284 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM
INTO THE WATER
It was necessary for Jesus to descend into the water
so that he could perfect and consecrate it.
So also they who have received baptism in his name may be perfect.
He said, "It is right in this way to perfect all that is just."^63BAPTISM
When you say you will die first and then rise,
you are wrong. If you are not resurrected in life,
you will receive nothing when you are dead.
Great is baptism. Enter the water and live.JOSEPH AND THE WOODEN CROSS
Philip the messenger^64 said,
"Joseph the carpenter planted a garden of paradise
because he needed wood for his trade.
He made the cross from the trees he planted,
and his seed hung from what he planted.
His seed was Jesus, and the plant was the cross."
The tree of life in the middle of that garden
of paradise is an olive tree, and from the olive tree
comes chrism, and from that oil
comes the resurrection.THE WORLD EATS BODIES
The world eats bodies,
and everything eaten in the world dies.
Truth eats life,
but no one fed on truth will find death.^65
Jesus came and he carried food,- Partially restored. Matthew 3:15 is cited here.
- Apostle.
- Compare, perhaps, Gospel of Thomas 11, on the living who will not die.