Sophia (Gnosis)

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The Gnostic Sophia myth is the story of hubris and the fall of the sub-deity Sophia from the higher divine order, which subsequently leads to the emergence of the material world.

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The myth of Sophia is told both in the Gnostic script Hypostasis of the Archons and in that of the origin of the world , both of which belong to the Nag Hammadi scripts . Like God, Sophia tried - out of herself - to create a work that should be like the light that existed first. But this was the erroneous and impossible attempt of the sub-deity Sophia to become godlike creatively on its own. Her work came about as an image of the heavens that formed a curtain between the upper areas of light and the later, lower eons. A shadow stretched beneath the curtain, namely on its outer side facing away from the light. This shadow was called "darkness". The shadow became matter in which Sophia then continued her work. From this matter, like a miscarriage, the lion-shaped male Jaldabaoth arose .

Hypostasis of the Archons (Cod. II. 4)

The Gnostic writing " Hypostasis of the Archons " illuminates the cosmogenic ideas of the Gnostics, as can be seen from the following excerpts: Above in the boundless aeons there is immortality. Sophia, who is called "Pistis", wanted to accomplish a work alone, without her couple. And their work became an image of heaven, so that there is a curtain between the aeons above and the eons below. And a shadow appeared below the curtain. And that shadow became matter ... and was thrown in an outlying area. And its shape became a work in matter, comparable to a miscarriage. He received the imprint of the shadow and became a presumptuous beast of the lion form Yaldabaoth ... He opened his eyes and, seeing a great limitless matter, he became haughty and said, "I am a god and there is no other but me . " When he said this, he was sinning against the universe. But a voice came from the height of autocracy ... "You are wrong Samael", that is the blind God or God of the blind. His thoughts were blind. He intended to create sons. Since he was male-female himself, he created seven male-female sons and said to them: "I am the God of all." Zoe, the daughter of Pistis Sophia, has Jaldabaoth bound by a fiery angel emanating from her and cast into Tartarus, into the bottom of the deep. When his son Sabaoth saw the strength of that angel, he repented. He condemned his father and his mother, matter, and was disgusted with it ... Sophia and Zoe took him upstairs and sat him across the seventh heaven, below the curtain between above and below. But when Yaldabaoth saw that he was in this great glory, he envied him, and the envy produced death. But death produced its sons ... Immortality looked down on the areas of water. Her image was revealed in the water, and the powers of darkness fell in love with her. The archons made a resolution and said, "Come on, let's make a man out of dust." They formed their people according to their bodies and according to the image of God that was revealed in the water. "We want to match the picture in our design so that the picture sees its likeness and we capture it in our design."

From the origin of the world (Cod. II 5)

The writing on the origin of the world is very closely related to the hypostasis of the archons . HM Schenke, who translated these two barbelognostic writings, characterized this close relationship by the following similarities: the fall of Pistis Sophia through the creation of a curtain in front of the world of light, formation of a shadow and matter, emergence of the male Jaldabaoth, exaltation of his penitent son Sabaoth, Origin of Death and His Sons. The writing on the origin of the world offers the more detailed description and the name "immortal man" for the highest god appears only in it.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Jonas, Gnosis, p. 352 ff.