Chapter VII.--The First Eight Emanations, or Æons, Called the Ogdoad, are the Fountain of All the Others. Their Names and Descent Recorded.
Beginning with Ennius, [6680] the Roman poet, he simply spoke of "the spacious saloons [6681] of heaven,"--either on account of their elevated site, or because in Homer he had read about Jupiter banqueting therein. As for our heretics, however, it is marvellous what storeys upon storeys [6682] and what heights upon heights, they have hung up, raised and spread out as a dwelling for each several god of theirs. Even our Creator has had arranged for Him the saloons of Ennius in the fashion of private rooms, [6683] with chamber piled upon chamber, and assigned to each god by just as many staircases as there were heresies. The universe, in fact, has been turned into "rooms to let." [6684] Such storeys of the heavens you would imagine to be detached tenements in some happy isle of the blessed, [6685] I know not where. There the god even of the Valentinians has his dwelling in the attics. They call him indeed, as to his essence, Aion teleios (Perfect Æon), but in respect of his personality, Proarche (Before the Beginning), E 'Arche (The Beginning), and sometimes Bythos (Depth), [6686] a name which is most unfit for one who dwells in the heights above! They describe him as unbegotten, immense, infinite, invisible, and eternal; as if, when they described him to be such as we know that he ought to be, they straightway prove him to be a being who may be said to have had such an existence even before all things else. I indeed insist upon [6687] it that he is such a being; and there is nothing which I detect in beings of this sort more obvious, than that they who are said to have been before all things--things, too, not their own--are found to be behind all things. Let it, however, be granted that this Bythos of theirs existed in the infinite ages of the past in the greatest and profoundest repose, in the extreme rest of a placid and, if I may use the expression, stupid divinity, such as Epicurus has enjoined upon us. And yet, although they would have him be alone, they assign to him a second person in himself and with himself, Ennoea (Thought), which they also call both Charis (Grace) and Sige (Silence). Other things, as it happened, conduced in this most agreeable repose to remind him of the need of by and by producing out of himself the beginning of all things. This he deposits in lieu of seed in the genital region, as it were, of the womb of his Sige. Instantaneous conception is the result: Sige becomes pregnant, and is delivered, of course in silence; and her offspring is Nus (Mind), very like his father and his equal in every respect. In short, he alone is capable of comprehending the measureless and incomprehensible greatness of his father. Accordingly he is even called the Father himself, and the Beginning of all things, and, with great propriety, Monogenes (The Only-begotten). And yet not with absolute propriety, since he is not born alone. For along with him a female also proceeded, whose name was Veritas [6688] (Truth). But how much more suitably might Monogenes be called Protogenes (First begotten), since he was begotten first! Thus Bythos and Sige, Nus and Veritas, are alleged to be the first fourfold team [6689] of the Valentinian set (of gods) [6690] the parent stock and origin of them all. For immediately when [6691] Nus received the function of a procreation of his own, he too produces out of himself Sermo (the Word) and Vita (the Life). If this latter existed not previously, of course she existed not in Bythos. And a pretty absurdity would it be, if Life existed not in God! However, this offspring also produces fruit, having for its mission the initiation of the universe and the formation of the entire Pleroma: it procreates Homo (Man) and Ecclesia (the Church). Thus you have an Ogdoad, a double Tetra, out of the conjunctions of males and females--the cells [6692] (so to speak) of the primordial Æons, the fraternal nuptials of the Valentinian gods, the simple originals [6693] of heretical sanctity and majesty, a rabble [6694] --shall I say of criminals [6695] or of deities? [6696] --at any rate, the fountain of all ulterior fecundity.
[6680] Primus omnium.
[6681] Coenacula: dining halls.
[6682] Supernitates supernitatum.
[6683] Ædicularum.
[6684] Meritorium.
[6685] This is perhaps a fair rendering of "Insulam Feliculam credas tanta tabulata coelorum, nescio ubi." "Insula" is sometimes "a detached house." It is difficult to say what "Felicula" is; it seems to be a diminutive of Felix. It occurs in Arrian's Epictetica as the name of a slave.
[6686] We follow Tertullian's mode of designation all through. He, for the most part, gives the Greek names in Roman letters, but not quite always.
[6687] Expostulo: "I postulate as a first principle."
[6688] Tertullian is responsible for this Latin word amongst the Greek names. The strange mixture occurs often.
[6689] Quadriga.
[6690] Factionis.
[6691] Ibidem simul.
[6692] Cellas.
[6693] Census.
[6694] Turbam.
[6695] Criminum.
[6696] Numinum.
Chapter VIII.--The Names and Descent of Other Æons; First Half a Score, Then Two More, and Ultimately a Dozen Besides. These Thirty Constitute the Pleroma. But Why Be So Capricious as to Stop at Thirty?
For, behold, when the second Tetrad--Sermo and Vita, Homo and Ecclesia [6697] --had borne fruit to the Father's glory, having an intense desire of themselves to present to the Father something similar of their own, they bring other issue into being [6698] --conjugal of course, as the others were [6699] --by the union of the twofold nature. On the one hand, Sermo and Vita pour out at a birth a half-score of Æons; on the other hand, Homo and Ecclesia produce a couple more, so furnishing an equipoise to their parents, since this pair with the other ten make up just as many as they did themselves procreate. I now give the names of the half-score whom I have mentioned: Bythios (Profound) and Mixis (Mixture), Ageratos (Never old) and Henosis (Union), Autophyes (Essential nature) and Hedone (Pleasure), Acinetos (Immoveable) and Syncrasis (Commixture,) Monogenes (Only-begotten) and Macaria (Happiness). On the other hand, these will make up the number twelve (to which I have also referred): Paracletus (Comforter) and Pistis (Faith), Patricas (Paternal) and Elpis (Hope), Metricos (Maternal) and Agape (Love), Ainos (Praise) [6700] and Synesis (Intelligence), Ecclesiasticus (Son of Ecclesia) and Macariotes (Blessedness), Theletus [6701] (Perfect) and Sophia (Wisdom). I cannot help [6702] here quoting from a like example what may serve to show the import of these names. In the schools of Carthage there was once a certain Latin rhetorician, an excessively cool fellow, [6703] whose name was Phosphorus. He was personating a man of valour, and wound up [6704] with saying, "I come to you, excellent citizens, from battle, with victory for myself, with happiness for you, full of honour, covered with glory, the favourite of fortune, the greatest of men, decked with triumph." And forthwith his scholars begin to shout for the school of Phosphorus, pheu [6705] (ah!). Are you a believer in [6706] Fortunata, and Hedone, and Acinetus, and Theletus? Then shout out your pheu for the school of Ptolemy. [6707] This must be that mystery of the Pleroma, the fulness of the thirty-fold divinity. Let us see what special attributes [6708] belong to these numbers--four, and eight, and twelve. Meanwhile with the number thirty all fecundity ceases. The generating force and power and desire of the Æons is spent. [6709] As if there were not still left some strong rennet for curdling numbers. [6710] As if no other names were to be got out of the page's hall! [6711] For why are there not sets of fifty and of a hundred procreated? Why, too, are there no comrades and boon companions [6712] named for them?
[6697] We everywhere give Tertullian's own names, whether of Greek form or Latin. On their first occurrence we also give their English sense.
[6698] Ebulliunt.
[6699] Proinde conjugales.
[6700] Of this name there are two forms--Ainos (Praise) and 'Aeinous (Eternal Mind).
[6701] Or Teletos (Teletus). Another form of this Æon's name is Philetos (Philetus = Beloved). Oehler always reads Theletus.
[6702] Cogor.
[6703] Frigidissimus.
[6704] Cum virum fortem peroraret...inquit.
[6705] Tertullian's joke lies in the equivocal sense of this cry, which may mean either admiration and joy, or grief and rage.
[6706] Audisti: interrogatively.
[6707] See above, chap. iv. p. 505.
[6708] Privilegia.
[6709] Castrata.
[6710] Tanta numerorum coagula.
[6711] The pædagogium was either the place where boys were trained as pages (often for lewd purposes), or else the boy himself of such a character.
[6712] Oehler reads, "hetæri (hetairoi) et syntrophi." Another reading, supported by Rigaltius, is "sterceiæ," instead of the former word, which gives a very contemptuous sense, suitable to Tertullian's irony.
Chapter IX.--Other Capricious Features in the System. The Æons Unequal in Attributes. The Superiority of Nus; The Vagaries of Sophia Restrained by Horos. Grand Titles Borne by This Last Power.
But, further, there is an "acceptance [6713] of persons," inasmuch as Nus alone among them all enjoys the knowledge of the immeasurable Father, joyous and exulting, while they of course pine in sorrow. To be sure, Nus, so far as in him lay, both wished and tried to impart to the others also all that he had learnt about the greatness and incomprehensibility of the Father; but his mother, Sige, interposed--she who (you must know) imposes silence even on her own beloved heretics; [6714] although they affirm that this is done at the will of the Father, who will have all to be inflamed with a longing after himself. Thus, while they are tormenting themselves with these internal desires, while they are burning with the secret longing to know the Father, the crime is almost accomplished. For of the twelve Æons which Homo and Ecclesia had produced, the youngest by birth (never mind the solecism, since Sophia (Wisdom) is her name), unable to restrain herself, breaks away without the society of her husband Theletus, in quest of the Father and contracts that kind of sin which had indeed arisen amongst the others who were conversant with Nus but had flowed on to this Æon, [6715] that is, to Sophia; as is usual with maladies which, after arising in one part of the body, spread abroad their infection to some other limb. The fact is, [6716] under a pretence of love to the Father, she was overcome with a desire to rival Nus, who alone rejoiced in the knowledge of the Father. [6717] But when Sophia, straining after impossible aims, was disappointed of her hope, she is both overcome with difficulty, and racked with affection. Thus she was all but swallowed up by reason of the charm and toil (of her research), [6718] and dissolved into the remnant of his substance; [6719] nor would there have been any other alternative for her than perdition, if she had not by good luck fallen in with Horus (Limit). He too had considerable power. He is the foundation of the great [6720] universe, and, externally, the guardian thereof. To him they give the additional names of Crux (Cross), and Lytrotes (Redeemer,) and Carpistes (Emancipator). [6721] When Sophia was thus rescued from danger, and tardily persuaded, she relinquished further research after the Father, found repose, and laid aside all her excitement, [6722] or Enthymesis (Desire,) along with the passion which had come over her.
[6713] Exceptio.
[6714] Tertullian has, above, remarked on the silent and secret practices of the Valentinians: see chap. i. p. 503.
[6715] In hunc derivaret.
[6716] Sed enim.
[6717] De Patre.
[6718] Præ vi dulcedinis et laboris.
[6719] It is not easy to say what is the meaning of the words, "Et in reliquam substantiam dissolvi." Rigaltius renders them: "So that whatever substance was left to her was being dissolved." This seems to be forcing the sentence unnaturally. Irenæus (according to the Latin translator) says: "Resolutum in universam substantiam," "Resolved into his (the Father's) general substance," i. 2, 2. [Vol. I. p. 317.]
[6720] Illius.
[6721] So Grabe; but Reaper, according to Neander.
[6722] Animationem.
Chapter X.--Another Account of the Strange Aberrations of Sophia, and the Restraining Services of Horus. Sophia Was Not Herself, After All, Ejected from the Pleroma, But Only Her Enthymesis.
But some dreamers have given another account of the aberration [6723] and recovery of Sophia. After her vain endeavours, and the disappointment of her hope, she was, I suppose, disfigured with paleness and emaciation, and that neglect of her beauty which was natural to one who [6724] was deploring the denial of the Father,--an affliction which was no less painful than his loss. Then, in the midst of all this sorrow, she by herself alone, without any conjugal help, conceived and bare a female offspring. Does this excite your surprise? Well, even the hen has the power of being able to bring forth by her own energy. [6725] They say, too, that among vultures there are only females, which become parents alone. At any rate, she was another without aid from a male, and she began at last to be afraid that her end was even at hand. She was all in doubt about the treatment [6726] of her case, and took pains at self-concealment. Remedies could nowhere be found. For where, then, should we have tragedies and comedies, from which to borrow the process of exposing what has been born without connubial modesty? While the thing is in this evil plight, she raises her eyes, and turns them to the Father. Having, however, striven in vain, as her strength was failing her, she falls to praying. Her entire kindred also supplicates in her behalf, and especially Nus. Why not? What was the cause of so vast an evil? Yet not a single casualty [6727] befell Sophia without its effect. All her sorrows operate. Inasmuch as all that conflict of hers contributes to the origin of Matter. Her ignorance, her fear, her distress, become substances. Hereupon the Father by and by, being moved, produces in his own image, with a view to these circumstances [6728] the Horos whom we have mentioned above; (and this he does) by means of Monogenes Nus, a male-female (Æon), because there is this variation of statement about the Father's [6729] sex. They also go on to tell us that Horos is likewise called Metagogius, that is, "a conductor about," as well as Horothetes (Setter of Limits). By his assistance they declare that Sophia was checked in her illicit courses, and purified from all evils, and henceforth strengthened (in virtue), and restored to the conjugal state: (they add) that she indeed remained within the bounds [6730] of the Pleroma, but that her Enthymesis, with the accruing [6731] Passion, was banished by Horos, and crucified and cast out from the Pleroma,--even as they say, Malum foras! (Evil, avaunt!) Still, that was a spiritual essence, as being the natural impulse of an Æon, although without form or shape, inasmuch as it had apprehended nothing, and therefore was pronounced to be an infirm and feminine fruit. [6732]