bears fruit with greater results. For warmed with the joy of so great an escape from her unhappy condition, and at the same time heated with the actual contemplation of the angelic luminaries (one is ashamed) to use such language, but there is no other way of express- ing one's meaning), she during the emotion somehow became personally inflamed with desire ' towards them, and at once grew preg- nant with a spiritual conception, at the very image of which the violence of her joyous trans- port,and the delight of her prurient excitement, had imbibed and impressed upon her. She at length gave birth to an offspring, and then there arose a leash of natures, == from a triad of causes, — one material, arising from her passion; another animal, arising from her conversion; the third spiritual, which had its origin in her imagination.
CHAP. XVIII. — BLASPHEMOUS OPINION CONCERN- ING THE ORIGIN OF THE DEMIURGE, SUPPOSED TO BE THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE.
Having become a better proficient ^ in practical conduct by the authority which, we may well suppose,* accrued to her from her three children, she determined to impart form to each of the natures. The spiritual one, however, she was unable to touch, inasmuch as she was herself spiritual. For a participa- tion in the same nature has, to a very great extent, 5 disqualified like and consubstantial beings from having superior power over one another. Therefore* she applies herself solely to the animal nature, adducing the in- structions of Soter^ (for her guidance). And first of all (she does) what cannot be described and read, and heard of, without an intense horror at the blasphemy thereof: she pro- duces this God of ours, the God of all except of the heretics, the Father and Creator ^ and King of all things, which are inferior to him. For from him do they proceed. If, however, they proceed from him, and not rather from Achamoth, or if only secretly from her, with- out his perceiving her, he was impelled to all that he did, even like a puppet' which is moved from the outside. In fact, it was ow- ing to this very ambiguity about the personal agency in the works which were done, that they coined for him the mixed name of {Motherly Father);'° whilst his other appella- ' Subavit et ipsa. 3 Trinitas gcnerum.
3 Exercitior.
4 Scilicet.
5 Fere.
* Eo animo.
7 See above, chap. xvi. p. 512.
* Demiurgum.
9Et velut sigillario. " Sigiliariuni est i'evp6(T»ra<rTo»'," Geh- ler. 1° The Father acting through and proceeding from his Mother.
33 tions were distinctly assigned according to the conditions and positions of his works: so that they call him Father in relation to the animal substances to which they give the place of honour" on his right hand; whereas, in respect of the material substances which they banish " to his left hand, they name him Detn- iurgus; whilst his title King designates his authority over both classes, nay over the uni- verse.'^ CHAP. XIX. — PALPABLE ABSURDITIES AND CON- TRADICTIONS IN THE SYSTEM RESPECTING ACHAMOTH AND THE DEMIURGE.
And yet there is not any agreement between the propriety of the names and that of the works, from which all the names are suggested; since all of them ought to have borne the name of her by whom the things were done, unless after all ^ it turn out that they were not made by her. For, although they say that Achamoth devised these forms in honour of the.^ons, they yet 's transfer this work to Soter as its author, when they say that he "^ operated through her, so far as to give her the very image of the invisible and unknown Father — that is, the image which was un- known and invisible to the Demiurge; whilst he '7 formed this same Demiurge in imitation '^ of Nus the son of Propator;'"^ and whilst the archangels, who were the work of the Demi- urge, resembled the other y^ions. Now, when I hear of such images of the three, I ask, do you not wish me to laugh at these pictures of their most extravagant painter? At the fe- male Achamoth, a picture of the Father? At the Demiurge, ignorant of his mother, much more so of his father? At the picture of Nus, ignorant of his father too, and the ministering angels, facsimiles of their lords? This is painting a mule from an ass, and sketcthing Ptolemy from Valentinus.
CHA1\ XX — THE DEMIURGE WORKS AWAV AT CREATION, AS THE DRUDGE OF HIS MOTHER ACHAMOTH, IN IGNORANCE ALL THE WHILE OF THE NATURE OF HIS OCCUPATION.
The Demiurge therefore, placed as he was without the limits of the Pleroma in the igno- minious solitude of his eternal exile, founded a new empire — this world (of ours) — by clear- " Coramendant.
'^Delegant.
'3 Communiter in universitatem.
W Jam.
'S Rursus.
16 This is the force of the " qui" with the subjunctive verb, 17 Soter.
'8 Eflfingeret.
'9 There seems to be a relative gradation meant among these extra-PUroma beings, as there was among the /Eons of the Pleroma; and, further, a relation between the two sets of beings — Achamoth bearing a relation to Propator, the Dantiurge to Nus, etc.
5H AGAINST THE VALENTINIANS.
[chap. XXIII.
ing away the confusion and distinguishing the difference between the two substances which severally constituted it," the animal and the material. Out of incorporeal (elements) he constructs bodies, heavy, light, erect = and stooping, celestial and terrene. He then completes the sevenfold stages of heaven it- self, with his own throne above all. Whence he had the additional name of Sabbatum from the hebdomadal nature of his abode; his mother Achamoth, too, had the title Ogdoa- da, after the precedent of the primeval Og- doad.3 These heavens, however, they con- sider to be intelligent,* and sometimes they make angels of them, as indeed they do of the Demiurge himself; as also (they call) Paradise the fourth archangel, because they fix it above the third heaven, of the power of which Adam partook, when he sojourned there amidst its fleecy clouds ^ and shrubs.* Ptolemy remembered perfectly well the prattle of his boyhood, 7 that apples grew in the sea, and fishes on the tree; after the same fashion, he assumed that nut-trees flourished in the skies. The Demiurge does his work in igno- rance, and therefore perhaps he is unaware that trees ought to be planted only on the ground. His mother, of course, knew all about it: how is it, then, that she did not suggest the fact, since she was actually exe- cuting her own operation? But whilst build- ing up so vast an edifice for her son by means of those works, which proclaim him at once to be father, god and, king before the con- ceits of the Valentinians, why she refused to let them be known to even him,® is a ques- tion which I shall ask afterwards.
CHAP. XXI. THE VANITY AS WELL AS IGNO- RANCE OF THE DEMIURGE. ABSURD RESULTS FROM SO IMPERFECT A CONDITION.
Meanwhile you must believe' that Sophia has the surnames of earth and of Mother — *' Mother-Earth," of course — and (what may excite your laughter still more heartily) even Holy Spirit. In this way they have conferred all honour on that female, I suppose even a beard, not to say other things. Besides," the Demiurge had so little mastery over things," on the score," you must know,'- of ' Daplicis substantiae illius disclusse.
2 Sublimantia.
3 Ogdoadis primogenitalis: what Irenaeus calls "the first- begotten and primary Ogdoad of the Pleroma" (See our Irenaus, Vol. I.; also above, chap. vii. p, 506.)
4 Noeros.
5 Nubeculas. * Arbusculas.
7 Puerilium dicibulorum.
8 Sibi here must refer to the secondary agent of the sentence.
9 Tenendum. »o Alioquin.
'" Adeo rerum non erat compos. " Censu. »3 Scilicet.
his inability to approach spiritual essences, (constituted as he was) of animal elements, that, imagining himself to be the only being, he uttered this soliloquy: " I am God, and beside me there is none else." "^ But for all that, he at least was aware that he had not himself existed before. He understood, therefore, that he had been created, and that there must be a creator of a creature of some sort or other. How happens it, then, that he seemed to himself to be the only be- ing, notwithstanding his uncertainty, and al- though he had, at any rate, some suspicion of the existence of some creator?
CHAP. XXII. — ORIGIN OF THE DEVIL, IN THE CRIMINAL EXCESS OF THE SORROW OF ACHA- MOTH. THE DEVIL, CALLED ALSO MUNDITEN- ENS, ACTUALLY WISER THAN THE DEMIURGE, ALTHOUGH HIS WORK.
The odium felt amongst them 's against the devil is the more excusable,^® even because the peculiarly sordid character of his origin justi- fies it. '7 For he is supposed by them to have had his origin in that criminal excess '* of her '' sorrow, from which they also derive the birth of the angels, and demons, and all the wicked spirits. Yet they affirm that the devil is the work of the Demiurge, and they call him Munditenens=° {Ri/le/- of the World), and maintain that, as he is of a spiritual nature, he has a better knowledge of the things above than the Demiurge, an animal being. He deserves from them the pre-eminence which all heresies provide him with.
CHAP. XXIII. — THE RELATIVE POSITIONS OF THE PLEROMA. THE REGION OF ACHAMOTH, AND THE CREATION OF THE DEMIURGE. THE AD- DITION OF FIRE TO THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS AND BODIES OF NATURE.
Their most eminent powers, moreover, they confine within the following limits, as in a citadel. In the most elevated of all sum- mits presides the tricenary Pleroma,^' Horos marking off its boundary line. Beneath it, Achamoth occupies the intermediate space for her abode, ^'^ treading down her son. For under her comes the Demiurge in his own Hebdomad, or rather the Devil, sojourning in this world in common with ourselves, formed, as has been said above, of the same elements >5 Infamia apud illos '6 Tolerabilior.
■7 Capit: " c.ipax est," nimirum " infamix" (Fr. Junius). '3 Ex nequitia. '9 Achamoth's.
20 Irenseus' word is Kocr/LioKpaTup; see.ilso Eph. vi. 12. 2' Above, in chap, viii., he has mentioned the Pleroma »s "the fulness of the thirtyfold divinity.'' ^2 Melatur.
CHAP. XXVI.]
AGAINST THE VALENTINIANS.
and the same body, out of the most profitable calamities of Sophia; inasmuch as, (if it had not been for these,) our spirit would have had no space for inhaling and ejecting' air — that delicate vest of all corporeal creatures, that revealer of all colours, that instrument of the seasons — if the sadness of Sophia had not fil- tered it, just as her fear did the animal ex- istence, and her conversion the Demiurge himself. Into all these elements and bodies fire was fanned. Now, since they have not as yet explained to us the original sensation of this " in Sophia, I will on my own responsi- bility ^ conjecture that its spark was struck out of the delicate emotions'* of her (feverish grief). For you may be quite sure that, amidst all her vexations, she must have had a good deal of fever. s CHAP. XXIV. THE FORMATION OF MAN BY THE DEMIURGE. HUMAN FLESH NOT MADE OF THE GROUND, BUT OF A NONDESCRIPT PHILO- SOPHIC SUBSTANCE.
Such being their conceits respecting God, or, if you like,* the gods, of what sort are their figments concerning man? For, after he had made the world, the Demiurge turns his hands to man, and chooses for him as his substance not any portion of " the dry land," as they say, of which alone we have any knowledge (although it was, at that time, not yet dried by the waters becoming separated from the earthy residuum, and only after- wards became dry), but of the invisible sub- stance of that matter, which philosophy in- deed dreams of, from its fluid and fusible composition, the origin of which I am unable to imagine, because it exists nowhere. Now, since fluidity and fusibility are qualities of liquid matter, and since everything liquid flowed from Sophia's tears, we must, as a nec- essary conclusion, believe that muddy earth is constituted of Sophia's eye-rheums and viscid discharges,' which are just as much the dregs of tears as mud is the sediment of waters. Thus does the Demiurge mould man as a potter does his clay, and animates him with his own breath. Made after his image and likeness, he will therefore be both material and animal. A fourfold being! For in respect of his "image," he must be deemed clayey,^ that is to say, material, although the Demiurge is not composed of matter; but as to his "likeness," he is animal, for such, * Reciprocandi.
2 Fire.
3 Ego.
4 Motiunculis.
5 Fcbricitasse. ''Vel.
T Ex pituitis et gramis ^ Choicus.
too, is the Demiurge. You have two (of his constituent elements). Moreover, a coating of flesh was, as they allege, afterwards placed over the clayey substratum, and it is this tunic of skin which is susceptible of sensation.
CHAP. XXV. — AN EXTRAVAGANT WAV OF AC- COUNTING FOR THE COMMUNICATION OF THE SPIRITUAL NATURE TO MAN. IT WAS FUR- TIVELY MANAGED BY ACHAMOTH, THROUGH THE UNCONSCIOUS AGENCY OF HER SON.
In Achamoth, moreover, there was inherent a certain property of a spiritual germ, of her motherSophia's substance; and Achamoth her- self had carefully severed off (the same quali- ty), and implanted it in her son the Demi- urge, although he was actually unconscious of it. It is for you to imagine^ the industry of this clandestine arrangement. For to this end had she deposited and concealed (this germ), that, whenever the Demiurge came to impart life to Adam by his inbreathing, he might at the same time draw off from the vital principle '° the spiritual seed, arid, as by a pipe, inject it into the clayey nature; in order that, being then fecundated in the material body as in a womb, and having fully grown there, it might be found fit for one day re- ceiving the perfect Word." When, therefore, the Demiurge commits to Adam the transmis- sion of his own vital principle,'^ the spiritual man lay hid, although inserted by his breath, and at the same time introduced into the body, because the Demiurge knew no more about his mother's seed than about herself. To this seed they give the name of Ecclesia {the Church), the mirror of the church above, and the perfection '3 of man; tracing this perfec- tion from Achamoth, just as they do the ani- mal nature from the Demiurge, the clayey material of the body (they derive) from the primordial substance,'* the flesh from Matter. So that you have a new Geryon here, only a fourfold (rather than a threefold) monster.
CHAP. XXVI. — THE THREE SEVERAL NATURES — THE MATERIAL, THE ANIMAL, AND THE SPIRIT- UAL, AND THEIR SEVERAL DESTINATIONS. THE STRANGE VALENTINIAN OPINION ABOUT THE STRUCTURE OF SOTER's NATURE.
In like manner they assign to each of them a separate end.'s To the material, that is to say the carnal (nature), which they also call "the left-handed," they assign undoubted 9 Accipe 'o Anima a'en\'aret. " Sermoni perfecto. '2 Traducera animse su« '3 Censuin.
'4 Or, the substance of 'Apx'f. 13 Exitum.
AGAINST THE VALENTINIANS.
[chap, xxviil destruction; to the animal (nature), which they also call " the right-handed," a doubtful issue, inasmuch as it oscillates between the material and the spiritual, and is sure to fall at last on the side to which it has mainly gravi- tated. As regards the spiritual, however, (they say) that it enters into the formation of the animal, in order that it may be educated in company with it and be disciplined by re- peated intercourse with it. For the animal (nature) was in want of training even by the senses: for this purpose, accordingly, was the whole structure of the world provided; for this purpose also did Soter {the Saviour) present Himself in the world — even for the salvation of the animal (nature). By yet an- other arrangement they will have it that He, in some prodigious way,' clothed Himself with the primary portions^ of those sub- stances, the whole of which He was going to restore to salvation; in such wise that He as- sumed the spiritual nature from Achamoth, whilst He derived the animal (being), Christ, afterwards from the Demiurge; His corporal substance, however, which was constructed of an animal nature (only with wonderful and indescribable skill). He wore for a dispensa- tional purpose, in order that He might, in spite of His own unwillingness, ^ be capable of meeting persons, and of being seen and touched by them, and even of dying. But there was nothing material assumed by Him, inasmuch as that was incapable of salvation. As if He could possibly have been more re- quired by any others than by those who were in want of salvation! And all this, in order that by severing the condition of our flesh from Christ they may also deprive it of the hope of salvation!
CHAP. XXVII. — THE CHRIST OF THE DEMIURGE, SENT INTO THE WORLD BY THE VIRGIN. NOT OF HER. HE FOUND IN HER, NOT A MOTHER, BUT ONLY A PASSAGE OR CHANNEL. JESUS DESCENDED UPON CHRIST, AT HIS BAPTISM, LIKE A DOVE; BUT, BEING INCAPABLE OF SUFFERING, HE LEFT CHRIST TO DIE ON THE CROSS ALONE.
I now adduce* (what they say) concerning Christ, upon whom some of them engraft Jesus with so much licence, that they foist into Him a spiritual seed together with an animal inflatus. Indeed, I will not undertake to describe 5 these incongruous crammings,* which they have contrived in relation both to ' Monstniosum ilium.
= Prosicias induisse. Irenaeus says, " Assumed the first-fruits," 3 Ingratis.
4 Reddo.
5 Nescio qute. * Fartilia.
their men and their gods. Even the Demi- urge has a Christ of His own — His natural Son. An animal, in short, produced by Himself, proclaimed by the prophets — His position being one which must be decided by preposi- tions; in other words, He was produced by means of a virgin, rather than of a virgin! On the ground that, having descended into the virgin rather in the manner of a passage through her than of a birth by her. He came into existence through her, not of her — not experiencing a mother in her, but nothing more than a way. Upon this same Christ, therefore (so they say), Jesus descended in the sacrament of baptism, in the likeness of a dove. Moreover, there was even in Christ accruing from Achamoth the condiment of a spiritual seed, in order of course to prevent the corruption of all the other stuffing. ^ For after the precedent of the principal Tetrad, they guard him with four substances — the spiritual one of Achamoth, the animal one of the Demiurge, the corporeal one, which cannot be described, and that of Soter, or, in other phrase, the columbine.* As for Soter {Jesus), he remained in Christ to the last, impassible, incapable of injury, incapable of apprehension. By and by, when it came to a question of capture, he departed from him during the examination before Pilate. In like manner, his mother's seed did not admii of being injured, being equally exempt from all manner of outrage,^ and being undis- covered even by the Demiurge himself. The animal and carnal Christ, however, does suffer after the fashion '° of the superior Christ, who, for the purpose of producing Achamoth, had been stretched upon the cross, that is, Horos, in a substantial though not a cogniza- ble " form. In this manner do they reduce all things to mere images — Christians them- selves being indeed nothing but imaginary beings!
CHAP. XXVIII. THE DEMIURGE CURED OF HIS IGNORANCE BY THE SAVIOUR'S ADVENT, FROM WHOM HE HEARS OF THE GREAT FUTURE IN STORE FOR HIMSELF.
Meanwhile the Demiurge, being still igno- rant of everything, although he will actually have to make some announcement himself b}' the prophets, but is quite incapable of even this part of his duty (because they divide au- thority over the prophets" between Acha- moth, the Seed, and the Demiurge), no sooner 7 Farsura.
B That which descended like a dove, 9 yEque insubditivam. ■o In delineationem. " Agnitiorwli. '^Prophctiale patrocinium.
ctrAP. XXX.]
AGAINST THE VALENTINIANS.
5' heard of the advent oi Soter {Saviour) than he runs to him with haste and joy, with all his nriight, like the centurion in the Gospel." And being enlightened by him on all points, he learns from him also of his own prospect how that he is to succeed to his mother's place. Being thenceforth free from all care, he carries on the administration of this world, mainly under the plea of protecting the church, for as long a time as may be neces- sary and proper.
CHAP. XXIX. — THE THREE NATURES AGAIN AD- VERTED TO. THEV ARE ALL EXEMPLIFIED AMONGST MEN. FOR INSTANCE, BY CAIN, AND ABEL, AND SETH.
I will now collect from different sources, by way of conclusion, what they affirm con- cerning the dispensation- of the whole human race. Having at first stated their views as to man's threefold nature — which was, however, united in one^ in the case of Adam — they then proceed after him to divide it (into three) with their especial characteristics, finding op- portunity for such distinction in the posterity of Adam himself, in which occurs a three- fold division as to moral differences. Cain, and Abel, and Seth, who were in a certain sense the sources of the human race, become the fountain-heads of just as many qualities'* of nature and essential character. ^ The ma- terial nature,^ which had become reprobate for salvation, they assign to Cain; the animal nature, which was poised between divergent hopes, they find' in Abel; the spiritual, pre- ordained for certain salvation, they store up' in Seth. In this way also they make a two- fold distinction among souls, as to their prop- erty of good and evil — according to the ma- terial condition derived from Cain, or the animal from Abel. Men's spiritual state they derive over and above the other conditions,^ from Seth adventitiously,' not in the way of nature,, but of grace," in such wise that Acha- moth infuses it" among superior beings like rain '" into good souls, that is, those who are enrolled in the animal class. Whereas the material class — in other words, those which are bad souls — they say, never receive the 2 De dispositione.
3 Inunitam.
•» Argumenta.
5 Essentiae.
6 Choicum: " the clayey." Having the doubtful issues, which > arise from freedom of the will (Oehler).
7 Recondunt: or, " discover." " Superducunt.
9 De obvenientia 'o Indulgentiam.
" The " quos" here relates to " spiritalem statum," but express- ing the sense rather than the grammatical propriety, refers to the plural idea of " good souls" (Ochler).
•2 Depluat.
13 Salutaria.
blessings of salvation; '^ for that nature they have pronounced to be incapable of any change or reform in its natural condition. '< This grain, then, of spiritual seed is modest and very small when cast from her hand, but under her instruction "s increases and advances into full conviction, as we have already said;'* and the souls, on this very account, so much ex- celled all others, that the Demiurge, even then in his ignorance, held them in great esteem. For it was from their list that he had been accustomed to select men for kings and for priests; and these even now, if they have once attained to a full and complete knowledge of these foolish conceits of theirs,'' since they are already naturalized in the fraternal bond of the spiritual state, will obtain a sure salva- tion, nay, one which is on all accounts their due.
CHAP. XXX. — THE LAX AND DANGEROUS VIEWS OF THIS SECT RESPECTING GOOD WORKS. THAT THESE ARE UNNECESSARY TO THE SPIRIT- UAL MAN.
For this reason it is that they neither regard works '* as necessary for themselves, nor do they observe any of the calls of duty, eluding even the necessity of martyrdom on any pre- tence which may suit their pleasure. For this rule, (they say), is enjoined upon the animal seed, in order that the salvation, which we do not possess by any privilege of our state,'' we may work out by right ^ of our conduct. Upon us, who are of an imperfect nature,-' is imprinted the mark of this (animal) seed, because we are reckoned as sprung from the loves of Theletus,=" and consequently as an abortion, just as their mother was. But ^uoe to us indeed, should we in any point trans- gress the yoke of discipline, should we grow dull in the works of holiness and justice, should we desire to make our confession any- where else, I know not where, and not before the powers of this world at the tribunals of the chief magistrates! ^^ As for them, how- ever, they may prove their nobility by the dis- soluteness-•* of their life and their diligence-^ in sin, since Achamoth fawns on them as her own; for she, too, found sin no unprofitable pursuit. Now it is held amongst them, that, for the purpose of honouring the celestial '4 We have tried to retain the emphatic repetition, " inreforma^ bilem naturae naturam." '5 Eruditu hujus. '7 Istarum naeniarum.
■* Operationes: the doing of (good) works." '9 As, forsooth, we should m the spiritual sXaXt. 20 Suffragio.
2' Being animal, not spiritual. 23 See Scorpiace, ch. x. in/ra. *4 Passivitate. 2S " Diligentia" may mean " proclivity " (Rigalt.).
AGAINST THE VALENTINIANS.
[chap XXXII.
marriages,' it is necessary to contemplate and celebrate the mystery always by cleaving to a companion, that, is to a woman; other- wise (they account any man) degenerate, and a bastard ^ to the truth, who spends his life in the world without loving a woman or uniting himself to her. Then what is to become of the eunuchs whom we see amongst them?
CHAP. XXXI. AT THE LAST DAY GREAT CHANGES TAKE PLACE AMONGST THE jEONS AS WELL AS AMONG MEN. HOW ACHAMOTH AND THE DEMIURGE ARE AFFECTED THEN. IRONY ON THE SUBJECT.