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 III
1. From the tree, [in the shape] of an eagle, she instructed [them] to eat of knowledge, [so that they could] recall their perfection, [because] both [had] fallen into [ignorance].
2. Ialtabaoth now noticed [that] they had withdrawn from him, [and he cursed them]. Moreover, he added concerning the [woman], ‘Your husband will rule over you,’
4. [because he does] not know the mystery that [transpired] ⟦page 31⟧ through the sacred decree from on high. They, however, feared to curse him, and to expose his ignorance to his angels, and he expelled them from paradise, and clothed them in dark gloom.
5. He then beheld the virgin standing near Adam. Yaldabaoth was full of ignorance, and he desired to raise up a seed from her,
6. [and] he polluted her and begot the [first] child, and similarly the [second]:
7. Yavai, the bear-face, and Eloim, [the cat-face].
8. The one is just, but [the other one] is unjust. [Eloim] is the just one, Yavai is the [unjust one].
9. The just one he placed over fire and [wind], but the unjust one over earth and [water]. These are called Abel and Cain [by] all generations of men.
10. Until today [sexual intercourse] has continued and endured [owing to] the chief archon, and inside Adam he planted sexual lust, ⟦page 32⟧ so that by means of this this essence they gave birth to their copy through their false spirit.
11. He placed the two archons over principalities, so that they would rule over the tomb.
12. He knew his own lawlessness, and he begot Seth according to the race on high among the aeons.
13. They similarly dispatched to the mother her own spirit,
14. to rouse those who resemble it, according to the simulacrum of the perfection, and to bring all of [them] out of oblivion and the evil [of the] tomb,
15. and in this way they remained for a time while she toiled [for her] seed, so that, when the holy Spirit [comes forth from the] great aeons, he can rectify their defects for [the arranging] of the aeon, so that [it can] become a sacred Fullness, and that, consequently, they will not be defective.”