formed all things which are outside of the Pleroma, after the image of those which are
within the Pleroma, is said at last to have been received by them into the Pleroma, and, ac-
cording to [the principle of] conjunction, to have been united to that Saviour who was
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formed out of all. But Judas having been once for all cast away, never returns into the
number of the disciples; otherwise a different person would not have been chosen to fill his
place. Besides, the Lord also declared regarding him, “Woe to the man by whom the Son of
man shall be betrayed;”458 and, “It were better for him if he had never been born;”459 and
he was called the “son of perdition”460 by Him. If, however, they say that Judas was a type
of the Enthymesis, not as separated from the Æon, but of the passion entwined with her,
neither in this way can the number twelve be regarded as a [fitting] type of the number
three. For in the one case Judas was cast away, and Matthias was ordained instead of him;
but in the other case the Æon is said to have been in danger of dissolution and destruction,
and [there are also] her Enthymesis and passion: for they markedly distinguish Enthymesis
from the passion; and they represent the Æon as being restored, and Enthymesis as acquiring
form, but the passion, when separated from these, as becoming matter. Since, therefore,
there are thus these three, the Æon, her Enthymesis, and her passion, Judas and Matthias,
being only two, cannot be the types of them.
458 Matt. xxvi. 24.
459 Mark xiv. 21.
460 John xvii. 12.
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Chapter XX.—Futility of the arguments adduced to demonstrate the sufferings…