Against Heresies: Book I

THE FOLLOWERS OF PTOLEMY SAY THAT BYTHUS HAS TWO CONSORTS: which they also call Diatheses (affections), namely, Ennœa and Thelesis. They claim he first conceived the thought of creating something and then willed it to happen. Therefore, these two affections, Ennœa and Thelesis, interacted with each other, resulting in the production of Monogenes and Aletheia through their union. These two emerged as types and images of the Father’s two affections—visible representations of the invisible ones—Nous (Monogenes) representing Thelesis, and Aletheia representing Ennœa. Accordingly, the image from Thelesis was masculine, while the image from Ennœa was feminine. Thus, Thelesis (will) became, in a sense, a faculty of Ennœa (thought). For Ennœa constantly longed for offspring, but she could not bring forth what she desired on her own. However, when the power of Thelesis (will) came upon her, she was able to bring forth that on which she had brooded.

These imagined beings (like the Jove of Homer, who is depicted as spending a restless, sleepless night devising plans to honor Achilles and destroy many of the Greeks) will not seem to you, my dear friend, to possess greater knowledge than He who is the God of the universe. He, as soon as He thinks, also performs what He has willed; and as soon as He wills, also thinks that which He has willed; then thinking when He wills, and then willing when He thinks, since He is all thought, all will, all mind, all light, all eye, all ear, the one complete source of all good things.

SOME CLAIM TO BE MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE THAN THOSE MENTIONED EARLIER: saying the first Ogdoad was not created gradually, with one Æon coming after another, but that all the Æons came into existence at once by Propator and his Ennœa. Colorbasus asserts this with the confidence of someone who witnessed their creation. He and his followers argue that Anthropos and Ecclesia were not produced from Logos and Zoe, as others believe, but rather that Logos and Zoe came from Anthropos and Ecclesia. They express this idea differently: When the Propator conceived the thought of creating something, he became known as Father. Since what he created was true, it was called Aletheia. When he wanted to reveal himself, this was called Anthropos. Finally, when he created those he had previously envisioned, they were named Ecclesia. Anthropos, by speaking, formed Logos, the first-born son. Zoe followed after Logos, thus completing the first Ogdoad.

THEY ALSO HAVE MUCH DISAGREEMENT AMONG THEMSELVES ABOUT THE SAVIOR: Some insist that he was formed from all, and that is why he was called Eudocetos, because the whole Pleroma was pleased through him to glorify the Father. But others claim that he came from the ten Æons who originated from Logos and Zoe, and for this reason, he was called Logos and Zoe, thus keeping the ancestral names. Others assert that he came into being from the twelve Æons who were the offspring of Anthropos and Ecclesia, and for this reason, he acknowledges himself as the Son of man, being a descendant of Anthropos. Others still, argue that he was produced by Christ and the Holy Spirit, who were brought forth for the security of the Pleroma, and that is why he was called Christ, preserving the name of the Father by whom he was produced. And there are others among them who say that the Propator of everything, Proarche, and Proanennoetos is called Anthropos; and this is the great and profound mystery, that the Power above all others, containing everything within his embrace, is termed Anthropos; hence the Savior calls himself the "Son of man."