Forerunners and rivals of Christianity : $b being studies in religious history from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D., Vol. 2 (of 2)Legge, Francis
Religion
Forerunners and rivals of Christianity : $b being studies in religious history from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D., Vol. 2 (of 2)
Legge, Francis
Christianity and other religions; Religions
So Irenaeus, Bk I. c. 1, § 9, pp. 44, 45, Harvey, says that they [the
Valentinians] say that the seven heavens are endowed with intelligence
(νοητούς) and that they suppose them to be angels, and that the
Demiurge is himself an angel like God. Also that Paradise is a heaven
above the third, and that a fourth angel rules (?) there, and that
from him Adam took somewhat while talking to him. Whatever this story
may mean, it is curious to see how readily the Gnostics identified in
name a heavenly place with its ruler, as in the titles of kings and
peers.
Footnote 382:
Irenaeus, Bk I. c. 1, § 10, pp. 47, 48, Harvey, says that the Devil or
Cosmocrator and all the spiritual things of evil (τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς
πονηρίας) were made out of the pain (λύπη) of Sophia, and that he is
the creation of the Demiurge, but knows what is above him, because he
is a spirit, while his creator is ignorant that there is anything
higher than himself, because he is only ruler of animal things (ψυχικὰ
ὑπάρχοντα). In this, which is probably the teaching of Ptolemy,
Valentinus’ successor is seen to be reverting to the Ophite ideas.
Hippolytus, who here probably gives us Valentinus’ own doctrine, says
on the other hand (_op. cit._ Bk VI. c. 33, pp. 290, 291, Cruice):
Ὥσπερ οὖν τῆς ψυχικῆς οὐσίας ἡ πρώτη καὶ μεγίστη δύναμις γέγονεν εἰκὼν
[the text is here restored by Cruice: τοῦ μονογενοῦς υἱοῦ, οὕτω τῆς
ὑλικῆς οὐσίας δύναμις] διάβολος, ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμον τούτου· τῆς δὲ τῶν
δαιμόνων οὐσίας, ἤτις ἐστὶν ἐκ τῆς ἀπορίας, ὁ Βεελζεβούδ. “As
therefore the first and greatest power of the animal substance (the
Demiurge) came into being as the image of the unique son (Nous), so
the power of the material substance is the Devil, the Ruler of this
world: and Beelzebud [the power] of the substance of demons which came
into being from the perplexity” (of Sophia). It has been shown
elsewhere (_P.S.B.A._ 1901, pp. 48, 49) that this Beelzebud or
Beelzebuth is written in the Magic Papyri Jabezebuth or Yahweh
Sabaoth, probably in pursuance of the parallelism which gives every
god or superior power his correspondent personality in the inferior or
evil world. In all magic, mediaeval or otherwise, Beelzebuth is
carefully distinguished from Satan.
Footnote 383:
Matthew x. 25, xii. 24, 27; Mark iii. 22; Luke xi. 15, have
βεελξεβούλ, while the Peshitto writes the more familiar Beelzebub. See
_P.S.B.A._ quoted in last note.
Footnote 384:
Called also the Heavenly Jerusalem. Hippolytus, _op. cit._ Bk VI. c.
32, p. 290, Cruice.
Footnote 385:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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