Chapter 2

The Third Deep is the Universal Mystery, from whom all mysteries have gone forth.

The Fourth Deep is the Universal Gnôsis, from whom all Gnôses 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 Plêrôma 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 Plêrôma. At the four gates of the [Temple of] the Plêrôma 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 Sêtheus, and the third looks upward to the Sonship contained in every Monad. There it is that Aphrêdon 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 Aphrêdonian face that is called Aphrêdon Pêxos, in which is found a latent Only-begotten One.

When the (?) Idea comes out of the Deep, Aphrêdon 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 Kaluptô, 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 Prôtia, Pantia, Pangenia, Loxophania, Loxogenia, Loxokrateia, Lôia, and Iouêl. 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 Plêrômata and the Fruit which the Plêrôma emanated, who is Christ who has received the Plêrôma in Himself.

Beyond all these Spaces comes the Deep of Sêtheus. 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 Aphrêdonian. 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 Sêtheus. [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 Sêtheus] 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 Sêtheus, He who is called the Dark Ray (13), for it is the excess of His light alone that is darkness. Sêtheus 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 Sêtheus. One of these faces beholds the Deep which is in the Interior [of the Temple of the Plêrôma]; 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 Sêtheus, 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 Phôsilampes (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, Phôsilampes 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 (Plêrômata) 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 Sêtheus as a concept, and Sêtheus 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 [Sêtheus] 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, +ÔÔÔ+"--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 Sêtheus sent the Light-Spark from the Indivisible [Body], it burned and gave light to all the Space of the Temple of the Plêrômata. And they, beholding the light of the Spark, rejoiced and uttered myriads and myriads of praises in honour of Sêtheus 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 Plêrôma, 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 Plêrôma. 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 Plêrôma. 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 Sêtheus. He created the great reins like Sêtheus. 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 Plêrôma, 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 Plêrôma and filled Him with wisdom like the Universal Wisdom, and filled Him with interior mystery like Sêtheus and with exterior mystery like the Indivisible [Body]. Incomprehensible created He Him like the Incomprehensible One, who is in every Space, unique in the Plêrôma. 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 Plêrômata 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 Plêrôma, and [He] descended [as] the Triple-Power into the Spaces of Autogènes, 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 Gamanêl, 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 Gnôses 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, Prôtia, 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, +ÔÔÔ+ (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 Gnôsis 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).

But besides the Indivisible Queen and besides her Ennead without seal-mark, in which is found all seal-marks, there are three other Enneads, of which each emanates nine Enneads. In the first of these is revealed a Basket round which three Fathers are gathered: an Infinite Father, an Ineffable Father, and an Uncontainable Father. In the middle of the second Ennead is a Basket, and three Fathers are there: an Invisible Father, an Ingenerable Father, and an Unshakable Father. In the third Ennead is also revealed a Basket which encloses three Paternities: a Solitary Father, an Unknown Father, and a Triple-Powered Father. It is through these that the Universe has known God. They ran towards Him and have engendered an innumerable multitude of æons, and in each Ennead they offered myriads and myriads of praises.