Apocalypticism, gnosticism and the scribes of Qumran and Nag Hammadi

Within historical reconstructions of religion, there has been a scholarly prioritization of nascent Christianity. Based upon the adoption of a Christian mythical narrative, historical reconstructions have understood Christianity as the inheritor and fulfillment of the salvation history of ancient Israel, and as such a "unique" and sans pareil religion in relation to other Hellenistic expressions of late antiquity. In the interest of shoring-up this construction, scholarship has created two binary categories: (A) Apocalypticism as a way of linking "unique" Christianity to the prestigious pedigree of a sui generis Judaism. (B) Gnosticism as a way to quarantine those analogous and "heretical" expressions that threaten the uniqueness of this mythical construction.; Within the framework of this Christian mythical model, scholars have subsequently juxtaposed the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library as two diametrically opposed collections by deploying the Dead Sea Scrolls as "legitimately apocalyptic" and as such completely separate from the "Gnostic" Nag Hammadi Library.; This assumption, however, is simply wrong.; By examining the scholarly criteria for "Apocalypticism" and "Gnosticism," and the variety of hermeneutics used to deploy texts within these categories, this thesis will argue that, in the interest of buttressing the Christian mythical narrative, scholars have used the "Apocalyptic" Dead Sea Scrolls as a cipher for that which should or could be legitimately Christian and the "Gnostic" Nag Hammadi Library as that which should not or cannot be legitimately Christian.; In addition, through an examination of the social-political crucible that produced both collections, this thesis will argue that the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library are not diametrically opposed, but are linked in three significant ways: (1) a shared an Enochic worldview that was used (2) by marginalized elements of the scribal class who (3) were reacting to the political reality of cessation of native rule and the lack of a royal patron under Hellenism.