{ "book": "The Fragments of Epiphanes", "language": "en", "baseUrl": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes", "chapters": { "1": { "title": "\"On Justice\" (Revised)", "verses": [ { "id": "1:1", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:1", "text": "The justice of The Father is, at its root, a fellowship grounded in equality. Consider the heavens: stretched equally in every direction, the sky encircles the whole earth in one unbroken arc.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.6.1", "url": "#lit:3.2.6.1" }, "next": "1:2" }, { "id": "1:2", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:2", "text": "Night reveals its stars to all without distinction. Day by day, the sun pours The Father's light from above upon the earth equally, for every creature capable of sight.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.6.1", "url": "#lit:3.2.6.1" }, "prev": "1:1", "next": "1:3" }, { "id": "1:3", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:3", "text": "The light does not discriminate. It does not sort the rich from the poor, the ruler from the ruled, the foolish from the wise, female from male, free person from slave.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.6.2", "url": "#lit:3.2.6.2" }, "prev": "1:2", "next": "1:4" }, { "id": "1:4", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:4", "text": "Nor does the light withhold itself from creatures without reason. For the good and the wicked alike, The Father upholds this justice — no one is permitted to hold more light than another, or to steal light from a neighbor in order to hoard it for themselves.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.6.2-3", "url": "#lit:3.2.6.2" }, "prev": "1:3", "next": "1:5" }, { "id": "1:5", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:5", "text": "The sun rises providing nourishment for all living creatures in common. Each species reproduces after its own kind: cattle as cattle, pigs as pigs, sheep as sheep, and so with everything else. This is justice made manifest.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.6.3-4", "url": "#lit:3.2.6.3" }, "prev": "1:4", "next": "1:6" }, { "id": "1:6", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:6", "text": "All things are sown equally according to their kind. Common food is made available to all without restraint — held under no law, distributed in harmony through the provision of The Father. Justice simply attends all alike.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.6.4-3.2.7.1", "url": "#lit:3.2.6.4" }, "prev": "1:5", "next": "1:7" }, { "id": "1:7", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:7", "text": "The laws of procreation have never been inscribed on any tablet — and so they cannot be repealed. All creatures sow and reproduce equally, possessing a fellowship that is not legislated but innate, born of justice itself.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.7.1", "url": "#lit:3.2.7.1" }, "prev": "1:6", "next": "1:8" }, { "id": "1:8", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:8", "text": "The Ten Commandments, however, incapable of correcting human error, have instead taught them transgression. The particularity of these commandments — the insistence on the specific, the exclusive, the proprietary — has cut apart and gradually eroded the fellowship that The Father has established.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.7.2-3", "url": "#lit:3.2.7.2" }, "prev": "1:7", "next": "1:9" }, { "id": "1:9", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:9", "text": "The notions of \"mine\" and \"yours\" crept into the world through The Ten Commandments, so that what was held in common is no longer enjoyed in common: neither land nor possessions.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.7.3-4", "url": "#lit:3.2.7.3" }, "prev": "1:8", "next": "1:10" }, { "id": "1:10", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:10", "text": "Once this fellowship was violated, once equality was broken, the world acquired something new: the thief.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.8.1", "url": "#lit:3.2.8.1" }, "prev": "1:9", "next": "1:11" }, { "id": "1:11", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:11", "text": "The Father made all things with commonality in mind. In doing so, he revealed justice as fellowship with equality.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.8.2", "url": "#lit:3.2.8.2" }, "prev": "1:10", "next": "1:12" }, { "id": "1:12", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:12", "text": "And still, this justice is denied in the very act that brings new life into the world. They say: 'you shall not commit adultery' — even though all creatures are capable of sharing, as the rest of the animals plainly demonstrate.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.8.3", "url": "#lit:3.2.8.3" }, "prev": "1:11", "next": "1:13" }, { "id": "1:13", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:13", "text": "The Father, through His Wisdom, made desire intense and vigorous in males and females for the continuation of the species. There is no law; no custom; no thing that can extinguish desire, for desire is a decree of God!", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.8.4", "url": "#lit:3.2.8.4" }, "prev": "1:12", "next": "1:14" }, { "id": "1:14", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:14", "text": "Therefore the Tenth Commandment is the most absurd of them all: “You shall not desire of your neighbor’s wife.” What a joke!", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.9.3", "url": "#lit:3.2.9.3" }, "prev": "1:13", "next": "1:15" }, { "id": "1:15", "url": "https://carpocratian.org/en/church/books/epiphanes#1:15", "text": "Who was it that gave us desire to sustain us in the first place? Who is it now that commands it to be taken away? Why have they not taken it away from any other living creature? Who would force the logic of private property onto a person that, by nature, belongs to no one? A thief, no doubt.", "ref": { "work": "Stromata", "loc": "3.2.9.3", "url": "#lit:3.2.9.3" }, "prev": "1:14" } ] } }, "version": "2026-07-06" }