The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 · 12 of 24 · tr. Samuel Zinner
The Mother Repents
I, however, said: “Lord, what (is) ‘she moved back and forth’?”
And he grinned, and said: “Think not that it agrees with what Moses said, ‘above the waters,’ no!
Instead, when she had witnessed the evil that had occurred, and the theft her son had perpetrated, she repented, and she was overwhelmed by oblivion inside the darkness of ignorance, and she began to feel shame (*[and she dared not] to return, but [she was moving]*) about.
The movement, however, is ‘to go back and forth,’ and the proud one procured a power from his mother, because he was ignorant, assuming that no one but his mother existed. When he, however, saw the host of angels he had created, he then lifted up himself above them.
Further, when the mother realized that the garment of darkness was flawed, she then understood that her companion had not agreed together with her. She repented, [II, 14] weeping [IV, 22] copiously, and the entire Fullness hearkened to her prayer of repentance, and on her behalf they praised the unseen, virginal Spirit. (*And [he] agreed, but when [the unseen Spirit] had agreed*), the holy Spirit poured out on her from their entire Fullness, because it was not that her companion approached her (alone), but he approached her by means of the Fullness, so that he could rectify her deficiency, and she was taken up, not, however, to her own aeon, but above her son, so that she would dwell in the Ninth until she had rectified her deficiency.
A voice also came forth from the lofty heavenly aeon: ‘The Man exists, and the Son of Man,’ and the chief archon, Yaltabaoth, overheard and assumed that the voice had come from
his mother, and he knew not from where it had come.
He also taught them, that is, the sacred and perfect Mother-Father, the perfect Providence, the image of the unseen one, who is the Father of the All, through whom everything came to be, the Primal [IV, 23] Man, because in a male form he made manifest his likeness.
Further, the entire aeon of the chief archon shook, and the foundations of the abyss moved, and the bottom of the waters above matter was illuminated by the appearance of this image that had been made manifest, and when all of the authorities and the chief archon looked, they saw the entire region underneath them illuminated.
Penitential sorrow for sin as the first movement of the soul's healing — Julian's first of three medicines ('by contrition we are made clean'), the Christian compunction tradition, Sufi tawba, Greek metanoia, Hebrew teshuvah; the wound of sorrow that turns bitterness into hope of mercy. Distinct from self_examination (the diagnostic practice), rejection_of_hypocrisy (critique of others' form), and dark_night (imposed aridity): contrition is the soul's own penitent turning.
The Mother's 'repentance' and 'weeping copiously' are depicted as the pivotal emotional movement that triggers divine intervention and restoration.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The supreme deity is referred to as the 'unseen, virginal Spirit' and the 'Father of the All,' emphasizing a radical concealment from the ignorant Demiurge.
The Gnostic myth of Wisdom's prolapse from the Pleroma — her unilateral desire or error producing the Demiurge and the entrapment of divine sparks in matter.
The passage centrally narrates the Mother's (Sophia) error, her repentance for the theft of her son, and her subsequent exile from the Fullness.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The text begins with a question about the true meaning of a scriptural phrase ('she moved back and forth'), revealing an esoteric interpretation distinct from the Mosaic account.
The divine fullness or totality of the highest realm, populated by aeons and divine attributes, contrasted with the deficient material world.
The 'entire Fullness' (Pleroma) is described as the divine realm that hearkens to the Mother's prayer and sends the holy Spirit to rectify her deficiency.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The Mother is 'taken up' above her son to dwell in the Ninth aeon to rectify her deficiency, illustrating a partial restoration toward the divine realm.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The Mother's state of being 'overwhelmed by oblivion' and her inability to return initially depicts the condition of exile from the divine origin.