Sentences of Sextus
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The Sentences of Sextus is a Hellenistic Pythagorean text which was also popular among Gnostic and non-Gnostic Christians. While previously known from other versions, a partial Coptic translation appears in one of the books of the New Testament apocrypha recovered in the Nag Hammadi library. It is similar to the sayings gospels Gospel of Phillip and Gospel of Thomas in that it is purely a collection of sayings, with no bridging framework. Unlike the Christian sayings gospels, the wisdom comes from a man named Sextus rather than Jesus. Sextus appears to have been a Pythagorean, and the text is mentioned quite early: in the 3rd century, Origen quotes Sextus on self-castration, a widespread habit among ascetic early Christians, which Origen deplores, and mentions in passing that the work is one "that many considered to be tested by time (Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 15.3). It may quite possibly be the case that sayings gospels such as the Q Gospel, and those of Thomas and Phillip, ultimately derive their content from works such as this, having re-attributed the wise speaker to Jesus.
Some of the 104 sentences are
- The soul is illuminated by the recollection of deity
- Bear that which is necessary, as it is necessary
- Be not anxious to please the multitude
- Esteem nothing so precious, which a bad man may take from you
- Use lying like poison
- Nothing is so peculiar to wisdom, as truth
- Wish that you may be able to benefit your enemies
- A wise intellect is the mirror of God
- Cast away any part of the body that would cause you not to live abstinently. For it is better to live abstinently without this part than ruinously with it. (quoted by Origen)
The Sextus who was said to have authored the texts is likely to have been Pope Sixtus II, in early times one of the most venerated of all church figures. However, it is unlikely that he authored the text (partly as he wasn't pythagorean), and the attribution to Sextus is more likely to have been added at a late date. Such attribution to important figures of texts, which frequently happened in the apocrypha, is usually an attempt to give them more authority.
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