122 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOMAs for Edem, she remains a Genesis sinner, though with greater powers than
she had as biblical Eve. Indeed, Edem the mother shares with Elohim the
father the deed of creating the earth. However, she has none of the heroic
qualities of Eve of later gnosticism, who through her embodiment of knowl-
edge offers salvific knowledge to humans during their residence on earth.
The story that sets the main characters in supernatural action is the ro-
mance between Elohim and Edem and the subsequent fallout of those dis-
gruntled lovers. Their meeting is an idyllic tale of life among the angels,
culminating in marriage. And before the lovers separate, they generate
twenty-four angels. Twelve are paternal, twelve maternal, representing the
good (male) and evil (female) sides of the cosmos. The third paternal angel is
Baruch, and the third maternal angel is Naas, who, though male, fashions
Edem's female strategies through his persuasions. They represent a dualistic
good and evil, spirit and soul, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. Elo-
him, the world creator, learns of his inferiority before the highest god, the
Good, who is his lord to whom he ascends. But by abandoning and thereby
enraging his wife, he allows evil to come into the earth and specifically into
Edem (Eve) and Adam. In her revenge against Elohim's desertion, Edem uses
her baleful angels to infect the spirit that Elohim has left behind with no pro-
tection, and that spirit becomes polluted with earthly soul.
Elohim is portrayed not as wicked but as a neglectful god who has loved,
married, and abandoned his woman. Edem's wild flaws reflect a woman's
scorn for her wayward spouse. Each responds to dramatic circumstance.
Edem, seething against fickle Elohim, who has escaped into the sky to leave
her alone, opposes the spirit he has breathed into earthly humans and uses
Naas to destroy it. To counter Edem's fury, the Good sends Elohim's angel
Baruch back down to oppose Naas and to save rather than punish Edem: de-
spite her war against the father, the woman, mother of Adam and of wild
beasts, may also be redeemed. To heal the rift and make redemption possible
for those of soul, including Edem, the Good directs Elohim to bring his di-
verse prophets—a Jew, a Greek, and a Christian—back to the garden. These
messengers, paying homage to each of the main religions of the day, are to
combat evil and turn soul into spirit. In Justin's Baruch the author attempts
ingenious solutions to resolve spiritual problems on earth. The angel Baruch
turns to Moses, the prophets, and even Herakles, the Greek god of prodigious
strength, whom he calls "a prophet from the uncircumcised." All fail in their
mission. Edem's ally Naas outwits them one by one.