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 — Codex II & Codex IV
1. Further, being an aeon, Sophia of Reflection thought a thought on her own, together with the conception of the unseen Spirit and Precognition.
2. She willed to bring forth a likeness from out of herself, apart from the agreement of the Spirit, who had not accepted it, and apart from her companion, and apart from his deliberation, and although the face of her maleness had not accepted this.
3. Further, she brought forth despite having failed to find her companion, as well as having deliberated apart from the agreement of the Spirit and the knowledge of her companion, ⟦page 10⟧ and on account of the invulnerable strength dwelling inside her,
4. her thought did not remain barren, and she produced from herself something that was incomplete and that differed from her own appearance, because she had created him apart from her companion, and he differed from the appearance of his mother, because he possesses a different form.
5. Further, when she saw (the result of) her own will, he morphed into a lion-faced dragon form,
6. and his eyes resembled lightning fires that flash.
7. She thrust him away from her, outside those places, so that none of the immortal ones could see him, because she had created him in ignorance.
8. She also surrounded him with a shining cloud, and she erected a throne in the midst of the cloud, so that none could see him, apart from the holy Spirit — whose name is the Mother of the Living — and she called his name Yaltabaoth.
9. This is the chief archon who procured a strong power from his mother,
10. and he extricated himself from her, and moved away from the places where he had been born.