Interpretation
The text has been interpreted by Isenberg (The Nag Hammadi Library in English, p. 141) 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 Ian Wilson (Jesus: The Evidence, 2000 p. 88) 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."
It should be noted, however, that Paterson Brown, on the Ecumenical Coptic Project website, has argued forcefully (1) that the text is evidently by Philip the Evangelist (Acts 6:5) rather than Philip the Apostle; and (2) that the three Coptic Gospels of Thomas, Philip and Truth cannot be considered Gnostic writings or compilations, since they all three explicitly affirm the basic reality and sanctity of incarnate life, which Gnosticism by definition considers illusory and evil ('Are the Coptic Gospels Gnostic?').
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."
Read more about this topic: Gospel Of Philip