9/13/2023 0 Comments I will hasten to him![]() ![]() The letter thus takes on a symbolic representation of gnosis. ![]() This state of affairs may be ameliorated by a revelatory message delivered by a messenger, a role generally ascribed to Jesus. The hymn is commonly interpreted as a Gnostic view of the human condition, that we are spirits lost in a world of matter and forgetful of our true origin. That the boy is implicitly Thomas rather than Jesus is indicated by the eventual assertion that he is next in line to his elder brother, this unnamed brother not otherwise mentioned in the text. When the boy receives the letter, he remembers his mission, retrieves the pearl and returns. However, a letter is sent from the king of kings to remind him of his past. During the quest, he is seduced by Egyptians and forgets his origin and his family. The hymn tells the story of a boy, "the son of the king of kings", who is sent to Egypt to retrieve a pearl from a serpent. It is believed to have been written in the 2nd century or even possibly the 1st century, and shows influences from heroic folk epics from the region. The author of the Hymn is unknown, though there is a belief that it was composed by the Syriac gnostic Bardaisan from Edessa due to some parallels between his life and that of the hymn. Some scholars believe the hymn predates the Acts, as it only appears in one Syriac manuscript and one Greek manuscript of the Acts of Thomas. In that work, originally written in Syriac, the Apostle Thomas sings the hymn while praying for himself and fellow prisoners. The Hymn of the Pearl (also Hymn of the Soul, Hymn of the Robe of Glory or Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle) is a passage of the apocryphal Acts of Thomas. ![]() For other uses, see Hymn of the Pearl (disambiguation). This article is about the hymn in the apocryphal Acts of Thomas. ![]()
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