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Against the Valentinians

Tertullian

Chapter 20

About this work

Author: Tertullian

Chapter XX—The Demiurge Works Away at Creation, as the Drudge of His Mother Achamoth, in Ignorance All the While of the Nature of His Occupation.

The Demiurge therefore, placed as he was without the limits

‹ Chapter 19 Chapter 21 ›

of

the

Pleroma

in

the

ignominious

solitude

of

his

eternal

exile

,

founded

a

new

empire

—

this

world

(

of

ours

)

—

by

clearing

away

the

confusion

and

distinguishing

the

difference

between

the

two

substances

which

severally

constituted

it

,

the

animal

and

the

material

.

Out

of

incorporeal

(

elements

)

he

constructs

bodies

,

heavy

,

light

,

erect

and

stooping

,

celestial

and

terrene

.

He

then

completes

the

sevenfold

stages

of

heaven

itself

,

with

his

own

throne

above

all

.

Whence

he

had

the

additional

name

of

Sabbatum

from

the

hebdomadal

nature

of

his

abode

;

his

mother

Achamoth

,

too

,

had

the

title

Ogdoada

,

after

the

precedent

of

the

primeval

Ogdoad

.

These

heavens

,

however

,

they

consider

to

be

intelligent

,

and

sometimes

they

make

angels

of

them

,

as

indeed

they

do

of

the

Demiurge

himself

;

as

also

(

they

call

)

Paradise

the

fourth

archangel

,

because

they

fix

it

above

the

third

heaven

,

of

the

power

of

which

Adam

partook

,

when

he

sojourned

there

amidst

its

fleecy

clouds

and

shrubs

.

Ptolemy

remembered

perfectly

well

the

prattle

of

his

boyhood

,

that

apples

grew

in

the

sea

,

and

fishes

on

the

tree

;

after

the

same

fashion

,

he

assumed

that

nut

-

trees

flourished

in

the

skies

.

The

Demiurge

does

his

work

in

ignorance

,

and

therefore

perhaps

he

is

unaware

that

trees

ought

to

be

planted

only

on

the

ground

.

His

mother

,

of

course

,

knew

all

about

it

:

how

is

it

,

then

,

that

she

did

not

suggest

the

fact

,

since

she

was

actually

executing

her

own

operation

?

But

whilst

building

up

so

vast

an

edifice

for

her

son

by

means

of

those

works

,

which

proclaim

him

at

once

to

be

father

,

god

and

,

king

before

the

conceits

of

the

Valentinians

,

why

she

refused

to

let

them

be

known

to

even

him

,

is

a

question

which

I

shall

ask

afterwards

.

Notes

1
Duplicis substantiæ illius disclusæ.
2
Sublimantia.
3
Ogdoadis primogenitalis: what Irenæus calls “the first-begotten and primary Ogdoad of the Pleroma” (See our Irenæus, Vol. I.; also above, chap. vii. p. 506.)
4
Noëros.
5
Nubeculas.
6
Arbusculas.
7
Puerilium dicibulorum.
8
Sibi here must refer to the secondary agent of the sentence.