Editing Gnostic Text/The Secret Book of John (section)

==The Children of Eve==

The first ruler looked at Eve standing next to Adam, and saw that the enlightened Reflection of Life resided within her. He was consumed by an ignorant desire. The Forethought of the Fullness saw this and immediately sent emissaries to snatch Life out of Eve. Yaldabaoth found Eve while she was preparing herself for Adam, and he overpowered her and defiled her.

Eve became pregnant and gave birth to two sons, Elohim and Yahweh. Elohim has a bear’s face, and Yahweh has a cat’s face. Yahweh is just, but Elohim is unjust. Yaldabaoth put Yahweh in control of fire and wind, and Elohim in control of water and earth. So as to trick others, he called them “Cain” and “Abel.”

Sexual intercourse is part of the world to this day because of this atrocity committed by the first ruler. He sowed the seed of lust in humankind, and through sex they multiplied, producing more and more bodies into which the counterfeit god could breathe his counterfeit spirit. And he placed Yahweh and Elohim in charge of the cave where humankind lived.

But when Adam recognized in Eve the counterpart of his own gnosis, a son was born who was like the Son of Man. They named him “Seth” after the being in the eternal realms. And the Mother placed in Eve her own spirit in the form of a girl who would be like the beings who dwell in the Fullness. Then the Mother went back up to prepare eternal homes for those who were going to descend from Seth and his sister.

The first ruler forced humankind to drink from the waters of forgetfulness so that they would no longer know themselves, nor the place from which they had come. The race of Seth and his sister stayed on earth for a while and helped the others who were trapped there, so that when Forethought comes down from the eternal realms, those to whom she comes will be ready to be healed of their deficiency. In this way, all the Fullness might once again be holy and whole.