Source for the following: Geoffrey S. Smith, Valentinian Christianity: Texts and Translations (Oakland, Calif.: University of California Press, 2020)
Background:
The Tripartite Tractate is the fifth text in Nag Hammadi codex
I. Since no title appears in the manuscript, the Tripartite Tractate has
received its editorial title on the basis of its division into three parts by
scribal decoration. Spanning eighty-seven manuscript pages, the Tripartite
Tractate offers a comprehensive account of salvation history, beginning
with the ineffable God and the population of the heavenly realm of fullness
with eternities, and culminating in humanity’s final return to the Father.
While the anonymous Tripartite Tractate was once thought to be the work
of Heracleon, scholars now reject this attribution on the basis of theological differences
between the work and Heracleon’s surviving writings. (p. 165)
English
translation (from Coptic):
The baptism that we previously discussed is called “garment of those
who do not strip themselves of it,” because those who will clothe themselves in
it and those who have received redemption wear it. It is also called “the
strength of the truth that does not have destruction.” Without wavering and
movement it grasps those who have received the <restoration> even as they
grasp him. Iy is called “silence” on account of the tranquility and imperturbability.
IT is also called “bridal chamber” on account of the agreement and the lack of
division of those who know that they have known him. It is also called] “the
light that never sets and has no flame,” since it does not illuminate, but
those who have worn it are made of light. They are those whom he wore. (p. 245)
