The Gospel of Mary

Page 7

[The disciples asked:] “…will matter then be destroyed, or not?”

The Saviour said: “Every nature, every fashioning, every created thing subsists in one another and with one another, and they will be loosed apart again into their own root. For the nature of matter is loosed apart into what belongs to its nature alone. Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Peter said to him: “Since you have laid out everything for us, tell us this one thing also: what is the sin of the world?”

The Saviour said: “Sin as such does not exist. You are the ones who make sin, when you act out of the adulterate nature — that is what is being called sin. This is why the Good came among you, into what belongs to every nature, to set it back into its own root.”

8 notes from the Coptic

vusis nim · plasma nim · ktisis nim physis, plasma, ktisis — three Greek terms in a row: natural kind, thing moulded, thing founded. Not synonyms for “created things” but a graded series, from what grows, through what is shaped, to what is instituted. “Every nature, every fashioning, every created thing” keeps the gradation.

bwl ebol to loosen, untie, undo. Not “destroy” and not “decompose”. The image is a knot coming untied — which is why the answer to “will matter be destroyed” is not yes.

noune · Mmin mmo.ou “their own root”. Root, not “origin” or “elements”: something living to return into, not a heap of parts.

vusis n.culh the nature of hylē — matter. Aristotle’s technical term, used as one.

mN nobe šop a flat existential negation: sin does not EXIST. Not unforgiven, not uncounted. It has no being. šop is the verb of existing and it is carrying the sentence.

NtwtN pet.eire M.p.nobe emphatic second person plural: YOU are the ones making it. The pronoun is fronted for contrast with the clause before. Sin has no existence of its own; it is manufactured, and the makers are named.

t.mNt.noeik mNt- is Coptic’s abstract-forming prefix, English “-ness”. So not the ACT of adultery but the CONDITION of being adulterate — mixed, alloyed, not of one substance. Rendered “the adulterate nature”. This is what makes the sentence cohere with the answer above it about composite things coming apart.

kacista … exoun etes.noune kathistēmi — to set down, to restore to a standing. Not “heal” and not “save”: put back where it stood. The Good is not adding anything, it is returning something.

Page 8

“…to set it back into its own root.”

Then he went on, and said: “This is why you sicken and die — because you love what deceives you. Let whoever can understand, understand.

Matter begot a passion that has no likeness, having come out of what is contrary to nature. From there a disturbance arises in the whole body.”

4 notes from the Coptic

a.culh jpe ou.pacos hylē (matter) begets pathos. jpo is the same verb the Saviour uses on page 9 for peace — “my peace, BEGET it in yourselves”. Two births set against each other: matter brings forth suffering, you bring forth peace. Rendering one as “produced” and the other as “receive”, which the English versions do, severs the pair.

e.af.ei ebol xn ou.paravusis para-physis, “contrary to nature”. The preposition is para — the same one governing the lawmaker warning on page 9: no boundary PARA the bound already appointed. Passion comes of going beyond nature; legislation of going beyond the given bound. One preposition, one diagnosis, applied twice.

e.mNta.f mmau M.p.eine “having no eine” — no image, no likeness. Set against page 9, where the disciples are settled “before the image, the image of nature”. What is contrary to nature has no image to stand before, and that is what makes it unsettling rather than merely bad.

tetN.šwne auw tetM.mou … tetn.me M.pet.aR.apata šwne (sicken) and mou (die) given as the consequence of me (love) directed at what apata (deceives). Not punishment — mechanism. The attachment is itself the sickness.

Page 9

“…the whole body. This is why I said to you: be settled in heart, and be unsettled — for you are settled before the image, the image of nature. Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

When the Blessed One had said this, he greeted them all, saying: “Peace be with you. My peace — beget it in yourselves.

Take care that no one leads you astray, saying ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ — for the Son of Man is within you. Follow after him. Those who seek him will find him.

Go then, and proclaim the good news of the kingdom. Set down no boundary beyond the bound I appointed for you, and give no statute after the manner of the lawgiver — or you will be gripped by it.”

When he had said this, he departed. But they grieved, and wept bitterly, saying: “How are we to go out to the nations and proclaim the good news of the kingdom of the Son of Man? If they did not spare him, how will they spare us?”

Then Mary stood up. She greeted them all and said to her brothers: “Do not weep, and do not be of two hearts, for his grace will be with you all, and will shelter you.”

6 notes from the Coptic

mpR.ka laau N.xoros exra! para pen.t.a!.toš.f The clause sets horos (Greek: a boundary stone) against tōš (Coptic: to appoint, AND to set a bound). Two words for boundary-marking in one sentence, one borrowed and one native. The contrast is the argument: he already bounded it, and adding your own boundary beyond that is the forbidden thing. “Set down no boundary beyond the bound I appointed” keeps both halves. Every English version compared drops one and loses the pairing.

oude MpR.+ nomos N.ce m.p.nomoceths nomos and nomothetēs — Greek civic-legal loanwords: statute, and the man who writes statutes. Not Torah vocabulary. The warning is about legislation, in the state’s own word for it.

mhpote Nse.amaxte M.mw.tN nxht.f amahte is to seize, grip, take hold of. Physical. “Constrained” is an abstraction of it. The lawgiver is caught by his own statute.

ta.eirhnh jpo.s nh.tN jpo is to beget, to acquire by bringing forth. Not “receive my peace” but bring it to birth in yourselves. Peace as something generated rather than handed over — the same move as the kingdom being within rather than announced.

MpR.R xht snau literally “do not make two hearts”. Flattened elsewhere to “do not be irresolute”; the image is worth keeping, and it answers the doubled grief of the disciples directly above.

p.šhre m.p.rwme ef.šop mpetN.xoun šop again — the verb of existing, the same one negated for sin on page 7. Sin does not exist; the Son of Man does, and inside you.

Page 10

“…and will shelter you. Rather, let us praise his greatness, for he prepared us and made us Human.”

When Mary had said this, she turned their hearts inward, toward the Good, and they began to train themselves on the words of the Saviour.

Peter said to Mary: “Sister, we know the Saviour loved you more than the rest of the women. Tell us the words of the Saviour that you remember — the ones you know and we do not, which we have not heard.”

Mary answered and said: “What is hidden from you, I will tell you.” And she began to speak these words to them:

“I saw the Lord in a vision, and I said to him: Lord, I saw you today in a vision.

He answered and said to me: Blessed are you, that you did not waver at the sight of me. For where the mind is, there is the treasure.

I said to him: Lord, the one who sees the vision — does he see it through the soul, or through the spirit?

The Saviour answered and said: He sees neither through the soul nor…”

6 notes from the Coptic

af.sBtwt.N af.aa.n N.rwme sobte, to prepare or make ready, then “made us rwme” — Human. Not “made us men” and not “made us true Human Beings” as an honorific. The claim is that being Human is something they were MADE into, an outcome rather than a starting condition. It sits directly against the disciples’ fear on page 9.

as.kte peu.xht exoun e.p.agacon kto, to turn. She turns their hearts INWARD (exoun) to the Good. The direction is the point — the same inward move as “the Son of Man is within you”, and Mary is the one who performs it on the others.

au.R.gumnaze xa pra n.N.šaje gymnazō — to train, to exercise, the word behind “gymnasium”. They did not “discuss” or “debate” the words; they worked out on them. Sayings as a discipline to practise rather than a doctrine to agree about.

nere.p.SWR ouaš.e nxouo para p.ke.seepe “loved her MORE THAN (nhouo para) the rest”. para a third time, again marking excess beyond a bound — and this time Peter is the one invoking it. He frames her knowledge as something exceeding her share, which is the grievance he acts on later.

p.ma gar etere.p.nous Mmau ef.mmau nqi p.exo “For where the NOUS is, there is the treasure.” This inverts the canonical form — Matthew has treasure first and the heart following it. Here mind comes first and treasure is found wherever it already is. nous, Greek: intellect, not “heart”. The Hermetica on this site uses the same word for the faculty that perceives God.

xN te.2uyh h pe.PNA psychē or pneuma — soul or spirit, both Greek. Mary asks a technical question in technical vocabulary, and gets a technical answer. Whatever else the scene is, it is not a woman reporting a feeling.

Page 15

“…He sees neither through the soul nor through the spirit, but the mind, which is between the two — that is what sees the vision, and that is…”

…And Desire said: “I did not see you going down, but now I see you going up. Why do you lie, since you belong to me?”

The soul answered and said: “I saw you. You did not see me, nor did you know me. I was to you a garment, and you did not recognise me.”

When she had said this, she went away, rejoicing greatly.

Again she came to the third authority, which is called Ignorance. It interrogated the soul, saying: “Where are you going? In wickedness you were bound. You were bound — do not judge!”

And the soul said: “Why do you judge me, when I have not judged? I was seized, though I did not seize. They did not know me, but I knew them — that the All is being loosed apart, both the things of earth and the things of heaven.”

When the soul had undone the third authority, she went upward, and saw the fourth authority, which took seven forms.

The first form is Darkness. The second, Desire. The third, Ignorance. The fourth is Zeal…

8 notes from the Coptic

p.nous et.šop xn teu.mhte m.pe.u.snau The answer to Mary’s technical question: not psychē, not pneuma, but the NOUS standing between the two. Mind as the organ of vision, positioned in the middle rather than above. The Corpus Hermeticum on this site makes the same faculty the one that perceives God.

e3ousia exousia — AUTHORITY. This is the word, and it is the same one Paul uses in Romans 13:1 for the “governing authorities” every Christian is told to submit to. In the Gospel of Mary the exousiai are precisely what the soul must get past, and it does so by refusing their jurisdiction rather than by force. Two texts on this site, one Greek word, opposite instructions.

au.amaxte Mmo … e.mpi.amaxte “I was seized, though I did not seize.” amahte again — the same verb as the lawgiver gripped by his own statute on page 9. The soul’s defence is that it never did the seizing. Being gripped and doing the gripping are the same act seen from two ends, and the text uses one word for both.

as.R.e3etaze N.te.2uyh exetazō — to examine, to interrogate, a courtroom and tax-assessor’s word. The authority does not attack the soul. It questions it, demands papers, asks where it is going. The obstruction is procedural.

axro ere.krine Mmo! e.mpi.krine “Why do you judge me, when I have not judged?” krinō both times. The soul does not deny the charge or plead — it denies that the authority has standing to bring one. That is a jurisdictional answer, not a moral one.

eu.bwl ebol m.p.thrf “the All is being loosed apart” — bōl ebol, the same verb as page 7, where every nature is loosed into its own root. What the Saviour stated as physics, the soul now uses as an argument: nothing here is permanent, including you.

t.mNt.at.sooun mNt- (abstract) + at- (privative) + sooun (to know): “not-knowing-ness”. Built the same way as t.mNt.noeik on page 7. The powers are named as abstract conditions, not as persons — which is why they can be answered rather than fought.

neei.šoop ne NxBsw “I was to you a garment.” hēbsō, a piece of clothing. Desire wore the soul without knowing what it was wearing — the inversion of the usual picture, where the soul wears the body.

Page 16

…The fourth form is the Zeal of Death. The fifth is the Kingdom of the Flesh. The sixth is the Foolish Wisdom of Flesh. The seventh is the Wisdom of the Wrathful One.

These are the seven authorities of Wrath. They question the soul: “Where do you come from, slayer of men? Where are you going, conqueror of space?”

The soul answered and said: “What seizes me has been slain. What turns me has been undone…”

4 notes from the Coptic

t.sašfe N.n.e3ousia nte t.orgh “the seven exousiai of orgē” — authorities of WRATH. Romans 13:4 says the exousia “bears the sword” and is an avenger who executes orgē. Both Greek words match, in the same pairing. Paul describes the authority of wrath as God’s servant; Mary lists it as the last obstacle before freedom.

t.mNtero N.t.sar3 the Kingdom of the Flesh — mNtero, the same word as the kingdom the disciples are sent to proclaim on page 9. One kingdom is announced; the other is a gate to get past. The text uses one word for both and lets the contrast do the work.

t.sovia N.refnouqs the Wisdom of the refnouqs, the wrathful one. Hold this word — Levi throws it at Peter on page 18, and it is the only other place it appears.

pet.emaxte M.mo! au.konS.f “What SEIZES me has been slain.” amahte a third time — the lawgiver gripped by his statute, the soul seized though it never seized, and now the seizing thing itself destroyed. The whole text turns on who is holding whom.

Page 17

“…and my desire is finished, and ignorance has died.

I was released from a world, and from a type; from a type that is above, and from the chain of forgetfulness, which exists only for a season.

From this time on I will receive the rest — of the time, of the season, of the age — in silence.”

When Mary had said this she fell silent, since the Saviour had spoken with her only this far.

3 notes from the Coptic

t.mRre n.t.Bše “the bond of forgetfulness” — mrre, a chain or fetter; bše, forgetting. Not sin and not sleep. What holds the soul is a memory problem, and it is a physical restraint. This is why the ascent is answering rather than fighting: the soul is remembering what it already knew.

et.šoop pros ouo!š “which exists for a season” — pros, Greek, plus a term of duration. The chain is temporary BY CONSTITUTION. The authorities are not eternal, and the soul says so to their faces.

anapausis … xN ou.karwf anapausis — rest, cessation. The goal is not reward or reunion but the ending of motion. And it is received in karōf, silence, which is also how Mary’s own account ends: she stops, and the manuscript records the stopping.

Page 18

Andrew answered and said to the brothers: “Say what you think about what she has said. I myself do not believe the Saviour said these things. These teachings are certainly of other thoughts.”

Peter answered and spoke about the same things. He questioned them concerning the Saviour: “Did he really speak with a woman in secret from us, and not openly? Are we to turn around and all of us listen to her? Did he prefer her over us?”

Then Mary wept, and said to Peter: “My brother Peter, what are you thinking? Do you suppose I thought this up by myself in my own heart, or that I am lying about the Saviour?”

Levi answered and said to Peter: “Peter, you have always been wrathful. Now I see you training yourself against the woman, the way the adversaries do. But if the Saviour made her worthy, who are you to reject her? Surely the Saviour knew her thoroughly. That is why he loved her more than us.

Rather, let us be ashamed…”

5 notes from the Coptic

k.šop n.ref.nouqs Levi calls Peter a refnouqs — a wrathful one. It is the SAME word as the seventh authority on page 16, “the Wisdom of the Wrathful One”, and the only other place it occurs. The text has just finished listing the powers that obstruct the ascent, and now names one of them in the room. Peter is not being compared to an authority; he is being identified as one.

ek.R.gumnaze exn te.sxime gymnazō — the same verb as page 10, where the disciples trained themselves ON the Saviour’s words. Here Peter trains himself AGAINST the woman. One verb, one discipline, aimed two ways: at understanding, or at a person.

N.ce N.ni.antikeimenos antikeimenos — the adversaries, Greek, the standard word for opposing powers. Levi does not say Peter is behaving badly. He says Peter is behaving like the things the soul had to get past.

af.sotp.s nxouo ero.n … af.ouoš.s nxouo ero.n Peter: “did he PREFER her more than us?” Levi: “that is why he LOVED her more than us.” nhouo, the fourth appearance of the excess-beyond-a-bound construction. Levi does not deny the excess. He concedes it and reverses the conclusion drawn from it.

mhti af.šaje mN ou.sxime njioue ero.n The complaint is not that she is wrong. It is that she was spoken to njioue — in secret from THEM — and that they were not the channel. The whole objection is jurisdictional, and it is the same shape as the authorities interrogating the soul: not “you are mistaken” but “you did not come through us”.

The LNV Reading

From the Source

The lawmaker · page 9

Sin does not exist · page 7