The Thought of Norea

NHC IX, 2

The following translation has been committed to the public domain and may be freely copied and used, changed or unchanged, for any purpose. It is based on the Coptic text of Nag Hammadi Codex IX, 2. The Nag Hammadi texts were written in the fourth century, subsequently buried, and then rediscovered in 1945. In this tractate, Norea, Seth’s sister-wife and the fallen Wisdom, prays to be restored to the Fullness.

This translation from the Coptic is by Samuel Zinner and was edited by Mark M. Mattison with the generous support of Other Gospels. Chapter and verse enumerations have been added by the translator.

Symbols

[ ]   Gap in the text (known as a “lacuna”)
< >   Editorial correction of a scribal error
[27]  Page number of the Coptic codex (hyperlinked)

[27] Father of the All, [Insight] of the Light,
Mind [abiding] in the heights above the lower realm.
Light abiding [in the] heights,
Voice of Truth, upright Mind.
Ungraspable Word and [inexpressible] Voice,
[unfathomable] Father!

Norea calls out to them.
They [heard]; they welcomed her into her everlasting abode.
To her they gave the Father of Mind, Adamas,
and in the [two] voices of the holy ones,
[28] so that she would rest in the inexpressible Thought,
so that <she> would inherit the First Mind that <she> had received,
and that <she> would rest in the Self-Begotten Divine,
and that she might beget herself,
even as [she] inherited the [living] Word,
and that she would be unified with all the imperishable ones,
and [speak] with the mind of the Father.

And [she began] speaking with words of [life],
and <she> continued in the [presence] of the Exalted One,
[possessing what] she had been given before the world existed.
[She possesses] the [great mind] of the unseen ones,
[and she gives] glory to <her> Father,
[and she] abides within those who [...]
within the Fullness, [and] she gazes on the Fullness.

Days will come when she will [gaze on] the Fullness,  
and she will not abide in the Deficiency,
because she has the four holy helpers interceding for her
with the Father of the All, Adamas.
It is he [29] who is within all of the Adams,
possessing the thought of Norea,
who speaks of two names that signify one name.