Excursus on the Equivalence of the Triads Father-Mother-Child and Voice-Speech-Word (37,20-30)

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Three Forms of First Thought

 

Excursus on the Equivalence of the Triads Father-Mother-Child and

Voice-Speech-Word (37,20-30)

 

(p.723) Now the voice that came from my thought--it exists as three abiding

entities:[22] the Father, the Mother, and the Child--exists as perceptible

speech, and it has within it a word endowed with every <glory>.[23] It has three

masculine aspects, three powers,[24] and three names. Thus they exist as the

three n n n, three quadrangles,[25] secretly in ineffable silence.

 

[The anointed one, the Christ], alone came to be. I anointed him with

[goodness][26] as the glory [of the] invisible [spirit.[27] The three][28] I

established [alone in] eternal [glory] over [the eternal realms in] living

[water]. This [is the glory surrounding the one] who made the light of those

exalted aeons radiate gloriously and in everlasting stability. And [he] stood in

his own light surrounding him, the eye of light[29] shining gloriously on me. He

provided aeons for the father of all aeons.

 

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:

 

[22] " Abiding entities " translates Greek 'monai', which in 'John' 14:2, 23

signifies permanent heavenly dwellings. This triad usually refers to the Sethian

supreme divine trinity ('Secret Book of John' II, 2; 9; 'Irenaeus Against

Heresies' 1.29.4), but here seems to refer to the three successive

self-manifestations of Protennoia's thought as voice, speech, and word

('logos').

 

[23] The Coptic text is emended to read <e>oou.

 

[24] Cf. the Triple-Powered One of the Platonizing Sethian treatises, which

brings into being the aeon of Barbelo.

 

[25] Perhaps a symbol of the three-formed Barbelo, for whom W.W. Harvey has

suggested the etymology b'arb'a 'elo, " in four (i.e., the tetragrammaton, YHWH)

is God. "

 

[26] The Coptic m('e superscript')nt[khs] can mean either " goodness "

('khrestotes') or " Christhood " ('khristotes'); cf. the pun on " anointing "

('khrisma').

 

[27] Cf. the Invisible Spirit's anointing of the Self-Generated Child in 'Secret

Book of John' II, 6; 'Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit' III, 44.

 

[28] Perhaps the three masculinities, powers, and names previously mentioned.

 

[29] " Eye " in the sense of " focus " or " source " is here applied to Christ as a

source of light and in 'Three Forms of First Thought' 46 to Protennoia as the

" eye of the three abiding entities. " In 'Holy Book of the Great Invisible

Spirit' IV, 61 and 'Wisdom of Jesus Christ' III, 105, " eye of light " is applied

to Adamas, probably playing on the Greek words 'phos' (with acute accent, " man " )

and phos (with circumflex accent, " light " ).