The library · Edition and sources
The Secret Book of John
Samuel Zinner, edited by Mark M. Mattison; Other Gospels · Translated text
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Chapter 13 — Berlin Codex
1. Further, the entire group of the archons of the seven authorities bent downward, and they saw inside the water the form of the image. They said one to another, ‘Let us create a man in the image of God, and (in) the likeness,’ and they created out of one another and out of all of their powers.
2. They molded a form from out of themselves and out of [each one] of the powers, ⟦page 49⟧ [and] by means of the power [they created the soul]. They created it from the image which they had seen
3. by mimicking he who exists from the beginning, the Perfect Man, and they said, ‘Let us call him Adam, so that his name and its power may be a light for us,’ and the powers commenced from below:
4. The first is Divinity, a living bone; the second is Goodness, a living sinew;
5. the third is Fire, a living flesh; the fourth is Providence, a living marrow as well as the complete foundation of the body;
6. the fifth is Kingdom, ⟦page 50⟧ living [blood];
7. [the] sixth is Understanding, living skin;
8. the seventh is Sophia, living hair;
9. and they arranged the complete body, and their angels attended them. From the things made ready at first by the authorities ‹they created› the substance of the soul, the coordination of the limbs joined (to one another), and the complete body was created, being fitted together by the host of angels, which I mentioned previously.