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THE BOOK OF BARUCH

JUSTIN

The Book of Baruch 1 is a Jewish gnostic text, said to have been written by a certain author named Justin, that now exists in a form that is lightly Christianized and hellenized. Baruch is preserved only as a paraphrase in Hippolytus of Rome’s Refutation of All Heresies, from which it may be partially recovered. The Book of Baruch recounts the mythic story of the highest god, the Good, along with the male Elohim and the female Edem, and their interactions in the world of humanity. The story of Baruch is a tale of the love of Elohim and Edem, heaven and earth, love that is expressed and is lost, and the mythic tale is related with themes from Genesis as the text explains how the affairs in the divine realm impact human history and the fate of people within this world. The text includes a series of characters from the Hebrew tradition, such as Elohim and Edem, the blessed angel Baruch and the serpentlike angel Naas, and Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, as well as several figures from Greco-Roman mythological lore.

Here Moshe is the Semitic form of the name used for Moses, Yeshua for Jesus, Yosef for Joseph, and Miryam for Mary, and Natzeret is the city of Nazareth.

Oath of Secrecy

If you would know what eye has not seen nor ear heard

and what has not arisen in the human heart,

and who stands high above all good,

swear to keep the mystery of instruction secret.

Our father, who saw the good perfected in him,

has kept the mysteries of silence secret.

He has sworn and will not waver.

Here is his oath:

“I swear by the one over all, which is the Good,

to keep these mysteries, to tell them to no one,

and not to go from the Good back to the creation.”

When you take this oath, you enter the Good

and see what eye has not seen nor ear heard

and what has not arisen in the human heart.

You drink from the living water,

the washing, the spring of living water bubbling up.

And there was a separation of waters from waters,

and the waters below the firmament belong to the evil creation.

In them are washed those who are earthly and psychical.

The waters above the firmament belong to the Good

and are alive. The spiritual and the living are washed in them

as Elohim was after the washing. He did not waver.

The Myth of the Creators

There were three ungenerated principles

governing the cosmos: two male and one female.

One of the male principles is called the Good ,

and it alone carries that epithet

and knows everything ahead of time.

The other male principle is named father of all things

begotten in the world, has no forethought,

and he is unknown and invisible.

The female is angry.

She knows nothing ahead of time

and she has two minds and two bodies. As in Herodotos’s myth,

she is a virgin above and a viper below. 2

She is called both Edem 3 and Israel.

These are the principles of the cosmos,

the roots and pools from which all sprang,

and nothing else was in the world.

When the father knowing nothing beforehand

saw that half-virgin Edem, he burned for her,

and he the father is called Elohim, 4

and Edem burned equally for Elohim. Their desire

drew them to a single union of love.

From this coupling the father seeded twelve angels

for himself through Edem.

The paternal angels are Michael, Amen, Baruch, Gabriel, Esaddaeus,          . 5

The maternal angels are Babel, Achamoth, Naas, Bel, Belias, Satan,

Sael, Adonaios, Kauithan, Pharaoth, Karkamenos, and Lathen.

Of these twenty-four the paternal ones side

with the father and obey his will in everything,

and the maternal ones hear their mother, Edem.

Their common domain is paradise,

about which Moshe tells us,

“God planted paradise east of Eden, ”

before the face of Edem, and therefore

she always looks at paradise, her angels.

The angels of paradise are allegorically called trees,

and the tree of life is the third paternal angel,

and his name is Baruch,

while the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

is the third maternal angel, and he is Naas.

Moshe spoke these things covertly

because not everyone can hold the truth.

The Creation of Adam and Eve

After paradise came into being through the love

of Elohim and Edem,

the angels of Elohim took some of the best earth

(not from the bestial, naked part of Edem

but from her upper, civilized regions)

and from that good earth they made man,

but from the bestial land came wild beasts and creatures.

They made man a symbol of their union and love

and planted some of their powers in him.

Edem provided the soul and Elohim the spirit.

The man Adam was a seal and memory of their love,

an eternal symbol of the wedding of Edem and Elohim.

And, as Moshe wrote, Eve was image and symbol,

and the seal of Edem preserved forever.

Edem set the soul in Eve and Elohim the spirit.

And they were given commandments:

“Be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth.”

Edem gave away all her power to Elohim ,

like a marriage dowry, and till this day,

in imitation of that first marriage,

a woman comes to her husband with a dowry,

obeying a holy and hereditary law

that Edem carried out toward Elohim.

The Angels Are Divided

When, according to Moshe, everything was created

including heaven and earth and all therein,

the twelve angels of the mother were divided

into four principles, and each quadrant is called

a river: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates.

Huddled in these four parts, the twelve angels

circle around and govern the cosmos.

Their authority over the world comes from Edem.

They are not forever in the same region,

but as in a circular chorus they move

from place to place at fixed intervals and periods

according to their assignments.

When the angels of Pishon rule a region,

then famine, distress, and tribulation

foul that segment of the earth,

for their criterion for ruling is avarice.

And in all regions come bad times and disease

according to each power and nature.

There is a torrent of evil pouring out

like the rivers, and constantly around the world

Edem’s will controls every quadrant .

Elohim’s Ascent

The necessity of evil has this circumstance:

when Elohim and Edem in mutual love made the cosmos,

Elohim chose to rise to the highest part of heaven

to see if their creation lacked any elements.

He took his angels with him and rose, as was his nature,

and he abandoned Edem below,

who, being earth, declined to follow her husband upward.

When Elohim reached the upper border of heaven,

he saw a light stronger than the sun he created,

and he said, “Open the gates for me to enter

and to acknowledge the lord.

I had thought I was the lord!”

He heard a voice out of the light, saying,

“This is the lord’s gate. The just pass through it.”

The gate was immediately opened,

and the father, without his angels, went into the Good

and saw what eye has not seen or ear heard

and what has not arisen in the human heart.

The Good said to him, “Sit down at my right hand.”

The father said to the Good,

“Let me destroy the cosmos I made.

My spirit is imprisoned among people.

I want to take it back.”

Then the Good told him, “Nothing that comes

from me can be evil. In your companion love

you and Edem made the world. Let Edem keep the creation

as long as she wishes, but you must stay with me. ”

Edem’s Response

Then Edem knew she was abandoned by Elohim

and sorrowfully began to gather angels around her

and adorn herself brightly to arouse his return.

But under the Good’s control Elohim no longer

descended to Edem. Then Edem commanded Babel,

which here means the goddess Aphrodite,

to incite fornication and divorce among people,

so that as she was separated from Elohim

the spirit of Elohim in people might feel affliction

and be tormented and suffer like her, Edem,

his abandoned wife. And Edem gave grand authority

to Naas, her third angel, to torture the spirit

of Elohim in people with all possible tortures

so through that spirit Elohim might himself

be tortured—he who had abandoned Edem

in cold violation of their covenant.

Elohim Sends Down His Angel Baruch

When the father Elohim saw these things,

he sent down Baruch, his own third angel,

to comfort the spirit living in all people.

When Baruch came he stood among the angels

of Edem, in the midst of paradise. Paradise

was the angels among whom he stood,

and he commanded the people “to eat from

every tree in paradise, except from the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil,”

which tree is Naas. They could obey

the other eleven angels of Edem ,

for though they have passions, they do not disobey

the commandment. But Naas disobeyed.

He approached Eve and seduced her

and debauched her, which is a transgression,

and he approached Adam and played with him

as a boy, which is a transgression.

So adultery and pederasty were born.

Since then evil and good have ruled people.

It began from a single source. When the father

ascended to the Good, he showed the way

for those who wish to rise, and by leaving Edem

he began the evil for his spirit in people.

Baruch Searches for a Savior

Baruch went to Moshe and through him spoke

to the children of Israel to turn them back to the Good,

but Edem’s third angel Naas barred his way.

Through the soul Edem gave him and Moshe

and all people, Naas expunged Baruch’s orders

and only Naas’s commandments were heard,

and so soul was set against spirit

and spirit set against soul.

The soul is Edem while the spirit is Elohim,

and each is in both man and woman.

Then Baruch was sent down to the prophets

so that the spirit living in people might hear

and flee from Edem and her corrupt creation

as once father Elohim fled. But Naas, using

his old tactics, dragged the father’s spirit down

into the soul of people he seduced, who scorned

Baruch’s words in Elohim’s commandments .

Then Baruch chose a prophet from the uncircumcised,

Herakles, and sent him to subdue the twelve angels

of Edem, and free the father from the twelve evil

angels of the creation. These are the twelve labors

in which Herakles contended, from first to last,

with the lion, the hydra, the boar, and the rest.

And they are names of nations given to them

from the power of the maternal angels.

Just when he seemed victorious, Omphale,

who is Babel or Aphrodite, attacked him

and seduced him and took away his strength

and Baruch’s commandments ordered by Elohim,

and then she wrapped him in her own robe,

the power of Edem, the power from below.

Herakles’ prophecies and work were nothing.

Baruch Finds Yeshua

Finally, “in the days of King Herod,”

Baruch was sent once more by Elohim

and he came to Natzeret and found Yeshua,

son of Yosef and Miryam, feeding sheep,

a boy of twelve, and he told him everything

that had happened from the beginning,

from Edem and Elohim and all that will be.

He said, “All the prophets before you

were seduced, but Yeshua, earthly son,

try not to be seduced, and preach the word

to people and tell them about the father

and the Good, and ascend to the Good

and sit with Elohim, father of us all. ”

Yeshua’s Crucifixion and Ascent

And Yeshua obeyed the angel. He said,

“Lord, I will do all things.” He affirmed this.

Naas wanted to seduce him too, but he

could not. Yeshua kept faith with Baruch.

Then Naas was enraged because he could not

seduce him, and he had him crucified.

Yeshua left his body to Edem by the tree

and ascended to the Good. He said to her,

“Woman, here is your son.” He left

his soul and earthly body, but his spirit

he placed in the hands of the father

and then he ascended to the Good.

Allegorical Interpretations

The Good is Priapos, who created before

anything was. He is called Priapos

because he made everything. So in temples

everywhere he is honored by all creation.

On the roads he walks carrying fruit,

fruits of creation, whose cause he was,

since he created before anything was.

Now, when you hear that the swan lay on Leda

and produced a child from her,

the swan is Elohim and Leda is Edem.

When they say that the eagle came upon Ganymede,

the eagle is Naas and Ganymede is Adam .

When you hear one say that gold came upon Danae

and produced a child from her,

the gold is Elohim and Danae is Edem.

In this way these tales are interpreted

comparing them to similar myths.

When the prophets say, “Hear, heaven,

and listen, earth, the lord has spoken,”

the spirit of Elohim in people is heaven,

and soul living with the spirit in people is earth.

The lord is Baruch, and Israel Edem,

and Elohim’s wife is called Edem and Israel.

“Israel did not know me.” And if she 6 had known

that I 7 am with the Good, she would not

have tortured the spirit that lives in people

because of the ignorance of the father.

When the prophet is said to take a woman

for himself to fornicate because “the earth has fornicated

behind the lord,” even as Edem behind Elohim,

in these words the prophet clearly tells the whole mystery,

but because of Naas’s wickedness he is unheard.