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| The Valentinian Origin of the Creation.
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Chapter XXVIII.—The Valentinian Origin of the
Creation.
As, therefore, the primary and greatest
power698
| 698 The
opening sentence in this chapter is confused in Miller’s
text. The sense, however, as given above, is deducible from a
reference to a corresponding passage in Irenæus (i. 5). | of the animal
essence came into existence, an image (of the only begotten Son); so
also the devil, who is the ruler of this world, constitutes the power
of the material essence, as Beelzebub is of the essence of demons which
emanates from anxiety. (In consequence of this,) Sophia from
above exerted her energy from the Ogdoad to the Hebdomad. For the
Demiurge, they say, knows nothing at all, but is, according to them,
devoid of understanding, and silly, and is not conscious of what he is
doing or working at. But in him, while thus in a state of
ignorance that even he is producing, Sophia wrought all sorts of
energy, and infused vigour (into him). And (although Sophia) was
really the operating cause, he himself imagines that he evolves the
creation of the world out of himself: whence he commenced,
saying, “I am God, and beside me there is no
other.”699
| 699
Deut. iv. 35; Isa. xlv. 5, 14,
18, 21, 22. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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