Selections from the Gnostic Nag Hammadi Library, Part 1 of 2: The Creation of Material Humanity

The Nag Hammadi Library is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic manuscripts, also called codices, that were discovered in 1945, near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi. We now invite you to join us to hear excerpts from “The Creation of Material Humanity,” from The Tripartite Tractate in The Nag Hammadi Library. In this context, spiritual liberation involves repenting the mistakes of physical existence, so that we may return to the formless Divinity of the Aeon.

“All those which the first ones will wish to make, so to speak, a projection of theirs, like a shadow cast from and following a body, those things which are the roots of the visible creations, namely, the entire preparation of the adornment of the images and representations and likenesses, have come into being because of those who need education and teaching and formation, so that the smallness might grow, little by little, as through a mirror image. For it was for this reason that He created mankind at the end, having first prepared and provided for Him the things which He had created for His sake.”

“It is fitting that we explain about the soul of the first human being, that it is from the spiritual Logos, while the Creator thinks that it is His, since it is from Him, as from a mouth through which one breathes. The Creator also sent down souls from His substance, since He, too, has a power of procreation, because He is something which has come into being from the representation of the Father.”

“This the spirit ordained when He first planned that man should experience the great evil, which is death, that is complete ignorance of the Totality, and that he should experience all the evils which come from this and, after the deprivations and cares which are in these, that he should receive of the greatest good, which is life eternal, that is, firm knowledge of the Totalities and the reception of all good things. Because of the transgression of the first man, death ruled. It was accustomed to slay every man in the manifestation of its domination, which had been given it as a kingdom because of the organization of the Father's will, of which we spoke previously.”