The library · Edition and sources
Hypostasis of the Archons
Samuel Zinner, edited by Mark M. Mattison; Other Gospels · Translated text
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Chapter 4
1. Then the female spiritual nature arrived in the guise of the serpent, the teacher.
2. The serpent taught Adam and Eve, and said: “What did Samael [say to] you?
3. Was what he said: ‘You are allowed to eat from all trees in the garden, but do not eat from [the tree] of the knowledge of good and evil’?”
4. ⟦page 90⟧ The fleshly woman said: “He said not only ‘Eat not,’ but even ‘Touch it not, because on the day that you eat from it, you certainly will die.’”
5. The serpent, the teacher, said: “Certainly you will not die, because he said this to you motivated by jealousy.
6. On the contrary, your eyes will be opened, and you will become like gods, knowing (what is) good and evil.”
7. And the female teaching nature was removed from the serpent, and she forsook it as though it were something earthly.
8. The fleshly woman took of the tree and ate, and she gave to her husband also, and in this way they ate, these beings who were merely soulish.
9. Their blemish was revealed by their lack of knowledge.
10. They realized that they had been stripped of what is spiritual, and they took fig leaves and fastened them around their naked loins.
11. Because he was unaware of what had transpired, the leader of the archons arrived and said: “Adam, where are you?”
12. Adam said: “I heard your voice, and I became afraid, because I was naked, and so I hid.”
13. The archon said: “Why did you hide, if not because you ate from the one tree from which I forbade you to eat?
14. You ate (from it)!”
15. Adam said: “The woman you gave me [handed] me the fruit, and I ate it.”
16. And the haughty [archon] cursed the woman.
17. The woman said: “The serpent fooled me, and (so) I ate.”
18. [The archons turned] toward the serpent, and cursed its shadow, [making it] grow weak.
19. And they knew not that it was the same shape they had modeled.
20. From that time on, the serpent came under the curse of the authorities, lasting ⟦page 91⟧ until the Perfect Man came.
21. They turned to their Adam, driving him together with his wife out of the garden.
22. They possessed no blessing, because they, too, were under the curse.
23. They drove mankind into a massive confusion and a life of work, in order that their mankind might be concerned with worldly matters and have no time to be concerned with the holy Spirit.