Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume II — David Hume — John Shaqi
Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume II
David Hume · en
[Footnote 30: Νοῦς καὶ Ἐπίνοιαν, Φωνὴ καὶ Ὄνομα, Λογισμὸς καὶ
Ἐνθύμησις. The last name is the only one that presents any difficulty,
although every heresiologist but Hippolytus gives the female of the
first syzygy as Ἔννοια. Ἐνθύμησις is translated _Conceptio_ by Cruice,
“Reflection” by Macmahon. It seems as if it here meant “desire” in a
mental, not a fleshly, sense; but as this word has a double meaning in
English, I have substituted for it “Passion.” Hereafter the Greek names
will be used.]
[Footnote 31: This daring idea that the Logos, the chief intermediary
between God and matter in whom all the lesser λόγοι and powers were
contained, as Philo thought, must himself either return to and be
united to God or else be lost in matter and perish, is met with in one
form or another in nearly all later forms of Gnosticism. It is this
which makes the redemption of Sophia after her “fall” so prominent
in the mythology of Valentinus, while its converse is shown in the
First Man of Manichæism conquered by Satan and groaning in chains
and darkness until released by the heavenly powers and placed in
some intermediate world to wait until the last spark of the light
which he has lost is redeemed from matter. It seems to be the natural
consequence of Philo’s ideas, for which see Schürer’s _Hist. of the
Jewish People_ (Eng. ed.) II, ii. pp. 370-376. Whether these did not
in turn owe something to Greek stories of mortals like Heracles and
Dionysos deified as a reward for their sufferings is open to question.
Cf. _Forerunners_, vol. I.]
[Footnote 32: Justinus also used this quotation from Isaiah i. 2,
although in abbreviated form. See _supra_, Vol. I. p. 179. The A.V. has
“nourished and brought up” for “begotten and raised up,” and “rebelled
against” for “disregarded.”]
[Footnote 33: So Philo according to Zeller and Schürer, (_op. cit._, p.
374) understands by the Logos “the power of God or the active Divine
intelligence in general.” He designates it as the “idea which comprises
all other ideas, the power which comprises all powers in itself, as the
entirety of the supersensuous world or of the Divine powers.”]
[Footnote 34: Gen. ii. 2.]
[Footnote 35: The Sethiani also quote this. See _supra_, Vol. I. p.
165.]
[Footnote 36: So Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 9, makes Wisdom or Sophia say,
“He created me from the beginning before all the world,” and Proverbs
viii. 23, “I was set up from everlasting,” but neither passage is here
directly quoted.]
[Footnote 37: Gen. i. 2, “moved upon the face of,” A.V.]
[Footnote 38: ἔπλασε, “moulded.”]
[Footnote 39: That is, masculo-feminine.]
[Footnote 40: ἐξεικονισθῇ again. Like the Boundless Power or the Logos?]
[Footnote 41: Quotation already used by the Peratæ. See _supra_, Vol.
I. p. 148. For the Indivisible Point which follows, see the Naassene
chapter, Vol. I. p. 141 _supra_.]
[Footnote 42: Jer. i. 5. “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew
thee,” A.V.]