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Substance of the Archons

Hypostasis of the Archons

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The Garden of Eden and Creation of Eve

Chapter 3

The archons brought together all of the animals of the earth, and all of the birds of the sky, even bringing them before Adam to learn what Adam might call them, so that he could assign names to all of the birds and to all the animals. The archons conveyed Adam, even placing him in the garden, so that he might tend it and guard it. They ordered him, and said: “You are allowed to eat from [all] the trees in the garden, but eat not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. [Touch] it not, because on the day you eat from it, you certainly will die.” [This] they [said to him], yet they understood not what [they had said] to him. Instead, it was according to the will of the Father that they said this in the way they did, so that Adam would (indeed) eat, and so that Adam would ‹not› think of them in the way a thoroughly material man would. The archons schemed with one another, and said: “Come, let us cause a deep sleep to fall upon Adam,” so that Adam slept. The deep sleep they caused to fall upon him, and which he slept, is ignorance. They opened up his side, like a living woman. Then they closed up his side with flesh in its place, and Adam became merely soulish. The spiritual woman approached him, and she spoke with him, saying: “Arise, Adam.” When he gazed on her, he said: “You have granted me life; you will be called the Mother of the living, because she is my mother.⁠ She is the physician, the woman, the one who has given birth.” The authorities approached their Adam. When they saw his female counterpart talking with him, they were aroused and lusted for her. They said to one another: “Come, let us sow our semen into her,” and they pursued her. She, however, laughed at them on account of their stupidity and blindness. As they grabbed her, she became a tree, and as she placed before them a shadowy likeness of herself, they defiled it most vilely, defiling the signet of her voice. And thus they brought judgment on themselves by means of the shape they had modeled in their own image.

Texts in conversation

Compare Gospel of Thomas 101 and Substance of the Archons 3:12

Nag Hammadi

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Summary

In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus has a mother who gives life and an earthly mother who gave him death. Adam uses similar language for a spiritual woman in the Substance of the Archons, distinguishing spiritual motherhood from physical birth.

Passages

Gospel of Thomas 101

Nag Hammadi
100 They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, “Caesar’s men demand taxes from us.” He said to them, “Give Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; give God the things that are God’s; and give me what is mine.” 101 Jesus said, “Whoever does not hate his [father] and mother as I do cannot be my disciple; and whoever does not love his [father] and mother as I do cannot be my disciple. For my mother gave me falsehood, but my true mother gave me life.” 102 Jesus said, “Woe to the Pharisees, for they are like a dog lying in the manger of oxen; the dog neither eats nor allows the oxen to eat.”
135–200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gospel of Thomas

Substance of the Archons 3:12

Nag Hammadi · Hypostasis of the Archons
The spiritual woman approached him, and she spoke with him, saying: “Arise, Adam.” When he gazed on her, he said: “You have granted me life; you will be called the Mother of the living, because she is my mother. She is the physician, the woman, the one who has given birth.” The authorities approached their Adam.
200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Substance of the Archons

References

“... 101.3 But my true Mother has given me life. The contrast here is not between a biological mother and a disciple who is a spiritual relation (as per GTh 99). The reference here is to a feminine power. Trevijano Etcheverría identifies the figure as the Holy Spirit of GTh 44. Another possibility (which may also refer to the Holy Spirit) is ‘the great power and the great wealth’, who produced Adam, and is/are grammatically feminine (GTh 85). The Spirit, a connection with Adam, and the life-giving Mother are combined in the Hypostasis of the Archons, where Adam addresses the spirit-endowed female counterpart who has been removed from him during his sleep: ‘And when he saw her, he said, “You are the one who has given me life; you will be called the mother of the living. For she is my mother.”’ (Hyp. Arch. 89,13–16). ...”
Simon Gathercole, The Gospel of Thomas: Introduction and Commentary (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 567.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Gospel of Thomas 101 and Substance of the Archons 3:12

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