Chapter XXIV.—The Formation of Man by the Demiurge. Human Flesh Not Made of the Ground, But of a Nondescript Philosophic Substance.

Such being their conceits respecting God, or, if you like,233    Vel. the gods, of what sort are their figments concerning man? For, after he had made the world, the Demiurge turns his hands to man, and chooses for him as his substance not any portion of “the dry land,” as they say, of which alone we have any knowledge (although it was, at that time, not yet dried by the waters becoming separated from the earthy residuum, and only afterwards became dry), but of the invisible substance of that matter, which philosophy indeed dreams of, from its fluid and fusible composition, the origin of which I am unable to imagine, because it exists nowhere. Now, since fluidity and fusibility are qualities of liquid matter, and since everything liquid flowed from Sophia’s tears, we must, as a necessary conclusion, believe that muddy earth is constituted of Sophia’s eye-rheums and viscid discharges,234    Ex pituitis et gramis. which are just as much the dregs of tears as mud is the sediment of waters. Thus does the Demiurge mould man as a potter does his clay, and animates him with his own breath. Made after his image and likeness, he will therefore be both material and animal. A fourfold being! For in respect of his “image,” he must be deemed clayey,235    Choicus. that is to say, material, although the Demiurge is not composed of matter; but as to his “likeness,” he is animal, for such, too, is the Demiurge. You have two (of his constituent elements). Moreover, a coating of flesh was, as they allege, afterwards placed over the clayey substratum, and it is this tunic of skin which is susceptible of sensation.

CAPUT XXIV.

Cum talia de Deo vel de deis, qualia de homine figmenta! Molitus enim mundum demiurgus, ad hominem manus confert, et substantiam non ei capit, non ex ista, inquiunt, arida quam nos unicam novimus terram quasi non etsi arida postmodum, adhuc tamen tunc aquis ante segregatis, superstite limo siccaverit, sed ex invisibili corpore materiae illius, scilicet philosophicae, de fluxili et fusili ejus: quod unde fuerit, haud queo aestimare, quia 0578A nusquam est. Si enim fusile et fluxile liquoris est qualitas, liquor autem omnis de Sophiae fletibus fluxit sequitur ut limum ex pituitis et gramis Sophiae constitisse credamus, quae lacrymarum proinde sunt faeces, sicut aquarum quod desidet, limus est. Figulat ita hominem demiurgus, et de afflatu suo animat: sic erit et choicus et animalis, ad imaginem et similitudinem factus: quadruplex res: ut imago quidem choicus deputetur, materialis scilicet; etsi non ex materia demiurgus: similitudo autem animalis; hoc enim et demiurgus. Habes duos. Interim carnalem superficiem postea aiunt choico supertextam, et hanc esse pelliceam tunicam obnoxiam sensui .