one runs the risk of ignorance. The text also mentions the cosmic hebdomad and a day that lasts forever. It explains the division of powers among beings, including those in the form of beasts and animals, and their origin from being. Much of the text is missing or unrecoverable and the full meaning is unclear. The text discusses the shape and structure of the soul. It mentions that the soul has different shapes and that the second shape of the soul is spherical and is made up of simple vowels and diphthongs. The third shape of the soul is different from the first but resembles it, and the fourth and fifth shapes were not fully revealed. The text mentions that consonants exist with vowels and are commanded and submit, and they make up the nomenclature of the angels. The text also mentions that some sounds are superior to others, such as the aspirates over the inaspirates, and that there are names made up of vowels and consonants that resemble each other. Marsanes discusses acquiring power and knowledge for oneself to bear fruit. Committing sin will result in the opposite of salvation. Marsanes urges the reader to examine who is worthy to reveal divine knowledge and not to desire the sense-perceptible world. The text mentions the intelligible world and the embodied souls not understanding the perfection, which is more than the angels, stars, and planets. Marsanes mentions numbers and relationships among them, with the ultimate goal of submitting to a power above. The final part of the text is heavily fragmented and many details are missing or unclear. It appears to be a vision concerning the destiny of souls. Marsanes asks about the power of the names and receives a response. He then has a vision of fearsome angels and is aided by an angel named Gamaliel, who leads him to a revelation about judgment and a cleansing from sin through a living water. Analysis Like Zostrianos, and Allogenes, the text describes a very elaborate esoteric cosmogony of successive emanations from an original God, as revealed by Marsanes, who is recognized as a Gnostic prophet. Within the text there are indications that the Sethians had developed ideas of monism, an idea comparable to Heracleon's notion of universal perfection and permanence as expressed through the constancy of the total mass of things within it (that is, all matter in the universe may