... the treatise...contains elements that point toward an early phase of Valentinian theology, like the theory that the aeons initially existed inside the Father as in a womb— a theory also attested for Valentinus himself (Tertullian Against the Valentinians 4.3) and found in the Gospel of Truth. It is not unlikely that the Tripartite Tractate incorporates materials and ideas from different Valentinian sources, some of which may be significantly older than the treatise itself.
Einar Thomassen (2010) 'The Tripartite Tractate', in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts Complete in One Volume, Meyer, Marvin W. & Robinson, James M., eds; HarperOne.(Kindle Locations 1486-1490)
Below are excerpts from the chapter by Einar Thomassen in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures ..., 2010. The text in white boxes are excerpts from the the Tripartite Tractate itself.
In one section, Einar first framed things by how they are not representative of other Valentinian theology and then said what the Tripartite Tractate says, but I have reversed the order to state what Einar says about the Tripartite Tractate first, then put the other commentary in smaller sized text in square brackets [...] next.
THE TRIPARTITE TRACTATE
NHC I,5
Introduced and Translated by Einar Thomassen
The first and longest part deals with the Father, the Son, and the emanation of the Pleroma, or Fullness, the fall of the youngest aeon, and the creation of the cosmos. The second, quite short part narrates the creation of the first human and his transgression and expulsion from paradise. The last part describes the many confused opinions among people about the nature of the cosmos, the advent of the Savior, the establishment of the church, and the fates of the various categories of humans.
The importance of this tractate is above all that it contains a version of the Valentinian system that is distinctly Valentinian at the same time that it differs on many points from the well-known systems reported by the church fathers. For this reason, it helps us understand better what are the constant and indispensable features of the Valentinian systems and what are individual and local variations.
... its aeons are numberless and nameless [the system of Tripartite Tractate does not have a Pleroma of thirty aeons and does not list the names of the aeons] ...
... the Tripartite Tractate describes the emanation process in embryological terms as a gradual formation of the Pleroma within the Father that ends in the birth of the aeons as autonomous beings [Instead of presenting the Pleroma as being unfolded by means of arithmetical and geometrical derivations].
Further, there [is] only one Sophia [not two Sophias, as in the systems reported by Irenaeus and Hippolytus]
In fact, the fallen aeon is not called Sophia at all, but simply a logos, or word (logos being used as a generic name for the aeons). ... in the Tripartite Tractate the Savior is himself incarnated in a human body, suffers, dies, and is redeemed [there is no “psychical Christ”— the figure that the Savior [might] puts on when he descends into the world and who suffers and is crucified while the Savior himself remains passionless] ...
In its Christology and soteriology, the Tripartite Tractate in fact agrees with the Eastern Valentinian Theodotus, who says that the Savior himself was in need of redemption after having descended into the world of matter (Excerpts from Theodotus 22.7; cf. Tripartite Tractate 124, 32– 125, 4). The idea that the Savior participated fully in the human condition in order for humans to share in his spiritual being (cf. Tripartite Tractate 115, 3– 11) is a distinctive Eastern Valentinian doctrinal feature. The Tripartite Tractate therefore seems to be the only preserved example of a complete Eastern Valentinian systematic treatise.
The outline of the treatise follows a pattern familiar from the heresiological presentations of the Valentinian system and whose main features can be found in certain other Gnostic treatises as well, such as the Secret Book of John.
The main divisions are:
- First principles: the Father, the Son, and the Church of aeons (51, 1– 59, 38)
- The projection of the aeons (60, 1– 75, 17)
- The passion of the youngest aeon and the origin of the material powers (75, 17– 80, 11)
- The conversion of the aeon-logos and the origin of the psychical powers (80, 11– 85, 15)
- The mission of the Savior and the origin of the spiritual kind (85, 11– 95, 16)
- The creation of the cosmos and the region of the Middle (95, 17– 104, 3)
- The creation of humanity and the expulsion from paradise (104, 4– 108, 12)
- The errors of humankind and the prophecies (108, 13– 113, 5)
- The advent and work of the Savior (113, 5– 118, 14)
- The destiny of the three kinds of humans (118, 14– 138, 27)
In several respects, the system of the Tripartite Tractate is simpler than the parallel accounts in the church fathers. Instead of the complex hierarchies of aeons, as found in Irenaeus and Hippolytus, the transcendent world is described here as the relationships among three factors: the Father, the Son, and the Church.
The Son is eternally generated by the Father as his self-reflective and self-admiring Thought, and the Church is the multiplicity of divine qualities that inhere in this self-reflective activity, “in the same way as kisses, when two people abundantly embrace one another in a good and insatiable thought— it is a single embrace but consists of many kisses” (58, 22– 29).
It is clear that the multitudinous aeons generated in this way are aspects or attributes of the Father himself. However, they also evolve into a congregation of autonomous beings through a process that brings them forth from the Thought, like children from a womb. The successive phases of this divine gestation are the theme of Tripartite Tractate 60, 1– 75, 17.
Einar Thomassen (2010) 'The Tripartite Tractate', in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts Complete in One Volume, Meyer, Marvin W. & Robinson, James M, eds.. HarperOne. (Kindle Locations 1401-1440).
The Generation of the Son -
For it is truly his ineffable self that he engenders. It is self-generation, where he conceives of himself and knows himself as he is. He brings forth something worthy of the admiration, glory, praise, and honor that belong to himself, through his boundless greatness, his inscrutable wisdom, his immeasurable power, and his sweetness that is beyond tasting. It is he himself whom he puts forth in this manner of generation, and who receives glory and praise, admiration and love, and it is also he who gives himself glory, admiration, praise, and love ...
This is how he exists eternally within himself. As we have explained, by knowing himself in himself the Father bore him without generation, so that he exists by the Father having him as a thought— that is, his thought about himself, his sensation [57] of himself and… of his eternal being. This is what in truth is meant by “Silence”— or “Wisdom,” 5 or “Grace,” as the latter is also rightly called.
Einar Thomassen (2010) 'The Tripartite Tractate', in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts ... (Kindle Locations 1544-1553). HarperOne.
This is how he exists eternally within himself. As we have explained, by knowing himself in himself the Father bore him without generation, so that he exists by the Father having him as a thought— that is, his thought about himself, his sensation [57] of himself and… of his eternal being. This is what in truth is meant by “Silence”— or “Wisdom,” 5 or “Grace,” as the latter is also rightly called.
Einar Thomassen (2010) 'The Tripartite Tractate', in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts ... (Kindle Locations 1544-1553). HarperOne.
“Church” is not a common name for the Pleroma in the extant (Western) versions of the Valentinian system, but the idea it expresses is certainly presupposed there as well. In the Tripartite Tractate the term serves to highlight the correspondence between the Pleroma as a congregation of aeons and the “Church in the flesh” (125, 4– 5). The earthly church is an image of the Pleroma, and this relationship is an essential element in the system as a whole. The origin of the earthly church goes back to before the creation of the world. It is narrated as an episode in the story of the fallen aeon, a story that tells how everything in the lower world came into being.
The fallen aeon— called the Logos, or Word, in the Tripartite Tractate— first experienced a passion, which came alive as a multitude of rebellious powers, the powers of materiality. The Logos’s second emotion was repentance and prayer for help; this gave rise to a superior set of powers having a psychical nature. In response to the prayer for help, the aeons then collectively produced and sent out the Son-Savior, who manifested the totality of the Pleroma to the Logos.
Seeing him, the Logos experienced a third emotion: joy. Expressing this emotion by jubilant thanksgiving, the Logos gave birth to the third kind of beings, the spiritual seed. These beings form the spiritual church, which is established as a special region below the Pleroma. This church was an image of the Pleroma because it originated from the Logos’s vision of the Son and Savior.
... The cosmogonic myth explains how the cosmos was made from the substances of matter and soul; the anthropogony narrates how the material and psychical powers each contributed to the composition of the first human. In addition to body and soul, however, the first human received an input of spiritual seed from the region of the Logos and the spiritual church, a region now situated in the middle between the cosmos and the Pleroma. In consequence, some humans carry the spiritual seed from above inside them, but it is hidden in body and soul and not fully conscious of itself. At best, it inspired prophecies about a Savior and revealer coming in the future.
At a certain moment in time the Savior appeared on earth, assuming a human body and soul. Coming down, however, he also brought with him, as his spiritual body, the church of the spiritual seed from the intermediary region of the Logos. This idea of a preexistent church and body of the Savior, which was incarnated together with him, is an important and very characteristic Valentinian notion.
The descended church participates in the Savior’s work to redeem the spiritual seed hidden in humans; in addition, however, it needs instruction and redemption itself, since it still remains for it to be reunited with the Pleroma, its model. In this way, the cosmos serves as a training ground and an arena of redemption for the spiritual seed. To fulfill this purpose the church exists in the world, teaching, performing baptism, and doing similar sorts of things. Eventually the whole spiritual seed will have passed through the cosmos on its journey back to the Pleroma. The existence of the cosmos is thus a necessary element in the Father’s plan of salvation— the oikonomia— and has been willed by him from the beginning.
Einar Thomassen (2010) 'The Tripartite Tractate', in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts Complete in One Volume (Kindle Locations 1441-1467). HarperOne.
The Preexistent Church (57, 23– 59, 38) -
He revealed his inscrutable power, and he mixed it with the plentiful abundance of his generosity. For not only the Son but also the Church exists from the beginning1.
If somebody now thinks that this statement is contradicted by the fact that the Son is an only son, that is not so, because of the mystery of the matter. For just as the Father is singular, and was shown to be his own father, so also the Son may be found to be his own brother, without generation and without beginning ...
... They have issued from him, the Son and the Father, in the same way as kisses, when two people abundantly embrace one another in a good and insatiable thought— it is a single embrace but consists of many kisses. This is the Church that consists of many people and exists before the aeons and is justly called “the aeons of the aeons.”
… the Church exists in the properties and qualities in which the Father and the Son exist and which I have described earlier. Thus it consists of innumerable births of aeons, and these in turn give birth in infinite number through the qualities and properties in which they [exist]. These [are a] community [formed] with one another and [with the ones] who have gone forth from [them and] with the Son, because of whom they exist as glory.
Einar Thomassen (2010) 'The Tripartite Tractate', in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures ... HarperOne. (Kindle Locations 1558-1571).
If somebody now thinks that this statement is contradicted by the fact that the Son is an only son, that is not so, because of the mystery of the matter. For just as the Father is singular, and was shown to be his own father, so also the Son may be found to be his own brother, without generation and without beginning ...
... They have issued from him, the Son and the Father, in the same way as kisses, when two people abundantly embrace one another in a good and insatiable thought— it is a single embrace but consists of many kisses. This is the Church that consists of many people and exists before the aeons and is justly called “the aeons of the aeons.”
… the Church exists in the properties and qualities in which the Father and the Son exist and which I have described earlier. Thus it consists of innumerable births of aeons, and these in turn give birth in infinite number through the qualities and properties in which they [exist]. These [are a] community [formed] with one another and [with the ones] who have gone forth from [them and] with the Son, because of whom they exist as glory.
Einar Thomassen (2010) 'The Tripartite Tractate', in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures ... HarperOne. (Kindle Locations 1558-1571).
What strikes me from the description about and text from the Tripartite Tractate is that much of can be seen as 'proto'-Christian theology.
1 That stikes me as being Eusebian ie. the sort of thing Eusebius would like and emulate.