and every other kind of curious art. Coining also certain names as if they were those of the
angels, they proclaim some of these as belonging to the first, and others to the second
heaven; and then they strive to set forth the names, principles, angels, and powers of the
three hundred and sixty-five imagined heavens. They also affirm that the barbarous name
in which the Saviour ascended and descended, is Caulacau.295
6. He, then, who has learned [these things], and known all the angels and their causes,
is rendered invisible and incomprehensible to the angels and all the powers, even as Caulacau
also was. And as the son was unknown to all, so must they also be known by no one; but
while they know all, and pass through all, they themselves remain invisible and unknown
to all; for, “Do thou,” they say, “know all, but let nobody know thee.” For this reason, persons
of such a persuasion are also ready to recant [their opinions], yea, rather, it is impossible
that they should suffer on account of a mere name, since they are like to all. The multitude,
however, cannot understand these matters, but only one out of a thousand, or two out of
ten thousand. They declare that they are no longer Jews, and that they are not yet Christians;
and that it is not at all fitting to speak openly of their mysteries, but right to keep them secret
by preserving silence.
7. They make out the local position of the three hundred and sixty-five heavens in the
same way as do mathematicians. For, accepting the theorems of these latter, they have
transferred them to their own type of doctrine. They hold that their chief is Abraxas;296
and, on this account, that word contains in itself the numbers amounting to three hundred
and sixty-five.
295 This sentence is wholly unintelligible as it stands in the Latin version. Critics differ greatly as to its
meaning; Harvey tries to bring out of it something like the translation given above. [This name is manufactured
from a curious abuse of (קו לקו )Isa. xxviii. 10–13, which is variously understood. See (Epiphanius ed. Oehler,
vol. i.) Philastr., p. 38.]
296 So written in Latin, but in Greek ᾽Αβρασάξ, the numerical value of the letters in which is three hundred
and sixty-five. [See Aug. (ed. Migne), vol. viii. p. 26.] It is doubtful to whom or what this word refers; probably
to the heavens.
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Chapter XXIV.—Doctrines of Saturninus and Basilides.