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
Hippolytus (Chap. IX, p. 92), speaks of the Jesus of Valentinus as the
Joint Fruit of the Pleroma simply. Irenaeus (Bk I. c. 1, p. 23,
Harvey) goes into more detail: Καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐποιΐας ταύτης βουλῇ μιᾷ
καὶ γνώμῃ τὸ πᾶν Πλήρωμα τῶν Αἰώνων, συνευδοκοῦντος τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ
τοῦ Πνεύματος, τοῦ δὲ Πατρὸς αὐτῶν συνεπισφραγιζομένου, ἕνα ἕκαστον
τῶν Αἰώνων, ὅπερ εἶχεν ἐν ἑαυτῷ κάλλιστον καὶ ἀνθηρότατον
συνενεγκαμένους καὶ ἐρανισαμένους, καὶ ταῦτα ἁρμοδίως πλέξαντας, καὶ
ἐμμελῶς ἑνώσαντας, προβαλέσθαι προβλήματα εἰς τιμὴν καὶ δόξαν τοῦ
Βυθοῦ, τελειότατον κάλλος τε καὶ ἄστρον τοῦ Πληρώματος, τέλειον καρπὸν
τὸν Ἰησοῦν ὃν καὶ Σωτῆρα προσαγορευθῆναι, καὶ Χριστὸν, καὶ Λόγον
πατρωνομικῶς καὶ κατὰ [καὶ τὰ] Πάντα, διὰ τὸ ἀπὸ πάντων εἶναι. “Αnd
because of this benefit, with one will and opinion, the whole Pleroma
of the Aeons, with the consent of Christos and the Spirit, and their
Father having set his seal upon the motion, brought together and
combined what each of them had in him which was most beautiful and
brightest, and wreathing these fittingly together and properly uniting
them, they projected a projection to the honour and glory of Bythos,
the most perfect beauty and star of the Pleroma, the perfect Fruit
Jesus, who is also called Saviour and Christ, and after his Father
Logos, and Pan, because He is from all.” Compare with these the words
of Colossians ii. 9: ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος
σωματικῶς. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily.”
Footnote 545:
That the Valentinians considered the Dodecad (and _a fortiori_ the
Decad) as having a collective entity, and as it were a corporate
existence, seems plain from what Hippolytus says in narrating the
opinions of Marcus: ταῦτα γὰρ δώδεκα ζώδια φανερώτατα τὴν τοῦ Ἀνθρώπου
καὶ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας θυγατέρα δωδεκάδα ἀποσκιάζειν λέγουσι. “For they say
that these 12 signs of the Zodiac most clearly shadow forth the
Dodecad who is the daughter of Anthropos and Ecclesia” (Hipp. _op.
cit._ Bk VI. c. 54, p. 329, Cruice). And again (_loc. cit._ p. 331,
Cruice): ἔτι μὴν καὶ τὴν γῆν εἰς δώδεκα κλίματα διῃρῆσθαι φάσκοντες,
καὶ καθ’ ἒν ἕκαστον κλίμα, ἀνὰ μίαν δύναμιν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανῶν κατὰ
κάθετον ὑποδεχομένην, καὶ ὁμοούσια τίκτουσαν τέκνα τῇ καταπεμπούσῃ
κατὰ τὴν ἀπόρροιαν δυνάμει, τύπον εἶναι τῆς ἄνω δωδεκάδος. “These are
also they who assert that the earth is divided into twelve climates,
and receives in each climate one special power from the heavens and
produces children resembling the power thus sent down by emanation,
being thus a type of the Dodecad above.” The doctrine of
correspondences or, as it was called in the Middle Ages, of
“signatures” is here most clearly stated. In all this the Valentinian
teaching was doubtless under the influence of the ancient Egyptian
ideas as to the _paut neteru_ or “company of the gods,” as to which
see Maspero’s essay _Sur L’Ennéade_ quoted above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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