This book is one of the earliest, extensive extant texts of Gnosticism, and one of the most important. It was extremely influential to Carl Jung, and continues to astound and enlighten seekers thousands of years after its first appearing. It is set forth in terms of mysteries which are conceived in a more vital way than in earlier literature. On the lower side the mysteries still keep in touch with the tradition of words-of-power, authentic, and incorruptible names. But this book introduces the higher mysteries, in which the Savior himself is concretely the first and last mysteries.