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| Chapter XXI.—The twelve apostles were not a type of the Æons.
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Chapter XXI.—The twelve apostles were
not a type of the Æons.
1. If, again, they
maintain that the twelve apostles were a type only of that group of
twelve Æons which Anthropos in conjunction with Ecclesia produced, then
let them produce ten other apostles as a type of those ten remaining
Æons, who, as they declare, were produced by Logos and Zoe. For it is
unreasonable to suppose that the junior, and for that reason inferior
Æons, were set forth by the Saviour through the election of the
apostles, while their seniors, and on this account their superiors, were
not thus foreshown; since the Saviour (if, that is to say, He chose the
apostles with this view, that by means of them He might show forth the
Æons who are in the Pleroma) might have chosen other ten apostles also,
and likewise other eight before these, that thus He might set forth the
original and primary Ogdoad. He could not,3109
| 3109 This passage is hopelessly corrupt. The
editors have twisted it in every direction, but with no satisfactory
result. Our version is quite as far from being certainly trustworthy as
any other that has been proposed, but it seems something like the meaning
of the words as they stand. Both the text and punctuation of the Latin
are in utter confusion. | in regard to the second [Duo] Decad,
show forth [any emblem of it] through the number of the apostles being
[already] constituted a type. For [He made choice of no such other number
of disciples; but] after the twelve apostles, our Lord is found to have
sent seventy others before Him.3110
Now
seventy cannot possibly be the type either of an Ogdoad, a Decad,
or a Triacontad. What is the reason, then, that the inferior Æons are,
as I have said, represented by means of the apostles; but the superior,
from whom, too, the former derived their being, are not prefigured at
all? But if3111
| 3111
“Si” is wanting in the mss. and early editions, and
Harvey pleads for its exclusion, but the sense becomes clearer through
inserting it. | the twelve apostles were chosen with this
object, that the number of the twelve Æons might be indicated by means
of them, then the seventy also ought to have been chosen to be the type
of seventy Æons; and in that case, they must affirm that the Æons are
no longer thirty, but eighty-two in number. For He who made choice of the
apostles, that they might be a type of those Æons existing in the
Pleroma, would never have constituted them types of some and not of
others; but by means of the apostles He would have tried to preserve an
image and to exhibit a type of those Æons that exist in the Pleroma.
2. Moreover we must not keep silence respecting Paul,
but demand from them after the type of what Æon that apostle has been
handed down to us, unless perchance [they affirm that he is a
representative] of the Saviour compounded of them [all], who derived his
being from the collected gifts of the whole, and whom they term All
Things, as having been formed out of them all. Respecting this being
the poet Hesiod has strikingly expressed himself, styling him Pandora
—that is, “The gift of all”—for this reason,
that the best gift in the possession of all was centred in him. In
describing these gifts the following account is given: Hermes (so3112
| 3112 This clause is, of course, an
interpolation by the Latin translator. | he is called in the
Greek language), Αἱμυλίους3113
| 3113 The words are loosely quoted
memoriter, as is the custom with Irenæus. See Hesiod, Works
and Days, i. 77, etc. | τε λόγους καὶ ἐπίκλοπον
ἦθος αὐτοὺς Κάτθετο (or to
express this in the English3114
| 3114 Latin, of course, in the text. |
language), “implanted words of fraud and deceit in their minds, and
thievish habits,” for the purpose of leading foolish men astray,
that such should believe their falsehoods. For their Mother—that
is, Leto3115
| 3115 There is here a
play upon the words Λητώ and ληθεῖν, the former
being supposed to be derived from the latter, so as to denote
secrecy. | —secretly stirred them up (whence also
she is called Leto,3116
| 3116 This
clause is probably an interpolation by the translator. |
according to the meaning of the Greek word, because she secretly
stirred up men), without the knowledge of the Demiurge, to give forth
profound and unspeakable mysteries to itching ears.3117
And not only did their Mother bring it about that this mystery
should be declared by Hesiod; but very skilfully also by means of the
lyric poet Pindar, when he describes to the Demiurge3118
| 3118 “Cœlet Demiurgo,” such is
the reading in all the mss.
and editions. Harvey, however, proposes to read “celet
Demiurgum;” but the change which he suggests, besides being without
authority, does not clear away the obscurity which hangs upon the
sentence. | the
case of Pelops, whose flesh was
cut in pieces by the Father, and then collected and brought together, and
compacted anew by all the gods,3119
| 3119 Comp. Pindar, Olymp., i. 38, etc. | did
she in this way indicate Pandora and these men having their consciences
seared3120
| 3120
“Compuncti” supposed to correspond to κεκαυτηριασμένοι:
see 1 Tim. iv. 2. The whole passage is difficult and
obscure. | by her, declaring, as they maintain, the very same
things, are [proved] of the same family and spirit as the others.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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