The Apocryphon of John, Part 2

Lost and Condemned Books of the Bible

Welcome back, Bystanders! Today, we resume our in-depth look at the Apocryphon of John. Last week, we walked through an introduction to the text. So far, the story has followed the Apostle John who, upon hearing criticism of Jesus’ validity, ran to the desert fraught with grief. But while there, Jesus appeared to him and offered to teach him the secret knowledge of the past, present and future. Today, we get to find out just what those secrets are! So let’s dig right in!

The Teachings of Jesus

When John requested that Jesus grant him this secret knowledge, Jesus gave him what he requested! And he did not hold back one bit. If I was in John’s shoes, after the first couple of sentences, I would be begging Jesus to hang on until I got back home so I could write all this stuff down. Because, if you have a traditional Abrahamic background like I do, what follows is both entirely unfamiliar and dense with information. But I promise I’ll do my best to make this a little easier to understand on an initial read (because it took me more than one before I could make sense of it all!). 

Jesus goes back to the very beginning of the universe as his starting point. So he begins by describing a being called the Monad as “a monarchy with nothing above it”. It is this Monad that is the God above all, the Father of everything, the Invisible One. And he states he exists as incorruption and is “the pure light into which no eye can look”. Right off the bat, we are thrown a new name and description of the one God of the universe! So now, if you’re a believer or just want to do it for kicks, feel free to volunteer to bless the meal at the next family Thanksgiving with the opening words “Oh Holy Monad, monarch of heaven and Father of all,...”.

Or maybe hold that thought and think twice before you do that! Because Jesus immediately goes on to clarify how one should think of the Monad in a lengthy monologue. Let’s go over the unique highlights of what he points out to John:

• “He is the invisible Spirit, of whom it is not right to think of him as a god, or something similar. For he is more than a god, since there is nothing above him, for no one lords it over him.”

• “(He is) not in perfection, nor in blessedness, nor in divinity, but he is far superior.”

• “He is neither large nor is he small. There is no way to say, 'What is his quantity?' or, 'What is his quality?', for no one can know him.” 

• “He is un-nameable, since there is no one prior to him to give him a name.”

• “Time was not apportioned to him, since he does not receive anything from another, for it would be received on loan. For he who precedes someone does not lack, that he may receive from him. For rather, it is the latter that looks expectantly at him in his light.”

So this Monad is a being that is more than just a god, surpasses terms like perfect, blessed, or divine, is a being no one can know or name, and does not receive anything from anyone. I don’t know about you, but that description puts the “Supreme” in Supreme Being in all caps in my head. The Monad is on another level entirely! And it is within this lengthy description of the Father of Everything that we are introduced to another new term: Aeon.

Aeons

Throughout this text, the term “Aeon” is used to describe the class of beings that the Monad belongs to. It is a Latin word that was translated into the Greek as αἰών ("aion") and is defined as “age”, “forever”, or “for eternity”. As the monarch of heaven and the first being in our universe, the Monad is the most powerful Aeon in existence. But he is also described as “an aeon-giving aeon”, a creator of the other Aeons. Unlike how the canonical book of Genesis describes the process of creation, the Apocryphon of John specifies that the Monad creates these other Aeons through his mind. And it is from the Monad that these other Aeons are given their strength.

Barbelo and the Pentad

It is from the mind of the Monad that the next Aeon came to be! Jesus informed John that from the Monad’s thoughts, a new being came forth before the Monad. Her name was Barbelo. Barbelo is described as “the forethought of the All” and his “perfect Power” whose light “shines like his light”. It is she that became the womb of all! She asked the Monad to create another Aeon for her. In order for their names to make sense, its important to remember that these Aeons are best described as the personifications of aspects/traits of the Monad. So when Barbelo requested that the Monad grant her foreknowledge, the Aeon Foreknowledge was brought forth for her. Foreknowledge stood in their presence, glorifying them both for their creation. Barbelo went on to similarly ask the Monad to grant her Indestructibility, Eternal Life, and Truth. And like Foreknowledge, these three were also brought forth and glorified them both. And with that, the Pentad of the Aeons was formed!

The Only Begotten One

Jesus continues our story with the creation of another Aeon: Jesus himself! He explains that his creation was special and markedly different from its predecessors due to the manner in which he was brought forth. According to the text, the Monad looked at Barbelo and, “with his spark”, she conceived and ultimately gave birth to another spark of light. This was the “only-begotten child of the Mother-Father”, “the only offspring”, the “pure Light”, the Autogenes (“self-created one”), Jesus, the Christ. Jesus admits here that though he does not have the same greatness as his source, the Monad blessed him with his own goodness until he achieved perfection. This is a marked departure from traditional Christianity since it specifies that Jesus and the true God are not one in the same, but instead entirely separate beings. Much like Barbelo made requests of the Monad, the Only Begotten One requested of the Monad a “fellow worker”. So the Monad agreed and brought forth the Mind as Jesus’ partner. And after its creation, the Mind requested the creation of two additional Aeons, the Will and the Word. Both were granted and brought into being.

The Four Powers

Now I promise there is a point to all of this creation narrative set up. Because we are actually getting closer and closer to the catastrophic turning point in this story. But in order for any of what comes afterwards to make sense, we first have to briefly discuss four angels known as the Four Powers and a being named Adamas. So who were these four powerful angels? Jesus goes on to explain to John that he was attended to by four angels of light, each with an attributed power and each with three Aeons beneath them. These four powers are Armozel, Daveithai, Oriel, and Eleleth. Immediately after these four angels were created, the Monad worked with Barbelo and Jesus to create the “perfect Man”, a being by the name of Adamas. The outline below describes how the Four Powers associate with the lineage of Adamas:

• Armozel:

  • Power: Grace

  • Associated Aeons: Grace, Truth, and Form

  • Governs the “perfect Man”, Adamas

• Daveithai:

  • Power: Understanding

  • Associated Aeons: Understanding, Love, and Idea

  • Governs the son of Adamas, Seth

• Oriel

  • Power: Perception

  • Associated Aeons: Epinoia (Conception), Perception, and Memory

  • Governs the offspring of Seth and “the saints”

• Eleleth:

  • Power: Prudence

  • Associated Aeons: Perfection, Peace, and *drumroll* Sophia (Wisdom)

  • Governs those who do not know the Aeons and did not repent at once, but persisted in sin only to repent later on

Sophia

We did it! We finally reached Sophia, who ushers in the impending conflict of this story. Because, unlike with the canonical narrative that points to the Garden of Eden as the first sin, Gnosticism maintains that Sophia is where sin truly originated. You may be asking “What exactly did Sophia do that was so awful?”. Let’s continue to listen in on the conversation between John and Jesus to find out! 

Jesus states that Sophia eventually wanted to create a being in her own likeness without the consent of the Monad or her partner. But because she did not create it with her partner, the being that was produced was imperfect and nothing like her at all! When she looked and saw the consequences of her actions, the being she created transformed into a serpent with the face of a lion and eyes like lightning! Repulsed and ashamed, Sophia cast it away so that none of the other Aeons would see what she had done. To conceal her mistake, she placed this being on a throne within a luminous cloud and no one could see her creation except the Holy Spirit. And the name given to this being was Yaldabaoth.

Yalda & The Archons

Yaldabaoth is the villain in this story in a way. He was given three different names: Yaldabaoth, Saklas, and Samael. But for the sake of simplicity, we’ll refer to him as Yaldabaoth throughout this series (or just Yalda lol). So this Yalda guy grew both strong and arrogant in his isolation. In his mind and based on what he could perceive, he was the one and only being in existence. And it was in this ignorance that he proclaimed “I am God, and there is no God but me!”.  In his creation, he drew a portion of power and light from his mother Sophia. And with that power, he wielded a brilliant flame. So he decided he would create his own emanations and unknowingly modeled them after the perfect Aeons created before him. Because though he had never seen the Aeons above him, the power he drew from Sophia included an innate knowledge of the Monad’s pattern of creation. What follows is a list of the Archons (“Arch-Aeons”, a term for the opposite of an Aeon; a degraded, distorted, and imperfect Aeon; a cheap imitation) that he brought forth. Get ready for some really strange names!

• Athoth (known as the reaper)

• Harmas (the eye of envy)

• Kalila-Oumbri

• Yabel

• Adonaiou (also known as Sabaoth)

• Cain (known as the sun)

• Abel

• Abrisene

• Yobel

• Armoupieel

• Melceir-Adonein

• Belias (who was over the depth of Hades)

Now don’t get confused or misled by the Archons names Cain and Abel. I want to clarify that these are not the same Cain and Abel from the canonical Genesis. And further on in our series, we’ll get into why these names would appear both in the list of Archons and in the offspring of Adam and Eve on earth. I promise it will make (some) sense later! 

Yalda then created seven “rulers”/Authorities to rule in the “seven spheres of heaven” (corresponding to the seven classical planets and the seven days of the week) as well as five rulers to rule in the “five depths of the abyss” who go unnamed in this text. The seven Authorities were made to rule the material world and each went on to create six unnamed demons. These creations of his were given a portion of Yalda’s brilliant fire but not one of them were given any of the power he had received from Sophia. That, he kept all for himself. But let’s meet these Authorities! From here on out, I will fondly refer to them as The Seven:

• Athoth: 

  • Physical form: Had the face of a sheep

  • Power: Goodness

• Eloais: 

  • Physical form: Had the face of a donkey

  • Power: Providence

• Astaphaios: 

  • Physical form: Had the face of a hyena

  • Power: Divinity

• Yao: 

  • Physical form: Had the face of a seven-headed snake

  • Power: Lordship

• Sabaoth: 

  • Physical form: Had the face of a dragon

  • Power: Kingdom

• Adonin: 

  • Physical form: Had the face of a monkey

  • Power: Zeal

• Sabbataios: 

  • Physical form: Had a face of flame and fire

  • Power: Understanding

So this leaves us with the Pleroma (a term for the all of the Aeons above), one misguided Aeon named Sophia and her distorted creation Yalda, and his band of knock-off Aeons known as Archons. But what about the Garden of Eden? What about Adam and Eve? All of that revelation is just around the corner! Because I can assure you, this is not the end of Yalda’s mischief. This is only the beginning of what he gets up to in his own little world. But all of that will have to wait until next week! Until then, stay tuned and stay curious!

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