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| Chapter XXIII.—The woman who suffered from an issue of blood was no type of the suffering Æon.
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Chapter XXIII.—The woman who suffered
from an issue of blood was no type of the suffering Æon.
1.
Moreover, their ignorance comes out in a clear light with respect to the
case of that woman who, suffering from an issue of blood, touched the hem
of the Lord’s garment, and so was made whole; for they maintain
that through her was shown forth that twelfth power who suffered passion,
and flowed out towards immensity, that is, the twelfth Æon. [This
ignorance of theirs appears] first, because, as I have shown, according
to their own system, that was not the twelfth Æon. But even granting
them this point [in the meantime], there being twelve Æons, eleven of
these are said to have continued impassible, while the twelfth suffered
passion; but the woman, on the other hand, being healed in the twelfth
year, it is manifest that she had continued to suffer during eleven
years, and was healed in the twelfth. If indeed they were to say that
eleven Æons were involved in passion, but the twelfth one was healed, it
would then be a plausible thing to say that the woman was a type of
these. But since she suffered during eleven years, and [all that time]
obtained no cure, but was healed in the twelfth year, in what way can she
be a type of the twelfth of the Æons, eleven of whom, [according to
hypothesis,] did not suffer at all, but the twelfth alone participated in
suffering? For a type and emblem is, no doubt, sometimes diverse from the
truth [signified] as to matter and substance; but it ought, as to the
general form and features, to maintain
a likeness [to what
is typified], and in this way to shadow forth by means of things present
those which are yet to come.
2. And not only in the case of this woman have the
years of her infirmity (which they affirm to fit in with their figment)
been mentioned, but, lo! another woman was also healed, after suffering
in like manner for eighteen years; concerning whom the Lord said,
“And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound
during eighteen years, to be set free on the Sabbath-day?”3148
If, then, the former was a type of the twelfth
Æon that suffered, the latter should also be a type of the eighteenth
Æon in suffering. But they cannot maintain this; otherwise their primary
and original Ogdoad will be included in the number of Æons who suffered
together. Moreover, there was also a certain other person3149
healed by the Lord, after he had suffered for
eight-and-thirty years: they ought therefore to affirm that the Æon who
occupies the thirty-eighth place suffered. For if they assert that the
things which were done by the Lord were types of what took place in the
Pleroma, the type ought to be preserved throughout. But they can neither
adapt to their fictitious system the case of her who was cured after
eighteen years, nor of him who was cured after thirty-eight years. Now,
it is in every way absurd and inconsistent to declare that the Saviour
preserved the type in certain cases, while He did not do so in others.
The type of the woman, therefore, [with the issue of blood] is shown to
have no analogy to their system of Æons.3150
| 3150 The text of this sentence is very uncertain. We follow
Massuet’s reading, “negotio Æonum,” in preference to
that suggested by Harvey. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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