CONTENTS

PAGE
BOOK VI: SIMON MAGUS, VALENTINUS, AND THEIR FOLLOWERS[1]-[57]
1. SIMON[2]
2. VALENTINUS[17]
3. SECUNDUS AND EPIPHANES[38]
4. PTOLEMY[39]
5. MARCUS[40]
BOOK VII: BASILIDES, SATURNILUS, AND OTHERS[58]-[97]
1. BASILIDES[59]
2. SATURNILUS[80]
3. MARCION[82]
4. CARPOCRATES[90]
5. CERINTHUS[92]
6. EBIONÆI[93]
7. THEODOTUS THE BYZANTIAN[93]
8. ANOTHER THEODOTUS[94]
9. CERDO AND LUCIAN[95]
10. APELLES[96]
BOOK VIII: THE DOCETAE, MONOIMUS, AND OTHERS[98]-[116]
1. THE DOCETAE[99]
2. MONOIMUS[106]
3. TATIAN[111]
4. HERMOGENES[111]
5. THE QUARTODECIMANS[112]
6. THE PHRYGIANS[113]
7. THE ENCRATITES[114]
BOOK IX: NOETUS, CALLISTUS, AND OTHERS[117]-[148]
1. NOETUS[118]
2. CALLISTUS[124]
3. THE ELCHESAITES[132]
4. THE JEWS[138]
BOOK X: SUMMARIES, AND THE WORD OF TRUTH[149]-[178]
1. THE SUMMARY OF THE PHILOSOPHERS[150]
2. THE SUMMARY OF THE HERESIES[153]
3. THE WORD OF TRUTH[171]
INDEX[179]

PHILOSOPHUMENA

BOOK VI
SIMON MAGUS, VALENTINUS, AND THEIR FOLLOWERS

p. 242
Cruice. 1. These are the contents of the 6th (book) of the Refutation of all Heresies.

2. What Simon has dared, and that his doctrine is confirmed (by quotations) from magicians and poets.

3. What Valentinus has laid down, and that his doctrine is not framed from the Scriptures, but from those of the Platonists and Pythagorists.

4. And what is thought by Secundus, Ptolemy and Heracleon, and how they have used as their own, but with different words, the thoughts of those whom the Greeks (think) wise.

5. What has been held by Marcus and Colarbasus [and their disciples] and that some of them gave heed to magic arts and Pythagorean numbers.

6. Now such opinions as belong to those who have taken their principles from the serpent[1] and, when the time arrived, of their own accord brought their doctrines into light, we have set forth in the Book before this, being the p. 243. Vth of the Refutation of all Heresies. Here, however, I will not keep silence as to the opinions of those who come after (them),[2] but will leave not one unrefuted, if it be possible to keep them all in mind, together with their secret rites which are justly to be called orgies, inasmuch as those who dare such things are not far from God’s wrath[3]—to use the word in its etymological sense.

1. About Simon.

7. It seems then right now to set forth also the (doings) of Simon,[4] the man of Gitto,[5] a village of Samaria, whereby we shall show that those also who followed (him) taking hints from other names have ventured upon like things. This Simon, being skilled in magic arts and having played upon many, sometimes by the Thrasymedean[6] process in the way we have set forth above, but sometimes working iniquity by means of devils, designed to deify himself, (although only) a human sorcerer filled with desperation whom the p. 244. Apostles refuted in the Acts.[7] Than whom Apsethus the Libyan was much wiser and more modest when he ambitiously attempted to be considered a god in Libya. Whose story as it is not very different from the vain desire of Simon, it seems fitting to narrate as one worthy to have been attempted by Simon himself.

8. Apsethus the Libyan yearned to become a god. But since, after making himself very busy, he utterly failed (to accomplish) his desire, he wished at all events to appear to have become one, and seemed as if he might really effect this in course of time. For the foolish Libyans sacrificed to him as to some divine power, thinking that they must give faith to a voice from heaven above. For he collected and shut up in one and the same cage a great many of the birds called parrots; there being many parrots in Libya who imitate quite clearly the human voice. For some time he fed the birds and taught them to say “Apsethus is a god”: and when the birds had been p. 245. trained for a long time, and repeated the saying which he thought would make Apsethus be considered a god, he opened the cage and let the parrots out in all directions. The noise of the flying birds went forth into all Libya, and their words reached as far as the land of the Greeks.[8] And thus the Libyans being wonderstruck by the voices of the birds and not understanding the trick played by Apsethus, held him for a god. But a certain Greek having carefully studied the clever device of the so-called god, not only refuted him by the (mouth of the) same parrots but removed from the earth that human quack and rascal. The Greek shut up many of the parrots and taught them to say instead (of their former speech): “Apsethus shut us up and forced us to say: ‘Apsethus is a god.’” And the Libyans hearing the parrots’ recantation (and) all assembling with one mind burned Apsethus.[9]

9. This (sort of man) one must suppose Simon the magician (to be), so that we would far sooner liken him to the Libyan who was born a man than to (Him) who is really God.[10] But if the details of the likeness be held accurate and the magician had some such passion as Apsethus, we will undertake to teach Simon’s parrots that Simon who stood, stands and will stand was not Christ, but p. 246. a man (sprung) from seed, born of a woman[11] begotten from blood and fleshly desire like the rest, and that he knew this to be so, we shall easily show as the story goes on.[12] But Simon, stupidly and clumsily garbling the Law of Moses—for when Moses has said that God was “a burning and consuming fire,”[13]—he, not having received Moses’ saying rightly, says that fire is the principle of the universals, and not having comprehended the saying that God is not Fire, but a burning and consuming fire, (thereby) not only rends in twain the Law of Moses, but steals from Heraclitus the Obscure.[14] But Simon proclaims that the principle of the universals is a boundless power, speaking thus:—“This is the writing of the Announcement[15] of Voice and Name from the Thought of the great power of the Boundless One. Wherefore it will be sealed up, hidden, concealed and will be in the dwelling-place where the root of the universals is founded.”[16] But he says that the dwelling-place is the same man who has been begotten from blood and that the p. 247. Boundless Power dwells in him, which (power) he says is the root of the universals. But the Boundless Power, the fire according to Simon, is not simple as the many say who think that the four elements are simple and that fire is simple; but there is a certain double nature of fire, and of this double nature he calls one part hidden and the other manifest. But the hidden (parts) have been hidden in the manifest parts of the fire, and the manifest have come into being by the hidden. This it is which Aristotle calls potentiality and action, and Plato the comprehensible and the perceptible.[17]

And the manifest (part) of the fire contains within itself all which one can perceive[18] or which can escape one, but remains visible; but the hidden (part) contains everything which one can perceive as something intelligible but which evades the sense or which as not being thoroughly understood one passes over. But it must be said generally that of all things which are perceptible and intelligible, which Simon calls hidden and manifest,[19] the supercelestial fire is the Treasure-house,[20] like unto the great tree which was seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, from which all flesh is fed.[21] p. 248. And he considers the trunk, the boughs, the leaves, and the bark on the outside of it to be the manifest part of the fire. All these things which are attached to the great tree the flame of the all-devouring fire causes to vanish. But the fruit of the tree, if it be made a perfect likeness[22] and has received its own shape, is placed in a storehouse and not in the fire. For the fruit, he says, has been produced that it may be put in a storehouse, but the chaff that it may be cast into the fire, which (chaff) is the trunk which has not been produced for its own sake, but for that of the fruit.

10. And this is, he says, what is written in the Scripture: “The vine of the Lord Sabaoth is the house of Israel, and a man of Judah his beloved plant.”[23] But if a man of Judah is his beloved plant, it proves, he says, that a tree is nothing else than a man. But of its secretion and dissolution, he says, the Scripture has spoken sufficiently, and for the instruction of those who have been made completely after (its) likeness,[24] the saying is enough that: “All flesh is grass and all the glory of the flesh as the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower fadeth away: but the word p. 249. of the Lord abideth for ever.”[25] But the word, he says, is the word and speech of the Lord born in the mouth, save which there is no other place of generation.

11. But, to be brief, since the fire is such according to Simon, and all things are seen and unseen as they are heard and unheard, numbered and unnumbered, in the Great Announcement he calls a perfect intellectual[26] every one of those (beings) which can be boundlessly conceived by the mind in a boundless way[27] and can speak and think and act, as says Empedocles:—

For earth by earth we see, and water by water

And (divine) æther by æther, yet destroying fire by fire,

And (love) by love, and strife in gloomy strife.—

(Karsten, v. 321.)

12. For, he says, he considered all the parts of the fire which are invisible to have sense and a share of mind.[28] p. 250. Therefore the cosmos, he says, came into being begotten by the unbegotten fire. But it began to be, he says, after this fashion:—He who was produced from the beginning from that fire took six roots, the first ones of the principle of generation.[29] And he says that the roots came from the fire in pairs, which roots he calls Mind and Thought, Voice and Name, Reasoning and Passion,[30] but that the whole of the Boundless Power together is in these six roots potentially, but not actively. The which Boundless Power he says is He who Stood, Stands, and will Stand. Who if he be made into a complete image (of the fire) will be in substance, power, greatness, and effect one and the same with that Unbegotten and Boundless Power, and lacking nothing possessed by that unbegotten and unchanging and infinite power. But if he remains potentially only in the six powers and is not made into a complete image (of the fire), he is done away with and is lost like as the capacity for grammar or geometry in man’s soul. For power taking p. 251. to itself skill becomes a light of the things which are: but if it does not take unto itself (skill) it is unskilfulness and darkness and as if it were not, it perishes[31] with the man at his death.

13. But of these six powers and the seventh which is with the six, he calls the first pair, (to wit) Nous and Epinoia, Heaven and Earth. And (he says) that the masculine (partner) looks down from on high upon and takes thought for his spouse and that the Earth below receives the intellectual fruits proper to her brought down from Heaven to Earth. Wherefore, he says, the Logos beholding often the things born from Nous and Epinoia, that is from Heaven and Earth, says: “Hear, O Heaven, and give ear, O Earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have begotten and raised up sons, but they have disregarded me.”[32] He who thus speaks, he says, is the Seventh Power who Stood, Stands and will Stand. For he is the cause of those fair things which Moses praised and said that p. 252. they were very good. And Phone and Onoma are the Sun and Moon, and Logismos and Enthymesis Air and Water. But with all these is mingled and compounded, as I have said, the great and Boundless Power, He who has Stood.[33]

14. Since, therefore, Moses spake: “In six days God created Heaven and Earth and the seventh day he rested from all his works,”[34] Simon after re-arranging the passage, makes himself out a god. When then they say that three days passed before the Sun and Moon existed,[35] they shadow forth Nous and Epinoia and the Seventh Power, the Boundless One. For these three powers were born before all the others. When they say: “Before all the Aeons He has begotten me,”[36] (Simon) says that this was spoken of the Seventh Power. But the same Seventh Power, which was a power existing in the Boundless Power which was begotten before all the Aeons, this is, he says, the Seventh Power of whom Moses said: “And the Spirit of God was borne above the water,”[37] that is, he says, the spirit containing p. 253. all things within itself, an image of the Boundless Power, of whom Simon says “image of the imperishable form which alone orders all things.” For that power which was borne above the water having come into being, he says, from the imperishable form, alone orders all things. Now when some such and like preparations of the cosmos had come to pass, God, he says, moulded[38] man, taking dust from the earth. But he fashioned him not simple but twofold[39] according to image and resemblance. But the spirit which was borne above the water is an image, which spirit if it is not made a complete likeness,[40] perishes with the world, as it abides only potentially and does not exist in activity. This, he says, is the saying, “Lest ye be judged with the world.”[41] But if it be made a complete likeness and is born from an Indivisible Point as it is written in the Announcement, the small will become great. But it will be great in the Boundless and Unchanging Aeon, being born no more.

How then and in what manner, he says, did God form man in Paradise? For this is his opinion. Let, he says, Paradise be the womb, and that this is true the Scripture teaches when it says: “I am he who fashioned thee in thy mother’s womb.”[42] For this also he wishes to be thus p. 254. written. Moses, he says, speaking in allegory, calls Paradise the womb if we are to believe the word. But if God fashions man in the womb of his mother, that is, in Paradise, as I have said, let Paradise be the womb and Edem the placenta: “And a river went forth from Edem and watered Paradise”[43] (this is) the navel-string. The navel-string, he says, separates into four heads. For on each side of the navel are set two arteries, conduits of breath, and two veins, conduits of blood. But when he says, the navel-string goes forth from the placenta it takes root in the infant by the epigastrium which all men commonly call the navel. And the two veins it is through which flows and is borne from Edem (the placenta) the blood to the so-called gates of the liver whence the child is fed. But the arteries as we have said, are the conduits of the breath[44] which pass behind on either side of the bladder round the pelvis and make connection with the great artery by the spine called the aorta, and thus through the ventricles the breath flows upon the heart and causes p. 255. movement of the embryo. For the embryo in course of formation in Paradise neither takes food by the mouth, nor breathes through the nostrils. For, as it exists amid waters, death is at its feet if it should breathe. For it would then draw in the waters and die. But it is girt about almost wholly by the envelope called the amnion and is fed through the navel, and through the aorta which is by the spine, it receives, as I have said[45] the substance of the breath.

15. Therefore, he says, the river flowing forth from Edem separates into four heads (or) four conduits, that is, into the child’s four senses, sight, smell, taste, and touch. For the infant while being formed in Paradise has these senses only. This, he says, is the Law which Moses laid down; and agreeably with that same Law each of the Books is written, as their titles clearly show. The first book (is) Genesis (and) the title of the book, he says, suffices for the knowledge of the universals. For, he says, this is genesis, that is sight into which one of the sections of the river separates; p. 256. for the world is seen by sight. The title of the second book is Exodus. For that which is born after crossing the Red Sea comes into the Desert—he calls the blood, he says, the Red Sea—and tastes bitter water. For bitter, he says, is the water which comes after the Red Sea, which (water) is the way of knowledge of life pursued through painful and bitter things. But when changed by Moses, that is by the Logos, that bitter (water) becomes sweet. And that this is so, can be known by all in common in the saying of the poets:—

Black was it at the root, but the flower was like milk

The gods call it Moly, but hard it is to dig

For mortal men, but to the gods all things are possible.—

(Homer, Odyssey, X, 304 ff.)

16. What has been said by the nations, he says, suffices for the thorough knowledge of the universals to those who have ears to hear. For not only he who has tasted this fruit is not turned into a beast by Circe; but those also p. 257. who have been already brutified by use of the powers of such fruit, he moulds again into their first and proper form and restores them to type and recalls their (original) impress. And the faithful man and he who is beloved by that witch is, he says, revealed through that milk-like and divine fruit. Likewise Leviticus the third book which is the smell or inspiration.[46] For this book is of sacrifices and oblations. For where there is a sacrifice there comes a certain savour of fragrance from it through the incense, of which fragrance the sense of smell (ought to be a test).[47] Numbers, the fourth book he calls taste ...[48] where speech operates. But Deuteronomy, he says, is written with reference to the sense of touch of the child in course of formation. For as the touch, touching the things perceived by the other senses, sums up and confirms them, teaching us whether (anything) be hard or hot or cold,[49] so the fifth book of the Law is the summary of the four books written before it. All the unbegotten things, then, he says, are in potentiality not in activity, like the grammatical or p. 258. geometrical art. If then one should chance upon the fitting word and doctrine, and the bitter should be changed into sweet, that is, the spears into reaping-hooks and the swords into ploughshares,[50] (the child) will not be chaff and sticks for producing fire, but a perfect fruit made in semblance (of), as I have said (and) equal and like to, the Unbegotten and Boundless Power. But should he remain only a tree and should not make a perfect fruit fashioned in complete resemblance, he will be removed. For the axe is near, he says, to the roots of the tree. Every tree, he says, which maketh not fair fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.[51]

17. There is then, according to Simon, that blessed and incorruptible thing hidden in everything, potentially not actively, which is He who Stood, Stands and will Stand. It stood above in the Unbegotten Power, it stands below amid the rush of the waters having been begotten in likeness, and it will stand on high beside the blessed Unbegotten Power if it be made in (his) perfect semblance. For there are, he says, three who have stood, and unless there are p. 259. three Aeons who have stood, then the Unbegotten One who according to them is borne over the water, who by resemblance has been fashioned again perfect (and) heavenly, who in one thought alone[52] is more lacking than the Unbegotten Power, is not in its proper place.[53] This is what they say: “I and thou, thou one before me, I after thee, am I.” This, he says, is one power, divided above, below, begetting itself, increasing itself, seeking itself, finding itself, being its own mother, its own father, its own sister, its own spouse, its own daughter, its own son, a mother-father,[54] being one root of the universals.

And that, he says, the beginning of the generation of things begotten is from fire, he understands in some such fashion as this: In all things whatever which have birth, the beginning of the desire of generation comes from fire. As, for instance, the desire for mutable generation[55] is called “being inflamed” [with love]. But the fire from being one, turns into two. For in the man, he says, the blood which is hot and yellow as fire is depicted, turns into seed; but in the woman the selfsame blood (turns) into milk. p. 260. And from the turning in the male comes generation and from that in the female the nourishment of that which is generated.[56] This, he says, is the flaming sword turning about to guard the path to the Tree of Life. For the blood is turned to seed and milk and the same power becomes father and mother of those which are born and the increase of those which are nourished, itself lacking nothing and being sufficient unto itself. But the Tree of Life is guarded he says, through the turning of the flaming sword, as we have said, which (sword) is the Seventh Power which is from itself, which contains all things (and) which lies stored up in the six powers. For if the flaming sword did not turn about, that fair tree would perish and be destroyed. But if the Logos which is lying stored up potentially therein, is turned into seed and milk, being lord of its proper place wherein is begotten a Logos of souls,—then from the smallest spark it will become great and increase in every sense and will be a boundless power unchangeable in the aeon which changes not until it is in the Boundless Aeon.[57]

18. By this argument, then, Simon avowedly became a god to those of no understanding, like that Apsethus the p. 261. Libyan, being (said to be) begotten and subject to suffering when he existed potentially, but (becoming) impassible (from passible, and unbegotten)[58] from begotten when he was made in perfect semblance and becoming perfect came forth from the first two powers, that is Heaven and Earth. For Simon speaks explicitly of this in the Announcement, thus:—

“Unto you I say what I say, and I write what I write. The writing is this. There are two stems[59] of all the Aeons, having neither beginning nor end, from one root, which is Power-Silence[60] unseen and incomprehensible. One of them appears on high, who is a great power, the mind of the universals, who orders all things and (is) a male. And the other below is a great Thought, a female giving birth to all things. These, then, being set over against each other[61] form a pair and show forth the middle space, an incomprehensible air having neither beginning nor end. In this (space) is a Father who upholds all things and nourishes those which have a beginning and end. This is He who Stood, Stands, and will Stand, being a masculo-feminine power after the likeness of the pre-existing Boundless Power[62] which has neither beginning nor end but exists in oneness. For the thought which came forth from the (power) in oneness was two. And that was one. For he p. 262. when he contained her within himself was alone, nor was he indeed first although he existed beforehand, but having himself appeared from himself, a second came into being. But he was not called Father until she named him Father. Just as then he, drawing himself forth from himself, manifested to himself his own thought, so also the thought having appeared did not create him; but beholding him, hid the Father—that is Power—within herself;[63] and there is a masculo-feminine Power-and-Thought when they are set over against each other. For Power does not differ at all from thought, they being one. From the things on high is discovered Power; from those below Thought. Thus then it is that that which appeared from them being one is found to be two, a masculo-feminine having the female within it. This is Mind in Thought for they being one when undivided from one another are yet found to be two.”

19. Simon then having discovered (all) this, fraudulently interprets as he wishes not only the (words) of Moses, but p. 263. also those of the poets. For he turns into allegory the Wooden Horse and Helen with the Torch and other things, altering which to the affairs of himself and his Epinoia, he leads astray many. And he says that she is that sheep which was lost, who ever dwelling in many women[64] troubles the powers in the cosmos by her transcendent beauty. Wherefore also the Trojan War occurred on account of her. For Epinoia herself dwelt in Helen at that time, and all the authorities suing for her (favours), faction and war arose among the nations in which she appeared. Wherefore indeed Stesichorus having railed at her in his verses had his eyes blinded, but having repented and written the Palinode, was restored to sight.[65] She, being changed from one body to another by the angels and authorities below p. 264. who made the world, came at last to stand in a brothel[66] in Tyre, a city of Phœnicia, coming to which (Simon) found her. For at her first enquiry, he said he had come to her aid, that he might free her from her bonds, and when he had redeemed her she went about with him pretending that she was the lost sheep, and he saying that he was the Power above all things. But the rogue having fallen in love with the hussy, the so-called Helen, and having bought her enjoyed her, and being ashamed (before) his disciples made up this story. But they who became (in time) the imitators of the error and of Simon Magus do like things, pretending that they ought to have (promiscuous) intercourse like beasts, saying: “All earth is earth and it matters not where one sows, so long as one sows.” And they also bless this intercourse saying that the same is perfect love and the “Holy of Holies” and that “ye shall sanctify one another.” For they say that they are not overcome by what any one else would call evil, for that they have been redeemed. And that Simon having redeemed Helen has in like manner p. 265. brought salvation to men through his own discernment.[67] For since the angels misgoverned the world through love of rule, he says that he came to set it straight, having changed his shape and making himself like the rulers[68] and authorities and angels, and that he appeared as a man, though he was not a man and seemed to suffer in Judæa, though he did not suffer.[69] But he appeared to the Jews as Son, in Samaria as Father, and among the other nations as Holy Spirit. And that he submitted to be called by whatever name men wished to call him. And that the Prophets were inspired by the world-making angels to utter their prophecies. Wherefore they who have believed on Simon and Helen do not heed them,[70] and to this day do what they will as being free. For they claim that they have been saved by his grace. For no one is liable to judgment if he does anything evil; for evil exists not by nature, but by p. 266. law. For he says it is the angels who made the world who made the Law whatever they wished, thinking to enslave those who hearkened to them. And again they say that (there will be) a dissolution of the world for the redemption of their own men.[71]

20. Therefore the disciples of this (man) practise magic arts and incantations, and send out love-philtres and charms and the demons called dream-bringers for the troubling of whom they will. But they also do reverence to the so-called Paredri.[72] And they have an image of Simon in the form of Zeus, and (another) of Helen in the form of Athena, and they bow down to them calling the one “Lord” and the other “Lady.”[73] But if any one among them seeing these images should call them by the name of Simon or Helen, he is cast out as being ignorant of their mysteries. This Simon when he had led astray many in Samaria by magic arts was refuted by the Apostles, and p. 267. having been laid under a curse as it is written in the Acts, afterwards in desperation designed these things[74] until having come to Rome, he withstood the Apostles. Whom Peter opposed when he was deceiving many by sorceries. He at length coming into t......te,[75] taught sitting under a plane-tree. And finally his refutation being very near[76] through effluxion of time, he said that if buried alive he would rise again the third day. And having given orders that a grave should be dug by his disciples, he bade them bury him. And they having done what he commanded, he remains there to this day; for he was not the Christ. This then is Simon’s story, taking hints from which Valentinus calls (the same things) by other names. For Nous and Aletheia, Logos and Zoe, Anthropos and Ecclesia are Simon’s six roots, Nous-Epinoia, Phone-Onoma, Logismos-Enthymesis. But since we have sufficiently set forth Simon’s fable making, let us see what Valentinus says.[77]

2. Concerning Valentinus.

p. 268. 21. The heresy of Valentinus,[78] then, exists, having a Pythagorean and Platonic foundation. For Plato in the Timæus modelled himself entirely on Pythagoras, as is seen also by his “Pythagorean stranger” being Timæus himself. Wherefore it seems fitting that we should begin by recalling to mind a few (points) of the theory of Pythagoras and Plato, and should then describe the (teaching) of Valentinus. For if the opinions of Pythagoras and Plato are also included in the (books) painfully written by us earlier, yet I shall not be unreasonable in recalling[79] in epitome their most leading tenets[80] in order that by their closer comparison and likeness of composition, the doctrines of Valentinus may be more intelligible. For as (the Pythagoreans and Platonists) took their opinions of old from the Egyptians and taught them anew to the Greeks, so (Valentinus) while fraudulently attempting to establish his own teaching by them, carved p. 269. their system into names and numbers, calling them [by names] and defining them by measures of his own. Whence he has constructed a heresy Greek indeed, but not referable to Christ.

22. The wisdom of the Egyptians is, then, the beginning of Plato’s theory in the Timæus. For from this, Solon[81] taught the Greeks the whole position regarding the birth and destruction of the cosmos by means of a certain prophetic statement, as Plato says, the Greeks being then children and knowing no older theologic learning. In order then that we may follow closely the words which Valentinus let fall, I will now set out as preface what it was that Pythagoras of Samos taught as philosophy after that silence praised by the Greeks. And then [I will point out] those things which Valentinus takes from Pythagoras and Plato and with solemn words attributes to Christ, and before Christ to the Father of the universals and to that Sige who is given as a spouse to the Father.

23. Now Pythagoras declared that the unbegotten monad was the principle of the universals[82] and the parent of the dyad and of all the other numbers. And he says that the p. 270. monad is the father of the dyad and the dyad the mother of all engendered things (and) a bearer of things begotten. And Zaratas,[83] also, the teacher of Pythagoras, calls the one father, but the two, mother. For the dyad has come into being from a monad according to Pythagoras, and the monad is masculine and first, but the dyad female and second. From the dyad, again, as Pythagoras says, (come) the triad and the other numbers one after the other up to 10. For Pythagoras knew that this 10 is the only perfect number.[84] For (he saw that) the 11 and 12 were an addition to and re-equipment of the decad, and not the generation of some other number. All solid bodies beget what is given to them from the bodiless.[85] For, he says, the Point which is indivisible is at once a point and a beginning of the bodies and the bodiless together. And, he says, from the point comes a line, and a superficies extended in depth makes, he says, a solid figure. Whence the Pythagoreans have a certain oath as to the harmony of the four elements. And they make oath thus:—

p. 271.“Yea by the Tetractys handed down to our head

A source of eternal nature containing within itself roots.”[86]

For the beginning of natural and solid bodies is the Tetractys as the monad is of the intelligible ones.[87] But that the Tetractys gives birth to the perfect number as among the intelligibles the (monad) does to the 10, they teach thus. If one beginning to count, says 1, and adds 2, and then 3 in like manner, these will make 6. (Add) yet another (i. e.) 4 and there in the same way will be the total 10. For the 1, 2, 3 and 4 become 10, the perfect number. Thus, he says, the Tetractys will in all things imitate the intelligible monad having been thus able to bring forth a perfect number.

24. There are, therefore, according to Pythagoras, two worlds, one intelligible which has the monad as its beginning, but the other the perceptible. This last is the Tetractys containing Iota,[88] the one tittle, a perfect number. p. 272. Thus the Iota, the one tittle, is received by the Pythagoreans as the first and chiefest, and as the substance of the Intelligible both intelligibly and perceptibly. Belonging to which are the nine bodiless accidents which cannot exist apart from substance, (viz.) Quantity, Quality, Wherefore, Where, and When, and also Being, Having, Doing and Suffering.[89] There are therefore nine accidents to substance reckoned in with which they comprise[90] the perfect number, the 10. Wherefore the universe being divided, as we have said, into an intelligible and a perceptible world, we have also reason from the intelligible in order that by it we may behold the substance of the intelligible, the bodiless and the divine. But we have, he says, five senses, smell, sight, hearing, taste and touch. By these we arrive at a knowledge of perceptible things, and so, he says, the perceptible world is separated from the intelligible; and that we have an organ of knowledge for each of them, we learn from this. None of the intelligibles, he says, can become known to us through sense: for, he says, eye has not seen that, nor ear heard, nor has it become known, he says, by any other of the senses whatever. Nor again by reason can one come to a knowledge of the perceptible; p. 273. but one must see that a thing is white, and taste that it is sweet, and know by hearing that it is just or unjust; and if any smell is fragrant or nauseous, that is the work of the sense of smell and not of the reason. And it is the same with the things relating to touch. For that a thing is hard or soft or hot or cold cannot be known through the hearing, but the test of these things is the touch. This being granted, the setting in order of the things that have been and are is seen to come about arithmetically. For, just as we, beginning by addition of monads (or dyads) or triads and of the other numbers strung together, make one very large compound number, and on the other hand work by subtracting from the total strung together and by analysing by a fresh calculation what has been brought together arithmetically;—so, he says, the cosmos is bound together by a certain arithmetical and musical bond, and by its tightening and slackening, its addition and subtraction, is ever and everywhere preserved uncorrupted.

25. For instance in some such fashion as this also do the Pythagoreans describe the duration of the world:—

p. 274.“For it was before and will be. Never I ween

Will the unquenchable aeon be devoid of these two.”

What are these (two)? Strife and Love.[91] But their love makes the cosmos incorruptible and eternal, as they think. For substance and the cosmos are one. But strife rends asunder and diversifies, and tries by every means to make the world divide. Just as one cuts arithmetically the myriad into thousands and hundreds and tens and drachmas, and obols, and quarters by dividing it into small parts, so Strife cuts the substance of the cosmos into animals, plants, metals and such like things. And Strife is according to them, the Demiurge[92] of the generation of all things coming to pass, and Love governs and provides for the universe, so that it abides. And having collected into one the scattered and rent (things) of the universe and leading them forth from life, it joins and adds them to the universe so that it may abide and be one. Never therefore will Strife cease from dividing the cosmos, nor Love from attaching together p. 275. the separated things of the cosmos. Something like this it seems is the “distribution”[93] according to Pythagoras. But Pythagoras says that the stars are fragments[94] of the sun and that the souls of animals are borne (to us) from the stars. And that the same (souls) are mortal when they are in the body being buried as it were in a tomb; but that they will rise again and become immortal when we are separated from our bodies. Whence Plato being asked by some one what Philosophy is, said: “It is a separation of soul from body.”

26. Pythagoras, then, becoming a learner of these opinions, declared some of them by means of enigmas and such like phrases, (such as:) “If you are away from home, turn not back. Otherwise, the Furies the helpers of justice will punish you.”[95] (For) he calls your home the body and p. 276. the passions the Furies. If then, he says, you are away from home, that is: if you have come forth from the body, do not seek after it; but if you return to it, the passions will again shut you up in a body. For they think there is a change of bodies (μετενσωμάτωσις); as also Empedocles, when Pythagorizing, says. For the pleasure-loving souls, as Plato says,[96] if they do not philosophize when in man’s estate, must pass through the bodies of all animals and plants and again return to a human body. But if (such a one) does philosophize,[97] he will in the same way go on high thrice to his kindred star; but if he does not philosophize will return again to the same things. Thus he tells us that the soul is at once mortal if it be ruled by the Furies, that is, by the Passions, and immortal if it flees from them.

27. But seeing that we have picked out for narration the things darkly uttered to his disciples under the veil of symbols, it seems fitting to recall other sayings (of his), because the heresiarchs attempt to deal in symbols in the same way; and these not their own, but using the words of Pythagoras. p. 277. Now Pythagoras teaches his disciples saying “Bind up the bed-sack,” since they who are setting out on a journey make their clothing into a bundle, so as to be ready for the road. Thus he wishes his disciples to be ready, as if at any moment death might come upon them, so that they may not be caught lacking anything. Wherefore he is obliged to enjoin the Pythagorean every morning to bind up the bed-sack, that is to prepare for death. “Do not stir the fire with a sword,” meaning do not provoke angry men; for he likens an angry man to a fire and speech to a sword. “Do not tread on sweepings,” that is, do not look down upon trifles. “Do not grow a palm in a house,” that is, do not make a cause of strife in it. For the palm is a symbol of fighting and strife. “Eat not from a stool” (that is), practise no ignoble art, that you may not be a slave to the corruptible body, but make your livelihood by lectures. For it is possible at once to nourish the body p. 278. and to improve the soul. “From a whole loaf bite off nought,” (that is) diminish not that which belongs to you, but live on the income and keep the capital like a whole loaf. “Eat not beans” (that is) Take not the rule of a city. For by beans the rulers[98] were then elected.[99]

28. These and such like things, then, the Pythagoreans say, imitating whom the heretics think they declare great things to certain men. The Pythagorean doctrine says that the Great Geometrician and Reckoner[100] the Sun is the Demiurge of all things that are, and is fixed in the whole cosmos like the soul in bodies, as says Plato. For the Sun like the soul is fire, but the earth a body. But if fire were absent, nothing could be seen, nor could there be any solid perceptible to the touch; for there is no solid without earth. Whence God having put air in the midst, fashioned the body of the universe from fire and earth.[101] But the Sun reckons and measures the cosmos in some such fashion as this. The cosmos is that perceptible one of which we are now speaking. But (the Sun) divides it as an arithmetician and geometrician into twelve parts. And the names of these p. 279. parts are:—Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Scales, Scorpion, Archer, He-goat, Waterbearer and Fishes. Again, he divides each of the twelve parts into thirty which are the thirty days of the month. And again he divides each of the thirty parts into sixty minutes and (each) minute into yet smaller and smaller parts. And thus ever creating without ceasing, but gathering together from these divided parts and making a cycle, and again dissolving it and separating that which has been put together, he perfects the great deathless cosmos.[102]

29. Something like this, as I have just summarily said, is the teaching framed by Pythagoras and Plato. From which and not from the Gospels, Valentinus has drawn his own heresy, as we shall show, and should therefore be reckoned a Pythagorean and a Platonist, but not as a Christian. Accordingly he and Heracleon and Ptolemy and all their school, the disciples of Pythagoras and Plato copying their teachers, have framed an arithmetical doctrine of their own. p. 280. For indeed an unbegotten, incorruptible, incomprehensible fruitful Monad is to them the beginning of all and the cause of the birth of all things that are. Yet a certain wide difference is found among them. For some of them, that they may keep wholly pure the Pythagorean teaching of Valentinus, consider the Father to be unfeminine,[103] spouseless, and alone: whereas the others, thinking it absolutely impossible that there could be a birth of all things that have been born from any single male, are compelled to reckon Sige[104] as a spouse to the Father of the universals in order that he may become a father. But as to whether Sige is a spouse or not, let them fight it out with each other.[105] We, keeping steadfast at present to the Pythagorean (doctrine of) the beginning and remembering what others teach, say that He is one, without spouse, without female, in need of nought. In a word (Valentinus) says at the beginning nothing was begotten, but the Father was alone, unbegotten, having neither place, nor time, nor counsellor, nor any other thing that by any figure of speech could be understood as essence.[106] But He was alone and solitary, as they say, and resting alone within Himself. And when He was filled with fruit, He saw fit to beget and bring forth the most p. 281. beautiful and perfect thing He had within Himself. For He did not love to be alone.[107] For He, Valentinus says, was all Love and love is not love unless there be something to be loved. Then the Father himself projected and engendered, as He was alone, Mind and Truth,[108] that is a dyad, which became the lady and beginning and mother of all the aeons reckoned by them as being within the Pleroma. But Nous and Aletheia having been projected by the Father, a fruitful (projection) from the fruitful, imitating the Father projected also the Word and Life;[109] and Logos and Zoe projected Man and the Church.[110] But Nous and Aletheia when they saw that their own special progeny had become fruitful, gave thanks to the Father of the universals and offered to him a perfect number, ten Aeons. For than this, he says, Nous and Aletheia could offer to the Father no more perfect number. For the Father being perfect ought to be glorified with a perfect number. And the ten is perfect because as the first of things that came into being by addition, it is complete.[111] But the Father is more perfect because he p. 282. alone is unbegotten, and by the first single syzygy of Nous and Aletheia supplied the projection of all the roots of the things that are.

30. Then when Logos and Zoe saw that Nous and Aletheia had glorified the Father of the universals in a perfect number, Logos himself with Zoe[112] also wished to glorify his own father and mother, Nous and Aletheia. But since Nous and Aletheia were begotten and did not possess the complete paternal unbegotten nature,[113] Logos and Zoe did not glorify their father Nous with a perfect number, but with an imperfect one: for Logos and Zoe offer twelve Aeons to Nous and Aletheia. For the first roots of the Aeons according to Valentinus were Nous and Aletheia, Logos and Zoe, Anthropos and Ecclesia. But there are twelve Aeons two of which are the children of Nous and Aletheia and ten those of Logos and Zoe, in all twenty-eight. And these are the names by which they call (the ten): Profound and Mixture, Who-grows-not-old and Oneness, Self-grown and p. 283. Pleasure, Unmoved and Blending, Unique and Blessedness.[114] Of these ten Aeons some say that they are by Nous and Aletheia and others by Logos and Zoe; and there are twelve others which some say are by Anthropos and Ecclesia and others by Logos and Zoe. To whom they give these names: Paraclete and Faith, Fatherly and Hope, Motherly and Love, Ever-thinking and Union, Of the Church and Blessed, Beloved and Wisdom.[115] Of the twelve the twelfth and youngest of all the twenty-four Aeons who was a female and called Sophia,[116] perceived the multitude and power of the Aeons who had been begotten and shot up into the Height of the Father. And she comprehended that all the other begotten Aeons existed and had been brought forth in pairs, but that the Father alone produced without a partner. She wished to imitate the Father and gave birth by herself and apart from her spouse, so that she might work no work lacking anything more than did the work of the Father, p. 284. being ignorant that only the Unbegotten principle and root and height and depth of the universals can possibly bring forth alone. For in the Unbegotten, he says, all things exist together; but among the begotten the female is the projector of substance, but the male gives form to the substance[117] which the female projects. Therefore Sophia projected only that which she could, a substance shapeless and unformed.[118] And this, he says, is what Moses said: “Now the earth was invisible and unformed.”[118] She, he says, is the good or heavenly Jerusalem into which God declared he would lead the children of Israel, saying: “I will lead you into a good land flowing with milk and honey.”[119]

31. Ignorance, then, having come about within the Pleroma by Sophia, and formlessness by the offspring of Sophia, confusion came to pass within it. For the Aeons (feared) that what was born from them would be born p. 285. shapeless and imperfect, and that corruption would before long destroy them. Then all the Aeons took refuge in prayers to the Father that he would give rest to the sorrowing Sophia. For she was weeping and mourning over the Abortion[120] brought forth by her—for so they call it. Then the Father took pity on the tears of Sophia, and hearkened to the prayers of the Aeons and commanded a projection to be made. For he himself did not project, but Nous and Aletheia projected Christ and the Holy Spirit for the giving form to and the separation of the Ectroma and the relief and intermission of the groans of Sophia. And thirty Aeons came into existence with Christ and the Holy Spirit. But some of them will have it that there is a triacontad of Aeons, but others that Sige co-exists with the Father, and wish the Aeons to be counted in with those (two). Then, when Christ and the Holy Spirit had been projected[121] by Nous and Aletheia, he straightway separates from the complete Aeons Ectroma, the shapeless and unique[122] thing which had been brought forth by Sophia apart from her p. 286. spouse, so that the perfect Aeons might not be troubled by the sight of her shapelessness. Then, that the shapelessness of Ectroma might no way be apparent to the perfect Aeons, the Father again projected one Aeon (to wit) the Cross, who having been born great from the great and perfect Father and projected as a guard and palisade to the Aeons, becomes the limit of the Pleroma containing within him all the thirty Aeons together: for they were projected before him. And he is called Horos because he separates from the Pleroma the Void[123] without; and Metocheus[124] because he partakes also in the Hysterema; and Stauros because he is fixed unbendingly and unchangeably, so that nothing from the Hysterema can abide near the Aeons who p. 287. are within the Pleroma. And when Sophia Without had been transformed and it was not possible for Christ and the Holy Spirit, the projections of Nous and Aletheia, to remain outside the Pleroma, they returned from her who had been transformed, to Nous and Aletheia within Horos, so that he with the other Aeons might glorify the Father.

32. Since then there was a certain single peace and harmony of all the Aeons within the Pleroma, it seemed good to them not only to have glorified the Father in pairs, but also to glorify him by the offering to him of fitting fruits. Therefore all the thirty Aeons were well pleased to project one Aeon, the Common Fruit of the Pleroma, so that he might be the (fruit) of their unity and likemindedness and peace. And as He alone was projected by all the Father’s Aeons, He is called by them the Common Fruit of the Pleroma. Thus then were things within the Pleroma. And the Common Fruit of the Pleroma was projected, (to wit) Jesus—for that is His name—the Great High Priest. p. 288. But Sophia without the Pleroma seeking after Christ, who had given her shape and the Holy Spirit, stood in great fear, lest she might perish when separated from Him who had given her shape and had established her. And she mourned and was in great perplexity considering who it was that had given her shape, who the Holy Spirit was, whence she had gone forth, who had hindered them from coming near her, (and) who had begrudged her that fair and blessed vision. Brought low by these passions, she turns to beseeching supplication of Him who had left her. Then Christ who was within the Pleroma had compassion on her beseeching, as had all the Aeons of the Pleroma, and they send forth outside the Pleroma its Common Fruit to be a spouse to Sophia Without and the corrector of the passions which she suffered while seeking after Christ.[125] Then the Fruit being outside the Pleroma and finding her amid the first four passions (to wit) in fear and grief and perplexity and supplication, corrected her passions, but did not think it seemly in correcting them that they should be destroyed, since they p. 289. were eternal and special to Sophia, nor yet that Sophia should be among such passions as fear and grief, supplication and perplexity. He, therefore, being so great an Aeon and the offspring of the whole Pleroma, made the passions stand away from her and He made them fundamental essences.[126] And He made the fear into the essence of the soul,[127] and the grief into that of matter, and the perplexity into (that) of demons, but the conversion and entreaty and supplication He made a path to repentance and (the) power of the soul’s essence, which (essence) is called the Right Hand or Demiurge from fear. This, he says, is the Scripture saying: “The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.”[128] For it was the beginning of the passions of Sophia. For she feared, then she grieved, then she was perplexed, and p. 290. then she took refuge in prayer and supplication. And the essence of the soul, he says, is fiery and is called a (supercelestial) Place and Hebdomad and Ancient of Days.[129] And whatever things they say of him, he says, the same belong to the psychic one whom they declare to be the Demiurge of the Cosmos; but he is fiery. And Moses also, he says, spake, “The Lord thy God is a burning and consuming fire.”[130] And truly he wishes this (text) to be thus written. But the power of the fire, he says, is in some sort double; for it is an all-devouring fire (and) cannot be quenched. And according to this, indeed, a part of the soul is mortal, being a certain middle state; for it is a Hebdomad and Laying to Rest. For below (the soul) is of the Ogdoad where is Sophia, a day which has been given shape, and the Common Fruit of the Pleroma; but above it is of Matter wherein is the Demiurge.[131] If it makes itself completely like those who are on high in the Ogdoad, it becomes immortal and comes to the Ogdoad, which is, he says, the heavenly Jerusalem; but if it makes itself completely like matter, that is to the material passions, it is corruptible and is destroyed.

33. As therefore the first and greatest power of the p. 291. psychic essence becomes an image [of the only-begotten Son, so the power of the material essence] is the devil, the ruler of this world, and (that) of the essence of demons, which is from perplexity, is Beelzebud.[132] But it is Sophia on high who works from the Ogdoad up to the Hebdomad. They say that the Demiurge knows absolutely nothing, but is according to them mindless and foolish and knows not what he does or works. And for him who knows not what he makes, Sophia creates all things and strengthens them. And when she had wrought it, he thought that he had by himself accomplished the creation of the cosmos; wherefore he began to say: “I am God, and beside me there is none other.”

34. The Tetractys of Valentinus is then at once:—

“A certain source containing roots of eternal nature.”

(Pyth., Carm. Aur., l. 48.)

and Sophia by whom the psychic and material creation is now framed. And Sophia is called Spirit, but the p. 292. Demiurge Soul, and the Devil the ruler of the world, and Beelzebud that of the demons. This is what they say, and beside this, they make their whole teaching arithmetical; [and] as is said above, they (imagine) that (the) thirty Aeons within the Pleroma again projected other Aeons by analogy with themselves, so that the Pleroma may be summed up in a perfect number. For, as it has been made clear that the Pythagoreans divide (the circle) into 12 and 30 and 60 (parts) and that these have also minutes of minutes, thus also do (the Valentinians) subdivide the things within the Pleroma. But subdivided also are the things in the Ogdoad, and there rules[133] (there) Sophia who is according to them the Mother of All Living, and the Logos, the Joint Fruit of the Pleroma, (and) there are (there) supercelestial angels, citizens of the Jerusalem on p. 293. high, which is in heaven. For this Jerusalem is Sophia. Without and her bridegroom the Joint Fruit of the Pleroma. (But) the Demiurge also projected souls; for he is the essence of souls. This is according to them Abraham and these are the children of Abraham. Then, from the material and devilish essence the Demiurge has made the bodies of the souls. This is the saying: “And God made man, taking dust from the earth, and breathed into his face a breath of life, and man became a living soul.”[134] This is, according to them, the inward psychic man who dwells in the material body which is material, corruptible, and formed entirely of devilish essence. But this material man is (according to them) like unto an inn, or the dwelling-place, sometimes of the soul alone, sometimes of the soul and demons, and sometimes of the soul and logoi, who are logoi sown from above in this world by the Joint Fruit of the Pleroma, and by Sophia, and who dwell in the earthly body with the soul when there are no demons dwelling with it. p. 294. This, he says, is what was written in Scripture: “For this cause I bow my knees to the God and Father and Lord of our Lord Jesus Christ, that God would grant you that Christ should dwell in the inner man, that is the psychical not the somatic, that you be strengthened to comprehend what is the depth” which is the Father of the universals “and what is the breadth,”[135] which is Stauros the Limit of the Pleroma, “or what the length,” which is the Pleroma of the Aeons. Wherefore, he says, the psychic man does not receive the things of God’s spirit; for they are foolishness unto him. But foolishness, he says, is the power of the Demiurge, for he was senseless and mindless and thought that he fashioned the cosmos, being ignorant that Sophia, the Mother, the Ogdoad, wrought all things with regard to the creation of the world for him who knew it not.

35. All the prophets and the Law, then, spake from the (inspiration of the) Demiurge, a foolish god,[136] he says, being themselves foolish and knowing nothing. Wherefore, he says, the Saviour declared: “All who came before me are thieves and robbers.”[137] The Apostle also: “The mystery which was not known to the first generations.”[138] For none p. 295. of the prophets, he says, declared anything concerning the things of whereof we speak; for all (of them) were ignored in what was said by the Demiurge alone.[139] When, therefore, creation was brought to completion,[140] and the revelation of the sons of God, that is of the Demiurge, at length became necessary, which had before been concealed, he says, the psychic man was veiled and had a veil upon his heart. Then when it was time that the veil should be taken away, and that these mysteries should be seen, Jesus was born through Mary the Virgin[141] according to the saying: “(The) Holy Spirit shall come upon thee”—the Spirit is Sophia—“and a power of the Highest shall overshadow thee”—the Highest is the Demiurge. “Wherefore that which is born from thee shall be called holy.”[142] For He was born not from the Highest alone, as those created after the fashion of Adam were created from the Highest, that is from the Demiurge. But Jesus was the new man (born) from the Holy Spirit (and the Highest),[143] that is from Sophia and the Demiurge, so that the Demiurge supplied the mould and constitution of His body, but the Holy Spirit supplied p. 296. His substance,[144] and thus the Heavenly Logos came into being, having been begotten from the Ogdoad through Mary. Concerning this there is a great enquiry among them and a source of schisms and variance. And hence their school[145] has become divided and one part is called by them the Anatolic and the other the Italiote. Those from Italy, whereof are Heracleon and Ptolemy, say that the body of Jesus was born psychic, and therefore the Spirit descended as a dove at the Baptism, that is the Word which is of the mother Sophia on high and cried aloud to the psychic man[146] and raised him from the dead. This, he says, is the saying: “He who raised Christ from the dead, shall quicken your mortal bodies (and your psychic).”[147] For earth, he says, has come under a curse. “For Earth,” he says, “thou art, and to earth thou shalt return.”[148] But those from the East, whereof are Axionicus and Bardesanes,[149] p. 297. say that the body of the Saviour was spiritual. For (the) Holy Spirit came upon Mary, that is Sophia and the Power of the Highest is the demiurgic art,[150] so that that which was given by the Spirit to Mary might be moulded (into form).

36. These things then let these men enquire after in their own way, and if they should happen to do so in any other, so let it be. But (Valentinus) also says that as the false steps among the Aeons had been put straight[151] and also those in the Ogdoad or Sophia Without, so also were those in the Hebdomad. For the Demiurge was taught by Sophia that he is not the only God as he thought, and that beside him there is none other; but he knew better after being taught by Sophia. For he was schooled by her and was initiated and taught the great mystery of the Father and the Aeons and told it to none. This, he says, is what he spake to Moses: “I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, and my name I have not announced to them,”[152] that is to say: “I have not told the mystery nor have I explained who is God, but I have kept to myself the mystery which I have heard from Sophia.” It was necessary, then, that the things on high having been put straight, in the same sequence,[153] correction p. 298. should come to those here. For this cause was Jesus the Saviour born through Mary, that He might put straight things here, as the Christ, who on high was projected by Nous and Aletheia, put straight the passions of Sophia Without, that is, of the Ectroma. And again the Saviour who was born through Mary came to set straight the passions of the soul. There are, then, according to them three Christs, the one projected by Nous and Aletheia along with the Holy Spirit; and the Joint Fruit of the Pleroma the equal yoke-fellow[154] of Sophia Without who is called and is herself a Holy Spirit (but) inferior to the first; and third, He who was born through Mary for the restoration[155] of this creation of ours.

37. I consider I have now by means of many (explanations) sufficiently sketched the heresy of Valentinus, it being a Pythagorean one; and it seems to me that the refutation of these doctrines by exposition should stop. Plato, moreover, when setting forth mysteries concerning the universe writes to Dionysius in some such way as this:[156]

“I must speak to you in enigmas, so that if the tablet p. 299. should suffer in any of its leaves on sea or land, whoso reads may not understand.[157] For things are thus. As regards the king of all, all things are his, and all are for his sake, and he is the cause of all that is fair. A second (cause exists) concerning secondary things and a third concerning those things which come third.[158] But respecting the king himself there is nothing of this kind of which I have spoken. But after this the soul seeks to learn of what quality these are, since it looks towards the things which are germane to itself, of which it has nought sufficiently. This is, O son of Dionysius and Doris, your question as to what is the cause of all evils. But it is rather that anxiety about this is inborn, and if one does not remove it, one will never hit upon the truth.[159] But what is wonderful about it, hear. For there are men who have heard these things, able to learn and able to remember,[160] and who have yet grown old while straining to form a complete judgment. They say that what (once) appeared believable is now unbelievable, and that what was then unbelievable was then the opposite. Looking therefore to p. 300. this, beware, lest you repent what has unworthily fallen from you. Wherefore I have written none of these things, nor is there anything (upon them) signed Plato, nor will there ever be. But the sayings now attributed to Socrates were (said by him)[161] when he was young and fair.”[162]

(Now) Valentinus having chanced upon these (lines) conceived the king of all, of whom Plato spoke, to be Father and Bythos and the primal source of all the Aeons.[163] And when Plato spoke of the second (cause) concerning secondary things, Valentinus assumed that the secondary things were all the Aeons being within the limit of the Pleroma and the third (cause) concerning the third things, he assumed to be the whole arrangement without the limit and (outside) the Pleroma. And this Valentinus made plain in the fewest words in a psalm, beginning from below and not as Plato did from above, in these words:—

p. 301.“I behold all things hanging from air,

I perceive all things upheld by spirit,

Flesh hanging from soul,

Soul standing forth from air,

And air hanging from aether,

But fruits borne away from Bythos

But the embryo from the womb.”[164]

Understanding this thus:—Flesh is, according to them, Matter, which depends from the soul of the Demiurge. But soul stands out from air, that is the Demiurge from the Spirit outside the Pleroma. But air stands out from æther, that is Sophia Without from that which is within (the) limit and the whole Pleroma. Fruits are borne away from Bythos, which is the whole emanation of Aeons coming into being from the Father. The opinions of Valentinus have therefore been sufficiently told.[165] It remains to tell of the teachings of those who have been obedient to his school, another having different teaching.

3. About Secundus and Epiphanes.[166]

p. 302. 38. A certain Secundus, who was born at the same time as Ptolemy, says that there exist a right hand and a left hand tetrad like light and darkness. And he says that the Power which fell away and is lacking[167] came into being not from the thirty Aeons, but from their fruits. But there is a certain Epiphanes, a teacher of theirs, who says: “The First Principle[168] was incomprehensible, ineffable and unnameable” which he calls Solitude[169] and that a Power of this co-exists with it which he names Oneness.[170] The same Monotes and Henotes preceded [but] did not send forth[171] an unbegotten and invisible principle over all which he calls[172] a Monad. “With this Power co-exists a power of the same essence with itself, which same power I also name the One.” These four Powers themselves sent forth the remaining projections of the Aeons. But others of them p. 303. again have called the first and primordial Ogdoad by these names: first, “Before the Beginning,” then “Inconceivable,” third “Ineffable” and the fourth, “Invisible;”[173] and (they say) that from the first Proarche was projected in the first and fifth place Beginning; from Anennoetos, in the second and sixth (place) Unrevealed, from Arrheton in the third and seventh place, Unnameable and from Aoratos, Unbegotten.[174] (This is the) Pleroma of the first Ogdoad. And they will have these powers to have existed before Bythos and Sige. But yet others understand differently about Bythos himself, some saying that he is spouseless and neither male nor female, and others that Sige exists beside him as his female and that this is the first syzygy.

4. About Ptolemy.[175]

p. 304. 39. But the adherents of Ptolemy say that he [Bythos] has two partners whom they call also (his) predispositions[176] (i. e.) Thought and Will. For he first had it in mind to project something, and then he willed (to do so). Wherefore from these two diatheses and powers, that is, from Ennoia and Thelesis as it were blending with one another, the projection of Monogenes and Aletheia as a pair came to pass. The which types and images of the two diatheses of the Father came forth visible from the invisible, Nous from Thelema[177] and Aletheia from Ennoia. Therefore also the male image was born from the later-begotten Thelema, but the female from the unbegotten Ennoia, because Thelema came into being like a power from Ennoia. For Ennoia has ever in mind projection, but she is not able by herself to project what she has in mind. But when the power of Thelema [came into being later],[178] then she projected what she had in mind.

5. About Marcus.[179]

40. And a certain other teacher of theirs, Marcus, an p. 305. expert in magic, depending now on trickery and now on demons, leads astray many. For he says that there is in him the greatest power from the invisible and unnameable places. And often he takes a cup, as if consecrating it,[180] and prolonging the words of consecration, causes the mixture to appear purple and sometimes red, so as to make his dupes think that a certain grace has come down, and has given a blood-like power[181] to the draught. But the rogue, though he formerly escaped the notice of many, will, now that he has been refuted,[182] have to stop. For he used secretly to insert a certain drug having the power of giving such a colour to the mixture, and then to wait while uttering much gibberish, until it dissolved by absorbing moisture and, mixing with the draught, coloured it. And the drugs which can thus give colour we have before described in our book against the Magicians,[183] and have set forth how leading many astray, they utterly ruin them. Which (last), if they care to consider more carefully what has been said above, will know the fraud of Marcus.

p. 306. 41. Which (Marcus) also, mixing a cup by another hand, (sometimes) gives it[184] to a woman to consecrate, while he stands by her side holding a larger one empty: and when the dupe has made the consecration, he takes (the cup) from her, and empties it into the larger one and many times pouring (the contents) from one cup to the other, says these words over them: “May the Incomprehensible and Ineffable Charis who is earlier than the universals fill thy inner man, and make abundant in thee the knowledge[185] of her, even as she scatters the mustard seed upon the good ground!” And as he speaks some such words over it, and (thereby) distracts the dupe and the bystanders, so that he is considered a miracle-worker, he fills the larger cup from the smaller so that it overflows. And we have set forth the trick of this in the above-named book, where we have pointed out many drugs which have the power of causing increase when thus mixed with watery substances,[186] especially when mingled with wine: the drug compounded beforehand, being hidden in the empty cup in such a way that this may be exhibited as containing nothing, and being poured backwards and forwards from one cup to the other, so as to dissolve the drug by mixture with the water,[187] and so that p. 307. when it is inflated by air, an overflow of the water comes about, and it increases the more it is shaken, since such is the nature of the drug. If, however, one lays aside the cup when filled, the mixture will before long return to its former volume, the power of the drug being quenched by the continued moisture. Wherefore he hurriedly gives the bystanders to drink; and they being at the same time scared and thirsting for it as something divine and mingled by a god, hasten to drink.

42. Such like and other things, the deceiver undertakes to do. Whence he was glorified by those he duped and was thought sometimes to prophesy himself and sometimes to make others do so, either effecting this by demons or by trickery as we have said above. Further he utterly ruined many,[188] and led on many of them to become his disciples (by) teaching them to be indifferent to sin[189] as free from danger (to them) through their belonging to the Perfect Power and partakers of the Inconceivable Authority. To whom also after baptism they promise another which they call Redemption,[190] and thereby turn again to evil those p. 308. who remain with them in the hope of deliverance, (as if) those who had been once baptized might again meet with acquittal. Through such jugglery,[191] they seem to retain their hearers, whom, when they consider that they have been (duly) indoctrinated and are able to keep fast the things entrusted to them, they then lead to this (second baptism), not contenting themselves with this alone, but promising them still something else, for the purpose of keeping control over them by hope, lest they should separate from them. For they mutter something in an inaudible voice, laying hands on them for the receiving of Redemption which they pretend cannot be spoken openly unless one were highly instructed, or when the bishop should come to speak it into the ears of one departing this life.[192] And this jugglery is practised so that they may remain the bishop’s disciples, eagerly desirous to learn what has been said about the last thing[193] whereby the learner would become perfect. Of which things I have kept silence for this cause, lest any should think I put the worst construction on them. For this is not what we have set before us, but rather the exposure of whence they have derived the hints[194] from which their doctrines have arisen.

43. For the blessed elder Irenæus having come forward p. 309. very openly for (their) refutation has set forth these baptisms and redemptions saying in rounder terms what those who traffic[195] with them do; and if some of these deny that they have thus received them (it is because) they learn to always deny.[196] Wherefore we have been careful to enquire very sedulously and to find out minutely what they hand down in the first baptism as they call it, and what in the second which they call Redemption: and no unutterable doing of theirs has escaped us. But let us abandon[197] these things to Valentinus and his school.

Marcus, however, imitating his teacher himself also concocts a vision, thinking thus to glorify himself. For Valentinus claims that he himself saw a new-born infant, hearing whom he enquired who he might be. And (the infant) answered declaring himself to be the Logos. Thereupon (Valentinus) having added a certain tragic myth, wishes from this to construct the heresy which he had already taken in hand.[198] With like audacity, Marcus declares that the Tetrad came before him in feminine shape; because, he says, the cosmos could not bear its male form.[199] And p. 310. she disclosed to him what she was, and the coming into being of all things, which she had never yet revealed to any either of gods or men (but) announced it to him alone, saying thus:—when the First (Being) who has no father,[200] the Inconceivable and Substanceless One, who is neither male nor female, willed the ineffable to be spoken and the invisible to take shape, He opened His mouth and a Logos like unto Him went forth. Who, standing beside Him, showed Him what He was, Himself having appeared in the shape of the Invisible One. And the utterance of the name was on this wise. He spoke the first word of the name which was the beginning and was the syllable[201] of four letters. And He added to it the second, and it also was of four letters. And He spoke the third, which was of ten letters and then the fourth, and this was of twelve. There came to pass therefore, the pronunciation of the whole name of thirty letters, but of four syllables. But each of the elements has its own letters[202] and its own character,[203] and its own pronunciation and figures and images, nor is there any of them which perceives the form of another. p. 311. Nor does it see that it is an element, nor know the pronunciation of its neighbour; but each sounds as if pronouncing the whole, and believes itself to be naming the [universe].[204] For while each of them is a part of the universe, it thinks its own sound names as it were the whole, and does not cease to sound until it has arrived at the last single-tongued letter of the last element. Then he says that the return of the universals (to the Deity)[205] will come to pass when all things coming together into one letter shall echo one and the same sound. He supposes that the likeness of this sound is the Amen[206] which we speak in unison. But (he says) that the vowels[207] exist to give shape to the substanceless and unbegotten Aeon, and that they are those forms which the Lord called angels, which behold without ceasing the Father’s face.[208]

44. But the names of the elements which are common (to all) and may be spoken, he calls Aeons and Logoi and Roots and Seeds[209] and Pleromas and Fruits. And (he says) p. 312. that every one of them and what is special to each is to be comprehended as comprised in the name of Ecclesia. Of which elements, he says, that the last letter of the last element first sent forth[210] its own sound, the echo of which going forth begot its own elements as being the images of the other elements. Wherefrom, he says, both the things here below were set in order and those which were before them were brought into being.[211] He says nevertheless that the very letter the sound of which followed immediately upon the echo below was taken up again by its own syllable in order to fill full again the universe, but that the echo remained in the things below as if cast outside it.[212] But the element itself wherefrom the letter with its pronunciation came down below, he says, is of thirty letters, and every one of the thirty letters contains within itself other letters whereby the name of the letter is named. And again others are named by other letters and yet others by these others, so that the total comes out to infinity, if the letters be written separately.[213] You will more clearly p. 313. understand what has been said (if it be put) thus:—The element Delta contains in itself five letters, the Delta, the Epsilon, the Lambda, the Tau and the Alpha and the same letters (are written) by other letters [214]. If then the whole substance[215] of the Delta comes out to infinity, letters constantly giving birth to other letters and succeeding one another, how much greater than that one element is the sea of letters? And if the one letter be thus infinite, behold the depth[216] of the letters of the whole name whereof the industry or rather the idiot labour[217] of Marcus will have the Forefather to be composed. Wherefore, (he says) the Father, knowing well His unconfined nature, gave to the elements which He calls Aeons, the power for each to send forth the pronunciation of his own name, whereby none is capable of pronouncing the whole.

45. And [it is said that] the Tetrad having explained these things to him, said:—“I desire now to show to thee Aletheia[218] herself; for I have brought her down from the dwellings on high in order that thou mayest behold her p. 314. unclothed and learn her beauty, and may also hear her speak and admire her wisdom. See then the head on high the first Alpha-Omega, and the neck Beta-Psi, the shoulders (together with the hands) Gamma-Chi, the breast Delta-Phi, the waist Epsilon-Upsilon, the belly Zeta-Tau, the privy parts Eta-Sigma, the thighs Theta-Rho, the knees Iota-Pi, the legs Kappa-Omicron, the ankles Lambda-Xi, the feet Mu-Nu.” Such is the body of Aletheia according to Marcus, this the form of the element, this the impress of the letter. And he calls this element Anthropos[219] and says that it is the fountain of all speech and the principle of every sound, and the utterance of everything ineffable, and the mouth of the silent Sige.[220] “And this is her body. But do thou raising on high the understanding of the intelligence,[221] hear the Self-Begotten and Forefather Word from the lips of Truth.”

46. When (the Tetrad) had thus spoken (says Marcus), Aletheia looking upon him and opening her mouth spake a word. But that word was a name and the name was that which we know and speak (to wit) Christ Jesus, having p. 315. spoken which, she straightway became silent. And when Marcus expected her to say something more, the Tetrad again coming forward said: “Holdest thou simple the word which thou hast heard from the lips of Aletheia? Yet that which you know and seem to have possessed of old is not the name. For you have its sound only, and know not its power. For Jesus is an illustrious name having six letters[222] invoked by all the Elect. But that which occurs among the (five)[223] Aeons of the Pleroma has many parts (and) is of another shape and of a different type, being known by those of (His) kindred whose magnitudes[224] are ever with Him.”

47. “Know ye that the twenty-four letters among you are emanations in the likeness of the Three Powers encompassing the universe[225] and (the) number of the elements on p. 316. high. For suppose that the nine mute letters[226] are those of the Father and of Aletheia, because they are mute, that is, ineffable and unutterable; and the semi-mute which are eight,[227] those of Logos and Zoe, because they exist as it were half-way between the mute and those which sound,[228] and they receive the emanation from those above them and the ascension of those below; and the vowels—and they are seven[229]—are those of Anthropos and Ecclesia, since it is the sound going forth from Anthropos which has given form to the universals. For the echo of the sound has clothed them with shape.[230] There are then Logos and Zoe having the 8 and Anthropos and Ecclesia the 7 and the Father and Aletheia the 9. But since the reckoning was deficient,[231] He who was seated in the Father came down, having been sent forth from that wherefrom he had been separated for the rectification of the things which had been done, so that the unity of the Pleromas which is in the Good One might bear as fruit one power which is in all from all. And thus the 7 recovered the power of the 8, p. 317. and the three places became alike in numbers, being three ogdoads. Which three added together show forth the number of 24.” In fact the three elements (which he says exist in the syzygy of the three powers, which are 6, the flowing-forth of which are the 24 elements) having been quadrupled by the Word of the Ineffable Tetrad make the same number for themselves which he says is (that) of the Unnameable One. But they were clothed by the 6 powers in the likeness of the Invisible One, of the images of which elements the double letters are the likeness, which added to the 24 elements by analogy make potentially the number 30.[232]

48. He says that the fruit of this reckoning and arrangement[233] appeared[234] in semblance of an image (to wit) He who after the six days went up to the mountain[235] as one of four p. 318. persons and became one of six. Who came down and bore rule in the Hebdomad, Himself becoming the illustrious[236] Ogdoad and containing within Himself the whole number of the elements. Which the descent of the dove coming upon Him at the baptism made plain, which (dove) is Alpha and Omega, the number being plainly 801.[237] And because of this Moses said that man came into being on the 6th day. But according to the economy of the Passion on the 6th day, which is the Preparation,[238] the last man appeared for the regeneration of the First Man. Of this economy, the beginning and the end was the 6th hour, wherein he was nailed to the Cross. For, (he says) that the perfect Nous, knowing that number 6 possesses the power of creation and regeneration[239] made apparent to the Sons of Light the regeneration which had come through Him who appeared as Episemon. For the illustrious number[240] when blended with the other elements completes the 30-lettered name.

p. 319. 49. But He has made use as His instrument of the greatness of the 7 numbers, in order that the Fruit of the self-inspired (Council)[241] might be made manifest. Consider, he says, this Episemon here present, which has taken shape from the Illustrious One who has been, as it were, cut into parts and remains without. Who, by His own power and forethought, by means of His own projection which is that of the Seven Powers, imitated the Seventh Power and gave life to the cosmos[242] and set it to be the soul of this visible universe. He therefore uses this same work also as if it came into being by Him independently; but the rest being imitations of that which is inimitable minister to the Enthymesis[243] of the Mother. And the first heaven sounds the Alpha, and that following it the Epsilon, and the 3rd the Eta, and the 4th and middle one of the 7 the power of the Iota, and the 5th the Omicron, and the 6th the Upsilon, p. 320. and the 7th the Omega. And all the heavens when locked together into one, give forth a sound and glorify Him by whom they were projected. And the glory of the sounding is sent on high into the presence of the Forefather[244]. And, he says, that the echo of this glorifying being borne to the earth becomes the Fashioner and begetter of those upon the earth. And there is a proof of this in the case of newly born children, whose breath immediately they come forth from the womb, cries aloud likewise the sound of each one of these elements. As then the Seven Powers, he says, glorify the Word, so does the complaining soul among infants. Wherefore, he says, David declared:—“Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.”[245] And again:—“The heavens declare the glory of God.”[246] When also the soul is in pain it cries aloud nothing else than the Omega in which it is grieved, so that the soul on high recognizing its kindred may send it help.

p. 321. 50. And so far as to this.[247] But concerning the beginning of the 24 elements, she speaks thus:—Henotes existed along with Monotes[248] from which (two) came into being two projections: Monad and the One which, as twice 2, became four. For twice 2 is 4. And again the 2 and the 4 being added together the number 6 is manifested, but when these 6 are quadrupled, 24. And these names of the first Tetrad are understood to be the holiest of holy things, and cannot be spoken, but are known by the Son alone. The Father knows also what they are. Those named by Him in silence and faith are: Arrhetos[249] and Sige, Pater and Aletheia. And the total number of this Tetrad is 24 elements. For Arrhetos has 7 elements, Sige 5[250] and Pater 5 and Aletheia[251] 7. In like manner also the second Tetrad, Logos and Zoe, Anthropos and Ecclesia, show forth the same number of elements. And the spoken p. 322. name of the Saviour, that is Jesus, consists of 6 letters; but His unspoken (name)[252] from the number of letters taken one by one, is of 24 elements, but Christ (the) Son of 12.[253] But the unspoken (element) in the Chreistos is of 30 letters and is that of the letters in it, counting the elements one by one. For the [name] Chreistos is of 8 elements: ([254] for the Chi[255] is of 3, and the Rho of 2, and the Ei of 2 and the Iota of 4, the Sigma of 5 and the Tau of 3, while the Ou is of 2 and the San of 3). Thus they imagine that the unspoken element in “Chreistos” is of 30 elements. Wherefore also, say they, He said “I am Alpha and Omega,” thereby indicating that the Dove has this number, which is eight hundred and one.[256]

51. But Jesus has this ineffable generation.[257] For from the Mother of the Universals the first Tetrad came forth, as if it were a daughter, and the second Tetrad and an Ogdoad thus came into being, wherefrom the Decad p. 323. proceeded. Thus an Eighteen[258] came into being. Then the Decad having united with the Ogdoad and making it tenfold, [the number] 80 [proceeded; and the 80][259] being again multiplied by 10, gives birth to the number 800. So that the total number coming forth from the Ogdoad to the Decad is 8 and 80 and 800, which is Jesus. For the name Jesus according to the number in the letters is 888. And the Greek Alphabet has eight monads and eight decads and eight hecatontads indicating the cipher of the eight hundreds as 88, that is the (word) Jesus (made up) from all the constituent numbers. Wherefore also He is named Alpha and Omega as signifying the birth from them all.

52. But concerning His fashioning[260] (Marcus) speaks thus: Powers which emanated from the Second Tetrad p. 324. fashioned the Jesus who appeared upon earth, and the angel Gabriel filled the place[261] of the Logos and the Holy Spirit that of Zoe, and the power of the Highest[262] (that) of Anthropos and the Virgin that of Ecclesia. Thus by incarnation[263] a man was generated by Himself through Mary. But when He came to the water, there descended upon Him as a dove he who had ascended on high and had filled the 12th number,[264] in whom existed the seed of those who had been sown together[265] in Him, and had descended together and had ascended together. But this Power which descended on Him, he says, was the seed of the Pleroma having within it the Father and the Son, which through them was known to be the unnamed power of Sige, and (to be) all the Aeons. And that this was the Spirit which in Him spake through the mouth of the Son, confessed Himself to be Son of Man, and manifested the Father, yet veritably descended into Jesus (and) became one with Him. The Saviour from the Economy,[266] destroyed death, they say, but Christ Jesus made known the p. 325. Father. He says therefore that Jesus was the name of the man from the Economy, but that it was set forth in resemblance and shape of the Anthropos who was to come upon Him; and that when He had received he retained the Anthropos himself and the Father himself and Arrhetos and Sige and Aletheia and Ecclesia and Zoe.[267]

53. I hope then that these things are clearly to all of sane mind without authority and far from that knowledge which is according to religion, being (in fact) fragments of astrological inventions and of the arithmetical art of the Pythagoreans, as you who love learning will also know from those their doctrines which we have exposed in the foregoing books. But in order that we may exhibit them more clearly to the disciples, not of Christ, but, of Pythagoras, I will also set forth so far as can be done in epitome, the things which they have taken from (this last) concerning the phenomena of the stars. For they say that these universals are composed from a monad and a dyad, p. 326. and counting from a monad up to four, they bring into being a decad. And the dyad[268] again going forth up to Episemon, for example, two and four and six show forth the dodecad. And, again, if we count in the same way from the dyad up to the decad, the triacontad appears, wherein are the ogdoad and decad and dodecad. Then they say that the dodecad through its containing the Episemon and because the Episemon closely follows it, is Passion.[269] And since through this, the lapse with regard to the 12th number occurred, the sheep skipped away and was lost.[270] And in like manner from the decad: and on this they tell of the drachma which the woman lost and lamp in hand searched for and of the loss of the one sheep;[271] and having contrasted with this the (number) 99, they make a fable for themselves of the numbers, since of the 11 multiplied by 9 they make the number 99, and thanks to this they say that the Amen contains this number.[272]

p. 327. And of another number they say this:—the element Eta with the Episemon is an ogdoad, as it lies in the 8th place from the Alpha. Then again counting the numbers of the same elements together without the Episemon and adding them together as far as the Eta, they display the number 30. For if one begins the number of the elements with the Alpha (and continues) up to the Eta (inclusive) after subtracting the Episemon, one finds the number 30.[273] Since then the number 30 is made from the uniting of the three powers, the same number 30 occurring thrice made 90—for three times 30 are 90 [and the same triad multiplied into itself brought forth 9]. Thus the ogdoad made the number 99 from the first ogdoad and decad and dodecad. The number of which (ogdoad) they sometimes carry to completion[274] and make a triacontad and sometimes deducting the 12th number they count it 11 and likewise make the 10th (number) 9. And multiplying and decupling[275] p. 328. these (figures) they complete the number 99. And since the 12th Aeon left the 11 [on high] and fell away from them and came below, they imagine that these things correspond one to the other. For the type of the letters is instructive. For the 11th letter is the Lambda which is the number 30 and is so placed after the likeness of the arrangement on high,[276] since from the Alpha apart from the Episemon, the number of the same letters up to Lambda when added together makes up the number 99.[277] But (they say) that the Lambda which is put in the 11th place[278] came down to seek for what is like unto it so that it may complete the 12th number, and having found it did (so) complete it is plain from the very shape of the element.[279] For the Lambda succeeding as it were in the search for what was like unto itself and finding, seized it, and filled up with it the place of the 12th element Mu, which is composed of two Lambdas.[280] Wherefore they avoid by this gnosis the place p. 329. of the 99 that is to say the Hysterema[281] as the type of the left hand, but follow the One which added to the 99, brings them over to the right hand.

54.[282] But they declare that first the four elements which they say are fire, water, earth (and) air, were made through the Mother and projected as an image of the Tetrad on high. And reckoning in with them their energies, such as heat, cold, moisture, and dryness they exactly reflect the Ogdoad. Next, they enumerate ten powers, thus: Seven circular bodies which they also call heavens, then a circle encompassing these which they call the Eighth Heaven and besides these, the Sun and Moon.[283] And these making up the number 10, they declare to be the image of the invisible decad which is from Logos and Zoe. And (they say) that the dodecad is revealed through the circle called the Zodiac. For they declare that the twelve most evident signs shadow forth the dodecad which is the daughter of Anthropos and p. 330. Ecclesia. And since they say the highest heaven has been linked to the ascension of the universals, the swiftest in existence, which (heaven) weighs down upon the sphere itself, and counterbalances by its own weight the swiftness of the others, so that in thirty years it completes the cycle from sign to sign—this they declare to be the image of Horos encircling their thirty-named Mother.[284]

Again the Moon traversing the heavens completely in 30 days, typifies (they say) by these days the number of the Aeons. And the Sun completing his journey and terminating his cyclical return to his former place in 12 months shows forth the Dodecad. And that the days themselves, since they are measured by 12 hours, are a type of the mighty[285] Ogdoad. And also that the perimeter of the Zodiacal circle has 360 degrees and that each Zodiacal sign has 30. Thus by means of the circle, they say, the p. 331. image of the connection of the 12 with the 30 is observed. And again also they imagine that the earth is divided into 12 climates, and that each several climate receives a single power from the heavens immediately above it[286] and produces children of the same essence with the power sending down [this influence] by emanation [which is they say] a type of the Dodecad on high.

55. And besides this, they say that the Demiurge of the Ogdoad on high,[287] wishing to imitate the Boundless and Everlasting and Unconfined and Timeless One and not being able to form a model of His stability and permanence, because he was himself the fruit of the Hysterema, was forced to place in it for rendering it eternal, times and seasons and numbers, thinking that by the multitude of times he was imitating the Boundless One. But they declare that in this the truth having escaped him, he followed the false; and that therefore when the times are fulfilled, his work will be dissolved.[288]

p. 332. 56. These things, then, those who are from the school of Valentinus declare concerning Creation and the Universe, every time producing something newer[289] (than the last). And they consider this to be fructification, if any one similarly discovering something greater appears to work wonders. And finding in each case from the Scriptures something accordant with the aforesaid numbers, they prate of Moses and the Prophets, imagining them to declare allegorically the dimensions of the Aeons. Which things it does not seem to me expedient to explain as they are senseless and inconsistent, and already the blessed elder Irenæus has marvellously and painfully refuted their doctrines. From whom also [we have taken] their so-called discoveries and have shown that they, having appropriated these things from (the) trifling[290] of the Pythagorean philosophy and the astrologies, accuse Christ of having handed them down. But since I consider that their senseless doctrines have been sufficiently set forth, and that it has been already proved whose disciples Marcus and Colarbasus[291] by becoming the successors of the school of Valentinus (really) are, let us see also what Basilides says.[292]