The Gnostic Bible: Gnostic Texts of Mystical Wisdom form the Ancient and Medieval Worlds

(Elliott) #1
2 60 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM

You who find truth are alive;
another may die, being alive.
Since Christ came the world was made,
cities adorned, and the dead buried.
When we were Jews we were orphans
with only a mother.
When we turned Christian we had a father
and a mother.^4

SOWING IN SEASON


Those who sow in winter reap in summer.
Let us sow in the world to reap in summer.
Winter is the world, summer the other realm.^5
It is wrong to pray in winter.^6
From winter comes summer.
If you reap in winter you will not reap.
You will pull up young plants.
At the wrong season no crop is yours.
Even on the days of the Sabbath
the field is barren.

CHRIST AND THE SOUL


Christ came to buy. He rescued and redeemed,
redeeming aliens. He made strangers his own.^7
He brought his own and made promises,
construing a strategy, and gave his life
when he appeared and when the world began.


  1. For parallels to this passage see Gospel of Thomas 101,105.

  2. Aeon.

  3. For parallels to this passage see Gospel of Thomas 6,14.

  4. Aliens and strangers are commonly discussed in gnostic texts, and a Sethian gnostic text is
    entitled the Foreigner (Allogenes).

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