Chapter XII.—The Triacontad of the heretics errs both by defect and excess:
Sophia could never have produced anything apart from her consort; Logos and
Sige could not have been contemporaries.
1. We may388 remark, in the first place, regarding their Triacontad, that the whole of it
marvellously falls to ruin on both sides, that is, both as respects defect and excess. They say
that to indicate it the Lord came to be baptized at the age of thirty years. But this assertion
really amounts to a manifest subversion of their entire argument. As to defect, this happens
as follows: first of all, because they reckon the Propator among the other Æons. For the
Father of all ought not to be counted with other productions; He who was not produced
with that which was produced; He who was unbegotten with that which was born; He whom
no one comprehends with that which is comprehended by Him, and who is on this account
[Himself] incomprehensible; and He who is without figure with that which has a definite
shape. For inasmuch as He is superior to the rest, He ought not to be numbered with them,
and that so that He who is impassible and not in error should be reckoned with an Æon
subject to passion, and actually in error. For I have shown in the book which immediately
precedes this, that, beginning with Bythus, they reckon up the Triacontad to Sophia, whom
they describe as the erring Æon; and I have also there set forth the names of their [Æons];
but if He be not reckoned, there are no longer, on their own showing, thirty productions of
Æons, but these then become only twenty-nine.
2. Next, with respect to the first production Ennœa, whom they also term Sige, from
whom again they describe Nous and Aletheia as having been sent forth, they err in both
particulars. For it is impossible that the thought (Ennœa) of any one, or his silence (Sige),
should be understood apart from himself; and that, being sent forth beyond him, it should
possess a special figure of its own. But if they assert that the (Ennœa) was not sent forth
beyond Him, but continued one with the Propator, why then do they reckon her with the
other Æons —with those who were not one [with the Father], and are on this account ignor-
ant of His greatness? If, however, she was so united (let us take this also into consideration),
there is then an absolute necessity, that from this united and inseparable conjunction, which
constitutes but one being, there389 should proceed an unseparated and united production,
so that it should not be dissimilar to Him who sent it forth. But if this be so, then just as
Bythus and Sige, so also Nous and Aletheia will form one and the same being, ever cleaving
mutually together. And inasmuch as the one cannot be conceived of without the other, just
as water cannot [be conceived of] without [the thought of] moisture, or fire without [the
thought of] heat, or a stone without [the thought] of hardness (for these things are mutually
bound together, and the one cannot be separated from the other, but always co-exists with
388 The text vacillates between “dicemus” and “dicamus.”
389 This sentence is confused in the Latin text, but the meaning is evidently that given above.
Chapter XII.—The Triacontad of the heretics errs both by defect and excess: Sophia could never have produced anything apart from her consort; Logos and Sige could not have been contemporaries.
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Chapter XII.—The Triacontad of the heretics errs both by defect and excess:…