Editing Gnostic Text/The Reality of the Rulers (section)

==The Creation of Adam==

The rulers, whose bodies are both male and female, and whose heads are those of beasts, began scheming. They said, “Come, let us create a human being out of earthly soil,” so that their new creation would be a completely earthly being. They molded the soil into a shape that in some ways resembled their own bodies, yet in other ways resembled the image of God that they had glimpsed in the waters.

They said, “Come, let us seize the image we saw in the waters by the body we have made for it.” Since they were powerless, they did not comprehend the power of God. Their master breathed into the body’s face, and it came alive. Yet it lay on the ground for several days, because they were powerless to give it the ability to stand up. They stood over it huffing and puffing like storm winds in the hope of catching the image they had seen in the waters. But they did not know the source of the power of that image.

All of this happened by the will of the Father of the Fullness.

The Spirit saw the human being lying on the ground and came down from the Fullness to take up residence within him, so that he became a living soul. And the Spirit named him “Adam,” because he had been found lying on the ground. A voice from Incorruptibility came down to support Adam.

The rulers brought to Adam all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the sky so that he could name each of them. They placed Adam in their garden for him to tend it. And they gave him an order: “Eat from every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Do not even touch that one. For the day you eat from it will be the day of your death.” But they did not realize what they had done. By the will of the Father, they said this in a manner that made Adam want to eat from that tree, which would enable him to see the rulers differently than a solely fleshly being could see them.