Church Fathers: Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 3: 3.01.49 Tertullian - Against Valentinians - Ch 1-18

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Church Fathers: Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 3: 3.01.49 Tertullian - Against Valentinians - Ch 1-18



TOPIC: Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 3 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 3.01.49 Tertullian - Against Valentinians - Ch 1-18

Other Subjects in this Topic:

The Writings of Tertullian

Part Second - Anti-Marcion (Cont.)

III. Against the Valentinians.

In Which the Author Gives a Concise Account of, Together with Sundry Caustic Animadversions on, the Very Fantastic Theology of the Sect. This Treatise Is Professedly Taken from the Writings of Justin, Miltiades, Irenaeus, and Proculus.

Chap. I. - Introductory. Tertullian Compares the Heresy to the Old Eleusinian Mysteries. Both Systems Alike in Preferring Concealment of Error and Sin to Proclamation of Truth and Virtue.

The Valentinians, who are no doubt a very large body of heretics - comprising as they do so many apostates from the truth, who have a propensity for fables, and no discipline to deter them (therefrom) care for nothing so much as to obscure1 what they preach, if indeed they (can be said to) preach who obscure their doctrine. The officiousness with which they guard their doctrine is an officiousness which betrays their guilt.2 Their disgrace is proclaimed in the very earnestness with which they maintain their religious system. Now, in the case of those Eleusinian mysteries, which are the very heresy of Athenian superstition, it is their secrecy that is their disgrace. Accordingly, they previously beset all access to their body with tormenting conditions;3 and they require a long initiation before they enrol (their members),4 even instruction during five years for their perfect disciples,5 in order that they may mould6 their opinions by this suspension of full knowledge, and apparently raise the dignity of their mysteries in proportion to the craving for them which they have previously created. Then follows the duty of silence. Carefully is that guarded, which is so long in finding. All the divinity, however, lies in their secret recesses:7 there are revealed at last all the aspirations of the fully initiated,8 the entire mystery of the sealed tongue, the symbol of virility. But this allegorical representation,9 under the pretext of nature’s reverend name, obscures a real sacrilege by help of an arbitrary symbol,10 and by empty images obviates11 the reproach of falsehood!12 In like manner, the heretics who are now the object of our remarks,13 the Valentinians, have formed Eleusinian dissipations14 of their own, consecrated by a profound silence, having nothing of the heavenly in them but their mystery.15 By the help of the sacred names and titles and arguments of true religion, they have fabricated the vainest and foulest figment for men’s pliant liking,16 out of the affluent suggestions of Holy Scripture, since from its many springs many errors may well emanate. If you propose to them inquiries sincere and honest, they answer you with stern17 look and contracted brow, and say, “The subject is profound.” If you try them with subtle questions, with the ambiguities of their double tongue, they affirm a community of faith (with yourself). If you intimate to 504 them that you understand their opinions, they insist on knowing nothing themselves. If you come to a close engagement with them they destroy your own fond hope of a victory over them by a self-immolation.18 Not even to their own disciples do they commit a secret before they have made sure of them. They have the knack of persuading men before instructing them; although truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by first persuading.





Chap. II. - These Heretics Brand the Christians as Simple Persons. The Charge Accepted, and Simplicity Eulogized out of the Scriptures.

For this reason we are branded19 by them as simple, and as being merely so, without being wise also; as if indeed wisdom were compelled to be wanting in simplicity, whereas the Lord unites them both: “Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and simple as doves.” (Mat_10:16) Now if we, on our parts, be accounted foolish because we are simple, does it then follow that they are not simple because they are wise? Most perverse, however, are they who are not simple, even as they are most foolish who are not wise. And yet, (if I must choose) I should prefer taking20 the latter condition for the lesser fault; since it is perhaps better to have a wisdom which falls short in quantity, than that which is bad in quality21 - better to be in error than to mislead. Besides, the face of the Lord22 is patiently waited for by those who “seek Him in simplicity of heart,” as says the very Wisdom - not of Valentinus, but - of Solomon. (Wisdom of Solomon 1:1) Then, again, infants have borne23 by their blood a testimony to Christ. (Would you say) that it was children who shouted “Crucify Him”?24 They were neither children nor infants; in other words, they were not simple. The apostle, too, bids us to “become children again” towards God,25 “to be as children in malice” by our simplicity, yet as being also “wise in our practical faculties.”26 At the same time, with respect to the order of development in Wisdom, I have admitted27 that it flows from simplicity. In brief, “the dove” has usually served to figure Christ; “the serpent,” to tempt Him. The one even from the first has been the harbinger of divine peace; the other from the beginning has been the despoiler of the divine image. Accordingly, simplicity alone28 will be more easily able to know and to declare God, whereas wisdom alone will rather do Him violence,29 and betray Him.





Chap. III. - The Folly of This Heresy. It Dissects and Mutilates the Deity. Contrasted with the Simple Wisdom of True Religion. To Expose the Absurdities of the Valentinian System Is to Destroy It.

Let, then, the serpent hide himself as much as he is able, and let him wrest30 all his wisdom in the labyrinths of his obscurities; let him dwell deep down in the ground; let him worm himself into secret holes; let him unroll his length through his sinuous joints;31 let him tortuously crawl, though not all at once,32 beast as he is that skulks the light. Of our dove, however, how simple is the very home! - always in high and open places, and facing the light! As the symbol of the Holy Spirit, it loves the (radiant) East, that figure of Christ.33 Nothing causes truth a blush, except only being hidden, because no man will be ashamed to give ear thereto. No man will be ashamed to recognise Him as God whom nature has already commended to him, whom he already perceives in all His works,34 - Him indeed who is simply, for this reason, imperfectly known; because man has not thought of Him as only one, because he has named Him in a plurality (of gods), and adored Him in other forms. Yet,35 to induce oneself to turn from this multitude of deities to another crowd,36 to remove from a familiar authority to an unknown one, to wrench oneself from what is manifest to what is hidden, is to offend faith on the very threshold. Now, even suppose that you are initiated into the entire fable, will it not occur to you that you have heard something very like it from your fond nurse37 when you were a baby, amongst 505 the lullabies she sang to you37 about the towers of Lamia, and the horns of the sun?38 Let, however, any man approach the subject from a knowledge of the faith which he has otherwise learned, as soon as he finds so many names of Aeons, so many marriages, so many offsprings, so many exits, so many issues, felicities and infelicities of a dispersed and mutilated Deity, will that man hesitate at once to pronounce that these are “the fables and endless genealogies” which the inspired apostle39 by anticipation condemned, whilst these seeds of heresy were even then shooting forth? Deservedly, therefore, must they be regarded as wanting in simplicity, and as merely prudent, who produce such fables not without difficulty, and defend them only indirectly, who at the same time do not thoroughly instruct those whom they teach. This, of course, shows their astuteness, if their lessons are disgraceful; their unkindness, if they are honourable. As for us, however, who are the simple folk, we know all about it. In short, this is the very first weapon with which we are armed for our encounter; it unmasks40 and brings to view41 the whole of their depraved system.42 And in this we have the first augury of our victory; because even merely to point out that which is concealed with so great an outlay of artifice,43 is to destroy it.





Chap. IV. - The Heresy Traceable to Valentinus, an Able but Restless Man. Many Schismatical Leaders of the School Mentioned. Only One of Them Shows Respect to the Man Whose Name Designates the Entire School.

We know, I say, most fully their actual origin, and we are quite aware why we call them Valentinians, although they affect to disavow their name. They have departed, it is true,44 from their founder, yet is their origin by no means destroyed; and even if it chance to be changed, the very change bears testimony to the fact. Valentinus had expected to become a bishop, because he was an able man both in genius and eloquence. Being indignant, however, that another obtained the dignity by reason of a claim which confessorship45 had given him, he broke with the church of the true faith. Just like those (restless) spirits which, when roused by ambition, are usually inflamed with the desire of revenge, he applied himself with all his might46 to exterminate the truth; and finding the clue47 of a certain old opinion, he marked out a path for himself with the subtlety of a serpent. Ptolemaeus afterwards entered on the same path, by distinguishing the names and the numbers of the Aenons into personal substances, which, however, he kept apart from God. Valentinus had included these in the very essence of the Deity, as senses and affections of motion. Sundry bypaths were then struck off therefrom, by Heraclean and Secundus and the magician Marcus. Theotimus worked hard about “the images of the law.” Valentinus, however, was as yet nowhere, and still the Valentinians derive their name from Valentinus. Axionicus at Antioch is the only man who at the present time does honour48 to the memory of Valentinus, by keeping his rules49 to the full. But this heresy is permitted to fashion itself into as many various shapes as a courtezan, who usually changes and adjusts her dress every day. And why not? When they review that spiritual seed of theirs in every man after this fashion, whenever they have hit upon any novelty, they forthwith call their presumption a revelation, their own perverse ingenuity a spiritual gift; but (they deny all) unity, admitting only diversity.50 And thus we clearly see that, setting aside their customary dissimulation, most of them are in a divided state, being ready to say (and that sincerely) of certain points of their belief, “This is not so;” and, “I take this in a different sense;” and, “I do not admit that.” By this variety, indeed, innovation is stamped on the very face of their rules; besides which, it wears all the colourable features of ignorant conceits.51



Chap. V. - Many Eminent Christian Writers Have Carefully and Fully Refuted the Heresy. These the Author Makes His Own Guides.

My own path, however, lies along the original tenets52 of their chief teachers, not with the self-appointed leaders of their promiscuous53 followers. Nor shall we hear it said of us from any quarter, that we have of our own mind fashioned our own materials, since these have been already produced, both in respect of the opinions and their refutations, in carefully written volumes, by so many eminently 506 holy and excellent men, not only those who have lived before us, but those also who were contemporary with the heresiarchs themselves: for instance Justin, philosopher and martyr; [see Vol. 1. pp. 171, 182, this series]. Miltiades, the sophist54 of the churches Irenaeus, that very exact inquirer into all doctrines;55 our own Proculus, the model56 of chaste old age and Christian eloquence. All these it would be my desire closely to follow in every work of faith, even as in this particular one. Now if there are no heresies at all but what those who refute them are supposed to have fabricated, then the apostle who predicted them (1Co_11:19) must have been guilty of falsehood. If, however, there are heresies, they can be no other than those which are the subject of discussion. No writer can be supposed to have so much time on his hands57 as to fabricate materials which are already in his possession.





Chap. VI. - Although Writing in Latin He Proposes to Retain the Greek Names of the Valentinian Emanations of Deity. Not to Discuss the Heresy but Only to Expose It. This with the Raillery Which Its Absurdity Merits.

In order then, that no one may be blinded by so many outlandish58 names, collected together, and adjusted at pleasure,59 and of doubtful import, I mean in this little work, wherein we merely undertake to propound this (heretical) mystery, to explain in what manner we are to use them. Now the rendering of some of these names from the Greek to as to produce an equally obvious sense of the word, is by no means an easy process: in the case of some others, the genders, are not suitable; while others, again, are more familiarly known in their Greek form. For the most part, therefore, we shall use the Greek names; their meanings will be seen on the margins of the pages. Nor will the Greek be unaccompanied with the Latin equivalents; only these will be marked in lines above, for the purpose of explaining60 the personal names, rendered necessary by the ambiguities of such of them as admit some different meaning. But although I must postpone all discussion, and be content at present with the mere exposition (of the heresy), still, wherever any scandalous feature shall seem to require a castigation, it must be attacked61 by all means, if only with a passing thrust.62 Let the reader regard it as the skirmish before the battle. It will be my drift to show how to wound63 rather than to inflict deep gashes. If in any instance mirth be excited, this will be quite as much as the subject deserves. There are many things which deserve refutation in such a way as to have no gravity expended on them. Vain and silly topics are met with especial fitness by laughter. Even the truth may indulge in ridicule, because it is jubilant; it may play with its enemies, because it is fearless.64 Only we must take care that its laughter be not unseemly, and so itself be laughed at; but wherever its mirth is decent, there it is a duty to indulge it. And so at last I enter on my task.





Chap. VII. - The First Eight Emanations, or Aeons, Called the Ogdoad, Are the Fountain of All the Others. Their Names and Descent Recorded.

Beginning with Ennius,65 the Roman poet, he simply spoke of “the spacious saloons66 of heaven,” - either on account of their elevated site, or because in Homer he had read about Jupiter banqueting therein. As for our heretics, however, it is marvellous what storeys upon storeys67 and what heights upon heights, they have hung up, raised and spread out as a dwelling for each several god of theirs. Even our Creator has had arranged for Him the saloons of Ennius in the fashion of private rooms,68 with chamber piled upon chamber, and assigned to each god by just as many staircases as there were heresies. The universe, in fact, has been turned into “rooms to let.”69 Such storeys of the heavens you would imagine to be detached tenements in some happy isle of the blessed,70 I know not where. There the god even of the Valentinians has his dwelling in the attics. They call him indeed, as to his essence, Αἰῶν τέλειος (Perfect Aeon), but in respect of his personality, Προαρχή (Before the Beginning), Ἡ Ἀρχή (The Beginning), and sometimes Bythos (Depth),71 a name 507 which is most unfit for one who dwells in the heights above! They describe him as unbegotten, immense, infinite, invisible, and eternal; as if, when they described him to be such as we know that he ought to be, they straightway prove him to be a being who may be said to have had such an existence even before all things else. I indeed insist upon72 it that he is such a being; and there is nothing which I detect in beings of this sort more obvious, than that they who are said to have been before all things - things, too, not their own - are found to be behind all things. Let it, however, be granted that this Bythos of theirs existed in the infinite ages of the past in the greatest and profoundest repose, in the extreme rest of a placid and, if I may use the expression, stupid divinity, such as Epicurus has enjoined upon us. And yet, although they would have him be alone, they assign to him a second person in himself and with himself, Ennoea (Thought), which they also call both Charis (Grace) and Sige (Silence). Other things, as it happened, conduced in this most agreeable repose to remind him of the need of by and by producing out of himself the beginning of all things. This he deposits in lieu of seed in the genital region, as it were, of the womb of his Sige. Instantaneous conception is the result: Sige becomes pregnant, and is delivered, of course in silence; and her offspring is Nus (Mind), very like his father and his equal in every respect. In short, he alone is capable of comprehending the measureless and incomprensible greatness of his father. Accordingly he is even called the Father himself, and the Beginning of all things, and, with great propriety, Monogenes (The Only-begotten). And yet not with absolute propriety, since he is not born alone. For along with him a female also proceeded, whose name was Veritas73 (Truth). But how much more suitably might Monogenes be called Protogenes (First begotten), since he was begotten first! Thus Bythos and Sige, Nus and Veritas, are alleged to be the first fourfold team74 of the Valentinian set (of gods)75 the parent stock and origin of them all. For immediately when76 Nus received the function of a procreation of his own, he too produces out of himself Sermo (the Word) and Vita (the Life). If this latter existed not previously, of course she existed not in Bythos. And a pretty absurdity would it be, if Life existed not in God! However, this offspring also produces fruit, having for its mission the initiation of the universe and the formation of the entire Pleroma: it procreates Homo (Man) and Ecclesia (the Church). Thus you have an Ogdoad, a double Tetra, out of the conjunctions of males and females - the cells77 (so to speak) of the primordial Aeons, the fraternal nuptials of the Valentinion gods, the simple originals78 of heretical sanctity and majesty, a rabble79 - shall I say of criminals80 or of deities?81 - at any rate, the fountain of all ulterior fecundity.





Chap. VIII. - The Names and Descent of Other Aeons; First Half a Score, Then Two More, and Ultimately a Dozen Besides. These Thirty Constitute the Pleroma. But Why Be so Capricious as to Stop at Thirty?

For, behold, when the second Tetrad - Sermo and Vita, Homo and Ecclesia82 - had borne fruit to the Father’s glory, having an intense desire of themselves to present to the Father something similar of their own, they bring other issue into being83 - conjugal of course, as the others were84 - by the union of the twofold nature. On the one hand, Sermo and Vita pour out at a birth a half-score of Aeons; on the other hand, Homo and Ecclesia produce a couple more, so furnishing an equipoise to their parents, since this pair with the other ten make up just as many as they did themselves procreate. I now give the names of the half-score whom I have mentioned: Bythios (Profound) and Mixis (Mixture), Ageratos (Never old) and Henosis (Union), Autophyes (Essential nature) and Hedone (Pleasure), Acinetos (Immoveable) and Syncrasis (Commixture,) Monogenes (Only-begotten) and Macaria (Happiness). On the other hand, these will make up the number twelve (to which I have also referred): Paracletus (Comforter) and Pistis (Faith), Patricas (Paternal) and Elpis (Hope), Metricos (Maternal) and Agape (Love), Ainos (Praise)85 and Synesis (Intelligence), Ecclesiasticus (Son of Ecclesia) and Macariotes (Blessedness) Theletus86 (Perfect) and Sophia (Wisdom). I cannot help87 here quoting from a like example what may serve to show the import of 508 these names. In the schools of Carthage there was once a certain Latin rhetorician, an excessively cool fellow,88 whose name was Phosphorus. He was personating a man of valour, and wound up89 with saying, “I come to you, excellent citizens, from battle, with victory for myself, with happiness for you, full of honour, covered with glory, the favourite of fortune, the greatest of men, decked with triumph.” And forthwith his scholars begin to shout for the school of Phosphorus, φεῦ90 (ah!) Are you a believer in91 Fortunata, and Hedone, and Acinetus, and Theletus? Then shout out your φεῦ for the school of Ptolemy. (see above, chap. iv. p. 505) This must be that mystery of the Pleroma, the fulness of the thirty-fold divinity. Let us see what special attributes92 belong to these numbers - four, and eight, and twelve. Meanwhile with the number thirty all fecundity ceases. The generating force and power and desire of the Aeons is spent.93 As if there were not still left some strong rennet for curdling numbers.94 As if no other names were to be got out of the page’s hall!95 For why are there not sets of fifty and of a hundred procreated? Why, too, are there no comrades and boon companions96 named for them?





Chap. IX. - Other Capricious Features in the System. The Aeons Unequal in Attributes. The Superiority of Nus; the Vagaries of Sophia Restrained by Horos. Grand Titles Borne by This Last Power.

But, further, there is an “acceptance97 of persons,” inasmuch as Nus alone among them all enjoys the knowledge of the immeasurable Father, joyous and exulting, while they of course pine in sorrow. To be sure, Nus, so far as in him lay, both wished and tried to impart to the others also all that he had learnt about the greatness and incomprehensibility of the Father; but his mother, Sige, interposed - she who (you must know) imposes silence even on her own beloved heretics;98 although they affirm that this is done at the will of the Father, who will have all to be inflamed with a longing after himself. Thus, while they are tormenting themselves with these internal desires, while they are burning with the secret longing to know the Father, the crime is almost accomplished. For of the twelve Aeons which Homo and Ecclesia had produced, the youngest by birth (never mind the solecism, since Sophia (Wisdom) is her name), unable to restrain herself, breaks away without the society of her husband Theletus, in quest of the Father and contracts that kind of sin which had indeed arisen amongst the others who were conversant with Nus but had flowed on to this Aeon,99 that is, to Sophia; as is usual with maladies which, after arising in one part of the body, spread abroad their infection to some other limb. The fact is,100 under a pretence of love to the Father, she was overcome with a desire to rival Nus, who alone rejoiced in the knowledge of the Father.101 But when Sophia, straining after impossible aims, was disappointed of her hope, she is both overcome with difficulty, and racked with affection. Thus she was all but swallowed up by reason of the charm and toil (of her research),102 and dissolved into the remnant of his substance;103 nor would there have been any other alternative for her than perdition, if she had not by good luck fallen in with Horus (Limit). He too had considerable power. He is the foundation of the great104 universe, and, externally, the guardian thereof. To him they give the additional names of Crux (Cross), and Lytrotes (Redeemer,) and Carpistes (Emancipator).105 When Sophia was thus rescued from danger, and tardily persuaded, she relinquished further research after the Father, found repose, and laid aside all her excitement,106 or Enthymesis (Desire,) along with the passion which had come over her.





Chap. X. - Another Account of the Strange Aberrations of Sophia, and the Restraining Services of Horus. Sophia Was Not Herself, After All, Ejected from the Pleroma, but Only Her Enthymesis.

But some dreamers have given another account of the aberration107 and recovery of 509 Sophia. After her vain endeavours, and the disappointment of her hope, she was, I suppose, disfigured with paleness and emaciation, and that neglect of her beauty which was natural to one who108 was deploring the denial of the Father, - an affliction which was no less painful than his loss. Then, in the midst of all this sorrow, she by herself alone, without any conjugal help, conceived and bare a female offspring. Does this excite your surprise? Well, even the hen has the power of being able to bring forth by her own energy.109 They say, too, that among vultures there are only females, which become parents alone. At any rate, she was another without aid from a male, and she began at last to be afraid that her end was even at hand. She was all in doubt about the treatment110 of her case, and took pains at self-concealment. Remedies could nowhere be found. For where, then, should we have tragedies and comedies, from which to borrow the process of exposing what has been born without connubial modesty? While the thing is in this evil plight, she raises her eyes, and turns them to the Father. Having, however, striven in vain, as her strength was failing her, she falls to praying. Her entire kindred also supplicates in her behalf, and especially Nus. Why not? What was the cause of so vast an evil? Yet not a single casualty111 befell Sophia without its effect. All her sorrows operate. Inasmuch as all that conflict of hers contributes to the origin of Matter. Her ignorance, her fear, her distress, become substances. Hereupon the Father by and by, being moved, produces in his own image, with a view to these circumstances112 the Horos whom we have mentioned above; (and this he does) by means of Monogenes Nus, a male-female (Aeon), because there is this variation of statement about the Father’s113 sex. They also go on to tell us that Horos is likewise called Metagogius, that is, “a conductor about,” as well as Horothetes (Setter of Limits). By his assistance they declare that Sophia was checked in her illicit courses, and purified from all evils, and henceforth strengthened (in virtue), and restored to the conjugal state: (they add) that she indeed remained within the bounds114 of the Pleroma, but that her Enthymesis, with the accruing115 Passion, was banished by Horos, and crucified and cast out from the Pleroma, - even as they say, Malum foras! (Evil, avaunt!) Still, that was a spiritual essence, as being the natural impulse of an Aeon, although without form or shape, inasmuch as it had apprehended nothing, and therefore was pronounced to be an infirm and feminine fruit.116



Chap. XI. - The Profane Account Given of the Origin of Christ and the Holy Ghost Sternly Rebuked. An Absurdity Respecting the Attainment of the Knowledge of God Ably Exposed.

Accordingly, after the banishment of the Enthymesis, and the return of her mother Sophia to her husband, the (illustrious) Monogenes, the Nus,117 released indeed from all care and concern of the Father, in order that he might consolidate all things, and defend and at last fix the Pleroma, and so prevent any concussion of the kind again, once more118 emits a new couple119 (blasphemously named). I should suppose the coupling of two males to be a very shameful thing, or else the one120 must be a female, and so the male is discredited121 by the female. One divinity is assigned in the case of all these, to procure a complete adjustment among the Aeons. Even from this fellowship in a common duty two schools actually arise, two chairs,122 and, to some extent,123 the inauguration of a division in the doctrine of Valentinus. It was the function of Christ to instruct the Aeons in the nature of their conjugal relations124 (you see what the whole thing was, of course!), and how to form some guess about the unbegotten,125 and to give them the capacity of generating within themselves the knowledge of the Father; it being impossible to catch the idea of him, or comprehend him, or, in short, even to enjoy any perception of him, either by the eye or the ear, except through Monogenes (the Only-begotten). Well, I will even grant them what they allege about knowing the Father, so that they do not refuse us (the attainment of) the same. I would rather point out what is perverse in their doctrine, how they were taught that the incomprehensible part of the Father was the cause of their own perpetuity,126 whilst that which might be comprehended 510 of him was the reason127 of their generation and formation. Now by these several positions128 the tenet, I suppose, is insinuated, that it is expedient for God not to be apprehended, on the very ground that the incomprehensibility of His character is the cause of perpetuity; whereas what in Him is comprehensible is productive, not of perpetuity, but rather of conditions which lack perpetuity-namely, nativity and formation. The Son, indeed, they made capable of comprehending the Father. The manner in which He is comprehended, the recently produced Christ fully taught them. To the Holy Spirit, however, belonged the special gifts, whereby they, having been all set on a complete par in respect of their earnestness to learn, should be enabled to offer up their thanksgiving, and be introduced to a true tranquillity.





Chap. XII. - The Strange Jumble of the Pleroma. The Frantic Delight of the Members Thereof. Their Joint Contribution of Parts Set Forth with Humorous Irony.

Thus they are all on the self-same footing in respect of form and knowledge, all of them having become what each of them severally is; none being a different being, because they are all what the others are.129 They are all turned into130 Nuses, into Homos, into Theletuses;131 and so in the case of the females, into Siges, into Zoes, into Ecclesias, into Forunatas, so that Ovid would have blotted out his own Metamorphoses if he had only known our larger one in the present day. Straightway they were reformed and thoroughly established, and being composed to rest from the truth, they celebrate the Father in a chorus132 of praise in the exuberance of their joy. The Father himself also revelled133 in the glad feeling; of course, because his children and grandchildren sang so well. And why should he not revel in absolute delight? Was not the Pleroma freed (from all danger)? What ship’s captain134 fails to rejoice even with indecent frolic? Every day we observe the uproarious ebullitions of sailors’ joys.135 Therefore, as sailors always exult over the reckoning they pay, in common, so do these Aeons enjoy a similar pleasure, one as they now all are in form, and, as I may add,136 in feeling too. With the concurrence of even their new brethren and masters,137 they contribute into one common stock the best and most beautiful thing with which they are severally adorned. Vainly, as I suppose. For if they were all one by reason by the above-mentioned thorough equalization, there was no room for the process of a common reckoning,138 which for the most part consists of a pleasing variety. They all contributed the one good thing, which they all were. There would be, in all probability, a formal procedure139 in the mode or in the form of the very equalization in question. Accordingly, out of the donation which they contributed140 to the honour and glory of the Father, they jointly fashion141 the most beautiful constellation of the Pleroma, and its perfect fruit, Jesus. Him they also surname142 Soter (Saviour) and Christ, and Sermo (Word) after his ancestors;143 and lastly Omnia (All Things), as formed from a universally culled nosegay,144 like the jay of Aesop, the Pandora of Hesiod, the bowl145 of Accius, the honey-cake of Nestor, the miscellany of Ptolemy. How much nearer the mark, if these idle title-mongers had called him Pancarpian, after certain Athenian customs.146 By way of adding external honour also to their wonderful puppet, they produce for him a bodyguard of angels of like nature. If this be their mutual condition, it may be all right; if, however, they are consubstantial with Soter (for I have discovered how doubtfully the case is stated), where will be his eminence when surrounded by attendants who are co-equal with himself?





Chap. XIII. - First Part of the Subject, Touching the Constitution of the Pleroma, Briefly Recapitulated. Transition’ to the Other Part, Which Is like a Play Outside the Curtain.

In this series, then, is contained the first emanation of Aeons, who are alike born, and are married, and produce offspring: there are the most dangerous fortunes of Sophia in her ardent longing for the Father, the most seasonable help of Horos, the expiation of her 511 Enthymesis and accruing Passion, the instruction of Christ and the Holy Spirit, their tutelar reform of the Aeons, the piebald ornamentation of Sorer, the consubstantial retinue147 of the angels. All that remains, according to you, is the fall of the curtain and the clapping of hands.148 What remains in my opinion, however, is, that you should hear and take heed. At all events, these things are said to have been played out within the company of the Pleroma, the first scene of the tragedy. The rest of the play, however, is beyond the curtain - I mean outside of the Pleroma. And yet if it be such within the bosom of the Father, within the embrace of the guardian Horos, what must it be outside, in free space,149 where God did not exist?





Chap. XIV. - The Adventures of Achamoth Outside the Pleroma. The Mission of Christ in Pursuit of Her. Her Longing for Christ. Horos’ Hostility to Her. Her Continued Suffering.

For Enthymesis, or rather Achamoth - because by this inexplicable150 name alone must she be henceforth designated - when in company with the vicious Passion, her inseparable companion, she was expelled to places devoid of that light which is the substance of the Pleroma, even to the void and empty region of Epicurus, she becomes wretched also because of the place of her banishment. She is indeed without either form or feature, even an untimely and abortive production. Whilst she is in this plight,151 Christ descends from152 the heights, conducted by Horos, in order to impart form to the abortion, out of his own energies, the form of substance only, but not of knowledge also. Still she is left with some property. She has restored to her the odour of immortality, in order that she might, under its influence, be overcome with the desire of better things than belonged to her present plight.153 Having accomplished His merciful mission, not without the assistance of the Holy Spirit, Christ returns to the Pleroma. It is usual out of an abundance of things154 for names to be also forthcoming. Enthymesis came from action;155 whence Achamoth came is still a question; Sophia emanates from the Father, the Holy Spirit from an angel. She entertains a regret lot Christ immediately after she had discovered her desertion by him. Therefore she hurried forth herself, in quest of the light of Him Whom she did not at all discover, as He operated in an invisible manner; for how else would she make search for His light, which was as unknown to her as He was Himself? Try, however, she did, and perhaps would have found Him, had not the self-same Horos, who had met her mother so opportunely, fallen in with the daughter quite as unseasonably, so as to exclaim at her IAO! just as we hear the cry “Porro Quirites” (“Out of the way, Romans!”), or else Fidem Caesaris!” (“By the faith of Caesar!”), whence (as they will have it) the name ΙΑΟ comes to be found is the Scriptures.156 Being thus hindered from proceeding further, and being unable to surmount157 the Cross, that is to say, Horos, because she had not yet practised herself in the part of Catullus’ Laureolus,158 and given over, as it were, to that passion of hers in a manifold and complicated mesh, she began to be afflicted with every impulse thereof, with sorrow, - because she had not accomplished her enterprise, with fear, - lest she should lose her life, even as she had lost the light, with consternation, and then with ignorance. But not as her mother (did she suffer this), for she was an Aeon. Hers, however, was a worse suffering, considering her condition; for another tide of emotion still overwhelmed her, even of conversion to the Christ, by Whom she had been restored to life, and had been directed159 to this very conversion.





Chap. XV. - Strange Account of the Origin of Matter, from the Various Affections of Achamoth. The Waters from Her Tears; Light from Her Smile.

Well, now, the Pythagoreans may learn, the Stoics may know, Plato himself (may discover), whence Matter, which they will have to be unborn, derived both its origin and substance for all this pile of the world - (a mystery) which not even the renowned160 Mercurius Trismegistus, master (as he was) of all 512 physical philosophy, thought out.161 You have just heard of Conversion,” one element in the “Passion” (we have so often mentioned). Out of this the whole life of the world,162 and even that of the Demiurge himself, our God, is said to have had its being. Again, you have heard of “sorrow” and “fear.” From these all other created things163 took their beginning. For from her164 tears flowed the entire mass of waters. From this circumstance one may form an idea of the calamity165 which she encountered, so vast were the kinds of the tears wherewith she overflowed. She had salt tear-drops, she had bitter, and sweet, and warm, and cold, and bituminous, and ferruginous, and sulphurous, and even166 poisonous, so that the Nonacris exuded therefrom which killed Alexander; and the river of the Lyncestae167 flowed from the same source, which produces drunkenness; and the Salmacis168 was derived from the same source, which renders men effeminate. The rains of heaven Achamoth whimpered forth,169 and we on our part are anxiously employed in saving up in our cisterns the very wails and tears of another. In like manner, from the “consternation” and “alarm” (of which we have also heard), bodily elements were derived. And yet amidst so many circumstances of solitude, in this vast prospect of destitution, she occasionally smiled at the recollection of the sight of Christ, and from this smile of joy light flashed forth. How great was this beneficence of Providence, which induced her to smile, and all that we might not linger for ever in the dark! Nor need you feel astonished how170 from her joy so splendid an element171 could have beamed upon the world, when from her sadness even so necessary a provision172 flowed forth for man. O illuminating smile! O irrigating tear! And yet it might now have acted as some alleviation amidst the horror of her situation; for she might have shaken off all the obscurity thereof as often as she had a mind to smile, even not to be obliged to turn suppliant to those who had deserted her.173



Chap. XVI. - Achamoth Purified from All Impurities of Her Passion by the Paraclete, Acting Through Soter, who out of the Above-Mentioned Impurities Arranges Matter, Separating Its Evil from the Better Qualities.

She, too, resorts to prayers, after the manner of her mother. But Christ, Who now felt a dislike to quit the Pleroma, appoints the Paraclete as his deputy. To her, therefore, he despatches Soter,174 (who must be the same as Jesus, to whom the Father imparted the supreme power over the whole body of the Aeons, by subjecting them all to him, so that “by him,” as the apostle says, “all things were created” (Col_1:16)), with a retinue and cortege of contemporary angels, and (as one may suppose) with the dozen fasces. Hereupon Achamoth, being quite struck with the pomp of his approach, immediately covered herself with a veil, moved at first with a dutiful feeling of veneration and modesty; but afterwards she surveys him calmly, and his prolific equipage.175 With such energies as she had derived from the contemplation, she meets him with the salutation, Κύριε, χαῖρε (“Hail, Lord”)! Upon this, I suppose, he receives her, confirms and conforms her in knowledge, as well as cleanses176 her from all the outrages of Passion, without, however, utterly severing them, with an indiscriminateness like that which had happened in the casualties which befell her mother. For such vices as had become inveterate and confirmed by practice he throws together; and when he had consolidated them in one mass, he fixes them in a separate body, so as to compose the corporeal condition of Matter, extracting out of her inherent, incorporeal passion such an aptitude of nature177 as might qualify it to attain to a reciprocity of bodily substances,178 which should emulate one another, so that a twofold condition of the substances might be arranged; one full of evil through its faults, the other susceptible of passion from conversion. This will prove to be Matter, which has set us in battle array against Hermogenes, and all others who presume to teach that God made all things out of Matter, not out of nothing.





Chap. XVII. - Achamoth in Love with the Angels. A Protest Against the Lascivious Features of Valentinianism. Achamoth Becomes the Mother of Three Natures.

Then Achamoth, delivered at length from all her evils, wonderful to tell179 goes on and 513 bears fruit with greater results. For warmed with the joy of so great an escape from her unhappy condition, and at the same time heated with the actual contemplation of the angelic luminaries (one is ashamed) to use such language, but there is no other way of expressing one’s meaning), she during the emotion somehow became personally inflamed with desire180 towards them, and at once grew pregnant with a spiritual conception, at the very image of which the violence of her joyous transport, and the delight of her prurient excitement had imbibed and impressed upon her. She at length gave birth to an offspring, and then there arose a leash of natures,181 from a triad of causes, - one material, arising from her passion; another animal, arising from her conversion; the third spiritual, which had its origin in her imagination.





Chap. XVIII. - Blasphemous Opinion Concerning the Origin of the Demiurge, Supposed to Be the Creator of the Universe.

Having become a better proficient182 in practical conduct by the authority which, we may well suppose,183 accrued to her from her three children, she determined to impart form to each of the natures. The spiritual one however, she was unable to touch, inasmuch as she was herself spiritual. For a participation in the same nature has, to a very great extent,184 disqualified like and consubstantial beings from having superior power over one another. Therefore185 she applies herself solely to the animal nature, adducing the structions of Soter (see above, chap. xvi. p. 512) (for her guidance). And first of all (she does) what cannot be described and read, and heard of, without an intense horror at the blasphemy thereof: she produces this God of ours, the God of all except of the heretics, the Father and Creator186 and King of all things, which are inferior to him. For from him do they proceed. If, however, they proceed from him, and not rather from Achamoth, or if only secretly from her, without his perceiving her, he was impelled to all that he did, even like a puppet187 which is moved from the outside. In fact, it was owing to this very ambiguity about the personal agency in the works which were done, that they coined for him the mixed name of (Motherly Father),188 whilst his other appellations were distinctly assigned according to the conditions and positions of his works: so that they call him Father in relation to the animal substances to which they give the place of honour189 on his right hand; whereas, in respect of the material substances which they banish190 to his left hand, they name him Demiurgus; whilst his title King designates his authority over both classes, nay over the universe.191





FOOTNOTES



1 Occultant. [This tract may be assigned to any date not earlier than A.D. 207. Of this Valentinus, see cap. iv. infra, and de Præscript. capp. 29, 30, supra.

2 We are far from certain whether we have caught the sense of the original, which we add, that the reader may judge for himself, and at the same time observe the terseness of our author: “Custodiæ officium conscientiæ officium est, confusio prædicatur, dum religio asseveratur.”

3 Et aditum prius cruciant.

4 Antequam consignant.

5 Epoptas: see Suidas, s.v. Ἐπόπται.

6 Ædificent.

7 Adytis.

8 Epoptarum.

9 Dispositio.

10 Patrocinio coactæ figuræ.

11 Excusat.

12 “Quid enim aliud est simulachrum nisi falsum?” (Rigalt.)

13 Quos nunc destinamus.

14 Lenocinia.

15 Taciturnitate.

16 Facili caritati. Oehler, after Fr. Junius, gives, however, this phrase a sensitive turn thus: “by affecting a charity which is easy to them, costing nothing.”

17 Concreto.

18 Sua cæde.

19 Notamur.

20 In the original phrase is put passively: “malim eam partem meliori sumi vitio.”

21 How terse is the original! minus sapere quam pejus.

22 Facies Dei.

23 Litaverunt: “consecrated.”

24 Tertullian’s words are rather suggestive of sense than of syntax “Pueros vocem qui crucem clamant?”

25 Secundum Deum: “according to God’s will.”

26 1Co_14:20, where Tertullian renders this ταῖς φρεσί