LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM 315What this means is obvious. This is the Samaritan woman's mingling with the
pleroma. Coming with her husband to the savior, she might receive from him
power, union, and mingling with pleroma. He was not speaking to her about
an earthly husband and telling her to call him, because he knew that she
didn't have a lawful husband. The savior said to her, "Call your husband and
come back here," meaning her fellow or husband^21 from the pleroma. As for
what was meant allegorically, she did not know her own husband. Simply put,
she was ashamed to admit that she had an adulterer, not a husband. "You are
right to say, I have no husband," since in the world the Samaritan woman had
no husband, for her husband was in the aeon. The six husbands signify all
the material evil to which she was bound and with which she consorted when
she was irrationally debauched, insulted, refused, and abandoned by them.
(19) John 4:19-20
Sir, I see that you are a prophet.
Our parents worshiped on this mountain.The Samaritan properly acknowledged what was said to her. Typically only a
prophet knows all such things. She acted as appropriate to her ways, neither
lying nor openly acknowledging her immorality. Certain that he was a
prophet, she asked him about it while she revealed the cause of her sexual ac-
tivity. Because of her ignorance of god she had neglected his worship and all
that was necessary in her life. She would not have come to the well outside the
city unless she had desired to learn how, and for whom, and by worshiping
god she might escape from her sexual acts. So she said, "Our parents wor-
shiped on this mountain."
(20) John 4:21
Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when not on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father.Earlier Jesus did not say, "Believe me, woman." But now he commands her to
believe. The mountain signifies the devil or his world, since the devil was one
part of the whole of matter, and the whole world is a mountain of evil, a de-
serted habitat of beasts, which all Jews who lived according to the law and all
- In Greek, syzygos, "partner," "companion."