468 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM
I visited a bodily dwelling.^81 cast out the one who was in it first, and I went
in. And the whole multitude of the rulers became troubled. And all the matter
of the rulers as well as all the powers born of the earth were shaken when they
saw the likeness of the image, since it was mixed. And I was the one who was
in the image, not resembling him who was in the body first. For he was an
earthly man, but I, I am from above the heavens. I did not refuse them even to
become Christ, but I did not reveal myself to them in the love that was com-
ing forth from me. I revealed that I am a stranger to the regions below.THE RULERS ARE DISTURBED
There was a great disturbance in the whole earthly area, with confusion and
flight, as well as in the plan of the rulers. And some were persuaded, when
they saw the wonders that were being accomplished by me. And all those fled,
those of the race that descended from the one who fled from the throne to
the Sophia of hope, since she had earlier given the sign concerning us and all
the ones with me—those of the race of Adonaios.^9 Others also fled, as though
sent from the world ruler^10 and those with him, and brought every kind of
punishment upon me. And there was a flight of their mind about what they
would counsel concerning me, thinking that their own greatness is all, and
speaking false witness, moreover, against the human and the whole greatness
of the assembly.^11 It was not possible for them to know who is the father of
truth, the human of greatness. They took the name because of contact with
ignorance—which is a burning and a vessel created to destroy Adam, whom
they had made, in order to cover up those who are theirs in the same way. But
they, the rulers, of the place of Yaldabaoth, reveal the realm of the angels,
which human beings were seeking because they did not know the human of
truth. For Adam, whom they had formed, appeared to them. And a fearful
disturbance came about throughout their entire dwelling, lest the angels sur-
rounding them rebel. For on account of those who were offering praise I
died, but not really, because their archangel was vacuous.
- The heavenly Christ takes a body and assumes bodily form.
- Adonaios is one of the rulers in the cosmic bureaucracy, sometimes also called Sabaoth, who
is closely linked to Yaldabaoth. Elsewhere Sabaoth, or Adonaios, rebels against his father Yald-
abaoth and turns to Sophia. - Greek cosmocrator, here and below.
- The human is a name of a divine being, sometimes the divine mother or the heavenly
Adam, in gnostic texts. The image of the heavenly human is the pattern for the creation of
earthly humankind.