3io LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM(2) John 1:4
In him was life.
"In him" refers to spiritual people, for he^5 first formed them in accordance
with their generation, making what has been seeded by another, and making
its form, illumination, and own outline.(3) John 1:18
No one has ever seen god.
Only the one born of god,
who is in the heart of his father,
he has made him known.
This passage was said not by the baptizer^6 but by the student John.(4) John 1:21
They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?"
He said, "I am not."
"Are you the prophet?"
He answered, "No."
John acknowledges that he was not the Christ or a prophet or Elijah.(5) John 1:23
I am the voice of one crying in the desert.
The word is the savior. The voice that was in the desert is symbolized through
John. And its echo is the whole prophetic order. The voice that is closely
related to the word, to reason, becomes the word, just as woman is trans-
formed into man. And for the echo there will be a transformation into voice,
replacing the student with the voice that changes into the word. The slave
changes from echo into voice. When the savior calls John a prophet and Eli-
jah,^7 he does not designate his nature but his attributes. But when he calls
him greater than the prophets and among those born of women,^8 he is char-
acterizing John himself. When John is asked about himself, he does not speak
- The word.
- John the baptizer.
- See Matthew 11:9,14.
- See Matthew 11:10-11.