The Sophia of Jesus Christ · 8 of 11
The Greater Aeons
1.Then Thomas asked him: “Christ, Savior, how many aeons surpass the heavens?”
2.The perfect Savior said: “I praise you for asking about the great aeons, because your roots dwell in the infinities.
3.When those whom I discussed before were revealed, the self-begetting Father rapidly took to creating twelve aeons for service for the twelve angels.
4.All of them are perfect and good.
5.In this way the deficiency in the female appeared.”
6.And ‹he› asked him: “How many aeons of the immortals are there, beginning with the infinities?”
7.The perfect Savior said: “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!
8.The first aeon is the Son of Man, who is called ‘First-Begetter,’ who is called ‘Savior,’ the one who has appeared.
9.The second aeon is the Human, who is called ‘Adam, the Eye of Light.’
10.What encompasses these is the aeon above which there is no kingdom, of the eternal, infinite God, the self-begotten aeon of the aeons that dwell therein, of the immortals, whom I explained earlier, being above the Seventh that manifested from Sophia, who is the first aeon.
11.The Immortal Human manifested aeons and powers and kingdoms and granted authority to everyone who appears in him, so that they might carry out their wishes until the last things above chaos,
12.because these united with one another and revealed every magnificence, even from the Spirit, multitudes of glorious and countless lights.
13.In the beginning, these were named the first aeon, and ‹the second›, and ‹the third›.
14.The first ‹is› called ‘Unity and Repose.’
15.Each one bears its (appropriate) name, because the ‹third› aeon was called ‘Assembly’ on account of the great multitude that had appeared, a multitude revealing itself as one.
16.It is because the multitudes gather together and become one that ‹they› are called ‘Assembly,’ on account of that Assembly that transcends heaven.
17.Therefore the Assembly ‹of› the Ogdoad was manifested as androgynous and was named part masculine and part feminine.
18.The male is called ‘Assembly,’ whereas the female is called ‘Life,’ so that it could be demonstrated that the life for all the aeons came from a female.
19.And all names were obtained from the originative principle.
20.This was because from his harmony with his thought, the powers appeared most rapidly who were called ‘gods,’
21.and on the basis of ‹their› contemplation, the gods of the gods revealed ‹the› divine gods, and on the basis of their wisdom the gods revealed ‹the lords› of ‹lords›, and ‹on the basis› of their acts of thought the ‹lords› of the ‹lords› revealed ‹lords›, and on the basis of their power the ‹lords› revealed archangels, and on the basis of their words the archangels revealed angels, and ‹simulacra› appeared from them possessing structure and shape and appellation for all the aeons and their worlds.
22.And the immortals I have just now described, they all wield authority from the Immortal Human, who is called ‘Silence,’ ‹because› by reflecting (silently) without (outward) speech, the majesty that is his was brought to completion.
23.Because the indestructible ones possessed authority, they created a large kingdom, each one dwelling [in] his Ogdoad together with his firmament ‹and› thrones and temples for their respective majesties, because all of them originated through the will of the Mother of the World.”