§31Superest de consummatione et dispensatione mercedis.
What remains is concerning the consummation and the distribution of the reward.
ubi Achamoth totam massam seminis sui presserit, dein colligere in horreum coeperit, [uel] tum ad molas delatum et defarinatum in consparsionis alutacia absconderit, donec totum confrequentetur, tunc consummatio urgebit.
When Achamoth has pressed the whole mass of her seed, then has begun to gather it into the barn, and then has hidden it, brought to the mills and ground into flour, in the leather pouch of the dough, until the whole is thoroughly mixed, then the consummation will be imminent.
igitur imprimis ipsa Achamoth de regione medietatis, de tabulato secundo in summum transferetur.
Therefore, first of all, Achamoth herself will be transferred from the region of the middle, from the second story, into the highest place.
restitutam Pleromati statim excipit compacticius ille Soter, sponsus scilicet, (et) ambo coniugium nouum fient, — hoc erit in scripturis sponsus (et sponsa) — et sponsalis Pleroma.
Her who is restored to the Pleroma, that composite Savior, namely the bridegroom, immediately receives, and both will become a new marriage—this in the Scriptures will be 'the bridegroom and the bride'—and the Pleroma will be the bridal chamber.
credas enim, ubi de loco in locum transmigratur, leges quoque Iulias interuenire.
For you would believe that, where migration is made from place to place, the Julian laws also intervene.
sicut ex scaena et Demiurgus tunc de Hebdomade caelesti in superiora mutabit, in uacuum iam caenaculum matris, sciens iam, nec uidens illam.
As if from a stage, the Demiurge also will then change from the heavenly Hebdomad to the higher regions, into the now vacant dining-room of his mother, knowing her now, yet not seeing her.
nam si ita erat, semper ignorare maluisset.
For if it were so, he would have preferred to remain always ignorant.
§32Humana uero gens in hoc exitus ibit: choicae et materialis notae totum (in) interitum, quia omnis caro foenum.
But the human race will go to this end: everything of the clay-made and material stamp will go into destruction, because 'all flesh is grass'.
et anima mortalis apud illos, nisi quae salutem fide inuenerit.
And the soul is mortal among them, except that which has found salvation through faith.
iustorum animae, id est nostrae, ad Demiurgum in medietatis receptacula transmittentur, — agimus gratias, contenti erimus cum deo nostro deputari — qua census animalis nihil in Pleromatis palatium admittitur, nisi spiritale examen Valentini.
The souls of the righteous, that is ours, will be transferred to the Demiurge, into the receptacles of the middle region —we give thanks; we shall be content to be classed with our God—where nothing of the psychic register is admitted into the palace of the Pleroma, except the spiritual swarm of Valentinus.
illic itaque primo despoliabuntur homines ipsi, id est interiores, — despoliari autem est deponere animas, quibus induti uidebantur — easque demiurgo suo reddent, [quas ab eo auerterant] ipsi autem spiritus in totum fient intellectuales, neque detentui neque conspectui obnoxii, atque ita inuisibiliter in Pleroma \' recipientur.
There, therefore, first of all, the men themselves, that is, the inner men, will be stripped— now, to be stripped is to lay aside the souls with which they seemed to be clothed—and they will restore them to their Demiurge, while they themselves, as spirits, will become entirely intellectual, subject neither to detention nor to sight, and thus invisibly they will be received into the Pleroma.
furtim, si ita est.
Stealthily, if it is so.
quid deinde? angelis distribuentur, satellitibus Soteris.
What then? They will be distributed to the angels, the attendants of the Savior.
in filios putas? non unus.
As sons, do you think? Not one.
sed in adparitores? ne istud quidem.
But as attendants? Not even that.
sed in imagines? utinam uel hoc! in quid ergo, si non pudet dicere? in sponsas.
But as images? Would that it were at least this! Into what then, if it is not shameful to say? Into brides.
tunc illi Sabinas raptas inter se de matrimoniis ludent.
Then they will play at marriages among themselves like the abducted Sabine women.
haec erit spiritalium merces, hoc praemium credendi.
This will be the reward of the spiritual, this the prize of believing.
fabulae tales utiles, ut Marcus aut Gaius, in hac carne barbatus et in hac anima seuerus maritus pater auus proauus, certe quod sufficit masculus, in nymphone Pleromatis ab angelo — tacendo iam dixi, et forsitan pariat aliquem Onesimum Aeonem.
What useful fables! so that Marcus or Gaius, bearded in this flesh, and in this soul a stern husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, certainly—what is sufficient—a male, in the bridal chamber of the Pleroma by an angel—by keeping silent I have already said it—and perhaps he may give birth to some Aeon Onesimus.
his nuptiis recte deducendis pro face et flammeo tunc, credo, ille ignis arcanus erumpet et, uniuersam substantiam depopulatus. ipse quoque decineratis omnibus in nihilum finietur, et nulla iam fabula.
For these marriages to be properly celebrated, instead of a torch and a bridal veil, then, I believe, that secret fire will burst forth, and having devastated the entire substance, and all things being reduced to ashes, it will also end in nothingness, and there will be no more fable.
sed ne ego temerarius, qui tantum sacramentum etiam inludendo prodiderim.
But lest I be rash, who have betrayed so great a mystery even by mocking it.
uerendum mihi est, ne Achamoth. quae se nec filio agnitam uoluit, insaniat, ne Theletus irascatur, ne Fortunata acerbetur.
I must fear lest Achamoth, who wished not to be recognized even by her son, should go mad, lest Theletus grow angry, lest Fortunata be embittered.
et tamen homo sum Demiurgi: illuc habeo deuertere post excessum, ubi omnino non nubitur, ubi superindui potius quam despoliari (habeo,) ubi, etsi despolior, sexui meo deputor, angelis non angelus, non angela.
And yet, I am a man of the Demiurge: thither I must turn aside after my departure, where there is no marrying at all, where I have to be clothed upon rather than stripped, where, even if I am stripped, I am assigned to my own sex, to the angels neither as a male angel nor as a female angel.
nemo mihi quicquam faciet, quem et tunc masculum inuenient.
No one will do anything to me, whom they will find even then to be a male.
§33Producam denique uelut epicitharisma post fabulam tantam etiam illa quae, ne ordini obstreperent et lectoris intentionem interiectione dispargerent, hunc malui in locum distulisse, aliter atque aliter commendata ab emendatoribus Ptolomaei.
I will finally produce, as if an after-piece after so great a fable, also those things which I preferred to defer to this place, lest they should interrupt the order and distract the reader's attention by an insertion, which are differently set forth by the correctors of Ptolemy.
extiterunt enim de schola ipsius discipuli super. magistrum, qui duplex coniugium Bytho suo adfingerent: Cogitationem et Voluntatem.
For there have arisen from his school disciples superior to their master, who would attribute a double marriage to their Bythus: Thought and Will.
una enim satis non erat Cogitatio, qua nihil producere potuisset.
For Thought alone was not sufficient, by which he could have produced nothing.
ex duabus facillime prolatum secundum coniugium Monogenem (et) Veritatem, ad imaginem quidem Cogitationis feminam Veritatem, ad imaginem Voluntatis marem Monogenem.
From these two was most easily produced the second marriage, Monogenes and Truth; indeed, Truth as a female after the image of Thought, and Monogenes as a male after the image of Will.
uoluntatis enim uis, ut quae effectum praestat cogitationi, uirilitatis obtinet censum.
For the power of will, inasmuch as it provides effect to thought, obtains the status of masculinity.