The Authentic Logos
NHC VI, 3
The following translation has been committed to the public domain and may be freely copied and used, changed or unchanged, for any purpose. It is based on the Coptic text of Nag Hammadi Codex VI, 3. The Nag Hammadi texts were written in the fourth century, subsequently buried, and then rediscovered in 1945. This tractate details the challenges faced by the soul in its search for God.
This translation from the Coptic is by Samuel Zinner and was edited by Mark M. Mattison with the generous support of Other Gospels.
Symbols
[ ] Gap in the text (known as a “lacuna”)
( ) Editorial insertion to clarify the text
[22] Page number of the Coptic codex (hyperlinked)
Introduction: The Origin of the Soul
[22] [. . .] in heaven [. . .] inside it (or him) [. . .] anyone appears [. . .] the concealed heavens [. . .] appear, and [before] the unseen, unspeakable worlds were seen.
From these originated the unseen righteous soul, a limb together with them, a body together with them, a spirit together with them. If she is in the act of descent or if she is in the Fullness, regardless, she is not divided from them, but they see her and she gazes at them through the unseen Logos.
The Logos as Medicine
Her bridegroom secretly brought it, putting it to her mouth, causing her to eat it like food.
He put it on her eyes like a medicine, causing her to see with her mind, and to comprehend her kin, and to learn about her root, so that she could hold fast to the branch from which she originally had come, so that she could receive what belongs to her, and to renounce matter [23] [. . .].
The Soul is Like a Child
[When a man marries a woman] who has children already, [the man’s] children by nature, begotten by his semen, call the woman’s children “our brothers.” In a similar way, when the spiritual soul had been thrown into a body, it became a brother to lust, hatred, and envy, even a material soul. Consequently, the body was derived from lust, and lust was derived from material substance. This is why the soul became a brother to them. They are nevertheless outsiders who cannot inherit from the male (father), but who will be able to inherit only from their mother.
Because the possessions of the outsiders are arrogant passions, the pleasures of life, despicable jealousies, boasting, gossiping, reproaches, whenever the soul desires to inherit together with the outsiders [24] [. . .].
[. . . Should an ignorant soul choose a spirit of prostitution], he throws [her] out [and puts] her into a brothel. He [has resigned] her to [corruption, given that] she [has abandoned] modesty, because death and life are presented to everyone. They will choose for themselves whichever of the two they wish.
Then in debauchery she will fall into drinking much wine, because wine is the debaucher.
On account of this, the soul fails to remember her brothers and her father, because pleasure and sweet profits fool her. Forsaking knowledge, she fell into living like an animal, because a person without sense lives in an animal state, not knowing what is right to say and what is not right to say.
By contrast, however, the gentle child is glad to inherit from the father, while the father is glad on account of him, given that he receives praise from everyone because of him, while he once again looks for a way to double what he has received, because the outsiders [25] [. . .].
Wheat and Chaff
[Their lust is unable] to mingle with [soberness], because if a lustful thought arises in a man who is a virgin, he has [already] been contaminated, and the gluttony (of this type) is unable to mingle with moderation, because when chaff is mixed together with wheat, it is the wheat that is contaminated, not the chaff. The reason for this is because if they are mixed together, no one will buy their wheat, given that it is contaminated, but will instead coax him: “We’ll take this chaff,” noticing the wheat mixed together with it, until they take it and throw it away with all the other chaff, and that chaff mixes together with all the other things of matter.
A pure seed, however, is stored in secure storehouses.
All of these things we have now declared.
The Competition
And before anything had come into being, the Father was what alone existed, before the worlds appeared in the heavens, or (before) the world (appeared) that is on the earth, or (before) principality or authority or the powers (appeared). [26] [. . .] appeared [. . .] and [they made (yet) others], but nothing came into being without his will.
Then the Father, desiring to reveal his [wealth] and his glory, founded this great competition in this world, desiring that the competitors appear, abandoning things that had come into existence, and despising them with a high, unconceivable knowledge, and hastening to He Who Is. Also those who compete against us, being enemies competing against us, we are to conquer their ignorance by our knowledge, because we already have known the incomprehensible one from whom we have originated.
We possess nothing in this world, so the world’s authority that came into existence could not keep us in the worlds in the heavens, in which death universally prevails, surrounded by individual [27] [. . . the powers] of the world [that oppose us]. Now [we are] humiliated [in the] worlds, even though we show no interest in them as they reproach us, and we (even) ignore them as they curse us.
When they throw humiliation in our face, we look at them and remain silent, because they engage in their business. We, however, walk around in hunger and thirst, directing our view toward our dwelling place, the place to which our behavior and our conscience direct their view, not holding on to the things that have come into being (within temporality), but leaving them behind.
The Healing Logos
Our hearts are fixed on those things that exist (eternally), even when we are sick, frail, and in pain. There is, however, a mighty strength hidden inside us. Our soul is indeed sick because she dwells in an impoverished house, while matter throws punches at her eyes, desiring to blind her. This is why she pursues the Logos, even applying it to her eyes like medicine, <opening> them and throwing away [28] [blindness. . .]. [. . .] thought about [. . .] blindness in [. . .].
After this, when that one is once again in ignorance, he is completely [darkened] and [becomes] hylic. In this way the soul each hour [takes] a Logos to apply it to her eyes like medicine, so as to see, and to suppress her opposing enemies who fight her, and to blind them with her light, and to bind them in her presence, and to make them collapse unconscious, and to behave courageously in her strength and with her scepter, while her enemies in humiliation gaze on her in shame.
She (then) quickly ascends to her treasure-house, where her mind dwells, and to her secure storehouse, because none of the things that have come into being has grabbed hold of her, nor has she invited any stranger into her house, because many who have been born in her house fight against her by day and by night, resting neither [29] by day nor by night, because their lust oppresses them.
The Fisherman and the Fish
This is the reason, then, that we neither sleep nor forget [the] hidden nets placed about, hidden from view, lying around ready to catch us, because if we are caught in even one net, it will suck us down inside its mouth, while the water covers us, hitting our face, and we will be propelled down into the dragnet, and we will be unable to rise up from it.
This is because the high waters will have covered us, rushing down from above, sinking our hearts in the murky mud, and we will be unable to escape from them, because man-eaters will grab hold of us and swallow us, happy like a fisherman who casts a hook into the water, because he casts several kinds of food (as bait) into the water, because each fish has it own (preferred) food. It smells it and chases after the smell, but when it bites it, the hook hidden in the food grabs it and forcefully brings it up from the deep waters. So no man is able to catch that fish (while it is) deep down in the waters [30] except with the trap the fisherman sets. Fooling it with food, the fisherman pulled up the fish on the hook. This is exactly how we live in this world, like fish.
The enemy spies on us, lying in wait for us, like a fisherman wanting to grab hold of us, happy to swallow us, because [he sets] several kinds of food in front of our eyes, things pertaining to this world. He wants us to desire just one of them and to taste just a little, so that he can grab hold of us with his secret poison, and lead us from liberty into slavery, because when he catches us with one (kind of) food, it is accordingly necessary that we desire the remaining kinds of food. Such things finally then become the food of death.
The Devil’s Food
These, however, are the kinds of food the devil uses as he lies in wait for us:
He first inserts pain into your heart so that you develop heartache over some minor thing of this life, and he grabs hold of us with his poisons, and after this (comes) the desire for a tunic, so that you will take pride [31] in it, and then (come) the love of money, pride, vanity, envy outdoing envy, bodily beauty, and deceit. The greatest of all of these are ignorance and comfort.
All of these kinds of things the enemy prepares in a way that is beautiful and spreads them out in front of the body, desiring to make the thinking of the soul incline the soul to one of them, overwhelming her like a hook pulling the unaware soul by force, and deceiving her until she conceives evil and bears fruit of matter, even acting in uncleanness, chasing after many desires and cupidity, while fleshly pleasure pulls her unaware.
The Right Kinds of Food
However, the soul, she who has tasted of these things, has become aware that sweet passions are ephemeral. She has learned about (this) evil, has left them, and has entered into a new (way of) behavior.
After this, she hates this life, because it is ephemeral, and she searches for the kinds of food that will conduct her into life, [32] and she leaves behind her the deceitful foods, and she learns about her light while she walks around removing this world from her, while her true garment internally clothes her. Her bridal gown clothes her in intellectual beauty instead of fleshly pride, and she learns about her depth, and she hastens into her fold while her shepherd stands at the gate. Then in reward for all the shame and despising she received in this world, she will receive ten thousand times more grace and glory.
The True Shepherd
She gave back the body to those who had given it to her, and they were humiliated, while the body-dealers sat down and wept because they were unable to transact any business with that body, which was the only merchandise they owned.
They suffered great labors until shaping the body of this soul, desiring to cut down the unseen soul. They were consequently humiliated over their work. They experienced the loss of the one for whom they had suffered labors. They were unaware that she possesses an unseen spiritual body, thinking: “We are her shepherd who feeds her.” They, however, were unaware that she knows [33] another way, which is concealed from them. Her true shepherd taught her this in knowledge.
The Ignorant Ones
These, however, the ignorant ones, do not seek for God, nor do they investigate concerning their dwelling place, which subsists in repose, but they walk around living like animals. They are wickeder than the pagans, first of all because they do not investigate concerning God, because their hardness of heart pulls them down to make them commit cruelty. Moreover, if they find someone else who asks about his salvation, their hardness of heart starts to operate against that man. If he, however, persists in asking, they will kill him in their cruelty, persuaded that they have performed a good deed for themselves. They are indeed sons of the devil, because even pagans donate to charity, and they know that God exists in the heavens, the Father of the world, exalted above the idols they worship. [34] They, however, have not heard the word, that they should investigate his ways.
The senseless man hears the summons, but he knows not the place to which he has been summoned, and he failed to ask during the preaching: “Where is the temple I should enter and worship my hope?” Because of his senselessness he is then worse than a pagan, because pagans know the way to walk to their stone temples, which will perish, and they worship their idol, their hearts set on it on account of it being their hope. To this senseless man, however, the word has been preached, instructing him: “Search and investigate concerning the paths you should walk, because nothing is as beneficial as this matter.” The consequence is in order that the substance of the hardness of heart will deal a blow to his mind, together with the energy of ignorance and the demon of error. They do not permit his mind to rise higher, because he was exhausting himself in the search to learn about his hope.
Conclusion: The Rational Soul
The rational soul, however, [35] has worn herself out in (her) search:
She has learned about God.
She has labored in investigation, enduring bodily suffering, wearing out her feet (walking about) after the preachers, learning about the inconceivable one.
She has found her resurrection.
She has come to rest in him who is at rest.
She has reclined inside the bridal chamber.
She has eaten at the banquet for which she had hungered.
She has consumed the immortal food.
She has found what she had sought.
She has received rest from her labors, while the light that shines on her will not set, to which belongs the glory, and the power, and the revelation, forever and ever.
Amen.
The Authentic Logos