Summary
The text starts with a critique of the commonly held belief that chaos existed before anything else. Instead, it asserts that something existed before chaos and that chaos was created from a shadow. This shadow was the result of a wish made by the likeness of Sophia, who flowed out of Pistis. The shadow gave birth to the powers of darkness and the ruler Yaldabaoth, who established his rule over matter. Yaldabaoth created heaven and earth, and he created three sons: Yao, Eloai, and Astaphaios.
The Seven Heavens of Chaos are inhabited by androgynous beings. Yaldabaoth creates beautiful heavens for his sons and is praised but later becomes boastful and sins. Pistis Sophia reveals her image and rebukes Yaldabaoth. Sabaoth worships Pistis, receives light, and creates an angelic assembly with Jesus and the Virgin. Pistis separates Sabaoth from darkness, causing the chief creator to become jealous and create death and 49 demons. Zoe creates seven good powers in response. Yaldabaoth sees Pistis' likeness in the water and realizes his mistake. Forethought Sambathas (the feminine name of Yaldabaoth) falls in love with Adam of light, but he hates her because she is in darkness, so she pours her light upon the earth, creating the holy steel-like earth and purifying the water.
The text describes the creation of Eros and Psyche, Paradise, plants and animals, and humans. Eros, an androgynous being, created the gods and their angels and made them fall in love with him. Justice created Paradise with the trees of life and knowledge, and the olive tree was created to purify justice. Psyche loved Eros and poured her blood on him, resulting in the first rose. The authorities created all species of animals and birds, and Sophia created the great luminaries, the stars, and the sky. Adam of light created a great eternal realm with six realms and their worlds.
The archons decide to create a human being to serve them, but Sophia Zoe, with Sabaoth, anticipates them and creates her own human being first. This being, known as the instructor, is born as an androgynous person and is called Eve of life by the Jews. The authorities call the instructor a beast, but Eve is the first virgin who gave birth without a man. Afterward, the cosmic rulers mold Adam with the help of their seed and leave him as a lifeless vessel. However, Sophia Zoe sends her breath into Adam, and he begins to move. The authorities are disturbed and leave Adam in paradise. Sophia sends her daughter Zoe, called Eve, to give Adam life.
The cosmic authorities were informed that Adam was alive. They sent seven archangels to capture Eve, who was speaking with Adam. Eve was able to escape the authorities, but they defiled the likeness of her that remained with Adam. Eve then bore the children of the cosmic powers. The rulers saw Adam and Eve in ignorance and gave them a rule not to eat from the tree of knowledge. A wise instructor came and instructed Eve to eat the fruit of the tree, and she did so, along with Adam. Their minds opened and they saw their nakedness and their beastly makers.
The rulers of darkness enter paradise after discovering that Adam and Eve have broken their commandment. The rulers curse Adam, Eve, the earth and its fruit. They then test Adam's knowledge and, fearing he will become immortal and rule over them, cast him and his wife out of paradise and guard the tree of life with cherubim. They become jealous of Adam and attempt to shorten human lifetimes but are unable to do so due to fate. Sophia Zoe, in anger over the rulers' cursing of her companions, chases the rulers from their heavens and sends the phoenix to witness their judgment.
The conclusion discusses the nature of immortal humankind, explaining that the blessed and guileless spirits were sent to the world of destruction by the immortal father to bring about the condemnation of the rulers. The Word, or Jesus the Logos, was sent to announce what was unknown and reveal the hidden truth about the seven authorities of chaos. Before the end of the age, there will be a great shaking and war among the rulers, which will result in the downfall of the heavens and the powers of chaos. The light will cover the darkness, and the glory of the unconceived will fill the eternal realms. The perfect ones will return to their home, but the non-perfected ones will remain in the realms of immortals, unable to enter the kingless realm. [4]
In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe. The Gnostics adopted the term demiurge. Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not necessarily the same as the creator figure in the monotheistic sense, because the demiurge itself and the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are both considered consequences of something else. Depending on the system, they may be considered either uncreated and eternal or the product of some other entity.
Samael is an archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic lore; a figure who is the accuser or adversary, seducer, and destroyer.
According to the Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, and Theodoret's Haereticarum Fabularum Compendium, the Borborites or Borborians were a Christian Gnostic sect, said to be descended from the Nicolaitans. It is difficult to know for sure the practices of the group, as both Epiphanius and Theodoret were opponents of the group. According to Epiphanius, the sect were libertines who embraced the pleasures of the earthly world.
The Ophites, also called Ophians, were a Christian Gnostic sect depicted by Hippolytus of Rome (170–235) in a lost work, the Syntagma ("arrangement").
Pistis Sophia is a Gnostic text discovered in 1773, possibly written between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The existing manuscript, which some scholars place in the late 4th century, relates one Gnostic group's teachings of the transfigured Jesus to the assembled disciples, including his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Martha. In this text, the risen Jesus had spent eleven years speaking with his disciples, teaching them only the lower mysteries. After eleven years, he receives his true garment and is able to reveal the higher mysteries revered by this group. The prized mysteries relate to complex cosmologies and knowledge necessary for the soul to reach the highest divine realms.
The Apocalypse of Adam is a Sethian Gnostic apocalyptic writing. It is the fifth tractate in Codex V of the Nag Hammadi library, transcribed in Coptic. The date of the original work has been a point of scholarly contention because the writing lacks Christian themes and other explicit allusions. Thus, the Gnostic redeemer in the text may have been pre-Christian and influenced later New Testament writings. The text provides an interpretation of the Genesis account of creation, describes the descent of a heavenly illuminator of knowledge, and ends with an apocalyptic prophecy.
Yaldabaoth, otherwise known as Jaldabaoth or Ialdabaoth, is a malevolent God and creator of the material world in various Gnostic sects and movements, sometimes represented as a theriomorphic, lion-headed serpent. He is identified as the Demiurge and false god who keeps the souls trapped in physical bodies, imprisoned in the material universe.
The Apocryphon of John, also called the Secret Book of John or the Secret Revelation of John, is a 2nd-century Sethian Gnostic Christian pseudepigraphical text attributed to John the Apostle. It is one of the texts addressed by Irenaeus in his Against Heresies, placing its composition before 180 CE. It is presented as describing Jesus appearing and giving secret knowledge (gnosis) to his disciple John. The author describes it as having occurred after Jesus had "gone back to the place from which he came".
Barbēlō refers to the first emanation of God in several forms of Gnostic cosmogony. Barbēlō is often depicted as a supreme female principle, the single passive antecedent of creation in its manifoldness. This figure is also variously referred to as 'Mother-Father', 'First Human Being', 'The Triple Androgynous Name', or 'Eternal Aeon'. So prominent was her place amongst some Gnostics that some schools were designated as Barbeliotae, Barbēlō worshippers or Barbēlō gnostics.
The Epistle of Eugnostos or Eugnostos the Blessed is a Gnostic epistle found in Codices III and V of the Nag Hammadi library. Both copies seem to be a Coptic translation of a Greek original that was composed in Egypt around the late 1st century; the copy from Codex III is the earlier translation. Scholars note that the text is interrelated with The Sophia of Jesus Christ; SJC adds more specifically Christian elements to the cosmology-focused Eug. The text is a philosophical discourse on the nature of God and the world. The author asserts that previous human inquiries have failed to reach the truth about the nature of God, who is ineffable and beyond human understanding. The author describes a belief system in which there is an Immortal Man who reveals various aeons and powers with different names and authorities over different kingdoms and worlds.
Zostrianos is a Sethian Gnostic text. It is the first tractate of two in Codex VIII of the Nag Hammadi library. It takes up 132 of the 140 pages in the codex, making Zostrianos the longest tractate of the entire library. However the text is extensively damaged, especially in the center, making the document difficult to fully understand. The Coptic manuscript is a translation of a Greek original, likely written in Alexandria in c. 200 AD. In the text, Zostrianos goes on a heavenly journey and receives divine knowledge from the aeons.
The Sethians were one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd and 3rd century CE, along with Valentinianism and Basilideanism. According to John D. Turner, it originated in the 2nd century CE as a fusion of two distinct Hellenistic Judaic philosophies and was influenced by Christianity and Middle Platonism. However, the exact origin of Sethianism is not properly understood.
Trimorphic Protennoia or Three Forms of First Thought is a Sethian Gnostic text from the New Testament apocrypha. The only surviving copy comes from the Nag Hammadi library. The text describes three descents using the voice of Barbelo in first person. The voice is the source of life, knowledge, and the first thought. The voice is said to have three names, three masculinities, and three powers, and it is described as androgynous. It explains that Sophia descended to help counter the plan of the demon Yaldabaoth and the archons. The speaker invites the reader to enter the high perfect light and receive glory, enthronement, and baptism.
Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, adam is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as "mankind". Genesis 1 tells of God's creation of the world and its creatures, including adam, meaning humankind; in Genesis 2 God forms "Adam", this time meaning a single male human, out of "the dust of the ground", places him in the Garden of Eden, and forms a woman, Eve, as his helpmate; in Genesis 3 Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge and God condemns Adam to labour on the earth for his food and to return to it on his death; Genesis 4 deals with the birth of Adam's sons, and Genesis 5 lists his descendants from Seth to Noah.
The Second Treatise of the Great Seth is a Gnostic text. It is the second tractate in Codex VII of the Nag Hammadi library. The Coptic papyrus, translated from a Greek original, is entirely preserved and written clearly. The text likely was written near Alexandria c. 200 AD. Seth is not mentioned in the text; instead the title "may be understood to be the second speech or message delivered by Jesus, the manifestation of heavenly Seth," based on Sethian beliefs. Like the Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter, the text takes a docetic view of the crucifixion of Jesus with the statement that Jesus "did not die in reality but in appearance." Although the heresiologist Irenaeus criticized the supposed Gnostic belief that Simon of Cyrene was a substitute who was crucified instead of Jesus, the text of Second Treatise of the Great Seth, in context, says, "It was another, their father, who drank the gall and the vinegar; it was not I. They struck me with the reed; it was another, Simon, who bore the cross on his shoulder. It was another upon whom they placed the crown of thorns." The text also encourages unity among Gnostics, assuring them that Jesus will help them overcome the false rulers and their followers.
The Testimony of Truth is the third manuscript from Codex IX of the Nag Hammadi Library. The manuscript is missing a significant number of pages and lines. The text criticizes those who follow the Law of Moses, those who believe they will be saved through martyrdom, those who believe in the version of God portrayed in Genesis, and various Gnostic sects. The author defends the serpent that instructed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and cites Numbers 21:9 to argue that the serpent is Christ. The conclusion emphasizes seeking wisdom and truth.
The Hypostasis of the Archons, also called The Reality of the Rulers or The Nature of the Rulers, is a Gnostic writing. The only known surviving manuscript is in Coptic as the fourth tractate in Codex II of the Nag Hammadi library. It has some similarities with On the Origin of the World, which immediately follows it in the codex. The Coptic version is a translation of a Greek original, possibly written in Egypt in the third century AD. The text begins as an exegesis on Genesis 1–6 and concludes as a discourse explaining the nature of the world's evil authorities. It applies Christian Gnostic beliefs to the Jewish origin story, and translator Bentley Layton believes the intent is anti-Jewish.
Sophia is a major theme, along with Knowledge, among many of the early Christian knowledge-theologies grouped by the heresiologist Irenaeus as gnostikoi (γνωστικοί), "knowing" or "men that claimed to have deeper wisdom". Gnosticism is a 17th-century term expanding the definition of Irenaeus' groups to include other syncretic and mystery religions.
Archons are, in Gnosticism and religions closely related to it, the builders of the physical universe. Among the Archontics, Ophites, Sethians and in the writings of Nag Hammadi library, the archons are rulers, each related to one of seven planets; they prevent souls from leaving the material realm. The political connotation of their name reflects rejection of the governmental system, as flawed without chance of true salvation. In Manichaeism, the archons are the rulers of a realm within the "Kingdom of Darkness", who together make up the Prince of Darkness. In The Reality of the Rulers, the physical appearance of Archons is described as hermaphroditic, with their faces being those of beasts.
In some Gnostic writings, Sabaoth is one of the sons of Ialdabaoth. According to Hypostasis of the Archons and On the Origin of the World, Sabaoth dethrones his father Ialdabaoth. In both accounts, Sabaoth repents, when he hears the voice of Sophia, condemns his father and his mother (matter) and after that is enthroned by Sophia in the seventh heaven. Some Church Fathers report on the other hand, that Gnostics identified Sabaoth with Ialdaboath himself.
