57

to make known the dogma to those who ought to encounter it; that is, from what will be said, to infer what is left unsaid, and to flee far from this perdition of religion, and from ever consorting with such people who practice it. For indeed, physicians do not refuse the knowledge of poisons, not so that one might use them, but so that, knowing them, he might avoid them. This dogma, then, is a kind of effluence of the filth that came forth from Simon, the Magus from Samaria, who taught that the world is not a creation of God, but of angels, nor that there will be a resurrection, and who introduced that intercourse with all women ought to be a matter of indifference, and who drove to such a point of madness as to assume the name of our Christ and great God; and for these things he is paying an eternal penalty, and was justly cast down into the much-fabled and gloomy Tartarus. And indeed, an addition was once made to the dogma by Menander and Saturnilus, the successors of Simon, who, while differing in some respect from his opinions, nevertheless confirmed the aforementioned turpitude, and similarly set forth that the world was made by angels, and who dared to dogmatize that God the Son is just, but that the good God the Father, from whom are all things, is unjust and alien to the creation and providence of the world; and this madness was taught by Basilides, who added that there are 365 heavens, having the names of angels; whence, he says, the so-called holy name Arbasax is found to calculate to 365 by its letters; and by Carpocrates, who also in later times strengthened these things, and added a measure of abomination, that unless one, having passed through every practice of sin, fulfills the whole will of the demons, he cannot pass by the principalities and powers, and reach the highest heaven; and further still by Valentinus, who also followed those who have been mentioned, and deceived those who obeyed him, that Christ brought his body from heaven, and who also fabricated a myth of this sort, that the Deep begot Silence; and from her he contrived a certain tale of the Zeus of the Greeks, and introduced 30 Aeons, whom he called gods; since, he says, it is written that Jesus was baptized “being about 30 years old;” which in no way supports his absurdity; and who declared the last of the 30 Aeons to be androgynous; and that this is Wisdom, who, wishing to see the first God, and being struck by his splendors, fell out of the heavens, and was cast out from the number of the thirty, and wailing, from her own wail she gave birth to the devil; and that, weeping over her fall, she produced the sea; and so that, forsooth, the thirtieth number might be filled up, the 28 Aeons contributed.......

57

τοῦ δόγματος γνωρίσαι τοῖς ἐντυγχάνειν ὀφείλουσι· δηλαδὴ, ἐκ τῶν λεχθησομένων στοχάζεσθαι τὰ σιωπώμενα, καὶ μακρὰν φεύγειν τήνδε τῆς θρησκείας ἀπώλειαν, καὶ τὸ ποτὲ συναυλίζεσθαι τοιούτοις ταύτην ἐπιτηδεύουσιν. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ οἱ ἰατροὶ τὴν τῶν δηλητηρίων οὐκ ἀναίνονται γνῶσιν, οὐχ ἵνα τις χρήσηται, ἀλλ' ὅπως εἰδὼς αὐτὰ φύγῃ. Τοῦτο τοίνυν τὸ δόγμα ἔκροιά τίς ἐστι τοῦ ἐξελθόντος βορβόρου ἀπὸ Σίμωνος, τοῦ ἐκ Σαμαρείας Μάγου, τοῦ μηδὲ τὸν κόσμον τοῦ Θεοῦ εἶναι ποίημα, ἀλλ' ἀγγέλων, μηδ' ἀνάστασιν ἔσεσθαι διδάξαντος, καὶ ἀδιάφορον ὀφείλειν εἶναι πρὸς πάσας τὰς γυναῖκας τὴν μίξιν εἰσηγησαμένου, καὶ εἰς τοῦτο μανίας ἐλάσαντος, ὥστε τὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ μεγάλου Θεοῦ ὄνομα ὑποδῦναι· διὰ ταῦτά τε τιμωρίαν αἰωνίως ἀποτιννύοντος, καὶ εἰς τὸν πολυθρύλητον καὶ ζοφώδη τάρταρον ἐνδίκως κατενεχθέντος. Καὶ μέντοι καὶ προσθήκη τῷ δόγματι γέγονέν ποτε Με 39.992 νάνδρου καὶ Σατορνίλου τῶν μετὰ Σίμωνα, κατά τι μὲν διενεχθέντων πρὸς τὰ ἐκείνῳ δόξαντα, βεβαιωσάντων δὲ τὴν προλεχθεῖσαν αἰσχρουργίαν, καὶ ὑπὸ ἀγγέλων τὸν κόσμον γεγενῆσθαι ὁμοίως ἐκθεμένων, καὶ τολμησάντων δογματίσαι, δίκαιον μὲν ὑπάρχειν τὸν Θεὸν Υἱὸν, ἄδικον δὲ καὶ ἀλλότριον τῆς τοῦ κόσμου δημιουργίας τε καὶ προνοίας τὸν ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἀγαθὸν Θεὸν Πατέρα· καὶ ὑπὸ Βασιλείδου ταύτην μεμαθητευμένου τὴν φρενερημίαν, καὶ προσθέντος, ὡς τξεʹ οὐρανοὶ καθεστᾶσιν, ἀγγέλων ἔχοντες ὀνόματα· ὅθεν, φησὶν, τὸ οὕτω λεγόμενον ἅγιον ὄνομα Ἀρβασὰξ τξεʹ ψήφων εὑρίσκεται λογιζόμενον· καὶ ὑπὸ Καρποκράτους, τοῦ καὶ ὕστερον χρόνοις κρατύναντος ταῦτα, καὶ ἐν προσθήκης μέρει μιαρίας ἀπαγγείλαντος, ὡς εἰ μή τις διὰ παντὸς ἐπιτηδεύματος ἁμαρτίας ἐλθὼν, τῶν δαιμόνων ὅλων τὸ θέλημα ἐκτελέσῃ, οὐ δύναται παρελθεῖν τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ ἐξουσίας, καὶ εἰς τὸν ἀνώτατον φθάσαι οὐρανόν· ἔτι μὴν καὶ Οὐαλεντίνου, τοῦ καὶ τοῖς μνημονευθεῖσιν ἀκολουθήσαντος, καὶ ἐκφενακίσαντος τοὺς αὐτῷ πειθομένους, ὡς ὁ Χριστὸς ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ τὸ σῶμα ἐνήνοχεν, καὶ μῦθον δὲ ἀναπλασαμένου τοιόνδε, ὅτι ὁ Βυθὸς ἐγέννησεν τὴν Σιγήν· ἐκ δὲ ταύτης τεχνοποιησαμένου λόγον τινὰ τοῦ παρ' Ἕλλησι ∆ιὸς, καὶ λʹ Αἰῶνας, οὓς ἐκάλεσεν θεοὺς, εἰσαγαγόντος· ἐπειδὴ, φησὶν, γέγραπται, ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐβαπτίσθη «ὢν ὡς ἐτῶν λʹ·» ὅπερ οὐδαμῶς συνίστησιν τὴν ἀτοπίαν αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἀπαγγείλαντος ἀρσενόθηλυν τὸν ἔσχατον Αἰῶνα τῶν λʹ· καὶ ὅτι οὗτός ἐστιν ἡ σοφία, ἥτις τὸν πρῶτον Θεὸν ἰδεῖν ἐθελήσασα, καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν μαρμαρυγῶν αὐτοῦ βληθεῖσα, τῶν οὐρανῶν ἐξέπεσεν, καὶ ἀπεβλήθη τοῦ τριακοστοῦ ἀριθμοῦ, καὶ οἰμώζουσα, ἐκ τῆς οἰκείας οἰμωγῆς ἔτεκεν τὸν διάβολον· καὶ ὅτι δακρύσασα τὴν ἀπόπτωσιν, τὴν θάλατταν ὑπεστήσατο· καὶ ἵνα δῆθεν ὁ τριακοστὸς ἀναπληρωθῇ ἀριθμὸς, οἱ κηʹ Αἰῶνες συνεισενεγ.......