Going About in a Ring

1936 was an unhealthy year for writers. In that year died Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman, G. K. Chesterton and M. R. James. In Spain, a terrible loss, Federico García Lorca was murdered by the Right at the age of 38. All the works of these authors that had been published before their deaths came out of copyright in the UK and Europe at the end of 2006.

M. R. James is remembered as the author of some chilling horror stories, but he was also a well-known scholar, whose book The Apocryphal New Testament, containing translations of early Christian writings, stayed in print for decades after his death. The following passage from the Acts of John has haunted me ever since I first read it, in W. H. Auden's fine anthology The Poet’s Tongue.

This is a Gnostic account of the Last Supper:

He bade us therefore make as it were a ring, holding one another’s hands, and himself standing in the midst he said: Answer Amen unto me. He began, then, to sing an hymn and to say:
Glory be to thee, Father.

And we, going about in a ring, answered him: Amen.

Glory be to thee, Word: Glory be to thee, Grace. Amen.
Glory be to thee, Spirit: Glory be to thee, Holy One:
Glory be to thy glory. Amen.
We praise thee, O Father; we give thanks to thee, O Light, wherein darkness dwelleth not. Amen.
Now wherefore we give thanks, I say:
I would be saved, and I would save. Amen.
I would be loosed, and I would loose. Amen.
I would be wounded, and I would wound. Amen.
I would be born, and I would bear. Amen.
I would eat, and I would be eaten. Amen.
I would hear, and I would be heard. Amen.
I would be thought, being wholly thought. Amen.
I would be washed, and I would wash. Amen.
Grace danceth. I would pipe; dance ye all. Amen.
I would mourn: lament ye all. Amen.
The number Eight singeth praise with us. Amen.
The number Twelve danceth on high. Amen.
The Whole on high hath part in our dancing. Amen.
Whoso danceth not, knoweth not what cometh to pass. Amen.
I would flee, and I would stay. Amen.
I would adorn, and I would be adorned. Amen.
I would be united, and I would unite. Amen.
A house I have not, and I have houses. Amen.
A place I have not, and I have places. Amen.
A temple I have not, and I have temples. Amen.
A lamp am I to thee that beholdest me. Amen.
A mirror am I to thee that perceivest me. Amen.
A door am I to thee that knockest at me. Amen.
A way am I to thee a wayfarer. Amen.
Now answer thou unto my dancing. Behold thyself in me who speak, and seeing what I do, keep silence about my mysteries.

...

Thus, my beloved, having danced with us the Lord went forth.

from The Acts of John (before the middle of the second century AD)

translated by M. R. James (1862–1936)


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