The cosmogony — Barbelo, the self-generated, and the rulers
Marvin Meyer (Nag Hammadi Scriptures composite) · Public domain / scholarly composite. Reproduced for educational and religious commentary.
1Yehuda said to Yeshua, Look, what will those who have been baptized in your name do?
2Yeshua said, Truly I say to you, this baptism in my name will not annul this whole generation. Yehuda, those who offer sacrifices to Saklas — to him they offer everything that is evil. But you will exceed them all, for you will sacrifice the man who clothes me.
3Already your horn has been raised; your wrath has been kindled; your star has shone brightly; and your heart has become strong.
4Truly I say to you, your last days will lift up. The chief priest will weep, for the generation will end. And the leader of the priests will be put to shame.
5Come, let me teach you about the secrets that no person has ever seen. For there exists a great and boundless realm whose extent no generation of angels has seen. In it dwells the great invisible Spirit, which no eye of an angel has ever seen, no thought of the heart has ever comprehended, and it was never called by any name.
6A luminous cloud appeared there. He said, Let an angel come into being as my attendant. A great angel, the enlightened divine Self-Generated, emerged from the cloud. Because of him, four other angels came into being from another cloud, and they became attendants for the angelic Self-Generated.
7The Self-Generated said, Let Adamas come into being. And the emanation came to be. He created the first luminary to reign over him. He said, Let angels come into being to serve him. And myriads without number came into being.
8He said, Let an enlightened aeon come into being. And the Aeon came into being. He created the second luminary to reign over him, with myriads of angels without number to offer service. And that is how he created the rest of the enlightened aeons. He made them reign over them, and he created for them myriads of angels without number, to assist them.
9Adamas was in the first luminous cloud that no angel has ever seen among all those called god. He generated the incorruptible generation of Seth and the twelve and the twenty-four. He generated seventy-two luminaries in the incorruptible generation, by the will of the Spirit. The seventy-two luminaries themselves generated three hundred and sixty luminaries in the incorruptible generation. Their father is the twelve. For each five luminaries there are six heavens, until there are seventy-two heavens for the seventy-two luminaries; and for each of them five firmaments, with the total of three hundred sixty firmaments. They were given authority and a great host of angels without number, for glory and praise; and after that also virgin spirits without number, for glory and praise of all the aeons and the heavens and their firmaments.
10The multitude of those immortals is called cosmos — that is, perdition — by the Father and the seventy-two luminaries who are with the Self-Generated and his seventy-two aeons. There the first human appeared with his incorruptible powers. And the aeon that appeared with his generation, the aeon in whom is the cloud of knowledge and the angel, is called El.
11Then Saklas said to his angels, Let us create a human being after the likeness and after the image. And they fashioned Adam and his wife, Eve, who is called, in the cloud, Zoe. For by this name all the generations seek the man, and each of them calls the woman by these names. Now Saklas did not command except to beget a generation through Adam.
12The ruler said to Adam, You will live a long life with your children. Yehuda said to Yeshua, How long can a human live? Yeshua said, Why are you wondering about this — that Adam, with his generation, has lived his span of life in the place where he has received his kingdom, with longevity along with his ruler?
13Yehuda said, Does the human spirit die? Yeshua said, Why this is so: God commanded Michael to give the spirits of people to them as a loan, so that they might offer service. But the great One commanded Gabriel to grant spirits to the great generation with no ruler over it — that is, the spirit and the soul. So the rest of the souls — they live by the breath that is given to them.