When Yaldabaoth realized that his creation was threatened by Immortal Man, he began to preen and bluster shamelessly:
“… when he actually knew that an enlightened, immortal man existed before him, [Yaldabaoth] was very much disturbed….
…Like a fool [he] acted recklessly, and said, “If someone exists before me, let him appear so that we might see his light.” And immediately, behold, a light came [from] above, and passed through all the heavens of the earth.1
Immortal Man could only reveal himself to Yaldabaoth indirectly; even so, Yaldabaoth was shocked when the primal cosmic human appeared as a reflection in the pooling waters of Paradise, a hologram from a higher dimension sent to haunt the Demiurge with the vision of his own collapse.
“The entire realm of the Chief Ruler quaked, and the foundations of hell shook. The bottomside of the waters above the material world was lit up by the image that had appeared. When all the Authorities and the Chief Ruler stared at this appearance, they saw the whole bottomside as it was lit uAnd through the light they saw the shape of the image in the water.”2
Immortal man dove back into his own reflection, hiding himself from the Yaldabaoth and the Rulers once again. The Rulers howled with laughter and pointed at Yaldabaoth. Yaldabaoth, they now knew, was not only clumsy, but a liar too:
“[Before] Immortal Man withdrew, the authorities saw him in Chaos. They laughed at the Chief Ruler because he lied, saying, “I am God. No one else exists before me.””3
So Yaldabaoth devised a cunning scheme: with the help of the Rulers, he would create and give life to a race of creatures called “humans,” beings with immortal, intangible spirits and the easily controlled bodies of naked, primate slaves.
“[Yaldabaoth] answered and said: “Yes, but if you desire that he not be able to destroy our work, come, let us create a man from the earth according to the image of our body and according to the likeness of that one, in order that he may serve us…
Then he will no longer ruin our work, but we shall make those who will be begotten from the light servants to ourselves…”4
The powers of Chaos would drag Immortal Man down to earth. They would fragment, overpower and trap his essence in their experimental golems. Immortal man would lose his identity and his mind; he would turn against himself, hypnotized by the sight of himself in so many separate beings.
- “On the Origin of the World.” The Other Bible. Ed. Willis Barnstone. Harper San Francisco, 1984. 66-67. [↩]
- “The Secret Book of John.” The Secret Teachings of Jesus. Trans. Marvin W. Meyer. Vintage, 1984. 69. [↩]
- “On the Origin of the World.” The Other Bible. Ed. Willis Barnstone. Harper San Francisco, 1984. 68. [↩]
- “On the Origin of the World.” The Other Bible. Ed. Willis Barnstone. Harper San Francisco, 1984. 68. [↩]
