CHAPTER 76

"And thereafter I said again unto her: 'Hearken that I |167. may speak with thee about their time, when this which I have said unto thee, will come to pass. It will come to pass when [the] three times are completed.'

"Pistis Sophia answered and said unto me:

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[paragraph continues] 'O Light, by what shall I know when the three times will take place, so that I may be glad and rejoice that the time is near for thee to bring me to my region, and moreover rejoice therein that the time is come when thou wilt take the light-power from all them which hate me, because I have had faith in thy light?'

How Sophia will know that the time of her final deliverance hath come."And I answered and said unto her: 'If thou seest the gate of the Treasury of the Great Light which is opened after the thirteenth æon, and that is the left [one],--when that gate is opened, then are the three times completed.'

"Pistis Sophia again answered and said: 'O Light, by what shall I know,--for I am in this region,--that that gate is opened?'

What will come to pass at that time."And I answered and said unto her: 'When that gate is opened, they who are in all the æons will know because of the Great Light which will obtain in all their regions. But see, I have now settled that they shall venture no ill against thee, until the three times are completed. And thou wilt have the power of going down into their twelve æons, |168. when it pleaseth thee, and also of returning and going into thy region, which is below the thirteenth æon, and in which thou now art. But thou wilt not have the power of passing through the gate of the Height which is in the thirteenth æon, so as to enter into thy region whence thou didst come down. Moreover, if then the three times are completed, Self-willed and all his rulers will again constrain thee, to take thy light from thee, being enraged against thee and thinking that thou hast imprisoned his power in the chaos, and thinking that thou hast taken its light from it. He will then be embittered

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against thee, to take from thee thy light, in order that he may send it down into the chaos and it may get down to that emanation of his, so that it may be able to come up out of the chaos and go to his region. Adamas will attempt this. But I will take all thy powers from him and give them unto thee, and I will come to take them. Now, therefore, if they constrain thee at that time, then sing praises to the Light, and I will not delay to help thee. And I will quickly come unto thee to the regions which are below thee. And I will come down to their regions to take their light from them. And I will come to this region whither I have removed thee, and which is below the thirteenth |169. æon, until I bring thee to thy region whence thou art come.'

"It came to pass then, when Pistis Sophia had heard me say these words unto her, that she rejoiced with great joy. But I removed her to the region which is below the thirteenth æon. I went to the Light and departed from her."

And all these adventures the First Mystery told to the disciples, that they should come to pass for Pistis Sophia. And he sat on the MountThe time for the final deliverance of Sophia is completed. of Olives, narrating all these adventures in the midst of the disciples. And he continued again and said unto them: "And it came to pass again after this, while I was in the world of men and sat in the way, that is in this region which is the Mount of Olives, before my vesture was sent unto me, which I had deposited in the four-and-twentieth mystery from the interior, but the first from the exterior, which is the Great Uncontainable, in which I am enwrapped, and before I had gone to the Height to receive my second vesture,--

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while I sat with you in this region, which is the Mount of Olives, that the time was completed of which I had said to Pistis Sophia: 'Adamas and all his rulers will constrain thee.'

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