The Secret Book of John, or the Secret Book of Yohannan, also sometimes referred to as the Apocryphon of John, is a classic work of Sethian Gnostic mythology. This text presents an account of the creation, fall, and salvation of the world and the people within the world. And the account features the figure of Sophia, personified wisdom in the role of the wisdom of God, who comes from above and whose divine light is trapped within people of Gnosis in the world. The Secret Book of John explains the contrast between an all-transcendent One and an absurd and fallen world by means of an intricate mythological account of a God who emanates, creates, falls, and finally is saved. The portion of the Secret Book of John that is presented here is taken from the opening section of the text. In this selection, Yohannan is read for John and Yaakov for James. As in the Gospel of Judas, Barbelo is the name of the holy source of all. A number of distinctive names are given for the rulers and powers of this world, including Yaldabaoth, Sakhla, and Samael for the first ruler of the world below.
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The Revealer Appears to Yohannan One day when Yohannan, the brother of Yaakov, the sons of Zavdi, went up to the temple, it happened that a Pharisee named Adamanios came up to him and said to him, Where is your teacher whom you followed? I said to him, He has returned to the place from which he came. The Pharisee said to me, This Nazarene has deceived you badly, filled your ears with lies, closed your minds, and turned you from the traditions of your parents. When I, Yohannan, heard this, I turned away from the temple and went to a mountainous and barren place. I was distressed within, and I said, How was the Savior selected? Why was he sent into the world by his Father? Who is his Father who sent him? To what kind of eternal realm shall we go? And what was he saying when he told us, This eternal realm to which you will go is modeled after the incorruptible realm. But he did not teach us what kind of realm that one is. At the moment I was thinking about this, look, the heavens opened, all creation under heaven lit up, and the world shook. I was afraid, and look, I saw within the light someone standing by me.
As I was staring, it seemed to be an elderly person. Again, it changed its appearance to be a youth. Not that there were several figures before me. Rather, there was a figure with several forms within the light. These forms appeared through each other, and the figure had three forms. The figure said to me, Yohannan, Yohannan, why are you doubting? Why are you afraid? Are you not familiar with this figure? Then do not be fainthearted. I am with you always. I am the Father. I am the Mother. I am the Child. I am the incorruptible and the undefiled One.
Now I have come to teach you what is, what was, and what is to come. That you may understand what is invisible and what is visible, and to teach you about the unshakeable race of perfect humankind. So now, lift up your head that you may understand the things I shall tell you today, and that you may relate them to your spiritual friends who are from the unshakeable race of perfect humankind.
The One I asked if I might understand this, and it said to me, The One is a Sovereign that has nothing over it. It is God and Father of all, the Invisible One that is over all, that is incorruptible, that is pure light at which no eye can gaze. The One is the invisible Spirit. We should not think of it as a God or like a God, for it is greater than a God, because it has nothing over it and no Lord above it. It does not exist within anything inferior to it, since everything exists within it alone. It is eternal, since it does not need anything, for it is absolutely complete. It has never lacked anything in order to be completed by it. Rather, it is always absolutely complete in light. The One is illimitable, since there is nothing before it to limit it, unfathomable, since there is nothing before it to fathom it, immeasurable, since there was nothing before it to measure it, invisible, since nothing has seen it, eternal, since it exists eternally, unutterable, since nothing could comprehend it to utter it, unnameable, since there is nothing before it to give it a name. The One is the immeasurable light. Such a One beholds itself in its light.
Barbello appears. Now this Father is the One who beholds himself in the light surrounding him, which is the spring of living water and provides all the realms. He reflects on his image everywhere, sees it in the spring of the Spirit, and becomes enamored of his luminous water, for his image is in the spring of pure luminous water surrounding him. The Father's thought became a reality, and she who appeared in the presence of the Father in shining light came forth. She is the first power who preceded everything and came forth from the Father's mind as the forethought of all. Her light shines like the Father's light. She, the perfect power, is the image of the perfect and invisible Virgin Spirit. She, the first power, the glory of Barbello, the perfect glory among the realms, the glory of Revelation. She glorified and praised the Virgin Spirit, for because of the Spirit she had come forth. She is the first thought, the image of the Spirit. She became the universal womb, for she precedes everything. The Mother-Father, the first human, the Holy Spirit, the triple male, the triple power, the androgynous One with three names, the eternal realm among the invisible beings, the first to come forth. Barbello asked the invisible Virgin Spirit to give her foreknowledge, and the Spirit consented. When the Spirit consented, foreknowledge appeared and stood by forethought. This is the One who came from the thought of the invisible Virgin Spirit.
Barbello conceives. The Father gazed into Barbello with the pure light surrounding the invisible Spirit and its radiance. Barbello conceived from it and it produced a spark of light similar to the blessed light, but not as great. This was the only child of the Mother-Father that had come forth, its only offspring, the only child of the Father, the pure light. The invisible Virgin Spirit rejoiced over the light that was produced, that came forth first from the first power of the Spirit's forethought, who is Barbello.
The child stood in the presence of the Spirit as the Spirit anointed the child. When the child received this from the Spirit, at once it glorified the Holy Spirit and perfect forethought. Because of her, it had come forth. The child asked to be given mind as a companion to work with, and the Spirit consented. When the invisible Spirit consented, mind appeared and stood by the anointed and glorified the Spirit and Barbello. All these beings came into existence in silence.
The Fall of Sophia. Now, Sophia, who is the wisdom of insight and who constitutes an eternal realm, conceived of a thought from herself with the conception of the invisible Spirit and foreknowledge. She wanted to bring forth something like herself, without the consent of the Spirit, who had not given approval, without her partner and without his consideration. The male did not give approval. She did not find her partner, and she considered this without the Spirit's consent and without the knowledge of her partner. Nonetheless, she gave birth. And because of the invincible power within her, her thought was not an idle thought. Something came out of her that was imperfect and different in appearance from her, for she had produced it without her partner. It did not resemble its mother and was misshapen. When Sophia saw what her desire had produced, it changed into the figure of a snake with the face of a lion. Its eyes were like flashing bolts of lightning. She cast it away from her, outside that realm, so that none of the immortals would see it. She had produced it ignorantly. She surrounded it with a bright cloud and put a throne in the middle of the cloud, so that no one would see it except the Holy Spirit, who was called the Mother of the Living. She named her offspring Yaldabaoth.
Yaldabaoth's World Order Yaldabaoth is the first ruler who took great power from his mother. Then he left her and moved away from the place where he was born. He took control and created for himself other realms with luminous fire, which still exist. Yaldabaoth stationed seven kings, one for each sphere of heaven, to reign over the seven heavens and five to reign over the depth of the abyss. He shared his fire with them, but he did not give away any of the power of the light that he had taken from his mother, for he is ignorant darkness. When light mixed with darkness, it made the darkness shine. When darkness mixed with light, it dimmed the light and became neither light nor darkness, but rather gloom. This gloomy ruler has three names. The first name is Yaldabaoth, the second is Sakhla, the third is Samael. He is wicked in his mindlessness that is in him. He said, I am God and there is no other God but me, since he did not know where his own strength had come from. The rulers created seven powers for themselves, and the powers created six angels apiece, until there were 365 angels. These are the names and the corresponding appearances. The seventh is Adonin and has the face of an ape. The seventh is Sabbataios and has a face of flaming fire. This is the sevenfold nature of the week.
When he saw creation surrounding him and the throng of angels around him who had come forth from him, he said to them, I am a jealous God and there is no other God beside me. But by announcing this, he suggested to the angels with him that there is another God, for if there were no other God, of whom would he be jealous?
Sophia repents. Then the mother began to move around. She realized that she was lacking something when the brightness of her light diminished. She grew dim because her partner had not collaborated with her. The arrogant one took power from his mother. He was ignorant, for he thought no one existed except his mother alone. When he saw the throng of angels he had created, he exalted himself over them. When the mother realized that the trappings of darkness had come into being imperfectly, she understood that her partner had not collaborated with her. She repented with many tears. The whole realm of fullness heard her prayer of repentance and offered praise on her behalf to the invisible virgin spirit, and the spirit consented. When the invisible spirit consented, the Holy Spirit poured upon her some of the fullness of all. For her partner did not come to her on his own, but he came to her through the realm of fullness so that he might restore what she lacked. She was taken up not to her own eternal realm, but to a position above her son. She was to remain in the ninth heaven until she restored what was lacking in herself.
The Human Appears
A voice called from the exalted heavenly realm. The human exists and the human child. The first ruler, Yaldabaoth, heard the voice and thought it had come from his mother. He did not realize its source. The holy, perfect mother-father, the first human who appeared in human shape. The entire realm of the first ruler quaked and the foundations of the abyss shook. The bottom of the waters above the material world was lighted by this image that had appeared. When the authorities and the first ruler stared, they saw the shape of the image in the water.
The Creation of Adam
Yaldabaoth said to the authorities with him, Come, let us create a human being after the image of God and with a likeness to ourselves, so that this human image may give us light.
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The Apocryphon of John, also called the Secret Book of John or the Secret Revelation of John, is a 2nd-century Sethian Gnostic Christian pseudepigraphical text attributed to John the Apostle. It is one of the texts addressed by Irenaeus in his Against Heresies, placing its composition before 180 AD. It is presented as describing Jesus appearing and giving secret knowledge (gnosis) to his disciple John. The author describes it as having occurred after Jesus had "gone back to the place from which he came".
Many second-century Christians, both Gnostic and orthodox, hoped to receive a transcendent personal revelation such as Paul the Apostle reported to the church at Corinth (2 Corinthians 12:1–4) or that John the Revelator experienced on the isle of Patmos, which inspired the Book of Revelation.[1] As Acts narrates what happened after the time Jesus ascended to heaven, so the Apocryphon of John begins at the same point but relates how Christ reappeared to John.
The opening words of the Secret Book of John are, "The teaching of the saviour, and the revelation of the mysteries and the things hidden in silence, even these things which he taught John, his disciple." The author John is immediately specified as "John, the brother of James—who are the sons of Zebedee." The remainder of the book is a vision of spiritual realms and of the prior history of spiritual humanity.
There are four separate surviving manuscripts of "The Secret Book of John". One was purchased in Egypt in 1896 (the Berlin Codex) and three were found in the Nag Hammadi codices discovered in 1945. All date to the 4th century and are Coptic translations from Greek. Three appear to have been independently produced. Two of the four are similar enough that they probably were copied from a single source.[2]
Although the different versions of the texts have minor variants (the Berlin Codex has many minor differences with Nag Hammadi II and IV), all texts generally agree on the assertion that the main revealing entity was Jesus.[citation needed]
A book called the Apocryphon of John was referred to by Irenaeus in Adversus Haereses, written about 185, among "an indescribable number of secret and illegitimate writings, which they themselves have forged, to bewilder the minds of foolish people, who are ignorant of the true scriptures"[3]—scriptures which Irenaeus himself helped to establish (see the canonical four). Among the writings he quotes from, in order to expose and refute them, are the Gospel of Truth, Gospel of Judas, and this secret book of John.[4]
Little more was known of this text until 1945, when a cache of thirteen papyrus codices (bound books) that had been hidden away in the 4th century, was fortuitously discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt (CG II). The Apocryphon of John was among the texts, in three Coptic versions translated from the Greek. Two of the versions are very similar and represent one manuscript tradition; they incorporate a lengthy excerpt from a certain Book of Zoroaster appended to the Apocryphon (as chapters 15:29 – 19:8f) A shorter version of the Apocryphon found at Nag Hammadi does not contain the interpolation and represents another manuscript tradition. Still another version of this short edition of the text was discovered in an ancient Coptic Codex acquired by Dr. Carl Reinhardt in Cairo in 1896. This manuscript (identified as the "Berlin Gnostic Codex" or BG 8502) was used along with the three versions found at Nag Hammadi to produce the translations now available. The fact that four manuscript "editions" of this text survived—two "long" versions and two "short" versions—suggests how important this text was in early gnostic Christian circles. In the three Nag Hammadi codices the Apocryphon of John appears always in the first version.
The Apocryphon, set in the framing device of a revelation delivered by the resurrected Christ to John the son of Zebedee, contains some of the most extensive detailing of classic dualistic Gnostic mythology that has survived; as one of the principal texts of the Nag Hammadi library, it is an essential text of study for anyone interested in Gnosticism. Frederick Wisse, who translated it, asserts that "The Apocryphon of John was still used in the eighth century by the Audians of Mesopotamia" (Wisse p 104).
The Apocryphon of John has become the central text for studying the gnostic tradition of Antiquity. The creation mythology it details has been studied by Carl Jung and Eric Voegelin.
There are currently four surviving copies of The Secret Revelation of John. They are largely the same in their basic structure and content. One notable difference between the codices is their individual length. The Berlin Codex and Nag Hammadi Codex III are shorter than the Nag Hammadi Codices II and IV. Another point of departure between codices is the portrayal of the Savior/Christ figure. The Berlin Codex generally uses the term “Christ” more frequently, whereas the Nag Hammadi Codex III narrative often substitutes the term “Lord” or “Savior”. However, the Nag Hammadi Codex III closes its text with the prayer “Jesus Christ, Amen.” An additional distinction, with regards to the Christian framing of the texts, is that Nag Hammadi Codex III goes into greater detail about the descent of the Christ/Savior figure into the prison-world of Demiurge and his role in facilitating the reawakening and liberation of mankind. These distinctions may represent a certain degree of variation in the way that Gnostic cosmology was woven into a Christian context.
Summary of the text and its cosmology
[edit]The following summary of the Apocryphon is derived from Wisse's translation.
The text begins with John describing his own state of grief and bewilderment after Christ's crucifixion. The Savior then appears, takes various forms, and after banishing John's fears, provides the following cosmological narrative.
The highest divine principle is the Monad. The Monad is described as a "monarchy with nothing above it". He is supreme, absolute, eternal, infinite, perfect, holy and self-sufficient. However, his transcendent ineffability is also emphasized. He is neither quantifiable nor can his qualities ever truly be described. The Monad exists in inconceivable perfection.
The Monad produces from his thought a feminine divine entity or principle named Barbelo. She is described as "the first thought", and the "image" of the Monad. While Barbelo is always referred to as a "she", she is also described as both the primordial mother and father. She is also regarded as "the first man", "Holy Spirit", "Mother/Father" and described in various terms of androgyny. She is the first of a class of beings referred to as the Aeons, and an exchange between herself and the Monad brings the other Aeons into being. Additionally, the properties of Light and Mind are born from the Monad's reflection on Barbelo. Light is synonymous with Christ, also called "Christ the Autogenes". The Light and the Mind engage in further creative activity, aided by and glorifying the superior principles of Barbelo and the Monad. Together, they bring forth further Aeons and powers.
Eventually, one of the Aeons, Sophia "of the Epinoia", disrupts the harmony of these processes by engaging in creative activity without the participation or consent of the Spirit of the Monad and without the aid of a male consort. The creative power of her thought produces an entity named Yaldabaoth, who is the first of a series of incomplete, demonic entities called the Archons. Yaldabaoth, whose character is malevolent and arrogant, also has a grotesque form. His head is that of a lion while he possesses a serpentine body. Recognizing the deformed, imperfect nature of her offspring, Sophia attempts to conceal it somewhere where the other Aeons will not discover it. The act of hiding Yaldabaoth also has the result that Yaldabaoth himself remains ignorant of the upper world and the other Aeons.
Despite the fact that Yaldabaoth possesses only a single parent and was created without the consent of the Spirit of the Monad, he is powerful enough to mimic the creative processes of the superior Aeons. He creates a whole host of other Archons, each of whom share his own basically deficient character, and creates a world for them to inhabit. This world is fundamentally inferior to the world above. It is fashioned out of darkness, but animated by light stolen from Sophia. The result is a world that is neither "light nor dark" but is instead "dim". In his arrogance and ignorance, Yaldabaoth declares himself the sole and jealous God of this realm.
Recognizing the imperfection of Yaldabaoth and his counterfeit world, Sophia repents. In forgiveness of her error, the Spirit of the Monad assists the other Aeons and powers in an attempt to redeem Sophia and her bastard creation. During this process Yaldabaoth and his Archons hear the voice of the Monad's Spirit. While they are terrified by the voice, its echo leaves a trace of an image of the Spirit on the "waters" that form the roof of their realm. Hoping to harness this power for themselves, they attempt to create a copy of this image. The end result of this process is the first human man, Adam.
Recognizing an opportunity to retrieve the light imprisoned in the darkness of Yaldabaoth and his world, Sophia and agents of the higher order, referred to variously as the "plenoria" or the "Epinoia", and later as the "pleroma", devise a scheme. They trick Yaldabaoth into blowing his own spiritual essence into Adam. This simultaneously animates Adam and empties Yaldabaoth of the portion of his being derived from Sophia.
Seeing the luminosity, intelligence and general superiority of the now animate Adam, Yaldabaoth and the Archons regret their creation and do their best to imprison or dispose of him. Failing to do so, they then attempt to neutralize him by placing him in the Garden of Eden. In this narrative, the Garden of Eden is a false paradise where the fruit of the trees is sin, lust, ignorance, confinement and death. While they give Adam access to the Tree of Life, they conceal the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. According to this narrative, the Tree of Knowledge actually represents the penetration of the positive forces of the higher world and the Epinoia into Yaldabaoth's realm.
At this point in the narrative, Christ reveals to John that it was he who caused Adam to consume the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Additionally, it is revealed that Eve is a helper sent by agents of the higher order to help liberate the light imprisoned in Yaldabaoth's creation and in Adam. She is created when Yaldabaoth attempts to draw the light out of Adam. This results in the creation of the female body. When Adam perceives her, he sees a reflection of his own essence and is freed from the bewitching power of Yaldabaoth.
The narrative then details Yaldabaoth's attempts to regain control over the essence of Light. His primary scheme is to initiate the activity of human reproduction, by which he hopes to create new human bodies inhabited by a counterfeit spirit. This counterfeit spirit allows Yaldabaoth and his agents to deceive the human race, keeping them in ignorance of their true nature, and is the primary means by which Yaldabaoth keeps humanity in subjugation. It is the source of all earthly evil and confusion, and causes people to die "not having found truth and without knowing the God of truth".
Following this revelation, the narrative then takes the form of a series of questions and answers between John and the Savior. These address a number of subjects, but are largely soteriological in nature. John asks Christ who is eligible for salvation, and Christ responds with the answer that those who come in contact with the true Spirit will receive salvation, while those who are dominated by the counterfeit spirit will receive damnation. Christ also reveals his own role as a liberating agent of the higher realm, in this context. Christ, who describes himself as the "remembrance of the Pronoia" and "the remembrance of the pleroma", brings light into the darkness of Yaldabaoth's prison. Here, he rouses the prisoners to wakefulness and remembrance. Those who receive and are woken by Christ's revelation are raised up and “sealed… in the light of the water with five seals”. They are thus spared from death and damnation. This aspect of Christ's role is elaborated on more fully by Nag Hammadi Codex III, whereas it is omitted from the Berlin Codex.
This concludes Christ's message. Finally, the savior states that anyone who shares these revelations for personal profit will be cursed. The Nag Hammadi Codex III version of the text ends with the prayer, "Jesus Christ, Amen".
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The Revelation of the Mysteries Hidden in Silence
[Those Things that He Taught to John, His Disciple]
Prologue
One day John, the brother of James [these are the sons of Zebedee], was going up to the Temple. A Pharisee by the name of Arimanios came up to him and challenged him, asking: "Where is the teacher you used to follow?"
John replied, "He has gone back to the place from which he came."
The Pharisee said, "That Nazarene misled you (plural), told you lies, closed your hearts and turned you away from your ancestral traditions.”
When I heard these things, I, John, turned away from the temple and went off to a deserted mountainous place. I was very unhappy, saying to myself:
"How was the Savior designated?
Why did his Father send him into the world?
Who is his Father?
What kind of realm will we go to?
For, although he told us, ‘This realm is modeled on the imperishable realm,’
He didn't teach us about the latter.”
All of a sudden, while I was contemplating these things,
Behold!
The heavens opened and the whole of creation shone with a light from above,
And the world quaked!
I was afraid, yet
Behold!
A little child appeared before me in the light.
I continued looking at him as he became an old man
And then he changed again, becoming like a young man.
I didn't understand what I was seeing,
But the one likeness had several forms in the light,
And these likenesses appeared each through the other
And the vision had three forms.
He said to me,
“John, why doubt?
Why be afraid?
Don’t you know this image?
Be not afraid.
I am with you (plural) always.
I am the Father
The Mother
The Son
I am the incorruptible
Purity.
I have come to teach you
About what is
And what was
And what will be
In order for you to understand
The invisible world
And the world that is visible
And the immovable race of perfect humanity.
Raise your head;
Understand my lessons;
Share them with any others who have received the spirit,
Who are from the immovable race of perfect humanity.”
The Inexpressible One
The One rules all. Nothing has authority over it.
It is the God.
It is Father of everything,
Holy One
The invisible one over everything.
It is uncontaminated
Pure light no eye can bear to look within.
The One is the Invisible Spirit.
It is not right to think of it as a God or as like God.
It is more than just God.
Nothing is above it.
Nothing rules it.
Since everything exists within it
It does not exist within anything.
Since it is not dependent on anything
It is eternal.
It is absolutely complete and so needs nothing.
It is utterly perfect
Light.
The One is without boundaries
Nothing exists outside of it to border it
The One cannot be investigated
Nothing exists apart from it to investigate it
The One cannot be measured
Nothing exists external to it to measure it
The One cannot be seen
For no one can envision it
The One is eternal
For it exists forever
The One is inconceivable
For no one can comprehend it
The One is indescribable
For no one can put any words to it.
The One is infinite light
Purity
Holiness
Stainless,
The One is incomprehensible
Perfectly free from corruption.
Not “perfect”
Not “blessed”
Not “divine”
But superior to such concepts.
Neither physical nor unphysical
Neither immense nor infinitesimal
It is impossible to specify in quantity or quality
For it is beyond knowledge.
The One is not a being among other beings
It is vastly superior
But it is not “superior.”
It is outside of realms of being and time
For whatever is within realms of being was created
And whatever is within time had time allotted to it
The One receives nothing from anything.
It simply apprehends itself in its own perfect light
The One is majestic.
The One is measureless majesty
Chief of all Realms
Producing all realms
Light
Producing light
Life
Producing life
Blessedness
Producing blessedness
Knowledge
Producing knowledge
Good
Producing goodness
Mercy
Producing mercy
Generous
Producing generosity
[It does not “possess” these things.]
It gives forth light beyond measure, beyond comprehension.
[What can I say?]
His realm is eternal, peaceful, silent, resting, before everything.
He is the head of every realm sustaining each of them through goodness.
The Origin of Reality
[We would know nothing of the ineffable
And nothing of the immeasurable
Without the help of the one who comes forth
from the One who is the Father.
He alone has informed us.]
The Father is surrounded by light.
He apprehends himself in that light
[which is the pure spring of the water of life
that sustains all realms].
He is conscious of his image everywhere around him,
Perceiving his image in this spring of Spirit
Pouring forth from himself.
He is enamored of the image he sees in the light-water,
The spring of pure light-water enveloping him.
His self-aware thought (ennoia) came into being.
Appearing to him in the effulgence of his light.
She stood before him.
This, then, is the first of the powers, prior to everything.
Arising out of the mind of the Father
The Providence (pronoia) of everything.
Her light reflects His light.
She is from His image in His light
Perfect in power
Image of the invisible perfect Virgin Spirit.
She is the initial power
glory of Barbelo
glorious among the realms
glory of revelation
She gave glory to the Virgin Spirit
She praised Him
For she arose from Him.
[This, the first Thought, is the Spirit’s image]
She is the universal womb
She is before everything
She is:
Mother-Father
First Man
Holy Spirit
Thrice Male
Thrice Powerful
Thrice Named
Androgynous eternal realm
First to arise among the invisible realms.
She, Barbelo, asked the virgin Spirit for foreknowledge (prognosis).
The Spirit agreed.
Foreknowledge came forth and stood by Providence
[This one came through the Invisible Virgin Spirit’s Thought.]
Foreknowledge gave glory to the Spirit
And to Barbelo, the Spirit’s perfect power,
For She was the reason that it had come into being.
Primary Structures of the Divine Mind
She, Barbelo, asked the virgin Spirit for Incorruptibility
The Spirit agreed.
Incorruptibility came forth and stood by Thought and Foreknowledge.
Incorruptibility gave glory to the Invisible Virgin Spirit
And to Barbelo,
For She was the reason that it had come into being.
She asked for everlasting Life.
The Spirit agreed
Everlasting life came forth and they all stood together.
They gave glory to the invisible Spirit
And to Barbelo,
For She was the reason that it had come into being.
She asked for Truth.
The Spirit agreed
Truth came forth and they all stood together.
They gave glory to the invisible Spirit
And to Barbelo,
For She was the reason that it had come into being.
This is the fivefold realm of the Father:
The First Man who is
The Image of the Invisible Spirit who is
Providence who is
Barbelo who is
Thought.
And
Foreknowledge - Incorruptibility - Life Everlasting - Truth
[These are an androgynous fivefold realm - therefore it is a realm of ten - of the Father.]
Secondary Structures of the Divine Mind
The Father looked into Barbelo
[into the pure light surrounding the Invisible Spirit]
Barbelo conceived and bore a spark of light
Who had blessedness similar to, but not equal to, her blessedness,
Who was the only child of that mother–father
The only offspring,
The only begotten child of the pure light, the Father.
The Invisible Virgin Spirit celebrated the light that had been produced
Coming forth from the first power who is
The Providence
Barbelo
The Spirit anointed him with Goodness, making him perfect
[he lacked no goodness whatsoever,
for he was anointed with the Invisible Spirit’s Goodness]
He stood in the Spirit’s presence and it was poured upon him.
Having received this anointing from the Spirit he immediately glorified Him
And he glorified the perfect Providence.
Because of Her he had come into being.
He asked for Mind (nous) to be a companion to him.
The Spirit consented
When the Invisible Spirit consented
Mind came into being.
It stood by the Anointed
and glorified the Spirit and Barbelo
[These beings came into existence through silence and thought.]
He wished to act through the Word of the Invisible Spirit.
Whose Will became an action and appeared with Mind
Glorifying the Light.
And then Word followed Will into being.
[The Christ, the divine autogenes,
created everything through the Word.]
Everlasting Life and Will,
Mind, and Foreknowledge
Stood together.
They glorified the Invisible Spirit and Barbelo.
Because of Her they had come into being.
Tertiary Structures of the Divine Mind
The Holy Spirit
Brought his and Barbelo’s divine autogenes Son to completion
In order that he could stand before the great Invisible Virgin Spirit
As the divine autogenes Christ
And honor Him with a mighty voice.
[The Son came through Providence].
The Invisible Spirit
Placed the divine autogenes over everything.
All authorities were subordinated to him.
The truth within him let him learn everything
[He is called by the highest name of all.
That name will be told only to those who are worthy to hear it
From the light, [which is the Christ,]
From the incorruptibility,
Through a gift of the spirit
The Four Lights arising from the divine autogenes stood before him.
[The four fundamental powers are Understanding, Grace, Perception, and Consideration.]
Grace exists within the realm of the Light called Harmozel, the first angel.
Along with Harmozel are
Grace
Truth
Form
The second Light is called Oriel and it stands over the second realm.
With Oriel are:
Conceptualization (Epinoia)
Perception
Memory
The third Light is called Daveithai and it stands over the third realm.
With Daveithai are:
Understanding
Love
Idea
The fourth Light is called Eleleth and it stands over the fourth realm.
With Eleleth are:
Perfection
Peace
Wisdom (Sophia).
These are the four lights standing before the divine autogenes.
Twelve realms stand before the Son of the Powerful
The autogenes
The Christ
Through the intention
And the grace
Of the Invisible Spirit
Twelve realms belong to the Son of the autogenes.
[All of this came into being through the intention of the Holy Spirit
Through the autogenes.]
From the perfect mind’s foreknowledge
Through the intention of the Invisible Spirit
And the autogenes’s will.
The perfect human appeared,
Its first true manifestation
The Virgin Spirit named the human Adamas
And placed him over the first realm with the mighty autogenes Christ
With the first Light Harmozel and its powers.
The Invisible One gave Adamas invincible power of mind.
Adamas spoke, glorifying and praising the Invisible Spirit:
“Everything has come into being from you
Everything will return to you.
I will praise you and glorify you
And the Autogenes
And the triple realm:
Father – Mother – Son,
the perfect power.”
Over the second realm was appointed Adamas’s son Seth
With the second Light Oriel.
In the third realm were placed the children of Seth
With the third Light Daveithai.
[The souls of the saints are placed there.]
In the fourth realm were placed the souls of those ignorant of the fullness
Those who did not repent at once
But who, after some time, eventually repented,
They are with the fourth Light Eleleth.
All of these created beings glorify the Invisible Spirit
A Crisis that Became the World
It happened that the realm (aeon) Wisdom (Sophia)
Of conceptual thought (Epinoia),
Began to think for herself,
She used the thinking (enthymesis)
And the foreknowledge (prognosis)
Of the Invisible Spirit.
She intended to reveal an image from herself
To do so without the consent of the Spirit,
Who did not approve,
Without the thoughtful assistance of her masculine counterpart,
Who did not approve.
Without the Invisible Spirit’s consent
Without the knowledge of her partner
She brought it into being.
Because she had unconquerable Power
Her thought was not unproductive.
Something imperfect came out of her
Different in appearance from her.
Because she had created it without her masculine counterpart
She gave rise to a misshapen being unlike herself.
Sophia saw what her desire produced.
It changed into the form of a dragon with a lion’s head
And eyes flashing lightning bolts.
She cast him far from her,
Outside of the realm of the immortal beings
So that they could not see him.
[She had created him in ignorance.]
Sophia surrounded him with a brilliant cloud,
Put a throne in the center part of the cloud
So that no one would see it.
[Except for the Holy Spirit called the Mother of the Living]
She named him Yaldabaoth.
Yaldabaoth is the chief ruler.
He took great Power (dynamis) from his mother,
Left her, and moved away from his birthplace.
He assumed command,
Created realms for himself
With a brilliant flame that continues to exist even now.
The Fashioning of This World
Yadabaoth united with the thoughtlessness (aponoia) within him.
He begot ruling authorities (exousia)
Modeling them on the incorruptible realms above.
The first is Athoth
The second is Harmas [called the eye of flame]
The third is Kalilaumbri
The fourth is Yabel
The fifth is Adonaiu [called Sabaoth]
The sixth is Cain [called the sun]
The seventh is Abel
The eighth is Abrisene
The ninth is Yobel
The tenth is Armupiel
The eleventh is Melcheir-adonein
The twelfth is Belias
Who rules over the very depth of Hades.
He made the first seven rulers to reign in the seven spheres of heaven.
He made the next five rulers to reign in the five depths of the abyss.
He shared a portion of his fire with them,
But shared none of the power of Light he had received from his mother.
[He is ignorant darkness.
When the Light mingled into the darkness
the darkness shone.
When darkness mixed with the Light,
the Light diminished,
No longer Light nor darkness but dim.]
This dim ruler has three names:
Yaldabaoth is the first.
Saklas is the second.
Samael is the third.
He is blasphemous through his thoughtlessness.
He said “I am God, and there is no God but me!”
Since he didn’t know where his own Power originated.
His rulers created seven Authorities for themselves.
Each of these Authorities created six demons apiece,
There came to be 365 demons altogether.
Here are the seven Authorities’ names and physical forms:
First, Athoth with a sheep’s face
Second, Eloaios with a donkey’s face
Third, Astaphaios with a hyena’s face
Fourth, Yao with the face of a seven headed snake
Fifth, Sabaoth who has the face of a dragon
Sixth, Adonin whose face is that of a monkey
Seventh, Sabbataios with a face of flame and fire.
These are the seven of the week.
These Authorities rule the world.
Yaldabaoth has many faces.
More than all that have been listed
So he can convey any face he wants to the seraphim around him.
Yaldabaoth shared his fire with his seraphim
But gave them none of his pure Light
Although he ruled them by virtue of the power and glory
Of the Light had received from his Mother.
[Therefore he called himself “God” and defied his place of origin.]
He united his thought’s sevenfold Powers with the Authorities who accompanied him.
He spoke and it happened.
He named those sevenfold Powers starting with the highest one:
Goodness paired with the first: Athoth
Providence paired with the second: Eloaios
Divinity paired with the third: Astaphaios
Lordship paired with the fourth: Yao
Kingdom paired with the fifth: Sabaoth
Zeal paired with the sixth: Adonin
Understanding paired with the seventh: Sabbataios
Each has its own realm modeled on one of the higher realms.
And each new name refers to a glory in the heavens
So that Yaldabaoth’s demons might be destroyed.
The demons’ own names, given by Yaldabaoth, are mighty names
But the Powers’ names reflecting the glory above
Will bring about the demons’ destruction and remove their Power.
That is why each has two names.
Yaldabaoth modeled his creation
On the pattern of the original realms above him
So that it might be just like the indestructible realms.
[Not that he had ever seen the indestructible ones.
Rather, the power in him, deriving from his mother,
made him aware of the pattern of the cosmos above.]
When he gazed upon his creation surrounding him
He said to his host of demons
The ones who had come forth out of him:
“I am a jealous God and there is no God but me!”
[But by doing this he admitted to his demons that there is indeed another God.
For, if there were no other God, whom would he possibly be jealous of?]
His mother began to move back and forth
Because she had become aware that she now lacked Light
For her brightness had dimmed.
[Since her consort had not approved of her actions, she grew darker]
[I said “Master, what does it mean ‘she moved back and forth’?”
He laughed, saying, “It’s not as Moses said ‘upon the waters.’ Not at all.”]
When she saw the evil that had taken place and
The theft of light that her son had committed
She repented.
In the darkness of ignorance
She began to forget.
She began to be ashamed.
But she could not yet return above
Yet she began to move.
And so she moved back and forth.
[The arrogant one removed Power from his mother
For he was ignorant
He thought no one existed except for his mother.
He saw the host of demons he had created
And he elevated himself above them.
But when the mother realized that that miscarriage
Was so imperfect
She came to realize that her consort had not approved.
She repented and wept furiously.]
All of the divine realms (pleroma) heard her repentant prayer
They sought blessing for her from the Invisible Virgin Spirit.
The Spirit consented.
He poured the Holy Spirit over her
Brought forth from the whole full realm.
[Her consort did not come down to her on his own,
but he came through the whole full realm
to restore her to her original condition.]
She was elevated above her son,
But she was not restored to her own original realm.
She would remain in the ninth sphere until she was fully restored.
Humanity Begins
Then came a voice from the highest realms saying:
“The Man exists! And the Son of Man!”
Yaldabaoth, chief ruler, heard it
He thought it came from his mother
He did not know the true source of the voice:
The Holy Mother-Father
Perfect Providence
Image of the Invisible
Father of Everything
In whom everything has come to be.
The First Man
[This is the one who appeared to them.
He appeared in the form of a human being.]
All of the realm of the chief ruler quaked!
The foundations of the abyss moved!
He illuminated the waters above the world of matter,
His image shown in those waters.
All the demons and the first ruler together gazed up
Toward the underside of the newly shining waters.
Through that light they saw the Image in the waters.
Yaldabaoth said to his subordinate demons:
“Let’s create a man according to the image of God
And our own likeness
So that his image will illuminate us.”
Each one through another’s Power created aspects of the man;
Each added a characteristic corresponding to the psychic factors
They had seen in the Image above them.
They made a creature of substance
In the likeness of that perfect First Man
And they said, “Let us call him Adam, so that his name will give us the power of light.”
Construction of the Human Body
The seven Powers began to work:
. Goodness made a psyche of bone
Providence made a psyche of sinew
Divinity made a psyche of flesh
Lordship made a psyche of marrow
Kingdom made a psyche of blood
Zeal made a psyche of skin
Understanding made a psyche of hair
The host of demons took these substances from the Powers to create the limbs and the body itself. They put the parts together and coordinated them.
The first ones began by making the head: Abron created his head; Meniggesstroeth created the brain; Asterechme the right eye; Thaspomocha, the left eye; Ieronumos, the right ear; Bissoum, the left ear; Akioreim, the nose; Banenrphroum, the lips; Amen, the front teeth; Ibikan, the molars; Basiliademe, the tonsils; Achcha, the uvula; Adaban, the neck; Chaaman, the neckbones; Dearcho, the throat; Tebar, the shoulder; Mniarcon, the elbow; Abitrion, the right arm; Evanthen, the left arm; Krys, the right hand; Beluai, the left hand; Treneu, the fingers of the right hand; Balbel, the fingers of the left hand; Kriman, fingernails; Astrops, the right breast; Barroph, the left breast; Baoum, the right shoulder joint; Ararim, the left shoulder joint; Areche, the belly; Phthave, the navel; Senaphim, the abdomen; Arachethopi, the right ribs; Zabedo, the left ribs; Barias, the right hip; Phnouth the left hip; Abenlenarchei, the marrow; Chnoumeninorin, the skeleton; Gesole, the stomach; Agromauna, the heart; Bano, the lungs; Sostrapal, the liver; Anesimalar, the spleen; Thopithro, the intestines; Biblo, the kidneys; Roeror, the sinews; Taphreo, the spine; Ipouspoboba, the veins; Bineborin, the arteries; Atoimenpsephei, respiration; Entholleia, the flesh; Bedouk, the right buttock; Arabeei, the penis; Eilo, the testicles; Sorma, the genitals; Gormakaiochlabar, the right thigh; Nebrith, the left thigh; Pserem, the kidneys of the right leg; Asaklas, the left kidney; Ormaoth, the right leg; Emenun, the left leg; Knyx, the right shin; Tupelon, the left shin; Achiel, the right knee; Phnene, the left knee; Phiouthrom, the right foot; Boabel, its toes; Trachoun, the left foot; Phikna, its toes; Miamai, the toenails.
And those who were appointed over all of these are:
Zathoth,
Armas,
Kalila,
Iabel,
Sabaoth,
Cain,
Abel.
The energizing powers in the limbs were divided among:
the head made by Diolimodraza; the neck by Yammeax; the right shoulder Yakouib; the left shoulder Verton; the right hand Oudidi; the left Arbao; the fingers of the right hand Lampno; the fingers of the left hand Leekaphar; the right breast Barbar; the left breast Imae; the chest Pisandriaptes; the right shoulder joint Koade; the left shoulder joint Odeor; the right ribs Asphixix; the left ribs Synogchouta; the abdomen Arouph; the womb Sabalo; the right thigh Charcharb; the left thigh Chthaon; the genitals Bathinoth; the right leg Choux; the left leg Charcha; the right shin Aroer; the left shin Toechtha; the right knee Aol; the left knee Charaner; the right foot Bastan; its toes Archentechtha; the left foot Marephnounth; its toes Abrana.
Seven govern the whole body:
Michael,
Ouriel,
Asmenedas,
Saphasatoel,
Aarmouriam,
Richram,
Amiorps.
The one who governs perceptions: Archendekta
The one who governs reception: Deitharbathas
The one who governs imagination: Oummaa
The one who governs integration: Aachiaram
The one who governs impulse: Riaramnacho.
There is a fourfold source of the bodily demons:
Hot, Cold, Dry, Wet.
[Matter is the mother of them all.]
Ruler of hot: Phloxopha
Ruler of cold: Oroorrothos
Ruler of dry: Erimacho
Ruler of wet: Athuro.
Their mother stands among them: Onorthochrasaei
She is unlimited
She mixes with all of them.
She is matter
And they are nourished by her.
The four chief demons are:
Ephememphi, associated with pleasure,
Yoko, associated with desire,
Nenentophni, associated with distress,
Blaomen, associated with fear.
Their mother is Esthesis-Zouch-Epi-Ptoe.
Out from these four demons come passions:
From distress arises
Envy, jealousy, grief, vexation,
Discord, cruelty, worry, mourning.
From pleasure comes much evil
And unmerited pride,
And so forth.
From desire comes
Anger, fury, bitterness, outrage, dissatisfaction
And so forth.
From fear emerges
Horror, flattery, suffering, and shame.
[Their thought and truth is Anayo, the ruler of the material soul.
It belongs with the seven senses, Esthesis-Zouch-Epi-Ptoe.]
This is the total number of the demons: 365
They worked together to complete, part by part, the psychical and the material body.
There are even more of them in charge of other passions
That I didn’t tell you about.
If you want to know about them
You will find the information in the Book of Zoroaster.
All of Yaldabaoth’s servants and his demons
Worked to finish the psychic body.
For a very long time it lay inanimate
It did not move.
Yaldabaoth’s mother wanted to take back the Power
She had turned over to the Chief Ruler.
She earnestly asked the most merciful,
The Mother-Father of everything,
For help.
Yaldabaoth Deceived
By His sacred command He sent down the five Lights
In the forms of the principal advisors to Yaldabaoth.
[This led to the removal of Yaldabaoth’s mother’s divine Power from him.]
They told Yaldabaoth:
“Blow some of your Spirit in the man’s face,
Then his body will rise up.”
Yaldabaoth blew some of his Spirit into the man.
That Spirit was the divine Power of his mother.
[He didn’t understand what was happening, for he lived in ignorance.]
His mother’s divine Power left Yaldabaoth
It entered the psychic human body
Modeled on the primordial image.
The human body moved!
It grew powerful!
It shone!
Yaldabaoth’s demonic forces envied the man.
Through their united efforts he had come into being
They had given their Power to him.
His understanding was far greater than that of those who had created him.
And greater than that of the Chief Ruler himself.
When they realized that he shone with light
And could think better than they could
And was naked of evil,
They took him and cast him down
Into the lowest depths of the material world.
The Beginning of Salvation
The blessed one.
The Mother-Father
The good merciful one
Looked compassionately upon the Mother’s Power
Relinquished by the Chief Ruler.
Since Yaldabaoth’s demons might again overpower the perceptible psychic body
He sent down from his good Spirit a helper for Adam,
Out of his great compassion
A light-filled Epinoia emerged.
And he called her Life (Zoe).
She aids the entire creation
Working with him
Restoring him to the fullness.
She taught Adam about the way his people had descended
She taught Adam about the way he could ascend,
Which is the way he had descended.
The light-filled Epinoia was hidden in Adam.
So that the rulers wouldn’t know about her
For Epinoia would repair the disaster their mother had caused.
[Adam was revealed because within him dwelt the shadow of light.
His mental abilities were far greater than those of his creators.
They had gazed upward and seen his exalted mental capability.]
The host of rulers and demons plotted together
They mixed fire and earth and water
Together with four blazing winds
They melded them together in great turbulence.
Adam was brought into the shadow of death.
They intended to make him anew
This time from
Earth,
Water,
Fire,
Wind,
Which are
Matter,
Darkness,
Desire,
The Artificial Spirit.
This all became a tomb,
A new kind of body.
Those thieves bound the man in it,
Enchained him in forgetfulness,
Made him subject to dying.
[His was the first descent
And the first separation.
Yet the light-filled Epinoia within him will elevate his thinking.]
Adam in Yaldabaoth's Paradise
The rulers took the man and put him into paradise
They told him to eat freely.
[Their food is bitter; their beauty is corrupt.
Their food is deceit; their trees are ungodliness.
Their fruit is poison.
Their promise is death.]
They placed the Tree of Their Life into the middle of paradise.
[I will teach you (plural) the secret of their life:
The plan that they made together about an artificial spirit.]
Its root is bitter
Its branches are dead.
Its shadow is hatred
Its leaves are deception
The nectar of wickedness is in its blossoms.
Its fruit is death
Its seed is desire
It flowers in the darkness.
Those who eat from it are denizens of Hades
Darkness is their resting place.
As for the tree called “The Knowledge Of Good And Evil”
It is the Epinoia of the light.
They commanded him not to eat from it,
Standing in front to conceal it,
For fear that he might look upwards to the fullness
And know the nakedness of his indecency.
[However, I caused them to eat.
I asked the Savior,
“Lord, isn’t it the serpent that caused Adam to eat?”
He smiled and replied,
“The serpent caused them to eat
in order to produce the wickedness of the desire to reproduce
that would make Adam helpful to him.”]
The chief ruler, Yaldabaoth, knew that
Because the light-filled Epinoia within Adam
Made his mental abilities greater than his own,
Adam had been disobedient.
In order to recover the Power that he had put into Adam
Yaldabaoth made Adam completely forgetful.
[I asked the Savior, “What is it to be ‘completely forgetful?’”
He replied, “It is not what Moses wrote in his first book:
‘He caused Adam to fall into deep sleep’
Rather, Adam’s perceptions were veiled
And he became unconscious.
As he (Yaldabaoth) said through his prophet:
'I will make their minds dull so that they do not see or understand.'”]
Woman Comes into Being
The light-filled Epinoia hid deep within Adam.
The Chief Ruler tried to remove her from his ribcage,
But Epinoia cannot be captured.
Although the darkness pursued her it did not catch her.
The Chief ruler did remove a portion of his Power from Adam
To create a person with a woman’s form
Modeled on the light-filled Epinoia that had been manifested to him.
He placed the Power removed from the man into the woman.
[It did not happen the way Moses said it did:
“he took a rib and made the woman.”]
Adam saw the woman standing next to him.
The light-filled Epinoia immediately appeared to him
She raised up the veil that dulled his mind.
He sobered up from the dark drunkenness
And he recognized his own counterpart.
He said: “This is bone from my bones
Flesh from my flesh.”
Because of this a man will leave his mother and father
And be joined to a woman and those two will become one flesh.
For they will send his helper to him.
[Sophia, our sister, came down
Descending innocently
So as to regain what she had lost.
Therefore she was called Life.
The Mother of the Living
The one from the Providence of the Authority of Heaven
By her assistance people can achieve perfect knowledge.]
I appeared as an eagle perched on the Tree of Knowledge!
[Which is the Epinoia from the pure Providence of Light.]
In order to teach them
And raise them up from sleep’s depths.
[For the two of them were fallen and aware of their nakedness.
Epinoia appeared as a being full of light
She enlightened their minds.]
When Yaldabaoth discovered that they had moved away from him
He cursed his earth.
He located the woman as she was preparing herself for her man.
He gave the woman over so that the man might be her master,
Because he did not know the secret of the divine strategy.
The man and woman were too terrified to renounce Yaldabaoth,
Who showed his ignorance to his angels
And he cast both of them out of paradise
Dressing them in heavy darkness.
The Chief Archon saw the young woman who was standing by Adam.
He realized that the light-filled Epinoia of life was within her.
Yaldabaoth became completely ignorant.
[When the Providence of all saw what was going to happen
She sent assistants to remove Divine Life from Eve.]
Yaldabaoth raped Eve.
She bore two sons.
[Elohim was the name of the first.
Yahweh was the name of the second.
Elohim has a bear’s face.
Yahweh has a cat’s face.
One is righteous;
One is not.
Yahweh is righteous;
Elohim is not.
Yahweh would command fire and wind
Elohim would command water and earth.]
Yaldabaoth deceptively named the two: Cain and Abel.
[From then until now sexual intercourse has persisted
Thanks to the Chief Ruler
Who put desire for reproduction into the woman who accompanies Adam.
Through intercourse the Ruler caused new human bodies to be produced
And he blew his artificial spirit into each of them.]
Yaldabaoth installed the two with authority over natural elements
So they can to rule over the tomb.
The Children of Seth Populate the World
Adam had intercourse with the image of his foreknowledge (prognosis)
He begot a son like the Son of Man
And he called that son Seth
Modeling him on the heavenly race in the higher realms.
In the same way the mother sent down her spirit
The image of herself
A model of the full higher realm,
In order to prepare a place for the descent of the realms.
The Chief Ruler, though, forced the humans to drink
From waters of forgetfulness
So that they might not know their true place of origin.
The children (of Seth) remained in this condition for a while
In order that when the Spirit descends from the holy realms
The Spirit can raise up the children and heal them from all defects
And thus restore complete holiness to the fullness of God.
Six Questions about the Soul
I asked the Savior, “Lord, will every soul be saved and enter the pure light?”
He replied, “You are asking an important question, one it will be impossible to answer for anyone who is not a member of the unmoved race. They are the people upon whom the Spirit of Life will descend and the power will enable them to be saved and to become perfect and worthy of greatness. They expunge evil from themselves and they will care nothing for wickedness, wanting only that which is not corrupt. They will achieve freedom from rage, envy, jealousy, desire, or craving.”
“The physical body will negatively effect them. They wear it as they look forward to the time when they will meet up with those who will remove it. Those people deserve indestructible eternal life. They endure everything, bearing up under everything that happens so that they can deserve the good and inherit life eternal.”
Then I asked him, “Lord, what about the souls who didn’t do these things even though the Spirit of Life’s power descended on them?“
He answered, “If the Spirit descends to people they will be transformed and saved. The power descends on everyone and, without it, no one can even stand up. After they are born, if the Spirit of Life increases in them, power comes to them and their souls are strengthened. Nothing then can leave them astray into wickedness. But if the artificial spirit comes into people, it leads them astray.”
Then I said, “Lord, when souls come out of the flesh where do they go?”
He replied, smiling, “If the soul is strong it has more of power than it has of the artificial spirit and so it flees from wickedness. With the assistance of the Incorruptible One that soul is saved and it attains eternal rest.”
I then asked him, “Lord, what of the souls of the people who do not know whose people they are? Where do they go?”
He responded, “In those people the artificial spirit has grown strong and they have gone astray. Their souls are burdened, drawn to wickedness, and cast into forgetfulness.”
“When they come forth from the body, such a soul is given over to the powers created by the rulers, bound in chains, and cast into prison again. Around and around it goes until it manages to become free from forgetfulness through knowledge. And so, eventually, it becomes perfect and is saved.”
Then I asked, “Lord, how does the soul shrink down so as to be able to enter its mother or a man?
He was happy that I asked this and said, “You are truly blessed because you have understood. The soul should be guided by another within whom is the Spirit of Life. It will be saved by that means and accordingly will not have to enter a body again.
And I said, “Lord, what happens to the souls of people who achieved true knowledge, but who turned away from it?”
He said to me, “Demons of poverty will take them to a place where there is no possibility of repentance. There they will stay until the time when those who blasphemed against the spirit will be tortured and subjected to punishment forever.”
I asked, “Lord, where did the artificial spirit come from?”
And he told me:
Three Plots against Humanity
The Mother-Father is merciful
A Holy Spirit sympathizing with us.
Through the Epinoia of the Providence of the light
It raises up the children of the perfect race
Raising up their thought, their light eternal.
When the Chief Archon learned that they were elevated above him
And that their mental ability surpassed his
He wanted to put a stop to their thought
But he did not know the extent of their mental superiority
And he could not stop them.
He made a plan with his demons
Who are his powers
Each of them fornicated with Wisdom (Sophia)
And produced fate
The last variety of imprisonment.
Fate changes unpredictably
It is of different sorts just as the demons are of different sorts.
Fate is hard.
Fate is stronger than
The gods, the authorities, the demons, the generations of people
Who are caught up in it.
Out of fate emerged
Sinfulness, violence, blasphemy, forgetfulness, ignorance,
Weighty commandments
Heavy sins
Terrible fear.
In this way all of creation became blind,
Ignorant of God above everything.
Because of imprisonment in forgetfulness
They are unaware of their sins,
They are bound into periods of time and seasons
By fate who is lord of it all.
Yaldabaoth eventually came to regret everything he had created.
He decided to bring a great flood
Upon creation, upon mankind.
But the great light of Providence warned Noah.
He preached to all of the children,
The sons of men,
But if they were strangers to him they didn’t listen.
[It was not the way Moses said: “they hid in an ark.”
Rather, they hid in a special place,
Not just Noah
but also many other people from the immovable race.
They went into hiding within a cloud of light.]
Noah knew his own authority
And that of the light Being who illuminated them
Although the Chief Ruler poured darkness over all the world.
The Chief Ruler and his powers plotted a strategy,
To send his demons to human daughters
And make themselves children by them to enjoy.
But they failed.
After their failure they made another plan.
They created an artificial spirit
Modeled on the Spirit who descended
So, to impregnate souls by means of this spirit,
The demons changed appearance
to look like the women’s husbands
They filled the women with that spirit of darkness and wickedness.
They brought into being
Gold and silver,
Money and coins,
Iron and other metals and all things of this sort.
And the people who were attracted were led astray into troubles
And were greatly misled.
And grew old
Experiencing no pleasure,
And died
Finding no truth,
Never knowing the true God.
This is the way that they enslaved all of creation
From the foundation of the world until now.
[They took some women and produced children out of darkness
And they closed their hearts
And they hardened themselves
in the hardness of their artificial spirit
Until the present day.]
The Providence Hymn
I am the Providence of everything.
I became like my own human children.
I existed from the first.
I walked down every possible road.
I am the wealth of the light.
I am the remembering of the fullness.
I walked into the place of greatest darkness and on down.
I entered the central part of the prison.
The foundations of chaos quaked.
I hid because of their evil.
They did not recognize me.
I came down a second time
continuing on.
I emerged from among those of light
I am the remembering of Providence
I entered the middle of darkness,
The inner part of the underworld
To pursue my mission.
The foundations of chaos quaked.
Threatening to collapse upon all who were there
And utterly destroy them
I soared upward again
To my roots in light
So as not to destroy them all yet.
I descended a third time.
I am light
I am dwelling in light
I am the remembering of Providence
I entered the midst of darkness
I came to the deepest part of the underworld.
I let my face light up
Thinking of the end of their time
I entered their prison
The body is that prison
I cried out:
“Anyone who hears,
Rise up from your deep sleep!”
And the sleeping one awoke and wept
Wiping bitter tears saying
“Who calls me?”
“Where has my hope come from
As I lie in the depths of this prison?”
“I am the Providence of pure light,” I replied,
“I am the thought of the Virgin Spirit
Raising you up to an honored place.
Rise up!
Remember what you have heard.
Trace back your roots
To me.
The merciful one.
Guard against the poverty demons.
Guard against the chaos demons.
Guard against all who would bind you.
Awaken!
Stay awake!
Rise out of the depths of the underworld!
I raised him up
I sealed him with the light/water of the five seals.
Death had no power over him ever again.
I ascend again to the perfect realm.
I completed everything and you have heard it.”
Conclusion
“I have told you everything now so that you can write it all down
And share it with your fellow spirits secretly
For this is the mystery of the unmoved race.”
The Savior gave all of this to him to write and to keep carefully. He said to him, “Anyone who exchanges it for a present, or for food, or for drink, or for clothing, or for anything else of that sort will be cursed.”
These things came to John in a mystery.
Instantly the Savior vanished.
John came to his fellow disciples and told them what the Savior had said to him.
Jesus the Christ.
Amen.