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 9
1. “When Sabaoth, son of Yaldabaoth, witnessed the power of that angel, he repented and sentenced to judgment his father and Matter, his mother, whom he reviled.
2. And he sang songs of praise to Sophia above, and to her daughter Zoe.
3. Sophia and Zoe brought him up and appointed him over the seventh heaven, under the veil that divides the upper and lower (realms).
4. He is called ‘God of hosts, Sabaoth,’ because he is over the hosts of chaos, because Sophia appointed him.
5. When these events had transpired, Sabaoth made a massive four-faced chariot of cherubim for himself, and an infinity of angels to be his servants, as well as harps and lyres.
6. Sophia brought her daughter Zoe and caused her to sit at his right hand and to instruct him concerning the things of the eighth heaven.
7. And she placed the angel of wrath at his left hand.
8. [From] that day onward, [his right hand] was called ‘life,’ ⟦page 96⟧ while the left hand came to symbolize the injustice of the upper realm of the autocrat.
9. Before the time you existed, these events had transpired.
10. When Yaldabaoth saw Sabaoth in this great majesty and exalted so highly, he grew envious of him, and his envy became an androgynous entity.
11. And such was the origin of Envy, who gave birth to Death, and Death gave birth to offspring, and Death appointed each of them to be in charge of its (own) heaven.
12. And all of the heavens of the chaos were filled with their multitudes.
13. All of these events, however, transpired by the will of the Father of the All, according to the pattern of everything above, in order that the summation of chaos could be achieved.
14. Behold, I have instructed you concerning the mold of the archons, the matter in which was made manifest, as well as their parent and their world.”