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the six themselves and the twenty-four, then, having known him, they ceased from ignorance, and they went up from death to life, when the Name became for them the way to the Father of truth. For the Father of all willed to dissolve ignorance and to abolish death. And the dissolution of ignorance became the full knowledge of him. And for this reason the Man was chosen, who was formed according to His will, after the image of the power above. 1.8.14 For from a Tetrad the Aeons came forth. And in the Tetrad were Man and Church, Word and Life. From these, therefore, he says, powers flowing forth, generated Jesus who appeared on earth. And that the angel Gabriel filled the place of the Word, and the Holy Spirit that of Life, and the power of the Son Η. that of the highest δ. that of Man; and the Virgin showed forth the place of the Church. And thus the man according to the economy is generated by him through Mary, whom the Father of all, having passed through a womb, chose through the Word for the knowledge of Himself. And when he came to the water, that which ran up from above descended upon him like a dove, and filled the twelfth number; in which exists the seed of those who were sown with him, and who descended with him, and who ascended with him. And he says that this power which descended is the seed of the Father Η. of the Pleroma, having in itself both the Father and the Son, and the unnameable power of Silence known through them, and all the Aeons. And this Η. this to be the spirit which spoke through Jesus Η. δ. τ. the mouth of the Son, which confessed itself to be the son of man, and revealed Η. revealing the Father, having descended into Jesus, but to have been united Η. δ' is absent with him. And the Savior from the economy, he says, abolished death, but made known the Father, Christ Η. Chr. Jesus. Therefore he says that Jesus is the name of the man of the economy, but it was given for the assimilation and formation of the Man who was to descend into him, the one Η. whom having contained him. And that he contained the Man himself, and the Word himself, and the Father, and the Ineffable, and Silence, and Truth, and Church, and Life. 1.8.15 These things are indeed beyond ‘alas,’ and ‘woe,’ and beyond all tragic utterance and indignation. For who would not hate the ill-composing poet of such great falsehoods, seeing Truth become an image under Marcus, and this one tattooed with the letters of the alphabet. Recently, compared to what was from the beginning, what is called yesterday and the day before, the Greeks confess that they first received sixteen letters from Cadmus, then later as time went on they themselves discovered sometimes the aspirates, sometimes the double letters; and last of all they say Palamedes added the long vowels to these; before these things, therefore, came to be among the Greeks, there was no Truth; 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 than you yourself; for you alone have brought down an image of what is called Truth by you. 1.8.16 But who will tolerate your Silence, which utters so much nonsense, which names the unnameable, and explains the ineffable, and describes the unsearchable; and says that it l. he opened his mouth, whom you call bodiless and without form; and brought forth the Word, as one of the composite animals; and that his Word, being similar to the one who projected him, and having become the form of the invisible, consists of thirty letters and four syllables? Therefore, according to the likeness of the Word, the Father of all will be, as you say, of thirty letters and four syllables. Or again, who will tolerate you confining the creative, and fashioning, and making Word of God into figures and numbers, sometimes thirty, sometimes twenty-four, sometimes only six; cutting him up into four syllables and thirty letters; and the Lord of all who established the

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αὐτὰ τὰ ἓξ καὶ τὰ εἰκοσιτέσσαρα, τότε γνόντες αὐτὸν ἐπαύσαντο τῆς ἀγνοίας, ἐκ θανάτου δὲ εἰς ζωὴν ἀνῆλθον, τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῖς ὁδοῦ γεννηθέντος πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα τῆς ἀληθείας. Τεθεληκέναι γὰρ τὸν Πατέρα τῶν ὅλων λῦσαι τὴν ἄγνοιαν, καὶ καθελεῖν τὸν θάνατον. Ἀγνοίας δὲ λύσις ἡ ἐπίγνωσις αὐτοῦ ἐγίνετο. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐκλεχθῆναι τὸν κατὰ τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ κατ' εἰκόνα τῆς ἄνω δυνάμεως οἰκονομηθέντα Ἄνθρωπον. 1.8.14 Ἀπὸ τετράδος γὰρ προῆλθον οἱ Αἰῶνες. Ἦν δὲ ἐν τῇ τετράδι Ἄνθρωπος καὶ Ἐκκλησία, Λόγος καὶ Ζωή. Ἀπὸ τούτων οὖν δυνάμεις, φησὶν, ἀποῤῥυεῖσαι, ἐγενεσιούργησαν τὸν ἐπὶ γῆς φανέντα Ἰησοῦν. Καὶ τοῦ μὲν Λόγου ἀναπεπληρωκέναι τὸν τόπον τὸν ἄγγελον Γαβριὴλ, τῆς δὲ Ζωῆς τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, τοῦ δὲ Ἀνθρώπου τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ υἱοῦ Η. τὴν τοῦ ὑψίστου δ.· τὸν δὲ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τόπον ἡ Παρθένος ἐπέδειξεν. Οὕτως τε ὁ κατ' οἰκονομίαν διὰ τῆς Μαρίας γενεσιουργεῖται παρ' αὐτῷ ἄνθρωπος, ὃν ὁ Πατὴρ τῶν ὅλων διελθόντα διὰ μήτρας ἐξελέξατο διὰ Λόγου εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν αὐτοῦ. Ἐλθόντος δὲ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ ὕδωρ, κατελθεῖν εἰς αὐτὸν ὡς περιστερὰν τὸν ἀναδραμόντα ἄνω, καὶ πληρώσαντα τὸν δωδέκατον ἀριθμόν· ἐν ᾧ ὑπάρχει τὸ σπέρμα τούτων τῶν συσπαρέντων αὐτῷ, καὶ συγκαταβάντων, καὶ συναναβάντων. Αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν δύναμιν κατελθοῦσαν σπέρμα φησὶν εἶναι τοῦ Πατρὸς Η. πληρώματος, ἔχον ἐν ἑαυτῷ καὶ τὸν Πατέρα καὶ τὸν Υἱὸν, τήν τε διὰ τούτων γινωσκομένην ἀνονόμαστον δύναμιν τῆς Σιγῆς, καὶ τοὺς ἅπαντας Αἰῶνας. Καὶ τοῦτ' Η. τοῦτον εἶναι τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ λαλῆσαν διὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ Η. δ. τ. στόματος τοῦ Υἱοῦ, τὸ ὁμολογῆσαν ἑαυτὸν υἱὸν ἀνθρώπου, καὶ φανερώσαντα Η. φανερῶσαν τὸν Πατέρα, κατελθὸν μὲν εἰς τὸν Ἰησοῦν, ἡνῶσθαι δ' Η. δ' abest αὐτῷ Καὶ καθεῖλε μὲν τὸν θάνατον, φησὶν, ὁ ἐκ τῆς οἰκονομίας Σωτὴρ, ἐγνώρισε δὲ τὸν Πατέρα Χριστόν Η. Χρ. Ἰησοῦν. Εἶναι οὖν τὸν Ἰησοῦν ὄνομα μὲν τοῦ ἐκ τῆς οἰκονομίας ἀνθρώπου λέγει, τεθεῖσθαι δὲ εἰς ἐξομοίωσιν καὶ μόρφωσιν τοῦ μέλλοντος εἰς αὐτὸν κατέρχεσθαι Ἀνθρώπου, τὸν Η. ὃν χωρήσαντα αὐτόν. Ἐσχηκέναι δὲ αὐτόν τε τὸν Ἄνθρωπον, αὐτόν τε τὸν Λόγον, καὶ τὸν Πατέρα, καὶ τὸν Ἄῤῥητον, καὶ τὴν Σιγὴν, καὶ τὴν Ἀλήθειαν, καὶ Ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ Ζωήν. 1.8.15 Ταῦτα δὴ ὑπὲρ τὸ ἰοὺ, καὶ τὸ φεῦ, καὶ ὑπὲρ τὸ τὴν πᾶσαν τραγικὴν φώνησιν καὶ σχετλιασμόν ἐστι. Τίς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν μισήσειε τῶν τηλικούτων ψευσμάτων κακοσύνθετον ποιητὴν, τὴν μὲν Ἀλήθειαν ὁρῶν εἴδωλον ὑπὸ Μάρκου γεγονυῖαν, καὶ τοῦτο τοῖς τοῦ ἀλφαβήτου γράμμασι κατεστιγμένην. Νεωστὶ, πρὸς ὡς τὸ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, τὸ δὴ λεγόμενον χθὲς καὶ πρώην, Ἕλληνες ὁμολογοῦσιν ἀπὸ Κάδμου πρῶτον ἓξ καὶ δέκα παρειληφέναι, εἶτα μετέπειτα προβαινόντων τῶν χρόνων αὐτοὶ ἐξευρηκέναι ποτὲ μὲν τὰ δασέα, ποτὲ δὲ τὰ διπλᾶ· ἔσχατον δὲ πάντων Παλαμήδην φασὶ τὰ μακρὰ τούτοις προστεθεικέναι· πρὸ τοῦ οὖν Ἕλλησι ταῦτα γενέσθαι, οὐκ ἦν Ἀλήθεια· τὸ γὰρ σῶμα αὐτῆς κατά σε, Μάρκε, μεταγενέστερον μὲν Κάδμου, καὶ τῶν πρὸ αὐτοῦ· μεταγενέστερον δὲ τῶν τὰ λοιπὰ προστεθεικότων στοιχεῖα· μεταγενέστερον δὲ καὶ σαυτοῦ· σὺ γὰρ μόνον εἴδωλον κατήγαγες τὴν ὑπό σου λεγομένην Ἀλήθειαν. 1.8.16 Τίς δ' ἀνέξεταί σου τὴν τοσαῦτα φλυαροῦσαν Σιγὴν, ἣ τὸν ἀνονόμαστον ὀνομάζει, καὶ τὸν ἄῤῥητον ἐξηγεῖται, καὶ τὸν ἀνεξιχνίαστον ἐξιστορεῖ· καὶ ἠνοιχέναι τὸ στόμα φησὶν αὐτὸ l. αὐτὸν, ὃν ἀσώματον καὶ ἀνείδεον λέγεις· καὶ προενέγκασθαι Λόγον, ὡς ἕν τι τῶν συνθέτων ζώων· τόν τε Λόγον αὐτοῦ ὅμοιον ὄντα τῷ προβαλόντι, καὶ μορφὴν τοῦ ἀοράτου γεγονότα, στοιχείων μὲν εἶναι τριάκοντα, συλλαβῶν δὲ τεσσάρων; Ἔσται οὖν κατὰ τὴν ὁμοιότητα τοῦ Λόγου ὁ Πατὴρ τῶν πάντων, ὡς σὺ φὴς, στοιχείων μὲν τριάκοντα, συλλαβῶν δὲ τεσσάρων. Ἢ πάλιν τίς ἀνέξεταί σου εἰς σχήματα καὶ ἀριθμοὺς, ποτὲ μὲν τριάκοντα, ποτὲ δὲ εἰκοσιτέσσαρα, ποτὲ δὲ ἓξ μόνον, συγκλείοντος τὸν τῶν πάντων κτιστὴν, καὶ δημιουργὸν, καὶ ποιητὴν Λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ· κατακερματίζοντος αὐτὸν εἰς συλλαβὰς μὲν τέσσαρας, στοιχεῖα δὲ τριάκοντα· καὶ τὸν πάντων Κύριον τὸν ἐστερεωκότα τοὺς