Return of Achamoth and the Saviour to the Pleroma. 21 way to him, is not of the Truth, and shall not proceed unto Now when the whole seed is made perfect, Achamoth their mother, they say, is to pass from the Intermediate Place, and to enter within the Pleroma, and to receive her Spouse the Saviour, him who was made up of all "; that there may be a Combination of the Saviour, and of Wisdom, who is Achamoth. And this, they say, is the meaning of the "Bridegroom," and "Bride;" the Bridechamber being the whole Pleroma. Next, that all spiritual persons putting off their animal souls, and becoming intellectual spirits, are to enter within the Pleroma, incomprehensibly and invisibly, and to be assigned as the Brides to the Angels which are about the Saviour; and that the Demiurge also for his part is to pass into the region of his mother, Wisdom, that is, in the intermediate state; that the souls also of the righteous will themselves be refreshed in the place of the middle state; for that nothing animal finds place within the Pleroma. Moreover, that when all this has so taken place, the fire which lurks in the world is to shine forth and be kindled, and destroying all Matter, is itself to be spent together with it, and to come to an end of its existence :- -so they say. But the Demiurge knew none of these things, as they assert, before the coming of the Saviour. And there are some who say that he also produced a Christ, § 2. a son of his own, of animal nature however; that concerning him he spake by the Prophets. And that this was he who m See c. ii. 6. § 3. 22 Theories about our Lord, and 'spiritual' souls. passed through Mary, as water passes through a pipe; and that to him at his baptism descended that other, that Saviour from the Pleroma, made up of all, in the form of a Dove. And there was in him also the same spiritual seed of Achamoth. Our Lord therefore they affirm to have been composed of these four, keeping the pattern of the original and first Quaternion: viz. of the Spiritual being, which was from Achamoth; and of the animal which was from the Demiurge; and of the Economy-that which was framed with unspeakable art; and of the Saviour, which part was the Dove that descended upon Him. And that as to this part he remained impassive (for he could not suffer, being incomprehensible and invisible); and therefore, they say, it was taken away, when he was brought before Pilate, I mean the Spirit of Christ which had been lodged in him. But neither did the seed suffer, which he had from his mother, by their statement; for this also, the spiritual part of him, is impassive, and invisible even to the Demiurge himself. It remains that what suffered, according to them, was the animal Christ, and he who by the Economy was mysteriously framed, that his Mother might exhibit by him" the pattern of the Christ who is above, of him who was extended upon the Cross, and who gave to Achamoth her essential form. For all things here, they say, are types of the things there. Now the souls which had the seed of Achamoth, were better, they say, than the rest. Wherefore also the Demiurge loves them more than the rest, not knowing the reason, but accounting such to be from himself: and so, they add, he ordained them to be, some Prophets, some Priests, some Kings; (and many things by virtue of this seed they expound to be spoken by the Prophets;) as though those souls were of a higher nature. And his Mother too they affirm to have uttered many things concerning that superior world; partly however through him, and partly through the souls that were made by him. And they proceed to divide the Prophecies; one thing, as they will have it, being uttered by the Mother, AUTO is the present Greek reading, but the old Latin version renders per eum." Ignorance of the Demiurgus. Destiny of the 3 classes of men. 23 another by the seed aforesaid, a third by the Demiurge. Yea, and that Jesus also in like manner uttered some things by virtue of the Saviour, some of his Mother, some of the Demiurge; as we shall explain in the progress of our argument. Further; the Demiurge, they say, as being ignorant of the $4. the things above him, although not insensible to what was thus uttered, yet thought little of them, imagining now one cause and now another; either the prophesying Spirit (as though it had also a sort of movement of its own); or man; or the adhesion of the inferior beings: and he continued in this ignorance until the coming of the Lord. But when the Saviour was come, they say that from Him he learned all things, approaching Him, and that with a willing mind, with all his power; and that he is the centurion in the Gospel, who says to our Saviour, For I too have under my own authority soldiers and slaves, and whatsoever I command, they Luke vii. do; but that he will himself accomplish the economy of the world until the appointed time, and that chiefly because of his care of the church, partly however through his having come to the knowledge of the reward prepared for him, that is, his being to pass into the region of his Mother. : St. Matt. viii. 9; St. 8. Of men, moreover, they constitute three sorts, Spiritual, § 5. Earthly, Animal: such as were Cain, Abel, Seth and from° these the three Natures, having passed from individuals into classes. And the earthly, they say, goes into corruption; and the Animal, if it choose the better part, rests in the place of the middle state, but if the worse, it also will go to its like. But the spiritual beings, whatsoever Achamoth may have sown, from that time even until now, in righteous souls, are first educated and fully nurtured here, as having been sent out in an infantile state; but hereafter are to have perfection vouchsafed to them, and to be assigned as Brides to the Angels of the Saviour. This is their doctrine; and they add that their souls will have thoroughly rested the while of necessity in the middle state with the Demiurge. And the souls too • The Latin version adds the words ginating in them." ut ostendant, and ex his, &c., "hereby indicating as well the three natures ori Ρ ούκετι καθ ̓ ἕν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ γένος. CHAP. 3 ὑποθέ σεως. 24 Valentinian perversion of Holy Scripture characterized. themselves they again subdivide, saying, Some are naturally good, some naturally bad; the good being these, which are filled to receive that seed, while those which are naturally bad never could exhibit that seed in themselves. Now such being their Theory, which neither Prophets § 1. proclaimed, nor the Lord taught, nor Apostles delivered whereby they flatter themselves that they know more concerning the universe thau all others, reading it, out of what was never written, and as the saying is, studying to twist ropes out of sand; they endeavour plausibly to accommodate to what has been said either Parables of our Lord, or prophetic sayings or discourses of the Apostles, that their fiction may not appear to be without witness. The order indeed and connection of the Scriptures they overpass, and as much as in them lies, disjoin the members of the Truth. And they transfer and transform, and make one thing out of another, and so deceive many, by their perverse skill in tacking together the Lord's oracles which they so apply. Much \ as if there were an image of a king, made beautiful out of brilliant pebbles by some skilful artificer, and one should do away with the form of man which exists in it, and transfer those pebbles, and re-adapt them; and when he had made a form of a dog, or a fox, and that vilely put together, should then definitively affirm this to be that beautiful Image of the King which the skilful Artist constructed; pointing out the pebbles which were well combined by the first work-man to make the Image of the King, but ill transferred by the *parta- later one into the form of a dog : and as if by the vain shew of the pebbles he should beguile the more unskilful, such as have no conception of a royal form, and persuade them that this unsound form of a fox is that same beautiful image of the King. In the same way, I say, these also, having stitched together some old women's fables, then drag off from this quarter and that words and sayings and parables; endeavouring to adapt the Oracles of God to their fables. σίας § 2. Now as to their adaptations to things within 9 the Pleroma, we have said enough. As to those Scriptural truths which Ev Tois Toù IIAпpúμaros, Lat. Vers. "intra Pleroma," reading EVTOS. Gnostic fables, how fitted on to the words of Holy Scripture. 25 viii. 41. 1 Cor. xv. they try to accommodate also to the things without their Pleroma, they are such as follow. The Lord, they say, came for this purpose to His Passion in the last times of the world, that He might exhibit the passion which occurred to the last of the Æons; and by the end thereof might declare the end of the transaction concerning the Æons. Again, that Virgin of St. Luke twelve years old, the Ruler of the Synagogue's daughter, whom the Lord approached and raised from the dead, is a type, by their account, of Achamoth, whom their Christ, extended over her, brought into form, and into perception of the light which had forsaken her. Again, of Christ's shewing Himself to her, being without the Pleroma, in the state of an abortion, they affirm Paul to have said in his epistle to the Corinthians, And last of all, as to one born out of due time, He appeared 8. unto me also. Also the Saviour's coming to Achamoth with his equals, they say, was declared in like manner by him in the same Epistle where he says, The woman ought to have covering on her head, because of the Angels. And that on the Saviour's coming to her, Achamoth for bashfulness put on a veil, Moses they say made manifest, by putting the veil upon his face. And her passions too, which she suffered, they say that the Lord signified on the Cross. As first, that in saying. My God why hast Thou forsaken Me, He signified that Wisdom was forsaken of the Light, and was hindered by Order from rushing forward. Next, that in speaking of her grief, He said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. And of Ib. xxvi. her fear, saying, Father, if it be posssible, let this cup pass Ib. 39. from Me. And of her perplexity, when He said, And what I shall say, I know not". a Ib. xi. 10. St Matt. xxvii. 46. 38. ix. 57, 58. And the three kinds of men, they teach He thus pointed § 3. out: the material, in saying, The Son of Man hath not where St. Luke to lay his head to him that asked him, Let me follow Thee, the animal, in replying, No man having put his hand to the Ib. v. 61, plough, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven, to him that said, I will follow Thee, but suffer me first to bid farewell to those in my house. r St. John xii. 27. Grabe and Massuet conjecture that the words our oida were For he, they say, was the added by the Valentinians in the interest 62. |