§ 1.
Of these Saturninus, who was of Antioch by Daphne, and Basilides, having opportunities, set forth different systems of teaching: the one in Syria, the other in Alexandria. Saturninus for his part, like Menander, proclaimed one Father unknown to all, who made Angels, Archangels, Virtues, Powers. And that the world was made by certain Angels, seven in number: and all things therein. And that man was the work of Angels, a bright image from the highest Power appearing from above which they being unable to retain, because it presently hastened back upwards, they exhorted each other (so he affirms) saying, Let us make man in an image and likeness. Who being made, and the frame not admitting of an erect posture, because of the weakness of the Angels, but creeping rather as a vile worm, the Virtue from above pitying it, he says, as made in its own likeness, sent forth a spark of life, which set the man upright, and knit his joints, and caused him to live. This spark then of life, he says, hastens back after death to those of the same kind with it: and the other materials of those frames are dissolved.
§ 2.
But the Saviour he declared to be unborn and incorporeal, and without figure, and that in appearance only He was seen as man. And the God of the Jews he said was one of the Angels. And that because all the Princes wished to do away with His Father, Christ came to destroy the God of the Jews, and to save them that believe in Him: and these are they who have a spark of His life. For he first said that two sorts of men were framed by the Angels, one bad and the other good. And because the Demons aid the worst sort, that the Saviour came to do away with evil men and demons, and to save the good. But to marry and to procreate children, they say is of Satan. And many of those who are of him abstain also from animals, by that sort of pretended continence seducing many. And that of the Prophecies some were uttered by those Angels who made the world, and some by Satan: whom also he declares to be an Angel opposed to the makers of the world, and especially to the God of the Jews.
§ 3.
But Basilides, that he may seem to have invented somewhat higher and more like the truth, draws out to a very great length the tenor of his doctrine, declaring that Mind first is born of the unborn Father, that from it again Reason is born, then from Reason Prudence, and from Prudence Wisdom and Power, and from Wisdom and Power the Virtues and Princes and Angels, those whom they call “the first;” and that by them the first Heaven was made. That afterwards, by derivation from these, others also were made, and that they made another Heaven like the former; and that in like manner others, being made by derivation from these, Antitypes of those which are above them, formed out another, a third Heaven: and a fourth of those coming downward from the third and so on by the same rule were made, as they say, one Prince and Angel after another, and 365 Heavens. And that this is why the year has so many days, according to the number of the Heavens.
§ 4.
And that those Angels by whom subsists the later Heaven, which we also behold, ordered all things which are in the world, and divided among them the earth and those nations which are upon it. And that their chief is He who is accounted to be the God of the Jews. And because He wanted to subjugate the other nations to His own people, i.e., the Jews, therefore (they say) all the other Princes stood and acted against Him. And this is why the other nations started aside from His nation. But that the unborn and unnamed Father, seeing their destruction, sent His first-born, Mind (and this is He who is called Christ) to free such as believe Him from the power of those who framed the world. Yea, and that He appeared to the nations of them as a man on earth, and wrought mighty works. Accordingly, that He did not indeed suffer, but that one Simon a Cyrenian, being compelled bare His Cross for Him;1 and that while he was crucified in error and ignorance, his form being changed by Him, that men should suppose him to be Jesus, Jesus Himself took the form of Simon, and stood and derided them. For being an incorporeal Power, and the Mind of the unborn Father, His form was changed according to His own will: and so (they say) He ascended to Him that sent Him, mocking them, since He could not be held, and was invisible to all. And that such as know this are accordingly delivered from the Princes who made the world. And that we ought not to confess Him that was crucified, but him that came in man’s form and was thought to be crucified, and was called Jesus, and sent by the Father, that by this arrangement he might do away with the works of the makers of the world. If any man therefore, saith he, confess the Crucified, that man is yet a slave, and under the power of those who made our bodies; while he who denies Him is free from them, and knows the ordinance of the unborn Father.
§ 5.
Further, that Salvation is of the Soul only, for the body is by nature corruptible. And that the very Prophecies too were from the Princes who made the world, and the Law especially from their Prince, Who brought the people out of the Land of Egypt. That he despises also things offered to idols, and accounts them nothing, but uses them without any scruple; and accounts also the practice of all other deeds, and of all sorts of lust, a thing indifferent. Moreover, these also make use of magic, and images, and incantations and invocations, and all other kinds of curious art. Devising moreover certain names as it were of Angels, they declare some to be in the first Heaven, others in the second: and next they endeavour to lay down both the names and the principles and the Angels and the Virtues of the 365 pretended Heavens. As also … that the Name, in which, as they say, the Saviour ascended and descended, is Caulacau2.
§ 6.
And so he that has learned all this, and come to know all the Angels, and the origins of them, he they say becomes invisible and incomprehensible to all the Angels and Powers, as Caulacau was. And that as the Son is unknown to all, so also they must not be known to any one: but while themselves know all, and pass through all, they are in their own person beyond all men’s sight and knowledge. For their word is, Do thou know all men, but thee let no man know. Wherefore also they who are such are ready for denial: nay rather it is impossible that they should suffer for the Name’s sake, being just what all are. For, say they, many cannot know these things, but one of a thousand, and two of ten thousand. And they say they are no longer Jews, but not yet Christians: and that is wrong to utter their mysteries at all, but that one should keep them hidden in silence.
§ 7.
But the local positions of the three-hundred and sixty-five Heavens they distribute as the Mathematicians do. For they have taken their theorems, and transferred them to their own sort of learning. And their head (they say) is Abraxas, therefore he hath in himself the three-hundred and sixty-five numbers.