Note 356 — Chapter IV

Footnote 356:

(return)

The Gnostic teaching did not meet with a vigorous resistance even on this point, and could also appeal to the oldest tradition. The arbitrariness in the number, derivation and designation of the Æons was contested. The aversion to barbarism also co-operated here, in so far as Gnosticism delighted in mysterious words borrowed from the Semites. But the Semitic element attracted as well as repelled the Greeks and Romans of the second century. The Gnostic terminologies within the Æon speculations were partly reproduced among the Catholic theologians of the third century; most important is it that the Gnostics have already made use of the concept "'ομοουσιος"; see Iren., I. 5. 1: αλλα το μεν πνευματικον μη δεδυνησθαι αυτην μορφωσαι, επειδη 'ομοουσιον 'υπηρχεν αυτηι (said of the Sophia): L. 5. 4, και τουτον ειναι τον κατ' εικονα και 'ομοιωσιν γεγονοτα; κατ' εικονα μεν τον 'υλικον 'υπαρχειν, παραπλησιον μεν, αλλ' ουχ 'ομοουσιον τωι θεωι καθ' 'ομοιωσιν δε τον ψυχικον. I. 5. 5: το δε κυημα της μητρος της "Αχαμωθ", 'ομοουσιον 'υπαρχον τηι μητρι. In all these cases the word means "of one substance." It is found in the same sense in Clem., Hom. 20. 7: See also Philos. VII. 22; Clem., Exc. Theod. 42. Other terms also which have acquired great significance in the Church since the days of Origen, (e.g., αγεννητος), are found among the Gnostics, see Ep. Ptol. ad Floram, 5; and Bigg. (1. c. p. 58, note 3) calls attention to the appearance τριας in Excerpt. ex. Theod. § 80, perhaps the earliest passage.