Index/Gnostic Foundations/ISO-005

CODEX ISO EDITION003

CODEX ISODIGITAL EDITION

The Secret Book of JohnCodex ISO Edition 003 · Reader’s Map

Gnostic FoundationsISO

Edition available nowDigital reading edition

Gnostic FoundationsRecord ISO-005

The Secret Book of John

Codex ISO Edition 003 · Reader’s Map

The text that maps an entire alternative creation story: the invisible Spirit, Barbelo, Sophia, Yaldabaoth, Adam and the question of how a soul escapes ignorance.

4 surviving witnesses2 recensions mappedCosmology guideSelected public-domain passages

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Edition003

FormatDigital PDF

Editorial statusVerified edition

TraditionGnostic Foundations

WHAT YOU GET

A map before the maze.

The Secret Book of John survives in four Coptic manuscripts and two major forms. Edition 003 gives you the witness map, a sequence through the cosmology and carefully labelled selected passages from a public-domain translation.

04Surviving witnessesNHC II, III, IV and Berlin Codex 8502.

02Major recensionsLong and short forms kept visible rather than flattened.

12Cosmology stagesA readable map from the Monad to return.

+Source dossierManuscripts, terminology, uncertainty and further reading.

Before you read

Context without the mythology.

Codex ISO separates the surviving evidence from later interpretation, so you can encounter the text without being told what to believe about it first.

SOURCE DOSSIER · ISO–GN–003

What actually survives?

Four Coptic manuscript witnesses survive. Nag Hammadi Codices II and IV preserve the longer recension; Nag Hammadi Codex III and Berlin Codex 8502 preserve a shorter form. The differences matter, so this edition does not present the work as though one untouched original manuscript survived.

Long recensionNHC II · NHC IV

Short recensionNHC III · Berlin Codex 8502

Language of witnessesCoptic · 4th–5th century copies

CompositionEarlier than the surviving copies · date debated

From / associated with the text

“I am the Father, I am the Mother, I am the Son.”

What we know

Four witnesses survive.

The work is unusually well attested for a Nag Hammadi text: three Nag Hammadi copies plus the Berlin Codex preserve two related forms.

What is disputed

There is no single simple “original.”

The relationship between the long and short recensions, the work’s compositional stages and its precise date remain scholarly questions.

Why it matters

It is a cosmological key.

The text brings together the Monad, Barbelo, Sophia, Yaldabaoth, Adam, the archons and salvation in one of the clearest surviving maps of Sethian myth.

CODEX ISODIGITAL EDITION

The Secret Book of JohnCodex ISO Edition 003 · Reader’s Map

Gnostic FoundationsISO

CODEX ISO · EDITION 003

READY TO ENTER THE COSMOLOGY?

Read John
with a map.

Four-witness dossier · long / short recension map · 12-stage cosmology guide · selected public-domain passages · terminology notes.

£1.99One-time purchase · instant PDF access

Secure Stripe checkout · personal copy · re-download access

THE CODEX STANDARD

Source before story.

We identify the edition, translation and surviving evidence; distinguish documentation from tradition; and state uncertainty rather than turning it into a sales claim.

Our editorial standard ↗

Continue the archive

The Secret Book of John

A map before the maze.

Context without the mythology.

What actually survives?

Four witnesses survive.

There is no single simple “original.”

It is a cosmological key.

Read John
with a map.

Source before story.

Read next.

The Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Philip

The Gospel of Mary

The Secret Book of John

A map before the maze.

Context without the mythology.

What actually survives?

Four witnesses survive.

There is no single simple “original.”

It is a cosmological key.

Read Johnwith a map.

Source before story.

Read next.

The Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Philip

The Gospel of Mary

Read John
with a map.