Chapter 7

§ 1.

Now when the whole seed is made perfect, Achamoth their mother, they say, is to pass from the Intermediate Place, and to enter within the Pleroma, and to receive her Spouse the Saviour, him who was made up of all¹; that there may be a Combination of the Saviour, and of Wisdom, who is Achamoth. And this, they say, is the meaning of the “Bridegroom,” and “Bride;” the Bridechamber being the whole Pleroma.

Next, that all spiritual persons putting off their animal souls, and becoming intellectual spirits, are to enter within the Pleroma, incomprehensibly² and invisibly, and to be assigned as the Brides to the Angels which are about the Saviour; and that the Demiurge also for his part is to pass into the region of his mother, Wisdom, that is, in the intermediate state; that the souls also of the righteous will themselves be refreshed in the place of the middle state; for that nothing animal finds place within the Pleroma.

Moreover, that when all this has so taken place, the fire which lurks in the world is to shine forth and be kindled, and destroying all Matter, is itself to be spent together with it, and to come to an end of its existence:—so they say. But the Demiurge knew none of these things, as they assert, before the coming of the Saviour.

§ 2.

And there are some who say that he also produced a Christ, a son of his own, of animal nature however; that concerning him he spake by the Prophets. And that this was he who passed through Mary, as water passes through a pipe; and that to him at his baptism descended that other, that Saviour from the Pleroma, made up of all, in the form of a Dove. And there was in him also the same spiritual seed of Achamoth. Our Lord therefore they affirm to have been composed of these four, keeping the pattern of the original and first Quaternion: viz. of the Spiritual being, which was from Achamoth; and of the animal which was from the Demiurge; and of the Œconomy—that which was framed with unspeakable art; and of the Saviour, which part was the Dove that descended upon Him. And that as to this part he remained impassive (for he could not suffer, being incomprehensible and invisible); and therefore, they say, it was taken away, when he was brought before Pilate, I mean the Spirit of Christ which had been lodged in him. But neither did the seed suffer, which he had from his mother, by their statement; for this also, the spiritual part of him, is impassive, and invisible even to the Demiurge himself. It remains that what suffered, according to them, was the animal Christ, and he who by the Economy was mysteriously framed, that his Mother might exhibit by him³ the pattern of the Christ who is above, of him who was extended upon the Cross, and who gave to Achamoth her essential form. For all things here, they say, are types of the things there.

§ 3.

Now the souls which had the seed of Achamoth, were better, they say, than the rest. Wherefore also the Demiurge loves them more than the rest, not knowing the reason, but accounting such to be from himself: and so, they add, he ordained them to be, some Prophets, some Priests, some Kings; (and many things by virtue of this seed they expound to be spoken by the Prophets;) as though those souls were of a higher nature. And his Mother too they affirm to have uttered many things concerning that superior world; partly however through him, and partly through the souls that were made by him. And they proceed to divide the Prophecies; one thing, as they will have it, being uttered by the Mother, another by the seed aforesaid, a third by the Demiurge. Yea, and that Jesus also in like manner uttered some things by virtue of the Saviour, some of his Mother, some of the Demiurge; as we shall explain in the progress of our argument.

§ 4.

Further; the Demiurge, they say, as being ignorant of the the things above him, although not insensible to what was thus uttered, yet thought little of them, imagining now one cause and now another; either the prophesying Spirit (as though it had also a sort of movement of its own); or man; or the adhesion of the inferior beings: and he continued in this ignorance until the coming of the Lord. But when the Saviour was come, they say that from Him he learned all things, approaching Him, and that with a willing mind, with all his power; and that he is the centurion in the Gospel, who says to our Saviour,⁴ For I too have under my own authority soldiers and slaves, and whatsoever I command, they do; but that he will himself accomplish the economy of the world until the appointed time, and that chiefly because of his care of the church, partly however through his having come to the knowledge of the reward prepared for him, that is, his being to pass into the region of his Mother.

§ 5.

Of men, moreover, they constitute three sorts, Spiritual, Earthly, Animal: such as were Cain, Abel, Seth: and from⁵ these the three Natures, having passed from individuals into classes⁶. And the earthly, they say, goes into corruption; and the Animal, if it choose the better part, rests in the place of the middle state, but if the worse, it also will go to its like. But the spiritual beings, whatsoever Achamoth may have sown, from that time even until now, in righteous souls, are first educated and fully nurtured here, as having been sent out in an infantile state; but hereafter are to have perfection vouchsafed to them, and to be assigned as Brides to the Angels of the Saviour. This is their doctrine; and they add that their souls will have thoroughly rested the while of necessity in the middle state with the Demiurge. And the souls too themselves they again subdivide, saying, Some are naturally good, some naturally bad; the good being these, which are filled to receive that seed, while those which are naturally bad never could exhibit that seed in themselves.