Editing Hypostasis of the Archons (section)

== Text's origin and content ==

The text was found among those included in The [[Nag Hammadi Library]], in [[Nag Hammadi Codex II|CG II]], in 1945. It is tentatively dated in the third century CE<sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup> and is thought to originate from a transitional period in Gnosticism when it was converting from a purely mythological state into a philosophical phase. The beginning and conclusion to the document are Christian Gnostic, but the rest of the material is a mythological narrative regarding the origin and nature of the archontic powers peopling the heavens between Earth and the [[Ogdoad (Gnosticism)|Ogdoad]], and how the destiny of man is affected by these primeval happenings.<sup>[3]</sup>

The work is presented as a learned treatise in which a teacher addresses a topic suggested by the dedicatee of the work. The treatise begins with a fragment of [[cosmogony]], which leads to a revisionistic "true history" of the events in the Genesis creation story, reflecting Gnostic distrust of the material world and the demiurge that created it. Within this narrative there is an "angelic revelation dialogue" where an angel repeats and elaborates the author's fragment of cosmogonic myth in much broader scope, concluding with historical prediction of the coming of the savior and the end of days.<sup>[4]</sup> 

Although the [[Etymology|etymologies]] and puns on Semitic names suggest the author's close contact with [[Judaism|Jewish]] legends and interpretive traditions as well as knowledge of [[Greek mythology]] and [[Hellenistic_period|Hellenistic]] [[Hellenistic_religion|cult]] practices, the myth is, according to [[Bentley Layton]] purposefully anti-Judaic (coining its traditional early rabbinic form, although no reason to placard it as anti-semitic).<sup>[5]</sup> In addition, arguably, the work contains no Christian anti-Gnostic characteristics.<sup>[6]</sup> As the original Greek text has not been discovered, the only known version is the Coptic translation from Nag Hammadi.<sup>[7]</sup>