But they assert that not only is there in favour of their doctrine, testimony to be drawn from the mysteries of the Assyrians, but also from those of the Phrygians concerning the happy nature--concealed, and yet at the same time disclosed--of things that have been, and are coming into existence, and moreover will be,--(a happy nature) which, (the Naassene) says, is the kingdom of heaven to be sought for within a man. [344] And concerning this (nature) they hand down an explicit passage, occurring [345] in the Gospel inscribed according to Thomas, [346] expressing themselves thus: "He who seeks me, will find me in children from seven years old; for there concealed, I shall in the fourteenth age be made manifest." This, however, is not (the teaching) of Christ, but of Hippocrates, who uses these words: "A child of seven years is half of a father." And so it is that these (heretics), placing the originative nature of the universe in causative seed, (and) having ascertained the (aphorism) of Hippocrates, [347] that a child of seven years old is half of a father, say that in fourteen years, according to Thomas, he is manifested. This, with them, is the ineffable and mystical Logos. They assert, then, that the Egyptians, who after the Phrygians, [348] it is established, are of greater antiquity than all mankind, and who confessedly were the first to proclaim to all the rest of men the rites and orgies of, at the same time, all the gods, as well as the species and energies (of things), have the sacred and august, and for those who are not initiated, unspeakable mysteries of Isis. These, however, are not anything else than what by her of the seven dresses and sable robe was sought and snatched away, namely, the pudendum of Osiris. And they say that Osiris is water. [349] But the seven-robed nature, encircled and arrayed with seven mantles of ethereal texture--for so they call the planetary stars, allegorizing and denominating them ethereal [350] robes,--is as it were the changeable generation, and is exhibited as the creature transformed by the ineffable and unportrayable, [351] and inconceivable and figureless one. And this, (the Naassene) says, is what is declared in Scripture, "The just will fall seven times, and rise again." [352] For these falls, he says, are the changes of the stars, moved by Him who puts all things in motion.
They affirm, then, concerning the substance [353] of the seed which is a cause of all existent things, that it is none of these, but that it produces and forms all things that are made, expressing themselves thus: "I become what I wish, and I am what I am: on account of this I say, that what puts all things in motion is itself unmoved. For what exists remains forming all things, and nought of existing things is made." [354] He says that this (one) alone is good, and that what is spoken by the Saviour [355] is declared concerning this (one): "Why do you say that am good? One is good, my Father which is in the heavens, who causeth His sun to rise upon the just and unjust, and sendeth rain upon saints and sinners." [356] But who the saintly ones are on whom He sends the rain, and the sinners on whom the same sends the rain, this likewise we shall afterwards declare with the rest. And this is the great and secret and unknown mystery of the universe, concealed and revealed among the Egyptians. For Osiris, [357] (the Naassene) says, is in temples in front of Isis; [358] and his pudendum stands exposed, looking downwards, and crowned with all its own fruits of things that are made. And (he affirms) that such stands not only in the most hallowed temples chief of idols, but that also, for the information of all, it is as it were a light not set under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, proclaiming its message upon the housetops, [359] in all byways, and all streets, and near the actual dwellings, placed in front as a certain appointed limit and termination of the dwelling, and that this is denominated the good (entity) by all. For they style this good-producing, not knowing what they say. And the Greeks, deriving this mystical (expression) from the Egyptians, preserve it until this day. For we behold, says (the Naassene), statues of Mercury, of such a figure honoured among them.
Worshipping, however, Cyllenius with especial distinction, they style him Logios. For Mercury is Logos, who being interpreter and fabricator of the things that have been made simultaneously, and that are being produced, and that will exist, stands honoured among them, fashioned into some such figure as is the pudendum of a man, having an impulsive power from the parts below towards those above. And that this (deity)--that is, a Mercury of this description--is, (the Naassene) says, a conjurer of the dead, and a guide of departed spirits, and an originator of souls; nor does this escape the notice of the poets, who express themselves thus:--
"Cyllenian Hermes also called
The souls of mortal suitors." [360]
Not Penelope's suitors, says he, O wretches! but (souls) awakened and brought to recollection of themselves,
"From honour so great, and from bliss so long." [361]
That is, from the blessed man from above, or the primal man or Adam, as it seems to them, souls have been conveyed down here into a creation of clay, that they may serve the Demiurge of this creation, Ialdabaoth, [362] a fiery God, a fourth number; for so they call the Demiurge and father of the formal world:--
"And in hand he held a lovely
Wand of gold that human eyes enchants,
Of whom he will, and those again who slumber rouses." [363]
This, he says, is he who alone has power of life and death. Concerning this, he says, it has been written, "Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron." [364] The poet, however, he says, being desirous of adorning the incomprehensible (potency) of the blessed nature of the Logos, invested him with not an iron, but golden wand. And he enchants the eyes of the dead, as he says, and raises up again those that are slumbering, after having been roused from sleep, and after having been suitors. And concerning these, he says, the Scripture speaks: "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise, and Christ will give thee light." [365]
This is the Christ who, he says, in all that have been generated, is the portrayed Son of Man from the unportrayable Logos. This, he says, is the great and unspeakable mystery of the Eleusinian rites, Hye, Cye. [366] And he affirms that all things have been subjected unto him, and this is that which has been spoken, "Their sound is gone forth unto all the earth," [367] just as it agrees with the expressions, "Mercury [368] waving his wand, guides the souls, but they twittering follow." I mean the disembodied spirits follow continuously in such a way as the poet by his imagery delineates, using these words:--
"And as when in the magic cave's recess
Bats humming fly, and when one drops
From ridge of rock, and each to other closely clings." [369]
The expression "rock," he says, he uses of Adam. This, he affirms, is Adam: "The chief corner-stone become the head of the corner." [370] For that in the head the substance is the formative brain from which the entire family is fashioned. [371] "Whom," he says, "I place as a rock at the foundations of Zion." Allegorizing, he says, he speaks of the creation of the man. The rock is interposed (within) the teeth, as Homer [372] says, "enclosure of teeth," that is, a wall and fortress, in which exists the inner man, who thither has fallen from Adam, the primal man above. And he has been "severed without hands to effect the division," [373] and has been borne down into the image of oblivion, being earthly and clayish. And he asserts that the twittering spirits follow him, that is, the Logos:--
"Thus these, twittering, came together; and then the souls
That is, he guides them;
Gentle Hermes led through wide-extended paths." [374]
That is, he says, into the eternal places separated from all wickedness. For whither, he says, did they come:--
"O'er ocean's streams they came, and Leuca's cliff,
And by the portals of the sun and land of dreams."
This, he says, is ocean, "generation of gods and generation of men" [375] ever whirled round by the eddies of water, at one time upwards, at another time downwards. But he says there ensues a generation of men when the ocean flows downwards; but when upwards to the wall and fortress and the cliff of Luecas, a generation of gods takes place. This, he asserts, is that which has been written: "I said, Ye are gods, and all children of the highest;" [376] "If ye hasten to fly out of Egypt, and repair beyond the Red Sea into the wilderness," that is, from earthly intercourse to the Jerusalem above, which is the mother of the living; [377] "If, moreover, again you return into Egypt," that is, into earthly intercourse, [378] "ye shall die as men." For mortal, he says, is every generation below, but immortal that which is begotten above, for it is born of water only, and of spirit, being spiritual, not carnal. But what (is born) below is carnal, that is, he says, what is written. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." [379] This, according to them, is the spiritual generation. This, he says, is the great Jordan [380] which, flowing on (here) below, and preventing the children of Israel from departing out of Egypt--I mean from terrestrial intercourse, for Egypt is with them the body,--Jesus drove back, and made it flow upwards.
[326] The Abbe Cruice observes that we have here another proof that the Philosophumena is not the work of Origen, who in his Contra Celsum mentions Mariamne, but professes not to have met with any of his followers (see Contr. Cels., lib. v. p. 272, ed. Spenc.). This confirms the opinion mostly entertained of Origen, that neither the bent of his mind nor the direction of his studies justify the supposition that he would write a detailed history of heresy.
[327] Isa. liii. 8.
[328] Or adiaphoron, equivocal.
[329] This has been by the best critics regarded as a fragment of a hymn of Pindar's on Jupiter Ammon. Schneidewin furnishes a restored poetic version of it by Bergk. This hymn, we believe, first suggested to M. Miller an idea of the possible value and importance of the ms. of The Refutation brought by Minöides Mynas from Greece.
[330] The usual form is Alalcomenes. He was a Boeoian Autocthon.
[331] Or, "Iannes." The Abbe Cruice refers to Berosus, Chald. Hist., pp. 48, 49, and to his own dissertation (Paris, 1844) on the authority to be attached to Josephus, as regards the writers adduced by him in his treatise Contr. Apion.
[332] The Rabbins, probably deriving their notions from the Chaldeans, entertained the most exaggerated ideas respecting the perfection of Adam. Thus Gerson, in his Commentary on Abarbanel, says that "Adam was endued with the very perfection of wisdom, and was chief of philosophers, that he was an immediate disciple of the Deity, also a physician and astrologer, and the originator of all the arts and sciences." This spirit of exaggeration passed from the Jews to the Christians (see Clementine Homilies, ii.). Aquinas (Sum. Theol., pars i. 94) says of Adam, "Since the first man was appointed perfect, he ought to have possessed a knowledge of everything capable of being ascertained by natural means."
[333] Or, "vanquishing him" (Roeper).
[334] This is known to us only by some ancient quotations. The Naasseni had another work of repute among them, the "Gospel according to Thomas." Bunsen conjectures that the two "Gospels" may be the same.
[335] autogenous. Miller has autou genous, which Bunsen rejects in favour of the reading "self-begotten."
[336] Schneidewin considers that there have been left out in the ms. the words "or Attis" after Endymion. Attis is subsequently mentioned with some degree of particularity.
[337] Or, "creation."
[338] Or, "Apis." See Diodorus Siculus, iii. 58, 59. Pausanias, vii. 20, writes the word Attes. See also Minucius Felix, Octav., cap. xxi.
[339] Or, "forbidden."
[340] Gal. iii. 28, and Clement's Epist. ad Rom., ii. 12. [This is the apocryphal Clement reserved for vol. viii. of this series. See also same text, Ignatius, vol. i. p. 81.]
[341] See 2 Cor. v. 17; Gal. vi 15.
[342] Rom. i. 20-27.
[343] alalo; some read allo.
[344] Luke xvii. 21.
[345] These words do not occur in the "Gospel of Thomas concerning the Saviour's infancy," as given by Fabricius and Thilo.
[346] The Abbe Cruice mentions the following works as of authority among the Naasseni, and from whence they derived their system: The Gospel of Perfection, Gospel of Eve, The Questions of Mary, Concerning the Offspring of Mary, The Gospel of Philip, The Gospel according to (1) Thomas, (2) the Egyptians. (See Epiphanius, Hæres., c. xxvi., and Origen, Contr. Cels., vi. 30, p. 296, ed. Spenc.) These heretics likewise make use of the Old Testament, St. John's Gospel, and some of the Pauline epistles.