The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1

The text opens by naming the teaching of the savior and mysteries taught to John. John, brother of James, sons of Zebedee, goes to the temple, where the Pharisee Arimanios asks where his teacher is; John says he has returned whence he came. Arimanios claims the Nazarene deceived them. John withdraws to the mountains, lamenting and questioning how the savior was appointed and what aeon awaits. The heavens open; John sees a light with a figure appearing as child, old man, and son, in three forms. It declares it is Father, Mother, and Son, come to inform him. It teaches of the monad, the unseen Spirit, unbounded and self-established, source that bestows life and light. From the spring his thought becomes Providence, Barbelo, who entreats and receives Precognition, Indestructibility, Eternal Life, and Truth, forming the pentad and decad. From Barbelo issues the only-begotten light, Christ, anointed and given Mind; by the Logos, Christ creates the All. Four lights—Armozel, Oriael/Oroiel, Daveithai, Eleleth—receive aeons. Pigera-Adamas is appointed, then Seth and Seth's seed, and souls placed by aeon. Sophia, acting without the Spirit's agreement or her companion, brings forth an incomplete lion-faced dragon offspring, Yaltabaoth, whom she hides. Yaltabaoth begets twelve authorities and sets up kings. He bears three names—Yaltabaoth, Saklas, Samael—and proclaims himself sole God. The archons make 365 angels; seven powers with animal faces and named after divine qualities. The mother moves back and forth; the figure explains she repented in shame. The Fullness hears her prayer; the Spirit pours out, and she is raised to the Ninth. A voice proclaims "The Man exists, and the Son of Man"; Yaltabaoth's aeon shakes and is illuminated.

Through the light he sees the image in the water and tells his attending authorities to create a man according to the image of God and their likeness. Each authority supplies an attribute, and they name him Adam; the powers Goodness, Providence, Divinity, Lordship, Kingdom, Jealousy, and Understanding create bone, sinew, flesh, marrow, blood, skin, and hair. Named angels form each body part, with seven set over them (Athoth, Armas, Kalila, Jabel, Sabaoth, Cain, Abel) and further rulers over limbs, senses, and four demons of heat, cold, wetness, dryness, whose mother is matter. Four chief demons govern pleasure, lust, grief, fear; passions issue from them. The angels number 365. The creation stays inert until the mother entreats the Most Merciful Mother-Father, who sends five lights; they counsel Yaltabaoth to blow his Spirit into Adam's face, and the mother's power passes from Yaltabaoth into the body. Adam moves and surpasses his makers, who envy him and cast him into lowest matter. The Mother-Father sends the helper Radiant Reflection, called Life, hidden in Adam. The archons remold him mortal and place him in paradise. The savior explains he caused them to eat; the serpent taught sexual lust; the chief archon caused a trance. The chief archon extracts a portion of Adam's power to form the woman. Reflection lifts the veil; Adam recognizes her. Appearing as an eagle, the narrator rouses them. Yaldabaoth expels and clothes them in gloom. The Providence of the All dispatches messengers who remove Life from Eve; then the chief archon pollutes her, begetting Eloim and Yave. Adam begets Seth. The savior answers questions on souls' salvation, the false spirit's origin through adultery with Sophia, and the flood, in which Providence warns Noah.

The perfect Providence declares transforming into her own seed, being the wealth of light. As the remembrance of the Fullness, she enters the realm of darkness a first time, the foundations of chaos tremble, and she hides. A second time she travels through darkness and Hades, then hastens back to her light-root. A third time she enters, fills her face with light, awakens the sleeper who weeps and asks who calls; she identifies herself, urges him to rise and guard himself, lifts and seals him with five seals. She announces her ascent, commands the sayings be written and shared secretly. The savior entrusts the sayings, curses any who trade them, then vanishes; he departs and informs his fellow disciples. Jesus Christ. Amen.