§34Pudiciores alii, honorem diuinitatis recordati, ut etiam unius coniugis dedecus ab eo auellerent, maluerunt nullum Bytho sexum deputare, et fortasse \'hoc deum\', non \'hic deus\' neutro genere pronuntiant.
Others, more modest, remembering the honor of the divinity, so that they might tear away from him even the disgrace of having a single consort, preferred to assign no sex to Bythus, and perhaps they pronounce 'this god' in the neuter gender, not 'he is god'.
alii contra magis et masculum et feminam dicunt, ne apud solos Lunenses Hermaphroditum existimet annalium commentator Fenestella.
Others, on the contrary, rather say he is both male and female, lest Fenestella, the commentator of annals, should think Hermaphroditus exists only among the people of Luna.
§35Sunt, qui nec principatum Bytho defendant, sed postumatum, ogdoadem ante omnia praemittentes, ex tetrade quidem et ipsam sed aliis nominibus deriuatam.
There are those who do not maintain even the priority of Bythus, but rather his posteriority, placing the Ogdoad before all things, derived indeed from the Tetrad itself, but under other names.
primo enim constituunt Proarchen, secundo Anennoeton, tertio Arrheton, quarto Aoraton.
For first they establish Proarche, second Anennoetus, third Arrhetus, fourth Aoratus.
ex Proarche itaque processisse primo et quinto loco Archen, ex Anennoeto secundo et sexto loco Acatalepton, ex Arrheto tertio et septimo loco Anonomaston, ex Inuisibili quarto et octauo loco Agenneton.
From Proarche, therefore, there proceeded in the first and fifth places Arche; from Anennoetus, in the second and sixth places, Acataleptus; from Arrhetus, in the third and seventh places, Anonomastus; from the Invisible, in the fourth and eighth places, Agennetus.
hoc quae ratio disponat. ut singula binis locis et quidem tam intercisis nascantur, malo ignorare quam discere.
By what reason this is arranged, so that individual things are born in two places and indeed with such gaps between them, I prefer to be ignorant rather than to learn.
quid enim recti habent quae tam peruerse proferuntur?
For what rectitude do things have that are produced so perversely?
§36Quanto meliores qui totum hoc taedium de medio amoliti nullum Aeonem uoluerunt alium ex alio per gradus reuera Gemonios structum, sed mappa, quod aiunt, missa semel octoiugem istam ex Propatore et Ennoea eius excusam.
How much better are those who, having removed all this tediousness from the midst, wished no Aeon to be structured one from another indeed through steps like the Gemonian stairs, but rather, as the saying goes, 'at the casting of the handkerchief' once and for all, cast that eight-fold yoke from the Propaton and his Ennoea.
ex ipso denique rerum motu nomina gerunt.
Finally, they bear names from the very movement of affairs.
\'cum,\' inquiunt, \'cogitauit proferre, hoc Pater dictus est cum protulit, quia uero protulit, hoc Veritas appellata est.
'When,' they say, 'he thought to produce, for this reason he was called Father; when he produced, because indeed he produced, this was called Truth.
cum semetipsum uoluit probari, hoc Homo pronuntiatus est.
When he wished himself to be proved, this was pronounced Man.
quos autem praecogitauit cum protulit, tunc Ecclesia nuncupata est. \' sonuit Homo Sermonem, — et hic est primogenitus filius — et Sermoni accessit Vita, et ogdoas prima conclusa est.
But those whom he foreknew when he produced, then the Church was named.' Man sounded forth Word—and this is the first-born son—and to Word was added Life, and the first Ogdoad was concluded.
sed hoc taedium pusillum.
But this is a small tediousness.
§37Accipe alia ingenia, cicuri iam anima, insignioris apud eos magistri, qui ex pontificali sua auctoritate in hunc modum censuit: \'est,\' inquit, (ante omnia Proarche, inexcogitabile et inenarrabile (et) innominabile, quod ego nomino Monoteta.
Receive other inventions, with your mind now tamed, of a more distinguished master among them, who from his pontifical authority decided in this manner: 'There is,' he says, 'before all things Proarche, unthinkable and ineffable and innominable, which I name Monotes.
cum hac erat alia uirtus, quam et ipsam appello Henoteta.
With this was another power, which itself I also call Henotes.
Monotes et Henotes, id est Solitas et Unitas, cum unum essent, protulerunt, non proferentes, initium omnium intellectuale innascibile inuisibile, quod sermo (Monada) uocauit.
Monotes and Henotes, that is Solitude and Unity, when they were one, produced, without producing, the intellectual, unborn, invisible beginning of all things, which discourse called Monad.
huic adest consubstantiua uirtus, quam appellat Unionem.
To this is present a consubstantial power, which he calls Union.
hae igitur uirtutes: Solitas Unitas (Singularitas) Unio ceteras prolationes Aeonum propagarunt. \' o differentia! mutetur Unio et Unitas et Singularitas [et suum] et Solitas, quaqua designaueris: unum est.
These powers therefore: Solitude, Unity, Singularity, Union, propagated the remaining productions of the Aeons.' Oh, what a difference! Let Union and Unity and Singularity and Solitude be interchanged, in whatever way you designate them: they are one.
§38Humanior iam Secundus, ut breuior, ogdoadem in duas tetradas diuidens, in dexteram et sinistram, in lumen et tenebras, tantum quod desultricem et defectricem illam uirtutem non uult ab aliquo deducere Aeonum, sed a fructibus t de substantia ueniant
Secundus, now more reasonable, as he is briefer, dividing the Ogdoad into two Tetrads, into a right and a left, into light and darkness, only that he does not wish to derive that leaping and defective power from any of the Aeons, but from the fruits... that they may come from the substance.
§39De ipso iam domino Iesu quanta diuersitas scinditur! hi ex omnium Aeonum flosculis eum construunt;
Concerning the Lord Jesus himself, indeed, how great a diversity is split!
illi ex solis decem constitisse contendunt, quos Sermo et Vita protulerunt, unde et in ipsum Sermonis et Vitae concurrerint tituli; isti ex duodecim potius, ex Hominis et Ecclesiae fetu, ideoque Filium Hominis auite pronuntiatum; alii (a) Christo et Spiritu Sancto, constabiliendae uniuersitati prouisis, confictum et inde paternae appellationis heredem.
These construct him from the flowerets of all the Aeons; those contend that he consisted of only ten, whom Word and Life produced, whence also the titles of Word and Life concurred in him; others rather from twelve, from the offspring of Man and Church, and therefore that he was pronounced 'Son of Man' ancestrally; others that he was fashioned by Christ and the Holy Spirit, who were provided for stabilizing the universe, and thence he was the heir of the paternal appellation.
sunt, qui Filium Hominis (non) aliunde conceperint dicendum, quam quia ipsum Patrem pro magno nominis sacramento Hominem appellasse (se) praesumpserint.
There are those who conceived that 'Son of Man' was to be said from no other source than because they presumed that the Father himself was called Man for the great mystery of the name.
et quid amplius speres de eius dei fide, cui nomine adaequaris? Talia ingenia superfruticant apud illos ex materni seminis redundantia.
And what more can you hope for concerning the faith in that god to whose name you are made equal? Such geniuses overgrow among them from the redundancy of the mother's seed.
atque ita inolescentes doctrinae Valentinianorum in siluas iam exoleuerunt Gnosticorum.
And thus the growing doctrines of the Valentinians have now degenerated into the forests of the Gnostics.