The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 · 16 of 24 · tr. Samuel Zinner
The Spirit is Blown into Adam
However, all the angels and demons labored until they had formed the psychic body, and their creation was entirely inert and without movement for a prolonged time.
When, however, the mother wished to regain the power she had granted to the chief archon, she entreated the Most Merciful Mother-Father of the All.
With the sacred decree, he [IV, 30] dispatched the five lights down onto the place of the angels of the chief archon, and they counseled him that they should bring forth the power of the mother, and they said to Yaltabaoth, ‘Blow of your Spirit into his face, and his body will stand up,’ and he blew into his face his Spirit, which is the power of his mother. He was unaware, because he exists in ignorance, and the power of the mother went forth from Yaltabaoth into the psychic body they had formed according to the image of he who is from the beginning.
The body moved and attained strength, and it was radiant, and at that time the rest of [II, 20] the powers grew envious, because he had come into existence through all of them, and they had bestowed their power on the man, and his intellect surpassed (that of)
those who had made him, and the chief archon.
When, however, they saw that he was radiant, and that he could reason better than they, and that he was unburdened by [IV, 31] evil, they took him up and thrust him down into the nethermost region of all matter. However, the Blessed One, the Mother-Father, the beneficent and merciful one, showed mercy to the power of the mother which had been brought forth from the chief ruler, because they might acquire power over the psychic and sensory body, and through his beneficent Spirit and his great mercy he dispatched to Adam a helper, Radiant Reflection who emerges out of him, who is called ‘Life.’
She, however, helps the entire creation by laboring together with him, and by restoring to him his perfection, and by instructing him concerning the descent of his seed, and by instructing him concerning the way of ascent, the way by which it descended.
Further, Reflection of Light was concealed inside Adam, so that the archons would be unknowing, but that Reflection would be a rectification of the deficiency of the mother, and [IV, 32] the man became visible on account of the light-shadow inside him, and his intellect surpassed (that of) all those who had made him.
Malevolent planetary rulers or demiurgic powers that govern the material world and obstruct the soul's ascent.
The text details the actions of the chief archon and other angels/demons who create the body, become envious of Adam's intellect, and cast him into matter.
The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.
The archons cast the radiant man into the 'nethermost region of all matter' to obscure his divine nature, treating the material realm as a prison for the spirit.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage provides a detailed narrative of the origin of humanity, describing the formation of the body by angels and the infusion of spirit that brings Adam to life.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
Yaltabaoth is explicitly depicted as an ignorant secondary creator who fashions the psychic body and unknowingly receives the divine spirit from a higher power.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
The text describes the 'power of the mother' and 'Reflection of Light' as divine elements trapped within the material body of Adam, concealed from the archons.
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 narrative centers on the 'Mother' (Sophia) losing power to the archon and the subsequent divine intervention to retrieve that power, reflecting the myth of her error and the resulting cosmic disorder.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The helper 'Radiant Reflection' is sent to instruct Adam on the 'way of ascent' and restore his perfection, indicating a path back to the divine origin.
Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).
The text distinguishes between the 'psychic body' formed by angels and the higher 'intellect' or 'spirit' derived from the divine mother, implying a layered human constitution.