part0011

The text given the title On the Origin of the World 1 offers a cosmological account of the creation of the world, its fall, and the eventual salvation of the light that has found its way into the world. On the Origin of the World is a smart, scholarly essay on various themes in a gnostic worldview. The text addresses many of the same topics as the Secret Book of John, and it includes a song of Eve that closely follows lines of poetry in the next text in this collection, Thunder.

The selection from the essay On the Origin of the World given here portrays in colorful terms the creation of paradise and human beings in paradise. The narrative recalls the story as told in Genesis, but with a remarkably different interpretation. Here exalted Eve is the woman who makes Adam rise and come to life, and Sophia is the heavenly mother who orchestrates the salvation of the people of light.

Within the passage that is translated are the names Pistis, “faith” in Greek, referring to Pistis Sophia, “faith wisdom”; Sabaoth, “armies” or “hosts” in Hebrew (as in “lord of hosts”), referring to the repentant son of the demiurge Yaldabaoth; and Zoe, “life” in Greek, referring to Sophia Zoe or heavenly Eve.

Justice created beautiful paradise. 2 Paradise lies outside the circuit of the moon and the circuit of the sun in the luxuriant earth, which is in the east in the rocky region. Desire dwells in the midst of trees, since they are beautiful and appealing.

Now, the color of the tree of life is like the sun, and its branches are lovely. Its leaves are like those of the cypress, and its fruit is like a cluster of white grapes. Its height reaches up to heaven. Next to it is the tree of knowledge, endowed with the power of god. Its glory is like the moon shining brightly, and its branches are lovely. Its leaves are like fig leaves, and its fruit is like a bunch of good, delicious dates. This tree is planted in the north of paradise to raise up souls from demonic stupor, so they might come to the tree of life and eat its fruit and condemn the authorities and their angels.

Before Adam of light made his return, the authorities caught a glimpse of him in chaos. They laughed at the chief creator, for he lied when he said, “I am god. There is none before me.”

When they came to the chief creator, they said, “Isn’t this being the god who ruined what we have done?”

He answered, “Yes it is. If you do not want him to be able to ruin our work, come, let’s fashion a human being from earth in the image of our bodies and with a likeness to this being, 3 to serve us, so that when this being sees someone like him, he may fall in love. Then he will stop ruining what we have done, and we can enslave the children born from the light for this whole age.”

All these things took place according to the forethought of Pistis, so that humanity might come to look like this being and condemn the authorities because of their molded bodies. For within their molded bodies was the light.

The authorities got the knowledge needed to create humanity. Sophia Zoe, who dwells with Sabaoth, anticipated their actions. She laughed at their plan, for they are blind, and they created people ignorantly, contrary to their own interests. They had no idea what they were doing.

She anticipated them. She created her own person first, before them, so that this person might instruct the molded bodies of the authorities how they might scorn them and escape them.

The birth of this instructor was as follows. Sophia let a drop of light fall, and it landed on the water, and at once an androgynous human being appeared. First Sophia made the drop into the form of a woman’s body, and then she took the body and made it into a shape resembling the mother who had appeared. It took her twelve months to complete it.

A human androgyne was born, the one Greeks call Hermaphrodite. Jews call this child’s mother Eve of life, 4 that is, the female instructor of life, and her child is the lord. Later the authorities called the child the beast, to fool their molded bodies. The beast, however, is understood to be the instructor, for it was found to be the wisest of creatures. 5

Eve is the first virgin, and she gave birth to her child without any man. She acted as her own physician. That is why it is said that she announced,

These things were revealed through the will of Sabaoth and his anointed to the souls who were about to enter the molded bodies of the authorities. The holy voice said of them, “Be fruitful and multiply; rule over all creatures.” These souls were seized, in keeping with their fates, by the chief creator, and they were imprisoned in molded bodies, until the end of the age.

Then the chief creator offered his opinion about humanity to those with him, and each of them cast his semen into the midst of the navel of the earth.

Since that time the seven rulers formed people with a body resembling their bodies, but the likeness of people is linked to the human being who appeared to the rulers. The molded body came to be, one part at a time, from each one of the rulers, and their leader created the brain and marrow.

After that the person came to appear like the one before him. He came to be a person of soul, and he was named Adam, meaning father, after the name of the one before him.

When Adam had been made, the chief creator abandoned him as a vessel devoid of life, since Adam was formed like an aborted fetus, without spirit. When the chief creator remembered the word of Pistis, he feared that the true human being might enter his molded body and rule over it. For this reason he left his molded body forty days without soul, and he went away and left him.

On the fortieth day, Sophia Zoe blew her breath into Adam, who had no soul. Adam began to crawl around on the ground, but he was unable to stand up .

The seven rulers came and saw him, and they were deeply disturbed. They came up to him and took hold of him, and the chief creator addressed the breath that was in him: “Who are you? Where are you from?”

He answered, “I have come through the power of the human being in order to destroy your work.”

When they heard this, they praised him, because he provided them rest from their fears and worries. 7 They called that day the day of rest, because they found rest from their troubles.

They saw that Adam could not stand up, and they were happy. They took him and placed him in paradise, and they retired up to their heavens.

After the day of rest, Sophia sent her daughter Zoe, referred to as Eve, as an instructor to raise Adam, who had no soul, so that the children he would produce would be vessels of light.

When Eve saw her male companion on the ground, she pitied him and said, “Adam, come to life. Rise up from the ground.”

Immediately her command came to pass. Adam rose up, and at once he opened his eyes, saw Eve, and said, “You shall be called the mother of the living, for you have given me life.”

The authorities learned that their molded body was alive and had risen up, and they were greatly disturbed. They dispatched seven archangels to find out what happened.

They approached Adam, and when they saw Eve speaking with him, they talked among themselves. “Who is this enlightened woman? She looks just like the being that appeared to us in the light. Come, let’s grab her and cast our semen into her, so that she may be polluted and unable to go up to her light, and her children will serve us. And let’s not tell Adam, since he is not one of us. Rather, let us make him fall asleep and hint in his sleep that Eve has come from his rib, so that the woman may serve and he may rule over her.”

Now, Eve was a power from heaven, and so she laughed at their plans. She darkened their eyes and secretly left her likeness there with Adam.

She entered the tree of knowledge and lingered there. The rulers pursued her, and she showed them that she had entered the tree and had become the tree. The powers, blind as they were, were very fearful, and they ran away. 8

At a later time, when they regained their sight, they came up to Adam. They saw someone who looked like that woman with him, and they were upset, supposing this to be the true Eve. They were desperate. They approached her, grabbed her, and cast their semen on her.

The powers did wicked things. They debauched her in ways that were not only natural but also obscene, first by defiling the seal of her voice, which had asked them, “What is it that exists before you?” 9 In this manner they also intended to defile those who maintain that they were born through the word, through the true human, at the end of the age.

The powers made a huge mistake. They did not know that they had defiled their own body. The authorities and their angels defiled the likeness in every conceivable way.

First Eve conceived Abel from the first ruler, then she bore the other children from the seven authorities and their angels.

These things occurred according to the forethought of the chief creator, in order that the first mother might bear within herself the seed of the offspring, all commingled and connected with the fate of the world and its arrangements and legal enactments.

A plan emerged for Eve, so that the molded bodies of the authorities might function to contain the light. Then the light would condemn the authorities through their own molded bodies.

The original Adam of light is spiritual, and he appeared on the first day. The second Adam is psychical, a person of soul, and he appeared on the sixth day, named Aphrodite. The third Adam is earthly, a person of dust and law, and he appeared on the eighth day, Sunday, right after the lesser day of rest. 10

The offspring of earthly Adam multiplied and filled the earth. They gained all the technical ability of Adam with soul. But they remained in ignorance.

When the rulers noticed that Adam and the woman with him remained in error and ignorance, like animals, they were delighted.

But then they discovered that the immortal human being was not going to leave them alone, and they would also have to fear the woman who became a tree. They were dismayed and said, “Is this the one who darkened our eyes and informed us about the defiled woman who is like him, the true human, in order to defeat us?”

The seven plotted together. They approached Adam and Eve cautiously and said to him, “Feel free to eat the fruit of every tree created for you in paradise, but beware, don’t eat of the tree of knowledge. If you eat, you will die.” They frightened them greatly, and returned to their authorities.

The beast, wisest of creatures, stopped by. The beast saw the likeness of their mother Eve and said to her, “What is it god said to you—‘Don’t eat from the tree of knowledge’? ”

She replied, “He not only said ‘Don’t eat from it’ but also ‘Don’t touch it or you will die.’”

The beast told her, “Don’t be afraid. You surely will not die. He knows that when you eat of it your minds will become sober and you will be like gods, knowing the difference between the evil and the good. He gave you this warning because he is jealous, and he wants to keep you from eating from it.”

Eve believed the words of the instructor. She stared at the tree and saw that it was lovely and appealing, and she felt a desire for it. She picked some of its fruit and ate it, and she gave some to her husband as well, and he also ate. Then their minds opened.

Light will overcome darkness and obliterate it. 12 It will be as if the darkness never was, and the source of darkness will be gone. Deficiency will be plucked out at its root and thrown down into the darkness, and light will return to its root above.

The glory of the unconceived will become manifest and fill all the aeons when the prophets and the writings of rulers are disclosed and fulfilled by those called perfect. Those who have not come to be perfect in the unconceived father will be glorified in their aeons and the kingdoms of those who are immortal, but they will never enter the realm with no king over it.