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PISTIS SOPHIA
A GNOSTIC GOSPEL
A GNOSTIC GOSPEL (WITH EXTEACTS FROM THE
BOOKS OF
THE SAVIOUE APPENDED) ORIGINALLY TRANSLATED
FROM GREEK INTOCOPTIC AND NOW FOE THE FIRST
TIME IN ENGLISH FROM SCHWAETZE'S LATIN
VERSION
OF THE ONLY KNOWN COPTIC MS. AND CHECKED BY
AMELINEAU'S FRENCH VERSION
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY G. R. S. MEAD
The Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky
Return to Searchable Text Index
The Theosophical Publishing Society
26
NEW YOBK: THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, 65 FIFTH
AVENUE
TABLE OF SUMMARIES.
INTRODUCTION.
PAGE
The documents and general literature of Gnosticism . xvii
The method of the best Gnostic doctors .... xxiii
Description and criticism of the MS xxv
General analysis of contents xxix
The date and authorship of the Greek original . . xxx
The Books of the Saviour xxxi
The probable history of the treatise xxxiii
The translator's apologia .......
The work that has been previously done ....
THE FIRST BOOK OF
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Theosophical Society in Wales-------
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PISTIS SOPHIA
Jesus hitherto instructeth his disciples only up to the region
of the first mystery ........ 1
What the first mystery surroundeth .....
The regions of the great invisible 2
The treasure of light
The light-world 3
Jesus and his disciples are seated on the
A great light-stream descendeth on Jesus ....
It surroundeth him entirely 5
Jesus ascendeth into heaven
The confusion of the powers and the great earthquake . . 6
The dismay of the disciples
Jesus descendeth again
The nature of his glory 7
Jesus addresseth them ........
He draweth his light unto himself ...... 8
He promiseth to tell them all things
How the vesture of light was sent unto him .... 9
Of the souls of the disciples and their incarnation ... 10
Of the incarnation of John the Baptist . . . . .11
That John was Elias in a former birth 12
IV CONTENTS.
PAGE
Of his own incarnation through Mary 13
More concerning the light-powers in the disciples .
Why they should rejoice that the time of his investiture had
come 14
The mystery of the five words on the vesture .... 15
The interpretation thereof 16
The three robes of light
The first vesture 17
The second vesture
The third vesture
The day of " Come unto us " 18
Jesus putteth on his vesture 19
He entereth the firmament
The powers of the firmament are amazed and fall down and
worship him 20
He entereth the first sphere
The powers of the first sphere are amazed and fall down and
worship him
He entereth the second sphere 21
The powers of the second sphere are amazed and fall down
and worship him
He entereth the aeons 22
The powers of the aeons are amazed and fall down and wor-
ship him
Adamas and the tyrants fight against the light ... 23
He taketh from them a third of their power .... 24
He changeth the motion of their spheres ....
Mary asketh and receiveth permission to speak ... 25
Mary interpreted the above from the words of Isaiah . . 26
Jesus commendeth Mary. She further questioneth him on
the changing of the spheres 28
Jesus oxplaineth further the conversion of the spheres . . 29
Philip questioneth Jesus 31
Why the path of the aeons was changed 32
Mary questioneth him again 33
The coming of Melchisedcc 34
Of the fabrication of the souls of men
The rulers devour their matter so that souls may not be fabri-
cated 36
Adamas and the tyrants battle against the light-vesture . . 37
Jesus taketh from them a third of their power and changeth
their course 38
They no more have the power of devouring their matter . 39
The powers adore the light-vesture 40
CONTENTS. V
PAGE
The tyrants become as the dead 41
Jesus entereth the thirteenth aeon and findeth Pistia Sophia 42
Sophia and her fellow-powers behold the light
Mary desireth to hear the story of Sophia .... 48
The rulers hate her for ceasing in their mystery ... 44
Arrogant uniteth himself with the rulers of the twelve seons
and emanateth a lion-faced power to plague Sophia . . 45
Sophia taketh the lion-faced power of Arrogant for the true
light 46
She descendeth to the twelve aeons and thence into chaos
The emanations of Arrogant squeeze the light-powers out of
Sophia 47
The first repentonce of Sophia
Mary interpreted the first repentance from Psalm Ixviii. . 52
The second repentance of Sophia 55
Peter complaineth of Mary 57
Peter interpreteth the second repentance from Psalm Ixx. . 58
Jesus promiseth to perfect the disciples in all things . . 59
The third repentance of Sophia 60
Martha asketh and receiveth permission to speak .
Martha interpreteth the third repentance from Psalm Ixix. . 61
The fourth repentance of Sophia 62
John asketh and receiveth permission to speak ... 64
John interpreteth the repentance^from Psalm ci. . . 65
Jesus cominendeth John ........ 66
The emanations of Arrogant again squeeze the light out of
Sophia 67
The fifth repentance of Sophia
Philip, the scribe, complaineth 69
Jesus explaineth that the appointed scribes are Philip and
Thomas and Matthew 70
Mary interproteth the words of Jesus concerning the three
witnesses
Philip is now given permission to speak 71
Philip interproteth the fifth repentance from Psalm xlvii. . 72
Philip is commended and continueth writing .... 73
The sixth repentance of Sophia 74
Andrew interpreteth the sixth repentance from Psalm cxxix. . 75
Jesus cominendeth Andrew. He promiseth that the tyrants
shall be judged and consumed by the fire of wisdom
Mary interpreteth the words of Jesus 76
The repentance of Sophia is not yet accepted. She is mocked
by the aeons 77
The seventh repentance of Sophia 78
VI CONTENTS.
PAGE
Thomas interpreteth the seventh repentance from Psalm
xxiv 80
Jesus commendeth Thomas 82
Jesus leadeth Sophia to a less confined region, hut without
the command of the first mystery
The emanations of Arrogant cease for a time to constrain
Sophia 83
The eighth repentance of Sophia 84
The emanations of Arrogant constrain her again ... 85
She continueth her repentance
Matthew interpreteth the repentance from Psalm xxx. . . 87
Jesus commendeth Matthew, and promiseth his disciples that
they shall sit on thrones with him 88
Mary interpreteth the words of Jesus 89
The ninth repentance of Sophia
James interpreteth the repentance from Psalm xxxiv. . . 93
Jesus commendeth James, and promiseth the first place unto
the disciples 95
Mary interpreteth the words of Jesus 96
The repentance of Sophia is accepted. Jesus is sent to help
her
The tenth repentance of Sophia 98
Peter interpreteth the repentance from Psalm cxix.
Jesus commendeth Peter 99
The eleventh repentance of Sophia
Arrogant aideth his emanations, and they again constrain
Sophia 102
The twelfth repentance of Sophia 103
Andrew interpreteth the repentance from Psabn cviii. . . 105
The thirteenth repentance of Sophia 108
Martha interpreteth the repentance from Psalm 1. . . . 109
Jesus sendeth forth a light-power to aid Sophia
Sophia uttereth a song of praise 110
Salome interpreteth the song of Sophia from the Odes of
Solomon 112
The power sent by Jesus formeth a crown of light on Sophia's
head . . -
Sophia uttereth another song of praise 113
Mary, the mother, asketh and receiveth permission to speak . 114
Mary, the mother, interpreteth the song of Sophia from the
nineteenth Ode of Solomon 115
Jesus commendeth his mother
The statute of the first mystery is fulfilled for taking Sophia
entirely out of chaos
CONTENTS. Vll
PAGE
The first mystery and Jesus send forth two streams of light-
powers to help Sophia 116
Mary interpreteth the mystery
Mary, the mother, further interpreteth the scripture . . 118
The story of the phantom spirit
Of the spiritual and material hodies of Jesus .... 119
The other Mary further interpreteth the same scripture from
the baptism of Jesus 121
Mary, the mother, again further interpreteth the same
scripture from the meeting of herself with Elizabeth,
mother of John the Baptist 122
Of the incarnation of Jesus
THE NOTE OF A SCRIBE.
A note by a later hand 128
THE SECOND BOOK OF
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PISTIS SOPHIA
John further explaineth the same scripture .... 125
Of Saba6th, Barb&o, labraoth and the light-vesture . . 126
Gabriel and Michael are summoned to help Pistis Sophia . 127
The light-stream rostoreth the light-powers into Sophia . . 128
The light-stream, having accomplished its purpose, departeth
from Sophia 129
Peter interpreteth the narrative from the Odes of Solomon . 130
The emanations of Arrogant cry aloud to him for help . . 134
He sendeth forth another more violent power, like unto a
winged arrow 135
The creation of the serpent, basilisk and dragon powers .
The dffimonial power of Adamas dasheth Sophia to the ground 186
Sophia again crieth to the light 137
Gabriel and Michael and the light-stream again go to her aid .
The transfiguration of Sophia 138
Jesus, the first mystery, looking without, causeth Sophia to
triumph 139
James interpreteth the narrative from Psalm xc. . . . 140
Sophia bingeth a song of praise 147
Thomas interpretcth the song of Sophia from the Odes of
Solomon 149
Sophia singeth another song of praise 153
Matthew interpreteth the song of Sophia from the Odes of
Solomon 155
Sophia continueth to sing 160
Vlll CONTENTS.
PAGE
Mary is afraid of Peter 160
Mary interpreted the song of Sophia from the Psalms . . 161
Sophia continueth her song 162
Martha interpreteth from the Psalms
Sophia continueth her song
Mary iuterpreteth from the Psalms 163
Sophia is led to a region below the thirteenth 83on and given
a new mystery 164
She continueth her song
Andrew interpreteth from the Psalms 166
The conversation of Sophia and the Light .... 166
The Light promiseth to seal the regions of Arrogant . . 167
How Sophia shall know that the time of her final deliverance
hath como
What shall come to pass at that time 168
The time for the final deliverance of Sophia is fulfilled . . 169
Adanias sondeth forth two emanations of darkness to plague
Sophia 170
Sophia again singcth a song to the Light . . . .171
James interpreteth the song from Psalm vii 173
Sophia addresseth Adamas and his rulers .... 174
Sophia yet again singeth to the Light 175
Martha interpreteth the words of Sophia from Psalm vii. . 176
Jesus bringeth Sophia again to the thirteenth a?on .
Sophia singeth the praises of the Light to her fellow-invisibles
177
Philip interpreteth the song from Psalm cvi 180
Mary questioneth Jesus 182
Of the four and twenty invisibles ...... 184
Of the twelve aeons 186
Of the thirteenth jpon ........
Of the midst 187
Of the right
Of the treasure
Of the inheritance 188
Mary again questioneth Jesus 189
Of the twelve saviours and their regions in the inheritance . 190
Of the ascension of them of the treasure into the inheritance . 192
Of their respective ranks in the kingdom 193
Of the powers of the light and their emanation and ascension
Of the powers of the midst and their ascension . . . 194
But this shall not take place till the end of the aeon . . 195
Of the ascension of the souls of the perfect . . . .196
Of the rank of the souls of the perfect 197
Mary interpreteth the narrative from the Scriptures . . 198
CONTENTS. IX
PAGE
Of the last supporter 199
That the region beyond the supporters is indescribable . . 200
Mary further questioneth Jesus 201
Of the second supporter
Of the third, fourth, and fifth supporters 202
Mary again questioneth Jesus
Of them that receive the mystery in the last supporter . . 203
John questioneth Jesus 204
Of the first statute
Of the first space 205
Of the second space
Of the third space
Of the tri'-spirituals in the third space, i.e., the first space of
the ineffable 206
Of the absolute mystery
Of the gnosis of the absolute mystery 207
The gnosis of the mystery of the ineffable continued . . 210
Of the hierarchies of powers 212
The disciples lose courage 215
Jesus cxplaineth that that mystery is really simpler than all
mysteries 216
Of the fission and emanation of the powers of the pleroma . 218
Of them of the second space of the ineffable ....
Of them of the first space of the ineffable . . . .221
Jesus promise th to explain further all in detail . . . 223
Of the mystery succinctly
Of the one and only word of the ineffable .... 224
Of the ascension of the soul of him who shall receive the abso-
lute mystery 225
Of tho rank of such a soul 226
Such souls are " christs," and shall be kings in the
kingdom 228
Of the dignity of the thrones in the kingdom .... 229
Of the gnosis of the word of the ineffable .... 230
Of the distinction between the absolute gnosis and the mys-
teries of light 231
Of the ascension of the souls of them that receive the twelve
mysteries of the first mystery 233
Mary questioneth Jesus 235
Of the three mysteries and five mysteries ....
Of tho first of the three mysteries 236
Of the second of the three mysteries
Of its efficacy with regard to the uninitiated . . . .237
Of the third of the three mysteries 238
Of its efficacy with regard to the uninitiated .... 239
X CONTENTS.
PAGE
Further concerning the three and five mysteries . . . 239
Of the one and only mystery 240
Of the mysteries of the second space 241
Of the mystery of the third space, the first from without
Of the reign of a thousand years of light 242
What is a year of the light
Of them of the first space in the kingdom of the thousand
years 248
Of them of the second space 244
Of them of the third space, the first from without .
Of the Books of leou 245
Andrew questioneth Jesus 246
That all men are potentially all powers 247
As to how men differ from the powers
Of the purifying mysteries 248
That all who are purified shall be saved 250
That finally they shall be higher than all powers ,
Jesus pardoneth the ignorance of Andrew .... 251
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOKS OF THE SAVIOUR.
Of the members of the ineffable 252
Jesus the great initiator is all the mysteries ....
Of the dignity of them who are initiated into the mysteries . 253
THE SECOND BOOK OF PISTIS SOPHIA (CONTINUED).
Of the preaching of the disciples 254
What men should avoid
What men should practise 259
Unto such the mysteries of light are to be given . . . 260
The mysteries are for the remission of sins .... 261
Mary again questioneth Jesus
Of the soul of the righteous man who is not initiated when it
passeth from the body
John questioneth Jesus 263
Of the initiated who sinneth and repcnteth until seven times 265
A former saying explained
Of the reward of the savers of souls
John continueth his questioning 266
That the mysteries shall be given unto a repentant brother
even up to the three of the second space ....
The limit of the power of the disciples to remit sins . , 268
A former saying explained
CONTENTS. xi
PAGE
Of the absolute mystery of the remission of sins . . . 269
John contimieth his questioning
The teaching with regard to sinners who receive the mysteries
further extended 270
John continueth his questioning 272
Of hypocrites who receive the mysteries 273
A former saying explained 274
Mary again questioneth Jesus 275
How the souls of them that have passed from the body may
be helped by those on earth 276
Mary continueth her questioning 277
How an initiate can escape from the death of the body with -
out pain
Mary continueth her questioning 279
The mystery of the resurrection of the dead ....
The disciples became frenzied at the sublimity of the teaching 280
How the disciples shall preach
What mysteries they shall give 281
The mystery of the resurrection not to be given to any .
Of the constitution of man 282
Of the counterfeit of the spirit 283
The state of the sinful soul after death 284
How a sinful soul is brought back to rebirth .... 285
Of the glorious ascension after death of the righteous soul
that hath received the mysteries 286
Of the state after death of one that hath received the mysteries
and yet hath transgressed 288
The apology of the rulers of the midst 290
The apology of the rulers of the fate
Of the ascension of that soul into the inheritance . . . 291
Mary interpreteth the teaching from former sayings . . 292
The piece of money that was brought unto Jesus . . . 293
A baying of Paul 294
The foes of one's own house
A saying concerning rebirth 295
Mary continueth to question Jesus 297
Of the workmen of wrath 298
How the soul of the sinner is stamped with its sins . . 299
How the baptisms purify sins
The separation of the " principles " by the mystery of
baptism 300
Mary interpreteth the same from a former saying .
Mary further questioneth Jesus 302
Of the remission of sins according to the mysteries
Mary interpreteth the same from the Psalms .... 303
Xll CONTENTS.
PAGE
Of the forgiveness oven unto twelve times of them who have
received the mystery of the first mystery .... 304
Of such initiated who die without repentance .... 305
Of the unending forgiveness of them that have received the
mystery of the ineffable 306
Of such initiated who die without repentance .... 307
Mary interpreteth the same from a former saying .
Of the absolute compassion of the absolute mystery . . 309
That the initiated are watched over in passing from the body
Mary intcrpreteth the same from a former saying . . . 310
If even men on earth are compassionate, how much more then
the highest mystery 311
Jesus trieth Peter 312
Mary interpreteth the incident from a former saying . . 313
In the case of repentance only higher mysteries than those
previously received can remit sins 314
There is no limit to the number of mysteries the faithful may
receive .......... 315
The fate of the initiated who sinneth is more terrible than that
of the ignorant sinner ....... 31G
Mary interpreteth the same from a former saying .
Of them who procrastinate, saying they have many births
before them 317
They who procrastinate are excluded from the light . . 318
Their entreaties at the gates of light
Mary interpreteth the same 319
Of the dragon of outer darkness ...... 320
Of the rulers of the twelve dungeons and their names
Of the doors of the dungeons 322
The angels that watch at the doors ......
What souls pass into the dragon, and how ....
The nature of the names of the dragons ..... 323
Of the severity of the torments of the dragon .... 324
Of the various degrees of the fires of the torments .
The disciples bewail the fate of sinueis ..... 325
Mary further questioneth Jesus
How to save the souls of the uninitiated after death . . 326
How the mystery will even save them that have no more
chance of rebirth ........ 327
Of the light-streams 329
Mary pleadeth for them who have neglected the mysteries . 330
Of the efficacy of the names of the twelve rulers of the dun-
geons 332
The souls who know the names escape from the dragons and
are taken to leou 333
CONTENTS.
Of their subsequent fate
Mary interpreted the same from a former saying , . . 335
Of the light of the sun and the darkness of the dragon
Of the rulers of the fate and the draught of oblivion . . 336
The meaning of the term " counterfeit of the spirit " . .
337
Of the fashioning of a new soul ......
Of the inbreathing of the power ...... 333
Jesus promiseth to reveal all in detail ..... 339
The teaching as to the light-power and counterfeit of the
spirit summarised ........ 340
Who are the " parents " we are to abandon .... 341
Salome is in doubt as to the matter ......
Mary removeth the doubt of Salome ..... 342
Of the charge given unto the counterfeit of the spirit . . 343
Of the charge given unto the builders ..... 344
Of the embryonic stages of incarnation ..... 345
Of the karmic compulsion of the parents ..... 346
The occult process of gestation .......
Of the incarnation of the " principles " ..... 347
Occult physiognomy .........
Of the nature of the destiny ....... 349
Of how a man comcth by his death ......
There is no escape from destiny ...... 350
Of the nature of the mysteries .......
The mysteries are for all men ....... 351
A prophecy of John the Baptist ...... 352
The criterion of orthodoxy ....... 353
The Books of leou .........
Few only will really comprehend the mysteries . . . 354
No soul had entered into the light before the coming of the
first mystery ......... 355
None of the prophets had been initiated .....
The patriarchs have not yet entered into the light . . . 356
Of the souls of the righteous from Adam to Jesus .
The disciples know of a surety that Jesus is the Great
Initiator .......... 357
EXTEACT FROM THE BOOKS OF THE SAVIOUR.
The disciples ask a boon of Jesus 359
The prayer of Jesus
The grouping of the disciples
The interpretation of the word ia& 359
He prayeth for a boon to be given to his disciples .
XIV CONTENTS.
PAGE
He commandeth the veils of the heavens to be withdrawn . 359
The figure of the disk of the sun 360
The figure of the disk of the moon
Jesus and the disciples are transported to the ways of the
midst
Of the repentant and unrepentant rulers
Of the hierarchies of the rulers and the names of their five
regents 361
Of the powers that leou infused into the five regents . . 362
Of the functions of Zeus, the chief regent ....
The mystery names of the regents 363
Mary questioneth Jesus on the ways of the midst .
Of the mysteries which Jesus will give unto his disciples . 364
Of the constitution of the ways of the midst .... 365
Of the regent of the first dsemonial hierarchy ....
Of leou and Melchisedec 366
How the dsemonial rulers carry off souls 367
The length of their torments
Of the time when souls are freed from the torments of their
rulers 368
The regent of the second dsemonial hierarchy ....
The length of their torments 369
Of the time when souls are freed from their torments
The regent of the third dasmonial hierarchy ....
The length of their torments 370
Of the time when souls are freed from their torments
The regent of the fourth dcemonial hierarchy .... 371
The length of their torments
Of the time when souls are freed from their torments
The regent of the fifth daemonial hierarchy .... 372
The length of their torments
Of the time when souls are freed from their torments . . 373
The disciples beseech Jesus to have mercy upon sinners
Jesus encourageth his disciples 374
Jesus and his disciples ascend higher
He breatheth on their eyes
Their eyes are opened 375
Jesus explaineth the vision of fire and water, and wine and
blood
The same further explained from former sayings . . . 376
Jesus and his disciples descend to the earth ....
Jesus promiseth to give them the mystery of remission . . 377
The mystic sacrament
The sacramental invocation 378
CONTENTS. XV
PAGE
The rite is consummated 379
Directions as to the future use of the rite .... 880
Of three other great rites
Of the highest of all mysteries and of the great name
Of the efficacy of that name 381
The punishment of him that curseth ..... 382
Of the punishment of the slanderer 383
The punishment of the murderer ...... 385
Peter protesteth against the women 386
The punishment of the contemptuous ..... 387
The'.punishment of the blasphemer 389
The punishment of him that hath intercourse with males
The punishment of a foul act of sorcery ..... 390
Of the after-death state of the righteous 391
The cup of wisdom ......... 392
A man suffereth for each separate sin
Even the greatest of sinners, if he repent, shall inherit the
kingdom 393
Of the time favourable for the birth of thorn who shall find
the mysteries
The disciples beseech Jesus to have mercy upon them . . 394
The preaching of the disciples .......
INTRODUCTION.
IT is with somewhat of the feelings of one setting forth
on a forlorn hope that the writer ventures to T ^ do
plunge into the chaos of syncretism generally ments
classified under the vague term Gnosticism. a ^ cral
Indeed no subject connected with the history literature
of religion is fraught with greater difficulty, as f s ^ nosti
"
may be seen from the comparative paucity of
general works on Gnosticism from the pens of European
scholars. In fact the English reader, outside of a few
translations, must content himself with Burton's Bampton
Lectures, MansePs Gnostic Heresies, Norton's History of the
Gnostics, King's Gnostics and their Remains, and an article
by Salmon.
Not only did the persecution of the early Gnostics cause
the loss of nearly all their documents, but also some of the
most important writings of the Fathers, which might have
thrown more light on the subject, have disappeared ; among
these may be mentioned the Syntagma of Justin, and the
Syntagma of Hippolytus.
Our chief authorities among the Fathers are Justin Martyr,
Irenfeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Hippo-
lytus, Thilastcr, Epiphanius, Jerome and Theodoret. But
as all, with the solitary exception of Hippolytus, quote the
Gnostic documents in the briefest possible manner, and
devote almost all their space to the refu tation of heretical
opinions, it is exceedingly difficult to make out from such
controversial writings what the real views of the various
Gnostic schools were ; and this in spite of the immense
labour and acumen which have been brought to the task
b
XV111 INTEODUCTION.
by such raen as Massuet, Beausobre and Mosheim in the
last century, and in the present by Neander, Matter, Baur,
Moller, Lipsius and others who will be mentioned later.
(The general literature of the subject consists of the
Church Histories of Neander, Baur and Sehaff ; Neander :
Genet. Entw. d. Gnost, Tub., 1831 ; Burton : Banipton
Lectures on Heresies of the Apost. Age, Oxf., 1830; Mohler:
Ursprung d. Gnost., Tub., 1831 ; Baur : D. christl. Gnosis,
Tub., 1835; Norton: Hist, of the Gnostics, Boat., 1845;
Moller : Gesch. d. Kosmologie, Halle, 1860 ; Lipsius : D.
Gnosticismus, Leip., 1860; Harnack : Zur Quellcncritik d.
Gesch. d. Gnost., Leip., 1873^ Mansel : Gnostic Heresies,
Lond., 1875.)
In fact, research into this obscure subject has given
rise to one of the most brilliant feats of scholarship on
record. This was achieved by R. A. Lipsius, the learned
professor of divinity in the university of Jena, in his
Quellencritik des Epiphanios (1865). From the accounts
of Epiphanius and Philaster he reconstructs to some ex-
tent the lost Syntagma of Hippolytus, of which a description
is given by Photius. This treatise was founded on certain
discourses of Ireiueus. By comparing Philaster, Epiphanius,
and the Pseudo-Tortullian, he recovers Hippolytus ; and by
comparing his restored Hippolytus with Irenams he infers
a common authority, probably the lost Syntagma of Justin,
or, as I ventured to suggest in my essay on Simon Magus
(1892 ; p. 41), the work from which Justin obtained his
information.
This brilliant attempt was owing to the revival of interest
in Gnostic studies aroused by a lucky find. In 1842
Minoides Mynas, a learned Greek, sent on a literary mission
by the French government, discovered what is said to be a
fourteenth century MS. in one of the monasteries on Mount
Athos. This purported to be a Refutation of all Heresies
in ten books, the first three and a half of which were un-
fortunately missing. Emmanuel Miller published the first
edition of this literary treasure at Oxford in 1851,
INTRODUCTION. XIX
erroneously attributing it to Origen. Further research,
however, demonstrated beyond a doubt that the author was
Hipppljtus Romanus, Bishop of Ostia, in the first quarter
of the third century. (See Bunsen, Hippolytus and His Age,
1852 ; Dollinger, Hippolytus und Kallistus, 1853, of which
there is an English translation by Plummer ; and Words-
worth, St. Hippolytus and the Church of Rome, 1880, 2nd
ed.) As this treatise, entitled Philosophumena or the Refu-
tation of all Heresies, iw by far the most important work on
Gnosticism from the pen of any Church Father, owing to
its lengthy quotations from original Gnostic documents, it
may be useful to state hei^ that in 1859 Duncker, after
Schneidewin's death, edited and published his colleague's
excellent text and moderate Latin translation at Gottingen \
in 1860 Cruice published a less reliable text and Latin
translation at Paris ; and that the English reader will find
a passable translation by J. H. Macmahon in the Aute-
Niceiie Christian Library entitled The Writings of Hippo-
lytuis, vol. i., 1868.
Curiously enough it was in the same year in which the
text of the Philosophumena was published, 1851, that our
present document, Pistis Sophia, was first brought into
general notice.
Of Gnostic works that have come down to us, undoubtedly
the most valuable is the Coptic codex, of which we are
treating in the present work. In fact, the only other im-
portant relic of the Gnosis which is so far known to have
withstood the ravages of time and escaped the destruction
of Christian and Mohammedan vandalism, is the Coptic
papyrus, known as the Codex Brucianus and preserved in the
Bodleian at Oxford, to which reference will be made later on.
In the same library there is also another Coptic MS., a
small quarto of 236 pages, entitled Treatise on the Mysteries
of the Greek Letters, to which an Arabic translation is
appended. The author was a priest called Atasius, who,
somewhat in the fashion of the Gnostic doctor Marcus,
deduces from the form of the letters of the Greek alphabet
XX INTBODUCTION.
and the meaning of their names, the development of the
dogmas of creation, providence and redemption, as Dulaurior
tells us (op. inf. cit., p. 538). Dulaurier in 1847 promised to
publish the text and a French translation of this work, but
his labours have never seen the light.
To this may be added, as connected with the magical side
of the subject, some Greek Papyri mostly in fragments.
Two of the Leyden Papyri of the third century have
recently been edited, translated, and commentated upon
by A. Dieterich (Abraxas : Studien zur Religionsgeschichte
des Spatorn Altertums ; Leipzig, 1891); the London and
Parisian Papyri, of the third or fourth century, have been
edited by Wessely ; in 18. r >2 C. W. Goodwin also did some
good work on the subject (Fragment of a Gra?co-Kgyptian
Work upon Magic from a Papyrus in the British Museum,
Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Octavo Scries, No. 2;
Goodwin edited, translated and annotated this fragment).
Aim'linoiu (P. S., Intr. iv.) says that Rossi (F.), the
Egyptologist of Turin, has published a papyrus containing
an invocation similar to those in the Pistis Sophia, but I
have not been able to find this work. It is not in I Papyri
Copti del Museo Egi/io di Torino which Rossi transcribed
and translated (Turin, 1887-1892).
There is also a short Hebrew treatise, The Sword of
Moses (CM., Oxford, 1531, C; Cod. Heb., Caster, 178; see
(Master's text and translation, Journal of Royal Asiatic
Society, 1896, i. and ii.).
The above magical works, however, arc more connected
with the superstitions of sorcery than with magic proper,
and when attached to Gnosticism characterise its degrada-
tion in the hands of the superstitious and ignorant.
We may also mention the Codex Nazarams, although it
is said at earliest to be post-Mohammedan, of which there
are no less than four MS, copies, dated respectively 15GO,
1632, 1688 and 1730, in the Bibliothcuue Nationale alone.
This Codex is the scripture of the so-called Sahacana, or
Christians of St. John, or Mandaites, and is known aa
INTEODUCTION. xxi
Sidra Adam or The Book of Adam. The text, in a strange
Chald30-Syrinc idiom, was first published at Lund (1815,
1816), by Matth. Norberg, the learned Swede, together
with a vocabulary and a Latin translation, in four quarto
volumes. There is also a French translation by F. Tempes-
tini in Mignc's Dictionnaire des Apocryphes (185G). Compare
also the thesis, Stclkc Nasaneorum /Eoncs ex Sacro Gent is
Codice, by Olof Svanander, presumably a pupil of Norberg
(Lund, 1811).
Finally we may mention the .Ethiopic Enochian litera-
ture. In 1773 Bruce brought back from Abyssinia three
copies of the /Ethiopia version of The Book of Enoch.
Archbishop Laurence issued a translation in 1821 (2nd ed.,
1833 ; 3rd, 1838), under the title The Book of Enoch.
Hoffman published a German translation, Das Buch Henoch
(Jena, 1838), Gfn'uvr a Latin version of no value (Stuggart,
1840) ; Dillmann a critical text and also a German version
(Leip/ig, 1S51 ; 2nd ed., 1853); Migne's Dictioimahv des
Apocryphes (1856) contains an anonymous French transla-
tion ; there is also an anonymous reprint of Laurence's
translation, with a controversial introduction (London,
1883); and finally Charles recently (1893) published an
English translation from Dillmann's text. This year Charles
has also published The Book of the Secrets of Enoch (Oxford),
a translation from Slavonic, which presents us with a new
tradition entirely, namely, the Slavonic Enoch, from a Greek
original which he places from B.C. 30 to A.D. 70, the Greek
having in its turn a Hebrew background of a still earlier
date. In an Appendix is a translation from the Slavonic of
a fragment of Melchisedecian literature. For more than
1200 years this version of Enoch has been unknown save in
Russia, and in Western Europe >\as not known to exist
even in Kussia till 1892.
Outside of apocryphal scriptures and the ^ orld-biblcs,
these arc all the documents connected directly or indirectly
with the Gnosis, which, to my knowledge, we possess ; and,
in spite of the good work that has been done since 1850,
INTRODUCTION.
the chaos of Gnosticism still remains to a large extent in-
tractable, refusing to submit to the ordering of even the
most praiseworthy and painstaking industry .
Nor is the reason of this ill-success mostly due to the
paucity of material, but rather to the intrinsic difficulty of
the subject itself, which is not only replete with the most
involved mysticism, but also bound up with magic and
mystery and occasionally sorcery of every kind. It is,
therefore, not a matter of gre"at surprise, when we remember
thefabsojute disbelief of scholarship in magic of any kind,
and the distaste of the present age for everything connected
with mysticism, to find that no single writer on the subject,
except perhaps King in a very feeble fashion, has really
grappled with the problem. The point of view of the most
liberal-minded scholars with regard to this tabooed subject
may be seen from the remarks of Dr. (taster, who would
have magic treated after the fashion of folklore. The
translator of The Sword of Moses in the second paragraph
of his introduction Hoc. sup. cit.) writes : " it is
remarkable
that we do not possess a good work, or exhaustive study,
on the history and development of magic. It is true that
we find allusions to it, and sometimes special chapters
devoted to the charms and incantations and other super-
stitious customs prevailing among various nations in books
dealing with such nations. But a comprehensive study
of magic is still a pious (or impious) wish." And, even
were such a task attempted by some venturesome scholar,
the result, we may venture to suggest, would at best be
merely a guess-work compilation, and of no real value,
unless the compiler in addition to his scholarship had not
only a belief in but also a knowledge of the art.
To treat of Gnosticism, then, in a really comprehensible
manner, requires not only a writer who at least believes
in the possibilities of magic, but also a mystic or at least
one who is in sympathy with mysticism a person difficult
to find nowadays, when the very names of magic and
mysticism evoke nothing but a smile of contempt and
INTRODUCTION . xxiii
a frown of disapproval from the world of science and
letters.
The present Introduction, however, is only concerned
with the purely historical and critical side of the subject,
and even this is restricted to the consideration of one
document.
Though it would be highly presumptuous to endeavour
to define Gnosticism without a previous analysis The
and classification of the various schools, sects method of
and offshoots which have been grouped under Gnostic
this vague heading, we may nevertheless venture doctors,
to suggest the probable point of view which led the best
of the Gnostic doctors, pre-eminently Valentinus, to compile
their various treatises. Let us then consider the movement
about the year 150 A.D. By that time the original Logia
or the Urevangelmm of Christianity had disappeared, and
the Synoptic Gospels were all set, in the framework of the
traditional life of the great Master of the Faith. The
popular tidal-wave of the new religion had come exclusively
from the ocean of Jewish tradition, and was engulfing
a more universal view of Christianity in the same flood of
intolerance and exclusiveness which had characterised the
Hebrew nation throughout the whole of its previous
history.
This startling phenomenon was now attracting the
attention of minds which were not only skilled in the
philosophy of the schools, but also imbued with the eclectic
spirit of a universal theosophy and a knowledge of the
inner doctrines of the ancient religions, Such men
thought that they saw in the Christian Gospel a similarity
of doctrine and a uni versalism which was consanguineous
with these inner teachings of the ancient faiths, and set to
work to endeavour to check the exclusive and narrowing
tendencies which they saw so rapidjy developing among
the less instructed, who made faith superior to knowledge,
even to such an extent as to openly cojnclemn eyjery other
form of religion and scoff at all philosophy and education.
INTRODUCTION.
It is true that about this time such meii arose as Clement
of Alexandria and Origen who voiced much more liberal
views and laid the foundations of Christian theology, but
they were exceptions to the rule.
The Gnostic doctors could not believe that the Jews were
the only nation in the past to whom God had revealed
himself, and that the scriptures of the nations were to be
cast on the dustheap of falsehood and error. And yet they
saw that the old order of things had received a rude shock,
and that the fierce faith which had been aroused among the
people in the personality of Jesus, and the social revolution
which was rushing along with leaps and bounds under their
very eyes, could never be dammed back again. All they
could hope to do was to turn the energy generated into a
more universal channel. Accordingly they used the tradi-
tional story of Jesus which had roused such mighty enthu-
siasm, as the framework into which they wove the u wisdom"
of the great religions. Believing, as they did, that truth
was one, and at no time a respecter of persons or nations ;
that all the nations had received of that truth in proportion
to their needs and capacities, they wove these ideas into
the Christian tradition, and compiled gospels and apocalypses
of that veiled and mysterious wisdom which had been
guarded so carefully in the temples throughout the ages,
and into which they believed Jesus had been initiated and
was in his turn an initiator. Nor did they so much invent
these things out of their own heads as it would appear, but
rather compiled them from, existing scrijjtures, many of
which have since disappeared. Tliey drew from the wisdom
of Egypt, Chaldtea, Babylonia, Assyria, Phoenicia, ^Ethiopia,
the books of Orpheus, Pythagoras and Plato, of the Magi
and Zorojister ; and even perhaps in some indirect way from
those of the Brfihnmns. Their source of information was for
the most part the Orient. : "' '''-*- ^ . / '
Believing as they did, that the orthodox life of Jesus was
legendary and allegorical, and finding many other legends
current which were not included in the Synoptic account ;
INTRODUCTION. XXV
devoted to the mystic life, and making light of the historical
side of religion, with faith alone in the watchword " now
and within," it is evident that their views met with little
favour among the orthodox who clung above all things to
what they held to be the greatest fact of all history. The
ancient wisdom, however, proved far too difficult for
popular comprehension, and being also misunderstood even
by the followers of the great doctors themselves in many
cases, often degenerated into superstition and the wildest of
speculations.
But, as we are not attempting to trace the evolution of
the movement, but simply presenting one of the better
sides of the endeavour, we will proceed to a consideration of
the document we are especially interested in, at the same
time reminding the reader that in this Introduction only a
brief outline of the MS. will be attempted, and all further
considerations will be postponed for a further Commentary
which the writer has the intention of undertaking.
The only MS. of the Pistis Sophia known to exist was
bought by the British Museum from the heirs of
Dr. Askew at the end of the last century, and is t j on ai ,<j
now catalogued as MS. Add. 5114. The title on criticism
the back of the binding is Piste Sophia Coptice,
and below is printed Mus. Brit. Jure Emptionis. On the
top of the first page of the MS. is the signature A. Askew,
M.I). On the first page of the binding is the following note,
probably in Woide's hand : "Codex dialecti Supcrioris ^Egypti,
quam Sahidicam seu Thebaidicam vocant, en jus titulus
exstat pagina 115: Pinch suaou ntomos htpiste Sophia
Touios secundus fidelis Sapient he Deest pagina 337-344."
The title Piste Sophia is incorrect ; nowhere is this form
found in the book, and the suggested emendation of
Dulaurier and Renan from Pistis Sophia to Piste Sophia
" La fidele Sagessc," has received no support from other
scholars.
Where Askew found it or bought it, I cannot discover.
It is not mentioned in his biography, and the reference
XXVI INTRODUCTION.
given by Kostlin (v. i.) is unverifiable. When the Museum
bought it is not stated. It was evidently before the great
sale of the Askew library which lasted twenty days in 1785,
for the Pistis Sophia is not mentioned in the catalogue
(Bibliotheca Askeviana Manuscripta, etc., 1785; v. Askew,
A., Cat. B.M.). The MS. is written on vellum in Greek
uncial letters, and is in the Upper Egyptian dialect, called
Thebaidic or Sahidic. It consists of 346 quarto pages
written in double column, and for the most part is in an
excellent state of preservation ; several pages, however, are
badly defaced, and a number faint. Perhaps the most
competent expert who has yet given a decided opinion as
to its date is Woide, whose knowledge of such matters was
very extensive, and cannot be easily surpassed. It was by
Woidc that the New Testament, according to the text of
the famous Codex Alexandrinus, was edited, in uncial types
cast to imitate those of the MS., in 1786. In an Appendix
to this great undertaking, in 1799, he added certain frag-
ments of the New Testament in the Thebaico-Coptic dialect,
together with a dissertation on the Coptic version of the
New Testament. The date of the Codex Alexandrinus is
pretty generally assigned to the fifth century, and with the
exception of the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus,
which are sometimes assigned to the fourth century, is the
oldest extant MS. of the New Testament. This being
the case, it is of interest to read Woidc's description
and opinion of the MS. of Pistis Sophia, which was lent to
this ripe scholar by Dr. Askew and his heirs long enough
for him to copy it out from the first word to the last.
Woide was, therefore, eminently fitted in every way to form
an opinion ; in fact, no one of equal fitness seems to have
appeared in the field since his time. In Cramer's Beytrage
(op. inf. cit., pp. 82 sq.), Woide wrote as follows in 1778 :
"It [P. S.J is a very old MS. in 4 to on parchment in Greek
uncial characters, which are not so round as those in the
Alexandrine MS. in London, and in the Claromontain MS.
in Paris [Codex Regius Parisiensis, also an Alexandrine text].
INTEODUCTION. XXV11
The characters of the MS. [P. S.] are somewhat longer and
more angular, so that I take them to be older than both the
latter MSS., in which the letters eta, theta, omicron, rho
and sigma are much rounder. There are no capital letters
in the whole book ; the letters are all equal, only at the end
of the lines there are sometimes smaller letters to bring the
word in. There are no other marks of distinction than a
full stop or colon. The words are not separated from each
other ; the paragraphs arc not distinguished by breaks, but
by full stops. At the beginning of the book, of the second
part and of the two appendices, the first letter is not in
advance of the line. If the paragraph begins with the line,
1 have sometimes, though seldom, remarked that the first
letter is in advance of the line. If the paragraph begins in
the middle of a line sometimes, but not often, the first letter
of the following line is somewhat advanced. Here and
there also a section is noted on the edge by a mark that
looks almost like a Greek zeta, or by a line from the edge
to above the word. If the paragraph begins at the
beginning of the line, the marks arc on the same line ; if
it begins in the middle of the line, they are at the beginning
of the following line. The folios are numbered in Greek
letters."
Thus we see that Woide places the date of the MS. at
latest about the latter end of the fourth century. It is also
quite evident that the whole MS. from first to last is by the
same hand, and that it is a copj\of another MS. There
are also a few corrections at the top or bottom of the
columns by a hand of the same date. An inspection of its
contents reveals the further indisputable fact that the Coptic
text was not only a translation from a Greek original, but
that it has preserved an enormous quantity of the original
Greek terms without any attempt at translation. This
may at once be seen from Schwartze's Latin version, in
which he has also preserved these innumerable Greek
words without translation.
The whole style of the work, moreover, is foreign to
XXV111 INTRODUCTION.
the Coptic idiom, as may be seen from Amelineau's Intro-
duction to his French version (p. x), where he writes :
"Whoever has any knowledge of the Coptic language
knows that this idiom is foreign to long sentences ; that
it is a tongue eminently analytic and by no means syn-
thetic ; that its sentences are composed of small clauses
exceedingly precise, and almost independent of each other.
Of course all Coptic authors are not equally easy, some of
them are even exceedingly difficult to understand ; but this
much is certain, that never under any circumstances in
Coptic do we come across those periods with complicated
incidental sentences, of three or four different clauses,
whose elements are synthetically united together so that
the sense of the entire sentence cannot be grasped before
we arrive at the last clause. Nevertheless, this is just
what the reader meets with in this work. The sentences
are so entangled with incidental and complicated propo-
sitions, that often, indeed very often, the Coptic translator
has lost the thread, so to say, and made main propositions
out of incidental clauses, so that we find the continuation
of the first proposition three or four pages further on.
This peculiarity is not calculated to facilitate the trans-
lation of a work, the ideas in which are in themselves very
difficult to comprehend ; the one thing that it conclusively
proves is that the book w;is originally written in a learned
language ; that consequently none of the idioms spoken in
the Orient could have been the original language in which
the work in question was conceived and written ; that we
must accordingly choose between Greek and Latin ; that
only one of these languages at this period, the second
century [the date assigned to the original by Amelineau] ,
is at all likely in Egypt, namely, Greek."
Amelineau makes rather too much of the abstruse nature
of the subject ; for, though many passages are transcendent-
ally mystical, nevertheless the whole is conceived in a
narrative or descriptive style. There is no attempt at
philosophical argument, no involved logical propositions ;
INTEODUCTION.
there may also be another reason, as we shall suggest later
on, for the " losing of the thread." Nevertheless the
main
argument of this learned Coptic scholar is unanswerable.
And not only is it evident that we are dealing with a
translation into Coptic from Greek, but also that
^ i i- . i . , , General
we are not dealing with a single work, but at analysis
least with two treatises, fragments of one of which of con '
have been in two places inserted in the body of
the main treatise, and a larger fragment appended at the
end of the MS. The main narrative also is broken by
several important lacuna;, due in one case to the loss of
several leaves of the MS., and generally to the carelessness
of the scribe ; the MS. is, moreover, evidently incomplete.
A general analysis of the contents reveals the following
general outline of contents, the references being to the
pagination of the MS. adopted in Schwartze's text, which
is retained between brackets in the present translation.
Pistis Sophia, Book I 1-124
Pistis Sophia, Book II. . . . 126-357
From the Books of the Saviour . . 357-390
There is, however, no title to Book 1., nor does there
seem to be any reason why the title " The Second Book of
Pistis Sophia " should be inserted where it is, right in the
middle of the narrative.
Book II. ends halfway down page 357, and the whole
subject abruptly changes with the heading, " Extract from
the Books of the Saviour."
In addition to these three main divisions of the MS., two
pages (253-254:), with the same heading, " Extract from the
Books of the Saviour/' are inserted at haphazard in the
middle of Book II. They have no reference to what goes
before or what follows ; nor are they quite of the same
nature as the lengthier Extract at the end of the MS.
There is, moreover, a note which occupies the last column
of Book I., and which has not the slightest reference to the
rest of the narrative ; why it is inserted in this place is a
XXX INTRODUCTION.
mystery. It was probably copied in by mistake, or the
Coptic translator for some reason or other added a note
from some other book, most probably one of the Books of
the Saviour.
At the end of the MS., and after the conclusion of the
narrative, there is an extra loaf which has only the left-hand
column partially filled with writing. The subject is here
again completely changed, and leads us to suppose that
some leaves are missing before it.
Finally, at page 379 eight pages or four leaves of the
MS. have disappeared.
A general view of the nature of the subjects treated of
may be seen from the contents table, which consists of the
indented summaries I have added to the text.
The question that next arises is what was the original
Greek work from which the Coptic translation of
and a C the Pistis Sophia was made. I am convinced that
author- ^ or jg ma i W as no other than the famous Apoca-
thc P Greek lypse of Sophia, composed by Valentinus, the most
origiual. ] earnec i doctor of the Gnosis, who lived for thirty
years in Egypt in the latter half of the second century, and
was also a master of the Greek language, in which he wrote
hi* treatises. But the further consideration of this point
must be postponed for the Commentary I propose to write,
and in which a comparison between the Pistis Sophia and
the rest of the fragments of the writings of Valentinus
which have come down to us, will be attempted. It is
sufficient to state here that this view is supported by
Woide, Jablonski, La Croze, Scholtze, Dulaurier, Schwartze,
Renan, Revaillaiit, Usener, and Amclineau, the last of whom,
in his Essay on Egyptian Gnosticism and in the introduction
to his translation of the Pistis Sophia, has dealt at length
with the matter. The guarded opinion of Harnack also
allows for the date of Valentinus. In his essay on the
subject in 1891 (op. inf. cit., pp. 95 sq.), the famous Biblical
critic gives the terminus a quo as 140, and the terminus
ad quern as 302. He bases the earliest limit on the fact
INTRODUCTION. XXXI
that the Gospels and Pauline Epistles are regarded in the
text as Holy Scripture, and even a passage from the Epistle
to the Romans is quoted by the author as a saying of Jesus
by the mouth of Paul. Now, the Pauline writings \yere
never spoken of as Holy Scripture before the time of
Antoninus Pius (138). The latest limit is arrived at by the
passage about persecution on page 277, which leads Harnack
to conjecture that the author was writing at a time when
the Christians were still lawfully persecuted ; but on the
other hand the author does not seem to have written in a
persecution he had gone through. Thus Harnack eliminates
the persecution of Maximin and arrives at the 302 limit.
But all this is very unsatisfactory ; and deductions made
from internal evidence, though an essential part of the
higher criticism, arc in this case based on too slender
premises. The method of Ameliueau, who compares the
known fragments of Valeiitinus with the text of Pistis
Sophia, is the only really satisfactory test.
But what of the fragments from the Books of the
Saviour which have been iiisertgd in and added _to
the text of the Pistis Sophia proper ? On pages Books
246 and 354 mention is made of certain Books f t l ie
Saviour.
of leou, which Jesus promises to give to his disciples
when he has finished the teaching on which he is engaged.
In the first case, a fevs pages later on (253) the lirst short
extract is inserted in the text, and in the second,
almost immediately after, the Pistis Sophia treatise is
concluded (page 357), and we find the rest of the MS.
devoted to a far longer extract from the Books of the Saviour.
These extracts bear a remarkable similarity to the contents
of the Coptic Papyrus, which the famous Scottish traveller
Bruce brought to England in 1769 from Upper Egypt,
and bequeathed to the care of the Bodleian Library. This
Papyrus consists of 78 leaves, each containing from 27
to 34 lines, 29 centimetres high by 17 wide, not in roll
but in book form. It is written in Greek characters and
is in the Thebaico-Coptic dialect like the Pistis Sophia.
XXX11 INTBODUCTION.
Some twenty leaves at least are missing, and even when
Bruce found it it was in a very dilapidated condition.
It was further injured by neglect and damp in the
Bodleian, when Woide found it and carefully copied it.
Woide considered that it was the Egyptian form of the
Pistis Sophia written by Valentinus in Coptic. It is, how-
ever, evidently a translation like the Pistis Sophia from
the Greek, and like the Pistis Sophia is crammed full of
the Greek original technical terms. Schwartze also copied
it. Tn 1891 Amelineau published a text and a French
translation at Paris, and in 1892 Schmidt published a text
and a German translation at Leipzig.
Schmidt has sorted out this puzzling chaos of leaves
with the following results :
The Codex consists of two treatises quite distinct in
matter and character. The first is divided into two parts,
the two Books of Icon, under the general title, The Book
of the Great Logos according to the Mystery [? of IcouJ.
The second treatise has no title, and is followed by a long
Hymn to the Gnosis, also without title. The First Book of
leou opens with the title, "This is the Book of the Know-
ledge of the Invisible God."
One thing is abundantly clear on every page, namely,
that we are dealing with a MS. which contains the ideas
of the same school as that to which the Pistis Sophia and
the Books of the Suviour belong. In fact, the longer Extract
from the Books of the Saviour practically gives the same
account of the three baptisms as that found in far greater
fulness in the Codex Brucianus.
Whether or not the Extracts from the Books of the
Saviour appended to the MS. of the Pistis Sophia belong
to the miswing portions of the Codex Brucianus, or
whether the translator from the Greek abridged some
portion of the Books of Icon to give his readers an idea of
these books to which the text of the Pistis Sophia had
just made reference, it is impossible to say ; this much is
certain, that the Books of the Saviour and the treatises of
INTRODUCTION. XXxiii
the Codex Brucianus are united by the closest ties of con-
sanguinity, and that a commentator on the one mast be
intimately acquainted with the contents of the other.
The frequent mention of the name Melchisedec through-
out the text of the Pistis Sophia reminds us of the frag-
ment of Melchisedecian literature translated by Charles
(v. s.), and its close connection with the Enochian literature,
and points perhaps to one of the sources of the Greek
original of the Books of the Saviour, and also of Pistis
Sophia.
The disconnected column at the end of Book I. un-
doubtedly belongs to the same collection of writings
as the Books of the Saviour, and also the two pages (253,
254) inserted in the middle of Book II. Finally the odd
column at the end of the MS. may either come from the
same source or be an unaided effort of the translator or
scribe.
Let us now run over the probable history of our
treatise, and suggest the accidents which may have The pro-
befallen it before it reached the hands of Antony t^of the
Askew. treatise.
The original Greek treatise of the Pistis Sophia was
compiled by Valentinus in the latter half of the second
century, perhaps in Alexandria. By "compiled" I mean
that the Apocalypse of Sophia, or whatever its title may
have been, was not invented from first to last by Valentinus.
The traditional framework of the narrative, the selection of
texts and passages from qtl^er scriptures, Hebrew, Christian,
Egyptian, Chaldrean, ^Ethiopic, etc., or whatever they may
have been, and the adaptation of nomenclature, were his
share of the task ; but it is evident that in many places he
was translating or paraphrasing himself, and that he had
great difficulty in turning some of the Oriental terms into
Greek, the original of the name Pistis Sophia being not
the least difficult of such n[ \\ i\y hj'mg left in its
present barbaric and un-Greek form.
Of this original of Valentinus doubtless several copies
XXXiv INTRODUCTION.
were made, and mistakes may have crept in. One of these
copies was carried up the Nile and translated into the
vernacular, Greek being but little understood so high up
the river. The translator was evidently not a very accurate
person, as may be seen from his casual insertion of scraps
from other books ; moreover, his knowledge of the subject
was so superficial that he had to leave many terms in the
original, and doubtless made guesses at others. It is also
probable that he added some things and subtracted others
on the score of orthodoxy, as may be seen by an inspection
of the rest of the fragments of Valentinus. The wearisome
length of the Psalms, for instance, which Pistis Sophia
recites in her repentances, followed by the shorter excerpts
from the Salornonic Odes, leads one to suppose that Valen-
tinus quoted only a few striking verses from each Psalm ;
and that the more orthodox translator, with that love of
wearisome repetition so characteristic of monkish piety,
added the other less apposite verses, with which he was
very familiar, while he was compelled to leave the Salomonic
Odes as they stood owing to his lack of acquaintance with
the originals.
Moreover, the translator must have either translated, or
possessed a translation of, The Books of the Saviour and
The Books of Teou. These were also most probably a com-
pilation of Valentinus, or perhaps The Books of the Saviour
were a compilation of Valentinus from the older Books of
leou, which may have belonged to the vEthiopic Enochian
literature, for they are stated in the Pistiw Sophia (pages
246 arid 354) to have been written down in Paradise by
Enoch, and preserved from the Flood.
The MS. of the Coptic translator was copied towards the
end of the fourth century by some ignorant copyist, who
made many mistakes of orthography. It was copied by
one man, as a task, and hurriedly executed ; and I should
suggest that two copies were then made and occasionally
a page of one copy substituted for a page of the other ; and,
as the pages were not quite exact to a word or phrase,
INTRODUCTION. XXXV
we thus may account for some puzzling repetitions and for
equally puzzling lacunre.
What was the history of the MS. after that date is
almost impossible even to conjecture. Its history must,
however, have been exciting enough for it to have escaped
the hands of fanatics both Christian and Mohammedan, it
was during this period also that some of the pages, as we
have seen, were lost. May we not also hope that Abyssinia
and Upper Egypt may still preserve some MSS. that may
throw further light on this obscure but most interesting
subject? In fact, I was told in 1891 by Achinoff, chief of
the Free Cossacks, a resident in the country, that the
monasteries of Abyssinia do actually contain a mass of very
ancient MSS. which would be of exceeding great value to the
scholarship of Europe.
In presenting the following translation- to the English-
reading public, I may say that I should not have The
ventured on wiich an undertaking if any Coptic
scholur had undertaken the task, or I had heard apolo-
that such a task was contemplated. In a matter gia -
of such difficulty every possible liability to error should be
eliminated, and it stands to reason that the translation of a
translation must needs be but an apology for a first-hand
version. Nevertheless I am not without predecessors. The
Coptic MS. itself is in the first place a translation, so that
even Coptic scholars must give us the translation of a
translation. I am persuaded also that the anonymous and
imperfect French translation in the Appendix to Migne's
Dictionnaire des Apocryphes (vol. i.) is made from Schwartze's
Latin version and not from the Coptic text. C. W. King
in his Gnostics and their Remains has also translated a
number of pages of the Pistis Sophia from Schwartze.
Some three or four years ago Mr. Nutt, King's publisher,
sent out a notice for the publication of the whole of King's
translation, but the project fell through. Last year I
offered to edit this translation of King's, but was informed
that the literary legatee of the deceased scholar was of
XXXVI INTRODUCTION.
the opinion that it would be unfair to his memory to publish
a MS. that was in so incomplete a condition.
In 1890 I had already translated Schwartze's Latin
version into English and published pages 1 to 252, with a
commentary, notes, etc., in magazine form from April, 1890,
to April, 1891. But I hesitated to put it forward in book
form, and should not have done so, but for the appearance
of Ame'lineaii's French version in 1895. I then retranslated
the whole book again and checked it by Ani61incau's version.
1 was further induced to venture 011 this undertaking,
because the narrative, though dealing with mystical and
therefore obscure subjects, is in itself exceedingly simple,
and therefore mistakes cannot so readily creep in as into a
difficult philosophical work. I, therefore, present my trans-
lation with all hesitation, but at the same time think that
the English public, which is steadily increasing its interest
in mysticism and allied subjects, will be better satisfied with
half a loaf than with no bread.
In conclusion it only remains for me to append a brief
Thc summary of the work that has already been done
work on the subject. This may best be seen by treating
beenpre- ^ from a chronological point of view. In addition
viously to a few scattered articles in magazines which are
not of the first importance, the chief contributions
to the subject are :
a. 1770. Article in Brittnche Theol. Ma^azin; st-e Kostl in infra.
b. 1773. Woide (C. A.). Article in Journal <le .Savants.
c. 1778. Woide. Article in J. A. Cramer'n Beylriige zur 15efo-
(lei-ung theologisther und audrer wiclitigen Remit -
nisse (Kiel u. Hamburg, pp. H2 sq.
d. 1799. Woide. Appendix ad Editionem Novi Testament!
Grajci e Cudice MS. Alexandnno a Carol o God-
fredo Wuide Description qua conthientur Fragmenta
Novi Testament! juxta interpretationem Dialccti
Superior-is ^Egypti qua* Thcbaulica vel Saludica
appellatur e Codicibus Oxoniensibus maxima ex
parte Desumpta. cum Dissertatione de Vereione
INTRODUCTION. XXXvii
Bibliorum ^E^yptiaca quibua subjictur Codicis
Vatican! Collatio (Oxonii) p. 137.
Woide not only carefully copied the whole of the MS.
but also the Codex Brucianus at Oxford. He gives the date
of the MS. as about the fourth century, and considers the
writer to have been Valcntinus. He, however, published
no work on the subject.
e. 1812. Milliter (F.). CM*, Gnosticre Salomoni Tiibuta?, The-
buice et Latine, Prefatione et Adnotatiouibus Philo-
logicis Illustrate* (Hafnisp).
Bishop Munter, a learned Dane, probably got his text
from Woide's copy ; his brief pamphlet is of no particular
importance, nevertheless it was solely upon these few brief
selections, the seven Odes of Solomon, that, with the ex-
ception of Dulaurier, scholars formed their opinion of the
Pistis Sophia up to the time of the publication of Schwartze's
work in 1851. Munter believes that the original treatise
belongs to the second century.
/. 1843. Matter (J.). Histuire Critique du Gnosticism^ et de son
Influence zur le^ Series religieiiHes et philosophises
ties six premier* Sieeles de 1'fere cliretienne (Paris)
2nd ed. ii. 41 t<q., 350 sq. The tirst edition appeared
in 1828 and contains no reference to P. S. In Dor-
ner's German tran^lat ion llie references tire, n. CD w|.
and 1<>3 sq.
Matter rejects the idea of Valentinus, but he had no
acquaintance whatever with the text and bases himself
entirely on Woide. He states that the MS. can scarcely
be prior to the fourth century, and (p. 352) places the date
of the original treatise between the end of the second and
the end of the fifth. He gives no opinion as to the school
to which it belongs.
g. 1838. Dulaurier (E). Article in the Moniteur (27th Sept.).
h. 1847. Dulaurier. Article in the Journal Asiatique, Quatneme
Serie, Tome ix., juin, pp. 534-548 ; entitled 4t Notice
XXXV111 INTBODUCTION .
pur le Manuscript copte-thebain, intituld La Fiddle
Sagesse ; et sur la Publication projet^e du Texte et
de la Traduction franchise de ce Manuscript."
On page 542 Dulaurier tells us that he had made a
French translation from the Coptic in the following words :
" The translation of the Pistis Sophia and the glossary
which forms a complement to it are finished, and will be
sent to the printers, when I have convinced myself that I
have fulfilled the requirements that this task imposes, taking
into consideration the present state of science and my own
capabilities. The MS. from which I have made my transla-
tion is a copy which I have taken from the original, during
my stay in England in 1838-1840, when I was charged by
MM. de Salvandy and Villemaiu, successive ministers of
public instruction, with the commission of proceeding to
London to study this curious monument." Dulaurier,
how r ever, did not publish his labours, nor have I as yet
come across any record of the fate of his MSS. He ascribes
the treatise to Valentino*.
i. 1851. Schwartze (M. G.). Pisti^ Sophia, Opus Gnosticnm
Valentino adjudication, e Codice Manuscripto
Coptico Londmensi descriptum, Latine vertit
M. (T. Schwartze, edidit J. II. Peterinann (Bero-
lini).
Schwartze died at an early age before the completion of
his labours on the Pistis Sophia, and the MS. translation
he left behind contained a number of blanks and passages
which he intended to fill up and correct. Petermaim has
confined himself in his notes strictly to verbal corrections
and suggestions as to variee lectiones. The consequence
is that we have a translation without the notes of the trans-
lator, and without a word of introduction, Petermann
says the task of editing was so severe that he frequently
suffered from fits of giddiness. Schwartze copied out the
whole of the Coptic MS. of Pistis Sophia and also the
Oxford Codex Brucianus. He considers the original treatise,
INTRODUCTION. XXXIX
as we see from the title of his work, to be written by
the hand of Valentinus ; but Petermann is of the opinion
that it is the work of an Ophite, and promises to set forth
his reasons at length in a treatise, which has unfortunately
never seen the light. Kostlin and Schmidt also hold this
view, and as far as the Extracts from the Books of the
Saviour are concerned, I see no reason why there should not
be some truth in the idea. For we may connect these
Books closely with the Books of leou, and the latter connect
us at once with the Enochian literature. The Ophites
were pre-Valentinian and mostly Syrian. They were the
first to take the distinct name of Gnostics. Some of their
books were translated into Greek. This fits in with the
hypothesis put forth above that Valentinus compiled the
Books of the Saviour from a prior set of Gnostic writings.
The Melchisedecian ideas would also come through the
Syrian Gnosis, and be cognate to the Enochian tradition.
A review of Schwartze's work appeared in the Journal des
Savants of 1852 (p. 333).
j. 1852. Bunsen (C. C. J.). Hippulytus und .seine Zeit, Anfange
und Aussichten des Christenthums und der Men&ch-
heit (Leipzig), i. 47, 48. Hippulytus and hit? Age
(London, 185'J), i. Gl, G2.
"Great, therefore, were my hopes in 1842, that the
ancient Coptic manuscript of the British Museum, inscribed
Sophia, might be a translation, or at least an extract, from
that lost text-book of Gnosticism [the work quoted by
Hippolytus, sub Valent.] : but unfortunately the accurate
and trustworthy labours of that patient and conscientious
Coptic scholar, Dr. Schwartzc, so early taken away from
us, have proved to me (for 1 have seen and perused his
manuscript, which I hope will soon appear), that this
Coptic treatise is a most worthless (I trust, purely Coptic)
offshoot of the Marcosian heresy, of the latest and stupidest
mysticism about letters, sounds, and words." Bunsen
stands absolutely alone in this opinion, and we doubt
whether he could have read Schwartze's MS. with any care.
Xl INTBODUCTION.
k. 1853. Baur (F. C.). Dae Christenthum und die christliche
Kirche der drei ersten Jahrlmnderte (Ttibingen)
notes on pp. 185, 186, and 205, 206.
Baur evidently added these notes at the last moment
before publication. On page 206 n., he leans to the idea
of an Ophite origin.
/. 1854. Kostlin (K. R.). Two articles in Baur and Zeller's
Theologische Jalirbucher (Tubingen), xiii. 1-104 and
137-196 ; entitled " Das gnostische System des
Buches Pistis Sophia."
Kostlin was the first to make an exhaustive analysis of
the contents of the treatise, and his labours are used by
Lipsius in his article in Smith and Waco's Dictionary of
Christian Biography. He assigns its date to the first half
of the third century, and assumes that it is of Ophite
origin.
In a note to page 1, Kostlin writes :
" The MS. from which the work is published belongs
to the collection of MSS. collected by Dr. Askew of London
during his travels in Italy and Greece, of which the
British Theological Magazine (das Brittischc theol. Magazin)
for the year 1770 (vol. i. part 4, p. 223) gives more particu-
lars."
There is 110 such magazine in the catalogue of the
British Museum. The Theological Repository for 1770
contains no information on the subject; and no permutation
of names solves the mystery. There were very few
magazines published at that early date, so that the choice
is limited.
ra. 1856. An anonymous translation in Migne's Dictionnaire
des Apocryphes, torn. i. app. part ii. coll. 1181-
1286 ; this tome forms vol. xxiii. of his third
Encyclopedic
The translation is a sorry piece of work, more frequently
a mere paraphrase from Schwartze's version than a trans-
lation ; there are also frequent omissions, sometimes as
INTRODUCTION. xli
many as 40 pagesof the Coptic Codex; e.g., pp. 18, 19,
36 sq., 50, 51, 72, 73, 86-90, 108-135, 139, 157-160, 162,
171, 179, 180, 184-186, 221-243, 245-255, 281-320, 324-
342. These are some of the omissions ; but there are many
more. It is, therefore, entirely useless to the student. The
anonymous writer vaguely suggests a late date for the
treatise because of the complicated nature of the system.
71. 1860. Lipsius(R. A.). Article " Gnosticism us " in
Erach and
Gruber's Encyclopaedic, separately published at
Leipzig, 1860, pp. 9,5 sq. and 157 sq. ; also Article
" Pistis Sophia " in Smith and Wace's Dictionary
of Christian Biography (London), vol. iv., 1887.
Lipsius considers Pistis Sophia an Egypto-Ophite treatise,
and with Kostlin assigns its date to the first half of the
third century.
o. 1877. Jacobi. Article " Gnosis " in Herzog's Theolog.
Real
Enryclopadie (Leipzig) ; 2nd ed., 1888 ; Translation,
New York ; 1882, 1883.
Jacobi believes in an Ophite origin.
p. 1875-1883. The Palaeograpliical Society, Facsimiles of MSS.
and Inscriptions, Oriental Series, ed. by William
Wright (London).
Plate xlii. The editor, or whoever is responsible for the
letter-press, says that the original is later than Valentinus,
and places the MS. in the seventh century. There is a care-
ful analysis of the text from the technical standpoint, and
the facsimile is of f . 11 a.
q. 1887. King(C. W.). The Gnostics and their Remains, Ancient
and Medieval (London), 2nd ed. The first ed.
appeared in 1864, but contains no reference to
P. S.
King regards the Pistis Sophia as the most precious
relic of Gnosticism. Besides many references scattered
throughout the volume, there are translations from
C*
Xlii INTRODUCTION.
Schwartze ofvpages 227-239, 242-244, 247-248, 255-259,
261-263, 282-^298-308, 341, 342, 358, 375 of the Codex.
King, who was moreNrf a numismatologist and antiquarian
than a critic, does not venture an opinion either on the date
or author.
r. 1887. Amelineau (E.). Essai aur lo Gnosticisme gyptien,
ses D6veloppementa et son Origitie c*gyptienne, in
the Annals du MustSe Quiinet (Paris), torn. xiv. Of.
especially the third part for system of Valeutinus
and Pirtis Sophia, pp. 166-322.
s. 1880. Amelineau. Article "Lea Trait*** gnostiques d'Oxford
;
iStude critique," in the Revue dc 1'Hiatoire des
Religions (Paris, edited by Rdville), an essay of 72
pp., 8vo.
t. 1891. Ame'lineau. Notice sur les Papyrus gnostique Bruce,
Texte et Traductiun (Paris), 305 pp., 4to.
u. 1895. Amliiieau. Pistis Sophia, Ouvrage gnostique de
Valentin, traduit du copte en fraucois, avec urie
Introduction (Paris), pp. xxxii. and 204, 8vo.
Amelineau goes thoroughly into the Valentinian origin
of the treatise, but leans almost exclusively to an Egyptian
origin of the ideas. The MS. itself, however, he places very
late, writing on page xi. of his Introduction as follows:
" After an examination of the enormous faults which the
scribe has committed, I cannot attribute to the MS. which
has preserved the Pistis Sophia to us, a date later than the
ninth or tenth century, and that too the minimum. For
this 1 have several reasons. Firstly, the MS. is written on
parchment, and parchment was hardly ever commonly used
in Egypt before the sixth or seventh century. Secondly,
the writing, which is uncial, though passable in the first
pages of the MS., becomes bastard in a large number of
leaves, when the scribe's hand is fatigued ; no longer is it
the beautiful writing of the Egyptian scribes of the great
periods, but slack, inconsistent, almost round and hurried.
Thirdly, the faults of orthography in the use of Greek words
INTRODUCTION. xliii
evidently show that the scribe belonged to a period when
Greek was almost no longer known."
In a footnote Amelineau says that he is perfectly aware
that this opinion of his will " raise a tempest," and
begs
for a suspension of judgment till he has published his
reasons as to the late use of parchment, at greater length.
Now it was Ptolemy II. (Philadelphia), King of Egypt
from 283-247 B.C., who forbade the exportation of papy-
rus from Egypt, and forced the rival bibliophiles at
Pergamus to copy their books on parchment. The library
of Pergamus was bequeathed to the Senate of Rome, and
Antony handed it over to Cleopatra somewhere about 35
B.C. ; this library, consisting for the most part of parchment
rolls and books, was placed in the new Bruchei6n at
Alexandria, to replace the old Library which was totally
destroyed by the fire of Caesar's fleet in 47. Parchment,
then, was common enough as a book-fabric in Alexandria,
at least 600 years before Amolineau's limit.
An examination of the MS. does not entirely substantiate
the strictures of Amelineau on the careless writing of the
scribe ; the writing though hurried is fairly consistent,
while the first dozen pages are most admirably written.
The faults of spelling only prove that this particular scribe
did not know Geeek, a likely enough thing if the copy was
made in Upper Egypt and not at Alexandria. I am, there-
fore, far from convinced by any one of the reasons Ame"-
lineau brings forward.
v. 1891. Hfirnack (A.). Ub<;r das gnostische Buch Pistis
Sophia
T have already given Haruack'a views on the date ; he
attributes the authorship to a modified Ophite origin. He
suggests that Book I. only is properly Pistis Sophia ; Book
II. should be called the Questions of Mary (p. 94).
w. 1892. Schmidt (C.). Gnostische Scbriften in koptischer
Sprache aus dem Codex Bruciauus, herausgegeben,
ubersetzt und bearbeitet, pp. 680, 8vo ; in von
xliv INTBODUCTION.
Gebhardt and Harnack'sTexte und Uiitersuchungen
zur Geschichle der alt christlichen Literatur (Leip-
zig), viii. Band.
Schmidt agrees with Harnack as to date, and thinks that
the Pistis Sophia may be attributed to an Ophite school.
In the works of the three writers referred to above there is a
mass of information with regard to the Pistis Sophia, but as
only the date and to some extent the authorship are being
dealt with in this Introduction, the further consideration of
their views must be postponed until a Commentary to form
a complement to the present translation is attempted.
[THE FIRST BOOK OF PISTIS SOPHIA.]
(l) IT came to pass, when Jesus had risen from
the dead, that he passed eleven years
. Jesus
speaking with his disciples, and in- hitherto
. . . . instructed
structing them up to the regions of hisdis-
j_i_ r* * , . , i i j_ ciples only
the first statutes only, and up to up to the
the regions of the first mystery, the thirst
mystery within the veil, within the mys ery '
first statute, which is the four and twentieth
mystery, and below those which are in the
second space of the first mystery, which is
before all mysteries the father in the likeness
of a dove.
And Jesus said to his disciples : "I am come
from that first mystery, which is also what the
the last mystery, the four and twen- ^|S"
tieth mystery." For his disciples knew roundeth -
not that mystery, nor did they understand that
there was anything within that mystery ; but
they thought that that mystery indeed was the
chief of the pleroma, and the head of all that
exists ; and they thought it was the end of all
ends, for Jesus had said to them concerning
2
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in
Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24 - !DL
PISTIS SOPHIA
that mystery : " It surroundeth the first statute,
(2) and the five impressions, and the great
light, and the five supporters, and even the
whole treasure of light."
Moreover, Jesus had not told his disciples the
The regions whole distribution of all the regions of
of the great . . M , , , ,
invisible, the great invisible, and of the three
triple powers, and of the four and twenty in-
visibles, with all their regions, their seons, and
their orders, according to the manner of their
distribution, for they are the emanations of the
great invisible ; nor of their ungenerated, self-
generated, and generated, their light-givers and
unpaired, their rulers and authorities, their lords
and archangels, their angels and decans, their
workmen and all the habitations of their
spheres, and all the orders of each one of them.
Nor had Jesus told his disciples the whole
The tna- distribution of the emanations of the
sure of light, treasure, nor their orders, according to
which they are distributed ; nor had he told
them their saviours, according to the orders of
each as they are ; nor had he told them what
are the guardians which are beside each [gate]
of the treasure of light ; nor had he told them
the region of the saviour of the twins, (3) who
is the child of the child ; nor had he told them
the regions of the three amens, in what regions
they are distributed ; nor had he told them in
FIRST BOOK. 3
what region are the five trees, or the seven
amens, which are also the seven voices, what
is their region, according to the manner of their
distribution.
Nor had Jesus told his disciples of what type
are the five supporters, or from what The light-
region they were brought forth; nor world>
had he told them how the great light had
emanated, or from what region it had been
brought forth ; nor had he told them of the five
impressions, nor of the first statute, from what
region they had been brought forth ; but he
simply spoke of them, and taught them that
they existed, without speaking of their emana-
tion and the order of their regions. And this
is why they did not know that there were other
regions within that mystery.
Nor had he told his disciples : " I pass through
such or such a region until I enter that mystery,
or [when] I leave it " ; but, in instructing them,
he merely said : " I have come from that mys-
tery." And this is why they thought concern-
ing that mystery, that it was the end of ends, (4)
and that it was the chief of the pleroma, and
even that it was the pleroma itself. For Jesus
said to his disciples : " It is that mystery which
surroundeth all the pleromas of which I have
spoken, from the day on which I first met with
you even unto this day." And this is, there-
4
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Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24 - !DL
PISTIS SOPHIA
fore, why the disciples thought there was nothing
within that mystery.
It came to pass, therefore, that the disciples
Jesus and were sitting together on the Mount of
aresiate 9 ] 68 0^ ves j speaking of these things, re-
Mount of J icin g with s reat Jy> and bein g ex -
oiives. ceeding glad and saying one to another :
" Blessed are we before all men who are on the
earth, for the saviour hath revealed this unto
us, and we have received all fulness and all
perfection." And while they were saying these
things the one to the other, Jesus sat a little
removed from them.
It came to pass, therefore, on the fifteenth
A great da 7 ^ ^6 month of Tobe, the day of
de^cendetlb 1 t^e ^ u ^ m IJ > on that day, when the
on Jesus. sun ^ad r j gen j n jt s going, that there
came forth after it a great stream of light
shining exceedingly ; there was no measure to
the light with which it was surrounded, for it
came forth from the light of lights, and it
came forth from the last mystery, (5) that is to
say, the four and twentieth mystery, from the
interiors to the exteriors which are in the orders
of the second space of the first mystery. And
this stream of light poured over Jesus, and
surrounded him entirely. He was seated apart
from bis disciples, and was shining exceedingly ;
there was no measure^o the light in which he was.
FIRST BOOK.
But the disciples saw not Jesus because of
the great light in which he was, or i t8Ur .
which proceeded from him ; for their im en* h
eyes were blinded by the great light tirely>
in which he was. They saw the light only,
shooting forth great rays of light. And the
rays of light were not equal together, but the
light was of every kind, and of every type,
from the lower to the higher part thereof ; each
[ray] more admirable than its fellow, in in-
finite manner, in a great glory of immeasurable
light, which stretched from the earth to the
heavens. And when the disciples saw the light,
they were in great fear and great confusion.
(6) It came to pass, therefore, when this stream
of light had come upon Jesus, and had Jesus as _
gradually surrounded him, that Jesus ^t^
was borne upward or soared aloft, heaven -
shining exceedingly in an immeasurable light.
And the disciples gazed after him, none of them
speaking, until he had entered into the heaven.
They were all in great silence. These things
then .came to pass on the fifteenth day of the
moon, the day on which it is full in the month
of Tobe.
It came to pass, when Jesus had ascended into
heaven, after the third hour, that all the powers
of the heavens were confused, and all were
thrown one on another in turn, they and all
6
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Wales-------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24 - !DL
PISTIS SOPHIA
their seons, all their regions, and all their orders,
^ and the whole earth was shaken, and
The confu-
sion of the a ll the inhabitants thereof. And con-
the great fusion was upon all men in the world,
earthquake. * . in
and also upon the disciples, and all
thought that the world would surely be
destroyed.
And all the powers which are in the heavens
did not cease to be in confusion, they and the
whole world, and all were shaken the one on the
other in turn, from the third hour of the fifteenth
day of the moon of Tobe, until the ninth hour
of the morrow.
And all the angels with their archangels, and
The dismay all the powers of the height, (7) all
ofthedis- r , . . - ,
cipies. sang from the interior of the interiors,
so that the whole world heard their voice ; they
ceased not till the ninth hour of the morrow.
But the disciples sat together in fear, and were
in the greatest possible distress. They feared
because of the great earthquake which was
taking place, and they wept together, saying :
" What will be ? Surelv the saviour will riot
v
destroy all the regions?" Thus saying, they
wept together.
On the ninth hour of the morrow, the heavens
Jesus de- were opened, and they saw Jesus de-
soendeth . . ,. , ,
again. scendmg, shining exceedingly ; there
was no measure to the light which surrounded
PIBST BOOK. 7
him, for he shone more brightly than when he
had ascended to the heavens, so that it is
impossible for any in this world to describe the
light in which he was. He shot forth rays
shining exceedingly ; his rays were without
measure, nor were his rays of light equal to-
gether, but they were of every figure and of
every type, some being more admirable than
the others in infinite manner. And they were
all pure light in every part at the The nature
same time. It was of three degrees, Ofhi8 g lor y-
one surpassing the other in infinite manner. The
second, which was in the midst, excelled the
first which was below it, and the third, the most
admirable of all, surpassed the two below it.
The first glory was placed below all, like to the
light which came upon Jesus (8) before he as-
cended into the heavens, and was very regular
as to its own light. And the three degrees of
light were of every variety of light and type,
each excelling the others in infinite manner.
It came to pass, when the disciples had seen
these things, that they feared exceed-
ingly, and were troubled. But Jesus, them.
the compassionate and merciful-minded, when
he saw that his disciples were troubled with
great confusion, spake unto them, saying:
"Take courage. It is I, be not afraid."
It came to pass, when the disciples heard
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PISTIS SOPHIA
these words, that they said : " Master, if it be
thou, withdraw thy glorious light that we may
be able to stand, so that our eyes be not blinded.
We have been dismayed, and the whole world
hath been dismayed, by the greatness of the light
which is in thee."
Then Jesus drew to himself the glory of his
He draweth tight ; and when this was done, all the
untoMm- disciples took courage and came to
self> Jesus, and cast themselves together at
his feet and worshipped him, rejoicing with great
joy. They said unto him : " Master, whither
didst thou go ? or on what ministry wentest
thou ? or wherefore are all these confusions and
shakings which have taken place ? "
Then Jesus, the compassionate, said unto them:
He pro- "Rejoice and be glad from this hour,
tSuhem f r I h ave gone to the regions whence
ail things, i came forth ( 9 ) F rom t hi s day
forth, therefore, will I speak with you freely,
from the beginning of the truth unto the com-
pletion thereof; and I will speak to you face to
face without parable. From this hour will I
hide nothing from you of the things which
pertain to the height, and of those of the region
of truth ; for authority hath been given me by
the ineffable and by the first mystery of all
mysteries to speak to you, from the beginning
to the end, from the interiors to the exteriors,
FIEST BOOK. 9
and from the exteriors to the interiors.
Hearken, therefore, that I may tell you all
things.
" It came to pass, as I was sitting a little re-
moved from you on the Mount of Olives, medi-
tating on the duties of the ministry for which I
was sent, which they said was completed, and
[how] the last mystery had not yet sent me my
vesture it is the four and twentieth mystery
from the interiors to the exteriors, of those
which are in the second space of the first mys-
tery, in the orders of that space it came to
pass, therefore, when I understood that the duty
of the ministry for which I had come was ful-
filled, and that that mystery had not yet sent
me my vesture, which I had placed in it, until
its time should be fulfilled I was meditating
on this on the Mount of Olives, a little removed
from you it came to pass, when the sun rose
in the place of its rising, that then through the
first mystery, which was from the beginning, on
account of which the universe hath been created,
(10) from which also now 1 am come, now and
not formerly before they had crucified me ; it
came to pass, by order of that mystery,
, . -. ,. , How the
that this vesture of light was sent vesture of
me, which he had given me from the sent unto
beginning, and which I had placed lim "
in the last mystery, which is the four and
10 PI8TIS SOPHIA.
twentieth mystery, from the interior of those
which are in the orders of the second space of
the first mystery. This is the vesture, then,
which I had left in the last mystery, until the
time should be fulfilled when I should take it
again, and should begin to speak to the human
race, and reveal to them all things from the
beginning of the truth to its completion, and
speak to them from the interiors of the interiors
to the exteriors of the exteriors, and from the
exteriors of the exteriors to the interiors of the
interiors. Rejoice, therefore, and be glad and
rejoice more than greatly, for it is to you that it
hath been given, that I first speak from the
beginning of the truth to its completion.
"For this cause have I chosen you from the
beginning through the first mystery.
Ofthesouls * . 6 . . . . ; , ,
of the disci- Rejoice, therefore, and be glad, in that
their incar- when I came into the world, (11) from
the beginning, I brought with me
twelve powers, as I told you from the begin-
ning. I took them from the hands of the
twelve saviours of the treasure of light, accord-
ing to the command of the first mystery. These
powers, therefore, 1 cast into the wombs of your
mothers, when I came into the world, and they
are those which are in your bodies this day.
For these powers have been given unto you
before the whole world, for it is ye who are to
FIBST BOOK. 11
save the whole world, and that ye may be able
to bear the threat of the rulers of the world,
and the calamities of the world, and their
dangers, and all the persecutions which the
rulers of the height must bring upon you.
Many times have I said unto you, the power which
is in you, I have brought it from the twelve
saviours which are in the treasure of light. For
which cause I said unto you from the beginning
that ye were not of this world. And I also am
not of this world, for all men who are of this
world have taken their soul from the rulers of
the seons. But the power which is in you is
from me. Ye are souls which pertain to the
height, which I have brought from the twelve
saviours of the treasure of light, and which I
have received as a share of my power, which I
received from the beginning. (12) And when
I set forth to come into this world, I passed
through the midst of the rulers of the sphere ;
I assumed the likeness of the angel Gabriel, in
order that the rulers of the seons might not
recognise me, but think that I was the angel
Gabriel.
" It came to pass, when 1 had passed through
the midst of the rulers of the aeons,
that I looked down on the world of
men, by order of the first mystery ; Ba P tist -
I found Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist,
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PISTIS SOPHIA
before she had conceived him ; I cast into her a
power which I had received from the hand of
,the little Ia6, the good, who is in the midst,
that he might preach before me and prepare my
way, and baptise in the water of the remission
of sins. This power, then, is in the body of
John.
"Moreover, in the region of the soul of the
That John rulers, destined to receive it, I found
Holder 5 in the soul of the prophet Elias, in the
birth. aeons of the sphere, and I took him,
and receiving his soul also, I brought it to the
virgin of light, and she gave it to her receivers ;
they brought it to the sphere of the rulers, and
cast it into the womb of Elizabeth. Wherefore
the power of the little lao, who is in the midst,
and the soul of Elias the prophet, are united
with the body of John the Baptist. (13) For
this cause have ye been in doubt aforetime,
when I said unto you, 'John said, I am not
the Christ ' ; and ye said unto me, ' It is written
in the Scripture, that when the Christ shall
come, Elias will come before him, and prepare
his way/ And I, when ye had said this unto
me, replied unto you, ' Elias verily is come,
and hath prepared all things, according as it
is written ; and they have done unto him what-
soever they would/ And when I perceived that
ye did not understand that I had spoken con-
FIRST BOOK. 13
cerning the soul of Elias united with John the
Baptist, I answered you openly and face to face
with the words, ' If ye will receive it, John the
Baptist is Elias who, I said, was for to come.' "
And Jesus continued his conversation, and
said: "It came to pass, after these O f his own
things, that I looked down again into ^^ xm '
the world of men ; I found Mary, who Mar y-
is called my mother, after the material body ; I
spoke to her also in the form of Gabriel ; and
when she had betaken herself into the height
towards me, I implanted in her the first power
which I had received from the hands of Barbelo,
that is to say, the body which I bore in the
height, and instead of the soul, I implanted
in her the power which I had received from
the hands of the great Sabaoth, the good, (14)
who is in the region of the right.
" And the twelve powers of the twelve saviours
of the treasure of light, which I had More con-
received from the twelve ministers of
the midst, I cast into the sphere of
the rulers ; and the decans of the P les -
rulers, with their workmen, thought that they
were the souls of the rulers ; and the workmen
brought them, and I bound them into the bodies
of your mothers. And when your time was full,
ye were brought forth into the world, no soul
of the rulers being in you. Ye have received
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PISTIS SOPHIA
your portion from the power which the last
supporter breathed into the mixture, which
[power] was blended with all the invisibles and
rulers, and all the seons. Once only was it blended
with the world of destruction, which is the mix-
ture. This [power] I brought out from myself
from the beginning; I cast it into the first
statute, and the first statute cast a portion
thereof into the great light, and the great light
cast a portion of that which it received into the
five supporters, and the last supporter took a
portion of that which it received, and cast it
into the mixture. (15) And this [power] dwelleth
in all those who dwell in the mixture, in the
manner in which I have just told you."
When Jesus, therefore, had said these things
, , , to his disciples on the Mount of
Why they r
should re- Olives, he continued in his conversa-
joice that . ... -^
the time of tion to his disciples, and said : " Re-
his invest!- . . .
turehad joice, and be glad, and add joy to
joy, for the times are fulfilled for me
to put on my vesture, which hath been prepared
for me from the beginning; the same which I
laid up in the last mystery, until the time of
its completion. The time of its completion is
the time when I shall receive commandment
from the first myster)* to speak to you from
the beginning of the truth to the end thereof,
and from the interiors of the interiors, for the
FIEST BOOK. 15
world is to be saved by you. Rejoice, therefore,
and be glad, for ye are more blessed than all
men who are on the earth, for it is ye who shall
save the whole world."
It came to pass, when Jesus had finished
speaking these things to his disciples, that he
again continued in his conversation, and said
unto them : " Lo, I have put on my vesture,
and all power hath been given me by the first
mystery. Yet a little while and I will tell you
the mystery of the pleroma and the pleroma of
the pleroma ; I will conceal nothing from you
from this hour, but in perfectness will I perfect
you in the whole pleroma, and all perfection,
and every mystery, (16) which things, indeed,
are the perfection of all perfections, the pleroma
of all pleromas, and the gnosis of all grioses,
which are in my vesture. I will tell you all
mysteries from the exterior of the exteriors, to
the interior of the interiors. Hearken, I will
tell you all things which have befallen me.
"It came to pass, when the sun had risen in
the regions of the east, that a great
stream of light descended in which teryofthe
five words
was my vesture, the same which 1 had on the
vesture.
laid up in the four and twentieth
mystery, as I have said unto you. And I
found a mystery in my vesture, written in
these five words which pertain to the height,.
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PISTIS SOPHIA
zama zama ozza racharna $zai. And this is
the interpretation thereof:
" The mystery which is beyond the world,
The inter- that whereby all things exist : It is
pretation . in- -, .
thereof. all evolution and all involution ; it
projected all emanations and all things therein.
Because of it all mysteries exist and all their
regions.
" ' Come unto us, for we are thy fellow -mem-
bers. We are all one with thee. We are one
and the same, and thou art one and the
same. This is the first mystery, (17) which
hath existed from the beginning in the in-
effable, before it came forth ; and the name
thereof is all of us. Now, therefore, we all live
together for thee at the last limit, which also is
the last mystery from the interior. That also is
a part of us. Now, therefore, we have sent thee
thy vesture, which, indeed, is thine from the be-
ginning, which thou didst leave in the last limit,
which also is the last mystery from the interiors,
until its time should be fulfilled, according to
the commandment of the first mystery. Lo, its
time being fulfilled, I will give it thee.
" 'Come unto us for we all stand near to clothe
The three thee with the first mystery and all his
robes of
light. glory, by commandment of the same,
in that the first mystery gave us two vestures
to clothe thee, besides the one we have sent
FIRST BOOK. 17
thee, since thou art worthy of them, and art
prior to us, and came into being before us.
For this cause, therefore, the first mystery hath
sent for thee through us the mystery of all his
glory, two vestures.
" c The first hath in it the whole glory of all
the names of all the mysteries, and of The ^^
all the emanations of the orders of the vesturo -
spaces of the ineffable.
(18) "'And the second vesture hath in it
the whole glory of the name of all the The Becond
mysteries, and of all the emanations vesture -
which are in the orders of the two spaces of the
first mystery.
" ' And in this [third] vesture, which we have
now sent thee, is the glory of the The third
name of the mystery, the revealer, vesture -
which also is the first statute, and the mystery
of the five impressions, and the mystery of the
great legate of the ineffable, which is this
great light, and also the mystery of the five
leaders, which are the five supporters. There
is also in the vesture the glory of the name
of all the orders of the emanations of the
treasure of light, with their saviours and the
orders of their orders, to wit, the seven amens,
which are the seven voices, and the five trees
and the three amens, and the saviour of the
twins, which is the child of the child; and
2
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PISTIS SOPHIA
also the mystery of the nine guardians of
the three gates of the treasure of light. There
is also therein all the glory of every name which
is on the right, and of all those which are in
the midst. Moreover, there is also therein all
the glory of the great invisible, (19) that is to
say, of the great forefather, and all the mystery
of the three triple powers, and the mystery
of their whole region, and also the mystery of
all their invisibles and of all those who are in
the thirteenth aeon, and the name of the twelve
*eons, with all their rulers, all their archangels,
all their angels, and all who are in the twelve
aeons, and every mystery of the name of all
those who are in the [sphere of] fate, and in all
the heavens, and the whole mystery of the name
of those in the spheres and their firmaments, and
all that they contain, and their regions.
" ' Lo, therefore, we have sent thee this ves-
The day of ture, without any knowing it from
unto us." the first statute downwards, because
the glory of its light was hidden in it [the
first statute], aod the spheres with all their
regions from the first statute downwards [knew
it not]. Make haste, therefore, clothe thyself
with this vesture. Come unto us ; for ever,
until the time appointed by the ineffable was
fulfilled, have we been in need of thee, to clothe
thee with two of the vestures, by order of the
FIRST BOOK. 19
first mystery. (20) Lo, then, the time is ful-
filled. Come, therefore, to us quickly, that we
may put them on thee, until thou hast accom-
plished the full ministry of the perfections of
the first mystery, the ministry appointed for
thee by the ineffable. Come, therefore, to us
quickly, in order that we may clothe thee, ac-
cording to the commandment of the first mys-
tery ; for yet a little while, a very little while,
and thou shalt come to us, and shalt leave
the world. Come, therefore, quickly, that thou
mayest receive the whole glory, the glory of the
first mystery/
" It came to pass, therefore, when I saw the
whole mystery of those words in the Jesus
vesture which had been sent me, that MS vesture.
I at once clothed myself therewith. I became
exceedingly radiant, and soared into the height.
" I drew nigh to the gate of the firmament,
shining exceedingly; there was no He enter-
measure to the light in which I was. firmament.
The gates of the firmament were shaken one
above the other in turn, and all were thrown
open together.
"And all the rulers, all the powers, and all
the angels therein, were at once thrown into
confusion because of the great light which was in
me. They gazed at the vesture of light with
which I was clothed, and which was brilliantly
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PISTIS SOPHIA
shining ; they saw the mystery which contained
The powers their names ; they feared exceedingly;
mentw' ( 21 ) and a11 tlie bonds with which ^^
amazed, were bound were loosed ; each left his
and fall
down and ran k and they bowed down before me,
worship ' J
him - and worshipped me, saying, 'How
hath the lord of the pleroma changed us without
our knowing ? ' And they sang together to the
interior of the interiors, but me they saw not; but
they saw only the light, and they were in great
fear, and were exceedingly troubled, and sent
forth their song to the interior of the interiors.
"And having left that region behind me, I
He enter- came unto the first sphere, shining
first sphere, exceedingly, far more brightly than 1
shone in the firmament, forty and nine times.
It came to pass, therefore, when I had come to
the gate of the first sphere, that its gates were
shaken, and opened of themselves all together.
" I entered into the mansions of that sphere,
The powers shining exceedingly; there was no
of the first measure to the light that was in me.
sphere are
"T!^' And all the rulers, with all those who
and lall
down and were [ u that sphere, were in confusion
worship Jr
M- one with another ; they saw the great
light that was in me, and they gazed upon my
vesture ; they saw in it the mystery of their
name, and were more and more distressed. And
they were in great fear, saying, ' How hath the
FIRST BOOK. 21
lord of the pleroma changed us without our
knowing?' (22) And all their bonds were un-
loosed, as well as their regions and their orders ;
and each abandoned his order, they bowed them-
selves all together, they worshipped before me or
before my vesture, and they all sang together to
the interior of the interiors, being in great fear
and great confusion.
"And having left that region behind me, I
came unto the second sphere, which He enter-
is the fate. All its gates were thrown ^cond
into confusion, and opened one after 3 P here -
another in turn ; and I entered into the man-
sions of the fate, shining exceedingly ; there was
no measure to the light that was in me, for I
shone in the fate more than in the sphere forty
and nine times.
" And all the rulers and all those who were in
the fate were thrown into confusion ; The powerg
they fell on one another, they were
in exceeding great fear on seeing the
great light that was in me. They gazed
on my shining vesture, they saw the him -
mystery of their names on my vesture, and were
more and more confused, and were in great fear,
saying, ' How hath the lord of the pleroma
changed us without our knowing?' And all
the bonds of their regions, of their orders, and
of their mansions were unloosed ; they drew
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PISTIS SOPHIA
nigh all together, they bowed themselves, they
worshipped before me, and sang all together to
the interior of the interiors, (23) being in great
fear and great confusion.
" And having left that region behind me, I
Heenteroth ascended to the great aeons of the
theaxms.
their gates, shining exceedingly ; there was no
measure to the light which was in me. It came
to pass when I came unto the twelve aeons, that
their veils and their gates were shaken one on
another; their veils were drawn aside of their
own accord, and their gates opened of them-
selves. And I entered into the aeons, shining
exceedingly ; there was no measure to the light
that was in me, which was brighter than the
light with which I shone in the regions of the
fate, forty and nine times.
" And all the angels of the aeons, their arch-
angels, their rulers, their gods, their
The powers o > > & >
of the seons lords, their authorities, their tyrants,
are amazed, . . J
and fail their powers, their sparks, their light-
down and . , . i i - .i,
worship givers, their unpaired, their invisibles,
their forefathers, and their triple
powers, saw me, shining exceedingly ; there was
no measure to the light which was in me. They
were thrown into confusion the one on the other ;
great fear fell upon them when they saw the
great light that was in me. And their great
FIRST BOOK. 28
confusion (24) and great fear reached to the
region of the great invisible forefather, and of
the three great triple powers. Because of the
great fear of their confusion, the great forefather
himself, and the three triple powers, began to
run hither and thither in their region, and they
could not close all their regions because of the
great fear in which they were. They threw into
confusion all their aeons together, with all their
spheres and orderings, fearing and being greatly
troubled because of the great light that was in
me far different from what it was when I was
on the earth of human kind, when my shining
vesture came upon me, for the earth could not
have borne the light such as it was in reality,
else would the world be resolved and all upon it
at the same time. But the light which was in
me in the twelve aeons was . . . myriad,
and seven thousand and eight hundred times
greater than when I was in the world among
you.
" It came to pass, therefore, when all those
who are in the twelve aeons had seen
the great light which was in me, that
they were all thrown into confusion ^Lt the
one on another, and ran from one side li % hi '
to the other in the aeons ; and all the aeons,
with all their regions and all their ordering,
were shaken on account of the great fear
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PISTIS SOPHIA
which came upon them, (25) because they
knew not the mystery which had taken place.
And Adamas, the great tyrant, and all the
tyrants which are in all the aeons, began to fight
in vain against the light, and they knew not
with what they fought, for they saw nothing be-
yond the exceeding great light. It came to pass,
when they fought against the light, that they
expended their strength one against the other,
they fell down in the aeons, they became as the
inhabitants of the earth who are dead, and who
have no breath in them.
" And I took from all of them a third of their
power, in order that they should no
Hetaketh r ' . m J
from them more prevail in their evil doings ; and
a third of f , . , ,
their in order that, if the men who are in
the world should invoke them in
their mysteries which the transgressing angels
brought down from above that is to say, their
magic rites in order that, therefore, if they
should be invoked in evil practices, they should
not accomplish them.
" And the fate and sphere of which they are
the lords I changed, and I brought
changeth it to pass that for six months they
the motion *
of their should turn to the left and accom-
plish their influences, and for six
months turn to the right and accomplish their
influences. For by order of the first statute, and
FIBST BOOK. 25
by order of the first mystery, (26) leou, the over-
seer of the light, had placed them facing the left
for all time, accomplishing their influences and
actions. It came to pass, therefore, that when
I had entered into their regions, they rebelled
and fought against the light. I took from them
the third part of their power, in order that they
should not accomplish their evil actions. And
the fate and sphere over which they rule I
changed, and set them facing the left for six
months, accomplishing their influences, and set
them to turn six months to the right, accom-
plishing their influences."
And when he had spoken these things unto
his disciples, he said unto them : " He that hath
ears to hear, let him hear."
It came to pass, when Mary had heard the
words which the saviour said, that she gazed,
as one inspired, into the air for the space of an
hour. She said unto him : " Master, give com-
mandment unto me to speak freely."
And Jesus, the compassionate, answered and
said unto Mary : " Speak freely, Mary,
thou blessed one, whom I will perfect asketh and
receiveth
in all the mysteries of the dwellers on permission
high, thou, whose heart is right for the
kingdom of the heavens more than all thy
brethren."
Then said Mary to the saviour : " Master,
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PISTIS SOPHIA
the word that thou hast spoken, to wit, (27)
' he that hath ears to hear, let him hear/ thou
hast said it unto us, in order that we may
understand the word which thou hast spoken.
Give ear, therefore, Master, that I may
speak freely.
"The word which thou hast spoken, to wit,
' I changed their fate and their
Mary inter-
preteth the spheres over which they rule, in order
same from * .
the words that, if the race of men should invoke
of Isaiah. . . .
them, in the mysteries which the
transgressing angels taught them for the accom-
plishing of their evil deeds, and all that is un-
lawful in the mystery of their magic ' in order
[then], that they might no more from this hour
accomplish their impious works, (for thou hast
taken from them their power, and their or-
dainers of the hour, and diviners, and those who
teach the men of the world all that shall come
to pass,) in order that they should no more from
this hour have a mind for teaching them what
will come to pass, (for thou hast changed their
revolution, and thou hast made them turn to
the left for six months, accomplishing their
influences, and thou hast made them face to
the right for the six remaining months, accom-
plishing their influences) concerning this word,
Master, the power which was in Isaiah, the
prophet, spake as follows, and delivered it in a
FIRST BOOK. 27
spiritual parable, at the time when he spake of
the vision of Egypt, saying, * Where, then,
Egypt, where are thy diviners and ordainers of
the hour, (28) and those whom they evoke from
the earth, and those whom they evoke from
themselves ? Let them show thee from this
hour the deeds which the lord Sabaoth shall
do!'
"Thus then the power which was in Isaiah,
the prophet, prophesied before thy coming ; it
prophesied concerning thee that thou shouldst
take away the power of the rulers of the aeons ;
that thou shouldst change their sphere and
their fate, in order that they might know no-
thing from henceforth. This is why it said,
' Ye shall know nothing of that which the lord
Sabaoth shall do ' ; that is to say, none of the
rulers shall know what thou wilt do unto them
henceforth from this hour ; that is to say, with
' Egypt,' for they are the inefficacious matter.
The power, therefore, which was in the prophet
Isaiah, prophesied concerning thee aforetime,
saying, 'Henceforth, from this hour, ye shall
not know what the lord Sabaoth shall do unto
them/ because of the light-power which thou
didst receive from the hand of Sabaoth, the
good, who is in the region of the right, the
power which is in thy material body to-day. For
this cause, therefore, Jesus, my master, thou
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PISTIS SOPHIA
hast said unto us, 'He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear,' since thou wouldst know whose heart
is earnestly set on the kingdom of the heavens."
It came to pass, when Mary had finished
saying these things, that Jesus said unto her:
" Well said, Mary, since thou art blessed before
all women who are on the earth, (29) for thou
shalt be the pleroma of all pleromas, and the
perfection of all perfections."
When Mary heard the saviour speak these
Jesus com- words, she rejoiced greatly, and came
Mary. et she to J esus > an( ^ bowed herself before him,
anc * worshipped his feet, and said unto
him " Master, give ear unto me, that
the spheres, j ma y question thee on this matter,
before that thou tellest us the regions whither
thou hast gone."
And Jesus answered and said unto Mary :
" Speak freely, and fear not. All things thou
seekest, I will reveal unto thee."
Mary said : " Will all men who know the
mystery of the magic of all the rulers of all the
aeons of the fate, and of those of the sphere, in
the way in which the transgressing aiigels have
taught them ; if they invoke them in their
mysteries, that is to say, in their evil magic
rites, to the hindering of good deeds will they
accomplish them, henceforth from this hour, or
not?"
FIRST BOOK. 29
And Jesus answered and said unto Mary :
"They will not accomplish them as j esuaex .
they accomplished them from the be-
ginning, for I have taken from them
the third of their power; but they 8 P heres -
will make use of those who know the mysteries
of the magic of the thirteenth aeon ; (30) they
will accomplish them perfectly and at their
ease, for I have not taken away the power in
that region, according to the command of the
first mystery."
It came to pass, when Jesus had finished
saying these words, that Mary insisted further,
and said : " Master, surely the ordainers of the
hour, and diviners, will no more tell men what
will come to pass, henceforth from this hour ? "
But Jesus answered and said unto Mary :
" If the ordainers of the hour chance upon the
fate, and the sphere, turning towards the left,
according to their first emanation, their words
shall come to pass, and they will say what is
to take place ; but if they chance on the fate, or
the sphere, turning to the right, they cannot
obtain any truth, since I have changed their
influences, their four angles, their three angles,
and their eight configurations; for originally
their influences were constant, then when they
turned to the left, as well as their four angles,
their three angles, and their eight configura-
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PISTIS SOPHIA
tions ; but now that I have made them turn to
the left for six months and turn to the right for
six months, he who, verily, shall find their
numbering from the time when I changed
them, and when I set them for six months to
face their left hand, and for six months to
face their right hand course, (31) he who,
verily, shall thus observe them, will discover
their influences with certainty ; he will fore-
tell all that a man shall do. In the same way,
also, the diviners, if they invoke the name of
the rulers, if they meet with them facing the left,
all things which they shall ask of their decans,
the latter will tell them with accuracy. But if
the diviners invoke their names at the time
when their revolution is to the right, they will
not give ear unto them, because they are facing
in another way from the first figure in which
leou had placed them ; for other are their names
when they turn to the left, and other are their
names when they turn to the right ; and if they
are invoked when they turn to the right, the
truth will not be obtained, but confusion will
seize upon them, and with threatening they will
threaten them. Those, therefore, who do not
know their revolution, when they turn to the
right, their three angles, and their four angles,
and all their configurations, will find no truth,
but will be greatly confused, and will be in
PIEST BOOK. 31
great error, 'because the operations which they
were accustomed formerly to effect in their
four angles, at the time when they turned to
the left, and in their three angles, and in their
eight configurations, the operations in which
they were constant, at the time when they
turned to the left these I have now changed,
and I have caused them to make all their con-
figurations turning to the right for six months,
in order that they may be confused in all their
extent; (32) on the other hand, I have made
them turn to the left for six months, accom-
plishing the actions of their influences and of
all their configurations, in order that they may
be thrown into confusion, and wander in error
the rulers who are in the aeons, in their
spheres, in their heavens, and in all their
regions, so that they may not, even them-
selves, understand their path."
It came to pass, that when Jesus had said
these words Philip was sitting writ- Philip
Q| *- -
ing all the words that Jesus spake it J<
came to pass, therefore, after this, that Philip
drew nigh, bowed himself, and worshipped the
feet of Jesus, saying : " Master and saviour,
grant me permission to speak before thee and
to question thee on this word, before that thou
tellest us of the regions whither thou didst go
for thy ministry."
uostioneth
esus.
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The saviour, the compassionate, answered and
said unto Philip : " Permission is given thee to
speak what thou wilt."
And Philip answered and said unto Jesus :
"Master, on account of what mystery hast thou
changed the manner in which were bound the
rulers, their aeons, and their fate, their sphere,
and all their regions ; and why hast thou
plunged them into dire confusion in their path ;
and why do they wander in their course ? Hast
thou done this unto them for the salvation of
the world, or hast thou not ? "
And Jesus answered and said unto Philip,
Why the and to all the disciples together: (33)
^wa? 6 "! have changed their path for the
changed. salvation of all souls. Amen, amen, I
say unto you, if I had not changed their path,
they would have destroyed a host of souls, and
a long period would have elapsed before the
rulers of the aeons would have been dissolved,
together with the rulers of the fate and of
the sphere, of all their regions, and of all
their heavens, with those of all their aeons ;
and the souls would have continued without
this region a long period of time, and the
number of perfected souls would have been
kept back from its accomplishment, of those
souls which shall be counted in the heritage
of the height, by means of the mysteries, and
FIRST BOOK. 33
shall dwell in the treasure of light. For this
cause, therefore, I changed their path that they
might be disturbed and thrown into confusion,
so that they might lose their power, which is
in the matter of their world, which they make
into souls, in order that they might be quickly
purified ; that those who are to be saved, they
and all their power, might be carried on high,
while those who are not to be saved, might be
quickly resolved."
It came to pass, when Jesus had said
these things unto his disciples, that
11 Mary ques-
Mary, the fair in speech and the tionethhim
blessed one, drew nigh, she bowed
herself at the feet of Jesus, saying : (34)
"Master, suffer me to speak in thy presence,
and be not wroth with me, if I distress thee
with frequent questioning."
The saviour answered with compassion, and
said unto Mary : " Speak the word thou desirest,
and I will explain it to thee in all freedom."
Mary answered and said unto Jesus : " Master,
how would the souls have delayed outside tliis
region; and how will they be speedily purified?"
And Jesus answered and said unto . Mary :
"Well said, Mary; thou questionest fairly with
a fair question, and thou approachest every-
thing with diligence and precision. Now,
therefore, henceforth from this hour, I will
3
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PISTIS SOPHIA
conceal nothing from you, but I will reveal
everything unto you with certainty and all
freedom. Hearken, then, Mary, and ye all, my
disciples, give ear. Before I had published [the
tidings] to all the rulers of the aeons, to all the
rulers of the fate and of the sphere, they were
all bound in their bonds, in their spheres, and
in their seals, as leou, the overseer of the light,
had bound them from the beginning ; each of
them remained in his order, and each of them
went in his course, as leou, the overseer of the
light, had placed them. And when
The coming .
ofMeichiso- the time of the number of Melchise-
cLoc
dec, the great receiver of the light,
had come, he came into the midst of the
aeons and of all the rulers, (35) bound in
the sphere and in the fate ; he took away the
bright light of all the rulers of the aeons, and
of all the rulers of the fate, and also of those
of the sphere for he took away that which
troubled them and he roused up the caretaker
who was over them, to make their circles turn
swiftly, and he took away the power which was
in them, the breath of their mouth, the tears of
their eyes, and the sweat of their bodies.
" And Melchisedec, the receiver of light, puri-
Of the ^ e d a ll these powers, in order to carry
S b the a so^ their tig* 1 * into the treasure of light,
of men. while the workmen of all the rulers
FIRST BOOK. 35
gathered together all their matter, and the
workmen of all the rulers of the fate, with
the rulers of the sphere, they who are be-
neath the aeons, took it to make therefrom the
souls of men, of cattle, of reptiles, of beasts, or
of birds, and send them into the world of men.
The receivers of the sun and the receivers of the
moon also, having observed the heaven, and
having seen the configurations of the paths of
the aeons, and the configurations of the fate,
and those of the sphere, then took from them
the power of the light, and the receivers pre-
pared to set it apart, (36) until they should hand
it over to the receivers of Melchisedec, the puri-
fier of light ; and their material purgation they
carried into the sphere, which is below the aeons,
that they might make thence the souls of men,
and make also the souls of reptiles, or of cattle, or
of beasts, or of birds, according to the cycle of
the rulers of this sphere, and according to all the
configurations of its revolution, in order to cast
them into this world of men, so that they
might be souls in this region, as I have just
told you.
" These things they accomplished persever-
ingly, before their power diminished in them
and they became feeble, without energy, and
powerless. It came to pass, therefore, that
when they were without power, when their
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power began to diminish in them, and they
became feeble in their power, that the light which
was in their region, ceased, their kingdom was
dissolved, and all quickly passed through it ; it
came to pass, therefore, when they began to
understand these things in the course of time,
and when the number of the reckoning of
Melchisedec, the receiver, was accomplished,
that he came again, he entered into the midst
of the rulers of all the seons, and into the midst
of all the rulers of the fate, as well as of those of
the sphere, and he threw them into confusion,
and caused their circles to be quickly abandoned.
(37) And forthwith they were constrained, and
cast forth their power from themselves by the
breath of their mouth, by the tears of their eyes
and the sweat of their bodies.
" And Melchisedec, the receiver of light, puri-
The rulers fied them, as he had constantly done ;
matter^so 11 he carried their light into the treasure
may notbe f Mght ; and as tO the matter of pur-
fabricated. gatioilj a u t j ie ru i ers O f t h e 8eons> thie
rulers of the fate, and those of the sphere, sur-
rounded it and devoured it. They did not let it
go, to become souls in the world, for they had
devoured their matter, so that they might not
become without power, without energy, and
that their power might not cease to be in them,
and their kingdom might not be dissolved ; but
FIRST BOOK. 37
they devoured it, in order that they might not
be destroyed, but that they might linger, and
cause a long delay to the completion of the
number of perfected souls, who shall dwell in
the treasure of light.
" It came to pass, therefore, as the rulers of
the aeons, and those of the fate, with those of
the sphere, persevered in so doing, in turning
on themselves, in devouring the purgation of
their matter, and in preventing the birth of souls
into the world of men, in order that they might
be kings for a longer period, and that the powers,
which are the powers in them, might be for a
long time excluded from this world they con-
tinued to do this persistently for two cycles it
came to pass, therefore, when I set forth to ac-
complish the ministry, (38) to which I had been
called by commandment of the first mystery,
that I passed through the midst of the tyrants
of the rulers of the twelve aeons, my vesture of
light being on me, and shining exceedingly,
there being no measure to the light which was
in me.
"It came to pass, therefore, when these
tyrants had seen the great light which Adamasand
i ^ *. A j ^ the t
was in me, that great Adamas, the battle
tyrant, and all the tyrants of the
twelve aeons, all began to battle
against the light of my vesture, desiring
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PISTIS SOPHIA
to keep it with them, in order to remain
the longer in their kingdom. And this they
did, not knowing then against whom they
fought.
"Then, when they had rebelled, fighting
against the light, then, by command-
takethfrom ment of the first mystery, I changed
third of the path and course of their aeons,
their
power, and the path of their fate and of their
their sphere ; I caused them to face for six
course.
months their three angles to the left,
their four angles, and those in front of them,
and their eight configurations, as they had
formerly been; but their manner of turning, and
their manner of facing, I changed to another order,
and caused them for the other six months to face
the actions of their influences by the four
angles of the right, and their three angles, and
by them which are before them, and by their
eight configurations. And I caused them to be
in great confusion, (39) and to wander in great
error, the rulers of the aeons, and all the rulers
of the fate, with those of the sphere, and I
greatly distressed them. And from that hour,
they have not had the power to turn towards the
purgation of their matter to devour it, in order
that their regions should endure permanently,
and they should still reign for a long
period.
FIRST BOOK. 39
" But when I had taken away the third part
of their power, I changed their re- They
volution, so that for a period they
faced the left, and for another period
they faced the right; I changed the matter *
whole of their path and the whole of their
course, and I caused the path of their course to
be hastened, so that they might be quickly
purified, and they might speedily rise. And I
shortened their circles, and I caused their path
to be lightened, and they were greatly hurried,
and were thrown into confusion in their path.;
and from that hour, they have no more had the
power of devouring the matter of the purgation
of the brilliancy of their light. Moreover, their
times and their periods were shortened, in order
that the perfect number of souls who shall re-
ceive the mysteries, and dwell in the treasure of
light, should be speedily completed. For had I
not changed their course, had I not shortened
their times, they would not have permitted any
soul to come into the world, because of the matter
of their purgation, which they devoured, (40)
and they would have destroyed a host of souls.
For this cause I said unto you before, c I have
shortened the times because of my elect/ for
there would not have been a soul that could
have been saved, if I had not shortened the
times and the periods, because of the perfect
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PISTIS SOPHIA
number of souls who -shall receive the mysteries,
that is to say, the 'elect'; and had I not
shortened their times, there would not have
been a single material soul saved, but they
would have perished in the fire which is in the
flesh of the rulers. Such, then, is the matter on
which thou hast questioned me straitly."
It came to pass, when Jesus had finished speak-
ing these things unto his disciples, that they
bowed themselves together, and worshipped
him, saying : " Blessed are we among all men,
for unto us thou hast revealed these sublime
immensities."
And Jesus continued in his conversation, and
The powers sa ^ unto ^ 8 disciples : "Give ear and
Sght-v^ e hearken concerning the things which be-
ture. f e ii me am id the rulers of the twelve
aeons, amid all their rulers, their lords, their
authorities, their angels, and their archangels.
When, then, they had seen the vesture of light
which was on me, they and their unpaired, each
of them, saw the mystery of their name, which
was in my vesture of light, with which I was
clothed ; (41) they bowed themselves together,
they adored the vesture of light, which was on me,
and cried out all together saying, ' How hath the
lord of the pleroma changed us without our know-
ing?' And they all sang together to the interior
of the interiors. And all their triple powers, their
FIRST BOOK. 41
great forefathers, their ungenerated, their self-
generated, their generated, their gods, their
sparks, their light-bearers, in a word, all their
great ones, saw the tyrants of their region with
their power diminished in them, and become
feeble ; and they also were in great and bound-
less fear, and they saw the mystery of their
name in my vesture, and they strove to draw
nigh to adore the mystery of their name, which
was in my vesture, but they could not because
of the great light that was with me ; but they
adored a little removed from me, they wor-
shipped the light of my vesture, and they all
cried out together, singing to the interior of
the interiors.
" It came to pass, when this was done
to the tyrants, who are amid the
aeons, that they lost courage, they become*^ 8
fell down in their seons, and became the dead '
as the men of the world who are dead, who have
not in them any breath, (42) just as when
I took from them their power. It came
to -pass, therefore, after this, when I had
left these aeons, that every one of those who
were in the twelve aeons was bound to his order,
and they accomplished their works as it had
been appointed them; so that they spent six
months turning to the left, accomplishing their
actions in their four angles, their three angles,
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and those in front of them, and that they spent
also six months facing the right, [facing] their
three angles, their four angles, and those in front
of them. This, therefore, will be the path of
those who are in the fate and in the sphere.
" It came to pass, after these things, that I
Jesus en- came into t ' ie height, to the veils
thirteen^ of the thirteenth aeon. It came to
P ass > when * kad arrived at its
tis Sophia. ve il Sj that they were withdrawn of
their own accord ; they opened before me ; I
entered into the thirteenth aeon, I found Pistis
Sophia below the thirteenth aeon, quite alone,
no one being near her ; she was sitting in that
region, grieving and mourning, because she had
not been brought into the thirteenth aeon, her
proper region in the height. And she was
grieving because of the vexations which she
had been made to suffer by Arrogant, who is
one of the three triple powers. When I come
to tell you of their emanation, I will tell you the
mystery, how that that had come about.
(43) " It came to pass, therefore, when
Pistis Sophia had seen me shining
Sophia and
her fellow exceedingly, there being no measure
powers be- . . ,
hold the to the light which was in me, that she
was in great distress, and gazed into
the light of my vesture ; she saw the mystery
of her name in my vesture, and all the glory of
FIRST BOOK. 43
her mystery, for formerly she had been in the
region of the height, in the thirteenth seon ; so
she began to sing a song to the light which is
in the height, which she had seen in the veil of
the treasure of light. It came to pass, therefore,
when she had finished singing her song to the
light which is in the height, that all the rulers,
who were near the two great triple powers, and
her invisible paired with her, gazed [upon my
vesture], as well as the two and twenty re-
maining invisible emanations ; for Pistis Sophia
and her consort, together with the two and
twenty remaining emanations, make up the four
and twenty emanations, which were emanated by
the great invisible forefather and the two great
triple powers."
It came to pass, when Jesus had spoken
these things unto his disciples, that Mary a e sir-
Mary came forward and said : " Master, ^^^
I have heard thee say formerly that of Sophia.
Pistis Sophia was also one of the four and
twenty emanations. How, then, was she not in
their region ? For thou hast said, (44) c I
found her below the thirteenth aeon/"
And Jesus answered and said unto his dis-
ciples : "It came to pass, when Sophia de-
Pistis Sophia was in the thirteenth t^e 0611 "
seon, in the region of all her brother u * ht - world -
invisibles, who are the four and twenty
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PISTIS SOPHIA
emanations of the great invisible; it came to
pass, therefore, by order of the first mystery,
that Pistis Sophia gazed into the height, she
saw the light of the veil of the treasure of
light, and she desired to go into that region, but
she could not. She ceased to do the mystery
of the thirteenth aeon, and began to sing a song
to the light of the height, which she had seen in
the light of the veil of the treasure of light.
" It came to pass, therefore, when she began
to sing her song to the region of the
height, that all the rulers who are in
the twelve seorfls, those who are below,
mystery. hated h er> because she had ceased in
their mysteries, and because she had desired
to go into the height and be above them all.
For this cause, therefore, they were enraged
against her and hated her. And the great triple
power Arrogant, that is to say, the third triple
power, who is in the thirteenth seon, the dis-
obedient one, who had not emanated the purity
of the power which was in him, and had not
given the purity qf his light at the time when
the rulers gave their purity, for he wished to
rule over all the thirteenth aeon, and those who
are below it
(45) " It came to pass, therefore, when the
rulers of the twelve aeons were enraged against
Pistis Sophia, who is above them, and hated
PIBST BOOK. 45
her exceedingly, that the great triple power
Arrogant, of whom I have just been
telling you, joined himself to the
number of the twelve aeons ; he also
became enraged against Pistis Sophia,
and hated her exceedingly, because she
had thought to go towards the light
which was above him, so he emanated E la fc
bopJb