8o EARLY WISDOM GOSPELS
"How can these things happen?" Nikodemos asked.
Yeshua said to him,
"You are the teacher of Israel and do you not know this?
Truly, truly I say to you,
we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen,
yet you do not receive our testimony.
If I tell you of earthly things and you do not believe,
how if I tell you of heavenly things will you believe?
And no one has gone up into the sky
except the one who came down from the sky, the earthly son.
And as Moshe raised up the snake in the desert,
the earthly son must be raised up
so that all who believe in him will have eternal life.
"God loved the world so much that he gave his only son,
so that all who believe in him might not be destroyed
but have eternal life.
For god did not send his son into the world
to judge the world
but so that through him the world might be saved.
One who believes in him is not judged,
but one who does not believe is judged already
for not believing in the name of god's only son.
And this is the judgment:
that the light came into the world
and people loved the darkness rather than the light,
for their works were cunning.
For all who do paltry things^32 hate the light
and do not come toward the light
so that their works will not be exposed.
But those who do the truth come toward the light
so that their works may shine as accomplished through god."^33
- The Greek means "slight" or "paltry" rather than "evil" or "wrong."
- The gnostics made similar distinctions between darkness and light and emphasized light as
spiritual knowledge and salvation.
