Traduction Masquer
Against the Valentinians

Chapter XII.--The Strange Jumble of the Pleroma. The Frantic Delight of the Members Thereof. Their Joint Contribution of Parts Set Forth with Humorous Irony.

Thus they are all on the self-same footing in respect of form and knowledge, all of them having become what each of them severally is; none being a different being, because they are all what the others are. ¹ They are all turned into ² Nuses, into Homos, into Theletuses; ³ and so in the case of the females, into Siges, into Zoes, into Ecclesias, into Fortunatas, so that Ovid would have blotted out his own Metamorphoses if he had only known our larger one in the present day. Straightway they were reformed and thoroughly established, and being composed to rest from the truth, they celebrate the Father in a chorus ⁴ of praise in the exuberance of their joy. The Father himself also revelled ⁵ in the glad feeling; of course, because his children and grandchildren sang so well. And why should he not revel in absolute delight? Was not the Pleroma freed (from all danger)? What ship's captain ⁶ fails to rejoice even with indecent frolic? Every day we observe the uproarious ebullitions of sailors' joys. ⁷ Therefore, as sailors always exult over the reckoning they pay in common, so do these Aeons enjoy a similar pleasure, one as they now all are in form, and, as I may add, ⁸ in feeling too. With the concurrence of even their new brethren and masters, ⁹ they contribute into one common stock the best and most beautiful thing with which they are severally adorned. Vainly, as I suppose. For if they were all one by reason by the above-mentioned thorough equalization, there was no room for the process of a common reckoning, ¹⁰ which for the most part consists of a pleasing variety. They all contributed the one good thing, which they all were. There would be, in all probability, a formal procedure ¹¹ in the mode or in the form of the very equalization in question. Accordingly, out of the donation which they contributed ¹² to the honour and glory of the Father, they jointly fashion ¹³ the most beautiful constellation of the Pleroma, and its perfect fruit, Jesus. Him they also surname ¹⁴ Soter (Saviour) and Christ, and Sermo (Word) after his ancestors; ¹⁵ and lastly Omnia (All Things), as formed from a universally culled nosegay, ¹⁶ like the jay of Aesop, the Pandora of Hesiod, the bowl ¹⁷ of Accius, the honey-cake of Nestor, the miscellany of Ptolemy. How much nearer the mark, if these idle title-mongers had called him Pancarpian, after certain Athenian customs. ¹⁸ By way of adding external honour also to their wonderful puppet, they produce for him a bodyguard of angels of like nature. If this be their mutual condition, it may be all right; if, however, they are consubstantial with Soter (for I have discovered how doubtfully the case is stated), where will be his eminence when surrounded by attendants who are co-equal with himself?

Edition Masquer
Adversus Valentinianos

12

[1] itaque omnes et forma et scientia peraequantur facti omnes quod unusquisque; nemo aliud quia alteri omnes. refunduntur in Nun omnes in Homines, in Theletos, aeque feminae in Sigas, in Zoas, in Ecclesias, in Fortunatas, ut Ovidius Metamorphoses suas delevisset si hodie maiorem cognovisset. [2] exinde refecti sunt et constabiliti sunt et in requiem ex veritate compositi magno cum gaudii fructu hymnis Patrem concinunt. diffundebatur et ipse laetitia et utique bene cantantibus filiis, nepotibus. quidni diffunderetur omni iocunditate, Pleromate liberato. quis nauclerus non etiam cum dedecore laetatur? videmus cotidie nauticorum lascivias gaudiorum. [3] itaque ut nautae ad symbolam semper exultant, tale aliquid et Aeones; unum iam omnes etiam forma nedum sententia, convenientibus ipsis quoque novis fratribus et magistris Christo et Spirito Sancto, quod optimum atque pulcherrimum unusquisque florebat conferunt in medium. vane, opinor; si enim unum erant omnes ex supra dicta peraequatione, vacabat symbolae ratio quae ferme ex varietatis gratia constat. [4] unum omnes bonum conferebant quod omnes erant; de modo forsitan fuerit ratio aut de forma ipsius iam peraequationis. igitur ex aere collaticio, quod aiunt, in honorem et gloriam Patris pulcherrimum Pleromatis sidus fructumque perfectum compingunt Iesum. eum cognominant Soterem et Christum et Sermonem de patritis et Omnia iam ut ex omnium defloratione constructum: Graculum Aesopi, Pandoram Hesiodi, Acci Patinam, Nestoris Cocetum, Miscellaneam Ptolomaei. [5] quam proprius fuit de aliquibus Osciae scurris Pancapipannirapiam vocari a tam otiosis auctoribus nominum. ut autem tantum sigillarium extrinsecus quoque inornasset, satellites ei angelos proferunt par genus; si inter se, potest fiere, si vero Soteri consubstantivos — ambigue enim positura inveni — quae erit eminentia eius inter satellites coaequales?