manifest in this way: that the Lord, [according to them,] conversed with His disciples for
eighteen months41 after His resurrection from the dead. They also affirm that these eighteen
Æons are strikingly indicated by the first two letters of His name [᾽Ιησοῦς], namely Iota42
and Eta. And, in like manner, they assert that the ten Æons are pointed out by the letter
Iota, which begins His name; while, for the same reason, they tell us the Saviour said, “One
Iota, or one tittle, shall by no means pass away until all be fulfilled.”43
3. They further maintain that the passion which took place in the case of the twelfth
Æon is pointed at by the apostasy of Judas, who was the twelfth apostle, and also by the fact
that Christ suffered in the twelfth month. For their opinion is, that He continued to preach
for one year only after His baptism. The same thing is also most clearly indicated by the
case of the woman who suffered from an issue of blood. For after she had been thus afflicted
during twelve years, she was healed by the advent of the Saviour, when she had touched the
border of His garment; and on this account the Saviour said, “Who touched
me?”44—teaching his disciples the mystery which had occurred among the Æons, and the
healing of that Æon who had been involved in suffering. For she who had been afflicted
twelve years represented that power whose essence, as they narrate, was stretching itself
forth, and flowing into immensity; and unless she had touched the garment of the Son,45
that is, Aletheia of the first Tetrad, who is denoted by the hem spoken of, she would have
been dissolved into the general essence46 [of which she participated]. She stopped short,
however, and ceased any longer to suffer. For the power that went forth from the Son (and
this power they term Horos) healed her, and separated the passion from her.
4. They moreover affirm that the Saviour47 is shown to be derived from all the Æons,
and to be in Himself everything by the following passage: “Every male that openeth the
womb.”48 For He, being everything, opened the womb49 of the enthymesis of the suffering
41 This opinion is in positive contradiction to the forty days mentioned by St. Luke (Acts i. 3). But the
Valentinians seem to have followed a spurious writing of their own called “The Gospel of Truth.” See iii. 11, 8.
42 The numeral value of Iota in Greek is ten, and of Eta, eight.
43 Matt. v. 18.
44 Mark v. 31.
45 The Latin reads “filii,” which we have followed. Reference is made in this word to Nous, who was, as we
have already seen, also called Son, and who interested himself in the recovery of Sophia. Aletheia was his consort,
and was typified by the hem of the Saviour’s garment.
46 Her individuality (μορφή) would have been lost, while her substance (οὐσία) would have survived in the
common essence of the Æons.
47 That is, the “second Christ” referred to above, sec. 1. [It is much to be wished that this second were always
distinguished by the untranslated name Soter.]
48 Ex. xiii. 2; Luke ii. 23.
49 Not as being born of it, but as fecundating it, and so producing a manifold offspring. See below.
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Chapter III.—Texts of Holy Scripture used by these heretics to support their…