30 After the grapevine, a fig tree and a pomegranate tree sprouted up
from the earth, together with the rest of the trees, all species, having within
them their seed from the 110 seed of the authorities and their angels. Then
Justice created Paradise, being beautiful and being outside the orbit of the
moon and the orbit of the sun in 15 the Land of Wantonness, in the East in the
midst of the stones. And desire is in the midst of the beautiful, appetizing
trees. And the tree of eternal life is as it appeared by God’s will, 10 to the
north of Paradise, so that it might make eternal the souls of the pure, who
shall come forth from the modelled forms of poverty at the consummation of the
age. Now the color of the tree of life is like the sun. And 15 its branches are
beautiful. Its leaves are like those of the cypress. Its fruit is like a bunch
of grapes when it is white. Its height goes as far as heaven. And next to it
(is) the tree of acquaintance (gnosis), having the strength 20 of God.
Its glory is like the moon when fully radiant. And its branches are beautiful. Its
leaves are like fig leaves. Its fruit is like a good appetizing date. And this
tree is to the north of Paradise, 25 so that it might arouse the souls from 1
the torpor of the demons, in order that they might approach the tree of life
and eat of 1 its fruit and so condemn the 1 authorities and their angels. (“On
the Origin of the World (II, 5 and XIII,2),” trans. Hans-Gebhard Bethge and
Bentley Layton, in The Nag Hammadi Library: The Definitive Translation of
the Gnostic Scriptures Complete in One Volume, ed. James M. Robinson [San
Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1990], 178-79)
