Tripartite Tractate 8

1And he did not reveal the diverse (qualities) to the Totalities all at once, nor did he reveal his self-equality to those who originated from him. All those who originated from him, <who> are the aeons of the aeons, [] because they [are] <his> procreative nature’s emanations and offspring, in their own procreative nature they also <procreate> for the glory of the Father, he being the cause that established them. As we stated before, he creates the aeons as roots and springs and fathers, and he is the one they glorify, because he possesses knowledge and wisdom, and because the Totalities recognized that they originated from knowledge and wisdom of the Totality.

2If those of the Totality had rendered glory in accord with each aeon’s personal <capacities>, what they would have produced would have been but a pale reflection of the Father, who is the Totality. This is why in the song of glory and in the power of his unity, from which they proceeded, they were brought to a mingling and a mixture and a unity with each other. They offered the Father a worthy glorification from the assembly of the Fullness, a single yet multiple image, because it was produced for the glory of the single one, and because they approached the one who is himself the Totalities.

3It was [ 69a / 69b ] a praise [of the aeons] to the one who produced the Totalities as a first-fruit of the immortals and an eternal one. This was because, having emerged from the living aeons perfect and full on account of the perfect and full one, the full and perfect state of those who glorified in a perfect manner was left intact because of the communion, like the perfect Father, who when glorified hears also the glorification that glorifies [him, to] make manifest that they (also) are what he is.

4The reason for the second honor given to them is what was returned to them from the Father when they knew the gift that enabled them to bear fruit among each other for the Father. The result was that just as they <were> gloriously brought forth for the Father, so they appeared perfectly in the act of glorifying.

5They were fathers of the third glorification congruent with the freedom and the power which was begotten with them, bestowing on them the capacity to glorify together and to glorify individually by will. They were the first and the second glorifications, so that both of them are perfect and full, given that they are manifestations of the perfect and full Father and of those perfect things that emerged from the glorification of the perfect one. However, the fruit of the third glorification comprises the will of each of the aeons, and each one of the qualities and powers of the Father. The fruit exists [ 70a / 70b ] complete and perfect insofar as what glory the aeons desire and are able to give to the Father results from their agreement and by each individually. This is what he loves and what he exerts power over, since through this the Father is glorified. This is why they are minds of minds that are found to be words of words, elders of elders, and degrees of degrees, being exalted above each other.

6Each one who gives glory has his place and his exaltation and his abode and his repose, comprising the glory he offers. All who glorify the Father have an eternal begetting, begetting by mutually helping each other, because the emanations are infinite and immeasurable, and because there is no trace of envy in the Father toward those who originated from him with regard to their begetting something equal or like him, given that he exists in the Totalities, begetting and revealing himself. He makes anyone he wishes to be a father, whose Father he indeed is, and he makes anyone he wishes to be a god, whose God he indeed is, and he makes them the Totalities, <for whom> he is the Totality. [] Strictly speaking, all great names are reserved there, those the angels share, who came into being in the world together with the archons, even though they have no similarity to the eternal beings.