The Organization – Selections 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, that were discovered in 1945, near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi. Today, the precious Nag Hammadi manuscript collection is housed in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Egypt. We now invite you to join us for excerpts from “The Organization” from The Tripartite Tractate in The Nag Hammadi Library.

“The Logos established Him(self) at first, when He beautified the Totalities, as a basic principle and cause and ruler of the things which came to be, like the Father, the One who was the cause of the establishment, which was the first to exist after Him. He created the pre-existent images, which He brought forth in thanks and glorification. Then He beautified the place of those whom He had brought forth in glory, which is called ‘Paradise’ and ‘the Enjoyment’ and ‘the Joy full of sustenance’ and ‘the Joy,’ which pre-exist.”

“After the Logos established each one in His order, both the images and the representations and the likenesses, He kept the aeon of the images pure from all those who fight against it, since it is a place of joy. However, to those of the thought He revealed the thought which He had stripped from Himself, desiring to draw them into a material union, for the sake of their system and dwelling place, and in order that they might also bring forth an impulse for diminution from their attraction to evil, so that they might not any more rejoice in the glory of their environment and be dissolved, but might rather see their sickness in which they suffer, so that they might beget love and continuous searching after the One who is able to heal them of the inferiority. Also over those who belong to the likeness, He set the word of beauty, so that He might bring them into a form. He also set over them the law of judgment. Again, He set over them the powers which the roots had produced in their lust for power. He appointed them as rulers over them, so that, either by the support of the word which is beautiful, or by the threat of the law, or by the power of lust for power, the order might be preserved from those who have reduced it to evil, while the Logos is pleased with them, since they are useful for the organization.”