4.
They moreover affirm that the Saviour 1 is shown to be derived from all the Aeons, and to be in Himself everything by the following passage: "Every male that openeth the womb." 2 For He, being everything, opened the womb 3 of the enthymesis of the suffering Aeon, when it had been expelled from the Pleroma. This they also style the second Ogdoad, of which we shall speak presently. And they state that it was clearly on this account that Paul said, "And He Himself is all things;" 4 and again, "All things are to Him, and of Him are all things;" 5 and further, "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead;" 6 and yet again, "All things are gathered together by God in Christ." 7 Thus do they interpret these and any like passages to be found in Scripture.
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That is, the "second Christ" referred to above, sec. 1. [It is much to be wished that this second were always distinguished by the untranslated name Soter.] ↩
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Ex. xiii. 2; Luke ii. 23. ↩
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Not as being born of it, but as fecundating it, and so producing a manifold offspring. See below. ↩
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Col. iii. 11. ↩
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Rom. xi. 36. ↩
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Col. ii. 9. ↩
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Eph. i. 10. ↩