Garry W. Trompf, «The Epistle of Jude, Irenaeus, and the Gospel of Judas», Vol. 91 (2010) 555-582
A detailed case that the New Testament Epistle of Jude was written against the socalled Cainite sectaries, who were in possession of a Gospel of Judas as Irenaeus attests is presented here. Because the names Judas and Jude were the same, the good name of Iouda, especially as being that of a relative to Jesus, needed clearing, and subversive teachings — making Cain, Judas and other Biblical figures worthy opponents of the (Old Testament) god — had to be combatted. Since a Gospel of Judas has come to light, within the newly published Tchacos Codex, one is challenged to decide whether this was the gospel appealed to by the Cainites, and, if it was, to begin to grasp how they read a text which did not readily match their interests.
568 G.W. TROMPF
his summary that the Cainites had some sort of interest in the recti-
fication of the cosmic power structure. In Epiphanius, however, we
are told that whenever Cainites wished to perform an immoral deed.
they would evoke the name of an angel (Panar., XXXVIII, ii, 1); he
describes, in fact, two lineages of Power as components in Cainite
thought, one deriving from Abel (and ultimately from “the Wombâ€
= Hustera, or false Maker) 37, the other from Cain, the latter being
stronger and the Power to follow, with Judas (the group’s acclaimed
“ kinsman â€) being its last extolled earthly advocate (i, 2; iii, 1; vii,
2). This appears to involve deferring to what Christians would nor-
mally take as the dangerous (archontic or fallen) angels (cf., e.g.,
Rom 8,38; Col 1,16; Eph 1,21) that one finds implied as a key issue
— indeed second ‘case scenario’ of contempt toward the divine — in
the Jude polemic (v. 6 ; cf. 8b; cf. 2 Pet 2,10-11). Admittedly the
post-Irenaean accounts of the Cainites may indicate signs of later
ideological development in a movement that lasted at least into the
third century (following Origen, Contr. Cels., iii, 13), or may be
‘embellishments by deduction’ by heresy-hunters, yet the group’s
angelological preoccupations are obvious enough, and, considering
the crucial role of angels in early Jewish Christianity and the
common appropriation of spirit powers with Judaic names in the
world of Hellenistic magic 38, this matter becomes crucial in the
Jude-Irenaeus-Judas Gospel linkages we are sensing.
IV. Were the Cainites Gnostics?
Since the Cainites’ concern to secure angelic support is evi-
dently to undo the undesired work of the creator deity, we need to
acknowledge that they held such a stance in common concern with
other Gnosticizing teachers (most famously the Valentinians) and
also with the Marcionites, who wanted their adherents to reach a
true spiritual home beyond the reach of the error-making demiurge
or false god 39. That is not sufficient grounds, though, for concluding
One way of translating Jehovah/Yahweh (cf. Exod 34,6)? See R. GRANT,
37
“ Notes on Gnosisâ€, VigChr 10 (1957) 146-147.
See, e.g., Ignatius Antioc., Trall., v, 2; Hermas, xii, 8, etc. (Jewish Chris-
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tian angelology); Par. Mag. Papyr., ll. 3007-85 (Alexandrian magical formulae).
For the most useful summary, cf. RUDOLPH, Gnosis, 67-87.
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