Chapter IX
, p. 104 _supra_.
Footnote 519:
p. 116, Copt.
Footnote 520:
I suppose it is in view of this maternal aspect of her nature that she is alluded to in the latter part of the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος as βαρβηλω βδελλη “Barbelo who gives suck”? Her place, according to the Bruce Papyrus (Amélineau, p. 218), is said to be in the Twelfth Aeon.
Footnote 521:
There have been many attempts to make this name mean something else than merely “Faith-Wisdom.” Dulaurier and Renan both tried to read it “πιστὴ Σοφία” “the faithful Wisdom” or “La fidèle Sagesse.” If we had more documents of the style of Simon’s _Apophasis_, we should probably find that this apposition of two or more nouns in a name was not infrequent, and the case of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris will occur to every Egyptologist. The fact that the name includes the first and last female member of the Dodecad of Valentinus (see p. 101 _supra_) is really its most plausible explanation.
Footnote 522:
This Adamas seems to be an essentially evil power, who wages useless war against the Light on the entry of Jesus into his realm (p. 25, Copt.). His seat is plainly the Twelve Aeons or Zodiac (p. 157, Copt.), and it is said in the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος that his “kingdom” is in the τοποι κεφαλης αἰωνων or Places of the head of the Aeons and is opposite the place of the Virgin of Light (p. 336, Copt.). In the second part of the same document (_i.e._ the μ. τ. σ.) it is said that the rulers of Adamas rebelled, persisting in the act of copulation (συνουσία) and begetting “Rulers and Archangels and Angels and Ministers (λειτουργοί) and Decans” (Δεκανοί), and that thereupon Jeû went forth from the Place of the Right and “bound them in Heimarmene and the Sphere.” We further learn that half the Aeons headed by Jabraoth, who is also once mentioned in the _Pistis Sophia_ proper (p. 128, Copt., and again in the Bruce Papyrus, Amélineau, p. 239), were consequently transferred to another place, while Adamas, now for the first time called Sabaoth Adamas, with the unrepentant rulers are confined in the Sphere to the number of 1800, over whom 360 other rulers bear sway, over whom again are set the five planets Saturn, Mars, Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter (pp. 360, 361, Copt.). All this seems to me to be later than the _Pistis Sophia_ proper, to have been written at a time when belief in astrology was more rife than in Hadrian’s reign, and to owe something to Manichaean influence. The original Adamas, the persecutor of Pistis Sophia herself, seems identifiable with the Diabolos or Cosmocrator of Valentinus, in which case we may perhaps see in the “Great Propator” a merely stupid and ignorant power like the Jaldabaoth of the Ophites and their successors. See p. 163 _infra_.
Footnote 523:
p. 145, Copt. So Irenaeus in his account of the Valentinian doctrines, Bk I. c. 1, p. 12 _sqq._ I suppose there is an allusion to this in the remark of Jesus to Mary that a year is as a day (p. 243, Copt.). But all the astrology of the time seems to have divided the astronomical day not into 24, but into 12 hours. It was the same with the Manichaeans. See Chavannes and Pelliot, “Un Traité manichéen retrouvé en Chine,” _Journal Asiatique_, série X, t. XVIII. (Nov.-Dec. 1911), p. 540, n. 4.
Footnote 524:
But curiously enough, not the “souls” of fish. So in the Middle Ages, the Manichaeans of Languedoc did not allow their “Perfects” to partake of animal food nor even of eggs, but allowed them fish, because they said these creatures were not begotten by copulation. See Schmidt, _Hist. des Cathares_, Paris, 1843. Is this one of the reasons why Jesus is called Ἰχθύς?
Footnote 525:
This idea of man being made from the tears of the eyes of the heavenly powers is an old one in Egypt. So Maspero explains the well-known sign of the _utchat_ or Eye of Horus as that “qui exprime la matière, le corps du soleil, d’où tous les êtres découlent sous forme de pleurs,” “Les Hypogées Royaux de Thébes,” _Ét. Égyptol._ II. p. 130. Moret, “Le verbe créateur et révélateur en Égypte,” _R. H. R._ Mai-Juin, 1909, p. 386, gives many instances from hymns and other ritual documents. It was known to Proclus who transfers it after his manner to Orpheus and makes it into hexameters:
Thy tears are the much-enduring race of men, By thy laugh thou hast raised up the sacred race of gods.
See Abel’s _Orphica_, fr. 236.
Footnote 526:
See n. 1, p. 148 _supra_.
Footnote 527:
This is, perhaps, to be gathered from the _Pistis Sophia_, p. 36, Copt. Cf. Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος, pp. 337-338. In another part of the last-named document, the Moon-ship is described as steered by a male and female dragon (the caduceus of Hermes?) who snatch away the light of the Rulers (p. 360, Copt.).
Footnote 528:
This seems to be the passage referred to later by Origen. See n. 2, p. 159 _infra_.
Footnote 529:
The usual epithet or appellation of Osiris _Neb-er-tcher_ = Lord of Totality or the Universe. Cf. Budge, _Book of the Dead_, _passim_.
Footnote 530:
So in the _Ascensio Isaiae_, of which Mr Charles says that “we cannot be sure that it existed earlier than the latter half of the 2nd century of our Era,” it is said (Chap. IX, v. 15) “And thus His descent, as you will see, will be hidden even from the heavens, so that it will not be known who He is.” Charles, _The Ascension of Isaiah_, p. 62. Cf. _ibid._ pp. 67, 70, 73 and 79.
Footnote 531:
pp. 39, 40, Copt. The reference is apparently to the Book of Enoch, c. LXXX. (see Charles, _Book of Enoch_, pp. 212, 213, and the _Epistle of Barnabas_, N.T. extra can., c. IV. p. 9, Hilgenfeld). In the Latin version of the last-quoted book, it is assigned to Daniel, which shows perhaps the connection of Enoch with all this quasi-prophetic or apocalyptic literature.
Footnote 532:
According to the Valentinian system, his name was Θελητὸς or “the Beloved.” See Chap. IX, p. 101 _supra_.
Footnote 533:
See Chap. VIII _supra_. Here he occupies a far inferior position to that assigned him by the Ophites. In the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος he sinks lower still and becomes merely one of the torturers in hell (p. 382, Copt., κ.τ.λ.). Thus, as is usual in matters of religion, the gods of one age become the fiends of the next. In the Bruce Papyrus (Amélineau, p. 212) he appears as one of the chiefs of the Third Aeon. It is curious, however, to observe how familiar the name must have been to what Origen calls “a certain secret theology,” so that it was necessary to give him _some_ place in every system of Gnosticism. His bipartite appearance may be taken from Ezekiel viii. 2.
Footnote 534:
Probably the latter. See what is said about the Outer Darkness in the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος, p. 319, Copt. where it is described as “a great dragon whose tail is in his mouth who is without the whole κόσμος and surrounds it.”
Footnote 535:
p. 83, Copt. So in the Manichaean legend, the First Man, on being taken captive by Satan, prays seven times to the Light and is delivered from the Darkness in which he is imprisoned. See Chap. XIII _infra_.
Footnote 536:
This demon in the shape of a flying arrow seems to be well known in Rabbinic lore. Mr Whinfield in _J.R.A.S._, April, 1910, pp. 485, 486, describes him as having a head like a calf, with one horn rising out of his forehead like a cruse or pitcher, while to look upon him is certain death to man or beast. His authority seems to be Rapaport’s _Tales from the Midrash_.
Footnote 537:
The basilisk with seven heads seems to be Death. See Gaster, “The Apocalypse of Abraham,” _T.S.B.A._ vol. IX. pt 1, p. 222, where this is said to be the “true shape” of death. Cf. Kohler, “Pre-Talmudic Haggadah,” _J.Q.R._, 1895, p. 590. Death, as we have seen in Chap. IX, p. 107, was in the ideas of Valentinus the creature of the Demiurge. For the dragon, see Whinfield, _ubi cit._
Footnote 538:
These “three times” are not years. As the _Pistis Sophia_ opens with the announcement that Jesus spent 12 years on earth after the Resurrection, we may suppose that He was then—if the author accepted the traditional view that He suffered at 33—exactly 45 years old, and the “time” would then be a period of 15 years, as was probably the indiction. The descent of the “two vestures” upon Jesus is said (p. 4, Copt.) to have taken place “on the 15th day of the month Tybi” which is the day Clement of Alexandria (_Strom._ Bk I. c. 21) gives for the birth of Jesus. He says the followers of Basilides gave the same day as that of His baptism.
Footnote 539:
Epiphanius, _Haer._ XXVI. t. II. pt 1, p. 181, Oehler.
Footnote 540:
This doctrine of ἑρμηνεία occurs all through the book. The author is trying to make out that well-known passages of both the Old and New Testaments were in fact prophetic utterances showing forth in advance the marvels he narrates. While the Psalms of David quoted by him are Canonical, the Odes of Solomon are the Apocrypha known under that name and quoted by Lactantius (_Div. Inst._ Bk IV. c. 12). For some time the _Pistis Sophia_ was the only authority for their contents, but in 1909 Dr Rendel Harris found nearly the whole collection in a Syriac MS. of the 16th century. A translation has since been published in _Cambridge Texts and Studies_, vol. VIII. No. 3, Cambridge, 1912, by the Bishop of Ossory, who shows, as it seems conclusively, that they were the hymns sung by the newly-baptized in the Primitive Church.
Footnote 541:
Astrological doctrine first becomes prominent in Gnostic teaching in the _Excerpta Theodoti_ which we owe to Clement of Alexandria. We may therefore put their date about the year 200. This would be after the time of Valentinus himself, but agrees well with what M. Cumont (_Astrology and Religion_, pp. 96 _sqq._) says as to the great vogue which astrology attained in Rome under the Severi. Its intrusion into the Valentinian doctrines is much more marked in the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος than in the _Pistis Sophia_, and more in the Bruce Papyrus than in either.
Footnote 542:
See Chap. VIII, pp. 73, 74 _supra_.
Footnote 543:
Origen, _cont. Cels._ Bk VI. c. 34.
Footnote 544:
Hippolytus (Chap. IX, p. 92), speaks of the Jesus of Valentinus as the Joint Fruit of the Pleroma simply. Irenaeus (Bk I. c. 1, p. 23, Harvey) goes into more detail: Καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐποιΐας ταύτης βουλῇ μιᾷ καὶ γνώμῃ τὸ πᾶν Πλήρωμα τῶν Αἰώνων, συνευδοκοῦντος τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ τοῦ Πνεύματος, τοῦ δὲ Πατρὸς αὐτῶν συνεπισφραγιζομένου, ἕνα ἕκαστον τῶν Αἰώνων, ὅπερ εἶχεν ἐν ἑαυτῷ κάλλιστον καὶ ἀνθηρότατον συνενεγκαμένους καὶ ἐρανισαμένους, καὶ ταῦτα ἁρμοδίως πλέξαντας, καὶ ἐμμελῶς ἑνώσαντας, προβαλέσθαι προβλήματα εἰς τιμὴν καὶ δόξαν τοῦ Βυθοῦ, τελειότατον κάλλος τε καὶ ἄστρον τοῦ Πληρώματος, τέλειον καρπὸν τὸν Ἰησοῦν ὃν καὶ Σωτῆρα προσαγορευθῆναι, καὶ Χριστὸν, καὶ Λόγον πατρωνομικῶς καὶ κατὰ [καὶ τὰ] Πάντα, διὰ τὸ ἀπὸ πάντων εἶναι. “Αnd because of this benefit, with one will and opinion, the whole Pleroma of the Aeons, with the consent of Christos and the Spirit, and their Father having set his seal upon the motion, brought together and combined what each of them had in him which was most beautiful and brightest, and wreathing these fittingly together and properly uniting them, they projected a projection to the honour and glory of Bythos, the most perfect beauty and star of the Pleroma, the perfect Fruit Jesus, who is also called Saviour and Christ, and after his Father Logos, and Pan, because He is from all.” Compare with these the words of Colossians ii. 9: ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
Footnote 545:
That the Valentinians considered the Dodecad (and _a fortiori_ the Decad) as having a collective entity, and as it were a corporate existence, seems plain from what Hippolytus says in narrating the opinions of Marcus: ταῦτα γὰρ δώδεκα ζώδια φανερώτατα τὴν τοῦ Ἀνθρώπου καὶ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας θυγατέρα δωδεκάδα ἀποσκιάζειν λέγουσι. “For they say that these 12 signs of the Zodiac most clearly shadow forth the Dodecad who is the daughter of Anthropos and Ecclesia” (Hipp. _op. cit._ Bk VI. c. 54, p. 329, Cruice). And again (_loc. cit._ p. 331, Cruice): ἔτι μὴν καὶ τὴν γῆν εἰς δώδεκα κλίματα διῃρῆσθαι φάσκοντες, καὶ καθ’ ἒν ἕκαστον κλίμα, ἀνὰ μίαν δύναμιν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανῶν κατὰ κάθετον ὑποδεχομένην, καὶ ὁμοούσια τίκτουσαν τέκνα τῇ καταπεμπούσῃ κατὰ τὴν ἀπόρροιαν δυνάμει, τύπον εἶναι τῆς ἄνω δωδεκάδος. “These are also they who assert that the earth is divided into twelve climates, and receives in each climate one special power from the heavens and produces children resembling the power thus sent down by emanation, being thus a type of the Dodecad above.” The doctrine of correspondences or, as it was called in the Middle Ages, of “signatures” is here most clearly stated. In all this the Valentinian teaching was doubtless under the influence of the ancient Egyptian ideas as to the _paut neteru_ or “company of the gods,” as to which see Maspero’s essay _Sur L’Ennéade_ quoted above.
Footnote 546:
It is said (p. 9, Copt.) that it is by him that the universe was created and that it is he who causes the sun to rise.
Footnote 547:
As has before been said, this is attempted in one of the documents of the Bruce Papyrus. See pp. 191, 192 _infra_. In the present state of the text this attempt is only difficultly intelligible, and is doubtless both later in date than and the work of an author inferior to that of the _Pistis Sophia_.
Footnote 548:
p. 16, Copt. Yet the First Mystery is not the creator of Matter which is evil, because Matter does not really exist. See Bruce Papyrus (Amélineau, p. 126) and n. 2, p. 190 _infra_.
Footnote 549:
As mentioned in the _Scottish Review_ article referred to in n. 1, p. 135 _supra_, there is no passage but one in the _Pistis Sophia_ which affords any colour for supposing that the author was acquainted with St John’s Gospel. All the quotations set forth by Harnack in his treatise _Über das gnostische Buch Pistis-Sophia_, Leipzig, 1891, p. 27, on which he relies to prove the converse of this proposition, turn out on analysis to appear also in one or other of the Synoptics, from which the author may well have taken them. The single exception is this (_Pistis Sophia_, p. 11, Copt.), “Wherefore I said unto you from the beginning, Ye are not from the Cosmos; I likewise am not from it”; John xvii. 14: “(O Father) I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” The parallel does not seem so close as to make it certain that one document is copying from the other. Both may very possibly be taken from some collection of Logia now lost, but at one time current in Alexandrian circles; or from the _Gospel of the Egyptians_, from which the _Pistis Sophia_ afterwards quotes.
Footnote 550:
See Chap. IX, p. 107 _supra_.
Footnote 551:
See last note. The _Authades_ or Proud God of the _Pistis Sophia_ seems to have all the characteristics with which Valentinus endows his Demiurge.
Footnote 552:
So Pistis Sophia sings in her second hymn of praise after her deliverance from Chaos (p. 160, Copt.) “I am become pure light,” which she certainly was not before that event. Jesus also promises her later (p. 168, Copt.) that when the three times are fulfilled and the _Authades_ is again wroth with her and tries to stir up Jaldabaoth and Adamas against her “I will take away their powers from them and give them to thee.” That this promise was supposed to be fulfilled seems evident from the low positions which Jaldabaoth and Adamas occupy in the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος, while Pistis Sophia is said to furnish the “power” for the planet Venus.
Footnote 553:
See Chap. IX, p. 108 and n. 1 _supra_.
Footnote 554:
All the revelations in the _Pistis Sophia_ are in fact made in anticipation of the time “when the universe shall be caught up,” and the disciples be set to reign with Jesus in the Last Parastates. Cf. especially pp. 193-206 Copt.
Footnote 555:
The idea may not have been peculiar to Valentinus and his followers. So in the _Ascensio Isaiae_ (x. 8-13) the “Most High the Father of my Lord” says to “my Lord Christ who will be called Jesus”: “And none of the angels of that world shall know that thou art Lord with Me of the seven heavens and of their angels. And they shall not know that Thou art with Me till with a loud voice I have called to the heavens, and their angels, and their lights, even unto the sixth heaven, in order that you may judge and destroy the princes and angels and gods of that world, and the world that is dominated by them.” Charles, _Ascension of Isaiah_, pp. 70-71.
Footnote 556:
p. 194, Copt.
Footnote 557:
p. 230, Copt.
Footnote 558:
On the belief in the Millennium in the primitive Church, see Döllinger, _First Age of Christianity and the Church_, Eng. ed. 1906, pp. 119, 123 and 268 and Ffoulkes, _s.v._ Chiliasts, in _Dict. Christian Biog._
Footnote 559:
p. 230, Copt. Cf. Luke xxii. 29, 30.
Footnote 560:
p. 231, Copt. “disciples” not apostles. So the Manichaeans made Manes to be attended by twelve disciples. See Chap. XIII _infra_.
Footnote 561:
So Jesus says (p. 230, Copt.) of “the man who receives and accomplishes the Mystery of the Ineffable One”; “he is a man in the Cosmos, but he will reign with me in my kingdom; he is a man in the Cosmos, but he is a king in the light; he is a man in the Cosmos, but he is not of the Cosmos, and verily I say unto you, that man is I, and I am that man.”
Footnote 562:
p. 246, Copt.
Footnote 563:
See last note and n. 5, p. 147 _supra_.
Footnote 564:
Hatch, _op. cit._ p. 302 and note.
Footnote 565:
pp. 236, 237, Copt.
Footnote 566:
_Loc. cit._ Or they may cover a kind of allegory, as we might say that Agape or Love makes Faith, Hope, and Charity. But I believe it to be more likely that the “12 mysteries” are letters in a word. So in the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος it is said of the “Dragon of the Outer Darkness,” which is in fact the worst of all the hells described in that book: “And the Dragon of the Outer Darkness hath twelve true (αὐθέντη) names which are in his gates, a name according to each gate of the torture-chambers. And these names differ one from the other, but they belong to each of the twelve, so that he who saith one name, saith all the names. And these I will tell you in the Emanation of the Universe”—(p. 323, Copt.). If this be thought too trivial an explanation, Irenaeus tells us that the 18 Aeons remaining after deducting the Decad or Dodecad (as the case may be) from the rest of the Pleroma were, according to the Valentinians, signified by the two first letters of the name of Jesus: ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τῶν προηγουμένων τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ δύο γραμμάτων, τοῦ τε ἰῶτα καὶ τοῦ ἦτα, τοὺς δεκαοκτὼ Αἰῶνας εὐσήμως μηνύεσθαι, Irenaeus, Βk I. c. 1, § 5, p. 26, Harvey. Equally absurd according to modern ideas are the words of the _Epistle of Barnabas_ (c. X., pp. 23, 24, Hilgenfeld), where after quoting a verse in Genesis about Abraham circumcising 318 of his slaves (cf. Gen. xiv. 14), the author says “What then is the knowledge (γνῶσις) given therein? Learn that the 18 were first, and then after a pause, he says 300. (In) the 18, I = 10, H = 8, thou hast Jesus (Ἰησοῦν). And because the Cross was meant to have grace in the T, he says also 300. He expresses therefore Jesus by two letters and the Cross by one. He knows who has placed in us the ungrafted gift of teaching. None has learned from me a more genuine word. But I know that ye are worthy.”
Footnote 567:
“The True Word” or the Word of the Place of Truth. The latter expression is constantly used in other parts of the book, and seems to refer to the χώρημα or “receptacle,” that is the heaven, of the Aeon Ἀλήθεια, that is the Decad. Cf. especially the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος (pp. 377, 378, Copt.), where it is said that certain baptisms and a “spiritual chrism” will lead the souls of the disciples “into the Places of Truth and Goodness, to the Place of the Holy of all Holies, to the Place in which there is neither female, nor male, nor shape in that Place, but there is Light, everlasting, ineffable.”
Footnote 568:
These ἀποτάγματα are set out in detail in the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος (pp. 255 _sqq._ Copt.), where the disciples are ordered to “preach to the whole world ... renounce (ἀποτασσετε) the whole world and all the matter which is therein, and all its cares and all its sins, and in a word all its conversation (ὁμιλιαι) which is therein, that ye may be worthy of the mysteries of the Light, that ye may be preserved from all the punishments which are in the judgments” and so on. It should be noted that these are only required of the psychics or animal men.
Footnote 569:
No doubt in the Greek original the actual seal was here figured. For examples, see the Bruce Papyrus, _passim_. The idea is typically Egyptian. As M. Maspero says in his essay on “La Table d’Offrandes,” _R.H.R._ t. xxxv. No. 3 (1897), p. 325: no spell was in the view of the ancient Egyptians efficacious unless accompanied by a talisman or amulet which acted as a material support to it, as the body to the soul.
Footnote 570:
p. 238, Copt.
Footnote 571:
Hatch, _op. cit._ p. 296, n. 1, for references.
Footnote 572:
1 Cor. xv. 29. The practice of “baptizing for the dead,” as the A. V. has it, evidently continued into Tertullian’s time. See Tertull. _de Resurrectione Carnis_, c. XLVIII. p. 530, Oehler.
Footnote 573:
Döllinger, _First Age_, p. 327.
Footnote 574:
Hatch, _op. cit._ p. 307. The Emperor Constantine, who was baptized on his deathbed, was a case in point. The same story was told later about the Cathars or Manichaeans of Languedoc. The motive seems in all these cases to have been the same: as baptism washed away all sin, it was as well to delay it until the recipient could sin no more.
Footnote 575:
Hatch, _op. cit._ p. 295 and note, for references.
Footnote 576:
p. 236, Copt.
Footnote 577:
See n. 2, p. 166 _supra_.
Footnote 578:
Döllinger, _First Age_, pp. 234, 235.
Footnote 579:
_Ibid._ p. 235. Rom. vi. 4; Gal. iii. 27, 29, are quoted in support.
Footnote 580:
_Ibid._ p. 235. Rom. vii. 22; 1 Cor. vi. 14; Eph. iii. 16 and v. 30 are quoted in support.
Footnote 581:
Hatch, _op. cit._ p. 342.
Footnote 582:
p. 228, Copt.
Footnote 583:
pp. 230, 231, Copt.
Footnote 584:
The _Pistis Sophia_ proper comes to an end twenty pages later.
Footnote 585:
Döllinger, _First Age_, p. 239. 1 Cor. x. 16 _sqq._; Eph. v. 30, quoted in support.
Footnote 586:
Justin Martyr was probably born 114, and martyred 165 A.D. For the passage quoted in text, see his _First Apology_, c. LXVI., where he mentions among other things that the devils set on the worshippers of Mithras to imitate the Christian Eucharist by celebrating a ceremony with bread and a cup of water.
Footnote 587:
Hatch, _op. cit._ p. 308. This visible change of the contents of the cup of water to the semblance of blood is described in the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος (p. 377, Copt.), and with more detail in the Bruce Papyrus. Cf. p. 183 _infra_.
Footnote 588:
Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος, p. 354, Copt.
Footnote 589:
Whether the author of the _Pistis Sophia_ really intended to describe them may be doubted; but it is to be noted that the sacraments which Jesus is represented as celebrating in the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος can hardly be they, although Jesus calls them in one place (p. 374, Copt.), “the mysteries of the light which remit sins, which themselves are appellations and names of light.” These are administered to the twelve disciples without distinction, and it is evident that the author of these books is quite unacquainted with any division into pneumatic and psychic, and knows nothing of the higher mysteries called in the _Pistis Sophia_ proper “the mysteries of the Ineffable One” and “the mysteries of the First Mystery.” We should get over many difficulties if we supposed the two later books to be Marcosian in origin, but in any event they are later than the _Pistis Sophia_.
Footnote 590:
p. 246, Copt. So in the Manichaean text described in