The Apocryphon of John

This text from "The Nag Hammadi Library in English” touches on many aspects of the work. This text translated by Frederick Wisse relates to creation, fall and salvation of humanity and would make a good read. A brief of the text:

In the start of the text we can see the doubts been put in the mind of John, the brother of James, by a Pharisee who accuses Jesus of lies, deception and turning people from the traditions of their fathers. John gets disturbed and withdraws to a desert where Christ speaks to him in visions. There he urges John not to fear and goes on to teach him many mysteries. The first few pages are an explanation of creation of all, from the Great Invisible Spirit. Like many aeons, many powers, Barbelo(the image of the great spirit, the first thought, the male virgin who is referred to he and she at different places and is also called womb of everything ). To Christ, is subjected every authority, the twelve aeons attend to him.

Mythology of Sophia:
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Sophia, an aeon, who wanted to bring forth a likeness out of herself without the consent of the Spirit, begets a lion-faced serpent - called Yaltabaoth, whom she hides in a cloud where no one else can see it, for she has created it in ignorance. Yaltabaoth an arrogant and ignorant one, is the first archon, who has the power of his mother, and creates aeons and begot authorities for himself. Since he shared his fire with them he becomes a lord over all of them. The light he possesses is of his mother, but he calls himslef God due to that light.

Sophia becomes repentant when the brightness of her light is diminished and she repents. She becomes dark as her consort had not agreed with her. Due to her repentance Great invisible Spirit causes her to be taken above her son, so that she might be in the ninth until she has corrected her deficiency. (Seems like explanation of work in the 9th sphere till all the consciousness is extracted back from the archons - demons, egos etc)

Creation of Adam:
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The chief archon Yaltabaoth with his authorities creates a being, and they call him Adam.
"And he said to the authorities who attend him, 'Come, let us create a man according to the image of God and according to our likeness, that his image may become a light for us."
Multitudes of angels and powers create the first image of man, and those angels and powers are named next.

Matter gives origin to all demons. The four chief demons belong to pleasure, desire, grief, fear and from them passions come forth. From grief comes envy, jealousy, distress, trouble, pain, callousness, anxiety, mourning etc. From pleasure comes wickedness, empty pride etc. From desire comes anger, wrath, bitterness, bitter passion, etc. From fear comes dread, fawning, agony, and shame.
The natural material body created by them is inactive and motionless for a long time.

Since repentant Sophia wants her power back, she petitions to the Spirit, who sends five lights to the chief archon. They fool him to blow into his face and he blow the spirit to Adam, and this way the power of the mother goes out of Yaltabaoth into the natural body.

Because now their power is in the man they created, and he becomes luminous and more intelligent than the powers - they get jealous of him, and in that jealousy take him to the lowest region of matter to gain power over him.
"And they brought him (Adam) into the shadow of death in order that they might form him again, from earth and water and fire and the spirit which originates in matter, which is the ignorance of darkness and desire, and their counterfeit spirit. This is the tomb of the newly-formed body with which the robbers had clothed the man, the bond of forgetfulness; and he becomes a mortal man."
And then they place him in paradise and warn him not to eat from the tree of good and evil which is placed in the midst of the paradise.

When John enquires about the tempting serpent that taught Adam to eat, Christ replies that the serpent did that from the wickedness of begetting, lust, and destruction, so that Adam might be useful to him.
Since the chief archon wants his power back from Adam, he brings forgetfulness over him. About forgetfulness is mentioned from archon:
"I will make their hearts heavy that they may not pay attention and may not see"

Since it is Epinoia of light hiding in rib of Adam, that made him disobedient to archon, and since she is a luminous power that the archon is unable to catch, he creates another female in form of a woman in likeness of Epinoia, and she is formed out of part of Adam. When Adam saw the woman, Epinoia appeared and awakened the thinking of Adam and Eve, who then recognised their nakedness as they were both in a fallen state. At this Yaldabaoth is angry:
"And when Yaldabaoth noticed that they withdraw from him, he cursed his earth"

Next the birth of Cain and Abel is ascribed to Yaldabaoth, who seduced Eve and begot her two sons. It is written that:
"Now up to the present day sexual intercourse continued due to the chief archon. And he planted sexual desire in her who belongs to Adam. And he produced through intercourse the copies of the bodies, and he inspired them with the counterfeit spirit."
"Thus the seed remained for a while assisting him in order that, when the Spirit comes forth from the holy aeons, he may rise up and heal him from deficiency, that the whole pleroma may again become holy and faultless."
(That is with the work the fallen creation will be healed and become holy.

Christ talks about work, who can have eternal life, who will be taken to hells:
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John asks the savior if all souls will be brought to pure light, Christ mentions about the immovable race, saying that hey are the only ones who can be explained about these things. (The immovable race as I understand is the one of those who will not deviate to the side of the archon.) They will be saved and become perfect and purified from all wickedness and the involvement in evil. They will be free from errors of anger, envy, jealousy, desire, greed etc - that is they will change for better.

John asks about those who will not do these works, but upon whom the power and spirit had descended. Christ says:
“For the power will descend on every man, and after they are born, when the Spirit of life increases and the power comes and strengthens that soul, no one can lead it astray with the works of evil. But those on whom the counterfeit spirit descends are drawn by him and they go astray.”
(Here we can clearly relate the work that is taught to us in the courses to this text, I recommend reading these last few pages from the book)

We can read about hell like places, where those who turned away – that is those who did not work go. Those who blasphemed the spirit get punished with eternal punishment.

There is also a mention of the chief archon repenting for everything he had done and plans to bring a flood upon the work of man. But the light informs Noah, and many people from immovable race are saved. Archons create counterfeit spirit, and they steer people into great troubles, by leading them astray with many deceptions.
“Thus the whole creation became enslaved forever, from the foundation of the world until now.”
Some lines of the text spoken by Savior are here:
http://www.gnosticweb.com/node/16435

hoping that someone would like to read