416 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM.ON THE ORIGIN
OF THE WORLD
2
BEFORE THE BEGINNING
Since everyone—the gods of the world and people—says that nothing existed
prior to chaos, I shall demonstrate that they all are mistaken, since they do not
know the origin of chaos and its root. Here is the demonstration.
How agreeable it is to all people to say that chaos is darkness! But actually
chaos comes from a shadow that has been called darkness. The shadow comes
from something existing from the beginning. So it is obvious that something
in the beginning existed before chaos came into being, and that chaos came
after what was in the beginning.^3
Now let us consider the facts of the matter, and in particular what was in
the beginning, from which chaos came. In this way the truth will be clearly
demonstrated.BIRTH OF SOPHIA AND THE FORCES OF
DARKNESSAfter the nature of the immortals was completed out of the infinite one,^4 then
a likeness called Sophia^5 flowed out of Pistis,^6 with the wish^7 that something
should come into being like the light that first existed. Immediately her wish
appeared as a heavenly likeness with an incomprehensible greatness. This- On the Origin of the World is preserved in Nag Hammadi library, Codex 11,5 PP- 97>24 to
127,17. A portion of the text is also preserved in the Oeyen fragments (British Library Oriental
Manuscript 4927U]) and in a fragment of Nag Hammadi library, Codex XIII. On the Origin of
the World has been translated by Hans-Gebhard Bethge and Orval S. Wintermute (Robinson,
Nag Hammadi Library in English, 1st ed., 161-79), and by Hans-Gebhard Bethge, Bentley Lay-
ton, and the Societas Coptica Hierosolymitana (Robinson, Nag Hammadi Library in English,
rev. ed., 170-89); revised by Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer. - In other words, something existed before the primordial chaos (see Genesis 1:1-2). That is
the infinite one, the source of all. - The infinite one recalls the One (monad) in the Secret Book of John and other gnostic texts.
- Wisdom, also known as Sophia Zoe, wisdom life, the daughter of Pistis Sophia.
- Faith, also known as Pistis Sophia, faith wisdom, the mother of Sophia Zoe.
- The wish is most likely that of Sophia, the likeness that appeared.