3. Moreover, the Tetrad, explaining these things to him more fully, said:—I wish to
show thee Aletheia (Truth) herself; for I have brought her down from the dwellings above,
that thou mayest see her without a veil, and understand her beauty —that thou mayest also
hear her speaking, and admire her wisdom. Behold, then, her head on high, Alpha and
Omega; her neck, Beta and Psi; her shoulders with her hands, Gamma and Chi; her breast,
Delta and Phi; her diaphragm, Epsilon and Upsilon; her back, Zeta and Tau; her belly, Eta
and Sigma; her thighs, Theta and Rho; her knees, Iota and Pi; her legs, Kappa and Omicron;
her ankles, Lambda and Xi; her feet, Mu and Nu. Such is the body of Truth, according to
this magician, such the figure of the element, such the character of the letter. And he calls
this element Anthropos (Man), and says that is the fountain of all speech, and the beginning
of all sound, and the expression of all that is unspeakable, and the mouth of the silent Sige.
This indeed is the body of Truth. But do thou, elevating the thoughts of thy mind on high,
listen from the mouth of Truth to the self-begotten Word, who is also the dispenser of the
bounty of the Father.
4. When she (the Tetrad) had spoken these things, Aletheia looked at him, opened her
mouth, and uttered a word. That word was a name, and the name was this one which we
do know and speak of, viz., Christ Jesus. When she had uttered this name, she at once relapsed
into silence. And as Marcus waited in the expectation that she would say something more,
the Tetrad again came forward and said:—Thou hast reckoned as contemptible that word
which thou hast heard from the mouth of Aletheia. This which thou knowest and seemest
to possess, is not an ancient name. For thou possessest the sound of it merely, whilst thou
art ignorant of its power. For Jesus (᾽Ιησοῦς) is a name arithmetically187 symbolical, consisting
of six letters, and is known by all those that belong to the called. But that which is among
the Æons of the Pleroma consists of many parts, and is of another form and shape, and is
known by those [angels] who are joined in affinity with Him, and whose figures (mighti-
nesses) are always present with Him.
5. Know, then, that the four-and-twenty letters which you possess are symbolical eman-
ations of the three powers that contain the entire number of the elements above. For you
are to reckon thus —that the nine mute188 letters are [the images] of Pater and Aletheia,
because they are without voice, that is, of such a nature as cannot be uttered or pronounced.
But the semi-vowels189 represent Logos and Zoe, because they are, as it were, midway
187 The old Latin version renders ἐπίσημον, 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 ᾽Ιησοῦς.
188 The mutes are π, κ, τ, β, γ, δ, φ, χ, θ.
189 The semi-vowels are λ, μ, ν, ρ, σ, ζ, ξ, ψ.
890
Chapter XIV.—The various hypotheses of Marcus and others. Theories respecting…