Against the Valentinians - Tertullian
Advanced Information
In which the author gives a concise account of, together with sundry caustic
animadversions on, the very fantastic theology of the sect. This treatise is
professedly taken from the writings of Justin, Miltiades, Irenaeus, and
Proculus.
Translated by Dr. Roberts.
Text edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson and
first published by T&T Clark in Edinburgh in 1867. Additional
introductionary material and notes provided for the American
edition by A. Cleveland Coxe, 1886.
Chapter I. Introductory. Tertullian Compares the Heresy to the Old
Eleusinian Mysteries. Both Systems Alike in Preferring Concealment of Error
and Sin to Proclamation of Truth and Virtue.
The Valentinians, who are no doubt a very large body of heretics'comprising
as they do so many apostates from the truth, who have a propensity for
fables, and no discipline to deter them (therefrom) care for nothing so much
as to obscure [6590] what they preach, if indeed they (can be said to)
preach who obscure their doctrine. The officiousness with which they guard
their doctrine is an officiousness which betrays their guilt. [6591] Their
disgrace is proclaimed in the very earnestness with which they maintain
their religious system. Now, in the case of those Eleusinian mysteries,
which are the very heresy of Athenian superstition, it is their secrecy that
is their disgrace. Accordingly, they previously beset all access to their
body with tormenting conditions; [6592] and they require a long initiation
before they enrol (their members), [6593] even instruction during five years
for their perfect disciples, [6594] in order that they may mould [6595]
their opinions by this suspension of full knowledge, and apparently raise
the dignity of their mysteries in proportion to the craving for them which
they have previously created. Then follows the duty of silence. Carefully is
that guarded, which is so long in finding. All the divinity, however, lies
in their secret recesses: [6596] there are revealed at last all the
aspirations of the fully initiated, [6597] the entire mystery of the sealed
tongue, the symbol of virility. But this allegorical representation, [6598]
under the pretext of nature's reverend name, obscures a real sacrilege by
help of an arbitrary symbol, [6599] and by empty images obviates [6600]
the reproach of falsehood! [6601] In like manner, the heretics who are now
the object of our remarks, [6602] the Valentinians, have formed Eleusinian
dissipations [6603] of their own, consecrated by a profound silence,
having nothing of the heavenly in them but their mystery. [6604] By the
help of the sacred names and titles and arguments of true religion, they
have fabricated the vainest and foulest figment for men's pliant liking,
[6605] out of the affluent suggestions of Holy Scripture, since from its
many springs many errors may well emanate. If you propose to them inquiries
sincere and honest, they answer you with stern [6606] look and contracted
brow, and say, "The subject is profound." If you try them with subtle
questions, with the ambiguities of their double tongue, they affirm a
community of faith (with yourself). If you intimate to them that you
understand their opinions, they insist on knowing nothing themselves. If you
come to a close engagement with them they destroy your own fond hope of a
victory over them by a self-immolation. [6607] Not even to their own
disciples do they commit a secret before they have made sure of them. They
have the knack of persuading men before instructing them; although truth
persuades by teaching, but does not teach by first persuading.
Chapter II. These Heretics Brand the Christians as Simple Persons. The
Charge Accepted, and Simplicity Eulogized Out of the Scriptures.
For this reason we are branded [6608] by them as simple, and as being
merely so, without being wise also; as if indeed wisdom were compelled to be
wanting in simplicity, whereas the Lord unites them both: "Be ye therefore
wise as serpents, and simple as doves." [6609] Now if we, on our parts, be
accounted foolish because we are simple, does it then follow that they are
not simple because they are wise? Most perverse, however, are they who are
not simple, even as they are most foolish who are not wise. And yet, (if I
must choose) I should prefer taking [6610] the latter condition for the
lesser fault; since it is perhaps better to have a wisdom which falls short
in quantity, than that which is bad in quality [6611] 'better to be in
error than to mislead. Besides, the face of the Lord [6612] is patiently
waited for by those who "seek Him in simplicity of heart," as says the very
Wisdom'not of Valentinus, but'of Solomon. [6613] Then, again, infants have
borne [6614] by their blood a testimony to Christ. (Would you say) that it
was children who shouted "Crucify Him"? [6615] They were neither children
nor infants; in other words, they were not simple. The apostle, too, bids us
to "become children again" towards God, [6616] " to be as children in
malice" by our simplicity, yet as being also "wise in our practical
faculties." [6617] At the same time, with respect to the order of
development in Wisdom, I have admitted [6618] that it flows from
simplicity. In brief, "the dove" has usually served to figure Christ; "the
serpent," to tempt Him. The one even from the first has been the harbinger
of divine peace; the other from the beginning has been the despoiler of the
divine image. Accordingly, simplicity alone [6619] will be more easily
able to know and to declare God, whereas wisdom alone will rather do Him
violence, [6620] and betray Him.
Chapter III. The Folly of This Heresy. It Dissects and Mutilates the Deity.
Contrasted with the Simple Wisdom of True Religion. To Expose the
Absurdities of the Valentinian System is to Destroy It.
Let, then, the serpent hide himself as much as he is able, and let him
wrest [6621] all his wisdom in the labyrinths of his obscurities; let him
dwell deep down in the ground; let him worm himself into secret holes; let
him unroll his length through his sinuous joints; [6622] let him
tortuously crawl, though not all at once, [6623] beast as he is that
skulks the light. Of our dove, however, how simple is the very home!'always
in high and open places, and facing the light! As the symbol of the Holy
Spirit, it loves the (radiant) East, that figure of Christ. [6624] Nothing
causes truth a blush, except only being hidden, because no man will be
ashamed to give ear thereto. No man will be ashamed to recognise Him as God
whom nature has already commended to him, whom he already perceives in all
His works, [6625] 'Him indeed who is simply, for this reason, imperfectly
known; because man has not thought of Him as only one, because he has named
Him in a plurality (of gods), and adored Him in other forms. Yet, [6626]
to induce oneself to turn from this multitude of deities to another crowd,
[6627] to remove from a familiar authority to an unknown one, to wrench
oneself from what is manifest to what is hidden, is to offend faith on the
very threshold. Now, even suppose that you are initiated into the entire
fable, will it not occur to you that you have heard something very like it
from your fond nurse [6628] when you were a baby, amongst the lullabies
she sang to you [6629] about the towers of Lamia, and the horns of the
sun? [6630] Let, however, any man approach the subject from a knowledge of
the faith which he has otherwise learned, as soon as he finds so many names
of ¦ons, so many marriages, so many offsprings, so many exits, so many
issues, felicities and infelicities of a dispersed and mutilated Deity, will
that man hesitate at once to pronounce that these are "the fables and
endless genealogies" which the inspired apostle [6631] by anticipation
condemned, whilst these seeds of heresy were even then shooting forth?
Deservedly, therefore, must they be regarded as wanting in simplicity, and
as merely prudent, who produce such fables not without difficulty, and
defend them only indirectly, who at the same time do not thoroughly instruct
those whom they teach. This, of course, shows their astuteness, if their
lessons are disgraceful; their unkindness, if they are honourable. As for
us, however, who are the simple folk, we know all about it. In short, this
is the very first weapon with which we are armed for our encounter; it
unmasks [6632] and brings to view [6633] the whole of their depraved
system. [6634] And in this we have the first augury of our victory;
because even merely to point out that which is concealed with so great an
outlay of artifice, [6635] is to destroy it.
Chapter IV. The Heresy Traceable to Valentinus, an Able But Restless Man.
Many Schismatical Leaders of the School Mentioned. Only One of Them Shows
Respect to the Man Whose Name Designates the Entire School.
We know, I say, most fully their actual origin, and we are quite aware why
we call them Valentinians, although they affect to disavow their name. They
have departed, it is true, [6636] from their founder, yet is their origin
by no means destroyed; and even if it chance to be changed, the very change
bears testimony to the fact. Valentinus had expected to become a bishop,
because he was an able man both in genius and eloquence. Being indignant,
however, that another obtained the dignity by reason of a claim which
confessorship [6637] had given him, he broke with the church of the true
faith. Just like those (restless) spirits which, when roused by ambition,
are usually inflamed with the desire of revenge, he applied himself with all
his might [6638] to exterminate the truth; and finding the clue [6639]
of a certain old opinion, he marked out a path for himself with the subtlety
of a serpent. Ptolemµus afterwards entered on the same path, by
distinguishing the names and the numbers of the ¦nons into personal
substances, which, however, he kept apart from God. Valentinus had included
these in the very essence of the Deity, as senses and affections of motion.
Sundry bypaths were then struck off therefrom, by Heraclean and Secundus and
the magician Marcus. Theotimus worked hard about "the images of the law."
Valentinus, however, was as yet nowhere, and still the Valentinians derive
their name from Valentinus. Axionicus at Antioch is the only man who at the
present time does honour [6640] to the memory of Valentinus, by keeping
his rules [6641] to the full. But this heresy is permitted to fashion
itself into as many various shapes as a courtezan, who usually changes and
adjusts her dress every day. And why not? When they review that spiritual
seed of theirs in every man after this fashion, whenever they have hit upon
any novelty, they forthwith call their presumption a revelation, their own
perverse ingenuity a spiritual gift; but (they deny all) unity, admitting
only diversity. [6642] And thus we clearly see that, setting aside their
customary dissimulation, most of them are in a divided state, being ready to
say (and that sincerely) of certain points of their belief, "This is not so;
"and, "I take this in a different sense; "and, "I do not admit that." By
this variety, indeed, innovation is stamped on the very face of their rules;
besides which, it wears all the colourable features of ignorant conceits.
[6643]
Chapter V. Many Eminent Christian Writers Have Carefully and Fully Refuted
the Heresy. These the Author Makes His Own Guides.
My own path, however, lies along the original tenets [6644] of their
chief teachers, not with the self-appointed leaders of their promiscuous
[6645] followers. Nor shall we hear it said of us from any quarter, that we
have of our own mind fashioned our own materials, since these have been
already produced, both in respect of the opinions and their refutations, in
carefully written volumes, by so many eminently holy and excellent men, not
only those who have lived before us, but those also who were contemporary
with the heresiarchs themselves: for instance Justin, philosopher and
martyr; [6646] Miltiades, the sophist [6647] of the churches Irenµus,
that very exact inquirer into all doctrines; [6648] our own Proculus, the
model [6649] of chaste old age and Christian eloquence. All these it would
be my desire closely to follow in every work of faith, even as in this
particular one. Now if there are no heresies at all but what those who
refute them are supposed to have fabricated, then the apostle who predicted
them [6650] must have been guilty of falsehood. If, however, there are
heresies, they can be no other than those which are the subject of
discussion. No writer can be supposed to have so much time on his hands
[6651] as to fabricate materials which are already in his possession.
Chapter VI. Although Writing in Latin He Proposes to Retain the Greek Names
of the Valentinian Emanations of Deity. Not to Discuss the Heresy But Only
to Expose It. This with the Raillery Which Its Absurdity Merits.
In order then, that no one may be blinded by so many outlandish [6652]
names, collected together, and adjusted at pleasure, [6653] and of
doubtful import, I mean in this little work, wherein we merely undertake to
propound this (heretical) mystery, to explain in what manner we are to use
them. Now the rendering of some of these names from the Greek to as to
produce an equally obvious sense of the word, is by no means an easy
process: in the case of some others, the genders, are not suitable; while
others, again, are more familiarly known in their Greek form. For the most
part, therefore, we shall use the Greek names; their meanings will be seen
on the margins of the pages. Nor will the Greek be unaccompanied with the
Latin equivalents; only these will be marked in lines above, for the purpose
of explaining [6654] the personal names, rendered necessary by the
ambiguities of such of them as admit some different meaning. But although I
must postpone all discussion, and be content at present with the mere
exposition (of the heresy), still, wherever any scandalous feature shall
seem to require a castigation, it must be attacked [6655] by all means, if
only with a passing thrust. [6656] Let the reader regard it as the
skirmish before the battle. It will be my drift to show how to wound
[6657] rather than to inflict deep gashes. If in any instance mirth be
excited, this will be quite as much as the subject deserves. There are many
things which deserve refutation in such a way as to have no gravity expended
on them. Vain and silly topics are met with especial fitness by laughter.
Even the truth may indulge in ridicule, because it is jubilant; it may play
with its enemies, because it is fearless. [6658] 0nly we must take care
that its laughter be not unseemly, and so itself be laughed at; but wherever
its mirth is decent, there it is a duty to indulge it. And so at last I
enter on my task.
Chapter VII. The First Eight Emanations, or ¦ons, Called the Ogdoad, are the
Fountain of All the Others. Their Names and Descent Recorded.
Beginning with Ennius, [6659] the Roman poet, he simply spoke of "the
spacious saloons [6660] of heaven,"'either on account of their elevated
site, or because in Homer he had read about Jupiter banqueting therein. As
for our heretics, however, it is marvellous what storeys upon storeys
[6661] and what heights upon heights, they have hung up, raised and spread
out as a dwelling for each several god of theirs. Even our Creator has had
arranged for Him the saloons of Ennius in the fashion of private rooms,
[6662] with chamber piled upon chamber, and assigned to each god by just as
many staircases as there were heresies. The universe, in fact, has been
turned into "rooms to let." [6663] Such storeys of the heavens you would
imagine to be detached tenements in some happy isle of the blessed, [6664]
I know not where. There the god even of the Valentinians has his dwelling in
the attics. They call him indeed, as to his essence, (Perfect
, but in respect of his personality, (Before the Beginning),
(The Beginning), and sometimes Bythos (Depth), [6665] a name
which is most unfit for one who dwells in the heights above! They describe
him as unbegotten, immense, infinite, invisible, and eternal; as if, when
they described him to be such as we know that he ought to be, they
straightway prove him to be a being who may be said to have had such an
existence even before all things else. I indeed insist upon [6666] it that
he is such a being; and there is nothing which I detect in beings of this
sort more obvious, than that they who are said to have been before all
things'things, too, not their own'are found to be behind all things. Let it,
however, be granted that this Bythos of theirs existed in the infinite ages
of the past in the greatest and profoundest repose, in the extreme rest of a
placid and, if I may use the expression, stupid divinity, such as Epicurus
has enjoined upon us. And yet, although they would have him be alone, they
assign to him a second person in himself and with himself, Ennoea (Thought),
which they also call both Charis (Grace) and Sige (Silence). Other things,
as it happened, conduced in this most agreeable repose to remind him of the
need of by and by producing out of himself the beginning of all things. This
he deposits in lieu of seed in the genital region, as it were, of the womb
of his Sige. Instantaneous conception is the result: Sige becomes pregnant,
and is delivered, of course in silence; and her offspring is Nus (Mind),
very like his father and his equal in every respect. In short, he alone is
capable of comprehending the measureless and incomprehensible greatness of
his father. Accordingly he is even called the Father himself, and the
Beginning of all things, and, with great propriety, Monogenes (The
Only-begotten). And yet not with absolute propriety, since he is not born
alone. For along with him a female also proceeded, whose name was Veritas
[6667] (Truth). But how much more suitably might Monogenes be called
Protogenes (First begotten), since he was begotten first! Thus Bythos and
Sige, Nus. and Veritas, are alleged to be the first fourfold team [6668]
of the Valentinian set (of gods) [6669] the parent stock and origin of
them all. For immediately when [6670] Nus received the function of a
procreation of his own, he too produces out of himself Sermo (the Word) and
Vita (the Life). If this latter existed not previously, of course she
existed not in Bythos. And a pretty absurdity would it be, if Life existed
not in God! However, this offspring also produces fruit, having for its
mission the initiation of the universe and the formation of the entire
Pleroma: it procreates Homo (Man) and Ecclesia (the Church). Thus you have
an Ogdoad, a double Tetra, out of the conjunctions of males and females'the
cells [6671] (so to speak) of the primordial ¦ons, the fraternal nuptials
of the Valentinian gods, the simple originals [6672] of heretical sanctity
and majesty, a rabble [6673] 'shall I say of criminals [6674] or of
deities? [6675] 'at any rate, the fountain of all ulterior fecundity.
Chapter VIII. The Names and Descent of Other ¦ons; First Half a Score, Then
Two More, and Ultimately a Dozen Besides. These Thirty Constitute the
Pleroma. But Why Be So Capricious as to Stop at Thirty?
For, behold, when the second Tetrad'Sermo and Vita, Homo and Ecclesia
[6676] 'had borne fruit to the Father's glory, having an intense desire of
themselves to present to the Father something similar of their own, they
bring other issue into being [6677] 'conjugal of course, as the others
were [6678] 'by the union of the twofold nature. On the one hand, Sermo
and Vita pour out at a birth a half-score of ¦ons; on the other hand, Homo
and Ecclesia produce a couple more, so furnishing an equipoise to their
parents, since this pair with the other ten make up just as many as they did
themselves procreate. I now give the names of the half-score whom I have
mentioned: Bythios (Profound) and Mixis (Mixture), Ageratos (Never old) and
Henosis (Union), Autophyes (Essential nature) and Hedone (Pleasure),
Acinetos (Immoveable) and Syncrasis (Commixture, ) Monogenes (Only-begotten)
and Macaria (Happiness). On the other hand, these will make up the number
twelve (to which I have also referred): Paracletus (Comforter) and Pistis
(Faith), Patricas (Paternal) and Elpis (Hope), Metricos (Maternal) and Agape
(Love), Ainos (Praise) [6679] and Synesis (Intelligence), Ecclesiasticus
(Son of Ecclesia) and Macariotes (Blessedness), Theletus [6680] (Perfect)
and Sophia (Wisdom). I cannot help [6681] here quoting from a like example
what may serve to show the import of these names. In the schools of Carthage
there was once a certain Latin rhetorician, an excessively cool fellow,
[6682] whose name was Phosphorus. He was personating a man of valour, and
wound up [6683] with saying, "I come to you, excellent citizens, from
battle, with victory for myself, with happiness for you, full of honour,
covered with glory, the favourite of fortune, the greatest of men, decked
with triumph." And forthwith his scholars begin to shout for the school of
Phosphorus, [6684] (ah!) Are you a believer in [6685] Fortunata,
and Hedone, and Acinetus, and Theletus? Then shout out your for the
school of Ptolemy. [6686] This must be that mystery of the Pleroma, the
fulness of the thirty-fold divinity. Let us see what special attributes
[6687] belong to these numbers'four, and eight, and twelve. Meanwhile with
the number thirty all fecundity ceases. The generating force and power and
desire of the ¦ons is spent. [6688] As if there were not still left some
strong rennet for curdling numbers. [6689] As if no other names were to
be got out of the page's hall! [6690] For why are there not sets of fifty
and of a hundred procreated? Why, too, are there no comrades and boon
companions [6691] named for them?
Chapter IX. Other Capricious Features in the System. The ¦ons Unequal in
Attributes. The Superiority of Nus; The Vagaries of Sophia Restrained by
Horos. Grand Titles Borne by This Last Power.
But, further, there is an "acceptance [6692] of persons," inasmuch as Nus
alone among them all enjoys the knowledge of the immeasurable Father, joyous
and exulting, while they of course pine in sorrow. To be sure, Nus, so far
as in him lay, both wished and tried to impart to the others also all that
he had learnt about the greatness and incomprehensibility of the Father; but
his mother, Sige, interposed'she who (you must know) imposes silence even on
her own beloved heretics; [6693] although they affirm that this is done
at the will of the Father, who will have all to be inflamed with a longing
after himself. Thus, while they are tormenting themselves with these
internal desires, while they are burning with the secret longing to know the
Father, the crime is almost accomplished. For of the twelve ¦ons which Homo
and Ecclesia had produced, the youngest by birth (never mind the solecism,
since Sophia (Wisdom) is her name), unable to restrain herself, breaks away
without the society of her husband Theletus, in quest of the Father and
contracts that kind of sin which had indeed arisen amongst the others who
were conversant with Nus but had flowed on to this ¦on, [6694] that is,
to Sophia; as is usual with maladies which, after arising in one part of the
body, spread abroad their infection to some other limb. The fact is,
[6695] under a pretence of love to the Father, she was overcome with a
desire to rival Nus, who alone rejoiced in the knowledge of the Father.
[6696] But when Sophia, straining after impossible aims, was disappointed of
her hope, she is both overcome with difficulty, and racked with affection.
Thus she was all but swallowed up by reason of the charm and toil (of her
research), [6697] and dissolved into the remnant of his substance;
[6698] nor would there have been any other alternative for her than
perdition, if she had not by good luck fallen in with Horus (Limit). He too
had considerable power. He is the foundation of the great [6699]
universe, and, externally, the guardian thereof. To him they give the
additional names of Crux (Cross), and Lytrotes (Redeemer, ) and Carpistes
(Emancipator). [6700] When Sophia was thus rescued from danger, and
tardily persuaded, she relinquished further research after the Father, found
repose, and laid aside all her excitement, [6701] or Enthymesis (Desire,
) along with the passion which had come over her.
Chapter X. Another Account of the Strange Aberrations of Sophia, and the
Restraining Services of Horus. Sophia Was Not Herself, After All, Ejected
from the Pleroma, But Only Her Enthymesis.
But some dreamers have given another account of the aberration [6702] and
recovery of Sophia. After her vain endeavours, and the disappointment of her
hope, she was, I suppose, disfigured with paleness and emaciation, and that
neglect of her beauty which was natural to one who [6703] was deploring
the denial of the Father,'an affliction which was no less painful than his
loss. Then, in the midst of all this sorrow, she by herself alone, without
any conjugal help, conceived and bare a female offspring. Does this excite
your surprise? Well, even the hen has the power of being able to bring forth
by her own energy. [6704] They say, too, that among vultures there are
only females, which become parents alone. At any rate, she was another
without aid from a male, and she began at last to be afraid that her end was
even at hand. She was all in doubt about the treatment [6705] of her
case, and took pains at self-concealment. Remedies could nowhere be found.
For where, then, should we have tragedies and comedies, from which to borrow
the process of exposing what has been born without connubial modesty? While
the thing is in this evil plight, she raises her eyes, and turns them to the
Father. Having, however, striven in vain, as her strength was failing her,
she falls to praying. Her entire kindred also supplicates in her behalf, and
especially Nus. Why not? What was the cause of so vast an evil? Yet not a
single casualty [6706] befell Sophia without its effect. All her sorrows
operate. Inasmuch as all that conflict of hers contributes to the origin of
Matter. Her ignorance, her fear, her distress, become substances. Hereupon
the Father by and by, being moved, produces in his own image, with a view to
these circumstances [6707] the Horos whom we have mentioned above; (and
this he does) by means of Monogenes Nus, a male-female (¦on), because there
is this variation of statement about the Father's [6708] sex. They also
go on to tell us that Horos is likewise called Metagogius, that is, "a
conductor about," as well as Horothetes (Setter of Limits). By his
assistance they declare that Sophia was checked in her illicit courses, and
purified from all evils, and henceforth strengthened (in virtue), and
restored to the conjugal state: (they add) that she indeed remained within
the bounds [6709] of the Pleroma, but that her Enthymesis, with the
accruing [6710] Passion, was banished by Horos, and crucified and cast
out from the Pleroma,'even as they say, Malum foras! (Evil, avaunt!) Still,
that was a spiritual essence, as being the natural impulse of an ¦on,
although without form or shape, inasmuch as it had apprehended nothing, and
therefore was pronounced to be an infirm and feminine fruit. [6711]
Chapter XI. The Profane Account Given of the Origin of Christ and the Holy
Ghost Sternly Rebuked. An Absurdity Respecting the Attainment of the
Knowledge of God Ably Exposed.
Accordingly, after the banishment of the Enthymesis, and the return of her
mother Sophia to her husband, the (illustrious) Monogenes, the Nus,
[6712] released indeed from all care and concern of the Father, in order
that he might consolidate all things, and defend and at last fix the
Pleroma, and so prevent any concussion of the kind again, once more
[6713] emits a new couple [6714] (blasphemously named). I should suppose
the coupling of two males to be a very shameful thing, or else the one
[6715] must be a female, and so the male is discredited [6716] by the
female. One divinity is assigned in the case of all these, to procure a
complete adjustment among the ¦ons. Even from this fellowship in a common
duty two schools actually arise, two chairs, [6717] and, to some
extent, [6718] the inauguration of a division in the doctrine of
Valentinus. It was the function of Christ to instruct the ¦ons in the nature
of their conjugal relations [6719] (you see what the whole thing was, of
course!), and how to form some guess about the unbegotten, [6720] and to
give them the capacity of generating within themselves the knowledge of the
Father; it being impossible to catch the idea of him, or comprehend him, or,
in short, even to enjoy any perception of him, either by the eye or the ear,
except through Monogenes (the Only-begotten). Well, I will even grant them
what they allege about knowing the Father, so that they do not refuse us
(the attainment of) the same. I would rather point out what is perverse in
their doctrine, how they were taught that the incomprehensible part of the
Father was the cause of their own perpetuity, [6721] whilst that which
might be comprehended of him was the reason [6722] of their generation
and formation. Now by these several positions [6723] the tenet, I
suppose, is insinuated, that it is expedient for God not to be apprehended,
on the very ground that the incomprehensibility of His character is the
cause of perpetuity; whereas what in Him is comprehensible is productive,
not of perpetuity, but rather of conditions which lack perpetuity-namely,
nativity and formation. The Son, indeed, they made capable of comprehending
the Father. The manner in which He is comprehended, the recently produced
Christ fully taught them. To the Holy Spirit, however, belonged the special
gifts, whereby they, having been all set on a complete par in respect of
their earnestness to learn, should be enabled to offer up their
thanksgiving, and be introduced to a true tranquillity.
Chapter XII. The Strange Jumble of the Pleroma. The Frantic Delight of the
Members Thereof. Their Joint Contribution of Parts Set Forth with Humorous
Irony.
Thus they are all on the self-same footing in respect of form and knowledge,
all of them having become what each of them severally is; none being a
different being, because they are all what the others are. [6724] They
are all turned into [6725] Nuses, into Homos, into Theletuses; [6726]
and so in the case of the females, into Siges, into Zoes, into Ecclesias,
into Forunatas, so that Ovid would have blotted out his own Metamorphoses if
he had only known our larger one in the present day. Straightway they were
reformed and thoroughly established, and being composed to rest from the
truth, they celebrate the Father in a chorus [6727] of praise in the
exuberance of their joy. The Father himself also revelled [6728] in the
glad feeling; of course, because his children and grandchildren sang so
well. And why should he not revel in absolute delight? Was not the Pleroma
freed (from all danger)? What ship's captain [6729] fails to rejoice even
with indecent frolic? Every day we observe the uproarious ebullitions of
sailors' joys. [6730] Therefore, as sailors always exult over the
reckoning they pay. in common, so do these ¦ons enjoy a similar pleasure,
one as they now all are in form, and, as I may add, [6731] in feeling
too. With the concurrence of even their new brethren and masters, [6732]
they contribute into one common stock the best and most beautiful thing with
which they are severally adorned. Vainly, as I suppose. For if they were all
one by reason by the above-mentioned thorough equalization, there was no
room for the process of a common reckoning, [6733] which for the most
part consists of a pleasing variety. They all contributed the one good
thing, which they all were. There would be, in all probability, a formal
procedure [6734] in the mode or in the form of the very equalization in
question. Accordingly, out of the donation which they contributed [6735]
to the honour and glory of the Father, they jointly fashion [6736] the
most beautiful constellation of the Pleroma, and its perfect fruit, Jesus.
Him they also surname [6737] Soter (Saviour) and Christ, and Sermo (Word)
after his ancestors; [6738] and lastly Omnia (All Things), as formed from
a universally culled nosegay, [6739] like the jay of ¦sop, the Pandora of
Hesiod, the bowl [6740] of Accius, the honey-cake of Nestor, the
miscellany of Ptolemy. How much nearer the mark, if these idle title-mongers
had called him Pancarpian, after certain Athenian customs. [6741] By way
of adding external honour also to their wonderful puppet, they produce for
him a bodyguard of angels of like nature. If this be their mutual condition,
it may be all right; if, however, they are consubstantial with Soter (for I
have discovered how doubtfully the case is stated), where will be his
eminence when surrounded by attendants who are co-equal with himself?
Chapter XIII. First Part of the Subject, Touching the Constitution of the
Pleroma, Briefly Recapitulated. Transition to the Other Part, Which is Like
a Play Outside the Curtain.
In this series, then, is contained the first emanation of ¦ons, who are
alike born, and are married, and produce offspring: there are the most
dangerous fortunes of Sophia in her ardent longing for the Father, the most
seasonable help of Horos, the expiation of her Enthymesis and accruing
Passion, the instruction of Christ and the Holy Spirit, their tutelar reform
of the ¦ons, the piebald ornamentation of Sorer, the consubstantial
retinue [6742] of the angels. All that remains, according to you, is the
fall of the curtain and the clapping of hands. [6743] What remains in my
opinion, however, is, that you should hear and take heed. At all events,
these things are said to have been played out within the company of the
Pleroma, the first scene of the tragedy. The rest of the play, however, is
beyond the curtain'I mean outside of the Pleroma. And yet if it be such
within the bosom of the Father, within the embrace of the guardian Horos,
what must it be outside, in free space, [6744] where God did not exist?
Chapter XIV. The Adventures of Achamoth Outside the Pleroma. The Mission of
Christ in Pursuit of Her. Her Longing for Christ. Horos' Hostility to Her.
Her Continued Suffering.
For Enthymesis, or rather Achamoth'because by this inexplicable [6745]
name alone must she be henceforth designated'when in company with the
vicious Passion, her inseparable companion, she was expelled to places
devoid of that light which is the substance of the Pleroma, even to the void
and empty region of Epicurus, she becomes wretched also because of the place
of her banishment. She is indeed without either form or feature, even an
untimely and abortive production. Whilst she is in this plight, [6746]
Christ descends from [6747] the heights, conducted by Horos, in order to
impart form to the abortion, out of his own energies, the form of substance
only, but not of knowledge also. Still she is left with some property. She
has restored to her the odour of immortality, in order that she might, under
its influence, be overcome with the desire of better things than belonged to
her present plight. [6748] Having accomplished His merciful mission, not
without the assistance of the Holy Spirit, Christ returns to the Pleroma. It
is usual out of an abundance of things [6749] for names to be also
forthcoming. Enthymesis came from action; [6750] whence Achamoth came is
still a question; Sophia emanates from the Father, the Holy Spirit from an
angel. She entertains a regret lot Christ immediately after she had
discovered her desertion by him. Therefore she hurried forth herself, in
quest of the light of Him Whom she did not at all discover, as He operated
in an invisible manner; for how else would she make search for His light,
which was as unknown to her as He was Himself? Try, however, she did, and
perhaps would have found Him, had not the self-same Horos, who had met her
mother so opportunely, fallen in with the daughter quite as unseasonably, so
as to exclaim at her Iao! just as we hear the cry "Porro Quirites" ("Out of
the way, Romans!"), or else Fidem Cµsaris!" ("By the faith of Cµsar!"),
whence (as they will have it) the name Iao comes to be found is the
Scriptures. [6751] Being thus hindered from proceeding further, and being
unable to surmount [6752] the Cross, that is to say, Horos, because she
had not yet practised herself in the part of Catullus' Laureolus, [6753]
and given over, as it were, to that passion of hers in a manifold and
complicated mesh, she began to be afflicted with every impulse thereof, with
sorrow,'because she had not accomplished her enterprise, with fear,'lest she
should lose her life, even as she had lost the light, with consternation,
and then with ignorance. But not as her mother (did she suffer this), for
she was an ¦on. Hers, however, was a worse suffering, considering her
condition; for another tide of emotion still overwhelmed her, even of
conversion to the Christ, by Whom she had been restored to life, and had
been directed [6754] to this very conversion.
Chapter XV. Strange Account of the Origin of Matter, from the Various
Affections of Achamoth. The Waters from Her Tears; Light from Her Smile.
Well, now, the Pythagoreans may learn, the Stoics may know, Plato himself
(may discover), whence Matter, which they will have to be unborn, derived
both its origin and substance for all this pile of the world'(a mystery)
which not even the renowned [6755] Mercurius Trismegistus, master (as he
was) of all physical philosophy, thought out. [6756] You have just heard
of "Conversion," one element in the "Passion" (we have so often mentioned).
Out of this the whole life of the world, [6757] and even that of the
Demiurge himself, our God, is said to have had its being. Again, you have
heard of "sorrow" and "fear." From these all other created things [6758]
took their beginning. For from her [6759] tears flowed the entire mass of
waters. From this circumstance one may form an idea of the calamity
[6760] which she encountered, so vast were the kinds of the tears wherewith
she overflowed. She had salt tear-drops, she had bitter, and sweet, and
warm, and cold, and bituminous, and ferruginous, and sulphurous, and even
[6761] poisonous, so that the Nonacris exuded therefrom which killed
Alexander; and the river of the Lyncestµ [6762] flowed from the same
source, which produces drunkenness; and the Salmacis [6763] was derived
from the same source, which renders men effeminate. The rains of heaven
Achamoth whimpered forth, [6764] and we on our part are anxiously
employed in saving up in our cisterns the very wails and tears of another.
In like manner, from the "consternation" and "alarm" (of which we have also
heard), bodily elements were derived. And yet amidst so many circumstances
of solitude, in this vast prospect of destitution, she occasionally smiled
at the recollection of the sight of Christ, and from this smile of joy light
flashed forth. How great was this beneficence of Providence, which induced
her to smile, and all that we might not linger for ever in the dark! Nor
need you feel astonished how [6765] from her joy so splendid an
element [6766] could have beamed upon the world, when from her sadness
even so necessary a provision [6767] flowed forth for man. O illuminating
smile! O irrigating tear! And yet it might now have acted as some
alleviation amidst the horror of her situation; for she might have shaken
off all the obscurity thereof as often as she had a mind to smile, even not
to be obliged to turn suppliant to those who had deserted her. [6768]
Chapter XVI. Achamoth Purified from All Impurities of Her Passion by the
Paraclete, Acting Through Soter, Who Out of the Above-Mentioned Impurities
Arranges Matter, Separating Its Evil from the Better Qualities.
She, too, resorts to prayers, after the manner of her mother. But Christ,
Who now felt a dislike to quit the Pleroma, appoints the Paraclete as his
deputy. To her, therefore, he despatches Soter, [6769] (who must be the
same as Jesus, to whom the Father imparted the supreme power over the whole
body of the ¦ons, by subjecting them all to him, so that "by him," as the
apostle says, "all things were created" [6770] ), with a retinue and
cortege of contemporary angels, and (as one may suppose) with the dozen
fasces. Hereupon Achamoth, being quite struck with the pomp of his approach,
immediately covered herself with a veil, moved at first with a dutiful
feeling of veneration and modesty; but afterwards she surveys him calmly,
and his prolific equipage. [6771] With such energies as she had derived
from the contemplation, she meets him with the salutation,
(" Hail, Lord ")! Upon this, I suppose, he receives her, confirms and
conforms her in knowledge, as well as cleanses [6772] her from all the
outrages of Passion, without, however, utterly severing them, with an
indiscriminateness like that which had happened in the casualties which
befell her mother. For such vices as had become inveterate and confirmed by
practice he throws together; and when he had consolidated them in one mass,
he fixes them in a separate body, so as to compose the corporeal condition
of Matter, extracting out of her inherent, incorporeal passion such an
aptitude of nature [6773] as might qualify it to attain to a reciprocity
of bodily substances, [6774] which should emulate one another, so that a
twofold condition of the substances might be arranged; full of evil through
its faults, the other susceptible of passion from conversion. This will
prove to be Matter, which has set us in battle array against Hermogenes, and
all others who presume to teach that God made all things out of Matter, not
out of nothing.
Chapter XVII. Achamoth in Love with the Angels. A Protest Against the
Lascivious Features of Valentinianism. Achamoth Becomes the Mother of Three
Natures.
Then Achamoth, delivered at length from all her evils, wonderful to tell
[6775] goes on and bears fruit with greater results. For warmed with the joy
of so great an escape from her unhappy condition, and at the same time
heated with the actual contemplation of the angelic luminaries (one is
ashamed) to use such language, but there is no other way of expressing
one's meaning), she during the emotion somehow became personally inflamed
with desire [6776] towards them, and at once grew pregnant with a
spiritual conception, at the very image of which the violence of her joyous
transport, and the delight of her prurient excitement had imbibed and
impressed upon her. She at length gave birth to an offspring, and then there
arose a leash of natures, [6777] from a triad of causes,'one material,
arising from her passion; another animal, arising from her conversion; the
third spiritual, which had its origin in her imagination.
Chapter XVIII. Blasphemous Opinion Concerning the Origin of the Demiurge,
Supposed to Be the Creator of the Universe.
Having become a better proficient [6778] in practical conduct by the
authority which, we may well suppose, [6779] accrued to her from her
three children, she determined to impart form to each of the natures. The
spiritual one however, she was unable to touch, inasmuch as she was herself
spiritual. For a participation in the same nature has, to a very great
extent, [6780] disqualified like and consubstantial beings from having
superior power over one another. Therefore [6781] she applies herself
solely to the animal nature, adducing the instructions of Soter [6782]
(for her guidance). And first of all (she does) what cannot be described and
read, and heard of, without an intense horror at the blasphemy thereof: she
produces this God of ours, the God of all except of the heretics, the Father
and Creator [6783] and King of all things, which are inferior to him. For
from him do they proceed. If, however, they proceed from him, and not rather
from Achamoth, or if only secretly from her, without his perceiving her, he
was impelled to all that he did, even like a puppet [6784] which is moved
from the outside. In fact, it was owing to this very ambiguity about the
personal agency in the works which were done, that they coined for him the
mixed name of (Motherly Father), [6785] whilst his other appellations
were distinctly assigned according to the conditions and positions of his
works: so that they call him Father in relation to the animal substances to
which they give the place of honour [6786] on his fight hand; whereas, in
respect of the material substances which they banish [6787] to his left
hand, they name him Demiurgus; whilst his title King designates his
authority over both classes, nay over the universe. [6788]
Chapter XIX. Palpable Absurdities and Contradictions in the System
Respecting Achamoth and the Demiurge.
And yet there is not any agreement between the propriety of the names and
that of the works, from which all the names are suggested; since all of them
ought to have borne the name of her by whom the things were done, unless
after all [6789] it turn out that they were not made by her. For,
although they say that Achamoth devised these forms in honour of the ¦ons,
they yet [6790] transfer this work to Soter as its author, when they say
that he [6791] operated through her, so far as to give her the very image
of the invisible and unknown Father'that is, the image which was unknown and
invisible to the Demiurge; whilst he [6792] formed this same Demiurge in
imitation [6793] of Nus the son of Propator; [6794] and whilst the
archangels, who were the work of the Demiurge, resembled the other ¦ons.
Now, when I hear of such images of the three, I ask, do you not wish me to
laugh at these pictures of their most extravagant painter? At the female
Achamoth, a picture of the Father? At the Demiurge, ignorant of his mother,
much more so of his father? At the picture of Nus, Ignorant of his father
too, and the ministering angels, facsimiles of their lords? This is painting
a mule from an ass, and sketching Ptolemy from Valentinus.
Chapter XX'The Demiurge Works Away at Creation, as the Drudge of His Mother
Achamoth, in Ignorance All the While of the Nature of His Occupation.
The Demiurge therefore, placed as he was without the limits of the Pleroma
in the ignominious solitude of his eternal exile, rounded a new empire'this
world (of ours)'by clearing away the confusion and distinguishing the
difference between the two substances which severally constituted it,
[6795] the animal and the material. Out of incorporeal (elements) he
constructs bodies, heavy, light, erect [6796] and stooping, celestial and
terrene. He then completes the sevenfold stages of heaven itself, with his
own throne above all. Whence he had the additional name of Sabbatum from the
hebdomadal nature of his abode; his mother Achamoth, too, had the title
Ogdoada, after the precedent of the primeval Ogdoad. [6797] These
heavens, however, they consider to be intelligent, [6798] and sometimes
they make angels of them, as indeed they do of the Demiurge himself; as also
(they call) Paradise the fourth archangel, because they fix it above the
third heaven, of the power of which Adam partook, when he sojourned there
amidst its fleecy clouds [6799] and shrubs. [6800] Ptolemy remembered
perfectly well the prattle of his boyhood, [6801] that apples grew in the
sea, and fishes on the tree; after the same fashion, he assumed that
nut-trees flourished in the skies. The Demiurge does his work in ignorance,
and therefore perhaps he is unaware that trees ought to be planted only on
the ground. His mother, of course, knew all about it: how is it, then, that
she did not suggest the fact, since she was actually executing her own
operation? But whilst building up so vast an edifice for her son by means of
those works, which proclaim him at once to be father, god and, king before
the conceits of the Valentinians, why she refused to let them be known to
even him, [6802] is a question which I shall ask afterwards.
Chapter XXI. The Vanity as Well as Ignorance of the Demiurge. Absurd Results
from So Imperfect a Condition.
Meanwhile you must believe [6803] that Sophia has the surnames of earth
and of Mother'"Mother-Earth," of course'and (what may excite your laughter
still more heartily) even Holy Spirit. In this way they have conferred all
honour on that female, I suppose even a beard, not to say other things.
Besides, [6804] the Demiurge had so little mastery over things, [6805]
on the score, [6806] you must know, [6807] of his inability to
approach spiritual essences, (constituted as he was) of animal elements,
that, imagining himself to be the only being, he uttered this soliloquy: "I
am God, and beside me there is none else." [6808] But for all that, he at
least was aware that he had not himself existed before. He understood,
therefore, that he had been created, and that there must be a creator of a
creature of some sort or other. How happens it, then, that he seemed to
himself to be the only being, notwithstanding his uncertainty, and although
he had, at any rate, some suspicion of the existence of some creator?
Chapter XXII. Origin of the Devil, in the Criminal Excess of the Sorrow of
Achamoth. The Devil, Called Also Munditenens, Actually Wiser Than the
Demiurge, Although His Work.
The odium felt amongst them [6809] against the devil is the more
excusable, [6810] even because the peculiarly sordid character of his
origin justifies it. [6811] For he is supposed by them to have had his
origin in that criminal excess [6812] of her [6813] sorrow, from which
they also derive the birth of the angels, and demons, and all the wicked
spirits. Yet they affirm that the devil is the work of the Demiurge, and
they call him Munditenens [6814] (Ruler of the World), and maintain that,
as he is of a spiritual nature, he has a better knowledge of the things
above than the Demiurge, an animal being. He deserves from them the
pre-eminence which all heresies provide him with.
Chapter XXIII. The Relative Positions of the Pleroma. The Region of
Achamoth, and the Creation of the Demiurge. The Addition of Fire to the
Various Elements and Bodies of Nature.
Their most eminent powers, moreover, they confine within the following
limits, as in a citadel. In the most elevated of all summits presides the
tricenary Pleroma, [6815] Horos marking off its boundary line. Beneath
it, Achamoth occupies the intermediate space for her abode, [6816]
treading down her son. For under her comes the Demiurge in his own Hebdomad,
or rather the Devil, sojourning in this world in common with ourselves,
formed, as has been said above, of the same elements and the same body, out
of the most profitable calamities of Sophia; inasmuch as, (if it had not
been for these, ) our spirit would have had no space for inhaling and
ejecting [6817] air'that delicate vest of all corporeal creatures, that
revealer of all colours, that instrument of the seasons'if the sadness of
Sophia had not filtered it, just as her fear did the animal existence, and
her conversion the Demiurge himself. Into all these elements and bodies fire
was fanned. Now, since they have not as yet explained to us the original
sensation of this [6818] in Sophia, I will on my own responsibility
[6819] conjecture that its spark was struck out of the delicate emotions
[6820] of her (feverish grief). For you may be quite sure that, amidst all
her vexations, she must have had a good deal of fever. [6821]
Chapter XXIV. The Formation of Man by the Demiurge. Human Flesh Not Made of
the Ground, But of a Nondescript Philosophic Substance.
Such being their conceits respecting: God, or, if you like, [6822] the
gods, of what sort are their figments concerning man? For, after he had made
the world, the Demiurge turns his hands to man, and chooses for him as his
substance not any portion of "the dry land," as they say, of which alone we
have any knowledge (although it was, at that time, not yet dried by the
waters becoming separated from the earthy residuum, and only afterwards
became dry), but of the invisible substance of that matter, which philosophy
indeed dreams of, from its fluid and fusible composition, the origin of
which I am unable to imagine, because it exists nowhere. Now, since fluidity
and fusibility are qualities Of liquid matter, and since everything liquid
flowed from Sophia's tears, we must, as a necessary conclusion, believe that
muddy earth is constituted of Sophia's eye-rheums and viscid discharges,
[6823] which are just as much the dregs of tears as mud is the sediment of
waters. Thus does the Demiurge mould man as a potter does his clay, and
animates him with his own breath. Made after his image and likeness, he will
therefore be both material and animal. A fourfold being! For in respect of
his "image," he must be deemed clayey, [6824] that is to say, material,
although the Demiurge is not composed of matter; but as to his "likeness,"
he is animal, for such, too, is the Demiurge. You have two (of his
constituent elements). Moreover, a coating of flesh was, as they allege,
afterwards placed over the clayey substratum, and it is this tunic of skin
which is susceptible of sensation.
Chapter XXV. An Extravagant Way of Accounting for the Communication of the
Spiritual Nature to Man. It Was Furtively Managed by Achamoth, Through the
Unconscious Agency of Her Son.
In Achamoth, moreover, there was inherent a certain property of a spiritual
germ, of her mother Sophia's substance; and Achamoth herself had carefully
severed off (the same quality), and implanted it in her son the Demiurge,
although he was actually unconscious of it. It is for you to imagine
[6825] the industry of this clandestine arrangement. For to this end had she
deposited and concealed (this germ), that, whenever the Demiurge came to
impart life to Adam by his inbreathing, he might at the same time draw off
from the vital principle [6826] the spiritual seed, and, as by a pipe,
inject it into the clayey nature; in order that, being then fecundated in
the material body as in a womb, and having fully grown there, it might be
found fit for one day receiving the perfect Word. [6827] When, therefore,
the Demiurge commits to Adam the transmission of his own vital principle,
[6828] the spiritual man lay hid, although inserted by his breath, and at
the same time introduced into the body, because the Demiurge knew no more
about his mother's seed than about herself. To this seed they give the name
of Ecclesia (the Church), the mirror of the church above, and the
perfection [6829] of man; tracing this perfection from Achamoth, just as
they do the animal nature from the Demiurge, the clayey material of the body
(they derive) from the primordial substance, [6830] the flesh from
Matter. So that you have a new Geryon here, only a fourfold (rather than a
threefold) monster.
Chapter XXVI. The Three Several Natures'The Material, the Animal, and the
Spiritual, and Their Several Destinations. The Strange Valentinian Opinion
About the Structure of Soter's Nature.
In like manner they assign to each of them a separate end. [6831] To the
material, that is to say the carnal (nature), which they also call "the
left-handed," they assign undoubted destruction; to the animal (nature),
which they also call "the right-handed," a doubtful issue, inasmuch as it
oscillates between the material and the spiritual, and is sure to fall at
last on the side to which it has mainly gravitated. As regards the
spiritual, however, (they say) that it enters into the formation of the
animal, in order that it may be educated in company with it and be
disciplined by repeated intercourse with it. For the animal (nature) was in
want of training even by the senses: for this purpose, accordingly, was the
whole structure of the world provided; for this purpose also did Soter (the
Saviour) present Himself in the world'even for the salvation of the animal
(nature). By yet another arrangement they will have it that He, in some
prodigious way, [6832] clothed Himself with the primary portions
[6833] of those substances, the whole of which He was going. to restore to
salvation; in such wise that He assumed the spiritual nature from Achamoth,
whilst He derived the animal (being), Christ, afterwards from the Demiurge;
His corporal substance, however, which was constructed of an animal nature
(only with wonderful and indescribable skill), He wore for a dispensational
purpose, in order that He might, in spite of His own unwillingness,
[6834] be capable of meeting persons, and of being seen and touched by them,
and even of dying. But there was nothing material assumed by Him, inasmuch
as that was incapable of salvation. As if He could possibly have been more
required by any others than by those who were in want of salvation! And all
this, in order that by severing the condition of our flesh from Christ they
may also deprive it of the hope of salvation!
Chapter XXVII. The Christ of the Demiurge, Sent into the World by the
Virgin. Not of Her. He Found in Her, Not a Mother, But Only a Passage or
Channel. Jesus Descended Upon Christ, at His Baptism, Like a Dove; But,
Being Incapable of Suffering, He Left Christ to Die on the Cross Alone.
I now adduce [6835] (what they say) concerning Christ, upon whom some of
them engraft Jesus with so much licence, that they foist into Him a
spiritual seed together with an animal inflatus. Indeed, I will not
undertake to describe [6836] these incongruous crammings, [6837] which
they have contrived in relation both to their men and their gods. Even the
Demiurge has a Christ of His on'His natural Son. An animal, in short,
produced by Himself, proclaimed by the prophets'His position being one which
must be decided by prepositions; in other words, He was produced by means of
a virgin, rather than of a virgin! On the ground that, having descended into
the virgin rather in the manner of a passage through her than of a birth by
her, He came into existence through her, not of her'not experiencing a
mother in her, but nothing more than a way. Upon this same Christ, therefore
(so they say.), Jesus descended in the sacrament of baptism, in the likeness
of a dove. Moreover, there was even in Christ accruing from Achamoth the
condiment of a spiritual seed, in order of course to prevent the corruption
of all the other stuffing. [6838] For after the precedent of the
principal Tetrad, they guard him with four substances'the spiritual one of
Achamoth, the animal one of the Demiurge, the corporeal one, which cannot be
described, and that of Soter, or, in other phrase, the columbine. [6839]
As for Soter (Jesus), he remained in Christ to the last, impassible,
incapable of injury, incapable of apprehension. By and by, when it came to a
question of capture, he departed from him during the examination before
Pilate. In like manner, his mother's seed did not admit of being injured,
being equally exempt from all manner of outrage, [6840] and being
undiscovered even by the Demiurge himself. The animal and carnal Christ,
however, does suffer after the fashion [6841] of the superior Christ,
who, for the purpose of producing Achamoth, had been stretched upon the
cross, that is, Horos, in a substantial though not a cognizable [6842]
form. In this manner do they reduce all things to mere images'Christians
themselves being indeed nothing but imaginary beings!
Chapter XXVIII. The Demiurge Cured of His Ignorance by the Saviour's Advent,
from Whom He Hears of the Great Future in Store for Himself.
Meanwhile the Demiurge, being still ignorant of everything, although he will
actually have to make some announcement himself by the prophets, but is
quite incapable of even this part of his duty (because they divide authority
over the prophets [6843] between Achamoth, the Seed, and the Demiurge),
no sooner heard of the advent of Soter (Saviour) than he runs to him with
haste and joy, with all his might, like the centurion in the Gospel.
[6844] And being enlightened by him on all points, he learns from him also
of his own prospect how that he is to succeed to his mother's place. Being
thenceforth free from all care, he carries on the administration of this
world, mainly under the plea of protecting the church, for as long a time as
may be necessary and proper.
Chapter XXIX. The Three Natures Again Adverted to. They are All Exemplified
Amongst Men. For Instance, by Cain, and Abel, and Seth.
I will now collect from different sources, by way of conclusion, what they
affirm concerning the dispensation [6845] of the whole human race. Having
at first stated their views as to man's threefold nature'which was, however,
united in one [6846] in the case of Adam'they then proceed after him to
divide it (into three) with their especial characteristics, finding
opportunity for such distinction in the posterity of Adam himself, in which
occurs a threefold division as to moral differences. Cain and Abel, and
Seth, who were in a certain sense the sources of the human race, become the
fountain-heads of just as many qualities [6847] of nature and essential
character. [6848] The material nature, [6849] which had become
reprobate for salvation, they assign to Cain; the animal nature, which was
poised between divergent hopes, they find [6850] in Abel; the spiritual,
preordained for certain salvation, they store up [6851] in Seth. In this
way also they make a twofold distinction among souls, as to their property
of good and evil'according to the material condition derived from Cain, or
the animal from Abel. Men's spiritual state they derive over and above the
other conditions, [6852] from Seth adventitiously, [6853] not in the
way of nature, but of grace, [6854] in such wise that Achamoth infuses
it [6855] among superior beings like rain [6856] into good souls, that
is, those who are enrolled in the animal class. Whereas the material
class'in other words, those which are bad souls'they say, never receive the
blessings of salvation; [6857] for that nature they have pronounced to be
incapable of any change or reform in its natural condition. [6858] This
grain, then, of spiritual seed is modest and very small when cast from her
hand, but under her instruction [6859] increases and advances into full
conviction, as we have already said; [6860] and the souls, on this very
account, so much excelled all others, that the Demiurge, even then in his
ignorance, held them in great esteem. For it was from their list that he had
been accustomed to select men for kings and for priests; and these even now,
if they have once attained to a full and complete knowledge of these foolish
conceits of theirs, [6861] since they are already naturalized in the
fraternal bond of the spiritual state, Will obtain a sure salvation, nay,
one which is on all accounts their due.
Chapter XXX. The Lax and Dangerous Views of This Sect Respecting Good Works.
That These are Unnecessary to the Spiritual Man.
For this reason it is that they neither regard works [6862] as necessary
for themselves, nor do they observe any of the calls of duty, eluding even
the necessity of martyrdom on any pretence which may suit their pleasure.
For this rule, (they say), is enjoined upon the animal seed, in order that
the salvation, which we do not possess by any privilege of our state,
[6863] we may work out by right [6864] of our conduct. Upon us, who are
of an imperfect nature, [6865] is imprinted the mark of this (animal)
seed, because we are reckoned as sprung from the loves of Theletus,
[6866] and consequently as an abortion, just as their mother was. But woe to
us indeed, should we in any point transgress the yoke of discipline, should
we grow dull in the works of holiness and justice, should we desire to make
our confession anywhere else, I know not where, and not before the powers of
this world at the tribunals of the chief magistrates! [6867] As for them,
however, they may prove their nobility by the dissoluteness [6868] of
their life and their diligence [6869] in sin, since Achamoth fawns on
them as her own; for she, too, found sin no unprofitable pursuit. Now it is
held amongst them, that, for the purpose of honouring the celestial
marriages, [6870] it is necessary to contemplate and celebrate the
mystery always by cleaving to a companion, that, is to a woman; otherwise
(they account any man) degenerate, and a bastard [6871] to the truth, who
spends his life in the world without loving a woman or uniting himself to
her. Then what is to become of the eunuchs whom we see amongst them?
Chapter XXXI. At the Last Day Great Changes Take Place Amongst the ¦ons as
Well as Among Men. How Achamoth and the Demiurge are Affected Then. Irony on
the Subject.
It remains that we say something about the end of the world, [6872] and
the dispensing of reward. As soon as Achamoth has completed the full harvest
of her seed, and has then proceeded to gather it into her garner, or, after
it has been taken to the mill and ground to flour, has hidden it in the
kneading-trough with yeast until the whole be leavened, then shall the end
speedily come. [6873] Then, to begin with, Achamoth herself removes from
the middle region, [6874] from the second stage to the highest, since she
is restored to the Pleroma: she is immediately received by that paragon of
perfection [6875] Soter, as her spouse of course, and they two afterwards
consummate [6876] new nuptials. This must be the spouse of the
Scripture, [6877] the Pleroma of espousals (for you might suppose that
the Julian laws [6878] were interposing, since there are these migrations
from place to place). In like manner, the Demiurge, too, will then change
the scene of his abode from the celestial Hebdomad [6879] to the higher
regions, to his mother's now vacant saloon [6880] 'by this time knowing
her, without however seeing her. (A happy coincidence!) For if he had caught
a glance of her, he would have preferred never to have known her.
Chapter XXXII. Indignant Irony Exposing the Valentinian Fable About the
Judicial Treatment of Mankind at the Last Judgment. The Immorality of the
Doctrine.
As for the human race, its end will be to the following effect:'To all which
bear the earthy [6881] and material mark there accrues an entire
destruction, because "all flesh is grass," [6882] and amongst these is
the soul of moral man, except when it has found salvation by faith. The
souls of just men, that is to say, our souls, will be conveyed to the
Demiurge in the abodes of the middle region. We are duly thankful; we shall
be content to be classed with our god, in whom lies our own origin.
[6883] Into the palace of the Pleroma nothing of the animal nature is
admitted'nothing but the spiritual swarm of Valentinus. There, then, the
first process is the despoiling of men themselves, that is, men within the
Pleroma. [6884] Now this despoiling consists of the putting off of the
souls in which they appear to be clothed, which they will give back to their
Demiurge as they had obtained [6885] them from him. They will then become
wholly intellectual spirits'impalpable, [6886] invisible [6887] 'and
in this state will be readmitted invisibly to the Pleroma'stealthily, if the
case admits of the idea. [6888] What then? They will be dispersed amongst
the angels, the attendants on Soter. As sons, do you suppose? Not at all. As
servants, then? No, not even so. Well, as phantoms? Would that it were
nothing more! Then in what capacity, if you are ashamed to tell us? In the
capacity of brides. Then will they end [6889] their Sabine rapes with the
sanction of wedlock. This will be the guerdon of the spiritual, this the
recompense of their faith! Such fables have their use. Although but a Marcus
or a Gaius, [6890] full-grown in this flesh of ours, with a beard and
such like proofs (of virility, ) it may be a stern husband, a father, a
grandfather, a great-grandfather (never mind what, in fact, if only a male),
you may perhaps in the bridal-chamber of the Pleroma'I have already said so
tacitly [6891] 'even become the parent by an angel of some ¦on of high
numerical rank. [6892] For the right celebration of these nuptials,
instead of the torch and veil, I suppose that secret fire is then to burst
forth, which, after devastating the whole existence of things, will itself
also be reduced to nothing at last, after everything has been reduced to
ashes; and so their fable too will be ended. [6893] But I, too, am no
doubt a rash man, in having exposed: so great a mystery in so derisive a
way: I ought to be afraid that Achamoth, who did not choose to make herself
known even to her own son, would turn mad, that Theletus would be enraged,
that Fortune [6894] would be irritated. But I am yet a liege-man of the
Demiurge. I have to return after death to the place where there is no more
giving in marriage, where I have to be clothed upon rather than to be
despoiled,'where, even if I am despoiled of my sex, I am Glassed with
angels'not a male angel, nor a female one. There will be no one to do aught
against me, nor will they then find any male energy in me.
Chapter XXXIII. These Remaining Chapters an Appendix to the Main Work. In
This Chapter Tertullian Notices a Difference Among Sundry Followers of
Ptolemy, a Disciple of Valentinus.
I shall now at last produce, by way of finale, [6895] after so long a
story, those points which not to interrupt the course of it, and by the
interruption distract the reader's attention, I have preferred reserving to
this place. They have been variously advanced by those who have improved
on [6896] the doctrines of Ptolemy. For there have been in his school
"disciples above their master," who have attributed to their Bythus two
wives'Cogitatio (Thought) and Voluntas (Will). For Cogitatio alone was not
sufficient wherewith to produce any offspring, although from the two wives
procreation was most easy to him. The former bore him Monogenes
(Only-Begotten) and Veritas (Truth). Veritas was a female after the likeness
of Cogitatio; Monogenes a male bearing a resemblance to Voluntas. For it is
the strength of Voluntas which procures the masculine nature, [6897]
inasmuch as she affords efficiency to Cogitatio.
Chapter XXXIV. Other Varying Opinions Among the Valentinians Respecting the
Deity, Characteristic Raillery.
Others of purer mind, mindful of the honour of the Deity, have, for the
purpose of freeing him from the discredit of even single wedlock, preferred
assigning no sex whatever to Bythus; and therefore very likely they talk of
"this deity" in the neuter gender rather than "this god." Others again, on
the other hand, speak of him as both masculine and feminine, so that the
worthy chronicler Fenestella must not suppose that an hermaphrodite; was
only to be found among the good people of Luna.
Chapter XXXV. Yet More Discrepancies. Just Now the Sex of Bythus Was an
Object of Dispute; Now His Rank Comes in Question. Absurd Substitutes for
Bythus Criticised by Tertullian.
There are some who do not claim the first place for Bythus, but only a lower
one. They put their Ogdoad in the foremost rank; itself, however, derived
from a Tetrad, but under different names. For they put Proarche (Before the
Beginning) first, Anennoetos (Inconceivable) second, Arrhetos
(Indescribable) third, Aoratos (Invisible) fourth. Then after Proarche they
say Arche (Beginning) came forth and occupied the first and the fifth place;
from Anennoetos came Acataleptos (Incomprehensible) in the second and the
sixth place; from Arrhetos came Anonomastos (Nameless) in the third and the
seventh place; from Aoratos [6898] came Agennetos (Unbegotten) in the
fourth and the eight place. Now by what method he arranges this, that each
of these ¦ons should be born in two places, and that, too, at such
intervals, I prefer to be ignorant of than to be informed. For what can be
right in a system which is propounded with such absurd particulars?
Chapter XXXVI. Less Reprehensible Theories in the Heresy. Bad is the Best of
Valentinianism.
How much more sensible are they who, rejecting all this tiresome nonsense,
have refused to believe that any one ¦on has descended from another by steps
like these, which are really neither more nor less Gemonian; [6899] but
that on a given signal [6900] the eight-fold emanation, of which we have
heard, [6901] issued all at once from the Father and His Ennoea
(Thought), [6902] 'that it is, in fact, from His mere motion that they
gain their designations. When, as they say, He thought of producing
offspring, He on that account gained the name of Father. After producing,
because the issue which He produced was true, He received the name of Truth.
When He wanted Himself to be manifested, He on that account was announced as
Man. Those, moreover, whom He preconceived in His thought when He produced
them, were then designated the Church. As man, He uttered His Word; and so
this Word is His first-begotten Son, and to the Word was added Life. And by
this process the first Ogdoad was completed. However, the whole of this
tiresome story is utterly poor and weak.
Chapter XXXVII. Other Turgid and Ridiculous Theories About the Origin of the
¦ons and Creation, Stated and Condemned.
Now listen to some other buffooneries [6903] of a master who is a great
swell among them, [6904] and who has pronounced his dicta with an even
priestly authority. They run thus: There comes, says he, before all things
Proarche, the inconceivable, and indescribable, and nameless, which I for my
own part call Monotes (Solitude). With this was associated another power, to
which also I give the name of Henotes (Unity). Now, inasmuch as Monotes and
Henotes'that is to say, Solitude and Union'were only one being, they
produced, and yet not in the way of production, [6905] the intellectual,
innascible, invisible beginning of all things, which human language
[6906] has called Monad (Solitude). [6907] This has inherent in itself a
consubstantial force, which it calls Unity [6908] These powers,
accordingly, Solitude or Solitariness, and Unity, or Union, propagated all
the other emanations of ¦ons. [6909] Wonderful distinction, to be sure!
Whatever change Union and Unity may undergo, Solitariness and Solitude is
profoundly supreme. Whatever designation you give the power, it is one and
the same.
Chapter XXXVIII. Diversity in the Opinions of Secundus, as Compared with the
General Doctrine of Valentinus.
Secundus is a trifle more human, as he is briefer: he divides the Ogdoad
into a pair of Tetrads, a right hand one and a left hand one, one light and
the other darkness. Only he is unwilling to derive the power which
apostatized and fell away [6910] from any one of the ¦ons, but from the
fruits which issued from their substance.
Chapter XXXIX. Their Diversity of Sentiment Affects the Very Central
Doctrine of Christianity, Even the Person and Character of the Lord Jesus.
This Diversity Vitiates Every Gnostic School.
Now, concerning even the Lord Jesus, into how great a diversity of opinion
are they divided! One party form Him of the blossoms of all the ¦ons.
[6911] Another party will have it that He is made up only of those ten whom
the Word and the Life [6912] produced; [6913] from which circumstance
the titles of the Word and the Life were suitably transferred to Him.
Others, again, that He rather sprang from the twelve, the offspring of Man
and the Church [6914] and therefore, they say, He was designated "Son of
man." Others, moreover, maintain that He was formed by Christ and the Holy
Spirit, who have to provide for the establishment of the universe, [6915]
and that He inherits by right His Father's appellation. Some there are who
have imagined that another origin must be found for the title "Son of man;
"for they have had the presumption to call the Father Himself Man, by reason
of the profound mystery of this title: so that what can you hope for more
ample concerning faith in that God, with whom you are now yourself on a par?
Such conceits are constantly cropping out [6916] amongst them, from the
redundance of their mother's seed. [6917] And so it happens that the
doctrines which have grown up amongst the Valentinians have already extended
their rank growth to the woods of the Gnostics.
Footnotes
[6590] Occultant. [This tract may be assigned to any date not earlier than
a.d. 207. Of this Valentinus, see cap. iv. infra, and de Proescript. capp.
29, 30, supra.]
[6591] We are far from certain whether we have caught the sense of the
original, which we add, that the reader may judge for himself, and at the
same time observe the terseness of our author: "Custodiae officium
conscientiae officium est, confusio praedicatur, dum religio asseveratur."
[6592] Et aditum prius cruciant.
[6593] Antequam consignant.
[6594] Epoptas: see Suidas, s.v.
[6595] Aedificent.
[6596] Adytis.
[6597] Epoptarum.
[6598] Dispositio.
[6599] Patrocinio coactae figurae.
[6600] Excusat.
[6601] "Quid enim aliud est simulachrum nisi falsum?" (Rigalt.)
[6602] Quos nunc destinamus.
[6603] Lenocinia.
[6604] Taciturnitate.
[6605] Facili caritati. Oehler, after Fr. Junius, gives, however, this
phrase a subjective turn thus: "by affecting a charity which is easy to
them, costing nothing."
[6606] Concreto.
[6607] Sua caede.
[6608] Notamur.
[6609] Matt. x. 16.
[6610] In the original the phrase is put passively: "malim eam partem
meliori sumi vitio."
[6611] How terse is the original! minus sapere quam pejus.
[6612] Facies Dei.
[6613] Wisd. of Sol. i. 1.
[6614] Litaverunt: "consecrated."
[6615] Tertullian's words are rather suggestive of sense than of syntax:
"Pueros vocem qui crucem clamant?"
[6616] Secundum Deum: "according to God's will."
[6617] 1 Cor. xiv. 20, where Tertullian renders the (A.V.
"understanding") by "sensibus."
[6618] Dedi.
[6619] i.e., without wisdom.
[6620] Concutere.
[6621] Torqueat.
[6622] Per anfractus.
[6623] Nec semel totus.
[6624] By this remark it would seem that Tertullian read sundry passages
in his Latin Bible similarly to the subsequent Vulgate version. For
instance, in Zech. vi. 12, the prophet's words
("Behold the Man, whose name is the Branch", are rendered in the Vulgate,
"Ecce Vir Oriens nomen ejus." Similarly in Zech. iii. 8, "Servum meum
adducam Orientem." (Compare Luke i. 78, where the ("the
day-spring from on high") is in the same version "Oriens ex alto.")
[6625] Or, perhaps, "whom it (nature) feels in all its works."
[6626] Alioquin.
[6627] Alloquin a turba eorum et aliam frequentiam suadere: which perhaps
is best rendered, "But from one rabble of gods to frame and teach men to
believe in another set," etc.
[6628] A nutricula.
[6629] Inter somni difficultates.
[6630] These were child's stories at Carthage in Tertullian's days.
[6631] Apostoli spiritus: see 1 Tim. i. 4.
[6632] Detectorem.
[6633] Designatorem.
[6634] Totius conscientiae illorum.
[6635] Tanto impendio.
[6636] Enim.
[6637] Martyrii.
[6638] Conversus.
[6639] Semitam.
[6640] Consolatur.
[6641] Regularum: the particulars of his system. [Here comes in the word,
borrowed from heresy, which shaped Monasticism in after times and created
the regular orders.]
[6642] Nec unitatem, sed diversitatem: scil. appellant.
[6643] Colores ignorantiarum.
[6644] Archetypis.
[6645] Passivorum.
[6646] [See vol. I. pp. 171, 182, this series].
[6647] In a good sense, from the elegance of his style.
[6648] [See Vol. I. p. 326, of this series. Tertullian appropriates the
work of Irenaeus, (B. i.) against the Gnostics without further ceremony:
translation excepted.]
[6649] Dignitas. [Of this Proculus see Kaye, p. 55.]
[6650] 1 Cor. xi. 19.
[6651] Otiosus.
[6652] Tam peregrinis.
[6653] Compactis.
[6654] Ut signum hoc sit.
[6655] Or stormed perhaps; expugnatio is the word.
[6656] Delibatione transfunctoria.
[6657] Ostendam vulnera.
[6658] Secura.
[6659] Primus omnium.
[6660] Coenacula: dining halls.
[6661] Supernitates supernitatum.
[6662] Aedicularum.
[6663] Meritorium.
[6664] This is perhaps a fair rendering of "Insulam Feliculam credas
tanta tabulata coeorum, nescio ubi." "Insula" is sometimes "a detached
house." It is difficult to say what "Felicula" is; it seems to be a
diminutive of Felix. It occurs in Arrian's Epictetica as the name of a
slave.
[6665] We follow Tertullian's mode of designation all through. He, for
the most part, gives the Greek names in Roman letters, but not quite always.
[6666] Expostulo: "I postulate as a first principle."
[6667] Tertullian is responsible for this Latin word amongst the Greek
names. The strange mixture occurs often.
[6668] Quadriga.
[6669] Factionis.
[6670] Ibidem simul.
[6671] Cellas.
[6672] Census.
[6673] Turbam.
[6674] Crimnum.
[6675] Niminum.
[6676] We everywhere give Tertullian's own names, whether of Greek form
or Latin. On their first occurrence we also give their English sense.
[6677] Ebulliunt.
[6678] Proinde conjugales.
[6679] Of this name there are two forms'Ainos (Praise) and
(Eternal Mind).
[6680] Or (Teletus). Another form of this Aeon's name is
(Philetus = Beloved). Oehler always reads Theletus.
[6681] Cogor.
[6682] Frigidissimus.
[6683] Cum virum fortem peroraretinquit.
[6684] Tertullian's joke lies in the equivocal sense of this cry, which
may mean either admiration and joy, or grief and rage.
[6685] Audisti: interrogatively.
[6686] See above, chap. iv. p. 505.
[6687] Privilegia.
[6688] Castrata.
[6689] Tanta numerorum coagula.
[6690] The poedagogium was either the place where boys were trained as
pages (often for lewd purposes), or else the boy himself of such a
character.
[6691] Oehler reads, "hetaeri et syntrophi." Another
reading, supported by Rigaltius, is "sterceiae," instead of the former word,
which gives a very contemptuous sense, suitable to Tertullian's irony.
[6692] Exceptio.
[6693] Tertullian has, above, remarked on the silent and secret
practices of the Valentinians: see chap. i. p. 503.
[6694] In hunc derivaret.
[6695] Sed enim.
[6696] De Patre.
[6697] Prae vi dulcedinis et laboris.
[6698] It is not easy to say what is the meaning of the words, "Et in
reliquam substantiam dissolvi." Rigaltius renders them: "So that whatever
substance was left to her was being dissolved." This seems to be forcing the
sentence unnaturally. Irenaeus (According to the Latin translator) says:
"Resolutum in universam substantiam," "Resolved into his (the Father's)
general substance," i. 2, 2. [Vol. i. p. 317.]
[6699] Illius.
[6700] So Grabe; but Reaper, according to Neander.
[6701] Animationem.
[6702] Exitum.
[6703] Uti quae.
[6704] Comp. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. vi. 2; Pliny, H. N. x. 58, 60.
[6705] Ratione.
[6706] Exitus.
[6707] In haec: in relation to the case of Sophia.
[6708] Above, in chap. viii. we were told that Nus, who was so much like
the Father, was himself called "Father."
[6709] In censu.
[6710] Appendicem.
[6711] Literally, "infirm fruit and a female," i.e. "had not shared in
any male influence, but was a purely female production." See our Irenaeus,
i. 4. [Vol. I. p. 321.]
[6712] Ille nus.
[6713] Iterum: above.
[6714] Copulationem: The profane reference is to Christ and the Spirit.
[6715] [A shocking reference to the Spirit which I modify to one of the
Divine Persons.]
[6716] Vulneratur.
[6717] Cathedrae.
[6718] Quaedam.
[6719] Conjugiorum.
[6720] Innati conjectationem.
[6721] Perpetuitatis: i.e. "what was unchangeable in their condition and
nature."
[6722] Rationem: perhaps "the means."
[6723] Hac dispositione.
[6724] Nemo aliud quia alteri omnes.
[6725] Refunduntur.
[6726] The reader will, of course, see that we give a familiar English
plural to these names, as better expressing Tertullian's irony.
[6727] Concinunt.
[6728] Diffundebatur.
[6729] Nauclerus: "pilot."
[6730] Tertullian lived in a seaport at Carthage.
[6731] Nedum.
[6732] Christ and the Holy Spirit, [i.e. blasphemously.]
[6733] Symbolae ratio.
[6734] Ratio.
[6735] Ex aere collaticio. In reference to the common symbola,
Tertullian adds the proverbial formula, "quod aiunt" (as they say).
[6736] Compingunt.
[6737] Cognominant.
[6738] De patritus. Irenaeus' word here is
("patronymice").
[6739] Ex omnium defloratione.
[6740] Patina.
[6741] Alluding to the olive-branch, ornamented with all sorts of fruits
(compare our "Christmas tree"), which was carried about by boys in Athens on
a certain festival (White and Riddle).
[6742] Comparaticium antistatum. The latter word Oehler explains, "ante
ipsum stantes;" the former, "quia genus eorum comparari poterat substantiae
Soteris" (So Rigaltus).
[6743] The reader will see how obviously this is meant in Tertullian's
"Quod superest, inquis, vos valete et plaudite." This is the well-known
allusion to the end of the play in the old Roman theatre. See Quintilian,
vi. I, 52; comp. Horace, A.P. 155. Tertullian's own parody to this formula,
immediately after, is: "Immo quod superest, inquam, vos audite et proficite.
[6744] In libero: which may be, however, "beyond the control of
Horos."
[6745] Ininterpretabili.
[6746] Tertullian's "Dum ita rerum habet" is a copy of the Greek
[6747] Deflectitur a.
[6748] Casus sui.
[6749] Rerum ex liberalitatibus.
[6750] De actia fuit. [See Vol. I. pp. 320, 321.]
[6751] It is not necessary, with Rigaltius, to make a difficulty about
this, when we remember that Tertullian only refers to a silly conceit of the
Valentinians touching the origin of the sacred name.
[6752] Or does "nec habens supervolare crucem" mean "being unable to
elude the cross?" As if Tertullian meant, in his raillery, the pat of
Laureolus. Although so often suspended on the gibbet, he had of course as
often escaped the real penalty.
[6753] A notorious robber, the hero of a play by Lutatius Catullus, who
is said to have been crucified.
[6754] Temperata.
[6755] Ille.
[6756] Recogitavit.
[6757] "Omnis anima hujus mundi" may, however, mean "every living
soul." So Bp. Kaye, On Tertullian, p. 487.
[6758] Cetera.
[6759] Achamoth's.
[6760] Exitum.
[6761] Utique.
[6762] These two rivers, with their peculiar qualities, are mentioned by
Pliny, H.N. ii. 103; [and the latter by Milton against Salmasius.]
[6763] Ovid. Metam. iv. 286.
[6764] Pipiavit.
[6765] Qui.
[6766] As light.
[6767] Instrumentum: water is meant.
[6768] Christ and the Holy Spirit. Oehler.
[6769] Saviour: another title of their Paraclete.
[6770] Col. i. 16.
[6771] Fructiferumque suggestum.
[6772] Expumicat.
[6773] Habilitatem atque naturam. We have treated this as a
"hendiadys".
[6774] Aequiparantias corpulentiarum.
[6775] Ecce.
[6776] Subavit et ipsa.
[6777] Trinitas generum.
[6778] Exercitior.
[6779] Scilicet.
[6780] Fere.
[6781] Eo animo.
[6782] See above, chap. xvi. p. 512.
[6783] Demiurgum.
[6784] Et velut sigillario. "Sigillarium est ," Oehler.
[6785] The Father acting through and proceeding from his Mother.
[6786] Commendant.
[6787] Delegant.
[6788] Communiter in universitatem.
[6789] Jam.
[6790] Rursus.
[6791] This is the force of the "qui" with the subjunctive verb.
[6792] Soter.
[6793] Effigeret.
[6794] There seems to be a relative gradation meant among these
extra-Pleroma beings, as there was among the Aeons of the Pleroma; and,
further, a relation between the two sets of beings 'Achamoth bearing a
relation to Propator, the Demiurge to Nus, etc.
[6795] Duplicis substantiae illius disculsae.
[6796] Sublimantia.
[6797] Ogdoadis primogenitalis: what Irenaeus calls "the first-begotten
and primary Ogdoad of the Pleroma" (See our Irenaeus, Vol. I.; also above,
chap. vii. p. 506.)
[6798] Noeros.
[6799] Nubeculas.
[6800] Arbusculas.
[6801] Puerilium dicibulorum.
[6802] Sibi here must refer to the secondary agent of the sentence.
[6803] Tenendum.
[6804] Alioquin.
[6805] Adeo rerum non erat compos.
[6806] Censu.
[6807] Scilicet.
[6808] Isa. xlv. 5, xlvi. 9.
[6809] Infamia apud illos.
[6810] Tolerabilior.
[6811] Capit: "capax est," nimirum "infamiae" (Fr. Junius).
[6812] Ex nequitia.
[6813] Achamoth's.
[6814] Irenaeus' word is see also Eph. vi. 12.
[6815] Above, in chap. viii., he has mentioned the Pleroma as "the
fulness of the thirtyfold divinity."
[6816] Metatur.
[6817] Reciprocandi.
[6818] Fire.
[6819] Ego.
[6820] Motiunculis.
[6821] Febricitasse.
[6822] Vel.
[6823] Ex pituitis et gramis.
[6824] Choicus.
[6825] Accipe.
[6826] Anima derivaret.
[6827] Sermoni perfecto.
[6828] Traducem animae suae.
[6829] Censum.
[6830] Or, the substance of
[6831] Exitum.
[6832] Monstruosum illum.
[6833] Prosicias induisse. Irenaeus says, "Assumed the first-fruits,"
[6834] Ingratis.
[6835] Reddo.
[6836] Nescio quae.
[6837] Fartilia.
[6838] Farsura.
[6839] That which descended like a dove.
[6840] Aeque insubditivam.
[6841] In delineationem.
[6842] Agnitionali.
[6843] Prophetiale patrocinium.
[6844] Matt. viii. 5, 6.
[6845] De dispositione.
[6846] Inunitam.
[6847] Argumenta.
[6848] Essentiae.
[6849] Choicum: "the clayey." Having the doubtful issues, which arise
from freedom of the will (Oehler).
[6850] Recondunt: or, "discover."
[6851] Recondunt: or, "discover."
[6852] Superducunt.
[6853] De obvenientia.
[6854] Indulgentiam.
[6855] The "quos" here relates to "spiritalem statum," but expressing
the sense rather than the grammatical propriety, refers to the plural idea
of "good souls" (Oehler).
[6856] Depluat.
[6857] Salutaria.
[6858] We have tried to retain the emphatic repetition, "inreformabilem
naturae naturam."
[6859] Eruditu hujus.
[6860] Above, in ch. xxv. p. 515.
[6861] Istarum naeniarum.
[6862] Operationes: the doing of (good) works."
[6863] As, forsooth, we should in the spiritual state.
[6864] Suffragio.
[6865] Being animal, not spiritual.
[6866] See above. ch. ix. x. p. 508.
[6867] See Scorpiace, ch. x. infra.
[6868] Passivitate.
[6869] "Diligentia" may mean "proclivity" (Rigalt.).
[6870] Of the Aeons.
[6871] Nec legitimum: "not a lawful son."
[6872] De consummatione.
[6873] Urgebit.
[6874] See above, ch. xxiii. p. 514.
[6875] Compacticius ille.
[6876] Fient.
[6877] Query, the Holy Scriptures, or the writings of the Valentintians?
[6878] Very severe against adultery, and even against celibacy.
[6879] In ch. xx. this "scenam de Hebdomade caelesti" is called
"caelorum septemplicem scenam" = "the sevenfold stage of heaven."
[6880] Coenaculum. See above, ch. vii. p. 506.
[6881] Choicae: "clayey."
[6882] Isa. xl. 6.
[6883] See above, in ch. xxiv. p. 515.
[6884] Interiores.
[6885] Averterant.
[6886] Neque detentui obnoxii.
[6887] Neque conspectui obnoxii.
[6888] Si ita est: or, "since such is the fact."
[6889] Claudent.
[6890] But slaves, in fact.
[6891] This parenthetic clause, "tacendo jam dixi," perhaps means, "I
say this with shame," "I would rather not have to say it."
[6892] The common reading is, "Onesimum Aeonem," an Aeon called
Onesimus, in supposed allusion to Philemon's Onesimus. But this is too
far-fetched. Oehler discovers in "Onesimum" the corruption of some higher
number ending in "esimum."
[6893] This is Oehler's idea of "et nulla jam fabula." Rigaltius,
however, gives a good sense to this clause: "All will come true at last;
there will be no fable."
[6894] The same as Macariotes, in ch. viii. above, p. 507.
[6895] Velut epicitharisma.
[6896] Emendatoribus.
[6897] Censum.
[6898] Tertullian, however, here gives the Latin synonyme, Invisibilis.
[6899] The "Gemonian steps" on the Aventine led to the Tiber, to which
the bodies of executed criminals were dragged by hooks, to be cast into the
river.
[6900] Mappa, quod aiunt, missa: a proverbial expression.
[6901] Istam.
[6902] See above, ch. vii. p. 506.
[6903] Oehler gives good reasons for the reading "ingenia
circulatoria," instead of the various readings of other editors.
[6904] Insignioris apud eos magistri.
[6905] Non proferentes. Another reading is "non proserentes" (not
generating).
[6906] Sermo.
[6907] Or, solitariness.
[6908] Or, Union.
[6909] Compare our Irenaeus, I. 2, 3. [Vol. I. p. 316.]
[6910] Achamoth.
[6911] See above, ch. xii. p. 510.
[6912] The Aeons Sermo and Vita.
[6913] See above, ch. vii. p. 506.
[6914] See above, ch. viii. p. 507.
[6915] See above, ch. xiv. p. 511.
[6916] Superfruticant.
[6917] Archamoth is referred to.
Also, see links to 600+ other Augustine Manuscripts:
/believe/txv/earlych7.htm
E-mail to: BELIEVE
The main BELIEVE web-page (and the index to subjects) is at: