Antipope Hippolytus

“ We now learn, too, for the first time that Simon taught, like the Ophites, that the Supreme Being was of both sexes like his antitypes, that the universe consisted of three worlds reflecting one another, and that man must achieve his salvation by coming to resemble the Deity—a result which was apparently to be brought about by finding his twin soul and uniting himself to her. None of these ideas seem to have been Simon’s own invention, and all are found among those of earlier or later Gnostics. ”

“ Now the darkness is sensible, and knows that if the light is taken away from it, the darkness will remain desolate, viewless, without light, powerless, idle and weak. In this way by all its wit and foresight it is forced to retain within itself the brilliance and scintillation of the light along with the fragrance of the spirit. ”

“ These and such like things, then, the Pythagoreans say, imitating whom the heretics think they declare great things to certain men. The Pythagorean doctrine says that the Great Geometrician and Reckoner [100] the Sun is the Demiurge of all things that are, and is fixed in the whole cosmos like the soul in bodies, as says Plato. For the Sun like the soul is fire, but the earth a body. But if fire were absent, nothing could be seen, nor could there be any solid perceptible to the touch; for there is no solid without earth. ”

“ O all ye men, Greeks and Barbarians, Chaldæans and Assyrians, Egyptians and Libyans, Indians and Ethiopians, Celts and ye army-leading Latins, [116] and all ye dwellers in Europe, Asia and Libya. [117] To you I am become a counsellor, being a disciple of the Word who loves man and myself a lover of mankind, so that you may hasten to be taught by us who is the real God and what His well-ordered creation. And that you give not heed to the sophistries of artificial discourses, [118] nor to the crazy promises of plagiarizing heretics, but to the august simplicity of unboastful truth. ”

“ Boundless Power dwells in him, which (power) he says is the root of the universals. But the Boundless Power, the fire according to Simon, is not simple as the many say who think that the four elements are simple and that fire is simple; but there is a certain double nature of fire, and of this double nature he calls one part hidden and the other manifest. But the hidden (parts) have been hidden in the manifest parts of the fire, and the manifest have come into being by the hidden. This it is which Aristotle calls potentiality and action, and Plato the comprehensible and the perceptible. ”

“ The which Boundless Power he says is He who Stood, Stands, and will Stand. Who if he be made into a complete image (of the fire) will be in substance, power, greatness, and effect one and the same with that Unbegotten and Boundless Power, and lacking nothing possessed by that unbegotten and unchanging and infinite power. ”

“ On the two inferior classes, there will then fall the “Great Ignorance,” a merciful oblivion which will prevent them from remembering or otherwise being troubled in their beatitude by the knowledge of the still better things above them.
How the salvation of these souls is to be effected there is no indication in Hippolytus, and he leaves us in entire doubt as to whether Basilides allowed any free-will to man in the matter. It is probable that he taught the doctrine of transmigration as a means of purification from sins or faults committed in ignorance. ”

“ This Eighth Heaven is under the sway of the Great Ruler, a functionary emitted by the Seed-Mass for the purpose of governing this abode of perfection, from which it may be inferred that the Second Sonhood like the First ultimately returns to the presence of the Supreme Being. In his organization of this Eighth Heaven, the Great Ruler is much helped by the Son whom he calls forth from the Seed-Mass, who is expressly stated to be greater and wiser than his own Father. ”

“ Wherefore, he says, the psychic man does not receive the things of God’s spirit; for they are foolishness unto him. But foolishness, he says, is the power of the Demiurge, for he was senseless and mindless and thought that he fashioned the cosmos, being ignorant that Sophia, the Mother, the Ogdoad, wrought all things with regard to the creation of the world for him who knew it not. ”

“ From which and not from the Gospels, Valentinus has drawn his own heresy, as we shall show, and should therefore be reckoned a Pythagorean and a Platonist, but not as a Christian. Accordingly he and Heracleon and Ptolemy and all their school, the disciples of Pythagoras and Plato copying their teachers, have framed an arithmetical doctrine of their own. p. 280. For indeed an unbegotten, incorruptible, incomprehensible fruitful Monad is to them the beginning of all and the cause of the birth of all things that are. ”

“ For the discipline among them concerning the Divine is earlier than all nations, as is proved by all that the Greeks have ventured to say about God or the fashioning of the things that are starting from no other source than the Jewish Law. Wherefrom especially Pythagoras and those of the Porch took much, having been instructed in it by the Egyptians. And [the Essenes] say also that there will be a judgment and a conflagration of the All, and that the unjust will be punished everlastingly. And prophecy and the foretelling of things to come are practised among them. ”

“ For that power which was borne above the water having come into being, he says, from the imperishable form, alone orders all things. Now when some such and like preparations of the cosmos had come to pass, God, he says, moulded [38] man, taking dust from the earth. But he fashioned him not simple but twofold [39] according to image and resemblance. But the spirit which was borne above the water is an image, which spirit if it is not made a complete likeness, [40] perishes with the world, as it abides only potentially and does not exist in activity. ”

“ Towards whom, he says, each [soul] is borne and hurries, thinking that she is alone. Who is indeed her kinsman and fellow-citizen. Whom she beholding for the first time recognizes as her own brother and all the rest as bastards. Those then who have their nature from the lower places cannot see the forms of the Saviour above them. But those on high, he say, from the middle Decad and the most excellent Ogdoad [43] —whence, say they, we are—know Jesus the Saviour not in part but wholly, and are alone the Perfect from above, while the others are only partly so. ”

“ Thus also the rest of the models of all things were modelled resembling a womb like heaven and earth. But they say that from the water came into being the first born principle, a violent and rushing wind the cause of all generation, which sets in action a certain heat and movement in the cosmos from the movement of the waters. And [they say] p. 486. that this was changed into a complete form like the hissing of a serpent, beholding which the cosmos is driven to generation, being excited like a womb, and therefrom they will have it the generation of the universals is established. ”

“ But the rogue having fallen in love with the hussy, the so-called Helen, and having bought her enjoyed her, and being ashamed (before) his disciples made up this story. But they who became (in time) the imitators of the error and of Simon Magus do like things, pretending that they ought to have (promiscuous) intercourse like beasts, saying: “All earth is earth and it matters not where one sows, so long as one sows.” And they also bless this intercourse saying that the same is perfect love and the “Holy of Holies” and that “ye shall sanctify one another.” ”

“ Such is our faith, O all ye men who are not persuaded by vain speeches, nor captured by sudden movings of the heart, nor enchanted by plausible and eloquent words, but have not been obdurate to words uttered by Divine power. ”

“ We think we have now answered sufficiently those who have sound perception, who, if for love of learning they will enquire further into these substances and the causes of the fashioning of all things, they will learn them by reading our book, treating of “the Substance of the All.” [93] And I think that it is here enough to set forth the causes from ignorance whereof the Greeks glorified with dainty phrase the parts of the creation, but ignored the Creator. ”

“ Marcion the Pontian, and Cerdo his teacher, also determined that there are three principles of the All, a Good One, a Just One, and Matter. But certain disciples of theirs add to this, saying that there are a Good One, a Just One, a Wicked One, and Matter. But all [agree] that the Good One created nothing wholly; [57] but they say that the Just One, whom some name the Wicked One, but others merely the Just, made all things out of the underlying Matter. For he made them not well but absurdly. [58] For things must need be like their creator. ”

“ For Christ is the God over all, Who has arranged to wash away iniquity from among men, and to make anew the old man who from the beginning was called His image, thus showing forth His love towards thee. ”

“ Now Pythagoras teaches his disciples saying “Bind up the bed-sack,” since they who are setting out on a journey make their clothing into a bundle, so as to be ready for the road. Thus he wishes his disciples to be ready, as if at any moment death might come upon them, so that they may [24] not be caught lacking anything. Wherefore he is obliged to enjoin the Pythagorean every morning to bind up the bed-sack, that is to prepare for death. “Do not stir the fire with a sword,” meaning do not provoke angry men; for he likens an angry man to a fire and speech to a sword. ”

“ But if the Logos which is lying stored up potentially therein, is turned into seed and milk, being lord of its proper place wherein is begotten a Logos of souls,—then from the smallest spark it will become great and increase in every sense and will be a boundless power unchangeable in the aeon which changes not until it is in the Boundless Aeon. ”

“ Wherefore He also is God, being the substance of God. But the world is from nothing. Wherefore it is not God and it will be dissolved [100] when the Creator wills. But God who created makes nothing evil; but he creates it fair and good. For He who creates is good. But man when he came into being was an animal with free-will, [101] not having a ruling mind, nor dominating all things by reflection and authority and power, but a slave [102] and full of all contrary [desires] . ”

“ Now all give heed to the president [119] and what he commands they obey as law. For they are zealous to pity and help the downtrodden. And before all things they abstain from rage and anger and such-like, judging that these betray mankind. And none takes oath to the other, but what each one says is judged stronger than an oath. And if any one takes an oath, he is condemned as one not to be believed (without God) . ”

“ For some of them are more austere than they need be, so that they will carry no coin, saying that they must not bear any image, nor look upon it, nor make it. Wherefore none of them goes into a city, lest he shall enter in through a gate whereon are statues, as they think it unlawful to pass under an image. And others, if they hear anyone holding forth about God and His Law, will watch such an one until he is alone in some place, and threaten to kill him if he be not circumcised. Whom, if he does not consent, he does not spare, but slays him. ”

“ Spirit, the creation shall then receive pity. For up till now, he says it wails and is tortured and awaits the revelation of the sons of God, so that all the men of the Sonhood shall ascend from this place. When this shall have come to pass, he says, God shall bring upon the whole cosmos the Great Ignorance, so that all things shall remain as they are by nature, and none shall desire any of those things beyond [its] nature. ”

“ The theory therefore which Aristotle first taught regarding the soul and the body, Basilides explained as referring to the Great Ruler and his so-called son. For the Ruler according to Basilides begat a son; and Aristotle says that the soul is an entelechy, the work and result [64] of the organic natural body. As, then, the entelechy controls the body, so the son, according to Basilides, controls the more ineffable God of the Ineffables. All things soever [73] then which are in the aether up to the Moon are foreseen and controlled by the majesty [65] of the Great Ruler ”

“ He fashioned first the different principles of things to come—fire and spirit, [92] water and earth,—from which different [principles] He made His creation. And some p. 515. things He [made of] one substance and some he bound together out of two, others of three and yet others of four. And those that are of one were immortal, for dissolution does not dog them, for that which is one will never be dissolved. But those [made] from two or three or four [substances] are dissoluble, wherefore they are called mortal. For death is called this, the dissolution of what is bound together. ”

“ It stood above in the Unbegotten Power, it stands below amid the rush of the waters having been begotten in likeness, and it will stand on high beside the blessed Unbegotten Power if it be made in (his) perfect semblance. For there are, he says, three who have stood, and unless there are p. 259. three Aeons who have stood, then the Unbegotten One who according to them is borne over the water, who by resemblance has been fashioned again perfect (and) heavenly, who in one thought alone [52] is more lacking than the Unbegotten Power, is not in its proper place. ”

“ There are therefore nine accidents to substance reckoned in with which they comprise [90] the perfect number, the 10. Wherefore the universe being divided, as we have said, into an intelligible and a perceptible world, we have also reason from the intelligible in order that by it we may behold the substance of the intelligible, the bodiless and the divine. But we have, he says, five senses, smell, sight, hearing, taste and touch. By these we arrive at a knowledge of perceptible things, and so, he says, the perceptible world is separated from the intelligible ”

“ Simon Magus, the convert of Philip the Evangelist, is said by all patristic writers to be at once the first teacher and the founder of all (post-Christian) Gnosticism; but until the discovery of our text our knowledge of his doctrines hardly went further than the statements of St. Irenæus and Epiphanius that he claimed to be the Supreme Being. The only other light on the subject came from Theodoret, who, writing in the fifth century, discloses in a few brief words the assertion by Simon of a system of aeons or inferior powers emanating from the Divinity by pairs. ”

“ For the blood is turned to seed and milk and the same power becomes father and mother of those which are born and the increase of those which are nourished, itself lacking nothing and being sufficient unto itself. But the Tree of Life is guarded he says, through the turning of the flaming sword, as we have said, which (sword) is the Seventh Power which is from itself, which contains all things (and) which lies stored up in the six powers. ”