The Apocalypse of Peter

The Apocalypse of Peter (Nag Hammadi Codex VII)

As for the rest, you (plural) also, in whom the spirit of the Godhead dwells, will be saved, and you will become perfect through that spirit.

And all who are not able to receive this spirit will be consumed because of their weakness of the flesh, for if they had not been born in flesh, they would not have known sin.

But the One who has become able to acquire power and avoid these things of which you speak is not restrained by them. And I said to him, “Lord, are all the souls thus led, then, having received in them the pure spirit?”

He answered and said to me, “You are understanding the matter in a natural way, not spiritually. The soul, which (is also) in me—she is the mother of all these, and each one has an image of her.

You (singular), however, understand that she is united with the nature of the angels; for the souls that are not of this nature are not able to associate with these, because they do not have that power.

But the souls that are able to receive the power are the ones who can escape the watch of the wicked ones. These are the ones who are united with the imperishable, who are within them and who are not restrained by this world.”

Again I said, “Lord, will there then be no matter in the world?”

He answered and said, “The body is a thing of matter, and it is placed among other (things) of matter.

But when the time of the number of nature is completed, then the changing of the aeon will occur in which the nature of the female will be revealed, and the powers will be completed and go away.

Then the Aeons will be completed, and the All will become invisible.”

Again I said, “Lord, after the soul comes forth from the body, where will it go?”

He laughed and said, “The soul goes into the eternal existence of the aeon, where the spirit of the Godhead dwells. But when it goes into a mortal body, it becomes mortal again.

Yet if it receives power, then it is no longer mortal. For each one will attain his proper nature.”

And I said, “Lord, how will the soul become smaller and return into the nature of its mother or into man?”

Then he rejoiced when I asked him this, and he said to me,

“Blessed are you, that you understand! For it is she whom they call the soul. And it is a deposit from the power of the Great Invisible One, and the light that is in it is from him.

It is that which is not comprehended, nor can it be held fast.

For all that is from it is among those who exist, and is from that which has not come to be.

Nor was it sent forth, but it is the root of all the aeons. For it is one of those that exist.

But it was not sent into this world, so that it might be enslaved by desire and forget its spiritual nature.

Yet many have been enslaved, and few have remembered.

But you, Peter, be strong and firm. For the minds of those who are greater than the whole world are the ones who will not be subject to it.”

And after he said these things, he took me aside and told me three other things that I was not allowed to reveal to anyone else.