Sophia Scriptura

Second Book of Jeu

Secundus liber Jeu · Τὸ βιβλίον τοῦ μεγάλου κατὰ μυστήριον λόγου (β)

About the English. Route 3: the Coptic text (Bruce Codex) is the witness; no Coptic is a site language, so the source in hand is Carl Schmidt's German translation (GCS 13, 1905), translated by Claude with a note; the German is never shown.

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Contents

Translated from Schmidt's German (route 3); the German is not published.

Reading pages: 42–48 · 49–51 · 52

  1. 42Jesus gathers the Twelve and the women disciples to reveal the mysteries of the Treasury of the Light, by which the receivers lead the soul after death through all the aeons, its sins blotted out, into the Treasury.
  2. 43Jesus forbids giving the mysteries to the unworthy, especially to a sect whose rites he describes as obscene and whose god he names Taricheas, and promises the disciples the mysteries, the three baptisms and the spiritual anointing, with moral commandments for those who receive them.
  3. 44Jesus promises the grieving disciples the higher mysteries and the once-only mystery of the forgiveness of sins, which carries the soul after death through every order to rest; then he performs the baptism of water with an offering of wine, bread and herbs, and the wine is changed into the water of life.
  4. 46Jesus performs the baptism of fire with incense, herbs, wine and bread, praying the Father and the virgin of the light to forgive the disciples' sins; a sign appears in the fire, and he baptizes and seals them.
  5. 47Jesus performs the baptism of the Holy Spirit with incense, wine and bread, prays for the forgiveness of the disciples' sins, and after a sign baptizes them and seals their foreheads.
  6. 48In a further rite with incense and seals, Jesus prays the Father to compel Sabaoth Adamas and his chiefs to take away their wickedness from the disciples, and the disciples, freed from it, become immortal.
  7. 49Jesus explains that the mystery of the forgiveness of sins, received once, blots out all sins and carries the soul after death past the fleeing aeons and through the gates of the Treasury of the Light.
  8. 50Jesus describes how the soul that has the mystery of the forgiveness of sins passes through every order of the Treasury of the Light, receiving at each its mystery, seal and the great name, to Jeu, the great light, the second treasury, and finally the treasury of the true God.
  9. 51The disciples ask for the mystery of the forgiveness of sins; Jesus tells them to be patient and begins to give the defences by which they will answer the archons of the twelve aeons.
  10. 52Jesus gives the seals, numbers and defences by which the soul passes the archons of the twelve aeons, the twenty-four emanations of the thirteenth aeon and the powers of the fourteenth, and explains that the three archons of the light hold back those who lack the mystery of the forgiveness of sins; the end of the book is lost, and two fragments of Gnostic prayers follow.

About this work

Author
Anonymous
Attribution
pseudonymous · Anonymous Gnostic work, extant only in Coptic in the Bruce Codex; Schmidt's chapters 42–52 continue the numbering of the First Book.
Standing
This work stood outside the church of its own time, and no later tradition receives it. An anonymous Gnostic revelation dialogue, not known to be read in any church; the church writers who knew such works rejected them, and no Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox tradition honours it.
Date
ca. 200–300 (disputed) · A Coptic translation of a Greek original, written in the third century or earlier; the codex is of the fourth century or later. The date and place of the original are disputed.
Written at
Egypt (disputed) (disputed)
Language
Greek
Genre
other
Reference system
Chapter numbers of Schmidt's edition (42–52, continuing the First Book). Chapter 45 lies inside 44; the end of the text may be incomplete.
SBL abbreviation
2 JeuNot yet checked
Clavis
CANT 190 (not yet checked)
Text from
Carl Schmidt, ed., Koptisch-gnostische Schriften 1: Die Pistis Sophia, die beiden Bücher des Jeû, unbekanntes altgnostisches Werk, GCS 13 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1905) (Printed edition in the public domain)
Critical editions
Carl Schmidt, Gnostische Schriften in koptischer Sprache aus dem Codex Brucianus, TU 8.1–2 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1892); Carl Schmidt and Violet MacDermot, The Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text in the Bruce Codex, NHS 13 (Leiden: Brill, 1978) (cited only) (cited, not reproduced)