Gospel of Philip · 8 of 12

The Sacraments; Names and Images

1.From water and fire the soul as well as the spirit came to be, (and) from water and fire and light the son of the bridal chamber.

2.The fire is the chrism, the light is the fire.

3.I speak not of this fire that is formless, but of the other one with a white form, which glows beautifully, and which imparts beauty.

4.Truth did not enter into the world naked, but it arrived with types and images.

5.It will not be obtained in any other way.

6.Rebirth exists, as well as an image of rebirth.

7.It is necessary indeed to be born again through the image.

8.What is resurrection and its image? Through the image it must rise.

9.The bridal chamber as well as its image, through the image they must enter into the truth, which is the renewal.

10.This is necessary for those who obtain the name of the Father and the Son and the holy Spirit, but they must also bring them forth.

11.If someone fails to obtain them for himself, even the name will be taken away from him, but someone who obtains them in the chrism of the […] from the power of the cross.

12.The apostles called this “[the] right and the left,” because this one is no longer a [Christian], but Christ.

13.The Lord [performed] all things with a symbolic meaning, (including) baptism, and chrismation, and Eucharist, and redemption, and bridal chamber.

14.[…] he [said]: “I have come to make [what is below] like what is [above, and what is outside] like what is [inside, and to unite] them together in the place […] here with [types …].”

15.Those who say, “[…] one is above […,” they] are mistaken, [because] what is revealed is what […, what] is called “what is below,” and what is secret pertains to what is above it, because it is good, and they say “inside” and “what is outside” and “what is the outermost.”

16.This is why the Lord called perdition, “the outer darkness,” and there is nothing further outside than it.

17.He said: “My Father who is in secret.”

18.He said, “Enter into your closet and close your door behind you, and pray to your Father who is in secret,” he who is the one inside all of them, but he who is inside all of them is the fullness, beyond which there is nothing else more interior.

19.To describe this it is said, “what is above them.”

20.Before Christ (came), some exited from where they could no longer enter, and they went to where they could no longer leave.

21.Christ, however, came, and those who entered, he escorted them outside, and those who exited, he brought them inside.

22.The days when Eve dwelt [inside] Adam, death did not exist.

23.When she was separated from him, death came into being.

24.When he enters again and receives it to himself, no death will occur.

25.“[My] God, my God, why, O Lord, [have] you forsaken me?”

26.It was on the cross that he spoke all this, because in that place he was divided.

27.It was from what is […] that he was begotten […], through God.

28.The […] from among the dead […] is, however, […] he was complete […] of flesh.

29.However, this […] is true flesh.

30.[…] is not true, [but …] image of what is true.

31.A bridal chamber is not made for animals, nor is it made for slaves, nor for polluted women, but it is made for free men and virgins.

32.We are born again through the holy Spirit.

33.We are begotten, however, by Christ with the two.

34.We are anointed by the Spirit.

35.We were united when we were begotten.

36.No one can see himself in water or in a mirror apart from light.

37.Also, you cannot see in light apart from water, mirror.

38.This is why baptism must be with both, with light and water, the light also being the chrism.