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The Secret Book of John
Samuel Zinner, edited by Mark M. Mattison; Other Gospels · Translated text
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Chapter 14 — Codex III
1. It, however, [was] inert for a prolonged time, [because] the seven [authorities] could [not] awaken it, nor could the other [3]60 angels who had [assembled] the joints.
2. [The mother] now wanted to regain the power she had [granted] the archon with sexual desire. [In] innocence she entreated the Father, [the] Most Merciful, and the five lights.
3. ⟦page 24⟧ With the sacred [decree] he dispatched ‹the self-generated one› together with his four lights in angelic forms of the chief archon, and [they counseled] him that they might regain the power of the mother from him, [and] they said to him, ‘Blow your Spirit into his face, and the production will stand up,’ and into the body he blew from out of the chief archon [into] his face a Spirit, which is the power of the mother.
5. [At that instant, it] moved [and grew stronger] than he was, [and the rest] of the authorities [grew envious, because he had come to exist] through all of them, [and they had bestowed] their powers on the man, and he possessed the seven authorities, their souls, as well as [their] powers. [His] intellect surpassed those who had made him, and the [chief] archon as well.
6. They, however, realized 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 region of [all] matter.
7. The blessed Father, because he is the ⟦page 25⟧ beneficent and merciful one, [was] merciful to the power [of the mother] which they had brought [forth] from the archon, and [because they were soon to] to control the body, he dispatched his Spirit, beneficent and abundantly merciful, as a helper to the first [one] who had descended, who was 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] perfection, and by instructing him concerning the descent [of his] flaw, and by instructing him concerning its [ascent].
9. Reflection of Light was then concealed inside him, so that the archons would be unknowing, [but] that, instead, our companion-sister, Sophia, who looks like [us], would rectify her deficiencies with Reflection of Light, and ⟦page 26⟧ the man glowed [on account of the] light-[shadow] inside him, and he [surpassed] those who had made [him, and the entire] group of archons, of authorities, prostrated.