A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

100 A Source Book for Ancient Church Historyand emanationist; with it is to be compared the presentationof the system by Hippolytus in his Philosophumena, where itappears as evolutionary and pantheistic. The trend of presentopinion appears to be that the account given by Irenæus is morecorrect, or, at least, is earlier. The following account has allthe appearance of having been taken from an original source(cf. Hilgenfeld, Ketzergeschichte, 195, 198). It representsthe esoteric and more distinctively Gnostic teaching of theschool.[086]Ch. 3. Basilides, to appear to have discovered something moresublime and plausible, gives an immense development to hisdoctrine. He declares that in the beginning the Nous was bornof the unborn Father, that from him in turn was born the Logos,then from the Logos the Phronesis, from the Phronesis Sophiaand Dynamis, and from Dynamis and Sophia the powers andprincipalities and angels, whom he calls the first; and that bythese the first heaven was made. Then by emanation from theseothers were formed, and these created another heaven similar tothe first. And in like manner, when still others had been formedby emanations from these, corresponding to those who wereover them, they framed another third heaven; and from this thirdheaven downward there was a fourth succession of descendants;and so on, in the same manner, they say that other and still otherprinces and angels were formed, and three hundred and sixty-fiveheavens. Wherefore the year contained the same number of daysin conformity with the number of the heavens.Ch. 4. The angels occupying the lowest heaven, that, namely,which is visible to us, created all those things which are in theworld, and made allotments among themselves of the earth, andof those nations which are upon it. The chief of them is he whois thought to be the God of the Jews. Inasmuch as he wished tomake the other nations subject to his own people, the Jews, allthe other princes resisted and opposed him. Wherefore all other