Tripartite Tractate 21

1Matter whose form is fluid (is) a cause of the blindness that prevails through the powers [. . .] in them all of it [. . .], as they together beget and are [destroyed]. The thought placed between those of the [right and] those of the left is a power of [imitation]. Everyone the first ones desire to make are, as it were, the projection of a shadow that follows a body, this <constituting> the roots of visible creatures.

2The entire preparation of the ordering of the images, representations, and likenesses has come into being because of those in need of education, instruction, and formation supplied by a mirror, so that what is small could grow step by step. The reason for this was that he created humanity last, first preparing and supplying for them those things he had created for their sake.

3The creation of humanity took place like that of all other things. In an invisible way, the spiritual Word moved them, completing them through the Demiurge [] and his angelic servants, who together with presumption and its archons participated in the work of formation. Humans resemble a shadow of earth, so that they would be like [those] severed from the Totalities. And they are creatures made by all of them, those of the right and those of the left, each of the orders imparting a form to the [human just as] (the Totality) itself had been (formed).

4The [form] the Word produced was deficient, like an [affliction] of infirmity, because he led it to [oblivion], ignorance, [and deficiency], and to every other infirmity, because the Word imparted but the first form, <something he gave him> in ignorance through the Demiurge, so that he would come to know that something exalted exists, and that he stands in need of [it]. This is what the prophet called “the living Spirit,” “the breath of the exalted aeons,” and “the invisible,” and this is the living soul that bestowed life to the body that at first was lifeless, but what is without life is ignorance.

5Consequently, it is appropriate to hold that the soul of the first human originated from the spiritual Word, whereas the Creator supposed that he made it. What was breathed passed through him as through a mouth.

6From his substance, the Creator also sent souls downward, because also [he] possesses the power of procreation, [] <being> produced from the representation of the Father. Also, those of the left produced a certain kind of human of their own, because they, too, possess the likeness of <being>.

7The spiritual substance is a unitary thing and a single representation, [and] its infirmity is a condition [of many] forms. Regarding the substance of the soulish ones, its condition is dualistic, because it possesses knowledge and praises the Exalted One, yet it is <also> inclined to evil, owing to the inclination of presumption. Regarding the substance of the material ones, its mode differs, even in several forms, and it was an infirmity that prevailed in several kinds of inclination.

8So, the first human being is a diverse formation, and a diverse creation, and a storehouse for those of the left and those of the right, and a spiritual Word whose interests are divided between each of the two substances from which it derives its being.

9This is why it is said that a paradise was planted for him, so he could eat the food of three kinds of trees, because it is a garden of three orders, and because it supplies delight. The noble and chosen substance in him was more exalted than <the> creation, and it <was> an injury to them. And so, they gave a command, threatening that a grave danger would befall him, [] namely, death. He was permitted to taste and enjoy only the bad trees, and from the other tree, that of duality, he did not permit [him] to eat, and much less from the tree of life. To prevent him from obtaining an honor [equal to] them, and to prevent [him. . .] them.

10By the evil power called “the serpent,” even he who is cleverer than all the evil powers, the human <was> led astray through the plan of those who belong to the memory and to the desires. It made him disobey the commandment, so that he would die. And from that place he was expelled, from all its delights.

11This is the expulsion with which they punished him, when he was expelled from the delights of those who belong to the likeness and those who belong to the representation. This was (actually) an act of providence, so that humans would come to realize that enjoyments last only for a brief time, in contrast to the eternal place of repose. The Spirit had ordained this act when he planned beforehand that the human should experience the great evil, namely, death, which is thorough ignorance of the Totality, and also that he should taste all the evils that stem from that, and after the passions and anxieties and what stems from these, that he should obtain the greatest [] good, namely, life eternal, which is the thorough knowledge of the Totalities and the obtaining of every good thing.

12Owing to the disobedience of the first human, death reigned. It was wont to slay every human for as long as it possessed [dominion] and prevailed, which it received [as a] kingdom because of <the> previously mentioned plan of salvation by the will of the Father.