Tripartite Tractate 1

1[] When discussing exalted matters, it is fitting to begin with the Father, the root of the Totality, from whom we have received the gift of speaking about him. Before anything besides him came into being, he existed.

2Like a number, the Father is one, because he comes first and is alone in himself. Yet he does not resemble someone who is merely one. If he did, how could he be a father? For whenever a father exists, the name “son” follows. The one who is the Father alone resembles the root of a tree with branches and fruit. Strictly speaking, he is called a father because he is incomparable and unchanging. This is why, strictly speaking, he is one and is a god, since no one stands in relation to him as a god, because no one is his father. For he is unbegotten: no one else begot him, and no one else created him. Anyone who is someone else’s father or creator also has a father and a creator. Certainly, he can be the father and creator of someone who came into being from him and whom he created. But, strictly speaking, he is not a father and is not a god, because there was [] someone who [begot and] created him. Therefore, strictly speaking, only he is Father and God who has had no one beget him. As for the Totalities, he is the one who begot and created them.

3He has no beginning and no end, but it is not merely that he has no end. Because he is unbegotten, he is deathless. Yet he is also unchanging in his eternal being, in his self-identity, in what established him, and in what makes him great. He will never be separated from what makes him exist, and no one will compel him to bring forth any intention he has never willed. No one originated the Father’s existence, and so he is unchanging. No one can separate him from his own being and self-identity, in which he exists, or from his greatness, which is why no one can comprehend him. It is impossible for anyone to change his form into something different, to lower him, to change him, or to diminish him. This is <how>, in the fullness of truth, he is the unchangeable and invariable one, with immutability as his garments. It is not merely that he is called “Beginningless” and “Endless”; he was not born, nor will he die. Thus, just as he is without beginning and without end in the way he exists, so [] in his greatness he cannot be reached. He is incomprehensible in his wisdom, unfathomable in his power, and unknowable in his sweetness.

4Strictly speaking, only he who is good—the unbegotten Father and the wholly perfect one—is full of his offspring, of every virtue, and of everything valuable. He possesses still more, including the absence of all spite, so that one may find that all who possess anything owe it to him, because he bestows it. Yet he is unattainable and tireless in his giving, rich in the gifts he gives and at rest in the favors he lavishes.

5His category, form, and great scale are such that none have been with him from the beginning. There is no place where he dwells, from which he proceeds, or into which he enters. There is no primal form that he uses as a pattern when he works. No difficulty accompanies him in anything he does, nor is any matter available for him to use in creating what <he> creates. There is no substance inhering in him that he uses to beget whatever he begets, nor is there any coworker accompanying him in his work. To claim anything like this is ignorance. Instead, one should declare that he is good, without defect, perfect, [] entire, since he is the Totality.

6None of the names that are thought or spoken, seen or understood, apply to him, no matter how immensely majestic, glorifying, and reverential they may be. Such names may, however, be spoken for his glory and honor, according to the ability of those who glorify him. As for what inheres in his existence, being, and form, the mind cannot conceive of him, words cannot express him, eyes cannot behold him, and no one can comprehend him. This is because of his unsearchable greatness, his ungraspable depth, his limitless height, and his unlimited <extension>.

7This is the character of what is unbegotten: it does not extend or join itself to anything as something limited does. Instead, he has a character without possessing a face or form, things that can be comprehended through perception. This is why he is incomprehensible.