dL JZ Ji LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM
mi
uuuuuu
ooooooo^13
being who exists forever
in truth truly
IEAAIO^14
in the heart
being
U^15
forever and ever
you are what you are
you are who you are.
This great name of yours is upon me,
You, self-conceived,
lacking nothing,
being independent,
invisible to all except me,
invisible to all.
Who comprehends you in speech or praise?
Having known you,
I now have mingled with your constancy.
I have armed myself,
and have put on armor of grace and light
and have become bright.
The mother^16 was there for the lovely beauty of grace.
So I stretch out my two hands.
I am formed in the circle of the riches of light
in my chest,- The (Greek) vowels in sequence; five omicrons are expected after 1111, in order to maintain
the sequence (one alpha, two epsilons, etc.). In texts of ritual power such vowels may be
arranged for visual effectiveness, in this case perhaps in the form of a pyramid. - Bohlig and Wisse, eds., NagHammadi Codices 111,2 and IV,2, p. 201, suggest that these enig-
matic lines, beginning here and extending to the end of the stanza, may be translated as fol-
lows: "Jesus, you eternal realm (aeon), who are in the heart, eternal one, son forever and ever,
you are what you are, you are who you are." - Upsilon.
- Forethought, Barbelo; forethought is referred to at the beginning of the baptismal cere-
mony and throughout Sethian literature.