[...] enter [...] the abundance [...] those who [...] I will speak
my mystery to those who are mine and to those who will be mine.
Moreover it is these who have known him who is, the Father, that is,
the Root of the All, the Ineffable One who dwells in the Monad.
He dwells alone in silence, and silence is tranquility
since, after all, he was a Monad and no one was before him.
He dwells in the Dyad and in the Pair, and his Pair is
Silence.
And he possessed the All dwelling within him.
And as for Intention and Persistence, Love and Permanence,
they are indeed unbegotten.
God came forth: the Son, Mind of the All, that is, it is
from the Root of the All that even his Thought stems, since he had
this one (the Son) in Mind.
For on behalf of the All, he received an alien Thought
since there were nothing before him.
From that place it is he who moved [...] a gushing spring.
Now this is the Root of the All and Monad without any one before
him.
Now the second spring exists in silence and speaks with him
alone.
And the Fourth accordingly is he who restricted himself in
the Fourth: while dwelling in the Three-hundred-sixtieth, he first
brought himself (forth), and in the Second he revealed his will, and
in the Fourth he spread himself out.
While these things are due to the Root of the All, let us
for our part enter his revelation and his goodness and his descent
and the All, that is, the Son, the Father of the All, and the Mind
of the Spirit; for he was possessing this one before [...].
He is a spring.
He is one who appears in Silence, and he is Mind of the All
dwelling secondarily with Life.
For he is the projector of the All and the very hypostasis
of the Father, that is, he is the Thought and his descent below.
When he willed, the First Father revealed himself in him.
Since, after all, because of him the revelation is
available to the All, I for my part call the All 'the desire of the
All'.
And he took such a thought concerning the All - I for my
part call the thought 'Monogenes'.
For now God has brought Truth, the one who glorifies the
Root of the All.
Thus it is he who revealed himself in Monogenes, and in him
he revealed the Ineffable One [...] the Truth.
They saw him dwelling in the Monad and in the Dyad and in
the Tetrad.
He first brought forth Monogenes and Limit.
And Limit is the separator of the All and the confirmation
of the All, since they are [...] the hundred [...].
He is the Mind [...] the Son.
He is completely ineffable to the All, and he is the
confirmation and the hypostasis of the All, the silent veil, the
true High Priest, the one who has the authority to enter the Holies
of Holies, revealing the glory of the Aeons and bringing forth the
abundance to <fragrance>.
The East [...] that is in Him.
He is the one who revealed himself as the primal sanctuary
and the treasury of the All.
And he encompassed the All, he who is higher than the All.
These for their part sent Christ forth to establish her just as they
were established before her descent.
And they say concerning him: [...] He is not manifest, but
invisible to those remaining within Limit.
And he possesses four powers: a separator and a confirmor,
a form-provider and a substance-producer.
Surely we alone would discern their presences and the time
and the places which the likenesses have confirmed because they have
[...] from these places [...] the Love [...] is emanated [...] the
entire Pleroma [...].
The persistence endures always, and [...] for also [...]
the time [...] more [...] that is, the proof of his great love.
So why a separator, and a confirmor and a substance-producer and a
form-provider as others have said? For they say concerning Limit
that he has two powers, a separator and a confirmor, since it
separates Depth from the Aeons, in order that [...].
These, then [...] of Depth [...].
For [...] is the form [...] the Father of the Truth [...]
say that Christ [...] the Spirit [...] Monogenes [...] has [...].
It is a great and necessary thing for us to seek with more
diligence and perseverance after the scriptures and those who
proclaim the concepts.
For about this the ancients say, "they were proclaimed by
God." So let us know his unfathomable richness! He wanted [...]
servitude.
He did not become [...] of their life [...].
They look steadfastly at their book of knowledge and they
regard one another`s appearance.
That Tetrad projected the Tetrad which is the one consisting of Word
and Life and Man and Church.
Now the Uncreated One projected Word and Life.
Word is for the glory of the Ineffable One while Life is
for the glory of Silence, and Man is for his own glory, while Church
is for the glory of Truth.
This, then, is the Tetrad begotten according to the
likeness of the Uncreated (Tetrad).
And the Tetrad is begotten [... ]
the Decad from Word and Life, and the Dodecad from Man, and
Church became a Triacontad.
Moreover, it is the one from the Triacontad of the Aeons
who bear fruit from the Triacontad.
They enter jointly, but they come forth singly, fleeing
from the Aeons and the Uncontainable Ones.
And the Uncontainable Ones, once they had looked at him,
glorified Mind since he is an Uncontainable One that exists in the
Pleroma.
But the Decad from Word and Life brought forth decads so as to make
the Pleroma become a hundred, and the Dodecad from Man and Church
brought forth and made the Triacontad so as to make the three
hundred sixty become the Pleroma of the year.
And the year of the Lord [...perfect...] perfect [...]
according to [...] Limit and [...] Limit [...] the greatness which
[...] the goodness [...] him.
Life [...] suffer [...] by the face [...] in the presence
of the Pleroma [...] which he wanted [...].
And he wanted to leave the Thirtieth - being a syzygy of Man
and Church, that is, Sophia - to surpass the Triacontad and bring
the Pleroma [...] his [...] but [...] and she [...] the All [...]
but [...] who [...] the All [...].
He made [...] the thoughts and [...] the Pleroma through
the Word [...] his flesh.
These, then, are the Aeons that are like them.
After the Word entered it, just as I said before, also the
one who comes to be with the Uncontainable One brought forth [...]
before they [...] forth [...] hide him from [...] the syzygy and
[...] the movement and [...] project the Christ [...] and the seeds
[...] of the cross since [...] the imprints of the nail wound [...]
perfection.
Since it is a perfect form that should ascend into the
Pleroma, he did not at all want to consent to the suffering, but he
was detained [...] him by Limit, that is, by the syzygy, since her
correction will not occur through anyone except her own Son, whose
alone is the fullness of divinity.
He willed within himself bodily to leave the powers and he
descended.
And these things (passions) Sophia suffered after her son
ascended from her, for she knew that she dwelt in a [...] in unity
and restoration.
They were stopped [...] the brethren [...] these.
A [...] did not [...].
li>
I became [...].
Who indeed are they? The [...], on the one hand, stopped
her [...], on the other hand, [...].
with the [...] her.
These moreover are those who were looking at me, these who,
[...] these who considered [...] the death.
They were stopped [...] her and she repented and she
besought the Father of the truth, saying, "Granted that I have
renounced my consort.
Therefore I am beyond confirmation as well.
I deserve the things (passions) I suffer.
I used to dwell in the Pleroma putting forth the Aeons and
bearing fruit with my consort" And she knew what she was and what
had become of her.
So they both suffered; they said she laughs since she remained alone
and imitated the Uncontainable One, while he said she laughs since
she cut herself off from her consort. [...]
Indeed Jesus and Sophia revealed the creature.
Since, after all, the seeds of Sophia are incomplete and
formless, Jesus contrived a creature of this sort and made it of the
seeds while Sophia worked with him.
For since they are seeds and without form, he descended and
brought forth that pleroma of aeons which are in that place, since
even the uncreated ones of those Aeons are of the pattern of the
Pleroma and the uncontainable Father.
The Uncreated One brought forth the pattern of the
uncreated, for it is from the uncreated that the Father brings forth
into form.
But the creature is a shadow of pre-existing things.
Moreover, this Jesus created the creature, and he worked from the
passions surrounding the seeds.
And he separated them from one another, and the better
passions he introduced into the spirit and the worse ones into the
carnal.
Now, first among all those passions [...] nor [...] him, since,
after all, Pronoia caused the correction to project shadows and
images of those who exist from the first and those who are and those
who shall be.
This, then, is the dispensation of believing in Jesus for
the sake of him who inscribed the All with likenesses and images and
shadows.
After Jesus brought forth further, he brought forth for the All
those of the Pleroma and of the syzygy, that is, the angels.
For simultaneously with the agreement of the Pleroma her
consort projected the angels, since he abides in the will of the
Father.
For this is the will of the Father: not to allow anything
to happen in the Pleroma apart from a syzygy.
Again, the will of the Father is: always produce and bear
fruit.
That she should suffer, then, was not the will of the
Father, for she dwells in herself alone without her consort.
Let us [...] another one [...] the Second [...] the son of
another [...] is the Tetrad of the world.
And that Tetrad put forth fruit as if the Pleroma of the
world were a Hebdomad.
And it entered images and likenesses and angels and
archangels, divinities and ministers.
When all these things were brought to pass by Pronoia [...] of Jesus
who [...] the seeds [...] of Monogenes [...].
Indeed they are spiritual and carnal, the heavenly and the
earthly.
He made them a place of this sort and a school of this sort
for doctrine and for
Moreover the Demiurge began to create a man according to his image
on the one hand and on the other according to the likeness of those
who exist from the first.
It was this sort of dwelling place that she used for the
seeds, namely [...
separate ...] God.
When they [...] in behalf of man, since indeed the Devil is
one of the divine beings.
He removed himself and seized the entire plaza of the gates
and he expelled his own root from that place in the body and
carcasses of flesh, for he is enveloped by the man of God.
And Adam sowed him.
Therefore he acquired sons who angered one another.
And Cain killed Abel his brother, for the Demiurge breathed
into them his spirit.
And there took place the struggle with the apostasy of the
angels and mankind, those of the right with those of the left, those
in heaven with those on earth, the spirits with the carnal, and the
Devil against God.
Therefore the angels lusted after the daughters of men and
came down to flesh so that God would cause a flood.
And he almost regretted that he had created the world [...]
the consort and Sophia and her Son and the angels and the seeds.
But the syzygy is the complete one, and Sophia and Jesus and the
angels and the seeds are images of the Pleroma.
Moreover, the Demiurge cast a shadow over the syzygy and
the Pleroma and Jesus and Sophia and the angels and the seeds.
The complete one glorifies Sophia; the image glorifies
Truth.
And the glory of the seeds and Jesus are those of Silence
and Monogenes.
And the angels of the males and the seminal ones of the
females are all Pleromas.
Moreover whenever Sophia receives her consort and Jesus
receives the Christ and the seeds and the angels, then the Pleroma
will receive Sophia joyfully, and the All will come to be in unity
and reconciliation.
For by this the Aeons have been increased; for they knew
that should they change, they are without change.
End
Selection made from James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi
Library, revised edition. HarperCollins, San Francisco,
1990.