Protennoia's Identity as the Divine Mother Barbelo (38,7-16)

[Guest guest]

This is I myself, the thought of the Father,

First Thought,

Barbelo,[30] the [perfect] glory,

the [immeasurable] invisible one who is hidden.

I am the image of the Invisible Spirit.

Through me all took shape.

I am the Mother,

and the light that she appointed as virgin,

she who is called Meirothea,

the incomprehensible womb,

the unrestrainable and immeasurable voice.[31]

 

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.723

HarperCollins Publishers - New York

ISBN:978-0-06-052378-7

ISBN-10: 0-06-052378-6

 

Notes:

 

[30] Barbelo is the name of the supreme deity's first thought, intellect, or

forethought ('pronoia', " providence " ) in Sethian texts.

 

[31] Similar names or epithets for the divine are used in the 'Secret Book of

John' II, 4-5. Mirothea (or Meirothea) may be a feminization of " divine anointed

one " ('muro-theos') or " divine destiny " ('meiro-theos') or " divine part "

('meros', derived from 'meiromai'). Here and in 'Three Forms of First Thought

45' Mirothea is a feminine cognomen for Barbelo; in 'Holy Book of the Great

Invisible Spirit' III, 49, 'Three Steles of Seth' 119, and 'Zostrianos' 6 and

30, Mirothea is the mother of the heavenly Adam Pigeradamas. In 'Melchizedek' 6

and 18 one also finds Meirocheirothetos (perhaps " one anointed with myrrh " )

mentioned together with Pigeradamas.