Burlesques on the Secret Book of John

The Secret Book of John is part of a number of Codices that were found in 1945 near the city of Nag Hammadi, Egypt. It dates to about 150 CE and is a Gnostic book, containing among other things a description of the creation of Adam. This was accomplished by a throng of 74 angels, each creating a small part of the whole. True to the theory that nothing good can come out of something created by a committee, the Adam described in this book is a kind of antithesis to Nietzsche’s UEbermensch. With the bickering and jealousy among the creators, small wonder that the product turned out to be the seriously flawed normal human being that we all know so well. Some of the angels bear a striking resemblance to well-known contemporary politicians…