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he filled up. And from this they show that the Ogdoad is the mother of the thirty Aeons. Since, therefore, the number of the thirty is united from the three powers H., three l. becoming itself three times, made ninety; for three H. times thirty is ninety. And the triad itself, when combined with itself, generated nine. And so the Ogdoad brought forth among them H. the number of the nine, ninety-nine apek. ar. And since the twelfth Aeon, having apostatized, left the eleven above, they say that the type of the letters lies in a form corresponding to the account; for as the eleventh of the letters lies H. to lie the lambda, which is the number thirty, and lies in the image of the dispensation above; since from alpha, without the episemon, the number of the letters themselves up to lambda, when added together according to the progression of the letters along with lambda itself, makes the number ninety-nine. That lambda, being the eleventh l. in the eleventh place in order, came down to seek one like itself H., that it might fill up the twelfth number, and having found it was filled, is clear from the shape of the letter itself. For lambda, as if having come for the search of one like itself, and having found and seized it into itself, filled up the place of the twelfth, the letter Mu being composed of two Lambdas. Wherefore also of him H. for them to flee through Gnosis the place of the nine H. ninety-nine, that is, the deficiency, a type of the left hand; but to pursue the one, which, when added to the ninety-nine, has translated into the right his l. them hand. 1.9.3 As you go through these things, beloved, I know well that you will laugh much at such would-be-wise folly of theirs. But they are worthy of mourning who thus frigidly and forcibly disparage so great a piety, and the greatness of the truth l. of a truly ineffable power, and the so many dispensations of God, by means of alpha, and of beta, and by numbers. And as many as fall away from the Church, and are persuaded by these old wives' fables, are truly self-condemned. Whom Paul bids us, after a first and second admonition, to reject. And John, the disciple of the Lord, increased their condemnation, not even wishing "hail" to be said to them by us. For he who says "hail" to them, he says, is a partaker in their evil deeds. And reasonably so; for there is no "hail" for the impious, says the Lord. And these are impious beyond all impiety, who say that the maker of heaven and earth, the only God Almighty, beyond whom there is no other God, was projected from a deficiency, and that itself from another deficiency; so that according to them He is the projection of a third deficiency. Having truly despised and anathematized which opinion, it is necessary to flee far away from them, and the more they insist and rejoice in their findings, by this one should know the more that they are being energized by the Ogdoad of evil spirits; just as those who have fallen into a state of frenzy, the more they laugh, and seem to be strong, and do all things as if they were healthy, and some things even beyond what is healthy, by this the more they are unwell. Similarly also these, the more they seem to be proud, and exhaust themselves, shooting over-strained arrows, by this the more they are not of sound mind. For the unclean spirit of ignorance l. of folly having gone out, then finding them at leisure, not for God, but for worldly inquiries, taking with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and having made their mind conceited, as if they were able to conceive things beyond God, and having made it fit for overflowing, it instilled into them the Ogdoad of folly of the wicked spirits. 1.10.1 I WISH also to relate to you how they say that creation itself was framed by the Demiurge, as if he were ignorant, in the image of the invisible things, through the Mother. First, they say that the four elements, fire, water, earth, air, were projected as an image of the first deest ap. H. Tetrad above; and their activities, when numbered together, such as hot and cold,

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ἀνεπλήρωσε. Καὶ ἐντεῦθεν ἀποδεικνύουσι τὴν ὀγδοάδα μητέρα τῶν τριάκοντα Αἰώνων. Ἐπεὶ οὖν ἐκ τριάκοντα Η. τῶν τριῶν δυνάμεων ἥνωται ὁ τῶν λ ἀριθμὸς, τρεῖς l. τρὶς αὐτὸς γενόμενος τὰ ἐνενήκοντα ἐποίησε· τρεῖς Η. τρὶς γὰρ τριάκοντα ἐνενήκοντα. Καὶ αὐτὴ δὲ ἡ τριὰς ἐφ' ἑαυτῆς συντεθεῖσα, ἐννέα ἐγέννησεν. Οὕτως δὲ ἡ ὀγδοὰς τὸν τῶν ἐννέα παρ' αὐτοῖς Η. ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα ἀπεκ. ἀρ. ἀπεκύησεν ἀριθμόν. Καὶ ἐπεὶ ὁ δωδέκατος Αἰὼν ἀποστὰς κατέλειψε τοὺς ἄνω ἕνδεκα, κατάλληλον λέγουσι τὸν τύπον τῶν γραμμάτων τῷ σχήματι τοῦ λόγου κεῖσθαι· ἑνδέκατον γὰρ τῶν γραμμάτων κεῖται Η. κεῖσθαι τὸ λ, ὅ ἐστιν ἀριθμὸς τῶν τριάκοντα, καὶ κατ' εἰκόνα κεῖσθαι τῆς ἄνω οἰκονομίας· ἐπειδὴ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἄλφα. χωρὶς τοῦ ἐπισήμου, αὐτῶν τῶν γραμμάτων ὁ ἀριθμὸς ἕως τοῦ λ συντιθέμενος κατὰ τὴν παραύξησιν τῶν γραμμάτων σὺν αὐτῷ τῷ λ, τὸν τῶν ἐνενηκονταεννέα ποιεῖται ἀριθμόν. Ὅτι δὲ τὸ λ ἑνδέκατον ὂν l. ἐν ἑνδεκάτῳ ὂν τόπῳ τῇ τάξει ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ ὁμοίου αὐτοῦ Η. αὐτῷ κατῆλθε ζήτησιν, ἵνα ἀναπληρώσῃ τὸν δωδέκατον ἀριθμὸν, καὶ εὑρὸν αὐτὸν ἐπληρώθη, φανερὸν εἶναι ἐξ αὐτοῦ τοῦ σχήματος τοῦ στοιχείου. Τὸ γὰρ λ ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ ὁμοίου αὐτῷ ζήτησιν παραγενόμενον, καὶ εὑρὸν, καὶ εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἁρπάσαν αὐτὸν, τὴν τοῦ δωδεκάτου ἀνεπλήρωσε χώραν, τοῦ Μ στοιχείου ἐκ δύο Λ συγκειμένου. ∆ιὸ καὶ φεύγειν αὐτοῦ Η. αὐτοὺς διὰ τῆς γνώσεως τὴν τῶν θ Η. ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα χώραν, τουτέστι τὸ ὑστέρημα, τύπον ἀριστερᾶς χειρός· μεταδιώκειν δὲ τὸ ἓν, ὃ προστεθὲν τοῖς ἐνενηκονταεννέα, εἰς τὴν δεξιὰν αὐτοῦ l. αὐτοὺς χεῖρα μετέστησε. 1.9.3 Σὺ μὲν ταῦτα διερχόμενος, ἀγαπητὲ, εὖ οἶδα ὅτι γελάσεις πολλὰ τὴν τοιαύτην αὐτῶν οἰησίσοφον μωρίαν. Ἄξιοι δὲ πένθους οἱ τηλικαύτην θεοσέβειαν, καὶ τὸ μέγεθος τῆς ἀληθείας l. ἀληθῶς ἀῤῥήτου δυνάμεως, καὶ τὰς τοσαύτας οἰκονομίας τοῦ Θεοῦ, διὰ τοῦ ἄλφα, καὶ τοῦ βῆτα, καὶ δι' ἀριθμῶν οὕτως ψυχρῶς καὶ βεβιασμένως διασύροντες. Ὅσοι δὲ ἀφίστανται τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, καὶ τούτοις τοῖς γραώδεσι μύθοις πείθονται, ἀληθῶς αὐτοκατάκριτοι. Οὓς ὁ Παῦλος ἐγκελεύεται ἡμῖν μετὰ μίαν καὶ δευτέραν νουθεσίαν παραιτεῖσθαι. Ἰωάννης δὲ ὁ τοῦ Κυρίου μαθητὴς ἐπέτεινε τὴν καταδίκην αὐτῶν, μηδὲ χαίρειν αὐτοῖς ὑφ' ἡμῶν λέγεσθαι βουληθείς. Ὁ γὰρ λέγων αὐτοῖς, φησὶ, χαίρειν, κοινωνεῖ τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτῶν τοῖς πονηροῖς. Καὶ εἰκότως· οὐκ ἔστι γὰρ χαίρειν τοῖς ἀσεβέσι, λέγει Κύριος. Ἀσεβεῖς δὲ ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν ἀσέβειαν οὗτοι, οἱ τὸν ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς μόνον Θεὸν παντοκράτορα, ὑπὲρ ὃν ἄλλος Θεὸς οὐκ ἔστιν, ἐξ ὑστερήματος, καὶ αὐτοῦ ἐξ ἄλλου ὑστερήματος γεγονότος, προβεβλῆσθαι λέγοντες· ὥστε κατ' αὐτοὺς εἶναι αὐτὸν προβολὴν τρίτου ὑστερήματος. Ἣν γνώμην ὄντως καταφυσήσαντας, καὶ καταθεματίσαντας, δέον πόῤῥω που μακρὰν φυγεῖν ἀπ' αὐτῶν, καὶ ᾗ πλέον διισχυρίζονται, καὶ χαίρουσιν ἐπὶ τοῖς παρευρήμασιν αὐτῶν, ταύτῃ μᾶλλον εἰδέναι πλέον αὐτοὺς ἐνεργεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τῆς ὀγδοάδος τῶν πονηρῶν πνευμάτων· καθάπερ οἱ εἰς φρενίτιδα διάθεσιν ἐμπεσόντες, ᾗ πλέον γελῶσι, καὶ ἰσχύειν δοκοῦσιν, καὶ ὡς ὑγιαίνοντες πάντα πράττουσι, ἔνια δὲ καὶ ὑπὲρ τὸ ὑγιαίνειν, ταύτῃ μᾶλλον κακῶς ἔχουσι. Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ οὗτοι, ᾗ μᾶλλον ὑπερφρονεῖν δοκοῦσι, καὶ ἐκνευρίζουσιν ἑαυτοὺς, ὑπέρτονα τοξεύοντες, ταύτῃ μᾶλλον οὐ σωφρονοῦσιν. Ἐξελθὸν γὰρ τὸ ἀκάθαρτον πνεῦμα τῆς ἀγνοίας l. ἀνοίας, ἔπειτα σχολάζοντας αὐτοὺς, οὐ Θεῷ, ἀλλὰ κοσμικαῖς ζητήσεσιν εὑρὸν, προσπαραλαβὸν ἕτερα πνεύματα ἑπτὰ πονηρότερα ἑαυτοῦ, καὶ χαυνῶσαν αὐτῶν τὴν γνώμην, ὡς δυναμένων τὰ ὑπὲρ τὸν Θεὸν ἐννοεῖν, καὶ ἐπιτήδειον εἰς ὑπερέκκρουσιν κατασκευάσαν, τὴν ὀγδοάδα τῆς ἀνοίας τῶν πονηρῶν πνευμάτων εἰς αὐτοὺς ἐνεθήκωσε. 1.10.1 ΒΟΥΛΟΜΑΙ δέ σοι καὶ ὡς αὐτὴν τὴν κτίσιν κατ' εἰκόνα τῶν ἀοράτων ὑπὸ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ, ὡς ἀγνοοῦντος αὐτοῦ, κατεσκευάσθαι διὰ τῆς Μητρὸς λέγουσι, διηγήσασθαι. Πρῶτον μὲν τὰ τέσσαρα στοιχεῖά φασι, πῦρ, ὕδωρ, γῆν, ἀέρα, εἰκόνα προβεβλῆσθαι τῆς ἄνω πρώτης deest ap. Η. τετράδος· τάς τε ἐνεργείας αὐτῶν συναριθμουμένας, οἷον θερμόν τε καὶ ψυχρὸν,