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Chapter III.—Texts of Holy Scripture used by these heretics to support their
opinions.
1. Such, then, is the account they give of what took place within the Pleroma; such the
calamities that flowed from the passion which seized upon the Æon who has been named,
and who was within a little of perishing by being absorbed in the universal substance, through
her inquisitive searching after the Father; such the consolidation33 [of that Æon] from her
condition of agony by Horos, and Stauros, and Lytrotes, and Carpistes, and Horothetes,
and Metagoges.34 Such also is the account of the generation of the later Æons, namely of
the first Christ and of the Holy Spirit, both of whom were produced by the Father after the
repentance35 [of Sophia], and of the second36 Christ (whom they also style Saviour), who
owed his being to the joint contributions [of the Æons]. They tell us, however, that this
knowledge has not been openly divulged, because all are not capable of receiving it, but has
been mystically revealed by the Saviour through means of parables to those qualified for
understanding it. This has been done as follows. The thirty Æons are indicated (as we have
already remarked) by the thirty years during which they say the Saviour performed no
public act, and by the parable of the labourers in the vineyard. Paul also, they affirm, very
clearly and frequently names these Æons, and even goes so far as to preserve their order,
when he says, “To all the generations of the Æons of the Æon.”37 Nay, we ourselves, when
at the giving38 of thanks we pronounce the words, “To Æons of Æons” (for ever and ever),
do set forth these Æons. And, in fine, wherever the words Æon or Æons occur, they at once
refer them to these beings.
2. The production, again, of the Duodecad of the Æons, is indicated by the fact that the
Lord was twelve39 years of age when He disputed with the teachers of the law, and by the
election of the apostles, for of these there were twelve.40 The other eighteen Æons are made
33 The reading is here very doubtful. We have followed the text of Grabe (approved by Harvey), ἐξ ἀγῶνος
σύμπηξις.
34 These are all names of the same person: see above, ii. 4. Hence some have proposed the reading ἑξαιώνιος
instead of ἐξ ἀγῶνος, alluding to the sixfold appellation of the Æon Horos.
35 Billius renders, “from the repentance of the Father,” but the above seems preferable.
36 Harvey remarks, “Even in their Christology the Valentinians must have their part and counterpart.”
37 Or, “to all the generations of the ages of the age.” See Eph. iii. 21. The apostle, of course, simply uses these
words as a strong expression to denote “for ever.”
38 Literally, “at the thanksgiving,” or “eucharist.” Massuet, the Benedictine editor, refers this to the Lord’s
Supper, and hence concludes that some of the ancient liturgies still extant must even then have been in use.
Harvey and others, however, deny that there is any necessity for supposing the Holy Eucharist to be referred to;
the ancient Latin version translates in the plural, “in gratiarum actionibus.”
39 Luke ii. 42.
40 Luke vi. 13.
Chapter III.—Texts of Holy Scripture used by these heretics to support their opinions.
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Chapter III.—Texts of Holy Scripture used by these heretics to support their…