Introduction.
This is a translation of a gnostic text discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1946, and published recently in The Nag Hammadi Library (ed. J. Robinson). The text is probably from the 3rd cent. a.d., and was written in Coptic (an Egyptian language), using however many Greek loan-words. The translation here is basically that of Bentley Leighton. I have rearranged it in verse form, because I think it is easier to read that way, and I’ve smoothed out the English in some places. Words in brackets are my comments or clarifications.
The text appears to be composite, in several ways. First, it probably incorporates several previously existent pieces. For example the long speech by the angel Eleleth at the end of the treatise repeats many points made already at the beginning. It seems unlikely that a single author would repeat herself in this way — it is more likely that someone has included here a previously existent piece because it is clearly associated with the rest of what is said.
Secondly, there seem to be many parenthetical remarks, interrupting the story in order to point out the moral of some event, or some favorite gnostic idea illustrated in it. These remarks I have indented slightly and enclosed in parentheses.
Finally, it appears to me also that one can see in the text a pre-Christian gnostic work which has been subsequently worked over by Christian gnostics. This can be seen most clearly in the references to “The Father of the All” which occur several times in remarks that clearly interrupt the story. Otherwise the highest “good” deity in the piece is a feminine “Incorruptibility” — and the heroes and savior figures are all feminine as well. I think the references to the Father of the All have been added as a rather superficial attempt to bring the entire action of the story under the aegis of the Christian God. Included in this Christian reworking is probably also the references to the savior who comes at a certain time in history — gnostic writings generally do not make such references to actual historical events, but sticks to “mythical” timelessness. The sections that I think are Christian additions I have indented more deeply and put in parentheses preceded by an asterisk. Though they seem to be additions, they are interesting in that they show how easily some particular group of (“heretical”) gnostic Christians could incorporate a text like this into their belief system.
The title of this text is usually left largely in Greek, “The Hypostasis of the Archons”. “Archon” means simply “ruler” in Greek — the gnostics use it as a term for the evil “rulers of this world”. “Hypostasis” means “substance”. The title seems best explained by Norea’s question toward the end of the treatise, “How did [the Rulers] come into existence … of what kind of matter” — i.e. the question about the “substance” of the rulers is the question about where they come from, what kind of beings they are. I think the best translation is then “The Nature of the Rulers”. The Christian introduction to the treatise connects the Archons of the text with the wicked “authorities of the universe” mentioned in the New Testament Letter to the Ephesians.
The Text
*On account of the Nature of the Authorities, inspired by the Spirit of the Father of Truth, the great Apostle [Paul] — referring to the “Authorities of Darkness” — told us1 that, “Our contest is not against flesh and blood; rather, it is against the authorities of the universe and the spirits of wickedness.” (Ephesians 6:12)
I have sent you this writing
because you inquire about the Nature of the Authorities.
Their chief is blind –
It is because of his Power and his ignorance and his arrogance
that he said with his Power,
“It is I who am God, there is none apart from me.”
When he said this he sinned against the All.
And these words came up to Incorruptibility,
And then there was a voice that came forth from Incorruptibility, saying, ]
“You are mistaken, Samael”,
(which means “God of the blind.” His thoughts became blind.)And having sent forth his Power (that is, the blasphemy which he had spoken)
He pursued it down to Chaos and the Abyss (who was his Mother), at the instigation of Pistis Sophia.
And she established each of his offspring, each according to its power,
After the pattern of the realms that are above
(For by starting from the invisible world, the visible world was invented).
As Incorruptibility looked down into the region of the Waters,
Her Image appeared in the Waters.
And the Authorities [Archons] of the Darkness became enamored of her,
But they could not lay hold of that Image which had appeared to them in the Waters,
Because of their weakness.
(Beings that possess only a soul cannot lay hold of those who possess a Spirit. They were from below, while it was from above.)
* (This is the reason why Incorruptibility looked down into the region of the waters: So that, by the Father’s will, she might bring the All into union with the light.)
The Archons laid plans and said, "Come let us create a man that will be soil from the earth." And they modeled their creature as one wholly of the earth. They took some soil from the earth and modeled their Man after their body, And after the Image of God [Incorruptibility] that had appeared to them in the Waters. They said, "Come let us lay hold of Her by means of the form that we have modeled. She will see in it her male counterpart, And we will trap her by means of the form we have modeled." (They didn't understand the power of God because of their powerlessness.)And they breathed into its face, And the Man came to have a [dead] soul, And remained upon the ground for many days. But they could not make him arise because of their powerlessness. Like storm winds they persisted in blowing, That they might try to capture that image which had appeared to them in the Waters. They did not know the nature of its power.*(Now all these events came to pass by the will of the Father of the All.)
Afterwards, the Spirit saw the soul-endowed Man upon the ground. And the Spirit came forth from the Adamantine Land. It descended and came to dwell within him, and that Man became a living soul. It called his name, "Adam" (since he was found moving upon the earth). A voice came forth from Incorruptibility for the assistance of Adam. And the Rulers gathered together all the animals of the earth And all the birds of heaven, And brought them in to Adam, to see what Adam would call them, That he might give a name to each of the birds and all the beasts. They took Adam and put him in the Garden, That he might cultivate it and keep watch over it. And the Archons issued a command to him, saying, "From every tree in the Garden shall you eat. But from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil do not eat, nor touch it. The day you eat from it, with death you will die." (They did not understand what they were doing. They said this by the Father's will, so that he might in fact eat, and so that Adam might not continue to look at them as would a man of exclusively material nature.) The Rulers took counsel with one another and said, "Come let us cause a deep sleep to fall upon Adam." And he slept. (The deep sleep they caused to fall upon him is Ignorance.) They opened his side [and took a piece shaped] like a living Woman. And they built up his side with some flesh in place of her, And Adam came to be endowed only with soul. And the Spirit-endowed Woman came to him and spoke with him, saying "Arise Adam." And when he saw her, he said, "It is you who have given me life. You will be called 'Mother of the Living.” For it is she who is my mother, It is she who is the Physician, and the Woman and She Who Has Given Birth." Then the Authorities came up to their Adam. And when they saw his female counterpart speaking with him, they became agitated with great agitation, They became enamored of her. They said to one another, "Come, let us sow our seed in her". And they pursued her. She laughed at them for their witlessness and their blindness In their clutches, she became a tree, she left before them her shadowy reflection resembling herself. And they defiled it foully. (They defiled the form that she had stamped in her likeness, so that by the form they had modeled, together with their own image, they might make themselves liable to condemnation.)Then the Female Spiritual Force came in the Snake, the Instructor. It taught them, saying, "What did he say to you? Was it, 'From every tree in the Garden shall you eat, But from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil [i.e. gnosis] do not eat'?" The carnal woman said, "Not only did he say, 'Do not eat', But, 'Do not touch it. For the day you eat from it, With death you will die."' And the Snake, the Instructor, said, "With death you shall not die. It was out of jealousy that he said this to you. Rather your eyes shall opened, and you shall come to be like gods, recognizing evil and good." And the Female Instructing Force was taken away from the snake, She left it behind merely a thing of earth.And the carnal Woman took from the tree and ate -- Some for herself, and some for her husband. These beings that possessed only soul, ate And their imperfection became apparent in their lack of Knowledge [gnosis] And they recognized that they were naked of the Spiritual Element, And they took fig leaves and bound them upon their loins. Then the chief Ruler came, and he said, "Adam, where are you (He did not realize what had happened.) And Adam said, "I heard your voice and was afraid because I was naked, And I hid." The Ruler said, "Why did you hide, Unless it is because you have eaten from the tree, From which alone I commanded you not to eat, you have eaten?" Adam said, "The Woman that you gave me, She gave to me and I ate." And the arrogant Ruler cursed the Woman. The Woman said, "It was the Snake that led me astray and I ate." The Rulers turned to the snake and cursed its shadowy reflection They were powerless [over the Female Spirit], Not comprehending that the snake was now only a form they themselves had modeled. *(From that day the snake came to be under the curse of the Authorities. Until the All-powerful Man [Christ] was to come, that curse fell upon the snake.) They turned to their Adam and expelled him from the Garden along with his wife. (People are not living under a blessing, They too are under the curse.) They threw mankind into a great distraction and into a life of toil, So that their mankind might be occupied with worldly affairs, And might not have the opportunity of being devoted to the Holy Spirit.
[Here the text tells the story (which I am omitting) of Cain and Abel, pretty much as it is in the bible, without comment except to point out that Cain was “carnal”. As in the biblical story, Eve then bears another boy, Seth — and after this bears a girl called Norea, who doesn’t appear in the bible. The story about Norea seems to add two originally separate pieces to the above account of the Fall story. One piece is the story of another powerful female figure and her fight with the Archons. The other is a long speech given here by the angel Eleleth to Norea, which repeats a good deal of the instruction already given above. The awkwardness of the addition shows in that, in the first Norea story, Norea knows very well where she comes from and is quite powerful — but then, in order to provide a lead in to the Eleleth speech, she all of a sudden becomes weak and ignorant of her origin.]
Eve became pregnant and she bore Norea. And she said, "He has begotten in me a virgin, An assistance for many generations of mankind." (She is the virgin whom the Forces did not defile.) Then mankind began to multiply and improve.The Rulers took counsel with one another and said, "Come, let us cause a deluge with our hands, And obliterate all flesh, from man to beast." But when the Ruler of the Forces came to know of their decision, He said to Noah, "Make yourself an ark from some wood that will not rot, and hide in it, You and your children and the beasts and birds of heaven from small to large, And set it upon Mount Sir." Then Norea came to him wanting to board the ark. And when he would not let her, she blew upon the ark and caused it to be consumed by fire. Again he made the ark, for a second time. The Rulers went to meet her, intending to lead her astray. Their supreme chief said to her, "Your mother Eve came to us." But Norea turned to them and said to them, "You are the Rulers of Darkness, you are accursed. You did not know my mother, It was your female counterpart that you knew. I am not your descendant, I have come from the World Above." The arrogant Ruler turned with all his might. His face became like black fire. He said to her presumptuously, "You must render service to us, as also did your mother Eve." But Norea turned in the strength of her passion, And in a loud voice she cried out, up to the Holy One, the God of the All, "Rescue me from the Rulers of Unrighteousness, Save me from their clutches, quickly." The Great Angel came down from the heavens and said to her, "Why are you crying up to God? Why do you act so boldly towards the Holy Spirit?" Norea said, "Who are you?"(The Rulers of unrighteousness had withdrawn at this point.)
He said, "I am Eleleth, Wisdom, the Great Angel who stands in front of the Holy Spirit. I have been sent to speak with you, and to save you from the grasp of the Lawless. I shall teach you about your Root. (I cannot describe the power of this Angel, his appearance is like fine gold and his clothing is like snow. No, truly, my mouth cannot bear to speak of his power and the appearance of his face.) Then Eleleth the Great Angel spoke to me: “I am Understanding. I am one of the Four Light-givers who stand before the Great Invisible Spirit. Do you think that these Rulers have any power over you?” *(None of them can prevail against the Root of Truth, for he [i.e. Jesus] appeared in this final age, And now these Authorities are restrained, they cannot defile this generation.) They cannot defile you, Because your abode is in Incorruptibility, where the Virgin Spirit dwells, Who is superior to the Authorities of Chaos and to their universe." And I said, "Sir, teach me about the Nature of these Authorities. How did they come into being, by what kind of genesis, And of what kind of material, And who created them and their force?" And the Great Angel Eleleth, Understanding, spoke to me: “Within limitless realms dwells Incorruptibility. Sophia, who is called Pistis, wanted to create something, alone without her consort, And her product was a celestial thing. A veil exists between the World Above and the realms that are below. Shadow came into being beneath the veil, And that Shadow became Matter. And that Shadow was projected apart, And what she created became a product in the Matter, like an aborted fetus. And it assumed a plastic form molded out of Shadow, And became an arrogant beast resembling a lion. (It was androgynous, as I have already said, because it was from Matter that it was derived.) Opening his eyes he saw a vast quantity of Matter without limit, And he became arrogant, saying, "It is I who am God, and there is none other apart from me." When he said this, he sinned against the All. And a voice came forth from the realm of absolute power, saying, "You are mistaken, Samael" (which is, "God of the blind"). And he said, If any other thing exists before me, let it become visible to me.: And immediately Sophia stretched forth her finger and introduced Light into Matter. And she pursued it down to the region of Chaos, Then returned up to her light. Once again Darkness ruled Matter. This ruler, being androgynous, made himself a vast realm, an extent without limit. And he contemplated creating offspring for himself, And created for himself seven offspring, androgynous just like their parent. And he said to his offspring, "It is I who am the god of the All". And Zoe (Life), the daughter of Pistis Sophia, cried out and said to him, "You are mistaken, Sakla" (for which another name is Yaldabaoth). She breathed into his face, and her breath became a fiery angel for her, And that angel bound Yaldabaoth, and cast him down into Tartaros, below the Abyss. And when his offspring, Sabaoth, saw the force of that angel, He repented and condemned his Father and his Mother, Matter. He loathed her, but he sang songs of praise up to Sophia and her daughter Zoe. And Sophia and Zoe caught him up and gave him charge of the seventh heaven, Below the veil between Above and Below. And he is called, "God of the Forces, Sabaoth", Since he is up above the Forces of Chaos, for Sophia established him. Now when these events had come to pass, He made himself a huge four-faced chariot of cherubim, [see Ezek. 1] And infinitely many angels, to act as ministers, and also harps and lyres. And Sophia took her daughter Zoe and had her sit upon his right To teach him about the things that exist in the eighth heaven. And the Angel of Wrath she placed upon his left. Since that day, his right has been called "Life", And his left has come to represent the unrighteousness of the realm of absolute power above. It was before your time that these came into being. Now when Yaldabaoth saw him in this great splendor and at this height, he envied him. And the envy became an androgynous creation, And this was the origin of Envy. And Envy engendered Death, And Death engendered his offspring and gave each of them charge of its heaven, And all the heavens of Chaos became full of their multitudes. *(But it was by the will of the Father of the All that they all came into being, after the pattern of all the things above, so that the sum of Chaos might be attained.) There, [said Eleleth to Noreal, I have taught you about the pattern of the Rulers, And the Matter in which it was expressed, And their parent, and their universe. "But am I from their Matter", I said. You, together with your offspring, are from above. From Above, out of the imperishable Light, their souls are come. Thus the Authorities cannot approach them, Because of the Spirit of Truth present within them. And all who have become acquainted with this Way exist deathless in the midst of dying mankind.
[The remainder of the writing below seems to be a Christian addition, interpreting the coming of Jesus as an event freeing mankind from the domination of the Archons, and revealing to them their true heavenly nature.]
Still, that Sown Element will not become known now. Instead, after three generations it will come to be known, and free them from the bondage of the Authorities' error. Then I said, "Sir, how much longer?" He said to me, "Until the moment when the True Man [Jesus], within a modeled form, Reveals the existence of the Spirit of Truth, Which the Father has sent. Then he will teach them about everything, And he will anoint them with the oil of Life eternal, Given him from the undominated generation. Then they will be freed of blind thought, And they will trample under foot Death, which is of the Authorities. And they will ascend into the limitless Light, Where this Sown Element belongs. Then the Authorities will relinquish their eras, And their angels will weep over their destruction, And their demons will lament their death. Then all the Children of the Light will be truly acquainted with the Truth and with their Root, The Father of the All and the Holy Spirit. They will all say with a single voice, 'The Father's Truth is just, And the Son presides over the All. And from everyone unto the ages of ages, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, Amen.'"
