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body having been corrupted by this magus and having followed him for a long time; 2.9 Then, after the brethren had with great difficulty brought her back, she spent her whole time in confession, mourning and lamenting over the corruption which she had suffered from the magus. And some of his disciples, going about in those same places, deceiving many silly women, corrupted them, proclaiming themselves to be perfect, so that no one could equal the greatness of their knowledge, not even if you should mention Paul or Peter or any other of the apostles, but that they themselves knew more than all, and that they alone had drunk down the greatness of the knowledge of the unspeakable power, and that they were in the height above every power. Wherefore they also do all things freely, having fear of no one in anything. For through the Redemption they become both beyond the grasp and invisible to the judge. And if he should even lay hold of them, standing before him with the Redemption they would say these things: “O Assessor of God and of the mystical Silence before the ages, † whom the Greatnesses, always seeing the face of the Father, using you as guide and introducer, draw up their forms, which that greatly daring one, having imagined through the goodness of the Forefather, put us forth † the images † then having a thought of the things above as in a dream— behold, the judge is near and the herald bids me make my defense; but you, as knowing the affairs of both, present to the judge the case for both of us as being one.” And the Mother, quickly hearing these things, placed on them the Homeric helmet of Hades so that they might escape the judge invisibly, and immediately snatching them up, she led them into the bridal chamber and gave them to their own bridegrooms. Saying and doing such things, then, also in our regions of the Rhone valley they have deceived many women, who, having their consciences seared, some of them confess openly, but others being ashamed to do 2.10 this, in silence somehow themselves *, despairing of the life of God, some have departed entirely, while others are wavering, and have suffered what the proverb says, being neither without nor within, having this as the fruit of the seed of the children of knowledge. This Marcus, therefore, saying that he alone had become the womb and receptacle of the Colorbasian Silence, since he was the only-begotten, the very seed of the Deficiency having been deposited in him, brought forth in this way: the supreme Tetrad itself from the invisible and unnameable places had come down to him in female form (because, he says, the world could not bear her male form) and to reveal herself, who she was, and the generation of all things, which she had never revealed to anyone, neither of gods nor of men, she related to him alone, speaking thus: When first the Father, who has no father, the unthought and without substance, who is neither male nor female, willed that His unutterable should become utterable and His invisible be formed, He opened His mouth and sent forth a Word like Himself; who, standing by, showed Him what He was, having appeared himself as the form of the invisible. And the utterance of the name happened thus: He spoke the first word of His name, which was a beginning, and its syllable was of four elements. And He added the second, and it also was of four elements. Next He spoke the third, and it too was of ten elements. And He spoke the one after this, and it too was of twelve elements. The utterance of the whole name therefore consisted of thirty elements, and of four 2.11 syllables. And each of the elements has its own letters and its own character and its own utterance and figures and images, and none of them is that which beholds the form of that of which it is an element; but it does not even know † him, nor indeed does each know the utterance of its neighbor, but what † it utters itself, as if uttering the whole

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σῶμα διαφθαρείσης ὑπὸ τοῦ μάγου τούτου καὶ ἐξακολουθησάσης αὐτῷ πολλῷ χρόνῳ· 2.9 ἔπειτα μετὰ πολλοῦ κόπου τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἐπιστρεψάντων αὐτήν, τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον ἐξομολογουμένη διετέλεσε, πενθοῦσα καὶ θρηνοῦσα ἐφ' ᾗ ἔπαθεν ὑπὸ τοῦ μάγου διαφθορᾷ. Καὶ μαθηταὶ δὲ αὐτοῦ τινες περιπολίζοντες ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς, ἐξαπατῶντες γυναικάρια πολλὰ διέφθειραν, τελείους ἑαυτοὺς ἀναγορεύοντες, ὡς μηδενὸς δυναμένου ἐξισωθῆναι τῷ μεγέθει τῆς γνώσεως αὐτῶν, μηδ' ἂν Παῦλον μηδ' ἂν Πέτρον εἴπῃς μηδ' ἄλλον τινὰ τῶν ἀποστόλων, ἀλλὰ πλείω πάντων ἑαυτοὺς ἐγνωκέναι καὶ τὸ μέγεθος τῆς γνώσεως τῆς ἀρρήτου δυνάμεως μόνους καταπεπωκέναι, εἶναί τε αὐτοὺς ἐν ὕψει ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν δύναμιν. διὸ καὶ ἐλευθέρως πάντα πράσσειν, μηδένα ἐν μηδενὶ φόβον ἔχοντας. διὰ γὰρ τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν ἀκρατήτους τε καὶ ἀοράτους γίνεσθαι τῷ κριτῇ. εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐπιλάβοιτο αὐτῶν, παραστάντες αὐτῷ μετὰ τῆς ἀπολυτρώσεως τάδε εἴποιεν· «ὦ πάρεδρε θεοῦ καὶ μυστικῆς πρὸ αἰώνων Σιγῆς, † ἣν τὰ Μεγέθη διὰ παντὸς βλέποντα τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ Πατρός, ὁδηγῷ σοι καὶ προσαγωγεῖ χρώμενα, ἀνασπῶσιν ἄνω τὰς αὐτῶν μορφάς, ἃς ἡ μεγαλότολμος ἐκείνη φαντασιασθεῖσα διὰ τὸ ἀγαθὸν τοῦ Προπάτορος προεβάλετο ἡμᾶς † τὰς εἰκόνας † τότε ἐνθύμιον τῶν ἄνω ὡς ἐνύπνιον ἔχουσα- ἰδοὺ ὁ κριτὴς ἐγγὺς καὶ ὁ κῆρυξ με κελεύει ἀπολογεῖσθαι· σὺ δέ, ὡς ἐπισταμένη τὰ ἀμφοτέρων, τὸν ὑπὲρ ἀμφοτέρων ἡμῶν λόγον ὡς ἕνα ὄντα τῷ κριτῇ παράστησον». ἡ δὲ Μήτηρ ταχέως ἀκούσασα τούτων τὴν Ὁμηρικὴν Ἄϊδος κυνέην αὐτοῖς περιέθηκε πρὸς τὸ ἀοράτως ἐκφυγεῖν τὸν κριτὴν καὶ παραχρῆμα ἀνασπάσασα αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν νυμφῶνα εἰσήγαγε καὶ ἀπέδωκε τοῖς ἑαυτῶν νυμφίοις. Τοιαῦτα δὴ λέγοντες καὶ πράττοντες καὶ ἐν τοῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς κλίμασι τῆς Ῥοδανουσίας πολλὰς ἐξηπατήκασι γυναῖκας, αἵτινες κεκαυτηριασμέναι τὴν συνείδησιν αἱ μὲν καὶ εἰς φανερὸν ἐξομολογοῦνται, αἱ δὲ δυσωπούμεναι 2.10 τοῦτο ἡσυχῆ δέ πως ἑαυτὰς *, ἀπηλπικυῖαι τῆς ζωῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἔνιαι μὲν εἰς τὸ παντελὲς ἀπέστησαν, ἔνιαι δὲ ἐπαμφοτερίζουσι καὶ τὸ τῆς παροιμίας πεπόνθασι, μήτε ἔξω μήτε ἔσω οὖσαι, ταύτην ἔχουσαι τὴν ἐπικαρπίαν τοῦ σπέρματος τῶν τέκνων τῆς γνώσεως. Οὗτος οὖν ὁ Μάρκος μήτραν καὶ ἐκδοχεῖον τῆς Κολορβάσου Σιγῆς αὑτὸν μονώτατον γεγονέναι λέγων, ἅτε μονογενὴς ὑπάρχων, αὐτὸ τὸ τοῦ Ὑστερήματος σπέρμα κατατεθὲν εἰς αὐτὸν ὧδέ πως ἀπεκύησεν. αὐτὴν τὴν πανυπερτάτην ἀπὸ τῶν ἀοράτων καὶ ἀκατονομάστων τόπων τετράδα κατεληλυθέναι σχήματι γυναικείῳ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐπειδή, φησί, τὸ ἄρρεν αὐτῆς ὁ κόσμος φέρειν οὐκ ἠδύνατο καὶ μηνῦσαι αὑτήν, τίς ἦν, καὶ τὴν τῶν πάντων γένεσιν, ἣν οὐδενὶ πώποτε οὐδὲ θεῶν οὐδὲ ἀνθρώπων ἀπεκάλυψε, τούτῳ μονωτάτῳ διηγήσασθαι οὕτως εἰποῦσαν· ὅτε τὸ πρῶτον ὁ Πατήρ, οὗ οὐκ ἔστιν πατὴρ οὐδείς, ὁ ἀνεννόητος καὶ ἀνούσιος, ὁ μήτε ἄρρεν μήτε θῆλυ, ἠθέλησεν αὐτοῦ τὸ ἄρρητον ῥητὸν γενέσθαι καὶ τὸ ἀόρατον μορφωθῆναι, ἤνοιξε τὸ στόμα καὶ προήκατο λόγον ὅμοιον αὐτῷ· ὃς παραστὰς ὑπέδειξεν αὐτῷ ὃ ἦν, αὐτὸς τοῦ ἀοράτου μορφὴ φανείς. ἡ δὲ ἐκφώνησις τοῦ ὀνόματος ἐγένετο τοιαύτη· ἐλάλησε λόγον τὸν πρῶτον τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ, ἥτις ἦν ἀρχή, καὶ ἦν ἡ συλλαβὴ αὐτοῦ στοιχείων τεσσάρων. ἐπισυνῆψεν τε τὴν δευτέραν, καὶ ἦν καὶ αὐτὴ στοιχείων τεσσάρων. ἑξῆς ἐλάλησε τὴν τρίτην, καὶ ἦν καὶ αὐτὴ στοιχείων δέκα. καὶ τὴν μετὰ ταῦτα ἐλάλησε καὶ ἦν καὶ αὐτὴ στοιχείων δεκαδύο. ἐγένετο οὖν ἡ ἐκφώνησις τοῦ ὅλου ὀνόματος στοιχείων μὲν τριάκοντα, συλλαβῶν 2.11 δὲ τεσσάρων. ἕκαστον δὲ τῶν στοιχείων ἴδια γράμματα καὶ ἴδιον χαρακτῆρα καὶ ἰδίαν ἐκφώνησιν καὶ σχήματα καὶ εἰκόνας ἔχειν καὶ μηδὲν αὐτῶν εἶναι, ὃ τὴν ἐκείνου καθορᾷ μορφήν, οὗπερ αὐτὸ στοιχεῖόν ἐστιν· ἀλλὰ οὐδὲ γινώσκειν † αὐτόν, οὐδὲ μὴν τὴν τοῦ πλησίον αὐτοῦ ἕκαστον ἐκφώνησιν γινώσκειν, ἀλλὰ ὃ † αὐτὸς ἐκφωνεῖ, ὡς τὸ πᾶν ἐκφωνοῦντα τὸ