Section 59 (Page 286)
PROBOL^:
GNOSTICORUM
lib. h. xvi et Veritas, et sapientia, etbonitas, et omnia talia. Et neque sensum auAssxii"' v'*a anti(lui°rem aliquis potest dicere, ipse enim sensus vita est ; xiii-9nec vitam posteriorera a sensu, uti non fiat aliquando sine vita is qui est omnium sensus, id est Deus.
Si autem dixerint, in Patre quidem fuisse vitam, sexto autem loco prolatam, ut vivat Verbum; multo ante earn quidem oportebat quarto loco emitti, ut vivat Nus, et adhuc etiam ante hunc cum Bytho, ut vivat Bythus ipsorum : cum Propatore enim ipsorum annumerare quidem Sigen, et banc conjugem ei donare, non connumerare autem Zoen, quomodo non super omnem est insipientiam
CAP. XVII.
Quoniam hce, qua ab its dicuntur emissiones, horninibus congruunt magis quam Deo.
De ea autem quae est ]ex his secunda emissione 2Hominis et Ecclesiae, ipsi patres eorum falso cognominati Gnostici, pugnant adversus invicem, sua propria vindicantes, et malos fures semetipsos convincentes, aptabile esse magis emissioni dicentes, uti verisimile, ex Homine Verbum, sed non ex Verbo Hominem emissum: et esse Hominem Verbo anteriorem, et hunc esse qui est 3 super omnia Deus.
Et usque hoc quidem, quemadmodum praediximus, omnes hominum affectiones, et motiones mentis, et generationes intentionum, et emissiones verborum conjicientes verisimiliter, non verisimiliter mentiti sunt adversus Deum.
Ea enim quae accidunt horninibus, et qusecunque patientes ipsi recognoscunt, ad divinam rationem adducentes, apta dicere videntur apud eos qui ignorant Deum, et per humanas has passiones transducentes eorum sensum, genesin et probolen quinto loco Verbo Dei enarrantes, mirabilia mysteria et inenarrabilia et alta, a nullo alio cognita dicunt se iutt.Tti.7docere, de quibus et dixerit Dominus:
Quwrite et invenietis, ut quaerant scilicet, qui de Bytho, et Sige, 4et Nu, et Alethia processerunt
: si sunt ex eis rursus Logos et Zoe ; dehinc ex Logo et Zoe, Anthropos et Ecclesia.
1 Ex hit, from Logos and Zoe, but 4 Grabe reads et Nu, but authority second in succession from Nus and preponderates in favour of Nut.
MasAletheia. bdet renders qui adverbially, and the * Eominit et Eccletia.
These words sense then would run :
That they may are omitted in the Clekm. MS. Possibly enquire how Nut and Aletheia proceeded they may have come in from the margin. from Bythus and Sige; and alto whether • Super omnia Deut; cf. p. 149, n. 2.
Logot and Zoe emanated from these, &c.
PHILOSOPHIA
SUBORNANTUB.
LIB.II.xt1H.
CAP. XVIII.
OB. II. xix.
MASS. II.
xiv. 1.
Quomodo et hinc ethnici verisimilius de universorum generatione responderunt et gratius ipsis qui sunt a Valentino initia : et quomodo ah ejusque sunt secundum eos regulce. m. 133. J, Multo verisimilius et gratius de universorum genesi dixit unus de veteribus Comicis 1Antiphanes in Theogonia.
Ille enim de nocte et silentio Chaos emissum dicit, dehinc de Chao et nocte 2Cupidinera, et ex hoc lumen, dehinc reliquam secundum eum 1 Sine dubio est Antiplianea iste, cujM ps/jrlaaro Tfdvrav Htr/oSos bi [Qeoyov.
'Atppoblrrjs yoval citantur ah Athenao, 116, 120]
pag.
seq.
Aristophanes
Wdvrotv pkv irpumaTa %dos yiver .
'H5' tpos, os irdmeo-ffi p.erairpiir€i d$a- .
. in the Aves describes the most ancient heathen cosmogony in terms that bear vdroiatv a close likeness to these statements of IreNjEUS.
The Gnostic theories have AwrtyueXTjs, (/.
I, Ai/TOTtXjjs) lis biov iv rots oCaiv irrdpxcw rwb. alrlav, tjtis Kivh.aci Kal <rtW£« t4 rpdyso much in common with the ancient philosophy of Greece that the reader ptara.
Tourous p.iv ohi irus xp^l 8t<vct/ia4 repl rov tis irpdros, i^iaru Kplvciv vartcan hardly dispense with an illustration from their sources :
Whether Love therefore was prior or subsequent to Chaos according to Aristotle was a matter for discussion.
The reading pov.
Metaph.
1. 4, see also 6. ij» Kal vi£, tpcfibt re p.i\cw Trpurov, Xdos Kal Hdprapos eiptos, Vij 5' ouo" dijp oub' ovpavbs t}v' ipifiovs 5' iv iwdpofn k6\voi$ IIktu rpiiriarov inrqvipAOv vv% iiftc\avbperhaps too philosophic, but is kirrorek^s harmonises with the following Orphic fragment, which also deduces all it TTT€pOS (pbv, 'E| ov irepiTtWofifrais iSpats tf}\a<rrev life from Love, and shews that the Evangelist's Christian axiom, God U 'Epws iroOetvbs,
ZrCkfiuv vwrov Trrepvyoiv xPvaa*v> cIkus Love, was not unknown to the heathen ii/ffuixeai btvais. as a tradition of Paradise the Hours pour forth, :
Ovtos bi Trepbevri fiiyels *vxfv> Kara Tdprapov efipdv, HpSrra p.iv dpxalov Xdeos pte\tJi<parov 'Evcbrrevocv yhos iiptirepov, Kal irpurov vprov, dv^yayev is 0<3s, Hpeaf3frraT4v re Kal airroreXrj Tro\6p.riTu> Jjv
yivos dBavdruv, Tplv Upbrepov o6k "Epurra "Ocaa t' dpvKaf diravTa, StiKptve "Epws awipu^ev airavra, [Ave8,6g$.] AMov 5* Abistotle Compare p. 14, note
3. da-' i\\ov.
Argon, ed. Steph. p. 17.
Pythagoras gave a practical appli quotes the authority of Hesiod and Parmenides as saying that Love the eter is cation to the tradition nal intellect, reducing Chaos into order :
Xlvdaybpas fKcyc, bio ravra iK rwv &v rtj, 'Htrlotiov wpw5'
'T7roirTci5(reie $€wv rots iyBpiirois SeSiffffai KdWurra, rov tyjTTjircu rb TOIOVTOV, KOV e? rts AXKoSj rb re d\T)8e6eu>, xal rb tbepyerttv.
Kal 'T&TriOufiilav iv rots oufftv idijicev
"E/jwra TcpoeerWn in Kal (oikc rois 6(dv tpyots ojs apxtyt otov Kal TLappxvlIhit.
Koi yap ovros KaraffKevdfav rty rod rrdyros yiixdrepoy.
^3El. Var. Hilt. XII.
59. re<ru>,Tlpdiriarov piv, <pr]trtv, (para $twv
ANTIPHANIS
THEOGONIA.
uaiLxTiu. primam deorum genesin.
Post quos rursus 'secundani deorumo. i« "mass Vix' generationem inducit, et mundi fabricationem ; dehinc de secundis '■ diis narrat 2hoininum plasmationem.
Unde ipsi assumentes sibi fabulam, quasi naturali disputatione commenti sunt, solunimodo demutantes eorum nomina, idipsum autein universorum generationis initium et emissionem ostendentes; pro nocte et silentio, Bythum et Sigen nominantes ; pro Chao autem, Nun ; et pro Cupidine, {per quern, ait Comicus, reliqua omnia disposita) hi Verbum attraxerunt ; et pro primis ac maximis diis, ^Eonas for1 Secundam deorum genenin.
The though involving a multiplicity of emanprimary generation of gods had its pa rallel in the ISiai of Plato, subsisting ative excellencies.
2 Philo Judaeus was mainly instru
as a system of Divine Intelligence in mental in causing the rise of Gnosticism, the mind of the Deity, the Pleroma of by bringing about that union of Jewish the Gnostic.
The secondary generation of gods is recognised no less clearly in those Sat/ubvta that had their origin with the mundane soul, and gave a divine life and movement to the sun, earth, interpretations of Biblical Truth with Platonism, that more than any thing else directed the attention of the schools to the Theosophy of the East.
So, as regards the creation of man, " Let ua planets, &c.
Where Plato speaks of make man," suggests to him the co operation of personified attributes in the Supreme Deity addressing these forming the creature of senBe ; while the subordinate Satiu'ma as 6Voi BeGiv, gods the offspring of gods, he scarcely means true or intellectual man was the creation the Dii majorum ac minorum gentium, but the Divine Principle of the Mun of the One Indivisible Divine Intellect.
Just as in the Platonic theory, man's dane Soul of which Himself was the material nature is the work of the $eol source, not the mythological gods that Scuv, his intellectual soul is an efflux of the Deity. Kal na&'
&oov piv avruv d6aaccording to popular credence were gene rated and born of others.
The imitative principle of the Valentinian theory was vdrots bp&vvpov efoat ir/><xn)iceideiov \eybpevov, Tryepovovv t' h airrdis tup d«i Sitcrj Kal i'u.lf iBeXburuv Ireadai, aretpas Kal a close copy of Plato, whose Supreme Deity delegates a creative energy to inrap^dpevos iyu Trapadwcrw to be \otvbv iipeU ddavdrip Bvyjrbv TrpoffVipalvovTet, k.t.X.
Tim. p. 41.
This refinement of these Bcol Sewv, and says, Tpiir«r6e Kara tptioiv vpxts tirl tt]v twv £wan* Sijpxovpytav, a twofold creation was unknown at an pup.ovp.fvoL tt]v Ipty buvapiv wepl t^jv earlier date ; it was adopted by the ifiCiv -ftveffiv.
Tim. p.
41.
With the Gnostic, pp.
171, 196, ■233, from the subordinate Haipdvia of the Platonic Cabbala of the Jews, 134, n. 1; 214, system, the Demiurge and seven angelic n. 1. The Pythagorean quoted by Clem, Al. Strom, v. 5, seems to have borrowed heavens may be identified.
Possibly this derivative tlieogoiiia was superadded by Plato from prudential motives, as from Moses ; rbv Aypiovpybv, <p-i$sa%, ai/rcp ■xp&p.evov irapabelypart Trotrjtrai rbv a disciple of Socrates, his own settled dvdpioirov, iirJryaycy' to be ckcTpoj Tots conviction being that there was only one
\onrots 5fioiovt ola ycyovbs tx rds aiVray Supreme Being ; and in the same way SXas, irro ti rexylTQ bi tlpyaapivw the Gnostic, in framing his system on AcjioTO), os {Texylrevaev avrbv dpxeTvirif the Platonic theory, would define the Being of God as one Infinite Pleroma, Wiadp.tvo$ (avrQ.