The Gnostic Bible: Gnostic Texts of Mystical Wisdom form the Ancient and Medieval Worlds

LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM 191

I am the womb that gives shape to all by bearing light shining in

splendor. I am the coming eternal realm. I am the fulfillment of

all.... I cast the voice's speech into the ears of those who know

me. I invite you into the high, perfect light.

She offers hope to save the children of light on the earth, telling them they
will be as they were when they were light.
In the second descent, the speech of first thought gives spirit and breath to
the fallen. And in the third, the word or logos of thought descends in human
form and restores the fallen to light, a feat accomplished by means of the bap-
tismal rite of the five seals. The human form may be Christ the anointed, who
is mentioned a few times, reflecting the tractate's light christianization, which,
though at moments polemical, seems to lack conviction. This is not funda-
mentally a Christian treatise. Nonetheless, it still merits comparison with the
opening hymn to the word or logos in the Gospel of John.
The discourse ends with a gnostic baptismal rite leading to the five seals
that contain the light of ineffable knowledge. In the last line we learn that the
author of this sacred scripture is the father of perfect knowledge.

THREE FORMS OF

FIRST THOUGHT

2

THE WORD OF FIRST THOUGHT:

THE FIRST DESCENT

I am first thought,^3 the thought that is in light. I am movement that is in all,

she in whom the realm of all takes its stand, the firstborn among those who

came into being, she who exists before all. She is called by three names,^4 al-

though she exists alone, since she is perfect. I am invisible within the thought

2. Three Forms of First Thought: Nag Hammadi Codex XIII.i, pp. 35,1 to 50,24; translated from
   the Coptic by John D. Turner (Robinson, ed., Nag Hammadi Library in English, rev. ed., pp.
   513-22); revised by Willis Barnstone. The translation includes a number of textual restorations.


3. Protennoia resembles forethought, Pronoia, elsewhere in Sethian texts.
   4- This statement recalls forethought, or Barbelo, as the triple male and the triple power in the
   Secret Book of John and elsewhere.