Section 13 (Page cxv)
VALENTINUS.
CXV S\r)s.
So also the primary emanations from the fundabut mom mental unity are in both cases identical ; in the one case ^creticf"
~~ as in the other, vods, having been first evolved, was followed by X070S : and the subsequent variations of Valentinus are attributable, partly to the Pythagorean and Egyptian modes of thinking with which he was imbued ; partly to his anxiety to clothe the arithmetical mysticism of these sys tems in terms taken from the Christian records ; partly also to the incorporation of oriental and cabbalistic ideas, that had now been long known at Alexandria from the writings of Numenius, Aristobulus and Philo.
Hence the Pytha gorean 'tetractys is found to be the basis of his system.
2Bu#os, Nods, Aoyos, and 'AvOpavn-os are the male elements p >o of the Tetrad; but as in the Pythagorean evolution of numbers an odd, or male term, is accompanied by anp-w. even or female expression, 3pair by pair, so each of these effluxes of the Deity was accompanied by a female iEon ; and the entire series, thus far, was set forth by Valentinus in the terms of S. John's Gospel, it being said, that The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us; and we fce-Joh.i.
14. held His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; where there is an indication of p*>the Father, Charis the synonym of Sige, Monogenes the equivalent of Nus, Aletheia, Logos; and further, Zoe, Anthropos and Ecclesia are declared, where he says, that in Him was life, and the life was the light of men; the two J<*. i. 4. first in express terms, the last by implication, as involved p w (see Did.
Or.
§ 41,) in the term Light.
But the Mon 1 The Tetrad represented matter in * Irbn^us, indeed, enumerates Bythe Pythagorean philosophy.
Unity thut, Sige, Nut, Aletheia, pp.
80, 100 ; was as a point, and meant either but Sige was no invariable element in material or immaterial substance.
The the computation.
See pp.
18, 99, n. », Dyad was the point extended lineally.
108; therefore the Tetrad must have it, The square of the Dyad was superficies, been independent of and consisted and the cube, or tetrad, having depth only of male terms, And this binary progression was Hrpp. Ph. VI. 13
and breadth, was solid matter.
See Pl. de It. et Os.
by Tetrads, e.g. i+» = 3+4 = 3, 7i ; ; Phil, de M.
Op.
16.
5+6=11. hi §
cxvi
VALENTIN US.
Three avQptDiro? was borrowed from the Adam Cadmon of the ^Mon°, Cabbala through the medium of 'Philo's writings, meaning the arrhmothele ideal of the human race ; and by a further prosecution of the same notion, Bythus himself, in certain onsets of the Valentinian stock, was termed "ai'OpwTroi, as having been the primary exemplar, after which man was formed /car' tiKova.
The Tetrad therefore with the correlative feminine terms formed the Ogdoad.
But the Egyptian deities, as we have seen, were divided into p.xxw. three groups.
The primary order, as Herodotus has informed us, consisted of eight deities ; and a certain harmonical proportion subsisting between these groups,
justifies the inference that they were originally based upon definite geometrical analogies, and that Valentinus adopted from the Egyptian theosophy the same numerical mysti cism, that several ages previously had suggested to Pytha goras one principal feature of his philosophy.
As there fore the second group of twelve deities emanated from the primary Ogdoad in the old Egyptian mythology, so in the Valentinian system the Decad first was evolved from the Ogdoad, and the Dodecad from the Decad.
But the analogy is only general, and must not be strained.
The triple division of the entire system, and the coexistence of an Ogdoad and a Dodecad, as also the principle of emana tion of one series from a preceding element, is all that is adduced, but this is sufficient to connect the Valentinian with the Egyptian method of progression.
With regard to the Decad, this too was evolved from the Tetrad, but by a different process.
Here the numerical value of the p. xliv. t-hiicM.op.
8UCCessive digits of the Tetrad sum ten; and Hippolytus, 1 De M. Op. §23, 24, 46—51 ; Leg.
East, where it was an article of faith Alleg. 29. that the Supreme Principle, transmi- * The Ophites, lxxxiv. considered the ewte Voluntatem tuam in forma Lucit Adam Cadmon to be tho source of their fulgenlit, composite in fiyuram humasystem of emanations, p.
134, n.
2. nam.
ShabistaNI ap. Hydk, c. 22, p.
The Jews obtained the notion from the 298.
VALENTINUS.
cxvii in speaking of the Pythagorean arithmetical mysticism, as in the thus sums the decad, to yap ei>, Svo, rpla, rearaapa ylverai EM^ho-n $e'ica,
re'Xejos apiGnw, which was perfect, as foreclosing logy' the series of units, all succeeding numeration being carried p' 157" on by combining the self-same units with a decad.
It should be added, however, that Hippolytus also describes the decad, in the Pythagorean theory, as symbolising ma terial substance xplus its nine accidents.
This group then, either as having a dynamic existence in the Tetrad, was in tercalated between the Ogdoad and the Dodecad ; or the five Egyptian deities that were intercalated to bring the twelve lunar months of thirty days into agreement with the solar year, may have furnished the basis of the Decad,
each term, as in the evolution of the Ogdoad from the Tetrad, having been united in avXvyla with some other correlative term.
The Dodecad, in the more ancient system, was in all probability zodiacal ; but in the Valentinian scheme it expressed that imitative progression that was of the very essence of this theory.
Thus, as in arithpmetical notation, each successive Decad is increased by units of addition, so the Valentinian Decad having been completed, was re-commenced by an initial pair ; and in the same way that Bythus and Sige preceded the Pleroma of Intelligibles, the pair now added to the Decad to form the Dodecad, headed the world of Sensibles ; and stood midway between the world of Intellect that they foreclosed, and the world of Matter that was next evolved.
Valentinus, therefore, may have borrowed the rough out line of his system from the old mythology of Egypt, but 1 A6o ovv Kara tov WvOaybpav eUri k6ffvpftefiriKbra yivij aawpaTa Iwia, 3. afiot, tts /Up votjtos, 6t ?xft TVV pov&tia xwpk tlvat Tijs ovtrlat oi) tovarai, ttoiop ipxv", fft Si alo-Btrros, ravra Si iari Kal voabv, koX irp6s n, Kal ttov Kal rbre, tt]v plan Kcpalav, Kal KciaSai, Kal (xeL"> Ka' foieu", Kal Tdo~xt',
TtTpaKTvi fxovaa ipiBpiv rfKaar Kal (<nt Kara, robs tui.
"Eotw o5k bvia tA <rvp.fSep-iiKoTa pXa Kepala, Tpurri) Trj oiW?, oft &piBp.ovp.imi ovvixti t6v IlvBayopiKovs tA r) .
HlPPOL. Philos.
Kal Kvpiwrirrf, Kal twv vor/Twv obala reKuov apiBpiv rbv i rorrrui Kal alaB-qrwi XapPayopivrf [adj.
VI.
24.
cxviii
VALENTINUS.
JEon conhis details were filled in with a mixed application of the etituenta pjji]og0phy Qf Greece, and of the terminology of the Christian Church.
The various emanations from the Deity, that in pre vious systems had been termed Swd/ueis, neye9rj, &c. were called by Valentinus aiaJyey.
The etymon of this term, ac cording to 1Aristotle, is del wv, with which Plato apparently
2that the soul partakes of the reason and agrees, in saying, harmony of sensible and eternal beings; and that time is the reflex of eternity; 3 the Eternal being del Kara -ravTa.
Thus, in philosophic language, aiwv being the converse of time, by a natural progression it came to express the 'Deity, as the eternal antithesis of man formed in time.
P. 8, n. ».
So Arrian, as quoted in Grabe's note, uses the term alwv as the correlative of dvOpwn-os.
Plutarch brings the term into still closer contact with the Gnostic sense of almv, as involving an essential yvwcm, when he says, that *a know ledge of things as they are, constitutes in his mind the felicity of the Eternal, and that apart from this knowledge immortality would be no longer life but time.
But in the older language of philosophy alwv was to the Deity, as time is to Man, and in the Valentinian system expressed those co-eternal emanations from the Deity, that connected
etXX' dvaWolwra Kal dradrj tV dptffpibv lovaav aiiiciw elxbva, toOtw t» or} xpbvov oivopidKap.ev. lb. D.
Again, dploTTjv (xovra fwfy', Kal rijv avrapKejTdttjv, StareXe? t6v dtravra aluiva .. ,rd yap rAos rb repiixov Tbv rfjt indarov ftu^s dXXd xpivov Tavra aluvd re pufLovftimv . . . yeyovev etS% lb.
B ; and cf. the Pindaric fragment preserved by Plu Xpbvov, ov p.t)6iv t£u Kara (pica, aluiv ixdoTov KlxXqrac'
Kara Tbv avrbv Si tarch, fwv Si Xelrerai alCbvos (tSuXor.
\6yon, Kal to toO irdvros ovpavov rAot, Contol. ad Apoll. no.
9 In the Syriac alwv is (^£Li|, Kal to t6v wdnTa xphvov Kal tt\i> dweipiav referred to }-»Ot), I am, by Ephb. Str. wepiixo" tAos, aluv io~Tu>, dirb tov dtl elyai el\T]tpws TTfv iTrwvvpUav, dddvaTot Mom. un. liv.
Kal delot.
De Cicl. I. 9 ; Met. VII.
* olp.at Si Kal tt;s aloiviov fw^s, r*p 6 - \oyurpu>v de fierkxovaa Kal ap/xovlat Qebs etXrixev, eCSaifiov ehai rb T-jj yvwaei ipuxh ruf voiyruv del Te Svrur.
Tim. fii) rpoaro\iTtiy rb. ywbptera, tov Si yivuxrKeiv rd 6ma Kal <ppoyet» d<paipe6trrm, oi j8(oc dXXd xpoooy elvat rip d0ap.
A. elxi) b" irwoei Ktyrrrbv two alCvos irotrjaai, Kal StaxoapQn S.p.a ovvacian. Plot, de I». et Ot.
1. pavbv jroiel pUforros alwvoi h tn (car'
VALENTINUS.
cxix the Supreme Being with this lower world of matter and of of the time.
Though 1Philo does not use the term, the same idea Pleromais conveyed by his XJ70S, $vi>aneh, lUai, k.t.X.
We may take niton therefore, in the Valentinian acceptation of the word, to mean an emanation from the Divine Substance, subsisting co-ordinately and co-eternally with the Deity, as distinct "\6yot, the Pleroma still remaining one.
The system of Valentinus, from abundant internal proof, is seen to have consisted of thirty iEons; but the theory was not spun wholly from his own brain; he bor rowed from older sources, principally indeed from Basilides, but also from the Ophite, or 3 Gnostic properly so called.
Then, again, his system almost immediately di
varicated into an 4Eastern and Western branch of the same stock; so that we may naturally expect to find state ments in detail, that are not quite consistent with each other.
Taking therefore the thirty ./Eons as a known quantity, there arises the doubt whether
Bythus and Sige at the commencement, or Christ and the Spirit at the con clusion, are to be eliminated.
Hippolytus adopts, very expressly, the former alternative, and Irenaeus partially confirms his statements.
Bythus, 6 he says, stood singly and alone, and was the Monadic source of the entire Ple roma, from which, in fact, he was distinct; a primary Horus intervening.
Indeed the synonyms whereby the first P. 100. of these JSons Nus was known, Pater, and Arche, shew s«. u, 3.
1 See the suggestive passage rvyalso shews that Christ and the Holy xdvy tis i!-i6xpaiis, k.t.X.
C0nf.Ling.2S.
Spirit made up the full complement of * \4yovot 54 (col toi)s alGhmi ifunrb30.
Kal ylrnvrax TpidKOvTa aluvcs nera fiuis Tip XSyy Xayovt. Did. Or. rod XpurTov Kal tov 071011 Hvtvp.aToi.
J So Irkn^us says that the heresiIt is evident also that Jesus, in the Mararch adopted its principles from older cosian system, represented the 30 vEonh Gnostic sources, p. 98. that contributed to his formation ; and * The eastern, and posBibly the more that Christ and the Holy Spirit were of ancient branch, was represented by Theothis number; see p.
23, where IIoTpoj dotus in the Si&a<XKa\la araroXiiri), the applies to NoOs.
For this reason again western is described to us by Irenaeus.
Bythus would seem to be independent 5 See note 1, p.
99.
Hippolttus of the Pleroma.
Compare p.
1 1, n. 4.
cxx
VALENT1NUS.
Rationale that the series 'commenced with him, while the correlative cf.Did.or.6. synonyms, Proarche and Propator, as clearly mark an after thought.
Still it is very evident that the Ogdoad was never complete without Bythus and Sige.
Even the p. ii2. system that described the vEons as mere modes of the Divine Subsistence, placed Bythus at their head.
The first Ogdoad then consisted of 2Bythus and Sige, from whence emanated Nus and Jletheia, Logos and Zoe, Anthropos and Ecclesia, four pair of masculine and femi nine terms; the rationale of this Ogdoad being as follows:
Bythus or "Apprjros, the First Inscrutable Cause of all, is perfectly incomprehensible to the finite intellect, whether of Man or Angel; Mind is no adequate term to describe
ct put. nm his Being; Truth is no sufficient expression of his Reality; is.etos.54. the Word, meaning thereby the 3Philonic counterpart of the Divine l&eat of Plato, conveys no true notion of the way in which All Things have ever been present in the Divine Prescience; neither is Life, comprehensive as the term is, sufficiently so to comprehend the mode of sub sistence of the * Eternal.
But these several expressions of Power and Glory co-eternal with the Deity, may serve to unite the conception of things create and finite with the Infinite; though, in proportion as they descended in closer relation with the create, the Perfection of the Deity that 1 Nous and 'AX^Oeta, with the two being dpperoB^Xvt, 99, 2, and was the succeeding pairs of j35ons, are said to be sole cause ; TtXei&repos Si 6 ITor^p, Sri the primary root of all the succeeding dylvmrros <3rpivot, 81A t/jwttjs rijs pidt ./Eons ; avrai ydp irpCrrai nard.
OvaXtv- <rv£vylas tov NoO nal t^j 'AXTjfMas, tXvov filfai tCjv altjjvtav yeySvafft.
HlPP. wdffas twv yevoptvwv npofiaXciv cvTrSptjae Ph. vi.
30.
Again, when Christ and /S/fas.
Hipp. Phil. vi.
29. the Holy Spirit were put forth, their 3 266, 2.
Cf. also Plot, ol phi yip immediate origin was not referred to iv ovpavtp ko.1 dffrpois XoyoL kclI ctSij ko.1
Bythus, ov yd.p avr6s <pij<n irpoeflaXev, diroppbai tov GcoP, Is. et Os. 59. Cl. Al. dXXd i NoPs icaJ t) 'AXffleia, Xpiarbv says that X670S is a barbarian (ChaldiekoI Tlvevpa 07101". vi.
31. an?) equivalent for the Platonic idta:
' Otherwise termed Uppijros, Proi) bt US4a, (vvor/pa tov 9eoO, Swep ol '
Sir. arche and Propator.
Sige however was fidpfiapoi Xoyov dp$Ka<ri tov Oeou. no true consort of Bythus, who included V. 3. in himself the idea of male and female, * Cf. Maimonides, p.
108, n. 2.
VALENTINUS.
cxxi consists in an entire abstraction from the material, was of the °gdoad' lowered, as it was thought, and became in a certain qualified; so that the Mind of the Deity, or Nous, that, together with Truth, was wholly cognisant of the Being and Nature of Bythus, transmitted that knowledge in a fainter degree to the Word, or Divine Exemplar of All things create, and his consorted Life; to use the M.oP.49;cf.
° Pint. Ion, p. illustration of Philo; the magnet holds a whole series of de- ^'p^ tached rings, but with a force that decreases in an inverse
207,'*!"' P'
ratio to the increasing distance.
The Divine principle of yvdoffis then was the virtue that constituted the life of the p-*M. entire Pleroma, but in this way there was an original taint of imperfection in
from which none but Movoyevtjs or it, No?s alone was free.
The first three pairs of jEons there fore, counting Bythus and Sige, may be referred to the notion of the One Supreme Deity existing absolutely as Mind; and relatively also as Mind eternally cognisant of all things, before they had been called into existence.
This relative notion of the Divine Mind in its contemplative aspect as A070?, serves to introduce the most perfect of God's works, the prototypal Idea of Man, Humanity in the abstract, so far as connected with the Supreme by a it is true gnosis, and therefore chosen and elect in contradis tinction to those who have no such gift, and are wholly incapable of the glories of the Pleroma; hence the notion of an Ecclesia, or separation of the seed, possessed of this attribute of knowledge, from the rest of Mankind; and by a natural progression, the emanation of Logos and Zoe de i.e.
Man, as veloped itself as "AvOpwiros and '
EnicXricr'ia ; redeemed to God from the world, subsisted in the fore knowledge of the Logos, and therefore of the Deity, from Did.or.4i. all eternity.
It was the heretical phase of a Catholic truth; and all these terms, as we have seen, were taken from the opening of S. John's Gospel.
We proceed now with the Decad and Dodecad, the
cxxii
VALENTINUS.
Rationale series of five and of six avfyylai evolved from the first Decad Ogdoad.
Here again there was considerable discrepancy in the several sections of the Valentinian school.
Irenseus says throughout, that Aoyos and Zwij evolved the Decad, while the Dodecad proceeded forth from "A vOpcoiros and '
EKicXqala, whereas Hippolytus says that NoD? and 'AXtjOeia sent forth the Decad, the 1Dodecad being the offset of Aoyos and Zcoij.
Reasons are assigned by him that give rather an air of probability to this statement; the names also of the /Eons are in harmony with it.
He says, that Nods and 'AXtjBeia perceiving that Aoyos and Za»j possessed ' the generative faculty, when "Avdpwiros and E/cirXijcn'a were
evolved, evinced their gratitude to the Supreme by putp.xiw. ting forth a Decad, the most 2perfect number of JEons; because Bythus was the most perfect, as having evolved by his own individual energy, the source and germ of the entire Pleroma.
Similarly Nods and 'AXyOem being imper fect, as not possessing that power of independent produc tion, Aoyos and Zwi) honoured them with a series, but of an 'imperfect number, and put forth the Dodecad.
Thus the Decad describes attributes and qualities that agree closely with the hypothesis that they emanated from .Nus ; and the male terms were Bythius, Ageratos, Autophyes, Akinetos, and Monogenes; while the feminine ovXvyoi are suggestive of the intermingling, as it were, of the Finite with the Infinite, with an anticipated solution of the resultcr. Did. or. ing discord in final harmony; they were Mixis, Henosis, *Hedone, Syncrasis, and Macaria.
The Dodecad exhibits names that are no less appli1 Outoi 8t48e<to [leg.
S4ko] al&ves, without note or comment ; but the cor rect reading is manifestly dXXA yip iv otfs Tivis fiiv itrrb tov NoO Ktxi ttjs &Te\ti.
In the last line also of the same 'AXij(Maj \cyovai, rwis Si inrb tov A4yov icoi T7js Zwrji k.t.\.
Hipp. Ph. vi. page the reader may note the correction, Abca Si ol tov NoC* xai TTjs 'WrjSflas, 3°- 8 i. e. in the Pythagorean sense.
SuSiica Si ol tov \byov <ca!ttjs Zwtjs.
3 Miller prints dXXi yip ivareKcT, * See lxxxi.
7, 9, Ixxxii.
5, lxiii.
VALENTINUS.
cxxiii cable to lA6y(K and Zwt}.
It was to the Decad, as the Regeneration of Man is to the Creation; and it shadowed forth the work of the Spirit in the Regeneration of Man, the recipient of that Divine seed or yvaxris, which is his true life everlastingly decreed in the will of the Supreme.
Thus we meet with the male terms Paracletus or * Delegate, Patricos, the source of filial adoption, Metricos, the reflex of the work of the Spirit, the Eternal, the Called, and the Destined; Aionios, Ecclesiasticos, and Tkeletos.
While the first three female iEons spenk for themselves as the gifts of grace, Pistis, Elpis, Agape; the 'fourth is the Cabbalistic TWI, avveait, the last, npJH, (or rather nifiOPT,
Prov. ix. 1,) ero<j)la, of the same system, while the penulti mate MaKapioTt)1! was in all probability JT^X, the Syrian Fortuna (Gliicksgottin, Gesen.) or Astarte, incorporated by the heresiarch to attract converts from among the Syrian heathen.
So far it is not difficult to trace a certain kind of rationale in the Valentinian system ; and taking it as a whole, it was an attempt to exhibit Biblical truths, with a philosophic colouring, and with an Oriental application of the emanative theory to the ideas of the philosopher.
In fact it was a purely syncretic combination, in which each 1 Here again Hippolytus notes a Or. the same term is declared by Theodotus to be the synonym of JeBus; see varied account, trcpoi Si robs SuSexa, vtt& p. 38, 1, 2, 3, but it is clearly in the toS 'Avdp&wov koX rrp 'E/ticXijaios, (repoi Si inrb rot Abyov KalTTjsZufjs.
Ph. VI. 30.
1 Philo uses the term in this sense, OMtvl bi rapanXJirip, rlt yip rjv (repos; sense of Delegate, Sri 7rXi}pi;s t&v al&vwv i\,6\v6ct>, (is diro toO d\ov TpoeXddie, and Tkrtullian Bays, vicarium prccficit Paraeletum, Soterem, c. Val.
16.
Here it is applied to the Spirit, as I imagine, in the same sense, as the vicarious re b pJwtp Si (avrip -xjn)aip.cvot b Qe6s k.t.X. de M. Op. 6. Again, Trapdic\rp-oi> ivaybpjaroA wu9A, k.t.\. 16.59.
The Christian instruction that Valentinus had received, presentative of the Pleroma in the elect and the liberal use that he made of S.
John's Gospel, (see I.
75 —83, n. 46,) would justify the supposition that he seed.
3 The Spirit throughout the Gnostic systems was considered as feminine. used the word aa our Saviour, who (See pp.
22, 3 ; 33, 1 ; 46, 224, 225 ; in promising 4XXok TapdKXrrroD J oh.
234, 4.) So in the Cabbala HJ'l is the xiv.
16, implied that himself was irapdSupreme Mother, the Mother Inferior.
Cobb. Denud. n. i. 362, 363.
And see Philo, de Ebr. § 8. rXirrot, as in fact the same Apostle terms him, 1 Joh. ii.
In the Didasc.
CXX1V
VALENTINUS.
Enthymenotion as it arises may be referred with a tolerable degree of certainty to its origin, sometimes in the Oriental theosophy, sometimes in the Jewish Cabbala, but far more frequently in the Greek philosophy.
We turn now to a scarcely less abstruse subject, the Valentinian account of the Creation of the world.
It may be premised that it agrees neither with the philosophical notion that matter is eternal, simply because nothing can come of nothing; nor with the later Oriental view, that matter is the matrix of the evil principle, eternally co-ex isting with Supreme good, and contending for the mastery;
P.8. on the contrary, Bythus, in the beginning, was a solitary abstraction, and it was only after many successive emana
tions, that 1matter was brought to the birth.
There was a recognition of the Eastern principle, so far as it was thought impossible that gross matter should be evolved immediately from that which is purely spiritual substance; but virtually the Mosaic account was adopted, that God created the Heaven and Earth, and all the generations of pp.«v. them; and so far, as we have seen, the Basilidian system also agreed.
The Valentinian theory then exhibits the following notions.
In the first place 2Love was the impul sive principle that caused the emission of the Only-begot ten NoSs, and 'AXydeta, and a Divine 3ev9vvt}ms was its mode.
But * Tvwait was the substance in which Novs was evolved; and that which in Bythus was an impulsive
Love, developing itself in the Divine conception, was 5engendered 1 Cf. wpiiirrp/ apxty toTCiKfircu rty yv&ffe&s, ujs warty vltji, xal tvdvpvqGis obalav, p.
17, where see the note also; aXyBela, dir' dVijflfias TpoeXBiv lis iri the first germ of all things is expressly A/ffujinjo-ews ^ yruais. referred to Bythus, as apxh rwv wavruv,
14, n.
Similarly Enmva /col Ka.04.irep air(pp.a, p. 9. and Thelema were the two co-ordinates a V99, n.
Compare also Did. of Bythus, in the Ptolemean view, p.
Or.
7. fiyovcv otV xal i dird yvtiirttos, 107. rovrian Tijs TaTpucfjt ivBvpfyrcut wpo(\- * p. 13, § 2, beg.; 27, 1 ; 53, 1.
6uv, yiwis [/. I. vovt qu. TNOTS] tout- « Compare wpixpaaa> pip d-yaTjjj, fori* 4 flit, in St' vlou 6 warty iyvucrSi] k.t.X. with wddos...i enty^aro iv rolj to 5i T7js ayairrjs rrev/ua KiKparai rtp rrjs wepl rbv No&V, 14, 4, also 76, 2.
VALENTINUS.
cxxv in each successive emanation, as an ev9unr/<ris or intentio Gnosis. animi, whereby every JEon desired a perfect knowledge of By thus.
'This yviuais, in each successive development, be came weaker; while, in proportion to its declining strength, the "desire for unattainable knowledge was intensified, until a point was gained, when yvwats was at its minimum, and the primordial ev6uni&is at its maximum of develop ment; it was under this condition that Sophia transpp. is, w, 1. gressed the bounds of the Pleroma, in her desire to know
Bythus in his Ineffable glory; and her longing threatened speedily to 'resolve her into the entire substance
*(ek rrjv 6\r)v ovv'iav) of Bythus, i. e. her Enthymesis into the Love of which it was the representative, and her gnosis into the
Omniscience of the Omniscient; when the 5entire body of P. i6, 5.
JEons, becoming alarmed, lest in her fate they should be hold their own, as sharing with her the same Enthymesis, besought Bythus to alleviate her distress.
It was at this point that a boundary line was first drawn around the Ple roma, and 6Horus was evolved by Bythus as the stay and support of the whole system; he was in the image of Bythus, unpaired, and without sex, and was put forth through Monogenes, that the remedy might be co-extensive us iv toWS v\v, represented Platoni-
Compare the Marcosian view, pp. 130, 131, and 310, I. cally as dirapov, p. 27.
The opening of 3 See p.
14, n. 3.
Compare also the the Didasc. Or. as emended by Bernays Basilidian notion, p. cv.
It may be also favours this view; Christ, it is said, commended Sophia in her passion observed, that bOiiptrjan, Act. xvii.
29, is rendered in the Peshito vers, by to the Father, tva fii] Karairx^V ivravda inrb ruv apiortpuv duvdfieuii, § I, where yv&ais.
Also that vous was dpiartpuv has been substituted for the evolved by the reaction of Bythus upon old reading arepUsKiai. his own Mind; Sia t?)s ZvOvnijacM t?)$ 6 Perhaps in p.
15, vhrp, was an iavrov, lis h> iavriv iynuiKus, irpctyia early gloss upon obaiav, in its Aristotelian sense of matter, but read by the trans ixovarytvrj.
Did. Or.
3 virb T7js y\vKiJTTp-os ...hi KOT07reir6lator and others as S\rjv.
6 PPTSi 17Hippolytus, however, cSai.
Ibid.
* The view of Neander, see p.
1$, places first the emanation of Christ and the Holy Spirit, as making up the n.
3 ; but the sequel conveys the notion of material substance: compare p.
24, complement of thirty ^Eons.
See 10, 4.
cxxvi
VALENTINUS.
Enthymewith the disorder, evOunrjaK having been developed with Passion, the first evolution of NoSs.
This Horus had a two-fold function, being both confirmative as opos, and separative as loTavp6s: in either respect he strengthened and sup ported Sophia, and having separated her from her passion, kept it from re-entering the Pleroma on the one hand, while on the other he stopped all further egress to the other iEons.
!Elsewhere Horus is said to have been distinctly double; one boundary intervening between By thus and the Pleroma, and a second shutting off Achamoth, the hypostatised Enthymesis of Sophia, 3that is, the lower Ogdoad pp. cxli. 1, en.
2. from the Pleroma.
These JEons were as the iSeat of Plato,
having each an individual Divine character; each was a reflex of the Divine Mind, and each was the * archetypal representative of a subsequently created system.
The perptot. tz. i.
Bonification of Wisdom by King Solomon, in the Book of Proverbs, and again by the writer of the apocryphal book, in no way offends our sense of the true and edifying.
The inspired writer ascribed to Wisdom the principal agency in creating the world, so also did the heretic ; only then he intercalated a whole system of Divine entities, and developed in an absurd and extravagantly grotesque manner material substance from spiritual ; giving a shock to our feeling of reverence, and at the same time to common sense.
1 trrdvpbs meaning, not a cross but & aeibueva koX irdXnaxifiera, r A p.h xtmi stockade fence, formed of trravpol or tal gapea 4XXfl, id Si fiava koI Kovtpa ett stakes.
HlPPOLYTCS calls it xaP<LKwliairipta t£tt (ptpiaeva (Spay rbre ovra tA See p.
18, n. i : for the other names of rtrrapa yiri) atikfiaa vt6 -rrp SelaiUrrp, Horns, see the notes on pp.
18, 19; to KooviUrrp abrrfi olor ipydrov cturfiip which we may add the suggestion, that rapixorrot, k.t.X, Tim. p.
53.
The Valentinus borrowed his notion of Carmodern dressing machine is described. pities, the separator of chaff from the * p.
100, Spout re Sto 6rt6ero. k.t.X. grain, from Plato, where he speaks • 4) KakovfUrr) *ar' avrois 'OySoat, of the violent separative Wrtpm of the ^ l/crit ITXif/xi/taToj 2o0<a.
Ph. TI. Ji. material elements:
TA Ji Ktroi/icva * "Eicourros rwv aliirwv t&wv fxei tXiJiWa SXKooe dei <p4pto0ai 5taicptv6p.a>a, pu/ia rip cvfyyor.
"Oca oir in <rv{\rylat, waftp rA (nrd tujv v\oKOmr Tt koI tpaal, Tpoi'px^rai TrXrfpui/iard iffrar, oca opydvw -rwr vepl Trjf tov alrov KdBapaiv Si dxd ivbi, dxbrtl.
Did.
Or.
32.
VALENTINUS.
cxxvii Hitherto we have detected nothing approaching to a eliminated materialisation of these iEons; the first step in this direcpTeroma. tion was the separation of 'Enthymesis with its incidental passion from Sophia, who then returned into the Pleroma relieved of her craving for forbidden knowledge, and established in that which is the only guarantee for continued duration, the conviction that the Supreme Being is wholly ineffable and inscrutable.
But her Enthymesis with its passion remained without the Pleroma, as an abortive substance, spiritual in its character, but "without form, and void of ideality, though endued with 3 something of the JEon's impulsive character ; wherefore as being without form, the paternally 4generated element, mere
substance being inherited from the mother, Enthymesis was known as the weak and female product, and was named * Achamoth, Solomon's equivalent for Wisdom, and her irdOr) eventually were hypostatised as distinct material P. 35, 2. substance.
In order to preserve the iEons for the future from similar passion, Nus, 6 by the Father's forecast, put forth another avfyyta, Christ and the Holy Spirit; the latter throughout the Gnostic systems involving 'the feminine 1 Enthymexii or Achamoth, as the e p. 31, i.e. fl1D3n, plural in form, representative of the arrhenothele Bybut in power a lingular noun.
Prov. i. thus, received a variety of names, the 10, ix.
Possibly also, xiv. I.
The feminine titles of Mother, Ogdoas, WisValentinian Achamoth is clearly idendom, Earth, Jerusalem, and Spirit, 46, tical with this Hebrew term ; for Theoas also the male appellation of Lord. dotus after citing Prov. ix.
1, proceeds, 3 The Hippolytan text is faulty.
«ai rpdrov rdvruv jrpo/3<£\\erai eU6va The abortion of Sophia is styled ovuiay tov jrorpAs, Oebv 6V oS ivAffltv rbv eCfio/xpov nal tiKarauKiiaaTov, but the otpcw&r nal ttjv yfjv, k. t. X.
Did.
Or. scripture quotation that immediately 46. follows, suggests the true reading, 7; 5^ 6 Kara Trpo^dnav rod Xlarpbs, but yfj ijy idparos nal aKaraffKevaffTOS.
It evolved by NoOs, p. 21, as Hippolttus should be noted that Achamoth reprehas said, i Xptoros liriirpof}\riOtU diro gents the unorganised state of the Plarou Nov (to!
7tJi 'AX-ndetas, (piptpaae, tonic soul, as yet void of Intellect. k. t. X. VI. 31.
3 tpxHriK-fp rtva AM«! ip/i^y rvyxd7 p. 33, n. I ; p. 46 ; and p. 101 ; but vovaav.
Ibid.
Cf. p.
33.
Philo suggested the peculiarity, p. liv.
4 p.
16, 4; p. 10, 1; p.
32, n. 1, 3.
6 ; cxxiii.
cxxviii
VALENTINUS.
notion.
First of all Christ confirmed the ^Eons of the Pleroma, by conveying to them the knowledge that the Supreme is wholly incomprehensible, and that their only 'security lay in a full conviction of this truth; but that the source of their being and formation, was that which may be conceived of Him, t^s oe yeveaews avrov 2[avrwv] Kat fxop<pw<Tew<} to 3 KaTaXrjTTTov avrov.
The Holy Spirit then perfected so completely the harmony of the Pleroma, that each JEon became one with the others, and the style and title of each individual became the designation of the rest ; then the entire body, like the Siren, so poetically ima gined by Plato as the harmony of each mundane orbit, or like the rolling spheres of Pythagoras, or, if it may be
added without irreverence, like the Sons of God of the patriarch Job, pealed forth the 4praises of By thus, who reciprocated their joy.
But their praise took also a practical turn.
For as the ./Eons were now ra iravra ev iraatv, SO each contributed that which was most excellent in his individual being, for the formation of Jesus or Soter, reXeiorarov icaXXos re Kal aorpov Tr\tipu>naTos.
Misappreciated Scripture once more was the guide, which says, ev avrtp evSoKr/oe irav to TrXtjpuifxa KdToiKrjoai, and again, avaK6<paXaiwaaaQai rd iravra ev Tip Xpto-rtp*.
This last and final product of the Pleroma was called Soter, Christ, Logos, 6,,OXov, and Rdv, as being terpart of Bythus, h yip Tip iyanrfp-tp 1 See p.
2 1, 3.
1 The reading avrCv being confirmed (prjcriv tvri vivra Ofiov.
HlPP.
Ph. VI. 30.
6 p. 279, 2.
Salvatorem, quem etiam by Tertullian, p. ai, n. 4.
3 Hence the Enthymesis of Sophia Totum. Cf. Did. Or. 23. Possiblythe Stoic distinction between rb vav and rb S\w was &fj.op<pos Kcd dvelST}?, bid. tou p.rjbiy led to the adoption of this term.
Tota KaTaXafSeTv, p. 20, n. 2, and again wnirep lity bore reference to the entire pleroma iicrpufia bia rb pLrjbiv KaTftXijtptvai, p. exclusive of rb Kevbv, cf.
31, 4, and II. iii. vii. ; and according to STOB.S0S, 32, n.
* jkctA neyd\r)i xaP^s ty*»9<r« ^bv Phys. I. 3, ol 2rai/coi hiaiptpeiv rb Toxical
Tlporiropa, ttoXX^s evippaatat /icrarb cViov vav fiev yap elvai trirv Tip KtvQ rtp a%brra, p. 23.
6 Other texts to the same point of Yalentinian application are added, p. airttptp, S\ov be xw/jisroD/cepoO rbv Kbtrfiov. p. 53.
The same idea is observable in 29.
In this respect Soter was the coun the Rep. p. 273.
VALENTINUS.
cxxix of All.
With him also was evolved a body-guard of Formation *" connate (o/ioyeve'is) though not consubstantial angels.
It may be observed here that Christ, the avfyyos ofp-JJ*. the Holy Spirit, was 6 irpwros and 6 avw Xpiaros, while the %>fs! second Christ was a synonym of Jesus; there was also a third Christ, wt' o'ucovo/xlav, who was born of the Virgin wt Sid <Tw\tjvos, and a fourth, that descended as a dove ; shew ing altogether a type of the Tetrad.
Christ now conferp. «, 1. red upon Achamoth that definite conformation, kclt ovaiav, though not Kara yvwaiv, that enabled her to set in order the world of matter.
For Enthymesis, separate from Sophia, and remaining without the Pleroma, lay ev 07«a?p.3i.
Ka\ Keviijiaro^ toVois, the Mosaic chaos, Without form and void, or rather the Platonic whirl of rude and undigested f^ * matter.
And first, Christ was said to have stretched forth beyond the bounds of the Pleroma, lia rod araupou eire/crap 32.
Qev-ra, and to have formed 'Achamoth substantially, though not yet spiritually kuto. yvfkriv.
It was also a secondary type of the many generations, during which man's natural reason existed, partially lighted up by the Logos, but unre claimed by the Spirit, that intervened before Christ came in the flesh.
Then after the formation of Achamoth, Christ withdrew once more into the Pleroma, and left her en dowed, scarcely with a rational intellect, but with an instinct that impelled her forward in pursuit of the receding light of Christ; s/ccti en<ppova yevo/xevrjv eni fyTqcriv opixtjaai tow p. 33.
1 When iBENiEUS says that Enthyworld was organised, when the reasonmesis, at first &fwp<pos koI drao> os, was able soul was placed in H, and the afterwards formed by the energy of world became an animal endowed with Christ, and endued with intelligence, intellect.
Achamoth appears to have fiofKpaSttirdp re airrijii Kal (pjppova yepybeen to the Platonic i/vxh, as the PlaOciaav, he expresses very closely the tonic idea was to matter; i. e. its antePlatonic notion, that the everchanging cedent type.
Demiurge was the actual external chaos was animated with a soul, soul of the world. confused, and deprived of intelligence, a tp.<ppovos, it may be noted, is a term and governed only by a blind necessity ; used by Plato Tim. p. 46 E : ris tt)s that God endued this rudimental soul (/upporos <pi<rem afrlas irptZrTtvs parawith intellect ; subsequently the material Si&kciv.
VOL. I. i
cxxx
VALENTIN US.
Platonic KctTaXirrovTos avTt)v (pwros.
Horus however interposed, as in the case of Sophia, and prevented her onward move ment.
She remained in solitude therefore, without the Pleroma, the victim of manifold distracting
TrdQi), fearing, doubting, and, as having received no formation Kara yvHaiv, ignorant.
One feature, however, in her constitution was p. 35. peculiar to Enthymesis, that did not attach to Sophia, namely her conversion, from which there first resulted the prototypal soul of the world, and the Demiurge; and afterwards from her sorrow, fear, and various wdQt], all other created substance.
So in her tears 'flowed forth the element of water; and light from her hysterical laugh;
while her grief and consternation gave birth to other elements.
Even so, however, Valentinus may not have intended that the 2gross matter of the elements now had their origin, but only that their ideal substance received its being in her TrdOt] : for it is stated in the sequel that the Demiurge was the maker of the light and of the heavy, of p. 43. the buoyant and of the gravitating, 3and it was only then that matter had its /mede^is with ideal form.
If so we have another point of connexion between Achamoth and the unformed Platonic matter.
Thus to7to?, the space that •rim*, so. the create should occupy, or to ennayelov, the mould that receives the form, or to ee w y'tyverai, that in which sub stance is produced, is in the Platonic system as a 4primitive 1 Valentincs here borrowed a 3 In the Aristotelian theory, matter poetical myth from Pythagoras, as without form had substance though no instanced by Plutaboh, W{« Si koX rb true body, of which the ideal form was birb twv IlvOayopucC&y \eybp.eyon, ws i) a necessary element ; Sr rpbicov yip to BaXdrn) Kpbvov SdKpvbv icru>, k.t.\. etSos rijs v\r/s itpaipcdh iuriiptaTw eZr<u de Is. et Ol. c. 3* See also p. xxxi.
Tvyx&»ei, otfrut koX Hi* JXijr toB .
3 Just as the first ideal matter of xupioOlvTos, 06 irufia.
Aeu> yip apupoiy Plato was undefined and undefinable, rrjs avvbSov rpbs Trjy toO <ru/xaros it was neither earth, air, fire, or water, aracrw.
Stob. Phys. I. xi. 4. pAfre Sera Ik to&tuv, p-fire i( &v raSra 4 Which however, as the philosopher ytyoviv, dXV abparov flSis ti koX tp.opconfesses, can be brought home to the (pop, ravScxis, pxTaKapfiavov Si iwopusenses only as a dream, pbyts irurrbr,
rard Try tov cot/toB, Kal Suaakibrarov SI) iyetpoiro\oO/iev f)\(icovTtt.
Tim. abrb \tyovTti 06 \//cv<rbp.c8a.
Tim. 5t A.