ABSTRACT

In Sethian literature from Nag Hammadi, revelation is a dominantly epistemological phenomenon, a way of knowing ultimate generally invisible and intangible reality that is thought to qualify and add depth to the ordinary reality of everyday experience. The Trimorphic Protennoia is a first-person self-predicatory aretalogy or recitation of the deeds and attributes of Protennoia-Barbelo, the First Thought of the Sethian supreme deity. In the later Platonic tradition, this distinction became applied also to the thought, not just of humans, but also of the divine mind as well as to the distinction between the intelligible and perceptible realms. In addition to the lower intellectual triad of Kalyptos Protophanes Autogenes, they introduce a higher, intelligible triad, namely, the noetic triad of Being, Life, and Mind. By contrast with Plotinus' implementation, the Platonizing Sethian treatises conceive this intelligible triad as the Invisible Spirit's Triple Power, which serves as the means by which the supreme Invisible Spirit gives rise to the Aeon of Barbelo.