Pistis Sophia

Traditions

Gnosticism

Role in the tradition

Primary source Written from inside the tradition: scripture, revelation, a grimoire, a manifesto or a practical treatise.

Public attention

Major Wikipedia has an article about it in 20 languages.

• Mead's translation ↗ sacred-texts.com checked against the Internet Archive's copy of June 03, 2025, because the site refuses scripts · archived copy
• Horner's translation ↗ gutenberg.org checked September 11, 2026

Pistis Sophia is a Gnostic text discovered in 1773, possibly written between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. G. R. S. Mead documented that Carl Schmidt and Adolf von Harnack attributed it to the Ophite school. The existing manuscript, which some scholars place in the late 4th century, relates one Gnostic group's teachings of the transfigured Jesus to the assembled disciples, including his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Martha. In this text, the risen Jesus had spent eleven years speaking with his disciples, teaching them only the lower mysteries. After eleven years, he receives his true garment and is able to reveal the higher mysteries revered by this group. The prized mysteries relate to complex cosmologies and knowledge necessary for the soul to reach the highest divine realms.

From the Wikipedia article Pistis Sophia, revision 1373670277, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata Q1244996: “gnostic text in the form of a dialogue between Jesus and the disciples”.