Traduction Masquer
Against the Valentinians

Chapter XXII.--Origin of the Devil, in the Criminal Excess of the Sorrow of Achamoth. The Devil, Called Also Munditenens, Actually Wiser Than the Demiurge, Although His Work.

The odium felt amongst them ¹ against the devil is the more excusable, ² even because the peculiarly sordid character of his origin justifies it. ³ For he is supposed by them to have had his origin in that criminal excess ⁴ of her ⁵ sorrow, from which they also derive the birth of the angels, and demons, and all the wicked spirits. Yet they affirm that the devil is the work of the Demiurge, and they call him Munditenens ⁶ (Ruler of the World), and maintain that, as he is of a spiritual nature, he has a better knowledge of the things above than the Demiurge, an animal being. He deserves from them the pre-eminence which all heresies provide him with.

Traduction Masquer
Contre les Valentiniens

XXII.

Je leur pardonnerais plus volontiers leurs absurdités honteuses sur le diable, ne fût-ce que par la raison que la souillure de son origine s'y prête davantage. Ils le font naître de la malignité du chagrin que ressentit Achamoth. Ils donnent la même origine aux anges, aux démons, et à toutes les générations des puissances spirituelles du mal. Ils ne laissent pas d'affirmer cependant que le diable est l'œuvre du Démiurgue; ils l'appellent souverain du monde, et ils tiennent qu'en vertu de sa nature spirituelle, il connaît plus les Eons supérieurs que le Démiurgue, qui est tout animal. Le père de toutes les hérésies mérite bien la prééminence qu'ils lui accordent.