[69] Rom. viii. 22.
[70] Rom. v. 13, 14. In the Greek not ἁμαρτία as in the text, but θάνατος, “death.”
[71] Cf. Exod. vi. 2, 3. Basilides has twisted the last sentence, “By my name Jehovah was I not known to them,” as Hippolytus notes.
[72] ἐκεῖθεν, i. e. from the Hebdomad. Cruice will have it from the Ogdoad, but is clearly wrong.
[73] Ἀρχή, “Rule.” Cf. Milton’s “Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers.”
[74] The simile of the vapour of naphtha rising and catching fire from a light above it is apt. As Prof. A. S. Peake points out in his article on “Basilides” in Hastings’ Dictionary of Religion and Ethics, Basilides throughout his system asserts in opposition to Gnostics like Valentinus that salvation comes from the uplifting of the lower powers rather than by the degradation of the higher.
[75] There are many conjectural readings of this passage, for which see Cruice.
[76] Prov. i. 7. So Clem. Alex. (Strom., II, 8, 36), who clearly quotes this passage from Basilides.
[77] κατασκευή. Cf. LXX, Gen. i. 1.
[78] ἀποκατασταθήσεται. This Apocatastasis, or return of the worlds to the Deity from whom they came forth, is a favourite source of speculation with all Gnostics.