Note 466 — Chapter X · THE SYSTEM OF THE PISTIS SOPHIA AND ITS RELATED TEXTS[459]

Pistis Sophia, p. 152, Copt. This metaphor is first met with in Philo, Quaest. in Genesim, Bk I. c. 53, who declares that the “coats of skin” of Gen. iii, 21 are the natural bodies with which the souls of the protoplasts were clothed. It was a favourite figure of speech with the Alexandrian Jewish writers. So in the Ascensio Isaiae, c. IV. 16, 17: “But the saints will come with the Lord with their garments which are now stored up on high in the seventh heaven: with the Lord will they come, whose spirits are clothed.... And afterwards they will turn themselves upward in their garments, and their body will be left in this world.” Cf. Charles, Ascension of Isaiah, pp. 34, 35, and Eschatology (Jowett Lectures), pp. 399 sqq., where he says that this was also the teaching of St Paul.