9. Thus it is, that in regard to the whole name, [2853] which consists of thirty letters, and Bythus, who receives his increase from the letters of this [name], and, moreover, the body of Aletheia, which is composed of twelve members, each of which consists of two letters, and the voice which she uttered without having spoken at all, and in regard to the analysis of that name which cannot be expressed in words, and the soul of the world and of man, according as they possess that arrangement, which is after the image [of things above], he has uttered his nonsensical opinions. It remains that I relate how the Tetrad showed him from the names a power equal in number; so that nothing, my friend, which I have received as spoken by him, may remain unknown to thee; and thus thy request, often proposed to me, may be fulfilled.
[2827] This sentence has completely baffled all the critics. [Its banter, or mock gravity, has not been self-evident.] We cannot enter upon the wide field of discussion which it has opened up, but would simply state that Irenæus here seems to us, as often, to be playing upon the terms which were in common use among these heretics. Marcus probably received his system from Colorbasus, and is here declared, by the use of that jargon which Irenæus means to ridicule while so employing it, to have proceeded to develop it in the way described.
[2828] Such appears to be the meaning of anousios in this passage. The meaning of ousia fluctuated for a time in the early Church, and was sometimes used to denote material substance, instead of its usual significance of being.
[2829] The old Latin preserves arche untranslated, implying that this was the first word which the Father spoke. Some modern editors adopt this view, while others hold the meaning simply to be, as given above, that that first sound which the Father uttered was the origin of all the rest.
[2830] The letters are here confounded with the Æons, which they represented.
[2831] [1 Cor. xiv. 16.]
[2832] Matt. xviii. 10.
[2833] By this Achamoth is denoted, who was said to give rise to the material elements, after the image of the Divine.
[2834] That is, their names are spelt by other letters.
[2835] The old Latin version renders episemon, insigne, illustrious, but there seems to be a reference to the Valentinian notion of the mystic number of 888 formed (10+8+200+70+400+200) by the numerical value of the letters in the word 'Iesous.
[2836] The mutes are p, k, t, b, g, d, ph, ch, th.
[2837] The semi-vowels are l, m, n, r, s, z, x, ps.
[2838] It seems scarcely possible to give a more definite rendering of this clause: it may be literally translated thus: "And because they receive the outflow of those above, but the turning back again of those below."
[2839] The ninth letter being taken from the mutes and added to the semi-vowels, an equal division of the twenty-four was thus secured.
[2840] Viz., Pater, Anthropos, and Logos.
[2841] Viz., z, x, ps = ds, ks, ps.
[2842] Matt. xvii. 7; Mark ix. 2.
[2843] Moses and Elias being added to the company.
[2844] Referring to the word Chreistos, according to Harvey, who remarks, that "generally the Ogdoad was the receptacle of the spiritual seed."
[2845] The Saviour, as Alpha and Omega, was symbolized by the dove, the sum of the Greek numerals, p, e, r, i, s, t, e, r, a (peristera, dove), being, like that of A and O, 801.
[2846] That is, the letters z, x, ps all contain s, whose value is six, and which was called episemon by the Greeks.
[2847] Referring to Aletheia, which, in Greek, contains seven letters.
[2848] By these seven powers are meant the seven heavens (also called angels), formed by the Demiurge.
[2849] We here follow the text of Hippolytus: the ordinary text and the old Latin read, "So does the soul of infants, weeping and mourning over Marcus, deify him."
[2850] Ps. viii. 2.
[2851] Ps. xix. 1.
[2852] The text is here altogether uncertain: we have given the probable meaning.
[2853] That is, the name of Soter, the perfect result of the whole Pleroma.