The Great Declaration
6.9.4.
This is the letter of declaration, of voice, and of name from the Thought (Epinoia)
of the Great and Infinite Power. Thus it will be sealed, hidden, veiled, and stored in the
dwelling in which the root of the universe is established, {the root of aeons, powers,
and thoughts; the root of gods, angels, and spirits sent forth; the root of things that
are and of things that are not, of things born and unborn, of things comprehensible
and incomprehensible; the root of years, months, days, hours—an indivisible point
from which the smallest being begins and grows by degrees. Although it is nothing,
and is composed of nothing, it will generate by its own thought an incomprehensible
magnitude.}1
6.9.5. The dwelling is that human born from bloodlines in whom dwells
the infinite Power, the root of the universe.
Now the infinite Power is fire, for “God is a flaming and devouring fire” (Deut 4:23-24;
Heb 12:29) The fire is not simple, as most people claim, supposing that the four elements
and fire are simple bodies. Rather, the nature of the fire is double, with something hidden
and also something revealed. 6.9.6. The hidden things are hidden in the manifest things
of the fire, and the manifest things of the fire come about due to the hidden things. 6.9.7.
And the manifest of the fire contains all in itself—whatever one can conceive or not
among visible things—whereas the hidden aspect contains everything intelligible and
removed from sense perception that one may or may not think.
6.9.8. In general, one can say that the supercelestial fire is the treasury of all existing
things, perceptible and intelligible, hidden and manifest. It is like the massive tree seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, “a tree that nourishes all flesh” (Dan 4:10-12).
6.9.9. The visible aspect of the fire consists of the trunk, branches, leaves, and the bark
surrounding them. All these manifest parts of the massive tree are destroyed by the
all-consuming flame of fire.
6.9.10. But the fruit of the tree, if it is fully shaped according to its model and receives
its own form, is set in the storehouse, not into the fire. For fruit grows to be set in the
storehouse; but the chaff—that is, the trunk—is meant to be thrown in the fire, since it
came about not for itself but for the sake of the fruit.
6.10.1. This is what is written in scripture, “The vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the house
of Israel, and a person of Judah is a beloved new shoot” (Isa 5:7 LXX). If a person of Judah
is a beloved new shoot, it is proved that the tree is nothing other than a human being.
6.10.2. Now concerning distinction and separation, scripture has adequately
pronounced. Those fully made in the image are sufficiently instructed by what is said:
“All flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh like a flower of grass. The grass is dried up,
and its flower falls, but the speech of the Lord remains forever” (Isa 40:6-7 LXX). Now
the speech is speech and word born in the mouth of the Lord, and there is no other
place of birth.
6.11.1. This is the nature of the fire. All existing things—whether visible or invisible,
soundable or sounding, numerable or numbers—are perfect intelligibles. Each of its
infinitely many is conceived of as able to speak, think, and be active, exactly
as Empedocles says:
For we behold earth from earth, water by water,
Aether by aether, fire by annihilating fire,
by affection, strife by baneful strife.
6.12.1. For all the invisible parts of the fire “have intelligence and .”
And so the world that was born arose from unborn fire. It began to exist in the
following way.
From the principle of that fire, the born world took six primal roots of the principle of
generation. 6.12.2. These roots arose from the fire in pairs:
Mind – Thought (Epinoia)
Voice – Name
Reasoning – Conception (Enthumēsis) In these six roots is the entire infinite Power—in potentiality, not in actuality. The
infinite Power is the One who Stood and Will Stand.
6.12.3. Whoever attains the likeness (while being in the six powers) will be in substance,
in potential, in magnitude, in finished perfection one and the same as the Unborn and Infinite Power. This one will be in no way at all inferior to that Unborn, Unchanging,
and Infinite Power. 6.12.4. But whoever remains in potential only in the six powers, and
is not fully formed according to the model, vanishes away and is destroyed. It works just
as the human mind’s potential to learn grammar or geometry. If a potentiality acquires
a technical skill, it becomes a light for generated beings; but if it does not acquire it, it is
left as darkness without a skill, and perishes—as if it did not exist—when the person dies.
[In a principle, God made the heaven and the earth (Gen 1:1)]
6.18.2. To you, then, I speak what I speak and write what I write—this very writing.
There are two offshoots of all the aeons, having neither beginning nor end. They are
from a single root or power, namely invisible and incomprehensible Silence.
6.18.3. One of these appears above: a Great Power, Mind of the universe, pervading
all things, and male. The other is below: Thought (Epinoia), who is magnificent, female,
and generates all things. Hence they correspond to each other and form a pair. In the
intervening space is an immeasurable expanse of air, which has neither beginning nor end.
6.18.4. In this air, the Father upholds all things and nourishes those beings that have
beginning and end. He is the One Who Stood, Who Stands, Who Will Stand. This one
is an androgynous power as is right for the infinite preexisting Power, having neither
beginning nor end, and existing in unity.
From this Power, the Thought (Epinoia) in the unity came forth and became two.
6.18.5. (Now the Father was one, for having her in himself, he was alone. Although
he preexisted, he is still not “first.” He became a second deity when he appeared to
himself from himself. Neither was he called “Father” before she called him “Father.”)
6.18.6. Since, then, he himself, having advanced from himself, manifested to himself
his own Thought, so also the Thought who appeared did not make him. But when she
saw him, she hid the Father in herself—that is, his power—an androgynous power
and Thought. Thus they correspond to each other. This is because power does not at
all differ from thought; they are one. Power is discovered from things above, while
Thought is discovered from things below. 6.18.7. It works the same way with what is
manifested from them. Though one, they are discovered to be two. The androgynous
contains the female in himself. So also there is Mind in Thought (Epinoia). They are
inseparable. Although one, they are discovered to be two.
6.13.1. Mind and Thought, the first pair of six powers (with the seventh following)
are “Heaven and Earth.” Now the male Mind above watches over and cares for his
partner, while Earth below receives the fruits akin to her as they rain down from
heaven. For this reason, the Logos—often having in view the offspring of Mind and
Thought (that is, Heaven and Earth)—says:
Listen, Heaven, and hear, Earth, because the Lord has spoken!
Children I fathered and exalted, but they set me aside (Isa 1:2 LXX).
The one who speaks these words is the Seventh Power, the One Who Stood, Who
Stands, Who Will Stand. For he is the cause of these goods which Moses praised and
called “very good” (Gen 1:31) [“God made the two great illuminators, the great illuminator for the principles of
the day and the lesser illuminator for the principles of the night” (Gen 1:16).]
“Voice and Name” are sun and moon.
[“God said ‘Let there be a hard plate in the middle of the water and let it separate
between water and water’” (Gen 1:6).]
“Reasoning and Conception” are air and water.
In all these the Great Power is mixed and blended. He is the Infinite Power, the Standing
One.
6.14.1. Moses said: “in six days God made the heaven and the earth, and on the
seventh day, he rested from all his works” (Gen 2:2). 6.14.2. When they [the scriptures]
say that there are three days before sun and moon (Gen 1:3-13), they hint at Mind and
Thought (Epinoia) (that is, Heaven and Earth) plus the Seventh Power, the Infinite.
These are the three powers that arose before all the others.
6.14.3. When (the scriptures) say, “Before all the aeons you fathered me” (Prov.
8:23) such things are said concerning the Seventh Power. The Seventh Power is herself
a power that existed in the Infinite Power, which arose before all the aeons.
6.14.4. She is the Seventh Power about whom Moses speaks: “and divine Spirit
hovered above the waters” (Gen 1:2). This is the Spirit. It contains everything
in itself, as an image of the Infinite Power. It is “an image from an incorruptible
form, alone ordering everything” (Wisd 7:27; 8:1). 6.14.5. For she is the power that
hovered above the waters. She was born from the incorruptible form and alone
orders everything.
When some such creation occurred, “God formed the human being by taking dust
from the earth” (Gen 2:7). He formed the human being not simply, but in a two-fold
manner: “according to the image and according to the likeness” (Gen 1:28). 6.14.6.
The “image” is the Spirit hovering above the water. If it is not made in the likeness, it
will be destroyed with the world. It remains only in potentiality, not in actuality. This
is what the verse means: “so that we might not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor
11:32).
Yet if it is made in the likeness and comes to be from an undivided point, the small
will become great, and the great will attain the infinite and unchanging eternity, no
longer as something born.
[“And Lord God planted a paradise in Eden, in the eastern regions, and put the
human there” (Gen 2:8).]
6.14.7. How, then, and in what way does God form the human being? In paradise,
for thus it seemed right to him. Paradise stands for the womb. Scripture teaches that
this is true when it says, “I am the one forming you in the womb” of your mother.
Moses figuratively called the womb “paradise,” if it is right to believe the Logos. [“A river proceeds out of Eden to water the paradise. From there it is split into four
principles” (Gen 2:10).]
6.14.8. “But if God forms the human in the womb of a mother, that is, as I said,
in paradise, let the womb signify paradise, “Eden” the placenta, and let “the river
flowing out of Eden to water paradise” signify the umbilical cord. This umbilical cord,
“splits into four branches.” For on each side of the umbilical cord there are two arteries
extended that serve as channels of breath, and two veins that serve as channels of blood.
6.14.9. Now when the umbilical cord flows from Eden (the placenta), it is organically
joined with the fetus at the epigastrium (or the “navel” in common speech). Secondly,
the two veins coursing along what are called the “gates of the liver” nourish the fetus
as conveyers of blood brought from Eden (the placenta). 6.14.10. At the same time, the
arteries (which we said were channels of breath) that surround the bladder on both
sides along the broad bone join the great artery—the one along the spine called the
“aorta.” Consequently, the breath produces movement in the embryo as it flows into
the heart through its side entries.
6.14.11. Accordingly, the fetus formed in paradise neither receives food through
the mouth nor breathes in through the nostrils. It exists in fluids. If it breathed, death
would immediately ensue, for the fetus would suck in from the fluids and perish. In
point of fact, the fetus is entirely bundled in what is called the “amniotic membrane,”
and is nourished through the umbilical cord. It receives the substance of breath through
the aorta running along the spine.
6.15.1. Now the river flowing out of Eden is divided into four branches or channels.
These refer to the four sense faculties of the fetus: vision, hearing, smell, and taste. The
child possesses only these senses while it is being formed in “paradise.” This represents
the Law that Moses laid down. In accord with this very Law were written each of the
books, as the titles reveal.
6.15.2. The first book is Genesis. The title of the book sufficed for the knowledge of
the universe. For this “genesis” signifies vision, into which one branch of the river is
divided. This is because the world was seen by vision.
6.15.3. The title of the second book is Exodus, for it was necessary for the child,
when born, to cross the Red Sea (Red refers to the blood), then come to the desert,
and taste bitter water. The water beyond the Red Sea is bitter. This water signifies
the road of knowledge during this life, since it travels through bitter toils. 6.15.4.
But that bitter water is “converted” by Moses—that is, the Logos—to become sweet
(Exod 15:22-25).
These points apply in general for all people, as can be heard from those who quote
the poets:
Twas black in root, but its flower like unto milk.
The gods call it mōly. ʼTis hard to dig up
For men who are mortal. Yet gods can do all things. ([Homer,] Odyssey 10.304-6)
6.16.1. This passage spoken by the Gentiles suffices for those with an obedient ear to
gain knowledge of the universe. Only the one who tasted this fruit was not made a beast by Circe. What is more, he used the power of this special fruit to mold, stamp, and
return to their own former shape those who had already been transformed into beasts.
6.16.2. For through that milky and divine fruit, a man is found to be trustworthy and
loved by that witch.
Similarly, Leviticus (the third book) refers to the sense of smell and respiration.
This is because that whole book concerns sacrifices and offerings. Wherever there is a
sacrifice, a pleasant odor from the sacrifice arises from the incense offerings. The sense
of smell is the judge of this pleasant odor.
6.16.3. Numbers is the fourth book. Ιt means taste, wherever the spoken word is
active. It is called this because we speak everything in numerical order.
Deuteronomy was written for the fully formed child’s sense of touch. 6.16.4. Just as
the sense of touch, by handling what is seen by the other senses, sums them up and
confirms them—judging whether something is hard, hot, or sticky—so also the fifth
book of the law is the summation of the four written before it.
6.16.5. Therefore, all the unborn realities are in us in potentiality, not in actuality,
like the skill of grammar or geometry. So if one encounters apt speech and instruction,
the bitter will turn sweet—that is, “the spears will turn to sickles and the swords into
plows.” There will not be chaff and wood (things born for fire), but fruit mature and
formed according to the model, as I said—equal and like unto the unborn and infinite
Power.
6.16.6. But if it remains a tree only, not producing fully formed fruit, it is done away
with. “For the axe is near to the roots of the tree. Every tree, not producing good fruit
is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matt 3:10; Lk 3:9).
6.17.1. There is, then, that blessed and incorruptible reality hidden in every human
being—in potentiality, not in actuality—which is the One Who Stood, Stands, and Will
Stand. He stood above in the Unborn Power. He stands below in the flow of waters,
born in an image. He will stand above alongside the blessed infinite Power, if made in
the likeness. 6.17.2. Accordingly, there are three standing aeons, and apart from these
three, the Unborn One is not ordered. He is the one hovering upon the waters, and
formed according to the likeness. He is perfect, heavenly, and inferior to the Unborn
Power in no conceivable way.
I and you are one.
What is before me is you.
What is after you is I.
6.17.3. This is the single power, divided above and below, giving birth to herself,
increasing herself, seeking herself, finding herself, being mother of herself, father of
herself, sister of herself, partner of herself, daughter of herself, son of herself, mother
and father, yet one—the root of the universe.
6.17.4. Moreover, the source of generation for those who are born is from fire. For
all those to whom generation is allotted, the source of the desire for generation comes
from fire. Accordingly, the desire for changeable generation is called “burning.”
6.17.5. Although it is one, the fire has two modes of conversion. In the male, the
blood is turned into semen (characterized, like fire, by heat and a whitish color). In the woman, however, the same blood is turned into milk. Accordingly, the “turning” in the
male becomes generation, whereas the “turning” in the female becomes nourishment
for the offspring. This is the meaning of “the flaming sword that turns to guard the
way of the tree of life” (Gen 3:24). 6.17.6. The blood turns to semen and milk, and this
power itself becomes father and mother, the sowing of what is generated and growth
for what is nourished. It needs nothing, and is self-sufficient.
The tree of life is guarded by the flaming sword that turns, as I mentioned. This
flaming sword is the Seventh Power, self-derived, containing everything, and situated
within the six powers. 6.17.7. If the flaming sword is not turned, that good tree will be
corrupted and destroyed. But if the fire turns into semen and milk, the one situated in
these potentially, when he encounters apt speech and the place of the Lord in which
speech is born, will be vastly enlarged and grow. Though beginning as from the tiniest
spark, he will become an infinite and unchanging power in an unchanging eternity, no
longer born in the finite world.
6.18.1. One is born and able to suffer when in potentiality, but passionless from
birth when formed according to the likeness (Gen 1:28). Thus becoming perfect, one
moves out from the first two powers (namely, Heaven and Earth).
The Concept of Our Great Power.
Introduction:
Salvation for Those Who Know the Great Power (36.1-27).
Now, the one who will know our Great Power will become invisible. No fire will burn
this one. This one will be purified, and will destroy all your chains. For every person in
whom my form will be revealed within will be saved, from seven days until 120 years.
These are the ones under constraint to gather the end of everything, to gather the
writings of our Great Power, so that she writes your name in our great light and fulfills
their thoughts and their works so that they will be purified and triumph completely.
Then they come to an end and are gathered in the place of the blind. But you will see
me and prepare your dwellings in our Great Power.
Exhortation: Know the One who Came (36.28–37.5).
Know he that came and how he came (Noah/Christ) so that you will know what is
being revealed. Know how it knows itself, to what extent it is one or what kind of thing
it is, or how it came into being. Why don’t you (pl.) seek how you will become it, how
you have become it?
The Original Abyss (37.6-12).
Contemplate the vast quantity of the water. It is infinite and inexhaustible (Gen 1:2).
Its beginning and end support the earth from below. It breathes in the air. Gods and
angels are in it.
Lord of the Abyss (37.12-23)
The one exalted over all these contains both fear and light (Gen 1:1, 3). My writings are
revealed by him. I established the administration of fleshly creations, for no one had
power to stand apart from that one, nor did the living age have power apart from this
one. He owns its contents. He thinks purely.
The Spirit (37.23-29)
Then look upon the Spirit and know where it is (Gen 1:2). It gave it to people to receive
life from itself every day. It has life in itself (John 5:26). It gave it to all of them.
The Rest of Creation (37.29–38.5). Then the darkness with Hades ignited the fire. The one who belongs to me will destroy
it from within. His eye could not tolerate my light. The spirits with the waters were set
in motion. Then the rest (of creation) appeared. And the whole age of creation with
their powers of the fire emerged from the water.
The Birth of the Human Soul (38.5-12). The Power (of the creator) arose in the midst of the powers. And the powers lust to see
my image. And the soul arose as the impression of my image (Gen 1:26). This is the sort
of deed that happened. See what it is like, for before it happened, the age of the flesh
had no (spiritual) sight.
The Flood Story (38.13–39.15). The fleshly age emerged with the bodies of giants. They were allotted many days in the
creation. For when they defiled them, they went into the flesh. The father of the flesh
[the water] himself executed judgment. For when he found Noah, pious and worthy,
the father of the flesh subjected the angels. And he (Noah) preached piety for 120 years.
But no one listened to him. He made an ark of wood. And the one whom (God) found
entered it.
Then the flood came.
In this way, Noah was saved with his children, since if the ark was not made for people
to enter, the waters of the flood would not have come. Thus he considered and took
thought for the safety of gods, angels, and the powers of the Great One—all of them
[. . .] along with their luxurious behavior. He removed them from the age and nourished them in resting places. So the judgment of the flesh attained resolution. The deed of the
single Power stood firm.
Intervening Exhortation (43.3-11).
Observe how the ages that were have passed. Observe how vast was his water in that
age which melted away, ages of such vastness! Observe how people should prepare and
stand and become an unceasing eternity.
The Animate Age (39.16–33)
Now in turn comes the age of soul. It is small and mixed with body. It is spawned
from a defiled soul, since the first defilement of the creation found strength. It produced
every deed: many deeds of wrath, rage, jealousy, envy, hatred, slander, contempt, war,
lying, conspiracy, bouts of pain and pleasure, humiliation, pollutions, acts of duplicity,
illnesses, and violent judgments arbitrarily decreed.
Intervening Exhortation (39.33–40.9). Are you still sleeping? Are you experiencing a dream? Wake up and shake yourselves.
Then taste and eat true food. Dispense the Logos and the water of life. Cease from evil
lusts and desires and what is unlike (your nature), and from wicked opinions which
have no foundation.
The Mother of Flame (40.9–23). The mother of the flame did not prevail. She brought fire into the soul and the earth.
And she sent fire upon all those within her. Her fuel came to an end; she did not
find a (place) to burn. She will dissolve by herself. It (the world) will become bodiless.
Material things burn until everything is purified, with all evil. For when it finds nothing
to burn, it will save itself alone until it comes to an end.
The Story of Christ’s Triumph (40.24–42.23). Then in this age, namely the one of soul, the human who knows the Great Power
will come. He will receive and know me. He will drink in truth from the milk of
his mother. He will speak in parables. He preaches the age to come, just as Noah
preached in the first age of the flesh. Regarding his words he speaks, he spoke to
all in 72 tongues. By his message, he opened the gateway of the heavens. And he
shamed the master of Hades. He raised dead persons. He destroyed his (Hades’s)
lordship.
Then a great disturbance arose. The rulers of rage rose against him. They wanted
to hand him over to the master of Hades. Then they got to know one of his followers.
They lit fire to his soul. He handed him over. No one knew (Jesus’s) his identity. They
proceeded to arrest him. They only brought themselves to judgment.
They handed him over to the master of Hades. They handed him through Sasabek and
Berotth. He (had) prepared himself to go down and refute them. Then the master of Hades took him. He had no way of seizing the mode of his flesh to show him to the rulers. Rather,
he was saying, “Who is this? What is this? His message destroyed the law of the age! He is
from the Logos of the power of life.” He (Jesus) was strong enough to command the rulers.
And no one could do anything to dominate him. The rulers sought him who came. They
did not know that this one is the sign of their destruction and the shifting of the age.
The sun set in the daytime. The day became dark. The demons shuddered. After
these things, he will be revealed ascending above. Then there will be revealed the sign
of the coming age. And the (past) ages will melt away.
The Mission after Jesus’s Death (42.22–43.2). Those who understand these things I discuss will be blessed, and they will be revealed
and blessed since they will understand the truth, since you rest in the heavens. Then
many will follow. And they will be active in the region of their birth. They will travel.
They will publish (or: abandon) his word according to their desire.
Flashback: Jesus in the First Age (43.11–29). At the beginning, after his preaching, he preached the second age, that the first must
perish in time. He lived the first age, traveling within it until it perished. He preached
120 years. This is the perfect number, highly exalted. He wasted the borderland of the
west and destroyed the east. Then his seed , along with those who want to
walk on the side of the great Logos and his preaching.
The Rulers Strike Back (43.29–44.10). Then the rage of the rulers ignited. They were ashamed about their destruction; they
fumed and raged against the Life (John 14:6). Cities shuddered. Mountains collapsed.
The ruler comes up with the rulers of the western lands as far as the east, namely the
place where the Logos first appeared. Then the earth shook, and the city trembled.
Then the birds ate and were gorged on the corpses. The earth mourned along with the
inhabited world. They became a wasteland.
The Ruler of the West (44.10–31). Then, when the times are fulfilled, then evil rises high as far as the final end of the
Logos. Then the ruler of the west arose. And from the east he will perform a work.
He will teach people in his wickedness. He wishes to destroy every teaching of the
message (logos) of true wisdom. He loves the lying wisdom. For he engaged what is
ancient. He wished to introduce evil though he clothed himself in dignity. He could
not, since great was the defilement of his clothes. Then he raged; he appeared; he
wanted to go up and cross over to that place. Then the season comes. He complied,
and changes the edicts.
The Counterfeit and the Antichrist (44.31–45.24). Then the time came when the small child grew up. When he reached his peak, then
the rulers send the counterfeit to that person—so they will know our Great Power. They were expecting him to perform for them a sign and he bore great signs. He
became king over the whole earth and of those under heaven. He set his throne over
the end of the earth since he I will make god of the world. He will perform signs
and wonders (2 Thess 2:9). Then they will turn aside and go astray. Then people at
that time will follow him. They will introduce circumcision. And he will judge the
uncircumcised, the people. Indeed, he sent many heralds at first to preach about
him.
The Final Conflagration (45.24–47.8),
When the time prepared for the earthly empire is fulfilled, then the purification of
souls will come, since evil has surpassed them. All the powers of the sea will shake and
dry up. The firmament did not pour down dew; springs will cease, rivers will not flow
into springs, and the waters of the springs of the earth will cease. Then the abysses will
be obliterated and open, the stars will grow large, and the sun will perish.
I will withdraw with everyone who knows me, and they will go into the immeasurable
light. Nothing of the flesh seized them, neither will fiery delight. They will become
weightless and holy. Nothing will drag them down. I watch over them under my hand.
They possess a holy garment. The fire has no power to burn them.
Then there is darkness, a gale, and just enough time to shut one’s eyes when it comes
and destroys them all. They will be punished until their purification. Then their time is
appointed for them to gain possession and be reckoned up: 1468 years.
When the fire burns up everything and has nothing more to burn, it will cease
by itself. Then will be fulfilled the [second] power, the mercy to come [. . .] through
Wisdom [. . .] Then the firmament will fall down into the abyss. At that time the
children of matter will perish. They will not exist from then on.
Description of Final Salvation (47.9–48.15). Then the souls will be revealed as pure through the light of the power. This Power is
exalted over all powers, measureless, and universal—I along with all those who know
me. And they will be in the beautiful age, the age of the bridal chamber prepared by
Wisdom. They give glory before the single one, who is unattainable. They will behold
him because he loves them. They all will become images in his light. They will beam
with light all around. They have rested in his rest.
The souls that were punished he will release. They come into purity and see the holy
things. They will cry aloud: ‘Have mercy on us, you Power above all powers!’ Since . . .
and in the tree of violence that exists in . . . they don’t see him since they don’t seek
him, nor did they believe us. But they acted according to the creation of the rulers with
other rulers. We too acted according to the birth of the flesh of creation set down by the
law-giving ruler. Yet we have come to be in the unchanging eternity.
The Understanding of Our Great Power