The first day in the Writing without title (NHC II,5)

There is no need to argue that the Gnostic cosmology is a much debated topic among the modern researchers. In this area one of the most questioned texts is the Writing without Title on the Origin of the World from the Nag Hammadi Library. Relying on the generally accepted view one can say that the tractate drew upon heterogeneous Gnostic (Ophite, Sethian, Valentinian, and probably Manichean) and non-Gnostic (Jewish, Christian, Greek, and Egyptian) materials, according as the author wanted to fashion his theology. The motifs of the cosmogonical myth in this exegetically oriented style also seem to derive from heterogeneous traditions of religious and philosophical schools and probably from common and inherited Gnostic source material found in a variety of Gnostic texts. The purpose of my planned investigation is to look into the introductory sentences of the cosmogony. First I sum up the main interpretive questions which arise if we read the text as a commentary on the first day or day one of the biblical account of creation. Next, by analysing some elements and conceptions I will turn to the contemporary philosophical and religious literature and try to explain why the author chose these materials and how he used them in order to create his own narrative in the framework of the biblical Genesis. Viewed from this perspective, this variant of the myth bears witness to the polemical and revisionary rewriting of the mentioned traditions but it points to the context of the Christian faith.