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| Chapter IV.—Account given by the heretics of the formation of Achamoth; origin of the visible world from her disturbances.
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Chapter IV.—Account given by the
heretics of the formation of Achamoth; origin of the visible world from her
disturbances.
1. The following are the transactions which they
narrate as having occurred outside of the Pleroma: The enthymesis of
that Sophia who dwells above, which they also term Achamoth,2711
| 2711 This term, though Tertullian
declares himself to have been ignorant of its derivation, was evidently
formed from the Hebrew word חָכְמָה—chockmah,
wisdom. | being removed from the Pleroma, together with
her passion, they relate to have, as a matter of course, become violently
excited in those places of darkness and vacuity [to which she had been
banished]. For she was excluded from light2712
| 2712 The reader will observe that light and
fulness are the exact correlatives of the darkness and
vacuity which have just been mentioned. | and the
Pleroma, and was without form or figure, like an untimely birth, because
she had received nothing2713
| 2713
As above stated (ii. 3), the Gnostics held that form and figure were due
to the male, substance to the female parent. | [from a male
parent]. But the Christ dwelling on high took pity upon her; and having
extended himself through and beyond Stauros,2714
| 2714 The Valentinian Stauros was the boundary
fence of the Pleroma beyond which Christ extended himself to assist the
enthymesis of Sophia. | he imparted a figure to her, but merely
as respected substance, and not so as to convey intelligence.2715
| 2715 The peculiar gnosis
which Nous received from his father, and communicated to the other
Æons. | Having effected this, he withdrew his influence, and
returned, leaving Achamoth to herself, in order that she, becoming
sensible of her suffering as being severed from the Pleroma, might be
influenced by the desire of better things, while she possessed in the
meantime a kind of odour of immortality left in her by Christ and the
Holy Spirit. Wherefore also she is called by two names—Sophia
after her father (for Sophia is spoken of as being her father), and Holy
Spirit from that Spirit who is along with Christ. Having then obtained a
form, along with intelligence, and being immediately deserted by that
Logos who had been invisibly present with her—that is, by Christ
—she strained herself to discover that light which had forsaken
her, but could not
effect her purpose, inasmuch as she was
prevented by Horos. And as Horos thus obstructed
her further progress, he exclaimed, Iao,2716
| 2716 Probably corresponding to the Hebrew
יהוה, Jehovah.
| whence, they say, this name Iao derived its origin. And
when she could not pass by Horos on account of that passion in which she
had been involved, and because she alone had been left without, she then
resigned herself to every sort of that manifold and varied state of
passion to which she was subject; and thus she suffered grief on the one
hand because she had not obtained the object of her desire, and fear on
the other hand, lest life itself should fail her, as light had already
done, while, in addition, she was in the greatest perplexity. All these
feelings were associated with ignorance. And this ignorance of hers was
not like that of her mother, the first Sophia, an Æon, due to degeneracy
by means of passion, but to an [innate] opposition [of nature to
knowledge].2717
| 2717 This sentence
is very elliptical in the original, but the sense is as given above.
Sophia fell from Gnosis by degradation; Achamoth never possessed
this knowledge, her nature being from the first opposed to it.
| Moreover, another kind of passion fell upon her (Achamoth),
namely, that of desiring to return to him who gave her life.
2. This collection [of
passions] they declare was the substance of the matter from which this
world was formed. For from [her desire of] returning [to him who gave her
life], every soul belonging to this world, and that of the Demiurge2718
himself, derived its origin. All other things owed their beginning to her
terror and sorrow. For from her tears all that is of a liquid nature was
formed; from her smile all that is lucent; and from her grief and
perplexity all the corporeal elements of the world. For at one time, as
they affirm, she would weep and lament on account of being left alone in
the midst of darkness and vacuity; while, at another time, reflecting on
the light which had forsaken her, she would be filled with joy, and
laugh; then, again, she would be struck with terror; or, at other times,
would sink into consternation and bewilderment.
3. Now what follows from all this? No light tragedy
comes out of it, as the fancy of every man among them pompously explains,
one in one way, and another in another, from what kind of passion and
from what element being derived its origin. They have good reason, as
seems to me, why they should not feel inclined to teach these things to
all in public, but only to such as are able to pay a high price for an
acquaintance with such profound mysteries. For these doctrines are not at
all similar to those of which our Lord said, “Freely ye have
received, freely give.”2719
They are,
on the contrary, abstruse, and portentous, and profound mysteries, to be
got at only with great labour by such as are in love with falsehood. For
who would not expend all that he possessed, if only he might learn in
return, that from the tears of the enthymesis of the Æon involved in
passion, seas, and fountains, and rivers, and every liquid substance
derived its origin; that light burst forth from her smile; and that from
her perplexity and consternation the corporeal elements of the world had
their formation?
4. I feel somewhat inclined myself to contribute a few
hints towards the development of their system. For when I perceive that
waters are in part fresh, such as fountains, rivers, showers, and so on,
and in part salt; such as those in the sea, I reflect with myself that
all such waters cannot be derived from her tears, inasmuch as these are
of a saline quality only. It is clear, therefore, that the waters which
are salt are alone those which are derived from her tears. But it is
probable that she, in her intense agony and perplexity, was covered with
perspiration. And hence, following out their notion, we may conceive that
fountains and rivers, and all the fresh water in the world, are due to
this source. For it is difficult, since we know that all tears are of the
same quality, to believe that waters both salt and fresh proceeded from
them. The more plausible supposition is, that some are from her tears,
and some from her perspiration. And since there are also in the world
certain waters which are hot and acrid in their nature, thou must be left
to guess their origin, how and whence. Such are some of the results of
their hypothesis.
5. They go on to state that, when the mother Achamoth
had passed through all sorts of passion, and had with difficulty escaped
from them, she turned herself to supplicate the light which had forsaken
her, that is, Christ. He, however, having returned to the Pleroma, and
being probably unwilling again to descend from it, sent forth to her the
Paraclete, that is, the Saviour.2720
| 2720 “Jesus, or Soter, was also called the Paraclete in
the sense of Advocate, or one acting as the representative of
others.”—Harvey. | This
being was endowed with all power by the Father, who placed everything
under his authority, the Æons2721
| 2721 Both the Father and the other Æons constituting Soter
an impersonation of the entire Pleroma. | doing so likewise, so
that “by him were all things, visible and invisible, created,
thrones, divinities, dominions.”2722
He then was
sent to her along with his contemporary angels. And they related that
Achamoth, filled with reverence, at first veiled herself through modesty,
but that by and by, when she had looked upon him with all his endowments,
and had acquired strength from his appearance, she ran forward to meet
him. He then imparted to her form as respected intelligence, and brought
healing to her passions, separating them from her, but not
so as to drive them out of thought altogether. For it was not
possible that they should be annihilated as in the former case,2723
| 2723 That is, as in the case of her
mother Sophia, who is sometimes called “the Sophia above,”
Achamoth being “the Sophia below,” or “the second
Sophia.” | because they had already taken root and
acquired strength [so as to possess an indestructible existence]. All
that he could do was to separate them and set them apart, and then
commingle and condense them, so as to transmute them from incorporeal
passion into unorganized matter.2724
| 2724 Thus Harvey renders ἀσώματον ὕλην: so Baur, Chr.
Gnos., as quoted by Stieren. Billius proposes to read ἐνσώματον,
corporeal. | He then by this process conferred upon them
a fitness and a nature to become concretions and corporeal structures, in
order that two substances should be formed,—the one evil,
resulting from the passions, and the other subject indeed to suffering,
but originating from her conversion. And on this account (i.e., on
account of this hypostatizing of ideal matter) they say that the Saviour
virtually2725
| 2725 Though not
actually, for that was the work of the Demiurge. See next chapter.
| created the world. But when Achamoth was freed from her passion,
she gazed with rapture on the dazzling vision of the angels that were
with him; and in her ecstasy, conceiving by them, they tell us that she
brought forth new beings, partly after her own image, and partly a
spiritual progeny after the image of the Saviour’s attendants.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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