Greco-Christian stream·Pistis Sophia·Second Book — The Repentances of Pistis Sophia·Chapter 83
Mary questioneth Jesus
I will reveal it unto thee with joy
Source context
- Theme
- Pistis Sophia's twenty-first repentance: the soul's continued cry for deliverance from the dark powers of matter and forgetfulness
- Soul-faculty
- Sentient Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Psalmic lament tradition (Hebrew)The structural pattern of Chapter 83 — the soul's repeated penitential cry addressed to the Light for rescue from hostile powers — exhibits cross-tradition congruence with the Psalms of Lament (e.g. Psalms 22, 69), which Pistis Sophia explicitly draws upon as hymnodic source material.
- Neoplatonist descent-and-return schemaThe soul's acknowledgment of its entrapment in matter and its appeal to a transcendent source for reintegration exhibits cross-tradition congruence with the Plotinian schema of the soul's fall and epistrophe in the Enneads.
Chapter 83
CHAPTER 83
Mary questioneth Jesus.It came to pass then again, after all this, that Mary came forward, adored the feet of Jesus and said: "My Lord, be not wroth with me, if I
question thee, because we question concerning everything with precision and certainty. For thou hast said unto us aforetime: 'Seek that ye may find, and knock that it may be opened unto you. For every one who seeketh shall find, and to every one who knocketh it shall be opened.' Now, therefore, my Lord, who is it whom I shall seek, or who is it at whom we shall knock? Or |182. who rather is able to give us the decision upon the words concerning which we shall question thee? Or who rather knoweth the power of the words concerning which we shall question? Because thou in the mind hast given us mind of the Light and hast given us sense and an exceedingly exalted thought; for which cause, therefore, no one existeth in the world of men nor any one in the height of the æons, who can give the decision on the words concerning which we question, save thee alone, who knoweth [sic] the universe, who is perfected in the universe; because we do not question in the manner in which the men of the world question, but because we question in the gnosis of the Height which thou hast given unto us, and we question moreover in the type of the excellent questioning which thou hast taught us, that we may question therein. Now, therefore, my Lord, be not wroth with me, but reveal unto me the matter concerning which I shall question thee."
It came to pass, when Jesus had heard Mary Magdalene say these words, that he answered and said unto her: "Question concerning what thou desirest to question, and I will reveal it unto thee with precision and certainty. Amēn, amēn, I say unto you: Rejoice in great joy and exult
most exceedingly. If ye question concerning all with precision, then shall I exult most exceedingly, because ye question concerning all with precision and question in the manner in which it beseemeth to question. Now, therefore, question concerning what thou wouldst question, |183. and I will reveal it unto thee with joy."
It came to pass then, when Mary had heard the Saviour say these words, that she rejoiced in great joy and exulted most exceedingly and said unto Jesus: "My Lord and Saviour, of what manner then are the four-and-twenty invisibles and of what type, or rather of what quality are they, or of what quality is then their light?"