Chapter XVI.—The System of Saturnilus.

But one Saturnilus,835    See [vol. i. p. 348, this series, where it is Saturninus]; Irenæus, i. 24; [vol. iii., this series, p. 649]; Tertullian, Præscript. xlvi.; Epiphanius, Hær., xxiii.; Theodoret, Hær. Fab., i. 3; St. Augustine, Hær., iii. Eusebius styles this heretic Saturninus. who flourished about the same period with Basilides,836    Epiphanius makes Basilides and Saturnilus belong to the same school. but spent his time in Antioch, (a city) of Syria, propounded opinions akin to whatever (tenets) Menander (advanced). He asserts that there is one Father, unknown to all—He who had made angels, archangels, principalities, (and) powers; and that by certain angels, seven (in number), the world was made, and all things that are in it. And (Saturnilus affirms) that man was a work of angels. There had appeared above from (the Being of) absolute sway, a brilliant837    φαεινῆς: Miller reads φωνῆς. image; and when (the angels) were not able to detain this, on account of its immediately, he says, returning with rapidity upwards, they exhorted one another, saying, “Let us make man in our likeness and image.”838    Gen. i. 26. And when the figure was formed, and was not, he says, able, owing to the impotence of the angels, to lift up itself, but continued writhing as a worm, the Power above, compassionating him on account of his having been born in its own image, sent forth a scintillation of life, which raised man up, and caused him to have vitality. (Saturnilus) asserts that this scintillation of life rapidly returns after death to those things that are of the same order of existence; and that the rest, from which they have been generated, are resolved into those. And the Saviour839    Miller reads “the Father.” he supposed to be unbegotten and incorporeal, and devoid of figure.  (Saturnilus,) however, (maintained that Jesus) was manifested as man in appearance only. And he says that the God of the Jews is one of the angels, and, on account of the Father’s wishing to deprive of sovereignty all the Archons, that Christ came for the overthrow of the God of the Jews, and for the salvation of those that believe upon Him; and that these have in them the scintillation of life. For he asserted that two kinds of men had been formed by the angels,—one wicked, but the other good. And, since demons from time to time assisted wicked (men, Saturnilus affirms) that the Saviour came for the overthrow of worthless men and demons, but for the salvation of good men. And he affirms that marriage and procreation are from Satan. The majority, however, of those who belong to this (heretic’s school) abstain from animal food likewise, (and) by this affectation of asceticism (make many their dupes). And (they maintain) that the prophecies have been uttered, partly by the world-making angels, and partly by Satan, who is also the very angel whom they suppose to act in antagonism to the cosmical840    Or, “world-making.” (angels), and especially to the God of the Jews. These, then, are in truth the tenets of Saturnilus.

[28] Σατορνεῖλος δέ τις, συνακμάσας τῷ Βασιλείδῃ κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν χρόνον, διατρίψας δ' ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ τῆς Συρίας, ἐδογμάτισε τοιαῦτα ὁποῖα καὶ Μένανδρος. λέγει γὰρ ἕνα Πατέρα ἄγνωστον τοῖς πᾶσιν ὑπάρχειν, τὸν ποιήσαντα ἀγγέλους, ἀρχαγγέλους, δυνάμεις, ἐξουσίας: ὑπὸ δὲ ἑπτά τινων ἀγγέλων τὸν κόσμον γεγενῆσθαι καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ. καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον δὲ ἀγγέλων εἶναι ποίημα, ἄνωθεν, ἀπὸ τῆς αὐθεντίας, φω[τει]νῆς εἰκόνος ἐπιφανείσης. ἣν κατασχεῖν μὴ δυνηθέντες, διὰ τὸ παραχρῆμα, φησίν, ἀναδραμεῖν ἄνω, ἐκέλευσαν ἑαυτοῖς λέγοντες: «ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν». οὗ γενομένου, φησί, καὶ [μὴ] δυναμένου ἀνορθοῦσθαι τοῦ πλάσματος διὰ τὸ ἀδρανὲς τῶν ἀγγέλων, ἀλλὰ ὡς σκώληκος σκαρίζοντος, οἰκτείρασα αὐτὸν ἡ ἄνω δύναμις διὰ τὸ ἐν ὁμοιώματι αὐτῆς γεγονέναι [ἔ]πεμψε σπινθῆρα ζωῆς, ὃς διήγειρε τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ [ἀνώρθωσε καὶ] ζῆν ἐποίησε. τοῦτον οὖν τὸν σπινθῆρα τῆς ζωῆς μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν ἀνατρέχειν πρὸς τὰ ὁμόφυλα λέγει, καὶ τὰ λοιπά, ἐξ ὧν ἐγένετο, εἰς ἐκεῖνα ἀναλύεσθαι. Τὸν δὲ σωτῆρα ἀγέν[ν]ητον ὑπέθετο καὶ ἀσώματον καὶ ἀνείδεον, δοκήσει δ' ἐπιπεφηνέναι ἄνθρωπον. καὶ τὸν τῶν Ἰουδαίων θεὸν ἕνα τῶν ἀγγέλων εἶναί φησι: καὶ διὰ τὸ βούλεσθαι τὸν Πατέρα καταλῦσαι πάντας τοὺς ἄρχοντας [αὐτοῦ] παραγενέσθαι τὸν Χριστόν, ἐπὶ καταλύσει τοῦ τῶν Ἰουδαίων θεοῦ καὶ ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ τῶν πειθομένων αὐτῷ. εἶναι δὲ τούτους [τοὺς] ἔχοντας τὸν σπινθῆρα τῆς ζωῆς ἐν αὑτοῖς. δύο γὰρ γένη τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὑπὸ τῶν ἀγγέλων πεπλάσθαι ἔφη, τὸ μὲν πονηρόν, τὸ δὲ ἀγαθόν: καὶ ἐπειδὴ οἱ δαίμονες τοῖς πονηροῖς ἐβοήθουν, ἐληλυθέναι τὸν σωτῆρα ἐπὶ καταλύσει τῶν φαύλων ἀνθρώπων καὶ δαιμόνων, ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ δὲ τῶν ἀγαθῶν. Τὸ δὲ γαμεῖν καὶ γεν[ν]ᾶν ἀπὸ τοῦ Σατανᾶ φησιν εἶναι. οἱ πλείους δὲ τῶν ἀπ' ἐκείνου καὶ ἐμψύχων ἀπέχονται, διὰ τῆς προσποιητοῦ ταύτης ἐγκρατείας [πλανῶντες πολλούς]. τὰς δὲ προφητείας ἃς μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν κοσμοποιῶν ἀγγέλων λελαλῆσθαι, ἃς δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ Σατανᾶ: ὃν καὶ αὐτὸν ἄγγελον, ἀντιπράττοντα τοῖς κοσμοποιοῖς ὑπέθετο, μάλιστα δὲ τῷ τῶν Ἰουδαί(ων) θεῷ. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν [καὶ] ὁ Σατορνεῖλος.