Judas' Creation Story

Okay, since we're going to try to cover all of the Gospel of Judas in one session, I thought it would be easiest to try to condense the mythological portions of the Gospel into one post. It is still a little long, but it should be easier to get through with my explanations.

First, there is the unfolding of the highest heaven.

Jesus said, "[Come] that I may teach you about [secrets] no person [has] ever seen. For there exists a great and boundless realm, whose extent no generation of angels has seen, [in which] there is [a] great invisible [Spirit]"

Using John's prelude as an analog, the Great Invisible = the Father. Jesus is the speaker throughout these excerpts.

Following John's model, the Great Invisible needs a helper, a Logos or Word.

"He said, 'Let an angel come into being as my attendant.' A great angel, the enlightened divine Self-Generated, emerged from the cloud. Because of him, four other angels came into being from another cloud, and they became attendants for the angelic Self-Generated."

The Self-Generated is one of those gnostic code-words: Monogenes in Greek.

Then the first human spirit appears as does the spiritual line of gnostic forebears:

"Adamas was in the first luminous cloud that no angel has ever seen among all those called 'God.' ... He made the incorruptible [generation] of Seth appear."

'God' is not the Great Invisible, but the lower 'god.' The incorruptible generation of Seth is also gonstic code for the spiritual line of gnostic believers.

Judas does not include the entire myth, and it is not clear exactly where or from whom matter is creaed, but matter is created, and the Great Invisible commands:

"'Let twelve angels come into being [to] rule over chaos and the [underworld].' And look, from the cloud there appeared an [angel] whose face flashed with fire and whose appearance was defiled with blood. His name was Nebro, which means 'rebel'; others call him Yaldabaoth. Another angel, Saklas, also came from the cloud. So Nebro created six angels - as well as Saklas - to be assistants."

Although we don't have reference to Nebro/Saklas creating matter, the descriptions seem ot indicate it: rebel, flashing with fire, defiled with blood. Saklas, for the record, means 'fool' or 'idiot'.

The rebellion is complete when Saklas (who now seems to be in charge) says, "Let us create a human being after the likeness and after the image." That is the likeness of Adamas.

Now the myth is complete except that we still need to know about the human soul.

Jesus said, “This is why God ordered Michael to give the spirits of people to them as a loan, so that they might offer service, but the Great One ordered Gabriel to grant spirits to the great generation with no ruler over it - that is, the spirit and the soul.

“God caused knowledge to be [given] to Adam and those with him, so that the kings of chaos and the underworld might not lord it over them."

Notice there are two parallel actions. First, Michael - working for Nebro/Saklas - gives humans a spirit. I don't have a Greek or Coptic translation, but I'm betting this is the Anima, what Mary was to turn into Animus to gain salvation and become equal to Jesus' male followers in the Gospel of Thomas.

Then, the Great One sends Gabriel to give the Great (read: Incorruptible) Generation a spirit and a soul, Anima and Animus.

It is the knowledge of this gift that frees Adam from subjection to the Kings of Chaos: Nebro, Saklas, and all their 'angelic' hordes.