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they teach, their souls by necessity resting completely in the Middle Region with the Demiurge. And again subdividing the souls themselves, they say that some are by nature good, and others by nature evil. And that these good ones are those that become receptive of the seed, but that those evil by nature could never receive that seed. 24. And since their hypothesis is of such a kind, which neither prophets proclaimed, nor the Lord taught, nor apostles handed down, which they boast of having known more abundantly than others, reading from unwritten sources and, as the saying goes, busily weaving ropes out of sand, they try to adapt plausibly to the things they have said either the Lord's parables or prophetic sayings or apostolic words, so that their fabrication may not seem to be without witness, transgressing the order and connection of the scriptures and, as far as in them lies, dismembering the limbs of the truth. And they transfer and reshape, and making one thing out of another, they deceive many with the badly composed fantasy of the Lord's oracles which they adapt. Just as if someone, from a beautiful image of a king carefully constructed from precious stones by a wise craftsman, having destroyed the underlying form of the man, should transfer and rearrange those stones and make the form of a dog or a fox, and this poorly constructed, and then should maintain and say that this is that beautiful image of the king which the wise craftsman constructed, showing the stones which were well put together by the first craftsman into the image of the king, but badly transferred by the later one into the form of a dog, and by the appearance of the stones should beguile the more inexperienced who have no conception of the royal form and persuade them that this vile form of a fox is that beautiful image of the king; in this same way these men also, having stitched together old wives' fables, then tearing phrases and words and parables from here and there, wish to adapt the oracles of God to their own fables. And as for the things they adapt to those within the Pleroma, we have spoken. But the things they try to appropriate from the scriptures for those outside their Pleroma are as follows: they say the Lord in the last times of the world 1.423 came to the passion for this reason, in order to show the passion that occurred concerning the last of the Aeons, and through this end to make manifest the end of the affair concerning the Aeons. They declare that twelve-year-old maiden, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, whom the Lord, coming to her, raised from the dead, to be a type of Achamoth, whom their Christ, extending himself, formed, and brought to a perception of the light that had left her. And that the Savior manifested himself to her, she being outside the Pleroma in the state of an abortion, they say that Paul said in the first to the Corinthians, "and last of all, as to one born out of due time, he appeared also to me." And that he likewise revealed in the same epistle the presence of the Savior with his companions to Achamoth, saying, "the woman ought to have a covering on her head because of the angels"; and that Achamoth, when the Savior came to her, out of modesty placed a veil upon her face, Moses made manifest, who placed a veil upon his own face. And they assert that the Lord indicated the passions which she suffered *, and that in saying on the cross, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" he indicated that Sophia was forsaken by the light and was prevented by Horos from her forward impulse; and her grief in saying, "my soul is very sorrowful," and her fear in saying, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," and also her perplexity

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δογματίζουσι, τῶν ψυχῶν αὐτῶν κατ' ἀνάγκην ἐν Μεσότητι μετὰ τοῦ ∆ημιουργοῦ ἀναπαυσαμένων εἰς τὸ παντελές. καὶ αὐτὰς μὲν τὰς ψυχὰς πάλιν ὑπομερίζοντες λέγουσιν ἃς μὲν φύσει ἀγαθάς, ἃς δὲ φύσει πονηράς. καὶ τὰς μὲν ἀγαθὰς ταύτας εἶναι τὰς δεκτικὰς τοῦ σπέρματος γινομένας, τὰς δὲ φύσει πονηρὰς μηδέποτε ἂν ἐπιδέξασθαι ἐκεῖνο τὸ σπέρμα. 24. Τοιαύτης δὲ τῆς ὑποθέσεως αὐτῶν οὔσης, ἣν οὔτε προφῆται ἐκήρυξαν, οὔτε ὁ κύριος ἐδίδαξεν οὔτε ἀπόστολοι παρέδωκαν, ἣν περισσοτέρως αὐχοῦσιν πλεῖον τῶν ἄλλων ἐγνωκέναι, ἐξ ἀγράφων ἀναγινώσκοντες καὶ τὸ δὴ λεγόμενον ἐξ ἄμμου σχοινία πλέκειν ἐπιτηδεύοντες, ἀξιοπίστως προσαρμόζειν πειρῶνται τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἤτοι παραβολὰς κυριακὰς ἢ ῥήσεις προφητικὰς ἢ λόγους ἀποστολικούς, ἵνα τὸ πλάσμα αὐτῶν μὴ ἀμάρτυρον εἶναι δοκῇ, τὴν μὲν τάξιν καὶ τὸν εἱρμὸν τῶν γραφῶν ὑπερβαίνοντες καὶ ὅσον ἐφ' ἑαυτοῖς λύοντες τὰ μέλη τῆς ἀληθείας. μεταφέρουσι δὲ καὶ μεταπλάττουσι καὶ ἄλλο ἐξ ἄλλου ποιοῦντες ἐξαπατῶσι πολλοὺς τῇ τῶν ἐφαρμοζομένων κυριακῶν λογίων κακοσυνθέτῳ φαντασίᾳ. ὅνπερ τρόπον εἴ τις βασιλέως εἰκόνος καλῆς κατεσκευασμένης ἐπιμελῶς ἐκ ψηφίδων ἐπισήμων ὑπὸ σοφοῦ τεχνίτου, λύσας τὴν ὑποκειμένην τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἰδέαν μετενέγκοι τὰς ψηφῖδας ἐκείνας καὶ μεθαρμόσοι καὶ ποιήσοι μορφὴν κυνὸς ἢ ἀλώπεκος καὶ ταύτην φαύλως κατεσκευασμένην, ἔπειτα διορίζοιτο καὶ λέγοι ταύτην εἶναι τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως ἐκείνην εἰκόνα τὴν καλήν, ἣν ὁ σοφὸς τεχνίτης κατεσκεύασεν, δεικνὺς τὰς ψηφῖδας τὰς καλῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ τεχνίτου τοῦ πρώτου εἰς τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως εἰκόνα συντεθείσας, κακῶς δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ ὑστέρου εἰς κυνὸς μορφὴν μετενεχθείσας, καὶ διὰ τῆς τῶν ψηφίδων φαντασίας μεθοδεύοι τοὺς ἀπειροτέρους τοὺς κατάληψιν βασιλικῆς μορφῆς οὐκ ἔχοντας καὶ πείθοι ὅτι αὕτη ἡ σαπρὰ τῆς ἀλώπεκος ἰδέα ἐκείνη ἐστὶν ἡ καλὴ τοῦ βασιλέως εἰκών· τὸν αὐτὸν δὴ τρόπον καὶ οὗτοι γραῶν μύθους συγκαττύσαντες, ἔπειτα ῥήματα καὶ λέξεις καὶ παραβολὰς ὅθεν καὶ ποθὲν ἀποσπῶντες, ἐφαρμόζειν βούλονται τοῖς μύθοις αὐτῶν τὰ λόγια τοῦ θεοῦ. καὶ ὅσα μὲν τοῖς ἐντὸς τοῦ Πληρώματος ἐφαρμόζουσιν, εἰρήκαμεν. ὅσα δὲ καὶ τοῖς ἐκτὸς τοῦ Πληρώματος αὐτῶν προσοικειοῦν πειρῶνται ἐκ τῶν γραφῶν, ἔστιν τοιαῦτα· τὸν κύριον ἐν τοῖς ἐσχάτοις τοῦ κόσμου 1.423 χρόνοις διὰ τοῦτο ἐληλυθέναι ἐπὶ τὸ πάθος λέγουσιν, ἵν' ἐπιδείξῃ τὸ περὶ τὸν ἔσχατον τῶν Αἰώνων γεγονὸς πάθος καὶ διὰ τούτου τοῦ τέλους ἐμφήνῃ τὸ τέλος τῆς περὶ τοὺς Αἰῶνας πραγματείας. τὴν δὲ δωδεκαετῆ παρθένον ἐκείνην, τὴν τοῦ ἀρχισυναγώγου θυγατέρα, ἣν ἐπιστὰς ὁ κύριος ἐκ νεκρῶν ἤγειρεν, τύπον εἶναι διηγοῦνται τῆς Ἀχαμώθ, ἣν ἐπεκταθεὶς ὁ Χριστὸς αὐτῶν ἐμόρφωσεν καὶ εἰς αἴσθησιν ἤγαγε τοῦ καταλιπόντος αὐτὴν φωτός. ὅτι δὲ αὐτῇ ἐπέφανεν ἑαυτὸν ὁ σωτήρ, ἐκτὸς οὔσῃ τοῦ Πληρώματος ἐν ἐκτρώματος μοίρᾳ, τὸν Παῦλον λέγουσιν εἰρηκέναι ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ πρὸς Κορινθίους «ἔσχατον δὲ πάντων ὡσπερεὶ τῷ ἐκτρώματι ὤφθη κἀμοί». τήν τε μετὰ τῶν ἡλικιωτῶν τοῦ Σωτῆρος παρουσίαν πρὸς τὴν Ἀχαμὼθ ὁμοίως πεφανερωκέναι αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ ἐπιστολῇ εἰπόντα «δεῖ τὴν γυναῖκα κάλυμμα ἔχειν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς διὰ τοὺς ἀγγέλους»· καὶ ὅτι ἥκοντος τοῦ Σωτῆρος πρὸς αὐτὴν δι' αἰδῶ κάλυμμα ἐπέθετο ἡ Ἀχαμὼθ ἐπὶ τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτῆς, Μωσέα πεποιηκέναι φανερόν, κάλυμμα θέμενον ἐπὶ τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ. καὶ τὰ πάθη δὲ αὐτῆς ἃ ἔπαθεν *, ἐπισεσημειῶσθαι τὸν κύριον φάσκουσιν, καὶ ἐν μὲν τῷ εἰπεῖν ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ «ὁ θεός μου, εἰς τί ἐγκατέλιπές με» μεμηνυκέναι αὐτὸν ὅτι ἀπελείφθη ἀπὸ τοῦ φωτὸς ἡ Σοφία καὶ ἐκωλύθη ὑπὸ τοῦ Ὅρου τῆς εἰς τοὔμπροσθεν ὁρμῆς, τὴν δὲ λύπην αὐτῆς ἐν τῷ εἰπεῖν «περίλυπός ἐστιν ἡ ψυχή μου», τὸν δὲ φόβον ἐν τῷ εἰπεῖν «πάτερ, εἰ δυνατόν, παρελθέτω ἀπ' ἐμοῦ τὸ ποτήριον» καὶ τὴν ἀπορίαν δὲ