Gnostic View of Gender Equality
The Gnostic writings celebrate women as bearers of truth, wisdom, and light. The Gnostic God is often regarded in the context of a dyad possessing both masculine and feminine attributes. The orthodox Christians speak of God the Father and his Son. For the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is added. Mary, the holy mother of Jesus, is not accorded the same stature as God the Father, though she may be reverently referred to as “Mary, Mother of God,” according to religious scholar Elaine Pagels, an expert on the Gnostics. But Mary is not considered the same as God the Father in feminine form. Yet the Jewish wisdom literature in the Hebrew scriptures (Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Sirach, the Wisdom of Solomon, etc.), in which Christianity has roots, personifies Wisdom as a female.
Of the fifty-two Gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi, four feature the feminine spiritual aspect of God. They are The Sophia of Jesus Christ, The Thought of Norea, The Exegesis on the Soul, and The Thunder, Perfect Mind. The texts survive in Egyptian Coptic but were originally written in Greek.
The Gnostic Gospel of Truth addresses both the masculine and feminine forms of God as Father and Mother. In the Dialogue of the Savior, God appears in the text as “Mother of All.” The Divine Mother in Gnostic tradition was called by many names. She was Helena to Simon Magus (a magician and sorcerer mentioned in the book of Acts); Barbelo (Mother) in the Gnostic Holy Trinity and also in the Secret Book of John; Sophia to Valentinus; and Thunder in The Thunder, Perfect Mind.
In the Gnostic Gospels, it is clear that women are as capable as men of receiving and understanding spiritual teachings. In The Dialogue of the Savior, Jesus gives a special teaching to some of the disciples. Mary Magdalene asks him why she has come into the world of matter, to which he replies that she “makes clear the abundance of the revealer.” How might she make abundance clear unless she was conveying or transmitting a teaching that the Savior has revealed to her? The Gospel of Mary, of which there are three copies in existence but no complete version, shows that female followers of Jesus served as teachers. That gospel with others — Gospel of Philip, Dialogue of the Savior, and Gospel of Thomas — show Peter, Jesus' chief male disciple, as a man somewhat intolerant of women, especially Mary Magdalene. When, during a session with Jesus and the other disciples, he complains of Mary Magdalene talking too much (presumably usurping the time available for men to ask questions), Jesus rebukes not Mary Magdalene but Peter.
