dove which descended upon Him. He also continued free from all suffering, since indeed
it was not possible that He should suffer who was at once incomprehensible and invisible.
And for this reason the Spirit of Christ, who had been placed within Him, was taken away
when He was brought before Pilate. They maintain, further, that not even the seed which
He had received from the mother [Achamoth] was subject to suffering; for it, too, was im-
passible, as being spiritual, and invisible even to the Demiurge himself. It follows, then, ac-
cording to them, that the animal Christ, and that which had been formed mysteriously by
a special dispensation, underwent suffering, that the mother might exhibit through him a
type of the Christ above, namely, of him who extended himself through Stauros,97 and im-
parted to Achamoth shape, so far as substance was concerned. For they declare that all these
transactions were counterparts of what took place above.
3. They maintain, moreover, that those souls which possess the seed of Achamoth are
superior to the rest, and are more dearly loved by the Demiurge than others, while he knows
not the true cause thereof, but imagines that they are what they are through his favour to-
wards them. Wherefore, also, they say he distributed them to prophets, priests, and kings;
and they declare that many things were spoken98 by this seed through the prophets, inasmuch
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as it was endowed with a transcendently lofty nature. The mother also, they say, spake much
about things above, and that both through him and through the souls which were formed
by him. Then, again, they divide the prophecies [into different classes], maintaining that
one portion was uttered by the mother, a second by her seed, and a third by the Demiurge.
In like manner, they hold that Jesus uttered some things under the influence of the Saviour,
others under that of the mother, and others still under that of the Demiurge, as we shall
show further on in our work.
4. The Demiurge, while ignorant of those things which were higher than himself, was
indeed excited by the announcements made [through the prophets], but treated them with
contempt, attributing them sometimes to one cause and sometimes to another; either to the
prophetic spirit (which itself possesses the power of self-excitement), or to [mere unassisted]
man, or that it was simply a crafty device of the lower [and baser order of men].99 He re-
mained thus ignorant until the appearing of the Lord. But they relate that when the Saviour
came, the Demiurge learned all things from Him, and gladly with all his power joined
97 By thus extending himself through Stauros, who bounded the Pleroma, the Christ above became the type
of the Christ below, who was extended upon the cross.
98 Billius, following the old Latin version, reads, “They interpret many things, spoken by the prophets, of this
seed.”
99 Such appears to be the meaning of this sentence, but the original is very obscure. The writer seems to refer
to the spiritual, the animal, and the material classes of men, and to imply that the Demiurge supposed some
prophecies to be due to one of these classes, and some to the others.
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Chapter VII.—The mother Achamoth, when all her seed are perfected, shall…