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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 2 — Berlin Codex
1. Immediately, as I was musing on these matters, the heavens were opened, and the entire creation glowed with a light ⟦page 21⟧ underneath heaven, and the [entire] world [was shaken].
2. I grew afraid, and [I beheld], and lo, a child appeared to me,
3. but [it changed] (its) likeness into an old man [as] the light [was] with him.
4. [As I gazed] on it, I [understood] not [this] marvel, whether the [appearance] was of diverse forms [owing to the] light, because its forms appeared through each [other, or] whether it was a single [appearance, given that] it possessed three faces.
5. He asked [me]: “John, [why do you] marvel, being [afraid]?
6. You are certainly [not] unfamiliar with [this appearance]?
7. Be not of a [weak heart].
8. [I] am the one who is always with all of you.
9. I am [the Father], I am the Mother, I [am the Son].
10. I am the ⟦page 22⟧ eternal one, the unpolluted [and] untainted [one].
11. [I have now come] to inform you of [what] is, and [what was], and what will happen, so that you [might understand] the things that are not (yet) manifest, [and those things that are] manifest, and to inform you of the Perfect [Man].
12. Lift up, therefore, your [face to me], so that you might listen and [accept the things I] will tell you today, so that you might, then, convey [them to your] companion spirits, [of] the unmoving race of the Perfect Man.”