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xix. 16, sqq.

ix. 60.

26 Gnostic fables, how fitted on to the words of Holy Scripture.

St. Matt. middle sort of person. And that other too in like manner who professed to have done the most parts of righteousness, and then would not follow Him, but was overcome by wealth, so as not to be made perfect, he too, they will have it, belonged to the animal sort. But the spiritual he signified, by saying, St. Luke Suffer the dead to bury their own dead, but go thou and preach the Kingdom of God. And in the case of Zaccheus the Ib. xix. 5. Publican, by saying, Make haste and come down, for to day I must abide in thine house. These, I say, they state to have been of the spiritual sort. And the Parable of the Leaven, which the woman is said to have hid in three measures of meal, they say, means the three kinds. For Wisdom they teach to be expressed by a woman, by measures of meal, the three kinds of men, spiritual, animal, earthly. As to leaven, they teach it to be a name of the Saviour Himself. And that Paul expressly spoke of persons temporal, animal, spiritual : 1 Cor.xv. in one place; As is the earthy, such are they also that are Ib. ii. 14. earthy; in another, The natural man receiveth not the things Ib. v. 15. of the Spirit; in another, A spiritual man judgeth all things.

48.

And the saying, The animal man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, they say is uttered concerning the Demiurge;— that he, being natural, knew not either his Mother who is spiritual, nor her seed, nor the Eons in the Pleroma. But that whom the Saviour meant to save, of those He took the first fruits, Paul they say affirmed in the words, And if the Rom. xi. first fruit be holy, so is the lump: affirming that by the first fruit the spiritual part is intended, and that the lump means us; that is, the animal Church; the lump whereof they say He took up, and gathered up in Himself, as being Himself Leaven.

16.

$4.

XV. 4.

And that Achamoth wandered without the Pleroma, and was put in form by Christ, and sought out by the Saviour, they say He signified by declaring, that He had come after St. Luke that which was lost. For the lost sheep they expound to mean their Mother, of whom they will have the Church here to be sown; and her wandering, her abode in passions without the Pleroma; whereby they suppose matter to have been Ib. v. 8. formed. And the woman that sweeps the house, and finds

Gnostic fables, how fitted on to the words of Holy Scripture. 27 ·

ii. 28, 29.

the piece of silver, they say is the supernal Wisdom, who having lost that which she had conceived in her mind, finds it afterwards, when all things are cleansed by the coming of our Saviour: wherefore this also is restored, as they say, to be within the Pleroma. And Symeon who took Christ into St. Luke his arms, and gave thanks unto Him, and said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, they say, is a type of the Demiurge, how that when the Saviour came he learned about his own removal, and gave thanks unto Bythus. And by Anna the Prophetess 1b. v. 36. whose name is rehearsed in the gospel, who lived seven years with a husband, and all the rest of her time remained a widow, until seeing the Saviour she recognized Him, and spoke of Him to all, they lay it down that Achamoth is most evidently signified; who for a little while saw the Saviour with His companions, and all her time after was expecting Him, (remaining in the Middle State) when He shall come again, and restore her to the partnership she belongs to. And that her name too was indicated by the Saviour, in His saying, and wisdom is justified of her children. And by Paul too, Ib. vii.35. thus: But we speak wisdom among them that are perfect. 1 Cor. ii. And the marriages that are within the Pleroma, they say, Paul spoke of, signifying them in one instance. For writing concerning the marriage which is in this life, he said, This mys- Eph. v. tery is great; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. And moreover John, the Disciple of our Lord, by their § 5. teaching, indicated the first Ogdoad, these being their very words: "John the Disciple of the Lord, meaning to speak of the generation of all things, wherein the Father produced them all, supposes a beginning, the first thing begotten of God; the same whom he called both the Only Begotten Son, and God, in whom the Father produced all as from seed. And by him he saith that the Word was produced, and in Him the whole substance of the ons, which the Word himself afterwards reduced to form. Since then he speaks of the first birth, well does he frame his instruction from the beginning, that is, from God, and the Word. And thus he speaks: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 1,2.

6.

32.

St.Johni.

28 Gnostic interpretation of the Prologue of St. John's Gospel.

with God, and the Word was God; He was in the beginning with God. Having before distinguished the three, God, and the Beginning, and the Word, he again unites them to indicate at the same time the emanation of each of them,-of the Son and the Word, and their union also with one another and with the Father. For in the Father and of the Father is the Beginning, and of the Beginning is the Word. Well therefore said he 1o, In the beginning was the Word; for he was in the Son: and the Word was with God; for so was the Beginning: and the Word was God, by way of inference: for that which is begotten of God, is God. The same was in the Beginning with God, pointed out the order of the Production. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made: that is, to all ons after him the Word was the cause of Form and Birth. But (saith he) That which took place in him is Life. Here He hath given tokens again of a Combination [of Æons]: in saying that all things were made by Him, but that "Life is in Him." This Life then which took place in Him is more olketoré properly His own, being within Him, than the things which are wrought by Him; for they exist with Him, and by Him bear Ib. v. 4. fruit. And since he adds "and the Life was the Light of men,”

St. John i. 3.

ρα.

by expressing the term Man, he signified also the Church under the same title with Man, so by the one name to set forth the communion of the two which make up the pair. For "of the Word and Life are produced the Man and the Church." And He calls the Life the Light of men, because they are enlightened thereby, that is, formed and manifested. Eph. v. And this Paul also speaks of: "For whatsoever doth make manifest is Light." Accordingly since the Church and the Man were manifested and brought into being by the Life, therefore he is called their Light.

13.

Upon the whole, John in these statements hath clearly set forth, among other things, the second quaternion, The word and the life, The man and the Church. Yea, and he hath indicated also the first quaternion. For speaking of the Saviour, and affirming that all things without the Pleroma were formed

* [Namely Λόγος and Ζωή.]

Gnostic interpretation of St. John refuted.

6

29

6

by Him, he declares Him to be the fruit of the whole Pleroma. Thus for instance, he denominates Him the Light shining in the darkness, and not comprehended by it, because it knew Him not, when He had repaired all the results of the great apudoas. calamity. And he calls Him Son too, and Truth, and Life, and the Word made Flesh. "Whose glory," saith he, "we beheld, and His Glory was such as of the Only-Begotten, given Him by the Father, full of Grace and Truth." His words being, "And the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt St. John among us, and we beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Thus hath he accurately indicated the first quaternion also, using the terms Father, and Grace, and the Only-Begotten, and Truth. And so John hath made mention of the First Ogdoad, or Combination of Eight, and Mother of all the ons; in that he hath spoken of a Father, and Grace, and an OnlyBegotten, and Truth, and the Word, and Life, and the Man and the Church."

Thou seest, dearly beloved, their craft, which they that use deceive themselves, dealing rudely with the Scriptures, in their endeavours to make good out of them their own fiction. And this is why I have adduced their very words, that by them thou mightest discern their cunning craftiness, and wicked misleading.

For, first, had it been John's purpose to speak indirectly of their Eight that are on high, he would have kept the order of the emanation; and the first Quaternion, being, by their statement, the most venerable, he would have set down in his first enumeration; and so would have subjoined the second; that by the order of the names, the order of the Eight might be indicated. And he would not, after so great an interval, as though upon forgetting and afterwards recollecting, have mentioned the first quaternion in the very conclusion.

Next, had he really meant to signify their Combinations, he would not have left out the name of the Church also: but would either have contented himself in the other pairs, with naming the Males, the others being to be equally understood,

i. 14.

CHAP.

IX.

§ 1.

§ 2.

30

Gnostic interpretation of St. John refuted.

that the Unity might be kept by him in all things. Or, if he had reckoned up the partners of the rest, he would have indicated also the Man's partner, and would not have left us to find out her name by divination.

Manifest then is the perversity of their exposition. For whereas John is proclaiming One God Almighty, and One Only Begotten Christ Jesus, by Whom, he saith, all things were made;—that He is the Son of God, He the Only Begotten, He the Maker of all things, He the True Light, enlightening every man, He the Maker of the world;-that He came to His own, that He Himself was made flesh and dwelt among us: these men, plausibly wresting their interpretation, will have one person to be the Only Begotten by way of Emanation, whom also they call, as it seems, the Beginning; but the Saviour, they will have it, was by origin another; and that the Word, the Son of the Only Begotten, was different from the Christ, who was put forth" to reform the Pleroma. Yea, each one of the terms which have been mentioned, they have taken up, and abusing the names, have ¡ióσ transferred them to their own purpose?. So that, according to them, in so many words John makes no mention of the Lord Jesus Christ. For though he hath spoken of a Father, and of Grace, and of the Only-Begotten, and of Truth, and of the Word, and of Life, and of Man, and of the Church; by their supposition he spake of the first Eight, among whom Jesus is not yet, not yet Christ the teacher of John.

But that the Apostle spake not of their Combinations, but of our Lord Jesus Christ, Whom also He recognizes as The Word of God; he hath himself made manifest. For in his recapitulation, concerning the Word Whom he had mentioned above in the beginning, he concludes, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." But by their supposition, the Word was not made flesh, (seeing that He never so much as passed without the Pleroma,) but the offspring of the Economy, born

t Lat. "aut si." Gr. el.

рoßeßλnμévov, "put forth by way of emanation."

Lat. "memoriam non fecerit." Gr. om. μή.

ν ὁ τῆς οἰκονομίας. Lat. " qui ex om

after the Word, the Saviour. nibus factus;" the old interpreter giving the meaning instead of the words; for the œconomy here meant is the making up of the Saviour by the gifts of the several Eons. See above, c. 6. §. 1.

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