THE GNOSIS OF THE LIGHT
BY Rev. F. LAMPLUGH, B.A.
(Cantab.)
London
John M. Watkins
21 Cecil
Court, Charing Cross Road, W.C.2
1918
I have loved
you, and have longed to give you Life.
Blessed is he who crucifieth the
World and hath not suffered the World to crucify him.
Blessed is the
man who knoweth these things, who hath brought Heaven down upon Earth and
hath taken Earth and hath lifted it up unto Heaven, and hath so wrought that
the Midst is a Nothing.
_The Book of the Gnoses of
the Invisible
God._
CONTENTS
Introduction
The Gnosis of the
Light
Notes
INTRODUCTION
This translation of
the ancient Gnostic work, called by Schmidt, the _Untitled Apocalypse_, is
based chiefly on Amelineau's French version of the superior MS. of the Codex
Brucianus, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. In making the rendering I
have studied the context carefully, and have not neglected the Greek words
interspersed with the Coptic; also I have availed myself of Mr Mead's
translation of certain important passages from Schmidt's edition, for
purposes of comparison. Anything that I have added to bring out the meaning
of the Gnostic author now and again, I have enclosed in brackets. Such
suggestions have always arisen from the text. I fancy my English version
will be found to give a reasonably accurate idea of the contents of one of
the most abstruse symbolical works in the world. The notes that I
have added are not intended to be final or exhaustive, but to give
the general reader some guidance towards understanding the
intensely interesting topics with which the powerful mind of the ancient
mystical writer was preoccupied. I have endeavoured to show myself
a sympathetic "Hierophant" or expounder of some of the mysteries,
not without study of the Gnosis, both of the Christianised and
purely Hellenistic type, for the key to the understanding of symbolism is
only given into the hands of sympathy.
The Codex Brucianus was brought
to England from Upper Egypt, by the famous traveller Bruce, in 1769, and
bequeathed by him to the care of the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It contains
several Gnostic works translated into the Upper Egyptian dialect from the
Greek, and probably is as old as the sixth century A.D. The Greek originals
were of course much older, that is to say, the MSS. to which the codex
ultimately goes back were much older. We are only concerned with one of them
here, the so-called _Untitled Apocalypse_, which is markedly distinct from
the others in character and style. Schmidt dates it well in the
second century A.D., and with this estimate I am inclined to agree. It
shows, as I have endeavoured to make clear in the notes, marked affinities
in some respects to the _Gospel of Mary_ (Codex Akhmim), which we know
to have been in existence before 180 A.D., and its philosophical basis
is the Platonism of Alexandria. If it is by one writer, I think it may
be dated from 160 or 170 A.D.-200 A.D., and belongs to the period
of Basilides and Valentinus.
Before venturing upon any discussion of
the authorship and contents of our document, it would be as well to say a few
words as to the meaning of that much misunderstood technical term "Gnosis" in
Hellenistic and early Christian theology. For a fuller exposition I would
refer the reader to the admirable essay upon the subject by Mr G. R. S. Mead
in his volume _Quests Old and New_. Gnosis was not "philosophy" in
the generally accepted sense of the term, or even
religio-philosophy. "It was immediate knowledge of God's mysteries received
from direct intercourse with the Deity--mysteries which must remain hidden
from the natural man, a knowledge at the same time which exercises
decided reaction on our relationship to God and also on our nature
or disposition" (Reitzenstein). It was the power or gift of receiving
and understanding revelation, which finally culminated in the
direct unveiled vision of God and the transformation of the whole man
into spiritual being by contact with Him. The ground of the idea of
Gnosis does not seem to be very different from that of the later
"Mystical Theology," "which originally meant the direct, secret,
and incommunicable knowledge of God received in contemplation" (Dom
John Chapman). The revelation sought for was not so much a
dogmatic revelation as a revelation of the processes of "transmutation"
of Rebirth, of Apotheosis or "Deification." Its aim was dynamic
rather than static. But while the followers of the Gnosis, both Christian
and Hellenistic, would have agreed that the direct knowledge of God
is incommunicable to others, they undoubtedly seem to have held that
there were what may be described as intermediate or preparatory processes
or energisings which could be communicated: (1) by initiation into a
holy community; (2) by a duly qualified master; (3) under the veils
of symbols and sacraments.
The Gnostic movement began long before the
Christian era (what its original historical impulse was we do not know), and
only one aspect of it, and that from a strictly limited point of view, has
been treated by ecclesiastical historians. Recent investigations have
challenged the traditional outlook and the traditional conclusions and the
traditional "facts." With some to-day, and with many more to-morrow, the
burning question is, or will be--not how did a peculiarly silly and
licentious heresy rise within the Church--but how did the Church rise out of
the great Gnostic movement, and how did the dynamic ideas of the
Gnosis become crystallised into Dogmas? I do not indicate a solution; I
do not express an opinion. I call attention to a fact in the world
of scholarship that will not be without its decided reaction upon
the plain man. But the study of the ancient Gnosis, and indeed
of mysticism generally, has left another suggestion that seems laden
with limitless possibilities. Let us first go back to what I said as to
the communication of certain "processes," "leavenings," or
"energisings" under a sacramental veil. These processes were held to modify
the nature of the person who submitted to them in a peculiar manner
that was likened to the impress or "character" of a seal upon
wax. These seals or "characters" could not only be acquired through formal
rites and by the laying on of the hands of a master, but also, I am
disposed to believe, by a certain mode of study--I am developing the
Gnostic theory, not stating one of my own--namely, that of a highly
symbolic literature. The objection of the Gnostic to a plain statement of
facts would probably be somewhat as follows: "What you say is very good
and true as far as it goes, but it is 'Pistis,' not Gnosis; Faith,
not Knowledge. You desire to be a changed man. Pistis will change you
to a certain extent. I have nothing to say against it, but it will
not change you in the radical way that Gnosis does." If you went on
to argue that your statement was reasonable and received admirable
support from logic and philosophy, he would probably reply: "Philosophy of
the kind you mention is excellent, and forms a basis for Gnosis which
is not contrary to reason, though it is above it. Gnosis is a rebirth
by which you become a god, and then you will have no need to find
out things by talking and discursive reasoning, for everything will
be within yourself and you will know all things in a vital way, by an
act of simple intuition in the end. 'The wind bloweth where it
listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence
it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of
the Spirit.' If you tie yourself down to logic, you will not know the
real things, the 'Things that are,' by getting inside them. Your
knowledge will be external, superficial. Gnosis, you may be surprised to
learn, is not just 'knowing,' it is light _and_ 'life,' living and being
as well. This must not be taken as an attacking reason; if you join
our school you will have a stiff course of Plato. You ought to know
the 'Things that are' from the ordinary point of view, from outside,
before you approach them with the idea of getting inside them, and so
raising them up within yourself as far-shining lives. Afterwards you
will study in a new manner that will seem madness to the common-sensed;
and a Divine Madness indeed it is, for it will lead you to the secret
of the Cross."
Hence the disciple was confronted in due time with a
document that would not yield its secrets to dialectic, a kind of ritual in
words that initiated his intuition into self-knowledge. Intense devotion
was needed, imagination, and will-power. The Gnosis came
gradually, perhaps after the manuscript had been laid aside; it was the
effort towards a sympathetic understanding that mattered, that was
rewarded with life and light from God. The mere success of the logical mind
in unravelling a puzzle was as nothing, for the readings of
these monstrous, many-faceted stars of symbolism were infinite. That
the intuition should enter into self awareness as into a sacred place
of the mysteries--that was a process of the Gnosis.
Now this strange
way of teaching, which was really a "Cloud of Unknowing," was the real basis
and point, as it were, of the Alexandrine method of interpreting
Scripture. Think of Philo and what he says of the teaching of his Gnostic
Therapeuts. Think of Clement, and of Origen with his "Eternal Gospel." This
quickening of the intuition into knowledge of itself and God, through
allegory and symbol based on philosophy, was the Everlasting
Gospel.
So Gnostic documents were not merely intended to puzzle the
outsider, but the insider as well. This fact will enable us to appreciate
better Basilides' famous remark about the one or two only who could
understand his system. His frame of mind was a little like that of a
university examiner after setting a paper. We need not think that these
people were altogether destitute of humour. It would be a gross
exaggeration, of course, to say that all the Gnostic systems described in
Irenaeus and Hippolytus might have been devised by the same man, but it would
be a useful exaggeration, illustrating the extreme anti-literalist
point of view. Our knowledge of the schools rests for the most part
on reports made upon documents such as these, the purport of which
was entirely missed by those that made them. They treated Gnosis as if
it were another kind of "Pistis," or another system of
philosophy. One doubts very much the correctness of the traditional
classification of schools, which was made by people who were not in very
close touch with them. One doubts if there was much hostility between these
schools, however much their symbolism may appear to differ on the
surface.
What was the result of these processes "initiated" or "started"
by sacramental rites, by symbolism, by masters of Gnosis? Was the
result something purely "subjective" at best? The answer of the Masters
of the Gnosis to this question, which is characteristic of the modern
mind and expresses the doubt which is gnawing at the heart of much
modern religious life, would have been "No. There are certain
physical changes as well. The body is spiritualised." They might possibly
have added, "It is assumed, in part at least, by the Body of Stars[1]
which has been awakened within it. This is the Body by means of which
Union with God takes place, and then still more wonderful changes
happen. We can awaken the Body of Stars or Rays, but to unite it with
Himself, that depends upon the Will of God above, but all is a mystery of
Grace."
This awakening of the Body of Stars, this assumption, or
partial assumption, by immortality of the inner flesh, is the
interesting possibility to which I referred earlier. Let me here quote
two Catholic writers. Says Dollinger (_First Age_, p. 235, quoting
Rom. vii. 22, 1 Cor. vi. 14, Eph. iii. 16 and 30, in support), "Saint
Paul not only divides man into body and spirit, but distinguishes in
the bodily nature, the gross, visible, bodily frame and a hidden,
inner 'spiritual' body not subject to limits of space or cognisable by
the senses; this last, which shall hereafter be raised, is alone fit
for and capable of organic union with the glorified body of Christ,
of substantial incorporation with it." Dom John Chapman, O.S.B., in
his excellent article on "Catholic Mysticism" in Hastings'
_Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, vol. ix., writes: "It is not to be
denied that this psycho-physical side demands scientific investigation. It
seems certain that St John of the Cross is justified in his view that
the body is somehow 'spiritualised' by contemplation. Such facts as
the power of saints over the animal world and the power of
reading thoughts, _e.g._, are proved beyond cavil."
Here, then, we
have a consistent tradition held by many schools, and I think that it is by
investigation along the lines suggested by Dom John Chapman that there is the
greatest chance of arriving at some proof of immortality that will satisfy
the scientific mind. For the claim of mystics is that here and now it is
possible to participate consciously in that which is immortal, and the
"spiritualising" of the body is an outward sign of the substantiality of that
claim, the standard set up upon a hill to testify that the human
consciousness is not planetary merely, not "hylic," nor "psychic," but has
its root in the wisdom that issues from an inconceivable Abyss of Life and
Light.
I believe that the original source of the document I have
translated belonged to an Egyptian community or school of contemplation whose
name has been forgotten in the night of time; that it was connected with
the preparation of a candidate for the Baptism of Light. What form
this rite really took it is impossible to say, but that it had outward
signs of some kind is extremely probable. We have an old Gnostic
ritual preserved in the compilation generally known as the "Acts of
John." Perhaps this may give us some idea of the sort of ceremony that
was worked. I fancy there was an Eucharistic side, and that the Baptism
of Light was connected with the mystic crucifixion alluded to so often
in the notes. Possibly in the midst of the sacred dance, at the
breaking of the Bread, there was a certain laying on of hands by an
adept Master, one who had himself attained to the autoptic vision, and
then the candidate was left alone to immerse himself in the Dark Ray of
the Divine Mind.
I think also that the original MS. was based upon the
work of one Master, whose name, like that of the order to which he belonged,
is lost in the night of time, but that it also contains amplifications
and additions by at least one later hand. It will thus represent the
mind of a grade of teaching, and possibly contains material dating back
to the period of the Therapeutae that Philo knew. In other words,
the community may have been an old one before it was Christianised. In
any case, it remains the record of a stupendous spiritual adventure,
the attempt to produce a race of Divinised men, that is not without
the splendour of tragedy, for at some time, like the Holy Cup of
Legend, the presence of Masterhood departed, and the external house fell
into ruin and its place knew it no more. Perhaps, in the desire
to propagate, it admitted unworthy candidates; perhaps it turned to
the by-ways of magic in an attempt to arrest the external course of
nature and to defy necessity; perhaps there came a day when none
could understand the inner meaning of the high and far-shining mysteries,
and so amidst party strife the building word was lost. Many a man,
no doubt, who called himself a "Gnostic" was but a sorry rogue;
many another was but a student of the letter, not of the life; many
another was but a spiritual swashbuckler, pompous in his demeanour and
cryptic in his utterance; some, led by an abhorrent fantasy, may have
wandered along the path that goes to the Venus-berg and have striven to lisp
a formula that would transform the earth into Gehenna rather than
into Heaven. But, beside this mass of imposture, of folly, of
elegant idleness and of corruption, the _a rebours_ of a spiritual
outpouring, there was a real mysticism that could present the Authentic
Spectacle and could utter comfortable words in tongues not of this world
utterly. There was a Gnosis that strove to give the Peace of God to those
within and to those without, because in Peace all things were made,
that yearned to bring forth children, quickened fiery souls, æons, gods,
in bodies of light for the love of God; that saw in all things Grace,
the Sponsa Dei, the Mother most pure and immaculate. "No creature was
ever wronged of Thee," no spark ever quenched, no hope defrauded and
hurled eternally from the sky with shattered wings by Thee. Such is the
fair Faith that chanted its prayer beneath a heaven set with such
strange galaxies, and whispers to us now through the disremembered symbols of
a forgotten book.
It is pleasant, in these days of strife, to be able
to quote Dr Schmidt's appreciation of the _Untitled Apocalypse_ with a
cordial agreement:
"What a different world, on the contrary, meets us
in our thirty-one leaves! We find ourselves in the pure spheres of the
highest Pleroma; we see, step by step, this world, so rich in heavenly
beings, coming into existence before our eyes; each individual space with all
its inmates is minutely described, so that we can form for ourselves
a living picture of the glory and splendour of this Gnostic
heaven. The speculations are not so confused and fantastic as those of the
Pistis Sophia and our two Books of Jeu.... The author is imbued with
the Greek spirit, equipped with a full knowledge of Greek philosophy,
full of the doctrine of the Platonic ideas, an adherent of Plato's view
of the origin of evil--that is to say, Hyle.... We possess in
these leaves a magnificently conceived work by an old Gnostic
philosopher, and we stand astonished, marvelling at the boldness of
the speculations, dazzled by the richness of the thought, touched by
the depth of soul of the author. This is not, like the Pistis Sophia,
the product of declining Gnosticism, but dates from a period when
Gnostic genius, like a mighty eagle, left the world behind it and soared
in wide and ever wider circles towards pure light, towards pure
knowledge, in which it lost itself in ecstasy.
"In one word, we
possess in this Gnostic work, as regards age and contents, a work of the very
highest importance, which takes us into a period of Gnosticism, and therefore
of Christianity, of which very little knowledge has been handed down to
us."
Finally, I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the scholarship of
Mr G. R. S. Mead, whose labours in the field of Hellenistic Theology
have to my mind received insufficient recognition, and whose
admirable translations I have often used in the notes.
[1] Not
to be confused with the "astral body" of modern
theosophy.
The Gnosis of the Light
[1]This is the
Father of all Fathers, the God of all ... Gods, Lord of all Lords, Sonship of
all Sons, Saviour of all Saviours, Invisible of all Invisibles, Infinity of
all Infinities, Uncontainable of all Uncontainables, Beyond-the-Deep of all
Beyond-the-Deeps, Space of all Spaces. This is the Spiritual Mind which
existed before all Spiritual Minds, the Holy Place comprehending all Holy
Places, the Good comprehending all Goods. This is the Seed of all good
things. It is He who has brought them all forth, this Autophues or Being who
has produced Himself, who existed before all the beings of the
Pleroma which He Himself has brought forth, Who is in all time. This is
that Ingenerable and Eternal One who has no name and who has all names;
who was the first to know those of the Universe, who has looked upon
those of the Universe, who has heard those of the Universe. He is
mightier than all might, upon whose incomprehensible Face no one is able
to gaze. Beyond all mind does He exist in His own Form, Solitary
and Unknowable. The Universal Mystery is He, the Universal Wisdom, of
all things the Beginning. In Him are all Lights, all Life, and all
Repose. He is the Beatitude of which all in the Universe are in need, for
that they might receive Him they are. All beings of the Universe does
He behold within Himself, that One Uncontainable, who parts those of
the Universe and receives them all into Himself. Without Him is
nothing, for all the worlds exist in Him, and He is the boundary of them
all. All of them has He enclosed, for in Him is all. No Space is
there without Him, nor any Intelligence; for without that Only One
there exists nothing. The Eternities (æons) contemplate
His incomprehensibility which is within them all, but understand it
not. They wonder at it because He limits them all. They strive towards
the City in which is their Image. In this City (1) it is that they
move and live [and have their true being]; for it is the House of
the Father, the Robe of the Son, and the Power of the Mother, the Image
of the Pleroma. He is the First Father of all things, the First
Eternal, the King of those that None can Touch; He in whom all things
lose themselves, He who has given all things form within Himself; the
Space which has grown from Itself, He who is born of Himself, the Abyss
of all being, the Great and True One who is in the Deep; He in whom
the Fullnesses (Pleromata) did come, and even they are silent before
Him. They have not named Him, because Unnamable and beyond thought is
He, that First Fount whose Eternity stretches through all Spaces,
that First Tone (2) whereby all things hearken and understand. He it
is whose limbs make a myriad, myriad Powers, and every Power is a being
in itself.
The Second Space is that which is called Creator, Father,
Word, Source, Mind, Man, Eternal, Infinite. He is the Pillar, the Overseer,
the Father of all. He it is upon whose Head the æons form a crown,
darting forth their rays. The Fullness of His Countenance is unknown to
the external worlds who seek His Face, for evermore yearning to know
It; for unto them His Word has run forth and to behold It is their
desire. The Light of His Eyes pierces to the spaces of the external Pleroma
and the Word goes forth from His Mouth to those who dwell in Heaven and
to those who dwell beneath it. The hairs of His Head are the number
of the Hidden Worlds, and the Features of His Face are the type of
the Eternities; the hairs of His Beard are the number of the
External Worlds. The stretching out of His Hands is the manifestation of
the Cross (3). The strain of the Cross is the Ennead, the Ninefold
Being. He who springs up [? or is nailed] to the right and to the left of
the Cross is the Man whom no man can comprehend. He is the Father,
the Fount whence Silence wells, He for whom the Quest is
everywhere. The Father is He from whom went forth the Monad and the Spark of
Light, and before this all the Worlds were dark nothings. For it is that
Spark of Light which has placed all things in the rays of Its Splendour, so
they have received Knowledge [Gnosis], Life, Hope, Peace, Faith, Love
and Resurrection, the Second Birth and the Seal. Now these things are
the Ennead, the Ninefold Being, which has come forth from the
Father without beginning, who alone has been His own Father and His
own Mother, whose Pleroma surrounds the twelve (4) Deeps.
The First
Deep is the Universal Fount, from whom all fountains have gone
forth.
The Second Deep is the Universal Wisdom, from whom all wisdoms
have gone forth.
The Third Deep is the Universal Mystery, from whom
all mysteries have gone forth.
The Fourth Deep is the Universal
Gnosis, from whom all Gnoses have gone forth.
The Fifth Deep is the
Universal Purity, from whom all purity has gone forth.
The Sixth Deep
is the Silence that contains all silences.
The Seventh Deep is the
Universal Super-essential Essence, from whom all essences have gone
forth.
The Eighth Deep is the Forefather from whom and by whom all
forefathers exist.
The Ninth Deep is the All-Father, Self-Father, in
whom is the All-Paternity of those who are Self-Fathers of the
all.
The Tenth Deep is the All-Power, from whom all powers have gone
forth.
The Eleventh Deep is that in which there is the First Invisible,
from whom have gone forth all invisibles.
The Twelfth Deep is the
Truth, from whence all truths have sped forth.
Now the Truth (5) which
envelops all things is the Image of the Father, the End of all things. She
is the Mother of all Eternities, who surrounds all Deeps, the Monad beyond
knowledge who cannot be known, without seal-mark and having all seal-marks
within, blessed for ever and ever. To the Father Ineffable, Inconceivable,
Unthinkable, Unchangeable, all things have been made like in their
being. They rejoiced and have been filled with life-giving powers. They
engendered myriads and myriads and myriads of æons, and in Joy, because
they rejoiced with the Father (6).
These are the worlds from which the
Cross upsprang, and from their incorporeal limbs the Man has come forth. It
is the Father and Fount of all being who has produced the limbs.
Now
from the Father are all names (7), whether Ineffable One, or Incorruptible
One, or Invisible One, or Simple One, or Solitary One, or Powerful One, or
Triple-powered One, or the names that in Silence alone are named. In the
Father are they all, and He it is whom the Outer Worlds behold [as men
behold] the starry sky at night. Even as men [so gazing into the night]
desire to see the Sun, so do the Outer Worlds desire to see Him because of
the very Invisibility which surrounds Him. He it is who to the æons gives
life perpetually, and by His Word hath the Indivisible ... the Monad in order
to know it. For it is by His Word that the Holy Pleroma exists. This is the
Father, the Second Creator, by the breath of whose Mouth Providence (Pronoia)
has been in travail of those who were not, and it is by His Will that they
are.... This is the Father, Ineffable, Unspeakable, Beyond
Knowledge, Invisible, Immeasurable, Infinite. He has produced those that are
in Him within Himself. The Thought of His Greatness has He brought
forth from non-being that He might make them to be. Incomprehensible is
He in His limbs. A Space has He made for His limbs that they might
dwell in Him and know Him for their Sire. From His First Thought (8) has
He made them come forth, and she has become a Space for them and
given them being....
In this wise has He created the Temple of the
Pleroma. At the four gates of the [Temple of] the Pleroma are four Monads, a
Monad at each gate, and six Supporters at each gate, in all four and
twenty Supporters, and four and twenty myriads of powers at each gate,
nine Enneads at each gate, ten Decads at each gate, twelve Dodecads at
each gate, and five Pentads of Powers at each gate. At each gate there
is an Overseer of triple aspect having countenances Ingenerable, True,
and Ineffable. Of these faces one gazes upon the external æons without
the gate; another beholds Setheus, and the third looks upward to
the Sonship contained in every Monad. There it is that Aphredon
is discovered with his twelve Holy Ones and the Forefather, and in
that Space abides also Adam, the Man of the Light, with his three
hundred æons. There also is the Perfect Mind. All these surround a Basket
(9) that knows no death. The Ineffable face of the Overseer, who is
the Warden of the Holy Place, gazes into the Holy of Holies upon
the Boundless One. Now this Warden has faces twain. One is disclosed
from the side of the Deep, the other from the side of the Overseer
called the Child (or Servant). For there is a Deep [within the Holy
of Holies] which is named "Light" (10), or "He who gives the Light,"
and in this Abyss there is concealed an Alone-begotten Son. He it is
who manifests the Three Powers, who is mighty amongst all Powers.
This
(? the Holy of Holies) is the Indivisible One, [the atom--Body or Church]
that can never be divided, in whom the All is discovered, because all powers
are hers.
He who is the Triple Power has three faces, an Aphredonian face
that is called Aphredon Pexos, in which is found a latent Only-begotten
One.
When the (?) Idea comes out of the Deep, Aphredon takes the Thought
to conduct her to the Alone-begotten of Alone-begottens, to lead her
to the Child, so that she may be brought to the Space of the Triple
Power for self-perfecting, and be escorted in the Space of the
Five Ingenerables.
There is also another Space called the Deep, where
there are three Paternities. In the first thereof is Kalupto, the Hidden
God. In the Second Paternity there are Five Trees, and in the midst of them
an altar. An Alone-begotten Word stands upon the altar, having the
twelve countenances of the Mind of all things, and before him are the
prayers of all beings placed. The Universe rejoices over him because he
has manifested himself. He it is that the Invisible World has struggled
to know, and it is on his account that the Man has appeared. In the
Third Paternity is Silence and the Fount which twelve Anointed
Ones contemplate, beholding themselves therein. In him are also found
Love and the Universal Mind and furthermore the Universal Mother from
whom has gone forth that Ennead whose names are Protia, Pantia,
Pangenia, Loxophania, Loxogenia, Loxokrateia, Loia, and Iouel. She is the
First Beyond Knowledge, the Mother of the Ennead, who completes a Decad,
come forth from the Monad of the Unknowable.
Following there is
another Space, more stretched out, where is hidden a great treasure which the
Universe surrounds. [This Space] is the Immeasurable Deep where is an altar
whereon three Powers are gathered: a Solitary being, an Unknowable being, and
an Infinite being, in the midst of whom is revealed a Sonship called the
Anointed Glorifier. This is he who glorifies everyone and impresses upon him
the seal of the Father, who brings everybody into the eternity of the First
Father who is the One, He for whose sake all is and without whom nothing
is. Now this Anointed One has twelve faces, visages
Unbounded, Uncontainable, Ineffable, Simple, Imperishable, Solitary,
Unknowable, Invincible, Thrice-powerful, Unshakable, Ingenerable, and
Pure. These Spaces, where are these twelve founts, named Founts of Reasons,
full of eternal life, are called Deeps as well as the Twelve
Countenances, because they have received in them all Spaces of Paternity on
behalf of the Pleromata and the Fruit which the Pleroma emanated, who is
Christ who has received the Pleroma in Himself.
Beyond all these
Spaces comes the Deep of Setheus. This he who is in them all and is
surrounded by twelve Paternities, even in the midst of these is he. Each
Paternity has three faces. The first of them is an Indivisible One, and
three faces has he, Infinite, Invisible, and Ineffable faces. The Second
Father has Uncontainable, Unshakable, and Incorruptible faces. The Third
Father has faces Beyond Knowledge, Imperishable, and Aphredonian. The Fourth
Father has a countenance of Silence, a face of Founts, and a visage
Impalpable. The Fifth Father has Solitary, Omnipotent, and Ingenerable
faces. The Sixth Father has the face of an All-Father, the face of a
Self-Father, and the face of a Forefather. The Seventh Father has
countenances of Universal Mystery, of Universal Wisdom and Universal
Origin. Visages has the Eighth Father of Light, Repose, and
Resurrection. The Ninth Father has faces Knowable, First Visible,
and... The Tenth Father has Triple-fleshed, Adamic, and Pure faces. The
Eleventh Father has faces Triple-powered, Perfect, and Sparkling. The
Twelfth Father has a face of Truth, a face of Fore-thought, and a face of
After-thought. These are the twelve Paternities which encircle
Setheus. [Their faces] make in all a [mystic] number thirty-six. These are
they from whom those of the exterior have received a seal-mark, that is why
they glorify them for evermore (11).
In that Space there are yet
twelve other paternities who encircle the head [of Setheus] and support a
crown there. They dart out rays upon the surrounding worlds by the Grace of
the Alone-begotten Word, concealed in him, He that is sought
for.
[_The passage enclosed within brackets has been so mutilated by
the Coptic scribe that what follows is of the nature of a paraphrase
rather than of a translation_:--(As to the mysteries of the Word that are
so much beyond us, it is not possible to describe them otherwise than
as follows. Not possible for us, that is. It is impossible to
describe Him as He really is with a tongue of flesh. There are glories
too exalted for descriptions moved by thought and for intuition that
comes through symbols, except one finds a master who is a kinsman of
the deathless race yonder. From such an one can be learned something
of the Spaces from whence he came; for he finds the root of all
things. The mighty powers of the great æons of the Power that was in
Marsanes have said in adoration, "Who is he who hath seen aught in the
presence of His Face?" That is because thus does He manifest Himself [?
the Alone to the Alone], Nicotheos has spoken of Him [the
Alone-begotten] and seen Him, for he is one of these. He [Nicotheos] said,
"The Father exists exalted above all the perfect." Nicotheos has revealed
the Invisible and the perfect Triple-power. All perfect men have seen
Him, they have declared Him and have given Him glory with their own
lips) (12).] That is the Alone-begotten Word hidden in Setheus, He who
is called the Dark Ray (13), for it is the excess of His light alone
that is darkness. Setheus reigns by Him.
The Alone-begotten holds in
His right hand twelve Paternities, the types of the twelve Apostles (14),
while in His left hand are thirty Powers. Each of them emanates twelve
two-faced æons after the type of Setheus. One of these faces beholds the
Deep which is in the Interior [of the Temple of the Pleroma]; the other looks
without upon the Triple-Power. Each of the Paternities in His right hand
emanates three hundred and sixty-five powers, according to the word that
David spake, saying, "I will cherish the crown of the year in Thy
Righteousness." For all these Powers encircle the Alone-begotten Son as a
crown, illuminating the æons with the light of the Alone-begotten, as it
is written, "In Thy light shall we see light." And the Alone-begotten
is lifted up upon [the powers], as again it is written, "The Chariot
of God is a myriad of multiplications"; and again, "There are millions
of beings who rejoice; the Lord is in them" (15).
This is He who
dwells in the Monad in Setheus, which comes from the place concerning which
one does not ask, "Where is it?" She comes from Him who is before these
Fullnesses. From the One and Only, even from Him has come forth the Monad,
as a ship laden with all good things, or as a full field planted with every
manner of tree, or as a city filled with men of every race and with all the
statues of the king. Thus it is with the Monad where the Whole is
found.
Upon her head twelve Monads form a crown; each has emanated
another twelve. Ten Decads encircle her neck, nine Enneads are about
her heart, and seven Hebdomads are under her feet, and each has emanated
a Hebdomad. The firmament which surrounds her is like a tower with twelve
gates, and at every gate are twelve myriads of powers; archangels are they
called, or angels. This is the metropolis of the Alone-begotten Son
(16).
Now it is of the Alone-begotten that Phosilampes (17) has said,
"Before all things is He." He it is who has come forth from the Infinite;
He who has engendered Himself there and has no seal nor form and has
given birth to Himself. This is He who is come forth from the Ineffable
One, the Immeasurable One, who truly is, and in whom is found all that
truly is, who is the Father Incomprehensible. He is in His
Alone-begotten Son, while the All reposes in the Ineffable and Unspeakable
King, whom none can move and whose Divinity no one can declare, whose kingdom
is not of this world. Meditating upon Him, Phosilampes has said,
"Through Him is That-which-really-is and That-which-really-is-not, through
which the Hidden-which-really-is and the Manifest-which-really-is-not
exists."
He is the true Alone-begotten God, and all the Fullnesses
(Pleromata) know that it is by Him that they have become gods and that they
have become rulers in this name--God. This is He of whom John has said,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was in God and the Word
was God, and without Him was not anything made. That which was made in
Him was Life."
The Alone-begotten is found in the Monad, dwelling in
her as in a city, and the Monad is in Setheus as a concept, and Setheus
dwells in the Temple as King and as God. He is the Word creative, who has
commanded the Fullnesses to labour; the Creative Mind after the order of God
the Father, whom all creation worships as God and Lord, to whom all
is subjected.
The Fullnesses wonder at Him [Setheus] because of His
beauty and grace. Around His head those of the Inner Spaces of the Universe
form a crown; those of the external spaces are beneath His feet, while those
of the middle spaces encircle Him, all praising Him and saying, "Holy,
Holy, Holy, AAA, HHH, EEE, III, OOO, YYY, ΩΩΩ"--that is to say, "Thou
art the Living One of Living Ones, Holy of Holies, Being of Beings,
Father of Fathers, God of Gods, Lord of Lords, Space of Spaces"
(18). They praise Him, saying, "Thou art the House and the Dweller in the
House." They praise Him, saying unto the Son concealed in Him, "Thou art:
Thou art, O Alone-begotten, Light and Life and Grace."
When Setheus
sent the Light-Spark from the Indivisible [Body], it burned and gave light to
all the Space of the Temple of the Pleromata. And they, beholding the light
of the Spark, rejoiced and uttered myriads and myriads of praises in honour
of Setheus and of the Light-Spark which was manifested, seeing that in it
were all their images, and they fashioned the Spark among themselves as a
Man light-giving and true. They named Him "Pantomorphos," and Pure,
and Unshakable, and all the eternities also called him
"All-powered." He is the Servant of the Æons and serves the Fullnesses
(19). And the Father sealed the Man His Son in their interior so that they
might know Him interiorly, and the Word moved them to contemplate the
Invisible One beyond knowledge, and they gave glory to this One and Only One,
to the Concept which is in Him and to the Intelligible Word,
praising these Three who are One, because by Him have they been made
essential beings. The Father took their total image and made of it a City or
a Man and figured in Him all those of the Pleroma, that is to say, all the
powers. Each one of them knew his image in the City, for everyone of the
myriads of glories found himself in the Man or City of the Father which is in
the Pleroma. The Father took His radiant glory and made thereof an outer
vesture for the Man....
He created in Him the type of the Temple of the
Pleroma. He made His shoulders, which came out one from the other, after the
type of those hundred myriads of powers, less four myriads. He created His
fingers and toes like the two Decads, the hidden Decad and the manifest
Decad. He created His organ like the Monad concealed in Setheus. He
created the great reins like Setheus. He made His breast like the Interior
of the Temple and His feet after the type of the Solitary and
Unknowable Ones who serve the Pleroma, rejoicing with those that rejoice. He
made His limbs after the type of the Deep which encloses three hundred
and sixty-five Paternities after the type of the Paternities. He
fashioned His hair after the type of the Worlds of the Pleroma and filled
Him with wisdom like the Universal Wisdom, and filled Him with
interior mystery like Setheus and with exterior mystery like the
Indivisible [Body]. Incomprehensible created He Him like the
Incomprehensible One, who is in every Space, unique in the Pleroma. His
sides created He after the type of the Four Gates and His two thighs after
the type of the Myriarchs who are to the right and left, and His members
after the type of those who go forth and those who enter. He created
companions surrounding Him after the type of concealed
mysteries....
[This was the Man or City that the Pleromata beheld in the
Light-Spark and saw their likenesses therein. They fashioned the Man
called Pantomorphos in His likeness, or clothed the Light-Spark in
the Star-body.]
The Indivisible Point sent the Light-Spark without the
Pleroma, and [He] descended [as] the Triple-Power into the Spaces of
Autogenes, the Self-generated One, and [these Spaces] beheld the grace of
the Eternities of Light which had been given unto them, and they
rejoiced because that-which-is had come among them.
Then they opened
the firmaments and the Light descended below to the lower regions and to
those who were without form, having no [true] likeness. It was thus that
they got the likeness of the Light for themselves. Some rejoiced because the
Light had come to them, and that they had been made rich thereby. Others
mourned because they were made poor and that which [they thought] they had
was taken away from them. Thus came He, who went forth full of grace, and was
taken captive with a captivity (20). A light of glory was given to the æons
who had received the Spark, and guardian spirits were sent to them who
are Gamanel, Etrempsouchos, and Agramas, and those who are with
them. They bring help to those who have believed in the Spark of
Light.
Now in the Space of the Indivisible Atom are twelve Founts, above
which are the twelve Paternities who surround the Indivisible [Queen]
like Deeps or like Skies and make for Her a crown in which is every kind
of life: all modes of Triple-powered life, of Uncontainable life,
of Infinite life, of Ineffable life, of Silent life, of Unknown life,
of Solitary life, of Unshakable life, of First-manifested life,
of Self-born life, of True life. All is therein. Every species is in
it, all Gnoses and every power which has received the Light, yea, all
Mind manifests itself therein. This is the Crown which the Father of
the Universe has placed upon the Indivisible [Queen] with three hundred
and sixty-five kinds in it, brilliant and filling the Universe with
an incorruptible and unfailing light. This is the Crown which crowns
all dominion, the Crown that the Deathless pray for, and by it and in
it they will become Invisible Ones [in the world beyond manifestation]
on the Day of Joy, who by the Will of the Inscrutable One have from
the first been manifested, that is to say, Protia, Pantia, Pangenia,
and their company. Then shall all the Invisible Eternities receive
from Him their crown, so that they may cast themselves among the
Invisibles, who shall receive there their crown in the Crown of the
Indivisible [Queen], and the Universe shall receive its perfection of
incorruption. Because of this it is that those who have taken bodies pray,
desiring to abandon the body that they may receive the crown laid up for them
in the Incorruptible Eternity.
This is the Indivisible [Queen and
Mother], the first æon of all, who has been given all good things by Him who
is above all good things, and she has been given the Immeasurable Deep,
wherein are found innumerable Paternities, whereof is the Ennead without
seal-mark and having in her the seal-marks of all creatures, and by whom the
Ennead emanates twelve Enneads. She [the Indivisible Mother it is] who has
in the midst a Space called "The Land productive of Gods," or "The Land which
gives birth to the Gods" (21). This is the land of which it has been
said, "He who ploughs his soil shall be satisfied with bread and he
shall make large his threshing floor," and also, "The Master of the
Field, when they shall plough it, shall possess all good things." And
all those Powers which are in this land which brought forth the God
have received the Crown. That is why they know, because of the Crown
upon their heads, if the Inheritors of the Kingdom of Light have [?
in truth] been born from the Indivisible Body or not: that is, from
Her who is the Universal Mother (22). She has within Her seven
Wisdoms, nine Enneads, ten Decads, and in the midst a great Basket is
revealed. A mighty Invisible [Hierarch] stands above it with a mighty
Ingenerable [Hierarch] and a mighty Unbounded [Hierarch], each
one triple-countenanced, and the prayer, the blessing, and the hymn
of creatures are given place in this Basket which is in the midst of
the Universal Mother, in the midst of the seven Wisdoms, in the midst
of the nine Enneads, and in the midst of the ten Decads. For all
these [creatures] stand upright in the Basket, made perfect by the Fruit
of the Æons, He who has been ordained for them by the
Alone-begotten concealed in the Indivisible [Atom]. He [the Fruit of the
Æons] has a Fount before Him surrounded by twelve Holy Ones, each one wearing
a Crown on his head and having twelve powers, who surround Him
within, praising the Alone-begotten king and crying, "It is because of
Thee that we ray forth glory, and it is by Thee that we behold the Father
of the Universe, AAA, ΩΩΩ (23), and the Mother of all the good, She who is
hidden in every space"--that is to say, the contriving thought (Epinoia) of
all the Eternities, the conceiving thought of all gods and of all lords--"She
is the Gnosis of all the Unseen beings, and Thy Image is the Mother of all
the Boundless Ones, the Power of all the Infinites."
Praising the
Alone-begotten, they cry, "It is because of Thy Image (24) that we have seen
Thee, that we have run to Thee, that we have clung to Thee, that we have
received the Incorruptible Crown which is known through Her. Glory be to
Thee, O Alone-begotten, for ever and ever."
Then together do they all say
Amen.
For [? Jesus, the Fruit of the Æons] became a Body of Light, He
crossed the Æons of the Indivisible [Body] until He came to the
Alone-begotten who is in the Monad and who dwells in Peace and Solitude. He
received the Grace of the Alone-begotten--that is to say, His Christhood or
His Perfecting. Also He received the Eternal Crown. He is the Father
of all Light-Sparks, the chief of all Immortal bodies, and this is He
for whose sake resurrection is given to the body
(25). |
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