And I shall say unto you the name of the counterfeit spirit, and I shall say unto you the name of the Fate, and I shall say unto you the name of all the bonds, these in which are wont the Rulers to bind the counterfeit spirit in unto the soul, and I shall say unto you the name of all the Dekans, these which worked the soul in the bodies of the soul which (is) in the World: and I shall say unto you in what manner they are working the souls: and I shall say unto you the type of each of the souls, and I shall say unto you the type [304 ] of the souls of the men, with those of the birds, with those of the wild beasts, with the creeping things: and I shall say unto you the type of all the souls, with those of all the Rulers who sent them unto the World, that ye may become being complete in all knowledge, that they should call you, Those who are complete 171 in all knowledge, with every pleroma.
These all I shall say them unto you in the Distribution of the Universe, and after these all I shall say unto you, because of what also these all became.
Hear therefore that I may speak with you concerning the soul, according as I said that are wont the five great Rulers of the great Destiny of the Aeons; and with the Rulers of the disk of the sun, with the Rulers of the disk of the moon, they are wont to breathe in unto that soul, and cometh out [305 ] of them a portion out of my power, according as I finished saying unto you.
And is wont the portion of that power, it is wont to remain within the soul, that should be able to stand (upright) the soul, and they are wont to put the counterfeit spirit outside of the soul, being vigilant unto her and imparted unto her.
And are wont the Rulers to bind it in unto the soul with their seals with their bonds, and they are wont to seal it in unto her, that it should compel her at every time, that it should make their passions with their unlawfulnesses with all their sins which are continued, that she should be slave to them at every time, and remain under their subjection at every time in the changes of the body: and they are wont to seal it in unto her, for her to become in every sin with every lust of the World.
Because of this therefore of this [305 ] kind I brought the mysteries unto the World, these which are wont to loosen all the bonds of the counterfeit spirit and with all the seals, these which bind in unto the soul, these (mysteries) which are wont to make the soul free, and they are wont to redeem her from her Ruler parents, and they are wont to make her pure Light, and take her up unto the kingdom of her Father the First of coming, the First Mystery unto age.
Because of this therefore I said unto you once, He who will not forsake father and mother and come and follow me, this (one) is not worthy of me.
I said therefore once, Ye shall forsake your Ruler parents, that I may make you for son of the First Mystery for unto age.
But these having said them the Saviour, sprang up forward Salome, said she, My Lord, if our parents are the Rulers, then how (is it) written in the Law of [306 ] Moyses, He who will forsake his father with his mother, in a death let him die?
Then did not the law speak of it?
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 Rulers actively work and bind souls according to a cosmic destiny.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
A hierarchy of Rulers governs the binding of the soul within the World structure.
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 passage references a final state where the soul is redeemed and made pure.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The text links human souls to cosmic structures like the sun and moon's disks.
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 soul is depicted as enslaved by Rulers and bound in the World until redeemed.
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 redeemed soul becomes a 'son of the First Mystery' and partaker of divine nature.