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| Chapter XIV.—The various hypotheses of Marcus and others. Theories respecting letters and syllables.
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Chapter XIV.—The various hypotheses
of Marcus and others. Theories respecting letters and syllables.
1. This
Marcus2827
| 2827 This sentence has
completely baffled all the critics. [Its banter, or mock gravity, has not
been self-evident.] We cannot enter upon the wide field of discussion
which it has opened up, but would simply state that Irenæus here seems
to us, as often, to be playing upon the terms which were in common use
among these heretics. Marcus probably received his system from
Colorbasus, and is here declared, by the use of that jargon which
Irenæus means to ridicule while so employing it, to have proceeded to
develop it in the way described. | then, declaring that he
alone was the matrix and receptacle of the Sige of Colorbasus, inasmuch
as he was only-begotten, has brought to the birth in some such way as
follows that which was committed to him of the defective Enthymesis. He
declares that the infinitely exalted Tetrad descended upon him from the
invisible and indescribable places in the form of a woman (for the world
could not have borne it coming in its male form), and expounded to him
alone its own nature, and the origin of all things, which it had never
before revealed to any one either of gods or men. This was done in the
following terms: When first the unoriginated, inconceivable Father, who
is without material substance,2828
| 2828 Such appears to be the meaning of ἀνούσιος in this
passage. The meaning of οὐσία fluctuated for a
time in the early Church, and was sometimes used to denote material
substance, instead of its usual significance of being.
| and is neither male nor female, willed to bring forth that which
is ineffable to Him, and to endow with form that which is invisible, He
opened His mouth, and sent forth the Word similar to Himself, who,
standing near, showed Him what He Himself was, inasmuch as He had been
manifested in the form of that which was invisible. Moreover, the
pronunciation of His name took place as follows:—He spoke the
first word of it, which was the beginning2829
| 2829 The old Latin preserves ἀρχή
untranslated, implying that this was the first word which the Father
spoke. Some modern editors adopt this view, while others hold the meaning
simply to be, as given above, that that first sound which the Father
uttered was the origin of all the rest. | [of all the rest],
and that utterance consisted of four letters. He added the second, and
this also consisted of four letters. Next He uttered the third, and this
again embraced ten letters. Finally, He pronounced the fourth, which was
composed of twelve letters. Thus took place the enunciation of the whole
name, consisting of thirty letters, and four distinct utterances. Each of
these elements has its own peculiar letters, and character, and
pronunciation, and forms, and images, and there is not one of them that
perceives the shape of that [utterance] of which it is an element.
Neither does any one know2830
| 2830 The letters are here confounded with the Æons, which
they represented. | itself, nor is it acquainted with the
pronunciation of its neighbour, but each one imagines that by its own
utterance it does in fact name the whole. For while every one of them is
a part of the whole, it imagines its own sound to be the whole name, and
does not leave off sounding until, by its own utterance, it has reached
the last letter of each of the elements. This teacher declares that the
restitution of all things will take place, when all these, mixing into
one letter, shall utter one and the same sound. He imagines that the
emblem of this utterance is found in Amen, which we pronounce in
concert.2831
The diverse sounds (he adds) are
those which give form to that Æon who is without material substance and
unbegotten, and these, again, are the forms which the Lord has called
angels, who continually behold the face of the Father.2832
2. Those names of the elements which may be told, and
are common, he has called Æons, and words, and roots, and seeds, and
fulnesses, and fruits. He asserts that each of these, and all that is
peculiar to every one of them, is to be understood as contained in the
name Ecclesia. Of these elements, the last letter of the last one uttered
its voice, and this sound2833
| 2833 By this Achamoth is denoted, who was said to give rise
to the material elements, after the image of the Divine. |
going forth generated its own elements after the image of the [other]
elements, by which he affirms, that both the things here below were
arranged into the order they occupy, and those that preceded them were
called into existence. He also maintains that the letter itself, the
sound of which followed that sound below, was received up again by the
syllable to which it belonged, in order to the completion of the whole,
but that the sound remained below as if cast outside. But the element
itself from which the letter with its special pronunciation descended to
that below, he affirms to consist of thirty letters, while each of these
letters, again, contains other letters in itself, by means of which the
name of the letter is expressed. And thus, again, others are named by
other letters, and others still by others, so that the multitude of
letters swells out into infinitude. You may more clearly understand what
I mean by the following example:—The word Delta contains
five letters, viz., D, E, L, T, A: these letters again, are
written by other letters,2834
| 2834 That is, their names are spelt by other letters.
| and others still by others. If, then, the entire composition of
the word Delta [when thus analyzed] runs out into infinitude, letters
continually generating other letters, and following one another in
constant succession, how much vaster than that [one] word is the [entire]
ocean of letters! And if even one letter be thus infinite, just consider
the immensity of the letters in the entire name; out of which the Sige of
Marcus has taught us the Propator is composed. For which reason the
Father, knowing the incomprehensibleness of His own nature, assigned to
the elements which He also terms Æons, [the power] of each one uttering
its own enunciation, because no one of them was capable by itself of
uttering the whole.
3. Moreover, the Tetrad, explaining
these things to him more fully, said:—I wish to show thee Aletheia
(Truth) herself; for I have brought her down from the dwellings above,
that thou mayest see her without a veil, and understand her beauty
—that thou mayest also hear her speaking, and admire her wisdom.
Behold, then, her head on high, Alpha and Omega; her neck,
Beta and Psi; her shoulders with her hands, Gamma
and Chi; her breast, Delta and Phi; her diaphragm,
Epsilon and Upsilon; her back, Zeta and Tau;
her belly, Eta and Sigma; her thighs, Theta and
Rho; her knees, Iota and Pi; her legs, Kappa
and Omicron; her ankles, Lambda and Xi; her feet,
Mu and Nu. Such is the body of Truth, according to this
magician, such the figure of the element, such the character of the
letter. And he calls this element Anthropos (Man), and says that is the
fountain of all speech, and the beginning of all sound, and the
expression of all that is unspeakable, and the mouth of the silent Sige.
This indeed is the body of Truth. But do thou, elevating the thoughts of
thy mind on high, listen from the mouth of Truth to the self-begotten
Word, who is also the dispenser of the bounty of the Father.
4. When she (the Tetrad) had spoken these things,
Aletheia looked at him, opened her mouth, and uttered a word. That word
was a name, and the name was this one which we do know and speak of,
viz., Christ Jesus. When she had uttered this name, she at once relapsed
into silence. And as Marcus waited in the expectation that she would say
something more, the Tetrad again came forward and said:—Thou hast
reckoned as contemptible that word which thou hast heard from the mouth
of Aletheia. This which thou knowest and seemest to possess, is not an
ancient name. For thou possessest the sound of it merely, whilst thou art
ignorant of its power. For Jesus (᾽Ιησοῦς) is a name
arithmetically2835
| 2835 The old
Latin version renders ἐπίσημον,
insigne, illustrious, but there seems to be a reference to the
Valentinian notion of the mystic number of 888 formed
(10+8+200+70+400+200) by the numerical value of the letters in the word
᾽Ιησοῦς. |
symbolical, consisting of six letters, and is known by all those that
belong to the called. But that which is among the Æons of the Pleroma
consists of many parts, and is of another form and shape, and is known by
those [angels] who are joined in affinity with Him, and whose figures
(mightinesses) are always present with Him.
5. Know, then, that the four-and-twenty letters which
you possess are symbolical emanations of the three powers that contain
the entire number of the elements above. For you are to reckon thus
—that the nine mute2836
| 2836 The mutes are π, κ, τ, β, γ, δ, φ, χ, θ. | letters
are [the images] of Pater and Aletheia, because they are without voice,
that is, of such a nature as cannot be uttered or pronounced. But the
semi-vowels2837
| 2837 The
semi-vowels are λ, μ, ν, ρ, σ, ζ, ξ, ψ. |
represent Logos and Zoe, because they are, as it were, midway between the
consonants and the vowels, partaking2838
| 2838 It seems scarcely possible to give a more definite
rendering of this clause: it may be literally translated thus: “And
because they receive the outflow of those above, but the turning back
again of those below.” | of the nature of both. The
vowels, again, are representative of Anthropos and Ecclesia, inasmuch as
a voice proceeding from Anthropos gave being to them all; for the sound
of the voice imparted to them form. Thus, then, Logos and Zoe possess
eight [of these letters]; Anthropos and Ecclesia seven; and Pater and
Aletheia nine. But since the number allotted to each was unequal, He who
existed in the Father came down, having been specially sent by Him from
whom He was separated, for the rectification of what had taken place,
that the unity of the Pleromas, being endowed with equality, might
develop in all that one power which flows from all. Thus that division
which had only seven letters, received the power of eight,2839
| 2839 The ninth letter being taken
from the mutes and added to the semi-vowels, an equal division of the
twenty-four was thus secured. | and the three sets were
rendered alike in point of number, all becoming Ogdoads; which three,
when brought together, constitute the number four-and-twenty. The three
elements, too (which he declares to exist in conjunction with three
powers,2840
| 2840 Viz., Pater,
Anthropos, and Logos. | and thus form the six from which have
flowed the twenty-four letters), being quadrupled by the word of the
ineffable Tetrad, give rise to the same number with them; and these
elements he maintains to belong to Him who cannot be named. These, again,
were endowed by the three powers with a resemblance to Him who is
invisible. And he says that those letters which we call double2841
| 2841 Viz., ζ, ξ, ψ = δς, κς, πς. | are
the images of
the images of these elements; and if these be
added to the four-and-twenty letters, by the force of analogy they form
the number thirty.
6. He asserts that the fruit of this arrangement and
analogy has been manifested in the likeness of an image, namely, Him who,
after six days, ascended2842
into the mountain along with three others, and then became one of
six (the sixth),2843
in which character He
descended and was contained in the Hebdomad, since He was the illustrious
Ogdoad,2844
| 2844 Referring to the
word Χρειστός, according to
Harvey, who remarks, that “generally the Ogdoad was the receptacle
of the spiritual seed.” | and contained in Himself the
entire number of the elements, which the descent of the dove (who is
Alpha and Omega) made clearly manifest, when He came to be baptized; for
the number of the dove is eight hundred and one.2845
| 2845 The Saviour, as Alpha and Omega, was
symbolized by the dove, the sum of the Greek numerals, π, ε, ρ, ι, σ, τ, ε, ρ, α (περιστερά,
dove), being, like that of Α and Ω, 801. |
And for this reason did Moses declare that man was formed on the sixth
day; and then, again, according to arrangement, it was on the sixth day,
which is the preparation, that the last man appeared, for the
regeneration of the first. Of this arrangement, both the beginning and
the end were formed at that sixth hour, at which He was nailed to the
tree. For that perfect being Nous, knowing that the number six had the
power both of formation and regeneration, declared to the children of
light, that regeneration which has been wrought out by Him who appeared
as the Episemon in regard to that number. Whence also he declares
it is that the double letters2846
| 2846 That is, the letters ζ, ξ, ψ all contain ς, whose value is
six, and which was called ἐπίσημον by the
Greeks. | contain the Episemon number; for this Episemon, when
joined to the twenty-four elements, completed the name of thirty
letters.
7. He employed as his instrument, as the Sige of Marcus
declares, the power of seven letters,2847
| 2847 Referring to Aletheia, which, in Greek, contains
seven letters. | in order that the fruit of the independent
will [of Achamoth] might be revealed. “Consider this present
Episemon,” she says—“Him who was formed after
the [original] Episemon, as being, as it were, divided or cut into
two parts, and remaining outside; who, by His own power and wisdom,
through means of that which had been produced by Himself, gave life to
this world, consisting of seven powers,2848
| 2848 By these seven powers are meant the seven heavens (also
called angels), formed by the Demiurge. | after the likeness of
the power of the Hebdomad, and so formed it, that it is the soul of
everything visible. And He indeed uses this work Himself as if it had
been formed by His own free will; but the rest, as being images of what
cannot be [fully] imitated, are subservient to the Enthymesis of the
mother. And the first heaven indeed pronounces Alpha, the next to
this Epsilon, the third Eta, the fourth, which is also in
the midst of the seven, utters the sound of Iota, the fifth
Omicron, the sixth Upsilon, the seventh, which is also the
fourth from the middle, utters the elegant Omega,”—
as the Sige of Marcus, talking a deal of nonsense, but uttering no word
of truth, confidently asserts. “And these powers,” she adds,
“being all simultaneously clasped in each other’s embrace, do
sound out the glory of Him by whom they were produced; and the glory of
that sound is transmitted upwards to the Propator.” She asserts,
moreover, that “the sound of this uttering of praise, having been
wafted to the earth, has become the Framer and the Parent of those things
which are on the earth.”
8. He instances, in proof of this, the case of infants
who have just been born, the cry of whom, as soon as they have issued
from the womb, is in accordance with the sound of every one of these
elements. As, then, he says, the seven powers glorify the Word, so also
does the complaining soul of infants.2849
| 2849 We here follow the text of Hippolytus: the ordinary text
and the old Latin read, “So does the soul of infants, weeping and
mourning over Marcus, deify him.” | For this reason, too,
David said: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast
perfected praise;”2850
and again: “The
heavens declare the glory of God.”2851
Hence also
it comes to pass, that when the soul is involved in difficulties and
distresses, for its own relief it calls out, “Oh” (Ω), in honour of the
letter in question,2852
| 2852 The
text is here altogether uncertain: we have given the probable
meaning. | so that its cognate soul above may recognise [its
distress], and send down to it relief.
9. Thus it is, that in regard to the whole name,2853
| 2853 That is, the name of Soter,
the perfect result of the whole Pleroma. | which consists of
thirty letters, and Bythus, who receives his increase from the letters of
this [name], and, moreover, the body of Aletheia, which is composed of
twelve members, each of which consists of two letters, and the voice
which she uttered without having spoken at all, and in regard to the
analysis of that name which cannot be expressed in words, and the soul of
the world and of man, according as they possess that arrangement, which
is after the image [of things above], he has uttered his nonsensical
opinions. It remains that I relate how the Tetrad showed him from the
names a power equal in number; so that nothing, my friend, which I have
received as spoken by him, may remain unknown to thee; and thus thy
request, often proposed to me, may be fulfilled.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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