Creating and Procreating the gospel of Philip

Creating and Procreating

There is the child of humankind, and there is the child of the child of humankind. The child of humankind is the master, and the child of the child of humankind is the one who creates through the child of humankind. The child of humankind received from God the ability to create. He can also procreate. One who has received the ability to create is a creature, and one who has received the ability to procreate is an offspring. One who creates cannot procreate, but one who procreates can create. One who creates is said to procreate, but the “offspring” are really creatures, because these “offspring” are not children of procreation but [works of creation].

One who creates works openly, and is visible. One who procreates does so [secretly], and is hidden, for one who procreates [is beyond every] image. So then, one who creates does so openly, and one who procreates [produces] offspring secretly.

There is the Son of Man [Jesus] and there is the son of the Son of Man [one whose has received the masculine seed of Christ along with holy spirit and has conceived to a new creation]. The Lord [Jesus] is the Son of Man, and the son of the Son of Man is he who creates [a proselyte] through the Son of Man [those who are called to Him who have “heard the word and were baptized”]. The Son of Man received from God the capacity to create [proselytes while he was in the world]. He also has the ability to beget [sons of God since He received life within Himself just as the Father has, he can now pass on that life through “Christ in you” (your heart)]. He who has received the ability to create is a creature [all sons of man are creatures with the power of physical creation]. He who has received the ability to beget [spritual birth] is an offspring [adopted as begotten sons of God and can now beget sons (proselytes')]. He who creates cannot beget [the old man must die]. He who begets also has power to create [through regeneration of the spirit sons]. Now they [those of the world] say, "He who creates begets". But his [the natural man’s] so-called "offspring" is merely a creature [of the flesh]. Because of […water baptism, the image.] of birth [so outward forms], they are not his offspring but [...his creations]. He who creates works openly, and he himself is visible. He who begets, begets in private, and he himself is hidden, since [...] image. Also, he who creates, creates openly. But one who begets, begets children in private. (Philip 93) [This describes the differences between physical birth and spiritual birth but too much is missing in this verse to attempt a complete interpretation.] 9 Everyone who has been born from God [as a maturing spirit son] does not carry on sin [he gets control of his body], because his [Christ’s] seed remains in such one, and he cannot practice sin [this one has come to realize that the letter leads to death and has moved on to the “spirit” and as a result is not bound by the letter of the law but is being guided by the “law of the spirit” which discovers all of our sins to us for correction], because he has been born from God (1 John 3). (Philip 94) Our flesh will always tempt the spirit as long as we wear it and although we are spiritually forgiven the sins of our flesh, we must continue to kill the old man all day long and repent of our errors in the knowledge that this is so.