The Tripartite Tractate
Home > Gnostics > The Tripartite Tractate The Tripartite Tractate At a Glance Treatise Genre: (5/5) ***** Reliability of Dating: (5/5) ***** Length of Text: Greek Original Language: Ancient Translations: Modern Translations: Estimated Range of Dating: 200-300 A.D. Chronological List of Early Christian Writings Discuss this text on the Early Writings forum. Text The Tripartite Tractate Offsite Links French Translation Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia: Tripartite Tractate The tripartite tractate from Nag Hammadi : a new translation with introduction and commentary Anthropogony and Ethical Responsibility in the Tripartite Tractate A Reading Plan for the Nag Hammadi Codices: Ritual and Revelation The facsimile edition of the Nag Hammadi Codices The Nag Hammadi Library in English The Platonism of the Tripartite Tractate The Ransom Logion in Mark and Matthew: Its Reception and Its Significance The Prologue of the Fourth Gospel: A Sequential Reading Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism The Role of the Sacred Feminine in the Gnostic Pantheons The Great Mystery of Marriage, Sex, and Conception in Ancient Valentinian Traditions Conceiving Spirits: The Mystery of Valentinian Sex The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies Nag Hammadi Bibliography: 1970-1994 Books Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation With Annotations and Introductions (Doubleday 1987) Marvin Meyer, ed., The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (HarperOne 2009) Birger A.
Pearson, Ancient Gnosticism: Traditions And Literature (Fortress Press 2007) Recommended Books for the Study of Early Christian Writings Information on the Tripartite Tractate Birger A. Pearson writes, "The Tripartite Tractate is the only completely preserved systematic treatise of Valentinian gnosis that has come down to us. It is a very lengthy treatise of eighty-eight pages--in the Nag Hammadi corpus only Zostrianos (VIII,1) is longer--and presents the entire mythological story of pleromatic origins, divine devolution leading to creation, and ultimate reintegration into the divine Pleroma. The text is divided by scribal decoration in the manuscript into three parts. Since no title is given to this treatise in the manuscript, the first editors called it Tractatus Tripartitus, or in English, Tripartite Tractate.
The three main segments correspond to three major acts in the mythological drama. Part I (51,1-104,3) has an account of the primal Father and his aeons. Part II (104,4-108,12) deals with the creation of humanity and Adam's fall. Part III (108,13-138,17) presents the Savior's incarnation and human responses to his coming, culminating in the final restoration." (Ancient Gnosticism, p. 184) Einar Thomassen writes, "The importance of this tractate is above all that it contains a version of the Valentinian system that is distinctly Valentinian at the same time that it differs on many points from the well-known systems reported by the church fathers. For this reason, it helps us understand better what are the constant and indispensible features of the Valentinian systems and what are the constant and indispensable features of the Valentinian systems and what are individual and local variations.
Thus, the system of Tripartite Tractate does not have a Pleroma of thirty aeons and does not list the names of the aeons; its aeons are numberless and nameless. Instead of presenting the Pleroma as being unfolded by means of arithmetical and geometrical derivations, the Tripartite Tractate describes the emanation process in embryological terms as a gradual formation of the Pleroma within the Father that ends in the birth of the aeons as autonomous beings. Further, there are not two Sophias, as in the systems reported by Irenaeus and Hippolytus, but only one. In fact, the fallen aeon is not called Sophia at all, but simply a logos, or word (logos being used as a generic name for the aeons). Finally, there is no 'psychical Christ' in the Tripartite Tractate--the figure that the Savior puts on when he descends into the world and who suffers and is crucified while the Savior himself remains passionless.
Instead, the Savior is himself incarnated in a human body, suffers, dies, and is redeemed. These differences between the system of the Tripartite Tractate and those found in the church fathers demonstrate that the latter, far from representing 'the' Valentinian system (as the church fathers claim), are merely local variants of it." (Nag Hammadi Scriptures, pp. 57-58) Birger A. Pearson writes, "The Tripartite Tractate presents a revisionist version of the Valentinian system. The differences between it and other Valentinian sources have been noted, and these can be accounted for with the suggestion that its author had taken into account ecclesiastical criticisms of Valentinian doctrines and was attempting to make his treatise more compatible with the doctrines of a growing orthodox establishment." (Ancient Gnosticism, p.