Page 1 of 6

Re: Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Miscellany, translated by G.R.S

PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:37 am
by admin
INTRODUCTION

The Askew Codex.


THE unique MS. of the Coptic Gnostic document commonly called 'Pistis Sophia' was bought by the British Museum in 1785 from the heirs of Dr. Askew, and is now catalogued as MS. Add. 5114. The title on the back of the modern binding is 'Piste Sophia Coptice.' On top of the first page of the MS. is the signature 'A. Askew, M.D.' On the first page of the binding is the following note, probably in the hand of Woide, the most famous Coptic scholar of those days and Librarian of the Museum:

"Codex dialecti Superioris Ægypti, quam Sahidicam seu Thebaidicam votant, cujus titulus exstat pagina 115: Pmeh snaou ǹtomos ǹ̀tpiste Sophia -- Tomos secundus fidelis Sapientiæ -- deest pagina 337-344."

The title 'Piste Sophia' is incorrect. Nowhere is this form found in the very numerous instances of the name in the text, and the hastily suggested 'emendation' of Dulaurier and Renan to read 'Piste Sophia' throughout has perforce received no support.

Woide, in a letter to Michaelis (Bibliography, 4), says that Askew bought the MS. from a book-seller (apparently in London); its previous history is unknown. Crum informs us in an official description (Bib. 46, p. 173) that at the end of a copy in the B.M. of the sale-catalogue of Askew's MSS. is the entry: 'Coptic MS. £10. 10. 0.,' and that this refers presumably to our Codex -- a good bargain indeed!

The best descriptions of the MS. are by Schmidt (Introd. to his Trans., Bib. 45, pp. xi f.), and Crum (l.c.). The Codex is of parchment and contains 178 leaves = 356 pages 4to (8¾ x 6½ in.). The writing is in two columns of from 30 to 34 lines each. There are 23 quires in all; but the first has only 12 and the last 8 pages, of which the last page is left blank. It is, as a whole, in an exceptionally well-preserved state, only 8 leaves being missing (see ch. 143, end).

The Scripts.

The writing as a whole is the work of two scribes, whose entirely different hands are very clearly distinguishable. The first (MS. pp. 1-22, 196-354) wrote a fine, careful, old uncial, and the second (MS. pp. 23-195) in comparison a careless, clumsy hand with signs of shakiness which S. thinks might suggest the writing of an old man. They used different inks and different methods both of paging and correction, not to speak of other peculiarities. These scribes must have been contemporaries and divided the task of copying fairly equally between them. So far Crum and Schmidt are in complete agreement; they differ only as to the handwriting of a note on MS. p. 114, col. 2, of the superscription on p. 115 and of the last page (see pp. 105, 106 and 325 of Trans.).

The Contents.

From an external point of view the contents fall into 4 main Divisions, generally referred to as Books i.-iv.

i. The first extends to the end of ch. 62, where in the MS. more than a column and a half has been left blank, and a short, but entirely irrelevant, extract has been copied on to the second column, presumably from some other book of the general allied literature.

There is no title, either superscription or subscription, to this Div. Why the second scribe left a blank here in his copying is a puzzle, for the text which follows on MS. p. 115 runs straight on without a break of subject or incident.

ii. The next page is headed 'The Second Book (or Section) of Pistis Sophia.' Crum assigns this superscription to the second hand, and the short extract on the second column of the preceding page to the first. But Schmidt thinks that both are later additions by another hand, and this is borne out both by the colour of the ink and also by the very important fact that the older Coptic MSS. have the title at the end and not at the beginning of a volume, conserving the habit of the ancient roll-form. And as a matter of fact we find at the bottom of MS. p. 233, col. 1, the subscription: 'A Portion of the Books (or Texts) of the Saviour' (see end of ch. 100).

iii. There follows a short piece on the Gnosis of the Ineffable (ch. 101), which is without any setting and entirely breaks the order of sequence of ideas and is the end of a larger whole. It is clearly an extract from another 'Book.'

After this again with ch. 102 we have a very distinct change of subject, though not of setting, from the ending of ii., so that, in my opinion, it is difficult to regard it as an immediate continuation. Later, at ch. 126, occurs another abrupt change of subject, though not of setting, preceded by a lacuna in the text. At the end of ch. 135 (bottom of MS. p. 318, col. 1) we have again the subscription: 'A Portion of the Books of the Saviour.'

iv. The last piece has no title, either superscription or subscription. From the change of setting in its introduction and the nature of its contents it is generally assigned to an earlier phase of the literature. Here again a complete change of subject occurs with ch. 144, after a lacuna of 8 leaves. Finally, on the last page is an appendix, somewhat in the style of the Mark-conclusion, beginning quite abruptly in the middle of a sentence and presumably part of a larger whole. The contents, measurements and writing make it almost certain that it formed no part of the original copy. At the very end two lines surrounded by ornamentation are erased. These may have contained the names of the owner or scribes, or possibly a general subscript title.

The Title.

From the above indications and from a detailed study of the contents it is evident that, though the episode of the adventures of Pistis Sophia, her repentances and songs and their solutions (chh. 30-64), occupy much space, it is by no means the principal theme of the collection; it is rather an incident. The blundering heading of a later scribe, 'The Second Book of Pistis Sophia,' some two-thirds of the way through this episode, has misled earlier scholars and set up the bad habit of referring to the whole document as the 'Pistis Sophia' -- a habit it is now too late to change. If there is any general title to be derived from the MS. itself, it should be rather 'A Portion' or 'Portions of the Books of the Saviour.' Whether this title can be made to cover Div. iv. is an open question. In any case we have before us extracts from a more extensive literature which belonged to the same group, and of which there were at least two strata. The contents of the Askew Codex are thus a collection or a miscellany, and not a single consistent work. It is very difficult, therefore, to distinguish the contents by any consistent nomenclature. I have followed the usual custom of calling the whole 'Pistis Sophia,' and let Div. i. and ii. stand as Books i. and ii., as is usually done, though this is clearly improper, judged from the point of view of contents. Thereafter I have distinguished the extracts in Div. iii. as being from two different 'Books' (apart from the short insertion at the beginning), and again those in Div. iv. as being from two different 'Books,' these 'Books' meaning simply subdivisions of or excerpts from larger wholes.

It seems highly probable that our scribes did not do the extracting themselves, but found it already done in the copy which lay before them.

The Date of the MS.

The date of our MS. is undecided, owing to the difficulty of making exact judgments in Coptic paleography. The general view assigns it with Schmidt to the 5th century. It may be noted that Woide (Bib. 3) assigned it to the 4th, and Crum seems to agree with him. Hyvernat (Bib. 21) suggests the 6th, and Wright (Bib. 16) the 7th. Amélineau (Bib. 35) goes to a ridiculous extreme by placing it in the 9th or 10th century, but his too radical views have been severely criticized.

Translated from the Greek.

The Coptic of the P.S. is in pure Sahidic -- that is, the dialect of Upper Egypt, -- preserving many features of antiquity. It is, however, clearly not the original language in which the extracts were written. These, like the rest of the extant Coptic Gnostic documents, were originally composed in Greek. This is shown by the very large number of Greek words, not only names, but substantives, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and even conjunctions, left untranslated, on well-nigh every page, and this applies to the O.T. and N.T. quotations equally with the rest. The Schwartze-Petermann Latin version preserves every Greek word throughout untranslated, and Schmidt's German translation invariably adds them in brackets. In the P.S. a large number of abstract qualificative general names of exalted super-æonic orders is given, such as 'Unapproachables,' 'Uncontainables,' which could not possibly be native to Coptic diction. In a number of passages again, where the translator had difficulty, he slavishly follows the Greek construction. Frequently also he gives alternative renderings. The fact of translation from the Greek is well-nigh universally acknowledged; and indeed we now possess decisive objective proof, for one of the documents in the Berlin Codex, which presents identical linguistic phenomena, lay before Irenæus in its Greek original form (Bib. 47). Nevertheless Granger (Bib. 44) and Scott-Moncrieff (Bib. 56) have questioned this fact of translation, and quite recently Rendel Harris (Bib. 60), after accepting the general consensus of opinion (Bib. 49), has changed his mind and thinks that the matter should be reinvestigated. None of these scholars, however, has set forth any objective grounds for his opinion. It is difficult to believe that any one who has laboured through the versions line by line and word by word can have the slightest doubt on the matter. The whole style of the work is foreign to the Coptic idiom, as may be seen from Amélineau's Introduction to his French version (Bib. 35), where he writes (p. x): "Whoever has any knowledge of the Coptic language knows that this idiom is foreign to long sentences; that it is a tongue eminently analytic and by no means synthetic; that its sentences are composed of small clauses exceedingly precise, and almost independent of each other. Of course all Coptic authors are not equally easy, some of them are even exceedingly difficult to understand; but this much is certain, that never under any circumstances in Coptic do we come across those periods with complicated incidental sentences, of three or four different clauses, whose elements are synthetically united together so that the sense of the entire sentence cannot be grasped before we arrive at the last clause. Nevertheless, this is just what the reader meets with in this work. The sentences are so entangled with incidental and complicated propositions, that often, indeed very often, the Coptic translator has lost the thread, so to say, and made main propositions out of incidental clauses. . . . The one thing that it conclusively proves is that the book was originally written in a learned language."

Amélineau makes rather too much of the abstruse nature of the subject; for, though many passages are transcendental or mystical, nevertheless the whole is conceived in a narrative or descriptive style. There is no attempt at philosophical argument, no really involved logical propositions. We may then take it as sufficiently established that Greek originals underlay the whole contents of the Askew Codex. It is on this basis at any rate that rests every methodical attempt which has hitherto been made to determine the most probable place and date of origin and to discover the school or circle to which the P.S. miscellany can be referred.

Originals composed in Egypt.

Amid much else that is uncertain no one has questioned that the immediate place of origin must be sought in an Egyptian environment. In other words, the 'Books' of the miscellany were all composed or compiled in Egypt, though where precisely it is impossible to conjecture. But the clearly Egyptian elements are not the more numerous; moreover, they do not seem to be the most fundamental, but are blended with, or rather superimposed upon, others which clearly did not originate in Egypt.

The date of composition is a difficult problem, and is bound up with the more puzzling question of the sect to which the P.S. literature should be ascribed. There is as yet no certainty; it is a matter of cumulative probabilities at best.

Date: The 2nd-century Theory.

The earlier view ascribed the P.S. to Valentinus, who died probably about the middle of the, or a decade later, or alternatively to an adherent of the Valentinian school. We may call it the 2nd-century theory. A succession of scholars were of this opinion, among whom may be mentioned Woide, Jablonski, La Croze, Dulaurier, Schwartze, Renan, Révillout, Usener and Amélineau. This earlier view can hardly be said to have been supported by any great show of detailed argument, except by the French Egyptologist and Coptic scholar Amélineau, who was its most stalwart supporter. Seven years prior to his translation of P.S. in 1895, Amélineau devoted 156 pp. of a voluminous essay (Bib. 19), in which he sought to prove the Egyptian origins of Gnosticism -- a general thesis which can hardly be maintained in the light of more recent research, -- to a comparison of the system of Valentinus with that of the P.S.

The 3rd-century Theory.

Meantime in Germany, shortly after the appearance of Schwartze's Latin version in 1851, the careful analysis of the system of the P.S. by Köstlin in 1854 gave rise to or confirmed another view. It abandoned the Valentinian origin, and pronounced generally in favour of what may be called an 'Ophitic' derivation. Köstlin placed the date of the P.S. in the 1st half of the 3rd century, and Lipsius (Bib. 15) and Jacobi (Bib. 17) accepted his finding. We may call this alternative general view the 3rd-century theory.

In 1891 Harnack, accepting Köstlin's analysis of the system, attacked the problem from another point of view, basing himself chiefly on the use of scripture, as shown in the quotations from the O.T. and N.T., and on the place of the doctrinal ideas and stage of the sacramental practices in the general history of the development of Christian dogma and rites. He pointed out also one or two other vague indications, such as a reference to persecution, from which he concluded that it was written at a date when the Christians were 'lawfully' persecuted. These considerations led him to assign the most probable date of composition to the 2nd half of the 3rd century. Schmidt in 1892 accepted this judgment, with the modification, however, that Div. iv. belonged to an older stratum of the literature, and should therefore be placed in the 1st half of the century. This general view has been widely adopted as the more probable. In Germany it has been accepted by such well-known specialists as Bousset, Preuschen and Liechtenhan; and in France by De Faye. Among English scholars may be mentioned chiefly E. F. Scott, Scott-Moncrieff and Moffat.

The only recent attempt to return to the earlier 2nd-century view is that of Legge in 1915 (Bib. 57), who roundly plumps for Valentinus as the author. In order to do this he thinks it necessary first of all to get out of the way Harnack's parallels in P.S. with the fourth gospel. They may just as well, he contends, be compilations from the synoptics. One clear parallel only can be adduced, and this may be due to a common source. I am not convinced by this criticism; nor do I think it germane to Legge's general contention, for it is precisely in Valentinian circles that the fourth gospel first emerges in history. In the Introduction to the first edition of the present work I registered my adhesion to the Valentinian hypothesis, but, as I now think, somewhat too precipitously. On general grounds the 3rd-century theory seems to me now the more probable; but, even if Harnack's arguments as a whole hold, I see no decisive reason why the P.S. may not equally well fall within the 1st half as within the 2nd half of the century.

The 'Ophitic' Background.

The question of the sect or even grouping to the P.S. literature should be assigned is still more difficult. To call it 'Ophitic' is nebulous at best. Ophitism in Gnosticism is ill-defined, if not chaotic, owing to the confusing indications of the Church Fathers. They called Ophitic or classed as Ophitic very different sects who never used the name for themselves. It ought to mean people either who worshipped the serpent or in whose symbolism or mythology the serpent played the most characteristic or dominant rôle. But most of what we are told of the views and doctrines of circles directly referred to under this opprobrious designation (as it is clearly intended to be by the heresiologists) and of those brought into close connection with them, has not the slightest reference to what by hypothesis should have been their chief cult-symbol. Sed et serpens is conspicuous by its absence. All that we can legitimately say is that along this confused line of heredity we have to push back our researches in any endeavour to discover the earliest developments of Gnosticism in Christian circles. These took place unquestionably first on Syrian ground, and doubtless had already a long heredity behind them, former phases of syncretism, blendings of Babylonian, Persian, Semitic and other elements. The 'Ophitic' elements in P.S. are of Syrian origin, but developed on Egyptian soil. If there is also a slight Hellenistic tinging, it is not of a philosophizing nature.

Three vague Pointers.

Can we, however, find any indications in the P.S. which might be thought to direct us whither to search in the jumble of sects which the chief heresiological Fathers bring into an 'Ophitic' connection? There are three vague pointers: (1) Philip is declared pre-eminently (chh. 22, 42) to be the scribe of all the deeds and discourses of the Saviour, but with him are associated Thomas and Matthew (ch. 43); (2) in Div. iii. Mary Magdalene stands forth as the chief questioner, no less than 39 of the 42 questions being put in her mouth; (3) in Div. iv. a foul act of obscene sorcery is condemned as the most heinous of all sins (ch. 147).

Now, Epiphanius (writing about 374-377 A.D.) groups together certain sects under the names Nicolaïtans, Gnostics, Ophites, Cainites, Sethians and Archontics; these possessed a rich apocalyptic literature. Among the titles of their books reference is made to a Gospel of Philip (Hær. xxvi. 13) and Questions of Mary, both The Great and The Little (ib. 8). A quotation is given from the former, and several from the latter. But in both cases they are of an obscene nature and have clearly nothing whatever to do with P.S. in any way. It is true that the more abundant quotations are from The Great Questions, and this has led Harnack and others to assume that The Little Questions may have been of a different and even ascetic character. But Epiphanius classes the two writings together without distinction; and even if the title Questions of Mary could be legitimately given to part of the contents of P.S., surely these would be more appropriately styled The Great and not The Little Questions? Finally, the document from which Epiphanius quotes belongs to a different type of setting. Mary questions apart, is alone with Jesus. She is not with the rest of the disciples, as in the P.S.

The libertinist Sects of Epiphanius.

In describing these sects Epiphanius repeatedly dwells on certain unspeakably foul rites and practices which he would have us believe were widely spread among them. P.S. condemns with even greater severity a similar obscene abomination, introducing this stern reprobation with the solemn words, the only instance of such an outbreak in the whole narrative: "Jesus was wroth with the world in that hour and said unto Thomas: 'Amēn, I say unto you: This sin is more heinous than all sins and all iniquities.'" There is, however, no indication that in the experience of the writers of the P.S. such a practice was widespread; on the contrary, it would seem for them to have been a rare occurrence -- indeed, the most horrible thing of which they had ever heard. If Epiphanius is to be relied on here, it is vain to look for the Gnostics of the P.S. in such an environment. But Epiphanius has no great reputation for accuracy in general, and it is very difficult to believe in such widespread iniquity of so loathsome a nature. In any case he is writing at a later date. Liechtenhan's hypothesis (Bib. 41), that a certain common body of literature was rewritten -- on the one hand to serve libertinist propensities, and on the other in the interest of ascetic tendencies, -- though more or less accepted by Harnack, seems to me to be too facile a generalization to meet the special difficulty with which we are confronted. Epiphanius in his youth had certain unfortunate experiences with the adherents of a libertinist sect in Egypt, and the moral shock it gave him seems to have warped his judgment as a historian in this part of his work; it led him to collect every scrap of evidence of obscenity he could lay hands on and every gross scandal that had come to his ears, and freely to generalize therefrom.

The Severians.

Into relation with the above-mentioned Epiphanian group of names Schmidt brings the ascetic Severians; these, according to our heresiologist (xlv.), still in his own day maintained a miserable existence in the upper Thebaid. To them S. would specifically refer the P.S. But, in my opinion, it is very difficult indeed to fit in what Epiphanius tells us so sketchily of these people, however skilfully it is analyzed, with the main doctrines and practices in the P.S.

The Bruce Codex.

With nothing but Patristic indications before us, no matter what pains are taken to submit them to microscopic critical inspection, it seems impossible to place the P.S. precisely. But our Codex does not stand in isolation as the only directly known Christian Gnostic document -- that is to say, as coming straight from the hands of the Gnostics themselves, though by way of translation. We have first of all the two MSS. of the Bruce Codex in the Bodleian, Oxford. One of these, The Book of the Great Logos according to the Mystery, is closely connected with the literature from which the P.S. miscellany is excerpted, especially with Div. iv. We can say with a high degree of confidence that it belonged to the same tradition, though whether to an earlier or later stratum is not quite decided. There are, however, no indications in it which will further help us as to date or name of sect. The second MS., a lofty apocalypse, which unfortunately bears no title, is of another line of tradition or type of interest. Schmidt, in the Introduction to his translation (p. xxvi, Bib. 45), thinks he can refer it with certainty to the Sethian-Archontic group, placing it in the 1st half of the 3rd century, in-stead of, as previously (Bib. 28), in the last quarter of the 2nd. His reason for this change of view may be seen from the following observations, which introduce us to the third extant, but unpublished, collection of Coptic Gnostic works.

The Berlin Codex.

On July 16, 1896, Schmidt surprised and delighted students of Gnosticism by reporting, at a sitting of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, on the contents of a precious Coptic Gnostic Codex which had in January of the same year been procured by Dr Reinhardt at Cairo from a dealer in antiquities from Akhmīm, and is now in the safe custody of the Berlin Egyptian Museum (Sitzungsberichte d. k. p. Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Berlin, xxxvi). This notice and a more detailed study of one of the treatises by S. in 1907 (Bib. 47) give us all the information we possess so far concerning this very important Codex. In 1900 I summarized S.'s first notice in the first edition of my Fragments of a Faith Forgotten (pp. 579-592). The Codex consists mainly of three original Greek Gnostic works in Coptic translation: (1) The Gospel of Mary; (2) The Apocryphon of John; (3) The Wisdom of Jesus Christ. At the end there is an extract from The Acts of Peter, which are also of Gnostic origin, setting forth an episode from the healing wonders of the Apostle.

The Gospel of Mary relates visions of John and Mary Magdalene, but Schmidt gives us none of their contents. He is equally reserved as to the contents of The Wisdom of Jesus Christ, giving only the introduction. After the resurrection the twelve disciples and seven women-disciples of Jesus go into Galilee to a certain mountain (as in Div. iv. of P.S.). To them Jesus appears as a great angel of light and bids them lay all their questions before him. The disciples bring forward their questions and receive the desired replies. Schmidt must have told Harnack more about the contents, for in an appendix to the report, the latter ventures on the suggestion that it may possibly be found that this treatise is the lost book of Valentinus referred to under the title of Wisdom.

The so-called Barbēlō-Gnostics.

It is the second treatise, The Apocryphon of John, to which S. devotes most of his attention in both the papers to which we are referring, the titles of which are respectively, 'A Pre-irenæic Gnostic Original Work in Coptic' and 'Irenæus and his Source in Adv. Hær. i. 29,' S. proves beyond a shadow of doubt that the Greek original of this Gnostic apocryphon lay before Irenæus (c. 190 A.D.), and that the Church Father's method of quotation and summarizing is, to say the least of it, misleading, for it practically makes nonsense of what is by no means absurd. The treatise tells us much of interest concerning the part played by Barbēlō, 'the perfect Power,' 'the Æon perfect in glory'; the system is of the philosophized type and by no means inconsistent. Hitherto the clumsy treatment of it by Irenæus has been generally referred to as descriptive of the tenets of the Barbēlō-Gnostics, and to them Scott (Bib. 54) and Moffat (Bib. 58) have sought variously to ascribe the P.S. These Gnostics are brought by Irenæus into a confused relationship with some of the sects of the group on which Epiphanius two centuries later animadverted so severely.

The Sethians.

Schmidt, however, has shown that the document in question belongs immediately to the literature of the Sethians, to whom also he now ascribes the Untitled Apocalypse of the Bruce Codex. The Apocryphon of John is clearly imbued with a very similar spirit of philosophizing to that of the Valentinian school, and Schmidt promises to compare the two systems in detail, so as to determine their relationship, when he publishes his translation of these new documents, which are of so great importance for the history of the Christianized Gnosis.

The present Position of the Enquiry.

What precise light the publication of Schmidt's labours will throw, directly or indirectly, on the puzzling question of the exact placing of the P.S. literature, we must wait to see; it is highly probable, however, that it will throw some light on its problems. But from what we glean so far from the above indications it may be again suggested that, though the Valentinian hypothesis will have to be definitely abandoned, there seems nothing to compel us to lean to the 2nd rather than to the 1st half of the 3rd century for the date. Here the view of Lipsius (Bib. 20) and Bousset (Bib. 48), that similar features in the P.S. and the religion of Mani are in a more primitive form in the former than in the latter, has to be considered. Manichæism emerged somewhere about 265 A.D., but it is very difficult to say what was its precise original form. The similarities in the two systems may of course be due to their coming from a common source.

The new and the old Perspective in Gnostic Studies.

What is certain is that we have in the contents of the Askew, Bruce and Berlin Codices a rich material which hands on to us valuable direct information concerning what I have called 'The Gnosis according to its Friends,' in distinction from what previously used to be our only sources, the polemical writings of the heresiological Fathers, which set forth 'The Gnosis according to its Foes.' We have thus at last a new standpoint from which to review the subject, and therewith the opportunity of revising our impressions in a number of respects; a considerably different angle of vision must needs change the perspective of no little in the picture.

The chief business or interest of the orthodox Fathers was to select and stress what appeared to them to be the most bizarre points and elements, all that was most absurd in their judgment, in the many Gnostic systems, and of course, and rightly, everything that could be thought to be ethically reprehensible. Good, bad and indifferent were only too frequently lumped together. It was of no interest to this polemic to mention similarities in belief and practice between the heretics and their opponents, to dwell on the lofty faith of numbers of these Gnostics in the transcendent excellence and overmastering glory of the Saviour, or on many signs of spiritual inwardness, and especially of high virtue, in which they were at the least not less scrupulous than their critics. Doubtless there were sects and groups whose tenets were absurd at any valuation, and some whose laxity of ethics demanded severe reprobation. But the majority could not be accused on the score of moral delinquency, indeed no few were rigidly ascetic; and some of their speculations again have a sublimity of their own, and in a number of cases anticipated Catholic dogma. If we turn to our direct sources in Coptic translation, we find that the ethic is admirable, even if we are averse from over-asceticism in the religious life, and that their whole-souled devotion to and worship of the Saviour is unbounded.

It is no part of the plan of this translation to attempt anything in the nature of a commentary. That would mean a second volume, and would in any case be an unsatisfactory performance; for much would still remain obscure, even if every ray of light shed on this or that special point by those who have most deeply studied the subject, were gathered together. One or two very general remarks, however, may be ventured.

The Ministry of the First Mystery.

In the P.S. Jesus is everywhere pre-eminent and central. He is here revealed as Saviour and First Mystery, who knows all and unveils all, infinite in compassion. As such he is pre-existent from eternity, and his ministry is not only earthly, but cosmic and supercosmic; indeed, it is the chief feature in the divine economy. Yet nowhere is he called the Christ. If this is intentional, no reason seems to be assignable for such an abstention. There is no sign of antagonism to Judaism or to the O.T. On the contrary, the psalms and other utterances which are quoted, are validated by the theory that it was the Power of the Saviour which so prophesied of old through the mouth of a David, a Solomon, or an Isaiah.

The post-resurrectional Setting.

The whole setting is post-resurrectional. In Divv. i.-iii. Jesus has already, for eleven years after the crucifixion, been instructing his disciples, men and women, in the Gnosis. The scene now depicts the disciples as gathered round the Saviour on the Mount of Olives on earth. The range and scope of this prior teaching may be seen in Div. iv., where the introductory words speak of it as taking place simply after the crucifixion. In this stratum the scene is different. The sacramental rite is solemnized on earth; it takes place, however, on the Mount of Galilee and not on the Mount of Olives. But the scene is not confined to earth only, for the disciples are also taken into some of the regions of the invisible world, above and below, have vision there conferred upon them, and are instructed on its meaning. Now in Divv. i.-iii. Jesus promises to take the disciples into the spheres and heavens for the direct showing of their nature and quality and inhabitants, but there is no fulfilment of this promise in the excerpts we have from 'The Books of the Saviour.' It is not to be supposed, however, that Div. iv. is part of the fulfilment of the high promise made in the prior extracts; for in it we move in an earlier phase of the instruction and in an atmosphere of lesser mysteries than those indicated in the preceding part.

The higher Revelation within this Setting.

Divv. i.-iii. throughout proclaim the revelation of higher mysteries. This is only now made possible by the supremely joyous fact that in the twelfth year of the inner-teaching-ministry a great, if not supreme, moment in the life of the Saviour has been accomplished: his earthly ministry is now achieved, and he is invested with the full radiance of his triple robe of glory, which embraces the whole powers of the universe. He ascends into heaven in dazzling light which blinds the disciples. After thirty hours he returns again, and in compassion withdraws his blinding splendour, so as to give his final teaching to his faithful in his familiar form. This means that 'The Books of the Saviour' purport to contain not only a post-resurrectional teaching, and therefore a Gnostic revelation supplementary to the public preaching before the crucifixion, but also a still higher and more intimate unveiling within the post-resurrectional instruction already current in the tradition. If there had been apocalyptic elements and visions in the prior literature, there were to be still more transcendental revelations now on the completion of the ministry. Until the investiture, or rather reinvestiture, had taken place according to the divine command, it had not been possible for the Saviour to speak in utter openness face to face on all things; now it is possible. Such is the convention.

The Æon-lore.

In Divv. i.-iii. there is presupposed throughout a system of æons and the rest, which is already highly complex and shows manifest signs of consisting of stages once severally at the summit of earlier systems, but now successively subordinated. It is clear then that, if still loftier hierarchies are to be brought on to the stage, it can only be by again reducing what had previously been regarded as 'the end of all ends' to a subordinate position. This is the method adopted, and we lose ourselves in the recital of the designations and attributes of ever more transcendental beings and spaces and mysteries.

The Sophia Episode.

In all of this, however, there is no sign of interest in metaphysical speculation; there is no philosophizing. It is then not any element of Hellenic thought proper in the æonology, which is said to have been so strongly the case with the teaching of Valentinus himself, that has led so many to conjecture a Valentinian derivation. It is rather the long episode of the sorrowing Sophia which has influenced them. This episode reflects on a lower level of the cosmic scale somewhat of the motif of the 'tragic myth' of the world-soul, the invention of which is generally ascribed to Valentinus himself, though he may possibly have transformed or worked up already existing materials or notions. It is this long Sophia episode and its skilfully inverted mystical exegesis and allegorical interpretation, following the methods developed by Alexandrine contemplatives, which has produced the impression on many that it was of fundamental importance for the system of the P.S.

The ethical Interest.

It is certainly an indication of the deep interest of the circle in repentance and the penitential psalms. But the interest is here ethical rather than cosmological. Pistis Sophia would seem to be intended to represent the type of the faithful repentant individual soul. Throughout, the chief interest is in salvation and redemption. This is to be acquired by repentance and by renunciation of the world, its lures and cares, but above all by faith in the Saviour, the Divine Light, and his mysteries. The first requisite is sincere repentance. The chief topic round which all the ethical teaching naturally centres, is sin, its cause and its purification, and the revelation of the mystery of the forgiveness of sins and of the infinite compassion of the First Mystery. Though there is very much also concerning the complex schematology of the invisible worlds and the hierarchies of being, much concerning the soul and its origin, of how it comes to birth and departs from earth-life, much of the light-power, the spiritual element in man, -- all is subordinated to the ethical interest in the first place, and in the second to the efficacy of the high mysteries of salvation.

The Mysteries.

The whole is set forth in terms of these mysteries, which are now conceived in a far more vital way than was apparently the case in the earlier literature. On the lower side the mysteries still in some respects keep in touch with the tradition of words-of-power, authentic and incorruptible names, and so forth, though there is little of this specifically in Divv. i.-iii. But it is evidently intended that the higher mysteries should now be conceived in the light of the fact that the Saviour himself is in himself concretely the First Mystery and indeed the Last Mystery, and that the mysteries are not so much spiritual powers as substantive beings of transcendent excellence. The light-robe is a mystery of mysteries, and they who have received of the high mysteries become light-streams in passing from the body. The mysteries are closely intertwined with the lore of the glory and its modes.

The astral Lore.

One of the main elements in the lower schematology is the ancient astral lore, those ground-conceptions of sidereal religion which dominated the thought of the times and upheld their sway directly and indirectly for long centuries after. But here again our Gnostics, while retaining the schematology for certain purposes, placed it low in the scale. Moreover, while not denying that previously there was truth even in the astrological art, they reduced the chances of the horoscope-casters to zero, by declaring that the Saviour in the accomplishment of his cosmic ministry had now drastically changed the revolution of the spheres, so that henceforth no calculations could be counted on; these were now of no more value than the spinning of a coin.

Transcorporation.

Our Gnostics were also transmigrationists; transcorporation formed an integral part of their system. They found no difficulty in fitting it into their plan of salvation, which shows no sign of the expectation of an immediate end of all things -- that prime article of faith of the earliest days. So far from thinking that reincarnation is alien to gospel-teaching, they elaborately interpret certain of the most striking sayings in this sense, and give graphic details of how Jesus, as the First Mystery, brought to rebirth the souls of John the Baptizer and of the disciples, and supervized the economy of his own incarnation. In this respect the P.S. offers richer material for those interested in this ancient and widespread doctrine than can be found in any other old-world document in the West.

The magical Element.

A far more distressingly puzzling immixture is the element of magic. In Div. iv. especially there are invocations and many names which resemble those found in the Greek magical papyri and other scattered sources. But no one has so far thrown any clear light on this most difficult subject of research in general, much less on its relation to the P.S. It is evident that the writers of Div. iv. and of the first treatise of the Bruce Codex set a high value on such formulæ and on authentic names; nor are these entirely absent from the excerpts from 'The Books of the Saviour,' as witness the five words written on the light-robe. Our Gnostics unquestionably believed in a high magic, and were not averse from finding in what was presumably its most reputable tradition, material which they considered to be germane to their purpose. In this tradition there must have been a supreme personage possessing characteristics that could be brought into close connection with their ideal of the Saviour, for they equate a certain Aberamenthō with him. The name occurs once or twice elsewhere; but who or what it suggested, we do not know. In any case, as they utilized and attempted to sublimate so much else which was considered by many in those days to be most venerable, in order that they might the more extend and exalt the glory of the Saviour and take up into it what they considered the best of everything, so did they with what was presumably the highest they could find in the hoary tradition of magical power, which had enjoyed empery for so long in the antique world and still continued to maintain itself even in religio-philosophical circles, where we should, from the modern standpoint, least expect to find it.

History and psychic story.

As to the setting of the narrative, -- if we had not such an abundance of instances of pseudo-historic and pseudo-epigraphic scripture-writing, if this were not, so to speak, the commonplace, not only of apocryphal and apocalyptic literature, but also of no little that falls within the borders of canonical sanction, we might be more surprized than we are at the form in which the composers or compilers have framed their work. It is clear that they loved and worshipped Jesus with an ecstasy of devotion and exaltation; they do not fall short in this of the greatest of his lovers. What sort of authority, then, could they have supposed they had for conceiving the setting of their narrative in the way they have?

Objective physical history, in the rigid sense in which we understand it to-day, was of secondary interest to them, to say the least; indeed, it was apparently of little moment to the Gnostics of any school, and their opponents were not in-frequently rowing in the same boat. The Gnostics were, however, less disingenuous; they strenuously declared their belief in continued revelation, they delighted in apocalyptic and in psychic story. The belief in a post-resurrectional teaching had doubtless existed for long in many forms in Gnostic circles. It must have been widespread; for, as shown by Schmidt quite recently (Bib. 59), a Catholic writer in Asia Minor found himself compelled to steal the fire of the Gnostics and adopt the same convention in an orthodox document that was intended to be a polemic against Gnostic ideas, somewhere in the 3rd quarter of the 2nd century. However they arrived at their conviction, it seems highly probable that the writers of the P.S. must have sincerely believed they had high authority for their proceeding, and were in some way emboldened by 'inspiration' to carry out their task. As far as they were concerned, they do not by any means seem conscious of belonging to a decadent movement or of deterioration in the quality of the ideas they were attempting to set forth, as so many modern critics would have it. On the contrary, they thought they were depositories or recipients of profound mysteries never hitherto revealed, and that by a knowledge of these mysteries they could the more efficiently evangelize the world.

The P.S. a reserved Document.

It is evident, however, that the P.S. was never intended to be circulated as a public gospel. Certain things are to be preached or proclaimed to the world, but only certain things. Certain mysteries, again, the recipients were to bestow under certain conditions, but others were to be reserved. The 'Books of the Saviour' are, therefore, to be regarded as apocrypha in the original sense of the word -- that is, 'withdrawn' or 'reserved' writings. As such they fell within the proscriptions of artificial secrecy common to all the initiatory institutions of the time and of all time. And artificial secrecy can with difficulty, if ever, avoid the moral and intellectual hazard of its innate obscurations. The P.S. was intended for already initiated disciples, for chosen learners, though no pledge of secrecy is mentioned. It was intended, above all, for would-be apostles, for those who should go forth to proclaim what was for them the best of good news; it is clearly the inner instruction of a zealously propagandist sect.

Its general Value.

If 'The Books of the Saviour' in their full original form -- for in the extant P.S. we have but selections from them and the formulæ of the higher mysteries are omitted, -- and if what is given of the lower mysteries in Div. iv. were held back from public perusal owing partly at least to the fear of the unworthy making improper use of them, there is little danger to-day on this score, for this part of the miscellany remains so far the most securely incomprehensible. And indeed no little else remains obscure, even when we are of those who have made a protracted study of the psychical elements in mysticism and of the general psychology of religious experience. But there is much also in our Codex which has a charm of its own. There are things of rare, if exotic, beauty, things of profound ethical significance, things of delicate spiritual texture.

In any case, however all these very various elements and features in the syncretism be judged and evaluated, the Pistis Sophia is unquestionably a document of the first importance, not only for the history of Christianized Gnosticism, but also for the history of the development of religion in the West.

A Skeleton of the Scheme of the System.

In conclusion, a skeleton of the scheme under-lying the P.S. is added. It may prove of service generally to assist the reader in the maze of details.

The Ineffable.

The Limbs of the Ineffable.

• I. The Highest Light-world or Realm of Light.
o i. The First Space of the Ineffable.
o ii. The Second Space of the Ineffable, or The First Space of the First Mystery.
o iii. The Third Space of the Ineffable, or The Second Space of the First Mystery.
• II. The Higher (or Middle) Light-world.
o i. The Treasury of the Light.
 1. The Emanations of the Light.
 2. The Orders of the Orders.
o ii. The Region of the Right.
o iii. The Region of the Midst.
• III. The Lower Light or Æon-world, or The Mixture of Light and Matter.
o i. The Region of the Left.
 1. The Thirteenth Æon.
 2. The Twelve Eons.
 3. The Fate.
 4. The Sphere.
 5. The Rulers of the Ways of the (Lower) Midst. [1]
 6. The Firmament.
o ii. The World (Kosmos), especially Mankind.
o iii. The Under-world.
 1. The Amente.
 2. The Chaos.
 3. The Outer Darkness.

Finally, the bibliography which follows is not simply a list of authors' names and of the titles of their contributions to the subject, but is furnished with notes which may serve briefly to indicate the chief moments in the development of the literature and in the history of opinion. There doubtless are a few articles hidden away in the back numbers of periodicals which should be added fully to complete the list; but they cannot be of any importance, or they would have been referred to by some one or other of the subsequent writers.

_______________

Note:

1. I have printed this without a capital in the text to distinguish it from the higher Midst above.

Re: Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Miscellany, translated by G.R.S

PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:42 am
by admin
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. 1770. Art. in Brittische theol. Magazin (?); see Köstlin below, 13.

2. 1773. Woide (C. G.). Art. in Journal des Savants (Paris).

3. 1778. Woide (C. G.). Art. in J. A. Cramer's Beyträge zur Beförderung theologischer und andrer wichtigen Kenntnisse (Kiel u. Hamburg), iii. 82 ff.

It was by W. that the New Testament, according to the text of the famous Codex Alexandrinus, was edited, in uncial types cast to imitate those of the MS., in 1786. In an Appendix to this great undertaking, in 1799 (see below, 5), he added certain fragments of the New Testament in the Thebaico-Coptic dialect, together with a dissertation on the Coptic version of the New Testament. The date of the C.A. is generally assigned to the 5th cent., and, with the exception of the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus, which are sometimes assigned to the 4th cent., is the oldest extant MS. of the New Testament. This being the case, it is of interest to quote from the Beiträge W.'s opinion on the date of the MS. of P.S., which was lent to this careful scholar by Dr. Askew and which he copied from the first word to the last:

"It [P.S.] is a very old MS. in 4to on parchment in Greek uncial characters, which are not so round as those in the Alexandrine MS. in London, and in the Claromontain MS. in Paris [Codex Regius Parisiensis, also an Alexandrine text]. The characters of the MS. [P.S.] are somewhat longer and more angular, so that I take them to be older than both the latter MSS., in which the letters eta, theta, omicron, rho and sigma are much rounder."

Thus W. would date the MS. towards the end of the 4th cent.

4. 1794. Buhle (J. G.). Literarischer Briefwechsel von Johann David Michaelis (Leipzig), 3 vols., 1794-96, iii. 69.

Under date 1773 there is a letter from Woide to Michaelis, in which the former says in reference to the P.S. Codex that Askew had picked it up by chance in a book-shop. There follows a description of the MS.

5. 1799. Woide (C. G.). Appendix ad Editionem Novi Testamenti Græci e Codice MS. Alexandrino . . . cum Dissertatione de Versione Bibliorum Ægyptiaca quibus subjictur Codicis Vaticani Collatio (Oxford), p. 137.

W. gives the date of the P.S. Codex as about the 4th cent., and considers the writer of the Greek original to have been Valentinus.

6. 1812. Münter (F.). Odæ Gnosticæ Salomoni Tributæ, Thebaice et Latine, Prefatione et Adnotationibus philologicis illustratæ; (Hafniæ).

Bishop Münter, a learned Dane, probably got his text from Woide's copy. His brief pamphlet is of no particular importance; nevertheless it was solely upon these few selections, the five Odes of Solomon, that, with the exception of Dulaurier, scholars formed their opinion of the P.S. up to the time of the publication of Schwartze's translation in 1851. Münter believed that the original treatise belonged to the 2nd cent. For Odes of Solomon see below, 49, 53 and 60.

7. 1838. Dulaurier (É.). Art. in Le Moniteur (sept. 27).

8. 1843. Matter (J.). Histoire Critique du Gnosticisme et de son Influence sur les Sectes religieuses et philosophiques des six premiers Siècles de l’Ère chrétienne (Paris), 2nd ed., ii. 41 ff., 350 ff. The first edition appeared in 1828 and contains no reference to P.S. In Dörner's German translation the references are ii. 69 ff. and 163 ff.

M. rejects the authorship of Valentinus, though he bases himself otherwise entirely on Woide. He vaguely places the date of the original treatise between the end of the 2nd and the end of the 5th cent., but gives no opinion as to the school to which it belongs (p. 352).

9. 1847. Dulaurier (É.). Art. in the Journal Asiatique, 4e série, tom. ix., juin, pp. 534-548, 'Notice sur le Manuscript copte-thébain, intitulé La Fidèle Sagesse; et sur la Publication projetée du Texte et de la Traduction française de ce Manuscript.'

D. had prepared a translation of the P.S. He writes: "The translation of the Pistis Sophia and the glossary which forms a complement to it are finished, and will be sent to the printers, when I have convinced myself that I have fulfilled the requirements that this task imposes, taking into consideration the present state of science and my own capabilities. The MS. from which I have made my translation is a copy which I have taken from the original, during my stay in England in 1838-1840, when I was charged by MM. de Salvandy and Villemain, successive ministers of public instruction, with the commission of proceeding to London to study this curious monument." (p. 542). D., however, did not publish his labours, nor have I as yet come across any record of the fate of his MS. He ascribes the treatise to Valentinus.

10. 1851. Schwartze (M. G.). Pistis Sophia, Opus Gnosticum Valentino adjudicatum, e Codice Manuscripto Coptico Londinensi descriptum. Latine vertit M. G. Schwartze, edidit J. H. Petermann (Berlin).

In 1848 Schwartze made a copy of the Codex in London, but unfortunately died before the completion of his labours on the P.S., and the MS. translation he left behind contained a number of blanks and passages which he intended to fill up and correct. His friend Petermann confined himself in his notes strictly to verbal corrections and suggestions as to variæ lectiones. The consequence is that we have a translation without the notes of the translator and without a word of introduction. P. says the task of editing was so severe that he frequently suffered from fits of giddiness. In spite of numerous blemishes this first edition is said to be 'an outstanding achievement.' S. considers the original treatise, as we see from the title of his work, to have been written by Valentinus; but P. is of the opinion that it is the work of an Ophite, and promises to set forth his reasons at length in a treatise, which has unfortunately never seen the light. A review of S.'s work appeared in the Journal des Savants of 1852 (p. 333).

11. 1852. Bunsen (C. C. J.). Hippolytus and seine Zeit, Anfänge and Aussichten des Christenthums and der Menschheit (Leipzig), i. 47, 48. Hippolytus and his Age (London, 1852), i. 61, 62.

"Great, therefore, were my hopes in 1842, that the ancient Coptic manuscript of the British Museum, inscribed Sophia, might be a translation, or at least an extract, from that lost text-book of Gnosticism [the work quoted by Hippolytus, sub Valent.]: but unfortunately the accurate and trustworthy labours of that patient and conscientious Coptic scholar, Dr. Schwartze, so early taken away from us, have proved to me (for I have seen and perused his manuscript, which I hope will soon appear), that this Coptic treatise is a most worthless (I trust, purely Coptic) offshoot of the Marcosian heresy, of the latest and stupidest mysticism about letters, sounds and words."

B.'s Marcosian theory has been partially revived by Legge (below, 57), but is supported by no one else, and we doubt whether B. could have read Schwartze's MS. with any great care.

12. 1853. Baur (F. C.). Das Christenthum and die christliche Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte (Tübingen), notes on pp. 185, 186, and 205, 206.

B. evidently added these notes at the last moment before publication. On page 206 he leans to the idea of an Ophite origin.

13. 1854. Köstlin (K. R.). Two arts. in Baur and Zeller's Theologische Jahrbücher (Tübingen), xiii. 1 -- 104 and 137 -- 196, 'Das gnostische System des Ruches Pistis Sophia.'

K. was the first to make an exhaustive analysis of the contents of the treatise, with the special object of setting forth the system of P.S., and his labours were used later by Lipsius in his art, in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography (below, 20). He assigns its date to the first half of the 3rd cent., and thinks that it is of Ophite origin. In a note to page 1, K. writes:

"The MS. from which the work is published belongs to the collection of MSS. collected by Dr. Askew of London during his travels in Italy and Greece, of which The British Theological Magazine (Das Brittische theol. Magazin) for the year 1770 (vol. i. part 4, p. 223) gives more particulars."

We know nothing of these travels, and there is no such magazine in the catalogue of the British Museum. The Theological Repository for 1770 contains no information on the subject; and no permutation of names solves the mystery. There were very few magazines published at that early date, so that the choice is limited.

14. 1856. An Anonymous Translation in Migne's Dictionnaire des Apocryphes, tom. i. app. part. ii. coll. 1181 -- 1286; this tome forms vol. xxiii. of his third Encyclopédie Théologique.

The translation is a sorry piece of work, more frequently a mere paraphrase from Schwartze's version than translation; there are also frequent omissions, sometimes as many as 40 pages of Schwartze's text; e.g. pp. 18, 19, 36 ff., 50, 51, 72, 73, 86-90, 108-135, 139, 157-160, 162, 171, 179, 180, 184-186, 221-243, 245-255, 281-320, 324-342. These are some of the omissions; but there are many more. It is, therefore, entirely useless to the student. The anonymous writer vaguely suggests a late date for the treatise because of the complicated nature of the system.

15. 1860. Lipsius (R. A.). Art. 'Gnosticismus,' in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopädie, separately published at Leipzig, 1860, pp. 95 ff. and 157 ff.

L. considers P.S. an Egypto-Ophite treatise, and with Köstlin assigns its date to the first half of the 3rd cent. See his Art. in Dict. of Christ. Biog. (1887).

16. 1875-1883. The Palæographical Society, Facsimiles of MSS. and Inscriptions, Oriental Series, ed. by William Wright (London).

Plate xlii. The editor says that the original is later than Valentinus, and places the MS. in the 7th cent. There is a careful analysis of the text from the technical standpoint, and the facsimile is of f. 11 a.

17. 1877. Jacobi (H.). Art. 'Gnosis,' in Herzog's Theolog. Real Encyclopädie (Leipzig), 2nd ed., 1888; Translation (New York), 1882, 1883.

J. believes in an Ophite origin.

18. 1887. King (C. W.). The Gnostics and their Remains, Ancient and Mediæval (London), 2nd ed. The first ed. appeared in 1864, but contains no reference to P.S.

K. regards the P.S. as the most precious relic of Gnosticism. Besides many references scattered throughout the volume, there are translations from Schwartze of pages 227-239, 242-244, 247-248, 255-259, 261-263, 282-292, 298-308, 341, 342, 358, 375. K. does not venture an opinion on either the date or author.

19. 1887. Amélineau (E.). Essai sur le Gnosticisme égyptien, ses Développements et son Origine égyptienne, in Annales du Musée Guimet (Paris), xiv.

See the third part for system of Valentinus and of P.S., pp. 166-322.

20. 1887. Lipsius (R. A.). Art. 'Pistil Sophia,' in Smith and Wace's Dict. of Christ. Biog. (London), iv. 405-415.

A still valuable study. "We may regard ourselves as justified in assigning (with Petermann and Köstlin) the book Pistis Sophia to one of the large groups of Ophite sects, though nevertheless the system it contains is not identical with any one of the other Ophite systems known to us." Of importance is L.'s suggestion that P.S. may be indirectly one of the sources of the Manichæan religion. In any case, "it may be assumed as probable that the book Pistis Sophia was written before the time of the Manichæan system, and therefore before A.D. 270. Moreover, as the system contained in it is evidently more recent than the other Ophitic systems known to us, we shall have, with Köstlin, to assign its composition to the first half of the 3rd cent." (p. 414b).

21. 1888. Hyvernat (H.). Album de Paléographie Copte (Paris-Rome).

Pl. ii. is a reproduction of a page of our Codex, showing the work of the second scribe. H. dates it "about the end of the 6th cent.," but without a word of justification for this ascription.

22. 1889. Harnack (A.). Crit. of Amélineau's Essai (above, 19), in Theolog. Literaturzeitung (Leipzig), viii. 199-211.

23. 1890. Amélineau (E.). Art. 'Les Traités gnostiques d’Oxford; Étude critique,' in the Revue de l’Histoire des Religions (Paris), xxi. no. 2. 178-260.

Practically the Introduction to his publication of the Text and Translation of the Bruce Codex (24, below). In it A. sets forth the results of "the researches and studies, the hypotheses and convictions of seven years" of labour (p. 4 offprint).

24. 1891. Amélineau (E.). Notice sur le Papyrus gnostique Bruce, Texte et Traduction, in Notices et Extraits des Manuscripts de la Bibliothèque Nationale et Autres Bibliothèques (Paris), xxix. pt. i. 65-305.

These views have been severely criticized, especially by Schmidt (below, 28; also 25-27).

24a. 1891. Harnack (A.). Über das gnostische Buch Pistis-Sophia (Leipzig). (Texte u. Untersuch. vii. 2.)

A study (144 pp.) of the first importance, in which this high authority on the history and chronology of early Christian literature and the history of the development of dogma submits the contents of the Latin version of Schwartze to a careful analysis, and gives 8/9 reasons for placing the P.S. in the second half of the 3rd cent. H. is mainly valuable in his analysis of the Biblical references in the P.S., especially the uses it makes of the N.T., and in his estimate of the stage of development of the general Christian and Catholic elements in P.S. H. thinks that Div. iii. should be called 'Questions of Mary' (pp. 94, 108). Unknown to H., Renan (Marc Aurèle, p. 120) had already hazarded the suggestion that the whole P.S. might be identical with the Little Questions of Mary, mentioned by Epiphanius. But R. shows (p. 145) that he has no direct acquaintance with the subject. H. assigns the P.S. to an 'Ophitic' sect, but not the 'Ophites' in the narrower meaning, for here, as elsewhere often in the use of the name, no sign of the worship of the serpent is found (p. 110). He brings the P.S. sect into close connection with the Syrian Ophitic group, which had offshoots in Egypt, and opens up those investigations into the statements of Epiphanius which Schmidt has surveyed in greater detail in his edition of the Codex Brucianus (below, 28). In fact these two scholars have been in close touch with one another in their work on the P.S. as to its origin, date and place. The concluding remark of H. on the general religious status of the P.S. -- that is to say, its bearing on Early Christian and Catholic religion, in other words its place within the general history of Christianity -- is noteworthy. He writes (p. 114): "In this respect the P.S. is a document of first rank, for we possess no second work which brings before our eyes so clearly the previous history of Catholic sacramentism. What we meet with here more sharply brought out and at one stroke among the Gnostics of the end of the third century, was accomplished by the Catholic Church toilsomely and gradually in the following century. This Gnosticism is not the father of Catholicism, but rather an elder brother who gained by assault what the younger brother attained subsequently amid a thousand exigencies."

25. 1891. Schmidt (C.). Götting. Gelehrte Anzeigen (Göttingen), Nr. xvii. 640-675.

A very damaging review of Amélineau's edition of the Bruce Codex (above, 23).

26. 1891. Amélineau (E.). Art. 'Le Papyrus Bruce: Réponse aux Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen,' in Revue de l’Histoire des Religions (Paris), xxiv. no. 3. 376-380.

A.'s reply to Schmidt's criticisms.

27. 1892. Schmidt (C.). Götting. Gelehrte Anzeigen (Göttingen), Nr. 6. 201-202.

S.'s further rejoinder to A.

28. 1892. Schmidt (C.). Gnostische Schriften in koptischer Sprache aus dem Codex Brucianus (Leipzig), 692 pp. (T. u. U. viii.)

S.'s masterly edition entirely supersedes that of Amélineau, who worked on Woide's copy of the confused heap of leaves preserved in the Bodleian. His minute examination of the original discovered that the chaos could first of all be sorted out into two totally different MSS. The larger work is entitled The Book of the Great Logos according to the Mystery. The contents fall naturally into two divisions, which S. calls respectively 'The First' and 'The Second Book of Jeû.' The system is closely related to that of the P.S. miscellany. S. devotes pp. 334-538 to a penetrating study of this relation-ship, in which he makes a most valuable contribution to the analysis of the contents of the P.S. His labours here are practically an Introduction to his subsequent translation of the P.S. in 1905 (below, 45). Among much else of the greatest value he gives us a minutely detailed investigation of the system of the P.S., which supersedes Köstlin's pains-taking pioneer effort (1854). S. is rightly of opinion that P.S. is a more or less happy compilation from other works (p. 318), as Köstlin had already pointed out (p. 344). He seems to think little of the possible objection that, whereas the 'Two Books of Yew,' mentioned twice in the P.S., are said to have been dictated to Enoch by Jesus before the Flood and hidden away, the contents of the first document of the C.B. are revealed by Jesus himself to the disciples (p. 343). The statement in the P.S. is in keeping with common apocalyptic claims, and in any case the sect as a matter of fact did possess two Yew Books, and the contents of C.B. I. are what we should expect from the references in the P.S., while the intimate relationship between P.S. Div. iv. and C.B. I.b is patent to the most casual reader. He agrees with Harnack as to the date of the P.S. -- namely, the latter half of the 3rd cent. for Divv. i.-iii., and a few decades earlier for Div. iv. C.B. I. is thus to be placed in the first half of the 3rd cent. (pp. 540, 598). C.B. II. is a work without a title, the contents of which have roused S. to enthusiasm (pp. 34, 35). It is plainly of an earlier date, and so S. here conjectures for it about 160-200 A.D. (p. 542); but he has subsequently changed his view as to date (see 47, below).

After a close methodical investigation, in which in particular he submits the statements of Epiphanius to a searching criticism, S. thinks that everything points to the Severians as being most probably the sect to which the writings contained in P.S. and C.B. I. can be attributed (p. 596). C.B. II., he concludes, may be assigned to Sethian-Archontics (p. 659). But the whole question bristles with difficulties when precise names are in question. It is to be noted that in his researches S. lays under contribution as very pertinent to the inquiry his prior labours on the puzzling problem of the Gnostics of Plotinus, in his treatise Plotin's Stellung zum Gnosticismus und kirchlichen Christentum (Leipzig), 1900, 168 pp. (T. u. U. N.F. v. 4.). There is much criticism of Amélineau's work and views scattered throughout this C.B. volume.

29. 1892. Schmidt (C.). De Codice Bruciano seu de Libris gnosticis qui in Lingua coptica extant Commentatio (Leipzig), Pars i., 30 pp.

No other part has been published, and there is nothing in it, as far as I am aware, which has not appeared in C.'s larger works.

30. 1893. Crum (W. E.). Coptic Manuscripts brought from the Fayyum by W. M. Flinders Petrie (London).

C. seems almost to allow that the copy of P.S. might have been made in the 4th cent. (p. 24).

31. 1893. Legge (G. F.). Art. 'Some Heretic Gospels' in The Scottish Review (London), xxii. 133-162.

Pp. 134-157 are devoted to P.S., the rest to the documents of the Bruce Codex. L.'s Forerunners (1915) gives his maturer views (see below, 57).

32. 1893. Harnack (A.). Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur bis Eusebius (Leipzig), I. i. 171 f.

A summary description of the contents of the P.S. and Cod. Bruc. from his important study, Über d. gnost. Buch P.S. (above, 24a), based on Schwartze's Latin version.

33. 1894. Preuschen (E.). Rev. of Schmidt's Gnostische Schriften in k. S. aus d. Cod. Bruc. (1892), in Theolog. Literaturzeitung (Leipzig), Nr. vii. 183-187.

P.'s main criticism is that S.'s identification of the two parts of the first treatise of the Bruce Codex with 'The Books of Yew' mentioned in P.S. is mistaken.

34. 1894. Schmidt (C.). 'Die in dem koptisch-gnostischen Codex Brucianus enthaltenen "Beide Bücher Jeû" in ihrem Verhältnis zu der Pistis Sophia,' in Zeitschr. f. wissenschaft. Theolog. (Leipzig), xxxvii. 555-585.

S.'s reply to P.'s criticism.

35. 1895. Amélineau (E.) Pistis-Sophia, Ouvrage gnostique de Valentin, traduit du copte en français, avec une Introduction (Paris), xxxii +204 pp.

A. advocates strongly the Valentinian origin of the treatise, and leans almost exclusively to an Egyptian origin of the ideas. These views have been severely criticized, especially by Schmidt. The MS. itself, however, A. places very late, writing on page xi of his Introduction as follows: -- "After an examination of the enormous faults which the scribe has committed, I cannot attribute to the MS. which has preserved the Pistis-Sophia to us, a date later than the ninth or tenth century, and that too the minimum. For this I have several reasons. Firstly, the MS. is written on parchment, and parchment was hardly ever commonly used in Egypt before the sixth or seventh century. Secondly, the writing, which is uncial, though passable in the first pages of the MS., becomes bastard in a large number of leaves, when the scribe's hand is fatigued; no longer is it the beautiful writing of the Egyptian scribes of the great periods, but slack, inconsistent, almost round and hurried. Thirdly, the faults of orthography in the use of Greek words evidently show that the scribe belonged to a period when Greek was almost no longer known."

In a footnote Amélineau says that he is perfectly aware that this opinion of his will 'raise a tempest,' and begs for a suspension of judgment till he has published his reasons, especially as to the late use of parchment, at greater length. The storm broke, and no one has accepted A.'s arguments. Among other things he failed to notice that in the first place the Askew Codex is the work of two scribes, and not of one, and that the various portions of their common task can be unquestionably assigned to each. The parchment argument has never seen the light, as far as I am aware.

36. 1896. Mead (G. R. S.). Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Gospel (with Extracts from the Books of the Saviour appended), originally translated from Greek into Coptic and now for the first time Englished from Schwartze's Latin Version of the only known Coptic MS. and checked by Amélineau's French Version (London).

The first edition of the present work.

37. 1898. Schmidt (C.). Götting. Gelehrte Anzeigen (Göttingen), Nr. vi. 436-444.

A severely critical review of Amélineau's Introduction to his Translation of P.S. (above, 35).

38. 1899. Crum (W. E.). Egyptian Exploration Fund, Archæological Reports, 1897/1898 (London), p. 62.

Description of MS. of P.S., which is, however, improved upon below (46).

39. 1900. Mead (G. R. S.). Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: Some Short Sketches among the Gnostics (London), 1st ed. (2nd ed. 1906), 'The Gnosis according to its Friends.' pp. 451-602.

'The Askew and Bruce Codices' (pp. 453-458); 'Summary of the Contents of the So-called Pistis Sophia Treatise' (pp. 459-506); 'Summary of the Extracts from the Books of the Saviour' (pp. 507-517); 'Selections from the Untitled Apocalypse of the Codex Brucianus' (pp. 547-566); 'Notes on the Contents of the Bruce and Askew Codices' (pp. 567-578); 'The Akhmīm Codex' [now called the Berlin Codex] (pp. 579-592).

40. 1901. Rahlfs (A.). Die Berliner Handschrift des sahidischen Psalters (Berlin). Abhandl. d. königl. Gesellschaft d. Wissenschaft zu Göttingen. Philol. hist. Kl. N.F. Bd. iv. Nr. 4.

On p. 7 R. calls attention to a remarkable difference in the versions of the Psalms quoted in the P.S. While the citations in pp. 53-82 and 111-181 (Schw.-Pet. ed.) vary relatively only slightly from the usual Sahidic version, those in pp. 86-110 are so totally different that they must be an independent translation from the Greek. If this is so, we are confronted by the high probability that Repentances 8-13 are a later addition, and that there were thus originally only 7 Repentances. If this hypothesis stands, it is of great importance for the internal analysis of the literature. R.'s view is criticized by Rendel Harris (below, 60).

41. 1901. Liechtenhan (R.). 'Untersuchungen zur koptisch-gnostischen Literatur,' in Zeitschr. f. wissenschaft. Theologie, Bd. xliv. H. ii. 236-253.

In his analysis of the composition of the P.S., L. introduces a novelty. He thinks that pp. 128 (ch. 64)-175 (end of ch. 80), subsequent to the thirteen Repentances, are a later insertion in the Sophia-episode, and regards the opening lines of ch. 81 ("It came to pass after all this") as a redactor's connecting paragraph.

With regard to the appropriateness of the suggested title, 'The Questions of Mary,' for Div. iii., and of 'The Gospel of Philip' (P.S. ch. 42) as a possible title for Divv. i. and ii., -- he tries to get over the difficulty that those two titles are mentioned by Epiphanius among the books of a group of sects to which the Church Father ascribes the most filthy, blasphemous and obscene rites, in the following conjecture (p. 242): -- "A Gnostic sect in Egypt possessed a rich, apocalyptic literature, among which was to be found a Gospel of Philip and Questions of Mary. This sect was divided into an ascetic and a libertinist branch, and each group worked over the sacred literature which had come down to them." Epiphanius (Hær. xxvi.) got hold of the libertinist redaction; the ascetic is preserved for us in P.S., Divv. i.-iii. Div. iv. is an earlier stratum. 'The Books of Yew' mentioned in P.S. are said to have been revealed to Enoch; accordingly, like Preuschen, he thinks that these cannot be the treatise of the Bruce Codex to which Schmidt has assigned this title, for the latter is revealed to the Disciples (p. 251).

42. 1904. Harnack (A.). Die Chronologie der altchristlichen Literatur (Leipzig), II. ii. 193-195, 'Die Pistis Sophia and die in Papyrus Brucianus Sæc. V. eel. VI. enthaltenen gnostischen Schriften.'

H. repeats, from his detailed study (above, 24a), his reasons for assigning the contents of P.S. Divv. i.-iii. to the latter half of 3rd cent. He says that Liechtenhan's final opinion (above, 41) on 'The Questions of Mary' problem is not far from his own view. Why H. assigns the treatises of the Bruce Codex to the 5th or 6th cent. (!) is not set forth.

43. 1904. Liechtenhan (R.). Art. 'Ophiten,' in Schaff-Herzog's Real-encycl. f. protest. Theologie, 3rd ed., vol. xiv.

L. (p. 405) includes the P.S. among a score of sects which he brings together under this too general heading of 'Ophites.'

(A shortened form of the above appears in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge (New York), 1910, vol. viii.)

44. 1904. Granger (F.). Art. 'The Poemandres of Hermes Trismegistus,' in The Journal of Theological Studies (London), v. 395-412.

G. (p. 401) questions whether the P.S. is a translation from the Greek; but the only reason he advances is the hazardous statement that: "The Egyptian Gnostic writings of the third century exhibit the same qualities of style as the Coptic biographies and apocalypses of the fourth and following centuries."

45. 1905. Schmidt (C.). Koptisch-gnostische Schriften. Bd. I. Die Pistis Sophia. Die beiden Bücher des Jeû. Unbekanntes altgnostisches Werk (Leipzig), xxvii + 410 pp.

Bd. II. is to contain the three unpublished works of the Berlin Codex entitled: (1) The Gospel of Mary; (2) The Apocryphon of John; (3) The Wisdom of Jesus Christ. (See my Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, 2nd ed., London, 1906, pp. 579-592, for a summary of Schmidt's notice of the Codex, published in Sitzungsber. der Königl. Preuss. Akademie d. Wissensch., Berlin, 1896 pp. 839 ff., entitled 'Bin vorirenaeisches gnostisches Original-werk in koptischer Sprache.') This long-expected second volume has not yet seen the light. The contents are of great value, for The Apocryphon of John, in its original Greek form, lay before Irenæus, and in an appendix to Schmidt's notice Harnack ventures the query: Can The Wisdom (Sophia) of Jesus Christ possibly be the lost famous writing of Valentinus so entitled?

In the Introduction (pp. ix-xviii) S. sums up the results of his prior studies. The Translation of the P.S. occupies pp. 1-254, and is deserving of the highest praise.

46. 1905. Crum (W. E.). Catalogue of the Coptic MSS. in the British Museum (London), p. 173.

The B.M. official description of the Askew Codex.

47. 1907. Schmidt (C.). Art. 'Irenäus and seine Quelle in Adv. Hær. I. 29,' in Philotesia. Paul Kleinert zum LXX. Geburtstag dargebracht von Adolf Harnack, u.s.w., pp. 317-336.

This is a very important study, in which S. again treats of The Apocryphon of John in the unpublished Coptic Gnostic Berlin Codex, on which he had already specially dwelt in reporting for the first time the contents of the Codex to the Prussian Academy in 1896. The Greek original is early, and a copy of it lay before Irenæus. We are thus in a position to estimate the nature of the Church Father's method of quotation and summarizing, and it is clearly proved to be unreliable. S. definitely assigns this special document to a Sethian circle in Egypt, and brings its æon-lore into close touch with Valentinian ideas. He says nothing, unfortunately, of how this document and the other two of the Codex -- namely, The Gospel of Mary and The Wisdom of Jesus Christ -- bear on the line of descent of the doctrines of the P.S. Doubtless he is reserving his treatment of the subject for his long-expected edition of the whole Berlin Codex, which for the first time will give us first-hand knowledge of second-century Gnosticism, and, judging by what little S. has already disclosed to us, throw a brilliant light on some of the most puzzling obscurities in the history of the development of Gnostic doctrine.

48. 1907. Bousset (W.). Hauptprobleme der Gnosis (Göttingen), 398 pp.

This is a study of the greatest value from the comparative standpoint. Though Lipsius (above, 20) had already drawn attention to the point, B. goes further by showing in detail the close connection between some main notions of the Manichæan religion and some features of the P.S., whereas Schmidt (1892, pp. 375, 404, 417, 564) had previously drawn attention to isolated parallels only. In dealing with the system of the P.S. (pp. 346-350) B. writes: "There can be no doubt at all on the affinity between the two systems. The only possible question which remains is whether in the P.S. and II. Jeû direct dependence on the Manichæan system comes up for discussion, or whether a common source underlies both systems. The latter appears to me provisionally to be the more probable hypothesis. Many of the kindred ideas appear in the P.S. in their more original and purer form, the figure of the Virgin of Light has in the P.S. meaning and great importance, whereas in the Manichæan system she is a shadowy form by the side of the Third Envoy. If the latter supposition proves correct, Mani would have far less right of claim to originality for his system than has hitherto seemed to be the case."

49. 1909. Rendel Harris (J.). The Odes and Psalms of Solomon, now first published from the Syriac Version (Cambridge). The editio princeps of the now recovered 42 Odes; previously only the five in the P.S. were known.

R. H. devotes pp. 16-35 to treating of the use of the Odes in the P.S. On p. 35 he writes: "The Pistis Sophia, in which the Odes are imbedded, dates from the third century, and the author of the Pistis had, as we have shown, the Odes bound up with his Canonical Psalter; at the time intimated there was no Coptic [Thebaic] Bible from which the extracts could have been made; so we may be sure the Odes were taken from a Greek Bible, and, with almost equal certainty, that the Pistis Sophia itself was a Greek book."

For R. H.'s change of opinion see below, 60.

50. 1909. Arendzen (J. P.). Art. 'Gnosticism,' in The Catholic Encyclopædia (New York), vol. vi.

P. S. is summarily and inadequately dealt with on p. 600.

51. 1910. Bousset (W.). Art. 'Gnosticism,' in Encyclopædia Britannica (London), 11th ed.

B., following the prevailing German view, assigns P.S. to the 2nd half of 3rd cent.; he, however, thinks that both treatises of the Bruce Codex are later than P.S., but does not argue this important question.

52. 1912. Bousset (W.). Arts. 'Gnosis' and 'Gnostiker,' in Paulys Real-Encyklopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (ed. Wissowa-Kroll, Berlin).

B. here, in § 10, treats of the P.S. and the C.B. as belonging to the period when Gnosticism had got out of hand or was running wild ('Die Verwilderung der Gnosis'). He does not, however, repeat his view of the later date of C.B., and says that the eschatology of the P.S. is strongly reminiscent of Valentinian speculations.

53. 1912. Worrell (W. H.). Art. 'The Odes of Solomon and the Pistis Sophia,' in The Journal of Theological Studies (London), xiii. 29-46.

An interesting study. Gives translations of the five Odes from the Coptic and Syriac and seems to blame R. Harris for using Schwartze's Latin version instead of Schmidt's more modern rendering in his quotations from the P.S.

54. 1913. Scott (E. F.). Art. 'Gnosticism,' in Hastings' Encycl. of Relig. and Ethics (Edinburgh), vi. 231-242.

"There can be little doubt that the Coptic writings (Pistis Sophia, etc.) present a variety of the Barbelo-Gnosis" (p. 239a). P.S. was written in Egypt at close of 3rd cent. (p. 241b). This is by no means certain; we must wait for Schmidt's full translation and commentary on The Apocryphon of John before any definite conclusion can be reached.

55. 1913. De Faye (E.). Gnostiques et Gnosticisme: Etude critique des Documents du Gnosticisme chrétien aux IIe et IIIe Siècles (Paris). Pt. iii. 'Écrits gnostiques en Langue copte,' pp. 247-311.

D. F. agrees with Harnack and Schmidt as to the most probable date being the 2nd half of the 3rd cent. (p. 254). He thinks that Div. iii. is the lost Little Questions of Mary, favouring Harnack against Schmidt, whom he blames (p. 266) for abandoning this view in the Introduction (p. xviii) to his Translation (above, 45), after first adopting it in his earlier work. He thinks that Schmidt has made out his case for the two Jell Books against the reservations of Preuschen and Liechtenhan (p. 291). D. F. is strongly opposed to the hypothesis of a Valentinian origin (p. 251); he is also very critical of the general Ophite theory (p. 327) and of the special Severian theory of Schmidt (p. 355). He has no precise view of his own as to origin; but, in keeping with his general thesis, which would make most, if not all, of the anonymous and pseudonymous systems later and degenerate forms of the more metaphysical views of a Basilides, a Valentinus and a Marcion, he is content to leave the P.S. to a later, period of degeneration. His general metaphysical test can hardly be said to be a criterion for history. Metaphysic does not come first; philosophizing is a secondary stage, and this is certainly the case in the general development of the Gnosis which starts in a strongly mythological and apocalyptic circle of ideas.

56. 1913. Scott-Moncrieff (P. D.). Paganism and Christianity in Egypt (Cambridge), pp. 148-182, ch. vii., 'Some Aspects of Gnosticism: Pistis Sophia.'

After a review of contents and literature, with regard to place of origin the author writes (p. 175): "But if of Syrian origin the scheme betrays here and there marked signs of Egyptian influence, and the fact that the work was sufficiently important to be translated into the native tongue shows without doubt that the sect which inspired it was an Egyptian branch who dwelt in Egypt." This is of course generally evident. S.-M. thinks, however, that the question of translation may be pressed too much. Without attempting any justification of his opinion, he asserts that "the Coptic text is at the earliest a fifth-century work when Gnosticism was fast dying out and could only be practised furtively." Surely the author is here confusing the probable date of the Askew Codex copy with the question of date of the original?

57. 1915. Legge (G. F.). Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity: Being Studies in Religious History from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D. (Cambridge), 2 vols., ii. 134-202, ch. x., 'The System of the Pistis Sophia and its Related Texts.'

Divv. i. and ii. presuppose belief in a system resembling those of the Ophites and of Valentinus (p. 135). Divv. iii. and iv. are probably Marcosian in origin (p. 173), in any case later (!) than Divv. i. and ii. (p. 184). In this L. partially revives Bunsen's rejected theory (above, 11). He accepts translation from a Greek original, and continues (p. 177): "We must . . . look for an author who, though an Egyptian and acquainted with the native Egyptian religion, would naturally have written in Greek; and on the whole there is no one who fulfils these requirements so well as Valentinus himself. The fact that the author never quotes from the Gospel according to St. John indicates that it had not come to his knowledge." L.'s criticism (pp. 161 f.) of Harnack's parallels from this Gospel (above, 24a), however, does not seem to me satisfactory. The first commentary on the Fourth Gospel was made by a Valentinian. L.'s view of authorship of the P.S. revives the Valentinian hypothesis in its most radical form. The two books of the Bruce Codex, which Schmidt calls 'The Books of Jeû,' are not the books referred to in the P.S. "which therefore remains the parent document" (p. 194).

58. 1918. Moffat (J.). Art. 'Pistis Sophia,' in Hastings' Encycl. of Relig. and Ethics (Edinburgh), x. 45-48.

This is a useful, if brief, summary of contents and prior opinions. M. takes up a moderate position when he says that, though the P.S. is to be assigned to some Gnostic circles in Egypt, its particular type of Gnosticism cannot be identified. He thinks, however, on the whole that the occurrence of the name Barbelo assigns our miscellany "to some circle more or less allied to the pious theosophists of the 2nd cent. whom we know as the Ophites collectively, and as the Nicolaitans, Simonians and Barbelo-Gnostics specifically." H. thinks the Yew Books mentioned in the P.S. can hardly be the books of C.B. I.

59. 1919. Schmidt (C.). Gespräche Jesu mit seinen Jüngern nach der Auferstehung. Ein katholisch-apostolisches Sendschreiben des 2. Jahrhunderts nach einem koptischen Papyrus des Institut de la Mission Archéolog. Française au Caire, enter Mitarbeit von Herrn Pierre Lacau . . . General Director d. Ägpt. Mus. Übersetzung des äthiopischen Texts von Dr Isaak Wajnberg (Leipzig). (T. u. U. Bd. xliii.)

The external form of this interesting and important document is an Epistle, resembling that of the Catholic Epistles of the N.T. But within, it passes into the form of an apocalypse, and that too of Discourses between Jesus and his Disciples after the Resurrection. This latter characteristic is otherwise not found in Catholic documents; it is a Gnostic peculiarity, of which the P.S. is a classical example, the other instances being what Schmidt calls the 'Two Books of Jeû' of the Bruce Codex and of The Gospel of Mary and of The Wisdom of Jesus Christ of the Berlin Codex. The Questions of Mary, The Great and The Little, of Epiphanius' 'Gnostici' were also of this post-resurrectional type of discourses (p. 206).

S. does not re-discuss the question of date of the P.S. by the light of this new find, but it is clearly of importance, seeing that with regard to the new document he concludes (p. 402): "The Epistola Apostolorum is written by a representative of the Catholic Church with the intention of attacking the Gnostic heresies, especially Docetism. The country of origin is Asia Minor, and the date is the second half of the second century, more precisely 160-170 A.D."

60. 1920. Rendel Harris (J.) and Mingana (A.). The Odes and Psalms of Solomon, re-edited for the Governors of the John Rylands Library (Manchester), 2 vols. Text, 1912; Tr. and Notes, 1920.

Here R. H. entirely changes his view of P.S. being a translation from the Greek. He now thinks that (p. 117): "Unless . . . the P.S. has substituted the Sahidic [Bible] version for some other version which lay before the author, of which he has avoided the trouble of making a fresh translation, there is a strong presumption that the P.S. is a genuine Coptic book, and not a rendering of some other work (Greek or Syriac) into Coptic." He rejects (p. 183) Worrell's theory (above, 53) of a Gnostic Hymn- and Psalm-book, and criticizes (pp. 186 f.) Rahlfs' discovery of two versions of the Psalms (above, 40). He is accordingly opposed to the general view of translation from the Greek, and suggests (p. 186) that the matter needs some further elucidation. It cannot, however, be said that his argument is in any way convincing.

As to the Odes of Solomon themselves, which have produced so large and instructive a literature since the first edition was published, their lucky discoverer and able editor, in reviewing the whole question, thinks we cannot go far wrong if we conclude that they were written at Antioch in the 1st century (p. 69).

Re: Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Miscellany, translated by G.R.S

PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:46 am
by admin
THE FIRST BOOK OF PISTIS SOPHIA

CHAPTER 1.

Jesus hitherto instructeth his disciples only up to the regions of the First Mystery.


IT came to pass, when Jesus had risen from the dead, that he passed eleven years discoursing with his disciples, and instructing them only up to the regions of the First Commandment and up to the regions of the First Mystery, that within the Veil, within the First Commandment, which is the four-and-twentieth mystery without and below -- those [four-and-twenty] which are in the second space of the First Mystery which is before all mysteries, -- the Father in the form of a dove.

What the First Mystery surroundeth.

And Jesus said to his disciples: "I am come forth out of that First Mystery, which is the last mystery, that is the four-and-twentieth mystery." And his disciples have not known nor understood that anything existeth within that mystery; but they thought of that mystery, that it is the head of the universe and the head of all existence; and they thought it is the completion of all completions, because Jesus had said to them concerning that mystery, that it surroundeth the First Commandment and the five Impressions and the great Light and the five Helpers and the whole Treasury of the Light.

The regions of the great Invisible.

And moreover Jesus had not told his disciples the total expansion of all the regions of the great Invisible and of the three triple-powers and of the four-and-twenty invisibles, and all their regions and their æons and their orders, how they are extended -- those which are the emanations of the great Invisible -- and their ungenerated and their self-generated and their generated and their light-givers and their unpaired and their rulers and their authorities and their lords and their archangels and their angels and their decans and their servitors and all the houses of their spheres and all the orders of every one of them.

The Treasury of the Light.

And Jesus had not told his disciples the total expansion of the emanations of the Treasury, nor their orders, how they are extended; nor had he told them their saviours, according to the order of every one, how they are; nor had he told them what guard is at every [gate] of the Treasury of the Light; nor had he told them the region of the Twin-saviour, who is the Child of the Child; nor had he told them the regions of the three Amēns, in what regions they are expanded; nor had he told them into what region the five Trees are expanded; nor as to the seven Amēns, that is the seven Voices, what is their region, how they are expanded.

The Light-world.

And Jesus had not told his disciples of what type are the five Helpers, nor into what region they are brought; nor had he told them how the great Light hath expanded itself, nor into what region it hath been brought; nor had he told them of the five Impressions, nor as to the First Commandment, into what region they have been brought. But he had discoursed with them generally, teaching that they exist, but he had not told them their expansion and the order of their regions, how they are. For this cause they have not known that there were also other regions within that mystery.

And he had not told his disciples: "I have gone forth out of such and such regions until I entered into that mystery, and until I went forth out of it"; but, in teaching them, he said to them: "I am come forth from that mystery." For this cause then they thought of that mystery, that it is the completion of completions, and that it is the head of the universe and that it is the total Fulness. For Jesus had said to his disciples: "That mystery surroundeth that universe of which I have spoken unto you from the day when I met with you even unto this day." For this cause then the disciples thought there is nothing within that mystery.

CHAPTER 2

Jesus and his disciples are seated on the Mount of Olives.


It came to pass then, when the disciples were sitting together on the Mount of Olives, speaking of these words and rejoicing in great joy, and exulting exceedingly and saying one to another: "Blessed are we before all men who are on the earth, because the Saviour hath revealed this unto us, and we have received the Fulness and the total completion," -- they said this to one another, while Jesus sat a little removed from them.

A great light-power descendeth on Jesus.

And it came to pass then, on the fifteenth day of the moon in the month Tybi, which is the day on which the moon is full, on that day then, when the sun had come forth in his going, that there came forth behind him a great light-power shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure to the light conjoined with it. For it came out of the Light of lights, and it came out of the last mystery, which is the four-and-twentieth mystery, from within without, -- those which are in the orders of the second space of the First Mystery. And that light-power came down over Jesus and surrounded him entirely, while he was seated removed from his disciples, and he had shone most exceedingly, and there was no measure for the light which was on him.

It surroundeth him entirely.

And the disciples had not seen Jesus because of the great light in which he was, or which was about him; for their eyes were darkened because of the great light in which he was. But they saw only the light, which shot forth many light-rays. And the light-rays were not like one another, but the light was of divers kind, and it was of divers type, from below upwards, one [ray] more excellent than the other, . . ., in one great immeasurable glory of light; it stretched from under the earth right up to heaven. -- And when the disciples saw that light, they fell into great fear and great agitation.

CHAPTER 3

Jesus ascendeth into heaven.


It came to pass then, when that light-power had come down over Jesus, that it gradually surrounded him entirely. Then Jesus ascended or soared into the height, shining most exceedingly in an immeasurable light. And the disciples gazed after him and none of them spake, until he had reached unto heaven; but they all kept in deep silence. This then came to pass on the fifteenth day of the moon, on the day on which it is full in the month Tybi.

The confusion of the powers and the great earthquake.

It came to pass then, when Jesus had reached the heaven, after three hours, that all the powers of the heaven fell into agitation, and all were set in motion one against the other, they and all their æons and all their regions and all their orders, and the whole earth was agitated and all they who dwell thereon. And all men who are in the world fell into agitation, and also the disciples, and all thought: Peradventure the world will be rolled up.

And all the powers in the heavens ceased not from their agitation, they and the whole world, and all were moved one against the other, from the third hour of the fifteenth day of the moon of Tybi until the ninth hour of the morrow. And all the angels and their archangels and all the powers of the height, all sang praises to the interiors of the interiors, so that the whole world heard their voices, without their ceasing till the ninth hour of the morrow.

CHAPTER 4

But the disciples sat together in fear and were in exceedingly great agitation and were afraid because of the great earthquake which took place, and they wept together, saying: "What will then be? Peradventure the Saviour will destroy all regions?" Thus saying, they wept together.

Jesus descendeth again.

While they then said this and wept together, then, on the ninth hour of the morrow, the heavens opened, and they saw Jesus descend, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure for his light in which he was. For he shone more [radiantly] than at the hour when he had ascended to the heavens, so that men in the world cannot describe the light which was on him; and it shot forth light-rays in great abundance, and there was no measure for its rays, and its light was not alike together, but it was of divers kind and of divers type, some [rays] being more excellent than others . . .; and the whole light consisted together.

The nature of his glory

It was of threefold kind, and the one [kind] was more excellent than the other. . . . The second, that in the midst, was more excellent than the first which was below, and the third, which was above them all, was more excellent than the two which were below. And the first glory, which was placed below them all, was like to the light which had come over Jesus before he had ascended into the heavens, and was like only itself in its light. And the three light-modes were of divers light-kinds, and they were of divers type, one being more excellent than the other. . . .

CHAPTER 5

Jesus addresseth them.


And it came to pass then, when the disciples saw this, that they feared exceedingly, and were in agitation. Then Jesus, the compassionate and tender-hearted, when he saw his disciples, that they were in great agitation, spake with them, saying: "Take courage. It is I, be not afraid."

CHAPTER 6

It came to pass then, when the disciples had heard this word, that they said: "Lord, if it be thou, withdraw thy light-glory into thyself that we may be able to stand; otherwise our eyes are darkened, and we are agitated, and the whole world also is in agitation because of the great light which is about thee."

He draweth his light unto himself.

Then Jesus drew to himself the glory of his light; and when this was done, all the disciples took courage, stepped forward to Jesus, fell down all together, adored him, rejoicing in great joy, and said unto him: "Rabbi, whither hast thou gone, or what was thy ministry on which thou hast gone, or wherefor rather were all these confusions and all the earth-quakings which have taken place?"

He promiseth to tell them all things.

Then Jesus, the compassionate, said unto them: "Rejoice and exult from this hour on, for I have gone to the regions out of which I had come forth. From this day on then will I discourse with you in openness, from the beginning of the Truth unto its completion; and I will discourse with you face to face without similitude. From this hour on will I not hide anything from you of the [mystery] of the height and of that of the region of Truth. For authority hath been given me through the Ineffable and through the First Mystery of all mysteries to speak with you, from the Beginning right up to the Fulness, both from within without and from without within. Hearken, therefore, that I may tell you all things.

"It came to pass, when I sat a little removed from you on the Mount of Olives, that I thought on the order of the ministry for the sake of which I was sent, that it was completed, and that the last mystery, that is the four-and-twentieth mystery from within without, -- those which are in the second space of the First Mystery, in the orders of that space, -- had not yet sent me my Vesture. It came to pass then, when I had known that the order of the ministry for the sake of which I had come, was completed, and that that mystery had not yet sent me my Vesture, which I had left behind in it, until its time was completed, thinking then this, I sat on the Mount of Olives a little removed from you.

CHAPTER 7

How the Vesture of Light was sent unto him.


"It came to pass, when the sun rose in the east, thereafter then through the First Mystery, which existed from the beginning, on account of which the universe hath arisen, out of which also I am myself now come, not in the time before my crucifixion, but now, -- it came to pass, through the command of that mystery, that there should be sent me my Light-vesture, which it had given me from the beginning, and which I had left behind in the last mystery, that is the four-and-twentieth mystery from within without, -- those which are in the orders of the second space of the First Mystery. That Vesture then I left behind in the last mystery, until the time should be completed to put it on, and I should begin to discourse with the race of men and reveal unto them all from the beginning of the Truth to its completion, and discourse with them from the interiors of the interiors to the exteriors of the exteriors and from the exteriors of the exteriors to the interiors of the interiors. Rejoice then and exult and rejoice more and more greatly, for to you it is given that I speak first with you from the beginning of the Truth to its completion.

Of the souls of the disciples and their incarnation.

"For this cause have I chosen you verily from the beginning through the First Mystery. Rejoice then and exult, for when I set out for the world, I brought from the beginning with me twelve powers, as I have told you from the beginning, which I have taken from the twelve saviours of the Treasury of the Light, according to the command of the First Mystery. These then I cast into the womb of your mothers, when I came into the world, that is those which are in your bodies to-day. For these powers have been given unto you before the whole world, because ye are they who will save the whole world, and that ye may be able to endure the threat of the rulers of the world and the pains of the world and its dangers and all its persecutions, which the rulers of the height will bring upon you. For many times have I said unto you that I have brought the power in you out of the twelve saviours who are in the Treasury of the Light. For which cause I have said unto you indeed from the beginning that ye are not of the world. I also am not of it. For all men who are in the world have gotten their souls out of [the power of] the rulers of the æons. But the power which is in you is from me; your souls belong to the height. I have brought twelve powers of the twelve saviours of the Treasury of the Light, taking them out of the portion of my power which I did first receive. And when I had set forth for the world, I came into the midst of the rulers of the sphere and had the form of Gabriēl the angel of the æons; and the rulers of the æons did not know me, but they thought that I was the angel Gabriēl.

Of the incarnation of John the Baptizer.

"It came to pass then, when I had come into the midst of the rulers of the æons, that I looked down on the world of mankind, by command of the First Mystery. I found Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptizer, before she had conceived him, and I sowed into her a power which I had received from the little Iaō, the Good, who is in the Midst, that he might be able to make proclamation before me and make ready my way, and baptize with the water of the forgiveness of sins. That power then is in the body of John.

That John was Elias in a former birth.

"Moreover in place of the soul of the ruler which he was appointed to receive, I found the soul of the prophet Elias in the æons of the sphere; and I took him thence, and took his soul and brought it to the Virgin of Light, and she gave it over to her receivers; they brought it to the sphere of the rulers and cast it into the womb of Elizabeth. So the power of the little Iaō, who is in the Midst, and the soul of the prophet Elias, they were bound into the body of John the Baptizer. For this cause then were ye in doubt aforetime, I when I said unto you: 'John said: I am not the Christ,' and ye said unto me: 'It standeth written in the scripture: When the Christ shall come, Elias cometh before him and maketh ready his way.' But when ye said this unto me, I said unto you: 'Elias verily is come and hath made ready all things, as it standeth written, and they have done unto him as they would.' And when I knew that ye had not understood that I had discoursed with you concerning the soul of Elias which is bound into John the Baptizer, I answered you in the discourse in openness face to face: 'If ye like to accept John the Baptizer: he is Elias, of whom I have said that he will come.'"

CHAPTER 8

Of his own incarnation through Mary.


And Jesus continued again in the discourse and said: "It came to pass then thereafter, that at the command of the First Mystery I looked down on the world of mankind and found Mary, who is called 'my mother' according to the body of matter. I spake with her in the type of Gabriēl, and when she had turned herself to the height towards me, I cast thence into her the first power which I had received from Barbēlō -- that is the body which I have borne in the height. And instead of the soul I cast into her the power which I have received from the great Sabaōth, the Good, who is in the region of the Right.

More concerning the light-powers in the disciples.

"And the twelve powers of the twelve saviours of the Treasury of the Light which I had received from the twelve ministers of the Midst, I cast into the sphere of the rulers. And the decans of the rulers and their servitors thought that they were souls of the rulers; and the servitors brought them, they bound them into the body of your mothers. And when your time was completed, ye were born in the world without souls of the rulers in you. And ye have received your portion out of the power which the last Helper hath breathed into the Mixture, that [power] which is blended with all the invisibles and all rulers and all æons, -- in a word, which is blended with the world of destruction which is the Mixture. This [power], which from the beginning I brought out of myself, I have cast into the First Commandment, and the First Commandment cast a portion thereof into the great Light, and the great Light cast a portion of that which it had received, into the five Helpers, and the last Helper took a portion of that which it received, and cast it into the Mixture. And [this portion] is in all who are in the Mixture, as I have just said unto you."

Why they should rejoice that the time of his investiture had come.

This then Jesus said to his disciples on the Mount of Olives. Jesus continued again in the discourse with his disciples [and said]: "Rejoice and exult and add joy to your joy, for the times are completed for me to put on my Vesture, which hath been prepared for me from the beginning, which I left behind in the last mystery until the time of its completion. Now the time of its completion is the time when I shall be commanded through the First Mystery to discourse with you from the beginning of the Truth to the completion thereof, and from the interiors of the interiors [to the exteriors of the exteriors], for the world will be saved through you. Rejoice then and exult, for ye are blessed before all men who are on the earth. It is ye who will save the whole world."

CHAPTER 9

It came to pass then, when Jesus had finished saying these words to his disciples, that he continued again in the discourse, and said unto them: "Lo, I have then put on my Vesture, and all authority hath been given me through the First Mystery. Yet a little while and I will tell you the mystery of the universe and the fulness of the universe; and I will hide nothing from you from this hour on, but in fulness will I perfect you in all fulness and in all perfection and in all mysteries, which are the perfection of all perfections and the fulness of all fulnesses and the gnosis of all gnoses, -- those which are in my Vesture. I will tell you all mysteries from the exteriors of the exteriors to the interiors of the interiors. But hearken that I may tell you all things which have befallen me.

CHAPTER 10

The mystery of the five words on the vesture.


"It came to pass then, when the sun had risen in the east, that a great light-power came down, in which was my Vesture, which I had left behind in the four-and-twentieth mystery, as I have said unto you. And I found a mystery in my Vesture, written in five words of those from the height: zama zama ōzza rachama ōzai, -- whose solution is this:

The solution thereof.

"'O Mystery, which is without in the world, for whose sake the universe hath arisen, -- this is the total outgoing and the total ascent, which hath emanated all emanations and all that is therein and for whose sake all mysteries and all their regions have arisen, -- come hither unto us, for we are thy fellow-members. We are all with thyself; we are one and the same. Thou art the First Mystery, which existed from the beginning in the Ineffable before it came forth; and the name thereof are we all. Now, therefore, are we all come to meet thee at the last limit, which also is the last mystery from within; itself is a portion of us. Now, therefore, have we sent thee thy Vesture, which hath belonged to thee from the beginning, which thou hast left behind in the last limit, which also is the last mystery from within, until its time should be completed, according to the commandment of the First Mystery. Lo, its time is completed; put it on [thee].

The three robes of light.

"'Come unto us, for we all draw nigh to thee to clothe thee with the First Mystery and all his glory, by commandment of himself, in that the First Mystery hath given us it, consisting of two vestures, to clothe thee therewith, besides the one which we have sent thee, for thou art worthy of them, since thou art prior to us, and existeth before us. For this cause, therefore, hath the First Mystery sent thee through us the mystery of all his glory, consisting of two vestures.

The first vesture.

"'In the first is the whole glory of all the names of all mysteries and all emanations of the orders of the spaces of the Ineffable.

The second vesture.

"'And in the second vesture is the whole glory of the name of all mysteries and all emanations which are in the orders of the two spaces of the First Mystery.

The third vesture.

"And in this [third] vesture, which we have just sent thee, is the glory of the name of the mystery of the Revealer, which is the First Commandment, and of the mystery of the five Impressions, and of the mystery of the great Envoy of the Ineffable, who is the great Light, and of the mystery of the five Leaders, who are the five Helpers. There is further in this vesture the glory of the name of the mystery of all orders of the emanations of the Treasury of the Light and of their saviours, and [of the mystery] of the orders of the orders, which are the seven Amēns and the seven Voices and the five Trees and the three Amēns and the Twin-saviour, that is the Child of the Child, and of the mystery of the nine guards of the three gates of the Treasury of the Light. There is further therein the whole glory of the name [of all those] which are in the Right, and of all those which are in the Midst. And further there is therein the whole glory of the name of the great Invisible, which is the great Forefather, and the mystery of the three triple-powers and the mystery of their whole region and the mystery of all their invisibles and of all those who are in the thirteenth æon, and the name of the twelve æons and of all their rulers and all their archangels and all their angels and of all those who are in the twelve æons, and the whole mystery of the name of all those who are in the Fate and in all the heavens, and the whole mystery of the name of all those who are in the sphere, and of its firmaments and of all who are in them, and of all their regions.

The day of come unto us.

'Lo, therefore, we have sent thee this vesture, which no one knew from the First Commandment downwards, for the glory of its light was hidden in it, and the spheres and all regions from the First Commandment downwards [have not known it]. Haste thee, therefore, clothe thyself with this vesture and come unto us. For we draw nigh unto thee, to clothe thee by command of the First Mystery with thy two vestures [other] which existed for thee from the beginning with the First Mystery until the time appointed by the Ineffable is completed. Come, therefore, to us quickly, that we may put them on thee, until thou hast fulfilled the total ministry of the perfection of the First Mystery which is appointed by the Ineffable. Come, therefore, to us quickly, in order that we may clothe thee with them, according to the command of the First Mystery. For yet a little while, a very little while, and thou shalt come unto us and leave the world. Come, therefore, quickly, that thou mayest receive thy whole glory, that is the glory of the First Mystery.'

Re: Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Miscellany, translated by G.R.S

PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:50 am
by admin
CHAPTER 11

Jesus putteth on his vesture.


"It came to pass then, when I saw the mystery of all these words in the vesture which was sent me, that straightway I clothed myself therewith, and I shone most exceedingly and soared into the height.

He entereth the firmament.

"I came before the [first] gate of the firmament, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure for the light which was about me, and the gates of the firmament were shaken one over against another and all opened at once.

The powers of the firmament are amazed and fall down and adore him.

"And all rulers and all authorities and all angels therein were thrown all together into agitation because of the great light which was on me. And they gazed at the radiant vesture of light with which I was clad, and they saw the mystery which contains their names, and they feared most exceedingly. And all their bonds with which they were bound, were unloosed and every one left his order, and they all fell down before me, adored and said: 'How hath the lord of the universe passed through us without our knowing?' And they all sang praises together to the interiors of the interiors; but me they saw not, but they saw only the light. And they were in great fear and were exceedingly agitated and sang praises to the interiors of the interiors.

CHAPTER 12

He entereth the first sphere.


"And I left that region behind me and ascended to the first sphere, shining most exceedingly, forty-and-nine-times more brightly than I had shone in the firmament. It came to pass then, when I had reached the gate of the first sphere, that its gates were shaken and opened of themselves at once.

The powers of the first sphere are amazed and fall down and adore him.

"I entered into the houses of the sphere, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure to the light that was about me. And all the rulers and all those who are in that sphere, fell into agitation one against another. And they saw the great light that was about me, and they gazed upon my vesture and saw thereon the mystery of their name. And they fell into still greater agitation, and were in great fear, saying: 'How hath the lord of the universe passed through us without our knowing?' And all their bonds were unloosed and their regions and their orders; and every one left his order, and they fell down all together, adored before me, or before my vesture, and all sang praises together to the interiors of the interiors, being in great fear and great agitation.

CHAPTER 13

He entereth the second sphere.


"And I left that region behind me and came to the gate of the second sphere, which is the Fate. Then were all its gates thrown into agitation and opened of themselves. And I entered into the houses of the Fate, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure for the light that was about me, for I shone in the Fate forty-and-nine times more than in the [first] sphere.

The powers of the second sphere are amazed and fall down and adore him.

"And all the rulers and all those who are in the Fate, were thrown into agitation and fell on one another and were in exceeding great fear on seeing the great light that was about me. And they gazed on my vesture of light and saw the mystery of their name on my vesture and fell into still greater agitation; and they were in great fear, saying: 'How hath the lord of the universe passed through us without our knowing?' And all the bonds of their regions and of their orders and of their houses were unloosed; they all came at once, fell down, adored before me and sang praises all together to the interiors of the interiors, being in great fear and great agitation.

CHAPTER 14

He entereth the æons.


"And I left that region behind me and ascended to the great æons of the rulers and came before their veils and their gates, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure for the light which was about me. It came to pass then, when I arrived at the twelve æons, that their veils and their gates were shaken one over against the other. Their veils drew themselves apart of their own accord, and their gates opened one over against the other. And I entered into the æons, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure for the light that was about me, forty-and-nine times more than the light with which I shone in the houses of the Fate.

The powers of the æons are amazed and fall down and adore him.

"And all the angels of the æons and their archangels and their rulers and their gods and their lords and their authorities and their tyrants and their powers and their light-sparks and their light-givers and their unpaired and their invisibles and their forefathers and their triple-powers saw me, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure for the light which was about me. And they were thrown into agitation the one over against the other and great fear fell upon them, when they saw the great light that was about me. And in their great agitation and their great fear they withdrew as far as the region of the great invisible Forefather, and of the three great triple-powers. And because of the great fear of their agitation, the great Forefather, he and the three triple-powers, kept on running hither and thither in his region, and they could not close all their regions because of the great fear in which they were. And they agitated all their æons together and all their spheres and all their orders, fearing and being greatly agitated because of the great light which was about me -- not of the former quality that it was about me when I was on the earth of mankind, when the light-vesture came over me, -- for the world could not bear the light such as it was in its truth, else would the world at once be destroyed and all upon it, -- but the light which was about me in the twelve æons was eight-thousand-and-seven-hundred-myriad times greater than that which was about me in the world among you.

CHAPTER 15

Adamas and the tyrants fight against the light.


"It came to pass then, when all those who are in the twelve æons saw the great light which was about me, that they were all thrown into agitation one over against the other, and ran hither and thither in the æons. And all æons and all heavens and their whole ordering were agitated one over against the other on account of the great fear which was on them, for they knew not the mystery which had taken place. And Adamas, the great Tyrant, and all the tyrants in all the æons began to fight in vain against the light, and they knew not against whom they fought, because they saw nothing but the overmastering light.

"It came to pass then, when they fought against the light, that they were weakened all together one with another, were dashed down in the æons and became as the inhabitants of the earth, dead and without breath of life.

He taketh from them a third of their power.

"And I took from all a third of their power, that they should no more be active in their evil doings, and that, if the men who are in the world, invoke them in their mysteries -- those which the angels who transgressed have brought down, that is their sorceries, -- in order that, therefore, if they invoke them in their evil doings, they may not be able to accomplish them.

He changeth the motion of their spheres.

"And the Fate and the sphere over which they rule, I have changed and brought it to pass that they spend six months turned to the left and accomplish their influences, and that six months they face to the right and accomplish their influences. For by command of the First Commandment and by command of the First Mystery Yew, the Overseer of the Light, had set them facing the left at every time and accomplishing their influences and their deeds.

CHAPTER 16

"It came to pass then, when I came into their region, that they mutinied and fought against the light. And I took the third of their power, in order that they should not be able to accomplish their evil deeds. And the Fate and the sphere, over which they rule, I have changed, and set them facing the left six months and accomplishing their influences, and I have set them turned another six months to the right and accomplishing their influences."

CHAPTER 17

When then he had said this to his disciples, he said unto them: "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

It came to pass then, when Mary had heard the Saviour say these words, that she gazed fixedly into the air for the space of an hour. She said: "My Lord, give commandment unto me to speak in openness."

Mary Magdalene asketh and receiveth permission to speak.

And Jesus, the compassionate, answered and said unto Mary: "Mary, thou blessed one, whom I will perfect in all mysteries of those of the height, discourse in openness, thou, whose heart is raised to the kingdom of heaven more than all thy brethren."

CHAPTER 18

Then said Mary to the Saviour: "My Lord, the word which thou hast spoken unto us: 'Who hath ears to hear, let him hear,' thou sayest in order that we may understand the word which thou hast spoken. Hearken, therefore, my Lord, that I may discourse in openness.

Mary interpreteth the discourse from the words of Isaiah.

"The word which thou hast spoken: 'I have taken a third from the power of the rulers of all the æons, and changed their Fate and their sphere over which they rule, in order that, if the race of men invoke them in the mysteries -- those which the angels who transgressed have taught them for the accomplishing of their evil and lawless deeds in the mystery of their sorcery,' -- in order then that they may no more from this hour accomplish their lawless deeds, because thou hast taken their power from them and from their horoscope-casters and their consulters and from those who declare to the men in the world all things which shall come to pass, in order that they should no more from this hour know how to declare unto them any thing at all which will come to pass (for thou hast changed their spheres, and hast made them spend six months turned to the left and accomplishing their influences, and another six months facing the right and accomplishing their influences), -- concerning this word then, my Lord, the power which was in the prophet Isaiah, hath spoken thus and proclaimed aforetime in a spiritual similitude, discoursing on the 'Vision about Egypt': 'Where then, O Egypt, where are thy consulters and horoscope-casters and those who cry out of the earth and those who cry out of their belly? Let them then declare unto thee from now on the deeds which the lord Sabaōth will do!'

"The power then which was in the prophet Isaiah, prophesied before thou didst come, that thou wouldst take away the power of the rulers of the æons and wouldst change their sphere and their Fate, in order that they might know nothing from now on. For this cause it hath said also: 'Ye shall then know not of what the lord Sabaōth will do '; that is, none of the rulers will know what thou wilt do from now on, -- for they are 'Egypt,' because they are matter. The power then which was in Isaiah, prophesied concerning thee aforetime, saying: 'From now on ye shall then know not what the lord Sabaōth will do.' Because of the light-power which thou didst receive from Sabaōth, the Good, who is in the region of the Right, and which is in thy material body to-day, for this cause then, my Lord Jesus, thou hast said unto us: 'Who hath ears to hear, let him hear,' -- in order that thou mightest know whose heart is ardently raised to the kingdom of heaven."

CHAPTER 19

It came to pass then, when Mary had finished saying these words, that he said: "Well said, Mary, for thou art blessed before all women on the earth, because thou shalt be the fulness of all fulnesses and the perfection of all perfections."

Jesus commendeth Mary. She further questioneth him on the changing of the spheres.

Now when Mary had heard the Saviour speak these words, she exulted greatly, and she came before Jesus, fell down before him, adored his feet and said unto him: "My Lord, hearken unto me, that I may question thee on this word, before that thou discoursest with us about the regions whither thou didst go."

Jesus answered and said unto Mary: "Discourse in openness and fear not; all things on which thou questionest, I will reveal unto thee."

CHAPTER 20

She said: "My Lord, will all the men who know the mystery of the magic of all the rulers of all the æons of the Fate and of those of the sphere, in the way in which the angels who transgressed have taught them, if they invoke them in their mysteries, that is in their evil magic, to the hindering of good deeds, -- will they accomplish them henceforth from now on or not?"

Jesus explaineth further the conversion of the spheres.

Jesus answered and said unto Mary: "They will not accomplish them as they accomplished them from the beginning, because I have taken away a third of their power; but they will raise a loan from those who know the mysteries of the magic of the thirteenth æon. And if they invoke the mysteries of the magic of those who are in the thirteenth æon, they will accomplish them well and surely, because I have not taken away power from that region, according to the command of the First Mystery."

Re: Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Miscellany, translated by G.R.S

PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:53 am
by admin
CHAPTER 21

And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished saying these words, that Mary continued again and said: "My Lord, will not then the horoscope-casters and consulters from now on declare unto men what will come to pass for them?"

And Jesus answered and said unto Mary: "If the horoscope-casters find the Fate and the sphere turned towards the left, according to their first extension, their words will come to pass, and they will say what is to take place. But if they chance on the Fate or the sphere turned to the right, they are bound to say nothing true, for I have changed their influences and their squares and their triangles and their octagons; seeing that their influences from the beginning onwards were continuously turned to the left and their squares and their triangles and their octagons. But now I have made them spend six months turned to the left and six months turned to the right. He who then shall find their reckoning from the time when I changed them, setting them so as to spend six months facing towards their left and six months facing their right paths, -- he who then shall observe them in this wise, will know their influences surely and will declare all things which they will do. In like manner also the consulters, if they invoke the names of the rulers and chance on them facing the left, will tell [men] with accuracy all things concerning which they shall ask their decans. On the contrary, if the consulters invoke their names when they face to the right, they will not give ear unto them, because they are facing in another form compared with their former position in which Yew had established them; seeing that other are their names when they are turned to the left and other their names when they are turned to the right. And if they invoke them when they are turned to the right, they will not tell them the truth, but they will confound them with confusion and threaten them with threatening. Those then who do not know their path, when they are turned to the right, and their triangles and their squares and all their figures, will find nothing true, but will be confounded in great confusion and will find themselves in great delusion, because I have now changed the works which they effected aforetime in their squares, when turned to the left, and in their triangles and in their octagons, in which they were busied continuously turned to the left; and I have made them spend six months forming all their configurations turned to the right, in order that they may be confounded in confusion in their whole range. And moreover I have made them spend six months turned to the left and accomplishing the works of their influences and all their configurations, in order that the rulers who are in the æons and in their spheres and in their heavens and in all their regions, may be confounded in confusion and deluded in delusion, so that they may not understand their own paths."

CHAPTER 22

Philip questioneth Jesus.


It came to pass then, when Jesus had finished saying these words, while Philip sat and wrote all the words that Jesus spake, -- thereafter then it came to pass that Philip came forward, fell down and adored the feet of Jesus, saying: "My Lord and Saviour, grant me authority to discourse before thee and to question thee on this word, before thou discoursest with us concerning the regions whither thou didst go because of thy ministry."

And the compassionate Saviour answered and said unto Philip: "Authority is given thee to bring forward the word which thou willest."

And Philip answered and said unto Jesus: "My Lord, on account of what mystery hast thou changed the binding of the rulers and their æons and their Fate and their sphere and all their regions, and made them confounded in confusion on their path and deluded in their course? Hast thou then done this unto them for the salvation of the world or hast thou not?"

CHAPTER 23

Why the path of the æons was changed.


And Jesus answered and said unto Philip and to all the disciples together: "I have changed their path for the salvation of all souls. Amēn, amēn, I say unto you If I had not changed their path, a host of souls would have been destroyed, and they would have spent a long time, if the rulers of the æons and the rulers of the Fate and of the sphere and of all their regions and all their heavens and all their æons had not been brought to naught; and the souls would have continued a long time here outside, and the completion of the number of perfect souls would have been delayed, which [souls] shall be counted in the Inheritance of the Height through the mysteries and shall be in the Treasury of the Light. For this cause then I have changed their path, that they might be deluded and fall into agitation and yield up the power which is in the matter of their world and which they fashion into souls, in order that those who shall be saved, might be quickly purified and raised on high, they and the whole power, and that those who shall not be saved, might be quickly destroyed."

CHAPTER 24

Mary questioneth him again.


It came to pass then, when Jesus had finished saying these words unto his disciples, that Mary, the fair in her discourse and the blessed one, came forward, fell at the feet of Jesus and said: "My Lord, suffer me that I speak before thee, and be not wroth with me, if oft I give thee trouble questioning thee."

The Saviour, full of compassion, answered and said unto Mary: "Speak the word which thou willest, and I will reveal it to thee in all openness."

Mary answered and said unto Jesus: "My Lord, in what way will the souls have delayed themselves here outside, and in what type will they be quickly purified?"

CHAPTER 25

The coming of Melchisedec.


And Jesus answered and said unto Mary: "Well said, Mary; thou questionest finely with thy excellent question, and thou throwest light on all things with surety and precision. Now, therefore, from now on will I hide nothing from you, but I will reveal unto you all things with surety and openness. Hearken then, Mary, and give ear, all ye disciples: Before I made proclamation to all the rulers of the æons and to all the rulers of the Fate and of the sphere, they were all bound in their bonds and in their spheres and in their seals, as Yew, the Overseer of the Light, had bound them from the beginning; and every one of them remained in his order, and every one journeyed according to his course, as Yew, the Overseer of the Light, had established them. And when the time of the number of Melchisedec, the great Receiver of the Light, came, he was wont to come into the midst of the æons and of all the rulers who are bound in the sphere and in the Fate, and he carried away the purification of the light from all the rulers of the æons and from all the rulers of the Fate and from those of the sphere -- for he carried away then that which brings them into agitation -- and he set in motion the hastener who is over them, and made them turn their circles swiftly, and he [sc. the hastener] carried away their power which was in them and the breath of their mouth and the tears [lit. waters] of their eyes and the sweat of their bodies.

Of the fashioning of the souls of men.

"And Melchisedec, the Receiver of the Light; purifieth those powers and carrieth their light into the Treasury of the Light, while the servitors of all the rulers gather together all matter from them all; and the servitors of all the rulers of the Fate and the servitors of the sphere which is below the æons, take it and fashion it into souls of men and cattle and reptiles and wild-beasts and birds, and send them down into the world of mankind. And further the receivers of the sun and the receivers of the moon, if they look above and see the configurations of the paths of the æons and the configurations of the Fate and those of the sphere, then they take from them the light-power; and the receivers of the sun get it ready and deposit it, until they hand it over to the receivers of Melchisedec, the Light-purifier. And their material refuse they bring to the sphere which is below the æons, and fashion it into [souls of] men, and fashion it also into souls of reptiles and of cattle and of wild-beasts and of birds, according to the circle of the rulers of that sphere and according to all the configurations of its revolution, and they cast them into this world of mankind, and they become souls in this region, as I have just said unto you.

CHAPTER 26

"This then they accomplished continuously before their power was diminished in them and they waned and became exhausted, or powerless. It came to pass then, when they became powerless, that their power began to cease in them, so that they became exhausted in their power, and their light, which was in their region, ceased and their kingdom was destroyed, and the universe became quickly raised up.

"It came to pass then, when they had perceived this at the time, and when the number of the cipher of Melchisedec, the Receiver [of the Light], happened, then had he to come out again and enter into the midst of the rulers of all the æons and into the midst of all the rulers of the Fate and of those of the sphere; and he threw them into agitation, and made them quickly abandon their circles. And forthwith they were constrained, and cast forth the power out of themselves, out of the breath of their mouth and the tears of their eyes and the sweat of their bodies.

The rulers devour their matter so that souls may not be fashioned.

"And Melchisedec, the Receiver of the Light, purifieth them, as he doth continually; he carrieth their light into the Treasury of the Light. And all the rulers of the æons and the rulers of the Fate and those of the sphere turn to the matter of their refuse; they devour it and do not let it go and become souls in the world. They devour then their matter, so that they may not become powerless and exhausted and their power cease in them and their kingdom become destroyed, but in order that they may delay and linger a long time until the completion of the number of the perfect souls who shall be in the Treasury of the Light.

CHAPTER 27

"It came to pass then, when the rulers of the æons and those of the Fate and those of the sphere continued to carry out this type, -- turning on themselves, devouring the refuse of their matter, and not allowing souls to be born into the world of mankind, in order that they might delay in being rulers, and that the powers which are in their powers, that is the souls, might spend a long time here outside, -- they then persisted doing this continually for two circles.

"It came to pass then, when I wished to ascend for the ministry for the sake of which I was called by command of the First Mystery, that I came up into the midst of the tyrants of the rulers of the twelve æons, with my light-vesture about me, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure for the light which was about me.

Adamas and the tyrants fight against the light-vesture.

"It came to pass then, when those tyrants saw the great light which was about me, that the great Adamas, the Tyrant, and all the tyrants of the twelve æons, all together began to fight against the light of my vesture, desiring to hold it fast among them, in order to delay in their rulership. This then they did, not knowing against whom they fought.

Jesus taketh from them a third of their power and changeth their course.

"When then they mutinied and fought against the light, thereon by command of the First Mystery I changed the paths and the courses of their æons and the paths of their Fate and of their sphere. I made them face six months towards the triangles on the left and towards the squares and towards those in their aspect and towards their octagons, just as they had formerly been. But their manner of turning, or facing, I changed to another order, and made them other six months face towards the works of their influences in the squares on the right and in their triangles and in those in their aspect and in their octagons. And I made them to be confounded in great confusion and deluded in great delusion -- the rulers of the æons and all the rulers of the Fate and those of the sphere; and I set them in great agitation, and thence on they were no longer able to turn towards the refuse of their matter to devour it, in order that their regions may continue to delay and they [themselves] may spend a long time as rulers.

They no more have the power of devouring their matter.

"But when I had taken away a third of their power, I changed their spheres, so that they spend a time facing to the left and another time facing to the right. I have changed their whole path and their whole course, and I have made the path of their course to hurry, so that they may be quickly purified and raised up quickly. And I have shortened their circles, and made their path more speedy, and it will be exceedingly hurried. And they were thrown into confusion in their path, and from then on were no more able to devour the matter of the refuse of the purification of their light. And moreover I have shortened their times and their periods, so that the perfect number of souls who shall receive the mysteries and be in the Treasury of the Light, shall be quickly completed. For had I not changed their courses, and had I not shortened their periods, they would not have let any soul come into the world, because of the matter of their refuse which they devoured, and they would have destroyed many souls. For this cause I said unto you aforetime: 'I have shortened the times because of my elect; otherwise no soul would have been able to be saved.' And I have shortened the times and the periods because of the perfect number of the souls who shall receive the mysteries, that is to say, the 'elect'; and had I not shortened their periods, no material soul would have been saved, but they would have perished in the fire which is in the flesh of the rulers. This then is the word on which thou dost question me with precision."

It came to pass then, when Jesus had finished speaking these words unto his disciples, that they fell down all together, adored him and said to him: "Blessed are we before all men, for unto us thou hast revealed these great exploits."

CHAPTER 28

The powers adore the light-vesture.


And Jesus continued again in his discourse and said unto his disciples: "Hearken concerning the things which befell me among the rulers of the twelve æons and all their rulers and their lords and their authorities and their angels and their archangels. When then they had seen the vesture of light which was about me, they and their unpaired, then every one of them saw the mystery of his name, that it was on my vesture of light, which was about me. They fell down all together, adored the vesture of light which was about me, and cried out all together, saying: 'How hath the lord of the universe passed through us without our knowing it?' And they all sang praises together to the interiors of the interiors. And all their triple-powers and their great forefathers and their ungenerated and their self-generated and their generated and their gods and their light-sparks and their light-bearers -- in a word all their great ones -- saw the tyrants of their region, that their power was diminished in them. And they were in weakness and themselves fell into great and immeasurable fear. And they gazed on the mystery of their name on my vesture, and they had set out to come and adore the mystery of their name which was on my vesture, and they could not because of the great light which was about me; but they adored a little removed from me, and they adored the light of my vesture and all cried out together, singing praises to the interiors of the interiors.

The tyrants become as the dead.

"It came to pass then, when this befell among the tyrants who are below these rulers, that they all lost power and fell down to the ground in their æons and became as the dead world-dwellers with no breath in them, as they became in the hour when I took from them their power.

"It came to pass then thereafter, when I left those æons, that every one of all those who were in the twelve æons, was bound to their order all together, and they accomplished their works as I have established them, so that they spend six months turned to the left and accomplishing their works in their squares and their triangles and in those which are in their aspect, and that further they spend another six months facing to the right and towards their triangles and their squares and those which are in their aspect. Thus then will those who are in the Fate and in the sphere travel.

CHAPTER 29

Jesus entereth the thirteenth æon and findeth Pistis Sophia.


"It came to pass then thereafter that I ascended to the veils of the thirteenth æon. It came to pass then, when I had arrived at their veils, that they drew apart of their own accord and opened themselves for me. I entered in into the thirteenth æon and found Pistis Sophia below the thirteenth æon all alone and no one of them with her. And she sat in that region grieving and mourning, because she had not been admitted into the thirteenth æon, her higher region. And she was moreover grieving because of the torments which Self-willed, who is one of the three triple-powers, had inflicted on her. But this, -- when I shall come to speak with you respecting their expansion, I will tell you the mystery, how this befell her.

Sophia and her fellow-powers behold the light.

"It came to pass then, when Pistis Sophia saw me shining most exceedingly and with no measure for the light which was about me, that she was in great agitation and gazed at the light of my vesture. She saw the mystery of her name on my vesture and the whole glory of its mystery, for formerly she was in the region of the height, in the thirteenth æon, -- but she was wont to sing praises to the higher light, which she had seen in the veil of the Treasury of the Light.

"It came to pass then, when she persisted in singing praises to the higher light, that all the rulers who are with the two great triple-powers, and her invisible who is paired with her, and the other two-and-twenty invisible emanations gazed [at the light], -- in as much as Pistis Sophia and her pair, they and the other two-and-twenty emanations make up four-and-twenty emanations, which the great invisible Forefather and the two great triple-powers have emanated."

CHAPTER 30

Mary desireth to hear the story of Sophia.


It came to pass then, when Jesus had said this unto his disciples, that Mary came forward and said: "My Lord, I have heard thee say aforetime: 'Pistis Sophia is herself one of the four-and-twenty emanations, how then is she not in their region? But thou hast said: 'I found her below the thirteenth æon.'"

THE STORY OF PISTIS SOPHIA

Sophia desireth to enter the Light-world.


And Jesus answered and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass, when Pistis Sophia was in the thirteenth æon, in the region of all her brethren the invisibles, that is the four-and-twenty emanations of the great Invisible, -- it came to pass then by command of the First Mystery that Pistis Sophia gazed into the height. She saw the light of the veil of the Treasury of the Light, and she longed to reach to that region, and she could not reach to that region. But she ceased to perform the mystery of the thirteenth æon, and sang praises to the light of the height, which she had seen in the light of the veil of the Treasury of the Light.

The rulers hate her for ceasing in their mystery.

"It came to pass then, when she sang praises to the region of the height, that all the rulers in the twelve æons, who are below, hated her, because she had ceased from their mysteries, and because she had desired to go into the height and be above them all. For this cause then they were enraged against her and hated her, [as did] the great triple-powered Self-willed, that is the third triple-power, who is in the thirteenth æon, he who had become disobedient, in as much as he had not emanated the whole purification of his power in him, and had not given the purification of his light at the time when the rulers gave their purification, in that he desired to rule over the whole thirteenth æon and those who are below it.

Self-willed uniteth himself with the rulers of the twelve æons and emanateth a lion-faced power to plague Sophia.

"It came to pass then, when the rulers of the twelve æons were enraged against Pistis Sophia, who is above them, and hated her exceedingly, that the great triple-powered Self-willed, of whom I have just now told you, joined himself to the rulers of the twelve æons, and also was enraged against Pistis Sophia and hated her exceedingly, because she had thought to go to the light which is higher than her. And he emanated out of himself a great lion-faced power, and out of his matter in him he emanated a host of other very violent material emanations, and sent them into the regions below, to the parts of the chaos, in order that they might there lie in wait for Pistis Sophia and take away her power out of her, because she thought to go to the height which is above them all, and moreover she had ceased to perform their mystery, and lamented continuously and sought after the light which she. had seen. And the rulers who abide, or persist, in performing the mystery, hated her, and all the guards who are at the gates of the æons, hated her also.

"It came to pass then thereafter by command of the First Commandment that the great triple-powered Self-willed, who is one of the three triple-powers, pursued Sophia in the thirteenth æon, in order that she should look towards the parts below, so that she might see in that region his lion-faced light-power and long after it and go to that region, so that her light might be taken from her.

Re: Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Miscellany, translated by G.R.S

PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:58 am
by admin
CHAPTER 31

Sophia taketh the lion-faced power of Self-willed for the true Light.


"It came to pass then thereafter that she looked below and saw his light-power in the parts below; and she knew not that it is that of the triple-powered Self-willed, but she thought that it came out of the light which she had seen from the beginning in the height, which came out of the veil of the Treasury of the Light. And she thought to herself: I will go into that region without my pair and take the light and thereout fashion for myself light-æons, so that I may go to the Light of lights, which is in the Height of heights.

She descendeth to the twelve æons and thence into the chaos.

The emanations of Self-willed squeeze the light-powers out of Sophia.


"This then thinking, she went forth from her own region, the thirteenth æon, and went down to the twelve æons. The rulers of the æons pursued her and were enraged against her, because she had thought of grandeur. And she went forth also from the twelve æons, and came into the regions of the chaos and drew nigh to that lion-faced light-power to devour it. But all the material emanations of Self-willed surrounded her, and the great lion-faced light-power devoured all the light-powers in Sophia and cleaned out her light and devoured it, and her matter was thrust into the chaos; it became a lion-faced ruler in the chaos, of which one half is fire and the other darkness, -- that is Yaldabaōth, of whom I have spoken unto you many times. When then this befell, Sophia became very greatly exhausted, and that lion-faced light-power set to work to take away from Sophia all her light-powers, and all the material powers of Self-willed surrounded Sophia at the same time and pressed her sore.

CHAPTER 32

"And Pistis Sophia cried out most exceedingly, she cried to the Light of lights which she had seen from the beginning, in which she had had faith, and uttered this repentance, saying thus:

The first repentance of Sophia.

"'1. O Light of lights, in whom I have had faith from the beginning, hearken now then, O Light, unto my repentance. Save me, O Light, for evil thoughts have entered into me.

"'2. I gazed, O Light, into the lower parts and saw there a light thinking: I will go to that region, in order that I may take that light. And I went and found myself in the darkness which is in the chaos below, and I could no more speed thence and go to my region, for I was sore pressed by all the emanations of Self-willed, and the lion-faced power took away my light in me.

"'3. And I cried for help, but my voice hath not reached out of the darkness. And I looked unto the height, that the Light, in which I had had faith, might help me.

"'4. And when I looked unto the height, I saw all the rulers of the æons, how in their numbers they looked down on me and rejoiced over me, though I had done them no ill; but they hated me without a cause. And when the emanations of Self-willed saw the rulers of the æons rejoicing over me, they knew that the rulers of the æons would not come to my aid; and those emanations which sore pressed me with violence, took courage, and the light which I had not taken from them, they have taken from me.

"'5. Now, therefore, O Light of Truth, thou knowest that I have done this in my innocence, thinking that the lion-faced light-power belonged to thee; and the sin which I have done is open before thee.

"'6. Suffer me no more to lack, O Lord, for I have had faith in thy light from the beginning; O Lord, O Light of the powers, suffer me no more to lack my light.

"'7. For because of thy inducement and for the sake of thy light am I fallen into this oppression, and shame hath covered me.

"'8. And because of the illusion of thy light, I am become a stranger to my brethren, the invisibles, and to the great emanations of Barbēlō.

"'9. This hath befallen me, O Light, because I have been zealous for thy abode; and the wrath of Self-willed is come upon me -- of him who had not hearkened unto thy command to emanate from the emanation of his power -- because I was in his æon without performing his mystery.

"'10. And all the rulers of the æons mocked me.

"'11. And I was in that region, mourning and seeking after the light which I had seen in the height.

"'12. And the guards of the gates of the æons searched for me, and all who remain in their mystery mocked me.

"'13. But I looked up unto the height towards thee and had faith in thee. Now, therefore, O Light of lights, I am sore pressed in the darkness of chaos. If now thou wilt come to save me, -- great is thy mercy, -- then hear me in truth and save me.

"'14. Save me out of the matter of this darkness, that I may not be submerged therein, that I may be saved from the emanations of god Self-willed which press me sore, and from their evil doings.

"'15. Let not this darkness submerge me, and let not this lion-faced power entirely devour the whole of my power, and let not this chaos shroud my power.

"'16. Hear me, O Light, for thy grace is precious, and look down upon me according to the great mercy of thy Light.

"'17. Turn not thy face from me, for I am exceedingly tormented.

"'18. Haste thee, hearken unto me and save my power.

"'19. Save me because of the rulers who hate me, for thou knowest my sore oppression and my torment and the torment of my power which they have taken from me. They who have set me in all this evil are before thee; deal with them according to thy good pleasure.

"'20. My power looked forth from the midst of the chaos and from the midst of the darkness, and I waited for my pair, that he should come and fight for me, and he came not, and I looked that he should come and lend me power, and I found him not.

"'21. And when I sought the light, they gave me darkness; and when I sought my power, they gave me matter.

"'22. Now, therefore, O Light of lights, may the darkness and the matter which the emanations of Self-willed have brought upon me, be unto them for a snare, and may they be ensnared therein, and recompense them and may they be made to stumble and not come into the region of their Self-willed.

"'23. May they remain in the darkness and not behold the light; may they behold the chaos for ever, and let them not look unto the height.

"'24. Bring upon them their revenge, and may thy judgment lay hold upon them.

"'25. Let them not henceforth come into their region to their god Self-willed, and let not his emanations henceforth come into their regions; for their god is impious and self-willed, and he thought that he had done this evil of himself, not knowing that, had I not been brought low according to thy command, he would not have had any authority over me.

"'26. But when thou hadst by thy command brought me low, they pursued me the more, and their emanations added pain to my humiliation.

"'27. And they have taken light-power from me and fallen again to pressing me sore, in order to take away all the light in me. Because of this in which they have set me, let them not ascend to the thirteenth æon, the region of Righteousness.

"'28. But let them not be reckoned in the lot of those who purify themselves and the light, and let them not be reckoned with those who will quickly repent, that they may quickly receive mysteries in the Light.

"'29. For they have taken my light from me, and my power hath begun to cease in me and I am destitute of my light.

"'30. Now, therefore, O Light, which is in thee and is with me, I sing praises to thy name, O Light, in glory.

"'31. May my song of praise please thee, O Light, as an excellent mystery, which leadeth to the gates of the Light, which they who shall repent will utter, and the light of which will purify them.

"'32. Now, therefore, let all matters rejoice; seek ye all the Light, that the power of the stars which is in you, may live.

"'33. For the Light hath heard the matters, nor will it leave any without having purified them.

"'34. Let the souls and the matters praise the Lord of all æons, and [let] the matters and all that is in them [praise him].

"'35. For God shall save their soul from all matters, and a city shall be prepared in the Light, and all the souls who are saved, will dwell in that city and will inherit it.

"'36. And the soul of them who shall receive mysteries will abide in that region, and they who have received mysteries in its name will abide therein.'"

CHAPTER 33

It came to pass then, when Jesus had spoken these words unto his disciples, that he said unto them: "This is the song of praise which Pistis Sophia uttered in her first repentance, repenting of her sin, and reciting all which had befallen her. Now, therefore: 'Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.'"

Mary again came forward and said: "My Lord, my indweller of light hath ears, and I hear with my light-power, and thy spirit which is with me, hath sobered me. Hearken then that I may speak concerning the repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, speaking of her sin and all that befell her. Thy light-power hath prophesied thereof aforetime through the prophet David in the sixty-eighth Psalm:

Mary interpreteth the first repentance from Psalm lxviii

"'1. Save me, O God, for the waters are come in even unto my soul.

"'2. I sank, or am submerged, in the slime of the abyss, and power was not. I have gone down into the depths of the sea; a tempest hath submerged me.

"'3. I have kept on crying; my throat is gone, my eyes faded, waiting patiently for God.

"'4. They who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; mighty are my foes, who violently pursued me. They required of me that which I took not from them.

"'5. God, thou hast known my foolishness, and my faults are not hid from thee.

"'6. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord, Lord of powers, be ashamed for my sake; let not those who seek thee be ashamed for my sake, O Lord, God of Israel, God of powers.

"'7. For thy sake have I endured shame; shame hath covered my face.

"'8. I am become a stranger to my brethren, a stranger unto the sons of my mother.

"'9. For the zeal of thy house hath consumed me; the revilings of them that revile thee have fallen upon me.

"'10. I bowed my soul with fasting, and it was turned to my reproach.

"'11. I put on sackcloth; I became unto them a bye-word.

"'12. They who sit at the gates, chattered at me; and they who drink wine, harped about me.

"'13. But I prayed with my soul unto thee, O Lord; the time of thy well-liking is [now], O God. In the fulness of thy grace give ear unto my salvation in truth.

"'14. Save me out of this slime, that I sink not therein; let me be saved from them that hate me, and from the deep of waters.

"'15. Let not a water-flood submerge me, let not the deep swallow me, let not a well close its mouth above me.

"'16. Hear me, O Lord, for thy grace is good; according to the fulness of thy compassion look down upon me.

"'17. Turn not thy face away from thy servant, for I am oppressed.

"'18. Hear me quickly, give heed to my soul and deliver it.

"'19. Save me because of my foes, for thou knowest my disgrace, my shame and my dishonour; all my oppressors are before thee.

"'20. My heart awaiteth disgrace and misery; I waited for him who should sorrow with me, but I could not come at him, and for him who should comfort me, and I found him not.

"'21. They gave me gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

"'22. Let their table be unto them for a trap and for a snare and for a retribution and for a stumbling-block.

"'23. Mayest thou bend their backs at all time.

"'24. Pour out thy anger upon them, and let the wrath of thy anger lay hold upon them.

"'25. Let their encampment be desolate, let there be no dweller in their habitations.
"'26. For they persecuted him whom thou hast smitten, and added to the smart of their woundings.

"'27. They added iniquity to their iniquities; let them not come into thy righteousness.

"'28. Let them be wiped out of the book of the living, and let them not be written in among the righteous.

"'29. I am a poor wretch who is heart-broken too; it is the salvation of thy face which hath taken me unto itself.

"'30. I will praise the name of God in the ode, and exalt it in the song of thanksgiving.

"'31. This shall please God better than a young bull which putteth forth horns and hoofs.

"'32. May the wretched see and make merry; seek ye God, that your souls may live.

"'33. For God hath heard the wretched and despiseth not the prisoners.

"'34. Let heaven and earth praise the Lord, the sea and all that is therein.

"'35. For God will save Zion, and the cities of Judæa will be built up, and they will dwell there and inherit it.

"'36. The seed of his servants shall possess it, and they who love his name shall dwell therein.'"

CHAPTER 34

It came to pass then, when Mary had finished speaking these words unto Jesus in the midst of the disciples, that she said unto him: "My Lord, this is the solution of the mystery of the repentance of Pistis Sophia."

It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard Mary speak these words, that he said unto her: "Well said, Mary, blessed one, the fulness, or all-blessed fulness, thou who shalt be sung of as blessed in all generations."

CHAPTER 35

The second repentance of Sophia.


Jesus continued again in the discourse and said: "Pistis Sophia again continued and still sang praises in a second repentance, saying thus:

"'1. Light of lights, in whom I have had faith, leave me not in the darkness until the end of my time.

"'2. Help me and save me through thy mysteries; incline thine ear unto me and save me.

"'3. May the power of thy light save me and carry me to the higher æons; for thou wilt save me and lead me into the height of thy æons.

"'4. Save me, O Light, from the hand of this lion-faced power and from the hands of the emanations of god Self-willed.

"'5. For it is thou, O Light, in whose light I have had faith and in whose light I have trusted from the beginning.

"'6. And I have had faith in it from the time when it emanated me, and thou thyself didst make me to emanate; and I have had faith in thy light from the beginning.

"'7. And when I had faith in thee, the rulers of the æons mocked at me, saying: She hath ceased in her mystery. Thou art my saviour and thou art my deliverer and thou art my mystery, O Light.

"'8. My mouth was filled with glorifying, that I may tell of the mystery of thy grandeur at all times.

"'9. Now, therefore, O Light, leave me not in the chaos for the completion of my whole time; forsake me not, O Light.

"'10. For all the emanations of Self-willed have taken from me my whole light-power and have surrounded me. They desired to take away my whole light from me utterly and have set a watch on my power,

"'11. Saying one to another together: The Light hath forsaken her, let us seize her and take away the whole light in her.

"'12. Therefore then, O Light, cease not from me; turn thee, O Light, and save me from the hands of the merciless.

"'13. May they who would take away my power, fall down and become powerless. May they who would take away my light-power from me, be enwrapped in darkness and sink into powerlessness.'

"This then is the second repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, singing praises to the Light."

CHAPTER 36

It came to pass then, when Jesus had finished speaking these words unto his disciples, that he said unto them: "Do ye understand in what manner I discourse with you?"

And Peter started forward and said unto Jesus:

Peter complaineth of Mary.

"My Lord, we will not endure this woman, for she taketh the opportunity from us and hath let none of us speak, but she discourseth many times."

And Jesus answered and said unto his disciples: "Let him in whom the power of his spirit shall seethe, so that he understandeth what I say, come forward and speak. But now, Peter, I see thy power in thee, that it understandeth the solution of the mystery of the repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered. Now, therefore, Peter, speak the thought of her repentance in the midst of thy brethren."

Peter interpreteth the second repentance from Psalm lxx.

And Peter answered and said unto Jesus "O Lord, give ear that I may speak the thought of her repentance, of which aforetime thy power prophesied through the prophet David, uttering her repentance in the seventieth Psalm:

"'1. O God, my God, I have trusted in thee, let me no more be put to shame for ever.

"'2. Save me in thy righteousness and set me free; incline thine ear unto me and save me.

"'3. Be unto me a strong God and a firm place to save me; for thou art my strength and my refuge.

"'4. My God, save me from the hand of the sinner and from the hand of the transgressor and from the impious [one].

"'5. For thou art my endurance, O Lord, thou art my hope from my youth up.

"'6. I have trusted myself to thee from my mother's womb; thou hast brought me out of my mother's womb. My remembrance is ever in thee.

"'7. I have become as the crazy for many; thou art my help and my strength, thou art my deliverer, O Lord.

"'8. My mouth was filled with glorifying, that I may praise the glory of thy splendour the whole day long.

"'9. Cast me not away in the time of age; if my soul fades, forsake me not.

"'10. For mine enemies have spoken evil against me and they who lay in wait for my soul, have taken counsel against my soul.

"'11. Saying together: God hath forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is no saviour.

"'12. God, give heed to my help.

"'13. Let them be ashamed and destroyed who calumniate my soul. Let them be enwrapped in shame and disgrace who seek evil against me.'

"This then is the solution of the second repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

CHAPTER 37

Jesus promiseth to perfect the disciples in all things.


The Saviour answered and said unto Peter: "Finely, Peter; this is the solution of her repentance. Blessed are ye before all men on the earth, because I have revealed unto you these mysteries. Amēn, amēn, I say unto you: I will perfect you in all fulness from the mysteries of the interior to the mysteries of the exterior and fill you with the spirit, so that ye shall be called 'spiritual, perfected in all fulness.' And, amēn, amēn, I say unto you: I will give unto you all the mysteries of all the regions of my Father and of all the regions of the First Mystery, so that he whom ye shall admit on earth, shall be admitted into the Light of the height; and he whom ye shall expel on earth, shall be expelled from the kingdom of my Father in the heaven. But hearken, therefore, and give ear attentively to all the repentances which Pistis Sophia hath uttered. She continued again and uttered the third repentance, saying:

The third repentance of Sophia.

"'1. O Light of powers, give heed and save me.

"'2. May they who would take away my light, lack and be in the darkness. May they who would take away my power, turn into chaos and be put to shame.

"'3. May they turn quickly to darkness, who press me sore and say: We have become lords over her.

"'4. May rather all those who seek the Light, rejoice and exult, and they who desire thy mystery, say ever: May the mystery be exalted.

"'5. Save me then now, O Light, for I lacked my light, which they have taken away, and I needed my power, which they have taken from me. Thou then, O Light, thou art my saviour, and thou art my deliverer, O Light. Save me quickly out of this chaos.'"

CHAPTER 38

And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished speaking these words unto his disciples, saying: "This is the third repentance of Pistis Sophia," that he said unto them: "Let him in whom a sensitive spirit hath arisen, come forward and speak the thought of the repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

Martha asketh and receiveth permission to speak.

It came to pass then, before Jesus had finished speaking, that Martha came forward, fell down at his feet, kissed them, cried aloud and wept with lamentation and in humbleness, saying: "My Lord, have mercy upon me and have compassion with me, and let me speak the solution of the repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

And Jesus gave his hand unto Martha and said unto her: "Blessed is every one who humbleth himself, for on him they shall have mercy. Now, therefore, Martha, art thou blessed. But proclaim then the solution of the thought of the repentance of Pistis Sophia."

Martha interpreteth the third repentance from Psalm lxix.

And Martha answered and said unto Jesus in the midst of the disciples: "Concerning the repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, O my Lord Jesus, of it thy light-power in David prophesied aforetime in the sixty-ninth Psalm, saying:

"'1. O Lord God, give heed to my help.

"'2. Let them be put to shame and confounded who seek after my soul.

"'3. May they turn straightway and be put to shame, who say unto me: Ha, ha.

"'4. May all who seek thee, be joyful and exult because of thee, and they who love thy salvation, say ever: May God be exalted.

"'5. But I am wretched, I am poor; O Lord, help me. Thou art my helper and defence; O Lord, delay not.'

"This then is the solution of the third repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, singing praises to the height."

CHAPTER 39

It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard Martha speak these words, that he said unto her: "Well said, Martha, and finely."

And Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "Pistis Sophia again continued in the fourth repentance, reciting it before she was oppressed a second time, in order that the lion-faced power and all the material emanations with it, which Self-willed had sent into the chaos, might not take away her total light in her. She uttered then this repentance as follows:

The fourth repentance of Sophia.

"'1. O Light, in whom I have trusted, give ear to my repentance, and let my voice reach unto thy dwelling-place.

"'2. Turn not away thy light-image from me, but have heed unto me, if they oppress me; and save me quickly at the time when I shall cry unto thee.

"'3. For my time is vanished like a breath and I am become matter.

"'4. They have taken my light from me, and my power is dried up. I have forgotten my mystery which heretofore I was wont to accomplish.

"'5. Because of the voice of the fear and the power of Self-willed my power is vanished.

"'6. I am become as a demon apart, who dwelleth in matter and light is not in him, and I am become as a counterfeiting spirit, which is in a material body and light-power is not in it.

"'7. And I am become as a decan who is alone in the air.

"'8. The emanations of Self-willed have sore oppressed me, and my pair hath said unto himself:

"'9. Instead of with light which was in her, they have filled her with chaos. I have devoured the sweat of my own matter and the anguish of the tears from the matter of my eyes, so that they who oppress me may not take the rest.

"'10. All this hath befallen me, O Light, by thy commandment and thy command, and it is thy commandment that I am here.

"'11. Thy commandment hath brought me down, and I am descended as a power of the chaos, and my power is numbed in me.

"'12. But thou, O Lord, art Light eternal, and dost visit them who are for ever oppressed.

"'13. Now, therefore, O Light, arise and seek my power and the soul in me. Thy commandment is accomplished, which thou didst decree for me in my afflictions. My time is come, that thou shouldst seek my power and my soul, and this is the time which thou didst decree to seek me.

"'14. For thy saviours have sought the power which is in my soul, because the number is completed, and in order that also its matter may be saved.

"'15. And then at that time shall all the rulers of the material æons be in fear of thy light, and all the emanations of the thirteenth material æon shall be in fear of the mystery of thy light, so that the others may put on the purification of their light.

"'16. For the Lord will seek the power of your soul. He hath revealed his mystery.

"'17. So that he may regard the repentance of them who are in the regions below; and he hath not disregarded their repentance.

"'18. This is then that mystery which is become the type in respect of the race which shall be born; and the race which shall be born will sing praises to the height.

"'19. For the Light hath looked down from the height of its light. It will look down on the total matter,

"'20. To hear the sighing of those in chains, to loose the power of the souls whose power is bound, --

"'21. So that it may lay its name in the soul and its mystery in the power.'"

CHAPTER 40

John asketh and receiveth permission to speak.


It came to pass while Jesus spake these words unto his disciples, saying unto them: "This is the fourth repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered; now, therefore, let him who understandeth, understand," -- it came to pass then, when Jesus had spoken these words, that John came forward, adored the breast of Jesus and said unto him: "My Lord, give commandment to me also, and grant me to speak the solution of the fourth repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

Jesus said unto John: "I give thee commandment, and I grant thee to speak the solution of the repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

John answered and said: "My Lord and Saviour, concerning this repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, thy light-power which was in David, hath prophesied aforetime in the one-hundred-and-first Psalm:

John interpreteth the repentance from Psalm ci.

"'1. Lord, give ear unto my supplication and let my voice reach unto thee.

"'2. Turn not away thy face from me; incline thine ear unto me in the day when I am oppressed; quickly give ear to me on the day when I shall cry unto thee.

"'3. For my days are vanished as smoke and my bones are parched as stone.

"'4. I am scorched as the grass, and my heart is dried up; for I have forgotten to eat my bread.

"'5. From the voice of my groaning my bones cleaved to my flesh.

"'6. I am become as a pelican in the desert; I am become as a screech-owl in the house.

"'7. I have passed the night watching; I am become as a sparrow alone on the roof.

"'8. My enemies have reviled me all the day long, and they who honour me, have injured me.

"'9. For I have eaten ashes instead of my bread and mixed my drink with tears.

"'10. Because of thy wrath and thy rage; for thou hast lifted me up and cast me down.

"'11. My days have declined as a shadow, and I am dried up as the grass,

"'12. But thou, O Lord, thou endurest for ever, and thy remembrance unto the generation of generation[s].

"'13. Arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time is come to have mercy upon her; the proper time is come.

"'14. Thy servants have longed for her stones, and will take pity on her land.

"'15. And the nations will have fear of the name of the Lord, and the kings of the earth have fear of thy sovereignty.

"'16. For the Lord will build up Zion and reveal himself in his sovereignty.

"17. He hath regarded the prayer of the humble and hath not despised their supplication.

"'18. This shall be recorded for another generation, and the people who shall be created will praise the Lord.

"'19. Because he hath looked down on his holy height; the Lord hath looked down from the heaven on the earth,

"'20. To hear the sighing of those in chains, to loose the sons of those who are slain.

"'21. To proclaim the name of the Lord in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem.'

"This, my Lord, is the solution of the mystery of the repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

Re: Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Miscellany, translated by G.R.S

PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 6:36 pm
by admin
CHAPTER 41

Jesus commendeth John.

It came to pass then, when John had finished speaking these words to Jesus in the midst of his disciples, that he said unto him: "Well said, John, the Virgin, who shalt rule in the kingdom of the Light."

The emanations of Self-willed again squeeze the light out of Sophia.

And Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass again thus: The emanations of Self-willed again oppressed Pistis Sophia in the chaos and desired to take from her her whole light; and not yet was her commandment accomplished, to lead her out of the chaos, and not yet had the command reached me through the First Mystery, to save her out of the chaos. It came to pass then, when all the material emanations of Self-willed oppressed her, that she cried out and uttered the fifth repentance, saying:

The fifth repentance of Sophia.

"'1. Light of my salvation, I sing praise unto thee in the region of the height and again in the chaos.

"'2. I sing praise unto thee in my hymn with which I sang praise in the height and with which I sang praise unto thee when I was in the chaos. Let it come into thy presence, and give heed, O Light, to my repentance.

"'3. For my power is filled up with darkness, and my light hath gone down into the chaos.

"'4. I am myself become as the rulers of the chaos, who are gone into the darknesses below; I am become as a material body, which hath no one in the height who will save it.

"'5. I am become also as matters from which their power hath been taken, when they are cast down into the chaos, -- [matters] which thou hast not saved, and they are condemned utterly by thy commandment.

"'6. Now, therefore, have they put me into the darkness below, -- in darknesses and matters which are dead and in them [is] no power.

"'7. Thou hast brought thy commandment upon me and all things which thou hast decreed.

"'8. And thy spirit hath withdrawn and abandoned me. And moreover by thy commandment the emanations of my eon have not helped me and have hated me and separated themselves from me, and yet am I not utterly destroyed.

"'9. And my light is diminished in me, and I have cried up to the light with all the light in me, and I have stretched forth my hands unto thee.

"'10. Now, therefore, O Light, wilt thou not accomplish thy commandment in the chaos, and will not the deliverers, who come according to thy commandment, arise in the darkness and come and be disciples for thee'?

"'11. Will they not utter the mystery of thy name in the chaos?

"'12. Or will they not rather utter thy name in a matter of the chaos, in which thou wilt not [thyself] purify?

"'13. But I have sung praises unto thee, O Light, and my repentance will reach unto thee in the height.

"'14. Let thy light come upon me,

"'15. For they have taken my light, and I am in pain on account of the Light from the time when I was emanated. And when I had looked into the height to the Light, then I looked down below at the light-power in the chaos; I rose up and went down.

"'16. Thy commandment came upon me, and the terrors, which thou didst decree for me, have brought me into delusion.

"'17. And they have surrounded me, in numbers as water, they have laid hold on me together all my time.

"'18. And by thy commandment thou hast not suffered my fellow-emanations to help me, nor hast thou suffered my pair to save me out of my afflictions.'

"This then is the fifth repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered in the chaos, when all the material emanations of Self-willed had continued and oppressed her."

CHAPTER 42

When then Jesus had spoken these words unto his disciples, he said unto them: "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear; and let him whose spirit seetheth up in him, come forward and speak the solution of the thought of the fifth repentance of Pistis Sophia."

Philip the scribe complaineth.

And when Jesus had finished saying these words, Philip started forward, held up and laid down the book in his hand, -- for he is the scribe of all the discourses which Jesus spake, and of all of that which he did, -- Philip then came forward and said unto him: "My Lord, surely then it is not on me alone that thou hast enjoined to take care for the world and write down all the discourses which we shall speak and [all we shall] do? And thou hast not suffered me to come forward to speak the solution of the mysteries of the repentance of Pistis Sophia. For my spirit hath ofttimes seethed in me and been unloosed and constrained me to come forward and speak the solution of the repentance of Pistis Sophia; and I could not come forward because I am the scribe of all the discourses."

Jesus explaineth that the appointed scribes are Philip and Thomas and Matthew.

It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard Philip, that he said unto him: "Hearken, Philip, blessed one, that I may discourse with thee; for it is thou and Thomas and Matthew on whom it is enjoined by the First Mystery to write all the discourses which I shall speak and [all which I shall] do, and all things which ye shall see. But as for thee, the number of the discourses which thou hast to write, is so far not yet completed. When it is then completed, thou art to come forward and proclaim what pleaseth thee. Now, therefore, ye three have to write down all the discourses which I shall speak and [all things which I shall] do and which ye shall see, in order that ye may bear witness to all things of the kingdom of heaven."

CHAPTER 43

When then Jesus had said this, he said unto his disciples: "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

Mary interpreteth the words of Jesus concerning the three witnesses.

Mary started forward again, stepped into the midst, placed herself by Philip and said unto Jesus: "My Lord, my in-dweller of light hath ears, and I am ready to hear with my power, and I have understood the word which thou hast spoken. Now, therefore, my Lord, hearken that I may discourse in openness, thou who hast said unto us: 'Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.'

"Concerning the word which thou hast spoken unto Philip: 'It is thou and Thomas and Matthew on whom it hath been enjoined -- to you three by the First Mystery, to write all the discourses of the kingdom of the Light and thereto to bear witness '; hearken, therefore, that I may proclaim the solution of this word. This is what thy light-power prophesied aforetime through Moses: 'By two or three witnesses shall every matter be established.' The three witnesses are Philip and Thomas and Matthew."

Philip is now given permission to speak.

It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard this word, that he said: "Well said, Mary, this is the solution of the word. Now, therefore, do thou, Philip, come forward and proclaim the solution of the fifth repentance of Pistis Sophia, and thereafter take thy seat and write all the discourses which I shall speak, until the number of thy portion which thou hast to write of the words of the kingdom of the Light is completed. Then shalt thou come forward and speak what thy spirit shall understand. But do thou then now proclaim the solution of the fifth repentance of Pistis Sophia."

And Philip answered and said unto Jesus: "My Lord, hearken that I may speak the solution of her repentance. For thy power hath prophesied aforetime concerning it through David in the eighty-seventh Psalm, saying:

Philip interpreteth the fifth repentance from Psalm lxxxvii.

"'1. Lord, God of my salvation, by day and by night have I cried unto thee.

"'2. Let my weeping come before thee; incline thine ear to my supplication, O Lord.

"'3. For my soul is full of evil, my life hath drawn nigh to the world below.

"'4. I am counted among them who have gone down into the pit; I am become as a man who hath no helper.

"'5. The free among the dead are as the slain who are thrown away and sleep in tombs, whom thou no more rememberest, and they are destroyed through thy hands.

"'6. They have set me in a pit below, in darkness and shadow of death.

"'7. Thy wrath hath settled down upon me and all thy cares have come upon me. (Selah.)

"'8. Thou hast put away mine acquaintances far from me; they have made me an abomination for them. They have abandoned me, and I cannot go forth.

"'9. My eye hath become dim in my misery; I have cried unto thee, O Lord, the whole day and have stretched forth my hands unto thee.

"'10. Wilt thou not surely work thy wonders on the dead? Will not surely the physicians arise and confess thee?

"'11. Will they not surely proclaim thy name in the tombs,

"'12. And thy righteousness in a land which thou hast forgotten?

"'13. But I have cried unto thee, O Lord, and my prayer shall reach thee early in the morning.

"'14. Turn not thy face away from me.

"15. For I am miserable, I am in sorrow from my youth up. And when I had exalted myself, I humbled myself and arose.

"'16. Thy angers are come upon me and thy terrors have brought me into delusion.

"'17. They have surrounded me as water; they have seized upon me the whole day long.

"'18. My fellows hast thou kept far from me and my acquaintances from my misery.'

"This is then the solution of the mystery of the fifth repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, when she was oppressed in the chaos."

CHAPTER 44

Philip is commended and continueth writing.


It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard Philip speak these words, that he said: "Well said, Philip, well-beloved. Now, therefore, come, take thy seat and write thy portion of all the discourses which I shall speak, and [of all things which I shall] do, and of all that thou shalt see."

And forthwith Philip sat down and wrote.

It came to pass thereafter that Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "Then did Pistis Sophia cry to the Light. It forgave her sin, in that she had left her region and gone down into the darkness. She uttered the sixth repentance, saying thus:

The sixth repentance of Sophia.

"'1. I have sung praises unto thee, O Light, in the darkness below.

"'2. Hearken unto my repentance, and may thy light give heed to the voice of my supplication.

"'3. O Light, if thou thinkest on my sin, I shall not be able to stand before thee, and thou wilt abandon me,

"'4. For thou, O Light, art my saviour; because of the light of thy name I have had faith in thee, O Light.

"'5. And my power hath had faith in thy mystery; and moreover my power hath trusted in the Light when it was among those of the height; and it hath trusted in it when it was in the chaos below.

"'6. Let all the powers in me trust in the Light when I am in the darkness below, and may they again trust in the Light if they come into the region of the height.

"'7. For it is [the Light] which hath compassion on us and delivereth us; and a great saving mystery is in it.

"'8. And it will save all powers out of the chaos because of my transgression. For I have left my region and am come down into the chaos.'

"Now, therefore, whose mind is exalted, let him understand."

CHAPTER 45

It came to pass then, when Jesus had finished speaking these words unto his disciples, that he said unto them: "Understand ye in what manner I discourse with you?"

Andrew came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning the solution of the sixth repentance of Pistis Sophia, thy light-power prophesied aforetime through David in the one-hundred-and-twenty-ninth Psalm, saying:

Andrew interpreteth the sixth repentance from Psalm cxxix.

"'1. Out of the depths I have cried unto thee, O Lord.

"'2. Hearken unto my voice; let thine ears give heed to the voice of my supplication.

"'3. O Lord, if thou heedest my iniquities, who will be able to pass [the test]?

"'4. For pardon is in thy hands; for the sake of thy name have I waited for thee, O Lord.

"'5. My soul hath waited for thy word.

"'6. My soul hath hoped in the Lord from the morning until the evening. Let Israel hope in the Lord from the morning until the evening.

"'7. For grace standeth by the Lord and with him is great redemption.

"'8. And he will deliver Israel from all his iniquities.'

Jesus commendeth Andrew. He promiseth that the tyrants shall be judged and consumed by the wise fire.

Jesus said unto him: "Well said, Andrew, blessed one. This is the solution of her repentance. Amēn, amēn, I say unto you: I will perfect you in all mysteries of the Light and all gnoses from the interiors of the interiors to the exteriors of the exteriors, from the Ineffable down to the darkness of darknesses, from the Light of lights down to the . . . . of matter, from all the gods down to the demons, from all the lords down to the decans, from all the authorities down to the servitors, from the creation of men down to [that] of the wild-beasts, of the cattle and of the reptiles, in order that ye may be called perfect, perfected in all fulness. Amēn, amēn, I say unto you: In the region where I shall be in the kingdom of my Father, ye will also be with me. And when the perfect number is completed, so that the Mixture shall be dissolved, I will give commandment that they bring all tyrant gods, who have not given up the purification of their light, and will give commandment to the wise fire, over which the perfect pass, to eat into those tyrants, until they give up the last purification of their light."

Mary interpreteth the words of Jesus.

It came to pass then, when Jesus had finished speaking these words unto his disciples, that he said unto them: "Understand ye in what manner I speak with you?"

Mary said: "Yea, Lord, I have understood the word which thou hast spoken. Concerning then the word which thou hast said: At the dissolution of the whole Mixture thou shalt take thy seat on a light-power and thy disciples, that is ourselves, shall sit on the right of thee, and thou shalt judge the tyrant gods, who have not given up the purification of their light, and the wise fire will bite into them, until they give up the last light in them, -- concerning this word then thy light-power prophesied aforetime through David, in the eighty-first Psalm, saying:

"'God shall sit in the assembly (synagogue) of the gods and try the gods.'"

Jesus said unto her: "Well said, Mary."

CHAPTER 46

The repentance of Sophia is not yet accepted. She is mocked by the æons.


Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass, when Pistis Sophia had finished uttering the sixth repentance for the forgiveness of her transgression, that she turned again to the height, to see if her sins were forgiven her, and to see whether they would lead her up out of the chaos. But by commandment of the First Mystery not yet was she hearkened to, so that her sin should be forgiven and she should be led up out of the chaos. When then she had turned to the height to see whether her repentance were accepted from her, she saw all the rulers of the twelve æons mocking at her and rejoicing over her because her repentance was not accepted from her. When then she saw that they mocked at her, she grieved exceedingly and lifted up her voice to the height in her seventh repentance, saying:

The seventh repentance of Sophia.

"'1. O Light, I have lifted up my power unto thee, my Light.

"'2. On thee have I had faith. Let me not be scorned; let not the rulers of the twelve æons, who hate me, rejoice over me.

"'3. For all who have faith in thee shall not be put to shame. Let them who have taken away my power, remain in darkness; and let them not get from it any profit, but let it be taken away from them.

"'4. O Light, show me thy ways, and I shall be saved in them; and show me thy paths, whereby I shall be saved out of the chaos.

"'5. And guide me in thy light, and let me know, O Light, that thou art my saviour. On thee will I trust the whole of my time.

"'6. Give heed that thou save me, O Light, for thy mercy endureth for ever.

"'7. As to my transgression, which I have committed from the beginning in my ignorance, put it not to my account, O Light, but rather save me through thy great mystery of the forgiveness of sins because of thy goodness, O Light.

"'8. For good and sincere is the Light. For this cause will it grant me my way, to be saved out of my transgression;

"'9. And for my powers, which are diminished through the fear of the material emanations of Self-willed, will it draw near after its commandment, and will teach my powers, which are diminished because of the merciless, its gnosis.

"'10. For all gnoses of the Light are saving means and are mysteries for all who seek the regions of its Inheritance and its mysteries.

"'11. For the sake of the mystery of thy name, O Light, forgive my transgression, for it is great.

"'12. To every one who trusteth in the Light it will give the mystery which suiteth him;

"'13. And his soul will abide in the regions of the Light and his power will inherit the Treasury of the Light.

"'14. The Light giveth power to them who have faith in it; and the name of its mystery belongeth to those who trust in it. And it will show them the region of the Inheritance, which is in the Treasury of the Light.

"'15. But I have ever had faith in the Light, for it will save my feet from the bonds of the darkness.

"'16. Give heed unto me, O Light, and save me, for they have taken away my name from me in the chaos.

"'17. Because of all the emanations my afflictions and my oppression have become exceedingly manifold. Save me out of my transgression and this darkness.

"'18. And look upon the grief of my oppression and forgive my transgression.

"'19. Give heed to the rulers of the twelve æons, who have hated me through jealousy.

"'20. Watch over my power and save me, and let me not remain in this darkness, for I have had faith in thee.

"'21. And they have made of me a great fool for having had faith in thee, O Light.

"'22. Now, therefore, O Light, save my powers from the emanations of Self-willed, by whom I am oppressed.'

"Now, therefore, who is sober, let him be sober."

When then Jesus had spoken this unto his disciples, Thomas came forward and said: "My Lord, I am sober, I am plentifully sober, and my spirit is ready in me, and I rejoice exceedingly that thou hast revealed these words unto us. But indeed I have borne with my brethren until now, so that I should not anger them; nay rather I have borne with every one that he should come before thee and speak the solution of the repentance of Pistis Sophia. Now, therefore, my Lord, concerning the solution of the seventh repentance of Pistis Sophia thy light-power hath prophesied through the prophet David in the twenty-fourth Psalm, thus:

Thomas interpreteth the seventh repentance from Psalm xxiv.

"'1. O Lord, unto thee have I lifted up my soul, O my God.

"'2. I have abandoned myself unto thee; let me not be put to shame and let not mine enemies mock at me.

"'3. For all who wait upon thee shall not be put to shame; let them be put to shame who do iniquity without a cause.

"'4. O Lord, show me thy ways and teach me thy paths.

"'5. Lead me in the way of thy truth and teach me, for thou art my God and my saviour; on thee will I wait all the day long.

"'6. Call to remembrance thy mercies, O Lord, and the favours of thy grace, for they are from eternity.

"'7. Remember not the sins of my youth and those of my ignorance. Remember me according to the fulness of thy mercy because of thy goodness, O Lord.

"'8. The Lord is gracious and sincere; therefore will he instruct sinners in the way.

"'9. He will guide the tender-hearted in the judgment and will teach the tender-hearted his ways.

"'10. All the ways of the Lord are grace and truth for them who seek his righteousness and his testimonies.

"'11. For thy name's sake, O Lord, forgive me my sin, [for] it is exceedingly great.

"'12. Who is the man who feareth the Lord? For him will he establish laws in the way which he hath chosen.

"'13. His soul will abide in good things and his seed will inherit the land.

"'14. The Lord is the strength of them who fear him; and the name of the Lord belongeth to them who fear him, to make known unto them his covenant.

"'15. Mine eyes are raised ever unto the Lord, for he will draw my feet out of the snare.

"'16. Look down upon me and be gracious unto me, for I am an only-begotten; I am wretched.

"'17. The afflictions of my heart have increased; bring me out of my necessities.

"'18. Look upon my abasement and my woe, and forgive me all my sins.

"'19. Look upon mine enemies, how they have increased themselves and hated me with unjust hatred.

"'20. Preserve my soul and save me; let me not be put to shame, for I have hoped on thee.

"'21. The simple and sincere have joined themselves to me, for I have waited on thee, O Lord.

"'22. O God, deliver Israel from all his afflictions.'"

Jesus commendeth Thomas.

And when Jesus had heard the words of Thomas, he said unto him: "Well said, Thomas, and finely. This is the solution of the seventh repentance of Pistis Sophia. Amēn, amēn, I say unto you: All generations of the world shall bless you on earth, because I have revealed this unto you and ye have received, of my spirit and have become understanding and spiritual, understanding what I say. And hereafter will I fill you full with the whole light and the whole power of the spirit, so that ye may understand from now on all which shall be said unto you and which ye shall see. Yet a little while and I will speak with you concerning the height without within and within without."

CHAPTER 47

Jesus leadeth Sophia to a less confined region, but without the commandment of the First Mystery.


Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass then, when Pistis Sophia had uttered the seventh repentance in the chaos, that the commandment through the First Mystery had not come to me to save her and lead her up out of the chaos. Nevertheless of myself out of compassion without commandment I led her into a somewhat spacious region in the chaos. And when the material emanations of Self-willed had noticed that she had been led into a somewhat spacious region in the chaos, they ceased a little to oppress her, for they thought that she would be led up out of the chaos altogether. When this then took place, Pistis Sophia did not know that I was her helper; nor did she know me at all, but she continued and persisted withal singing praises to the Light of the Treasury, which she had seen aforetime and on which she had had faith, and she thought that it [sc. the Light] also was her helper and it was the same to which she had sung praises, thinking it was the Light in truth. But as indeed she had had faith in the Light which belongeth to the Treasury in truth, therefore will she be led up out of the chaos and her repentance will be accepted from her. But the commandment of the First Mystery was not yet accomplished to accept her repentance from her. But hearken now in order that I may tell you all things which befell Pistis Sophia.

The emanations of Self-willed oppress her again.

"It came to pass, when I had led her unto a somewhat spacious region in the chaos, that the emanations of Self-willed ceased entirely to oppress her, thinking that she would be led up out of the chaos altogether. It came to pass then, when the emanations of Self-willed had noticed that Pistis Sophia had not been led up out the chaos, that they turned about again all together, oppressing her vehemently. Because of this then she uttered the eighth repentance, because they had not ceased to oppress her, and had turned about to oppress her to the utmost. She uttered this repentance, saying thus:

The eighth repentance of Sophia.

"'1. On thee, O Light, have I hoped. Leave me not in the chaos; deliver me and save me according to thy gnosis.

"'2. Give heed unto me and save me. Be unto me a saviour, O Light, and save me and lead me unto thy light.

"'3. For thou art my saviour and wilt lead me unto thee. And because of the mystery of thy name lead me and give me thy mystery.

"'4. And thou wilt save me from this lion-faced power, which they have laid as a snare for me, for thou art my saviour.

"'5. And in thy hands will I lay the purification of my light; thou hast saved me, O Light, according to thy gnosis.

"'6. Thou art become wroth with them who keep watch over me and will not be able to lay hold of me utterly. But I have had faith in the Light.

"'7. I will rejoice and will sing praises that thou hast had mercy upon me and hast heeded and saved me from the oppression in which I was. And thou wilt set free my power out of the chaos.

"'8. And thou hast not left me in the hand of the lion-faced power; but thou hast led me into a region which is not oppressed.'"

CHAPTER 48

The emanations of Self-willed cease for a time to oppress Sophia.


When then Jesus had said this unto his disciples, he answered again and said unto them: "It came to pass then, when the lion-faced power had noticed that Pistis Sophia had not been led up altogether out of the chaos, that it came again with all the other material emanations of Self-willed, and they oppressed Pistis Sophia again. It came to pass then, when they oppressed her, that she cried out in the same repentance, saying:

She continueth her repentance.

"'9. Have mercy upon me, O Light, for they have oppressed me again. Because of thy commandment, the light in me is distracted and my power and my understanding.

"'10. My power hath begun to wane whiles I am in these afflictions, and the number of my time whiles I am in the chaos. My light is diminished, for they have taken away my power from me, and all the powers in me are tossed about.

"'11. I am become powerless in the presence of all the rulers of the æons, who hate me, and in the presence of the four-and-twenty emanations, in whose region I was. And my brother, my pair, was afraid to help me, because of that in which they have set me.

"'12. And all the rulers of the height have counted me as matter in which is no light. I am become as a material power which hath fallen out of the rulers.

"'13. And all who are in the æons said: She hath become chaos. And thereafter all the pitiless powers encompassed me together and proposed to take away the whole light in me.

"'14. But I have trusted in thee, O Light, and said: Thou art my saviour.

"'15. And my commandment, which thou hast decreed for me, is in thy hands. Save me out of the hands of the emanations of Self-willed, which oppress me and persecute me.

"'16. Send thy light over me, for I am as naught before thee, and save me according to thy compassion.

"'17. Let me not be despised, for I have sung praises unto thee, O Light. Let chaos cover the emanations of Self-willed, let them be led down into the darkness.

"'18. Let the mouth of them be shut up, who would devour me with guile, who say: Let us take the whole light in her, -- although I have done them no ill.'"

CHAPTER 49

And when Jesus had spoken this, Matthew came forward and said: "My Lord, thy spirit hath stirred me and thy light hath made me sober to proclaim this eighth repentance of Pistis Sophia. For thy power hath prophesied thereof aforetime through David in the thirtieth Psalm, saying:

Matthew interpreteth the eighth repentance from Psalm xxx.

"'1. On thee, O Lord, have I hoped. Let me never be put to shame; save me according to thy righteousness.

"'2. Incline thine ear unto me, save me quickly. Be thou unto me a protecting God and a house of refuge to save me.

"'3. For thou art my support and my refuge; for thy name's sake thou wilt guide me and feed me.

"'4. And thou wilt draw me out of this snare, which they have laid privily for me; for thou art my protection.

"'5. Into thy hands I will render my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, God of Truth.

"'6. Thou hast hated them who hold to vain emptiness; but I have trusted.

"'7. And I shall rejoice because of my Lord and make merry over thy grace. For thou hast looked down upon my humbleness and saved my soul out of my necessities.

"'8. And thou hast not shut me up in the hands of my foes; thou hast set my feet on a broad space.

"'9. Be gracious unto me, O Lord, for I am afflicted; my eye is distracted in the wrath and my soul and my body.

"'10. For my years have wasted away in sadness and my life is wasted in sighing. My power is enfeebled in misery and my bones are distracted.

"'11. I am become a mockery for all my foes and my neighbours. I am become a fright for my acquaintances, and they who saw me, are fled away from me.

"'12. I am forgotten in their heart as a corpse, and I have become as a ruined vessel.

"'13. For I have heard the scorn of many who encompass me round about. Massing themselves together against me, they took counsel to take away my soul from me.

"'14. But I have trusted in thee, O Lord. I said: Thou art my God.

"'15. My lots are in thy hands. Save me from the hand of my foes and free me from my persecutors.

"'16. Reveal thy face over thy slave, and free me according to thy grace, O Lord.

"'17. Let me not be put to shame, for I have cried unto, thee. Let the impious be put to shame and turn towards hell.

"'18. Let the crafty lips be struck dumb, which allege iniquity against the righteous in pride and scorn.'"

CHAPTER 50

Jesus commendeth Matthew and promiseth his disciples that they shall sit on thrones with him.


And when Jesus had heard these words, he said: "Finely [said], Matthew. Now, therefore, amēn, I say unto you: When the perfect number is completed and the universe is raised hence, I will take my seat in the Treasury of the Light, and ye yourselves will sit on twelve light-powers, until we have restored all the orders of the twelve saviours to the region of the inheritances of every one of them."

And when he had said this, he said: "Understand ye what I say?"

Mary interpreteth the words of Jesus.

Mary came forward and said: "O Lord, concerning this matter thou hast said to us aforetime in similitude: 'Ye have awaited with me in the trials, and I will bequeath unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath bequeathed it unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and ye shall sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel.'"

He said unto her: "Well said, Mary."

Jesus continued again and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass then thereafter, when the emanations of Self-willed oppressed Pistis Sophia in the chaos, that she uttered the ninth repentance, saying:

The ninth repentance of Sophia.

"'1. O Light, smite down them who have taken away my power from me, and take away the power from them who have taken away mine from me.

"'2. For I am thy power and thy light. Come and save me.

"'3. Let great darkness cover my oppressors. Say unto my power: I am he who will save thee.

"'4. Let all those who would take away my light from me utterly, lack their power. Let them face about unto the chaos and become powerless, who would take away my light from me utterly.

"'5. Let their power be as dust, and let Yew, thy angel, smite them.

"'6. And if they would go into the height, let darkness seize upon them and let them slip down and turn to the chaos. And let thy angel Yew pursue them and cast them down into the darkness below.

"'7. For they have set a lion-faced power as a trap for me, although I have done them no ill, from which its light will be taken; and they have oppressed the power in me, which they will not be able to take away.

"'8. Now, therefore, O Light, take away the purification from the lion-faced power without its knowing it, -- the thought which Self-willed hath thought, to take away my light; take away his own and let the light be taken away from the lion-faced power, which set the trap for me.

"'9. But my power will exult in the Light and rejoice that he will save it.

"'10. And all the portions of my power shall say: There is no saviour but thee. For thou wilt save me out of the hand of the lion-faced power, which hath taken away my power from me, and thou savest me out of the hands of them who have taken away my power and my light from me.

"'11. For they have risen up against me, lying against me and saying that I know the mystery of the Light which is in the height, [the Light] in which I have had faith. And they have constrained me, [saying:] Tell unto us the mystery of the Light in the height, -- that which I know not.

"'12. And they have requited me with all this ill because I have had faith in the Light of the height; and they have made my power lightless.

"'13. But when they constrained me, I sat in the darkness, my soul bowed down in mourning.

"'14. And do thou, O Light -- for that reason sing I praise to thee -- save me. I know that thou wilt save me because I fulfilled thy will ever since I was in my æon. I fulfilled thy will, as the invisibles who are in my region, and as my pair. And I mourned, looking unceasingly and searching for the Light.

"'15. Now, therefore, have all the emanations of Self-willed surrounded me and rejoiced over me and sore oppressed me without my knowing them. And they have fled away and ceased from me but have had no pity upon me.

"'16. They have returned again and made trial of me and they have oppressed me in great oppression and ground their teeth against me, desiring to take away my light from me utterly.

"'17. How long, therefore, O Light, dost thou suffer them, that they oppress me? Save my power from their evil thoughts and save me from the hand of the lion-faced power; for I alone of the invisibles am in this region.

"'18. I will sing praises unto thee, O Light, in the midst of all who are gathered together against me, and I will cry unto thee in the midst of all who oppress me.

"'19. Now, therefore, O Light, let not them who hate me and desire to take away my power from me, rejoice over me -- who hate me and flash their eyes against me, though I have not done anything unto them.

"'20. For indeed they have fawned upon me with sweet words, asking me concerning the mysteries of the Light which I know not, and have craftily spoken against me and been enraged against me, because I have had faith in the Light in the height.

"'21. They have opened their chops against me and said.: Well indeed, we will take from her her light.

"'22. Now, therefore, O Light, thou hast known their guile; suffer them not and let not thy help be far from me.

"'23. Quickly, O Light, vindicate and avenge me,

"'24. And give judgment on me according to thy goodness. Now, therefore, O Light of lights, let them not take away my light from me.

"'25. And let them not say in their heart: Our power is glutted with her light. And let them not say: We have consumed her power.

"'26. But rather let darkness come upon them, and let those who long to take away my light from me, become powerless, and let them be clothed with chaos and darkness, who say there: We will take away her light and her power.

"'27. Now, therefore, save me that I may rejoice, for I long for the thirteenth æon, the region of Righteousness, and I shall say ever-more: May the light of thy angel Yew shine more and more.

"'28. And my tongue will sing praises to thee in thy gnosis my whole time in the thirteenth æon.'

Re: Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Miscellany, translated by G.R.S

PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 6:49 pm
by admin
CHAPTER 51

It came to pass, when Jesus had finished saying these words unto his disciples, that he said unto them: "Who is sober among you, let him proclaim their solution."

James came forward, kissed the breast of Jesus and said: "My Lord, thy spirit hath sobered me, and I am ready to proclaim their solution. Concerning them indeed thy power hath prophesied aforetime through David in the thirty-fourth Psalm, saying thus concerning the ninth repentance of Pistis Sophia:

James interpreteth the ninth repentance from Psalm xxxiv.

"'1. Give sentence, O Lord, on them who do me injustice, and fight against them who fight against me.

"'2. Lay hand on weapon and shield and stand up to help me.

"'3. Draw forth a sword and conceal it [sic] from my oppressors. Say unto my soul: I am thy salvation.

"'4. Let them be put to shame and abashed who strive after my soul; let them fall back and be put to shame who imagine evil against me.

"'5. Let them be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the Lord pursue after them.

"'6. Let their way be darkness and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord oppress them.

"'7. For without cause have they hid a snare for me for their own spoiling, and they have mocked at my soul in vain.

"'8. Let a snare come upon them which they know not, and let the net which they have hid for me, catch them, and let them fall into this snare.

"'9. But my soul will exult in the Lord and rejoice in its salvation.

"'10. All my bones shall say: O Lord, who can be like unto thee? -- thou who settest free the wretched from the hand of him who is stronger than him; and thou savest a wretched and poor [one] from the hands of them who spoil him.

"11. Unjust witnesses came forward and have asked me that which I knew not.

"'12. They have requited me evil for good and childlessness for my soul.

"13. But when they molested me, I clothed me in a sack and humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer will return into my breast.

"'14. I was pleasing unto thee, as unto my neighbour and as unto my brother; and I humbled myself as one in mourning and as one who is sad.

"'15. They have rejoiced over me, and they are put to shame. Scourges have gathered themselves together against me and I knew not; they were cut off and were troubled.

"'16. They have brought me to trial and mocked me with mocking; they have ground their teeth against me.

"'17. O Lord, when wilt thou look upon me? Restore again my soul from their evil works and save my only one from the hands of the lions.

"'18. I will confess to thee, O Lord, in the great assembly, and I will sing praises to thee in the midst of a countless people.

"'19. Let not them who unjustly treat me as a foe, rejoice over me, who hate me without a cause and wink with their eyes.

"'20. For indeed they discourse with me with words of peace, though they plot wrath with craft.

"'21. They opened their chops wide against me and said: Well indeed, our eyes have filled our sight with him.

"'22. Thou hast seen, O Lord. Keep not silence, O Lord, withdraw not thyself from me.

"'23. Arise, O Lord, and give heed to my vindication, give heed to my vengeance, my God and my Lord.

"'24. Judge me, O Lord, according to thy justice; let them not rejoice over me, my God.

"'25. And let them not say: Well done, our soul. Let them not say: We have consumed him.

"'26. Let them be put to shame and be scorned, who rejoice at my mischance. Let them be clothed with shame and disgrace who speak boastingly against me.

"'27. Let them who desire my justification, exult and rejoice and let them who desire the peace of his slave, say: May the Lord be great and arise.

"'28. My tongue will exult over thy justification and over thy honour all the day long.'"

CHAPTER 52

Jesus commendeth James and promiseth the first place unto the disciples.


When James then had said this, Jesus said unto him: "Well said, finely, James. This is the solution of the ninth repentance of Pistis Sophia. Amēn, amēn, I say unto you: Ye shall be the first in the kingdom of heaven before all invisibles and all gods and rulers who are in the thirteenth æon and in the twelfth æon; and not only ye, but also every one who shall accomplish my mysteries."

And when he had said this, he said unto them: "Understand ye in what manner I discourse with you?"

Mary interpreteth the words of Jesus.

Mary started forward again and said: "Yea, O Lord, this is what thou didst say unto us aforetime: 'The last shall be first and the first shall be last.' The first then, who were created before us, are the invisibles, for indeed they arose before mankind, they and the gods and the rulers; and the men who shall receive mysteries, will be first into the kingdom of heaven."

Jesus said unto her: "Well said, Mary."

The repentance of Sophia is accepted. Jesus is sent to help her.

Jesus continued again and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass then, when Pistis Sophia had proclaimed the ninth repentance, that the lion-faced power oppressed her again, desiring to take away all powers from her. She cried out again to the Light, saying: "'O Light, in whom I have had faith from the beginning, for whose sake I have endured these great pains, help me.'

"And in that hour her repentance was accepted from her. The First Mystery hearkened unto her, and I was sent off at his command. I came to help her, and led her up out of the chaos, because she had repented, and also because she had had faith in the Light and had endured these great pains and these great perils. She had been deluded through the god-like Self-willed, and had not been deluded through anything else, save through a light-power, because of its resemblance to the Light in which she had had faith. For this cause then was I sent forth at the command of the First Mystery to help her secretly. I did not however yet go to the region of the æons at all; but I passed down through the midst out of them, without any single power knowing it, either those of the interior of the interior or those of the exterior of the exterior, save only the First Mystery.

"It came to pass then, when I came into the chaos to help her, that she saw me, that I was understanding and shone exceedingly and was full of compassion for her. For I was not self-willed as the lion-faced power, which had taken away the light-power from Sophia, and had also oppressed her in order to take away from her the whole light in her. Sophia then saw me, that I shone ten-thousand times more than the lion-faced power, and that I was full of compassion for her. And she knew that I came out of the Height of heights, in whose light she had had faith from the beginning. Pistis Sophia then took courage and uttered the tenth repentance, saying:

The tenth repentance of Sophia.

"'1. I have cried unto thee, O Light of lights, in my oppression and thou hast hearkened unto me.

"'2. O Light, save my power from unjust and lawless lips and from crafty traps.

"'3. The light which was being taken from me in crafty snaring, will not be brought unto thee.

"'4. For the traps of Self-willed and the nooses of the merciless [one] are spread out.

"'5. Woe unto me, that my dwelling was far off, and I was in the dwellings of the chaos.

"'6. My power was in regions which are not mine.

"'7. And I entreated those merciless [ones]; and when I entreated them, they fought against me without a cause.'"

CHAPTER 53

When then Jesus had said this unto his disciples, he said unto them: "Now, therefore, let him whom his spirit stirreth, come forward and speak the solution of the tenth repentance of Pistis Sophia."

Peter answered and said: "O Lord, concerning this thy light-power prophesied aforetime through David in the one-hundred-and-nineteenth Psalm; saying:

Peter interpreteth the tenth repentance from Psalm cxix.

"'1. I cried unto thee, O Lord, in my oppression, and thou hearkenest unto me.

"'2. O Lord, save my soul from unjust lips and from crafty tongues.

"'3. What will be given unto thee or what will be added unto thee with a crafty tongue?

"'4. The arrows of the strong [one] are made sharp with the coal of the desert.

"'5. Woe unto me, that my dwelling is far off, and I dwelt in the tents of Kedar.

"'6. My soul hath dwelt in many regions as a guest.

"'7. I was peaceful with them who hate peace; if I spake unto them, they fought against me without a cause.'

"This is now, therefore, O Lord, the solution of the tenth repentance of Pistis Sophia, which she hath uttered when the material emanations of Self-willed oppressed her, they and his lion-faced power, and when they oppressed her exceedingly."

Jesus commendeth Peter.

Jesus said unto him: "Well said, Peter, and finely. This is the solution of the tenth repentance of Pistis Sophia."

CHAPTER 54

Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass then, when this lion-faced power saw me, how I drew nigh unto Pistis Sophia, shining very exceedingly, that it grew still more furious and emanated from itself a multitude of exceedingly violent emanations. When this then befell, Pistis Sophia uttered the eleventh repentance, saying:

"'1. Why hath the mighty power raised itself in evil?

The eleventh repentance of Sophia.

"'2. Its plotting taketh away the light from me all the time, and as sharp iron have they taken away power from me.

"'3. I chose to descend into the chaos rather than to abide in the thirteenth æon, the region of Righteousness.

"'4. And they desired to lead me craftily, in order to consume my whole light.

"'5. For this cause then will the Light take away their whole light, and also their whole matter will be made naught. And it will take away their light and not suffer them to abide in the thirteenth æon, their dwelling-place, and will not have their name in the region of those who shall live.

"'6. And the four-and-twenty emanations will see what hath befallen thee, O lion-faced power, and will be afraid and not be disobedient, but give the purification of their light.

"'7. And they will see thee and will rejoice over thee and say: Lo, an emanation which hath not given the purification of its light, so that it may be saved, but boasted itself in the abundance of the light of its power, because it did not emanate from the power in it, and hath said: I will take away the light from Pistis Sophia, which will now be taken from it.'

"Now, therefore, let him in whom his power is raised, come forward and proclaim the solution of the eleventh repentance of Pistis Sophia."

Then Salome came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning this thy light-power prophesied aforetime through David in the fifty-first Psalm, saying:

Salome interpreteth the repentance from Psalm li.

"'1. Why doth the mighty [one] boast himself in his wickedness?

"'2. Thy tongue hath studied unrighteousness all the day long; as a sharp razor hast thou practised craft.

"'3. Thou lovedst wickedness more than goodness; thou lovedst to speak unrighteousness more than righteousness.

"'4. Thou lovedst all words of submerging and a crafty tongue.

"'5. Wherefor will God bring thee to naught utterly, and will uproot thee and drag thee out from thy dwelling-place, and will root out thy root and cast it away from the living. (Selah.)

"'6. The righteous will see and be afraid, and they will mock at him and say:

"'7. Lo, a man who made not God for his helper, but trusted to his great riches and was mighty in his vanity.

"'8. But I am as a fruit-bearing olive-tree in the house of God. I have trusted in the grace of God from all eternity.

"'9. And I will confess unto thee, for thou hast dealt faithfully with me; and I will wait on thy name, for it is auspicious in the presence of thy holy [ones].'

"This then is now, therefore, my Lord, the solution of the eleventh repentance of Pistis Sophia. While thy light-power hath roused me, I have spoken it according to thy desire."

Jesus commendeth Salome.

It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard these words which Salome spake, that he said: "Well said, Salome. Amēn, amēn, I say unto you: I will perfect you in all mysteries of the kingdom of the Light."

CHAPTER 55

Self-willed aideth his emanations and they again oppress Sophia.


And Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass then thereafter, that I drew near unto the chaos, shining very exceedingly, to take away the light from that lion-faced power. As I shone exceedingly, it was in fear and cried out to its self-willed god, that he should help it. And forthwith the self-willed god looked out of the thirteenth æon, and looked down into the chaos, exceedingly wrathful and desiring to help his lion-faced power. And forthwith the lion-faced power, it and all its emanations, surrounded. Pistis Sophia, desiring to 'take away the whole light in Sophia. It came to pass then, when they oppressed Sophia, that she cried to the height, crying unto me that I should help her. It came to pass then, when she looked to the height, that she saw Self-willed exceedingly wrathful, and she was in fear, and uttered the twelfth repentance because of Self-willed and his emanations. She cried on high unto me, saying:

The twelfth repentance of Sophia.

"'1. O Light, forget not my praise-singing.

"'2. For Self-willed and his lion-faced power have opened their chops against me and have acted craftily against me.

"'3. They have surrounded me, desiring to take away my power, and have hated me, because I have sung praises unto thee.

"'4. Instead of loving me they slandered me. But I sang praises.

"'5. They plotted a plot to take away my power, because I have sung to thee praises, O Light; and hated me, because I have loved thee.

"'6. Let the darkness come over Self-willed, and let the ruler of the outermost darkness abide at his right hand.

"'7. And when thou passest sentence, take from him his power; and the deed which he hath plotted, to take from me my light, -- mayest thou take his from him.

"'8. And may all his powers of his light in him finish, and let another of the three triple-powers receive his sovereignty.

"'9. May all the powers of his emanation be lightless and may his matter be without any light in it.

"'10. May his emanations remain in the chaos and not dare to go to their region. May their light in them die away and let them not go to the thirteenth æon, their region.

"'11. May the Receiver, the Purifier of the lights, purify all the lights which are in Self-willed, and take them from them.

"'12. May the rulers of the lower darkness rule over his emanations, and let no one give them shelter in his region; and let no one hearken to the power of his emanations in the chaos.

"'13. Let them take away the light in his emanations and blot out their name from the thirteenth æon, yea rather take his name for ever out of that region.

"'14. And on the lion-faced power let them bring the sin of him who emanated it, before the Light, and not wipe out the iniquity of the matter which hath brought him [sc. Self-willed] forth.

"'15. And may their sin be altogether before the Light eternally, and may they let them not look beyond [the chaos] and take their names out of all regions;

"'16. Because they have not spared me and have oppressed him whose light and whose power they have taken away, and also conformably with those who set me therein, they desired to take away my whole light from me.

"'17. They loved to descend to the chaos; so let them abide therein, and they shall not be brought up [therefrom] from now on. They desired not the region of Righteousness for dwelling-place, and they shall not be taken thither from now on.

'"18. He put on darkness as a garment, and it entered into him as water, and it entered in into all his powers as oil.

"'19. Let him wrap himself into the chaos as into a garment, and gird himself with the darkness as with a leathern girdle for ever.

"'20. Let this befall them who have brought this upon me for the Light's sake and have said: Let us take away her whole power.

"'21. But do thou, O Light, have mercy upon me for the sake of the mystery of thy name, and save me in the goodness of thy grace.

"'22. For they have taken away my light and my power; and my power hath inwardly tottered, and I could not stand upright in their midst.

"'23. I am become as matter which is fallen; I am tossed hither and thither as a demon in the air.

"'24. My power hath perished, because I possess no mystery; and my matter hath become dwindled because of my light, for they have taken it away.

"'25. And they mocked me; they looked at me, nodding at me.

"'26. Help me according to thy mercy.'

"Now, therefore, let him whose spirit is ready, come forward and utter the solution of the twelfth repentance of Pistis Sophia."

CHAPTER 56

And Andrew came forward and said: "My Lord and Saviour, thy light-power hath prophesied aforetime through David concerning this repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, and said in the one-hundred-and-eighth Psalm:

Andrew interpreteth the twelfth repentance from Psalm cviii.

"'1. God, keep not silent at my praise-singing.

"'2. For the mouths of the sinner and crafty have opened their chops against me and with crafty deceitful tongue have talked behind me.

"'3. And they have surrounded me with words of hate and have fought against me without a cause.

"'4. Instead of loving me they have slandered me. But I prayed.

"'5. They showed evil against me for good and hate for my love.

"'6. Set a sinner over him, and let the slanderer stand at his right hand.

"'7. When sentence is passed upon him, may he go forth condemned and his prayer become sin.

"'8. May his days be shortened and another receive his overseership.

"'9. May his children become orphans and his wife a widow.

"'10. May his children be carried away and be driven forth and beg; may they be thrown out of their houses.

"'11. May the money-lender sift out all that he hath, and may strangers plunder all his best efforts.

"'12. Let there be no man to back him, and no one to take pity on his orphans.

"'13. May his children be exterminated and his name blotted out in a single generation.

"'14. Let the sin of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and the sin of his mother be not blotted out.

"'15. Let them be ever present to the Lord and his memory be rooted out from the earth.

"'16. In that he hath not thought of using mercy and hath persecuted a poor and wretched man and hath persecuted a sorry creature to slay him.

"'17. He loved cursing, -- and it shall come unto him. He desired not blessing, -- it shall stay far from him.

"'18. He clothed himself with cursing as with a vesture, and it entered into his bowels as water, and it was as oil in his bones.

"'19. May it be for him as a garment in which he shall be wrapped, and as a girdle with which he shall ever be girded.

"'20. This is the work of them who slander [me] before the Lord, and speak unlawfully against my soul.

"'21. But do thou, O Lord God, be gracious unto me; for thy name's sake save me.

"'22. For I am poor and I am wretched; my heart is tumult within me.

"'23. I am carried away in the midst as a shadow which hath sunk down, and I am shaken out as grass-hoppers.

"'24. My knees have become weak from fasting, and my flesh is altered from [lack of] oil.

"'25. But I have become a mock unto them; they saw me and wagged their heads.

"'26. Help, O Lord God, and save me according to thy grace.

"'27. May they know that this is thy hand, and that thou, O Lord, hast fashioned them.'

"This is then the solution of the twelfth repentance which Pistis Sophia uttered, when she was in the chaos."

CHAPTER 57

And Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass again thereafter that Pistis Sophia cried unto me, saying:

"O Light of lights, I have transgressed in the twelve æons, and have descended from them; wherefor have I uttered the twelve repentances, [one] for each æon. Now, therefore, O Light of lights, forgive me my transgression, for it is exceedingly great, because I have abandoned the regions of the height and have come to dwell in the regions of the chaos.'

"When then Pistis Sophia had said this, she continued again in the thirteenth repentance, saying:

The thirteenth repentance of Sophia.

"'1. Hearken unto me singing praises unto thee, O Light of lights. Hearken unto me uttering the repentance for the thirteenth æon, the region out of which I have come down, in order that the thirteenth repentance of the thirteenth æon may be accomplished, -- those [æons] which I have overstepped and out of which I have come down.

"'2. Now, therefore, O Light of lights, hearken unto me singing praises unto thee in the thirteenth æon, my region out of which I have come down.

"'3. Save me, O Light, in thy great mystery and forgive my transgression in thy forgiveness.

"'4. And give unto me the baptism and forgive my sins and purify me from my transgression.

"'5. And my transgression is the lion-faced power, which will never be hidden from thee; for because of it have I gone down.

"'6. And I alone among the invisibles, in whose regions I was, have transgressed, and have gone down into the chaos. Moreover I have transgressed, that thy commandment may be accomplished.'

"This then Pistis Sophia said. Now, therefore, let him whom his spirit urgeth to understand her words, come forward and proclaim her thought."

Martha came forward and said: "My Lord, my spirit urgeth me to proclaim the solution of that which Pistis Sophia hath spoken; thy power hath prophesied aforetime concerning it through David in the fiftieth Psalm, saying thus:

Martha interpreteth the thirteenth repentance from Psalm l.

"'1. Be gracious unto me, O God, according to thy great grace; according to the fulness of thy mercy blot out my sin.

"'2. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.

"'3. And may my sin be ever present to thee.

"'4. That thou mayest be justified in thy words and prevail when thou judgest me.'

"This is then the solution of the words which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

Jesus said unto her: "Well said, finely, Martha, blessed [one]."

CHAPTER 58

Jesus sendeth forth a light-power to help Sophia.


And Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass then, when Pistis Sophia had said these words, that the time was fulfilled that she should be led out of the chaos. And of myself, without the First Mystery, I despatched out of myself a light-power, and I sent it down to the chaos, so that it might lead Pistis Sophia forth from the deep regions of the chaos, and lead [her] to the higher regions of the chaos, until the command should come from the First Mystery that she should be led entirely forth out of the chaos. And my light-power led Pistis Sophia up to the higher regions of the chaos. It came to pass then, when the emanations of Self-willed had noticed that Pistis Sophia was led forth into the higher regions of the chaos, that they also sped after her upwards, desiring to bring her again into the lower regions of the chaos. And my light-power, which I had sent to lead up Sophia out of the chaos, shone exceedingly. It came to pass then, when the emanations of Self-willed pursued Sophia, when she had been led into the higher regions of the chaos, that she again sang praises and cried out unto me, saying:

Sophia uttereth a song of praise.

"'1. I will sing praises unto thee, O Light, for I desired to come unto thee. I will sing thee praises, O Light, for thou art my deliverer.

"'2. Leave me not in the chaos. Save me, O Light of the Height, for it is thou that I have praised.

"'3. Thou has sent me thy light through thyself and hast saved me. Thou hast led me to the higher regions of the chaos.

"'4. May the emanations of Self-willed which pursue me, sink down into the lower regions of the chaos, and let them not come to the higher regions to see me.

"'5. And may great darkness cover them and darker gloom come over them. And let them not see me in the light of thy power, which thou hast sent unto me to save me, so that they may not again get dominion over me.

"'6. And let not their resolution which they have formed, to take away my power, take effect for them. And as they have spoken against me, to take from me my light, take rather from them theirs instead of mine.

"'7. And they have proposed to take away my whole light and have not been able to take it, for thy light-power was with me.

"'8. Because they have taken counsel without thy commandment, O Light, therefore have they not been able to take away my light.

"'9. Because I have had faith in the Light, I shall not be afraid; and the Light is my deliverer and I shall not fear.'

"Now, therefore, let him whose power is exalted, speak the solution of the words which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished speaking these words unto his disciples, that Salome came forward and said: "My Lord, my power constraineth me to speak the solution of the words which Pistis Sophia hath uttered. Thy power hath prophesied aforetime through Solomon, saying:

Salome interpreteth the song of Sophia from the Odes of Solomon.

"'1. I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, for thou art my God.

"'2. Abandon me not, O Lord, for thou art my hope.

"'3. Thou hast given me thy vindication for naught, and I am saved through thee.

"'4. Let them who pursue me, fall down and let them not see me.

"'5. May a smoke-cloud cover their eyes and an air-mist darken them, and let them not see the day, so that they may not seize me.

"'6. May their resolution be impotent, and may what they concoct come upon them.

"'7. They have devised a resolution, and it hath not taken effect for them.

"'8. And they are vanquished, although they be mighty, and what they have wickedly prepared is fallen upon them.

"'9. My hope is in the Lord, and I shall not be afraid, for thou art my God, my Saviour.'"

It came to pass then, when Salome had finished saying these words, that Jesus said unto her: "Well said, Salome; and finely. This is the solution of the words which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

CHAPTER 59

The power sent by Jesus formeth a light-wreath on Sophia's head.


And Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass then, when Pistis Sophia had finished saying these words in the chaos, that I made the light-power, which I had sent to save her, become a light-wreath on her head, so that from now on the emanations of Self-willed could not have dominion over her. And when it had become a light-wreath round her head, all the evil matters in her were shaken and all were purified in her. They perished and remained in the chaos, while the emanations of Self-willed gazed upon them and rejoiced. And the purification of the pure light which was in Pistis Sophia, gave power to the light of my light-power, which had become a wreath round her head.

"It came to pass then moreover, when it surrounded the pure light in Sophia, and her pure light did not depart from the wreath of the power of the light-flame, so that the emanations of Self-willed should not rob it from it, -- when then this befell her, the pure light-power in Sophia began to sing praises. And she praised my light-power, which was a wreath round her head, and she sang praises, saying:

Sophia uttereth another song of praise.

"'1. The Light hath become a wreath round my head; and I shall not depart from it, so that the emanations of Self-willed may not rob it from me.

"'2. And though all the matters be shaken, yet shall I not be shaken.

"'3. And though all my matters perish and remain in the chaos, -- those which the emanations of Self-willed see, -- yet shall I not perish.

"'4. For the Light is with me, and I myself am with the Light.'

"These words then Pistis Sophia uttered. Now, therefore, let him who understandeth the thought of these words, come forward and proclaim their solution."

Mary, his mother, asketh and receiveth permission to speak.

Then Mary, the mother of Jesus, came forward and said: "My son according to the world, my God and Saviour according to the height, bid me proclaim the solution of the words which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

And Jesus answered and said: "Thou also, Mary, hast received form which is in Barbēlō, according to matter, and hast received likeness which is in the Virgin of Light, according to light, thou and the other Mary, the blessed one; and on thy account the darkness hath arisen, and moreover out of thee did come forth the material body in which I am, which I have purified and refined, -- now, therefore, I bid thee proclaim the solution of the words which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

And Mary, the mother of Jesus, answered and said: "My Lord, thy light-power hath prophesied aforetime concerning these words through Solomon in the nineteenth Ode and said:

Mary, his mother, interpreteth the song of Sophia from the xixth ode of Solomon.

"'1. The Lord is on my head as a wreath, and I shall not depart from him.

"'2. The wreath in truth is woven for me; and it hath caused thy twigs to sprout in me.

"'3. For it is not like unto a wreath withered that sprouteth not. But thou art alive on my head and thou hast sprouted upon me.

"'4. Thy fruits are full and perfect, filled with thy salvation.'"

Jesus commendeth his mother.

It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard his. mother Mary say these words, that he said unto her: "Well said, finely. Amēn, amēn, I say unto thee: They shall proclaim thee blessed from one end of the earth to the other; for the pledge of the First Mystery hath taken up its abode with thee, and through that pledge shall all from the earth and all from the height be saved, and that pledge is the beginning and the end."

CHAPTER 60

The commandment of the First Mystery is fulfilled for taking Sophia entirely out of the chaos.


And Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass when Pistis Sophia had uttered the thirteenth repentance, -- in that hour was fulfilled the commandment of all the tribulations which were decreed for Pistis Sophia for the fulfilment of the First Mystery, which was from the beginning, and the time had come to save her out of the chaos and lead her out from all the darknesses. For her repentance was accepted from her through the First Mystery; and that mystery sent me a great light-power out of the height, that I might help Pistis Sophia and lead her up out of the chaos.

The First Mystery and Jesus sent forth two light-powers to help Sophia.

So I looked towards the æons into the height and saw that light-power which the First Mystery had sent me, that I might save Pistis Sophia out of the chaos. It came to pass, therefore, when I had seen it, coming forth from the æons and hastening down to me, -- I was above the chaos, -- that another light-power went forth out of me, that it too might help Pistis Sophia. And the light-power which had come from the height through the First Mystery, came down upon the light-power which had gone out of me; and they met together and became a great stream of light."

When then Jesus had said this unto his disciples, he said: "Understand ye in what manner I discourse with you?"

Mary Magdalene interpreteth the mystery from Psalm lxxxiv.

Mary started forward again and said: "My Lord, I understand what thou sayest. Concerning the solution of this word thy light-power hath prophesied aforetime through David in the eighty-fourth Psalm, saying:

"'10. Grace and truth met together, and righteousness and peace kissed each other.

"'11. Truth sprouted forth out of the earth, and righteousness looked down from heaven.'

"'Grace' then is the light-power which hath come down through the First Mystery; for the First Mystery hath hearkened unto Pistis Sophia and hath had mercy on her in all her tribulations. 'Truth' on the other hand is the power which hath gone forth out of thee, for that thou hast fulfilled the truth, in order to save her out of the chaos. And 'righteousness' again is the power which hath come forth through the First Mystery, which will guide Pistis Sophia. And 'peace' again is the power which hath gone forth out of thee, so that it should enter into the emanations of Self-willed and take from them the lights which they have taken away from Pistis Sophia, that is, so that thou mayest gather them together into Pistis Sophia and make them at peace with her power. 'Truth' on the other hand is the power which went forth out of thee, when thou wast in the lower regions of the chaos. For this cause thy power hath said through David

'Truth sprouted out of the earth,' because thou wert in the lower regions of the chaos. 'Righteousness' on the other hand which hath 'looked down from heaven,' -- it is the power which hath come down from the height through the First Mystery and hath entered into Pistis Sophia."

CHAPTER 61

It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard these words, that he said: "Well said, Mary, blessed one, who shalt inherit the whole Light-kingdom."

Thereon Mary, the mother of Jesus, also came forward and said: "My Lord and my Saviour, give commandment unto me also that I repeat this word."

Jesus said: "Whose spirit is understanding, him I do not prevent, but I urge him on still more to speak the thought which hath moved him. Now, therefore, Mary, my mother according to matter, thou in whom I have sojourned, I bid thee that thou also speak the thought of the discourse."

Mary, the mother, further interpreteth the scripture.

And Mary answered and said: "My Lord, concerning the word which thy power hath prophesied through David: 'Grace and truth met together, righteousness and peace kissed each other. Truth sprouted forth out of the earth, and righteousness looked down from heaven,' -- thus hath thy power prophesied this word aforetime about thee.

The story of the phantom spirit.

"When thou wert little, before the spirit had come upon thee, whilst thou wert in a vineyard with Joseph, the spirit came out of the height and came to me in my house, like unto thee; and I had not known him, but I thought that thou wast he. And the spirit said unto me: Where is Jesus, my brother, that I meet with him?' And when he had said this unto me, I was at a loss and thought it was a phantom to try me. So I seized him and bound him to the foot of the bed in my house, until I went forth to you, to thee and Joseph in the field, and I found you on the vineyard, Joseph propping up the vineyard. It came to pass, therefore, when thou didst hear me speak the word unto Joseph, that thou didst understand the word, wert joyful and saidest: 'Where is he, that I may see him; else I await him in this place.' And it came to pass, when Joseph had heard thee say these words, that he was startled. And we went down together, entered the house and found the spirit bound to the bed. And we looked on thee and him and found thee like unto him. And he who was bound to the bed was unloosed; he took thee in his arms and kissed thee, and thou also didst kiss him. Ye became one.

Of the spiritual and material bodies of Jesus.

"This then is the word and its solution. 'Grace' is the spirit which hath come down out of the height through the First Mystery, for it hath had mercy on the race of men and sent its spirit that he should forgive the sins of the whole world, and they should receive the mysteries and inherit the Light-kingdom. 'Truth' on the other hand is the power which hath sojourned with me. When it had come forth out of Barbēlō, it became material body for thee, and hath made proclamation concerning the region of Truth. 'Righteousness' is thy spirit, who hath brought the mysteries out of the height to give them to the race of men. 'Peace' on the other hand is the power which hath sojourned in thy material body according to the world, which hath baptized the race of men, until it should make it stranger unto sin and make it at peace with thy spirit, so that they may be at peace with the emanations of the Light; that is, 'Grace and truth kissed each other.' As it saith: 'Truth sprouted forth out of the earth,' -- 'truth' is thy material body which sprouted forth out of me according to the world of men, and hath made proclamation concerning the region of Truth. And again as it saith: 'Righteousness [looked down] from heaven' -- 'righteousness' is the power which looked out of the height, which will give the mysteries of the Light to the race of men, so that they will become righteous and good, and inherit the Light-kingdom."

It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard these words which his mother Mary spake, that he said: "Well said, finely, Mary."

CHAPTER 62

The other Mary came forward and said: "My Lord, bear with me and be not wroth with me. Yea, from the moment when thy mother spake with thee concerning the solution of these words, my power disquieted me to come forward and like-wise to speak the solution of these words."

Jesus said unto her: "I bid thee speak their solution."

Of the spiritual and material bodies of Jesus.

The other Mary further interpreteth the same scripture from the baptism, of Jesus.

Mary said: "My Lord, 'Grace and truth met together,' -- 'grace' then is the spirit who hath come upon thee, when thou didst receive the baptism from John. 'Grace' then is the godly spirit who hath come upon thee; he hath had mercy on the race of men, hath come down and hath met with the power of Sabaōth, the Good which is in thee and which hath made proclamation concerning the regions of Truth. It hath said again: 'Righteousness and peace kissed each other,' -- 'righteousness' then is the spirit of the Light, which did come upon thee and hath brought the mysteries of the height, to give them unto the race of men. 'Peace' on the other hand is the power of Sabaōth, the Good, which is in thee, -- he who hath baptized and hath forgiven the race of men, -- and it hath made them at peace with the sons of the Light. And moreover as thy power hath said through David: 'Truth sprouted forth out of the earth,' -- that is the power of Sabaōth, the Good, which sprouted forth out of Mary, thy mother, the dweller on earth. 'Righteousness,' which 'looked down from heaven,' on the other hand is the spirit in the height who hath brought all mysteries of the height and given them to the race of men; and they have become righteous and good, and have inherited the Light-kingdom."

And it came to pass, when Jesus had heard Mary speak these words, that he said: "Well said, Mary, inheritress of the Light."

Mary, the mother, again further interpreteth the same scripture from the meeting of herself with Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptizer.

Of the incarnation of Jesus.

And Mary, the mother of Jesus, again came forward, fell down at his feet, kissed them and said: "My Lord, my son and my Saviour, be not wroth with me, but pardon me, that I may once more speak the solution of these words. 'Grace and truth met together,' -- it is I, Mary, thy mother, and Elizabeth, mother of John, whom I have met. 'Grace' then is the power of Sabaōth in me, which went forth out of me, which thou art. Thou hast had mercy on the whole race of men. 'Truth' on the other hand is the power in Elizabeth, which is John, who did come and hath made proclamation concerning the way of Truth, which thou art, -- who hath made proclamation before thee. And again, 'Grace and truth met together,' -- that is thou, my Lord, thou who didst meet John on the day when thou hadst to receive the baptism. And again thou and John are 'Righteousness and peace kissed each other.' -- 'Truth hath sprouted forth out of the earth, and righteousness looked down from heaven,' -- this is, during the time when thou didst minister unto thyself, thou didst have the form of Gabriēl, thou didst look down upon me from heaven and speak with me. And when thou hadst spoken with me, thou didst sprout up in me, -- that is the 'truth,' that is the power of Sabaōth, the Good, which is in thy material body, that is the 'truth' which 'sprouted up out of the earth.'"

It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard his mother Mary speak these words, that he said: "Well said, and finely. This is the solution of all the words concerning which my light-power hath prophesied aforetime through the prophet David."

THE NOTE OF A SCRIBE

A note by a later hand, copied from another scripture.


(Now these are the names which I will give from the Boundless onward. Write them with a sign, that the Sons of God may be revealed from here on.

This is the name of the Immortal: aaa, ōōō; and this is the name of the Voice, for the sake of which the Perfect Man hath set himself in motion: iii. And these are the interpretations of the names of these mysteries: the first [name], which is aaa, its interpretation is fff; the second, which is mmm or ōōō, its interpretation is aaa; the third, which is ps ps ps, its interpretation is ooo; the fourth, which is fff, its interpretation is nnn; the fifth, which is ddd, its interpretation is aaa. He on the throne is aaa. This is the interpretation of the second: aaaa, aaaa, aaaa; this is the interpretation of the whole name.)

Re: Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Miscellany, translated by G.R.S

PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 7:02 pm
by admin
THE SECOND BOOK OF PISTIS SOPHIA

CHAPTER 63


JOHN also came forward and said: "O Lord, bid me also speak the solution of the words which thy light-power hath prophesied aforetime through David."

And Jesus answered and said unto John: "To thee too, John, I give commandment to speak the solution of the words which my light-power hath prophesied through David:

"'10. Grace and truth met together, and righteousness and peace kissed each other.

"'11. Truth hath sprouted forth out of the earth, and righteousness looked down from heaven.'"

John further interpreteth the same scripture.

Of Sabaōth, Barbēlō, Yabraōth and the light-vesture.

And John answered and said: "This is the word which thou hast said unto us aforetime: 'I have come out of the Height and entered into Sabaōth, the Good, and embraced the light-power in him.' Now, therefore, 'Grace and truth' which 'met together,' -- thou art 'grace,' thou who art sent out of the regions of the Height through thy Father, the First Mystery which looketh within, in that he hath sent thee, that thou mayest have mercy on the whole world. 'Truth' on the other hand is the power of Sabaōth, the Good, which bound itself in thee and which thou hast cast forth to the Left, -- thou the First Mystery which looketh without. And the little Sabaōth, the Good, took it and cast it forth into the matter of Barbēlō, and he made proclamation concerning the regions of Truth to all the regions of those of the Left. That matter of Barbēlō then it is which is body for thee today.

"And 'righteousness and peace' which 'kissed each other,' -- 'righteousness' then art thou who didst bring all the mysteries through thy Father, the First Mystery which looketh within, and hast baptized this power of Sabaōth, the Good; and thou didst go to the region of the rulers and didst give unto them the mysteries of the Height; they became righteous and good.

"'Peace' on the other hand is the power of Sabaōth, that is thy soul, which did enter into the matter of Barbēlō, and all the rulers of the six æons of Yabraōth have made peace with the mystery of the Light.

"And 'truth' which 'sprouted forth out of the earth,' -- it is the power of Sabaōth, the Good, which came out of the region of the Right, which lieth outside the Treasury of the Light, and which hath come into the region of those of the Left; it hath entered into the matter of Barbēlō, and hath made proclamation concerning the mysteries of the region of Truth.

"'Righteousness' on the other hand which 'looked down from heaven,' is thou the First Mystery which looketh down without, as thou didst come out of the spaces of the Height with the mysteries of the Light-kingdom; and thou didst come down upon the light-vesture which thou didst receive from the hand of Barbēlō, which [vesture] is Jesus, our Saviour, in that thou didst come down upon him as a dove."

It came to pass then, when John had brought forward these words, that the First Mystery which looketh without, said unto him: "Well said, John, beloved brother."

CHAPTER 64

Gabriēl and Michaēl are summoned to help Pistis Sophia.


The First Mystery again continued and said: "It came to pass, therefore, that the power which had come out of the Height, that is I, in that my Father sent me to save Pistis Sophia out of the chaos, [that] I, therefore, and also the power which did go from me, and the soul which I had received from Sabaōth, the Good, -- they drew towards one another and become a single light-stream, which shone very exceedingly. I called down Gabriēl and Michaēl out of the æons, at the command of my Father, the First Mystery which looketh within, and I gave unto them the light-stream and let them go down into the chaos to help Pistis Sophia and to take the light-powers, which the emanations of Self-willed had taken from her, from them and give them to Pistis Sophia.

"And straightway, when they had brought down the light-stream into the chaos, it shone most exceedingly in the whole of the chaos, and spread itself over all their regions. And when the emanations of Self-willed had seen the great light of that stream, they were terror-stricken one with the other. And that stream drew forth out of them all the light-powers which they had taken from Pistis Sophia, and the emanations of Self-willed could not dare to lay hold of that light-stream in the dark chaos; nor could they lay hold of it with the art of Self-willed, who ruleth over the emanations.

The light-stream restoreth the light-powers to Sophia.

"And Gabriēl and Michaēl led the light-stream over the body of the matter of Pistis Sophia and poured into her all the light-powers which they had taken from her. And the body of her matter became shining throughout, and all the powers also in her, whose light they had taken away, took light and ceased to lack their light, for they got their light which had been taken from them, because the light was given them through me. And Michaēl and Gabriēl, who ministered and had brought the light-stream into the chaos, will give them the mysteries of the Light; it is they to whom the light-stream was entrusted, which I have given unto them and brought into the chaos. And Michaēl and Gabriēl have taken no light for themselves from the lights of Sophia, which they had taken from the emanations of Self-willed.

"It came to pass then, when the light-stream had ingathered into Pistis Sophia all her light-powers, which it had taken from the emanations of Self-willed, that she became shining throughout; and the light-powers also in Pistis Sophia, which the emanations of Self-willed had not taken, became joyful again and filled themselves with light. And the lights which were poured into Pistis Sophia, quickened the body of her matter, in which no light was present, and which was on the point of perishing or perished. And they raised up all her powers which were on the point of being dissolved. And they took unto themselves a light-power and became again as they were before, and they increased again in their sense of the Light. And all the light-powers of Sophia knew themselves mutually through my light-stream and were saved through the light of that stream.

The light-stream, having accomplished its purpose, departeth from Sophia.

And my light-stream, when it had taken away the lights from the emanations of Self-willed, which they had taken away from Pistis Sophia, poured them into Pistis Sophia, and turned itself about and went up out of the chaos."

When then the First Mystery said this to the disciples, that it had befallen Pistis Sophia in the chaos, he answered and said unto them: "Understand ye in what manner I discourse with you?"

CHAPTER 65

Peter came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning the solution of the words which thou hast spoken, thus hath thy light-power prophesied aforetime through Solomon in his Odes:

Peter interpreteth the narrative from the Odes of Solomon.

"'1. A stream came forth and became a great wide flood.

"'2. It tore away all to itself and turned itself against the temple.

"'3. Dams and buildings could not hold it, nor could the art of them who hold the waters.

"'4. It was led over the whole land and laid hold of all.

"'5. They who were on the dry sand, drank; their thirst was quieted and quenched, when the draught from the hand of the Highest was given.

"'6. Blessed are the ministers of that draught, to whom the water of the Lord is entrusted.

"'7. They have refreshed parched lips; they whose power was taken away, have gotten joy of heart and they have laid hold of souls, having poured in the breath, so that they should not die.

"'8. They have raised up limbs which were fallen; they have given power to their openness and light unto their eyes.

"'9. For they all have known themselves in the Lord and are saved through the water of Life eternal.'

"Hearken, therefore, my Lord, that I may set forth the word in openness. As thy power hath prophesied through Solomon: 'A stream came forth and became a great wide flood,' -- this is: The light-stream hath spread itself out in the chaos over all the regions of the emanations of Self-willed.

"And again the word which thy power hath spoken through Solomon: 'It tore away all to itself and led it over the temple,' -- that is: It drew all the light-powers out of the emanations of Self-willed, which they had taken from Pistis Sophia, and poured them anew into Pistis Sophia.

"And again the word thy power hath spoken: 'The dams and buildings could not hold it,' -- that is: The emanations of Self-willed could not hold the light-stream within the walls of the darkness of the chaos.

"And again the word which it hath spoken: It was led over the whole land and filled all,' -- that is: When Gabriēl and Michaēl had led it over the body of Pistis Sophia, they poured into her all the lights which the emanations of Self-willed had taken from her, and the body of her matter shone.

"And the word which it hath spoken: 'They who were in the dry sand, drank,' -- that is: All in Pistis Sophia whose light had before been taken away, got light.

"And the word which it hath spoken: 'Their thirst was quieted and quenched,' -- that is: Her powers ceased to lack the light, because their light, which had been taken from them, was given them [again].

"And again as thy power hath spoken: 'The draught through the Highest was given them,' -- that is: The light was given unto them through the light-stream, which came forth out of thee, the First Mystery."

"And as thy power hath spoken: 'Blessed are the ministers of that draught,' -- this is the word which thou hast spoken: 'Michaēl and Gabriēl, who have ministered, have brought the light-stream into the chaos and also led it forth again. They will give them the mysteries of the Light of the Height, they to whom the light-stream is entrusted.'

"And again as thy power hath spoken: 'They have refreshed parched lips,' -- that is: Gabriēl and Michaēl have not taken for themselves from the lights of Pistis Sophia, which they had spoiled from the emanations of Self-willed, but they have poured them into Pistis Sophia.

"And again the word which it hath spoken:

They whose power was taken away, have gotten joy of heart,' -- that is: All the other powers of Pistis Sophia, which the emanations of Self-willed have not taken, are become exceedingly merry and have filled themselves with light from their light-fellows, for these have poured it into them.

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'They have quickened souls, having poured in the breath, so that they should not die,' -- that is: When they had poured the lights into Pistis Sophia, they quickened the body of her matter, from which they had before taken its lights, and which was on the point of perishing.

"And again the word which thy power hath spoken: 'They have raised up limbs which were fallen, or that they should not fall,' -- that is: When they poured into her her lights, they raised up all her powers which were on the point of being dissolved.

"And again as thy light-power hath spoken: They have received again their light and have become as they were before '; and again the word which it hath spoken: 'They have given light unto their eyes,' -- that is: They have received sense in the Light and known the light-stream, that it belongeth to the Height.

"And again the word which it hath spoken: 'They all have known themselves in the Lord,' -- that is: All the powers of Pistis Sophia have known one another through the light-stream.

"And again the word which it hath spoken: 'They are saved through water of Life eternal,' -- that is: They are saved through the whole light-stream.

"And again the word which it hath spoken: 'The light-stream tore all to itself and drew it over the temple,' -- that is: When the light-stream had taken all the light-powers of Pistis Sophia and had spoiled them from the emanations of Self-willed, it poured them into Pistis Sophia and turned itself about and went out of the chaos and came over thee, -- thou who art the temple.

"This is the solution of all the words which thy light-power hath spoken through the Ode of Solomon."

It came to pass then, when the First Mystery had heard Peter speak these words, that he said unto him: "Well said, blessed Peter. This is the solution of the words which have been spoken."

CHAPTER 66

The emanations of Sell-willed cry aloud to him for help.


And the First Mystery continued again in the discourse and said: "It came to pass then, before I had led forth Pistis Sophia out of the chaos, because it was not yet commanded me through my Father, the First Mystery which looketh within, -- at that time then, after the emanations of Self-willed had perceived that my light-stream had taken from them the light-powers which they had taken from Pistis Sophia, and had poured them into Pistis Sophia, and when they again had seen Pistis Sophia, that she shone as she had done from the beginning, that they were enraged against Pistis Sophia and cried out again to their Self-willed, that he should come and help them, so that they might take away the powers in Pistis Sophia anew.

He sendeth forth another more violent power like unto a flying arrow.

The fashioning of the serpent-, basilisk- and dragon-powers.

"And Self-willed sent out of the height, out of the thirteenth æon, and sent another great light-power. It came down into the chaos as a flying arrow, that he might help his emanations, so that they might take away the lights from Pistis Sophia anew. And when that light-power had come down, the emanations of Self-willed which were in the chaos and oppressed Pistis Sophia, took great courage and again pursued Pistis Sophia with great terror and great alarm. And some of the emanations of Self-willed oppressed her. One of them changed itself into the form of a great serpent; another again changed itself also into the form of a seven-headed basilisk; another again changed itself into the form of a dragon. And moreover the first power of Self-willed, the lion-faced, and all his other very numerous emanations, they came together and oppressed Pistis Sophia and led her again into the lower regions of the chaos and alarmed her again exceedingly.

The demon-power of Adamas dasheth Sophia down.

"It came to pass then that there looked down out of the twelve æons, Adamas, the Tyrant, who also was wroth with Pistis Sophia, because she desired to go to the Light of lights, which was above them all; therefore was he wroth with her. It came to pass then, when Adamas, the Tyrant, had looked down out of the twelve æons, that he saw the emanations of Self-willed oppressing Pistis Sophia, until they should take from her all her lights. It came to pass then, when the power of Adamas had come down into the chaos unto all the emanations of Self-willed, -- it came to pass then, when that demon came down into the chaos, that it dashed down Pistis Sophia. And the lion-faced power and the serpent-form and the basilisk-form and the dragon-form and all the other very numerous emanations of Self-willed surrounded Pistis Sophia all together, desiring to take from her anew her powers in her, and they oppressed Pistis Sophia exceedingly and threatened her. It came to pass then, when they oppressed her and alarmed her exceedingly, that she cried again to the Light and sang praises, saying:

"'1. O Light, it is thou who hast helped me; let thy light come over me.

Sophia again crieth to the Light.

"'2. For thou art my protector, and I come hence unto thee, O Light, having faith in thee, O Light.

"'3. For thou art my saviour from the emanations of Self-willed and of Adamas, the Tyrant, and thou shalt save me from all his violent threats.'

Gabriēl and Michaēl and the light-stream again go to her aid.

"And when Pistis Sophia had said this, then at the commandment of my Father, the First Mystery which looketh within, I sent again Gabriēl and Michaēl and the great light-stream, that they should help Pistis Sophia. And I gave commandment unto Gabriēl and Michaēl to bear Pistis Sophia in their hands, so that her feet should not touch the darkness below; and I gave them commandment moreover to guide her in the regions of the chaos, out of which she was to be led.

"It came to pass then, when the angels had come down into the chaos, they and the light-stream, and moreover [when] all the emanations of Self-willed and the emanations of Adamas had seen the light-stream, how it shone very exceedingly and there was no measure for the light about it, that they became terror-stricken and quitted Pistis Sophia. And the great light-stream surrounded Pistis Sophia on all sides of her, on her left and on her right and on all her sides, and it became a light-wreath round her head.

"It came to pass then, when the light-stream had surrounded Pistis Sophia, that she took great courage, and it ceased not to surround her on all her sides; and she was no longer in fear of the emanations of Self-willed which are in the chaos, nor was she any more in fear of the other new power of Self-willed which he had cast down into the chaos as a flying arrow, nor did she any more tremble at the demon power of Adamas which had come out of the æons.

The transfiguration of Sophia.

"And moreover by commandment of myself, the First Mystery which looketh without, the light-stream which surrounded Pistis Sophia on all her sides, shone most exceedingly, and Pistis Sophia abode in the midst of the light, a great light being on her left and on her right, and on all her sides, forming a wreath round her head. And all the emanations of Self-willed [could] not change their face again, nor could they bear the shock of the great light of the stream, which was a wreath round her head. And all the emanations of Self-willed, -- many of them fell at her right, because she shone most exceedingly, and many others fell at her left, and were not able at all to draw nigh unto Pistis Sophia because of the great light; but they fell all one on another, or they all came near one another, and they could not inflict any ill on Pistis Sophia, because she had trusted in the Light.

Jesus, the First Mystery looking without, causeth Sophia to triumph.

"And at the commandment of my Father, the First Mystery which looketh within, I myself went down into the chaos, shining most exceedingly, and approached the lion-faced power, which shone exceedingly, and took its whole light in it and held fast all the emanations of Self-willed, so that from now on they went not into their region, that is the thirteenth æon. And I took away the power of all the emanations of Self-willed, and they all fell down in the chaos powerless. And I led forth Pistis Sophia, she being on the right of Gabriēl and Michaēl. And the great light-stream entered again into her. And Pistis Sophia beheld with her eyes her foes, that I had taken their light-power from them. And I led Pistis Sophia forth from the chaos, she treading under foot the serpent-faced emanation of Self-willed, and moreover treading under foot the seven-faced-basilisk emanation, and treading under foot the lion- and dragon-faced power. I made Pistis Sophia continue to stand upon the seven-headed-basilisk emanation of Self-willed; and it was more mighty than them all in its evil doings. And I, the First Mystery, stood by it and took all the powers in it, and made to perish its whole matter, so that no seed should arise from it from now on."

CHAPTER 67

And when the First Mystery said this unto his disciples, he answered and said: "Understand ye in what manner I discourse with you?"

James came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning then the solution of the words which thou hast said, thus hath thy light-power prophesied thereon aforetime through David in the ninetieth Psalm:

James interpreteth the narrative from Psalm xc.

"'1. Whoso then dwelleth under the help of the Most High, will abide under the shadow of the God of heaven.

"'2. He will say unto the Lord: Thou art my succour and my place of refuge, my God, in whom I trust.

"'3. For he will save me out of the snare of the hunters and from mighty word.

"'4. He will shade thee with his breast, and thou shalt have trust beneath his wings; his truth shall surround thee as a shield.

"'5. Thou wilt not be afraid of terror by night nor of an arrow which flieth by day,

"'6. Of a thing which slinketh in the darkness, of a mischance and a demon at mid-day.

"'7. A thousand will fall on thy left, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but they shall not come nigh thee.

"'8. Nay rather with thine eyes wilt thou behold, thou wilt see the requital of the sinners.

"'9. For thou, O Lord, art my hope. Thou hast established the Most High for thyself as refuge.

"'10. Harm will not come nigh unto thee; scourge will not come nigh thy dwelling.

"'11. For he will give commandment to his angels on thy behalf that they guard thee on all thy ways.

"'12. And bear thee on their hands, that thou mayest never strike with thy foot against a stone.

"'13. Thou wilt stride over the serpent and basilisk and tread on lion and dragon.

"'14. Because he hath trusted in me, I will save him; I will overshadow him, because he hath known my name.

"'15. He will cry unto me and I shall hearken unto him; I am at his side in his tribulation and will save him and honour him,

"'16. And increase him with many days and show him my salvation.'

"This, my Lord, is the solution of the words which thou hast said. Hearken therefore, that I may say it in openness.

"The word then which thy power hath spoken through David: 'Whoso then dwelleth under the help of the Most High, will abide under the shadow of the God of heaven,' -- that is: When Sophia had trusted in the Light, she abode under the light of the light-stream, which through thee came out of the Height.

"And the word which thy power hath spoken through David: 'I will say unto the Lord: Thou art my succour and my refuge, my God, in whom I trust,' -- it is the word with which Pistis Sophia hath sung praises: 'Thou art my succour, and I come unto thee.'

"And again the word which thy power hath spoken: 'My God, in whom I trust, thou wilt save me out of the snare of the hunters and from mighty word,' -- it is what Pistis Sophia hath said: 'O Light, I have faith in thee, for thou wilt save me from the emanations of Self-willed and from those of Adamas, the Tyrant, and thou wilt save me also from all their mighty threats.'

"And again the word which thy power hath spoken through David: 'He will shade thee with his breast, and thou wilt have trust beneath his wings,' -- that is: Pistis Sophia hath been in the light of the light-stream, which hath come from thee, and hath continued in firm trust in the light, that on her left and that on her right, which are the wings of the light-stream.

"And the word which thy light-power hath prophesied through David: 'Truth will surround thee as a shield,' -- it is the light of the light-stream which hath surrounded Pistis Sophia on all her sides as a shield.

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'He will not be afraid of terror by night,' -- that is: Pistis Sophia hath not been afraid of the terrors and alarms into which she had been planted in the chaos, which is the 'night.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: He will not be afraid of an arrow which flieth by day,' -- that is: Pistis Sophia hath not been afraid of the power which Self-willed hath sent last of all out of the height, and which hath come into the chaos as it were a flying arrow. Thy light-power therefore hath said: 'Thou wilt not be afraid of an arrow which flieth by day,' for that power hath come out of the thirteenth æon, it being that which is lord over the twelve æons, and which giveth light unto all the æons; wherefor hath he [David] said 'day.'

"And again the word which thy power hath spoken: 'He will not be afraid of a thing which slinketh in the darkness,' -- that is: Sophia hath not been afraid of the lion-faced emanation, which caused fear for Pistis Sophia in the chaos, which is the 'darkness.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'He will not be afraid of a mischance and of a demon at mid-day,' -- that is: Pistis Sophia hath not been afraid of the demon emanation of Tyrant Adamas, which hath cast Pistis Sophia to the ground in a great mischance, and which hath come forth out of Adamas out of the twelfth æon; wherefor then hath thy power said: 'He will not be afraid of the demon mischance at mid-day,' -- 'mid-day,' because it hath come out of the twelve æons, which is 'mid-day'; and again ['night,' because] it hath come out of the chaos, which is the 'night,' and because it hath come out of the twelfth æon which is in the midst between both; therefore hath thy light-power said 'mid-day,' because the twelve æons lie in the midst between the thirteenth æon and the chaos.

"And again the word which thy light-power hath spoken through David: 'A thousand will fall on his left, and ten thousand at his right hand, but they shall not come nigh him,' -- that is: When the emanations of Self-willed, which are exceedingly numerous, could not bear the great light of the light-stream, many of them fell on the left hand of Pistis Sophia and many at her right, and they could not come nigh her, to do her [harm].

"And the word which thy light-power hath spoken through David: 'Nay rather with thine eyes wilt thou behold, and wilt see the requital of the sinners, for thou, O Lord, art my hope,' -- that is the word: Pistis Sophia hath with her eyes beheld her foes, that is the emanations of Self-willed, who all have fallen one on another; not only hath she with her eyes beheld this, but thou also thyself, my Lord, the First Mystery, hast taken the light-power which is in the lion-faced power, and hast moreover taken the power of all the emanations of Self-willed and moreover thou hast imprisoned them in that chaos, [so that] from henceforth they have not gone forth to their own region. Therefore then hath Pistis Sophia with her eyes beheld her foes, that is the emanations of Self-willed, in all which David hath prophesied concerning Pistis Sophia, saying: 'Nay rather with thine eyes wilt thou behold, and thou wilt see the requital of the sinners.' Not only hath she with her eyes beheld, how they fall one on another in the chaos, but she hath also seen the requital with which it was requited them. Just as the emanations of Self-willed have thought to take away the light of Sophia from her, so hast thou requited them and repaid them in full, and hast taken the light-power in them instead of the lights of Sophia, who hath had faith in the Light of the Height.

"And as thy light-power hath spoken through David: 'Thou hast established the Most High for thyself as refuge; harm will not come nigh unto thee, scourge will not come nigh thy dwelling,' -- that is: When Pistis Sophia had had faith in the Light and was afflicted, she sang praises unto it, and the emanations of Self-willed could not inflict on her any harm, nor could they [injure] her, nor could they at all come nigh her.

"And the word which thy light-power hath spoken through David: 'He will give commandment to his angels on thy behalf, that they guard thee on all thy ways and bear thee on their hands, that thou mayest never strike with thy foot against a stone,' -- it is again thy word: Thou hast given commandment to Gabriēl and Michaēl, that they guide Pistis Sophia in all the regions of the chaos, until they lead her forth and that they uplift her on their hands, so that her feet do not touch the darkness beneath, and [that] on the other hand they of the lower darkness do not seize hold of her.

"And the word which thy light-power hath spoken through David: 'Thou wilt tread on serpent and basilisk and tread on lion and dragon; because he hath trusted in me, I will save him and I will overshadow him, because he hath known my name,' -- that is the word: When Pistis Sophia was on the point of coming forth out of the chaos, she trod on the emanations of Self-willed, and she trod on the serpent-faced ones and on the basilisk-faced ones, which have seven heads; and she trod on the lion-faced power and on the dragon-faced one. Because she had had faith in the Light, is she saved from all of them.

"This, my Lord, is the solution of the words which thou hast spoken."

CHAPTER 68

It came to pass then, when the First Mystery had heard these words, that he said: "Well said, James, beloved one."

And the First Mystery continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass, when I had led Pistis Sophia out of the chaos, that she cried out again and said:

Sophia singeth a song of praise.

"'1. I am saved out of the chaos and loosed from the bonds of the darkness. I am come unto thee, O Light.

"'2. For thou wert light on all sides of me, saving me and helping me.

"'3. And the emanations of Self-willed, which fought against me, thou hast hindered through thy light, and they could not come nigh me; for thy light was with me and saved me through thy light-stream.

"'4. Because in sooth the emanations of Self-willed constrained me, they took from me my power and cast me out into the chaos with no light in me. So I became as heavy-weighing matter in comparison with them.

"'5. And thereafter came a light-stream unto me through thee which saved me; it shone on my left and on my right and surrounded me on all sides of me, so that no part of me was without light.

"'6. And thou hast covered me with the light of thy stream and purged from me all my evil matters; and I shall be relieved of all my matters because of thy light.

"'7. And it is thy light-stream which hath raised me up and taken from me the emanations of Self-willed which constrained me.

"'8. And I have become sure-trusting in thy light and purified light in thy stream.

"'9. And the emanations of Self-willed which constrained me, have withdrawn themselves from me; and I shone in thy great power, for thou savest for ever.'

"This is the repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, when she came forth out of the chaos and was freed from the bonds of the chaos. Now, therefore, who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

CHAPTER 69

It came to pass then, when the First Mystery had finished saying these words unto his disciples, that Thomas came forward, and said: "My Lord, my light-dweller hath ears and my mind hath understood the words which thou hast said. Now, therefore, give commandment unto me to set forth clearly the solution of the words."

And the First Mystery answered and said unto Thomas: "I give thee commandment to set forth the solution of the song which Pistis Sophia sang unto me."

Thomas interpreteth the song of Sophia from the Odes of Solomon.

Thomas answered and said: "My Lord, concerning the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, because she was saved out of the chaos, thy light-power prophesied aforetime thereon through Solomon, the son of David, in his Odes:

"'1. I am saved from the bonds and am fled unto thee, O Lord.

"'2. For thou hast been on my right hand, saving me and helping me.

"'3. Thou hast hindered my adversaries and they have not been revealed, because thy face was with me, saving me in thy grace.

"'4. I was despised in the sight of many and cast out; I have become as lead in their sight.

"'5. Through thee I have gotten a power which helped me; for thou hast set lamps on my right and on my left, so that no side of me may be without light.

"'6. Thou hast overshadowed me with the shadow of thy grace, and I was relieved of the coats of skin.

"'7. It is thy right hand which hath raised me up, and thon hast taken the sickness from me.

"'8. I have become powerful in thy truth and purified in thy righteousness.

"'9. My adversaries have withdrawn themselves from me, and I am justified by thy goodness, for thy rest endureth unto all eternity.'

"This then, my Lord, is the solution of the repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, when she was saved out of the chaos. Hearken, therefore, that I may say it in openness.

"The word then which thy light-power hath spoken through Solomon: 'I am saved from the bonds and am fled unto thee, O Lord,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'I am loosed from the bonds of the darkness and am come unto thee, O Light.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'Thou wert on my right hand, saving and helping me,' -- it is again the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'Thou art become a light on all sides of me, [saving me] and helping me.'

"And the word which thy light-power hath spoken: 'Thou hast hindered my adversaries and they have not been revealed,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'And the emanations of Self-willed which fought against me, thou hast hindered through thy light, and they could not come nigh me.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'Thy face was with me, saving me in thy grace,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'Thy light was with me, saving me in thy light-stream.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'I was despised in the sight of many and cast out,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken:

The emanations of Self-willed constrained me and took my power from me, and I have been despised before them and cast out into the chaos, with no light in me.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken:

I have become as lead in their sight,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'When they had taken my light from me, I became as heavy-weighing matter before them.'

"And moreover the word which thy power hath spoken: 'Through thee I have gotten a power for me which helped me,' -- it is again the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'And thereafter came a light-power unto me through thee which saved me.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'Thou hast set lamps on my right and on my left, so that no side of me may be without light,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken:

'Thy power shone on my right and on my left and surrounded me on all sides of me, so that no part of me was without light.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken:

'Thou hast overshadowed me with the shadow of thy grace,' -- it is again the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'And thou hast covered me with the light of the stream.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: I was relieved of the coats of skin,' -- it is again the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'And they have purified me of all my evil matters, and I raised myself above them in thy light.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken through Solomon: 'It is thy right hand which hath raised me up, and hath taken the sickness from me,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'And it is thy light-stream which hath raised me up in thy light and hath taken from me the emanations of Self-willed which constrained me.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'I have become powerful in thy truth and purified in thy righteousness,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'I have become powerful in thy light and purified light in thy stream.'

And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'My adversaries have withdrawn themselves from me,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'The emanations of Self-willed which constrained me, have withdrawn themselves from me.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken through Solomon: 'And I am justified in thy goodness, for thy rest endureth unto all eternity,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'I am saved in thy goodness; for thou savest every one.'

"This then, O my Lord, is the whole solution of the repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, when she was saved out of the chaos and loosed from the bonds of the darkness."

CHAPTER 70

It came to pass then when the First Mystery had heard Thomas say these words, that he said unto him: "Well said, finely, Thomas, blessed one. This is the solution of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

And the First Mystery continued again and said unto the disciples: "And Pistis Sophia continued and sang praises unto me, saying:

Sophia singeth another song of praise.

"'1. I sing a song unto thee; through thy commandment hast thou led me down out of the higher æon which is above, and hast led me up to the regions which are below.

"'2. And again through thy commandment thou hast saved me out of the regions which are below, and through thee hast thou taken there the matter in my light-powers, and I have seen it.

"'3. And thou hast scattered far from me the emanations of Self-willed which constrained me and were hostile to me, and hast bestowed power on me to loose myself from the bonds of the emanations of Adamas.

"'4. And thou hast smitten the basilisk with the seven heads and cast it out with my hands and hast set me above its matter. Thou hast destroyed it, so that its seed may not raise itself up from now on.

"'5. And thou Wert with me, giving me power in all this, and thy light surrounded me in all regions, and through thee hast thou made all the emanations of Self-willed powerless.

"'6. For thou hast taken the power of their light from them and made straight my way to lead me out of the chaos.

"'7. And thou hast removed me from the material darknesses and taken from them all my powers, from which the light had been taken.

"'8. Thou hast put into them purified light and unto all my limbs, in which was no light, thou hast given purified light from the Light of the Height.

"'9. And thou hast made straight the way for them [sc. my limbs], and the light of thy face hath become for me life indestructible.

"'10. Thou hast led me forth above the chaos, the region of chaos and extermination, in order that all the matters in it which are in that region, might be unloosed and all my powers be renewed in thy light, and thy light be in them all.

"'11. Thou hast deposited the light of thy stream in me and I am become purified light.'

"This again is the second song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered. Who then hath understood this repentance, let him come forward and speak it."

CHAPTER 71

It came to pass then, when the First Mystery had finished saying these words, that Matthew came forward and said: "I have understood the solution of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered. Now, therefore, give commandment unto me, that I speak it in openness."

And the First Mystery answered and said: "I give commandment unto thee, Matthew, to set forth the interpretation of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

And Matthew answered and said: "Concerning the interpretation of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, thus thy light-power prophesied aforetime thereon through the Ode of Solomon:

Matthew interpreteth the song of Sophia from the Odes of Solomon.

"'1. He who hath led me down out of the higher regions which are above, hath led me up out of the regions which are in the bottom below.

"'2. Who hath there taken those in the midst, he hath taught me concerning them.

"'3. Who hath scattered my foes and my adversaries, he hath bestowed power on me over the bonds, to unloose them.

"'4. Who hath smitten the serpent with the seven heads with my hands, he hath set me up above its root, that I may extinguish its seed.

"'5. And thou wert with me, helping me; in all regions thy name surrounded me.

"'6. Thy right hand hath destroyed the venom of the slanderer; thy hand hath cleared the way for thy faithful.

"'7. Thou hast freed them out of the tombs and hast removed them from the midst of the corpses.

"'8. Thou hast taken dead bones and hast clothed them with a body and to them who stirred not, hast thou given the activity of life.

"'9. Thy way is become indestructibleness and thy face [also].

"'10. Thou hast led thy æon above decay, so that they all may be loosed and renewed and thy light become a foundation for them all.

"'11. Thou hast piled thy riches upon them and they have become a holy dwelling-place.'

"This then, my Lord, is the solution of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered. Hearken, therefore, that I may say it in openness.

"The word which thy power hath spoken through Solomon: 'Who hath led me down out of the higher regions which are above, he hath also led me up out of the regions which are in the bottom below,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'I sing praises unto thee; through thy commandment hast thou led me down out of this higher æon which is above, and hast led me to the regions below. And again through thy commandment thou hast saved me and led me up out of the regions which are below.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken through Solomon: 'Who hath there taken those in the midst and hath taught me concerning them,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophis hath spoken: 'And again through thy commandment hast thou caused the matter in the midst of my power to be purified, and I have seen it.'

"And moreover the word which thy power hath spoken through Solomon: 'Who hath scattered my foes and my adversaries,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'Thou hast scattered far from me all the emanations of Self-willed which constrained me and were hostile to me.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'Who hath bestowed on me wisdom over the bonds, to unloose them,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken:

'And he hath bestowed on me wisdom to loose myself from the bonds of those emanations.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: Who hath smitten the serpent with the seven heads with my hands, he hath set me up above its root, that I may extinguish its seed,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'And thou hast smitten the serpent with the seven heads through my hands and set me up above its matter. Thou hast destroyed it, so that its seed may not raise itself up from now on.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'And thou wert with me, helping me,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'And thou wert with me, giving me power in all this.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'And thy name surrounded me in all regions,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'And thy light surrounded me in all their regions.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'And thy right hand hath destroyed the venom of the slanderers,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'And through thee the emanations of Self-willed became powerless, for thou hast taken from them the light of their power.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken:

Thy hand hath cleared the way for thy faithful,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'Thou hast made straight my way to lead the out of the chaos, because I have had faith in thee.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'Thou hast freed them out of the tombs and hast removed them from the midst of the corpses,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'Thou hast freed me out of the chaos and removed me out of the material darknesses, that is out of the dark emanations which are in the chaos, from which thou hast taken their light.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'Thou hast taken dead bones and hast clothed them with a body, and to them who stirred not, thou hast given activity of life,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'And thou hast taken all my powers in which was no light, and hast bestowed on them within purified light, and unto all my limbs, in which no light stirred, thou hast given life-light out of thy Height.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken:

Thy way is become indestructibleness, and thy face [also],' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'And thou hast made straight thy way for me, and the light of thy face hath become for me life indestructible.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'Thou hast led thy æon above decay, so that all might be loosed and renewed,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'Thou hast led me, thy power, up above the chaos and above decay, that all the matters in that region may be loosed and all my powers renewed in the Light.'

"And the word which thy power hath spoken: 'And thy light hath [become] foundation for them all,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'And thy light hath been in them all.'

"And the word which thy light-power hath spoken through Solomon: 'Thou hast put thy riches over him, and he hath become a holy dwelling-place,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'Thou hast stayed the light of thy stream over me, and I have become a purified light.'

"This then, my Lord, is the solution of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

CHAPTER 72

It came to pass then, when the First Mystery had heard Matthew speak these words, that he said: "Well said, Matthew, and finely, beloved. This is the solution of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

And the First Mystery continued again and said:

Sophia continueth to sing.

"'1. I will declare: Thou art the higher Light, for that hast saved me and led me unto thee, and thou hast not let the emanations of Self-willed, which are hostile unto me, take my light.

"'2. O Light of lights, I sing praises unto thee; thou hast saved me.

"'3. O Light, thou hast led up my power out of the chaos; thou hast saved me from them which have gone down into the darkness.'

"These words again hath Pistis Sophia uttered, Now, therefore, whose mind hath become understanding, comprehending the words which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, let him come forward and set forth their solution."

Mary is afraid of Peter.

It came to pass then, when the First Mystery had finished speaking these words unto the disciples, that Mary came forward and said: "My Lord, my mind is ever understanding, at every time to come forward and set forth the solution of the words which she hath uttered; but I am afraid of Peter, because he threatened me and hateth our sex."

And when she had said this, the First Mystery said unto her: "Every one who shall be filled with the spirit of light to come forward and set forth the solution of what I say, -- no one shall be able to prevent him. Now, therefore, O Mary, set forth then the solution of the words which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

Then Mary answered and said unto the First Mystery in the midst of the disciples: "My Lord, concerning the solution of the words which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, thus hath thy light-power prophesied aforetime through David:

Mary interpreteth the song of Sophia from Psalm xxix.

"'1. I will exalt thee, O Lord, for thou hast received me, and thou hast not made glad my foes over me.

"'2. O Lord, my God, I cried up unto thee, and thou hast healed me.

"'3. O Lord, thou hast led up my soul out of hell; thou hast saved me from them which have gone down into the pit.'"

CHAPTER 73

And when Mary had said this, the First Mystery said unto her, "Well said, finely, Mary, blessed one."

And he continued again in the discourse and said unto the disciples: "Sophia again continued in this song and said:

Sophia continueth her song.

"'1. The Light hath become my saviour.

"'2. And it hath changed my darkness into light, and it has rent the chaos which surrounded me and girded me with light.'"

It came to pass then, when the First Mystery had finished saying these words, that Martha came forward and said: "My Lord, thy power hath prophesied aforetime through David concerning these words:

Martha interpreteth from Psalm xxix.

"'10. The Lord hath become my helper.

"'11. He hath changed my lamentation into joy; he hath rent my mourning-robe and girded me with joy.'"

And it came to pass when the First Mystery had heard Martha speak these words, that he said: "Well said, and finely, Martha."

And the First Mystery continued again and said unto the disciples: "Pistis Sophia again continued in the song and said:

Sophia continueth her song.

"'1. My power, sing praises to the Light and forget not all the powers of the Light which it hath given unto thee.

"'2. And the powers which are in thee, sing praises to the name of his holy mystery;

"'3. Who forgiveth all thy transgression, who saveth thee from all the afflictions with which the emanations of Self-willed have constrained thee;

"'4. Who hath saved thy light from the emanations of Self-willed which belong to destruction; who hath wreathed thee with light in his compassion, until he saved thee;

"'5. Who hath filled thee with purified light; and thy beginning will renew itself as an invisible of the Height.'

"With these words Pistis Sophia sang praises, because she was saved and remembered all things which I had done unto her."

Re: Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Miscellany, translated by G.R.S

PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 7:10 pm
by admin
CHAPTER 74

It came to pass then, when the First Mystery had finished setting forth these words unto the disciples, that he said unto them: "Who hath understood the solution of these words, let him come forward and say it in openness."

Mary again came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning these words with which Pistis Sophia hath sung praises, thus thy light-power prophesied them through David:

Mary interpreteth from Psalm cii.

"'1. My soul, praise the Lord, let all that is in me praise his holy name.

"'2. My soul, praise the Lord and forget not all his requitals.

"'3. Who forgiveth all thy iniquities; who healeth all thy sicknesses;

"'4. Who redeemeth thy life from decay; who wreatheth thee with grace and compassion;

"'5. Who satisfieth thy longing with good things; thy youth will renew itself as an eagle's.'

"That is: Sophia will be as the invisibles who are in the Height; he hath, therefore, said 'as an eagle,' because the dwelling-place of the eagle is in the height, and the invisibles also are in the Height; that is: Pistis Sophia will shine as the invisibles, as she was from her beginning."

It came to pass then, when the First Mystery had heard Mary say these words, that he said: "Well said, Mary, blessed one."

Sophia is led to a region below the thirteenth æon and given a new mystery.

It came to pass then thereafter, that the First Mystery continued again in the discourse and said unto the disciples: "I took Pistis Sophia and led her up to a region which is below the thirteenth æon, and gave unto her a new mystery of the Light which is not that of her æon, the region of the invisibles. And moreover I gave her a song of the Light, so that from now on the rulers of the æons could not [prevail] against her. And I removed her to that region until I should come after her and bring her to her higher region.

"It came to pass then, when I had removed her to that region, that she again uttered this song thus:

She continueth to sing.

"'1. In faith have I had faith in the Light; and it remembered me and hearkened to my song.

"'2. It hath led my power up out of the chaos and the nether darkness of the whole matter and it hath led me up. It hath removed. me to a higher and surer æon, lofty and firm; it hath changed my place on the way which leadeth to my region.

"'3. And it hath given unto me a new mystery, which is not that of my æon, and given unto me a song of the Light. Now, therefore, O Light, all the rulers will see what thou hast done unto me, and be afraid and have faith in the Light.'

This song then Pistis Sophia uttered, rejoicing that she had been led up out of the chaos and brought to regions which are below the thirteenth æon. Now, therefore, let him whom his mind stirreth, so that he understandeth the solution of the thought of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, come forward and say it."

Andrew came forward and said: "My Lord, this is concerning what thy light-power hath prophesied aforetime through David:

Andrew interpreteth from Psalm xxxix.

"'1. In patience I tarried for the Lord; he hath given heed unto me and ear unto my weeping.

"'2. He hath led up my soul out of the pit of misery and out of the filthy mire; he hath set my feet on a rock and made straight my steps.

"'3. He hath put in my mouth a new song, a song of praise for our God. Many will see and be afraid and hope in the Lord.'"

It came to pass then, when Andrew had set forth the thought of Pistis Sophia, that the First Mystery said unto him: "Well said, Andrew, blessed one."

CHAPTER 75

And he continued again in the discourse and said unto the disciples: "These are all adventures which have befallen Pistis Sophia. It came to pass then, when I had led her to the region which is below the thirteenth æon, and was about to go unto the Light and depart from her, that she said unto me:

The conversation of Sophia and the Light.

"'O Light of lights, thou wilt go to the Light and depart from me. And Tyrant Adamas will know that thou hast departed from me and will know that my saviour is not at hand. And he will come again to this region, he and all his rulers who hate me, and Self-willed also will bestow power unto his lion-faced emanation, so that they all will come and constrain me all together and take my whole light from me, in order that I may become powerless and again without light. Now, therefore, O Light and my Light, take from them the power of their light, so that they may not be able to constrain me from now on.'

The Light promiseth to seal the regions of Self-willed.

"It came to pass then, when I heard these words which Pistis Sophia had spoken unto me, that I answered her, saying: 'My Father, who hath emanated me, hath not yet given me commandment to take their light from them; but I will seal the regions of Self-willed and of all his rulers who hate thee because thou hast had faith in the Light. And I will also seal the regions of Adamas and of his rulers, so that none of them may be able to fight with thee, until their time is completed and the season cometh that my Father give me commandment to take their light from them.'

CHAPTER 76

"And thereafter I said again unto her: 'Hearken that I may speak with thee about their time, when this which I have said unto thee, will come to pass. It will come to pass when [the] three times are completed.'

"Pistis Sophia answered and said unto me: 'O Light, by what shall I know when the three times will take place, so that I may be glad and rejoice that the time is near for thee to bring me to my region, and moreover rejoice therein that the time is come when thou wilt take the light-power from all them which hate me, because I have had faith in thy light?'

How Sophia will know that the time of her final deliverance hath come.

"And I answered and said unto her: 'If thou seest the gate of the Treasury of the Great Light which is opened after the thirteenth æon, and that is the left [one], -- when that gate is opened, then are the three times completed.'

"Pistis Sophia again answered and said: 'O Light, by what shall I know, -- for I am in this region, -- that that gate is opened?'

What will come to pass at that time.

"And I answered and said unto her: 'When that gate is opened, they who are in all the æons will know because of the Great Light which will obtain in all their regions. But see, I have now settled that they shall venture no ill against thee, until the three times are completed. And thou wilt have the power of going down into their twelve æons, when it pleaseth thee, and also of returning and going into thy region, which is below the thirteenth æon, and in which thou now art. But thou wilt not have the power of passing through the gate of the Height which is in the thirteenth æon, so as to enter into thy region whence thou didst come down. Moreover, if then the three times are completed, Self-willed and all his rulers will again constrain thee, to take thy light from thee, being enraged against thee and thinking that thou hast imprisoned his power in the chaos, and thinking that thou hast taken its light from it. He will then be embittered against thee, to take from thee thy light, in order that he may send it down into the chaos and it may get down to that emanation of his, so that it may be able to come up out of the chaos and go to his region. Adamas will attempt this. But I will take all thy powers from him and give them unto thee, and I will come to take them. Now, therefore, if they constrain thee at that time, then sing praises to the Light, and I will not delay to help thee. And I will quickly come unto thee to the regions which are below thee. And I will come down to their regions to take their light from them. And I will come to this region whither I have removed thee, and which is below the thirteenth æon, until I bring thee to thy region whence thou art come.'

"It came to pass then, when Pistis Sophia had heard me say these words unto her, that she rejoiced with great joy. But I removed her to the region which is below the thirteenth æon. I went to the Light and departed from her."

The time for the final deliverance of Sophia is completed.

And all these adventures the First Mystery told to the disciples, that they should come to pass for Pistis Sophia. And he sat on the Mount of Olives, narrating all these adventures in the midst of the disciples. And he continued again and said unto them: "And it came to pass again after this, while I was in the world of men and sat in the way, that is in this region which is the Mount of Olives, before my vesture was sent unto me, which I had deposited in the four-and-twentieth mystery from the interior, but the first from the exterior, which is the Great Uncontainable, in which I am enwrapped, and before I had gone to the Height to receive my second vesture, -- while I sat with you in this region, which is the Mount of Olives, that the time was completed of which I had said to Pistis Sophia: 'Adamas and all his rulers will constrain thee.'

CHAPTER 77

Adamas sendeth forth two emanations of darkness to plague Sophia.


"It came to pass then, when that time came on, -- and I was in the world of men, sitting with you in this region, which is the Mount of Olives, -- that Adamas looked down out of the twelve æons and looked down at the regions of the chaos and saw his demon power which is in the chaos, that no light at all was in it, because I had taken its light from it; and he saw it, that it was dark and could not go to his region, that is to the twelve moons. Thereon Adamas again remembered Pistis Sophia and became most exceedingly wroth against her, thinking that it was she who had imprisoned his power in the chaos, and thinking that it was she who had taken its light from it. And he was exceedingly embittered; he piled wrath on wrath and emanated out of himself a dark emanation and another, chaotic and evil, the violent [one], so as through them to harass Pistis Sophia. And he made a dark region in his region, so as to constrain Sophia therein. And he took many of his rulers; they pursued after Sophia, in order that the two dark emanations which Adamas had emanated, might lead her into the dark chaos which he had made, and constrain her in that region and harass her, until they should take her whole light from her, and Adamas should take the light from Pistis Sophia and give it to the two dark violent emanations, and they should carry it to the great chaos which is below and dark, and cast it into his dark power which is chaotic, if perchance it might be able to come to his region, because it had become exceedingly dark, for I had taken its light-power from it.

"It came to pass then, when they pursued after Pistis Sophia, that she cried out again and sang praises to the Light, since I had said unto her: 'If thou shalt be constrained and singest praises unto me, I will come quickly and help thee.' It came to pass then, when she was constrained, -- and I sat with you in this region, that is on the Mount of Olives, -- that she sang praises to the Light, saying:

Sophia again singeth a song to the Light.

"'1. O Light of lights, I have had faith in thee. Save me from all these rulers who pursue after me, and help me.


"'2. That in sooth they may never take from me my light, as the lion-faced power [did]. For thy light is not with me and thy light-stream to save me. Nay, Adamas is the more enraged against me, saying unto me: Thou hast imprisoned my power in the chaos.

"'3. Now, therefore, O Light of lights, if I have done this and have imprisoned it, if I have done any injustice at all to that power.

"'4. Or if I have constrained it, as it hath constrained me, then let all these rulers who pursue after me, take my light from me and leave me empty;

"'5. And let foe Adamas pursue after my power and seize upon it and take my light from me and cast it into his dark power which is in the chaos, and keep my power in the chaos.

"'6. Now, therefore, O Light, lay hold on me in thy wrath and lift up thy power above my foes who have lifted themselves up against me to the very end.

"'7. Quicken me quickly, as thou hast said unto me: I will help thee.'

CHAPTER 78

It came to pass then, when the First Mystery had finished saying these words unto the disciples, that he said: "Who hath understood the words which I have spoken, let him come forward and set forth their solution."

James came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning this song which Pistis Sophia hath sung, thus thy light-power hath prophesied aforetime through David in the seventh Psalm:

James interpreteth the song from Psalm vii.

"'1. O Lord, my God, in thee have I hoped. Free me from my pursuers and save me.

"'2. That in sooth he may never steal away my soul as a lion, without anyone to deliver and save.

"'3. O Lord, my God, if I have done this, if injustice is on my hands.

"'4. If I have requited those who requite me with evil, then let me fall down empty through my foes.

"'5. And let the foe pursue after my soul and seize it, and trample my life to the ground and lay my honour in the dust. (Selah.)

"'6. Arise, O Lord, in thy wrath, raise thyself up for the end of my foes.

"'7. Arise according to the commandment which thou hast commanded.'"

It came to pass then, when the First Mystery had heard James speak these words, that he said: "Well said, James, beloved."

CHAPTER 79

And the First Mystery continued again and said unto the disciples: "It came to pass then, when Pistis Sophia had finished uttering the words of this song, that she turned herself back to see whether Adamas and his rulers had turned back to go to their æon. And she saw them, how they pursued after her. Then she turned unto them and said unto them:

Sophia addresseth Adamas and his rulers.

"'1. Why pursue ye after me and say: I should not have help, that it [sc. the Light] should save me from you?

"'2. Now, therefore, my vindicator is the Light and a strong [one]; but it is long-suffering until the time of which it hath said unto me: I will come and help thee. And it will not bring its wrath upon you always. But this is the time of which he hath spoken unto me.

"'3. Now, therefore, if ye turn not back and cease not to pursue after me, then will the Light make ready its power, and it will make itself ready in all its powers.

"'4. And in its power hath it made itself ready, so that it may take your lights which are in you, and ye may become dark; and its power hath brought it to pass, so that it may take your power from you and ye go to ground.'

"And when Pistis Sophia had said this, she looked at the region of Adamas and saw the dark and chaotic region which he had made, and saw also the two dark exceedingly violent emanations which Adamas had emanated, in order that they might seize Pistis Sophia and cast her down into the chaos which he had made, and constrain and harass her in that region, until they should take her light from her. It came to pass then, when Pistis Sophia had seen those two dark emanations and the dark region which Adamas had made, that she feared and cried unto the Light, saying:

Sophia again singeth to the Light.

"'1. O Light, lo! Adamas, the doer of violence, is wrathful; he hath made a dark emanation.

"'2. And he hath also emanated another chaos and hath made another dark and chaotic [one] and made it ready.

"'3. Now, therefore, O Light, the chaos which he hath made, in order to cast me down therein and take from me my light-power, take then from him his own.

"'4. And the plan which he hath devised, to take my light, -- they are to take his own from him; and the injustice which he hath spoken, to take my lights from me, -- take then all of his.'

"These are the words which Pistis Sophia hath uttered in her song. Now, therefore, who is sober in spirit, let him come forward and set forth the solution of the words which Pistis Sophia [hath uttered] in her song."

CHAPTER 80

Martha again came forward and said: "My Lord, I am sober in my spirit and understand the words which thou sayest. Now, therefore, give me commandment to set forth their solution in openness."

And the First Mystery answered and said unto Martha: "I give thee commandment, Martha, to set forth the solution of the words which Pistis Sophia hath uttered in her song."

And Martha answered and said: "My Lord, these are the words which thy light-power hath prophesied aforetime through David in the seventh Psalm, saying:

"'12. God is a righteous vindicator and strong and long-suffering, who bringeth not on his wrath every day.

Martha interpreteth the words of Sophia from Psalm vii.

"'13. If ye turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow and made it ready.

"'14. And he hath made ready for him instruments of death; he hath made his arrows for those who will be burnt up.

"'15. Behold, injustice hath been in labour, hath conceived wrong and brought forth iniquity.

"'16. It hath digged a pit and hollowed it out. It will fall into the hole which it hath made.

"'17. Its wrong will return on its own head, and its injustice will come down on its pate.'"

When Martha had said this, the First Mystery which looketh without, said unto her: "Well said, finely, Martha, blessed [one]."

CHAPTER 81

Jesus bringeth Sophia again to the thirteenth æon.


It came to pass then, when Jesus had finished telling his disciples all the adventures which had befallen Pistis Sophia when she was in the chaos, and the way she had sung praises to the Light, that it should save her and lead her out of the chaos, and lead her into the twelve æons, and also the way it had saved her out of all her afflictions with which the rulers of the chaos had constrained her, because she longed to go to the Light, that Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass then after all this, that I took Pistis Sophia and led her into the thirteenth æon, shining most exceedingly, there being no measure for the light which was about me. I entered into the region of the four-and-twenty invisibles, shining most exceedingly. And they fell into great commotion; they looked and saw Sophia, who was with me. Her they knew, but me they knew not who I was, but held me for some sort of emanation of the Light-land.

"It came to pass then, when Pistis Sophia saw her fellows, the invisibles, that she rejoiced in great joy and exulted exceedingly and desired to proclaim the wonders which I had wrought on her below in the earth of mankind, until I saved her. She came into the midst of the invisibles, and in their midst sang praises unto me, saying:

Sophia singeth the praises of the Light to her fellow-invisibles.

"'1. I will give thanks unto thee, O Light, for thou art a saviour; thou art a deliverer for all time.

"'2. I will utter this song to the Light, for it hath saved me and saved me out of the hand of the rulers, my foes.

"'3. And thou hast preserved me in all the regions, thou hast saved me out of the height and the depth of the chaos and out of the æons of the rulers of the sphere.

"'4. And when I was come out of the Height, I wandered round in regions in which is no light, and I could not return to the thirteenth æon, my dwelling-place.

"'5. For there was no light in me nor power. My power was utterly weakened (?).

"'6. And the Light saved me in all my afflictions. I sang praises unto the Light, and it hearkened unto me, when I was constrained.

"'7. It guided me in the creation of the æons to lead me up into the thirteenth æon, my dwelling-place.

"'8. I will give thanks unto thee, O Light, that thou hast saved me, and for thy wondrous works unto the race of men.

"'9. When I failed of my power, thou hast given me power; and when I failed of my light, thou didst fill me with purified light.

"'10. I was in the darkness and in the shadow of the chaos, bound with the mighty fetters of the chaos, and no light was in me.

"'11. For I have provoked the commandment of the Light and have transgressed, and I have made wroth the commandment of the Light, because I had gone out of my region.

"'12. And when I had gone down, I failed of my light and became without light, and no one had helped me.

"'13. And in my affliction I sang praises unto the Light, and it saved me out of my afflictions.

"'14. And it hath also broken asunder all my bonds and led me up out of the darkness and the affliction of the chaos.

"'15. I will give thanks unto thee, O Light, that thou hast saved me and that thy wondrous works have been wrought in the race of men.

"'16. And thou hast shattered the upper gates of the darkness and the mighty bolts of the chaos.

"'17. And thou didst let me depart out of the region in which I had transgressed, and my light was taken, because I have transgressed.

"'18. And I ceased from my mysteries and went down to the gates of the chaos.

"'19. And when I was constrained, I sang praises to the Light. It saved me out of all my afflictions.

"'20. Thou sentest thy stream; it gave me power and saved me out of all my afflictions.

"'21. I will give thanks unto thee, O Light, that thou hast saved me, and for thy wondrous works in the race of men.'

"This then is the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered in the midst of the four-and-twenty invisibles, desiring that they should know all the wondrous works which I had done for her, and desiring that they should know that I have gone to the world of men and have given them the mysteries of the Height. Now, therefore, who is exalted in his thought, let him come forward and say the solution of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

CHAPTER 82

It came to pass then, when Jesus had finished saying these words, that Philip came forward and said: "Jesus, my Lord, my thought is exalted, and I have understood the solution of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered. The prophet David hath prophesied concerning it aforetime in the one-hundred-and-sixth Psalm, saying:

Philip interpreteth the song from Psalm cvi.

"'1. Give ye thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his grace is eternal.

"'2. Let the delivered of the Lord say this, for it is he who hath delivered them out of the hand of their foes.

"'3. He hath gathered them together out of their lands, from the east and from the west and from the north and from the sea.

"'4. They wandered round in the desert, in a waterless country; they found not the way to the city of their dwelling-place.

"'5. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

"'6. He saved them out of their necessities. They cried unto the Lord and he hearkened unto them in their affliction.

"'7. He led them on a straight way, that they might go to the region of their dwelling-place.

"'8. Let them give thanks unto the Lord for his graciousness and his wondrous works unto the children of men.

"'9. For he hath satisfied a hungering soul; he hath filled a hungering soul with good things,

"'10. Them who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, who were fettered in misery and iron.

"'11. For they had provoked the word of God and made wroth the determination of the Most High.

"'12. Their heart was humbled in their miseries; they become weak and no one helped them.

"'13. They cried unto the Lord in their affliction; he saved them out of their necessities.

"'14. And he led them out of the darkness and the shadow of death and brake their bonds asunder.

"'15. Let them give thanks unto the Lord for his graciousness and his wondrous works unto the children of men.

"'16. For he hath shattered the gates of brass and burst the bolts of iron asunder.

"'17. He hath taken them unto himself out of the way of their iniquity. For they were brought low because of their iniquities.

"'18. Their heart abhorred all manner of meat and they were near unto the gates of death.

"'19. They cried unto the Lord in their affliction and he saved them out of their necessities.

"'20. He sent his word and healed them and freed them from their miseries.

"'21. Let them give thanks unto the Lord for his graciousness and his wondrous works unto the children of men.'

"This then, my Lord, is the solution of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered. Hearken, therefore, my Lord, that I may say it clearly. The word in Booth which David hath spoken: 'Give ye thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his grace is eternal,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'I will give thanks unto thee, O Light, for thou art a saviour and thou art a deliverer for all time.'

"And the word which hath David spoken: 'Let the delivered of the Lord say this, for he hath delivered them out of the hand of their foes,' -- it is the word which Pistis Sophia hath spoken: 'I will utter this song to the Light, for it hath saved me and saved me out of the hand of the rulers, my foes.' And the rest of the Psalm.

"This then, my Lord, is the solution of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered in the midst of the four-and-twenty invisibles, desiring that they should know all the wondrous works which thou hast done for her, and desiring that they should know that thou hast given thy mysteries to the race of men."

It came to pass then, when Jesus had heard Philip say these words, that he said: "Well said, blessed Philip. This is the solution of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered."

END OF THE STORY OF PISTIS SOPHIA

CHAPTER 83

Mary questioneth Jesus.


It came to pass then again, after all this, that Mary came forward, adored the feet of Jesus and said: "My Lord, be not wroth with me, if I question thee, because we question concerning everything with precision and certainty. For thou hast said unto us aforetime: 'Seek that ye may find, and knock that it may be opened unto you. For every one who seeketh shall find, and to every one who knocketh it shall be opened.' Now, therefore, my Lord, who is it whom I shall seek, or who is it at whom we shall knock? Or who rather is able to give us the decision upon the words concerning which we shall question thee? Or who rather knoweth the power of the words concerning which we shall question? Because thou in the mind hast given us mind of the Light and hast given us sense and an exceedingly exalted thought; for which cause, therefore, no one existeth in the world of men nor any one in the height of the æons, who can give the decision on the words concerning which we question, save thee alone, who knoweth [sic] the universe, who is perfected in the universe; because we do not question in the manner in which the men of the world question, but because we question in the gnosis of the Height which thou hast given unto us, and we question moreover in the type of the excellent questioning which thou hast taught us, that we may question therein. Now, therefore, my Lord, be not wroth with me, but reveal unto me the matter concerning which I shall question thee."

It came to pass, when Jesus had heard Mary Magdalene say these words, that he answered and said unto her: "Question concerning what thou desirest to question, and I will reveal it unto thee with precision and certainty. Amēn, amēn, I say unto you: Rejoice in great joy and exult most exceedingly. If ye question concerning all with precision, then shall I exult most exceedingly, because ye question concerning all with precision and question in the manner in which it beseemeth to question. Now, therefore, question concerning what thou wouldst question, and I will reveal it unto thee with joy."

It came to pass then, when Mary had heard the Saviour say these words, that she rejoiced in great joy and exulted most exceedingly and said unto Jesus: "My Lord and Saviour, of what manner then are the four-and-twenty invisibles and of what type, or rather of what quality are they, or of what quality is then their light?"

CHAPTER 84

Of the glory of the four-and-twenty invisibles.


And Jesus answered and said unto Mary: "What is there in this world which is like unto them, or rather what region is there in this world which is comparable to them? Now, therefore, to what am I to liken them, or rather what am I to say concerning them? For nothing existeth in this world to which I shall be able to liken them, and no form existeth in it which is able to be like them. Now, therefore, nothing existeth in this world which is of the quality of the heaven. [But] amēn, I say unto you: Every one of the invisibles is nine times greater than the heaven and the sphere above it and the twelve æons all together, as I have already said unto you at another time. And no light existeth in this world which is more excellent than the light of the sun. Amēn, amēn, I say unto you: The four-and-twenty invisibles shine ten-thousand times more than the light of the sun which is in this world, as I have already said unto you at another time. For the light of the sun in its shape in truth is not in this world, for its light pierceth through many veils and regions. But the light of the sun in its shape in truth, which is in the region of the Virgin of Light, shineth ten-thousand times more than the four-and-twenty invisibles and the great invisible forefather and also the great triple-powered god, as I have already said unto you at another time.

"Now, therefore, Mary, there is no form in this world, nor any light, nor any shape, which is comparable to the four-and-twenty invisibles, so that I may liken it to them. But yet a little while and I will lead thee and thy brethren and fellow-disciples into all the regions of the Height and will lead you into the three spaces of the First Mystery, save only the regions of the space of the Ineffable, and ye shall see all their shapes in truth without similitude.

"And if I lead you into the height and ye shall see the glory of them of the height, then will ye be in very great amazement.

Of the glory of the Fate.

"And if I lead you into the region of the rulers of the Fate, then will ye see the glory in which they are, and because of their overtowering great glory ye will deem this world before you as darkness of darknesses, and ye will look at the whole world of men, how it will have the condition of a speck of dust for you because of the great distance it is far distant from it, and because of the great condition it is considerably greater than it.

Of the glory of the twelve æons.

"And if I lead you into the twelve æons, then will ye see the glory in which they are; and because of the great glory the region of the rulers of the Fate will count for you as the darkness of darknesses, and it will have for you the condition of a speck of dust because of the great distance it is far distant from it and because of the great condition it is considerably greater than them, as I have already said unto you at another time.

Of the glory of the thirteenth æon.

"And if I lead you moreover into the thirteenth æon, then will ye see the glory in which they are; the twelve æons will count for you as the darkness of darknesses, and ye shall look at the twelve æons, how it [sc. their region] will have for you the likeness of a speck of dust because of the great distance it is far distant from it, and because of the great condition it is considerably greater than the former.

Of the glory of the Midst.

"And if I lead you into the region of those of the Midst, then will ye see the glory in which they are; the thirteen æons will count for you as the darkness of darknesses. And again ye will look at the twelve æons and upon the whole Fate and the whole ordering and all the spheres and all the others in which they are; they will have for you the condition of a speck of dust because of the great distance it [sc. their region] is distant from it and because of the great condition it is considerably greater than the former.

Of the glory of the Right.

"And if I lead you into the region of those of the Right, then will ye see the glory in which they are; the region of those of the Midst will count for you as the night which is in the world of men. And if ye look at the Midst, it will have for you the condition of a speck of dust because of the great distance the region of those of the Right is considerably distant from it.

Of the glory of the Treasury.

"And if I lead you into the Light-land, that is into the Treasury of the Light, and ye see the glory in which they are, then will the region of those of the Right count for you as the light at mid-day in the world of men, when the sun is not out; and if ye look at the region of those of the Right, it will have for you the condition of a speck of dust because of the great distance the Treasury of the Light is distant from it.

Of the glory of the Inheritance.

"And if I lead you into the region of those who have received the inheritances and have received the mysteries of the Light, and ye see the glory of the Light in which they are, then the Light-land will count for you as the light of the sun which is in the world of men. And if ye look upon the Light-land, then will it count for you as a speck of dust because of the great distance the Light-land is distant from it, and because of the greatness [by which] it is considerably greater than the former."