- Adam in Yaldabaoth’s Paradise
- Woman Comes into Being
- The Children of Seth Populate the World
- Six Questions about the Soul
- Three Plots Against Humanity
- The Providence Hymn
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.
The Apocryphon of John
