Chapter 7

§ 1.

And so, whereas the Demiurge was ignorant of all, the Saviour, they say, did honour to the Pleroma in the Creation which He wrought by that mother,¹ emitting similitudes and images of the things above. We however have shewn it impossible that there should be any thing without the Pleroma, wherein they say the images of the Beings within the Pleroma are formed: as also that this world should be framed by any but the First Deity. But if we took delight in overthrowing them on every side, and convicting them of falsehood, we might allege against them, That if things here were made by the Saviour in honour of things above, after their similitude, they ought to continue for ever, that the objects of honour might for ever receive that honour. But if they pass away, what is the use of this very short space of honour: of an honour which once was not, and again shall not be? At this rate we make out the Saviour to be rather a seeker of vain glory, than an honourer of the things above. For what honour to the eternal and everlasting things are those which are temporal? to the enduring, those which pass away? to the incorruptible, those which see corruption? Since even among men, who are but for a time, there is nothing delightful in that honour which quickly passes by, but in that which endures as long as possible. Whereas the things which are got rid of as soon as made, might be justly said to be made rather by way of insult to the supposed objects of honour: and the eternal to be injuriously treated by the spoiling and scattering of its image.

But what? except their Mother had wept, and laughed, and been at her wits’ end, would the Saviour have lacked means of honouring His Fulness, because that utter state of confusion had no substance of its own², whereby to honour the First Father?

§ 2.

O vain-glorious honour, presently passing away, and appearing no more! Suppose some Æon,³ in whose case no such honour is said to have been; then the things above will be unhonoured; or another Mother again must be sent forth, in tears and perplexity, for the honour of the Pleroma! O incongruous⁴ yea also blasphemous Image! Ye talk to me of an Image of the Only Begotten, emanating from the Maker of the world, and you will have it to be the Mind of the Father of all, yet that this Image knows not either itself or the creation; neither indeed doth it know the Mother, nor any whatsoever among existing things, and those which were made by Him. And do ye not blush against yourselves, making Ignorance extend even to the Only Begotten? For if things here were made by the Saviour after the likeness of the things above; there being so much ignorance in him who is made after a certain pattern, the aforesaid ignorance must needs exist in and concerning Him also, in whose likeness the ignorant one is made. It not being possible, when both are spiritual emanations, not framed, nor put together, that he should have preserved in some respects, but in others have marred the resembling image⁵, which was sent forth for this very end, to be like that emanation which is on high. Yea, and any want of resemblance therein will be a charge brought against the Saviour, for producing an image without likeness, like an artist whose works will not stand the test. For they may not speak as though the Saviour, whom they affirm to be All, had not power over His own production. If then the Image be unlike, the artist is a bad one, and it is, by their account, the Saviour’s fault. If on the other hand it be like, there will be the same ignorance found in the mind of their First Father, i.e., the Only Begotten: and the Father’s Mind knew not either itself or the Father, nor yet the things made by Him. But if He knows, then the person whom the Saviour made in His likeness must also know the things which bear His likeness: and we do away with the greatest blasphemy they have in their rule.

§ 3.

And moreover, how is it possible for all creatures that are, so various and many and past numbering,⁶ to be images of those thirty Æons which are within the Pleroma, the same whose names (according to their statement) we have set down in the preceding book? And I say not the whole creation in its variety, but even any single part, either in the Heaven or the Earth or the Waters, will be found beyond their power to measure by the scanty reach of their Pleroma. For that their Pleroma consists of thirty Æons, themselves bear witness: and that in any single portion of the aforesaid there are⁷, not thirty but many thousand kinds, should men enumerate them, every one whatever will affirm without qualification. How then may things of such manifold formation, existing in contrary natures, and mutually opposed, and one destroying another, be images and similitudes of the thirty Æons of the Pleroma, since these by their statement are of one nature, of equal and like origin, and have no difference? Whereas if one are images of the other, it must follow that as some men, they say, are naturally bad, others naturally good, so we might point out like differences in the very Æons, and say that some of them are naturally good emanations, others naturally bad, to make their contrivance of an image suitable to their Æons. Once more, because there are in the world some things tame and others wild, some harmless, others mischievous and apt to spoil the rest: and again some earthly some watery, some in the air some in the heaven: in like manner they ought to maintain that their Æons are affected in the same way, if at least the one are images of the other.⁸ Yea, and the “eternal fire which the Father prepared for the Devil and his Angels,” they ought to to make out which it represents of the Æons that are above: for it too is counted as part of the Creation.

§ 4.

But if they say, “Things here are images of the Thought of that Æon who suffered:”⁹ first they will be treating their mother with irreverence, ascribing to her the beginning of evil and corruptible images. And next, how should things so many and unlike and contrary in nature be images of one and the same Being? Should they further say, that there are many Angels in the Pleroma, and that those many things are images of them; neither so will their scheme hold together. For first they must point out distinctions, mutual contrarieties, in the Angels of the Pleroma, even as the images depending¹⁰ on them are of a nature contrary to each other. Next, there being around the Creator many, yea innumerable Angels, as all the Prophets set forth—ten thousand times ten thousand stand before Him,¹¹ and many thousand thousands minister unto Him:—by their account again the Creator’s Angels will be Images of the Angels of the Pleroma, and the entire Creation remains to be the image of the Pleroma, those thirty Æons no longer proving adequate to the manifold variety of Creation.

§ 5.

Yet again: if this set of things was made after the likeness of that,¹² in what other likeness shall the latter in its turn be made? For if the Framer of the world did not make these of himself, but like a workman of no consequence, and as a boy learning his first lesson, transferred them from patterns not his own; whence had he whom they call The Deep the forms of that order which first emanated from him? It follows then, that he received his standard from some other who is above him: and that other again from another. And just as before, the doctrine of images will sink in a sort of endless void, just as will the doctrine of gods, except we fix our thoughts upon one Sole Artificer, as upon one sole God, Who of Himself made all that was made. Or, while one permits men to have discovered of themselves something useful to life, doth he refuse leave to that God Who completed the world, to have been Himself the Maker of the Form of the things that are made, and the Inventor of the scheme of them with its accompaniments?

§ 6.

Moreover, whence are one the images of the other,¹³ being contrary to them, and in nothing capable of participating with them? For contraries may indeed be destructive of their contraries, but images of them they can in no wise be: as water and fire, and light again and darkness, and so many other things, may by no means be images to each other. So neither may the corruptible and earthly and compound and transitory things be images of the spiritual things which answer to them: except they confess these latter too to be compound, and circumscribed, and figured, and no longer spiritual, and at large¹⁴, and inexhaustible, and incomprehensible. For they must be figured and circumscribed, in order to be true images: and it is quite plain that such things are not spiritual. But if they affirm the first sort to be spiritual, and at large, and incomprehensible; how can such things as are figured and circumscribed be images of those which are without figure and incomprehensible?

§ 7.

But if they say that these things are images, not in respect of figure and form,¹⁵ but in number and order of emanation: first, these ought not to be called Images and Similitudes of the Æons which are above. For how are those their images,¹⁶ which have neither their habit nor figure? Then again, what numbers and modes of emanation belong to the superior Æons, the same and like to them they ought to adapt to those Æons which belong to the creation. Whereas now, pointing out as they do thirty Æons, yet affirming the so great multitude of created things to be their images, we may justly charge them with folly.