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before the first Ogdoad of the Pleroma. They say that the seven heavens are not intelligible; But they suppose them to be Angels, and the Demiurge himself to be an angel resembling God; so also they say that Paradise, being above the third heaven, is a fourth Angel existing in power, and that Adam, having spent time in it, received something from it. These things, they assert, the Demiurge thought to construct from himself, but he made them as Achamoth projected them; that he made heaven without knowing heaven; and fashioned man, without knowing man; and showed forth earth, without understanding the earth; and thus in all things they say that he was ignorant of the forms of the things which he made, and even of his own mother; but he thought that he alone was everything. They say that his mother was the cause of this conceit for him, having wished to bring him forth in this way, as the head and beginning of her own substance, and lord of the whole operation. This Mother they also call Ogdoad, and Sophia, and Earth, and Jerusalem, and Holy Spirit, and, in the masculine, Lord. She holds the place of the Middle, and is above the Demiurge, but below or outside the Pleroma until the consummation. 1.1.10 Since, therefore, they say that the material substance was constituted from three passions, from fear, and grief, and perplexity; from fear and from conversion the psychic things received their constitution; from conversion, they will have it, the Demiurge came into being, but from fear all the remaining psychic substance, such as the souls of irrational animals, of beasts, and of men. For this reason, being too weak to know any spiritual things, he considered himself to be God alone, and said through the Prophets: I am God, and besides me there is no other. And from grief, they teach, the spiritual things of wickedness came to be; whence the Devil had his origin, whom they also call Cosmocrator, and the demons, and the angels, and all the spiritual substance of wickedness. But they say the Demiurge is the son of their Mother, while the Cosmocrator is a creation of the Demiurge; and the Cosmocrator knows the things above him, because he is a spirit of wickedness; but the Demiurge is ignorant, since he is psychic. Their Mother dwells in the super-celestial place, that is, in the Middle; the Demiurge in the celestial region above the heavens, that is, in the Hebdomad; and the almighty Cosmocrator in our world. And from astonishment and perplexity, as from the more insignificant passion, the corporeal elements of the world came to be, as we said before; earth corresponding to the fixation of astonishment, water to the movement of fear's tears, and air to the congealing of grief; and fire to have sprung forth in them all as death and corruption, just as they teach that ignorance was hidden in the three passions. Having created the world, he also made the man of dust; not from this dry earth, but taking from the invisible substance, from the fluid and flowing part of matter; and into this one, they maintain, he breathed the psychic man. And this is the one made in his image and likeness; 'in image' referring to the material man, being similar but not of the same substance as God; 'in likeness' referring to the psychic man, whence also his substance is called the spirit of life, being from a spiritual effluence. Afterwards, they say, the tunic of skin was put on him; this they say is the perceptible flesh. But the offspring of their mother Achamoth herself, which she brought forth from the contemplation of the angels around the Savior, being of the same substance as the mother, spiritual, they say that the Demiurge himself was ignorant of; and that it was secretly deposited in him, without his knowing, so that through him it might be sown into the soul that came from him, and into this material body, and having been conceived in these and having grown, it might become ready for the reception of the perfect Logos. Therefore, as they say, it escaped the notice of the Demiurge, what was sown together with the
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πρὸ τῆς πρώτης τοῦ πληρώματος Ὀγδοάδος. Τοὺς δὲ ἑπτὰ οὐρανοὺς οὐκ d. οὐκ εἶναι νοητούς f. l. νοερούς φασιν· Ἀγγέλους δὲ αὐτοὺς ὑποτίθενται, καὶ τὸν δημιουργὸν δὲ καὶ αὐτὸν ἄγγελον Θεῷ ἐοικότα· ὡς καὶ τὸν Παράδεισον ὑπὲρ τρίτον οὐρανὸν ὄντα, τέταρτον Ἄγγελον λέγουσι δυνάμει ὑπάρχειν, καὶ ἀπὸ τούτου τι εἰληφέναι τὸν Ἀδὰμ διατετριφότα ἐν αὐτῷ. Ταῦτα δὲ τὸν δημιουργὸν φάσκουσιν ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ μὲν ὠῆσθαι κατασκευάζειν, πεποιηκέναι δ' αὐτὰ τῆς Ἀχαμὼθ προβαλλούσης· οὐρανὸν πεποιηκέναι μὴ εἰδότα τὸν οὐρανόν· καὶ ἄνθρωπον πεπλακέναι, μὴ εἰδότα τὸν ἄνθρωπον· γῆν τε δεδειχέναι, μὴ ἐπιστάμενον τὴν γῆν· καὶ ἐπὶ πάντων οὕτως λέγουσιν ἠγνοηκέναι αὐτῶν τὰς ἰδέας ὧν ἐποίει, καὶ αὐτὴν τὴν μητέρα· αὐτὸν δὲ μόνον ὠῆσθαι πάντα εἶναι. Αἰτίαν δ' αὐτῷ γεγονέναι τὴν μητέρα τῆς οἰήσεως ταύτης φάσκουσιν, τὴν οὕτω βουληθεῖσαν προαγαγεῖν αὐτὸν, κεφαλὴν μὲν καὶ ἀρχὴν τῆς ἰδίας οὐσίας, κύριον δὲ τῆς ὅλης πραγματείας. Ταύτην δὲ τὴν Μητέρα καὶ Ὀγδοάδα καλοῦσι, καὶ Σοφίαν, καὶ Γῆν, καὶ Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, καὶ Κύριον ἀρσενικῶς. Ἔχειν δὲ τὸν τῆς μεσότητος τόπον αὐτὴν, καὶ εἶναι ὑπεράνω μὲν τοῦ ∆ημιουργοῦ, ὑποκάτω δὲ ἢ ἔξω τοῦ Πληρώματος μέχρι συντελείας. 1.1.10 Ἐπεὶ οὖν τὴν ὑλικὴν οὐσίαν ἐκ τριῶν παθῶν συστῆναι λέγουσι, φόβου τε, καὶ λύπης, καὶ ἀπορίας· ἐκ μὲν τοῦ φόβου καὶ τῆς ἐπιστροφῆς τὰ ψυχικὰ τὴν σύστασιν εἰληφέναι· ἐκ μὲν τῆς ἐπιστροφῆς τὸν ∆ημιουργὸν βούλονται τὴν γένεσιν ἐσχηκέναι, ἐκ δὲ τοῦ φόβου τὴν λοιπὴν πᾶσαν ψυχικὴν ὑπόστασιν, ὡς ψυχὰς ἀλόγων ζώων, καὶ θηρίων, καὶ ἀνθρώπων. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἀτονώτερον αὐτὸν ὑπάρχοντα πρὸς τὸ γινώσκειν τινὰ πνευματικὰ, αὑτὸν νενομικέναι μόνον εἶναι Θεὸν, καὶ διὰ τῶν Προφητῶν εἰρηκέναι· ἐγὼ Θεὸς, πλὴν ἐμοῦ οὐδείς. Ἐκ δὲ τῆς λύπης τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας διδάσκουσι γεγονέναι· ὅθεν τὸν ∆ιάβολον τὴν γένεσιν ἐσχηκέναι, ὃν καὶ κοσμοκράτορα καλοῦσι, καὶ τὰ δαιμόνια, καὶ τοὺς ἀγγέλους, καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν πνευματικὴν τῆς πονηρίας ὑπόστασιν. Ἀλλὰ τὸν μὲν ∆ημιουργὸν υἱὸν τῆς Μητρὸς αὐτῶν λέγουσι, τὸν δὲ κοσμοκράτορα κτίσμα τοῦ ∆ημιουργοῦ· καὶ τὸν μὲν κοσμοκράτορα γινώσκειν τὰ ὑπὲρ αὐτὸν, ὅτι πνεῦμά πνευματικά ἐστι τῆς πονηρίας· τὸν δὲ ∆ημιουργὸν ἀγνοεῖν, ἅτε ψυχικὰ ὑπάρχοντα. Οἰκεῖν δὲ τὴν Μητέρα αὐτῶν εἰς τὸν ὑπερουράνιον τόπον, τουτέστιν ἐν τῇ μεσότητι· τὸν ∆ημιουργὸν δὲ εἰς τὸν ὑπερουράνιον ἐπουράνιον, τουτέστιν ἐν τῇ ἑβδομάδι· τὸν δὲ παντοκράτορα κοσμοκράτορα ἐν τῷ καθ' ἡμᾶς κόσμῳ. Ἐκ δὲ τῆς ἐκπλήξεως καὶ τῆς ἀμηχανίας l. ἀπορίας, ὡς ἐκ τοῦ ἀσημοτέρου τὰ σωματικὰ, καθὼς προείπαμεν, τοῦ κόσμου στοιχεῖα γεγονέναι· τὴν l. γῆν μὲν κατὰ τῆς ἐκπλήξεως στάσιν, ὕδωρ δὲ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ φόβου τῶν δακρύων d. τῶν δακρύων κίνησιν, ἀέρα τε κατὰ τὴν λύπης πῆξιν· τὸ δὲ πῦρ ἅπασιν αὐτοῖς ἐκπεφυκέναι θάνατον καὶ φθορὰν, ὡς καὶ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τοῖς τρισὶ πάθεσιν ἐγκεκρύφθαι διδάσκουσι. ∆ημιουργήσαντα δὴ τὸν κόσμον, πεποιηκέναι καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον τὸν χοϊκόν· οὐκ ἀπὸ ταύτης δὲ τῆς ξηρᾶς γῆς, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τῆς ἀοράτου οὐσίας, ἀπὸ τοῦ κεχυμένου καὶ ῥευστοῦ τῆς ὕλης λαβόντα· καὶ εἰς τοῦτον ἐμφυσῆσαι τὸν ψυχικὸν διορίζονται. Καὶ τοῦτον εἶναι τὸν κατ' εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν γεγονότα· κατ' εἰκόνα μὲν τὸν ὑλικὸν ὑπάρχειν, παραπλήσιον μὲν, ἀλλ' οὐχ ὁμοούσιον τῷ Θεῷ· καθ' ὁμοίωσιν δὲ τὸν ψυχικὸν, ὅθεν καὶ πνεῦμα ζωῆς τὴν οὐσίαν αὐτοῦ εἰρῆσθαι, ἐκ πνευματικῆς ἀποῤῥοίας οὖσαν. Ὕστερον δὲ περιτεθεῖσθαι λέγουσιν αὐτῷ τὸν δερμάτινον χιτῶνα· τοῦτο δὲ τὸ αἰσθητὸν σαρκίον εἶναι λέγουσι. Τὸ δὲ κύημα τῆς μητρὸς αὐτῆς αὐτῶν τῆς Ἀχαμὼθ, ὃ κατὰ τὴν θεωρίαν τῶν περὶ τὸν Σωτῆρα ἀγγέλων ἀπεκύησεν, ὁμοούσιον ὑπάρχον τῇ μητρὶ, πνευματικὸν, καὶ αὐτὸν ἠγνοηκέναι τὸν ∆ημιουργὸν λέγουσι· καὶ λεληθότως κατατεθεῖσθαι εἰς αὐτὸν, μὴ εἰδότος αὐτοῦ, ἵνα δι' αὐτοῦ εἰς τὴν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ ψυχὴν σπαρὲν, καὶ εἰς τὸ ὑλικὸν τοῦτο σῶμα, κυοφορηθὲν ἐν τούτοις καὶ αὐξηθὲν, ἕτοιμον γένηται εἰς ὑποδοχὴν τοῦ τελείου λόγου. Ἔλαθεν οὖν, ὡς φασὶ, τὸν ∆ημιουργὸν ὁ συγκατασπαρεὶς τῷ