In the name of the great God.

This is the mystery and the book of the great Shoot (Nbat), the first of the created, who came forth, shone, flourished and became mighty. Before him angels came forth. At the first calling-forth, by God's command, he called forth eight hundred angels with one calling. Two angels came and rose up. Jawar, the foreordained, was called forth, of whom ...... At the second calling-forth Joshamin and Sar-Ziwa came and rose up. At the third calling-forth beloved, chosen, gentle, calm angels came and rose up, whose names are Sar and Smir. Their names were established two by two in one dwelling.

Then he spread out flourishing, enlightened and taught. They came forth at his right and his left, he spread praise over them, and they shone in their garments. Their radiance mingled with one another, they gleam, shine and glitter, for on their garment was neither blood nor flesh, nor was there ice and corruption on it.

At the first calling-forth that took place, the soul Jawar-Smir was called forth. Jawar, the well-kept soul, rose and said to his Lord: "Thou, my Lord, art great, not small. Thou art mighty, not little. Wide is the radiance at Thy right, wide the radiance at Thy left, and great the light above Thee. This Jordan of living water is no water before Thee. The Tannas melted and spread from the first container over the earth of the ether."

When God heard these words of Jawar-Ziwa, they pleased Him so much that He laid His right hand upon him, set a crown of victories around his head, taught him of His knowledge and called him "Our garment" and "Our word". He was called the word of God.

Then the first rose from his dwelling, the great one prayed and praised his Lord. The word went out from him before his Lord, and the Lord said to him: "Thou mayest do in thy own world all that thou thinkest in goodness, and it is dear to Me. But it is displeasing to Me if thou devisest what is ugly. Far be it that anything ugly be with thee. Rather may the blessing with which I have blessed thee come upon thee, and may the beings of light multiply on the earth of the ether. Do nothing without command, but act according to My command. Then thy works will succeed and thy form will shine in high radiance with the angels whom thou hast created. These will be chosen, gentle and calm. Thou wilt shine, and thy creatures will shine. What they say will be fulfilled. The great ones, their sons and the creatures that they have made will endure."

Then the first rose from his dwelling, it flourished, caused to flourish and made before him 360 Jordans. Over each Jordan it set two guardians. The angels who were set over the first Jordan had the names Adatan and Jadatan. In the name of those angels 800,000 myriads of angels were created. On that day angels without number were created and were baptised in that Jordan of water. There 800,000 myriads of angels were baptised and received the sign. A thousand times a thousand angels were baptised and made firm by the radiance of God.

Then God caused to flourish and made 360 worlds of light flourish. He made the gentle, foremost angel, the head of the creation, and made him the head of his own world — there is nothing that is endless — ***** myriads of angels in that world, in the Jordan in which the angels were formed, in that dwelling in which they received the sign. At that Jordan there was no hatred, jealousy and discord, no unrest, no confusion, no wrath. Nbat-Ziwa swung himself upon the water, the water broke forth and rose to meet his radiance. Then the two mingled with each other. They flourish, become mighty and shine in their form as one radiance. The water is like the radiance, and the radiance is like the water. The earth of that Jordan is like a shining canopy and an unfathomable height. All dwell in the portion of God's mercy, they shine, gleam and glitter. They flourished and made flourish, and their form flourished. There was no devastation there, nor did the plan of the father of the angels show itself. The radiance of Joshamin did not accumulate there, and he did not exalt himself with the angels. There were no mighty ones there, but one was more modest than another, and their heart was calm and humble. The Lord of Greatness rejoiced over his servants, the angels, and they rejoiced in their Lord, the Lord of Greatness. Their radiance shone on one another, and they praise the radiance of their Lord, who bestowed this radiance on them and made this world for them.

Then God called Jawar-Ziwa, in whose name He brought forth 300,000 myriads of angels. He made a likeness, gave it to him and said to him: "Go, step before the Second with this likeness, we will see what he says and what he plans." Then he stepped before him and said to him: "O Joshamin! My Lord has sent me here. Yes, God, thy Lord, commanded me this. He said: Joshamin does not know who thou art."

At the radiance of the likeness that God had given Jawar, the whole dwelling of Joshamin shook and trembled. The throne of Joshamin gave way, so that it bent down. The ones standing before him were terrified. Joshamin rose and wavered, he rose and wavered, for he had no strength to stand before the radiance of the likeness. His feet did not stand on their support, and his heart was tossed to and fro before the likeness.

Jawar perceived how greatly the heart of Joshamin was terrified, so he softened his radiance and dimmed his light and held back the eyes of the Second from looking into the light. Jawar softened his radiance, took him by the palm of his right hand, set him upright before him and said to him: "Hold fast, hold fast, my brother. Behold, the radiance of thy Lord is greater than thy radiance. God, my Lord, thought of thee in goodness. I am a servant of God, and He sent me to thee."

The heart of Joshamin at once took on pride, and he said: "What does it mean that God thought of me? I am a great one!" But Joshamin said to himself: "God does not know me; why should God think of me? He does not bring me up to Him, for my heart is bereft of radiance, cut off from the light."

Then Jawar caused a praise from Joshamin to rise up to God, and God felt compassion for Joshamin. He laid His right hand on him, gave him the pledge of truth, and he gave the pledge of truth to his followers, the angels who sat before him. For what was to come had not yet come to pass. Then — there is nothing that is endless — the thought [came] to the heart of Joshamin. For when he harboured this thought, God did not let him come near to Him. Yet because he was His creature, He was not angry with him; as one of His own root he had been created.

When this plan arose, it was not yet carried out, — there is nothing that is endless, — concerning what is made, what is created and what has been. Yes, God knew what would happen through Joshamin, yet He kept silence and questioned. He said: "When then will the Second beget sons for himself, as he has it in mind?"

Then Jawar, the word, the beloved first creation, in whom God was pleased and to whom He had given endurance, said to Him: "While Thou, my Lord, sittest, questioning and speaking to and fro, this word has been fulfilled." The heart of God was not calmed by this, but He said to him: "Thou art authorised in all that thou sayest."

God gave him garment upon garment and spoke to Taurel, who is called Jawar, whose name is Sam-Smir-Ziwa, as follows: "Go, cast wondrous, living light of radiance and light in the midst of our worlds. The worlds of the Great One shall be above, and the worlds of the Second shall be below. At the border of that place the water-brooks shall flow; there shall be the border and the final measure for all worlds." He heaped garment upon garment on Jawar, set two guardians over him, Osar-Hai and Pta-Hai, and granted him radiance upon radiance, more abundantly than he had.

Then Jawar ..... All the angels perform excellently what my Lord counsels them. Jawar spoke to the angels and was heard, he whose name is Sam-Ziwa. All the angels thanked Jawar and thanked God, as they heard it from him.

Then Joshamin reflected, his thought became pregnant, and the thought was about to be born in the Second. He rose and wanted to accomplish a creation from the first Jordan of life. But the two angels did not let him, the guardians set over him, whose names are Adatan and Jadatan, who perform the baptism, whose sign God has accepted and whose baptism He has confirmed. "Thou art not authorised," they said to him, "to accomplish a creation from this great Jordan, on which God has set up the sign, over which He has speech and hearing, from which He creates what He wills."

Then he said to them: "Where shall I go to call forth creatures and make sons, as God made me and made me His servant?"

Then they answered him: "We are servants, not fathers, we are authorised for nothing. We have only to guard the Jordan of living water, to guard what is in it. Thou, thou hast the power for all that thou thinkest."

Then he went, stood at the head of the lower Jordan, under the upper Jordan. He spoke and called forth three first-born from it. They were one, but their likeness two, and this of one wrath.

Then — there is nothing that is endless. — The sons of the Second called to him in the dwelling of their father, while God kept silence and His own word remained kept with Him.

Then the sons of the Second became pregnant (with a thought), a thought came to them, and they said to their father: "This world, which is wide, and whose radiance is very wide, is thy world and ours. How is it that we do not dwell in it?" Then he answered them: "We would rather not dwell in the world of God, like a lodger who has no home of his own, whom the master of the house provokes to anger and casts (evil) words into his ear. If I should dwell in the world of God," he said to them, "I would (indeed) remain sitting there." But they said to him: "In a world that is not thine we will not sit."

Then their father scolded them harshly, but they cared nothing for the scolding of their father and wanted to give him an ugly counsel. Sometimes their father accepted their counsel, sometimes again he did not accept it.

Then Joshamin said: "I will rise and ascend to God, that He may let me accomplish what I wish, what shall come forth from me."

God knew what the Second planned, and He said: "Once let him act, and it succeed, then let him act again, and it not succeed."

Joshamin did not know that God had spoken this curse over him. He rose and hearkened to what his sons had said. He gave his sons of his strength, his radiance, his power, his ability, his speech and hearing, and sent them off, saying to them: "Go, do what you wish and have counselled me; make it good, not bad."

Then they went to the end of all worlds, to the end of all dwellings, they settled, called forth and made firm the structure of the white earth, but they did not succeed in making an earth of radiance like the earth of the ether. They made and founded every thing on the worlds, they made the four vigorous men, made the sons of salvation.

****** B'haq the angel called forth and made a world for himself, when his two brothers were not with him. For their mind was averse to him, they did not stand on his side, they did not speak according to his speech and did not hear according to his hearing.

When B'haq called forth and made, he stepped forward and looked at this world: it was not wide, nor great, like the worlds of the great God. When he looked at his own world, he called himself "Father of the angels". Like the great God he named himself Adam the Great; at this God was angry with him from the place of light.

Then arose the son of the father of the angels, who called himself father of the angels. He named his son Ptahil: The opening whose eyes I opened, but it did not become seeing. Then Ptahil, the son of the father of the angels, who called himself father of the angels, rose, went and stood at the mixed water and the mixed fire, in which are living fire and consuming fire, and the water of the earth, in which are turbid water and living water, and thought to bring about a creation, and said: "I will make angels and set them up before me, as my father made me."

With the first word he spoke and called forth, and the seven planets came up and rose before him, the destroyers and the destroyed, on whose garment is blood and redness. Their garment is like the red colour, it does not shine and is not white. They are all worthless, for they are like blood, and their name is of bad taste in the mouth.

The souls [that] depart from here ascend again to their place. Those who were taken away from here return home. But all souls who professed belief in images do not ascend to us, are unfit for us and will not behold the world of the Second.

Let the people of the souls of the Nasoraeans not give thanks to the rebels, but to God and Jawar ...... They ascend, for when God sent Jawar to Ptahil and all the evil angels, ......

Life to our knowing ones, life to our understanding ones, life to the understanding ones and the dwelling of the understanding ones. Life to the men who instruct us. God stands firm in His dwelling, God is victorious.