Joy in the Message
1The message of truth is a joy for those who have obtained grace from the Father of Truth in order to know him by means of the power of the Logos who has proceeded from the fullness, this one who dwells inside the thought and mind of the Father, the one called “Savior,” because it is the name of the mission that he will complete, salvation for those who had become ignorant of the Father. The name [of] the message is the manifestation of hope, a finding for those who seek after him.
Error and Forgetfulness
2When the all looked for the one from whom they had originated — indeed, the all dwelt inside of him, the inconceivable, unknowable one who is greater than any thought — ignorance of the Father caused anger and fear to arise. Anger grew thick like a mist in a way that no one could see. This caused Error to become powerful. She labored on her matter in vain, because she knew not the truth. She deceptively brought forth, arranging powerfully and beautifully a simulacrum of what is true. This, nevertheless, did not cause him dishonor, the inconceivable, unknowable one, because they are nothing — the anger and the oblivion and the creation of deception, but the truth that has been founded changes not, cannot be disturbed, and its beauty cannot be improved. For this cause, ignore Error. In this way she will be without a root. She became a mist relative to the Father, existing in order to arrange works and oblivions and fears, so that with these entities she could entice those dwelling in (her) midst, and imprison them. The oblivion of Error was not shown forth, being not a [...] from the Father. The oblivion did not arise by the power of the Father, even though in fact it did arise because of him. What arose in him is knowledge, which became manifest in order that oblivion would vanish and the Father would be known, because oblivion arose, given that the Father was unknown. When then the Father becomes known, oblivion will cease existing from that point on.
The Fruit of Knowledge
3This ‹is› the message of the one who is looked for, who revealed himself to the perfect with the mercies of the Father, the concealed mystery, Jesus the Christ, by whom he illuminated those in darkness because of oblivion. He illuminated them and bestowed a path, being the path of the truth he expounded to them. This is why Error grew angry at him. She persecuted and tortured him. She was reduced to nothingness. He was nailed to a tree. He became the fruit of the knowledge of the Father, yet it decayed not because of it being eaten. Instead, for those who ate it, it provided them a reason to rejoice in the finding. He found them inside of himself, and him they found inside themselves. Regarding the inconceivable, unknowable one, the Father, the perfect one who created the all, inside him dwells the all, though the all stands in need of him. Despite his possessing their perfection inside himself — he had not granted it to the totality — the Father was not jealous, because what jealousy is between himself and his limbs? Because had the aeons [obtained] their [perfection], they would have been unable to arrive at the [...] the Father. He possessed their perfection inside himself, granting it to them in the form of repentance to him and a knowledge joined together perfectly. He is the one who created the all. Even though the all dwelt inside him, the all stood in need of him. Precisely like someone about whom some are ignorant, who desires that they know and love him, even so, because what did the all need if not knowledge of the Father, who became a teacher, kind and diligent?
Christ's Ministry
4In places of learning he appeared and spoke the message, because he was a teacher. Those who were wise in their own minds came to ‹him› to examine him, but he upbraided them, because they were unintelligent. They despised him, because in fact they were unwise. After all of this, the small children approached ‹him›, the ones who possess the knowledge of the Father. Having been fortified, they learned of the countenances of the Father. They knew; they were known. They obtained glory; they gave glory. Revealed in their mind was the living book of the living, the one inscribed in the thought and intellect [of the] Father, which before the foundation of the all dwelt inside his inconceivability, this one that none grasped, because it is reserved for the one who will grasp it to be slain. No one could have been revealed of those who had been faithful to salvation if that book had not arrived in (their) midst. This is the reason the merciful and faithful Jesus was patient and bore sufferings until he grasped that book, because he knew that his death was life for many, precisely like a will that has not yet been opened, with the possessions of the deceased master of the house being concealed. This is also (like) the all, which was kept concealed while the Father of the all remained unseen, which was the case from him from whom all space proceeds. This is why Jesus appeared. He donned that book. He was nailed to a tree. He made public the decree of the Father on the cross. O such great doctrine! He draws himself down to death, despite eternal life clothing him. After removing from himself perishable rags, he donned indestructibility, which none can remove from him.
The Book of the Living
5After entering the empty spaces of terrors, he passed through those stripped naked by oblivion, existing as knowledge and perfection, declaring the matters of the mind. [...] after [...] instruct those who will accept instruction, but those who will accept instruction [are] the living ones who are inscribed in the book of the living. They accept instruction concerning only themselves, accepting it from the Father, themselves repenting to him again. Because the perfection of the all dwells inside the Father, the all must ascend to him. Should one then possess knowledge, he will obtain those who are his, and he will draw them to himself, because one who is ignorant is in need, and what he needs is great, given that he lacks what would perfect him. Because the perfection of the all dwells in the Father, the all must ascend to him, and each one must accept what is his. He inscribed these from the beginning, having made them ready to be given to those who proceeded from him. Those whose name he knew from the beginning, at the end they were called in order that one who knows is one whose name the Father has declared, because one whose name has not been spoken remains ignorant. How will one in truth hear if his name has not been called, given that the one who remains ignorant to the end will be a deception of oblivion, and he will be annihilated together with it, because if not, these despised ones will be without a name and a call? In this way, if one knows, he originates from above. If he is called, he will hearken, he will respond, and he will turn in repentance to the one who calls him and approaches him. He knows the way in which he is called. Knowing, he performs the will of the one who has called him. Wishing to please him, he obtains repose. The name of each one reaches him. The one who will know in this way will know where he originated and where he is heading. He knows as one who, after being drunk, has abandoned his drunkenness, returning to himself, making righteous those things that that are his. He has turned away many from Error. He has preceded before them to their spaces, which they had left, given that they received Error because of the depth that encompasses every space, whereas nothing encompasses it. It was a tremendous wonder that they dwelt inside the Father, unaware of him, and that they could proceed alone, because they could not grasp or understand the one in whom they dwelt, because had his will not proceeded from himself, given that he revealed it with a knowledge with which all its emanations agree, specifically, the knowledge of the living book that he revealed to the aeons at the end in the form of his letters, revealing that they do not dwell in places that are vocal, nor in letters needing sound, in order that one could read them and contemplate what is deficient. They are instead letters of truth that those alone who know them will speak them. Each letter is a complete truth, as if it were a complete book, because they are letters written by the One. The Father has written them ‹for› the aeons, in order that with his letters they could know the Father.
The Return to Unity
6His Wisdom meditates on the Logos. His teaching speaks it. His knowledge has revealed ‹it›. His patience is a crown upon it. His joy has been joined together with it. His glory has exalted it. His image has revealed it. His rest has entered into it. His love made a body of it. His faithfulness has encompassed it. Thus the Logos of the Father enters into the all as the fruit [of] his heart and the countenance of his will. He sustains the all, selecting them, and receives the countenance of the fullness, cleansing them, bearing them into the Father, into the Mother, Jesus of the ‹in›finite sweetness. The Father reveals his bosom, his bosom being the holy Spirit, by revealing his concealed attribute. His concealed attribute is his Son, in order that out of the compassion of the Father the aeons could know him and end their labor of looking for the Father by resting in him, because they know that this is the one who is rest. After filling the deficiency, he annihilated the simulacrum, the simulacrum being the world he served, because the place where there is envy and arguing is deficient, but the place where there unity is perfect, given that the deficiency came into being because the Father was unknown. When, therefore, the Father becomes known, the deficiency will stop existing from that time onward, precisely like the ignorance of someone, (who) when he knows, his ignorance disappears of itself, precisely like when darkness disappears as soon as light appears. Even so, deficiency disappears with perfection. The simulacrum, therefore, will not appear from that time onward. Instead, it will disappear when it joins together with oneness. Their deeds presently are strewn about. Eventually, oneness will complete the spaces. Inside oneness each will receive himself. Inside knowledge he will cleanse himself from a host of images into a oneness by devouring matter inside him like a fire, and darkness by means of light, death by means of life.
The Parable of the Jars
7If then these events have transpired for each of us, it is then appropriate that we be attentive of the all, in order that this house will be holy and silent in oneness, precisely like those who depart from places, who possess vessels that in places are not good. They usually break them, without the master of the house experiencing any loss. On the contrary, ‹he› is happy because instead of defective vessels, there are full ones, being perfect. This is the judgment that has come from on high. It has issued judgment on all. It is a wielded sword, double-edged, slashing with both sides. After the Logos arrived in (their) midst, the one inside the heart of those who speak it, it was not just a sound, but a body. A tremendous commotion took place between the vessels, because some were empty, and others were full, given that some were supplied, and others were poured out; some were sealed, and others were broken open. All spaces were shaken, and they were unstable, because they possessed no durability, neither did they possess stability. Error grew fearful because she knew not what to do. She was grieving, lamenting, utterly shaken in total ignorance. When knowledge, being her collapse as well as of all her emanations, came near to her, Error grew empty, possessing nothing inside. Truth arrived in the midst, and all of its emanations were aware of it. They greeted the Father of Truth with a complete power that joins them together with the Father, because with regard to all who love the truth — truth being the mouth of the Father, his tongue being the holy Spirit — the one joined together with the truth is joined together with the Father’s mouth by means of his tongue, having received the holy Spirit on account of this being the manifestation of the Father, as well as his revelation to his aeons. He revealed his concealed attribute. He expounded it, because who exists but the Father alone?
Coming into Being
8All spaces are what he has given. They knew they had originated from inside him, like children who are from inside a perfect man. They knew they had not yet received a form, nor had they received a name, each one to whom the Father gives birth. When they receive a form that comes from his knowledge, while in truth they dwell inside him, they know him not. His Father is perfect, knowing every space inside of himself. If he so desires, he reveals the one he desires to, bestowing form on him, and naming him. He names him and makes him exist, in order that those who do not yet exist will be ignorant of the one who formed them. This does not mean I have said that those who do not yet exist are nothing. Instead, they exist inside the one who will desire that they come to exist when he so desires, like time that is yet to come. Before anything comes into existence, he knows what he will make. His fruit, which is yet to exist, knows nothing, and it does nothing. Furthermore, all space that even exists inside the Father comes from the Existent One, the one who formed it out of what did not exist. The one who possesses no root, possesses neither any fruit, yet even though he imagines of himself, “I have come to exist,” he will annihilate himself. This is why the one who has not existed in the least will never exist.
The Parable of the Nightmares
9Then what is it that he wanted to make him imagine about himself? That, “I have come to exist like the shadows and phantoms of night.” When the light shines on the terror this one has borne, he knows that it was nothing. This is why they were ignorant of the Father, he being the one whom they saw not. Because there was terror and commotion and uncertainty and double-mindedness and discord, a multitude of illusions were active through these, and a multitude of empty deceits, as if they were in a profound slumber, finding themselves inside a nightmare: either a place to which they rush headlong, or, being helpless, they arrive after pursuing others, or they attack, or they are attacked, or they plunge from elevated places, or they fly upwards into the air, lacking any wings. Furthermore, now and then, (it is) as though some kill them, despite there being no one in pursuit of them, or it is they who kill those next to them, on account of their being rendered impure by their blood. When those who bear all of this awaken, they see nothing, (namely), those who suffered all of these troubles, given that these things were nothing. In this way, those have expelled ignorance from them like sleep, because they deem it as nothing, and neither do they deem its other deeds as actual deeds. They instead abandon them behind them like a dream in the night. The knowledge of the Father, they yearn for (it) as if it were the light. Thus has each one behaved, like someone asleep while being ignorant, and thus has he arrived at knowing, as if awakening, and good exists for the one who will repent and awaken, and blessed is the one who has opened the eyes of the blind, and the Spirit, who rushed after rousing him, chased him. Reaching out his hand to the one lying on the ground, he assisted him to his feet, because he had not yet stood up.
The Revelation of the Son
10The knowledge of the Father, as well as the revelation of his Son, he granted them the means to know (these), because when they had seen and heard him, he enabled them to taste him, to smell him, and to grasp the beloved Son. When he arrived, he told them of the Father, the inconceivable one. When he breathed into them what dwells inside thought, performing his will, many were they who obtained the light. They repented to him. Because being alien, and not having seen his image, the material people did not recognize him. He came with a fleshly form, and nothing obstructed his journey, given that indestructibility is invincible. He furthermore speaks matters that are new, because he speaks concerning what is inside the heart of the Father, who has given birth to the unstained Logos. After light spoke from his mouth, together with his voice that produced life, he granted them thought and perception, and mercy and salvation, and the spirit of power from the infinity and sweetness of the Father. After terminating punishments and thrashings, given that they were driving people away from his face with error and with fetters those in need of mercy, he annihilated them powerfully, and he exposed them with knowledge. He became a path for those who had strayed and knowledge for those who had been ignorant, a finding for those who had been searching and strength for those who had been trembling, purification for those who had been impure.
The Parable of the Sheep
11He is the shepherd who abandoned the ninety-nine sheep that had not strayed. He departed and looked for the one that had strayed. He was happy when he found it, ninety-nine being the number with the left hand, because it holds it. When the one is found, the whole number switches over to the right hand. Just like a person who is without the one, that is, the whole right hand, draws what is deficient, and obtains it with the left side, and it switches over to the right side, even so, the number switches to one hundred. It is the sign of the one dwelling inside their voice, this being the Father. Even though it was on the Sabbath, the sheep he discovered fallen into a pit, he worked to find it. He renewed the sheep when he pulled it up from the pit, so that you could know interiorly, you who are children of esoteric knowledge, what the Sabbath is, that on which it is not fitting for salvation to be at rest, so that we could speak from the day that exists above, which possesses no night, and from the light that sets not, because it is perfect. For this reason, announce from the heart that you are the perfect day, and that in your midst dwells the light that darkens not. Speak of truth with those who look for it, and of knowledge to those who have transgressed by mistake.
Carry out the Will of the Father
12Make firm the foot of the stumbling,
and reach out your hands to the sick,
feed the hungry,
and to the weary give rest,
and lift up those desirous to stand,
and wake up the sleeping,
because you are the understanding that draws (to itself).
When strength operates in this manner, it grows yet stronger.
Be concerned about yourselves alone.
Do not concern yourselves with others, those you have expelled from your midst.
What you have vomited, return not to it to eat.
Be not moths.
Be not worms, given that already you are throwing it away.
Be not a place for the devil, given that already you have annihilated him.
Do not strengthen your hindrances, those stumbling, like a reinforcement,
because it is the unrighteous person who causes injury, not the righteous person, given that the former carries out his actions as someone unrighteous, while a righteous person carries out his actions for the sake of others.
Consequently, with regard to you, carry out the will of the Father, because you originate from him, because the Father is sweet, and with his will is what is beneficent.
He obtained knowledge of the things that are yours, and you have rested yourselves in them, because by their fruits knowledge is obtained concerning the things that are yours, because the children of the Father are his fragrance, because they originate from the grace of his countenance.
This is why the Father loves his fragrance, and he manifests it in every place, and when it joins with matter, he bestows his fragrance on the light, and in his silent rest he causes it to transcend all form, all sound, because it is not the ears that smell the fragrance, but the spirit is what possesses smell, and it draws it to itself, and it penetrates down into the fragrance of the Father, and he gives it harbor, and he conveys it down to the place where it originated, inside the primordial fragrance that becomes frigid.
It is an entity with a psychic form, subsisting like frigid water that flows on soil without firmness.
Those who see it are under the impression that it is soil.
It afterwards softens again.
If a breath inhales it, it grows hot.
The frigid fragrances, then, result from the separation.
This is why ‹faithfulness› arrived and annihilated the separation, and it conveyed the warming fullness of love, in order that what is frigid would not return, but that there could be the oneness of the perfect thought.
Obtaining what was Lacking
13This ‹is› the utterance of the message of the finding of the fullness for those who expectantly wait for the salvation that comes from above. The hope for which they expectantly wait, itself expectantly waits — those whose image is the light without shadow, because at that time the fullness will have almost arrived. The ‹deficiency› of matter did not transpire through the infinity of the Father, who arrived at ‹the› time of the deficiency(’s origin), even though none could have foretold that the undefiled one would arrive in this manner, but the depth of the Father was augmented, and the mind of Error was not present with him. It is something that falls, something easy to place upright with the finding of the one who approaches the one he will return, because the return is called “repentance.” This is why what is not defiled exhaled, going after the one who sinned, so that it could grant him repose, because forgiveness is what remains of the light inside the deficiency, the Logos of the fullness, because the physician travels where sickness is, given that this is his will that dwells inside him. So, the deficient one does not hide it because what he possesses is a lack, just like the fullness which is not deficient fills his deficiency. ‹The fullness› he supplied from himself was to fill what he lacked, in order that he could then obtain grace, because when he was deficient, he possessed no grace. This is why there was a dwindling present in the place where grace was absent. When what had dwindled was obtained, what he lacked, it became manifest, because it was their fullnesses, which is the finding of the light of truth that shined forth on him, given that he is unchanging. This is why Christ was spoken of among them, in order that those who were troubled could obtain a return, and that he could anoint them with ointment, the ointment being the mercy of the Father who will be merciful to them, but the ones he anointed are the perfected ones, because full vessels are sealed with an anointing, but once one’s ointment dissipates, it is empty, and the reason for its deficiency is that through which its ointment will pass, because when a breath draws it in, one does so with the power he possesses, but from him who is not deficient, no seal will be taken away, nor will anything be poured out, but what he lacks the perfect Father will once again fill.
The Father's Paradise
14He is beneficent. He knows his plantings, that he has planted them in his paradise, but his paradise is where he rests. This is the perfection inside the thought of the Father, and these are the words of his meditation. Each of his words pertains to his will of oneness, with the revelation of his word. When they dwelt inside the depth of his thought, the word that first proceeded forth revealed them together with a mind that speaks the word of oneness with a silent grace. He was called “Thought” because they dwelt inside it before they were revealed. It then transpired that he was the first to proceed forth, when the will of the one who willed desired such, it being the will in which the Father reposes himself, and with which he is pleased. Nothing happens without him, and nothing happens without the will of the Father. However, his will is unknowable. His footprint is the will, and none can know it, and none can be aware of it so as to grasp him. Instead, when he wills, he wills this, even should the vision not please them somewhat in God’s presence, that the Father be desired, because he knows the beginning of every one of them, and their end, given that at the end he will make enquiry of them in front of their face. The end is the obtaining of knowledge concerning what is concealed. This is the Father, from whom the beginning originated, to whom all who have originated from him will return. They have been revealed for the majesty and joy of his name.
The Father’s Name
15The Name of the Father is the Son. He originally bestowed a name on the one who proceeded from him, because he was the same (as him), and he gave birth to him in the form of a child. He bestowed on him a name that belonged to him. He is the one who possesses everything that surrounds him. The Father possesses the name. He possesses the Son. It is possible that he can be seen, but his name is unseen because it is the sole mystery of the unseen one, which reaches the ears completely filled with it by him, because in fact, with regard to the Father, his name is unspoken. It is instead revealed through a Son. This is, then, how the name is great. Then who could bring forth a name for him, the great name, apart from him alone, to whom belongs the name, as well as the children of the name, in whom the name of the Father rests itself, resting themselves in his name? Because the Father is not generated, it is he alone who self-generated himself in the form of a name before he created the aeons, in order that the name of the Father could be on their head in the form of a crown, which is the name in truth, which is strong by his command, by the perfect power. The name does not consist of words, nor of speech. It is instead unseen. He bestowed a name solely on him, because he is the only one who saw him, he who is the only one who possessed the ability to bestow a name on him. One who does not exist has no name, because what name could be bestowed on one who does not exist? One who exists does so together with his name, and he is the only one who knows it, even bestowing it on him alone. He is the Father. The Son is his name. He, consequently, did not conceal something in it. Rather, it existed (alone). It was only the Son who bestowed a name. This is why the name is the Father’s, just like the name of the Father is the Son. From where would compassion derive a name if not from the Father? No doubt, though, someone will say to the person next to him: “Who could bestow a name on someone who existed before he himself existed, as though children do not obtain a name from the ones who produced them?” First, it is consequently appropriate that we reflect on this topic: What, however, is the name? It is the name in truth, but it is the name from the Father, because it is the proper name. Consequently, he did not obtain the name in the form of a loan, like others, in agreement with the way each one is made, this, however, being the proper name. There is no one else who bestowed it on him. Instead, he cannot be named, ‹being› beyond description, until the perfect one alone will speak of him, even he, the one who possesses power inside him to utter his name and to behold him. Consequently, when he was pleased that his name, which he willed, was his Son, and the one who had proceeded from the depth bestowed this name on him, he spoke of his concealed matters, knowing the Father lacks evil. This was the very reason why he sent out this one, so as to speak of the place and of his place of rest where he had originated, and he glorified the fullness, the majesty of his name, and the sweetness of the Father.
The Place of Rest
16Of the place where each one originated he will speak, and to the place where he obtained his founding he will rush to return once more, and to take from that place, the place where he came to exist, tasting from that place, even obtaining sustenance, gaining growth, and his individual place of repose is his fullness. Consequently, every emanation from the Father is a fullness, and regarding all of his emanations, their root is inside the one who made all of them to grow up inside himself. He assigned them their destinations. Consequently, each one was revealed, in order that by their own individual thought ‹...›, because the place to where they convey their thought, that place is their root, ‹being› what lifts them up into all of the heights, to the Father. They possess his head, because it is repose for them, and they are sustained, approaching near him, as it is said, “They share his face by kisses,” but they are not revealed in this manner, given that they themselves were not lifted up. They lacked not the glory of the Father, and they did not think of him as being small, or resentful, or wrathful. Instead, he lacks evil, he is untroubled, he is sweet, knowing all spaces before they existed, and he had no need to be instructed. This is how it is with those who possess from above, by the infinite majesty, those expectantly waiting for the only one, even the perfect one, who will be there with them, and they do not descend to Hades, nor do they possess jealousy, nor profound sorrow, nor death inside them, but resting themselves inside the one who is resting, they are not disturbed, nor are they caught in the fence around the truth, but they themselves are the truth, and the Father dwells inside them, and they are inside the Father, because they are perfect, without division inside the one who is good in truth, deficient in nothing, but resting, renewed in the Spirit, and they will heed their root, because they will engage themselves in these things where his root will be located, and he will not experience the loss of his soul. This is the place of the blessed. This is their place.
Conclusion
17Then regarding what remains, let them be aware in their places that it is inappropriate for me, given that I have attained to the place of rest, to speak anything, but I have attained even to be devoted always to the Father of the all, and to those who are brothers in truth, those on whom the love of the Father flows, and inside of whom no deficiency of him prevails. Those are the ones who are revealed in truth, dwelling in life in truth and in eternity, and uttering the light that is perfect and full of the seed of the Father, and that dwells inside his heart, as well as inside the fullness. His spirit rejoices inside him, and it gives glory to the one inside whom it dwelled, because he is beneficent, and his children are perfect, and they deserve his name, because he is the Father. Children of this kind are what he desires.