3. All these, then, being thus settled, Autogenes moreover produces a perfect and true
man, whom they also call Adamas, inasmuch as neither has he himself ever been conquered,
nor have those from whom he sprang; he also was, along with the first light, severed from
Armogenes. Moreover, perfect knowledge was sent forth by Autogenes along with man,
and was united to him; hence he attained to the knowledge of him that is above all. Invincible
power was also conferred on him by the virgin spirit; and all things then rested in him, to
sing praises to the great Æon. Hence also they declare were manifested the mother, the
father, the son; while from Anthropos and Gnosis that Tree was produced which they also
style Gnosis itself.
4. Next they maintain, that from the first angel, who stands by the side of Monogenes,
the Holy Spirit has been sent forth, whom they also term Sophia and Prunicus.318 He then,
perceiving that all the others had consorts, while he himself was destitute of one, searched
after a being to whom he might be united; and not finding one, he exerted and extended
himself to the uttermost and looked down into the lower regions, in the expectation of there
finding a consort; and still not meeting with one, he leaped forth [from his place] in a state
of great impatience, [which had come upon him] because he had made his attempt without
the good-will of his father. Afterwards, under the influence of simplicity and kindness, he
produced a work in which were to be found ignorance and audacity. This work of his they
declare to be Protarchontes, the former of this [lower] creation. But they relate that a mighty
power carried him away from his mother, and that he settled far away from her in the lower
regions, and formed the firmament of heaven, in which also they affirm that he dwells. And
in his ignorance he formed those powers which are inferior to himself—angels, and firma-
ments, and all things earthly. They affirm that he, being united to Authadia (audacity),
produced Kakia (wickedness), Zelos (emulation), Phthonos (envy), Erinnys (fury), and
Epithymia (lust). When these were generated, the mother Sophia deeply grieved, fled away,
departed into the upper regions, and became the last of the Ogdoad, reckoning it downwards.
On her thus departing, he imagined he was the only being in existence; and on this account
declared, “I am a jealous God, and besides me there is no one.”319 Such are the falsehoods
which these people invent.
318 Various explanations of this word have been proposed, but its signification remains altogether doubtful.
319 Ex. xx. 5; Isa. xlv. 5, 6.
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Chapter XXIX.—Doctrines of various other Gnostic sects, and especially of…