Allogenes
From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki
| Author | |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | |
| Country | Roman Empire |
| Language | Coptic |
| Subject | Gnosticism |
| Published | 200s-300s A.D. |
| Pages |
The One in Allogenes (Nag Hammadi Codex XI, Tractate 3):
Negative theology[edit]
- Now he is an entity insofar as he exists,
- in that he either exists and becomes,
- or (acts) <lives> or knows,
- although he (lives) <acts> without Mind or Life or Existence
- —or Nonexistence—incomprehensibly.
- And although he is an entity along with its own attributes,
- he is not left over in any way,
- as if he yields something that can be assayed or purified [or]
- as if he receives or gives.
- Nor is he diminished in any way, [whether] by his own desire
- or whether by giving or receiving through another.
- Neither does he have any desire, whether his own
- or that which would have been added by something else.
- But neither does he produce anything by himself
- lest he become diminished in some other way.
- Therefore, he requires neither Mind nor Life
- nor indeed anything at all.
- He is superior to the totality in his privation and unknowability—which is nonbeing Existence—
- although he is endowed with silence and stillness
- lest he be diminished by the undiminishable.
- He is neither Divinity nor Blessedness nor Perfection.
- Rather he is an unknowable entity, not an attribute.
- Rather he is something else superior to Blessedness and Divinity and Perfection,
- for he is not perfect, but he is another thing that is superior.
- He is neither boundless
- nor is he bounded by another.
- Rather he is something superior.
- He is neither corporeal nor incorporeal,
- neither great [nor] small,
- neither a quantity nor a [<quality>].
- Nor is he something that exists that one can know;
- rather he is something else that is superior that one cannot know.
- Even if primary revelation and self-knowledge characterize him,
- it is he alone who knows himself.
- Since he is not among existing things,
- he is something else superior to superlative,
- even in comparison to what is
- and is not proper to him.
- He neither participates in eternity
- nor does he participate in time,
- nor does he receive anything from anything else.
- He is neither diminishable,
- nor diminishing,
- nor undiminishable.
- But he is self-comprehension,
- like something so unknowable
- that he exceeds those that excel in unknowability.
- Even if he is endowed with blessedness and perfection and silence,
- he is not the Blessed One, nor is he Perfection or Stillness.
- But he is something existing that one cannot [know]
- and that is at rest.
- Rather they are completely unknowable aspects of him,
- while he is much superior in beauty than all good things.
- And in this way he is universally unknowable in every respect,
- and it is through them all that he is in them all.
- Not only is he the unknowable knowledge that is proper to him,
- he is also united with the ignorance that sees him.
- <Whether one sees> in what way he is unknowable,
- or sees him as he is in every respect,
- or would say that he is something like knowledge,
- he has acted impiously against him,
- being liable to judgment because he did not know God.
- He will not be judged by that One,
- who is neither concerned for anything nor has any desire,
- but he is judged by himself
- because he has not found the truly existing origin.
- He was blind apart from the quiescent source of revelation,
- the actualization deriving from the Triple-Power of the first thought of the Invisible Spirit.
Positive theology[edit]
- This one thus exists from ...... something…[established on….
- It was with] beauty and [a dawning] of stillness and silence and tranquility
- and unfathomable magnitude that he appeared.
- He needed neither time nor <did he participate> in eternity.
- Rather he is self-derived, unfathomably unfathomable.
- He does not act—not even upon himself—so as to become still.
- He is not an Existence lest he be in want.
- Spatially he is corporeal, while properly he is incorporeal.
- He has nonbeing Existence.
- He exists for all of them unto himself without any desire.
- Rather he is a maximum of magnitude.
- And he transcends his stillness
- in order that ...... [the In]visible [Spirit].
- [Although] he [empowered them all],
- [they do not] concern themselves with that One at all,
- nor is he empowered if one should participate in him.
- In accordance with his immobile unity, nothing acts on him.
- For he is unknowable; he is a breathless place of the boundlessness.
- Since he is boundless and powerless and nonexistent,
- he was not providing Being.
- Rather he contains all of these in himself,
- being at rest and standing.
- From the One who constantly stands,
- there appeared an eternal Life,
- the Invisible and Triple-Powered Spirit,
- the one that is in all existing things
- and surrounds them all while transcending them all.
- A shadow ...... he [was filled with power.
- And] he stood before [them],
- empowering them all,
- and he filled them all.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- Meyer, Marvin (2007). The Nag Hammadi scriptures. New York: HarperOne. ISBN 978-0-06-162600-5.
