(3) Severally they twice recounted their own evil deeds, and it pleased him not; and that wicked evil spirit, through fear of the righteous man, was not able to lift up his head until the wicked Gêh came, at the completion of the three thousand years.

(8) The noble elect substance which is in him was more exalted. It created and it did not wound them. Therefore they issued a command, making a threat and bringing upon him a great danger, which is death. Only the enjoyment of the things which are evil did he allow him to taste, and from the other tree with the double (fruit) he did not allow him to eat, much less from the tree of life, so that they would not acquire honor [...] them, and so that they would not be [...] by the evil power which is called "the serpent." And he is more cunning than all the evil powers. He led man astray through the determination of those things which belong to the thought and the desires. made him transgress the command, so that he would die. And he was expelled from every enjoyment of that place.

First Eve conceived Abel from the first ruler; and she bore the rest of the sons from the seven authorities and their angels. Now, all this came to pass according to the forethought of the chief creator, so that the first mother might bear within herself every seed, mixed and joined together with the fate of the world and its configurations and justice. A plan came into being because of Eve, so that the fashioned bodies of the authorities might become fences for the light. Then the light will condemn them through their fashioned bodies. The first Adam of light is spiritual and appeared on the first day. The second Adam is a person with soul and appeared on the sixth day, called Aphrodite. The third Adam is earthly, that is, a man of law, who appeared on the eighth day, after the rest of poverty, which is called Sunday. Now, the progeny of the earthly Adam multiplied and was completed and produced within itself all the technical skill of the Adam with soul. But all were in ignorance.

The human being Adam was revealed through the bright shadow within. And Adam’s ability to think was greater than that of all the creators. When they looked up, they saw that Adam’s ability to think was greater, and they devised a plan with the whole throng of rulers and angels. They took fire, earth, and water, and combined them with the four fiery winds. They wrought them together and made a great commotion. The rulers brought Adam into the shadow of death so that they might produce a figure again, from earth, water, fire, and the spirit that comes from matter, that is, from the ignorance of darkness, and desire, and their own false spirit. This is the cave for remodeling the body that these criminals put on the human, the fetter of forgetfulness. Adam became a mortal being, the first to descend and the first to become estranged. The enlightened afterthought within Adam, however, would rejuvenate Adam’s mind. They put their tree of life in the middle of paradise. I shall teach you the secret of their life, the plan they devised together, the nature of their spirit: The root of their tree is bitter, its branches are death, its shadow is hatred, a trap is in its leaves, its blossom is bad ointment, its fruit is death, desire is its seed, it blossoms in darkness. The dwelling place of those who taste of it is the underworld, and darkness is their resting place. But the rulers lingered in front of what they call the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is the enlightened afterthought, so that Adam might not behold its fullness and recognize his shameful nakedness. But I was the one who induced them to eat. I said to the savior, Master, was it not the snake that instructed Adam to eat? The savior laughed and said, The snake instructed them to eat of the wickedness of sexual desire and destruction so that Adam might be of use to the snake. This is the one who knew Adam was disobedient because of the enlightened afterthought within Adam, which made Adam stronger of mind than the first ruler. The first ruler wanted to recover the power that he himself had passed on to Adam. So he brought deep sleep upon Adam. I said to the savior, What is this deep sleep? The savior said, It is not as Moses wrote and you heard. He said in his first book, He put Adam to sleep. Rather, this deep sleep was a loss of sense. Thus the first ruler said through the prophet, I shall make their minds sluggish, that they may neither understand nor discern.

(39) And when God had thus provided Adam and Eve a bestial Garment to cover their Shame, and to defend them against the Cold, then he let them out of the Garden, and set the Cherubim with a naked a two-edged Sword before it, to keep the Way to the Tree of Life, and he [Man] must now till the Ground. But the Understanding of us poor Children of Adam and Eve is sunk so much, that at our last old Age we scarce reach [the Understanding of] any Thing concerning the lamentable Fall of Adam and Eve, seeing we must seek very deep for it in the Center of the Light of Life; for it is very wonderful which Moses says, God set the Cherubim before the Garden, to keep and guard the Way to the Tree of Life. Who could understand it? If God did not open our Eyes, we should speak simply of a Keeper with a Sword; and Reason sees nothing else.

Then the authorities were informed that their fashioned body was alive, and had risen, and they were very much disturbed. They sent seven archangels to see what had happened. They came to Adam, and when they saw Eve speaking with him, they said to one another, “What is this enlightened woman? For truly she resembles the likeness that appeared to us in the light. Now come, let us seize her and cast our seed into her, so that when she is polluted she will not be able to ascend to her light, but those whom she bears will serve us. But let us not tell Adam, because he is not from us. Rather, let us bring a stupor upon him, and suggest to him in his sleep that she came into being from his rib, so that the woman may serve and he may rule over her.” Then Eve, since she existed as a power, laughed at their false intention. She darkened their eyes and secretly left her likeness there with Adam. She entered the tree of knowledge and remained there. They pursued her, and she revealed to them that she had entered the tree and had become the tree. And when the blind ones fell into a great fear, they ran away. Afterward, when they sobered up from the stupor, they came to Adam. And when they saw the likeness of that woman with him, they were troubled, thinking that this was the true Eve. And they acted recklessly, and came to her and seized her and cast their seed upon her. They did it deceitfully, defiling her not only naturally but also abominably, first defiling the seal of her voice, which had spoken with them, saying, “What is it that exists before you?” They meant to defile those who might say at the consummation of the age that they had been born of a true human by means of the word. And they were deceived, not knowing that they had defiled their own body. It was the likeness that the authorities and their angels defiled in every way.

(94) Thus also God withdrew, that is, Cain went out from God, from the Kingdom of God into the Kingdom of the Fierceness of the Driver; therefore also his Affairs (which he further [managed, held forth, and] pretended) were not of God, but from the Kingdom of the fierce Wrath; that [Fierceness] led him, and generated or awakened its Wonders through him, that the [Kingdom of the Fierceness] might be also manifested, even as it was a great Wonder, i how the noble Image in Abel, by the Fierceness of Hell, and of this World, could be separated in the Breaking of the Body; whereas the Kingdom of Hell would fain have found [or felt] it; and therefore the first Death must be hastily [or suddenly,] where then the Treader upon the Serpent showed his first Master-piece, when the Kingdom of this World parted from Abel, when the Cherubim did this first Time cut off the four Elements from the holy Element.

(1) And I saw three persons before me whose likeness I was unable to recognize. They were not from the powers of the god who created us. They surpassed glory, saying to me, "Rise, Adam, from the sleep of death, and hear about the eternal being and the seed of that person to whom life has come, who came from you and from Eve, your wife."

Then when the rulers knew that Adam and Eve had transgressed their commandment, they entered paradise and came to Adam and Eve in an earthquake and a great threat, to see the result of the help that was given. Then Adam and Eve were very much disturbed and hid under the trees in paradise. The rulers did not know where they were and said, “Adam, where are you?” He said, “I am here. But because of fear of you I hid after I became ashamed.” But they said to him, in ignorance, “Who is the one who spoke to you of the shame that you put on—unless you ate from the tree?” He said, “The woman whom you gave me, she is the one who gave to me, and I ate.” Then they said to that woman, “What is this you have done?” She answered and said, “The instructor is the one who incited me, and I ate.” Then the rulers came to the instructor. Their eyes were blinded by him so they were not able to do anything to him. They merely cursed him, since they were powerless. Afterward they came to the woman, and they cursed her and her offspring. After the woman they cursed Adam and the earth and the fruit because of him. And everything that they created they cursed. There is no blessing from them. Good cannot come from evil. Since that day the authorities knew that truly there was something stronger than they. They would not have known except that their commandment was broken. They brought a great envy into the world only because of the immortal human. Now, when the rulers saw that their Adam had acquired a different knowledge, they wanted to test him. They gathered all the domestic animals and wild beasts of the earth and the birds of the heaven, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. When he saw them, he gave names to their creatures. They were troubled because Adam had sobered up from all ignorance. They gathered together and took counsel and said, “Look, Adam has become like one of us, so that he understands the difference between light and darkness. Now perhaps he will be deceived as with the tree of knowledge and will come to the tree of life and eat from it and become immortal and rule and condemn us and regard us and all our glory as folly. And then he will pass judgment on us and the world. Come, let’s cast him out of paradise down to the earth, the place from where he was taken, so that he will no longer be able to know anything better than we can.” And so they cast Adam and his wife out of paradise. And what they had done did not satisfy them. Rather, they were still afraid. They came to the tree of life and they set great terrors around it, fiery living beings called cherubim; and they left a flaming sword in the midst, turning continually with a great terror, so that no one from among earthly beings might ever enter that place. After these things, when the rulers had become jealous of Adam, they wanted to diminish the human lifetimes, but they were unable because of fate, which was established since the beginning. For their lifetimes were determined: for each of the people one thousand years according to the circuit of the luminaries. But although the rulers were not able to do this, each of the evildoers took away ten years. So all of the remaining time amounts to nine hundred thirty years, and these are spent in grief and weakness and in evil distractions. Thus life has gone, from that day until the consummation of the age.

(44) Now when Adam and Eve went out of the Garden, they kept together, as now married People do, and now would make Trial of their bestial Condition, [to try] what Wonders might proceed from them; and the Spirit of the great World did well enough to teach them, in their Reason, what they were to do. And Adam knew his Wife Eve, and she conceived and bore a Son, and called him Cain; for she said, I have a Man from the Lord. These are sealed Words which Moses writes, that she said, / have a Man from the Lord. [For] then said the Major Mundus, I have the Lord of this World. Eve spoke no otherwise, than as the Apostles thought, that Christ was to erect a worldly Kingdom; so Eve thought that her Son (as a strong Champion) should break the Head of the Devil, and set up a glorious Kingdom; from whence instantly a twofold Understanding [or different Condition] followed, and two Sorts of Churches; the one [built or relying] upon the Mercy of God; and the other, upon their own Might, Authority or Power.] And therefore Cain could not endure his Brother, because Abel pressed hard upon the Mercy of God, and Cain [relied] upon his own Power [Might and Authority.] He thought himself to be the Lord of the whole World, as his Mother had instructed him; and therefore now he would break the Head of the Serpent in his own Might as a Warrior [or Soldier,] and began with his Brother Abel, for his Faith relied not on God, but on his own Power; and here the Serpent stung the Treader upon the Serpent in the Heel the first Time. The Gate of the Mysteries, [or the Explanation of the hidden Secrets.]

(1) Once again, for the third time, the illuminator of knowledge passes by in great glory to leave some of the seed of Noah and the sons of Ham and Japheth—to leave fruit-bearing trees for himself. And he redeems their souls from the day of death. The whole creation that came from the dead earth will be under the authority of death. But those who reflect on the knowledge of the eternal god in their hearts will not perish. They have not received spirit from this kingdom but from something eternal, angelic. . . . The illuminator will come . . . Seth. And he will perform signs and wonders to scorn the powers and their ruler.

(38) Now when the Worm of Darkness saw the Command of God, it thought with itself, here thou wilt not prevail, thou art Spirit without Body, and contrariwise, Adam is corporeal, thou hast but a third Part in him, and besides, the Command is in the Way; thou wilt even slip [or creep] into the Essences, and flatter with the Spirit of this World, and take a creaturely Form upon thee, and send a Legate [or Ambassador] out of my Kingdom, clothed in the Form of a Serpent, and wilt persuade him to eat of the earthly Fruit, and then the Command destroys his Body, and the Spirit remains [to be] mine. Here now the Legate [or Ambassador,] the Devil, was very willing [and ready] at this, especially because Adam in Paradise was in his Place, where he should have been; and he thought with himself, now thou hast an Opportunity to be revenged; thou wilt mingle Lies and Truth so together, that Adam may not [observe or] understand it, [the Treachery,] and so thou wilt tempt him. Of the Tree of Knowledge [of] Good and Evil.

Now, from the foreknowledge of the perfect mind, through the expressed will of the invisible spirit and the will of the self-conceived one, came the perfect human, the first revelation, the truth. The virgin spirit named the human Geradamas and appointed Geradamas to the first eternal realm with the great self-conceived, the anointed, by the first luminary, Harmozel. Its powers dwell with it. The invisible one gave Geradamas an unconquerable power of mind. Geradamas spoke and glorified and praised the invisible spirit by saying, “Because of you everything has come into being, and to you everything will return. “I shall praise and glorify you, and the self-conceived, and the eternal realms, the three—father, mother, child, the perfect power.” Geradamas appointed his son Seth to the second eternal realm, before the second luminary, Oroiael. In the third eternal realm were stationed the offspring of Seth, with the third luminary, Daveithai. The souls of the saints were stationed there. In the fourth eternal realm were stationed the souls of those who were ignorant of the fullness. They did not repent immediately but held out for a while and repented later. They came to be with the fourth luminary, Eleleth, and they are creatures that glorify the invisible spirit.

(10) And one of us He commanded that we should teach Noah all their medicines ; for He knew that they would not walk in uprightness, nor strive in righteousness, n. And we did according to all His words : all the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of condemnation, and a tenth part of them we left that they might be subject before Satan * on the earth.

When the Almighty determined to create mankind to be proved by good and evil, He deputed the angel Gabriel to bring a handful of earth for the purpose of forming Adam's body. Gabriel accordingly girded his loins and proceeded to the Earth to execute the divine commands. But the Earth, being apprehensive that the man so created would rebel against God and draw down God's curse upon her, remonstrated with Gabriel, and besought him to forbear. She represented that Gabriel would at the last day be pre-eminent over all the eight angels who would then support the throne, and that it therefore was only right that he should prefer mercy to judgment. At last Gabriel granted her prayer, and returned to heaven without taking the handful of earth. Then God deputed Michael on the same errand, and the Earth made similar excuses to him, and he also listened to her crying, and returned to heaven without taking a handful. He excused himself to the Almighty by citing the example of the people to whom the prophet Jonah was sent, who were delivered from the threatened penalty in consequence of their lamentation for their sins; and the text, "If He please, He will deliver you from that which ye shall cry to Him to avert." Then God sent the angel Israfil on the same errand, and he also was diverted from the execution of it by a divine intimation. At last God sent 'Izrail, the angel of death, who, being of sterner disposition than the others, resolutely shut his ears to the Earth's entreaties, and brought back the required handful of earth. The Earth pressed him with the argument that God's command to bear away a handful of her substance against her will did not override the other divine command to take pity on suppliants; but 'Izrail would not listen to her, remarking that, according to the canons of theological interpretation, it was not allowable to have recourse to analogical reasoning to evade a plain and categorical injunction. He added, that in executing this injunction, painful though it might be, he was to be regarded only as a spear in the hand of the Almighty. The moral is, that when any of God's creatures do us a harm, we ought to regard them only as instruments of God, who is the Only Real Agent.

When Yaldabaoth realized that the humans had withdrawn from him, he cursed his earth. He found the woman as she was preparing herself for her husband. He was master over her. And he did not know the mystery that had come into being through the sacred plan. The two of them were afraid to denounce Yaldabaoth. He displayed to his angels the ignorance within him. He threw the humans out of paradise and cloaked them in thick darkness. The first ruler saw the young woman standing next to Adam and noticed that the enlightened afterthought of life had appeared in her. Yet Yaldabaoth was full of ignorance. So when the forethought of all realized this, she dispatched emissaries, and they stole life out of Eve. The first ruler defiled Eve and produced in her two sons, a first and a second: Elohim and Yahweh. Elohim has the face of a bear, Yahweh has the face of a cat. One is just, the other is unjust. He placed Yahweh over fire and wind, he placed Elohim over water and earth. He called them by the names Cain and Abel, with a view to deceive. To this day sexual intercourse has persisted because of the first ruler. He planted sexual desire in the woman who belongs to Adam. Through intercourse the first ruler produced duplicate bodies, and he blew some of his false spirit into them. He placed these two rulers over the elements so that they might rule over the cave. When Adam came to know the counterpart of his own foreknowledge, he produced a son like the human child. He called him Seth, after the manner of the heavenly race in the eternal realms. Similarly, the mother sent down her spirit, which is like her and is a copy of what is in the realm of fullness, for she was going to prepare a dwelling place for the eternal realms that would come down. The human beings were made to drink water of forgetfulness by the first ruler, so that they might not know where they had come from. For a time the seed remained and helped so that when the spirit descends from the holy realms, it may raise up the seed and heal what it lacks, that the entire realm of fullness may be holy and lack nothing.

(10) And in the third week of this jubilee the unclean demons began to lead astray fthe children off s the sons of Noah, and to make to err and destroy them.

(5) Therefore ye would beguile mankind of happy life (upon earth) and of Immortality (beyond it), since the Evil Spirit (has ruled) you with his evil mind. Yea, he has ruled you, (ye) who are of the Demon-gods, and with an evil word unto action, as his ruler (governs) the wicked !

(49) For as the Tree was, so was the Fruit; and though the Tree was not wholly evil [or false,] yet as to the becoming Man, the Tincture (by the Wrestling of the two Regions) became false [or evil.] And besides, afterwards Eve (his Mother) helped him forward very much, because she sought after an earthly Lord and Treader upon the Serpent, and instructed him, [telling him,] that he was the Warrior [or Soldier to overcome] against the Devil, he must do it; and so the Wrath held him captive, and his Offering [or Sacrifice] was not acceptable to God, because (in Wrath) he built upon himself, and so his Prayer reached not the Gate of Heaven, but the Driver took it up, because it proceeded out of Self-Pride, like the proud Pharisee, out of an [evil or] false Mind.

(1) The revelation that Adam taught his son Seth in the seven hundredth year, saying, Listen to my words, my son Seth. When god created me out of the earth along with your mother Eve, I went about with her in a glory that she saw in the eternal realm from which we came. She taught me knowledge of the eternal god. And we resembled the great eternal angels, for we were higher than the god who created us and the powers with him, whom we did not know.