number eight hundred and eighty-eight, that is, Jesus, who is formed of all numbers; and
on this account He is called Alpha and Omega, indicating His origin from all. And, again,
they put the matter thus: If the first Tetrad be added up according to the progression of
number, the number ten appears. For one, and two, and three, and four, when added together,
form ten; and this, as they will have it, is Jesus. Moreover, Chreistus, he says, being a word
of eight letters, indicates the first Ogdoad, and this, when multiplied by ten, gives birth to
Jesus (888). And Christ the Son, he says, is also spoken of, that is, the Duodecad. For the
name Son, (υἰός) contains four letters, and Christ (Chreistus) eight, which, being combined,
point out the greatness of the Duodecad. But, he alleges, before the Episemon of this name
appeared, that is Jesus the Son, mankind were involved in great ignorance and error. But
when this name of six letters was manifested (the person bearing it clothing Himself in flesh,
that He might come under the apprehension of man’s senses, and having in Himself these
six and twenty-four letters), then, becoming acquainted with Him, they ceased from their
ignorance, and passed from death unto life, this name serving as their guide to the Father
of truth.210 For the Father of all had resolved to put an end to ignorance, and to destroy
death. But this abolishing of ignorance was just the knowledge of Him. And therefore that
man (Anthropos) was chosen according to His will, having been formed after the image of
the [corresponding] power above.
3. As to the Æons, they proceeded from the Tetrad, and in that Tetrad were Anthropos
and Ecclesia, Logos and Zoe. The powers, then, he declares, who emanated from these,
generated that Jesus who appeared upon the earth. The angel Gabriel took the place of Logos,
the Holy Spirit that of Zoe, the Power of the Highest that of Anthropos, while the Virgin
pointed out the place of Ecclesia. And thus, by a special dispensation, there was generated
by Him, through Mary, that man, whom, as He passed through the womb, the Father of all
chose to [obtain] the knowledge of Himself by means of the Word. And on His coming to
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the water [of baptism], there descended on Him, in the form of a dove, that Being who had
formerly ascended on high, and completed the twelfth number, in whom there existed the
seed of those who were produced contemporaneously with Himself, and who descended
and ascended along with Him. Moreover, he maintains that power which descended was
the seed of the Father, which had in itself both the Father and the Son, as well as that power
of Sige which is known by means of them, but cannot be expressed in language, and also all
the Æons. And this was that Spirit who spoke by the mouth of Jesus, and who confessed
that He was the son of Man as well as revealed the Father, and who, having descended into
Jesus, was made one with Him. And he says that the Saviour formed by special dispensation
did indeed destroy death, but that Christ made known the Father.211 He maintains, therefore,
210 Or, according to the Greek text, “being as the way to the Father;” comp. John xiv. 6.
211 The text is here uncertain: we follow that suggested by Grabe.
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Chapter XV.—Sige relates to Marcus the generation of the twenty-four elements…