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 15 — Codex III
1. They saw that the man [surpassed] them, and together with the angels, with the archons, and [with the] remainder of the powers, they took [counsel].
2. Then [wind and] earth, combined together (with) water and flame, were combined [with the] four winds. Blowing with [fire] and being combined with each other, they [made a] loud [commotion]. [They led him into] the shadow of death. [Once again they produced] a form [from] earth and water and [fire] and wind, that is, [from] the matter of darkness and [lust] and their false [spirit].
3. This is our chain. This is the tomb of the mold of the body the robbers used to clothe the man, the chain of oblivion, [and this is] how man became mortal.
4. This is the first descent ⟦page 27⟧ as well as his first division, but Thought of Pre-existent Light, [because] she dwelt inside him, [roused] his intellect,
5. and the chief archon [brought] him and [placed] him in paradise, concerning [which] he [used to] say, ‘Let it be his delight,’ but in reality in order to fool him, because [their] food was bitter, and their [beauty] was degenerate, and their food [was] a trick, and their trees [were godlessness]. [Their fruit was an untreatable poison], and [their promise] to them [was mortality].
6. [Regarding] the tree [they planted], ‘It is the one of life,’ I, [however, will] instruct all of you concerning the [mystery] of their life, that is, their false [spirit] from one [another, that they may] lead him astray, [so that] he would not experience his perfection.
7. That tree also [is] of this [kind], whose root is bitter, and [whose] branches are shadows of [death], and whose leaves are deeds of hatred ⟦page 28⟧ and trickery, and whose anointing is an anointing [of] evil, and whose fruit is a lust for death, [and] whose seed sprouted [from] darkness.
8. Those who taste of it, [their] dwelling place is Hades.
9. [Regarding] the [tree (which) they] call, ‘the knowledge of good and [evil],’ which is Reflection of Light, concerning which they issued the commandment, ‘[Do not] eat of her,’ that [is], obey her not, because [it was] issued [against him so that he could not gaze up] toward [his perfection and realize that he had been] stripped [of his perfection], but I induced [Adam], so that he ate.”
10. [I] also [asked him]: “Lord, was it not the serpent [that] instructed him?”
11. He grinned and [said]: “The serpent appeared to them [for] sexual lust, which is defilement [of] destruction, so that he could be exploited [by him].
12. He knew [that] he was disobedient to him, because he was [cleverer] than he, and he desired to extract ⟦page 29⟧ the power from inside him, and he caused a ‘trance’ to overcome Adam.”
13. I, however, asked him: “Lord, what is the ‘trance’?”
14. He grinned and said: “Do you think it is as Moses said, ‘He caused him to sleep’? No, it was instead his perception that he veiled with an absence of perception, because he in fact said through the prophet: ‘I will cause the ears of their hearts to be heavy, so that they do not understand and do not see.’