[265] The same expression is used in the Pistis Sophia where Jesus “sows” a power of light in Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist. Cf. p. 12, Copt.
[266] Or “Arrangement.” Marcus, perhaps here imitating Valentinus, postulates several Saviours, one of whom restores order in the arrangement of the Aeons before coming to this earth.
[267] In Irenæus there follows here a lengthy “refutation” of Marcus’ doctrines and a poem condemning him and his teaching which some think to be the work of Pothinus, Irenæus’ martyred predecessor at Lyons.
[268] With this sentence, Hippolytus again picks up his quotations from Irenæus.
[269] πάθος, “a passion” or “The Passion”?
[270] πεπλανῆσθαι.
[271] Irenæus’ Latin version here makes better sense:—Similiter et a duodecade abscedentum unam virtutem perisse divinant et hanc esse mulierem quae perdiderit drachmam, et accenderit lucernam, et invenerit eam.
[272] α = 1, μ 40, η 8, ν 50, total 99. Writers of the sub-Apostolic age seem to have laid much stress on the miraculous power of the word Amen when uttered in unison. Cf. the Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians (Cureton’s translation), p. 15, as to the “mysteries of the shout.”
[273] Thus α = 1, β 2, γ 3, δ 4, ε 5, ζ 7, η 8 = 30.
[274] εἰς ὁλόκληρον. Because the decad is a “perfect” number.