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:—