part0038

[24.1] If you wish to know 2 what eye has not seen nor ear heard and what has not arisen in the human heart, 3 and who is the Good exalted over all things, swear to keep silent about the secrets of the instruction. Our father saw the Good and was made perfect with him, and he also kept silent about what must remain secret. He swore an oath, as it is written, “The lord has sworn and will not change his mind.” 4

When one swears this oath, one goes in to the Good and sees what eye has not seen nor ear heard and what has not arisen in the human heart. 5 One drinks from living water, which is the ritual washing, the spring of living water welling up. 6 [3] There is a difference between water and water. 7 The water beneath the firmament belongs to the evil creation, and earthly and psychical people wash in it. The water above the firmament is living water belonging to the Good, and spiritual, living people wash in it, as did Elohim, and he did not change his mind after washing .

[26.1] There were three unconceived powers of the universe, two male, one female. One male power is called the Good, and he alone is called by that name 8 and knows everything in advance. The other male power, called father of all created things, has no such foreknowledge, and he is invisible. The female power likewise has no foreknowledge, and she is irritable. She is of two minds and two bodies, exactly like the female in the myth of Herodotus, a young woman above and a viper below. 9 [2] She is named Eden 10 and Israel.

When father Elohim, 11 without foreknowledge, saw Eden the half-woman, he came to desire her. Eden desired Elohim no less, and desire united them in mutual love. [3] From this union the father conceived twelve angels for himself through Eden. The names of the paternal angels are these:

[5] Of these twenty-four angels, the paternal angels assist the father and do everything according to his will, and the maternal angels do the same for mother Eden. The company of all these angels together constitutes paradise, of which Moses says, “God planted paradise in Eden, toward the east” 15 —in front of Eden—so that Eden might constantly look at paradise, the angels.

[6] The angels of paradise are called, allegorically, trees, and the tree of life is Baruch, 16 the third paternal angel, while the tree of the knowledge 17 of good and evil is Naas, 18 the third maternal angel. Moses spoke of these things in a veiled way, since not everyone can comprehend truth .

[7] After paradise came to be from the love of Elohim and Eden, the angels of Elohim took some of the best earth and made humankind. 19 They took it not from the bestial part of Eden but from the upper, human parts, the civilized regions of earth. From the bestial parts came wild animals and other creatures.

[8] They made humankind a symbol of their union and love, and they placed their powers within him. Eden contributed the soul, Elohim the spirit. The human being Adam became a kind of seal and token of their love, and an eternal symbol of the marriage of Eden and Elohim. [9] So also, as it is written by Moses, Eve became an image and symbol, a seal of Eden to be preserved forever. Eden put the soul in Eve the image, Elohim put the spirit in her.

Adam and Eve were commanded, “Be fruitful and multiply and inherit the earth” 20 —that is, Eden. [10] Eden brought all her power to Elohim, like a marriage dowry, and since then women come to their husbands with dowries in imitation of that first marriage, and they obey the divine hereditary law that came from Elohim and Eden. 21

[11] When everything was created, as it is written by Moses, “heaven and earth and what is in them,” the twelve angels of the mother were divided into four powers, and each of the four parts is called a river: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates, as Moses said. 22 These twelve angels are organized in four groups, and they circle about and govern the world with sovereign authority over the world from Eden. [12] They do not stay in the same places, but as in a circling chorus they move from place to place, and at appropriate times and intervals they leave the places assigned to them. When the angels of Pishon control a region, then famine, distress, and affliction break out in that part of the earth, for these angels rule with avarice. [13] In all four regions bad times and diseases come in accordance with each power and nature. This torrent of evil constantly flows around the world, under the control of the four rivers and by the will of Eden.

[14] This is how, of necessity, evil came about. When Elohim had fashioned and formed the world through his love with Eden, he wished to ascend to the highest reaches of heaven to see if there was anything lacking in creation. He took his angels along. He was drawn up but he left Eden behind, for she is earth and decided not to follow her companion upward.

[15] When Elohim reached the upper limit of heaven, he saw a light brighter than the light he had created, and he said, “Open the gates for me, that I may enter and acknowledge the lord. 23 I thought I was the lord.”

[18] The Good replied to him, “You can do nothing evil when you are with me. You and Eden made the world through your love, so let Eden have creation as long as she wishes, and you stay with me.”

[19] Then Eden knew she had been abandoned by Elohim. In her grief she gathered her angels around her and adorned herself in an attractive manner, in order to arouse the desire of Elohim and make him come back to her.

[20] Elohim, however, was restrained by the Good, and he did not come down to Eden again. So Eden ordered Babel, who is the same as Aphrodite, to provoke adultery and divorce among people, so that just as she had been separated from Elohim, so also the spirit of Elohim in people might feel the pain and torment of separation and suffer as had Eden, who was also abandoned. [21] Eden gave full authority to Naas, her third angel, to punish the spirit of Elohim in people with every sort of torment, so that through that spirit Elohim himself might be punished, because he abandoned his companion Eden in violation of the agreement he made with her.

When father Elohim saw this, he sent Baruch, his third angel, to come to the aid of the spirit in all people. [22] Baruch came and stood among the angels of Eden, in the middle of paradise, since paradise consisted of the angels among whom he stood. 28 He commanded humankind to eat from all the trees in paradise and enjoy them, but not to eat from the tree of the knowledge 29 of good and evil. 30 That tree is Naas. 31 In other words, they could obey the other eleven angels of Eden, because these eleven have passions but do not break the law, while Naas does break the law. [23] For Naas approached Eve and seduced her and committed adultery with her, and this is against the law, and he also approached Adam and fondled him as a boy, and this is also against the law. Adultery and pederasty came from these deeds.

Since then both evil and good have had power over people, and both come from a single source, the father. [24] By ascending to the Good the father showed the way for those who wish to ascend, and by leaving Eden he brought about the origin of evil for the spirit of the father in people.

Baruch was sent to Moses, and through Moses he spoke to the children of Israel, that they might turn back to the Good. [25] But Naas, the third angel of Eden, concealed the commands of Baruch and made his own commands to be heard through the soul from Eden, which was in Moses as it is in all people. For this reason the soul is set against the spirit and the spirit against the soul. The soul is Eden and the spirit is Elohim, and both are in all people, women and men alike.

[26] Next Baruch was sent to the prophets, that through the prophets the spirit living in people might hear and flee from Eden and the evil creation as father Elohim had once fled. In the same way and with the same purpose as before, Naas deceived the prophets through the soul that along with the father’s spirit is in people, and they all were led astray and did not follow the words of Baruch that Elohim commanded.

[27] Then Elohim chose a prophet from the uncircumcised, Heracles, and sent him to overcome the twelve angels of Eden and free the father from the twelve evil angels of creation. These are the twelve labors of Heracles in which he struggled, from first to last, with the lion, the hydra, the boar, and the rest. [28] These names from the gentiles have been modified by the activity of the maternal angels. Just when it seemed that Heracles was triumphant, Omphale, 32 who is the same as Babel or Aphrodite, got involved with him and seduced him and stripped him of his strength, namely the orders of Baruch that Elohim commanded, and she clothed him in her own robe—that is, the power of Eden, the power below. So the prophecy and the deeds of Heracles came to nothing.

[29] Finally, in the days of Herod the king, 33 Baruch was sent once more by Elohim, and he came to Nazareth and found Jesus son of Joseph and Mary as he, a boy twelve years old, 34 was tending sheep. Baruch told Jesus everything that had happened, from the beginning, from Eden and Elohim, and all that would be thereafter.

[30] Baruch said, “All the prophets before you were led astray. Jesus, child of humankind, 35 try not to be led astray, but preach this word to people, and tell them about the things of the father and the Good, and ascend to the Good and be seated there with Elohim, father of us all. ”

Naas also wanted to deceive Jesus, but he was unable to do so, because Jesus remained faithful to Baruch. Naas was furious that he could not lead him astray, and he had him crucified. But Jesus left the body of Eden on the cross and ascended to the Good. 36

The Good is Priapos, who created before anything was. 40 He is called Priapos because he prepared everything beforehand. [33] Thus he is set up in every temple and honored by all creation and in the streets, carrying fruit 41 —produce of the creation he brought about—since he prepared creation before anything was.

[36] When the prophet says, “Hear, heaven, and listen, earth, for the lord has spoken,” 45 he means that heaven is the spirit of Elohim in people, earth is the soul that along with the spirit is in people, the lord is Baruch, and Israel is Eden, for Eden, the companion of Elohim, is also called Israel. [37] “Israel did not know me. 46 If she 47 had known that I 48 am with the Good, she would not have punished the spirit in people because the father ignored her.” 49

[27.4] When the prophet is said to take a wife who is a whore, because the land will play the whore behind the lord, 50 with these words the prophet clearly declares the whole mystery of what Eden does behind Elohim, but on account of the wickedness of Naas the prophet went unheeded.