Aeonic Emanations: From the Gnostic Nag Hammadi Library, Part 1 of 2

The Nag Hammadi Library is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic manuscripts, also called codices, discovered in 1945, near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi. The general dating of the books varies from the 2nd to the 4th century. The collection includes 13 ancient books containing over 50 spiritual texts. Today, we will read a selection from The Tripartite Tractate of “The Nag Hammadi Library,” where we will find how words are used, in an attempt to describe the Indescribable and Inconceivable One.

The Father “Not one of the names which are conceived or spoken, seen or grasped - not one of them applies to Him, even though they are exceedingly glorious, magnifying and honored. However, it is possible to utter these names for His Glory and Honor, in accordance with the capacity of each of those who give Him glory. Yet as for Him, in His own Existence, Being and Form, it is impossible for mind to conceive Him, nor can any speech convey Him, nor can any eye see Him, nor can anybody grasp Him, because of His inscrutable Greatness, and His incomprehensible Depth, and His immeasurable Height, and His illimitable Will. This is the nature of the Unbegotten One, which does not touch anything else; nor is it joined (to anything) in the manner of something which is limited. Rather, He possesses this constitution, without having a face or a form, things which are understood through perception, whence also comes (the epithet) ‘the incomprehensible.’ If He is incomprehensible, then it follows that He is unknowable, that He is the One Who is inconceivable by any thought, invisible by anything, ineffable by any word, untouchable by any hand. He alone is the One Who knows Himself as He is, along with His Form and His Greatness and His Magnitude. And since He has the ability to conceive of Himself, to see Himself, to name Himself, to comprehend Himself, He alone is the One Who is His own Mind, His own Eye, His own Mouth, His own Form, and He is what He thinks, what He sees, what He speaks, what He grasps, Himself, the One Who is inconceivable, ineffable, incomprehensible, immutable, while sustaining, joyous, true, delightful, and restful, is that which He conceives, that which He sees, that about which He speaks, that which He has as thought.”