Note 212 — Chapter VIII · POST-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: THE OPHITES

Irenaeus, Bk I. c. 28, § 6, p. 238, Harvey. The section is given almost word for word as in Irenaeus; but it is manifestly taken from some other source than that of the Greek text, and is inconsistent with the rest of the story. If the Lower Sophia or Prunicos (the Substitute) were born from the mere boiling over of the light shed upon her mother, of what had she to “repent”? In the Pistis Sophia, indeed, the heroine wins her way back to her former estate by repentance, but her fall has been occasioned by disobedience and ambition. So, too, the story about Jesus changing His form on His descent through the seven heavens is common to the story of Pistis Sophia and the legend of Simon Magus, which two it therefore connects (see Chapter VI, vol. I. p. 191, n. 4). It also appears in the Ascension of Isaiah which Mr Charles thinks may be dated about 150 A.D. (see Charles, Ascension of Isaiah, 1900, pp. xi and 62), but which is probably of much later date. There are other features to be noted in their place common to the Pistis Sophia and the last named work.