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| The System of the Sethians; Their Triad of Infinite Principles; Their Heresy Explained; Their Interpretation of the Incarnation.
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Chapter XIV.—The
System of the Sethians; Their Triad of Infinite Principles; Their
Heresy Explained; Their Interpretation of the Incarnation.
Let us then see what the Sithians511
| 511 This
is the form in which the name occurs in Hippolytus, but the correct one
is Sethians. As regards this sect, see Irenæus, Contr.
Hæres., i. 30; Tertullian, Præscript., c. lxvii.;
Theodoret, Hæret. Fabul., i. 14; Epiphanius,
Advers. Hæres., c. xxviii., xxxvii., and xxxix.; Augustine,
De Hæret., c. xix.; Josephus, Antiq. Judaic., i. 2;
Suidas on the word “Seth.” | affirm. To these it appears that there
are three definite principles of the universe, and that each of these
principles possesses infinite powers. And when they speak of
powers512
| 512 For
δυνάμεις
…λογιζέσθω,
Bernays reads δυνάται…λογίζεσθαι:
“While these make (such) assertions, he is able to
calculate,” etc. | let him that heareth
take into account that they make this statement. Everything
whatsoever you discern by an act of intelligence, or also omit (to
discern) as not being understood, this by nature is fitted to become
each of the principles, as in the human soul every art whatsoever which
is made the subject of instruction. Just for instance, he says,
this child will be a musician, having waited the requisite time for (acquiring a knowledge
of) the harp; or a geometrician, (having previously undergone the
necessary study for acquiring a knowledge) of geometry; (or) a
grammarian, (after having sufficiently studied) grammar; (or) a
workman, (having acquired a practical acquaintance) with a
handicraftsman’s business; and to one brought into contact with
the rest of the arts a similar occurrence will take place. Now of
principles, he says, the substances are light and darkness; and of
these, spirit is intermediate without admixture. The spirit,
however, is that which has its appointed place in the midst of darkness
which is below, and light which is above. It is not spirit as a
current of wind, or some gentle breeze that can be felt; but, as it
were, some odour of ointment or of incense formed out of a
compound. (It is) a subtle power, that insinuates itself by means
of some impulsive quality in a fragrance, which is inconceivable and
better than could be expressed by words. Since, however, light is
above and darkness below, and spirit is intermediate in such a way as
stated between these; and since light is so constituted, that, like a
ray of the sun, it shines from above upon the underlying darkness; and
again, since the fragrance of the spirit, holding an intermediate
place, is extended and carried in every direction, as in the case of
incense-offerings placed upon fire, we detect the fragrance that is
being wafted in every direction: when, I say, there is a power of
this description belonging unto the principles which are classified
under three divisions, the power of spirit and light simultaneously
exists in the darkness that is situated underneath them. But the
darkness is a terrible water, into which light is absorbed and
translated into a nature of the same description with spirit. The
darkness, however, is not devoid of intelligence, but altogether
reflective, and is conscious that, where the light has been abstracted
from the darkness, the darkness remains isolated, invisible, obscure,
impotent, inoperative, (and) feeble. Wherefore it is constrained,
by all its reflection and understanding, to collect into itself the
lustre and scintillation of light with the fragrance of the
spirit. And it is possible to behold an image of the nature of
these in the human countenance; for instance, the pupil of the eye,
dark from the subjacent humours, (but) illuminated with spirit.
As, then, the darkness seeks after the splendour, that it may keep in
bondage the spark, and may have perceptive power, so the light and
spirit seek after the power that belongs to themselves, and strive to
uprear, and towards each other to carry up their intermingled powers
into the dark and formidable water lying underneath.
But all the powers of the three originating
principles, which are as regards number indefinitely infinite, are each
according to its own substance reflective and intelligent, unnumbered
in multitude. And since what are reflective and intelligent are
numberless in multitude, while they continue by themselves, they are
all at rest. If, however, power approaches power, the
dissimilarity of (what is set in) juxtaposition produces a certain
motion and energy, which are formed from the motion resulting from the
concourse effected by the juxtaposition of the coalescing powers.
For the concourse of the powers ensues, just like any mark of a
seal513
| 513 Or,
“form of a seal.” | that is impressed
by means of the concourse correspondingly with (the seal) which prints
the figure on the substances that are brought up (into contact with
it). Since, therefore, the powers of the three principles are
infinite in number, and from infinite powers (arise) infinite
concourses, images of infinite seals are necessarily produced.
These images, therefore, are the forms of the different sorts of
animals. From the first great concourse, then, of the three
principles, ensues a certain great form, a seal of heaven and
earth. The heaven and the earth have a figure similar to the
womb, having a navel in the midst; and if, he says, any one is desirous
of bringing this figure under the organ of vision, let him artfully
scrutinize the pregnant womb of whatsoever animal he wishes, and he
will discover an image of the heaven and the earth, and of the things
which in the midst of all are unalterably situated
underneath.
(And so it is, that the first great concourse of
the three principles) has produced such a figure of heaven and earth as
is similar to a womb after the first coition. But, again, in the
midst of the heaven and the earth have been generated infinite
concourses of powers. And each concourse did not effect and
fashion anything else than a seal of heaven and earth similar to a
womb. But, again, in the earth, from the infinite seals are
produced infinite crowds of various animals. But into all this
infinity of the different animals under heaven is diffused and
distributed, along with the light, the fragrance of the Spirit from
above. From the water, therefore, has been produced a
first-begotten originating principle, viz., wind, (which is) violent
and boisterous, and a cause of all generation. For producing a
sort of ferment in the waters, (the wind) uplifts waves out of the
waters; and the motion514
of
the waves, just as when some impulsive power of pregnancy is the origin
of the production of a man or mind,515
| 515 This is
Cruice’s mode of supplying the hiatus. Miller has
“man or ox.” |
is caused when (the ocean), excited by the impulsive power of spirit,
is propelled forward. When, however, this wave that
has been raised out of the
water by the wind, and rendered pregnant in its nature, has within
itself obtained the power, possessed by the female, of generation, it
holds together the light scattered from above along with the fragrance
of the spirit—that is, mind moulded in the different
species. And this (light) is a perfect God, who from the
unbegotten radiance above, and from the spirit, is borne down into
human nature as into a temple, by the impulsive power of Nature, and by
the motion of wind. And it is produced from water being
commingled516
and blended with
bodies as if it were a salt517
| 517
ἅλας τῶν
γενομένων:
Miller reads ἀλάλων | of
existent things, and a light of darkness. And it struggles to be
released from bodies, and is not able to find liberation and an egress
for itself. For a very diminutive spark, a severed splinter from
above like the ray of a star, has been mingled in the much compounded
waters of many (existences),518
| 518 The
hiatus, as filled up by Miller, is adopted above. The Abbe Cruice
suggests the following emendation: “For there has been
intermingled a certain very diminutive spark from the light
(subsisting) along with the supernal fragrance, from the spirit
producing, like a ray, composition in things dissolved, and dissolution
in things compounded.” |
as, says he, (David) remarks in a psalm.519
Every thought, then, and solicitude
actuating the supernal light is as to how and in what manner mind may
be liberated, by the death of the depraved and dark body, from the
Father that is below, which is the wind that with noise520
| 520 βρόμῳ: some
read βρασμῷ, i.e., agitation,
literally a boiling up. | and tumult uplifted the waves, and who
generated a perfect mind his own Son; not, however, being his peculiar
(offspring) substantially. For he was a ray (sent down) from
above, from that perfect light, (and) was overpowered in the
dark,521
| 521
σκοτεινῷ:
some read σκολῷ (which is of similar
import), crooked, i.e., involved, obscure. | and formidable, and
bitter, and defiled water; and he is a luminous spirit borne down over
the water.522
When,
therefore, the waves that have been upreared from the waters have
received within themselves the power of generation possessed by
females, they contain, as a certain womb, in different species, the
infused radiance, so as that it is visible in the case of all
animals.523
| 523 A hiatus
occurs here. The deficiency is supplied by Cruice from previous
statements of Hippolytus, and is adopted above. | But the
wind, at the same time fierce and formidable,524
whirling along, is, in respect of its
hissing sound, like a serpent.525
| 525 This
passage is obscure. The translation above follows Schneidewin and
Cruice. Miller’s text would seem capable of this
meaning: “The wind, simultaneously fierce and formidable,
is whirled along like a trailing serpent supplied with
wings.” His text is, τῷ σύρματι
ὄφει
παραπλήσιος
πτέρωτος, but
suggests πτερωτῷ· ὡς
ἀπὸ |
First, then, from the wind—that is, from the
serpent—has resulted the originating principle of generation in
the manner declared, all things having simultaneously received the
principle of generation. After, then, the light and the spirit
had been received, he says, into the polluted and baneful (and)
disordered womb, the serpent—the wind of the darkness, the
first-begotten of the waters—enters within and produces man, and
the impure womb neither loves nor recognises any other form. The
perfect Word of supernal light being therefore assimilated (in form) to
the beast, (that is,) the serpent, entered into the defiled womb,
having deceived (the womb) through the similitude of the beast itself,
in order that (the Word) may loose the chains that encircle the perfect
mind which has been begotten amidst impurity of womb by the primal
offspring of water, (namely,) serpent, wind, (and) beast.526
| 526
Schneidewin has a full stop after “wind,” and begins the
next sentence with θηρίου (beast). | This, he says, is the form of the
servant,527
and this the
necessity of the Word of God coming down into the womb of a
virgin. But he says it is not sufficient that the Perfect Man,
the Word, has entered into the womb of a virgin, and loosed the
pangs528
which were in
that darkness. Nay, more than this was requisite; for after his
entrance529
| 529 Miller
would read μετὰ
τὰ…ἐξελθὼν, “after the
foul mysteries of the womb he went forth,” etc. | into the foul
mysteries of the womb, he was washed, and drank of the cup of
life-giving bubbling water.530
| 530
John iv.
7–14. For
πιεῖν some
read ποιεῖν, “a course
which he must pursue who,” etc. | And it was altogether needful that he
should drink who was about to strip off the servile form, and assume
celestial raiment.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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