The Wisdom of Jesus Christ - Part 11

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The Story of Sophia and Yaldabaoth (III 114,8-BG 8502 119,16)

 

(p.295) Mary said to him, " Holy master, where did your disciples come from,

where are they going, and what should they do here? " [38]

 

The perfect Savior said to them, " I want you to know that Sophia, the Mother of

all and the companion, desired all by herself to bring these creatures into

being without her male companion. By the will of the Father of all, that his

unimaginable goodness might be released, he created a curtain between the

immortals and those who were to come later, so that this might follow [39] every

realm and chaos, that what is defective from the female might appear, and error

might contend with her. [40] These constituted the curtain of the spirit. [41]

 

" From the eternal realms above the emanations of light, as I said before, a

droplet from light and spirit came down to the lower regions of the ruler of the

universe, in chaos, so that the forms they shaped might appear from that

droplet. This is judgment against the chief creator, [42] called Yaldabaoth.

[43]

 

The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (The International Edition)

Edited by Marvin Meyer; Advisory Board: Wolf-Peter Funk, Paul-Hubert Poirier,

James M. Robinson; Introduction by Elaine H. Pagels

The Wisdom of Jesus Christ, p.295

HarperCollins Publishers - New York

ISBN:978-0-06-052378-7

ISBN-10: 0-06-052378-6

 

Notes:

 

[38] The story of Sophia, Yaldabaoth, Adam, and the restoration of humanity in

the 'Wisdom of Jesus Christ' expands upon the account in 'Eugnostos the

Blessed.'

 

[39] Pp. 115-16 are missing in the Codex III version. The following pages are

added from BG 8502, 118-22.

 

[40] On the nature of error, sometimes personified, cf. the 'Gospel of Truth.'

 

[41] A curtain or veil also separates the realm of the divine from the world

below in other Gnostic texts, e.g., Valentinian texts.

 

[42] The text reads 'arkhigenetor,' here and below.

 

[43] On the story of Sophia and Yaldabaoth, cf. 'Secret Book of John' II, 9-14.