Inasmuch as certain men, setting the truth aside, are bringing in lying words and vain genealogies, which, as the Apostle says, minister questions rather than the edification of God which is in faith; and by means of their craftily constructed plausibility they lead astray the minds of the more inexperienced and take them captive, falsifying the oracles of the Lord and proving themselves bad interpreters of what was rightly spoken. They overturn many, drawing them away under the pretext of knowledge from him who founded and adorned this universe, as though they had something higher and greater to reveal than the God who made heaven and earth and all that is in them. With persuasive art they entice the simple into the habit of inquiry, but then unpersuasively destroy them by framing their opinion blasphemously and impiously concerning the Creator, while those they deceive are unable to distinguish falsehood from truth. For error does not show itself by itself, lest, being stripped bare, it be detected; but craftily adorned with a plausible covering, it contrives through outward appearance to present itself, to the more inexperienced, as truer even than the truth itself. As one better than we has said of such people, that a precious stone, an emerald of great value to some, is mimicked and counterfeited by glass made to resemble it through art, whenever there is no one able to test it and by skill to expose the skillfully made forgery; and when bronze is mixed with silver, who, being inexperienced, will easily be able to test it? Lest, then, through our fault some be carried off like sheep by wolves, not recognizing them because of their outward covering of sheep's skin (those whom the Lord charged us to beware of, speaking like us but thinking otherwise), I judged it necessary, having read the treatises of those who, as they themselves say, are disciples of Valentinus, and having met with some of them and grasped their opinion, to disclose to you, beloved, their monstrous and profound mysteries, which not all can contain, since not all have voided their brains; so that you also, learning them, may make them plain to all who are with you and exhort them to beware of the depth of folly and of the blasphemy against Christ God. And, so far as we are able, we shall briefly and clearly report the opinion of those who are now teaching these things, I mean the school of Ptolemaeus, which is a flower of the school of Valentinus, and we shall provide, according to our modest ability, the means to refute it, showing that what they say is foreign to and inconsistent with the truth. We are not accustomed to writing, nor have we practiced the art of words; but love urges us to disclose to you and to all who are with you those teachings hitherto hidden, but now by the grace of God come to light. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hidden that shall not be made known. You will not expect from us, who dwell among the Celts and are mostly occupied with a barbarous tongue, any art of speech, which we have not learned, nor any power of composition, which we have not practiced, nor beauty of words, nor persuasiveness, which we do not know; but you will receive in love what we have written to you in love, simply and truly and after the manner of a layman, and you yourself, being more capable than we, will enlarge it for yourself, as one who has received from us, as it were, seeds and beginnings, and in the breadth of your mind will bring forth abundant fruit from what we have said in few words, and will powerfully present to those with you what we have feebly reported. And as we have been zealous, since you have long sought to learn their opinion, not only to make it plain to you but also to give you means to show it false, so will you also zealously serve the rest, according to the grace given you by the Lord, that men may no longer be carried away by their plausible reasoning, which is of the following kind.
They say that in invisible and unnameable heights there is a certain perfect Aeon who existed before all things, whom they call Forefather and First-beginning and Bythos (Depth). He is uncontainable and invisible, eternal and unbegotten, and existed in great quiet and stillness through boundless ages of time. With him co-existed Thought, whom they also name Grace and Sige (Silence). At length this Bythos took thought to put forth from himself a beginning of all things; and this emission which he resolved to put forth he deposited, like a seed, as in a womb, in the Sige who co-existed with him. She, receiving this seed and becoming pregnant, brought forth Nous (Mind), like and equal to the one who emitted him, alone able to contain the greatness of the Father. This Nous they also call Only-begotten and Father and Beginning of all things. Together with him was emitted Aletheia (Truth); and these constitute the first and original Pythagorean Tetrad, which they also call the root of all things—namely Bythos and Sige, then Nous and Aletheia. This Only-begotten, perceiving for what purpose he had been put forth, himself emitted Logos (Word) and Zoe (Life), the father of all who were to come after him and the beginning and formation of the whole Pleroma. From Logos and Zoe were emitted, in conjugal pairing, Anthropos (Man) and Ecclesia (Church); and this is the original Ogdoad, the root and substance of all things, called among them by four names: Bythos, Nous, Logos, and Anthropos. For each of them is male-female: thus first the Forefather was united in pairing with his own Thought; the Only-begotten, that is Nous, with Aletheia; Logos with Zoe; and Anthropos with Ecclesia. These Aeons, having been emitted for the Father's glory and themselves wishing to glorify the Father by their own act, put forth emissions in pairs. Logos and Zoe, after emitting Anthropos and Ecclesia, emitted ten other Aeons, whose names they give as these: Bythios and Mixis, Ageratos and Henosis, Autophyes and Hedone, Akinetos and Synkrasis, Monogenes and Makaria—these are the ten Aeons whom they assert to have been emitted from Logos and Zoe. And Anthropos likewise, together with Ecclesia, emitted twelve Aeons, on whom they bestow these names: Parakletos and Pistis, Patrikos and Elpis, Metrikos and Agape, Aeinous and Synesis, Ekklesiastikos and Makariotes, Theletos and Sophia. These are the thirty Aeons of their error, who are kept silent and unknown. This is, according to them, the invisible and spiritual Pleroma, divided in three into an Ogdoad, a Decad, and a Dodecad. And for this reason they say that the Savior (for they do not wish to name him 'Lord') did nothing in public for thirty years, displaying the mystery of these Aeons. Moreover, in the parable of the laborers sent into the vineyard they say these thirty Aeons are most plainly indicated; for some are sent about the first hour, some about the third, some about the sixth, some about the ninth, and others about the eleventh. Now the aforesaid hours added together make up the number thirty: for one and three and six and nine and eleven make thirty; and so by the hours they would have the Aeons indicated. And these, they say, are the great and wonderful and ineffable Mysteries which they bring forth as fruit; and wherever anything said in many ways in the Scriptures can be fitted in, they liken it to their fabrication.
Now they say that their Forefather is known only to the Only-begotten who came into being from him, that is, to Nous; while to all the rest he is invisible and incomprehensible. According to them, Nous alone took delight in beholding the Father and rejoiced in contemplating his immeasurable greatness; and he was minded to communicate to the rest of the Aeons the greatness of the Father—how great and vast he was, and how he was without beginning and uncontainable and not to be comprehended by sight. But Sige restrained him by the Father's will, since the Father wished to lead them all to a thought and longing to seek out their aforesaid Forefather. And the rest of the Aeons likewise quietly longed in some way to see the one who had emitted their seed and to behold the root that had no beginning. But the last and youngest Aeon of the Dodecad, the one emitted by Anthropos and Ecclesia—that is, Sophia—rushed far ahead and suffered a passion apart from the embrace of her consort Theletos. This passion began among those around Nous and Aletheia, but turned aside into this perverted one, under the pretext of love, though in reality of audacity, because she had not been admitted to fellowship with the perfect Father as Nous had been. The passion was a search after the Father; for she wished, as they say, to grasp his greatness. Then, being unable to do so, because she had attempted an impossible thing, and being plunged into a very great struggle—both because of the magnitude of the Depth and the unsearchableness of the Father and her affection toward him—forever stretching forward, she would at last have been swallowed up by his sweetness and dissolved into the universal substance, had she not met with the power that strengthens and guards all things outside the ineffable greatness. This power they also call Horos (Limit); and by it she was checked and made firm, and with difficulty turned back to herself and convinced that the Father is incomprehensible, and laid aside her former intention along with the passion that had come upon her out of that astounding amazement.
Some of them, however, mythologize the passion of Sophia and her conversion in this way. Having attempted an impossible and incomprehensible thing, she brought forth a formless substance, of the kind that a female nature is able to bring forth. When she perceived it, she first grieved over the incompleteness of its generation, then feared that even its very existence might not be perfect; then she was beside herself and at a loss, seeking the cause and how she might conceal what had happened. Engulfed in these passions, she took a turning back, and attempted to run up to the Father; and having ventured for a time, she grew faint and became a suppliant of the Father. The rest of the Aeons joined in her entreaty, and especially Nous. From this, they say, substance had its first beginning—out of ignorance and grief and fear and consternation. Then the Father, upon these things, emits the aforesaid Horos through the Only-begotten, in his own image, without consort, without female. For sometimes they will have the Father exist with the consort Sige, and sometimes to be above-male and above-female. This Horos they also call Joint-Redeemer, Cross (Stauros), Redeemer, Emancipator, Limit-setter, and Conductor. By this Horos, they say, Sophia was purified and made firm and restored to her pairing. For when her Enthymesis (Intention) had been separated from her, together with the passion that came upon it, she herself remained within the Pleroma; but her Enthymesis, together with the passion, was set apart and excluded—crucified, as it were—by Horos, and being outside of it she was indeed a spiritual substance, being a kind of natural impulse of an Aeon, but formless and without shape because she had grasped nothing; and for this reason they call her a weak and female fruit.
After she had been set apart outside the Pleroma of the Aeons, and her Mother had been restored to her own pairing, the Only-begotten again, by the forethought of the Father, emitted another pair, Christ and the Holy Spirit, for the consolidating and strengthening of the Pleroma, lest any of the Aeons should suffer as she had; and by these the Aeons were perfected. For Christ taught them the nature of pairing, and that, having come to know the comprehension of the unbegotten, they were sufficient; and he proclaimed among them the knowledge of the Father—that he is uncontainable and incomprehensible, and cannot be seen or heard, but is known only through the Only-begotten. And the cause of eternal continuance for the rest is the first comprehensible aspect of the Father, while the cause of the generation and formation of the Only-begotten is that which is incomprehensible. Christ, just now emitted, wrought this among them. And the one Holy Spirit taught them, now made equal, to give thanks, and introduced the true rest. Thus, they say, the Aeons were established equal in form and disposition, all becoming Minds and all Words and all Men and all Christs; and the females likewise all Truths and all Lives and Spirits and Churches. When the whole had been made firm in this and had rested completely, with great joy, they say, it hymned the Forefather, having partaken of much gladness. And in return for this benefit, by one will and purpose the whole Pleroma of the Aeons, with the consent of Christ and the Spirit, and the Father setting his seal upon it, each one of the Aeons contributing and gathering together whatever was most beautiful and flourishing in himself, and weaving these together fittingly and uniting them harmoniously, put forth an emission to the honor and glory of Bythos—a most perfect beauty and star of the Pleroma, the perfect fruit, Jesus, who was also called Savior, and Christ, and Logos after the name of his fathers, and likewise All Things, because he is from all. And to him as bodyguards, for their own honor, kindred Angels were emitted along with him.
This, then, is what they call the transaction within the Pleroma: the calamity of the Aeon that suffered and was almost lost, as though through much matter, on account of its search for the Father; and the consolidation, out of struggle, of Horos—also called Pillar, Cross, Redeemer, Emancipator, Limit-setter, and Conductor; and the generation, later than the Aeons, of the first Christ together with the Holy Spirit, by their Father out of repentance; and the composite fashioning, out of a common contribution, of the second Christ, whom they also call Savior. These things, they say, were not stated openly, because not all can contain the knowledge, but were indicated in a mysterious way by the Savior through parables to those able to understand, thus: the thirty Aeons were indicated by the thirty years, as we said before, in which they assert the Savior did nothing in public; and by the parable of the laborers of the vineyard. They also say that Paul very plainly names these Aeons often, and even preserves their order, saying thus: 'unto all the generations of the age of the ages'; and that we too, in the Eucharist, when we say 'unto the ages of the ages,' signify those Aeons; and wherever an aeon or aeons are named, they would have the reference be to those. The emission of the Dodecad of the Aeons is indicated, they say, by the Lord's conversing with the teachers of the law when he was twelve years old, and by the choice of the Apostles, for there were twelve Apostles. And the remaining eighteen Aeons are made manifest, they say, by his being said to have stayed with the disciples for eighteen months after the resurrection from the dead; and also by the first two letters of his name, the iota and the eta, the eighteen Aeons are clearly indicated. And the ten Aeons likewise they say are signified by the letter iota, which is the first of his name; and for this reason the Savior said, 'One iota or one tittle shall not pass away until all be fulfilled.' The passion that occurred concerning the twelfth Aeon is hinted at, they say, by the apostasy through Judas, who was twelfth of the Apostles; the betrayal that took place demonstrates it, they say, and that he suffered in the twelfth month; for they hold that he preached for one year after his baptism. Further, this is shown in the woman with the issue of blood: for she suffered twelve years and was healed by the coming of the Savior, having touched the hem of his garment; and for this reason the Savior said, 'Who touched me?'—teaching the disciples the mystery that occurred among the Aeons and the healing of the Aeon that suffered. For the woman who suffered twelve years was that power; as her substance was being stretched out and flowing into the infinite, they say, had she not touched his garment—that is, the Truth of the first Tetrad, indicated by the hem—she would have been dissolved into her substance; but she stopped and ceased from the passion. For the power that went out from him—and this they will have to be Horos—healed her and separated the passion from her. And as for the Savior who, being from all, is the All, this is shown, they say, through the saying, 'Every male that opens the womb'; for he who is the All opened the womb of the Enthymesis of the Aeon that suffered, when it had been exiled outside the Pleroma—which they also call the second Ogdoad, of which we shall speak a little later. And they say this was plainly stated by Paul: 'And he is all things'; and again, 'All things unto him, and of him are all things'; and again, 'In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead'; and the saying, 'to gather up all things in Christ through God,' they interpret as spoken thus, and any other such passages.
Then, concerning their Horos, whom indeed they call by many names, they declare that he has two operations, the establishing and the dividing; and insofar as he establishes and makes firm, he is Cross, but insofar as he divides and separates, he is Horos (Limit). The Savior, they say, indicated his operations thus: first the establishing one, in saying, 'Whoever does not bear his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple,' and 'Taking up his cross, he follows me'; and the dividing one, in saying, 'I came not to bring peace but a sword.' John too, they say, indicated this very thing in saying, 'The winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire'; and by this he indicated the operation of Horos. For they interpret that winnowing fork to be the Cross, which indeed must consume all material things, as fire consumes chaff, but cleanse those who are saved, as the winnowing fork cleanses the wheat. And the Apostle Paul too, they say, makes mention of this Cross, thus: 'For the word of the cross is to those who perish foolishness, but to us who are saved the power of God'; and again, 'But far be it from me to glory in anything except in the cross of Jesus, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.' Such, then, are the things they say concerning their Pleroma and the fashioning of the universe, forcibly fitting what was rightly said to what they have wickedly devised. And not only from the Gospel and apostolic writings do they attempt to make their proofs, perverting the interpretations and falsifying the expositions, but also from the Law and the Prophets, inasmuch as many parables and allegories have been spoken, capable of being dragged into many meanings through their ambiguity by exposition; and others, terribly—nay, more terribly—and deceitfully fitting these to their fabrication, lead captive away from the truth those who do not keep firm their faith in one God the Father Almighty and in one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God.
The things they say concerning what is outside the Pleroma are of this kind. The Enthymesis (Intention) of the higher Sophia, which they also call (Achamoth), having been set apart from the upper Pleroma together with the passion, they say was cast out by necessity into places of shadow and emptiness. For she came to be outside the light and the Pleroma, formless and shapeless, like an abortion, because she had grasped nothing. The Christ above took pity on her and, having been extended through the Cross, by his own power gave her a forming—a forming according to substance only, but not according to knowledge; and having done this he ran back, withdrawing his power, and left her, so that, perceiving the passion that was about her on account of her separation from the Pleroma, she might long for the better things, having some fragrance of incorruptibility left to her by the Christ and the Holy Spirit. For this reason she too is called by both names—by the name of her father (for her father is called Sophia), and 'Holy Spirit' from the Spirit about Christ. Having been formed and made intelligent, but immediately emptied of the invisible Logos that had been with her—that is, of Christ—she set out in search of the light that had left her, and was unable to grasp it, because she was hindered by Horos. And here, they say, Horos, in hindering her from her forward impulse, said 'Iao'; whence, they assert, the name 'Iao' came to be. Unable to pass through Horos because she was entangled with the passion, and being left alone outside, she fell prey to every part of the passion, which is manifold and many-formed, and suffered: grief, that she had not grasped it; fear, lest, as the light had failed her, so life too might fail; and perplexity besides these; and all in ignorance. And not as her mother, the first Sophia and Aeon, did she have an alteration in her passions, but a contrariety. There also befell her another disposition, that of conversion toward the one who had given her life. They say this became the constitution and substance of matter, out of which this world is composed. For out of the conversion the whole soul of the world and of the Demiurge took its generation; and out of the fear and the grief the rest took their beginning. For from her tears came every watery substance; from her laughter, the luminous; and from her grief and consternation, the bodily elements of the world. For at one time she would weep and grieve, as they say, because she had been left alone in the darkness and the emptiness; at another, coming to a thought of the light that had left her, she would be diffused and laugh; and at another again she would fear; and at other times she would be at a loss and beside herself.
And what a great tragedy there was, after all, in this place, and the fanciful imagining of each one of them, expounding now this way and now that from what kind of passion and out of what element substance took its generation! These things seem to me, with good reason, not to be things they wish to teach all openly, but only those able to pay great fees for such great mysteries. For these are no longer like those of which our Lord said, 'Freely you have received, freely give,' but recondite and monstrous and profound mysteries, obtained with much labor by lovers of falsehood. For who would not spend all his possessions in order to learn that from the tears of the Enthymesis of the Aeon that suffered, seas and springs and rivers and every watery substance took their generation; from her laughter, the light; and from her consternation and helplessness, the bodily elements of the world? I wish, indeed, myself to contribute something to their fruit-bearing. Since I see that some waters are sweet, such as springs and rivers and showers and the like, but those in the seas are salt, I conceive that not all were emitted from her tears, since a tear is salt in quality; it is plain, then, that the salt waters are those from the tears. But it is likely that she, having come to be in much anguish and helplessness, also sweated; and hence, according to their hypothesis, we must suppose that springs and rivers and whatever other sweet waters exist took their generation from her sweat, not from her tears. For it is improbable, since the tears are of one quality, that both salt and sweet waters should proceed from them; this is more plausible, that some are from the tears and others from the sweat. And since there are also certain hot and acrid waters in the world, you ought to consider what she did, and from what part she emitted these; for such fruits suit their hypothesis. Having passed through every passion, then, and barely emerged, their Mother, they say, turned to supplication of the light that had left her—that is, of Christ. He, having ascended into the Pleroma, himself probably shrank from descending a second time, but sent forth to her the Paraclete—that is, the Savior—the Father having yielded to him all his power and handed over all things under his authority, and the Aeons likewise, so that in him all things might be created, visible and invisible, thrones, deities, dominions. He is sent forth to her with his contemporaries, the Angels. Achamoth, they say, abashed before him, at first out of modesty put on a veil; but afterward, seeing him with all his fruit-bearing, ran to him, receiving power from his appearing; and he gave her a forming—the forming according to knowledge—and effected a healing of her passions. Having separated these passions from her, yet not neglecting them—for they could not be made to vanish, like those of the former one, because they were now habitual and powerful—but having set them apart by separation, he then mingled and consolidated them, and changed them from incorporeal passion into the incorporeal substance of matter; and thus he wrought in them a fitness and nature such that they could come into combinations and bodies, so as to become two substances: the evil one of the passions, and the impassioned one of the conversion. And for this reason they assert that the Savior virtually became a Creator. And Achamoth, having come to be outside passion, and having conceived with joy the contemplation of the lights within him—that is, of the Angels who were with him—and having become pregnant by them, brought forth fruits after the image, they teach—a spiritual offspring formed after the likeness of the bodyguards of the Savior.
Three things, then, now being assumed by them—the one from the passion, which was matter; the one from the conversion, which was the psychic; and the one she brought forth, that is, the spiritual—she turned to the forming of these. But the spiritual she could not form, since it was of the same substance as herself; so she turned to the forming of the psychic substance that had come from her conversion, putting forth the lessons she had received from the Savior. And first, they say, she formed out of the psychic substance the Father and King of all—both of those of the same substance as himself, that is, the psychic, which they call 'right,' and of those from the passion and from matter, which they call 'left.' For they assert that he formed all things after him, being secretly moved by the Mother; whence they also call him Mother-father and Fatherless and Demiurge and Father—calling him father of the 'right,' that is, of the psychic, but Demiurge of the 'left,' that is, of the material, and King of them all. For this Enthymesis, wishing to make all things to the honor of the Aeons, made images of them, they say—or rather the Savior did so through her; and she kept herself in the image of the invisible Father, unknown to the Demiurge; but him in the image of the Only-begotten Son, and the rest of the Aeons in the Archangels and Angels that came into being through these. So they say he became Father and God of those outside the Pleroma, being maker of all things both psychic and material; for, having separated the two substances that were confused and made bodies out of the incorporeal, he fashioned both the heavenly and the earthly things, and became Demiurge of material and psychic, of right and left, of light and heavy, of things tending upward and tending downward. For he constructed seven heavens, above which they say the Demiurge is; and for this reason they call him Hebdomad, and his mother Achamoth Ogdoad, preserving the number of the original and pre-existent Ogdoad, prior to the first Ogdoad of the Pleroma. The seven heavens they say are intelligent; and they suppose them to be Angels, and the Demiurge himself also an Angel resembling God; as also Paradise, being above the third heaven, they say is virtually a fourth Angel, and that Adam received something from it while he dwelt in it. These things the Demiurge asserted he was constructing of himself, but he made them while Achamoth was putting them forth; he made heaven without knowing heaven, and fashioned man without knowing man, and showed forth the earth without understanding the earth; and so in all cases, they say, he was ignorant of the ideas of the things he made, and ignorant even of the Mother herself, but supposed himself alone to be all. They assert that the Mother became the cause of this supposition for him, having so wished to bring him forth as head and beginning of her own substance and lord of the whole transaction. This Mother they also call Ogdoad, and Sophia, and Earth, and Jerusalem, and Holy Spirit, and Lord in the masculine. She occupies the place of the Middle, and is above the Demiurge but below or outside the Pleroma, until the consummation.
Since, then, they say the material substance was constituted out of three passions—fear, grief, and perplexity—the psychic things took their constitution from fear and from conversion: from the conversion they will have the Demiurge to have had his generation, and from the fear the whole remaining psychic substance, such as the souls of irrational animals and beasts and men. For this reason, being too feeble to know anything spiritual, he supposed himself alone to be God, and said through the Prophets, 'I am God, and besides me there is none.' And from the grief, they teach, the spiritual things of wickedness came to be; whence the Devil had his generation, whom they also call Cosmocrator (world-ruler), and the demons and the angels and every spiritual substance of wickedness. But the Demiurge they call a son of their Mother, and the Cosmocrator a creature of the Demiurge; and the Cosmocrator knows the things above him, that they are spiritual things of wickedness, but the Demiurge is ignorant, since he is psychic. Their Mother dwells in the super-heavenly place, that is, in the Middle; the Demiurge in the heavenly place, that is, in the Hebdomad; and the Cosmocrator (Almighty) in this world of ours. From the consternation and the helplessness, as from the more insignificant, the bodily elements of the world came to be, as we said before: the earth according to the stasis of consternation, water according to the motion of the tears of fear, air according to the consolidation of grief; while fire is inherent in all of them as death and corruption, just as ignorance, they teach, is hidden in the three passions. Having made the world, then, he also made the earthy man—not from this dry earth, but taking from the invisible substance, from the diffuse and fluid part of matter; and into him, they determine, he breathed the psychic man. And this is the man made after the image and likeness: after the image is the material man, similar to, but not of the same substance as, God; after the likeness is the psychic man, whence also his substance was called 'breath of life,' being from a spiritual emanation. Afterward, they say, the garment of skin was put about him; and this they say is the perceptible flesh. But the offspring of their Mother, of Achamoth, which she brought forth according to the contemplation of the angels about the Savior, being of the same substance as the Mother, spiritual, even this the Demiurge was ignorant of, they say; and it was secretly deposited in him without his knowing, so that, sown through him into the soul that is from him and into this material body, and carried in the womb in these and grown, it might become ready for the reception of the perfect Logos. So there escaped the notice of the Demiurge, as they say, the spiritual man sown together with his inbreathing by Sophia, with ineffable power and providence. For as he was ignorant of the Mother, so also of her seed; which seed they say is itself also a Church, an antitype of the Church above. And this, they hold, is the man within them; so that they have the soul from the Demiurge, the body from the dust, the fleshly from matter, and the spiritual man from the Mother Achamoth.
There being, then, three things—the material, which they also call 'left,' they say of necessity perishes, since it is unable to receive any breath of incorruptibility; the psychic, which they also call 'right,' since it is intermediate between the spiritual and the material, goes wherever it makes its inclination; and the spiritual is sent forth so that, paired here with the psychic, it might be formed, being educated together with it in the course of life. And this, they say, is the salt and the light of the world; for the psychic things needed psychic and perceptible instruction. For this purpose, they say, the world too was constructed; and the Savior came to this psychic element, since it is also self-determining, in order to save it. For of those he was to save he received the first-fruits, they assert: from Achamoth, the spiritual; from the Demiurge, he put on the psychic Christ; from the dispensation, he was clothed with a body having psychic substance, constructed by ineffable skill so that it became both visible and tangible and capable of suffering. And of anything material he received nothing whatever, they say; for matter is not receptive of salvation. The consummation will be when all the spiritual is formed and perfected—that is, the spiritual men, those who have the perfect knowledge of God and of Achamoth; and these, they suppose, are the ones initiated into the mysteries. For the psychic things were taught to the psychic men, those confirmed by works and bare faith, and not having the perfect knowledge; and these, they say, are we who are of the Church. Therefore good conduct is necessary for us; for otherwise it is impossible to be saved. But themselves, they dogmatize, will be saved altogether and in every way—not through conduct, but because they are by nature spiritual. For as the earthy cannot partake of salvation (for they say it is not receptive of it), so again the spiritual—which they themselves are, as they would have it—cannot admit corruption, whatever sort of deeds they engage in. For just as gold deposited in mire does not cast off its beauty but keeps its own nature, the mire being unable to harm the gold, so too, they say, are they: whatever material deeds they engage in, they are in no way harmed nor do they cast off the spiritual substance.
Wherefore indeed the most perfect among them do without fear all the forbidden things, concerning which the Scriptures affirm that those who do them shall not inherit the kingdom of God. For they eat without distinction things offered to idols, thinking they are in no way defiled by them; and at every festal entertainment of the nations held in honor of the idols they are the first to assemble, so that some of them do not even abstain from the spectacle hateful to God and to men. Others, slavishly given over to the pleasures of the flesh to satiety, say that the fleshly things are to be rendered to the fleshly and the spiritual to the spiritual. And some of them secretly corrupt the women who are being taught this doctrine by them, as many women, often deceived by some of them and then converted to the Church of God, have confessed along with the rest of their error. Others, having grown shameless even openly, drew away from their husbands whatever women they desired, and regarded them as their own wives. Others again, at first making a solemn pretense of dwelling together as with sisters, were exposed in the course of time, the 'sister' having become pregnant by the 'brother.' And while doing many other foul and godless things, they run down us—who through fear of God guard ourselves against sinning even in thought and word—as ignorant and knowing nothing; but they exalt themselves on high, calling themselves perfect and seeds of election. For they say that we receive grace for use, and therefore it will be taken away from us; but that they have grace as their own possession, having descended from above from the ineffable and unnameable pairing; and for this reason it will be added to them. Therefore in every way they must always practice the mystery of the pairing. And this they persuade the foolish, saying in these very words: 'Whoever, being in the world, did not love a woman so as to possess her, is not of the truth and will not attain to the truth; but whoever, being of the world, was not possessed by a woman, will not attain to the truth, because he was not possessed in the desire of a woman.' For this reason, then, they name us, the good, 'psychic,' and say we are of the world, and that continence and good conduct are necessary for us, so that by it we may come to the place of the Middle; but for themselves, called spiritual and perfect, by no means—for it is not conduct that leads into the Pleroma, but the seed, which is sent forth from there as an infant and is perfected here. When all the seed has been perfected, they say their Mother Achamoth passes from the place of the Middle and enters within the Pleroma, and receives her bridegroom, the Savior, who came from all, so that a pairing comes to be of the Savior and the Sophia who is Achamoth. And this is bridegroom and bride, but the bridal chamber is the whole Pleroma. And the spiritual, having stripped off their souls and become intelligent spirits, entering uncontainably and invisibly within the Pleroma, will be given as brides to the angels about the Savior. The Demiurge himself will also pass over to the place of the Mother Sophia, that is, into the Middle; and the souls of the righteous will likewise rest in the place of the Middle. For nothing psychic enters within the Pleroma.
When these things have come about thus, they teach that the fire lurking in the world, blazing out and being kindled and consuming all matter, will be consumed together with it, and will pass into being no more. They declare that the Demiurge knew none of these things before the coming of the Savior. But there are those who say that he emitted a Christ as his own son, but psychic; and that he spoke concerning him through the Prophets. He is the one who passed through Mary, as water passes through a pipe; and upon him, at the baptism, descended that Savior from the Pleroma, from all, in the form of a dove. There came to be in him also that same spiritual seed from Achamoth. So they assert that our Lord became composite out of these four, preserving the type of the original and first Tetrad: out of the spiritual, which was from Achamoth; out of the psychic, which was from the Demiurge; out of the dispensation, which was constructed by ineffable skill; and out of the Savior, which was the dove that descended into him. And this one remained impassible (for it was not possible for him to suffer, being uncontainable and invisible); and for this reason, when he was led before Pilate, the Spirit of Christ that had been placed in him was taken up. Nor, they say, did the seed from the Mother suffer; for it too was impassible, being spiritual and invisible even to the Demiurge himself. There suffered, then, according to them, the psychic Christ and the one mysteriously constructed out of the dispensation, so that through him the Mother might display the type of the Christ above—that one who was extended on the Cross and formed Achamoth with the forming according to substance; for all these things, they say, are images of those. As for the souls that have received the seed of Achamoth, they say they became better than the rest; and therefore were loved more than the others by the Demiurge, who did not know the cause but reckoned them to be such of himself. Therefore, they say, he appointed them as prophets and priests and kings. And many things, they expound, were spoken by this seed through the prophets, inasmuch as it was of a higher nature; and many things also the Mother spoke concerning the things above, but also through this and through the souls that came from it. And so they cut up the prophecies, wishing some to have been spoken by the Mother, some by the seed, and some by the Demiurge. And Jesus likewise: some things spoken by the Savior, some by the Mother, some by the Demiurge, as we shall show as our discourse proceeds. The Demiurge, being ignorant of the things above him, was indeed moved by the things said, but despised them, supposing now one cause and now another—either the prophesying spirit, which had a certain movement of its own, or the man, or the intermixture of the inferior beings; and so he remained ignorant until the coming of the Lord. But when the Savior came, they say he learned all things from him, and gladly went over to him with all his power; and he is the centurion in the Gospel who says to the Savior, 'For I too have soldiers and servants under my own authority, and whatever I command, they do.' He will complete the dispensation concerning the world until the proper time, especially for the care of the Church, but also through the knowledge of the prize prepared for him, that he will pass to the place of the Mother.
They posit three kinds of men—spiritual, earthy, and psychic—just as there came to be Cain, Abel, and Seth; and from these the three natures, no longer in a single individual, but according to kind. The earthy passes into corruption; the psychic, if it chooses the better things, will rest in the place of the Middle, but if the worse, it too will pass to things like itself; while the spiritual things, whatever Achamoth sows from that time until now in righteous souls, having been educated and nurtured here—because they were sent forth as infants—and afterward deemed worthy of perfection, will be given as brides to the Angels of the Savior, as they dogmatize; their souls of necessity resting in the Middle together with the Demiurge forever. And the psychic souls themselves they subdivide again, saying that some are by nature good and some by nature evil. And the good are these, which become receptive of the seed; but those by nature evil could never receive that seed.
Such, then, being their hypothesis—which neither the Prophets proclaimed, nor the Lord taught, nor the Apostles handed down, and which they boast to know about the whole of things more fully than others, reading it out of writings that are not Scripture, and, as the saying goes, undertaking to weave ropes out of sand—they attempt to fit to their statements, in a way meant to seem credible, either the Lord's parables, or prophetic sayings, or apostolic words, so that their fabrication may not appear to be without witness; overstepping the order and connection of the Scriptures and, so far as in them lies, dissolving the members of the truth. They transfer and remold, and making one thing out of another, deceive many by the ill-compounded sophistry and fantasy of the dominical oracles they fit together. It is as if someone, when a beautiful image of a king had been carefully constructed out of precious gems by a skilled artist, were to dissolve the underlying figure of the man, transfer those gems and rearrange them, and make a form of a dog or a fox, and that too poorly made; and then should determine and say that this is that beautiful image of the king which the skilled artist constructed, pointing to the gems that had been beautifully composed by the first artist into the image of the king, but badly transferred by the later one into the form of a dog; and through the fantasy of the gems should mislead the more inexperienced, who have no grasp of the kingly form, and persuade them that this rotten figure of a fox is that beautiful image of the king. In the very same way these men, having stitched together old wives' fables, then dragging in words and expressions and parables from here and there, wish to fit the oracles of God to their own fables. And as for whatever they fit to the things within the Pleroma, we have stated it.
But whatever they try to appropriate from the Scriptures to the things outside their Pleroma is of this kind. The Lord, they say, came to his passion in the last times of the world for this reason: that he might display the passion that occurred concerning the last of the Aeons, and through that very end might make manifest the end of the transaction concerning the Aeons. That twelve-year-old maiden, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, whom the Lord, standing over her, raised from the dead, they explain to be a type of Achamoth, whom the Christ, having been extended, formed and brought to a perception of the light that had left her. And that the Savior appeared to her while she was outside the Pleroma, in the condition of an abortion, Paul, they say, declared in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: 'And last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.' Likewise the coming of the Savior with his contemporaries to Achamoth he made manifest, they say, in the same Epistle, when he said, 'A woman ought to have a covering on her head because of the angels.' And that, when the Savior came to her, Achamoth out of modesty put on a covering, Moses made plain, they say, by placing a veil on his face. And the passions which she suffered, the Lord, they assert, signified on the cross. In saying, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' he indicated, they say, that Sophia was abandoned by the light and was hindered by Horos from her forward impulse; her grief, in saying, 'My soul is sorrowful even unto death'; her fear, in saying, 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me'; and her perplexity likewise, in saying, 'And what shall I say? I know not.' They teach that he showed the three kinds of men thus: the material, in saying to the one who asked, 'Shall I follow you?'—'The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head'; the psychic, in saying to the one who said, 'I will follow you, but permit me first to take leave of those in my house'—'No one who has put his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven.' For this one, they say, is the intermediate. And likewise the one who confessed that he had done most of the parts of righteousness, but then was unwilling to follow and, overcome by riches, did not become perfect—him too they will have to be of the psychic kind. And the spiritual, in saying, 'Let the dead bury their own dead; but you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God'; and in saying to Zacchaeus the tax-collector, 'Make haste and come down, for today I must stay in your house.' For these, they declare, came to be of the spiritual kind. And the parable of the leaven, which the woman is said to have hidden in three measures of meal, they say signifies the three kinds; for by the woman, they teach, is meant Sophia; by the three measures of meal, the three kinds of men—spiritual, psychic, earthy; and by the leaven they teach the Savior himself to be meant. And Paul, they say, expressly named earthy, psychic, spiritual: in one place, 'As is the earthy, such also are the earthy'; in another, 'But the psychic man does not receive the things of the Spirit'; and in another, 'The spiritual man judges all things.' And the saying, 'the psychic does not receive the things of the Spirit,' they say is spoken of the Demiurge, who, being psychic, knew neither the Mother, who is spiritual, nor her seed, nor the Aeons in the Pleroma. And that the Savior took up the first-fruits of those he was to save, Paul declared, they say, in saying, 'And if the first-fruit is holy, so also is the lump.' By 'first-fruit' they teach the spiritual is meant; but by 'the lump,' us—that is, the psychic Church, whose lump they say he took up and consolidated in himself, since he was himself leaven.
And that Achamoth went astray outside the Pleroma, and was formed by the Christ, and was sought out by the Savior, they say he indicated in saying that he had come to the lost sheep. For by the lost sheep they explain their Mother to be meant, from whom they would have the Church here to have been sown; and by the wandering, her sojourn outside the Pleroma amid all the passions, out of which they suppose matter to have come into being. The woman who sweeps the house and finds the drachma they explain to mean the higher Sophia, who, having lost her Enthymesis, afterward—when all things have been cleansed through the coming of the Savior—finds her; and therefore she too is restored, according to them, within the Pleroma. Simeon, who took the Christ into his arms and gave thanks to him and said, 'Lord, now you let your servant depart according to your word in peace,' they say is a type of the Demiurge, who, when the Savior came, learned of his own transference and gave thanks to Bythos. And by the prophetess proclaimed in the Gospel, who had lived seven years with a husband, and remained a widow all the rest of the time until, seeing the Savior, she recognized him and spoke about him to all, they determine Achamoth to be most plainly indicated; she who, having seen the Savior with his contemporaries for a little while, remained for all the rest of the time in the Middle, awaiting him—when he would come again and restore her to her pairing. Her name too, they say, was indicated by the Savior in saying, 'And wisdom is justified by her children'; and by Paul thus: 'But we speak wisdom among the perfect.' And the pairings within the Pleroma Paul mentioned, they assert, when he showed it in a single instance; for writing concerning the pairing pertaining to life, he said: 'This mystery is great—but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.'
Furthermore, they teach that John, the disciple of the Lord, indicated the first Ogdoad in these very words, saying as follows: "John, the disciple of the Lord, wishing to set forth the origin of all things—according to which the Father brought forth everything—posits a certain Beginning, namely that which was first begotten by God, whom he has also called the Only-begotten Son and God, in whom the Father brought forth all things seminally. By him, he says, was the Logos brought forth, and in him the whole substance of the Aeons, which the Logos himself afterwards shaped. Since, then, he speaks of the first generation, he rightly makes his teaching begin from the Beginning, that is, from God and the Logos. And he speaks thus: 'In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God; the same was in the beginning with God.' Having first distinguished the three—God, Beginning, and Logos—he again unites them, in order that he may show both the bringing-forth of each of them, of the Son and of the Logos, and their union with one another as well as with the Father. For in the Father, and from the Father, is the Beginning; and in the Beginning, and from the Beginning, is the Logos. Rightly, then, did he say, 'In the beginning was the Logos,' for he was in the Son; 'and the Logos was with God,' for the Beginning also was so; 'and the Logos was God,' as follows—for that which is begotten of God is God; 'the same was in the beginning with God.' He showed the order of the bringing-forth: 'all things were made through him, and without him was nothing made,' for the Logos became the cause of form and generation to all the Aeons that came after him. But he indicated further: 'The whole,' he said, 'was made through him, but life was in him.' This life, then, which came to be in him, is more closely akin to him than the things made through him; for it co-exists with him and bears fruit through him. For since he adds, 'and the life was the light of men,' having just spoken of Man, he indicated the Church homonymously with Man, so that by the one name he might disclose the fellowship of the conjunction; for from the Logos and Life come Man and Church. And he called Life the light of men, because they are enlightened by her—that is, formed and made manifest. This Paul also says: 'For everything that is made manifest is light.' Since, then, Life manifested and begot both Man and the Church, she is said to be their light. Plainly, then, John has disclosed through these words, among other things, also the second Tetrad: Logos and Life, Man and Church. But indeed he also indicated the first Tetrad; for in expounding concerning the Savior, and saying that everything outside the Pleroma was shaped through him, he says that he is the fruit of the whole Pleroma. For he has also called him the light that shines in the darkness and was not overtaken by it, since, having fitted together all the things that came from the passion, he was unknown to it. And he calls him Son, and Truth, and Life, and the Logos made flesh; 'whose glory,' he says, 'we beheld, and his glory was such as that of the Only-begotten, given to him by the Father, full of grace and truth.' And he speaks thus: 'And the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.' Accurately, then, he indicated also the first Tetrad, naming the Father, and Grace, and the Only-begotten, and Truth. Thus has John spoken concerning the first Ogdoad, the mother of all the Aeons. For he named the Father, and Grace, and the Only-begotten, and Truth, and the Logos, and Life, and Man, and..."
You see, beloved, the method by which those who use it deceive themselves, doing violence to the Scriptures and attempting to establish their own fabrication out of them. For this reason I have set down their very words, that from them you may perceive the cunning of their method and the wickedness of their error. For, in the first place, if John had set out to indicate the upper Ogdoad, he would have kept the order of the bringing-forth, and would have placed the first Tetrad—which is, as they say, the most venerable—first among the names, and would then have joined the second to it, so that through the order of the names the order of the Ogdoad might be shown; nor would he, after so great an interval, as though he had forgotten and then recalled it, have mentioned the first Tetrad at the very end. Then again, wishing to signify the conjunctions, he would not have omitted the name of the Church; but either, in the case of the rest of the conjunctions too, he would have been content with naming the males, since the females could likewise be understood along with them—so that he might have preserved the unity throughout—or, if he enumerated the consorts of the others, he would also have indicated the consort of Man, and would not have left you to take her name from divination. Manifest, therefore, is the falsification of their exposition. For while John proclaims one God Almighty and one Only-begotten Christ Jesus, through whom he says all things were made—declaring this one to be the Son, the Logos of God, this one the Only-begotten, this one the Maker of all, this one the true Light that enlightens every man, this one the Maker of the world, this one as having come to his own, this very one as having become flesh and dwelt among us—these men, perverting the exposition according to plausibility, want the Only-begotten to be one, according to the bringing-forth, whom they also call Beginning; and they want the Savior to be another, and the Logos, son of the Only-begotten, another, and the Christ—brought forth for the setting-right of the Pleroma—another; and lifting each of these named things from the truth, and abusing the names, they have transferred them to their own hypothesis, so that according to them in all these passages John makes no mention of the Lord Jesus Christ. For if he named Father, and Grace, and Only-begotten, and Truth, and Logos, and Life, and Man, and Church, then according to their hypothesis he was speaking of the first Ogdoad, in which there was as yet no Jesus, as yet no Christ, the teacher of John. But that it was not concerning their conjunctions that the Apostle spoke, but concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he also knows to be the Logos of God, he himself has made plain. For recapitulating concerning the Logos which he had previously spoken of above 'in the beginning,' he further explains: 'And the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us.' But according to their hypothesis it was not the Logos that became flesh, for he never even went outside the Pleroma; rather it was the Savior of the dispensation, who was later than the Logos...
Learn, then, you foolish ones, that Jesus, who suffered for us, who took up his dwelling among us—this very one is the Logos of God. For if some other one of the Aeons had become flesh for the sake of your salvation, it would have been reasonable for the Apostle to be speaking of another. But if it is the Logos of the Father who descended that is also the one who ascended—the Only-begotten Son of the only God, made flesh for the sake of men according to the good pleasure of the Father—then he has composed his words not concerning any other, nor concerning the Ogdoad, but concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. For according to them the Logos did not become flesh as a primary matter. Rather they say that the Savior put on a psychic body, prepared out of the dispensation by an ineffable providence, in order to become visible and tangible. But the flesh is that ancient formation, made by God out of the dust according to Adam, which John indicated the Logos of God truly to have become. And so their first and primordial Ogdoad is dissolved. For since one and the same is shown to be Logos, and Only-begotten, and Life, and Light, and Savior, and Christ, and Son of God, and this same one made flesh for us, the tabernacle-pitching of the Ogdoad is dissolved. And once this is dissolved, their whole hypothesis collapses—the hypothesis which, dreaming falsely, they run down the Scriptures to support, having fabricated their own hypothesis. Then, gathering up words and names lying scattered here and there, they transfer them, as we have said before, from their natural sense into one contrary to nature; doing the same as those who set themselves any chance subjects and then try to elaborate them out of the poems of Homer, so that the more inexperienced suppose that Homer composed his verses upon that subject just improvised, and many are carried away by the well-knit sequence of the verses into thinking that Homer may indeed have composed them so. As does the one who writes thus, in Homeric lines, about Heracles being sent by Eurystheus after the dog in Hades (for nothing prevents us from citing these too by way of example, since the attempt is alike and the same in both cases): 'So saying, he sent forth from his house, groaning heavily, the man Heracles, skilled in great deeds, did Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus, son of Perseus, to bring from Erebus the dog of hateful Hades. And he went, like a mountain-bred lion confident in his strength, swiftly through the city; and all his friends followed after, both maidens and youths and much-enduring old men, weeping bitterly, as for one going to his death. And Hermes sent him forth, and grey-eyed Athena; for she knew in her heart her brother, how he toiled.' Who among the unsophisticated would not be carried away by these verses, and suppose that Homer composed them thus upon this subject? But one experienced in the Homeric subject will recognize the verses, but will not recognize the subject, knowing that one part of them was spoken of Odysseus, another of Heracles himself, another of Priam, another of Menelaus and Agamemnon. And lifting them out and restoring each to its own place, he will make their fabricated subject vanish. So too the one who holds within himself the rule of the truth unswerving, which he received through baptism, will recognize the names from the Scriptures, and the expressions, and the parables, but will not recognize this blasphemous subject of theirs. For even if he recognizes the gems, yet he will not accept the fox in place of the royal image; but restoring each of the things said to its own order, and fitting it to the body of the truth, he will lay bare and show to be unsubstantial their fabrication. But since this stage-play lacks the redemption (apolytrosis), so that one who has rehearsed their very mime may bring in the refuting argument, we have thought it well first to show in what points the very fathers of this myth differ from one another, as being from different spirits of error. For from this, even before the demonstration, it will be possible to discern accurately the truth proclaimed by the Church as firm, and the falsehood counterfeited by these men.
This Ptolemy, then, and those with him, have advanced as more 'expert' for you than their own teacher; for he devised and bestowed two consorts upon God—upon the one whom they call Bythos. These he also called dispositions, namely Thought (Ennoia) and Will (Thelema). For first, he says, God conceived (in thought) to bring forth, then he willed. So that from these two dispositions, or powers, of Thought and Will, blended into one another, there resulted the bringing-forth of the Only-begotten and Truth.
Those of Ptolemy's school say that he (Bythos) has two consorts, which they also call dispositions, namely Thought (Ennoia) and Will (Thelesis). For first, as they say, he conceived to bring something forth, and then he willed. Therefore, from these two dispositions and powers, that of Thought and that of Will, blended as it were into one another, the bringing-forth of the Only-begotten and of Truth came about according to conjunction. As types and images of the two dispositions of the Father there came forth, from the invisible things, visible ones: of Will, Truth; and of Thought, Mind (Nous). And through this Will, the male became the image of the unbegotten Thought, and the female the image of the Will; Will, then, became a power of Thought. For Thought indeed conceived the bringing-forth, but could not by herself bring forth what she conceived. But when the power of Will came upon her, then what she had conceived was brought forth. (And so types and images of the two dispositions of the Father passed forth from the invisible things into visible ones: of Will, Mind; and of Thought, Truth; and on account of this supervening Will, the masculine became the image of the unbegotten Thought, the feminine; since Will, as it were, became a power of Thought. For Thought indeed always conceived the bringing-forth, but could not by herself bring it forth; but when the power of Will came, then what was conceived was brought forth.) Or rather (this is said) of the Lord of all things, who, at the very moment of being conceived, has also accomplished that which he willed; and at the very moment of willing, also conceives that which he willed—conceiving that which he also wills, and willing then, at the moment he conceives: being wholly Thought, wholly Will, wholly Mind, wholly light, wholly eye, wholly hearing, wholly the fountain of all good things.
(They say that) the first Ogdoad was not brought forth by way of descent, one Aeon by another, but that the bringing-forth of the six Aeons was produced all together and at once by the Forefather (Propator) and his Thought (Ennoia)—as he himself, having served as midwife, asserts. And no longer (do they derive), from Logos and Life, Man and Church, and from Man (the rest), as the others do; but from Man and Church (they say) Logos and Life were produced—he himself and his followers (so teach), but in a different manner. For they say this: that what the Forefather conceived to bring forth was called Father; and since what he brought forth was true, this was named Truth; and when he willed to manifest himself, this was called Man; and those whom he had thought of beforehand when he brought forth, this was named Church. And the Man (brought forth) the Logos—this is the firstborn Son; and Life follows upon the Logos; and thus the first Ogdoad was completed.
There is also much dispute among them concerning the Savior. For some say that he came to be out of all (the Aeons); and for this reason he is also called "Well-pleasing" (Eudoketos), because the whole Pleroma was well pleased through him to glorify the Father. Others say that he was brought forth from the ten Aeons alone, those from Logos and Life, and that he preserves the ancestral names. Others (say he was brought forth) from the twelve Aeons that came from Man and Church; and for this reason he confesses himself to be Son of Man, as a descendant of Man. Others say that he came to be from Christ and the Holy Spirit, who were brought forth for the support of the Pleroma; and for this reason he is called Christ, preserving the appellation of the Father, from whom he was brought forth. And still others among them, so to speak, certain rhapsodists, say that the Forefather of all is called Fore-beginning (Proarche) and Fore-ruler (Proarchos) and Inconceivable Man (Proanennoetos Anthropos); and that this is the great and hidden mystery: that the power above all things and comprehensive of all things is called Man; and for this reason the Savior calls himself Son of Man.
A certain Marcus drew to himself women and men who had been led astray—both deceived (women) and deceived (men)—being supposed, wretched man, to be a corrector of the aforementioned impostors, while being himself most expert in magical trickery. Having deceived all the aforementioned men and women into giving heed to him as the most 'gnostic,' and (as having) the greatest power from the invisible and unnameable regions—(Another teacher of theirs, Marcus, expert in magic, deceived many, partly through the trickery of gifts and incantations, partly also through demons. He used to say that in himself was the greatest power from the invisible and unnameable regions. And indeed, often taking a cup, etc.)—he has truly been shown to be a forerunner of the Antichrist. For mixing the tricks of Anaxilaus with the cunning of the so-called magicians, by means of these he produces illusions and works his magic, and surrounds with astonishment those who see and are persuaded by him. And those who behold these things, done by sleight of hand, suppose that certain powers are being accomplished in his hands. For they too, having lost their mind, do not see, not knowing how to test, that the constitution of his trickery is brought about, so to speak, by magic.
Pretending to give thanks over cups mixed with wine, and prolonging at greater length the word of invocation, he causes them to appear purple and red, so that it seems that the Grace from the regions above all things drops her own blood into that cup through his invocation, and that those present are filled with longing to taste of that draught, that the Grace invoked by this magician may rain down also into them. And again, handing mixed cups to women, he bids them give thanks while he stands by. And when this is done, he himself, bringing forward another cup much larger than that over which the deceived woman gave thanks, and holding it, and pouring over into it from the smaller cup (the one over which the woman had given thanks) into the one prepared by himself, says meanwhile thus: "May the Grace that is before all things, the inconceivable and ineffable, fill your inner man and multiply in you her knowledge, sowing the grain of mustard seed in the good ground." And having said some such things, and having driven the wretched woman to frenzy, he appears as a wonder-worker, when the larger cup is filled from the smaller, so that it even overflows from it. And doing some other things similar to these, he has deceived many and led them away after himself. And it is likely that he has even some demon as an attendant, through whom he himself seems to prophesy, and causes to prophesy as many as he deems worthy to be partakers of his grace. For he busies himself especially about women, and of these the well-dressed, the purple-robed, and the wealthiest, whom he often tries to draw to himself, fawning upon them and saying: "I want to impart to you of my grace, since the Father of all things continually beholds your angel before his face; and the place of greatness is in us—we must establish ourselves into one. Receive first from me, and through me, the grace. Make yourself ready, as a bride awaiting her bridegroom, that you may be what I am, and I what you are. Establish in your bridal-chamber the seed of light. Receive from me the bridegroom, and give him room, and find room in him. Behold, grace has descended upon you; open your mouth and prophesy." And when the woman answers, "I have never prophesied, and I do not know how to prophesy," then, making certain invocations a second time to astound the deluded woman, he says to her: "Open your mouth, speak whatever you please, and you shall prophesy." And she, puffed up and beguiled by the things aforesaid, her soul inflamed by the expectation that she is about to prophesy, her heart throbbing more than it ought, ventures to speak, and speaks foolish and random things, all emptily and rashly, as one heated by an empty spirit—(just as our better said concerning such people, that "a soul heated by empty air is rash and shameless")—and from then on she reckons herself a prophetess, and gives thanks to Marcus, who imparted of his own grace to her; and she tries to repay him, not only by the giving of her possessions (whence too he has amassed a great quantity of money), but also by the fellowship of her body, eager to be united with him in every way, that she may descend with him into the One.
But already certain of the more faithful women, those who have the fear of God and were not deceived, whom he attempted to lead astray in the same way as the rest, bidding them prophesy—these, having blown upon him in disgust and pronounced a curse upon him, separated themselves from such a company; for they knew accurately that prophesying does not come to men through Marcus the magician, but that those to whom God sends his grace from above, these have their prophecy as a gift from God, and then they speak where and when God wills, but not when Marcus commands. For that which commands is greater and more authoritative than that which is commanded, since the one leads and the other is subordinate. If, then, Marcus commands—or someone else, as these people are always wont to play at the banquets of their lot, and to bid one another prophesy, and to prophesy to themselves according to their own desires—then the one commanding will be greater and more authoritative than the prophetic Spirit, being a man, which is impossible. But such spirits as are commanded by them, and speak whenever they themselves wish, are unsound and feeble, yet bold and shameless, sent forth by Satan for the deception and ruin of those who do not keep firm the faith which they received from the beginning through the Church.
That this Marcus produces in some of the women, if not in all, love-philters and aphrodisiac charms—so as even to outrage their bodies—these women, having often turned back to the Church of God, have confessed: both that they were bodily corrupted by him, and that they had loved him most passionately; so that even a certain deacon of ours in Asia, having received him into his house, fell into this misfortune, his wife being beautiful in form, and being corrupted both in mind and in body by this magician, and having followed after him for a long time. Then, after the brethren with much labor had converted her back, she spent her whole time in confession, mourning and lamenting over the corruption which she had suffered at the hands of the magician.
And certain of his disciples too, going about in the same regions, deceiving and corrupting many little women, proclaim themselves to be perfect, as though no one were able to be made equal to the greatness of their knowledge—not even if you should name Paul, nor Peter, nor any other of the Apostles; but (they claim) that they have known more than all, and that they alone have drunk down the greatness of the knowledge of the ineffable power. And (they say) that they are on a height above every power; and therefore they freely do all things, having fear of nothing in anything. For through the redemption (apolytrosis) they become beyond the grasp and invisible to the judge. And if he should lay hold of them, then, standing before him with the redemption, they would say these words: "O assessor of God and of the mystical Silence (Sige) that is before the ages of ages—you whom the Greatnesses (Megethe), ever beholding the face of the Father, use as a guide and conductor, drawing up on high their forms—the forms which that great-daring one (the Mother), having phantasized them, brought forth as us, the images, on account of the goodness of the Forefather, having then the remembrance of the things above as a dream: behold, the judge is near, and the herald bids me make my defense; but do you, as one who knows the affairs of both, present to the judge the word on behalf of us both, as being one." And the Mother, as soon as she hears these things, puts upon them the Homeric helmet of Hades, so that they may invisibly escape the judge; and straightway snatching them up, she leads them into the bridal-chamber and gives them over to their own bridegrooms.
By saying and doing such things, these men have deceived many women even in our own regions of the Rhone valley—women whose conscience has been seared. Some of them confess publicly, but others are ashamed to do so and, in silence, having quietly given up all hope of the life of God, some have utterly fallen away, while others waver between the two and suffer what the proverb describes, being "neither outside nor inside." This is the fruit they have to show for the seed of the children of (their so-called) knowledge.