THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

...he manifests and reveals the world in the sign of the radiance of the Aeon of
Light from which he comes, whose sign is here in this world illuminating all of
creation.
...he nourishes, gives power, the taste and fragrance of the trees and fruit and
vegetables and all herbs and flowers and fertile plains upon all the earth.
(Keph. 160.1, 10) 28
Thou createdst the earth when thou wert afar, namely men, cattle, all flocks,
and everything on earth which moves with legs, or which is up above flying with
wings. The foreign countries of Syria and Kush, and the land of Egypt, thou
placest every man in his place, and makest their food... Infinite life is in thee to
quicken them, and the breath of life for (their) nostrils. Thy beams appear, and
all nourishing plants grow in the soil, caused to grow by thy rays!
(‘Great Hymn’, Tomb of Ay, Akhenaten) 29
B. The Sun as giver of perception
The first good act which he performs for them is his Light which he shines forth
upon them, opening the eyes of all human beings as they see by reason of it and
are born in him.
(Keph. 65 159.18-20) 30
Homage to thee, Re, supreme power, who makes the earth visible, who gives
light to those in the West, he whose forms are his being, when he transforms
(himself) into his Great Disk!
(The Great Litany, 4) 31
C. The withdrawal of the Sun and the commencement of the
Evil time
The first evil accomplished in the world by the night is the darkness of which all
the world is full since when the Sun turns away from the world and draws in its
rays, immediately from there the night spreads its shade upon all the world. The
eyes of human beings become full of darkness.
(Keph. 65 160.23) 32
...immediately thence the evil human beings come out and perform wicked
deeds, the adulterers, the plunderers and the poisoners, the evil beasts come out
with all the snakes from their holes, filled with evil deeds, wandering in the
night.
28
Coptic Transcription from MH, 160.
29
Redford, Akhenaten the Heretic King, 177.
30
Coptic Transcription from MH, 159.
31
Alexandre Piankoff, The Litany of Re (New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964), 22.
32
Coptic Transcription from MH, 160.