Chapter XXXII.—Indignant Irony Exposing the Valentinian Fable About the Judicial Treatment of Mankind at the Last Judgment. The Immorality of the Doctrine.

As for the human race, its end will be to the following effect:—To all which bear the earthy292    Choicæ: “clayey.” and material mark there accrues an entire destruction, because “all flesh is grass,”293    Isa. xl. 6. and amongst these is the soul of mortal man, except when it has found salvation by faith. The souls of just men, that is to say, our souls, will be conveyed to the Demiurge in the abodes of the middle region. We are duly thankful; we shall be content to be classed with our god, in whom lies our own origin.294    See above, in ch. xxiv. p. 515. Into the palace of the Pleroma nothing of the animal nature is admitted—nothing but the spiritual swarm of Valentinus. There, then, the first process is the despoiling of men themselves, that is, men within the Pleroma.295    Interiores. Now this despoiling consists of the putting off of the souls in which they appear to be clothed, which they will give back to their Demiurge as they had obtained296    Averterant. them from him. They will then become wholly intellectual spirits—impalpable,297    Neque detentui obnoxii. invisible298    Neque conspectui obnoxii.—and in this state will be readmitted invisibly to the Pleroma—stealthily, if the case admits of the idea.299    Si ita est: or, “since such is the fact.” What then?  They will be dispersed amongst the angels, the attendants on Soter. As sons, do you suppose? Not at all.  As servants, then? No, not even so. Well, as phantoms? Would that it were nothing more! Then in what capacity, if you are ashamed to tell us? In the capacity of brides. Then will they end300    Claudent. their Sabine rapes with the sanction of wedlock. This will be the guerdon of the spiritual, this the recompense of their faith! Such fables have their use. Although but a Marcus or a Gaius,301    But slaves, in fact. full-grown in this flesh of ours, with a beard and such like proofs (of virility,) it may be a stern husband, a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather (never mind what, in fact, if only a male), you may perhaps in the bridal-chamber of the Pleroma—I have already said so tacitly302    This parenthetic clause, “tacendo jam dixi,” perhaps means, “I say this with shame,” “I would rather not have to say it.”—even become the parent by an angel of some Æon of high numerical rank.303    The common reading is, “Onesimum Æonem,” an Æon called Onesimus, in supposed allusion to Philemon’s Onesimus. But this is too far-fetched. Oehler discovers in “Onesimum” the corruption of some higher number ending in “esimum.” For the right celebration of these nuptials, instead of the torch and veil, I suppose that secret fire is then to burst forth, which, after devastating the whole existence of things, will itself also be reduced to nothing at last, after everything has been reduced to ashes; and so their fable too will be ended.304    This is Oehler’s idea of “et nulla jam fabula.” Rigaltius, however, gives a good sense to this clause: “All will come true at last; there will be no fable.” But I, too, am no doubt a rash man, in having exposed so great a mystery in so derisive a way: I ought to be afraid that Achamoth, who did not choose to make herself known even to her own son, would turn mad, that Theletus would be enraged, that Fortune305    The same as Macariotes, in ch. viii. above, p. 507. would be irritated. But I am yet a liege-man of the Demiurge. I have to return after death to the place where there is no more giving in marriage, where I have to be clothed upon rather than to be despoiled,—where, even if I am despoiled of my sex, I am classed with angels—not a male angel, nor a female one. There will be no one to do aught against me, nor will they then find any male energy in me.

CAPUT XXXII.

Humana vero gens in hoc exitus ibit; choicae et materialis notae, in totum interitum : quia omnis caro foenum, et anima mortalis apud illos, nisi quae salutem fide invenerit. Justorum animae, id est nostrae, ad Demiurgum in medietatis receptacula, transmittentur. Agimus gratias, contenti crimus cum Deo nostro deputari, quo ascensus . Nihil animale in Pleromatis palatium admittitur, nisi spiritale examen Valentini. Illic itaque primo despoliantur homines ipsi, id est interiores. Despoliari 0587B autem est, deponere animas, quibus induti videbantur, easque Demiurgo suo reddent, quas ab eo avertant . Ipsi autem spiritus in totum fient intellectuales, neque detentui, neque conspectui obnoxii: atque ita invisibiliter in Pleroma recipientur. Furtim, si ita est, quid deinde? Angelis distribuentur satellitibus Soteris. In filios putas? Non. Sed in apparitores? 0588A Ne istud quidem. Sed in imagines? Utinam vel hoc. In quid ergo, si non pudet dicere? In sponsas. Tunc illi Sabinas raptas inter se de matrimoniis plaudent . Haec erit Spiritalium merces, hoc praemium credendi. Fabulae tales utiles, ut Marcus, aut Caius in hanc carnem barbatus, et haec omnia ; severus maritus, pater, avus, proavus, certe quod sufficit masculus, in Nymphone Pleromatis ab angelo, tacendo jam dixi et forsitan parias aliquem Onesimum Aeonem. His nuptiis recte deducendis, pro face et flammeo, tunc credo ille ignis arcanus erumpet, et universam substantiam depopulatus; ipse quoque decineratis omnibus in nihilum finietur; et nulla jam fabula. Sed nae ego temerarius, qui tantum sacramentum etiam inludendo 0588B prodiderim. Verendum mihi est, ne Achamoth, quae se nec filio agnitam voluit, insaniat; ne Philetus irascatur, ne Fortuna acerbetur. Et tamen homo sum Demiurgi, illuc habeo devertere, ubi post excessum omnino non obnubitur : ubi superindui potius quam despoliari: ubi etsi despolior sexui meo, deputor angelis; non angelus, non 0589A angela. Nemo mihi quicquam faciet, quem et tunc masculum invenient .