Conclusion

In the Greek Gospel of the Egyptians, originally independently existing sayings^[559] have been combined to form a single argument about the end time. This is true for the question of Salome in Saying 4 about when she would know.

It is this complex that Julius Cassianus used and that Clement then at­tempted to interpret differently. The complex begins with an enigmatic statement ascribed to Jesus and then, as in the Dialogue of the Savior, at­tempts to interpret it. The originally misogynistic attack on women moves in the first interaction to an attack on procreation and then changes by the second interaction into a yearning to imitate Eden. The final summative statement given by Jesus holds that gender categories are to be eliminated at the end time when Eden will return. This complex of the Greek Gospel of the Egyptians would thus be mitigating a tendency among male Chris­tians to shun women. It is a clear exhortation to sexual continence, but does not outrightly reject marriage. It would thus emanate from that group of Christians whom Giulia Sfameni Gasparro characterizes as praising enkrateia for its doctrine of sexual abstinence and who suggested it as a condition of becoming the perfect Christian. However, they did not con­demn marriage, as did some other Christians.^[561] Julius Cassianus would at­tempt to move the Greek Gospel of the Egyptians in this more radical di­rection, but Clement would counter-interpret the document allegorically to retain marriage as a viable option for Christians. What is interesting is that the argument in the Greek Gospel of the Egyptians completely overturns the sense of subordination of women, and rather places them on an equal footing with men.

Appendix

The saying, “I have come to bring female works to an end,” has also been used in a different formulation in the Paschal Homily attributed to Hippol­ytus, which has been dated to the 2^nd century c.e.^[562] As the preacher speaks about how Jesus on the cross undid what the transgression of Adam brought, he notes how the crown of thorns Jesus wore took away the curse on the ground (Gen 3:18), how, by drinking the bitter gall of the Dragon (Matt 27:34), Jesus mingles for us in its place sweet wells.^[563] The preacher continues: “For wishing to epyov Tqs OqXeias Xuoai and to hold back the death-dealing [femaleness] flowing from the rib, already he opened the holy rib in himself from which flowed the holy blood and water, the per­fect signs of the spiritual, mystical marriages and adoption and new birth” (53:3). Commenting of the water and blood, the homilist refers to baptism in spirit and in fire (Matt 3:11, where the water refers to baptism in spirit, the blood to baptism in fire.) Here the preacher has used the singular, and contrasted the new life/birth (παλιγγενεσία) with the production of Eve, described as death-dealing. Here the saying should be translated: “the product which is femaleness.” The production of Eve, standing for female­ness is contrasted with Jesus’s reversal of the action, returning baptized Christians to the primordial unity.

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