THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
the primal basis of all things, the starting-point of the cosmic process. His names are, Father of the Universe, First Man, the " Uncreated," the
" Unspeakable," the " Unapproachable
3. Cosmic God." He is self-evolving, and thus
Views. becomes the source of all being. The
first products of this spontaneous evolution still belong to the purely spiritual spheres. The Ophitic theology tends to separate this supreme God into an ever-increasing number of separate entities. In the aforesaid Hymn, only the Son is mentioned beside the Father; but a tetrad occurs among the Ophites of Irenaeus and the Naassenians; an entire decad among the Gnostid Barbelo; while the Coptic writings disclose a countless host of higher beings. The Supreme Being's mode of evolution is set forth, now as a generative, again as a psychologic process; and frequently the two ideas are combined. Some heathen mythology lies obviously at the root of the matter; which accounts also for their syzygial views; for, in part at least, the Ophites aimed to interpret the ancient myths as psychologic processes, though but half successfully and with little consequence. Over against the Supreme Being stands chaos, the material principle. Yet there is not here a sharp dualism. In the Hymn, the phrase "the firstborn's emitted chaos" implies that it is derived from a higher being. In only very few instances is chaos an evil power, an active principle. It is not the existence of chaos which contradicts perfection; but rather the mixture of luminous parts with material elements. This mixture, in a word, is the great calamity, the loss that must be retrieved through redemption. How did this mixture come to pass? The Hymn designates the soul, the principle of this compound, as the common product of mind and chaos. Such is also the theory of the Peratse and Sethites, mentioned by Hippolytus. These sects most nearly approach the dualistic scheme, yet the latter is not distinctly defined. In Justin, also, dualism is diminished.
Among the Ophites of Irenaeus the origin of the mixed world is most completely represented. When the Father and the Son begat Christ from the Holy Ghost, the Spirit, or prima femina, could not comprehend the fulness of their infusive light; and there thus resulted from the overflow and effervescence of the luminous attributes of the first masculi, out of the first femina, a second birth. This was the Sophia, or Prunicos; also termed Sinistra: a bisexual being. This Wisdom no longer belonged to the sphere of incorruption; but became thenceforth the instrument of the cosmic process. Prunicos ascends once more to the elements; and as these cleave to her there arises the mixed world. Prunicos now spans the sky (the firmament of fixed stars) with her body, and begets the seven Archons; which are the planetary spirits, Ialdabaoth, Iao, Sabaoth, Adoneus, Eloeus, Horeus, Astaphaeus. These archons have no longer a knowledge of the world above; and they continue the downward generating process. First, the angels come into being; next, begotten from matter by Ialdabaoth in anger, came the Nus serpentiformis, or "mind in the serpent's form," and the powers of evil; lastly,
human beings. Considerably more complex is the universe of divine spheres and the human world in Pistis-Sophia. So also in the other Coptic writings the intermediate realm is peopled with a numerous progeny.
The Ophitic dilemma is, how man, who so evidently belongs to the material world, and is a creature of material forces, at the same time bears about in himself an affinity to the higher
4. Man, world. The solution is, that the crea- Revelation, tion of man was itself a beginning of
and Re- his redemption, or a separation of the demption. improperly mixed. Now men are by no means all alike. The Ophites, in common with other Gnostics, are determinists. And Hippolytus most expressly accentuates the doctrine of human classification among the Naassenians, who discriminate the " intellectual or angelic," the " spiritual," and the " terrestrial " as three churches distinguished from one another. Pistis-Sophia deals with a whole multitude of classes of men. Together with many other factors, the constellation predominant at birth determines to what class a man should belong. Astral religion influences the cosmic philosophy of these sects considerably. A comparative knowledge of God is accorded even to paganism. The Naasseni allegorize all possible pagan myths, ideas, and mystic practises, finding everywhere hidden suggestions of the highest truths. Homer is employed like the Old Testament. Justin knows of an attempt to reveal the redemptive Gnosis to the pagans. The usual view is that the heathen, seduced by subordinated spirits, then worshiped these as their gods. The Ophites in common with all other Gnostics share the opinion that the God of the Jews is only the demiurge, who pretended to the people of Israel to be the Most High God. Consistent with this attitude toward Israel's religion, there is a singular criticism of Biblical history. The Peratae, Cainites, and Borborians took sides with all those characters whom the Old Testament sets forth as miscreants, and turned them into servants of the true God and light-giving foes of the demiurge. Other sects only present a variation of the Biblical version of the episode of Paradise. The serpent ministered to the beneficent powers, and brought to men the Gnosis of the Supreme God and of the demiurge's inferiority. Here, too, the serpent may properly be treated. As an evil spirit, this animal is encountered among sundry sects. But Irenaeus, even in his time, observes that the serpent is variously represented; and, according to his testimony, some identify Sophia herself with the serpent. Again, it occupies an equivocal position, at once an evil being and the redeemer and bearer of the Gnosis that is necessary to salvation. In fact, there is mention even of serpent worship. The problem of redemption is to release from their false conjunction with matter the attributes of the divine realm of light. This conjunction exists principally in men, at least among the spiritual ones; but it likewise appears in the Sophia in so far as she plays a part in the sphere of ideas of the sects. There is translated into the world above, not only what was derived from the Sophia, but man's person itself; only the material admix-