LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM 441
ignorance, and this was in order that the mind might separate from him, be-
cause he prided himself in it.^10
DARKNESS SEES THE SPIRIT
"When the darkness stirred, the light of the spirit appeared to him. When he
saw it he was astonished. He did not know that another power was above him.
And when he saw that his likeness was dark compared with the spirit, he felt
hurt. And in his pain he lifted up, above the height of the members of dark-
ness, his mind, which was the eye of the bitterness of evil. He caused his mind
to take shape in a member of the portions of the spirit, thinking that, by star-
ing down at his evil, he would be able to equal the spirit.J l But he was not able,
for he wanted to do an impossible thing, and it did not take place. But in order
that the mind of darkness, which is the eye of the bitterness of evil, might not
be destroyed, since he was made partially similar, he arose and shone with a
fiery light upon all of Hades,^12 that the equality of the faultless light might be-
come apparent. For the spirit benefited from every form of darkness because
he appeared in his majesty.
"And the exalted, infinite light appeared, for he was very joyful. He wished
to reveal himself to the spirit. And the likeness of the exalted light appeared to
the unconceived spirit. I appeared.^13 1 am the son of the incorruptible, infinite
light. I appeared in the likeness of the spirit, for I am the ray of the universal
light. And his appearance to me was in order that the mind of darkness might
not remain in Hades. For the darkness made himself like his mind in a portion
of the members. When I, O Shem, appeared in the likeness, so that the dark-
ness might become dark to himself, according to the will of the majesty, and
so that the darkness might become devoid of every aspect of the power that he
10.Salvation in this text entails the freeing of the mind from the confines of darkness. In other
gnostic creation texts it is explicitly said that the power below, for example, Yaldabaoth, takes
something from the divine light above, and that divine light falls into darkness. The same sort
of usurpation of light may be assumed here.- This difficult section of the text seems to assume that light from the spirit is lost in the realm
of darkness. Later in the text we are told that the light of the spirit is separated from the spirit
and eventually saved from darkness. - Darkness makes its home in Hades.
- This is Derdekeas, the child of the light above, a ray of light shining down from above.