LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM 269FATHERAND CHILD
What a father has belongs to his child,
but not while the child is still little.
When the child is grown, however,
then the father turns over all he possesses.THE LOST
Those who have gone astray are those born
of the spirit. And they are usually lost
because of the spirit. So from one single breath
of spirit the fire blazes and is blackened.WISDOM AND THE WISDOM OF DEATH
Echamoth is one thing and Echmoth another.
Echamoth is simply wisdom,^25
but Echmoth is the wisdom of death,
who is the one who knows death,
who is called little wisdom.^26DOMESTIC ANIMALS AND BEASTS
Domestic animals may be the bull and the donkey
and other species.
Others are wild and live in the deserts.
A man plows the field with a domestic animal,
and from the fruit of his labor
he feeds himself and the animals, tame or wild.
Compare the perfect human.
Through submissive powers he plows
and prepares for everything to come into being.
So his world holds together, good or evil, the right and the left.
The holy spirit shepherds everyone and rules all the powers,- Echamoth is Achamoth, lower wisdom in Valentinian thought.
- Echmoth means "like death" in Hebrew and Aramaic.