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B. I. PROEM § 1.

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4.

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FORASMUCH as there are some, who, putting the truth away § 1. from them1, introduce in its stead false tales and vain mapaπεμπόμε genealogies, which minister questions, according to the voi saying of the Apostle, rather than godly edifying which is of 1 Tim. i. faith, and by a cunning assemblage of plausible topics pervert the mind of the simpler sort, and lead them away captive, adulterating2 the oracles of the Lord; so becoming evil popγοῦντες. expounders of good words, and subvert many, withdrawing them, under pretence of knowledge, from Him by Whom this universe was framed and adorned, as though they had something higher and greater to show them than God Who made Heaven and Earth and all things that are therein: allur- Acts xvii. ing persuasively enough, in the first instance, by dexterity of words, such as are unsuspecting into this mode of enquiry, but in the most revolting way bringing them to ruin at last, by framing their minds to all blasphemy and im- 7, MSS. piety against the Creator; they having no power, even on TOUT μj this point to distinguish falsehood from truth:

(For no false teaching is wont to offer itself to our view singly and apart, lest such exposure should lead to conviction; but craftily putting on a plausible dress, makes itself by its outward habiliments appear to the simpler sort truer than Truth itself, according to what was said of such cases by one superior to us: "The precious stone, the real emerald, accounted by some of great value, is dishonoured by the artful imitation of itself in glass, whenever he is not by, a izeiσáyοvow, alluding to divorce quoted under the same title below, c. and after-marriage. 13. § 3., and b. iii. c. 17, sub fin.

The same unknown authority is

B

3

24.

μηδὲ ἐν

μηδὲ ἐν

Conj. Lat. Vers.

§ 2.

λὴν MSS.

Lat.

vii. 15.

Purpose and style of this treatise.

who hath power to prove it, and detect the craft so cunningly put in practice. Again, when there is an alloy of brass with our silver, what simple person shall be lightly able to assay it?")

In order therefore that it may not be our fault, if any be snatched away as sheep by wolves, not knowing them on To account of the sheepskin which they outwardly wear;* Box which sort the Lord commanded us to beware of, speakSt. Matt. ing as we do, but meaning all the contrary: I have judged it needful, on meeting with the writings of those who call themselves disciples of Valentinus; and also after conversation had with some of them, and understanding their drift; to declare unto thee, well-beloved, their portentous and deep mysteries, "which all men receive not," because all have not yet spit out their brains: that thou also, having learned them, mayest disclose them to all who are with thee, and exhort them to avoid the depth of these men's folly, and blasphemy against Christ.

And to the best of our power, we will shortly and clearly set forth the meaning of those who are now teaching amiss, I mean of Ptolemy and his partizans, which school is a kind of ¿πávoi- efflorescence 5 from that of Valentinus: and then we will sughaps gest topics according to our moderate ability, for the refuta"Scum." tion of the same; shewing how monstrous their assertions are,

σμα : per

St. Matt.

x. 26.

§ 3.

and how inconsistent with the Truth. And this, although we have neither been accustomed to composition, nor trained to any arts of discourse; charity only urging us to make known to thee, and all who are with thee, what things they teach-things hitherto concealed, but which now at length by the grace of God have found their way into the light. For there is nothing covered which shall not be revealed, nor hid, which shall not be made known.

But thou wilt not require of us, who dwell among Celts, and converse for the most part in a foreign language, skill in discourse which we have not learned, nor power of composition, which we have not practised, nor eloquence of phrase, nor persuasiveness, of which we know nothing. He seems to be ironically describing them in their own words.

The Valentinian system. The Pleroma and the Eons. 3

Rather in simplicity, and truth, and plainness, the things which are written to thee lovingly, thou wilt lovingly accept, and what is more, wilt cherish them within thyself, as being more competent than we are, receiving them from us as a kind of seeds and principles. That which we have briefly expressed, thou wilt cause to bear much fruit in the wide field of thine understanding; and wilt forcibly represent to them that are with thee what we have but faintly detailed. And as we have sought, according to thy request made long ago for information about their meaning, not only to make it known to thee, but also to provide thee with resources for demonstrating its falsehoods: so wilt thou too seek honestly to minister unto others, according to the grace given thee by the Lord: to the end that our people may be no longer perverted by their show of reasoning: whereof the account is as follows;

CHAP.
I.

They affirm that there is in certain high places unseen and unnamed, I know not what perfect on; existing be-§ 1. fore all; whom they call sometimes Proarche, the First Beginning, sometimes Propator, the First Father, sometimes Bythos, that is, the Deep; that he is likewise invisible and incomprehensible; and that being incomprehensible and invisible, eternal also and unbegotten, he abode in great tranquillity and calm through boundless ages:

That there exists with him also, Thought, the same whom they likewise denominate Grace and Silence; and that at some unknown time it occurred to the said Bythos to put forth from himself what should be a beginning of all things; and that this which he was minded to put forth, being as it were sced, he deposited, as in a womb, with the partner of his being, Silence:

That she, having received this seed, and become pregnant, brought forth Mind, who is similar to him that begat him, and alone comprehendeth the greatness of his Father; to which Mind they also give the name of Only-begotten, and Father, and principle of all things: and that there was produced together with him, Truth: and that this is the first and aboriginal quaternion of Pythagoras, which also

§ 2.

§ 3.

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The Pleroma. Production of the Thirty Eons.

they style the root of all things; namely, the Deep, and Silence, and, after them, Mind and Truth.

Further, that the Only Begotten, having become aware of the purposes for which he was produced, did himself also produce the Word, and the Life; thus becoming the Father of all who should be after him, and the principle and formative power, of the whole Pleroma: next, that from the Word and the Life were produced, as in marriage, the Man and the Church; and that this was the aboriginal Ogdoas or Eight, the root and substance of all things; having according to them, four names, the Deep, the Mind, the Word, and the Man: each of these being both male and female; as follows:-First, the Great Father they said, was united as in marriage to his own Thought; next the Only-begotten, that is, the Mind, to the Truth; afterwards the Word to the Life; and the Man to the Church:

Moreover, that these Eons, as they were produced for the Father's glory, so wishing also themselves to glorify the Father by something of their own, produced offspring as in marriage: first, that the Word and the Life, after the Man and the Church, brought into being other ten ons, whose names they say are these:-the Profound, and Commixture; the Undecaying, and Union; the Self-originated, and Pleasure; the Unmoved, and Incorporation; the Only-begotten, and the Blessed One. These are the ten additional

ons, who they say were produced by the Word and Life. They add that the Man also for his part with the Church produced twelve Eons, on whom they bestow these names : -the Comforter, and Faith; the Paternal One, and Hope; the Maternal One, and Love; the Ever-Intelligent, and Understanding; the Ecclesiastical One, and Blessedness; the Desired, and Wisdom.

These are the 30 Æons of their false doctrine, kept hitherto in silence, and unknown. This is the invisible and spiritual Fulness they talk of, with its threefold division into sets respectively of eight, and ten, and twelve beings. And they affirm this to have been the reason why the Saviour, (for they are not willing to call Him Lord), for 30 years did

Relation of the Eons to the First Father.

5

II.

nothing openly; declaring this mystery of the Eons. Yea, CHAP. and in the parable of the labourers which were sent into the vineyard they say it is most evident that these 30 Eons are indicated; in that some are sent about the first hour, some about the third, others about the sixth, others again the ninth, and a further set about the eleventh. Now the aforesaid hours, being added together, make up the number thirty. For 1+3+6+9+11=30. And the Hours, they affirm, signify the Eons. And these, they add, are the great and wonderful and unutterable mysteries, the fruit of which themselves only bear; as also of any among the many sayings of Scripture, which one haply may be able to accommodate, and cause to appear like their invention.d

To proceed. Their First Father they affirm to be known unto none but the Only-Begotten who sprang from him, that is, to the Mind; to all the rest, they say, he remains invisible and incomprehensible. But the Mind alone, according to them, having delight in the contemplation of the Father, and rejoicing in the thought of His immeasurable greatness, was purposing to communicate to the other ons also the greatness of the Father, how vast his duration and extent; how he was unoriginated and incomprehensible, and incapable of being beheld. But Silence restrained him, by the will of the Father, because he was minded to bring them all to imagine and long for some mode of searching out their First Father, such as we have described him. And thus all the other ons continued alike in a kind of silence, longing to behold the first originator of their seed, and to acquaint themselves with the Root which has no beginning.

CHAP.

II.

$ 1.

Only the last and youngest Æon of the Family of twelve, § 2. produced by the Man and the Church, that is, Wisdom, made a spring far onward, and was affected, in some way without intercourse with her partner, the Desired; (a kind of thing which had begun in the case of the Mind, and Truth, but in 4 ἃ καρποφοροῦσιν αὐτοὶ, καὶ εἴ που τι TOP EVAИel Eipnμévwv év Taïs ypapais δυνηθείη [τις] προσαρμόσαι καὶ εἰκάσαι τῷ πλάσματι αὐτῶν. Tis has been introduced by the Editor to complete the sentence. 'Ev Tλne is thus used in the lxx often, in a similar sense,

but always with a question after it.
E. g. Eccl. v. 2. Might it mean here
“in the Multitude ”: pointing out the dis-
tinction between the popular utterance
of a Text, and the recondite sense which
they pretended to receive from it?

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