Ialdabaoth and the Serpent

Others again make an extravagant claim of their own: that inside the power of Bythus there exists a certain first light, blessed, incorruptible and without limit. This is the Father of all, and they style him the first Man. His Ennoea, they hold, went out from him and produced a son, and this is the son of Man — the second Man. Below these two is the Holy Spirit; and under this higher Spirit the elements were separated out from one another, namely water, darkness, the abyss and chaos. Over these, they declare, the Spirit was borne, and him they call the first Woman. Afterward, they maintain, the first Man together with his son took delight in the beauty of the Spirit — that is, of the Woman — and shed his light upon her, and fathered by her an incorruptible light, a third male, whom they call Christ: the son of the first and the second Man and of the Holy Spirit, the first Woman. [a]

So the father and the son both had intercourse with the Woman, whom they also call the mother of the living. But when she could not carry the greatness of those lights or take it into herself, they declare that she was filled past holding and boiled over on her left side. Their only son Christ, belonging as he did to the right side and always tending upward, was caught up at once with his mother to form an incorruptible Aeon. This, they say, is the true and holy Church: the name, the coming together, and the union of the father of all, who is the first Man; of the son, who is the second Man; of Christ their son; and of the Woman already spoken of.

The power that came out of the Woman by that boiling over was sprinkled with light, they teach, and fell downward out of the place its parents held, though by its own will it kept the sprinkling of light it had. They call it Sinistra, and Prunicus, and Sophia, and also male-and-female at once. In its simplicity this being went down into the waters while they were still motionless, and set them moving too, working on them wantonly right down to their lowest depths, and took a body from them. For they affirm that everything rushed toward that sprinkling of light and clung to it and closed around it; and that if the being had not had the light, it would perhaps have been swallowed up altogether and drowned in material substance. So, tied down by a body made of matter and heavily burdened by it, this power was sorry for the course it had taken and tried to break out of the waters and climb back to its mother. It could not, because of the weight of the body lying over it and around it. Being very ill at ease, it tried at least to hide the light that had come from above, afraid that this light too might be damaged by the lower elements, as the power itself had been. Then, drawing strength from the sprinkling of light it carried, it sprang back and was borne aloft; and once on high it stretched itself out, covered over a stretch of space, and made this visible sky out of its own body — yet stayed underneath the sky it had made, still keeping the shape of a watery body. And when at last it had conceived a longing for the light above and had received power from all things, it laid this body down and was free of it. The body they speak of this power as having thrown off they call a female from a female.

They declare, further, that her son also had a certain breath of incorruption left him by his mother, and that he works by means of it. Growing powerful, he in turn sent out of the waters a son with no mother — for they will not allow that he so much as knew a mother. His son, following his father’s example, sent out another son. This third one generated a fourth; the fourth also generated a son; a son was generated again by the fifth; and the sixth generated a seventh. So the Hebdomad was complete, on their account, with the mother holding the eighth place; and as with their generation, so with their ranks and powers — they come one after another in the same order.

They have also given names to the figures in this made-up system of theirs. The mother’s first descendant is called Ialdabaoth; the one descended from him is named Iao; the one from him is called Sabaoth; the fourth is named Adoneus; the fifth Eloeus; the sixth Oreus; and the seventh and last of all, Astanphaeus. These heavens, rulers, powers, angels and creators they picture as seated in their proper order in heaven, according to their generation, ruling invisibly over things in heaven and things on earth. The first of them, Ialdabaoth, holds his mother in contempt, since he produced sons and grandsons without anyone’s leave — angels, archangels, powers, rulers and dominions as well. Once this was done his sons turned on him and quarreled with him over the supreme power, which grieved Ialdabaoth deeply and drove him to despair. In that state he cast his eyes on the dregs of matter lying below him and fixed his desire on them; and to this, they declare, his son owes his origin. That son is Nous himself, twisted into the shape of a serpent. From him came spirit and soul and everything belonging to this world, and from him too were generated forgetfulness, wickedness, jealousy, envy and death. And they declare that the father gave this serpent-shaped and contorted Nous of theirs a still greater crookedness when he was with their father in heaven and in Paradise.

For this reason Ialdabaoth grew high in spirit and boasted over everything that lay below him, and cried out, “I am father, and God, and above me there is no one.” But his mother heard him say it and shouted him down: “Do not lie, Ialdabaoth. Above you is the father of all, the first Anthropos; and Anthropos the son of Anthropos is above you too.” Then, as they were all disturbed by this new voice and by an announcement no one expected, and were asking where the sound came from, Ialdabaoth — to lead them away from it and draw them to himself — called out, “Come, let us make man after our image.”

The six powers heard this, and their mother supplied them with the idea of a man, so that by means of him she might empty them of the power they had at first. Together they formed a man of enormous size, both in breadth and in length. But he could do nothing except writhe along the ground, so they carried him to their father. Sophia was laboring at this so that she might empty Ialdabaoth of the light he had been sprinkled with, and he might no longer be able, powerful as he still was, to raise himself against the powers above. So they declare that when he breathed the spirit of life into the man, he was secretly emptied of his power, and that this is how man came to have nous, mind, and enthymesis, thought. These, they affirm, are the faculties that share in salvation. And the man, they add, at once gave thanks to the first Anthropos and abandoned the ones who had made him.

But Ialdabaoth was envious at this, and was pleased to form the plan of emptying the man again by means of a woman. He produced a woman out of his own enthymesis; and Prunicus took hold of her and quietly emptied her of power. The others came and admired her beauty, named her Eve, fell in love with her, and fathered sons by her, whom they also declare to be the angels. But their mother, Sophia, cunningly devised a scheme to draw Eve and Adam, by means of the serpent, into breaking Ialdabaoth’s command. Eve listened as though the words came from a son of God, and believed them readily. She also persuaded Adam to eat from the tree God had said they were not to eat from. And so, they declare, when the two had eaten they came to the knowledge of the power that is above all, and departed from the ones who had made them. When Prunicus saw that the powers had thus been outwitted by their own creature, she was overjoyed and cried out again: that since the father was incorruptible, the one who had until now called himself the father was a liar; and that since Anthropos and the first Woman, the Spirit, already existed, this one, Eve, had sinned by committing adultery.

Ialdabaoth, however, wrapped in the forgetfulness he was involved in and paying no attention to any of this, threw Adam and Eve out of Paradise, because they had broken his command. He had wanted to father sons by Eve, but did not get his wish, because his mother opposed him at every point and secretly emptied Adam and Eve of the light they had been sprinkled with, so that the spirit which came from the supreme power should share neither in the curse nor in the disgrace. Emptied in this way of the divine substance, they teach, the two were cursed by him and thrown down out of heaven into this world. The serpent too, who had been working against the father, was thrown down by him into this lower world. But he brought the angels here under his own power and fathered six sons, making himself the seventh, on the pattern of the Hebdomad that surrounds the father. These, they further declare, are the seven demons of this world, who always oppose the human race and fight it, because it was on the human account that their father was thrown down here.

Adam and Eve had bodies before this that were light and clear and, so to speak, spiritual, just as they were when they were made; but when they came into this world these changed into bodies that were denser, coarser and slower. Their soul, too, was weak and listless, since what they had received from their maker was no more than a breath belonging to this world. Things stayed that way until Prunicus, moved with pity for them, restored to them the sweet scent of the sprinkling of light. By means of it they came to remember themselves, and knew that they were naked, and knew that the body was a material thing, and so recognized that they carried death about with them. At that they became patient, knowing that they would be wrapped in the body only for a time. They also found food, guided by Sophia; and when they had eaten their fill they knew each other in the flesh and fathered Cain. The serpent, who had been thrown down together with his sons, seized Cain at once and destroyed him, filling him with the forgetfulness that belongs to this world and driving him into folly and daring, so that by killing his brother Abel he was the first to bring envy and death to light. After these, they affirm, Seth was fathered by the forethought of Prunicus, and then Norea, and from these two they represent all the rest of the human race as descended. The lower Hebdomad drove them into every kind of wickedness, and the higher, holy Hebdomad drove them into apostasy, idolatry and a general contempt for everything, while the mother was all the while secretly working against them and carefully keeping what was properly her own, the sprinkling of light. They maintain, moreover, that the holy Hebdomad is the seven stars they call planets; and they affirm that the serpent thrown down has two names, Michael and Samael.

Ialdabaoth again grew angry with men, because they would not worship or honor him as father and God, and sent a flood on them to destroy them all at one stroke. But Sophia opposed him on this point too, and Noah and his family were saved in the ark by the sprinkling of light that came from her; and through it the world was filled with people again. Ialdabaoth himself chose out of them a certain man named Abraham and made a covenant with him: that if his offspring went on serving him, he would give them the earth for an inheritance. Afterward, by means of Moses, he brought Abraham’s descendants out of Egypt, gave them the law, and made them the Jews. Among that people he chose seven days, which they also call the holy Hebdomad. Each of these receives a herald of its own to glorify and proclaim God, so that when the rest hear these praises they too may serve the ones the prophets announce as gods.

They parcel the prophets out in this way. Moses, Joshua the son of Nun, Amos and Habakkuk belonged to Ialdabaoth; Samuel, Nathan, Jonah and Micah to Iao; Elijah, Joel and Zechariah to Sabaoth; Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel to Adonai; Tobias and Haggai to Eloi; Michaiah and Nahum to Oreus; Esdras and Zephaniah to Astanphaeus. Each of them, then, glorifies his own father and god. And they maintain that Sophia herself also spoke a great deal through them about the first Anthropos and about the Christ who is above, warning people and reminding them of the incorruptible light, of the first Anthropos, and of the descent of Christ. The other powers were terrified at this and astonished at the strangeness of what the prophets announced; and Prunicus brought it about, by means of Ialdabaoth, who had no idea what he was doing, that two men should be sent out: the one from the barren Elizabeth, the other from the virgin Mary.

And since she herself had no rest either in heaven or on earth, she called on her mother to help her in her distress. At that her mother, the first Woman, was moved with pity for her daughter, who had repented, and asked the first Man that Christ be sent to help her. Christ was sent out and came down to his sister and to the sprinkling of light. When he recognized her — that is, the Sophia below — her brother came down to her and announced his arrival through John, and prepared the baptism of repentance, and adopted Jesus in advance, so that when Christ came down he might find a clean vessel, and so that the Woman might be announced by Christ by means of that son of Ialdabaoth. They declare further that he came down through the seven heavens, taking on the likeness of their sons, and emptied them of their power little by little. For they maintain that the whole sprinkling of light rushed to him; and that Christ, coming down into this world, first clothed his sister Sophia with it, and that then the two of them rejoiced in the refreshment they found in each other’s company — a scene they describe as belonging to bridegroom and bride. But Jesus, since he was born of the virgin by the working of God, was wiser and purer and more righteous than all other men; and Christ, joined to Sophia, came down into him, and so Jesus Christ was produced.

They affirm that many of his disciples were not aware that Christ had come down into him; but that when Christ did descend on Jesus, he began to work miracles and to heal and to announce the unknown Father, and openly to confess himself the son of the first Man. The powers and the father of Jesus were angry at all this and labored to destroy him; and when he was being led away for that purpose, they say, Christ himself, along with Sophia, departed from him into the state of an incorruptible Aeon, while Jesus was crucified. Christ, however, did not forget his Jesus, but sent down into him a certain energy from above, which raised him up again in a body they call both animal and spiritual — for he sent the parts belonging to this world back into the world again. When his disciples saw that he had risen, they did not recognize him; no, nor did they recognize Jesus himself, the one by whom he rose from the dead. And they assert that this very great error prevailed among his disciples: that they imagined he had risen in a body belonging to this world, not knowing that “flesh and blood do not attain to the kingdom of God.”

They strove to establish this descent and ascent of Christ by the fact that his disciples report no mighty works of his either before his baptism or after his resurrection from the dead — not being aware that Jesus was united to Christ, and the incorruptible Aeon to the Hebdomad; and they declare that the body he had in this world was of the same nature as an animal’s. But after his resurrection, they say, he stayed on earth eighteen months; and knowledge came down into him from above, and he taught what was plain. He taught these things to a few of his disciples, the ones he knew to be capable of taking in mysteries so great, and was then received up into heaven, Christ sitting down at the right hand of his father Ialdabaoth, so that he might receive to himself the souls of those who have come to know them, once they have laid aside the flesh that belongs to this world. In this way he enriches himself without his father’s knowing or noticing it; and just so far as Jesus enriches himself with holy souls, his father suffers loss and is diminished, being emptied of his own power by those souls. For he will no longer have holy souls to send down into the world again, except only those that are of his own substance — the ones he has breathed into. But the end of all things will come when the whole sprinkling of the spirit of light has been gathered together and carried off to form an incorruptible Aeon.

Such are the opinions that prevail among these people. By them, as by the hydra of Lerna, a many-headed beast has been bred out of the school of Valentinus. For some of them assert that Sophia herself became the serpent, and that for this reason she was hostile to the maker of Adam and planted knowledge in men — which is why the serpent was called wiser than all the rest. And more than that: by the position of our intestines, through which food is carried, and by the fact that they have the shape they do, our inward structure, in the form of a serpent, reveals the hidden mother who bore us.