| Term | Detailed Explanation (according to the Nag Hammadi Gnostic Bible) |
| Adam | In the Gnostic concept, Adam is not merely the first human, but rather a battlefield between light and darkness. He was created from dust (clay) by earthly archons led by Jaldabaoth, yet initially remained motionless and empty, because his creators could not breathe true life into him. Only when a higher power—Sophia—intervened and breathed her spark of light (spirit) into him did Adam come to life, becoming brighter and superior to his very creators. Out of envy, the archons imprisoned him in a material body and darkness to keep him in ignorance, but the divine spark remained within him. |
| Aeon | Eternal divine beings, emanations, or spiritual principles that together make up the heavenly Fullness (Pleroma). The Father is the root and source for them. They exist outside our time and space, constantly seeking a deeper knowledge of the incomprehensible Father, and in perfect unity and harmony, they give him glory. |
| Archons | Demonic powers and rulers of the material world (darkness) created by the false god Jaldabaoth. They often possess animal-like forms (e.g., the face of a lion, donkey, monkey, or serpent) and are characterized by blindness and ignorance toward the higher spiritual world. Their primary goal is to keep humanity imprisoned in matter through fear, false laws, and ignorance. They are terrified of the awakened light within humanity. |
| Autogenes (Christ) | The divine Son who „begot himself“ and forms the third member of the primordial heavenly trinity (Father, Mother, Son). As a perfect aeon, he descended from the Pleroma into flesh and the material world, not to atone for sins with blood, but to show humanity the way back to the light and bring knowledge (gnosis). Although the archons attempted to kill him, death has no power over his light. |
| Baptism | For Gnostics, baptism is not a mere washing with water, but a profound spiritual transformation. It signifies receiving light, the forgiveness of sins, and the restoration of original purity. In it, a person metaphorically strips off the filthy garment of the world and puts on the „living human,“ thereby receiving the Spirit and becoming a Christ. |
| Barbelo | The first emanation (thought) that came forth from the Great Invisible Spirit, and is revered as the Mother of all the living. She is a perfect, eternal being and „light above light,“ who stood at the very beginning of creation. She herself asked the Father for light, thereby giving the impulse for the birth of the divine trinity and subsequently the entire spiritual order. |
| Bridal Chamber | The highest mystery and sacrament, superior even to baptism itself. It symbolizes the perfect, incorporeal union of divided principles—the female and the male (the soul and its heavenly spirit) into absolute oneness. Whoever enters it is protected from all demonic forces and becomes forever free. |
| Chaos (Darkness) | The formless and terrifying void that originates from the shadow cast outside the eternal realm of truth. From this shadow and defect, jealousy and the bottomless watery matter were born. Chaos is the space of ignorance in which the archons operate and from which our physical universe is woven. |
| Church | In Gnostic texts (e.g., in the Tripartite Tractate), this is not an earthly institution, but an eternal spiritual entity that existed from the very beginning with the Father. It consists of an immeasurable multitude of perfect and holy spirits (aeons) that exist for the glory of the Father and the Son. It embodies harmony, unity, and the heavenly assembly. |
| Defect (Flaw) | The cosmic error and disruption of perfection that occurred when one of the divine components (e.g., the Logos or Sophia) attempted to act without the consent of the Whole, or when looking into the depth and doubting. This defect caused the emergence of division, darkness, fear, and illusory shadow copies, from which our material universe was subsequently formed. |
| Divine Spark | A fragment of pure light and higher Spirit that Sophia placed into the first humans to bring them to life. This spark is imprisoned within humans beneath layers of matter and darkness, but its essence is far stronger than any power of the archons. The awakening of this spark (remembering one’s origin) is the essence of salvation and allows the soul to return to the Pleroma. |
| Eucharist | The Gnostic view of the Eucharist transcends the physical ritual. Jesus himself is the Eucharist (in Syriac, „pharisatha“—the spread out/broken one), who came to „crucify the world“. His body represents the living Word (the bread of life from heaven) and his blood is the Holy Spirit. The one who receives this spiritual nourishment gains eternal garments and life. |
| Eve | Created by the archons from Adam’s rib, but initially empty and soulless. She came to life only when Sophia sent her spark into her. Eve subsequently awakened the sleeping Adam, and together they partook of the food from the tree of knowledge, which opened their eyes to their spiritual origin and freed them from Jaldabaoth’s illusion. |
| Father (Depth) | The absolute, transcendent, and unfathomable root of all being. He existed before anything else. He is unbegotten, limitless, immutable, and represents Fullness itself. He cannot be fully comprehended by the human mind or described in words; he dwells in perfect silence and begets from his own thought. |
| Four Lights | Mighty spiritual entities (Harmozel, Oroiael, Daveithai, and Eleleth) that emanate from the first divine trinity. Each of these lights possesses its own specific power and glory, and they are served by myriads of angels. These beings help guard the spiritual spheres and provide protection to awakened souls during their ascent. |
| Fullness (Pleroma) | The perfect, immaterial realm of light, which is the home of the exalted Father and all aeons. In the Pleroma, there is no deficiency, division, or shadow. It is the ultimate goal and home to which all awakened divine sparks (souls) must eventually ascend and return after their liberation from matter. |
| Great Invisible Spirit | The supreme divine principle, which is the first, absolutely perfect, and stands infinitely high above all created things. He has no material shape or human form; he is pure, eternal light that cannot be seen by the physical eye and is the source of all existence before the beginning of time. |
| Jaldabaoth (Saklas, Samael) | The first archon and false creator (demiurge) of the material world. He emerged from the shadow of the aeon Sophia. He is depicted as an androgynous monster with a lion’s face and a serpent’s body. He is arrogant and blind; he proclaims himself the only God because, out of his own ignorance, he suspects nothing of the existence of the higher light and his Mother. |
| Logos | The divine principle, the Word, and the cause of the arrangement of things. In some texts, the Logos moved, doubted upon looking into the depth, and thereby unintentionally caused division and the emergence of shadow copies. Later, however, he turned away from evil, prayed to the Father, and established a new order to save and arrange creation. |
| Material Race (Hylics) | The lowest human nature, entirely consumed by darkness and matter. These people avoid the light because it exposes their emptiness and destroys their appearance. They do not possess the spark of awakening within them, and therefore they are doomed to perish along with the created material world. |
| Norea | A powerful female figure, daughter, and sister, who is the bearer of knowledge. She descended from the heights to help Sophia out of darkness. When the archons attempted to bind her, she transformed into pure light and blinded them. She serves as a spiritual guide for those who seek truth and have ears to hear. |
| Oblivion | A dark state of spiritual amnesia into which souls fell after descending into matter. It arose as a consequence of the ignorance of the Father and acts like a thick fog that prevents people from seeing the truth. However, as soon as a person comes to know their true origin through the Savior, this oblivion immediately ceases to exist. |
| Psychic Race (Psychics) | The middle group of humans, likened to „light from a fire“. Upon encountering the truth, they initially hesitate and need to be instructed and guided by a voice from above. Their fate is not predetermined; they have a dual destiny and, based on their decisions, they can incline either toward good (and be saved) or toward evil. |
| Resurrection | Gnostic resurrection is not understood as a future reanimation of dead physical bodies at the end of time. It is a present, internal state of awakening. It occurs when a person sees through the illusion of matter, recognizes their divine essence, and turns to the Father. The one who realizes this has „risen from the dead“ while still alive, and death loses its power over them. |
| Son (Word) | The firstborn and only Son, who exists in the same essence (homoousios) with the unknowable Father. It is he who, as the perfect Word, light, and Savior, descends into the darkness of oblivion to awaken those who sleep, bring them knowledge (gnosis), and show them the way back to the Fullness. |
| Sophia (Wisdom) | The youngest of the aeons, whose desire to create (or to know the Father) without a divine partner led to a disruption of the order. From her shadow and error, Jaldabaoth and the material universe arbitrarily emerged. Sophia regretted her action, wept over the loss of light, and subsequently actively participated in saving humans by placing the animating spiritual breath within them. |
| Spiritual Race (Pneumatics) | The highest of the three types of human nature. These are people who carry within them the strong essence of „light from light“. When the call from above reaches them and the truth is revealed to them, they accept it immediately and without hesitation, become one body with the Savior, and are predestined for absolute and perfect salvation. |
| Tree of Knowledge | The tree in paradise from which Adam and Eve ate. While the false rulers (archons) forbade it, eating from it brought the first humans gnosis—it opened their eyes and allowed them to recognize their true, spiritual essence. For this awakening from illusion, Jaldabaoth cursed them and expelled them from paradise. |
| Truth | The unshakeable, immutable, and perfect essence. So that it could be understood in the material world, it did not come into the world naked, but cloaked in symbols, images, and parables. The knowledge of this truth destroys the fog of oblivion and liberates imprisoned human souls. |
| Worldly Names | Deceptive concepts and illusory labels that the archons and rulers of the world abuse to deceive humanity. They deliberately appropriate names reserved for good and heavenly realities and attach them to earthly, un-good things in order to confuse, enslave, and permanently bind free human souls to matter. |
