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102-454: The pleroma is the abode of the Æons . . . they are, or they comprise, the eternal ideas or archetypes of the Platonic philosophy. . . . Separated from this celestial region by Horos . . . or Boundary . . . lies the ‘kenoma’ or ‘void’—the kingdom of this world, the region of matter and material things, the land of shadow and darkness. Here is the empire of

204-551: A confusion of the Panspermia (All-seed) with the Phylokrinesis (Difference-in-kind) and the return of things thus confused to their own places." According to Hippolytus, Basilides asserted the beginning of all things to have been pure nothing. He uses every device of language to express absolute nonentity. Nothing then being in existence, "not-being God" willed to make a not-being world out of not-being things. This not-being world

306-482: A consort, and neither male nor female, and, in fact, nothing at all; while others affirm him to be masculo-feminine, assigning to him the nature of a hermaphrodite; others, again, allot Sige to him as a spouse, that thus may be formed the first conjunction." Hippolytus supposes Valentinus to have derived his system from that of Simon ; and in that as expounded in the Apophasis Megale , from which he gives extracts,

408-615: A different account of the Nativity, the Basilidians believed in the events of Jesus' life as they are described in the Gospels. They believed the crucifixion was necessary, because by the destruction of Jesus' body the world could be restored. According to Clement of Alexandria, the Basilidians taught faith was a natural gift of understanding bestowed upon the soul before its union with the body and which some possessed and others did not. This gift

510-596: A heavenly church, not, however, as a separate Aeon, but as constituted by the harmony of the first existing beings. According to Hippolytus (v. 6, p. 95), the Naassenes counted three Ecclesiae. It is especially in the case of the church that we find in Christian speculation prior to Valentinus traces of the conception, which lies at the root of the whole doctrine of Aeons, that earthly things have their archetypes in preexistent heavenly things. Hermas ( Vis . ii. 4) speaks of

612-563: A long time. Epiphanius (about 375) mentions the Prosopite, Athribite, Saite, and "Alexandriopolite" (read Andropolite) nomes or cantons, and also Alexandria itself, as the places in which it still throve in his time, and which he accordingly inferred to have been visited by Basilides. All these places lie on the western side of the Delta, between Memphis and the sea. Nearer the end of the 4th century, Jerome often refers to Basilides in connexion with

714-429: A male and a female. The male was called Bythos or Proarche, or Propator, etc.; the female had the names Ennoea, Charis and Sige. The whole Aeonology of Valentinus was based on a theory of syzygies, or pairs of Aeons, each Aeon being provided with a consort; and the supposed need of the co-operation of a male and female principle for the generation of new ones, was common to Valentinus and some earlier Gnostic systems. But it

816-542: A numerical image taken from Deuteronomy 32:30 (p. 354). The Basilidian Simon of Cyrene apparently appears in the Second Treatise of the Great Seth , where Jesus says: "it was another, Simon, who bore the cross on his shoulder. It was another upon whom they placed the crown of thorns ... And I was laughing at their ignorance." There is no evidence that the sect extended itself beyond Egypt ; but there it survived for

918-668: A parallel in the character assigned to the God of the Jews as an angel, and partly in the reason assigned for the Saviour's mission; while the Antitactae of Clement recall the resistance to the God of the Jews inculcated by the Basilidians. Other "Basilidian" features appear in the Pistis Sophia , viz. many barbaric names of angels (with 365 Archons, p. 364), and elaborate collocations of heavens, and

1020-451: A short notice on the same subject being likewise inserted parenthetically by Hippolytus. The supreme power and source of being above all principalities and powers and angels (such is evidently the reference of Epiphanius's αὐτῶν: Irenaeus substitutes "heavens," which in this connexion comes to much the same thing) is Abrasax , the Greek letters of whose name added together as numerals make up 365,

1122-411: A sixth name, which in the version of Hippolytus is made his primary title Stauros ; and it is explained ( Irenaeus, i. 3 ) that besides his function as a separator, in respect of which he is called Horos, this Aeon does the work of stablishing and settling, in respect of which he is called Stauros. A derivation from sterizo is hinted at. The literal earthly crucifixion of the Saviour (that seen by

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1224-490: A substantial though not a cognizable form. In this manner do they reduce all things to mere images—Christians themselves being indeed nothing but imaginary beings! The distinction just explained as to the different use of the names Horos and Stauros was not carefully observed by Valentinians. Thus the last word is sometimes used when the function of separation and division is spoken of ( Excerpt. ex Script. Theodot. 22 and 42, Clem. Alex. ii. pp. 974, 979), it being remarked in

1326-451: A technical meaning in the Ophite prayers preserved by Origen ( Contra Celsum , vi. 31 ), all of which end with the invocation he charis synesto moi, nai pater, synesto . This higher Ecclesia was held to be the archetype of the lower Ecclesia constituted by the spiritual seed on earth ( Iren. I. v. 6, p. 28). In a Gnostic system described by Irenaeus ( I. xxx. p. 109) we have also

1428-459: Is metanoia (μετάνοια), or repentance—undoing the sin of material existence and returning to Pleroma. Aeons bear a number of similarities to Judaeo-Christian angels, including roles as servants and emanations of God, and existing as beings of light. In fact, certain Gnostic Angels, such as Armozel, are also Aeons. The Gnostic Gospel of Judas , found in 2006, purchased, held, and translated by

1530-469: Is (in itself) sufficient. . . .” Valentinus, falling in with these (remarks), has made a fundamental principle in his system “the King of all,” whom Plato mentioned, and whom this heretic styles Pater, and Bythos, and Proarche over the rest of the Æons. And when Plato uses the words, “what is second about things that are second,” Valentinus supposes to be second all the Æons that are within the limit [Horos] (of

1632-415: Is Christ, to deliver those Who believed on Him from the power of the makers of the world. "He," the Basilidians said, "is our salvation, even He Who came and revealed to us alone this truth." He accordingly appeared on earth and performed mighty works; but His appearance was only in outward show, and He did not really take flesh. It was Simon of Cyrene that was crucified; for Jesus exchanged forms with him on

1734-421: Is a latent force which only manifests its energy through the coming of the Saviour. Sin was not the results of the abuse of free will, but merely the outcome of an inborn evil principle. All suffering is punishment for sin; even when a child suffers, this is the punishment of the inborn evil principle. The persecutions Christians underwent had therefore as sole object the punishment of their sin. All human nature

1836-478: Is an Aeon, in which an inner being dwells, known as Ennoea ( ἔννοια , "thought, intent"), Charis ( χάρις , "grace") or Sige ( σιγή , "silence"). The split perfect being conceives the second Aeon, Nous (Νους, "mind"), within itself. Complex hierarchies of Aeons are thus produced, sometimes to the number of thirty. These Aeons belong to a purely ideal, noumenal , intelligible, or supersensible world; they are immaterial, they are hypostatic ideas. Together with

1938-447: Is contorted to look much different, holding certain characteristics in common. There are many other references to Gnostic ideologies, such as the main goal of the game achieving ultimate enlightenment over everything else, rather than accepting your situation. Basilidian The Basilidians or Basilideans / ˌ b æ s ɪ ˈ l ɪ d i ə n z , ˌ b æ z -/ were a Gnostic sect founded by Basilides of Alexandria in

2040-501: Is described in The Excerpta ex Theodoto of Clement of Alexandria. Elsewhere, the usual antithesis to Pleroma is not Kenoma, but Hysterema (ὑστέρημα). As the system is reported by Hippolytus (vi. 31, p. 180) this word is used as the complement of the word Pleroma, denoting all that is not included in the meaning of the latter word. Thus the Horos or boundary is described as separating

2142-501: Is not expressly stated, so that the writer of the supplement to Tertullian had some excuse for confusing him with "the Supreme God." On these doctrines, various precepts are said by the Basilidians' opponents to have been founded. Philaster , likely drawing on Hippolytus, writes that Basilides "violated the laws of Christian truth by making an outward show and discourse concerning the Law and

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2244-504: Is produced first, afterwards the other pair. The Valentinian fragment in Epiphanius ( Haer . 31, p. 171), which seems to give a more ancient form of this heresy, knows nothing of Horos, but it relates as the last spiritual birth the generation of five beings without consorts, whose names are used in the Irenaean version as titles for the supernumerary Aeon Horos. But besides, this Aeon has

2346-455: Is said to have been carried so far as to sanction promiscuous immorality. Among the later followers of Basilides, magic, invocations, "and all other curious arts" played a part. The names of the rulers of the several heavens were handed down as a weighty secret, which was a result of the belief that whoever knew the names of these rulers would after death pass through all the heavens to the supreme God. In accordance with this, Christ also, in

2448-749: Is said in the Epistle to the Ephesians as to the union between Christ and His church, might be supposed to have affinity with the Valentinian doctrine of the relation between Anthropos and Ecclesia. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews quotes the direction to Moses to make the tabernacle after the pattern shewn him on the Mount (a passage cited in Acts 7:44 ), and his argument dwells on

2550-451: Is saved by coming into contact with the limiting power Horos , whose function it is to strengthen all things outside the ineffable Greatness, by confining each to its appointed place. According to this version Horos was a previously existing power; but according to another, and apparently a later account, Horos is an Aeon only generated on this occasion at the request of all the Aeons, who implored

2652-459: Is sitting." Then all the heavenly or ethereal creation, as far down as the moon, was made by the Great Archon, inspired by his wiser son. Another Archon arose out of the seed-mass, inferior to the first Archon, but superior to all else below except the seed-mass; and he likewise made to himself a son wiser than himself, and became the creator and governor of the aerial world. This region is called

2754-575: The Demiurge or Creator, who is not a celestial Æon at all, but was born in this very void over which he reigns. Here reside all those phenomenal, deceptive, transitory things, of which the eternal counterparts are found only in the pleroma. . . . All things are set off one against another in these two regions: just as Not only have the thirty Æons their terrestrial counterparts; but their subdivisions also are represented in this lower region. The kenoma too has its ogdoad , its decad, its dodecad, like

2856-549: The National Geographic Society , also mentions Aeons. Valentinus assumed, as the beginning of all things, the Primal Being or Bythos, who after ages of silence and contemplation, gave rise to other beings by a process of emanation. The first series of beings, the Aeons, were thirty in number, representing fifteen syzygies or pairs sexually complementary. One common form is outlined below: Tertullian 's Against

2958-448: The Ophite system described by Irenaeus ( I. xxx. ). Charis, in the system of Valentinus, was an alternative name, with Ennoea and Sige, for the consort of the primary Aeon Bythos ( Iren. i. 4 ). The name expresses that aspect of the absolute Greatness in which it is regarded not as a solitary monad, but as imparting from its perfection to beings of which it is the ultimate source; and this is

3060-576: The Ophites and later Jewish Kabbalah . Basilidianism survived until the end of the 4th century as Epiphanius knew of Basilidians living in the Nile Delta. It was however almost exclusively limited to Egypt , though according to Sulpicius Severus it seems to have found an entrance into Spain through a certain Mark from Memphis . Jerome was of the opinion that Priscillian , the founder of Priscillianism ,

3162-461: The psychic church, which only believes in the historical Jesus) was meant to represent an archetypal scene in the world of Aeons, when the younger Sophia, Achamoth, is healed through the Savior's instrumentation. The animal and carnal Christ, however, does suffer after the fashion of the superior Christ, who, for the purpose of producing Achamoth, had been stretched upon the cross, that is, Horos, in

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3264-695: The 2nd century. Basilides claimed to have been taught his doctrines by Glaucus, a disciple of St. Peter , though others stated he was a disciple of the Simonian Menander . Basilides enjoined on his followers, like Pythagoras , a silence of five years. They kept the anniversary of the day of the baptism of Jesus as a feast day and spent the eve of it in reading. Basilides also instructed his followers not to scruple eating things offered to idols. The sect had three grades – material, intellectual and spiritual – and possessed two allegorical statues, male and female. The sect's doctrines were often similar to those of

3366-573: The Annunciation and at the Baptism so that He "was enlightened, being kindled in union with the light that shone on Him". Therefore, by following Jesus, the world is purified and becomes most subtle, so that it can ascend by itself. When every part of the sonship has arrived above the Limitary Spirit, "then the creation shall find mercy, for till now it groans and is tormented and awaits the revelation of

3468-712: The Basilidian system is the question concerning the origin of evil and how to overcome it. A cosmographical feature common to many forms of Gnosticism is the idea that the Logos Spermatikos is scattered into the sensible cosmos, where it is the duty of the Gnostics, by whatever means, to recollect these scattered seed-members of the Logos and return them to their proper places (cf. the Gospel of Eve ). "Their whole system," says Clement, "is

3570-459: The Basilidians and the pagan engravers of gems alike borrowed the name from some Semitic mythology. No attempts of critics to trace correspondences between the mythological personages, and to explain them by supposed condensations or mutilations, have attained even plausibility. The most distinctive is the discouragement of martyrdom, which was made to rest on several grounds. To confess the Crucified

3672-629: The Basilidians denied that the God of the Jews was the supreme God. According to Hippolytus, the God of the Jews was the Archon of the Hebdomad, which was inferior to the Great Archon, the Holy Spirit, the seed-mass (threefold sonship), and the not-being God. According to Irenaeus, the Basilidians believed the God of the Jews was inferior to the 365 sets of Archons above him, as well as the powers, principalities, Dynamis and Sophia, Phronesis, Logos, Nûs, and finally

3774-551: The Demiurge as karpos hysterematos Marcus would seem to have used the word Hysterema, in the sense already explained, to denote the region outside the Pleroma, where, in his usual way of finding mysteries in numbers, he regards the former region as symbolised by the numbers up to 99 counted on the left hand, the latter by 100 counted on the right hand. As Marcus uses the word Pleroma in the plural number, so he may have used Hysterema also in

3876-460: The Father to avert a danger that threatened to affect them all. Then (as Hippolytus tells the story, vi. 31) he directs the production of a new pair of Aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit, who restore order by separating from the Pleroma the unformed offspring of Sophia. After this Horos is produced in order to secure the permanence of the order thus produced. Irenaeus ( u. s. ) reverses this order, and Horos

3978-443: The Father; the Demiurge, ignorant of his mother—not to mention of his Father—yet representing Nus who is not ignorant of his Father; the angels, the reproductions of their masters. This is the same as counterfeiting a fake ... According to the doctrine of Valentinus, as described by Irenaeus i. 2 , the youngest Aeon Sophia, in her passion to comprehend the Father of all, runs the danger of being absorbed into his essence, from which she

4080-473: The Gospel had next to pass to the Archon of the Hebdomad. The son of the Great Archon delivered the Gospel to the son of the Archon of the Hebdomad. The son of the Archon of the Hebdomad became enlightened, and declared the Gospel to the Archon of the Hebdomad, and he too feared and confessed. It remained only that the world should be enlightened. The light came down from the Archon of the Hebdomad upon Jesus both at

4182-426: The Great Archon that there were beings above him, so through the Holy Spirit the Gospel was conveyed to the Great Archon. First, the son of the Great Archon received the Gospel, and he in turn instructed the Great Archon himself, by whose side he was sitting. Then the Great Archon learned that he was not God of the universe, but had above him yet higher beings; and confessed his sin in having magnified himself. From him

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4284-414: The Hebdomad. On the other hand, all these events occurred according to the plan of the not-being God. The Basilidians believed in a very different gospel than orthodox Christians . Hippolytus summed up the Basilidians' gospel by saying: "According to them the Gospel is the knowledge of things above the world, which knowledge the Great Archon understood not: when then it was shewn to him that there exists

4386-401: The Holy Spirit, and the [three parts of the seed-mass] and a God Who is the author of all these things, even the not-being One, he rejoiced at what was told him, and was exceeding glad: this is according to them the Gospel." That is, the Basilidians believed from Adam until Moses the Great Archon supposed himself to be God alone, and to have nothing above him. But it was thought to enlighten

4488-621: The Hysterema from the Pleroma, itself partaking of the nature of both; but preserving all inside fixed and immovable by permitting nothing from without to enter. We can understand in the same sense the passage in Epiphanius , where the same name is given to the Demiurge ; for it appears in the case of the word Hebdomas that the Valentinians gave to the Demiurge the name of the realm over which he ruled, and from which he had his origin. Marcus speaks of

4590-411: The Pleroma, as well as) the limit (itself). And when Plato uses the words, “what is third about what is third,” he has (constituted as third) the entire of the arrangement (existing) outside the limit and the Pleroma. On the one hand, he discharges as already described, a function within the Pleroma, separating the other Aeons from the ineffable Bythos, and saving them from absorption into his essence. On

4692-518: The Prophets and the Apostles, but believing otherwise." The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia interprets this as indicating an antinomian sentiment among the Basilidians. The Basilidians considered themselves to be no longer Jews, and to have become more than Christians. Repudiation of martyrdom was naturally accompanied by indiscriminate use of things offered to idols. And from there the principle of indifference

4794-585: The Unbegotten Father. Basilidians expected the resurrection of the soul alone, insisting on the natural corruptibility of the body. Their discouragement of martyrdom was one of the secrets which the Basilidians diligently cultivated, following naturally on the supposed possession of a hidden knowledge. Likewise, their other mysteries were to be carefully guarded, and disclosed to "only one out of 1000 and two out of 10,000." The silence of five years which Basilides imposed on novices might easily degenerate into

4896-674: The Universe; according to others it is the passion of the female Aeon Sophia , who emanates without her partner Aeon, resulting in the Demiurge ( Δημιουργός ), a creature that should never have been. This creature does not belong to Pleroma, and the One emanates two savior Aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit , to save humanity from the Demiurge. Christ then took a human form ( Jesus ), to teach humanity how to achieve Gnosis . The ultimate end of all Gnosis

4998-558: The Valentinians gives a slightly different sequence. The first eight of these Aeons, corresponding to generations one through four below, are referred to as the Ogdoad . According to Irenaeus , the followers of the Gnostics Ptolemy and Colorbasus had Aeons that differ from those of Valentinus. Logos is created when Anthropos learns to speak. The first four are called the Tetrad , and

5100-536: The absurdity of the later form of Valentinian theory, in which Sige and Logos are represented as coexistent Aeons in the same Pleroma. "Where there is Silence" he says, "there will not be Word; and where there is Word, there cannot be Silence". He goes on ( ii. 14 ) to trace the invention of Sige to the heathen poets, quoting Antiphanes, who in his Theogony makes Chaos the offspring of Night and Silence. In place of Night and Silence they substitute Bythus and Sige; instead of Chaos, they put Nous; and for Love (by whom, says

5202-462: The atoms; while they maintain that those which are without the Pleroma have no true existence, even as those did respecting the vacuum. They have thus banished themselves in this world (since they are here outside of the Pleroma) into a place which has no existence. Again, when they maintain that these things [below] are images of those which have a true existence [above], they again most manifestly rehearse

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5304-492: The attempts made by the framers of different Gnostic systems to explain the origin of the existing world, the first stage in the process was usually made by personifying the conception in the divine mind of that which was to emanate from Him. We learn from Justin Martyr ( Ap . I. 26), and from Irenaeus ( I. 23 ), that the word Ennoea was used in a technical sense in the system of Simon . The Latin translation of Irenaeus either retains

5406-595: The beginning") and as Aeons (which are also often named and may be paired or grouped). In different systems these emanations are differently named, classified, and described (but emanation is common to all forms of 'Gnosticism'). In Basilidian Gnosis they are called sonships (υἱότητες huiotetes ; sing.: υἱότης huiotes ); according to Marcus , they are numbers and sounds; in Valentinianism they form male/female pairs called syzygies ( συζυγίαι , from σύζυγοι syzygoi : lit. "yokings together"). This source of all being

5508-502: The church as created before all things and of the world as formed for her sake; and in the newly discovered portion of the so-called Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians (c. 14) the writer speaks of the spiritual church as created before the sun and moon, as pre-existent like Christ Himself, and like him manifested in the last days for men's salvation; and he even uses language which, if it were not sufficiently accounted for by what

5610-457: The comic poet, all other things were set in order) they have brought forward the Word; while for the primary and greatest gods they have formed the Æons; and in place of the secondary gods, they tell us of that creation by their mother which is outside of the Pleroma, calling it the second Ogdoad. ... these men call those things which are within the Pleroma real existences, just as those philosophers did

5712-442: The doctrine of Democritus and Plato . For Democritus was the first who maintained that numerous and diverse figures were stamped, as it were, with the forms [of things above], and descended from universal space into this world. But Plato, for his part, speaks of matter, and exemplar, and God . These men, following those distinctions, have styled what he calls ideas , and exemplar, the images of those things which are above ... In

5814-571: The eight are the Ogdoad deities of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon. The order of Anthropos and Ecclesia versus Logos and Zoe is somewhat debated; different sources give different accounts. Logos and Zoe are unique to this system as compared to the previous, and may be an evolved version of the first, totalling 32 Aeons, but it is not clear if the first two were actually regarded Aeons. According to Myther, "The total number of Aeons, being 32, reflects

5916-486: The explanation given in the Valentinian fragment preserved by Epiphanius ( Haer . xxxi. 6), dia to epikechoregekenai auten thesaurismata tou Megethous tois ek tou Megethous . The use of the word Charis enabled Ptolemaeus (quoted by Irenaeus, i. 8 ) to find in John 1:14 the first tetrad of Aeons, viz., Pater, Monogenes, Charis, Aletheia. The suspicion arises that it was with a view to such an identification that names to be found in

6018-459: The fears of the angels; for even as kosmikoi anthropoi are seized with fear of the images made by their own hands to bear the name of God, i.e. the idols, so these angels cause the images they have made to disappear ( Ep. ad amicos ap. Clem. Alex. Strom. ii. 8, 36 ). ... they say that Achamoth sketched these pictures in honor of the aeons. Yet they transfer this work to Soter as its originator who operated through Achamoth so as to present her as

6120-454: The firmament which he supposed to be the upward end of all things. There he "made to himself and begat out of the things below a son far better and wiser than himself". Then he became wiser and every way better than all other cosmical things except the seed-mass left below. Smitten with wonder at his son's beauty, he set him at his right hand. "This is what they call the Ogdoad, where the Great Archon

6222-410: The first heaven, and then gave birth to a second set of angels who made a second heaven, and so on till 365 heavens had been made by 365 generations of angels, each heaven being apparently ruled by an Archon to whom a name was given, and these names being used in magic arts. The angels of the lowest or visible heaven made the earth and man. They were the authors of the prophecies; and the Law in particular

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6324-406: The first in the series of emanations from the unnameable Father. In the system of Valentinus ( Iren. I. i. ) Ennoea is one of several alternative names for the consort of the primary Aeon Bythos. For the somewhat different form in which Ptolemaeus presented this part of the system see Irenaeus ( I. xii. ). Irenaeus criticises this part of the system ( II. xiii. ). The name Ennoea is similarly used in

6426-476: The first pair; others who asserted the Single Principle excluded Bythos from the number, and made out the number of thirty without reckoning him. Thus Irenaeus says of the Valentinians (I. ii. 4. p. 10), "For they maintain that sometimes the Father acts in conjunction with Sige, but that at other times he shows himself independent both of male and female." And ( I. xi. 5 ) "For some declare him to be without

6528-487: The foundation of the world. As the world is an image of the living Aeon ( tou zontos aionos ), so is man an image of the pre-existent man of the anthrops proon . Valentinus, according to Clemens Alexandrinus ( Valentini homil. ap. Clem. Strom. iv. 13, 92 ), spoke of the Sophia as an artist ( zographos ) making this visible lower world a picture of the glorious Archetype, but the hearer or reader would as readily understand

6630-538: The heavenly wisdom of the Book of Proverbs to be meant by this Sophia, as the 12th and fallen Aeon. Under her (according to Valentinus) stand the world-creative angels, whose head is the Demiurge. Her formation ( plasma ) is Adam created in the name of the Anthropos proon . In him thus made a higher power puts the seed of the heavenly pneumatic essence ( sperma tes anothen ousias ). Thus furnished with higher insight, Adam excites

6732-431: The high standard set up by Basilides himself is unsuspicious evidence, and a libertine code of ethics would find an easy justification in such maxims as are imputed to the Basilidians. Two misunderstandings have been specially misleading. Abrasax, the chief or Archon of the first set of angels, has been confounded with "the Unbegotten Father," and the God of the Jews, the Archon of the lowest heaven, has been assumed to be

6834-457: The hybrid Priscillianism of Spain, and the mystic names in which its votaries delighted. According to Sulpicius Severus this heresy took its rise in "the East and Egypt"; but, he adds, it is not easy to say "what the beginnings were out of which it there grew" ( quibus ibi initiis coaluerit ). He states, however, that it was first brought to Spain by Marcus, a native of Memphis. This fact explains how

6936-585: The inference that the various parts of the Jewish service were but copies of better heavenly archetypes. This same heavenly tabernacle appears as part of the imagery of the book of the Revelation ( 11:19 , 15:5 ). In the same book the church appears as the Lamb's wife, the new Jerusalem descending from heaven; and St. Paul's teaching ( Ephesians 1:3 ) might be thrown into the form that the church existed in God's election before

7038-476: The inferior MSS. of Irenaeus has added the further statement that they used "images"; and this single word is often cited in corroboration of the popular belief that the numerous ancient gems on which grotesque mythological combinations are accompanied by the mystic name ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ were of Basilidian origin. It has been shown that there is little tangible evidence for attributing any known gems to Basilidianism or any other form of Gnosticism, and that in all probability

7140-403: The latter passage that the cross separates the faithful from the unbelievers; and Clem. Alex., who occasionally uses Valentinian language in an orthodox sense, speaks in the same way ( Paed . iii. 12, p. 303, and Strom . ii. 20, p. 486). In the Valentinian theory there is a double Horos, or at least a double function discharged by Horos. Plato, then, in expounding mysteries concerning

7242-712: The lost early treatise of Hippolytus ; both having much in common, and both being interwoven together in the report of Epiphanius . The other relics of the Hippolytean Compendium are the accounts of Philaster (32), and the supplement to Tertullian (4). At the head of this theology stood the Unbegotten, the Only Father. From Him was born or put forth Nûs, and from Nûs Logos, from Logos Phronesis, from Phronesis Sophia and Dynamis, from Sophia and Dynamis principalities, powers, and angels. This first set of angels first made

7344-470: The main character Jade Harley being called "gardenGnostic" as a pseudonym. She also fuses with her dog, Becquerel, forming a syzygy. Yaldabaoth and Abraxas also appear in the comic. The video game " Cruelty Squad " has multiple mentions and nods to the Gnostic mythology. The targets of the level "Office" are four sub archons. The level after it, aptly named "Archon Grid" has its final boss as Abraxas, although he

7446-467: The name of Basilides and some dregs of his disciples' doctrines or practices found their way to so distant a land as Spain, and at the same time illustrates the probable hybrid origin of the secondary Basilidianism itself. Basilidian works are named for the founder of their school, Basilides (132–? AD). These works are mainly known to us through the criticisms of one of his opponents, Irenaeus in his work Adversus Haereses . The other pieces are known through

7548-570: The number of the heavens; whence, they apparently said, the year has 365 days, and the human body 365 members. This supreme Power they called "the Cause" and "the First Archetype," while they treated as a last or weakest product this present world as the work of the last Archon. It is evident from these particulars that Abrasax was the name of the first of the 365 Archons, and accordingly stood below Sophia and Dynamis and their progenitors; but his position

7650-402: The offshoots but to the supreme Principle itself: however, in the description, these offshoots appear less as distinct entities than as different aspects of the same Being. Cyril of Jerusalem ( Catech . vi. 17) makes Sige the daughter of Bythos and by him the mother of Logos, a fable which he classes with the incests which heathen mythology attributed to Jupiter. Irenaeus ( II. xii. ) ridicules

7752-734: The old Latin translator, in no technical sense, but with the general meaning of defect, commonly joining it with the words agnoia and pathos . The word Hysterema is found also in Excerpt. Theod . 2, 22, in the latter passage in a technical sense; but the context does not enable us to fix its meaning. Hysterema is said by Epiphanius to have been used as a technical word by Basilides . Aeon (Gnosticism) In many Gnostic systems, various emanations of God are known by such names as One, Monad , Aion teleos (αἰών τέλεος "The Broadest Aeon"), Bythos ( βυθός , "depth" or "profundity"), Arkhe ( ἀρχή , "the beginning"), Proarkhe ( προαρχή , " before

7854-461: The only Archon recognized by the later Basilidians, though Epiphanius distinctly implies that each of the 365 heavens had its Archon. The mere name "Archon" is common to most forms of Gnosticism. Basilidianism seems to have stood alone in appropriating Abrasax; but Caulacau plays a part in more than one system, and the functions of the angels recur in various forms of Gnosticism, and especially in that derived from Saturnilus. Saturnilus likewise affords

7956-411: The opinion of these followers of Basilides, was in the possession of a mystic name ( Caulacau ) by the power of which he had descended through all the heavens to Earth, and had then again ascended to the Father. Redemption, accordingly, could be conceived as the revelation of mystic names. Whether Basilides himself had already given this magic tendency to Gnosticism cannot be decided. A reading taken from

8058-481: The opinion that "Irenaeus described a form of Basilidianism which was not the original, but a later corruption of the system. On the other hand, Clement of Alexandria surely, and Hippolytus, in the fuller account of his Philosophumena, probably drew their knowledge of the system directly from Basilides' own work, the Exegetica, and hence represent the form of doctrine taught by Basilides himself". The fundamental theme of

8160-452: The origin of things is derived from six roots, divided into three pairs; but all these roots spring from a single independent Principle, which is without consort. The name Sige occurs in the description which Hippolytus (vi. 18) quotes from the Apophasis , how from the supreme Principle there arise the male and female offshoots nous and epinoia . The name Sige is there given not to either of

8262-412: The other hand, Horos is the outside boundary of the Pleroma itself, giving it permanence and stability by guarding it against the intrusion of any foreign element. The animated TV series Æon Flux draws its name and some of its iconography from Gnosticism, notably aeons (the two main characters forming a syzygy) and a demiurge. The webcomic Homestuck also draws inspiration from Gnostic ideas, with

8364-449: The perilous dissimulation of a secret sect, while their exclusiveness would be nourished by his doctrine of the Election ; and the same doctrine might further after a while receive an antinomian interpretation. Irenaeus and Epiphanius reproach Basilides with the immorality of his system, and Jerome calls Basilides a master and teacher of debaucheries. It is likely, however, that Basilides

8466-493: The pleroma moreover is carried out in the details of the imagery. The second Sophia, called also Achamoth, is the desire, the offspring, of her elder namesake, separated from her mother, cast out of the pleroma, and left ‘stranded’ in the void beyond, being prevented from returning by the inexorable Horos who guards the frontier of the supramundane kingdom. The ancient Greek term for emptiness or void ( kenoma ), as pertaining to Theodotus's exegesis of Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 3,

8568-562: The pleroma. There is one Sophia in the supramundane region, and another in the mundane; there is one Christ who redeems the Æons in the spiritual world, and a second Christ who redeems mankind, or rather a portion of mankind, in the sensible world. There is an Æon Man and another Æon Ecclesia in the celestial kingdom, the ideal counterparts of the Human Race and the Christian Church in the terrestrial. . . . The topographical conception of

8670-415: The plural number to denote the powers belonging to these regions respectively. But it seems to us likely that the assertion that Marcus counted a second or a third Hysterema is but an inference drawn by Irenaeus himself, from the fact that he found the name karpos hysterematos applied not only to the Demiurge, but to his mother, Sophia Achamoth . Irenaeus ordinarily uses the word, usually rendered labes by

8772-473: The prologue of St. John's Gospel were added as alternative appellations to the original names of the Aeons. But this is a point on which we have no data to pronounce. Charis has an important place in the system of Marcus ( Irenaeus, i. 13 ). The name Charis appears also in the system of the Barbelitae ( Irenaeus, i. 29 ), but as denoting a later emanation than in the Valentinian system. The word has possibly also

8874-518: The seed-mass and the not-being God, it could take the Holy Spirit no further, it not being consubstantial with the Holy Spirit. There the Holy Spirit remained, as a firmament dividing things above the world from the world itself below. Part needing purification . From the third part of the seed-mass burst forth into being the Great Archon , "the head of the world, a beauty and greatness and power that cannot be uttered." He too ascended until he reached

8976-528: The similarity of the mechanism to the Tree of Life , which, as suggested in the Zohar , incorporates 10 Sephiroth and 22 paths interconnecting these 10 Sephiroth; while 10 Aeons are created during the first five generations from which come the other 22 Aeons later during the sixth generation." In the system of Valentinus, as expounded by Irenaeus (i. 1), the origin of things was traced to two eternal co-existent principles,

9078-588: The sons of God, that all the men of the sonship may ascend from hence". When this has come to pass, God will bring upon the whole world the Great Ignorance, that everything may like being the way it is, and that nothing may desire anything contrary to its nature. "And in this wise shall be the Restoration, all things according to nature having been founded in the seed of the universe in the beginning, and being restored at their due seasons." As for Jesus, other than

9180-421: The source from which they emanate, they form Pleroma ( πλήρωμα , "fullness"). The lowest regions of Pleroma are closest to darkness; that is, the physical world. The transition from immaterial to material, from noumenal to sensible, is created by a flaw, passion, or sin in an Aeon. According to Basilides , it is a flaw in the last sonship; according to others the sin of the Great Archon , or Aeon-Creator, of

9282-511: The universe, writes to Dionysius expressing himself after some such manner as this: “. . . All things are about the King of all, and on his account are all things, and he is cause of all the glorious (objects of creation). The second is about the second, and the third about the third. But pertaining to the King there is none of those things of which I have spoken. But after this the soul earnestly desires to learn what sort these are, looking upon those things that are akin to itself, and not one of these

9384-406: The very image of the invisible and unknown Father, she being invisible, of course, and unknown to the Demiurge, and in the same way he created this same Demiurge to correspond to Nus, the son. The Archangels, creations of the Demiurge, are models of the rest of the aeons. ... don't you agree that I should laugh at these pictures painted by such a lunatic painter? Achamoth, a female and yet the image of

9486-402: The voice of the not-being God. Part subtle of substance . The first part of the seed-mass burst through and ascended to the not-being God. Part coarse of substance . The second part of the seed-mass to burst forth could not mount up of itself, but it took to itself as a wing of the Holy Spirit, each bearing up the other with mutual benefit. But when it came near the place of the first part of

9588-523: The way, and then, standing unseen opposite in Simon's form, mocked those who did the deed (this is starkly contradicted by Hippolytus' view of the Basilidians). But He Himself ascended into heaven, passing through all the powers, till He was restored to the presence of His own Father. The two fullest accounts, those of Irenaeus and Epiphanius, add by way of appendix another particular of the antecedent mythology;

9690-482: The word, or renders "mentis conceptio." Tertullian has "injectio" ( De Anima , 34). In the Apophasis Megale cited by Hippolytus ( Ref . vi. 18, 19, p. 174), the word used is not Ennoia but Epinoia . Irenaeus states ( I. 23 ) that the word Ennoea passed from the system of Simon into that of Menander. In the Barbeliot system which Irenaeus also counts as derived from that of Simon ( I. 29 ), Ennoea appears as one of

9792-472: Was a disputed point in these systems whether the First Principle of all was thus twofold. There were those, both in earlier systems, and even among the Valentinians who held, that the origin of things was to be traced to a single Principle, which some described as hermaphrodite ; others said was above all sex. And among the Valentinians who counted thirty Aeons, there were those who counted Bythos and Sige as

9894-485: Was called a token of being still in bondage to the angels who made the body, and it was condemned especially as a vain honour paid not to Christ, who neither suffered nor was crucified, but to Simon of Cyrene. The contempt for martyrdom, which was perhaps the most notorious characteristic of the Basilidians, would find a ready excuse in their master's speculative paradox about martyrs, even if he did not discourage martyrdom himself. According to both Hippolytus and Irenaeus,

9996-419: Was given by their Archon, the God of the Jews. He being more petulant and wilful than the other angels (ἰταμώτερον καὶ αὐθαδέστερον), in his desire to secure empire for his people, provoked the rebellion of the other angels and their respective peoples. Then the Unbegotten and Innominable Father, seeing what discord prevailed among men and among angels, and how the Jews were perishing, sent His Firstborn Nûs, Who

10098-438: Was influenced by "the heresy of Basilides". The descriptions of the Basilidian system given by our chief informants, Irenaeus ( Adversus Haereses ) and Hippolytus ( Philosophumena ), are so strongly divergent that they seem to many quite irreconcilable. According to Hippolytus, Basilides was apparently a pantheistic evolutionist; and according to Irenaeus, a dualist and an emanationist. Historians such as Philip Shaff have

10200-424: Was only "a single seed containing within itself all the seed-mass of the world," as the mustard seed contains the branches and leaves of the tree. Within this seed-mass were three parts, or sonships , and were consubstantial with the not-being God. This was the one origin of all future growths; these future growths did not use pre-existing matter, but rather these future growths came into being out of nothing by

10302-426: Was personally free from immorality and that this accusation was true neither of the master nor of some of his followers. However, imperfect and distorted as the picture may be, such was doubtless in substance the creed of Basilidians not half a century after Basilides had written. In this and other respects our accounts may possibly contain exaggerations; but Clement's complaint of the flagrant degeneracy in his time from

10404-533: Was thus vitiated by the sinful; when hard pressed Basilides would call even Christ a sinful man, for God alone was righteous. Clement accuses Basilides of a deification of the Devil , and regards as his two dogmas that of the Devil and that of the transmigration of souls. In briefly sketching this version of Basilidianism, which most likely rests on later or corrupt accounts, our authorities are fundamentally two, Irenaeus and

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