for Him till He should come again, and restore her to her proper consort. Her name, too,
was indicated by the Saviour, when He said, “Yet wisdom is justified by her children.”121
This, too, was done by Paul in these words, “But we speak wisdom among them that are
perfect.”122 They declare also that Paul has referred to the conjunctions within the Pleroma,
showing them forth by means of one; for, when writing of the conjugal union in this life,
he expressed himself thus: “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the
Church.”123
5. Further, they teach that John, the disciple of the Lord, indicated the first Ogdoad,
expressing themselves in these words: John, the disciple of the Lord, wishing to set forth the
origin of all things, so as to explain how the Father produced the whole, lays down a certain
principle,—that, namely, which was first-begotten by God, which Being he has termed both
the only-begotten Son and God, in whom the Father, after a seminal manner, brought forth
all things. By him the Word was produced, and in him the whole substance of the Æons, to
which the Word himself afterwards imparted form. Since, therefore, he treats of the first
origin of things, he rightly proceeds in his teaching from the beginning, that is, from God
and the Word. And he expresses himself thus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God.”124
Having first of all distinguished these three—God, the Beginning, and the Word —he again
unites them, that he may exhibit the production of each of them, that is, of the Son and of
the Word, and may at the same time show their union with one another, and with the
Father. For “the beginning” is in the Father, and of the Father, while “the Word” is in the
beginning, and of the beginning. Very properly, then, did he say, “In the beginning was the
Word,” for He was in the Son; “and the Word was with God,” for He was the beginning;
“and the Word was God,” of course, for that which is begotten of God is God. “The same
was in the beginning with God”—this clause discloses the order of production. “All things
were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made;”125 for the Word was the author
of form and beginning to all the Æons that came into existence after Him. But “what was
made in Him,” says John, “is life.”126 Here again he indicated conjunction; for all things,
he said, were made by Him, but in Him was life. This, then, which is in Him, is more closely
connected with Him than those things which were simply made by Him, for it exists along
121 Luke vii. 35.
122 1 Cor. ii. 6.
123 Eph. v. 32.
124 John i. 1, 2.
125 John i. 3.
126 John i. 3, 4. The punctuation here followed is different from that commonly adopted, but is found in
many of the Fathers, and in some of the most ancient mss.
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Chapter VIII.—How the Valentinians pervert the Scriptures to support their…