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 14 — Berlin Codex
1. It, however, was inert for a prolonged time, because the seven authorities could not awaken it, nor could the other 360 angels who had assembled ⟦page 51⟧ [the limbs joined (to one another)].
2. Also, [she wanted to regain] the power she had granted to the archon of sexual desire. She approached innocently, and entreated the Father of the All, the Most Merciful and the God of Light.
3. With the sacred decree, he dispatched the self-generated one together with the four lights in angelic forms of the chief archon. They counseled him that ‹they› should bring forth from inside him the power of the mother. They said to him, ‘Blow into his face of your Spirit, and the production will arise,’ and into the body he blew at him with his Spirit, which is the power from his mother,
5. and ⟦page 52⟧ at [that (very) instant] it moved. Suddenly, [the rest of the] authorities [grew envious], because he had come to exist through all of them, and they had bestowed their interior powers on the man, and he possessed the souls of the seven authorities, as well as their powers. His intellect surpassed all of theirs and surpassed ‹the› chief archon as well.
6. They realized now that he was free of evil, because he was cleverer than they, and that he had gained entrance into the light. They took him and escorted him into the nethermost regions of all matter,
7. but the blessed Father is the merciful, beneficent one. He was merciful to the power ⟦page 53⟧ [of the mother which they had brought forth] from the [chief archon], so that they would be ‹un›able to obtain power over the body. He and his great mercy dispatched the good Spirit as a helper to the first one who had descended, who had been given the name Adam, that is, Reflection of Light, who had been called ‘Life’ by him.
8. She, however, helps the entire creature by laboring together with him, by returning him to his own temple, and by instructing him concerning the descent of his flaw, and by instructing him concerning its ascent.
9. Reflection of Light was also concealed inside him, so that the archons would be unknowing, but that, instead, ⟦page 54⟧ our [sister Sophia, who looks like] us, would rectify her deficiencies with Reflection of Light, and the man glowed on account of the light-shadow inside him, and his intellect surpassed (that of) those who had made him, and they prostrated.