The Authoritative Teaching is a gnostic tractate of the Nag Hammadi Library placed in Codex VI. It makes implications of a divine spirit being placed on the immoral Earth to face the trials of evil and regain its elevated place in the heavens through attaining knowledge. The text is dated around the 3rd century AD.
Content overview
The text gives a metaphoric teaching about a soul (her) from a divine world that comes to see the material world but gets distracted and creates earthly attachments. Some of the metaphorical identities that the soul is given include a prostitute, a contestant, a bride, an invalid, a fish, and wheat. However, God watches over the soul and warns the soul of earthly attachments such as Lust, Pride, Greed, Fraud, Ignorance, Envy, & Vanity.