Chapter VII.—The mother Achamoth, when all her seed are perfected, shall pass
into the Pleroma, accompanied by those men who are spiritual; the Demiurge,
with animal men, shall pass into the intermediate habitation; but all material
men shall go into corruption. Their blasphemous opinions against the true
incarnation of Christ by the Virgin Mary. Their views as to the prophecies. Stupid
ignorance of the Demiurge.
1. When all the seed shall have come to perfection, they state that then their mother
Achamoth shall pass from the intermediate place, and enter in within the Pleroma, and shall
receive as her spouse the Saviour, who sprang from all the Æons, that thus a conjunction
may be formed between the Saviour and Sophia, that is, Achamoth. These, then, are the
bridegroom and bride, while the nuptial chamber is the full extent of the Pleroma. The
spiritual seed, again, being divested of their animal souls,93 and becoming intelligent spirits,
shall in an irresistible and invisible manner enter in within the Pleroma, and be bestowed
as brides on those angels who wait upon the Saviour. The Demiurge himself will pass into
the place of his mother Sophia;94 that is, the intermediate habitation. In this intermediate
place, also, shall the souls of the righteous repose; but nothing of an animal nature shall find
admittance to the Pleroma. When these things have taken place as described, then shall that
fire which lies hidden in the world blaze forth and burn; and while destroying all matter,
shall also be extinguished along with it, and have no further existence. They affirm that the
Demiurge was acquainted with none of these things before the advent of the Saviour.
2. There are also some who maintain that he also produced Christ as his own proper
son, but of an animal nature, and that mention was95 made of him by the prophets. This
Christ passed through Mary96 just as water flows through a tube; and there descended upon
him in the form of a dove at the time of his baptism, that Saviour who belonged to the
Pleroma, and was formed by the combined efforts of all its inhabitants. In him there existed
also that spiritual seed which proceeded from Achamoth. They hold, accordingly, that our
Lord, while preserving the type of the first-begotten and primary tetrad, was compounded
of these four substances,—of that which is spiritual, in so far as He was from Achamoth; of
that which is animal, as being from the Demiurge by a special dispensation, inasmuch as
He was formed [corporeally] with unspeakable skill; and of the Saviour, as respects that
93 Their spiritual substance was received from Achamoth; their animal souls were created by the Demiurge.
These are now separated; the spirit enters the Pleroma, while the soul remains in heaven.
94 Viz., Achamoth.
95 A Syriac fragment here reads, “He spake by the prophets through him.”
96 “Thus,” says Harvey, “we may trace back to the Gnostic period the Apollinarian error, closely allied to the
Docetic, that the body of Christ was not derived from the blessed Virgin, but that it was of heavenly substance,
and was only brought forth into the world through her instrumentality.”
Chapter VII.—The mother Achamoth, when all her seed are perfected, shall pass into the Pleroma, accompanied by those men who are spiritual; the Demiurge, with animal men, shall pass into the intermediate habitation; but all material men shall go into corruption. Their blasphemous opinions against the true incarnation of Christ by the Virgin Mary. Their views as to the prophecies. Stupid ignorance of the Demiurge.
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Chapter VII.—The mother Achamoth, when all her seed are perfected, shall…