THE GNOSTIC CONCEPTION OF THE CROSS. 



Ill 



oil all who inherit His kingdom. Aaron and others were anointed 

 with chrism after the pattern of the spiritual ointment ; if 

 then the temporal grace had such efficacy, how potent was that 

 ointment extracted by God from a branch of the Tree of Life! 

 With this eternal ointment made by God Adam was anointed.* 



These are pseudo-mystical ideas, but in Gnostic circles the 

 oil used at initiations was connected with the Tree of Life. In 

 the formula of the Ophites, the candidate said, " T have been 

 anointed with white ointment from the Tree of Life.^'t But 

 now the Gnostics connected the Tree of Paradise distilling oil 

 with the Cross, the duplicate of Christ. This is seen from the 

 prayers at the anointing in the Acts of Tho^nas : " Beautiful 

 fruit, more beautiful than all other fruit ; . . . most compassion- 

 ate, Power of the Tree with which men clothe themselves and 

 thus conquer their foes. Thou Who crownest the victors and 

 offerest them the symbol of joy ! Thou Who hast proclaimed to 

 men their salvation ! ... 0 J esu, may its conquering force 

 dwell in this oil, as also dwelt its force on the Tree related 

 to it."} Tree and Cross are mystically related, and the oil 

 drops from both. The strength of Christ is invited to descend 

 on the oil as He or it dwelt on the Cross. This is more clearly 

 seen in another formula in the same Acts : " Holy oil, given us 

 for unction ; hidden mystery in which the Cross is revealed to 

 us."§ Some Gnostics regard the anointing at initiation as itself 

 the redemption, the oil being a type of that sweet odour which 

 is above all things. |1 There may also be some reference to these 

 ideas in the citations of Hippolytus from the account of the 

 initiation of the Naassenes : "In the third gate we celebrate the 

 mystery, and are anointed with the unspeakable chrism."^ 

 Just before this, he has referred to enhghtenment as equivalent 

 to a blind man's receiving sight, and seeing a Paradise with every 

 kind of tree, and water coming from them, while from the same 

 water the ohve draws its oil, the vine the wine, and so forth. 



The oil of initiation, with all its enlightening and supporting 

 power, comes from the Tree of Paradise, which is also the Tree 



* Clem. Recog., i, 45, 47. 



t Origen, Contra Celsum, vi, 27. In the system of the Gnostic Justin 

 the angels created by Elohim and Edem are allegorically the Trees of the 

 Garden of Eden, Hippolytus, Refut. omn. Haer., v, 21. 



% Acts of Thomas, § 157. 



§ Ibid., § 121. I! Irenjeus, i, 21, 3, 4. 



^ Hippolytus, Refut. omn. Haer., v, 4. 



