themselves know more than all others, and that they alone have imbibed the greatness of the knowledge of that power which is unspeakable. They also maintain that they have attained to a height above all power, and that therefore they are free in every respect to act as they please, having no one to fear in anything. For they affirm, that because of the "Redemption"[1] it has come to pass that they can neither be apprehended, nor even seen by the judge. But even if he should happen to lay hold upon them, then they might simply repeat these words, while standing in his presence along with the "Redemption:" "O thou, who sittest beside God,[2] and the mystical, eternal Sige, thou through whom the angels (mightinesses), who continually behold the face of the Father, having thee as their guide and introducer, do derive their forms[3] from above, which she in the greatness of her daring inspiring with mind on account of the goodness of the Propator, produced us as their images, having her mind then intent upon the things above, as in a dream,—behold, the judge is at hand, and the crier orders me to make my defence. But do thou, as being acquainted with the affairs of both, present the cause of both of us to the judge, inasmuch as it is in reality but one cause."[4] Now, as soon as the Mother hears these words, she puts the Homeric[5] helmet of Pluto
- ↑ Grabe is of opinion that reference is made in this term to an imprecatory formula in use among the Marcosians, analogous to the form of thanksgiving employed night and morning by the Jews for their redemption from Egypt. Harvey refers the word to the second baptism practised among these and other heretics, by which it was supposed they were removed from the cognizance of the Demiurge, who is styled the "judge" in the close of the above sentence.
- ↑ That is, Sophia, of whom Achamoth, afterwards referred to, was the emanation.
- ↑ The angels accompanying Soter were the consorts of spiritual Gnostics, to whom they were restored after death.
- ↑ The syntax in this long sentence is very confused, but the meaning is tolerably plain. The gist of it is, that these Gnostics, as being the spiritual seed, claimed a consubstantiality with Achamoth, and consequently escaped from the material Demiurge, and attained at last to the Pleroma.
- ↑ Rendering the wearer invisible. See Il. v. 844.
