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The "lawless Jews" refers to those who are "under the law of the lawless Serpent"; that is to say, those who are under the sway of Generation as contrasted with those who are under the law of Regeneration, of carnal birth as opposed to spiritual birth; or again, of the Lesser as contrasted with the Greater Mysteries.
As the pre-Christian Greek redactor of the Naassene Document phrases it ( T.G.H. , i. 162)"
"For He [the Great Man, the Logos, the Serpent of Wisdom] is Ocean--'birth-causing of gods and birth-causing of men'--flowing and ebbing for ever, now up and now down."
And on this the early Jewish commentator remarks:
"When Ocean flows down, it is the birth-causing of men; and when He flows up, . . . it is the birth-causing of gods."
And further on he adds:
"This is the Great Jordan, which flowing downwards and preventing the Sons of Israel from going forth out of Egypt, or from the Intercourse Below, was turned back by Jesus [LXX. for Joshua] and made to flow upwards."
This one and the same Serpent was thus either Agathodaimôn (or Good Spirit) or the Kakodaimôn (or Evil Spirit), according to the will of man. The regenerated or perfect man, the man of repentance, he who has turned Homewards, or has his "face" set Above, whose will is being atoned with the Divine Will, turns the waters of Ocean upwards, and thus gives birth to himself as a god.
The doxology of our Hymn is triadic--Father, Son, Mother.
Charis, Grace or Love, is Wisdom, or God's Good-Will, the Holy Spirit, or Great breath; that is, the Power and Spouse of Deity.
The order of the triple praise-giving is then reversed: Mother, Son, Father; for Glory is the Great Presence, the Father.
And finally there is a trinity in unity, Praise being given to the Father as Light; the same as the oft-recurring invocation in the Coptic Gnostic works: "Father of all Fatherhood, Boundless Light!"
The doxology being ended, we come to a striking series of double clauses or antitheses. I at once submit that these were not originally intended to be uttered by one and the same person. On the contrary they are evidently amoebæan; that is, answering as in a dialogue. Nor were they addressed to the Disciples; there was some single person for whom the whole was intended, and to whom much of it is addressed.
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