Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| God's Dealings with the Creature; Basilides' Notion of (1) the Inner Man, (2) the Gospel; His Interpretation of the Life and Sufferings of Our Lord.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter
XV.—God’s Dealings with the Creature; Basilides’
Notion of (1) the Inner Man, (2) the Gospel; His Interpretation of the
Life and Sufferings of Our Lord.
When, therefore, he says, the entire Sonship shall
have come, and shall be above the conterminous spirit, then the
creature will become the object of mercy. For (the creature)
groans until now,847
and is
tormented, and waits for the manifestation of the sons of God, in order
that all who are men of the Sonship may ascend from thence. When
this takes place, God, he says, will bring upon the whole world
enormous ignorance, that all things may continue according to nature,
and that nothing may inordinately desire anything of the things that
are contrary to nature. But (far from it); for all the souls of
this quarter of creation, as many as possess the nature of remaining
immortal in this (region) only, continue (in it), aware of nothing
superior or better (than their present state). And there will not
prevail any rumour or knowledge in regions below, concerning beings
whose dwelling is placed above, lest subjacent souls should be wrung
with torture from longing after impossibilities. (It would be)
just as if a fish were to crave to feed on the mountains along with
sheep. (For) a wish of this description would, he says, be their
destruction. All things, therefore, that abide in (this)
quarter848
| 848 Or,
“their own peculiar locality” (Bunsen). | are
incorruptible, but corruptible if they are disposed to wander and cross
over from the things that are according to nature. In this way
the Archon of the Hebdomad will know nothing of superjacent
entities. For enormous ignorance will lay hold on this one
likewise, in order that sorrow, and grief, and groaning may depart from
him; for he will not desire aught of impossible things, nor will he be
visited with anguish. In like manner, however, the same ignorance
will lay hold also on the Great Archon of the Ogdoad, and similarly on
all the creatures that are subject unto him, in order that in no
respect anything may desire aught of those things that are contrary to
nature, and may not (thus) be overwhelmed with sorrow. And so
there will be the restitution of all things which, in conformity with
nature, have from the beginning a foundation in the seed of the
universe, but will be restored at (their own) proper periods. And
that each thing, says (Basilides), has its own particular times, the
Saviour is a sufficient (witness849
| 849 This
word is added by Bunsen. | ) when He observes, “Mine hour is
not yet come.”850
And the Magi (afford similar
testimony) when they gaze wistfully upon the (Saviour’s)
star.851
For (Jesus)
Himself was, he says, mentally preconceived at the time of the
generation of the stars, and of the complete return to their
starting-point of the seasons in the vast conglomeration (of all
germs). This is, according to these (Basilidians), he who has
been conceived as the inner spiritual man in what is natural (now this
is the Sonship which left there the soul, not (that it might be)
mortal, but that it might abide here according to nature, just as the
first Sonship left above in its proper locality the Holy Spirit, (that
is, the spirit) which is conterminous),—(this, I say, is he who
has been conceived as the inner spiritual man, and) has then been
arrayed in his own peculiar soul.
In order, however, that we may not omit any of the
doctrines of this (Basilides), I shall likewise explain whatever
statements they put forward respecting a gospel. For gospel with
them, as has been elucidated, is of super-mundane entities the
knowledge which the Great Archon did not understand. As, then, it
was manifested unto him that there are likewise the Holy
Spirit—that is, the conterminous (spirit)—and the Sonship,
and the Non-Existent God, the cause of all these, he rejoiced at the
communications made to him, and was filled with exultation.
According to them, this
constitutes the gospel. Jesus, however, was born, according to
these (heretics), as we have already declared. And when the
generation which has been previously explained took place, all the
events in our Lord’s life occurred, according to them, in the
same manner as they have been described in the Gospels. And these
things happened, he says, in order that Jesus might become the
first-fruits of a distinction of the different orders (of created
objects) that had been confused together.852
| 852
See Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom., ii. p. 375, ed.
Sylburg. [Comp. cap. viii. vol. ii. p. 355, this
series.] | For when the world had been divided
into an Ogdoad, which is the head of the entire world,—now the
great Archon is head of the entire world,—and into a
Hebdomad,—which is the head of the Hebdomad, the Demiurge of
subjacent entities,—and into this order of creatures (that
prevails) amongst us, where exists Formlessness, it was requisite that
the various orders of created objects that had been confounded together
should be distinguished by a separating process performed by
Jesus. (Now this separation) that which was his corporeal part
suffered, and this was (the part) of Formlessness and reverted into
Formlessness. And that was resuscitated which was his psychical
part, and this was (part) of the Hebdomad, and reverted into the
Hebdomad. And he revived that (element in his nature) which was
the peculiar property of the elevated region where dwells the Great
Archon, and (that element) remained beside the Great Archon. And
he carried upwards as far as (that which is) above that which was (the
peculiar property) of the conterminous spirit, and he remained in the
conterminous spirit. And through him there was purified the third
Sonship, which had been left for conferring benefits, and receiving
them. And (through Jesus) it ascended towards the blessed
Sonship, and passed through all these. For the entire purpose of
these was the blending together of, as it were, the conglomeration of
all germs, and the distinction of the various orders of created
objects, and the restoration into their proper component parts of
things that had been blended together. Jesus, therefore, became
the first-fruits of the distinction of the various orders of created
objects, and his Passion took place for not any other reason than the
distinction which was thereby brought about in the various orders of
created objects that had been confounded together. For in this
manner (Basilides) says that the entire Sonship, which had been left in
Formlessness for the purpose of conferring benefits and receiving them,
was divided into its component elements, according to the manner in
which also the distinction of natures had taken place in Jesus.
These, then, are the legends which likewise Basilides details after his
sojourn in Egypt;853
| 853
Bernays and Bunsen read τὸν
Περίπατον,
which Abbe Cruice and Duncker consider erroneous, referring us to
Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiast., iv. 7. | and being
instructed by the (sages of this country) in so great a system of
wisdom, (the heretic) produced fruits of this
description.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
