The Gnostic Bible: Gnostic Texts of Mystical Wisdom form the Ancient and Medieval Worlds

LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM 1J1

ADAM AND EVE IN THE GARDEN

The authorities came up to their Adam. When they saw his female partner

speaking with him, they became very excited and enamored of her. They said

to one another, "Come, let us sow our seed in her," and they pursued her. And

she laughed at them for their foolishness and blindness. In their clutches she

became a tree and left before them her shadowy reflection resembling herself,

and they defiled it foully. And they defiled the seal of her voice, so that by the

form they had modeled, together with their own image, they made themselves

liable to condemnation.^35

Then the female spiritual presence came in the form of the snake, the in-

structor,^36 and it taught them,^37 saying, "What did he^38 say to you? Was it,

'From every tree in the garden shall you eat, but from the tree of recognizing

evil and good do not eat'?"

The woman of flesh^39 said, "Not only did he say 'Don't eat,' but even 'Don't

touch it. For the day you eat from it, you will surely die.'"

The snake, the instructor, said, "It is not the case that you will surely die, for

out of jealousy he said this to you. Rather, your eyes will open and you will be

like gods, recognizing evil and good." And the female instructing power was

taken away from the snake, and she left it behind, merely a thing of the earth.^40

And the woman of flesh took from the tree and ate, and she gave to her

husband as well as herself, and those beings, who possessed only a soul,^41 ate.

And their imperfection became apparent in their lack of knowledge. They rec-

ognized that they were naked of the spiritual, and they took fig leaves and

bound them around themselves.

Then the chief ruler came, and he said, "Adam, where are you?"—for he

did not understand what had happened.

35. This passage closely resembles the Greek myth of Daphne changing into a laurel tree. See
    also the Secret Book of John and On the Origin of the World for similar accounts. The mean-
    ing of the last sentence is obscure, but it seems to indicate that the rulers raped a shadow, per-
    haps an echo, perhaps the mouth of the woman of spirit after whom they lusted.


36. The female spiritual presence now appears in the serpent.
    37- Adam and Eve.


37. Samael, the chief ruler.


38. Eve of flesh, without the female spiritual presence.


39. See Genesis 3:1-5.


40. They are merely psychical.