Protennoia's Identity as the Omnipresent Divine First Thought (35,1-32)

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Protennoia's Identity as the Omnipresent Divine First Thought (35,1-32)

 

am First [Thought,[2] the] thought that is in [light].

am movement[3] that is in the [All],[4]

[she in whom the] All takes its stand,

the firstborn among those who [came to be],

[she who] exists before the All.

[she] is called by three names,[5] though she dwells alone,

[since she is complete].

I am invisible within the thought of the invisible one,[6]

although I am revealed in the immeasurable and the ineffable.

I am incomprehensible, dwelling in the incomprehensible,

although I move in every creature.

I am the life of my Epinoia[7]

that is within every power and every eternal movement,

and in invisible lights,

and within the rulers and angels and demons

and every soul in Tartaros,[8]

and in every material soul.

I dwell in those who came to be.

I move in everyone and probe them all.

I walk upright, and those who sleep I awaken.[9]

And I am the sight of those who are asleep.

I am the invisible one within the All.

I counsel those who are hidden,

since I know everything that exists in the All.

I am numberless beyond everyone.

I am immeasurable, ineffable, yet whenever I [wish],

shall reveal myself through myself.

I [am the movement of] the All.

I am before [all, and] I am all, since I [am in] everyone.

The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (The International Edition)

Edited by Marvin Meyer; Advisory Board: Wolf-Peter Funk, Paul-Hubert Poirier,

James M. Robinson; Introduction by Elaine H. Pagels

Three Forms of First Thought, p.720-721.

HarperCollins Publishers - New York

ISBN:978-0-06-052378-7

ISBN-10: 0-06-052378-6

Notes:

[2] Protennoia, here and throughout this and other Sethian texts, is often

identified as Barbelo, the merciful Mother(-Father), Pronoia ( " Forethought " ),

and so on.

[3] Probably in the sense of the self-motion of the soul, for Plato the source

of all movement ('Phaedrus' 245c; 'Laws' 895e-896b; cf. the motion of the divine

wisdom in 'Wisdom of Solomon' 7:22-24).

[4] I.e., the universe.

[5] I.e., Father, Mother, and Child (or Voice, Speech, and Word).

[6] The invisible one may allude to the Invisible Spirit; as his thought,

Protennoia is the originator of the Pleroma, or divine Fullness.

[7] Epinoia (or " Insight, " here and below) is a projection or lower double of

Protennoia, her " reflection " by which she acts upon the realms below her. The

figure of Epinoia occurs four times in 'Three Forms of First Thought' (as the

Epinoia of Light identified with Sophia in 39; 40; 47), once in the 'Thought of

Norea', and sixteen times in the 'Secret Book of John'.

[8] Tartaros is the realm of the dead, the underworld, and often the lower realm

of the underworld, hell, the place of punishment.

[9] See 'Ephesians' 5:14 and 'Secret Book of John' II, 30-31.

, " violettubb " <violettubb

wrote:

>

> Excerpt, Introduction - (Introduced and Translated by John D. Turner)

>

> (p.716) First, Protennoia is the divine but as yet inarticulate Voice of the

Invisible Spirit's First Thought who presides over the establishing of the

heavenly dwellings for her members and descends into the realm of chaos to give

shape to her " members, " fragments of her spirit that have fallen into the world

(35,32-36,27; 40,29-41,1). Second, Protennoia is the articulate Speech of the

Thought who descends to overthrow the old aeon [eternal realm] ruled by the evil

powers and empower her fallen members to prepare for the coming new age by

giving them spirit or breath (42,4-27; 45,2-12; 45, 21-46,3). Third, Protennoia

is the fully articulated Word, or Logos, of the Thought who descends in the

likeness of successively lower powers and, entering the " tents " of her members,

confers upon them the saving baptismal rite of the Five Seals by which they are

immersed in divine " living water " --whose divine luminescence washes away their

corporeal nature--whereupon they along with the crucified Jesus are raptured

into the light (46,5-6; 47,5-22; 49,15-22; 50,9-12.18-20).

>

> The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (The International Edition)

> Edited by Marvin Meyer; Advisory Board: Wolf-Peter Funk, Paul-Hubert Poirier,

James M. Robinson; Introduction by Elaine H. Pagels

> Three Forms of First Thought, Excerpt, Introduction, p.716

> HarperCollins Publishers - New York

> ISBN:978-0-06-052378-7

> ISBN-10: 0-06-052378-6

>