Authoritative Teaching

Authoritative Teaching

[A discourse on the soul, her wandering and her homecoming; preserved with damage.]

The hidden Father, from whom the soul came, set her in the body; and she has a bridegroom in heaven, the invisible Father, whom she seeks. But the soul, when she came into the world, was given to forgetfulness, and the adversary set before her many foods and pleasures and snares, that she might forget her own people and her true Father, and feed on what is below.

She is like one who knows where the good food is, and does not feed on the poison set in the trap. The senseless person feeds on the bait, not knowing it brings death; but the one who knows seeks her own true food, the word of God, and turns away from the deceits of the world. The adversary watches her, lying in wait like a fisherman, casting many baits, since he does not know what kind she is; and he sets before her wealth, pride, vanity, envy, and the rest, that he may catch her.

But the soul who has come to know herself runs to her shepherd; for the shepherd seeks her, and finds her, and brings her into the fold. She casts away the body of robbers, and strips off the garment of forgetfulness, and puts on the bright garment, and goes up into her treasury, where her mind is, and her storehouse that the robbers did not find, and she finds rest. Such a soul is taken up to be with her own, and rejoices, no longer suffering, for she has found her true Father, and her brothers, into whose love she came; and she leaves behind the world that perishes. This is the teaching that is sure. [Text missing]

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