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 9 — Berlin Codex
1. Our companion-sister, Sophia, in that she is an aeon, conceived a thought on her own, together with the conception of the Spirit and Precognition.
2. She willed to bring forth the ⟦page 37⟧ likeness from out of herself, apart from the Spirit ‹concurring› with her, or agreeing, or with her companion approving, that is, the male virginal Spirit.
3. She did not, however, find her companion when she was ready to decide without the good will of the Spirit and the knowledge of her own companion, and when she was bringing forth on account of the sexual knowledge that was inside her.
4. Her thought was unable to remain barren, and her production came forth incomplete, foreign in his appearance, because she had made him apart from her companion, and he was dissimilar to the appearance of the mother, because he possesses a different form,
5. but she noticed during her consideration that he was assuming the form of a different appearance, possessing the face of a dragon and the face of a lion.
6. His ⟦page 38⟧ ‹eyes were› glowing with fire.
7. She thrust him away from her, outside those places, so that none of the immortal ones could see him, because she had given birth to him in ignorance.
8. She attached a shining cloud to him, and erected a throne in the midst of the cloud, so that none could see him, apart from the holy Spirit — whose name is Life, the Mother of Everyone — and she gave him the name Yaldabaoth.
9. This is the chief archon who procured a strong power from the mother.
10. He extricated himself from her, and moved away from the place where he had been born.