Sacred Texts Christianity Gnosticism Index Previous Next
Buy this Book at Amazon.com
Pistis Sophia, by G.R.S. Mead, [1921], at sacred-texts.com
It came to pass, when Jesus had finished speaking these words unto his disciples, that Mary Magdalene came forward and said: "My Lord, how many years of the years of the world is a year of the Light?"
What is a year of the Light.Jesus answered and said unto Mary: "A day of the Light is a thousand years in the world, so that thirty-six-myriads of years and a half-myriad of years of the world are a single year of the Light.
"I shall, therefore, pass a thousand years of the Light being king in the midst of the last Helper, and being king over all the emanations of the Light and over the whole number of the perfect souls who have received the mysteries of the Light.
Of those of the first space in the kingdom of the thousand years."And ye, my disciples, and every one who shall receive the mystery of the Ineffable, will |244. abide with me on my right and on my left, being kings with me in my kingdom.
"And they who shall receive the three mysteries of that Ineffable, will be fellow-kings with you in the Light-kingdom; but they will not be alike with you and with those who receive the mystery of the Ineffable, but they will rather abide behind you, being kings.
"And they who receive the five mysteries of the Ineffable, will also abide behind the three mysteries, being also kings.
"And moreover they who receive the twelfth mystery of the First Mystery, will also again
abide behind the five mysteries of the Ineffable, being also kings according to the order of every one of them.
"And all who receive of the mysteries in all the regions of the space of the Ineffable, will also be kings and abide before those who receive the mystery of the First Mystery, expanded according to the glory of every one of them, so that those who receive the higher mysteries, will abide in the higher regions, and those who receive the lower mysteries, will abide in the lower regions, being kings in the light of my kingdom.
"These alone are the allotment of the kingdom of the first space of the Ineffable. |245.
Of those of the second space."They on the other hand who receive all the mysteries of the second space, that is of the space of the First Mystery, will again abide in the light of my kingdom, expanded according to the glory of every one of them, and every one of them being in the mystery up to which he hath received. And those who receive the higher mysteries, will also abide in the higher regions, and those who receive the lower mysteries, will abide in the lower regions in the light of my kingdom.
"This is the allotment of the second king for those who receive the mystery of the second space of the First Mystery.
Of those of the third space, the first from without."Those on the other hand who receive the mysteries of the third space, that is of the first space from without, those again will abide behind the second king, expanded in the light of my kingdom, according to the glory of every one of them, every one abiding in the region up to which he hath received mysteries, so that those who receive the higher mysteries, will abide in the
higher regions, and those who receive the lower mysteries, will abide in the lower regions.
"These are the three allotments of the Light-kingdom.
"The mysteries of these three allotments of the Light are exceedingly numerous. Ye shall find them in the two great Books of Yew. But I will give you and tell you the great mysteries |246. of every allotment, those which are higher than every region, that is the heads according to every region and according to every order which will lead the whole race of men into the higher regions, according to the space of the Inheritance.
Of the Books of Yew."Of the rest of the lower mysteries, therefore, ye have no need; but ye will find them in the two Books of Yew, which Enoch hath written whilst I spake with him out of the tree of gnosis and out of the tree of life in the paradise of Adam.
"Now, therefore, when I shall have explained unto you the whole expansion, I will give you and tell you the great mysteries of the three allotments of my kingdom, that is the heads of the mysteries which I will give you and tell you in all their figures and all their types and in their ciphers and the seals of the last space, that is the first space from without. And I will tell you the answers and the apologies and the tokens of that space.
"The second space which is within, possesseth no answers nor apologies nor tokens nor ciphers nor seals; but it possesseth only types and figures."