Hypostasis of the Archons 5

1Then the female spiritual nature came in the guise of the serpent, the teacher. The serpent taught Adam and Eve and said, “What did Samael [say to] you? Was what he said: ‘You are allowed to eat from all trees in the garden, but do not eat from [the tree] of the knowledge of good and evil’?”

2[] The fleshly woman said, “He said not only, ‘Eat not,’ but even, ‘Touch it not, because on the day that you eat from it, you certainly will die.’”

3The serpent, the teacher, said, “Certainly you will not die, because he said this to you motivated by jealousy. On the contrary, your eyes will be opened, and you will become like gods, knowing what is good and evil.” And the female teaching nature was removed from the serpent, and she forsook it as though it were something earthly.

4The fleshly woman took of the tree and ate, and she gave to her husband also, and in this way they ate, these beings who were merely soulish. Their blemish was revealed by their lack of knowledge. They realized that they had been stripped of what was spiritual, and they took fig leaves and fastened them around their naked loins.

5Because he was unaware of what had transpired, the leader of the archons arrived and said, “Adam, where are you?”

6Adam said, “I heard your voice, and I became afraid, because I was naked, and so I hid.”

7The archon said, “Why did you hide, if not because you ate from the one tree from which I forbade you to eat? You ate from it!”

8Adam said, “The woman you gave me [handed] me the fruit, and I ate it.”

9And the haughty [archon] cursed the woman.

10The woman said, “The serpent fooled me, and so I ate.”

11[The archons turned] toward the serpent and cursed its shadow, [making it] grow weak.

12And they did not know that it was the same shape they had modeled. From that time on, the serpent came under the curse of the authorities, lasting [] until the Perfect Man came.

13They turned to their Adam, driving him together with his wife out of the garden. They possessed no blessing, because they, too, were under the curse.

14They drove mankind into a massive confusion and a life of work, in order that their mankind might be concerned with worldly matters and have no time to be concerned with the holy Spirit.