It is untitled, and instead it gets its name "from the fact that the ancient copyist divided the text with decorative markings in two places, thus separating the tractate into three parts.
The second part contains the Gnostic creation narrative, in which man is created by the Demiurge and is a mixture of both spiritual and material substances.
The Logos is referred to as the "Aeon" and "Place" of all those he brought forth and is also called the "Synagogue of Salvation," "Storehouse," "Bride," "Kingdom," and "Joy of the Lord."
He performed this activity to bring stability to those he brought forth, and the aeon in which he set himself is a form of matter and an image of the Pleroma.
The first human being is a mixture of both spiritual and material substances and is subject to both good and evil influences.
This expulsion was a work of providence, so that man would experience the great evil of death and ignorance, but ultimately receive the greatest good of life eternal and firm knowledge of the Totalities.
"The Greeks and the barbarians" (who are also paired in The Thunder, Perfect Mind) have relied on imagination and vain thought to explain the world around them, leading to conflicting opinions and theories.
The righteous and prophetic figures among the Hebrews spoke based on what they saw and heard, not from imagination or likeness, but by the power that was at work in them.
They all had a unified harmony and preserved the confession and testimony of the one greater than them, who is the illuminating word consisting of the thought and his offspring.
The Savior was appointed to give life and all the rest need salvation, which began to receive grace through the promise of Jesus Christ.
The release from captivity and the acceptance of freedom is the redemption, which is the knowledge of the truth that existed before the ignorance and slavery of the servile nature.
The text mentions that even those brought forth from the desire of lust for power will receive a reward if they abandon their ambitions and keep the commandment of the Lord of glory.
The conclusion praises the love of the Savior, who appeared in flesh and is believed to be the Son of the unknown God.
[4] The work is introduced by Harold W. Attridge and Elaine H. Pagels in the James M. Robinson version of the Nag Hammadi Library.
They state that the Tractate is "an elaborate, but untitled, Valentinian theological treatise which gives an account of devolution from and reintegration into the primordial godhead.
The text is divided by scribal decoration into three segments which contain the major acts of the cosmic drama; hence its modern title.
They even posit that the text may be "a response to the criticism of orthodox theologians such as Irenaeus of Lyons or Hippolytus."
The insistence on the unitary character of the Father distinguishes the text from most other Valentinians who posit a primal masculine feminine dyad, although some members of the school, such as those mentioned by Hippolytus, also hold to a monadic first principle."