Pistis sophia. A gnostic gospel (with extracts from the books of the saviour appended)

PISTIS SOPHIA. / FIRST BOOK.

that mystery: "It surrounds the first statute, (2) and the five impressions, and the great light, and the five supporters, and even the whole treasure of light."

Moreover, Jesus had not told his disciples the The regions of the great invisible. whole distribution of all the regions of the great invisible, and of the three triple powers, and of the four and twenty invisibles, with all their regions, their æons ages or divine realms, and their orders, according to the manner of their distribution, for they are the emanations of the great invisible; nor of their ungenerated not created, self-generated produced by themselves, and generated, their light-givers and unpaired, their rulers and authorities, their lords and archangels, their angels and decans sidereal spirits ruling ten degrees of the zodiac, their workmen and all the habitations of their spheres, and all the orders of each one of them.

Nor had Jesus told his disciples the whole The treasure of light. distribution of the emanations of the treasure, nor their orders, according to which they are distributed; nor had he told them who they are; nor had he told them what the treasure of light is; nor had he told them the region of the savior of the twins, (3) who is the child of the child; nor had he told them the regions of the three amens divine affirmations or powers, in what regions they are distributed; nor had he told them in

what region are the five trees, or the seven amens, which are also the seven voices, what is their region, according to the manner of their distribution.

Nor had Jesus told his disciples of what type are the five supporters, or from what The light-world. region they were brought forth; nor had he told them how the great light had emanated, or from what region it had been brought forth; nor had he told them of the five impressions, nor of the first statute, from what region they had been brought forth; but he simply spoke of them, and taught them that they existed, without speaking of their emanation and the order of their regions. And this is why they did not know that there were other regions within that mystery.

Nor had he told his disciples: "I pass through such or such a region until I enter that mystery, or [when] I leave it"; but, in instructing them, he merely said: "I have come from that mystery." And this is why they thought concerning that mystery, that it was the end of ends, (4) and that it was the chief of the pleroma the divine fullness or totality of God’s powers, and even that it was the pleroma itself. For Jesus said to his disciples: "It is that mystery which surrounds all the pleromas of which I have spoken, from the day on which I first met with you even unto this day." And this is, there-