theme concerns the value of sacraments. Scholars debate whether the original language was Syriac or Greek. Wesley W. Isenberg, the text's translator, places the date "perhaps as late as the 2nd half of the 3rd century" and places its probable origin in Syria due to its references to Syriac words and eastern baptismal practices as well as its ascetic outlook. The online Early Christian Writings site gives it a date c. 180–250. Meyer gives its date as "2nd or 3rd century". Interpretation The text has been interpreted by as a Christian Gnostic sacramental catechesis. Bentley Layton identified it as a Valentinian anthology of excerpts, and Elaine Pagels and Martha Lee Turner have seen it as possessing a consistent and Valentinian theology. It is dismissed by Catholic author Ian Wilson who argues that it "has no special claim to an early date, and seems to be merely a Mills and Boon-style fantasy of a type not uncommon among Christian apocryphal literature of the 3rd and 4th centuries". Latter-Day Saint (Mormon) scholar Richard O. Cowan sees a parallel between the "bridal chamber" that is a central theme in the Gospel and the Mormon doctrine of "the new and everlasting covenant of marriage", or "eternal marriage". See also List of Gospels Notes References Further reading External links Wesley W. Isenberg, translator, Gospel of Philip , with hyperlinear translation linked to Crum's Coptic Dictionary and Plumley's Coptic Grammar (which unfortunately consistently misspells "through"). Ecumenical Coptic Project online edition, 1998 ff. Early Christian writings: Gospel of Philip brief introductions and e-texts 3rd-century Christian texts Apocryphal collections of logia Coptic literature Gnostic Gospels Nag Hammadi library Valentinian texts