The Prayer Of The Apostle Paul ~ From Scriptures Found At Nag Hammadi

CORRECTION: “The Nag Hammadi Scriptures is a collection of thirteen papyrus codices – bound books, not scrolls – that were buried near the city of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt most likely in the second half of the fourth century CE. They had been brought together earlier in that century and then buried in a jar for safekeeping at the foot of the Jabal al-Tarif, a cliff close to the hamlet Hamra Dum.” from James Robinson in the Preface of The Nag Hammadi Scriptures

PRAYER OF THE APOSTLE PAUL

Grant me your [mercy].

[My] Redeemer, redeem me,

for [I am] yours;

I have come from [you].

You are [my] mind:

bring me forth.

You are my treasury:

open for me.

You [are] my fullness:

accept me.

You are <my> rest;

give me incomprehensible perfection.

I call upon you,

you who exist and preexisted;

in the name exalted above every name,

through Jesus Christ,

[Lord] of lords,

King of the eternal realms.

Give me your gifts, with no regret,

through the Son of Humanity,

the Spirit,

the Advocate of [truth].

Give me authority, [I] ask of you,

give [healing] for my body, since I ask you

through the preacher of the gospel,

and redeem my eternal enlightened soul and my spirit,

and disclose to my mind the first born of he fullness of grace.

Grant what eyes of angels have not [seen],

what ears of rulers have not heard,

and what has not arisen in the human heart,

which became angelic,

made in the image of the animate God

when it was formed in the beginning.

I have faith and hope.

And bestow upon me

your beloved, chosen, blessed majesty,

the firstborn, the first-begotten,

the [wonderful] mystery of your house.

[For] yours is power and glory

and praise and greatness, forever and ever.

[Amen].

Prayer of the Apostle Paul

In Peace

Holy is Christ

This prayer is the first entry in The International Edition of The Nag Hammadi Scriptures – The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts, edited by Marvin Meyer.

This two-thousand-year-old prayer seeks healing for the body and redemption for the “eternal enlightened soul,” which all of us who tread on the path to enlightenment can also apply to our lives. It begins with humility by seeking mercy. Light is a constant theme in Gnostic thought. Science tells us that Light is how energy travels. God is the Source of all Energy, including Light. The apostle Paul, you and I come from this Loving Light, which Paul personifies, saying, “I am yours, for I have come from you.” This is enlightenment, connecting to your Higher Source, in other words.

Biblical exegesis finds connections between “1 Corinthians 2:9 (where Paul quotes Isaiah 64:3 and Jeremiah 3:16) and 1 Corinthians 2:8 (where the term ‘rulers’ or “archons’ is also used) lead the author of the Prayer of the Apostle Paul to a Gnostic reinterpretation that transforms the meaning of the term ‘ruler’ from a political to a supernatural one.” From the introduction to The Prayer Of The Apostle Paul, written by Madeleine Scopello and translated by Marvin Meyer.

“None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Corinthians 2:8

The statement that the human heart has been formed by a psychical God (meaning lying outside the sphere of physical science or knowledge) speaks to the enlightenment of the human heart, mind, and soul. We are familiar with the physical realm of our experience. But the spark of ideas and esoteric knowledge enlightens our hearts, minds, and eternal souls with this psychical inner knowing and guidance. It can seem as if a light bulb went off in our understanding.

Jesus came as the long-awaited fulfillment of promises of a Savior, a Redeemer, the One who could bring us into more than a meager physical existence. We were sabotaged from the very beginning of human creation, as stated in John 8:44 where Jesus himself says:

Jesus shows us the Christ in the flesh, melding us to His Father. He taught us that we also can live this life in connection with the Christ each time we become aware of our I AM Presence, our Christed selves, the divine spark, life, and inspiration of our souls.

We were not abandoned because of our physical creation. Instead, God loves us and sent Jesus as Christ to show us the way, as originally intended.

Our eternal souls and our emotional and feeling selves, are our spiritual aspects in the image and likeness of the Father of the Christ. That is what our I AM Presence is. Jesus tried so hard to tell us this, for example, when he said in Luke 17:21, that the kingdom of God is WITHIN US.

The forgetfulness of humanity magnified with the densification of matter, triggered lack of knowledge and re-membering (as in re-connecting) who we truly are. We need to re-member ourselves with the Energy Source from which we came, when trillions of souls burst forth from the Light of All at the Big Bang.

What a beautiful wonder it is to contemplate the love of Christ for our hearts, minds, and souls.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

In Apostle Paul’s Prayer, we have an example of asking for the enlightenment “gifts, with no regret” so that we know to apply the teachings through the “Son of Humanity, the Spirit, the Advocate of Truth.”

Enlightenment realizes that my “mind (emotions and feelings),” “treasury,” “fullness,” and “rest” give me “incomprehensible perfection,” which is our hearts desire. Our hearts are restless until they rest in God. God experiences in and through each one of us.

Jesus taught that it is now the time to pick and eat the grains of wheat even on a Sunday, since the Love of the Father of Jesus Christ now flows through Christ to you and me today. You and I are Loved that much.

If humanity had been allowed to continue reading the sacred scriptures thankfully preserved in a clay pot jar in the caves at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, what I have said in this post would be common knowledge.

Instead, certain religions have instilled fear and guilt in studying some of the healing and faithful words of Jesus the Christ. It is this same Christ that you and I awaken to when we allow our minds to be enlightened, to be further educated, advancing the knowledge (gnosis) of all that Jesus Christ taught.

Religious censorship, by hiding the some of the words of Jesus rulers did not want their followers to know, for unholy agendas, has stifled the faith Jesus came to Earth to tell us about.

The Prayer Of The Apostle Paul is a beautiful place to start, or start again, this journey of the soul, following the more words of Jesus, the Christ.

God Bless Everyone Everywhere