Tripartite Tractate

Tripartite Tractate

Concerning the things above, it is fitting to begin with the Father, the root of the All, from whom grace has been given to speak of him. He existed before anything other than himself came into being.

The Father is one. He is first and alone, yet not solitary; for where Father is named, Son is implied. He is like a root from which come tree, branches, and fruit. He alone is Father in the true sense, incomparable and unchanging. No one is God over him, and no one is Father to him. He is unbegotten, and none established him.

Whoever is father or maker through another has a father and maker above him. But the Father alone is without one who begot him. The All is what he begot and established. He has neither beginning nor end. Because he is unbegotten he is unchanging; because he has no end he is immortal. No one can alter his being, remove his greatness, measure him, search his depth, reach his height, or comprehend his will.

He does not derive from another and is not diminished. In greatness he is unsearchable, in wisdom incomprehensible, in power unconquered, and in sweetness beyond measure. He alone is good, perfect, flawless, and full: full of every offspring, every virtue, and every good, without evil. He gives without exhaustion and rests in the gifts he bestows.

No other existed with him from the beginning. He inhabits no place, came from no place, and goes to no place. He worked from no model, encountered no resistance, and used no matter placed before him. No substance within him compelled his begetting, and no fellow-worker assisted him. To say otherwise is ignorance. He is the good, perfect fullness; he himself is the All.

No name conceived, spoken, seen, or grasped belongs to him as he truly is, even when the names are glorious. Such names may be spoken according to the capacity of those who glorify him. But no mind conceives his own form, no word contains him, no eye sees him, and no body grasps him.

He alone knows himself. He is his own mind, eye, mouth, and form. What he thinks, sees, says, and possesses is himself: the inconceivable, unspeakable, incomprehensible, and immutable. He is nourishment, delight, truth, joy, and rest. He surpasses wisdom, mind, glory, beauty, sweetness, greatness, depth, and height.

If, from the abundance of his sweetness, he wills to grant knowledge of himself, he is able. His power is his will. Yet he held himself in his own great silence, being the cause of the eternal generation of the All. He brought forth what was worthy of his wonder, glory, honour, and praise, not as something separated from him, but within his own names and dispositions.

The Father knows and begets himself in a manner without generation. With him are Thought, Perception, Silence, Wisdom, and Grace. As the Father is truly Father, with none before or after him who is unbegotten, so the Son is truly Son, with no son before him and no other after him. He is firstborn because none precedes him, and only-begotten because none follows him in the same manner.

The Son was hidden because of surpassing greatness, yet the Father wished him to be known. Not only the Son, but the Church also existed from the beginning. The Father and Son, embracing one another in inseparable love, are one love in many forms; this is the Church of the multitude that existed before the aeons, the aeons of the aeons, the holy and incorruptible spirits.

The Church exists in the dispositions and powers of the Father and the Son. Its offspring are the imperishable aeons, who beget without measure in the virtues existing within them. They alone can name, conceive, and speak of themselves. They lack nothing in that place. This is the joy and overflowing fullness of the Fatherhood.

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The aeons existed eternally in the thought of the Father, and the Father was their thought and their place. He brought forth what was in him without being diminished, like a spring whose abundant water does not lessen it. At first they existed in the hidden depth. The depth knew them, but they did not yet know the depth, themselves, or anything else. They were like seed or an embryo within him.

The Father conceived them so that they might exist not only for him but also for themselves. He sowed in them a thought like seed and granted the first form of knowledge, that they might know that the Father exists for them. Through the name of Father he called to them. The name held the promise of flowering, though they had not yet seen its fulfilment. Their work was to seek him, knowing that he exists and desiring to know what he is.

Because the Father is good, he did not leave them only as thoughts within himself; he gave them existence of their own. When they were brought forth into light, they looked toward the one who begot them. They were like little children, drops from a spring, blossoms on a vine, and flowers in a garden, needing nourishment, growth, and faultless completion.

The Father withheld perfection for a time, not from envy, but lest the aeons receive it at once and imagine that their glory came from themselves. When he willed, he granted the perfect Thought, the Son, full, flawless, and united with the one from whom he came. Each received him according to its capacity.

The incomparable one reveals himself through himself so that each may glorify him. Hidden and invisible, he fills them with wonder. His manifestations are births of mind, spiritual emanations, seeds, living roots, and offspring of thought. In that realm no voice, labour, or instrument is required: each brings forth what it wills and conceives in the manner of the one from whom it came.

The Father is unknowable above the All, yet he gave the aeons places of rest and drew them toward himself as toward a harbour. He appointed faith concerning what they could not see, hope reaching toward what they could not conceive, love bearing fruit toward what was unseen, understanding enduring forever, blessed freedom, and wisdom desiring the Father's glory.

His Spirit breathed within the All and moved them to seek the unknowable one, as sweetness of fragrance moves one to seek its source. His sweetness settled them in unspeakable pleasure and united them with one another. Through the Spirit each aeon became a name, virtue, and power of the Father. The Father is one name and yet innumerable in names and powers.

The emanation of the All was not a tearing away from the Father, but an extension: the Father distributed himself without division to those whom he willed. The aeon of truth is one and many, as one age is divided into times, years, seasons, months, days, and hours; as one spring flows into streams and canals; as one root spreads into tree, branches, and fruit; and as one body remains one while possessing many members.

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The aeons brought forth fruit according to the freedom of will and wisdom graciously given them. Yet one among them sought to apprehend the incomprehensible Father apart from the harmony of the All. A boundary had been established within the fullness, that they should keep silence before the Father's incomprehensibility and speak only according to what they could receive.

This aeon, the Logos, acted from the wisdom and self-determination granted to all. His intention was good: he wished to glorify the Father and to bring forth perfection in unity. Yet what he attempted lay beyond the measure given him. The Father and the All withdrew, so that the boundary might stand and so that what followed might serve the economy that was to come. Therefore the movement of the Logos is not to be condemned as though it were purposeless.

The Logos brought forth what he could as shadows, copies, and likenesses. Unable to endure the light, he looked into the depth and became divided in mind. From this came extension, turning, forgetfulness, and ignorance of himself and of what truly exists.

In reaching toward the incomprehensible, he separated from himself what was within him as sickness. The unified offspring belonging to his better nature hastened back toward their kin in the fullness, while the products of fault remained as fantasies. He lacked the completeness of the masculine form and fell into the deficiency signified by the feminine.

The products of presumption were likenesses of the fullness: copies, shadows, and phantasms without reason or light. They were offspring of what is not, and their end will resemble their beginning. Yet because a copy receives beauty from its model, these shadows appeared great and powerful. Not seeing anything before themselves, they imagined that they existed from themselves and had no beginning.

They lived in disobedience and rebellion, each desiring to rule the others in empty glory. Love of command produced conflict. Like wild beasts and a harsh wind, they were restless and driven by storm. Anger, envy, rage, deceit, greed, desire, and seizing ignorance produced base matter and disturbed powers of many kinds, contending against one another.

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The Logos turned his mind toward the hope of what would come from above. When he rested from arrogance and remembered what he had lost, light shone upon him from above: the Saviour, begotten from the thought of love.

The first fullnesses took the trouble of the erring one upon themselves as though it were their own. In harmony they entreated the Father that help might descend, since the Logos could not be perfected except by the Father's good pleasure. From their concord, joy, and prayer they brought forth one fruit, the manifestation of the Father's countenance.

This Son, the common mind of the fullnesses, was clothed in their powers. Through him perfection was given to the deficient one and confirmation to those already perfect. He is rightly called Saviour, Redeemer, Beloved, the One entreated, Christ, and Light of those appointed. Yet the name above these is Son, for he is the knowledge of the Father who willed to be known.

The aeons also brought forth their own likenesses as attendants for him, manifold faces showing the one in need of help both those who sought his restoration and the one who granted it. The Father entrusted the economy to the Son, not disclosing everything at once but arranging all according to his authority.

The Son first appeared to the one whose sight was deficient, illuminating and instructing him. He filled him with unspeakable joy, planted knowledge invisibly within him, and gave him power to separate from himself what refused persuasion.

To those who had arisen because of the Logos, the Saviour revealed himself gradually, as to newborn children. Some received his manifestation, worshipped, and became witnesses in their minds. The presumptuous were terrified and fell into ignorance called outer darkness, chaos, emptiness, and abyss. Thus a lower order was established, and even those powers were left for a time because they would serve the coming economy.

The Saviour was with the Logos as a fellow-sufferer, consoling, raising, and giving himself until the Logos came to enjoyment through discovery. The Logos then brought forth living images of the living faces revealed to him. They were beautiful and good, though not equal in truth to those above. Through wisdom and knowledge he ordered them for the economy of all that had come from him.

This restored realm was called Aeon, Place, Synagogue of Salvation, Storehouse, Bride, Bridal Chamber, Kingdom, and Joy of the Lord: Aeon because it exists above the two contending orders; Place because it receives those appointed for rest; Synagogue because it gathers the dispersed; Storehouse because it keeps the seed; Bride because of its union; Bridal Chamber because of joy and promised fruit; Kingdom because of dominion over the hostile powers; and Joy because of the gladness and freedom bestowed upon it.

The new aeon was an image of the fullness and retained indivisibility, though its members were not equal in power. Its beings were characterised according to the faces above and were called Church because of their concord. Yet the passions below were not begotten from the agreement of the fullness, but from the one who had not yet received the Father. Even so, the Father's will used them for the economy that was to come.

The Logos received charge concerning those who existed, those present, and those yet to come. He held within himself the promise of the seeds. He arranged rulers, works, regions, angels, archangels, lordships, and servants, assigning each an appropriate place. He also set law, judgment, threat, honour, and the desire to command, so that even disordered powers might be constrained into service until the appointed end.

Over all the rulers he established one chief ruler, and none among them ruled over him. This figure was brought forth according to the likeness of the Father and the fullnesses. Therefore he was called Father, God, Maker, King, Judge, Place, Dwelling, and Law. The Logos used him as a hand to fashion what is below and as a mouth to speak what was to be proclaimed.

The ruler believed the words and works to arise from his own thought. He did not know that the Spirit moved him according to a higher will. He appointed rest for those who obeyed and punishments for those who resisted. He established paradise, kingdom, workers, and servants, all according to the shadow of the aeon above him.

The powers born from envy, anger, and other passions were appointed as servants of darkness, guards, destroyers, and devourers. Powers were set over them to restrain their begetting, so that evil would not multiply without limit.

Humanity was fashioned last, though prepared from the beginning for the sake of the economy. The spiritual Logos moved invisibly in the fashioning, while the Demiurge and his angelic servants worked as instruments. The human creature is composite: from the left, from the right, and from the spiritual Word whose mind reaches toward both natures.

Therefore paradise and its three kinds of tree were given as a sign of the threefold ordering. The higher substance in the human being was noble and bestowed grace. A commandment was laid upon the human, with death threatened as danger. He was permitted the enjoyment belonging to the lower powers, but was restrained from the tree of life.

The serpent, more cunning than the evil powers, deceived humanity through desire and pleasure, so that the commandment was transgressed and death entered. The human was cast out from the pleasures of imitation and likeness. Yet this occurred within providence, so that after a short time the human might receive the lasting enjoyment of the good in the appointed place of rest.

Thus the spirit allowed humanity to experience the great evil, death—that is, ignorance of the All—together with suffering and tribulation, so that afterward humanity might receive the greater good, eternal life, knowledge of the holy All, and every good thing. Through the transgression of the first human, death became ruler and learned to kill every person, according to the economy and the Father's will.

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The orders of right and left were divided and fought one another. Good was sometimes done through confused powers, and evil sometimes through powers thought to be honourable. Unable to know the hidden works, people gave many explanations: some said all things exist by providence, some by alien necessity, some by nature, some by themselves, and some knew only the visible elements.

The wise among Greeks and barbarians encountered powers born from fantasy and conflict. Acting under their influence, they spoke from pride and empty imagination, believing they had found truth, but often naming the powers that deceived them as though they were the All. Thus philosophies, teachings, arts, and traditions disagreed with one another. Yet some words were moved by powers of the right and reached toward truth through the turmoil.

The righteous and prophets among the Hebrews did not speak merely from fantasy. Each spoke according to the power active within him and according to what he saw and heard. Their testimonies agreed in part and guarded hope of salvation. A seed shone in them and drew them toward love of the Most High.

No prophet spoke wholly from himself. Each proclaimed the Saviour according to the measure given him: sometimes as one who was to come, sometimes as though the Saviour himself spoke through the prophet. Yet none fully knew whence he would come or from whom he would be born. They proclaimed birth and suffering, but did not comprehend the eternal, unbegotten, and ungraspable Logos who would appear in flesh.

The Saviour's Father is one: the invisible, unknowable, untouchable God. By will, grace, and favour he gave of himself so that he might be seen, known, and touched through the Saviour. The Saviour entered fellowship with suffering willingly, not by compulsion. He took flesh and soul, and received the smallness of those who had fallen, so that he might remove death from them and save them.

He wore bodily and psychic garments and shared the condition of those below, yet remained sinless, stainless, and flawless. He was born in life and remained in life. Some who accompanied the economy had arisen from passion and division and needed healing; others came from prayer to heal the sick—these were apostles and evangelists. The disciples were teachers for those who required instruction.

The Saviour is the image of the one All and therefore preserves indivisibility. Others are images according to divided patterns and receive division according to their forms. Yet the Father's will and goodness are sufficient to show mercy to the All and gather them into one. The Saviour was appointed to give life, while all others stand in need of salvation.

Through Jesus, honours, ranks, steps, and names belonging to the fullness were granted according to the capacity of each aeon. Salvation is needed not only by earthly people but also by angels, images, aeons, and powers. The Son himself entered the place of universal salvation and received salvation in the sense that the Logos descended and united all things in him; through him the rest received what was present in him.

Those in flesh received baptism unto salvation, birth, and love. Through the Son who appeared in flesh, heavenly angels became worthy of citizenship together with those upon earth. Therefore he is called the salvation of the Father's angels and the comfort of all who were troubled beneath the All.

The Father had reserved knowledge until the end through hidden wisdom, so that the All might labour in seeking him and learn that no one finds him through personal wisdom or power. He gives himself according to his will. The experience of ignorance and its troubles was appointed for a time so that those who endured evil might afterward enjoy the good without end.

They receive change, repentance, and abandonment of the powers that resisted them. Having tasted the things above, they marvel. Knowledge becomes command, revelation, love, agreement, and return to what existed first.

This is the receiving of the seal, so that the end may become as the beginning: the place where there is neither male nor female, slave nor free, circumcision nor uncircumcision, angel nor human, but Christ is the All in all. The servant receives the place of the free, and those restored receive the Spirit not merely by hearing a voice but according to their true nature.

The restoration of each is into what existed from the beginning. Angels and humans receive kingdom, establishment, and salvation. Those who appeared in flesh believed with unwavering faith that the Son belongs to the unknowable God and is God. They abandoned the gods and lords they formerly served. Though they saw him as a man laid in a grave, the heavenly powers came to understand that life was received from the one who died.

After his ascent the powers learned that he is their Lord, over whom there is no other lord. They surrendered kingship, rose from thrones, and clothed themselves for service. He manifested himself as their salvation and deliverance.

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Those who serve the chosen are raised toward heaven and begotten into incorruptible life. Though they depart from bodily life, their bodies remain on earth, and they continue to share in the troubles, persecutions, and tribulations of the holy ones.

The Church receives grace in the bridal chamber, in the love of God the Father, with Christ. She brings forth angels who know and people who serve. As Christ fulfilled the Father's will and exalted the greatnesses of the Church, so he grants everlasting dwelling to those belonging to her and draws them upward from the fault.

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Through him the holy ones and the angels hear the trumpet proclaiming the great and perfect release in the bridal chamber of beauty, the place of love of God the Father. To him belong power, greatness, simplicity, blessing, dominion, and glory, through the Lord and Saviour, through salvation and love, through his Holy Spirit, from now and forever, to the generations of generations.

Amen.