1. 

But this, they say, is not stated clearly, because not everyone contains knowledge, but is mysteriously indicated by the Saviour for those who are able to understand in parables, namely: thirty aeons, as we said before, are indicated by the thirty years, in which, in their opinion, the Saviour did nothing openly, and by the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. And Paul, they say, many times very clearly names these aeons, and even observed their order, saying thus: "To all generations of the ages of the age" (Ephesians 3:21). And we, too, when we say at thanksgiving, "forever and ever," signify these same aeons. And wherever a century or centuries are used, everywhere they find an indication of these aeons.

2. And the works of the Twelve Aeons are indicated by the fact that the Lord, being twelve years old, conversed with the teachers of the law (Luke 2:42) and the election of the Apostles, for there are twelve Apostles (Acts 1:3). The remaining eighteen aeons are indicated in the fact that the Lord, after His resurrection from the dead, dwelt with His disciples, according to them, for eighteen months (Acts 1:3). In addition, the two initial letters of His name, i.e., iota (i) and ita (h), clearly indicate the eldest aeons. In the same way, they say, the first letter in the name of the Lord: iota (i) means ten aeons; and therefore it is as if the Saviour said: "One jot, or one tittle, shall not pass away, until all things are fulfilled" (Matt. 5:18).

3. The passion that was born in the twelfth Aeon, they say, is signified by the apostasy of Judas, who was the twelfth among the apostles, and also by the fact that the Lord suffered in the twelfth month; for, in their opinion, after His baptism, He preached for one year. A very clear indication of the same is the bleeding woman, for after twelve years of suffering, she was healed at the coming of the Saviour through the touch of His criment, and therefore the Saviour said: "Who hath touched me" (Mark 5:31)? teaching the disciples about the mystery that took place among the aeons and about the healing of the affected aeon. For she who suffered for twelve years signifies that power: it was her essence that stretched out and spread out without end, and if she had not touched the garment of the Son, that is, the Truth of the first quaternary, which is signified by the criterion, she would have been resolved into a common essence. However, she stopped and freed herself from suffering; for the power that proceeded from Him—and this power, according to them, is the Limit—healed her, and suffering departed from her.

4. And that the Saviour, consisting of all, is all (to pan), is said to be shown by the words: "Every male child that opens the bed" (Luke 2:23; Exodus 13:2). Being all, He opened the bed of the Thought of the suffering aeon, which is also called the second Osmeritsa, banished outside the Plyroma; We will talk about it a little later. For this reason, they say, Paul clearly says: "And He is all" (Col. 3:11). And again: "all things to Him, and all things out of Him" (Rom. 11:36), and again: "In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead" (Col. 2:9); and also in the words: "to lead all things in Christ by God" (Eph. 1:10). This is how they explain these and other similar words.

5. Then, concerning the Limit which they recognize, which they call by many other names, they assert that it has two activities: binding and dividing; and to the extent that it gives strength and support, it is the Cross, and to the extent that it divides and delimits, it is the Limit. And the Saviour, they say, pointed to the activity of the Limit: and first, to the binding in the words: "He that beareth not his cross, and cometh not after me, cannot become my disciple" (Luke 14:27); and: "Taking up the cross, follow me" (Mark 10:21); and to the dividing clause in the words: "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matt. 10:34). And John, they say, declared the same thing, saying: "A spade is in His hand, and he will cleanse the threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His garner: and he will burn the straw with unquenchable fire" (Luke 3:17), and by this he showed the activity of the Reach. For the shovel, according to their interpretation, is the Cross, which, moreover, destroys all material things, like fire to stubble, and purifies those who are saved like the winnowing of wheat. And the Apostle Paul himself, they say, mentions this cross in this way: "The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us that are saved is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18); and again: "Let me boast of nothing but the cross of Jesus: by which the world was crucified unto me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14).

6. Thus they speak of their Pleroma and of the formation of the universe, striving to adapt beautiful sayings to their evil inventions. And with the help of misinterpretation and improper interpretation, they try to compose proofs in their favor not only from the words of the Gospel and the Apostles, but also from the law and the prophets. For they contain many parables and parables, which by mutual means can be referred to many things by means of explanation; then they, sometimes with great violence and cunningly, adapt them to their own invention, and thus captivate and lead away from the truth those who do not firmly believe in one God the Father Almighty and in one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Hl. IV. Achamoth and the Origin of the Visible World.

And as for what is outside the Plyroma, they say the following: The thought of the heavenly Wisdom, which is also called Achamoth, separated together with passion from the Plyroma, they say, of necessity boiled greatly in places of darkness and emptiness: for it became outside the light and the Plyroma, and, like a miscarriage, had no form or form, because it received nothing. But the heavenly Christ took pity on him, and, stretching out through the Cross, by His own power formed an image only in essence, but not in relation to knowledge; and having done this, he stepped back and took his power with him, leaving the Thought to himself, so that, feeling his suffering on account of his estrangement from the Plyroma, he would desire the most excellent, while having in himself a certain stench of immortality, left in him by Christ and the Holy Spirit; wherefore it is called by both names: Wisdom after the name of the Father, for its Father is called Wisdom, and the Holy Spirit after the Spirit of Christ. Having received the image and the faculty of understanding, but immediately being left without the Word invisibly present with it, that is, Christ, it rushed in search of the light that had left it, but could not overtake it, because the Limit prevented it. And at the same time, as they say, Limit, forbidding Thought to strive forward, said: Iao, from which the name Iao is derived. Not being able to cross the Limit because of its intertwining with passion, and remaining outside alone, (Thought) fell under all kinds of suffering, for it is manifold and diverse, and in the first place it suffered with sorrow that it had not attained what it desired, and also with fear that life would not leave it as it left the world, and bewilderment, and all this was accompanied by ignorance: only thought was not subjected to a certain change as a result of the passions, as Aeon, which was its mother, that is, the original Wisdom, but had a completely opposite nature. To him was surpassed by another disposition, namely, to turn to Him who gave life.

2. Such, they say, was the origin and essence of the matter of which this world was composed: from this conversion every soul of the world as well as of the demiurge was derived; and from fear and sorrow all the rest began. Namely: from his tears came all moist essence, from laughter – luminous; from sorrow and amazement – the bodily elements of the world. For, as they say, it either wept and grieved that it was left alone in darkness and emptiness, or rejoiced and laughed when the light that left it came to mind, then again fell into fear, and sometimes into bewilderment and amazement.

3. What next? It is not a small tragedy here, for each of them in his own imagination, one in this way and the other in another, explains with importance from what passion, from what element this essence originated. And it seems to me that it is not without reason that they do not want to teach this to everyone in reality, but teach only those who are able to give a large price for such sacraments. Such teachings are not like the one of which our Lord said: "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8): on the contrary, they are strange, monstrous and deep mysteries, which are obtained with great difficulty by lovers of lies. Who will not spend all his possessions to know that from the tears of the thoughts of the passionate Aeon the seas, springs, rivers, and all the moist essence have their origin, and from laughter the light, and from amazement and confusion the bodily elements of the world?

4. However, I myself want to contribute something to the development of their teachings. For I see that some waters, such as springs, rivers, rains, and the like, are fresh, but the salts of the sea, and I come to the thought that not all of them have come from the tears of Thought, because the tear is salty in its quality. Therefore it is evident that only salt waters came from his tears. But it is probable that the thought, being in great anguish and difficulty, also shed sweat. Therefore, according to their assumption, it must be assumed that the springs, rivers, and other fresh waters did not come from his tears. For it is improbable that both salt and fresh waters should come from tears, while the quality of tears is one. It is more probable that the former are from tears, and the latter from sweat. And since there are still some warm and caustic-tasting waters in the world, you must understand by what action and in what part it emitted these waters. Such conclusions agree with their assumption.

5. When their mother had thus passed through all the states of passion, and with difficulty freed herself from them, she turned, they say, with supplication to the light that had left her, that is, to Christ. And he, having ascended to the Plyroma, as if he himself had been too lazy to descend from it another time, but sent to it the Paraclete, that is, the Saviour, because the Father had given him all power and given to him all power, and the aeons did likewise, so that "by this all things were created, visible and invisible, thrones, deities, dominions." The Saviour is sent to her with His angels of the same age. And Achamoth, they say, was ashamed of him, and at first, for the sake of modesty, she put a veil on herself, and then, when she saw him with all his gifts, she received strength from his appearance and rushed to meet him. And he gave her an image regarding knowledge and healed her passions. He separated them from her, but did not leave them in neglect (for it was impossible for them to be destroyed, like the passions of the original Mother, because they had already taken root and had come into force), but, on the contrary, separating them separately, merged them together, united them, and from a disembodied passion transformed them into an unorganized substance; then He gave them the ability and property to enter into mixtures and bodily compositions, so that two essences came into being: the evil one from the passions, and the other partaker of suffering from its conversion. And for this reason, they say that the Savior created all things in possibility. Achamoth, they teach, having freed herself from passion, in joy began to contemplate the lights that were with him, that is, the angels who appeared with the Saviour, and having copulated with them, she gave birth to fruits in their image, that is, a spiritual offspring composed in the likeness of the companions of the Saviour.

Hl. V. The Education of the Demiurge