and willing to be called by the name of Zeus.

The mysteries practiced among men are unholy mysteries.

Though this Logos is true evermore, yet men are as unable to understand it when they hear it for the first time as before they have heard it at all. For, though all things come to pass in accordance with this Logos, men seem as if they had no experience of them, when they make trial of words and deeds such as I set forth, dividing each thing according to its kind and showing how it truly is. But other men know not what they are doing when awake, even as they forget what they do in sleep.

The learning of many things teacheth not understanding, else would it have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, and again Xenophanes and Hekataios.

Wisdom is one thing. It is to know the thought by which all things are steered through all things.

The hidden attunement is better than the open.

Heraclitus on the Soul

You will not find the boundaries of soul by traveling in any direction, so deep is the measure of it.

Now, keeping in mind these things Heraclitus said, read The Thunder, Perfect Mind.

The Thunder, Perfect Mind

I was sent forth from the power,

and I have come to those who reflect upon me,

and I have been found among those who seek after me.

Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,

and you hearers, hear me.

You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.

And do not banish me from your sight.

And do not make your voice hate me, nor your hearing.

Do not be ignorant of me anywhere or any time. Be on your guard!

Do not be ignorant of me.

For I am the first and the last.

I am the honored one and the scorned one.

I am the whore and the holy one.

I am the wife and the virgin.

I am the mother and the daughter.

I am the members of my mother.

I am the barren one

and many are her sons.

I am she whose wedding is great,

and I have not taken a husband.

I am the midwife and she who does not bear.

I am the solace of my labor pains.

I am the bride and the bridegroom,

and it is my husband who begot me.

I am the mother of my father

and the sister of my husband

and he is my offspring.

I am the slave of him who prepared me.

I am the ruler of my offspring.

But he is the one who begot me before the time on a birthday.

And he is my offspring in due time,

and my power is from him.

I am the staff of his power in his youth,

and he is the rod of my old age.

And whatever he wills happens to me.

I am the silence that is incomprehensible

and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.

I am the voice whose sound is manifold

and the word whose appearance is multiple.

I am the utterance of my name.

Why, you who hate me, do you love me,

and hate those who love me?

You who deny me, confess me,

and you who confess me, deny me.

You who tell the truth about me, lie about me,

and you who have lied about me, tell the truth about me.

You who know me, be ignorant of me,

and those who have not known me, let them know me.

For I am knowledge and ignorance.

I am shame and boldness.

I am shameless; I am ashamed.

I am strength and I am fear.

I am war and peace.

Give heed to me.

I am the one who is disgraced and the great one.

Give heed to my poverty and my wealth.

Do not be arrogant to me when I am cast out upon the earth,

and you will find me in those that are to come.

And do not look upon me on the dung-heap

nor go and leave me cast out,

and you will find me in the kingdoms.

And do not look upon me when I am cast out among those who

are disgraced and in the least places,

nor laugh at me.

And do not cast me out among those who are slain in violence.

But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel.

Be on your guard!

Do not hate my obedience

and do not love my self-control.

In my weakness, do not forsake me,

and do not be afraid of my power.

For why do you despise my fear

and curse my pride?

But I am she who exists in all fears

and strength in trembling.

I am she who is weak,

and I am well in a pleasant place.

I am senseless and I am wise.

Why have you hated me in your counsels?

For I shall be silent among those who are silent,

and I shall appear and speak,

Why then have you hated me, you Greeks?

Because I am a barbarian among the barbarians?

For I am the wisdom of the Greeks

and the knowledge of the barbarians.

I am the judgement of the Greeks and of the barbarians.

I am the one whose image is great in Egypt

and the one who has no image among the barbarians.

I am the one who has been hated everywhere

and who has been loved everywhere.

I am the one whom they call Life,

and you have called Death.

I am the one whom they call Law,

and you have called Lawlessness.

I am the one whom you have pursued,

and I am the one whom you have seized.

I am the one whom you have scattered,

and you have gathered me together.

I am the one before whom you have been ashamed,

and you have been shameless to me.

I am she who does not keep festival,

and I am she whose festivals are many.

I, I am godless,

and I am the one whose God is great.

I am the one whom you have reflected upon,

and you have scorned me.

I am unlearned,

and they learn from me.

I am the one that you have despised,

and you reflect upon me.

I am the one whom you have hidden from,

and you appear to me.

But whenever you hide yourselves,

I myself will appear.

For whenever you appear,

I myself will hide from you.

Those who have […] to it […] senselessly […].

Take me [… understanding] from grief.

and take me to yourselves from understanding and grief.

And take me to yourselves from places that are ugly and in ruin,

and rob from those which are good even though in ugliness.

Out of shame, take me to yourselves shamelessly;

and out of shamelessness and shame,

upbraid my members in yourselves.

And come forward to me, you who know me

and you who know my members,

and establish the great ones among the small first creatures.

Come forward to childhood,

and do not despise it because it is small and it is little.

And do not turn away greatnesses in some parts from the smallnesses,

for the smallnesses are known from the greatnesses.

Why do you curse me and honor me?

You have wounded and you have had mercy.

Do not separate me from the first ones whom you have known.

And do not cast anyone out nor turn anyone away

[…] turn you away and [… know] him not.

[…].

What is mine […].

I know the first ones and those after them know me.

But I am the mind of […] and the rest of […].

I am the knowledge of my inquiry,

and the finding of those who seek after me,

and the command of those who ask of me,

and the power of the powers in my knowledge

of the angels, who have been sent at my word,

and of gods in their seasons by my counsel,

and of spirits of every man who exists with me,

and of women who dwell within me.

I am the one who is honored, and who is praised,

and who is despised scornfully.

I am peace,

and war has come because of me.

And I am an alien and a citizen.

I am the substance and the one who has no substance.

Those who are without association with me are ignorant of me,

and those who are in my substance are the ones who know me.

Those who are close to me have been ignorant of me,

and those who are far away from me are the ones who have known me.

On the day when I am close to you, you are far away from me,

and on the day when I am far away from you, I am close to you.

[I am …] within.

[I am …] of the natures.

I am […] of the creation of the spirits.

[…] request of the souls.

I am control and the uncontrollable.

I am the union and the dissolution.

I am the abiding and I am the dissolution.

I am the one below,

and they come up to me.

I am the judgment and the acquittal.

I, I am sinless,

and the root of sin derives from me.

I am lust in outward appearance,

and interior self-control exists within me.

I am the hearing which is attainable to everyone

and the speech which cannot be grasped.

I am a mute who does not speak,

and great is my multitude of words.

Hear me in gentleness, and learn of me in roughness.

I am she who cries out,

and I am cast forth upon the face of the earth.

I prepare the bread and my mind within.

I am the knowledge of my name.

I am the one who cries out,

and I listen.

I appear and […] walk in […] seal of my […].

I am […] the defense […].

I am the one who is called Truth

and iniquity […].

You honor me […] and you whisper against me.

You who are vanquished, judge them who vanquish you

before they give judgment against you,

because the judge and partiality exist in you.

If you are condemned by this one, who will acquit you?

Or, if you are acquitted by him, who will be able to detain you?

For what is inside of you is what is outside of you,

and the one who fashions you on the outside

is the one who shaped the inside of you.

And what you see outside of you, you see inside of you;

it is visible and it is your garment.

Hear me, you hearers

and learn of my words, you who know me.

I am the hearing that is attainable to everything;

I am the speech that cannot be grasped.

I am the name of the sound

and the sound of the name.

I am the sign of the letter

and the designation of the division.

And I […].

[3 lines appear to be missing]

[It is about here that I suspect text has been added]

[…] light […].

[…] hearers […] to you

[…] the great power.

And […] will not move the name.

[…] to the one who created me.

And I will speak his name.

Look then at his words

and all the writings which have been completed.

Give heed then, you hearers

and you also, the angels and those who have been sent,

and you spirits who have arisen from the dead.

For I am the one who alone exists,

and I have no one who will judge me.

For many are the pleasant forms which exist in numerous sins,

and incontinencies,

and disgraceful passions,

and fleeting pleasures,

which men embrace until they become sober

and go up to their resting place.

And they will find me there,

and they will live,

and they will not die again.