Tripartite Tractate 11

1It occurred to one of the aeons to try to grasp the ungraspability and to give glory to it, and especially to the unspeakability of the Father. Because he is a Word from the unity, he is one, [yet] he is not from the unity of the Totalities, nor from him who produced them, that is, the one who produced the Totality, namely, the Father. This aeon was one of those who had been given wisdom, those whose thought was pre-existent, by which they produced what they willed. He received, therefore, an innate wisdom to scrutinize the concealed foundation, because he is a fruit of wisdom. The free will begotten with the Totalities was a reason that this one did [] what he desired, without anyone restraining him.

2This one’s intent, who is the Word, was good. When he had been produced, he hastened to glorify the Father, though <he> desired something impossible, wishing to produce a perfect being from a union in which he had no part, and having no command. This aeon was the last to have <been> produced by mutual assistance, and he was small in scale. And before begetting anything for the glorification of the will, and in unison with the Totalities, he proceeded generously out of a lavish love, and went toward what surrounds the perfect glory, because it was not outside the will of the Father that the Word was produced; that is, he did not proceed without it.

3The Father, however, had produced him for those he knew were appropriate to produce. The Father and the Totalities withdrew from him, so the limit the Father had placed could be established, because it is not by grasping what is ungraspable, but by the will [] of the Father. Moreover, (this transpired) so those things that had come into being could become a plan of salvation that would unfold, and it could <not> fail to unfold in order to reveal the Fullness. It is not appropriate, then, to speak negatively about this action of the Word, though it is appropriate if we say of this action of the Word that it is a cause of a plan of salvation destined to unfold.

4The Word begot himself as perfect and single, being content therewith for the glory of the Father he desired. However, those he wanted to lay hold of firmly he begot in shadows and images and likenesses. He was unable to gaze at the light; instead he peered into the depths, and he doubted. Out of this came a separation that disturbed him greatly, and a withdrawal caused by his self-doubting and separation, self-forgetting and self-ignorance and <of what> exists.

5His self-exaltation and his belief that he could grasp what is ungraspable hardened in him and became rooted in him. These infirmities, however, remained with him while he was beside himself, caused by self-doubt, because <he failed to attain reaching> the glories of the Father, whose exaltedness is inimitable. He failed to attain this because he was unable to grasp it.

6The one he produced by himself [] as a single aeon hastened upward to what was his, and this relative of his in the Fullness forsook him who came into being in the deficiency together with those he had produced in an imaginary manner, because they do not belong to him. After he produced himself perfectly, he who indeed had produced himself, he grew weak like a female nature that forsakes its male counterpart. Out of what was deficient in itself there emerged those things that sprang from his thought and his pride, yet out of what is perfect in him he departed from it and [lifted himself] upward to those who belong to him. He dwelt in the Fullness as a reminder to him because [he had been] saved from [his pride].

7The one who hastened upward and the one who pulled him to himself, these were not barren, but by producing a fruit in the Fullness, they deposed what had arisen in the deficiency. The things that came into being from the prideful thought are like the Fullnesses, being (the Fullnessess’) likenesses, images, shadows, and illusions, lacking reason and illumination, belonging to vacuous thought, because they were not produced by anything. [] Their end, consequently, will agree with their beginning, for what never was will revert to what will never be. They, though, think of themselves as greater, stronger, and more [honorable] than the names [that beautify] them, whose shadows they are. They are like a beautiful reflection [someone sees], because the face of an image as a rule derives its beauty from the image it reflects.

8They thought they were self-existent and without a source, because they saw nothing else that existed before them. And so they lived in defiance and by rebellious acts, failing to humble themselves before the one for whose sake they had come to be. They desired to command each other, to rule over each other [in] their ambition for glory, whereas the glory they possessed included the cause [of] the system that was to be. Because [they are] likenesses of those things that are above, <they> lifted up themselves out of a lust for control, each of them in the measure of the great name, whose shadow each one is, each supposing itself superior to his companions.

9These others’ thought was not barren, yet just as <those> whose shadows they are, where each thought becomes a son, [] so what they think of becomes their offspring. It came to pass, therefore, that a multitude of offspring were produced from them, as fighters, as warriors, as troublemakers, as disobedient rebels, lovers of control, and every other being of this kind who sprang from these.

10The Word was the cause for (this multitude) coming into being, and he was increasingly perplexed, and he wondered. Rather than perfection, he beheld deficiency; rather than unification, he beheld separation; rather than firmness, [he beheld] weaknesses; rather than [repose], commotions. He [could not] make them stop [loving] commotion, nor could [he] destroy it. He was [entirely] powerless; his Totality and his [perfection] had forsaken him.

11Those who came into being ignorant of themselves neither knew the Fullnesses where they originated, nor did they know the cause of their existence. In this unstable situation, the Word failed to produce anything else resembling emanations, which are what dwell in the Fullness, the glories that exist to the glory of the Father. He instead produced [] diminutive weaklings, limited by the infirmities [that] constrained him as well.

12The likeness that was alone in this situation had been the cause of those things that did not cause their own existence from the beginning. The one in this deficient situation continued to produce deficient beings until he pronounced judgment and condemned those irrational beings he had produced. He strove against them until they were destroyed, namely, those who had striven against the condemnation, [as] the wrath pursued them.