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A Valentinian Exposition
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[...] 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 Triacontrad.
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 szygy 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 [...].
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 form.
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.
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