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Irenæus
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Introductory Note to Irenæus Against Heresies
[3017] We have literally translated the above very obscure sentence. According to Massuet, the sense is: “There will some time be, or perhaps even now there is, some Æon utterly destitute of such honour, inasmuch as those things which the Saviour, for the sake of honouring it, had formed after its image, have been destroyed; and then those things which are above will remain without honour,” etc.
[3018] The Saviour is here referred to, as having formed all things through means of Achamoth and the Demiurge.
[3019] Massuet deletes quem, and reads nūn as a genitive.
[3021] Dan. vii. 10, agreeing neither with the Greek nor Hebrew text.
[3022] This clause is exceedingly obscure. Harvey remarks upon it as follows: “The reasoning of Irenæus seems to be this: According to the Gnostic theory, the Æons and angels of the Pleroma were homogeneous. They were also the archetypes of things created. But things created are heterogeneous: therefore either these Æons are heterogeneous, which is contrary to theory; or things created are homogeneous, which is contrary to fact.”
[3023] Literally, “from Himself.”
Chapter VIII.—Created things are not a shadow of the Pleroma.
[3024] See above, chap. ii. and v.
[3025] The text has fabricâsse, for which, says Massuet, should be read fabricatam esse; or fabricâsse itself must be taken in a passive signification. It is possible, however, to translate, as Harvey indicates, “that He (Bythus) formed so great a creation by angels,” etc., though this seems harsh and unsuitable.
[3026] Literally, empty: there is a play on the words vacuum and vacui (which immediately follows), as there had been in the original Greek.
[3027] Comp. e.g., Matt. v. 16,Matt. v. 45, Matt. vi. 9, etc.
[3028] See chap xxiii. etc.
[3029] Viz., the Valentinians.
[3033] This clause is unintelligible in the Latin text: by a conjectural restoration of the Greek we have given the above translation.
[3035] Playing upon the doctrines of the heretics with respect to vacuity and shade.
[3036] The text vacillates between “dicemus” and “dicamus.”
[3037] This sentence is confused in the Latin text, but the meaning is evidently that given above.
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