§18Hac auctoritate trium scilicet liberorum agendis rebus exercitior facta formare singula genera constituit.
Having been made more practiced in conducting affairs by this authority, namely, of her three children, she resolved to form each of the classes.
sed spiritale quidem non ita potuit attingere, ut et ipsa spiritalis.
But the spiritual indeed she could not touch in such a way, although she herself was also spiritual.
fere enim paria et consubstantiua in alterutrum ualere societas naturae negauit.
For the community of nature has almost denied that equal and consubstantial things have power over one another.
eo animo se unum ad animale conuertit, prolatis Soteris disciplinis.
With this mind, the teachings of the Savior having been brought forward, she turned herself solely to the animal.
et primum, quod cum magno horrore blasphemiae et pronuntiandum et legendum est et audiendum, deum fingit hunc nostrum et omnium praeter haereticorum, Patrem et Demiurgum et Regem uniuersorum, quae post illum.
And first, which must be spoken and read and heard with great horror of blasphemy, she fashions this God of ours, and of all except the heretics, as Father and Demiurge and King of all things which are after him.
ab illo enim; si tamen ab illo, et non ab ipsa potius Achamoth, a qua occulto, nihil sentiens eius, et uelut sigillario extrinsecus ductu in omnem operationem mouebatur.
For they are from him; if indeed they are from him, and not rather from Achamoth herself, by whom, in a hidden manner, he, perceiving nothing of her, and as if by an external puppet-string, was moved to every operation.
denique ex hac personarum in operibus ambiguitate nomen illi Metropatoris miscuerunt, distinctis appellationibus ceteris secundum status et situs operum, ut animalium quidem substantiarum, quas ad dextram commendant, Patrem nuncupent, materialium uero, quas ad laeuam delegant, Demiurgum nominent, Regem autem communiter in uniuersitatem.
Consequently, from this ambiguity of personages in the works, they mixed for him the name of Metropator, distinguishing the remaining appellations according to the states and sites of the works, so that they call him Father of the animal substances, which they commend to the right hand, but name him Demiurge of the material ones, which they delegate to the left, and King in common over the whole universe.
§19Sed nec nominum proprietas competit f proprietati operum, de quibus nomina, cum deberet illa haec omnia uocitari, a qua res agebantur; nisi quod iam nec ab illa.
But neither does the propriety of the names agree with the propriety of the works from which the names are derived, whereas she ought to have been called by all these names, by whom the things were done; except that now they were not done even by her.
cum enim dicant Achamoth in honorem Aeonum **« imagines commentatam, rursus hoc in Soterem auctorem detorquent, qui per illam sit operatus, ut ipsam quidem imaginem Patris inuisibilis et incogniti daret, incognitam licet et inuisibilem Demiurgo, eundem autem Demiurgum Nun filium effingeret, Archangeli uero, Demiurgi opus, reliquos Aeonas exprimerent.
For while they say that Achamoth devised images in honor of the Aeons, they again distort this onto the Savior as the author, who operated through her, so that she might present herself indeed as the image of the invisible and unknown Father, although unknown and invisible to the Demiurge, and might fashion the same Demiurge as the image of the son, Nous, while the Archangels, the work of the Demiurge, should represent the remaining Aeons.
cum imagines audio tantas trium illorum, feminam Achamoth imaginem patris, et ignarum matris Demiurgum, multo magis patris, imaginem (Nu) non ignorantis patrem, et Angelos famulos simulacra dominorum, quaero: non uis nunc, ut imagines rideam peruersissimi pictoris? hoc est mulum de asino pingere et Ptolomaeum describere de Valentino.
When I hear of such great images of those three, the female Achamoth as the image of the Father, and the Demiurge, ignorant of his mother and much more of his father, as the image of Nous, who is not ignorant of the father, and the servant Angels as likenesses of their masters, I ask: do you not wish me now to laugh at the images of a most perverse painter? This is to paint a mule from an ass, and to copy Ptolemy from Valentinus.
§20Igitur Demiurgus, extra Pleromatis limites constitutus, in ignominiosa aeterni exilii uastitate nouam prouinciam condidit, hunc mundum, repurgata confusione et distincta diuersitate duplicis substantiae illius detrusae animalium et materialium.
Therefore the Demiurge, established outside the boundaries of the Pleroma, in the shameful vastness of eternal exile, founded a new province, this world, after the confusion of that double substance of the animal and material cast down there had been cleansed and its diversity distinguished.
ex incorporalibus corpora aedificat: grauia leuia, sublimantia atque uergentia, caelestia atque terrena.
From incorporeal things he builds bodies: heavy and light, rising and descending, celestial and terrestrial.
tum ipsam caelorum septemplicem scaenam solio desuper suo finit.
Then he limits the sevenfold stage of the heavens themselves by his throne from above.
unde et Sabbatum dictus est ab hebdomade sedis suae, ut Ogdoada mater Achamoth ab argumento ogdoadis primigenitalis.
Whence also he was called Sabbath from the sevenfold number of his seat, just as his mother Achamoth was called Ogdoad from the theme of the primordial ogdoad.
caelos autem voapοό; deputant et interdum angelos eos faciunt, sicut et ipsum Demiurgum, sicut et Paradisum Archangelum quartum, quoniam et hunc supra caelum tertium pangunt, ex cuius uirtute sumpserit (aliquid) Adam, deuersatus illic inter nubeculas et arbusculas.
And they repute the heavens as intellectual (noetoi) and sometimes make them angels, as they also do the Demiurge himself, and just as they make Paradise the fourth Archangel, since they fix this also above the third heaven, from whose power Adam is said to have received something, while he lodged there among the little clouds and little shrubs.
satis meminerat Ptolomaeus puerilium dicibulorum, in mari poma nasci et in arbore pisces; sic et in caelestibus nuceta praesumpsit.
Ptolemy had remembered well enough the childish little tales that apples grow in the sea and fish on trees; thus he also assumed walnut-groves in the heavens.
operatur Demiurgus ignorans et ideo fortasse non scit arbores in sola terra institui oportere.
The Demiurge operates in ignorance, and therefore perhaps he does not know that trees ought to be established on the earth alone.
plane mater sciebat.
Clearly his mother knew.
quidni suggerebat, quae et effectum suum ministrabat? sed tantum fastigium filio extruens per ea opera, quae illum et patrem et deum et regem ante Valentinianorum quoque ingenia testantur, cur se ipsam noluit ei notam, postea quaeram.
Why did she not suggest it, since she also ministered her own power to him? But raising so great an eminence for her son through those works which, even before the wits of the Valentinians, testify of him as father, god, and king, why she was unwilling to make herself known to him, I shall inquire later.