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 19 — Codex III
1. [I, however], asked: “Lord, [where did] the false spirit originate?”
2. He then said: “In the beginning [...], when in the [holy] Spirit I gazed into the one who is abundant in her [mercy, together with the] holy Spirit who pitied [us], who is Reflection of Light, [who dwelt] with her seed — she [raised it in] the intellect of the people of the unmoving [race] of the [radiant] Perfect [Man].
3. ⟦page 37⟧ Then the chief archon became aware, then, that they were loftier than him [in] the height of their wisdom, and he desired to seize their objective, because he was ignorant, unaware that they were wiser than he.
4. He concocted [a] plot and begot Destiny. [He fettered] with measurements and times and moments the gods of the heavens, and angels, and demons, [and] humans, so that all of them would [be] in its fetter, and so that it would be [the universal overlord], a wicked and perverted notion, and he regretted what had transpired because of [him].
7. [He] conspired to bring a [flood] on [all] the [offspring] of humanity, but the [greatness] of Providence resulted in a thought which is Reflection, and she appeared to [Noah. He] preached to people, (but) they did not [believe] him.
8. It was not as Moses said, ‘They hid in an [ark],’ but it was in a place where they protected themselves — ⟦page 38⟧ not only Noah, but also other people of the unmoving race.
9. They entered a place and protected themselves with a radiant cloud, and they became aware of the lordship above and those who were with him,
10. because the light shone on them, because [darkness] was descending over everyone on the earth. He concocted a [plot] together with his angels.
11. He dispatched his angels to the [daughters] of men, so that they [could raise up] offspring from them, in this way producing pleasure for themselves, and they were at first unsuccessful; 12 and [when they were unsuccessful], they [together concocted a plot]
13. to create [the false spirit] mimicking [the Spirit] who had descended. Their [angels] transformed their likeness [into] the likeness of their husbands [so as to fill] them with the spirit that dwelt in [themselves], full of the darkness that originates from evil.
14. They presented them with gold [and] silver and gifts, even [objects] ⟦page 39⟧ [made of copper] and iron metal, and everything of that kind, and they [directed] them into amusements, [so that] they would not be able to remember their unwavering Providence,
17. and they selected [them] and begot children out of [the] darkness with their false spirit, and they shut up their hearts and became hard with the hardness of [their] false spirit, (even) until [now].