Chapter 2

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Now after these things, Yaldabaoth and the seven powers planned together. And they said: Come, let us make man after the likeness of the heavenly Adam — even him whose image we beheld in the waters.

And they fashioned him out of the dust of the ground. They moulded him after their own seven faces; they each gave him a part of his fashioning. But the man whom they fashioned was unable to rise.

Then Sophia sent her breath into him; and the man received the breath. He arose; he stood up. And the rulers were astonished. They saw that he was wiser than they were.

And Yaldabaoth said: Let us cause him to sleep, and let us take a portion of him, that we may make a wife for him — that he may be subject unto her, and she unto him, and so they may be subject unto us.

But the heavenly Eve — she that is the daughter of Pronoia — beheld the man lying upon the ground; and she had compassion on him. She came down out of the high places. She breathed into him the spirit of life. And he arose; and he beheld her; and he said: Thou shalt be called Eve, the mother of all the living. For thou hast given me life.

Then the rulers came; and they were jealous of Eve. They sought to defile her. But she withdrew, and became a tree. The rulers laid hold upon the likeness which she had left behind; and they defiled the likeness. And of that defilement was Cain begotten.

But the spiritual Eve abode in the tree, even the tree of knowledge. And she said unto Adam: Eat thou of the fruit of this tree, that thy mind may be opened, and that thou mayest know thyself; and that, knowing thyself, thou mayest ascend unto the Father.

And Adam ate. And his eyes were opened. And he beheld the rulers, and saw their forms — that they were not God. And he beheld himself, and knew that he was of a higher kind than they.

Then the rulers were exceeding angry. They cast Adam out of the garden. They said: Lest he eat also of the tree of life, and live for ever, let him be driven forth, and let him toil for his bread.

But the eating was not the curse that they intended. It was the awakening; it was the beginning of redemption. The rulers had purposed to keep man in ignorance; the Spirit had purposed to bring him unto knowledge. And the Spirit prevailed.

And Adam knew Eve, and she conceived; and she bare Seth — even the seed of the spiritual race. And Seth received the knowledge of the Father; and he taught it unto his children; and they preserved it.

And the seed of Seth shall not perish. They are the kingless generation; they are the unshakable race. They shall stand in the day of consummation; they shall ascend unto the Pleroma; they shall be received into the bosom of the Father.