Chapter 2

§ 1.

To proceed. Their First Father they affirm to be known unto none but the Only-Begotten who sprang from him, that is, to the Mind; to all the rest, they say, he remains invisible and incomprehensible. But the Mind alone, according to them, having delight in the contemplation of the Father, and rejoicing in the thought of His immeasurable greatness, was purposing to communicate to the other Æons also the greatness of the Father, how vast his duration and extent; how he was unoriginated and incomprehensible, and incapable of being beheld. But Silence restrained him, by the will of the Father, because he was minded to bring them all to imagine and long for some mode of searching out their First Father, such as we have described him. And thus all the other Æons continued alike in a kind of silence, longing to behold the first originator of their seed, and to acquaint themselves with the Root which has no beginning.

§ 2.

Only the last and youngest Æon of the Family of twelve, produced by the Man and the Church, that is, Wisdom, made a spring far onward, and was affected, in some way without intercourse with her partner, the Desired; (a kind of thing which had begun in the case of the Mind, and Truth, but in its result affected only this perverted Æon; perverted, in pretence, by Love, but in reality by Presumption); on account of his not having communion with the Perfect Father, as the Mind also had. Now the Passion which this Æon conceived was searching after the Father. For he would fain, they say, comprehend His greatness. Next, they add, not being able, because it was a thing impossible which he was attempting, he was in a very intense inward strife, because of the vastness of that Deep, and the unsearchable nature of the Father, and his yearning after him. Which things continually urging him onward, he would at length have been absorbed by His delightsomeness, and resolved into His whole being, had he not met with that power which supports and guards all things, excepting only the greatness which is unspeakable. And to this power they give the name also of Horos, that is, Order, or Limit. And by this, that youngest Æon, they say, was restrained and steadied: and having hardly returned to himself and become convinced that the Father is incomprehensible, he put off his former intention, together with the impression which had come upon him from that astounding wonder!

§ 3.

And some of them make a kind of legend of that which befel Wisdom, and her recovery: as though she having attempted a thing impossible and inconceivable, brought forth a substance without form; even as it was natural for her, being a female, to bring forth¹. And on considering her offspring, they add, she was first of all vexed, because of the imperfect birth, then affrighted, lest her being itself might prove incapable of perfection²; and upon that she was beside herself, and in despair, enquiring the cause, and how she might conceal what happened. And that being sore beset with these passions, she took a turn, and endeavoured to hasten back to the Father, and having ventured a certain way, failed through weakness, and became a suppliant to the Father, and that she was joined in her supplication by the other Æons, especially by the Mind.

This, they say, was the first origin of the substance³ of matter, namely, out of that ignorance and grief, and fear, and astonishment.

§ 4.

Moreover, the Father, with a view to these things, produces the aforesaid Order, or Limit, by the Only Begotten, in his own image, unpaired, with nothing of the weaker sex about him. (For so they affirm the Father to exist, sometimes in concert with Silence, sometimes above male and female alike). And this being, called Order, they denominate also the Cross, and the Redeemer, and the Assertor of Liberty, and Assigner of Boundaries, and Maintainer of Causes. And by means of this Order, they say, Wisdom was purified, and confirmed, and restored to her place as one of a pair of Æons. That is, the fruit of her fancy having been separated from her, with the passion which accompanied it, she herself remains within the Pleroma; but that this her mental produce, with all passion, is by the aforesaid Order put apart in a state of privation; and being turned out of the Pleroma, continues indeed a spiritual substance, having a certain natural energy such as belongs to an Æon, but without form or kind, as not comprehending any thing. And therefore they call it an imbecile and feminine fruit (of wisdom).

§ 5.

But after the separation of the Offspring to a region without the Pleroma of the Æons, and the restoration of the mother to her place as one of a pair, the Only-Begotten, as they say, again produced another pair, according to the purpose of the Father, that none of the Æons might suffer as she had done; another pair; Christ and the Holy Ghost, to fix and consolidate the Pleroma;⁴ and so by these the worlds [or Æons] were framed. For that Christ for his part instructed them that they were sufficiently acquainted already⁵ with the nature of their own Communion, and the Idea of the Unbegotten; and that he declared among them the mode of coming to more knowledge of the Father; that He is incomprehensible, and inconceivable, and can neither be seen nor heard, any further than He is known through the Only Begotten: also that the principal eternal duration to the other Æons is the original Incomprehensible nature of the Father: but to him who is the Father’s offspring and Son it is His being comprehensible by him; which indeed is what makes him His equal. These then were the proceedings among them of the newly produced Æon, Christ.

§ 6.

The one Spirit, again, the Holy one, for his part instructed them to give thanks for being all made mutually equal, and guided them to the true rest.

And so they say the Æons were constituted, equal in form and in purpose; having all become Minds; and all, Words; and all, Men; and all, Christs; and the females in like manner, all, Truths; and all, Lives; and Spirits, and Churches.

And it is added, that hereupon all things being confirmed, and come to perfect rest, with great joy say hymns to the First Father, taking their share in high festal gladness.

And that on account of this benefit, with one will and mind, the whole Pleroma of Æons, Christ and the Spirit consenting, and their Father setting his seal,—each, I say of the Æons severally contributed whatever he had most beautiful and blooming in himself; and having put in each his share, and fitly combined the same, and harmoniously united them, they produced a most perfect Emanation⁶ to the honour and glory of Him who is the Deep, the beauty and star of their Pleroma, even their perfect fruit, Jesus who was also called Saviour, and Christ, and the Word, as a son is called after his father; and All, because he is of them all.

Moreover, that as body-guards to themselves, to their own honour, they produced also Angels, of the same nature with him.