Chapter 11

§ 1.

Let us now take a view also of the unstable mind of these men being as they are some two or three, how they make not the same statements on the same subjects, but in their matter and their terms contradict one another.

Thus he who first adapted his principles, from the heresy called Gnostic, to the peculiar stamp of his school, namely Valentinus, bare his dry fruit¹ as follows. He defined that there is a Duad which cannot be named, whereof the one part is called Ineffable, the other Silence. Then that from this Duad there emanated another Duad, whereof the one part he calls Father, the other Truth. And that from this quaternion are produced the Word and the Life, the Man and the Church. And that this is the first Ogdoad. And from the Word indeed and the Life ten powers, he says, emanated, as we said before, but from the Man and the Church, twelve: whereof one revolted and failed, and so occasioned the rest of the transaction. And he supposed two beings called Horos or Limit, one between Bythus and the rest of the Pleroma, separating the Æons, born in time from the Unoriginate Father; and another, him that separates their mother from the Pleroma. And that Christ too emanated not from the Æons in the Pleroma, but that by his Mother, being put out according to the mind of the superior powers, he was produced, with a kind of shadow. And that he indeed, as being male, severed the shadow from him, and hastened back to the Pleroma; but his Mother being left behind with the shadow, and despoiled of her spiritual substance, produced another son, and that this is the Demiurge, whom also he styles Almighty over the things subject to him. And that together with him was brought forth a Ruler also on the left hand, was part of his doctrine, as of theirs whom we shall have to speak of, falsely called Gnostics. And Jesus, he sometimes says, emanated from him who withdrew himself from their mother, and infused himself among all things, i.e. from Theletus: sometimes again from him that hastened back to the Pleroma, that is, from Christ: and sometimes from the Man and the Church. And the Holy Spirit too he says emanated from the Church to search out the Æons and make them fruitful, invisibly entering into them; by whom the Æons bear fruit, even the plants of the Truth.

§ 2.

Secundus says that the first Ogdoad is a quaternion on the right and a quaternion on the left, with a tradition that they are thus denominated; the one Light and the other Darkness. And that the Power which revolted and failed was not of the 30 Æons but of those whom they produced.

§ 3.

And a certain other teacher of theirs, who is also Epiphanes², reaching forward to somewhat higher and of more perfect knowledge, affirmed the first Quaternion thus: “There is before all things a certain Proarché (i.e. First Beginning) inconceivable from the first, unspeakable and unnameable, which I account to be Onlyness. With this Onlyness co-exists a power, which I name for its part also Oneness. This Oneness, and Onlyness, constituting absolute Unity, emitted, yet without emitting, a Principle over all, the object of thought only, unbegotten and unseen; which principle their speech calls an Unit. With this Unit co-exists a power of the same substance with it, which also I denominate Unity. These Powers, Onlyness and Oneness, the Unit and Unity, emitted the other emanations which make up the Æons.”

§ 4.

Ho, Ho! Alas, alas! For truly one may well utter the Tragical cry, at such a coining of names, and such audacity; at his having so shamelessly put a name to his own figment. For by his saying, “There is a certain first beginning before all, before and above comprehension, which I call Onlyness:” and again, “With this Onlyness co-exists a power, which I also call Oneness:” he hath most distinctly avowed both the statement to be his own coining, and that he did himself put names to what he had coined, such as no other had imposed before. And it is plain that of himself he ventured to give these names. And if he had not been in life, the Truth would have had no name. Nothing therefore hinders, but that some other also, on the same plan, may define names as follows. “³ There is a kind of first beginning, royal, before and above comprehension, a power before and above substance, rolling itself ever onward. Now with this exists a power, which I call a gourd: and with this gourd is a power, which also I call perfect emptiness. This gourd, and perfect emptiness, being one thing, emitted, without emitting it, a fruit, in all respects visible, eatable, and sweet, which fruit their speech calls a Cucumber. But with this fruit is a power of the same tendency with it, which also I call a Pompion. These powers, the gourd, and perfect emptiness, and the cucumber, and the pompion, emitted the rest of the multitude of Valentinus’ delirious pompions.” For if any discourse about universals, may be properly expressed in terms such as those first four, and one may assign the names at one’s own pleasure; what hinders our using these names, being of course much more credible than the former, and in common use, and known by all?

§ 5.

And others again of them call the first and aboriginal Ogdoad by these names: first Proarché (or first beginning) then Incomprehensible, and the third Unspeakable, and the fourth Invisible: and that from the First Beginning emanated in the first and fifth place, Beginning; and from the Incomprehensible in the second and sixth place the Inconceivable; and from the Unspeakable in the third and seventh place the Unnameable; and from the Invisible the Unbegotten, the completion of the first Ogdoad. These Powers, they will have it, are before the Deep and Silence, that they may shew themselves more perfect than the perfect, and more knowing than the knowing: to whom one might reasonably exclaim, O rotten melons,⁴ and drivelling sophists! Since even concerning the Deep himself there are among them many and various opinions, some saying that he is unyoked, neither male nor female, nor in short any thing at all: others again say that he is male and female, ascribing to him the nature of an hermaphrodite. And Silence again others conjoin with him as his consort, to form the first combination.