My LORD’s BiblePistis Sophia: A Sixth Book 144
The sixth and last section of the Askew Codex in Mead's 1921 English (chapters 144-148; see the First Book's introduction). Jesus tells the disciples what becomes of sinners after death, sin by sin: the curser, the slanderer, the murderer, the thief, the sorcerer and others are each led by the receivers of the rulers to the chastisement the sin deserves, in Amente and the chaos, before the Virgin of Light judges them and sends them back into the world. The disciples weep and ask for mercy. The codex ends with a postscript that Mead marks as later and with two lines erased; both are kept as their own verses. Not part of any church's canon.
1. . . [and lead them forth to the fire-rivers and fire-seas] and take vengeance on it therein for another six months and eight days. Thereafter they lead it up on the way of the midst, and every one of the rulers of the way of the midst chastizeth it in his chastisements another six months and eight days. Thereafter they lead it to the Virgin of Light, who judgeth the good and the evil, that she may judge it. And when the sphere turneth itself, she handeth it over to her receivers, that they may cast it into the æons of the sphere. And the servitors of the sphere lead it forth to a water which is below the sphere; and it becometh a seething fire and eateth into it, until it purifieth it utterly.
2"And then cometh Yaluham, the receiver of Sabaōth, the Adamas, who handeth the souls the cup of forgetfulness, and he bringeth a cup filled with the water of forgetfulness and handeth it to the soul, and it drinketh it and forgetteth all regions and all the regions to which it hath gone. And they cast it down into a body which will spend its time continually troubled in its heart.
3"This is the chastisement of the curser."
5Jesus said: "A man who persistently slandereth, if his time is completed through the sphere, that he cometh out of the body, then Abiout and Charmōn, the receivers of Ariēl, come, lead his soul out of the body and spend three days going round with it and instructing it concerning the creatures of the world.
6"Thereafter they lead it below into Amente before Ariēl, and he chastizeth it in his chastisements eleven months and twenty-and-one days.
7"Thereafter they lead it into the chaos before. Yaldabaōth and his forty-and-nine demons, and every one of his demons fall upon it another eleven months and twenty-and-one days, scourging it with fiery whips.
8"Thereafter they lead it into fire-rivers and boiling fire-seas, to take vengeance on it therein another eleven months and twenty-and-one days.
9"And thereafter they carry it on to the way of the midst, and every one of the rulers on the way of the midst chastizeth it in his chastisements another eleven months and twenty-and-one days.
10"Thereafter they carry it to the Virgin of Light, who judgeth the righteous and the sinners, that she may judge it. And when the sphere turneth itself, she handeth it over to her receivers, that they may cast it into the æons of the sphere. And the servitors of the sphere will lead it to a water which is below the sphere; and it becometh a seething fire and eateth into it until it purifieth it utterly.
11"And Yaluham, the receiver of Sabaōth, the Adamas, bringeth the cup of forgetfulness and handeth it to the soul, and it drinketh it and forgetteth all regions and all things and all the regions through which it hath gone. And they deliver it unto a body which will spend its time being afflicted.
12"This is the chastisement of the slanderer."