LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM 407
crossed her, pretending to be faithful, true husbands, as if they respected her.
After all these acts, they took off, abandoning her.
She became a poor desolate widow, helpless. In her affliction she had no
food. From them she had gathered nothing but the defilements when they
coupled with her. Her offspring from the adulterers are mute, blind, and
sickly. They are disturbed. But when her father who is above looked down on
her and saw her sighing, suffering and in disgrace, and repenting of her pros-
titution, then she began to call on him for help with all her heart, saying, "Save
me, my father. Look, I will report to you, for I left my house and fled from my
woman's quarters. Restore me to yourself."
When he saw her in this state, he thought her worthy of his mercy. She had
many afflictions for having abandoned her house.THE PROSTITUTION OF THE SOUL
Concerning the prostitution of the soul, the holy spirit prophesies in diverse
places. The prophet Jeremiah said,^2If a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and takes another
man, can she ever go back to him? Has such a woman not utterly
defiled herself? "You have whored with many shepherds and you
returned to me," said the lord. "Lift up your eyes and see where
you went whoring. Were you not sitting in the streets defiling the
land with your whoring and vices? And you took many shep-
herds for a way of stumbling. You were shameless with everyone.
You did not call on me as a companion or father or author of
your virginity."It is also written in the prophet Hosea,^3Come, go before the law with your mother, for she is not to be
my wife nor I her husband. I shall remove her whoring from my
presence and her adultery from between her breasts. I shall
make her naked as on the day she was born, and desolate like a- Jeremiah 3:1-4. The version in Coptic of this and the following biblical passages, having gone
through Hebrew and Greek, has changed substantially through the layers of transmission.
Throughout this text, the biblical and Homeric quotations have not been altered here to reflect
the source texts, since doing so would undermine the author's exegetical purpose. - Hosea 2:2-7.