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 17 — Codex II
1. I appeared in the shape of an eagle on the tree of knowledge, which is Reflection of Providence of Pure Light, so that I could instruct them and rouse them out of their deep sleep, because both of them were in a fallen condition, and they were aware of their nudity.
2. Reflection appeared to them in the mode of a light, and she roused their thinking, but when ‹Y›aldabaoth realized that they had withdrawn from him, he cursed his earth.
3. He encountered the woman when she was ⟦page 24⟧ making herself ready for her husband.
4. He was her overlord, although he knew not the mystery that had transpired by means of the sacred decree, and they were afraid to accuse him, and he displayed to his angels the ignorance inside him, and he expelled them from paradise, and he clothed them in dark gloom.
5. The chief archon also beheld the virgin who stood near Adam, and that the radiant Reflection of Life had appeared inside her, and ‹Y›aldabaoth was filled with ignorance, and when the Providence of the All saw this, she dispatched messengers, and they quickly removed Life from out of Eve.
6. Then the chief archon polluted her, and he begot with her two sons, the first and the second: Eloim and Yave.
7. Eloim has the face of a bear, but Yave has the face of a cat.
8. The one is just, but the other is unjust.
9. Yave was placed over fire and wind, but Eloim was placed over water and earth, but with intent to deceive he called these with the names Cain and Abel.
10. Until today sexual intercourse has continued because of the chief archon, and it was he who planted sexual lust inside her who belongs to Adam, but through intercourse he made copies of the bodies, and he inspired them with his false spirit.
11. He, however, placed the two archons over principalities, so that they would rule over the tomb.
12. However, when Adam became aware of the likeness of his own precognition, he begot the likeness ⟦page 25⟧ of the Son of Man, whom he called Seth, in agreement with the way the race is among the aeons.
13. Similarly, the mother also sent down her spirit, which is in her own likeness, as well as a simulacrum of the one who dwells in the Fullness, because she will make ready a dwelling place for the aeons who will descend.
14. He also caused them to drink the water of oblivion from the chief archon, so that they would not know the place of their origin.
15. In this way, the seed remained for a period of time to help, so that when the Spirit issues forth from the sacred aeons, he will raise him up and heal him of his deficiency, so that the entire Fullness will become holy and without fault.”