Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume II

by Antipope Hippolytus

1. Naassenes.

9. But since this seems fitting, we will begin first with the ministers of the serpent. The Naassenes call the first principle of the universals a man and also Son of Man,[18] and him they divide into three. For part of him, they say, is intellectual, part psychic, and part earthly. And they call him Adamas and think the knowledge of him is the beginning of the power to know God. And they say that all these intellectual and psychic and earthly [parts] came into Jesus, and that the three substances spoke together through Him to the three races of the All. Thus they declare that there are three races, [the] angelic, psychic [and] earthly, and that there are three Churches, angelic, psychic and earthly; but that their names are [the] Called, Chosen, [and] Captive. These are the heads of their doctrine in so far as it can be briefly comprehended. They p. 481. say that they were handed down by James the Brother of the Lord to Mariamne, thereby belying both.[19]

2. Peratæ.

10. But the Peratæ, Ademes the Carystian and Euphrates the Peratic[20] say that a certain cosmos—this is what they call it—is one divided into three. But of this threefold division of theirs, there is a single source, as it were a great fountain, capable of being cut by the reason into boundless sections. And the first and most excellent section is according to them the triad and the one part of it is called Perfect Good [and] Fatherly Greatness. But the second part of the Triad is, as it were a certain boundless multitude of powers, and the third is that of form. And the first [of the Triad] is unbegotten (since it is good: but the second good and self-begotten and the third, begotten).[21] Whence they say explicitly that there are three gods, three words, p. 482. three minds [and] three men. For to each part of the cosmos when the division was made, they assign Gods and Words and Men and the rest. But from on high, from the unbegotten state and from the first section of the cosmos, when the cosmos had already been brought to completion, there came down in the time of Herod a certain triple-natured and triple-bodied and triple-powered man called Christ, having within Him all the compounds and powers from the three parts of the cosmos. And this they will have to be the saying: “In Him dwells all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily.” For [they say that] there came down from the two overlying worlds, namely from the unbegotten and the self-begotten, to this world in which we are, all sorts of seeds of powers. And that Christ came down from the Unbegottenness in order that through His descent all the things triply divided may be saved. For the things, he says, brought down from on high shall ascend through Him; but those who take counsel together against those brought down shall be ruthlessly rejected and having been punished shall be sent away. And he says that those [worlds] which will be saved are two, the overlying ones p. 483. released from corruption. But the third will be destroyed, which is the world of form.[22] And thus the Peratæ.

3. The Sethiani.

11. But to the Sethians it appears that there are three definite principles of the universals. And that each of these principles (has boundless powers ... everything which you perceive by your mind or which you pass over for lack of thought)[23] is formed by nature to become [each of the principles] as in the human soul every art is to be learned. As if [they say] there should come to a boy spending some time with a pipe-player, the power of pipe-playing, or with a geometrician the power of measurement, or in like manner with any other art. But the substances of the principles, they say, are light and darkness. And between them is pure spirit. But the spirit which is set between the darkness which is below and the light which is above is, they say, not spirit like a gust of wind or any small breeze which may be perceived, but resembles some faint fragrance of balsam or p. 484. of incense artificially compounded as a power penetrating by force of fragrance and better than words can say. But because the light is above and the darkness below and the spirit between them, the light, like a ray of the sun on high, shines on the underlying darkness, and the fragrance of the spirit holding the middle place is borne and spread abroad as the odour of incense on the fire is borne. And as the power of the triply divided is such, the power of the spirit and the light together are below in the darkness beneath. But, they say, the darkness is a fearful water into which the light is drawn down with the spirit and changed into a similar nature. Now the darkness is sensible, and knows that if the light is taken away from it, the darkness will remain desolate, viewless, without light, powerless, idle and weak. In this way by all its wit and foresight it is forced to retain within itself the brilliance and scintillation of the light along with the fragrance of the spirit.

And with regard to this, they bring in this image, saying that as the pupil of the eye appears dark because of the p. 485. waters underneath it, but it is made light by the spirit, thus the light seeks after the spirit and retains for itself all the powers which wish to withdraw and to depart. But these are ever boundless, wherefrom all things are modelled and become like mingled seals. For, as the seal coming into conjunction with the wax, makes the impress, while itself remains by itself whatever it was, so the powers coming into conjunction with each other elaborate all the boundless races of living things. Therefore [they say] came into being from the first conjunction of the three principles, the form of a great seal [i. e.] of heaven and earth, which had a shape like a womb with the navel in the midst. Thus also the rest of the models of all things were modelled resembling a womb like heaven and earth. But they say that from the water came into being the first born principle, a violent and rushing wind the cause of all generation, which sets in action a certain heat and movement in the cosmos from the movement of the waters. And [they say] p. 486. that this was changed into a complete form like the hissing of a serpent, beholding which the cosmos is driven to generation, being excited like a womb, and therefrom they will have it the generation of the universals is established. And they say that this wind is a spirit and that a perfect god came into being from the waters and from the fragrance of the spirit and from the brilliance of the light. And that there is also the begetting of a female, Mind, the spark from on high which is mingled with the accretions of the body and hastens to flee away so that it may escape and not find dissolution through being enchained in the waters. Whence it cries aloud from the mingling of the waters according to the Psalmist, as they say. “Thus the whole care of the light on high is how it shall draw the spark beneath from the Father who is below,” [that is], from the wind which puts in action heat and disturbance and creates for himself Mind (a perfect son) who is not (peculiar) to himself, [whom] they declare, beholding the p. 487. perfect Word of the light from on high, changed Himself into the form of a serpent and entered into a womb, so that He might take again that mind which is a spark of the light. And this, [they say] is the saying: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” And this the unhappy and wicked Sethians will have to be the [servile] form.[24] This then is what they say.

4. Simon.

12. And the all-wise Simon says thus. There is a boundless power and this is the root of the universals. The boundless power is, he says, fire. According to him, it is not simple, as the many say the four elements are simple and therefore think fire is simple; but [he says] that the nature of the fire is double, and of this double [nature] he calls one part hidden and the other manifest. And p. 488. that the hidden parts are concealed within the manifest parts of the fire, and the manifest parts of the fire are produced by the hidden. But, he says, that all the seen and unseen parts of the fire are to be considered as having sense.[25] Therefore, he says, the begotten world came into being from the unbegotten fire. But it began to come into being, he says, thus. The begotten [cosmos] took from the principle of that fire the first six roots of the principle of generation. For these six roots were born from the fire by pairs, which he calls Nous and Epinoia, Phonê and Onoma, Logismos and Enthymesis. And [he says] that in these six roots [taken] together, the Boundless Power exists (potentially but not actively, which Boundless Power) he says is the “He who Stands, Stood, and will Stand,” which if it be exactly reflected will be within the six powers in substance, powers, greatness and influence, being one and the same as the Unbegotten and Boundless Power, and in no way inferior to that Unbegotten and Unchangeable and Boundless Power. But if it remains only potentially in the Six Powers and is not exactly p. 489. reflected, it, he says, vanishes and will die away like the grammatical or geometrical power in the mind of a man, when he does not receive technical teaching in addition. And Simon says that himself is the He Who Stands, Stood, and will Stand, being the Power which is above all.[26] Thus, then, Simon.