All this appears in the opening pages of our text with the exception of the place of our earth and of Chaos which is nowhere distinctly stated. Chaos is represented in the episode of _Pistis Sophia_ as being below the twelve Æons or Zodiac; but in her hymn of thanksgiving, she describes what has been done there as taking place “in the world of men.” Does this mean that the earth was made out of the “passions” of Sophia, as Irenæus (I. i., 10, pp. 48, 49 Harvey) says Valentinus affirmed? It is probable; but in any case, the Egyptians seem always to have regarded Chaos or the Darkness as outside rather than below the earth. Footnote 19: See pp. 16-20 Copt. Footnote 20: The word “Æon,” frequently employed in our text, seems to have in it quite a different meaning from that which the Fathers attributed to it. According to them, the Gnostics used it as equivalent to “Spirit” or “Power,” going so far as to describe the Supreme God of their system as “the Perfect Æon.” In our MS., however, it generally signifies the signs of the Zodiac and their curious adjunct the thirteenth Æon, which are all inhabited at some time or other by rebellious powers. In other passages, especially in the later documents, it resumes its proper etymological meaning of “Age” as when “the Consummation of the Æon” is talked of. Footnote 21: Mary Magdalene appears as the chief interlocutor in the dialogues with the Saviour, asking, it is said, thirty-nine questions in all out of a total of forty-six. A Gnostic work is mentioned by Epiphanius in his twenty-sixth Heresy, as being used by a sect which he calls “the Gnostics” only, and bearing the title [the great] “Interrogations of Mary.” Hence Harnack (_Über das gnostische Buch Pistis Sophia_, pp. 107 ff.) concludes that this may have been the original title of our text or of some part of it, and Schmidt seems to agree with him. But the practices which Epiphanius attributes to his Gnostics are expressly condemned in one of the later Documents of our text, nor do any of the tenets which he assigns to them agree with those here described. Footnote 22: The Father is called “the First Mystery looking inward” on p. 126 (Copt) and Jesus “the First Mystery looking outward” on p. 128, while the Veil of the First Mystery who is the Twin Mystery “looking inwards and outwards” is mentioned on p. 222. Footnote 23: See pp. 237-240 (Copt). Footnote 24: See p. 246 (Copt). Footnote 25: See pp. 248-252. The Treasurehouse is therefore part of the Kerasmos. Footnote 26: The Ophites actually had such a diagram, and this with their “defences” or “passwords” is described by Origen. Cf. _Forerunner_, II., pp. 66-74. Footnote 27: