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| First Part of the Subject, Touching the Constitution of the Pleroma, Briefly Recapitulated. Transition to the Other Part, Which is Like a Play Outside the Curtain. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter
XIII.—First Part of the Subject, Touching the Constitution of the
Pleroma, Briefly Recapitulated. Transition to the Other Part,
Which is Like a Play Outside the Curtain.
In this series, then, is contained the first emanation
of Æons, who are alike born, and are married, and produce
offspring: there are the most dangerous fortunes of Sophia in her
ardent longing for the Father, the most seasonable help of Horos, the
expiation of her Enthymesis
and accruing Passion, the instruction of Christ and the Holy Spirit,
their tutelar reform of the Æons, the piebald ornamentation of
Soter, the consubstantial retinue6763
6763 Comparaticium
antistatum. The latter word Oehler explains, “ante ipsum
stantes;” the former, “quia genus eorum comparari poterat
substantiæ Soteris” (so Rigaltus). | of the angels.
All that remains, according to you, is the fall of the curtain and the
clapping of hands.6764
6764 The reader will see
how obviously this is meant in Tertullian’s “Quod superest,
inquis, vos valete et plaudite.” This is the well-known
allusion to the end of the play in the old Roman theatre. See
Quintilian, vi. 1, 52; comp. Horace, A. P. 155.
Tertullian’s own parody to this formula, immediately after, is:
“Immo quod superest, inquam, vos audite et proficite. | What remains in my
opinion, however, is, that you should hear and take heed. At all
events, these things are said to have been played out within the
company of the Pleroma, the first scene of the tragedy. The rest
of the play, however, is beyond the curtain—I mean outside of the
Pleroma. And yet if it be such within the bosom of the Father, within
the embrace of the guardian Horos, what must it be outside, in free
space,6765
6765 In libero: which may
be, however, “beyond the control of Horos.” | where God did not
exist?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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