The Apocryphon of John, Part 4
Lost and Condemned Books of the Bible
Welcome back, Bystanders! There was a lot of drama in last week’s post, wasn’t there? As always, let’s do a brief recap. Last week, Yalda felt pretty proud of himself and declared he was a jealous God. Saying that was a bad idea though, since it infers the existence of another God out there somewhere! Yalda went on to create Adam in an imitation of the “perfect Man” Adamas, who the Monad had created. But after working hard to create Adam, Yalda wasn’t able to bring his creation to life. But Sophia and the Monad used this opportunity to trick him into giving up his power to Adam. And the trick was successful! Because Adam was consequently more powerful than him, Yalda cast him down to the lowest level of the material world. And it is there that we resume our journey through this text.
Epinoia
The Monad, seeing Adam cast out, took pity on the spirit of Sophia within him. So he decided to provide Adam with a helper. Many of you may be thinking “Ah, that’s our girl Eve!”. But not so fast! This helper is known as Epinoia. She was sent to work beside him and teach him about where he was cast down from and how to ascend again one day. But in order to keep Epinoia’s presence a secret from the Archons, the Monad hid her within Adam’s body.
The Archons were far from done with Adam though. Because even being cast down from them, they could see that Adam’s thinking was still superior to theirs. So the Archons took fire, earth, and water and mixed them with the four great winds in order to create a great chaos. And in this chaos, they took Adam to the “shadow of death” where they caused him to become both forgetful and mortal. Can’t have that pesky awareness of your power in there, now can we? Only Epinoia, still hidden within him, remained fully aware of all that had occurred.
The Garden of Eden
So now, with a firmer grip of control over their Adam, the Archon’s placed him within a paradise. Ayyy Garden of Eden time~ There, they encouraged Adam to eat and enjoy leisure. In this way, they attempted to keep him occupied and distracted with luxury and comfort. Within this garden, there were two trees: the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But Jesus clarifies to John that the Tree of Life is not at all what it seems:
“And I shall teach you (pl.) what is the mystery of their life, which is the plan which they made together, which is the likeness of their spirit. The root of this (tree) is bitter and its branches are death, its shadow is hate and deception is in its leaves, and its blossom is the ointment of evil, and its fruit is death and desire is its seed, and it sprouts in darkness. The dwelling place of those who taste from it is Hades, and the darkness is their place of rest.”
As for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, it had the power to cause Adam to reclaim his full potential and recognize the “nakedness of his shamefulness”! So the Archons stood in front of this tree to prevent Adam from eating its fruit. I would have hated to have been put on tree guarding duty in literal paradise, but Yalda thought it best. So the Archons carried out his orders to the letter.
Yalda Retaliates
As for Yalda himself, he still hadn’t gotten over the trick that the Aeons had pulled on him. And he wanted the power he had breathed into Adam back at all costs. He was determined to draw it back out of him. So, he caused a “forgetfulness” to come over Adam. It is here that John, seeing where this story is going, interjects to point out that the canonical scriptures say Adam slept when God pulled out his rib to create Eve. But Jesus assures him, saying this understanding of the canonical scriptures actually incorrect. He clarifies that this forgetfulness Yalda brought over Adam simply made it so he “may not pay attention and may not see”. But it did not put him in a literal state of sleep.
With Adam in this foggy state of mind, Yalda seized the moment and thrust his hand into Adam’s side with intent to grasp Epinoia (the light within him). But Epinoia could not be grasped! Instead of grabbing Epinoia, Yalda ended up creating another being with Adam’s power. When Adam came too from his forgetfulness and saw his counter-being before him, Epinoia lifted the heavy fog of darkness and forgetfulness away from his mind. Adam proclaimed of this being that she was like him, “bone of my bone” and “flesh of my flesh”. That’s right, I wrote “she”! Eve has entered the building! And the power and light of Sophia dwelled within her in the form of Epinoia.
The Human Cain and Abel
With Adam enthralled with his wife Eve, the two became more occupied with each other than with Yalda. And let’s just say Yalda was not pleased by this new development in the slightest! How dare they! So he threw a bit of a tantrum (which is typical for him). He cursed the earth and cast his angels out of the paradise of the garden into gloomy darkness. Yalda then set his gaze on Eve, noticing the light shining within her: Epinoia. But Foreknowledge (remember this Aeon?) noticed Yalda’s latest target. So in order to protect Eve, the Aeons snatched the power away from her to keep it safe from Yalda’s greed. For Epinoia had already done her job: she had lifted the veil of forgetfulness away from Adam and Eve so that they could see with clarity.
Here, the secret knowledge takes a brief detour to tell us that Yalda seduced Eve and fathered two sons with her. I guess this was his way of still getting some form of revenge. These sons were not normal children in the slightest. The first was named Elohim, an unrighteous being with the face of a bear. The second was named Yahweh, a righteous being with the face of a cat. These two ruled over the four natural elements together: Yahweh ruled over both fire and wind while Elohim ruled over water and earth. But in order to be deceptive, Yalda gave them different names as well. The unrighteous Elohim, he called Cain. And the righteous Yahweh, Yalda called Abel.
Following the birth of these two sons, Yalda placed a sexual desire within Eve. And this text credits Yalda as the originator of human sexuality as a concept. It was through this tool that he could create endless duplicates of Adam and Eve to sway with his “counterfeit spirit”. But Adam, recognizing that Eve was like his own version of the Aeon Foreknowledge, he was inspired to bring forth his own version of Adamas (the “perfect Man”). He named his son Seth. And the Mother of All “sent down her spirit” to dwell within him and all of mankind to come.
John Asks Questions
It is here that Jesus wraps up the secret knowledge. Phew! And John, who has been dutifully listening all this time, begins to ask Jesus various questions about all he has learned from him. Below are the questions that John poses to Jesus:
Will all souls eventually be brought into “the pure light”?
Will any souls on whom the Spirit of Light descends be rejected? Is it possible?
Where do these souls go when they come out of the body?
If someone does not know if their soul belongs to the Spirit of Light or to Yalda’s spirit of deception, where do their souls go?
Can the soul become smaller and return into its mother’s womb or be reborn?
Those who turn away and didn’t know any better in life, what happens to them?
Where did Yalda’s spirit of deception come from?
Good questions, right? I too had some questions of my own, so I was thankful I wasn’t alone in that! Next week, we’ll go over Jesus’ responses to each of these questions in our final installment of this series. So stay tune and stay curious!