The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 · 19 of 24 · tr. Samuel Zinner
The Chief Archon Pollutes Eve
I appeared in the shape of an eagle on the tree of knowledge, which is Reflection of Providence of Pure Light, so that I could instruct them and rouse them out of their deep sleep, because both of them were in a fallen condition, and they were aware of their [IV, 37] nudity.
Reflection appeared to them in the mode of a light, and she roused their thinking, but when <Y>aldabaoth realized that they had withdrawn from him, he cursed his earth. He encountered the woman when she was [II, 24] making herself ready for her husband. He was her overlord,
although he knew not the mystery that had transpired by means of the sacred decree, and they were afraid to accuse him, and he displayed to his angels the ignorance inside him, and he expelled them from paradise, and he clothed them in dark gloom.
The chief archon also beheld the virgin who stood near Adam, and that the radiant Reflection of Life had appeared inside her, and <Y>aldabaoth was filled with ignorance, and when the Providence of the All saw this, she dispatched messengers, and they quickly removed Life from out of Eve. Then the chief archon polluted her, and he begot with her two sons, the first and the second: [IV, 38] Eloim and Yave. Eloim has the face of a bear, but Yave has the face of a cat. The one is just, but the other is unjust (var. *Yave is just, but Eloim is unjust).* Yave was placed over fire and wind, but Eloim was placed over water and earth, but with intent to deceive he called these with the names Cain and Abel.
Until today sexual intercourse has continued because of the chief archon, and it was he who planted sexual lust inside her who belongs to Adam, but through intercourse he made copies of the bodies, and he inspired them with his false spirit.
He, however, placed the two archons over *several* principalities, so that they would rule over the tomb.
However, when Adam became aware of the likeness of his own precognition, he begot the likeness [II, 25] of the Son of Man, whom he called Seth, in agreement with the way the race is among the aeons.
Similarly, the mother also sent down her spirit, which is in her own likeness, [IV, 39] as well as a simulacrum of the one who dwells in the Fullness, because she will make ready a dwelling place for the aeons who will descend. He also caused them to drink the water
of oblivion from the chief archon, so that they would not know the place of their origin. In this way, the seed remained for a period of time to help, so that when the Spirit issues forth from the sacred aeons, he will raise him up and heal him of his deficiency, so that the entire Fullness will become holy and without fault.”
The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.
The material bodies are described as 'copies' made by the Archon to trap the spirit, and sexual intercourse is linked to the planting of lust and false spirits.
Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.
The passage is structured around a stark opposition between the transcendent divine realm (Light, Life, Truth) and the material realm (Darkness, Ignorance, Falsehood).
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 narrates the origin of humanity's fallen state, the creation of the false gods Eloim and Yave, and the introduction of sexual reproduction by the Archon.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
Yaldabaoth is central to the passage as the ignorant 'chief archon' who creates the material world, expels humanity from paradise, and fathers false gods.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The 'Providence of Pure Light' and 'Providence of the All' actively intervene to instruct humanity and rescue the divine element from the Archon's pollution.
Gurdjieff and Ouspensky's claim that ordinary human beings live in a state of waking sleep, reacting mechanically without unified will or consciousness, and that the spiritual path begins with recognising this condition.
Adam and Eve are described as being in a 'deep sleep' and unaware of their true nature until roused by the divine instruction.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The text outlines a soteriological process where the Spirit will 'raise him up' so that the 'entire Fullness will become holy,' indicating a return to the divine origin.
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.
Humanity is described as being in a 'fallen condition,' clothed in 'dark gloom,' and made to drink the 'water of oblivion' so they do not know their origin.
Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. Loki and Odin's transformations in Norse, Math's pigs and Blodeuwedd's owl-shape and Pwyll's exchange with Arawn in the Mabinogion, the Greek Proteus, the Indian dasavatara, Vainamoinen's bird-flight in the Kalevala, Ovid's metamorphoses, the shamanic and witch's capacity for ritual form-change. Distinct from anthropomorphism (divine taking specific human form, single embodiment) in that anthropomorphism establishes a stable form whereas this concept establishes form's plurality and instability.
The divine savior appears in the 'shape of an eagle,' and the Archon's sons are described with animal faces (bear and cat).