On the Origin of the World · 23 of 28
The Archons Curse Eve, Adam, and All Creation
1. When the archons then realized that (Adam and Eve) had broken their commandments (to them), they arrived in Paradise and approached Adam and Eve, accompanied by an earthquake and big threats, to see the result of their support.
2. Adam and Eve then shook violently and hid beneath the trees in Paradise.
3. The archons then were unaware of where they were, and said: “Adam, where are you?”
4. He said: “Here I am, because out of fear of you I hid, being embarrassed,” and they said to him in ignorance: “Who informed you of the embarrassment with which you have clothed yourself, unless you have eaten from that tree?”
5. He said: “The woman you gave to me, she is the one who gave to me, and I ate.”
6. They said then to the latter: “What have you done?”
7. She answered, and said: “The teacher is the one who incited, and I ate.”
8. The archons then approached the teacher.
9. Their eyes grew foggy on account of him, and they were unable to do anything against him.
10. They cursed him, given that they were powerless.
11. After this, they approached the woman and cursed her as well as her descendants.
12. After the woman, they cursed Adam, as well as the land, on account of him, the crops also, and they cursed everything they had created.
13. They possess no blessing.
14. Good cannot be the consequence of evil.
15. From that day, the authorities truly realized there was something more powerful than they.
16. They knew only that their commandments had not been observed.
17. A tremendous jealousy was introduced into the world solely on account of the deathless man.
18. When the archons realized that their Adam had gained a different kind of knowledge, they wanted to put him to the test, and they assembled together every tame animal and the wild beasts of the earth, as well as the birds of heaven, and brought them in front of Adam, in order to learn what he would call them.
19. When he had seen them, he assigned names to their creatures.
20. They grew disturbed on account of Adam recovering from every test.
21. They gathered and concocted schemes, and they said: “Behold Adam!
22. He has become like one of us, in that he knows the difference between light and darkness.
23. Perhaps now he will be fooled, as is the case with the tree of knowledge, and will even approach the tree of life, and eat of it, and become deathless, and become lord, and loathe us and despise us, as well as all of our glory.
24. He will then condemn us together with our universe.
25. Come, let us banish him from Paradise, down to the earth from where he was taken, in order that from now on he will be unable to know anything superior to what we are capable of.”
26. And in this way, they banished Adam from Paradise, together with his wife, and this act they perpetrated was not sufficient for them.
27. Instead, they grew fearful.
28. They entered (Paradise, approaching) the tree of life, and enclosed it with large fearsome entities, fiery living creatures called “Cherubin,” and they placed a flaming sword among them, fearsomely rotating continuously, to prevent any earthly being ever entering that place.
29. Given that the archons grew jealous of Adam, they desired to shorten their lifespans.
30. They were unable, on account of fate, which had been set from the beginning, because to each one a lifespan of 1,000 years had been assigned, in agreement with the orbit of the radiant bodies.
31. However, even though the archons were unable to accomplish this, each one of the perpetrators of evil subtracted ten years, and the full lifespan reached to 930 years, and these pass in suffering, and feebleness, and malevolent disruption, and this is the way life has been, from that day, until the consummation of the age.