Gospel of Philip · 12 of 13 · tr. Thomas O. Lambdin
Section 1l
Now they say, “He who creates engenders,” but his so-called offspring is merely a creature; therefore his children are not offspring but creatures.
He who creates works openly and is visible.
He who engenders does so in private.
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MYSTERY OF UNDEFILED MARRIAGE No one can know when the husband and wife have sex except those two.
Marriage in the world is a mystery for those who are married.
If there is a hidden defilement in the marriage, how much greater is the true mystery of the undefiled marriage!
It is not fleshly but pure.
It belongs not to desire but to the will.
It belongs not to the darkness of the night but to the day and the light.
If a marriage is open to the public, it has become prostitution, and the bride plays the harlot not only when impregnated by another man but even if she slips out of her bedroom and is seen.
Let her show herself only to her father and her mother and to the friend and attendants of the bridegroom.
They are permitted to enter every day into the bridal chamber.
But let the others yearn just to listen to her voice and to enjoy her fragrant ointments, and let them feed on the crumbs falling from the table, like dogs.
Bridegrooms and brides belong to the bridal chamber.
No one shall be able to see the bridegroom or bride unless one becomes a bridegroom or bride.
ABRAHAM’S CIRCUMCISION When Abraham rejoiced in seeing what he was to see, he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, teaching us that it is proper to destroy the flesh.
HIDDEN PARTS ARE UPRIGHT As long as they are hidden, most things in the world are upright and live.
If they are revealed they die, as is clear by the example of the visible person: as long as the intestines are hidden, a person is alive.
When the intestines are exposed and come out, the person will die.
So also with a tree.
While its root is hidden, it sprouts and grows.
If its root is exposed, the tree dries up.
So it is with every birth that is in the world, not only with the revealed but also the hidden.
As long as the root of wickedness is hidden, it is powerful.
But when it is recognized, it is dissolved.
When it is revealed, it perishes.
That is why the word says, “Even now the ax lies set against the root of the trees.” It will not merely cut—what is cut sprouts again— but the ax penetrates deeply until it brings up the root.
ROOT OF EVIL Jesus pulled out the root of the whole place while others did it only partially.
As for us, let each one dig down after the root of evil that is within us and pluck it out of our heart from the root.
It will be uprooted if we recognize it.
But if we are ignorant of it, it takes root in us and produces fruit in our heart.
It masters us.
We are its slaves.
It takes us captive to make us do what we do not want; and what we do want we do not do.
It is powerful because we have not recognized it.
While it exists it is active.
IGNORANCE Ignorance is the mother of all evil.
Ignorance will eventuate in death, because those who come from ignorance neither were nor are nor will be.
But those who are in the truth will be perfect when all the truth is revealed.
For truth is like ignorance: while hidden it rests in itself, but when revealed and recognized, it is praised in that it is stronger than ignorance and error.
It gives freedom.
The word said, “If you know the truth, the truth will make you free.” Ignorance is a slave, knowledge is freedom.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
[auto] The distinction between the visible creator of creatures and the hidden engenderer reflects the Gnostic separation of the demiurge from the true God.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
Evil is defined as ignorance and lack of recognition ('Ignorance is the mother of all evil'), implying it is a deficiency rather than a positive substance.