Chapter VII.—The First Eight Emanations, or Æons, Called the Ogdoad, are the Fountain of All the Others. Their Names and Descent Recorded.

Beginning with Ennius,70    Primus omnium. the Roman poet, he simply spoke of “the spacious saloons71    Cœnacula: dining halls. of heaven,”—either on account of their elevated site, or because in Homer he had read about Jupiter banqueting therein.  As for our heretics, however, it is marvellous what storeys upon storeys72    Supernitates supernitatum. and what heights upon heights, they have hung up, raised and spread out as a dwelling for each several god of theirs. Even our Creator has had arranged for Him the saloons of Ennius in the fashion of private rooms,73    Ædicularum. with chamber piled upon chamber, and assigned to each god by just as many staircases as there were heresies. The universe, in fact, has been turned into “rooms to let.”74    Meritorium. Such storeys of the heavens you would imagine to be detached tenements in some happy isle of the blessed,75    This is perhaps a fair rendering of “Insulam Feliculam credas tanta tabulata cœlorum, nescio ubi.” “Insula” is sometimes “a detached house.” It is difficult to say what “Felicula” is; it seems to be a diminutive of Felix. It occurs in Arrian’s Epictetica as the name of a slave. I know not where. There the god even of the Valentinians has his dwelling in the attics. They call him indeed, as to his essence, Αἰῶν τέλειος (Perfect Æon), but in respect of his personality, Προαρχή (Before the Beginning), ῾Η ᾽Αρχή (The Beginning), and sometimes Bythos (Depth),76    We follow Tertullian’s mode of designation all through. He, for the most part, gives the Greek names in Roman letters, but not quite always. a name which is most unfit for one who dwells in the heights above! They describe him as unbegotten, immense, infinite, invisible, and eternal; as if, when they described him to be such as we know that he ought to be, they straightway prove him to be a being who may be said to have had such an existence even before all things else. I indeed insist upon77    Expostulo: “I postulate as a first principle.” it that he is such a being; and there is nothing which I detect in beings of this sort more obvious, than that they who are said to have been before all things—things, too, not their own—are found to be behind all things. Let it, however, be granted that this Bythos of theirs existed in the infinite ages of the past in the greatest and profoundest repose, in the extreme rest of a placid and, if I may use the expression, stupid divinity, such as Epicurus has enjoined upon us. And yet, although they would have him be alone, they assign to him a second person in himself and with himself, Ennoea (Thought), which they also call both Charis (Grace) and Sige (Silence). Other things, as it happened, conduced in this most agreeable repose to remind him of the need of by and by producing out of himself the beginning of all things.  This he deposits in lieu of seed in the genital region, as it were, of the womb of his Sige. Instantaneous conception is the result: Sige becomes pregnant, and is delivered, of course in silence; and her offspring is Nus (Mind), very like his father and his equal in every respect. In short, he alone is capable of comprehending the measureless and incomprehensible greatness of his father. Accordingly he is even called the Father himself, and the Beginning of all things, and, with great propriety, Monogenes (The Only-begotten). And yet not with absolute propriety, since he is not born alone. For along with him a female also proceeded, whose name was Veritas78    Tertullian is responsible for this Latin word amongst the Greek names. The strange mixture occurs often. (Truth). But how much more suitably might Monogenes be called Protogenes (First begotten), since he was begotten first! Thus Bythos and Sige, Nus and Veritas, are alleged to be the first fourfold team79    Quadriga. of the Valentinian set (of gods)80    Factionis. the parent stock and origin of them all.  For immediately when81    Ibidem simul. Nus received the function of a procreation of his own, he too produces out of himself Sermo (the Word) and Vita (the Life). If this latter existed not previously, of course she existed not in Bythos. And a pretty absurdity would it be, if Life existed not in God! However, this offspring also produces fruit, having for its mission the initiation of the universe and the formation of the entire Pleroma: it procreates Homo (Man) and Ecclesia (the Church). Thus you have an Ogdoad, a double Tetra, out of the conjunctions of males and females—the cells82    Cellas. (so to speak) of the primordial Æons, the fraternal nuptials of the Valentinian gods, the simple originals83    Census. of heretical sanctity and majesty, a rabble84    Turbam.—shall I say of criminals85    Criminum. or of deities?86    Numinum.—at any rate, the fountain of all ulterior fecundity.

CAPUT VII.

Primus omnium Ennius poeta romanus, Coenacula maxima coeli simpliciter pronuntiavit, de lati situs nomine , vel quia Jovem illic epulantem legerat apud Homerum. Sed haeretici quantas supernitates supernitatum, 0550B et quantas sublimitates sublimitatum in habitaculum dei sui cujusque suspenderint, extulerint, expanderint, mirum est. Etiam creatori nostro Enniana coenacula in aedicularum disposita sunt forma, aliis atque aliis pergulis superstructis, et unicuique deo per totidem scalas distributis, quot haereses fuerint. Meritorium factus est mundus. Insulam Feliculam credas tanta tabulata coelorum; nescio ubi. Illic enim Valentinianorum Deus ad summas tegulas habitat. Hunc substantialiter quidem ΑΙΩΝΑ ΤΕΛΕΙΟΝ appellant, 0551A personaliter vero ΠΡΟΑΡΧΗΝ et ΤΗΝ ΑΡΧΗΝ, etiam Bython ; quod in sublimibus habitanti minime congruebat. Innatum, immensum, infinitum, invisibilem, aeternumque definiunt: quasi statim probent esse, si talem definiant qualem scimus esse debere, ut sic et ante omnia fuisse dicatur. Sed ut sit expostulo : nec aliud magis in hujusmodi denoto , quam quod post omnia inveniuntur, qui ante omnia fuisse dicuntur, et quidem non sua. Sit itaque Bythos iste infinitis retro aevis in maxima et altissima quiete, in otio plurimo, placidae et, ut ita dixerim, stupentis divinitatis, qualem jussit Epicurus. Et tamen quem solum volunt, dant ei secundam in ipso et cum ipso personam, Ennoean, quam et Charin et Sigen insuper nominant. Et forte 0551B accedunt in illa commendatissima quiete, monere eum de proferendo tandem initio rerum a semetipso. Hoc vice seminis in Siges suae, veluti genitalibus vulvae locis, collocat. Suscipit illa statim, et praegnans efficitur, et parit utique silentio Sige, et quem parit Nus est, simillimum patri et parem per omnia. Denique solus hic capere sufficit immensam illam et incomprehensibilem magnitudinem patris. Ita et ipse 0552A Pater dicitur, et initium omnium, et proprie Monogenes. Atquin non proprie, siquidem non solus agnoscitur . Nam cum illo processit et foemina, Veritas , Monogenes, quia prior genitus, quanto congruentius Protogenes vocaretur! Ergo Bythos et Sige, Nus et veritas, prima quadriga defenditur Valentinianae factionis, matrix et origo cunctorum. Namque ibidem Nus simul ac cepit prolationis suae officium, emittit et ipse ex semetipso Sermonem et Vitam, quae si retro non erat, utique nec in Bytho. Et quale est, ut in Deo vita non fuerit! Sed et haec soboles, ad initium universitatis, et formationem Pleromatis totius emissa, facit fructum, Hominem et Ecclesiam procreat. Habes Ogdoadem, Tetradem duplicem, ex conjugationibus masculorum et 0552B foeminarum; cellas, ut ita dixerim, primordialium Aeonum: fraterna connubia valentinianorum deorum: census omnis sanctitatis et majestatis haereticae: nescio criminum an numinum turbam, certe fontem reliquae foecunditatis .