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

(Elliott) #1
LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM 291

If you become a spirit, a spirit will join with you.
If you become thought, thought will mingle with you.
If you become light, light will share you.
If you are of those from above,
one of those from above will rest in you.
If you become a horse or a donkey or bull or dog or sheep
or another animal that is wild or tame,
then neither a person nor spirit nor thought nor light
can love you.
None of those from above or within can rest in you,
and you have no part in them.

SLAVES AND FREEDOM


Those who are enslaved against their will
can be free.
Those who are freed by favor of a master
but have sold themselves into slavery
can no longer be free.

FARMING


Farming in this world demands four elements.
A harvest is collected and taken into the barn
as a result of water, earth, wind, and light.
God's farming also has four elements:
faith, hope, love, and knowledge.^80
Faith is our earth in which we take root.
Hope is the water through which we are nourished.
Love is the wind through which we grow.
Knowledge is the light through which we ripen.
Grace exists in four ways:
earthborn, heavenly, from highest heaven,
and living in truth.^81


  1. On these elements see 1 Corinthians 13 and the Secret Book of James.

  2. Partially restored.

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