LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM 321
Capernaum, in the lower part of the middle area by the sea, refers to what ad-
joins matter. In other words, the man belonging to him was sick not with re-
spect to nature but in his ignorance and sins. "From Judea to Galilee" means
from the Judea above. The phrase "he was near death" refutes the doctrines of
those who say that the soul is immortal. Soul and body are destroyed in
Gehenna.^31 The soul is not immortal but only has a disposition to salvation. It
is the perishable that robes itself in imperishability, and the mortal that robes
itself in immortality, when its death was swallowed in victory.^32 "Unless you
see signs and wonders you will not believe"^33 was correctly spoken to a person
who had the nature to be persuaded through works and through sense per-
ception, not to believe a word. "Descend before my child dies," because the end
of law was death.^34 The law kills through sins. Before death finally came into
being in accordance with sins, the father asks the only savior to help the son,
whose nature is to do this. "Go, your son lives,"^35 the savior said modestly,
since he didn't say, "Let him live," or show that he himself had given him life.
Having gone down to the sick man and healed him of the disease, that is, of his
sins, and having made him alive through remission, he said, "Your son lives."
"The man believed" because the demiurge can easily believe that the savior is
able to heal even when he is not present. The prince's slaves^36 are the angels of
the demiurge, proclaiming, "Your son lives," because he is behaving correctly,
no longer doing what is wrong. Therefore the slaves proclaimed to the prince
the news about his son's salvation, because the angels are the first to observe
the actions of men on earth and to see if they have lived well and sincerely
since the savior's sojourn on earth. "The seventh hour" refers to the nature of
the man healed. "And he believed and along with all his household" refers to
the angelic order and men related to him. It is a question whether some angels,
those who descended upon the daughters of men,^37 will be saved. The de-
struction of people by the demiurge is made clear by the sentence "The chil-
dren of the kingdom will go out into the outer darkness."^38 About them Isaiah
prophesied, "I produced and raised sons, but they set me aside." He calls them
"alien sons and a wicked and lawless seed and a vineyard producing thorns."^39
- See Matthew 10:28.
- See 1 Corinthians 15:53-55.
- John 4:48.
- See Romans 7:13.
- John 4:50.
- John 4:51.
- See Genesis 6:2.
- Matthew 8:12.
- Isaiah 1:2,4; 5:i-