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                                   Thunder, Perfect Mind 
                                             
                                            or 
                                             
                        How did all these people get into my room? 
                                             
                                       Tony Iannotti

                  Thetext called _Thunder, PerfectMind_ is a composite document,
          composed  of three distinct types  of writing. These  types of writing
          can be compared to the Isis aretalogies, Hebrew wisdom literature, and
          Platonic  dialogue.{FN:1}  The composite nature of the text is clearer
          when  the  three  strands are  separated  and  reconstructed,  each by
          themselves. The three resultant texts can be found below.{FN:2}

                  If the document isto be considered agnostic document, adefini-
          tion of  gnostic must be  tendered first.  For now, the  definition of
          Theodotus  will be used,  that "what liberates us  is the knowledge of
          who we  were, what we  became; where we  were, whereunto we  have been
          thrown;  whereunto we speed, wherefrom we are redeemed; what birth is,
          and what rebirth."{FN:3}   The Thunder, Perfect Mind_ answers  some of
          these questions, but not others.

                The questions dealingwith self-knowledge aredealt with veryfully
          in the text. The tradition of Isis aretalogies is one of self-definit-
          ion, aretalogies being strings of  "I am" statements. The part  of the
          text like an Isis  aretalogy describes the speaker in  paradoxical but
          full detail. The very first section  of the aretalogy text answers the
          questions of  where the speaker comes from, where she has come to, and
          where she might be found.   There is a  slight deviation, in that  she
          has  actively come to "those who reflect" upon her, rather than "being
          thrown" to  them, but  the idea of  being removed from  one's original
          habitation  is there. In the sixth section  of this part she says that
          she is an alien, as well as a citizen.

                This bringsup the question ofwhat the point ofthe dichotomies in
          the aretalogy section is. They range from philosophical, political and
          social opposites to sexual and familial polarities. In each opposition
          of polarity, the speaker maintains that she encompasses both poles, or
          roles. She is "the whore and the  holy one."{FN:4}  She is "the barren
          one,  and  she whose  sons  are many."{FN:5}    She is  "Knowledge and
          ignorance."{FN:6}  And  she is "the  one whom they  call Law, and  you
          have called Lawlessness."{FN:7}

                  In the last dichotomy,  the difference may be ascribed  to the
          people who call her either Law or Lawlessness, either "they" or "you."
          Similar distinctions  are made  in other seemingly  paradoxical state-
          ments in terms of temporal placement. The tenses change, for instance,
          in  the fifth section in many statements, such as "I am the one who is
          hated everywhere, and  who has been loved everywhere.", "I  am the one
          whom  you have despised, and you  reflect upon me." and  "I am the one
          whom you have hidden from, and you appear to me."  These distinctions,
          either temporal or nominal, are subservient to the larger message that
          the speaker is a very diverse personality. They are also only possible
          to discern in a small percentage of the proffered paradoxes{FN:8}  The
          main attempt  is to define herself, not to set up distinctions in time
          or peoples. There is almost no cosmology or anthropology in this text,
          and  this is a  clue to  the nature  of the message  of the  text. The
          emphasis is  on the person, not the  cosmos; on the self,  and not the
          environment.


                                                                            1255


                  In thisaretalogy third ofthe text, therean attemptto transcend
          the intellect  through intellectual paradox. By  setting up identities
          between polar opposites the mind  is set in circles,  as it is by  the
          Zen _koans_, until it  is driven into the brick wall of impossibility.
          In the introduction  to his  translation of this  text, MacRae  states
          that  "...the  particular significance  of  the  self-proclamations of
          _Thunder, Perfect  Mind_ may  be found in  their antithetical  charac-
          ter."{FN:9}   One  might rather  say that  the significance  _must_ be
          found  in  their antithetical  character.  There  is no  other  common
          denominator.

                  The second type of writing seen in this text  is comparable to
          Hebrew  wisdom literature.  The excerpted  and reconnected  text is  a
          series of hortatory instructions  for those who would  be _gnostikoi_,
          in the form of very short injunctions to "Look upon me"{FN:10} , "Hear
          me"{FN:11} ,  "Do not  be arrogant  to me"{FN:12}  , etc.  The speaker
          exhorts the reader to be on his guard twice, and not to be ignorant of
          her  twice. This emphasis on care and awareness augments the intellec-
          tual exercises of the  aretalogy section.  One could  easily skim over
          the polarities and  not stop to  reflect on them  or their import,  in
          which case their efficacy of liberation would be severely
          diminished. All three parts of this text work together.

                  The exhortationsgo on to impressupon the reader thathe must be
          aware that the  speaker encompasses  all things, great  and small,  as
          well  as left  and right, male  and female,  royal and  base, rich and
          poor. There is an element of the union of opposites here as  well, the
          speaker  saying  she  is  compassionate and  cruel,  and  obedient and
          self-controlled.{FN:13}

                  In the thirdsection of this part of the text, the instructions
          are  to "come  forward to me,  you who  know me ...  and establish the
          great ones among the small first creatures."  Here is some evidence of
          an organised attempt to proselytise, or establish a group of those who
          know the speaker. The fourth section also calls to "you, who know me."
          They are  told to learn the speaker's words, while those "hearers" are
          told simply to hear.  This suggests some form  of hierarchy among  the
          "hearers" and the "knowers". The first step would seem to  be that one
          must hear the voice, and then come to know it.

              This could be a sign of the initiatory path, along which one
          must  pass to  come to  _gnosis_  As noted  above, the  simple act  of
          hearing the message intellectually  would not be enough. One  must pay
          special care to the  paradoxes presented, and reflect upon  them until
          illumination comes. The process can again be compared to the effect of
          _koans_,  where one perceives  them first  as outright  nonsense, "the
          sound of  one hand clapping,"_ etc._,  until one comes to  the crux of
          where they attempt to fix the mind.{FN:14}

                Where  the _Thunder, Perfect  Mind_ would fix  the mind  is on a
          realisation of the transcendence of the speaker, and eventually on the
          identification of the speaker with the hearer when that hearer becomes
          a knower. As it says in the sixth section of the aretalogy part, "I am
          the knowledge of  my inquiry, and the finding of  those who seek after
          me, ... and  of the spirits of  every who exists  with me, and of  the
          women  who dwell within me." The path  to _gnosis_ and the traveler on
          that path are both played here by the character of the speaker.


                                                                            1256

                  Another point madeby this partof thetext like wisdomliterature
          is that manifestation  implies duality,  and that to  perceive in  the
          world implies  discrimination. The  nature of the  speaker comprehends
          all things, but  to appear in the world she must choose one of the two
          halves of  all those  things through  which to  appear. As a  complete
          being she would be both invisible and insensible in any  way, since to
          contain  both poles of being, such  as 1 and -1, would  be to equal 0.
          This has a parallel in the way of the Tao, in which one of the aims is
          to do everything by  doing nothing. One might hear  the speaker saying
          "I am she who  does everything, and nothing."   The idea is to  incor-
          porate in oneself  a balance  between action and  non-action, yin  and
          yang, and  by doing such one  gets beyond having to  struggle with the
          world. There  will be no  antagonism between the  person and  then en-
          vironment, once that person becomes one with the environment. (Or a
          reflection of it, by incorporating or epitomising all its elements.)

                This shows the less ascetic nature of the text _Thunder, Perfect
          Mind_.   The world is not actively evil, but rather simply distracting
          due to its  incomplete nature. When one gets beyond this, then one has
          improved, but there is no shame in being merely a "hearer,"  and not a
          "knower." The only desiderata are to hear and then to know, to balance
          oneself according to what one comes to know, and despise nothing along
          the way, for every thing  is part of the transcendent whole.  Here one
          could  draw  Deist parallels,  intensifying  the  impression that  the
          writers of this text did not see the world as inherently evil.

                  It is ourperception of theworld that causesthe apparent evilof
          the world. To perceive something is to discriminate between it and its
          context.

            It is  this separation or  making of differences  that allows us  to
          operate in  the world, but also that enslaves us to it by monopolising
          our attention.

            _Thunder, Perfect  Mind_  insists that  only  by seeing  the  larger
          picture of unions of all opposites can we escape this servitude to the
          world. In other words, what liberates us is the knowledge of into what
          we have been thrown, or have come.

              The last section, the fifth of this part of the text, is a final
          exhortation to the reader to  "look," "give heed" and be aware  of who
          speaks and  what that means,  that by encompassing  all things she  is
          "the one who  alone exists," comprising all, "and ...  no one who will
          judge" her exists outside  her. This extreme recognition of  the unity
          of oneself with  the cosmos, of subject  with object, and of  positive
          and  negative, leads  to an  extension of  the self  to the  limits of
          perception. Sometimes  this continues to the  point that manifestation
          requires  a relimitation by definition  of person. As  the speaker has
          done this, the extension  and then the relimitation  in order to  com-
          municate, she also  implies that  it is an  achievement attainable  by
          all, if one will just "hear" and "know."

                  The third part of the text represents Greece, as the first two
          reflect the Egyptian and Judaic strands of the Hellenistic world.{FN:-
          15}  It consists of questions and answers, not always on philosophical
          subjects, but always leading to philosophical points. It is similar in
          many  ways to the prototypical  Platonic dialogue in  which the inter-
          locutor is led to the truth
            of  the matter  by way of  dialectic. Another parallel  would be the
          dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna in that chariot.


                                                                            1257

                  There are six sections to this partof the text, as it has been
          cut up  and fitted to the other two parts,  and the first five display
          an  elegant ring composition. Section one is a question and amplifica-
          tion of the question, while section  five is the answer to it. Section
          two is another  question and amplification, answered  by section four.
          Section  three is the center point, pointing  out the union of the two
          questions and their respective  answers.  Section six is  a conclusion
          of sorts, resuming that which the dialogue has attempted to draw.

                  The first question is  why the reader, and people  in general,
          display  contradictory behavior. This  is not a  psychological type of
          inquiry, into  the roots of irrationality, but  rather another attempt
          to  unveil  the  nature of  the  speaker.  The  contradictory behavior
          referred to deals  with the reader's reaction to  the speaker, and the
          nature of complete being in general.{FN:16}  If complete being entails
          all things, then it elicits all  responses, each of which will have an
          opposite  reaction that  will  be elicited  simultaneously (or  there-
          abouts). Love and hate, truth and lie, knowledge and ignorance are all
          part of man's reactions to the world.

              The answer to this problem is contained in section five. The
            incompleteness  of things,  inside  and outside,  judge and  judged,
          condemning and acquitting; these distinctions elicit  opposite respon-
          ses to each of their  halves, yet both halves are only that: halves of
          a whole, which elicits  both love and  hate, fear and confidence,  and
          obedience and self-control. The way out of the world of appearances is
          again to realise the unity of opposites.   that what is seen inside is
          what is outside also.

                  The second question is directed toward the question of the ig-
          norance  of these unions of  opposites. "Why have  you hated me," asks
          the  unity,  "Because  I  am  a  barbarian  among  barbarians?"{FN:17}
          Because I  don't speak the language  of any specific nation,  not even
          those who don't  speak you language?   Because I speak of  universals?
          The answer  is that "those  who are  without association  with me  are
          ignorant of  me, and those  who are in  my substance are  the ones who
          know me."{FN:18}   Those who know,  know; those who don't  don't.  One
          cannot understand the nature of the speaker or the world until one
            becomes a  part of it, and all the parts of it. The antithetical and
          polarised  nature continues  to be shown, "On the day  when I am close
          to you, you are far away  from me, and on the  day when I am far  away
          from you, I am close to you."{FN:19}

                  Thethird section unitesthese two questionsof the manifestation
          of  opposites, and the difficulty of perception of perfection. (not to
          mention  perfection  of perception!)  Both  problems  stem from  human
          nature  in the world  of manifestation.  The separation  of opposites,
          needed for perception of manifested things, is necessary to operate in
          the world as humans  with human limitations, as these  limitations are
          usually counted.  But the speaker here  says the real need  ideally is
          not to separate, and thus to come to a realisation  of the unity. This
          is similar to  the idea of _samadhi_, where the  subject and object of
          contemplation are united in a flash of illumination.


                                                                            1258

               Section six concludes,  saying that the worldly  forms are pleas-
          ant, but numerous, disgraceful, and  fleeting. When men "become  sober
          and go up to their resting place.... they will find me there, and they
          will live,  and they will not die again." This implies the possibility
          of a permanent state of comprehension of the unity of opposites.

                  Nowwe can seewhere Theodotus' definitionof gnosticismis and is
          not exemplified by _Thunder,  Perfect Mind_. The writers of  this text
          were  concerned with most of  Theodotus' questions, but  not all. They
          provide answers  for where  we have come  from, and whereunto  we have
          been thrown.  They address the question  of who we were,  what we have
          become, but  not really what birth  is, and what rebirth.  Nor do they
          proffer answers to whereunto  we speed, or wherefrom we  are redeemed,
          beyond the answers to the  first questions of where we were  and where
          we are.  The answers that are  offered deal with  personal rather than
          cosmological questions  (if  there  is  a difference).  The  issue  is
          primarily one  of self-liberation,  rather thanredemption,  unless the
          reception of the "good news" of unity is to be considered redemption.

                  This difference  of degree  of activity and  passivity between
          Theodotus  and the speaker of  _Thunder, Perfect Mind_  is revealed in
          the answers  to whereunto we  have been  thrown, and wherefrom  we are
          redeemed.{FN:20}   In _Thunder,  Perfect_ _Mind's_  view we  came our-
          selves  to  this world,  and  liberate ourselves  through  Hearing and
          Knowing. What liberates us  is still the knowledge, but  the knowledge
          of slightly different things. The lack of
          cosmology or theology in the text, compared to other texts in the Nag
          Hammadi library, suggests the comparison rather to the more psycholog-
          ical sect of Buddhism in contrast to the majority of Mahayana that has
          absorbed local religious or theological superstructure.

              The path suggested by the text towards illumination is a strictly
          intellectual path to the transcendence of intellect. Through the
          mortification of the  mind rather than  of the  flesh one may  achieve
          _gnosis_.  There is therefore no need for  a theology on which to hang
          precepts of asceticism.  The authors of the text  say simply that when
          one understands the facts, one gives up the preoccupation of the world
          as incomplete.

              The gnosticism exemplified by this text then, is transcendental,
          syncretic, and  hortatory. It is transcendent in  that it looks at the
          world and insists that there is a larger reality beyond what we see as
          separate,  discrete  things. It  is syncretic  in  that it  uses three
          distinct  literary styles to get  across its point.  These three texts
          may have been actual texts on their own before incorporation into this
          text,  or they may not. They fit so  smoothly into each other in terms
          of subject continuity that were  they originally distinct texts,  they
          must have been revised for  the purpose. The authors are  hortatory as
          opposed to imperative in that they say that if you come to their  idea
          of unity,  then you will  be less  confused by the  complexity of  the
          world. If you do not, then you will stick to  all those pleasant forms
          of passions and fleeting pleasures, and simply not achieve peace. They
          do not threaten any punishment for ignorance, only a perpetuation of a
          potentially temporary confusion.


                                                                            1259

                  The comparisons ofthe threestyles of writingsis profitableonly
          in so  far as it  serves to conveniently categorise  the material. Too
          strict  ananalog y to the three styles  would be blinding as well. The
          content  is radically different in  message from the  usual content of
          any of  the borrowed forms. Again,  what must be looked  at to explain
          the  meaning of  the text  is the  antithetical nature  of the  "I am"
          statements, and their commentary in the other two  styles of text. The
          medium (in this  case) is not the  message.  The function of  the text
          must be considered to be not philosophical speculation, theological or
          moral exhortation or religious definition, as the borrowed types were,
          but rather  psychological revelation, buttressed  by practical  exhor-
          tation and logical proof.

                What really qualifies  the author  or authors of  this text  for
          consideration as excellent and true gnostics is their appropriation of
          existing  forms,  whether  myths,  ritual  speeches, or  philosophical
          methods, and turning them to their own ends.

                                  _The text like an Isis Aretalogy_

            1) I was  sent forth from the  power, and I  have come to those  who
          reflect upon me, and I have been found among those who seek after me.

            2) For I  am the first and  the last. I am  the honored one and  the
          scorned one. I am  the whore and the holy  one. I am the wife  and the
          virgin. I  am the   mother and  the daughter. I  am the members  of my
          mother. I am  the barren one   and many are her  sons. I am she  whose
          wedding  is great, and I have  not taken  a husband.  I am the midwife
          and she who does  not bear. I am the solace of my   labour pains. I am
          the bride and the bridegroom, and it is my  husband who begot me. I am
          the  mother of my father  and the sister  of my husband, and  he is my
          offspring. I am the slave of him who prepared me. I am the ruler of my
          offspring. But he is the one who begot me before a time on a birthday.
          And he is my offspring in due time  and my power is from him. I am the
          staff of his power in his youth, and he is the rod of my old age.  And
          whatever he wills happens  to me. I am the  voice whose sound is  man-
          ifold and the word whose appearance is multiple. I am the utterance of
          my name.

           3) For I am knowledge and ignorance. I am shame and boldness. I am
          shameless, I am  ashamed. I am  strength and I am  fear. I am  war and
          peace.  Give heed to me. I  am the one who is  disgraced and the great
          one.

            4) But I am she who exists in all fears and strength in trembling. I
          am she who is weak, and I am well in a pleasant place. I  am senseless
          and I am wise.


                                                                            1260

            5) For  I am the wisdom of the Greeks  and the knowledge of the bar-
          barians. I am the judgment of the Greeks and the barbarians. I  am the
          one whose image is  great in Egypt and the  one who as no  image among
          the barbarians. I am the one who is hated  everywhere and who has been
          loved everywhere. I am the one whom they call Law, and you have called
          Lawlessness. I am  the one whom  they call Life,  and you have  called
          Death. I am  the one whom you have pursued, and  I am the one whom you
          have seized. I am the one you have scattered and you have
          gathered me together. I am the one before whom you  have been ashamed,
          and  you have been shameless  to me. I  am she who does  not keep fes-
          tival, and I am  she  whose festivals are many. I, I am godless, and I
          am one whose God is great.  I am the one whom you have reflected upon,
          and you have scorned me. I am unlearned, and they learn  from me. I am
          the  one whom you have despised, and you reflect upon me. I am the one
          whom you have hidden from, and you appear to me. But whenever you hide
          yourselves, I myself will appear.

            6) But I am the mind of ...  and the rest of .... I am the knowledge
          of  my inquiry,  and the  finding  of those  who seek  after, and  the
          command of those  who ask of  me, and the  power of  the powers in  my
          knowledge  of the angels, who   have been sent at my  word, and of the
          gods in their seasons by  my counsel, and of the spirits  of every man
          who exists with me, and of the women who dwell within me. I am the one
          who is honored, and who is praised, and who is  despised scornfully. I
          am peace, and war has come because of me. I am an alien and a citizen.
          I am the substance and the one who has no substance.

            7) I am ... within. I am ...of the natures. I am ... of the creation
          of the  spirits. ... request of souls. I am control and the uncontrol-
          lable. I am the union  and the dissolution. I  am the abiding and  the
          dissolving.  I am  the one  below, and they  come up  to me.  I am the
          judgment and  the acquittal. I,  I and  sinless, and the  root of  sin
          derives from me.  I am lust in outward appearance,  and interior self-
          -control exists within  me. I  am the  hearing that  is attainable  to
          everyone, and the speech that cannot be grasped.  I am a mute who does
          not speak, and great is the multitude of my words. Hear me in  gentle-
          ness, and learn  of me in roughness. I am she  who cries out, and I am
          cast  out on the face  of the earth.  I prepare the bread  and my mind
          within. I am the knowledge  of my name. I am one who cries  out, and I
          listen. I  appear and   ... walk in  ... seal of my  ... I am  ... the
          defense ... I am the one who is called Truth, and iniquity ....

            8) I am the hearing that is attainable toeverything; I am the speech
          that can not be  grasped. I am the name of the sound, and the sound of
          the name.  I am the  sign of the  letter and the   designation  of the
          division. And I  .... ... light  .... ... hearers  ... to you ...  the
          great  power. And  ... will  not move  the name.  ...  to the  one who
          created me. And I will speak his name.


                                                                            1261

                                _The text like a Hebrew Wisdom Text._

            1)  Look upon me and reflect upon  me, and you hearers. hear me. You
          who are waiting for me, take to yourselves. And  do not banish me from
          your  sight. And do not make your voices hate me, nor your hearing. Do
          not be ignorant of me any where or any  time. Be on your guard! Do not
          be ignorant of me.

            2) Give heed to my poverty and my wealth.   Do not be arrogant to me
          when I am  cast out upon the earth, and you  will find me in those who
          are to come. And do not look upon me on the dung heap nor go and leave
          me cast  out, and you will  find me in  the kingdoms. And do  not look
          upon me  when I am cast out  among those who are  disgraced and in the
          least  places, nor laugh at me. And do not cast me out among those who
          are slain in violence. But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel. Be on
          your guard! Do not hate my obedience, and do not love my self-control.
          In my weakness do  not forsake me, and do  not be afraid of  my power.
          For why do you despise my fear and curse my pride?

            3) Those who have ...  to it ... senselessly.... Take me  ... under-
          standing  from grief, and take me to yourselves from understanding and
          grief. And  take me  to yourselves  from places that  are ugly  and in
          ruin, and  rob from those which are good, even though in ugliness. Out
          of  shame, take me to yourselves shamelessly; and out of shamelessness
          and shame, upbraid  my members in yourselves. And  come forward to me,
          you who  know me and who know my members, and establish the great ones
          among the first small creatures. Come forward to childhood, and do not
          despise  it because it is small and it is little. And do not turn away
          greatnesses  in some parts  from the smallnesses,  for the smallnesses
          are known from the greatnesses.

           4) Hear me you hearers. and learn of my words, you who know me.

            5)  Look then  at his  words and  all the  writings which  have been
          completed.   Give heed  then you hearers  and you also  the angels and
          those who have  been sent, and  you spirits who  have arisen from  the
          dead. For I am  the one who alone exists,  and I have no one  who will
          judge me.


                                                                            1262

                                _The text like a Platonic Dialogue._

            1) Why, you who hate me, do you love me, and you hate those who love
          me? You who deny me, confess me,  and you who confess me deny me.  You
          who tell the truth about me lie  about me, and you who have lied about
          me tell  the truth about me. You  who know me, be  ignorant of me, and
          those who have not known me, let them know me.

            2) Why have  you hated me  in your counsels? For  I shall be  silent
          among those  who are silent,  and I shall  appear and speak.  Why then
          have you  hated me, you  Greeks? Because  I am a  barbarian among  the
          barbarians?

            3) Why do you curse  me and honor me? You have wounded  and you have
          had mercy.   Do  not separate me  from the  first ones  whom you  have
          known. And do not  cast anyone out nor  turn anyone away ... turn  you
          away and ...  know him not ... him. What is  mine.... I know the first
          one and those after know me.

            4) Those who are without association with me are ignorant of me, and
          those  who are in my substance are the ones who know me. Those who are
          close to me have been  ignorant of me, and those who are far away from
          me are the ones who have known me. On the day when I am close to  you,
          you are far away from me, and on  the day when I am far away from you,
          I am close to you.

            5) You honor me ... and you whisper against me.  ... victorious over
          them.  Judge  then before they give judgment against  you, because the
          judge  and the partiality  exist within you.  If you  are condemned by
          this one, who will acquit you? Or if you are acquitted by him who will
          be able to detain you.  For what is in side of you is what is  outside
          of you, and the  one who fashions you on the outside of you is the one
          who shaped the inside of you.  And what you see inside of you, you see
          outside of you; it is visible and it is your garment.

           6) For many are the pleasant forms which exist in numerous sins, and
            incontinencies,  and disgraceful  passions, and  fleeting pleasures,
          which men embrace until they  become sober and go up to  their resting
          place. And  they will find me there, and they will live, and they will
          not die again.


                                                                            1263


          1)  For examples of  aretalogies see Grant,  F.C.; _Hellenistic Relig-
          ions: The Age__of Syncretism._
          2) The text _Thunder, Perfect Mind_ is CG VI, 2.

          The aretalogy-like material's sections are;
          1.      13,1-13,6
          2.      13,16-14,15
          3.      14,25-15,1
          4.      15,25-15,30
          5.      16,5-17,1
          6.      18,10-18,30
          7.      19,5-20,10
          8.      20,29-21,12

          The wisdom literature styled section are;
          1.      13,6-13,15
          2.      15,1-15,25
          3.      17,1-17,32
          4.      20,26-20,28
          5.      21,12-21,20

          The dialogue material comes from;
          1.      14,15-14,25
          2.      15,30-16,5
          3.      17,32-18,10
          4.      18,30-19,5
          5.      20,10-20,25
          6.      21,20-21,32
          3) This definition of Theodotus is cited in Clemens Alexandrinus,_    
          Excerpta ex__Theodoto_ 78.2.
          4) IA 2(Sections will be referred to by their section number prefixed 
            by  IA for aretalogy sections, WT for wisdom  sections, and PD for  
          the dialogue sections.)
          5) IA 2
          6) IA 2
          7) IA 5
          8) Only in 9 out of 68 complete paradox statements does there occur   
          temporal  or nominal changes along  with alteration of  description.  
          (Interestingly, all occur in  sections IA 2 & IA 5, two  sections of  
          8)
          9)  Robinson,  James M.,  ed.; _The  Nag  Hamadi Library  in English_,
          (Harper &
           Row: San Fransisco) 1977/81, p. 271
          10) WT 1
          11) WT 1
          12) WT 2
          13)  WT 2. In the  sentence regarding obedience  and self-control, the
          point is  also to have  no reactive emotions  to these things,  as the
          emotions form  attachment to objects. This  advice towards detachment,
          reminiscent of Eastern philosophies more often  than Western, shows up
          in the dialogue sections more obviously.
          14)  _i.e.,_ where the subject  of the knowledge  they are designed to
          impart lies.


                                                                            1264

          15)  The Macedonian,  Seleucid,  and Ptolomaic  Kingdoms  made up  the
          Hellenistic  world, _per  se_,  though external  contact with  Europe,
          Asia, and Africa was constant. Of course, all three nations were  also
          assimilating parts  of each  other's cultures, creating  the internat-
          ional and  cosmopolitan atmosphere necessary  for the creation  of our
          text, and the sources are named after the originating national culture
          for convenience only.
          16) "Complete being" refers to the unified speaker and world.
           (1)+(-1)=(0).
          17) PD 2
          18) PD 4
          19) PD 4
          20)  These two questions presuppose a  passive role on our part, which
          may or  may not refer  to the Gnostic Redeemer  as well as  us regular
          joes,  the recipiants of the redeeming message. In this text, however,
          there is no strong distinction between the speakers and the hearers on
          the basis of origin; only on the level of knowledge. We may be assumed
          to have the same genesis as she, and she states that she had an active
          role in coming into the world.  This only difference is that she knows
          this, and presumably we do not.


                                                                            1265


Next: Treatise On Mind (The Tigress)