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On the Origin of the World is a Gnostic work dealing with creation and the end time. It was found among the texts in the Nag Hammadi library, in Codex II and Codex XIII, immediately following the Reality of the Rulers. There are many parallels between the two texts.[1] The work is untitled; modern scholars call it “On the Origin of the World” based on its contents.[2] It may have been written in Alexandria near the end of the third century, based on its combination of Jewish, Manichaean, Christian, Greek, and Egyptian ideas.[2][3] The unknown author's audience appears to be outsiders who are unfamiliar with the Gnostic view of how the world came into being.[2] The contents provide an alternate interpretation of Genesis, in which the dark ruler Yaldabaoth created heaven and earth, and a wise instructor opened the minds of Adam and Eve to the truth when they ate from the Tree of Knowledge.
- ^ The Gnostic Bible, ch 27, p431, New Seeds, 2003, ISBN 1-59030-199-4
- ^ a b c Ehrman, Bart D. (2003). Lost Scriptures : Books That Did Not Make It into the New Testament (Pbk. ed.). New York: Oxford Univ. Press. p. 307. ISBN 978-0-19-514182-5.
- ^ director, James M. Robinson (1977). The Nag Hammadi Library : Chenoposkion Manuscripts English (1st U.S. ed.). New York: Harper & Row. p. 161. ISBN 0-06-066929-2.