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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 9 — Codex III
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 her likeness from out of herself. Her thought was unable to remain barren, and her production came forth incomplete, lacking the shape of her form, because she had made him apart from her companion, and not having a shape like the appearance of the mother. The Spirit had not agreed nor assented, nor had her companion consented, that is, the masculine, virginal Spirit.
3. However, when she had failed to find her companion, she made her decision apart from the ⟦page 15⟧ good will of the Spirit and the knowledge of her own companion. She was perfect on account of the ‹sexual knowledge› that dwells inside her.
4. Her thought was unable to remain barren, and her production came forth incomplete, lacking the shape of her form, because she had made him apart from her companion, and not having a shape like the appearance of the mother.
5. She noticed during her consideration that he was assuming a different appearance, the face of a lion, the face of a dragon.
6. His 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 he had been born 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 — who is called the Mother of all the Living — and she gave him the name Yaldabaoth.
9. This is the chief archon who procured a strong power from ⟦page 16⟧ the mother,
10. and he extricated himself from her, and moved from (one) place to (another) place, away from the place where he had been born.