Chapter 8

§ 1.

Now such being their Theory¹, which neither Prophets proclaimed, nor the Lord taught, nor Apostles delivered; whereby they flatter themselves that they know more concerning the universe than all others, reading it, out of what was never written, and as the saying is, studying to twist ropes out of sand; they endeavour plausibly to accommodate to what has been said either Parables of our Lord, or prophetic sayings or discourses of the Apostles, that their fiction may not appear to be without witness. The order indeed and connection of the Scriptures they overpass, and as much as in them lies, disjoin the members of the Truth. And they transfer and transform, and make one thing out of another, and so deceive many, by their perverse skill in tacking together the Lord’s oracles which they so apply. Much as if there were an image of a king, made beautiful out of brilliant pebbles by some skilful artificer, and one should do away with the form of man which exists in it, and transfer those pebbles, and re-adapt them; and when he had made a form of a dog, or a fox, and that vilely put together, should then definitively affirm this to be that beautiful Image of the King which the skilful Artist constructed; pointing out the pebbles which were well combined by the first work-man to make the Image of the King, but ill transferred by the later one into the form of a dog: and as if by the vain shew² of the pebbles he should beguile the more unskilful, such as have no conception of a royal form, and persuade them that this unsound form of a fox is that same beautiful image of the King. In the same way, I say, these also, having stitched together some old women’s fables, then drag off from this quarter and that words and sayings and parables; endeavouring to adapt the Oracles of God to their fables.

§ 2.

Now as to their adaptations to things within³ the Pleroma, we have said enough. As to those Scriptural truths which they try to accommodate also to the things without their Pleroma, they are such as follow. The Lord, they say, came for this purpose to His Passion in the last times of the world, that He might exhibit the passion which occurred to the last of the Æons; and by the end thereof might declare the end of the transaction concerning the Æons.⁴ Again, that Virgin of twelve years old, the Ruler of the Synagogue’s daughter, whom the Lord approached and raised from the dead, is a type, by their account, of Achamoth, whom their Christ, extended over her, brought into form, and into perception of the light which had forsaken her. Again, of Christ’s shewing Himself to her, being without the Pleroma, in the state of an abortion, they affirm Paul to have said in his epistle to the Corinthians, “And last of all, as to one born out of due time, He appeared unto me also.⁵ Also the Saviour’s coming to Achamoth with his equals, they say, was declared in like manner by him in the same Epistle where he says,⁶ The woman ought to have a covering on her head, because of the Angels. And that on the Saviour’s coming to her, Achamoth for bashfulness put on a veil, Moses they say made manifest, by putting the veil upon his face. And her passions too, which she suffered, they say that the Lord signified on the Cross. As first, that in saying. My God why hast Thou forsaken Me,⁷ He signified that Wisdom was forsaken of the Light, and was hindered by Order from rushing forward. Next, that in speaking of her grief, He said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.⁸ And of her fear, saying, Father, if it be possible,⁹ let this cup pass from Me. And of her perplexity, when He said, And what I shall say, I know not¹⁰.

§ 3.

And the three kinds of men, they teach He thus pointed out:¹¹ the material, in saying, The Son of Man hath not where to lay his head: to him that asked him, Let me follow Thee, the animal, in replying,¹² No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven, to him that said, I will follow Thee, but suffer me first to bid farewell to those in my house. For he, they say, was the middle sort of person.¹³ And that other too in like manner who professed to have done the most parts of righteousness, and then would not follow Him, but was overcome by wealth, so as not to be made perfect, he too, they will have it, belonged to the animal sort. But the spiritual he signified, by saying, Suffer the dead to bury their own dead,¹⁴ but go thou and preach the Kingdom of God. And in the case of Zaccheus the Publican,¹⁵ by saying, Make haste and come down, for to day I must abide in thine house. These, I say, they state to have been of the spiritual sort. And the Parable of the Leaven, which the woman is said to have hid in three measures of meal, they say, means the three kinds. For Wisdom they teach to be expressed by a woman, by measures of meal, the three kinds of men, spiritual, animal, earthly. As to leaven, they teach it to be a name of the Saviour Himself. And that Paul expressly spoke of persons temporal, animal, spiritual: in one place;¹⁶ As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy;¹⁷ in another, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit; in another, A spiritual man judgeth all things.¹⁸ And the saying, The animal man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, they say is uttered concerning the Demiurge;—that he, being natural, knew not either his Mother who is spiritual, nor her seed, nor the Æons in the Pleroma. But that whom the Saviour meant to save, of those He took the first fruits, Paul they say affirmed in the words, And if the first fruit be holy, so is the lump:¹⁹ affirming that by the first fruit the spiritual part is intended, and that the lump means us; that is, the animal Church; the lump whereof they say He took up, and gathered up in Himself, as being Himself Leaven.

§ 4.

And that Achamoth wandered without the Pleroma, and was put in form by Christ, and sought out by the Saviour, they say He signified by declaring, that He had come after that which was lost.²⁰ For the lost sheep they expound to mean their Mother, of whom they will have the Church here to be sown; and her wandering, her abode in passions without the Pleroma; whereby they suppose matter to have been formed.²¹ And the woman that sweeps the house, and finds the piece of silver, they say is the supernal Wisdom, who having lost that which she had conceived in her mind, finds it afterwards, when all things are cleansed by the coming of our Saviour: wherefore this also is restored, as they say, to be within the Pleroma.²² And Symeon who took Christ into his arms, and gave thanks unto Him, and said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, they say, is a type of the Demiurge, how that when the Saviour came he learned about his own removal, and gave thanks unto Bythus.²³ And by Anna the Prophetess whose name is rehearsed in the gospel, who lived seven years with a husband, and all the rest of her time remained a widow, until seeing the Saviour she recognized Him, and spoke of Him to all, they lay it down that Achamoth is most evidently signified; who for a little while saw the Saviour with His companions, and all her time after was expecting Him, (remaining in the Middle State) when He shall come again, and restore her to the partnership she belongs to. And that her name too was indicated by the Saviour, in His saying, and wisdom is justified of her children.²⁴ And by Paul toe, thus: But we speak wisdom among them that are perfect.²⁵ And the marriages that are within the Pleroma, they say, Paul spoke of, signifying them in one instance. For writing concerning the marriage which is in this life,²⁶ he said, This mystery is great; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.

§ 5.

And moreover John, the Disciple of our Lord, by their teaching, indicated the first Ogdoad, these being their very words: “John the Disciple of the Lord, meaning to speak of the generation of all things, wherein the Father produced them all, supposes a beginning, the first thing begotten of God; the same whom he called both the Only Begotten Son, and God, in whom the Father produced all as from seed. And by him he saith that the Word was produced, and in Him the whole substance of the Æons, which the Word himself afterwards reduced to form. Since then he speaks of the first birth, well does he frame his instruction from the beginning, that is, from God, and the Word. And thus he speaks:²⁷ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; He was in the beginning with God. Having before distinguished the three, God, and the Beginning, and the Word, he again unites them: to indicate at the same time the emanation of each of them,—of the Son and the Word, and their union also with one another and with the Father. For in the Father and of the Father is the Beginning, and of the Beginning is the Word. Well therefore said he, In the beginning was the Word; for he was in the Son: and the Word was with God; for so was the Beginning: and the Word was God, by way of inference: for that which is begotten of God, is God. The same was in the Beginning with God, pointed out the order of the Production.²⁸ All things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made: that is, to all Æons after him the Word was the cause of Form and Birth. But (saith he) That which took place in him is Life. Here He hath given tokens again of a Combination [of Æons]²⁹: in saying that all things were made by Him, but that “Life is in Him.” This Life then which took place in Him is more properly His own³⁰, being within Him, than the things which are wrought by Him; for they exist with Him, and by Him bear fruit.³¹ And since he adds “and the Life was the Light of men,” by expressing the term Man, he signified also the Church under the same title with Man, so by the one name to set forth the communion of the two which make up the pair. For “of the Word and Life are produced the Man and the Church.” And He calls the Life the Light of men, because they are enlightened thereby, that is, formed and manifested. And this Paul also speaks of:³² “For whatsoever doth make manifest is Light.” Accordingly since the Church and the Man were manifested and brought into being by the Life, therefore he is called their Light.

Upon the whole, John in these statements hath clearly set forth, among other things, the second quaternion, The word and the life, The man and the Church. Yea, and he hath indicated also the first quaternion. For speaking of the Saviour, and affirming that all things without the Pleroma were formed by Him, he declares Him to be the fruit of the whole Pleroma. Thus for instance, he denominates Him the Light shining in the darkness, and not comprehended by it, because it knew Him not, when He had repaired³³ all the results of the great calamity. And he calls Him Son too, and Truth, and Life, and the Word made Flesh. “Whose glory,” saith he, “we beheld, and His Glory was such as of the Only-Begotten, given Him by the Father, full of Grace and Truth.” His words being,³⁴ “And the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Thus hath he accurately indicated the first quaternion also, using the terms Father, and Grace, and the Only-Begotten, and Truth. And so John hath made mention of the First Ogdoad, or Combination of Eight, and Mother of all the Æons; in that he hath spoken of a Father, and Grace, and an Only-Begotten, and Truth, and the Word, and Life, and the Man and the Church.”