(20) Therefore you must know for certain, that Eve was created out of all Adam's Essences. But there were no more Ribs nor Members broken from Adam; which appears by the Feebleness and Weakness of the Woman, and also by the Command of God, who said; Thy Will shall be in Subjection under thy Man [or Husband,] and he shall be thy Lord [or Ruler.] Because the Man is whole and perfect, except a Rib, therefore the Woman is a Help for him, and must help him to do his Work in Humility and Subjection; and the Man must know that she is very weak, being cut of his Essences; he must help her in her Weakness, and love her as his own Essences: In like Manner the Woman must put her Essences and Will into [the Essences and Will] of the Man, and be friendly towards her Man [or Husband;] that the Man may take Delight in his own Essences in the Woman; and that they two might be but one only Will. For they are one Flesh, one Bone, one Heart, and generate Children in one [only] Will, which are neither the Man's nor the Woman's alone, but of both together, as if they were from one only Body. And therefore the severe Commandment of God is set before the Children, that they should with Earnestness and Subjection honour their Father and Mother, upon Pain of temporary and eternal Punishment: Of which I will write concerning the Tables of Moses. Concerning the Propagating of the Soul. The Noble Gate.

(4) Then what was it that God now did with Adam? Moses says, When Adam slept, he took one of his Ribs, and [made or] built a Woman of it, (viz. of the Rib which he took from Man,) and closed up the Place with Flesh. Now Moses has wrote very right: But who is it that can understand him here? If I did not know the first Adam in his virgin-like Form in Paradise, then I had been at a Stand, and should have known no other than that Adam had been made Flesh and Blood of a Lump of Earth, and his Wife Eve of his Rib and hard Bones; which before the Time [of my Knowledge] has oft seemed very strange and wonderful to my Thoughts, when I have read the Glosses upon Moses, that so [high or] deep learned Men should write so of it: Some of them will dare to tell of a Pit in the [Orient or] East Country, out of which Adam should be taken and made as a Potter makes

(15) We being here in describing the Corruptibility of Adam, the Spirit frames in our Thoughts a heavenly Mystery, concerning Adam's Rib, which the Fiat took from him, and made a Woman of it; which [Rib] Adam afterwards must want; for the Text in Moses rightly says, God closed up the Place with Flesh.

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.

(6) It was only, then, when a father and mother, a son and daughter died, that the priest was allowed to enter, because these were related only by flesh and seed, to whom the priest was indebted for the immediate cause of his entrance into life. And they purify themselves seven days, the period in which Creation was consummated. For on the seventh day the rest is celebrated; and on the eighth he brings a propitiation, as is written in Ezekiel, according to which propitiation the promise is to be received. And the perfect propitiation, I take it, is that propitious faith in the Gospel which is by the law and the prophets, and the purity which shows itself in universal obedience, with the abandonment of the things of the world; in order to that grateful surrender of the tabernacle, which results from the enjoyment of the soul. Whether, then, the time be that which through the seven periods enumerated returns to the chiefest rest, or the seven heavens, which some reckon one above the other; or whether also the fixed sphere which borders on the intellectual world be called the eighth, the expression denotes that the Gnostic ought to rise out of the sphere of creation and of sin. After these seven days, sacrifices are offered for sins.

(13) But you must clearly understand [or conceive,] that when the Fiat to the Creating [of the Woman] was in Adam, in his Sleep, his Body had not then such hard Grisles and Bones: O no; that came to pass first when Mother Eve did bite the Apple, and also gave to Adam; only the Infection and the earthly Death, with the fainting and mortal Sickness, stuck in them; the Bones and Ribs were yet Strength and Virtue, from which the Ribs should come to be.

(24) Then it was time that the Creator should frame a wife for him, who afterwards set the sin on work, and did eat of the false, evil or corrupt fruit. Else if Adam had eaten of the tree before the woman had been made out of him, then it would have been far worse than it is.

(5) Now when God the Lord had pronounced Adam and Eve's Sentence, about their earthly Misery, Labour, Cares, and hard Burden, which they must bear, and [that he had confirmed them] Husband and Wife, and also bound them in the Oath of Wedlock, to keep together as one [only] Body, and to love and help one another, as the Members of one [and the same] Body, they were then wholly naked, they stood and were ashamed of their earthly Image, and especially of the Members of their Shame; also [they were ashamed] of the i Excrement of the Earthly Food of their Bodies, for they saw that they had a bestial Condition, according to the outward Body with all its Substance; also Heat and Cold fell upon them, and the chaste Image of God was extinct; and now they must propagate after a bestial Manner.

(1) On the nature of generation it says in revelation, that a woman when she comes out from menstruation, during ten days and nights, when they go near unto her, soon becomes pregnant.

(12) Now when the Tincture was become thus earthy and feeble, by the Overcoming of the Spirit of the great World, then it could not generate [in a] heavenly [Manner,] and was also possessed with Inability; and then the Council of God stood there, and said; seeing he is become earthly, and is not able [to propagate,] we will make a Help for him; and the Fiat stood in the Center, and severed the Matrix from the Limbus: And the Fiat took a Rib in the Midst of Adam out of his right Side, and created a Woman out of it.

(5) For the hardness of your heart he wrote you his precept. But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife.

The authorities came up to their Adam. When they saw his female partner speaking with him, they became very excited and enamored of her. They said to one another, “Come, let us sow our seed in her,” and they pursued her. And she laughed at them for their foolishness and blindness. In their clutches she became a tree and left before them her shadowy reflection resembling herself, and they defiled it foully. And they defiled the seal of her voice, so that by the form they had modeled, together with their own image, they made themselves liable to condemnation. Then the female spiritual presence came in the form of the snake, the instructor, and it taught them, saying, “What did he say to you? Was it, ‘From every tree in the garden shall you eat, but from the tree of recognizing evil and good do not eat’?” The woman of flesh said, “Not only did he say ‘Don’t eat,’ but even ‘Don’t touch it. For the day you eat from it, you will surely die.’” The snake, the instructor, said, “It is not the case that you will surely die, for out of jealousy he said this to you. Rather, your eyes will open and you will be like gods, recognizing evil and good.” And the female instructing power was taken away from the snake, and she left it behind, merely a thing of the earth. And the woman of flesh took from the tree and ate, and she gave to her husband as well as herself, and those beings, who possessed only a soul, ate. And their imperfection became apparent in their lack of knowledge. They recognized that they were naked of the spiritual, and they took fig leaves and bound them around themselves. Then the chief ruler came, and he said, “Adam, where are you?”—for he did not understand what had happened. Adam said, “I heard your voice and was afraid because I was naked, and I hid.” The ruler said, “Why did you hide, unless it is because you have eaten from the tree from which alone I commanded you not to eat? You have eaten!” Adam said, “The woman you gave me gave me fruit and I ate.” And the arrogant ruler cursed the woman. The woman said, “The snake led me astray and I ate.” They turned to the snake and cursed its shadowy reflection, so it was powerless, and they did not comprehend that it was a form they themselves had modeled. From that day, the snake came to be under the curse of the authorities. Until the perfect human was to come, that curse fell on the snake. They turned to their Adam and took him and expelled him from the garden along with his wife, for they have no blessing, since they too are under the curse. Moreover, they threw human beings into great distraction and into a life of toil, so that their human beings might be occupied by worldly affairs and might not have the opportunity of being devoted to the holy spirit.

(72) For this reason you could not point to any place in Scripture where one of the ancients approached a pregnant woman; later, after the child is born and weaned, you might find that marriage relations of husbands and wives were resumed. You will find that Moses' father kept this principle in mind. After Aaron's birth three years passed before Moses was born. Again, the tribe of Levi observed this law of nature given by God, although they were fewer in number than any others which came into the promised land. For a tribe does not easily grow to great numbers if their men have intercourse only within the legal marriage relationship and then wait until the end not only of pregnancy but also of breast-feeding.

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.

(30) And so God, in his Sleep, made the Woman for him out of himself, by which he must now generate his Kingdom, for now it could not otherwise be. And when he awaked, he saw her, and took her to him and said; This is Flesh of my Flesh, and Bone of my Bone; for Adam was (in his Sleep) become quite another Image; for God had permitted the Spirit of this World in him to make his Tincture weary to Sleep.

(36) You must understand [or conceive] it right: Eve got not Adam's Soul, nor Adam's Body, but one only Rib; but she was extracted from the Essences, and got her Soul in her Essences [that were] given her, in the Tincture, and the Body grew for [or to] her in her own sprung-up Tincture, yet in Virtue [or Power;] but the Fiat had already formed [or made] her a Woman. Indeed she was not deformed, but altogether lovely; for she was of a heavenly Kind, in Paradise, yet the i Marks were already also set upon her by the Fiat of the great World; and it could not otherwise be, she must be a Woman for Adam; indeed they were in Paradise. And if they had not eaten of the Tree, and if they had returned to God, then they should have continued in Paradise; but the Propagation must now needs have been after a womanly Manner, and should not have stood [eternally.] For Satan had brought it too far, although he had not suffered himself to be seen, only he strewed Sugar abroad in the Spirit of this World, till at length the lovely Beast laid itself forth upon the Tree as a Flatterer and Liar. The Gate of our Propagation in the Flesh.

(80) But if Men search very deep, this [that follows they will find] is the very Ground. Eve was the Child in the Matrix of Adam, which Adam (if he had not been overcome) should have generated out of himself, in great Modesty [Purity] and Holiness; but because Adam' Matrix was impregnated from the Spirit of this World, therefore God must frame a fleshly Woman out of it, which afterwards (in her first Fruit) became lustful, and infected from the Devil, as well as the Limbus in Adam. 8 1. And therefore they also generated such a towardly Child as looked only after Covetousness; as Eve also did, who would be like God; and surely Adam had some Mind that Way, or else he should not have entered into the Spirit of this World.

(8) Then Reason asks; What was the Rib [taken] out of Adam to be [made] a Woman? The Gate of the Depth. Behold, the Virgin shows us this, that when Adam was overcome, and the Virgin passed into her Ether, then the Tincture (wherein the fair Virgin had dwelt) became earthy, weary, feeble, and weak; for the powerful Root of the Tincture, from whence it had its Potency without any Sleep or Rest (viz. the heavenly Matrix, which contains Paradise and the Kingdom of Heaven) withdrew in Adam, and went into its Ether.