Now therefore are wont the Ministers, they are wont to complete the whole man, and all these seals in which they sealed the body; are wont the Ministers, they are wont to bring the whole speciality, and take them to all the Contentious Rulers, these which are over all the punishments of the judgments, and they are wont to give them to their Receivers who (and, MS ) being their souls out of the body: these are wont to give to them the speciality of the seals, that they should know the time (in) which they will bring the souls out of (the) bodies; [312 ] And that they should know the time in which they will bring forth the body, that they should dispatch them to their Ministers and stand (up) and follow after the soul and become witness of every sin which she will do, they with the counterfeit spirit concerning the manner (in) which they will punish her in the judgments.
And whenever the Ministers, whenever they should give the speciality of the seals to the Contentious Rulers, they are wont to withdraw unto the arrangement of their works which are prescribed for them by the Rulers of the great Destiny.
And whenever should be completed the number of month of begetting children, they are wont to bring forth the child, being small in him the mixture of the power, and being small in him the soul, and being made small in him the counterfeit spirit.
(But) the Fate indeed [312 ] being great, being not mixed in unto the body of the arrangement, but following after the soul with the body with the counterfeit spirit, even until the time in which the soul is coming out of the body, because of the type of the death by which she will kill him, according to that which is reckoned unto him by the Rulers of the great Destiny: 176 or being about to die by a wild-beast, is wont the Fate to bring the wild-beast toward him until he killeth him: or being about to die by a creeping thing: or being about to fall unto a pit by a chance: or being about to strangle himself: or indeed being about to die by water, or by these of this kind, or indeed by other death worse than these or better, (good, MS ) in one word the Fate is (that) which compelleth his death toward him.
This is the work of the Fate, and she hath not other work except this, and is wont the Fate to follow after that man [313 ] until the day of his death.
Answered Maria, said she, Then every man who (is) on the World, then every work which is reckoned unto them by the Destiny either good or evil, or sin or death or life, in one word, every thing which is reckoned unto them by the Ruler of the Destiny will happen to them.
Answered the Saviour, said he to Marihamme, Amen, I say unto you, Every thing which is reckoned to each by the Destiny, either every good (deed) or every sin, in one word every thing which is reckoned unto them, they are wont to go on them.
Because of this therefore I brought the key of the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens; or otherwise there was no flesh (which) will be saved upon the World, for without mysteries there is not any (who) will go unto the kingdom of the Light either righteous (or) when he had done sin.
Themes
◆Anthropomorphismtheology
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
Divine agents are described as having human-like roles such as Ministers, Rulers, and Fate who follow after men.
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 passage describes a structured ordering of destiny where good or evil works are reckoned to each individual by the Ruler of the Destiny.
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 centrally focuses on Contentious Rulers overseeing punishments and judgments that determine the fate of souls and bodies.
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 being separated from its body and origin until it can be brought forth by fate.