The library · Edition and sources
The Gospel of Truth
Mark M. Mattison, public-domain web translation · Translated text
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The Book of the Living
Now those who will receive teaching [are] the living who are written in the Book of the Living. They receive teaching about themselves, and they receive it from the Father, returning to him again.
Since the completion of all is in the Father, it’s necessary for all to go up to him. Then, if someone has knowledge, they receive what are their own, and he draws them to himself, because the one who’s ignorant is in need. And it’s a great need, since they need what will complete them. Since the completion of all is in the Father, it’s necessary for all to go up to him, and for each one to receive what are their own. He inscribed these things beforehand, having prepared them to give to those who came out from him.
Those whose names he knew beforehand were called at the end, so that the one who has knowledge is the one whose name the Father has called, because those whose name hasn’t been spoken are ignorant. Indeed, how can someone hear if their name hasn’t been called? For the one who’s ignorant until the end is a delusion of forgetfulness, and they’ll dissolve with it. Otherwise, why do these miserable ones have no 22 name? Why do they have no voice?
So if someone has knowledge, they’re from above. If they’re called, they hear, they reply, and they turn to the one who calls them. And they go up to him, and they know how they are called. Having knowledge, they do the will of the one who called them, they want to please him, and they receive rest. Each one’s name becomes their own. The one who has knowledge like this knows where they come from and where they’re going. They know like one who, having been drunk, turns from their drunkenness, and having returned to themselves, restores what are their own.
He’s returned many from Error. He went before them to the realms from which they had moved away. They had received Error because of the depth of the one who surrounds every realm, though nothing surrounds him. It’s a great wonder that they were in the Father, not knowing him, and that they were able to come out by themselves, since they weren’t able to grasp and know the one in whom they were. He revealed his will as knowledge in harmony with all that emanated from him.
This is the knowledge of the living book which he revealed to the 23 generations at the end, letters from him revealing how they’re not vowels or consonants, so that one might read them and think they’re meaningless, but they’re letters of the Truth – they speak and know themselves. Each letter is a complete thought, like a book that’s complete, since they’re letters written by the Unity, the Father having written them so that the generations, by means of his letters, might know the Father.