The Naassene Fragment is a fragmentary text that survives in no document except a quotation in the early third century encyclopedia of heresies by Hippolytus of Rome called Refutation of All Heresies (5.7.2-9). It may be considered part of the New Testament apocryphal tradition. The Naassenes (from Hebrew nachash, snake) were a Gnostic Ophite sect. The fragmentary quotation is given by Hippolytus as expressing the fundamental ideas of the Naassene Ophites, and possibly of all Gnostics. Text G.R.S. Mead Translation by G.R.S. Mead: First [was there] Mind the Generative Law of All; Second to the Firstborn was Liquid Chaos; Third Soul through toil received the Law. Wherefore, with a deer's form surrounding her, She labours at her task beneath Death's rule. Now, holding sway, she sees the Light; And now, cast into piteous plight, she weeps; Now she weeps, and now rejoices; Now she weeps, and now is judged; Now is judged, and now she dieth; Now is born, with no way out for her; in misery She enters in her wandering the labyrinth of ills. And Jesus said: O Father, see! [Behold] the struggle still of ills on earth! Far from Thy Breath away she wanders! She seeks to flee the bitter Chaos, And knows not how she shall pass through. Wherefore, send me, O Father! Seals in my hands, I will descend; Through Æons universal will I make a Path; Through Mysteries all I'll open up a Way! And Forms of Gods will I display; The secrets of the Holy Path I will hand on, And call them Gnosis. Adolf von Harnack The following is Adolf von Harnack's paraphrase (SBA, 1902, pp. 542 sqq.): The generating principle of the universe, the first in order, was 'reason'; but the second principle was the firstbom's emitted 'chaos'; and the third principle was received by the soul, which descends from both. Therefore, fashioned like a trembling deer, the soul wrests herself free from the grip of death (strengthening itself by such exertions). Now she wins the mastery and sees the light; now plunged into wo, she weeps; again, in the depths of evil, the unhappy one becomes ensnared in a maze. Then spake Jesus: "behold, O Father! this being, pursued by ills, roams astray upon earth, far from thy breath. It seeks to escape bitter chaos, and knows not whither to find escape. Therefore, send me, O Father, with the seals