6 The Horos. Legend of the Eon Wisdom. CHAP. its result affected only this perverted II. § 3. on; perverted, in pretence, by Love, but in reality by Presumption); on account of his not having communion with the Perfect Father, as the Mind also had. Now the Passion which this on conceived was searching after the Father. For he would fain, they say, comprehend His greatness. Next, they add, not being able, because it was a thing impossible which he was attempting, he was in a very intense inward strife, because of the vastness of that Deep, and the unsearchable nature of the Father, and his yearning after him. Which things continually urging him onward, he would at length have been absorbed by His delightsomeness, and resolved into His whole being, had he not met with that power which supports and guards all things, excepting only the greatness which is unspeakable. And to this power they give the name also of Horos, that is, Order, or Limit. And by this, that youngest on, they say, was restrained and steadied: and having hardly returned to himself and become convinced that the Father is incomprehensible, he put off his former intention, together with the impression which had come upon him from that astounding wonder! And some of them make a kind of legend of that which befel Wisdom, and her recovery: as though she having attempted a thing impossible and inconceivable, brought forth a substance without form; even as it was natural for her, being a female, to bring forth. And on considering her offspring, they add, she was first of all vexed, because of the imperfect birth, then affrighted, lest her being itself might prove incapable of perfection; and upon that she was beside herself, and in despair, enquiring the cause, and how she might conceal what happened. And that being sore beset with these passions, she took a turn, and endeavoured to hasten back to the Father, and having ventured a certain way, failed through weakness, and became a suppliant to the Father, and that she was joined in her supplication by the other ons, especially by the Mind. * οἵαν φύσιν εἶχε θήλειαν τεκεῖν. according to the nature which she had that being a female she should be &c." 1 μηδὲ αὐτὸ τὸ εἶναι τελείως ἔχειν ne hoc ipsum finem habeat, Lat. Functions of the Horos. Christ and the Holy Ghost. 7 II. This, they say, was the first origin of the substance of CHAP. matter, namely, out of that ignorance and grief, and fear, and astonishment. Moreover, the Father, with a view to these things, produces the aforesaid Order, or Limit, by the Only Begotten, in his own image, unpaired, with nothing of the weaker sex about him. (For so they affirm the Father to exist, sometimes in concert with Silence, sometimes above male and female alike). And this being, called Order, they denominate also the Cross, and the Redeemer, and the Assertor of Liberty, and Assigner of Boundaries, and Maintainer of Causes. And by means of this Order, they say, Wisdom was purified, and confirmed, and restored to her place as one of a pair of Eons. That is, the fruit of her fancy having been separated from her, with the passion which accompanied it, she herself remains within the Pleroma; but that this her mental produce, with all passion, is by the aforesaid Order put apart in a state of privation; and being turned out of the Pleroma, continues indeed a spiritual substance, having a certain natural energy such as belongs to an on, but without form or kind, as not comprehending any thing. And therefore they call it an imbecile and feminine fruit (of wisdom). 2. § 4. § 5. But after the separation of the Offspring to a region without the Pleroma of the Eons, and the restoration of the mother to her place as one of a pair, the Only-Begotten, as they say, again produced another pair, according to the purpose of the Father, that none of the Eons might suffer as she had done; another pair; Christ and the Holy Ghost, to fix and consolidate the Pleroma; and so by these the worlds [or Heb. xi. Eons] were framed. For that Christ for his part instructed them that they were sufficiently acquainted already with the yivwnature of their own Communion, and the Idea of the Unbe- iKavovs gotten; and that he declared among them the mode of coming to more knowledge of the Father; that He is incomprehensible, and inconceivable, and can neither be seen nor heard, any further than He is known through the Only Begotten: also that the principal eternal duration to the other 6 Tns Ans is not in Epiphanius, but it is recognized in the old Latin version. 6 σκοντας, εἶναι. VII. 8 'Jesus' a 'perfect Emanation' from the Æons. CHAP. Eons is the original Incomprehensible nature of the Father: but to him who is the Father's offspring and Son it is His being comprehensible by him; which indeed is what makes him His equal. These then were the proceedings among them of the newly produced on, Christ. § 6. The one Spirit, again, the Holy one, for his part instructed them to give thanks for being all made mutually equal, and guided them to the true rest. And so they say the Eons were constituted, equal in form and in purpose; having all become Minds; and all, Words; and all, Men; and all, Christs; and the females in like manner, all, Truths; and all, Lives; and Spirits, and Churches. And it is added, that hereupon all things being confirmed, and come to perfect rest, with great joy say hymns to the First Father, taking their share in high festal gladness. And that on account of this benefit, with one will and mind, the whole Pleroma of Æons, Christ and the Spirit consenting, and their Father setting his seal,-each, I say of the ons severally contributed whatever he had most beautiful and blooming in himself: and having put in each his share, and fitly combined the same, and harmoniously 7póßλn- united them, they produced a most perfect Emanation 7 to the honour and glory of Him who is the Deep, the beauty and star of their Pleroma, even their perfect fruit, Jesus; who was also called Saviour, and Christ, and the Word, as a son is called after his father; and All, because he is of them all. μα CHAP. § 1. 8 ws Ev πολλῇ ὕλῃ Moreover, that as body-guards to themselves, to their own honour, they produced also Angels, of the same nature with him. These then are the transactions spoken of by them as taking place within the Pleroma; first, what became subject to passion, and well nigh lost itself as it were in a vast and intricate matter, trying to search out the Father; next, the composition, equivalent to six ons in one, of him who is called Order, and the Cross, and the Redeemer and the Assertor of Liberty and the Assigner of bounds, and Maintainers of causes; then the production, by their Father, Valentinian arguments from Holy Scripture. 9 III. upon second thoughts, of the first Christ, with the Holy CHAP. Spirit, subsequent to that of the Eons; lastly, how the second Christ, whom they denominate also Saviour, was put together and framed by way of contribution from them all. But all this, they say, is not openly uttered, being all cannot receive such knowledge; however, our Saviour has mysteriously indicated it in Parables to such as have power to understand it. As for instance: the thirty ons, they say, xx. 2. are indicated by the thirty years, of which we made mention before, wherein, as they observe, our Saviour did nothing openly; as also by the Parable of the Labourers in the Vine- St. Matt. yard. Paul also, as they affirm, most evidently names these Eons in many places; and hath moreover observed the Order in which they follow one another, when he says, Unto Eph. iii. all the generations of the Age of all Ages: (of the Æon of all Eons). Nay, and that we too, in the Eucharist, when we utter the clause, 'World without end' (unto the on of all Eons) give signification of those Eons. In a word, wheresoever mention is made of Age or Ages, they will have it referred to the aforesaid Eons. 21. ii. 42. They add that the origination of their band of twelve ons § 2. is signified by our Lord's being twelve years old, when He St. Luke conversed with the Doctors of the Law; and by His choice of the Apostles, in that there were twelve of them. Again, that the other eighteen ons are manifested by the circumstance of His abiding eighteen months, as they say, with His Disciples, after He rose from the dead. Also, that by the two first letters of His Name, the I, and the H, those eighteen ons are clearly enough indicated; and the ten Æons in like manner they say are signified by the letter I, which stands first in His Name. And this was the cause why our Saviour said, one St. Matt. iota, or one tittle, must not pass away, till all be fulfilled." v. 18. As to the calamity which befel the twelfth Æon, they say` § 3. it was darkly implied in the apostasy of Judas, who was twelfth among the Apostles. As also by His having suffered in the twelfth month. For they will have it that He preached for one year only after His Baptism. СНАР. $4. Exod. xiii. 2. ii. 23. 10 Holy Scripture how interpreted by the Valentinians They add that in the case of the woman with an issue of blood, this is most evidently set forth; in that she, having suffered twelve years, was healed by the presence of Our Saviour, upon touching the hem of His Garment; and that this was why Our Saviour said, "Who touched me?" informing His Disciples of the mysterious event among the Eons, the healing of that Æon which had become subject to Passion. For the woman who had suffered for twelve years, being in fact that Power, when its substance was being drawn out, and melting away without limit, (as they affirm), had she not touched that which He wore, that is, the Truth which makes one of the first quaternion, and of which the hem of His Garment is the symbol,-would have been resolved into that which was the ground of her being. She was stayed, however, and rested from her calamity, because the Power which went out of Him (and this they will have to be Order or Limit) healed her, and withdrew the calamity from her. Again, their doctrine that Our Saviour proceeding from all, is in a certain sense all, they affirm to be signified by the expression, Every male that openeth the Womb; and that He, St. Luke being All, opened the womb of her who is the thought, or Imagination, of that afflicted on, the womb, I say of her who was banished from the Pleroma,-the same whom they also denominate the second Ogdoad, whereof we shall give an account a little below. And Paul also evidently for no other reason, as they affirm, used the expression, " And He Col. iii. 2. is all," and again, "All things are to Him, and of Him are Rom. xi. all things," and again, "In Him dwelleth all The Fulness Col. ii. 9. (Pleroma) of the Godhead." And this following, "That He Eph. i. summed up all things in Christ, by God," they expounded to the same effect; and if there be any thing else of the like sound. 36. 10. $ 5. Next, as concerning him whom they call Order, or Limitto whom they give so many names, affirming that he hath two modes of operation, the one apt to establish, the other to divide; and that in respect of his establishing and consolidating he is the Cross, but in respect of his dividing and |