170 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM
adamantine land.^25 It descended and came to dwell in him, and that man be-
came a living soul.^26 And the spirit called his name Adam, since he was found
moving upon the ground.
A voice came forth from incorruptibility for the assistance of Adam. The
rulers gathered together all the animals of the earth and all the birds of heaven
and brought them in to Adam to see what Adam would call them, that he
might give a name to each of the birds and all the beasts.^27
The rulers took Adam and put him in the garden, that he might cultivate it
and keep watch over it. They issued a command to him, saying, "From every
tree in the garden shall you eat, but from the tree of knowledge of good and
evil don't eat, nor touch it. For the day you eat from it you will surely die."^28
They said this to him, but they did not understand what they said.^29
Rather, by the father's will, they said this in such a way that he might in fact
eat, and that Adam might not^30 regard them as would a man of an exclusively
material nature.^31
The rulers took counsel with one another and said, "Come, let us cause a
deep sleep to fall on Adam."^32 And he slept. Now, the deep sleep that they
caused to fall on him, and he slept, is ignorance. They opened his side, which
was like a living woman.^33 And they built up his side with some flesh in place
of her, and Adam came to be only with soul.
The woman of spirit^34 came to him and spoke with him, saying, "Rise,
Adam." And when he saw her, he said, "It is you who have given me life. You
will be called 'mother of the living.' For she is my mother. She is the physician,
and the woman, and she has given birth."
- The adamantine land is probably called adamantine because it is hard like steel in its heav-
enly character. Otherwise it may derive from the realm of heavenly Adamas or Geradamas (see
the Secret Book of John). - Genesis 2:7, again.
- Genesis 2:19.
- Genesis 2:16-17.
- Partially restored.
- The word not has been mistakenly left out of the Coptic text.
- That is, the father wanted Adam to have spiritual insight into the intentions of the rulers.
- Genesis 2:21.
- This sentence seems to suggest that one side of Adam, a female side, is removed; this is the
spiritual side of Adam, the female spiritual presence. - She is the female spiritual presence—described like Eve in Genesis—while Adam is merely
psychical again, endowed with soul but not with spirit.