Agricultural Imagery in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Truth

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Agricultural Imagery in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of TruthAuthor(s): Jo Ann CavalloSource: Religion & Literature, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Autumn, 1992), pp. 27-38Published by: The University of Notre DameStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40059528 .

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AGRICULTURAL IMAGERY IN THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW AND THE GOSPEL OF TRUTH

Jo Ann Cavallo

Cosmological constructs provided most of the scenarios in classic gnostic scripture, especially through elaborate descriptions of the origin of the universe. Since the origin was also perceived as the goal, the gnostics exiled on earth were urged to focus their attention on the heavenly spheres. Consequently, little attention was given to the earthly realm, which was generally said to exist through an indiscre- tion or a misguided impulse on the part of the creator, who was not the first principle but rather a lowly actor in a cosmic drama. The gnostics' salvation depended for the most part on their ability to distance themselves from their earthly prison as they sought "gnosis," or knowledge and understanding about the reality beyond. If one looks instead to the proto-orthodox Christian texts of the same period, however, one finds quite a different orientation. In the writings that would come to form the canonical gospels, cosmological descriptions are conspicuously missing, and the heavenly kingdom is perceived through metaphors taken from nature and earthly life forms. The interest is not in the origin of the universe, but in the recent descent of divinity into human history via the Incarnation, accompanied by a new set of rules of conduct for the believer. Thus the earth takes on an all-important role as it serves as a metaphor for the heavenly kingdom, as the locus of the Incarnation, and as the place where the process of salvation will be continuously worked out by the individual Christian.

R&L 24.3 (Autumn 1992)

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28 Religion & Literature

The Gospel of Truth, attributed to the Christian gnostic reformer Valentinus, is a complex and striking example of how these two tradi- tions could be combined.1 Although difficult to define, this work has most often been characterized as a "homiletic reflection on the 'Gospel' or the message of salvation provided by Jesus Christ," but from the point of view of a gnostic (Attridge and MacRae, Introductions 67). At first, the text may seem more proto-orthodox than gnostic because it largely bypasses the vast cosmologies and intricate creation stories of gnostic myth, and instead emphasizes the centrality of Jesus' crucifixion while paraphrasing and alluding to New Testament passages. In- deed, this is one of the first texts to use the emerging proto-orthodox canon (as opposed to exclusively the Old Testament) as source material. Although, in keeping with the practice of the time, Valentinus does not quote his sources directly but rather incorporates phrases and ideas in his sermon, nevertheless one can find numerous allusions to the Gospel of Matthew, and to Johannine and Pauline literature. Valentinus's use of his proto-orthodox sources, however, has been found to be anything but proto-orthodox; rather, he systematically alters the original meaning in the new context in order to bring to light his own particular gnostic tenets.2

This paper focuses specifically on the Gospel of Truth's recurring use of agricultural metaphors, comparing them to similar imagery in the Gospel of Matthew, which sometimes serves as a source.3 The analysis of passages in both texts dealing with the seed, fruit, plants, the root, the garden, and the harvest will show that the Gospel of Truth's use of agricultural metaphors does not underscore the importance of one's actions upon this earth as in Matthew's gospel. Rather, it uses the very same imagery to shift the focus away from the earth and concentrate instead on the gnostic's relation to the incomprehensible first principle.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the earth provides the stage where the process of salvation is played out, and the earthly cycle of the seed and the harvest is a basic metaphor for that process. Beginning with the seed metaphor, one finds a succession of parables in which Jesus treats the seed in a variety of ways. First, the parable of the sower (13.4) gives a clear indication of the seed as a divine catalyst in the process of salivation. According to Jesus' explanation of the parable, the seed is "the word of the kingdom" (13.19) revealed through the teachings of Jesus himself. The human heart is the earth, and whether the heart is rocky ground or good, fertile soil will determine one's capacity to help or hinder the seed's growth. Although the divine



JO ANN CAVALLO 29

seed/Word enters the soil/heart and is dependent upon it for its growth, the two components of the parable remain separate entities.

Jesus then emphasizes the moral aim of the message by focusing on the yield. In so doing, he abruptly alters the terms of comparison. The seed as a metaphor for the word of God comes to a halt before reaching its logical conclusion in becoming a plant. The plant image does in fact follow; however, it serves to represent not the divine Word but the human actor in the drama of salvation - those who hear and understand the Word (now lacking an image) and who bear fruit

(i.e., good works, as we will see below). The kingdom of heaven is then "compared to a man who sowed

good seed in his field" (13.24), and here the seed now represents the human being. Thus the metaphor of plants as doers of good deeds with which Jesus concluded the explanation of the previous parable is extended backwards in time to include the identification between the doers of good and the "good seed."

Later in the passage there is once again a break in the metaphoric construct with yet another parable. The seed now represents the totality of divinity, for the mustard seed is compared to nothing less than the kingdom of heaven (13.31), with the seed's capacity for growth and transformation being the salient point. We are here confronted with a divine element which must take root in an earthly environment but which does not become one with it. In this sense it is akin to the seed as a metaphor for the Word of God that began the series of parables.

The concentration of vegetation imagery in this single passage shows a constant shift of metaphoric ground. In particular, the seed moves from an image for the divine Word among men, to a metaphor for man himself, to a symbol of the kingdom of heaven. This uneasy shift between human and divine may create an unresolved tension as the reader needs to continuously readjust his or her field of metaphoric vision. It is perhaps partly to resolve this tension of mixed metaphor that the Gospel of Truth maintains a consciously consistent use of

agricultural imagery. The image of the seed appears only once in the Gospel of Truth:

those truly alive, i.e. the gnostics, "speak of the light that is perfect and full of the Father's seed, and which is in the heart and in the fullness" (43. II).4 Here the seed is not strictly a metaphor, but signifies a sperm-like, all-pervasive element within perfect (as opposed to

earthly) light. This seed-filled light resides in two places: both in the heart of the individual, and in the "fullness." This specific allusion to the divine seed's expansion through emanation and immanence serves




to remove the earth as a specific locus of the action. At the same time, it establishes an essential link between the human and the fullness because both share in the possession of the divine seed. There is no mention here of the heart's possibility of rejecting the seed, which would thus put salvation in the hand of the individual. Instead, the individual heart apparently acts as a passive recipient of the seed, which simultaneously penetrates the rest of the cosmos.

As we move from seeds to trees or plants and their fruit, we find in Matthew that the tree is considered in terms of its principle func- tion, that of a fruit-bearer. There are good trees and bad trees repre- senting good and bad people, and the difference between them is ascertained by the fruit they produce (i.e. , their works). One is known by his fruits (7. 16), or good works. In this context, the barren fig tree is presented as an example of the consequences of barrenness or lack of good works (21.19). Matthew's emphasis on the importance of bearing fruit suggests that salvation is connected to the carrying out of good works.

Fruit is mentioned on various occasions in the Gospel of Truth. Here it is above all the Father who produces fruit as an overpouring of his generative powers. Fruit can refer specifically to the Word of God, which "goes forth in the entirety, being the fruition [of] his heart and an outward manifestion of his will" (23.33). This fruition of the divinity is a consequence of its existence, i.e. a natural tendency toward creation and self- revelation. In addition to being expressed in terms of fruition, the Word of God ("the verbal expressions of his meditation") is also referred to as his "plants" (37.1). Since fruit and plants are terms which describe everything that the Father (the divine seed) has produced, these are also the terms by which the gnostics refer to themselves, since they consider themselves to be, like the rest of the cosmos, direct products of the Father. Speaking of the creator's perfect knowledge and the original absence of knowledge in the created beings, Valentinus states: "Before all things have appeared he is per- sonally acquainted with what he is going to produce. But the fruit that has not yet appeared recognizes nothing, nor is it at all active" (28.4). Later he again stresses the creator's gnosis or acquaintance with the products of his creation in terms of agricultural imagery: "He is acquainted with his plants for it is he who has planted them in his paradise (garden)" (36.35). Layton notes that the Coptic word allows for the meaning of both "garden" and "paradise," and Williams notes Genesis's description of the earthly paradise in the garden of Eden (2.15) as a possible source for the passage (153-54). At the same time,



JOANNCAVALLO 31

we know that the seed resides in the fullness, and not necessarily on earth. If we follow the metaphor consistently, then the garden must be a term for the fullness rather than for an earthly garden.

The use of the plant image is thus markedly different in the two texts. Unlike Matthew's parables, where there is an oscillation between the plant image carrying now a human and now a divine correlation, in the Gospel of Truth the plant is used universally to describe all products of the Father's creative seed-like spirit, among which is the individual gnostic. Furthermore, the paradise (garden) where he is acquainted with his plants (36.35) is not the earth but the fullness itself.

Whereas fruit in Matthew is a metaphor for the work required of humans in order to reach salvation, in the Gospel of Truth it is rather the result of the natural outpouring of the Father's generative capa- bilities. One particular fruit of the divinity is Jesus. Valentinus tells us that by being nailed to a tree, Jesus becomes the fruit of the Father's acquaintance and is eaten (18.24). This sequence may allude to the Genesis story, where the eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil brought about the wrath of God. Yet results are in striking contrast to Genesis, for here Jesus is the desired fruit of knowledge, or gnosis. His crucifixion (on a tree) offers the possibility of knowledge about the Father, and the individuals who eat of the fruit engage in a positive act of gnosis which brings them closer to the divinity (see Williams 26-29). Instead of being prohibited from eating fruit, as in Genesis, or being encouraged to produce fruit, as in Matthew, the gnostic readers of the Gospel of Truth are simply depicted in the act of eating the fruit which is Jesus in order to gain knowledge of the Father. This is actually a stunning reworking of the crucifixion's relation to the Fall. According to the accepted Christian reading, eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a sin so grave that it caused man's fall from the garden of paradise and could be atoned for by nothing less than the descent of divinity into the earthly cycles. For the gnostic, however, knowledge is the goal of life and the way to salvation. In the Gospel of Truth, Genesis is replayed rather than reversed, and the fruit of knowledge is now permitted in the form of Jesus. This passage may also be an allusion to the eating of the body of Jesus in the celebration of the Eucharist, thus bringing this ritual within the classic gnostic doctrine of salvation through knowledge.

One passage of the Gospel of Truth, which comes close to being a verbatim citation of the Gospel of Matthew, at first glance would




seem to treat fruit as the product of the individual's effort: "For by their fruit your own are known" (33.37). Yet this is in no way akin to the reference to bearing fruit that one finds in Matthew 7.15-20. It is rather assumed that one will necessarily bear the fruit of his gnosis, and the perspective is shifted from the arena of human moral choice to that of predestination. Williams cites Matthew as a probable source for this passage, at the same time noting that the Valentinian text suggests no more than that "the actions of those who are within the community or who are 'children of the Father' have certain results which enable them to be recognized by the Father" (138). With reference to this passage, Attridge and MacRae note: "The term [fruit] here seems to be used as a symbol for the revealer and his message, a fruit of the Paternal root, by which recipients of Gnosis come to know what is 'their own,' their true identity" (Notes 99). The idea of fruit as good works is completely absent, and the focus is on contemplation rather than action, predestination rather than the possibility of human choice.

In the earthly cycle, after the ripening of the fruit comes the harvest. In Matthew the harvest for the most part refers to the second coming of Christ on the Day of Judgment. In the parable of the weeds of the field (13.24), the harvest is the close of the age and the reapers are the angels. Jesus will instruct the reapers to gather the weeds (the evildoers) first and throw them into the furnace. Elsewhere, one hears that every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (3.8). Furthermore, the close of the age is not only considered a historical reality, it is thought to be close at hand (24.32). The meaning is shifted somewhat in another passage, where Jesus considers his work of salvation upon the earth as a harvest: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (9.37-8). Thus the time of the harvest shifts between the close of the age (when bad will be separated from good) and the historical present (where believers are gathered in the name of the Father). Yet the latter metaphor also carried strong apocalyptic overtones, since many at the time believed that Jesus' coming signaled that the end of the world was near.

The Gospel of Truth, despite its extensive agricultural imagery, makes no mention of the harvest. Plants that have no root merely wither away, and it is therefore futile to speak of a separation of the heaven-bound wheat from the fire-bound weeds. The very idea of the harvest in an apocalyptic sense seems to have no place in this Valen- tinian text.5 One does find a reference to the harvest in the title of a Valentinian poem, "Summer Harvest" (discussed below), yet in this



JO ANN CAVALLO 33

case the harvest is not a sign of the feared Last Judgment, but rather a celebration of the fullness of creation that is already realized.

The remaining agricultural image to be discussed, that of the root, occurs in Matthew only in the parable of the sower mentioned above: "Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and

immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root

they withered away" (13.3-9). This extended parable, as we have

seen, undergoes a break in the metaphoric construct. At this point it appears that the Word of God is the plant which did not "take root" in the shallow soil of the human heart which lacked faith. When

Jesus explains the parable, however, it is the human character that is equated with the plant who is lacking a root - "he has no root in himself (13.21) - because he is lacking faith, and therefore "when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away" (13.21). The concern behind the metaphor has been shifted from divine Word to human faith. Both analogies, however, consider the plant's ability to grow to be the responsibility of the individual.

In the Gospel of Truth, the root is by far the most recurrent agricultural metaphor. The passage "[f]or what has no root also has no fruit" seems to echo Matthew 13.3-9 or 13.21. Yet those without roots are not scorched by the sun, as Matthew's apocalyptic vision suggests; they simply wither away (28. 16). While being without root in Matthew

implies a moral defect which hinders a correct response to the Word

(whether this state indicates specifically the inability to accept the Word, or a lack of faith), here being rootless means being separated from the divine in a much more fundamental and prior way. Those

lacking a root, which is the source of life, are those who lack acquaintance with the Father. This categorization of human beings adheres to the gnostic division of humanity into those predestined to be saved, i.e., the gnostics, and all the rest.

The other references to the root in the Gospel of Truth are used

specifically to describe divinity, which, if residing in the human, assures salvation. For example, error lacks acquaintance with the Father, and she therefore has no root (17.28f), i.e. no divinity within her. It is the Father who is "the root of all his emanations, within that

(place) where he caused all to sprout" (41.16).6 Those belonging to the Father recognize him as their root: "And it is to their root that they will listen, being occupied with the things in which one might find his root and not damage his soul" (42.33). In these passages, the Father




as root is consistent with the image of him as seed. While the seed referred to his role as first principle, the root captures his essence as sustenance and adhesive principle of the universe.

The two above-cited root images (41.16 and 42.33) open and close an extended metaphor in which the Father is described as the root which stretches from the heights to the human down below. This image is perhaps best captured in this pasage:

For they send their thought to where their root is, their root which carries them up above all the heights to the Father. They cling to his head, which is repose for them. And they hold themselves close to him so that, as it were, they re- ceive from his face by way of kisses, although they do not give this impression. (41.23-30)

Besides clinging, the emanations from the root are also "straining towards the solitary and perfect" and "they are neither weary nor entangled."

This extended metaphor of a root hanging from the heavens presents us with an inversion of what is generally considered the natural order of creation on earth. This imagery suggests a cosmology very foreign to the earthly perspective of the Gospel of Matthew. We may well ask in what scheme of things does a root carry on "up above the heights" instead of reaching down into the ground. A similar inverted root image, and a possible source of this one, can be found in the Timaeus of Plato, which, along with Genesis, served as a source for the gnostic myth of creation. When describing the Care of the Soul, Plato states:

As concerning the most sovereign form of soul in us we must conceive that heaven has given it to each man as a guiding genius - that part which we say dwells in the summit of our body and lifts us from the earth towards our celestial affinity, like a plant whose roots are not in earth, but in the heavens. And this is most true, for it is to the heavens, whence the soul first came to birth, that the divine part [of us] attaches the head or root of us and keeps the whole body upright (353 [90a]).7

Although Plato uses the imagery of vegetation in this passage to ex- plain the cosmology of the universe, he shifts the center stage of being from the earth to the heavens. The earth, far from being a giver of life whose cycles are molded into a moral example, is rather a tempo- rary abode, and even exile, of the emanations. Accordingly, the earth is completely ignored by the souls who want to communicate with their source, the heavenly root. We are reminded of this scenario in the Gospel of Truth, especially where the souls who emanated from divinity are "straining towards the solitary and perfect" and they "send their thought to where their root is" (41.23). Despite the agricultural imagery, the earth is completely left out of this drama of salvation.



JO ANN CAVALLO 35

The Valentinian hymn "Summer Harvest" provides another description of this inverted root cosmography in its visionary language:

I see in spirit that all are hung I know in spirit that all are borne Flesh hanging from soul Soul clinging to air Air hanging from upper atmosphere

Crops rushing forth from the deep A babe rushing forth from the womb. (Lay ton 248)

A cosmic chain of being is constructed extending from the upper atmosphere, to air, to soul, to flesh. This link between the fullness and the individual is not a new concept, but supports the Gospel of Truth's stated affinity between the fullness and the heart as recipients of the Father's all-pervasive seed. The relationship among the elements is described by verbs well suited for the cosmographical inverted root, for all is clinging, hanging, or being carried. A sudden emanation occurs with the action of "crops rushing forth from the deep." This image continues the upside-down orientation of the poem, for "the deep" in Valentinian myth, as attested to by Ptolemy, Valentinus's most famous student, is not below the earth, but on the contrary is the first principle or incomprehensible source of the cosmos ("the root of the entirety").8 Thus "Summer Harvest," like the Gospel of Truth, reveals the same image of the inverted root which is found in Plato's Timaeus. Valentinus's use of the Timaeus as the base of his agricultural imagery further removes the text from the writings of the proto- orthodox Christian church and places it in the company of classic

gnostic texts that drew on Platonist interpretations of the Timaeus's

myth of creation (see Lay ton 5-8). An examination of agricultural imagery in the Gospel of Matthew

and the Gospel of Truth shows that vastly diverse conceptions of the universe and of the process of man's salvation underlie the use of this

imagery in the two texts. In Matthew, the process of salvation is worked out through one's actions on earth and is suitably described in terms of the earthly cycle of the seed and the harvest. The emphasis is not on ascertaining the essence of the universe, but on demonstrating man's moral obligations on this earth. That man is a tree that must bear fruit (i.e., carry out good works) underlines one's freedom of moral choice and consequent responsibility. This practical scope is continued in the apocalytic description of the harvest, which represents the Day of Judgment.

The agricultural imagery of the Gospel of Truth does sometimes echo Matthew, but rather than showing an influence, the very use of




this imagery puts the Valentinian text at odds with the canonical gospel. Valentinus shifts the emphasis away from human action, ignoring ethics in favor of metaphysics.9 Here, the creator's seed penetrates the fullness and the human heart, but apparently does not take root in the earth. Unlike Matthew, but like Plato's Timaeus, the Gospel of Truth constructs an upside-down universe where the first principle is the root, and all of creation are plants which have emanated from it. Although some of these plants, specifically the gnostics, abide on earth, they continue to cling to their root. Indeed, salvation does not come from the bearing of fruit, but through know- ing and clinging to one's divine root. Moreover, both the idea of a sinful eating of fruit (Genesis) and the responsibility of the individual to bear fruit (Matthew) have been replaced with a proclama- tion that Jesus is a fruit of knowledge that is eaten by the gnostic.

Given Valentinus's revisionary method of citation shown in his use of agricultural imagery as well as in other passages analyzed by Williams, one could wonder about the background and beliefs of the text's intended audience. Williams argues that Valentinus "would ex- pect his readers to recognize particular texts that he used and thereby to understand that he was interpreting these passages" (176). Attridge, on the other hand, argues that "the presupposed theology is concealed so that the author may make an appeal to ordinary Christians, inviting them to share the basic insights of Valentinianism" ("Exoteric Text" 239). Whether the intended audience was originally gnostic or proto- orthodox, the present study on the text's agricultural imagery supports the argument that the Gospel of Truth, which actually has the form and tone of a homily, is a reinterpretation of non-gnostic scripture in light of Valentinus's own particular brand of gnostic theology. As a result of a careful reading of this text, including its use of agricultural imagery, the enlightened reader may have been expected to go back to the proto-orthodox canon and discover no less than the Valentinian version of gnostic myth lurking within its very pages.

Columbia University

NOTES

1. This text was originally composed in Greek, possibly between 140 and 180, but the only two extant copies are later translations into Coptic. For a concise introduction to the writings of Valentinus within the context of classic gnostic scripture, see Layton, 253-64. I cite Layton's English translation of the Gospel of Truth found



JO ANN CAVALLO 37

in this edition. I would also like to thank Professor Lay ton for his suggestions during the preparation of, as well as comments on, an earlier version of this paper.

2. Jacqueline Williams, who undertook the first detailed analysis of textual interpretation in the work, gives ample evidence of this procedure. The gnosticizing of proto-orthodox texts was, however, a fairly common practice. See also Elaine H. Pagels. More recently, David Dawson has discussed the Gospel of Truth's technique of allegorical revision with respect to Gnostic accounts of the myth of origins (145-53). For gnostic features of the Gospel of Truth, see also Anne Marie McGuire.

3 . It has been noted that agricultural imagery is a characteristic of Valentinian texts, but the subject has not received much attention. Lay ton notes that this imagery typically describes emanation (225n).

4. See Jacques-E. Menard for other instances of the term "seed with reference to the divinity in the literature of the time (191-92).

5. This detail is congruent with the findings by Williams, who notes a "shift away from any eschatological character of the text used" (195-96).

6. Williams overlooks the importance of the root in the Gospel of Truth's cosmology when she notes that the image of the root was frequently used in a figurative sense in literature of the time and accordingly considers it a commonplace here (167).

7. For the history of this divine root image from Cicero to late antiquity, see Antoine Wlosok.

8. For an introduction and translation of Saint Irenaeus of Lyon's view of Ptolemy's myth in Against Heresies 1.1.1-1.8.5, see Lay ton, 276-302. The phrase "root of the entirety" is taken from passage 1.1.1.

9. These general shifts are shown by Williams to be typical exegetical changes as Valentinus incorporates allusions to his canonical sources. A relevant example is noted by Attridge and MacRae with reference to the exhortation "Do not be moth- eaten, do not be worm-eaten" (33.16f) which echoes Matthew 6.19: "The imagery of the saying is reinterpreted and the addressees are warned not to become again part of the material world which brings destruction" (Notes 97). See also Valentinus's parables concerning sheep and the shepherd incorporating Matthew 12.11 and 18.12-13 discussed in Williams, 119-26.

WORKS CITED

Attridge, Harold W. "The Gospel of Truth as an Exoteric Text." Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, & Early Christianity. Eds. Charles W. Hedrick and Robert Hodgson, Jr. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1986.

Attridge, Harold W., and George W. MacRae, SJ. "The Gospel of Truth." Nag Hammadi Codex 1, volume 1, Introductions, Texts, Translations, Indices, and volume 2, Notes. Nag Hammadi Studies, vols. 22 and 23. Ed. Harold W. Attridge. Leiden:

Brill, 1985. Cornford, Francis M. Plato's Cosmology: The Timaeus of Plato translated with a running

commentary. New York: Harcourt, 1937.

Dawson, David. Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient Alexandria. Berkeley and Los Angeles: U of California P, 1992.

Layton, Bentley. The Gnostic Scriptures. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1987. McGuire, Anne Marie. "Valentinus and the 'Gnostike Hairesis': An Investigation of

Valentinus's Position in the History of Gnosticism." Dissertation, Yale Univer- sity, 1983.




Menard, Jacques- E. UEvangile de Verite. Nag Hammadi Studies, vol. 2. Leiden: Brill, 1972.

Pagels, Elaine H. The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975.

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Terminologie der gnostischhen Erlbsungsuorstellung. Heidelberg: Winter, 1960.



Agricultural Imagery in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Truth

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