172 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM
Adam said, "I heard your voice and was afraid because I was naked, andI hid."^42
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 ar-
rogant ruler cursed the woman.
The woman said, "The snake led me astray and I ate." They^43 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.^44 From that day,
the snake came to be under the curse of the authorities. Until the perfect
human^45 was to come, that curse fell on the snake.
They turned to their Adam and took him and expelled him from the gar-
den along with his wife, for they^46 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.^47
EVE BEARS CHILDREN
Now, afterward she^48 bore Cain, their son,^49 and Cain cultivated the land.
Thereupon he^50 knew his wife. Again becoming pregnant, she bore Abel, and
Abel was a herdsman of sheep. Cain brought in from the crops of his field, but
Abel brought in an offering from among his lambs. God looked upon the vo-
tive offerings of Abel, but he did not accept the votive offerings of Cain. And
fleshly Cain pursued Abel his brother.
God said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?"- Genesis 3:10.
43. The rulers, who curse the snake as their chief curses the woman.
44. The snake no longer has the spiritual presence and is only a shadow of its former self.
45. The perfect or all-powerful human, or man, is the human of perfect knowledge, like Seth
and the offspring of Seth and even forethought as the first human in the Secret Book of John.
See also the narration of Norea at the end of the Reality of the Rulers.
46. Apparently the rulers of this world.
47. See Genesis 3:14-19, with curses against the snake, the woman, and the man.
48. Eve.
49. Cain is the son of Eve and the rulers of this world; in the Secret Book of John, Cain and
Abel both are sons of Eve and Yaldabaoth.
50. Adam.