This is the reason why incorruptibility looked down into the region, so that, by the father’s will, she might bring all into union with the light. The rulers laid plans and said, “Come, let us create a human that will be soil from the earth.” They modeled their creature as one wholly of the earth. The rulers have bodies that are both female and male, and faces that are the faces of beasts. They took some soil from the earth and modeled their man, after their body and after the image of god that had appeared to them in the waters. They said, “Come, let us lay hold of it by means of the form that we have modeled, so that it may see its male partner and we may seize it with the form that we have modeled,” not understanding the partner of god, because of their powerlessness. And he breathed into his face, and the man came to have a soul and remained on the ground many days. But they could not make him rise because of their powerlessness. Like storm winds they persisted in blowing, that they might try to capture that image which had appeared to them in the waters. And they did not know the identity of its power. Now, all these events came to pass by the will of the father of all. Afterward the spirit saw the man of soul on the ground. The spirit came forth from the adamantine land. It descended and came to dwell in him, and that man became a living soul. And the spirit called his name Adam, since he was found moving upon the ground. A voice came forth from incorruptibility for the assistance of Adam. The rulers gathered together all the animals of the earth and all the birds of heaven and brought them in to Adam to see what Adam would call them, that he might give a name to each of the birds and all the beasts. The rulers took Adam and put him in the garden, that he might cultivate it and keep watch over it. They issued a command to him, saying, “From every tree in the garden shall you eat, but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil don’t eat, nor touch it. For the day you eat from it you will surely die.” They said this to him, but they did not understand what they said. Rather, by the father’s will, they said this in such a way that he might in fact eat, and that Adam might not regard them as would a man of an exclusively material nature. The rulers took counsel with one another and said, “Come, let us cause a deep sleep to fall on Adam.” And he slept. Now, the deep sleep that they caused to fall on him, and he slept, is ignorance. They opened his side, which was like a living woman. And they built up his side with some flesh in place of her, and Adam came to be only with soul. The woman of spirit came to him and spoke with him, saying, “Rise, Adam.” And when he saw her, he said, “It is you who have given me life. You will be called ‘mother of the living.’ For she is my mother. She is the physician, and the woman, and she has given birth.”

Enlightened afterthought hid herself within Adam. The first ruler wanted to take her from Adam’s side, but enlightened afterthought cannot be apprehended. While darkness pursued her, it did not apprehend her. The first ruler removed part of Adam’s power and created another figure in the form of a female, like the image of afterthought that had appeared to him. He put the part he had taken from the power of the human being into the female creature. It did not happen, however, the way Moses said: Adam’s rib. Adam saw the woman beside him. At once enlightened afterthought appeared and removed the veil that covered his mind. He sobered up from the drunkenness of darkness. He recognized his counterpart and said, This is now bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will join himself to his wife, and the two of them will become one flesh. For his partner will be sent to him, and he will leave his father and his mother. Our sister Sophia is the one who descended in an innocent manner to restore what she lacked. For this reason she was called life, that is, the mother of the living, by the forethought of the sovereignty of heaven and by the afterthought that appeared to Adam. Through her have the living tasted perfect knowledge. As for me, I appeared in the form of an eagle on the tree of knowledge, which is the afterthought of the pure enlightened forethought, that I might teach the human beings and awaken them from the depth of sleep. For the two of them were fallen and realized that they were naked. Afterthought appeared to them as light and awakened their minds.

All the angels and demons worked together until they fashioned the psychical body. But for a long time their creation did not stir or move at all. When the mother wanted to take back the power she had relinquished to the first ruler, she prayed to the most merciful mother-father of all. With a sacred command the mother-father sent five luminaries down to the place of the angels of the first ruler. They advised him so that they might recover the mother’s power. They said to Yaldabaoth, Breathe some of your spirit into the face of Adam, and then the body will arise. He breathed his spirit into Adam. The spirit is the power of his mother, but he did not realize this, because he lives in ignorance. The mother’s power went out of Yaldabaoth and into the psychical body that had been made to be like the one who is from the beginning. The body moved and became powerful. And it was enlightened. At once the rest of the powers became jealous. Although Adam had come into being through all of them, and they had given their power to this human, Adam was more intelligent than the creators and the first ruler. When they realized that Adam was enlightened, and could think more clearly than they, and was stripped of evil, they took and threw Adam into the lowest part of the whole material realm. The blessed, benevolent, merciful mother-father had compassion for the mother’s power that had been removed from the first ruler. The rulers might be able to overpower the psychical, perceptible body once again. So with its benevolent spirit and great mercy the mother-father sent a helper to Adam, an enlightened afterthought who is from the mother-father and who was called life. She helped the whole creature, laboring with it, restoring it to its fullness, teaching it about the descent of the seed, teaching it about the way of ascent, which is the way of descent. Enlightened afterthought was hidden within Adam so that the rulers might not recognize her, but that afterthought might be able to restore what the mother lacked.

(10) Yet as concerning Eve, we must acknowledge that she was created to this corruptible Life, for she is the Woman of this World; and at this Time it could not be otherwise. For the Spirit of this World with its Tincture, had overcome and possessed Adam, so that he fell down into a Sleep, and could not generate out of himself the Image of the Virgin according to the a Discovery of the noble and chaste Virgin, the Wisdom of God which was the Matrix in him, which was joined [or espoused] to him out of the heavenly elementary Woman was given to him, viz. Eve, who (in the Spirit of the World's overcoming) was figured after a bestial Form.

Now, Sophia, who is the wisdom of afterthought and who constitutes an eternal realm, conceived of a thought from herself, with the conception of the invisible spirit and foreknowledge. She wanted to bring forth something like herself, without the consent of the spirit, who had not given approval, without her partner and without his consideration. The male did not give approval. She did not find her partner, and she considered this without the spirit’s consent and without the knowledge of her partner. Nonetheless, she gave birth. And because of the invincible power within her, her thought was not an idle thought. Something came out of her that was imperfect and different in appearance from her, for she had produced it without her partner. It did not resemble its mother and was misshapen. When Sophia saw what her desire had produced, it changed into the figure of a snake with the face of a lion. Its eyes were like flashing bolts of lightning. She cast it away from her, outside that realm so that none of the immortals would see it. She had produced it ignorantly. She surrounded it with a bright cloud and put a throne in the middle of the cloud so that no one would see it except the holy spirit, who is called the mother of the living. She named her offspring Yaldabaoth.

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.

(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.

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.

(45) The Perfect Savior said to them: "I want you to know that Sophia, the Mother of the Universe and the consort, desired by herself to bring these to existence without her male (consort). But by the will of the Father of the Universe, that his unimaginable goodness might be revealed, he created that curtain between the immortals and those that came afterward, that the consequence might follow ... [BG 118:] ... every aeon and chaos - that the defect of the female might , and it might come about that Error would contend with her. And these became the curtain of spirit. From aeons above the emanations of Light, as I have said already, a drop from Light and Spirit came down to the lower regions of Almighty in chaos, that their molded forms might appear from that drop, for it is a judgment on him, Arch-Begetter, who is called 'Yaldabaoth'. That drop revealed their molded forms through the breath, as a living soul. It was withered and it slumbered in the ignorance of the soul. When it became hot from the breath of the Great Light of the Male, and it took thought, (then) names were received by all who are in the world of chaos, and all things that are in it through that Immortal One, when the breath blew into him. But when this came about by the will of Mother Sophia - so that Immortal Man might piece together the garments there for a judgment on the robbers - then welcomed the blowing of that breath; but since he was soul-like, he was not able to take that power for himself until the number of chaos should be complete, (that is,) when the time determined by the great angel is complete.

(22) [paragraph continues] Of this fuller nature the mortal man has little comprehension. Just as spirit contains matter within itself and is both the source and ultimate of the state denominated matter, so Eve represents the lower, or mortal, portion that is taken out of, or has temporal existence in the greater and fuller spiritual creation. Being representative of the inferior part of the individual, Eve is the temptress who, conspiring with the serpent of mortal knowledge, caused Adam to sink into a trancelike condition in which he was unconscious of his own higher Self. When Adam seemingly awoke, he actually sank into sleep, for he no longer was in the spirit but in the body; division having taken place within him, the true Adam rested in Paradise while his lesser part incarnated in a material organism (Eve) and wandered in the darkness of mortal existence.

(26) The Holy One said to him: "I want you to know that First Man is called 'Begetter, Self-perfected Mind'. He reflected with Great Sophia, his consort, and revealed his first-begotten, androgynous son. His male name is designated 'First Begetter, Son of God', his female name, 'First Begettress Sophia, Mother of the Universe'. Some call her 'Love'. Now First-begotten is called 'Christ'. Since he has authority from his father, he created a multitude of angels without number for retinue from Spirit and Light."

(20) Then Son of Man consented with Sophia, his consort, and revealed a great androgynous Light. His masculine name is designated 'Savior, Begetter of All things'. His feminine name is designated 'Sophia, All-Begettress'. Some call her 'Pistis' (faith).

(3) Then the god who created us created a son from himself and Eve, your mother. . . . I knew a sweet desire for your mother. And the vigor of our eternal knowledge was destroyed in us, and weakness pursued us. The days of our life were few. I knew that I had come under the authority of death.

(55) And then God (by the Spirit of this World through the Fiat) built [or formed] out of him the Woman of this World, by whom he i increased his Kingdom. The Woman was out of the Matrix, which (before the Infection) was a chaste Virgin, which Adam should have brought forth out of himself; but when the Modesty of the Wisdom, and Ability [or Potency] departed from him, when he passed into the Spirit of this World, he could not then bring forth [or generate;] for in his Sleep the Spirit of this World clothed him with Flesh and Blood, and figured [formed or shaped] him into a Beast, as we now see by very woeful Experience, and know ourselves to be blind and naked as to the Kingdom of God, [being] without any Virtue, [or Strength,] in the Sleep of the great Misery, clothed with corruptible [frail and transitory] Flesh and Blood.

(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.

Adam’s soul came from a breath. The soul’s companion is spirit, and the spirit given to him is his mother. His soul was [taken] from him and replaced with [spirit]. When he was united with spirit, [he] uttered words superior to the powers, and the powers envied him. They [separated him from his] spiritual companion…hidden…bridal chamber….

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.

(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.

Then the mother began to move around. She realized that she was lacking something when the brightness of her light diminished. She grew dim because her partner had not collaborated with her. I said, Master, what does it mean that she moved around? The master laughed and said, Do not suppose that it is as Moses said, above the waters. No, when she recognized the wickedness that had occurred and the robbery her son had committed, she repented. When she became forgetful in the darkness of ignorance, she began to be ashamed. She did not dare to return, but she was agitated. This agitation is the moving around. The arrogant one took power from his mother. He was ignorant, for he thought no one existed except his mother alone. When he saw the throng of angels he had created, he exalted himself over them. When the mother realized that the trappings of darkness had come into being imperfectly, she understood that her partner had not collaborated with her. She repented with many tears. The whole realm of fullness heard her prayer of repentance and offered praise on her behalf to the invisible virgin spirit, and the spirit consented. When the invisible spirit consented, the holy spirit poured upon her some of the fullness of all. For her partner did not come to her on his own, but he came to her through the realm of fullness, so that he might restore what she lacked. She was taken up not to her own eternal realm, but to a position above her son. She was to remain in the ninth heaven until she restored what was lacking in herself.

(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.