But it happened while Jesus is saying these words unto his disciples saying to them, This is the fourth repentance which said the Pistis Sophia.
Now therefore he who understandeth, let him understand.
It happened therefore, Jesus having said these words, came forward Iohannes, he worshipped unto the breast of Jesus, said he, My Lord command to me also, and allow to me for to say the explanation of the fourth repentance, [61 ] this which said the Pistis Sophia.
Said Jesus to Iohannes, I command to thee and I allow to thee, for to say the explanation of the repentance which said the Pistis Sophia.
Answered Iohannes, said he, My Lord, the Saviour, concerning this repentance which said the Pistis Sophia, prophesied once concerning it thy power of Light which (was) in David in the hundred and first psalm, O Lord hear my prayer and let my shout come even unto thee, turn not thy face away from me, incline thine ear unto me at the day in which I shall be afflicted.
Hasten, hear me in the day (in) which I shall cry up unto thee.
Because my days failed as a smoke, and my bones burned as a stone.
I was scorched as grass, and my heart dried up so that I forgot [62 ] to eat my bread, out of the shout of my groan my bone clave to my flesh, I was as a pelican in the desert, I became as an owl in a house.
I spent night in watching: I was as a sparrow on a roof alone.
Mine enemies reproached me all the day, and those who honour me were swearing at me.
Because I ate ash instead of my bread, I mingled that which I shall drink with tears at presence of thy anger with thy wrath; because thou tookest me up, thou sentest me down.
My days inclined as a shadow, and I was dried as grass.
But thou, O Lord, thou becometh even unto age, and thy remembrance even unto a generation of a generation.
Arise thou and have compassion on Sion, because the time became of having compassion on her: because the season came.
Thy servants wish (for) her stones, and they [62 ] will have compassion on her earth, and the heathen (will) fear the name of the Lord, and the kings of the earth will fear thy glory: because the Lord will build Sion and manifest in his glory.
He looked upon the prayer of those who are humble and he despised not their supplication.
Let them 34 write this unto another generation, and the people whom they will create will bless the Lord: because he looked out upon his Height which is holy, the Lord looked out of the heaven upon the earth to hear the groan of those who are bound, to unloose the sons of those whom they put to death, to say the name of the Lord in Sion and his blessing in Jerusalem.
This is, my Lord, [is] the explanation of the mystery (M) of the repentance which said the Pistis Sophia.
It happened therefore, Iohannes having finished saying these words unto Jesus in the midst [63 ] of his disciples, said he to him: Well (done) Iohannes the Virgin, this who will rule in the kingdom of the Light.
But added also Jesus in the word, said he to his disciples, It happened also thus: the emanations of the Self-willed afflicted also the Pistis Sophia in the Chaoses, they wished to take away all her light: and was not yet completed her precept to bring her up from the Chaos, and the command had not yet come to me from the First Mystery, for me to deliver her from the Chaos.
Themes
◆Anthropomorphismtheology
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The divine is described using human imagery such as 'breast', 'Lord', and the act of 'worshipped'.
Eckhart's signature doctrine that the Father eternally begets the Son in the ground of the soul; the human interior as the actual site of the divine generative act, distinct from inner_light's static indwelling.
Iohannes is granted the ability to speak the explanation of the repentance by the Lord's command.
Final, collective cosmic judgment as an event in which the wicked are sentenced and the cosmos restored; distinct from psychopomp_journey (individual passage at death) and emphasising verdict where Zoroastrian frashokereti emphasises restoration.
The text includes prophetic language about the Lord building Sion and manifesting glory at a specific time.
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 explicitly describes the Pistis Sophia being afflicted by emanations in the Chaoses and wishing to take away her light.
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 Pistis Sophia is described as being afflicted and her light taken away in the Chaoses.