Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
How a certain person, whom no one who bore witness ever perceived, though he himself saw all -- as we have shown above (cf. his letter to Theodore). His fabrication: This Mark, then, saying that he alone was the womb and receptacle of the Silence of Colarbasus (since he was, he claims, only-begotten), thus brought forth the seed which had been deposited in him. He says that the Quaternity, from the highest and invisible and unnameable places, descended to him in a woman's form (because, he says, the world could not bear its masculine form), and showed also herself, who she was, and the origin of all things, which she had never revealed to any god or man, but told to him alone, speaking thus: When first the Father, whose father is no one, who is inconceivable and without substance, who is neither male nor female, willed that his ineffable should become expressible, and that his invisible self should be given form, he opened his mouth and brought forth a Word like to himself, which, standing by, showed him what he himself was, when the invisible form had become manifest. Now the utterance of the name came about thus: he spoke the first word of four letters. He joined to it a second, and this was of four letters likewise. Afterward he spoke a third, and this was of ten letters. And that which comes after these he spoke, and it was of twelve letters. Thus the utterance of the whole name came to be of thirty letters, and of four syllables. And each of the elements has its own letters, and its own character, and its own utterance, and its shapes and images; and none of them sees the form of that one, nor is any of them itself above the element. Nor indeed does it know him; nor does even the nearest element know the utterance of its neighbor, but only what it itself utters; and thus each thinks that what it utters is the whole, and names it accordingly. For each of them, being a part of the whole, imagines its particular sound to constitute the entire name, and keeps sounding without pause until, once the final letter of the final element has been pronounced on its own, they all converge together. Then, he says, the restoration of all things will take place, when everything, condensing down into a single letter, shall sound forth one identical tone in unison -- the picture of which utterance he has handed down to be the Amen we speak together. And he says that these sounds are what give form to the unsubstantial and unbegotten Aeon, and that these are the forms which the Lord called angels, who without ceasing behold the face of the Father.
He called the names of the elements — common and expressible — by these titles: Aeons, Words, Roots, Seeds, Fulnesses, Fruits. Each of these, he says, and everything proper to each, is contained and understood in the name of the Church. Among these elements, it was the final letter of the final element that sent forth its own sound, and this sound, going out, generated elements proper to itself according to the image of the elements; from these he says are arranged both the things that are here, and the things that came before these [the text is corrupt here] — the sound following downward, received back upward by its own syllable, unto the filling-up of the universe; but the sound remains below, as though cast outside. Now the element itself, from which the letter along with its utterance descended, has in itself other letters, through which the name of the letter is named. And again, other letters are named through others, and others through others, so that the multitude of letters falls away into infinity. But you will learn more plainly what is meant this way: the element Delta has in itself five letters, namely Delta itself, and E, and L, and T, and A, and these letters again are written by means of other letters, and those by still others. If, then, the whole substance of Delta falls away into infinity, with letters endlessly generating and succeeding one another, how much greater must be the sea of letters belonging to that [larger] element? And if a single letter is thus immense, consider the depth of letters in the whole name, from which Marcus taught that the Forefather of Silence consists. Wherefore also the Father, knowing his own incomprehensibility, gave to the elements — which he also calls Aeons — that each one of them should cry out its own utterance, since the whole could not utter that One which is the totality. Expounding this Quaternity to her, he is said to have spoken thus: "I wish to show you Truth herself as well. For I have brought her down from the dwellings above, so that you may behold her naked, and gaze upon her beauty; indeed, that you may hear her speaking, and marvel at her wisdom. See then: upon her head, above, is Alpha and Omega; her neck holds Beta and Psi; on her shoulders, together with her hands, rest Gamma and Chi; her breast is Delta and Phi; her waist is Epsilon and Upsilon; her belly is Zeta and Tau; her private parts are Eta and Sigma; her thighs are Theta and Rho; her knees are Iota and Pi [text corrupt: 'the depths of the sensible things, which now the Forefather...']; her calves are Kappa and Xi; her feet are Lambda and Nu. This is her body — that of Truth, according to the magician; this is the shape belonging to the element, and this the outward form of the letter." He gives this element the name "Man," and says it is the source of every word, and the beginning of all utterance, and the exposition of everything inexpressible, and the mouth of Silence itself. This, then, is her body. "But do you," he says, "lift your understanding higher, and hear the Word, the Self-begotten and the Father-begotten, from the mouth of Truth" — Truth approaching him, opening her mouth, and speaking a word; and this word became a name, and this name is what we know and speak: Christ Jesus. When she had named this, she immediately fell silent. But when Marcus supposed that
she was going to say something more, the Quaternity, coming forward again, said: "You have thought the word you heard from the mouth of Truth to be something contemptible. This is not, as you suppose and think, merely a name; you have only its sound, but you are ignorant of its power. Now Jesus is a name of note, having six letters, known to all who are of the calling; but that which is understood by those who are akin to it, whose portion is above, is the number of the elements. For the mute letters, nine in number, you must reckon to be of the Father and of Truth, since they are without voice — that is, both inexpressible and unspeakable. The semivowels, again, being eight, belong to the Logos and to Zoe, occupying, so to speak, a middle position between the mute letters and the vowels, and receive the emanation of those above them, and the elevation of those below them. The vowels, in turn, are also seven, and belong to Anthropos and Ecclesia, since it was through Anthropos that the voice, going forth, gave them form — for the sound of the voice bestowed shape upon them. Thus Logos and Zoe have six letters; Anthropos and Ecclesia have six; Father and Truth have nine — [the text is here corrupt and disordered] — descending, sent forth to that place from which it had been separated, for the amendment of the things that had been made, so that the unity of the Pleromas, possessing equality, might bring forth one fruit in all things, the power that comes from all things. And thus the one who is of the number seven received the power of those who are eight, and there were made three places corresponding to these numbers, though the ogdoads are eight — which, coming together three times, showed forth the number twenty-four. And of the three elements he says there exist three pairs of powers in conjunction, which make six, from which the twenty-four letters emanated, the fourfold reckoning of the ineffable Quaternity producing the same number. And these are clothed by the three powers in the likeness of that which is invisible; and the images of these elements, when reckoned together with the thirty-four letters, together with the power that corresponds by analogy, make the number thirty. The fruit of this reasoning and arrangement, he says, appeared in the likeness of an image in him who, after four days, went up onto the mountain and became the sixth, who came down and was detained in the week — though he was the notable Ogdoad, and had in himself the whole number of the elements, which he made manifest when he himself came to baptism: the descent of the dove, which is Omega and Alpha. The number thirty consisted of letters [three further pairs are then reckoned], which likewise consist of double letters, so that the whole reckoning of the letters together comes to eight hundred. And for this reason he says that Moses declared man was made on the sixth day; and that the ordering belonging to the sixth day, which is the pure supper, consists in this: the final man came forth so that the first man might be regenerated. The beginning and the end of this arrangement is the sixth hour, in which he was fastened to the wood. For, having a perfect understanding, and knowing the number six to be the power of formation and regeneration, he manifested to the sons of light that generation which was accomplished through him who was made manifest according to that notable number. Hence too he says that the double letters possess the notable number, for the notable number is a composite one. Now the deacon made use of the magnitude of the number seven, as Marcus's Silence says, so that the fruit of the thought conceived by himself might be made manifest. And this notable number, he says, in the present case, must be understood as the one who was figured by the note, understood as him who was, as it were, divided into parts, or cut off, and remained outside — who, by his own power and prudence, through the emission that came from him, animated with the imitation of the power of the hebdomad this world, which is of the seven powers, and appointed it to be the soul of this visible universe. And he himself makes use of this work as though it came about spontaneously and of its own accord; but the rest serve as ministers, being imitations of things that cannot be imitated — the Enthymesis of the Mother. And the first heaven sounds Alpha; the one after it, Epsilon; the third, Eta; the fourth and middle one — the corrupted text does not permit certainty here — Upsilon; and the seventh, from the middle, cries out the element Omega, as Marcus's Silence says — who indeed pursues many things at great length, but affirms nothing true. These powers, he says, all embracing one another at once, sound out and glorify him from whom they were sent forth, and the glory of the sound is sent up to the Forefather. The sound of this glorification, borne down to earth, he says, became the fashioner and begetter of the things that are on earth. [A passage here is too corrupt to render; it concerned the Demiurge's ignorance of these matters, and how he emits each in turn in its revolution.] And he offers as proof the case of infants now being born, whose soul, as soon as it has come forth from the womb, cries out the sound belonging to each element. "Just as," he says, "the seven powers give glory to the Word, in this same way the soul within infants, through weeping and wailing, gives glory to Marcus" — glorifies him! For this reason, too, David said [a further corrupt citation follows], and again, in that same passage: "It is the heavens that proclaim God's glory." And for this reason, when the soul is in pains and calamities, for its own relief it says "Omega," as a sign of praise, so that the soul above, recognizing that this is akin to itself, may send help down to it. And concerning the whole name composed of these letters, and further concerning the body of Truth, which has twelve members, each member consisting of two letters; and concerning her voice, which spoke without speaking; and concerning the resolution of that name, which has not been declared; and concerning the soul belonging to the world, and to man, in keeping with the ordering they possess "after the image" — thus has he raved. Henceforth we shall relate how their Quaternity shows the corresponding power derived from names, so that nothing may be hidden from you, most beloved, of the things that have come to us from what is said by these men, as you have often asked of us.