Chapter VI

, vol. I. p. 191, n. 4). It also appears in the _Ascension of Isaiah_ which Mr Charles thinks may be dated about 150 A.D. (see Charles, _Ascension of Isaiah_, 1900, pp. xi and 62), but which is probably of much later date. There are other features to be noted in their place common to the _Pistis Sophia_ and the last named work.

Footnote 213:

That is to say, that which does not perish and return to the Deity.

Footnote 214:

Irenaeus, Bk I. c. 28, § 7, pp. 238-241, Harvey. This again is given almost _verbatim_. The stay of Jesus on earth after His Resurrection, and His teaching His disciples “quod liquidum est,” that is, without parable, is also told in the _Pistis Sophia_, but His post-Resurrection life is there put at 12 years. Irenaeus’ Latin translator has, as has been said, evidently here got hold of some later developments of Ophitism not known to his author at the time that the Greek text was written. Yet some tradition of a long interval between the Resurrection and the Ascension was evidently current in the sub-Apostolic age. Irenaeus himself says on the authority of “those who met with John the Disciple of the Lord in Asia” that Jesus’ ministry only lasted for one year from His Baptism, He being then 30 years old, and that He suffered on completing his 30th year; yet that He taught until He was 40 or 50 years old. See Irenaeus, Bk II. c. 33, § 3, p. 331, Harvey. Some part of this statement appears in the Greek text.

Footnote 215:

Epiphanius, _Haer._ XXXVII. c. 5, p. 502, Oehler. Epiphanius, although generally untrustworthy, had been, as M. de Faye reminds us, a Nicolaitan in his youth. See de Faye, _Introd._ p. 116.

Footnote 216:

Hippolytus, _op. cit._ Bk V. c. 10, pp. 182-184, Cruice.

Footnote 217:

Cruice, _op. et loc. cit._ p. 152, n. 3, remarks that the Supreme Triad here shown is τὸ νοερόν, τὸ χοϊκόν, τὸ ψυχικόν “the intellectual, the earthly, and the psychic or animal.” This may be; but there is no proof that the Ophites ever gave Chaos or unformed Matter a place in it, or made it the next principle to their Supreme Being. Probably for the supposed “Chaos” in the second line of the Psalm should be substituted some words like “the projected Thought” of the Father. Miller has some curious remarks quoted in the same note on the metre of the Psalm, which he points out is the same as in a poem of Lucian’s, and in the hymns of Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais, already mentioned.

Footnote 218:

Hippolytus, _op. cit._ Bk V. c. 7, p. 148; _ibid._ c. 9, p. 181, Cruice. They probably resembled the ceremonies described at length in the _Pistis Sophia_ and the _Bruce Papyrus._ See