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| Chapter XVI.—The Creator of the world either produced of Himself the images of things to be made, or the Pleroma was formed after the image of some previous system; and so on ad infinitum. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XVI.—The Creator of the world
either produced of Himself the images of things to be made, or the Pleroma was
formed after the image of some previous system; and so on ad infinitum.
1. But if they will not yield assent to any
one of these conclusions, since in that case they would be proved by us
as incapable of rendering any reason for such a production of their
Pleroma, they will of necessity be shut up to this—that they
confess that, above the Pleroma, there was some other system more
spiritual and more powerful, after the image of which their Pleroma was
formed. For if the Demiurge did not of himself construct
that figure of creation which exists, but made it after the form of those
things which are above, then from whom did their Bythus—who, to
be sure, brought it about that the Pleroma should be possessed of a
configuration of this kind—receive the figure of those things
which existed before Himself? For it must needs be, either that the
intention [of creating] dwelt in that god who made the world, so that of
his own power, and from himself, he obtained the model of its formation;
or, if any departure is made from this being, then there will arise a
necessity for constantly asking whence there came to that one who is
above him the configuration of those things which have been made; what,
too, was the number of the productions; and what the substance of the
model itself? If, however, it was in the power of Bythus to impart of
himself such a configuration to the Pleroma, then why may it not have
been in the power of the Demiurge to form of himself such a world as
exists? And then, again, if creation be an image of those things [above],
why should we not affirm that those are, in turn, images of others above
them, and those above these again, of others, and thus go on supposing
innumerable images of images?
2. This difficulty presented itself to Basilides after
he had utterly missed the truth, and was conceiving that, by an infinite
succession of those beings that were formed from one another, he might
escape such perplexity. When he had proclaimed that three hundred and
sixty-five heavens were formed through succession and similitude by one
another, and that a manifest proof [of the existence] of these was found
in the number of the days of the year, as I stated before; and that above
these there was a power which they also style Unnameable, and its
dispensation—he did not even in this way escape such perplexity.
For, when asked whence came the image of its configuration to that heaven
which is above all, and from which he wishes the rest to be regarded as
having been formed by means of succession, he will say, from that
dispensation which belongs to the Unnameable. He must then say, either
that the Unspeakable formed it of himself, or he will find it necessary
to acknowledge that there is some other power above this being, from whom
his unnameable One derived such vast numbers of configurations as do,
according to him, exist.
3. How much safer and more accurate a course is it,
then, to confess at once that which is true: that this God, the Creator,
who formed the world, is the only God, and that there is no other God
besides Him—He Himself receiving from Himself the model and
figure of those things which have been made—than that, after
wearying ourselves with such an impious and circuitous description, we
should be compelled, at some point or another, to fix the mind on some
One, and to confess that from Him proceeded the configuration of things
created.
4. As to the accusation brought against us by the
followers of Valentinus, when they declare that we continue in that
Hebdomad which is below, as if we could not lift our minds on high, nor
understand those things which are above, because we do not accept their
monstrous assertions: this very charge do the followers of Basilides
bring in turn against them, inasmuch as they (the Valentinians) keep
circling about those things which are below, [going] as far as the first
and second Ogdoad, and because they unskilfully imagine that, immediately
after the thirty Æons, they have discovered Him who is above all things
Father, not following out in thought their investigations to that Pleroma
which is above the three hundred and sixty-five heavens, which3071
3071 The text is here doubtful:
Harvey proposes to read “qui” instead of “quæ,”
but we prefer “quod” with Grabe. The meaning is, that three
hundred and sixty-five is more than forty-five Ogdoads (45 ×
8 = 360). | is above
forty-five Ogdoads. And any one, again, might bring against them the same
charge, by imagining four thousand three hundred and eighty heavens, or
Æons, since the days of the year contain that number of hours. If,
again, some one adds also the nights, thus doubling the hours which have
been mentioned, imagining that [in this way] he has discovered a great
multitude of Ogdoads, and a kind of innumerable company3072
3072 “Operositatem.” corresponding
to πραγματείαν, lit.
manufacture. | of Æons, and thus, in opposition to Him
who is above all things Father, conceiving himself more perfect than all
[others], he will bring the same charge against all, inasmuch as they are
not capable of rising to the conception of such a multitude of heavens or
Æons as he has announced, but are either so deficient as to remain among
those things which are below, or continue in the intermediate space.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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