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| Indignant Irony Exposing the Valentinian Fable About the Judicial Treatment of Mankind at the Last Judgment. The Immorality of the Doctrine.
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Chapter
XXXII.—Indignant Irony Exposing the Valentinian Fable About the
Judicial Treatment of Mankind at the Last Judgment. The Immorality of
the Doctrine.
As for the human race, its end will be to the
following effect:—To all which bear the earthy6902
and material mark there accrues an entire
destruction, because “all flesh is grass,”6903
and amongst these is the soul of mortal man,
except when it has found salvation by faith. The souls of just men,
that is to say, our souls, will be conveyed to the Demiurge in the
abodes of the middle region. We are duly thankful; we shall be content
to be classed with our god, in whom lies our own origin.6904
| 6904 See above, in ch.
xxiv. p. 515. | Into the palace of the Pleroma nothing of
the animal nature is admitted—nothing but the spiritual swarm of
Valentinus. There, then, the first process is the despoiling of men
themselves, that is, men within the Pleroma.6905
Now this despoiling consists of the putting off of the souls in which
they appear to be clothed, which they will give back to their Demiurge
as they had obtained6906
them from him. They
will then become wholly intellectual spirits—impalpable,6907
| 6907 Neque detentui
obnoxii. | invisible6908
| 6908 Neque conspectui
obnoxii. | —and in
this state will be readmitted invisibly to the
Pleroma—stealthily, if the case admits of the idea.6909
| 6909 Si ita est: or,
“since such is the fact.” | What then? They will be dispersed
amongst the angels, the attendants on Soter. As sons, do you suppose?
Not at all. As servants, then? No, not even so. Well, as
phantoms? Would that it were nothing more! Then in what capacity, if
you are ashamed to tell us? In the capacity of brides. Then will they
end6910
their Sabine rapes with the sanction of
wedlock. This will be the guerdon of the spiritual, this the recompense
of their faith! Such fables have their use. Although but a Marcus or a
Gaius,6911
full-grown in this
flesh of ours, with a beard and such like proofs (of virility,) it may
be a stern husband, a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather (never
mind what, in fact, if only a male), you may perhaps in the
bridal-chamber of the Pleroma—I have already said so
tacitly6912
| 6912 This parenthetic
clause, “tacendo jam dixi,” perhaps means, “I say
this with shame,” “I would rather not have to say
it.” | —even become
the parent by an angel of some Æon of high numerical
rank.6913
| 6913 The common reading is,
“Onesimum Æonem,” an Æon called Onesimus, in
supposed allusion to Philemon’s Onesimus. But this is too
far-fetched. Oehler discovers in “Onesimum” the corruption
of some higher number ending in “esimum.” | For the right celebration of these nuptials,
instead of the torch and veil, I suppose that secret fire is then to
burst forth, which, after devastating the whole existence of things,
will itself also be reduced to nothing at last, after everything has
been reduced to ashes; and so their fable too will be ended.6914
| 6914 This is Oehler’s
idea of “et nulla jam fabula.” Rigaltius, however, gives a
good sense to this clause: “All will come true at last; there
will be no fable.” | But I, too, am no doubt a rash man, in having exposed
so great a mystery in so derisive a way: I ought to be afraid that
Achamoth, who did not choose to make herself known even to her own son,
would turn mad, that Theletus would be enraged, that Fortune6915
| 6915 The same as
Macariotes, in ch. viii. above, p. 507. | would be irritated. But I am yet a liege-man
of the Demiurge. I have to return after death to the place where there
is no more giving in marriage, where I have to be clothed upon rather
than to be despoiled,—where, even if I am despoiled of my sex, I
am classed with angels—not a male angel, nor a female one. There
will be no one to do aught against me, nor will they then find any male
energy in me.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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