Part 2 (1/2)
And that, as he says, the beginning of the generation of things which are generated is from Fire, he understands somewhat in this fas.h.i.+on. Of all things of which there is generation, the beginning of the desire for their generation is from Fire. For, indeed, the desire of mutable generation is called ”being on fire.” And though Fire is one, yet has it two modes of mutation. For in the man, he says, the blood, being hot and yellow--like fire when it takes form--is turned into seed, whereas in the woman the same blood (is changed) into milk. And this change in the male becomes the faculty of generating, while that in the female (becomes) nourishment for the child. This, he says, is ”the flaming sword that is turned about to keep the way of the tree of life.”[32] For the blood is turned into seed and milk; and this Power becomes mother and father, father of those that are born, and mother of those that are nourished, standing in want of nothing, sufficient unto itself. And the tree of life, he says, is guarded by the fiery sword which is turned about, (which tree), as we have said, (is) the seventh Power which proceeds from itself, contains all (in itself), and is stored in the six Powers. For were the flaming sword not turned about, that fair tree would be destroyed and perish; but if it is turned into seed and milk, that which is stored in them in potentiality, having obtained a fitting utterance,[33] and an appointed place in which the utterance may be developed, starting as it were from the smallest spark, it will increase to all perfection, and expand, and be an infinite power, unchangeable, equal and similar to the unchangeable Aeon, which is no more generated for the boundless eternity.
18. Conformably, therefore, to this reasoning, for the foolish, Simon was a G.o.d, like that Libyan Apsethus; (a G.o.d) subject to generation and suffering, so long as he remained in potentiality, but freed from the bonds of suffering and birth, as soon as his imaging forth was accomplished, and attaining perfection he pa.s.sed forth from the first two Powers, to wit heaven and earth. For Simon speaks distinctly concerning this in his _Revelation_ as follows:
”_To you, therefore, I say what I say, and write what I write. And the writing is this._
”_Of the universal Aeons there are two shoots, without beginning or end, springing from one Root, which is the Power invisible, inapprehensible Silence. Of these shoots one is manifested from above, which is the Great Power, the Universal Mind ordering all things, male, and the other, (is manifested) from below, the Great Thought, female, producing all things_.
”_Hence pairing with each other_,[34] _they unite and manifest the Middle Distance, incomprehensible Air, without beginning or end. In this is the Father who sustains all things, and nourishes those things which have a beginning and end._
”_This is He who has stood, stands and will stand, a male-female power like the preexisting Boundless Power, which has neither beginning nor end, existing in oneness. For it is from this that the Thought in the oneness proceeded and became two._
”_So he_[35] _was one; for having her_[36] _in himself, he was alone, not however first, although preexisting, but being manifested from himself to himself, he became second. Nor was he called Father before (Thought) called him Father._
”_As, therefore, producing himself by himself, he manifested to himself his own Thought, so also the Thought that was manifested did not make the Father, but contemplating him hid him--that is to say the Power--in herself, and is male-female, Power and Thought._
”_Hence they pair with each other being one, for there is no difference between Power and Thought. From the things above is discovered Power, and from those below Thought._
”_In the same manner also that which was manifested from them_[37]
_although being one is yet found as two, the male-female having the female in itself. Thus Mind is in Thought--things inseparable from one another--which although being one are yet found as two._”
19. So then Simon by such inventions got what interpretation he pleased, not only out of the writings of Moses, but also out of those of the (pagan) poets, by falsifying them. For he gives an allegorical interpretation of the wooden horse, and Helen with the torch, and a number of other things, which he metamorphoses and weaves into fictions concerning himself and his Thought.
And he said that the latter was the ”lost sheep,” who again and again abiding in women throws the Powers in the world into confusion, on account of her unsurpa.s.sable beauty; on account of which the Trojan War came to pa.s.s through her. For this Thought took up its abode in the Helen that was born just at that time, and thus when all the Powers laid claim to her, there arose faction and war among those nations to whom she was manifested.
It was thus, forsooth, that Stesichorus was deprived of sight when he abused her in his verses; and afterwards when he repented and wrote the recantation in which he sung her praises he recovered his sight.
And subsequently, when her body was changed by the Angels and lower Powers--which also, he says, made the world--she lived in a brothel in Tyre, a city of Phoenicia, where he found her on his arrival.
For he professes that he had come there for the purpose of finding her for the first time, that he might deliver her from bondage. And after he had purchased her freedom he took her about with him, pretending that she was the ”lost sheep,” and that he himself was the Power which is over all. Whereas the impostor having fallen in love with this strumpet, called Helen, purchased and kept her, and being ashamed to have it known by his disciples, invented this story.
And those who copy the vagabond magician Simon do like acts, and pretend that intercourse should be promiscuous, saying: ”All soil is soil, and it matters not where a man sows, so long as he does sow.” Nay, they pride themselves on promiscuous intercourse, saying that this is the ”perfect love,” citing the text, ”the holy shall be sanctified by the ... of the holy.”[38] And they profess that they are not in the power of that which is usually considered evil, for they are redeemed. For by purchasing the freedom of Helen, he (Simon) thus offered salvation to men by knowledge peculiar to himself.[39]
For he said that, as the Angels were misgoverning the world owing to their love of power, he had come to set things right, being metamorphosed and made like unto the Dominions, Princ.i.p.alities and Angels, so that he was manifested as a man although he was not really a man, and that he seemed to suffer[40] in Judaea, although he did not really undergo it, but that he was manifested to the Jews as the Son, in Samaria as the Father, and among the other nations as the Holy Ghost, and that he permitted himself to be called by whatever name men pleased to call him. And that it was by the Angels, who made the world, that the Prophets were inspired to utter their prophecies. Wherefore they who believe on Simon and Helen pay no attention to the latter even to this day, but do everything they like, as being free, for they contend that they are saved through his (Simon's) grace.
For (they a.s.sert that) there is no cause for punishment if a man does ill, for evil is not in nature but in inst.i.tution. For, he says, the Angels who made the world, inst.i.tuted what they wished, thinking by such words to enslave all who listened to them. Whereas the dissolution of the world, they (the Simonians) say, is for the ransoming of their own people.
20. And (Simon's) disciples perform magical ceremonies and (use) incantations, and philtres and spells, and they also send what are called ”dream-sending” daemons for disturbing whom they will. They also train what are called ”familiars,”[41] and have a statue of Simon in the form of Zeus, and one of Helen in the form of Athena, which they wors.h.i.+p, calling the former Lord and the latter Lady.
And if any among them on seeing the images, calls them by the name of Simon or Helen, he is cast out as one ignorant of the mysteries.
While this Simon was leading many astray by his magic rites in Samaria, he was confuted by the apostles. And being cursed, as it is written in the _Acts_, in dissatisfaction took to these schemes.
And at last he travelled to Rome and again fell in with the apostles, and Peter had many encounters with him for he continued leading numbers astray by his magic. And towards the end of his career going ... he settled under a plane tree and continued his teachings. And finally running the risk of exposure through the length of his stay, he said, that if he were buried alive, he would rise again on the third day. And he did actually order a grave to be dug by his disciples and told them to bury him. So they carried out his orders, but he has stopped away[42] until the present day, for he was not the Christ.
vi. Origenes (_Contra Celsum_, i. 57; v. 62; vi. ii). Text (edidit Carol. Henric. Eduard); Lommatzsch; Berolini, 1846.
i. 57. And Simon also, the Samaritan magician, endeavoured to steal away certain by his magic. And at that time he succeeded in deceiving them, but in our own day I do not think it possible to find thirty Simonians altogether in the inhabited world. And probably I have said more than they really are. There are a very few of them round Palestine; but in the rest of the world his name is nowhere to be found in the sense of the doctrine he wished to spread broadcast concerning himself. And alongside of the reports about him, we have the account from the _Acts_. And they who say these things about him are Christians and their clear witness is that Simon was nothing divine.
v. 62. Then pouring out a quant.i.ty of our names, he (Celsus) says he knows certain Simonians who are called Heleniani, because they wors.h.i.+p Helen or a teacher Helenus. But Celsus is ignorant that the Simonians in no way confess that Jesus is the Son of G.o.d, but they say that Simon is the Power of G.o.d, telling some marvellous stories about the fellow, who thought that if he laid claim to like powers as those which he thought Jesus laid claim to, he also would be as powerful among men as Jesus is with many.
vi. ii. For the former (Simon) pretended he was the Power of G.o.d, which is called Great, and the latter (Dositheus) that he too was the Son of G.o.d. For nowhere in the world do the Simonians any longer exist. Moreover by getting many under his influence Simon took away from his disciples the danger of death, which Christians were taught was taken away, teaching them that there was no difference between it and idolatry. And yet in the beginning the Simonians were not plotted against. For the evil daemon who plots against the teaching of Jesus, knew that no counsel of his own would be undone by the disciples of Simon.
vii. Philastrius (_De Haeresibus_, i). Text: _Patres Quarti Ecclesiae Saeculi_ (edidit D.A.B. Caillau); Paris, 1842.