I shall manifest to thee, O Light, because thou deliveredst me, and (for) thy wonders in the race of [166 ] the mankind, I having become deficient of my power, thou gavest power to me, and I having become deficient of my light, thou filledst me with light being purified.
I became in the darkness with the shadow of the Chaos, being bound in the bonds being cruel of the Chaos, there being not light in me: because I exasperated the precept of the Light, I transgressed, I gave anger to the precept of the Light, because I came out of my Place: and I having come down, I was deficient of my power, and I became lightless, and there was not any to help me: and in their afflicting me I hymned up unto the Light, and he delivered me out of all my afflictions: and also he burst all my bonds: he brought me up from the darkness with the oppression of the Chaos.
I shall manifest [166 ] to thee, O Light, because thou deliveredst me, and thy wonders happened in the race of the mankind.
And thou brokest-in-pieces the gates which (are) high of the darkness, and with the bars which (are) cruel of the Chaos, and thou madest me go down from the Place, from which I transgressed: and also they took away my power because I transgressed, and I ceased from the mysteries, I came down in the gates of the Chaos: and they having afflicted me, I hymned up unto the Light, he delivered me out of all my afflictions.
Thou dispatchedst thine effluence, it gave power to me, and it delivered me out of all my oppressions.
I shall manifest to thee, O Light, because thou deliveredst me, and (for) thy wonders in [167 ] the race of the mankind.
This therefore is the hymn which said the Pistis Sophia, being in the midst of the twenty-four Invisibles, wishing, for them all to know all the wonders which I did with her, and wishing for them to know that I went unto the World of the mankind.
I gave to them the mysteries of the Height.
Now therefore he who is exalted in his understanding, let him come forward, and say the explanation of the hymn which said the Pistis Sophia.
It happened therefore, Jesus having finished saying these words, came forward Philippos, 90 said he, Jesus My Lord, exalted is my understanding and I understand the explanation of the hymn which said the Sophia: prophesied [167 ] also about it once David the prophet, saying in the hundred and sixth psalm, Manifest to the Lord that he is kind, because unto age is his mercy, let those whom the Lord redeemed say, This is he, he redeemed them out of the hand of their enemies: he gathered them in from their countries, out of the east with the west with the north with the sea.
They went astray in the wilderness in a place in which there is not water; they found not the road to the city of their dwelling.
Being hungry being thirsty their soul failed in them.
He delivered them out of their necessity.
They cried up unto the Lord, he heard them being distressed: he guided them unto a road, being straight [168 ] for them to go up unto the Place of their dwelling, Let them manifest to the Lord in his mercies, and his wonders among the sons of the men: because he satisfied a soul, being hungry, a soul being hungry he filled it with good.
Themes
◆Anthropomorphismtheology
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The divine is addressed directly as 'O Light' and described with human-like actions such as delivering, breaking gates, and bursting bonds.
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.
Deficiency of power and light is presented as a state of evil or error rather than positive existence.
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 passage centrally describes the speaker's state of deficiency and exile ('in the darkness with the shadow of the Chaos') before liberation.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The speaker claims to have become purified and filled with light through divine action.