LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM l6lON HUMAN DESTINY
I said to the savior, Master, will all the souls then be led safely into pure light?
He answered and said to me, These are great matters that have arisen in
your mind, and it is difficult to explain them to anyone except those of the
unshakable race.
Those upon whom the spirit of life will descend and whom the spirit will
empower will be saved and become perfect and be worthy of greatness and be
cleansed there of all evil and the anxieties of wickedness, since they are anx-
ious for nothing except the incorruptible alone, and concerned with that from
this moment on, without anger, jealousy, envy, desire, or greed for anything.
They are affected by nothing but being in the flesh alone, and they wear the
flesh as they look forward to a time when they will be met by those who receive
them. Such people are worthy of the incorruptible, eternal life and calling.
They endure everything and bear everything so as to finish the contest and
receive eternal life.
I said to him, Master, will the souls of people be rejected^97 who have not
done these things, but upon whom the power and the spirit of life have de-
scended?
He answered and said to me, If the spirit descends upon them, by all means
they will be saved and transformed. Power will descend upon every person, for
without it no one could stand.^98 After birth, if the spirit of life grows, and
power comes and strengthens that soul, no one will be able to lead it astray
with evil actions. But people upon whom the false spirit descends are misled
by it and go astray.
I said, Master, where will their souls go when they leave their flesh?
He laughed and said to me, The soul in which there is more power than the
contemptible spirit is strong. She escapes from evil, and through the interven-
tion of the incorruptible one she is saved and is taken up to eternal rest.^99
I said, Master, where will the souls go of people who have not known to
whom they belong?
97- Or "be saved" (partially restored, from Nag Hammadi Codex IV).- This description of every person is like that of Adam moving and standing after receiving
spirit from Yaldabaoth earlier in the Secret Book of John.
99- Feminine pronouns are used for the soul in the translation of this part of the Secret Book
of John; the soul is commonly depicted as being female in Greek and gnostic literature. Com-
pare the myth of Psyche (soul) and Eros (or Cupid, love) in Apuleius's Metamorphoses, Books
4-6, as well as the Exegesis on the Soul and On the Origin of the World.