Chapter 1

As the Savior was sitting in the temple, in the three hundredth of the covenant and the agreement of the tenth pillar, and being satisfied with the number of the living, incorruptible Majesty, he said to me, "Peter, blessed are those above who belong to the Father, who revealed life to those who are from the life, through me, since I reminded those who are built on what is strong, that they may hear my word and distinguish words of unrighteousness and transgression of the law from righteousness — as being from the height of every word of this Pleroma of truth, having been enlightened in good pleasure by him whom the principalities sought. But they did not find him, nor was he mentioned among any generation of the prophets. He has now appeared among these, in him who appeared, who is the Son of Man, who is exalted above the heavens in a fear of men of like essence. But you yourself, Peter, become perfect in accordance with your name with myself, the one who chose you, because from you I have established a base for the remnant whom I have summoned to knowledge. Therefore be strong until the imitation of righteousness — of him who summoned you, having summoned you to know him in a way which is worth doing because of the rejection which happened to him, and the sinews of his hands and his feet, and the crowning by those of the middle region, and the body of his radiance which they bring in hope of service because of a reward of honor — as he was about to reprove you three times in this night."

And as he was saying these things, I saw the priests and the people running toward us with stones, as though they meant to kill us, and I was afraid that we were going to die.

He said to me, "Peter, I have told you many times that they are blind ones who have no guide. If you want to know their blindness, put your hands upon your eyes — your robe — and say what you see."

When I had done it, I saw nothing. I said, "No one sees anything."

Again he told me, "Do it again."

And there came into me a fear together with joy, for I saw a new light greater than the light of day. Then it came down upon the Savior. And I told him about the things which I saw.

Chapter 2

And he said to me again, "Lift up your hands and listen to what the priests and the people are saying."

I listened to the priests as they sat with the scribes. The multitudes were shouting with their voices.

When he heard these things from me, he said, "Prick up your ears and listen carefully to what they are saying."

I listened again, and heard: "As you sit there, they are praising you."

When I reported this, the Savior said, "I have told you that these people are blind and deaf. Now listen to the things they are telling you in mystery, and guard them. Do not tell them to the children of this age, for they will blaspheme you throughout these ages, since they do not know you — but those with true knowledge will praise you."

"Many will accept our teaching at first. But they will turn away from it again by the will of the Father of their error, because they have done what he wanted. And he will expose them in his judgment — that is, the servants of the Word. Those who became entangled with these servants will become their prisoners, for they are without perception. The guileless, good, and pure one they push toward the worker of death and toward the kingdom of those who praise Christ in a counterfeit restoration. They praise the men who propagate falsehood — those who will come after you. These people will cling to the name of a dead man, thinking that by doing so they will become pure. But they will become greatly defiled instead. They will fall into a name of error, and into the hands of an evil and cunning man and a doctrine of many faces, and they will be ruled without law."

Chapter 3

For some of them will blaspheme the truth and proclaim evil teaching. They will say evil things against each other. Some will be named as those who stand in the strength of the archons — of a man and a naked woman who is manifold and subject to much suffering. And those who say these things will ask about dreams. And if they say that a dream came from a demon worthy of their error, then they shall be given perdition instead of incorruption.

For evil cannot produce good fruit. The place from which each of them comes produces what is like itself, for not every soul belongs to the truth, nor to immortality. Every soul of these ages has death assigned to it in our view, because it is always a slave, since it is created for its desires and their eternal destruction — in which they exist and from which they come. They love the creatures of matter that came forth with them.

But the immortal souls are not like these, O Peter. As long as the hour has not yet come, such a soul will resemble a mortal one. But it will not reveal its nature — that it alone is the immortal one — though it thinks about immortality, holds to faith, and desires to renounce these things.

For people who are wise do not gather figs from thorns or from thorn trees, nor grapes from thistles. That which is always becoming remains in that from which it comes, being from what is not good, which becomes destruction and death for it. But that which comes to be in the Eternal One dwells in the One of life and immortality, and resembles that life.

Therefore all that which does not truly exist will dissolve into what does not exist. For the deaf and the blind join only with their own kind.

But others will turn aside into evil words and misleading mysteries. Some who do not understand mystery speak of things they do not understand, yet they boast that the mystery of the truth belongs to them alone. In their haughtiness they grasp at pride, envying the immortal soul that has become a pledge. For every authority, rule, and power of the aeons wishes to be with these in the creation of the world, so that those who are nothing, having been forgotten by those who are, may praise them — though they have not been saved by them, nor brought to the Way by them — always wishing that they themselves might become imperishable. For when the immortal soul receives power in an intellectual spirit, it is immediately drawn to join with one of those who have misled them.

Chapter 4

But many others, who oppose the truth and are messengers of error, will set up their error and their law against these pure thoughts of mine, as though looking out from one who thinks that good and evil come from a single source. They traffic in my word. And they will spread a harsh fate. The race of immortal souls will wander in it in vain, until my coming. For out of them shall come those I will forgive for the transgressions into which they fell through their adversaries — those whose ransom I secured from the slavery that held them, to give them freedom — so that others may create a counterfeit remnant in the name of a dead man, who is Hermas, the firstborn of unrighteousness, so that the light which exists may not be believed by the little ones. But those of this kind are the workers who will be cast into the outer darkness, away from the sons of light. For they will not enter themselves, nor will they allow those who are trying to go up to reach the approval that brings their release.

And still others among them who suffer think that they will perfect the wisdom of the brotherhood that truly exists — the spiritual fellowship of those united in communion, through which the wedding of incorruptibility shall be revealed. The kindred race of the sisterhood will appear as an imitation of it. These are the ones who oppress their brothers, saying to them, "Through this our God has pity on us, for salvation comes to us through this," not knowing the punishment that awaits those who rejoice over what has been done to the little ones — those whom they saw, and whom they took prisoner.

And there shall be others from outside our number who call themselves bishops and also deacons, as if they had received their authority from God. They bow themselves under the judgment of the leaders. Those people are dry canals.

Then I said, "I am afraid because of what you have told me — that indeed the counterfeit ones are few in our sight, and yet there are multitudes who will mislead other multitudes of living ones and destroy them among themselves. And when they speak your name, they will be believed."

The Savior said, "For a time appointed for them in proportion to their error, they will rule over the little ones. But when the error has run its course, the never-aging one of the immortal understanding shall be renewed, and they shall rule over those who were their rulers. The root of their error he shall pluck out, and he shall put it to shame, so that it shall be exposed in all the arrogance it has claimed for itself. And such ones shall become unchangeable, O Peter."

"Come, then — let us go forward with the completion of the will of the incorruptible Father. For behold, those who will bring judgment upon them are coming, and they will put them to shame. But me they cannot touch. And you, O Peter, shall stand in their midst. Do not be afraid, and do not give way to cowardice. Their minds shall be closed, for the invisible one has opposed them."

Chapter 5

When he had said these things, I saw him apparently being seized by them. And I said, "What do I see, O Lord? Is it you yourself whom they are taking, and are you holding on to me? Or who is this other one, glad and laughing on the cross? And is it someone else whose feet and hands they are striking?"

The Savior said to me, "He whom you saw on the cross, glad and laughing — that is the living Jesus. But the one into whose hands and feet they are driving the nails is his fleshly part, which is the substitute being put to shame, the one who came into being in his likeness. Look at him, and then look at me."

When I had looked, I said, "Lord, no one is looking at you. Let us flee this place."

But he said to me, "I have told you: leave the blind alone. And you — see how they do not know what they are saying. For it is the son of their own glory they have put to shame, not my servant."

Then I saw someone approaching us who resembled him — the very one who had been laughing on the cross. He was filled with a Holy Spirit, and he is the Savior. There was a great and ineffable light surrounding them both, and a multitude of ineffable and invisible angels blessing them. And as I looked at him, the one who gives praise was revealed.

And he said to me, "Be strong, for you are the one to whom these mysteries have been given, to know them through revelation. He whom they crucified is the first-born, the dwelling place of demons, the stony vessel in which they live — belonging to Elohim, to the cross, which is under the Law. But the one who stands near him is the living Savior, the first within him, whom they seized and then released, who stands joyfully watching those who did him violence while they turn on one another. Therefore he laughs at their lack of perception, knowing that they were born blind. So the one capable of suffering had to come, since the body is the substitute. But what they released was my incorporeal body. I am the intellectual Spirit, filled with radiant light. He whom you saw coming to me is our intellectual Pleroma, which unites the perfect light with my Holy Spirit."

Chapter 6

These things that you have seen, then, you shall present to those of another race who are not of this age. For there will be no honor in any man who is not immortal, but only in those who were chosen from an immortal substance — a substance that has shown itself capable of containing the one who gives his abundance. Therefore I said, "Everyone who has, it will be given to him, and he will have plenty." But the one who does not have — that is, the man of this place, who is completely dead, who is cut off from the living planting of creation, who is merely begotten — if one of the immortal essence appears among them, they think they possess him. But what little they have will be taken from them and added to the one who truly is.