愛任紐殘篇 第 1-7 章

So then this Marcus, claiming that he himself had become a womb and a receptacle (inasmuch as he was, as he says, the "Only-begotten" to her), thus brought forth, after a fashion, what had been deposited into him from the Deficiency. He says that the supreme Tetrad came down to him from those invisible and unnameable regions in the form of a woman—because, he says, the world could not bear her male nature—and revealed to him who she was and disclosed to him alone the origin of all things, which she had never before revealed to anyone, whether of gods or of men. She spoke as follows: When first the Forefather—he who is unimaginable and without substance, who is neither male nor female—willed that his unspeakable be made utterable and his invisible be given form, he opened his mouth and uttered a Word (Logos) like himself; this Word stood beside him and showed him what he himself was, having appeared as the form of the Invisible. And the pronunciation of the Name came about in this way: He spoke the first word of his name, which was a beginning, and its syllable was of four letters (στοιχεῖα). Then he joined on the second, and it too was of four letters. Next he spoke the third, and it was of ten letters. Then he spoke the one after these, and it was of twelve letters. So the utterance of the whole name was of thirty letters but four syllables. Each of the letters has its own characters, its own form, its own pronunciation, and its own figures and images; yet none of them perceives the form of that whole of which it is itself an element. Indeed, no one of them knows it, nor does it know the pronunciation of its neighbor; each, rather, sounds its own part as if it were the whole, supposing that in uttering its own sound it is naming the All. For each of them, being a part of the whole, sounds its own note as though it were the All, and does not cease sounding until, speaking with a single tongue, it arrives at the last letter of the last element. Then, he said, the restoration (apokatastasis) of all things would come to pass, when all things, descending into the one letter, should sound forth one and the same utterance—an image of which utterance he supposed to be the "Amen" that you all say together. These sounds, he says, are what give form to the Aeon that is without substance and unbegotten; and these are the forms which the Lord called "angels," who continually behold the face of the Father.

He called the spoken and common names of the letters "Aeons," "words," "roots," "seeds," "fullnesses (pleromas)," and "fruits"; and he said that what belongs to each one of them individually is to be understood as contained within the name "Church." He says that the last letter of the last of these elements uttered its own voice, and that the sound of it, going forth, generated its own elements after the image of the (first) elements; and from these, he says, both the things here below were set in order and the things before these came into being. He says that the letter itself—whose sound was the one that followed the sound also downward—was taken up above by its own syllable for the completing of the whole, while the sound remained below, as though cast outside. As for the element itself, from which the letter together with its own pronunciation went down below, he says it is composed of thirty letters, and that each one of the thirty letters contains within itself other letters, by which the name of (that first) letter is spelled; and again, those others are named by yet other letters, and the others by still others—so that the multitude of letters falls away into infinity. In this way you may learn the matter more clearly:

The element Delta has within itself five letters: Delta itself, and Ei, and Lambda, and Tau, and Alpha; and these letters in turn are written by means of other letters, and those others by still others. If, then, the whole substance of Delta falls away into infinity, other letters always begetting still others and succeeding one another, how much greater must be the ocean of letters belonging to that one element! And if a single letter is thus infinite, behold the whole abyss (Bythos) of the letters of the entire name, out of which the Sige (Silence) of Marcus has decreed the Forefather to be composed. Therefore, he says, the Father too, knowing his own incomprehensibility, granted to the elements—which he also calls Aeons—that each one of them should cry out its own pronunciation, since no single one was able to utter the whole.

When the Tetrad had explained these things to him, she said: I wish also to show you Truth (Aletheia) herself. For I have brought her down from the dwellings above, that you may behold her naked and learn her beauty; and also that you may hear her speaking and marvel at her wisdom. Behold, then, her head above: Alpha and Omega; her neck: Beta and Psi; her shoulders together with her hands: Gamma and Chi; her breast: Delta and Phi; her diaphragm: Epsilon and Upsilon; her back: Zeta and Tau; her belly: Eta and Sigma; her thighs: Theta and Rho; her knees: Iota and Pi; her shins: Kappa and Omicron; her ankles: Lambda and Xi; her feet: Mu and Nu. This is the body of Truth according to the magician; this is the figure of the element, this the character of the letter. And he calls this element "Man," and says that it is the source of every word, the beginning of every voice, the utterance of everything unutterable, and the mouth of the silent Silence (Sige). This, then, is her body. But you, raising on high the thought of your mind, hear from the lips of Truth the self-generating and Father-begetting Forefather-Word.

When she had said this, Truth looked at him, and opening her mouth she spoke a word; and the word became a name, and the name was this which we know and speak—Christ Jesus. And as soon as she had named it, she at once fell silent into silence beside him. But when Marcus expected that she was going to say something more, the Tetrad again came forward into the midst and said: You have regarded as contemptible the word that you heard from the lips of Truth. This name which you know and think you possess is not the ancient name; for you have only its sound, but you are ignorant of its power. "Jesus" indeed is a distinguished (notable) name, having six letters, known to all who belong to the calling. But that name which is manifold among the Aeons of the Pleroma is of another form and of another place, known by those kinsmen whose greatnesses are with him perpetually.

Know, then, that these twenty-four letters of yours are images, emanations of the three powers which embrace the whole number of the elements above. For consider the nine mute (voiceless) consonants to be those of the Father and of Truth, because they are voiceless—that is, unutterable and inexpressible. The eight semivowels are those of the Word (Logos) and of Life (Zoe), because they are as it were intermediate between the mutes and the vowels, receiving the emanation of those above them and the upward return of those below them. The seven vowels are those of Man (Anthropos) and of the Church (Ekklesia), since it was the voice proceeding through Man that gave form to all things; for the sound of the voice furnished them with form. So then the Word and Life have the eight, Man and the Church the seven, and the Father and Truth the nine. But because the man who fell short was deficient, the one who had been set apart in the Father came down, having been sent out to the one from whom he had been separated, for the setting-right of what had been done, so that the unity of the fullnesses (pleromas), having equality, might bear as fruit one power out of all in all. And thus the one of the seven received the power of the eight, and the three places became equal in their numbers, each being ogdoads (eights); and these three, coming upon themselves, displayed the number of twenty-four. The three elements, however—which he says belong to the three powers in conjugation (and which are six)—from which the twenty-four elements flowed, when multiplied fourfold according to the principle of the unspeakable Tetrad, make the same number as those (the twenty-four); and these, he says, belong to the Unnameable. They are borne by the three powers into a likeness of the Invisible, and the images of these elements are the double letters among us, which, reckoned together with the twenty-four elements, make by analogous power the number of thirty.

He says that the fruit of this principle and of this analogous economy (dispensation) appeared in the likeness of an image in that one who, after the six days, went up as the fourth onto the mountain and became a sixth—who was seized and came down, being held fast in the hebdomad (the seven), while he was a distinguished ogdoad (eight) and held in himself the entire number of the elements; which number was made manifest, when he came to the baptism, by the descent of the dove, which is Omega and Alpha—for its number is one and eight hundred. And for this reason, he says, Moses declared that man came into being on the sixth of the days; and the economy too came to pass on the sixth of the days, which is the day of Preparation (Friday), when the last man appeared for the regeneration of the first man; of which economy the sixth hour is both beginning and end, the hour in which he was nailed to the wood. For the perfect Mind (Nous), knowing the number six and having the power of creation and regeneration, made manifest to the sons of light the regeneration which came about through him—through the distinguished sign that appeared in him—for him, into the distinguished number. Hence, he says, the double letters too have the distinguished number; for the distinguished number, combined with the twenty-four elements, completed the thirty-lettered Name.

He makes use, as the Sige of Marcus says, of the seven numbers as a minister (deacon), so that the fruit of the self-willed counsel might be made manifest. "As for this distinguished number," he says, "for the present consider that one who was formed upon the distinguished one—the one who was as it were divided or cut in two and remained outside, who by his own power and intelligence, through the projection that came from him, this one of the seven powers, in imitation of the power of the hebdomad (the seven), ensouled the world and was set to be the soul of all that is visible." He himself, then, makes use of this work as one that came into being self-willed by him; but these (other things) minister, being imitations of the inimitable, the Enthymesis (intention) of the Mother. And the first heaven sounds the Alpha, the next after it the Ei, the third the Eta, the fourth—which is the middle of the seven—utters the power of the Iota, the fifth the Ou, the sixth the Upsilon, and the seventh—which is also the fourth counting from the middle—cries out the Omega element, as the Sige of Marcus, which prattles much but says nothing true, affirms. These powers, he says, all together, intertwined with one another, sound and glorify that one by whom they were projected; and the glory of the sounding is sent up to the Forefather. The sound of this doxology, he says, being borne to the earth, became the fashioner and begetter of the things upon the earth.

He brings as proof of this the case of newborn infants, whose soul, the moment it comes forth from the womb, cries out this very sound of each one of these elements. Just as, then, the seven powers, he says, glorify the Word, so also the soul in infants, by weeping and wailing, glorifies Marcus. For this reason too David said, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have perfected praise"; and again, "The heavens declare the glory of God." And for this reason, whenever the soul comes to be in pains and miseries, for its own purification it cries out the Omega as a sign of praise, so that the soul above, recognizing its kindred, may send down a helper to it.

Concerning the All—the name consisting of these thirty letters—and the Bythos (Abyss) that increases out of the letters of this name, and further concerning the twelve-membered body of Truth composed of two letters each, and her voice which she uttered without uttering, and concerning the resolution of the unspoken name, and concerning the soul of the world and of man (in so far as they have an economy after the image): thus did he babble. And next we shall report how the Tetrad showed him a power equal in number, as derived from the names, so that, beloved, none of the things spoken to us by him that have come down may escape you—just as you have often required of us.

Thus, then, the all-wise Sige announces to him the generation of the twenty-four elements: With Oneness (monotes) there coexists Unity (henotes), from which come two projections, as has been said before—the Monad and the One—which, being twice two, became four; for twice two is four. And again, the two and the four, added together into the same, displayed the number six. And these six, multiplied fourfold, brought forth the twenty-four forms. The names of the first Tetrad are understood as a holy of holies, and they cannot be uttered but are known by the Son alone—names which the Father knows what they are. But the august names, named with faith among them, are these: Arrhetos (the Unspeakable) and Sige (Silence), Father and Truth. The total number of letters of this Tetrad is twenty-four. For "Arrhetos" as a name has seven letters in itself, "Sige" five, "Father" (Pater) five, and "Truth" (Aletheia) seven; which, when added together into the same—the twice five and the twice seven—completed the number twenty-four. Likewise the second Tetrad—Word and Life, Man and Church—displayed the same number of letters. And the spoken name of the Savior—I-E-S-O-U-S—is of six letters, but his unspeakable name is of twenty-four letters. "Son Christ" (Hyios Christos) is of twelve letters, but the unspeakable in Christ is of thirty letters. And for this reason, he says, he is Alpha and Omega, in order to indicate the dove, since this bird has this number.

But Jesus, he says, has this unspeakable generation. For from the Mother of all things, the first Tetrad, there came forth in the manner of a daughter the second Tetrad, and there came into being an ogdoad (eight), from which proceeded a decad (ten); thus there came into being a decad and an ogdoad. The decad, then, coming upon the ogdoad and making it tenfold, advanced the number eighty; and the eighty again, multiplied tenfold, generated the number eight hundred—so that the whole number of the letters, advancing from ogdoad to decad, is eight and eighty and eight hundred, which is the number 888, Jesus. For the name "Jesus" (ΙΗΣΟΥΣ), according to the numerical value of its letters, is eight hundred and eighty-eight. You have clearly, too, the supercelestial generation of the Eta and the Sigma of Jesus according to them. Hence too the Greek alphabet has eight units, eight tens, and eight hundreds, displaying the reckoning of eight hundred eighty-eight—that is, Jesus, who is constituted out of all the numbers. And for this reason he is named Alpha and Omega, signifying the generation out of all things. And again, in this way: when the first Tetrad is added to itself according to the advance of number, the number ten appeared. For one and two and three and four, added together into the same, become ten; and this they wish to be Jesus.

But Christ also, he says, being of eight letters, signifies the first ogdoad, which, intertwined with the decad (ten), brought forth Jesus. And he is called, he says, "Son Christ" too—that is, the dodecad (twelve); for the name "Son" (Hyios) is of four letters, and "Christ" of eight; which, added together, displayed the magnitude of the dodecad. Now before, he says, the distinguished one of this name appeared—that is, Jesus—the Son to the sons, men existed in much ignorance and error. But when the six-lettered name was made manifest—he who clothed himself in flesh in order to come down into the perception of man, having in himself those very six and the twenty-four—then, having come to know him, they ceased from their ignorance and ascended from death into life, the name having become for them a road to the Father of truth. For the Father of all things willed to undo ignorance and to destroy death. And the undoing of ignorance came about by the recognition (epignosis) of him. And for this reason there was chosen the Man who, according to his will, had been disposed after the image of the power above.

For the Aeons came forth from the Tetrad. And in the Tetrad were Man and Church, Word and Life. From these, then, powers, he says, having flowed forth, brought into being the Jesus who appeared upon earth. And he says that the angel Gabriel filled the place of the Word, the Holy Spirit that of Life, the power of the Most High that of Man, and the Virgin displayed the place of the Church. Thus, according to the economy (dispensation), the man with him is brought into being through Mary, whom the Father of all things, when he had passed through the womb, chose by means of the Word for the recognition of himself. And when he came to the water, there descended into him as a dove the one who had run up above and filled the twelfth number—in whom is the seed of those who were sown together with him, and who descended together and ascended together. He says that this power, which descended, is the seed of the Father's Pleroma (Fullness), having in itself both the Father and the Son, and the unnameable power of Sige (Silence) known through these, and all the Aeons. And this is the Spirit that spoke through the mouth of Jesus, the Son, which confessed itself the Son of Man and made manifest the Father, descending into Jesus and being united with him. And the Savior from the economy, he says, both destroyed death and made known the Father, Christ Jesus. He says, then, that "Jesus" is the name of the man from the economy, and that it was given for the assimilation and conformation to the Man who was to come down into him, the Man whom he contained. And he says that this man held in himself the Man himself, and the Word itself, and the Father, and the Unspeakable, and Silence, and Truth, and Church, and Life.

These things are beyond "Alas!" and "Woe!" and beyond every tragic exclamation and lamentation. For who would not hate the ill-contrived author of such great lies, seeing Truth turned by Marcus into an idol, and that one tattooed all over with the letters of the alphabet? Only recently, just yesterday and the day before—as the saying goes, "only yesterday"—as compared with the beginning, the Greeks admit that they first received sixteen letters from Cadmus; then later, as the times went on, they themselves discovered now the aspirates, now the double letters; and last of all, they say, Palamedes added the long letters to these. Before, therefore, these came into being among the Greeks, Truth did not exist! For her body, according to you, Marcus, is later than Cadmus and those before him, later than those who added the remaining letters, and later even than yourself; for you alone brought down as an idol the one whom you call Truth.

Who will tolerate that Sige of yours, who prattles so much, who names the unnameable, and expounds the unspeakable, and recounts the untraceable; and who says that he opened his mouth—the very one whom you call incorporeal and formless—and brought forth a Word, as though it were one of the composite animals; and that this Word of his, being like the one who projected it and having become the form of the Invisible, is of thirty letters and four syllables? It will follow, then, according to the likeness of the Word, that the Father of all things, as you say, is of thirty letters and four syllables! Or again, who will tolerate you when you confine the Maker and Demiurge and Creator Word of God within figures and numbers—now thirty, now twenty-four, now six only—cutting him up into four syllables and thirty letters; and bringing down the Lord of all, who established the heavens, to the number 888, making him to be like the alphabet; and subdividing him—the very Father who contains all things, while being himself uncontainable—into a tetrad, an ogdoad, a decad, and a dodecad; and by means of such multiplications, as you say, expounding the unspeakable and unimaginable nature of the Father? And the one whom you name incorporeal and without substance—his very substance and existence you construct out of many letters, some begotten from others, having become yourself a false Daedalus and an evil craftsman of the supremely supreme power; and the power which you say is indivisible you subdivide into mute, vowel, and semivowel sounds, falsely attributing the mute ones to the Father of all and to the thought of this Son of his—you have cast all who are persuaded by you into the highest blasphemy and the greatest impiety.

Therefore, justly and fittingly, against such audacity of yours, the divine elder and herald of the truth cried out against you in verse, speaking thus: "Idol-maker, Marcus, and watcher of portents, skilled in astrology and the magic art, by which you confirm the teachings of error, showing signs to those deceived by you—undertakings of an apostate power, which you supply as a father of Satan—whether by the angelic power of Azazel you have you for a forerunner of godless villainy." These things, then, said the God-loving elder. But we, for our part, shall try to set forth briefly the rest of their mystagogy, which is lengthy, and to bring to light what has long been kept hidden; for in this way it would become easily refutable by all.