Gospel of Truth 8

1What, then, did he want them to think? That they had come to be like a shadow and a phantasm of the night.

2When light falls upon the terror that they had received, it turns out to be nothing. In this way they were ignorant of the Father, whom they did not see. For it was terror and disturbance and instability and division and doubt; many empty illusions were at work among them, and vain nothingness—as if they were sunk in sleep and, in their dreams, found themselves in nightmares. Either they are running to some place, or they are unable to flee from someone; or they are fighting, or they are being beaten; or they fall from heights, or they fly through the air without wings. Sometimes also someone is killing them even though no one pursues them; or they themselves are killing those around them, and they are smeared with their blood. Until those who are going through all these things awaken, they see nothing—because these things are nothing.

3So it is with those who have cast off ignorance like sleep: they do not reckon it to be anything, nor do they reckon its other works to be real; rather, they abandon them like a dream of the night. They value the knowledge of the Father like the light. Those who were ignorant acted as if asleep; those who have come to know acted as if awake. Good is the one who returns and awakens! Blessed is the one who opens the eyes of the blind!

4The Spirit ran after them in order to make them live. Having given a hand to the one who lay on the ground, it set them on their feet, for they had not yet arisen. It granted them the knowledge of the Father and the revelation of the Son; for when they saw him and heard him, he allowed them to taste him and to grasp the beloved Son.