§21interim tenendum Sophiam cognominari et Terram et Matrem et, quod magis rideas, etiam Spiritum Sanctum, quasi marem [terram].
Meanwhile it must be held that Sophia is surnamed both Earth and Mother, and, what you would laugh at more, even Holy Spirit, as if a male.
ita omnem illi (masculi) honorem contulerunt feminae, puto et barbam, ne dixerim cetera.
Thus they conferred all masculine honor upon a female; I suppose even a beard, not to mention the rest.
alioquin Demiurgus adeo rerum non erat compos, de animalis scilicet census inualitudine spiritalia accedere, ut se solum ratus contionaretur: ego deus, et absque me non est. certe tamen non fuisse se retro sciebat.
Otherwise, the Demiurge was so far from being master of things—scilicet on account of the weakness of his animal status, so as to approach spiritual things—that, thinking he was alone, he harangued: "I am God, and beside me there is none." And yet he certainly knew that he had not existed previously.
ergo et factum intellegebat et factitatorem facti esse quemcumque.
Therefore he both understood that he had been made, and that there was some maker of what had been made.
quomodo ergo solus sibi uidebatur, etsi non certus, saltim suspectus de aliquo factitatore?
How then did he seem to himself to be alone, even if not certain, at least suspecting some maker?
§22Tolerabilior infamia est apud illos in diabolum, uel quia origo sordidior capit.
The infamy among them regarding the devil is more tolerable, or because his origin is received as more filthy.
ex nequitia enim maeroris illius deputatur, ex qua angelorum et daemonum et omnium spiritalium malitiarum genituras notant.
For he is deputed to the wickedness of her grief, from which they note the generation of angels and demons and all spiritual wickednesses.
et tamen diabolum quoque opus Demiurgi adfirmant et Munditenentem appellant et superiorum magis gnarum defendunt, ut spiritalem natura, quam Demiurgum, ut animalem.
And yet they also assert that the devil is the work of the Demiurge, and call him Ruler of the World, and defend him as more knowing of the higher things, as being spiritual by nature, than the Demiurge, who is animal.
meretur ab illis praelationem cui omnes haereses procurantur.
He well deserves preference from them, for whom all heresies are procured.
§23Singularium autem potestatum arces his finibus collocant: in summis summitatibus praesidet tricenarius Pleroma, Horo signante lineam extremam.
But they locate the strongholds of individual powers within these limits: in the highest summits presides the thirtyfold Pleroma, with Horos marking the outermost line.
inferius illum metatur medietatem Achamoth, filium calcans.
Below him, Achamoth measures out the middle region, treading upon her son.
subest enim Demiurgus in Hebdomade sua.
For the Demiurge is placed beneath in his Sevenfold.
magis diabolus in isto nobiscum conuenit mundo, coelementato et concorporificato, ut supra editum est.
The devil rather fits with us in this world, co-elemented and co-corporified, as has been set forth above.
ex Sophiae utilissimis casibus, qua nec aerem haberet, reciporcandi spiritus spatium, teneram omnium corporum uestem, colorum omnium indicem, organum temporum, si non et istum Sophiae maestitia colasset, sicut animalia metus, sicut conuersio eius ipsum Demiurgum.
From Sophia's most useful disasters, whereby she would not even have had air— the space for breathing, the tender clothing of all bodies, the indicator of all colors, the organ of times—if Sophia's sadness had not strained out this also, just as fear strained out the animals, and her conversion the Demiurge himself.
his omnibus elementis atque corporibus ignis inflabellatus est.
Into all these elements and bodies, fire was fanned.
cuius originalem Sophiae passionem quia nondum ediderunt, ego interim argumentabor motiunculis eius excussum.
Since they have not yet published the original passion of Sophia for this fire, I shall meanwhile argue that it was shaken out from her slight feverish agitations.
credas enim illam in tantis uexationibus etiam febricitasse.
For you might believe that she, in such great joys, even had a fever.
§24Cum talia de deo uel de diis, qualia de homine figmenta? molitus enim mundum Demiurgus ad hominem manus confert et substantiam ei capit non ex ista, inquiunt, arida, quam nos unicam nouimus, terra, — quasi non, etsi arida postmodum, adhuc tamen tunc, aquis * ante segregatis, superstite limo succida fuerit — sed ex inuisibili corpore materiae, illius scilicet philosophicae, de fluxili et fusili eius, quod unde fuerit audeo aestimare, quia nusquam * est.
Since such things are fashioned about God or the gods, what sort of fictions are there about man? For the Demiurge, having constructed the world, turns his hands to man, and takes his substance, they say, not from this dry earth which we alone know—as if, although dry afterwards, it had not been damp even then, the waters having been separated beforehand, with the remaining mud—but from the invisible body of matter, namely of that philosophical kind, from its fluid and fusible part, which I dare to estimate whence it was, because it is nowhere.
si enim fusile et fluxile liquoris est qualitas, liquor autem omnis de Sophiae fletibus fluxit, sequitur, ut limum ex pituitis et gramis Sophiae constitisse credamus, quae lacrimarum proinde sunt faeces, sicut aquarum quod desidet limus est.
For if fusible and fluid are qualities of liquid, and all liquid flowed from Sophia's tears, it follows that we must believe the mud consisted of Sophia's phlegm and rheum, which are likewise the dregs of tears, just as the mud which settles is the dregs of waters.
figulat ita(que) hominem Demiurgus et de afflatu suo animat.
Thus the Demiurge fashions man and animates him with his own breath.
sic erit et choicus et animalis, ad imaginem et similitudinem factus, quadruplex res, ut imago quidem choicus deputetur, — materialis scilicet, etsi non ex materia. Demiurgus — similitudo autem animalis; hoc enim et Demiurgus.
Thus he will be both of clay (choicus) and animal, made after the image and likeness, a fourfold thing, so that the clay-made is indeed deputed as the image—namely the material, although the Demiurge is not of matter—and the likeness as the animal; for this also is the Demiurge.
habes duos interim.
You have two meanwhile.
carnalem superficiem postea aiunt choico supertextam, et hanc esse pelliceam tunicam obnoxiam sensui.
They say that a carnal surface was afterwards woven over the clay-made, and this is the tunic of skin, subject to sense.