excerpts made by Clement, they seem to be recounted not as Clement’s opinion, but as that of Theodotus. On which matter I leave the judgment to the intelligent. Hervetus, indeed, has not interpreted them: either because they are mutilated and corrupted throughout, or because they are not everywhere orthodox, as they repeatedly allege the opinions of Basilides and Valentinus. SYLBURG.—Here Clement seems to studiously note and expound the entire expositions of the Valentinians and other heretics, so that it may appear to be their commentary rather than that of Clement himself, a man truly ecclesiastical. For on this account was the work inscribed to him, or rather to the epitomizer Theodotus; unless, perhaps, we ought to read *aiōnas* [ages], or unless Clement or even Theodotus intended one thing for another, and as it were synonyms, in God and the angels rather than in us and in this mortal time and fixed state of affairs *chronous* [times]. So that it might be an exposition of the places of Scripture, or even of the mysteries of the Christian religion, according to the mind of Valentinus and his Aeons and, as it were, his theogony, and not against him: a thing I wonder could have proceeded from an ecclesiastical man in that sense, or certainly that Eusebius would have concealed it. But if he himself thought these things were monstrous and alien to the ecclesiastical rule, and that they were sufficiently refuted by that very narration, as Epiphanius almost did in his praised work, the *Ancoratus*, he certainly ought to have stated his own sense and mind more distinctly, and separated the precious from the vile. Although men of such an ancient age, and those who first undertook to cultivate the field of the Scriptures—so loathsome to the senses of heretics—are not devoid of all pardon if they did not extirpate many of their errors, and saw their own works in that thing almost mingled and confused together. Although it is more probable that Clement arranged his own lucubration with greater light, and more clearly insinuated what was ecclesiastical and what was Valentinian and heretical, which the epitomizer did not thus observe. Who this Theodotus is, is too uncertain, since here also a Theodotus is cited, who was more ancient than Clement and of the sect of Valentinus. I do not know if Theodotus of Ancyra, a colleague of Cyril against Nestorius, sufficiently approved by the patriarch Nicephorus in his *Antirrhetics*, can be said to have put his hand to these things, and hence to have contracted flaws, so that he seemed not quite sound in the faith of the Divinity, just as neither Eusebius with his Origen, who feeds his mind on ideas or uncertain conjectures and divines for himself, certainly brings forward nothing in which the reader may rest. With this caution, I have undertaken to explain this work, whatever I contribute to it, and that thus we may hunt out in it some lights of antiquity, so that our uncontaminated and truly ecclesiastical faith may feel no detriment from those fables and figments of the heretics, but may grow stronger in ridiculing the nonsense and trifles of men truly foolish in their own wisdom. See Epiphanius, *Heresy* 31, Irenæus in his whole work *Against Heresies*, Tertullian, and others. That the title *Oriental Doctrine* puts forth is an indication that he who so inscribed it was a European, or someone subject to his see, who wished to note the Asians or Syrians from this. Such are those *orientals*, from whom those dregs of the Valentinians and other heretics of almost the first age came. COMBEF.—Ignatius mentions Theodotus in the *Interpolated Epistle to the Trallians*, c. 11, where compare what Cotelerius annotated. Compare also what is brought forward above from Valesius to *Stromata* 1, cap. 21.
A I. "Father," he says, "into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). "What the Wisdom brought forth," he says, "as a small body for the Word, the spiritual seed, this the Savior put on when he descended. Hence it is that in the passion he commends the Wisdom to the Father, that he might receive it back from the Father, and not be detained here by those who are able to deprive him of it. Thus he commends every spiritual seed, the elect, by the aforementioned voice. We call the elect seed a spark vivified by the Word, and the apple of the eye, and the grain of mustard, and leaven, unifying into faith the kinds that seemed to be divided."
B II. But the followers of Valentinus say that, the animal body having been formed, the virile seed was inserted in the elect soul while in sleep by the Word, which is an effusion of the angelic, so that it might not be a deficiency. And this leavened the things that seemed to have been divided, unifying the soul and the flesh, which were also brought forth in division by the Wisdom. And the sleep of Adam was the forgetfulness of the soul, which he held, so that it would not be dissolved, just as the spiritual thing which the Savior placed in the soul. The seed was an effusion of the male and angelic; for this reason the Savior says: "Be thou saved, thou and thy soul."
C III. The Savior therefore coming, awakened the soul, and kindled the spark. For the words are power...
of the Lord. For this reason He said: "Let your light shine before men." A And after the resurrection, breathing the Spirit upon the apostles, he blew away and separated the dust, as if it were ashes; but he kindled the spark and brought it to life.
IV. The Lord, being endowed with the greatest humility, did not show Himself to be seen as an angel, but as a man. And when He was seen in glory and majesty by His apostles on the mountain, He did not do this for His own sake, as if to show Himself off, but for the sake of His Church, which is the elect race, so that it might learn His progress after the departure of the flesh. For He Himself was light above, and is that which appeared in the flesh, and He who was seen here was not later than the one above, nor was He divided when He moved from above to here, nor did He change from place B to place, so as to take the one and leave the other; but He was what is everywhere, both with the Father and here on earth, inasmuch as He is the power of the Father. Furthermore, it was necessary that the word of the Savior be fulfilled, which He had uttered: "There are some of those standing here who shall not taste of death until they see the Son of Man in His majesty." Peter, therefore, and James and John saw Him in glory, and fell asleep.
V. How, then, seeing the luminous face of the Lord, were they not struck with stupor; yet the moment they heard His voice, did they fall to the ground? Because, of course, ears are further removed from faith than eyes, and an unusual voice strikes greater terror. C Indeed, when John the Baptist heard the voice, he was not afraid, because he heard it in the Spirit, to whom that voice was familiar; but insofar as one is merely a man hearing it, he is amazed. For this reason the Savior says to them: "Tell no one what you have seen." And yet they had not seen the light with carnal eyes; for there is nothing in common or proper to that light and this flesh; but as the power and will of the Savior strengthened the flesh to behold it, and furthermore as the soul saw, it imparted it to the flesh, sharing it, in that it is closely joined to it. But that which was said, "Tell no one," was so that, thinking that He was the Lord, they might refrain from laying D hands upon the Lord, and thus the dispensation might be imperfect, and death be kept away from the Lord, as having attempted in vain that which it could not accomplish. Furthermore, that voice uttered on the mountain was for the elect who were already able to understand; and therefore they marveled, as the one whom they already believed in was testified to: but that voice uttered at the flood of the Jordan was for those who were to believe in Him; and wherefore the voice was neglected also by those same ones, who were held fast, entangled in the instructions of the teachers of the law.
A VI. The words, *In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God*, the followers of Valentinus interpret as follows. For they say that the "Beginning" is the Only-Begotten, who is also addressed as God, as indeed John shows clearly in what follows, saying: *The Only-Begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.* By this is meant the Word that was in the beginning, that which was in the Only-Begotten, in the Mind and in the Truth; He indicates Christ, the Word and the Life. Whence reasonably he also calls Him God, who exists in God in the Mind. *That which was made in Him, the Word, was life*—the consort; wherefore the Lord also says: *I am the life.*
B VII. The Father, therefore, being unknown, willed to be known to the Æons; and by means of His own Enthymesis [Thought], inasmuch as He knew Himself perfectly, He brought forth the Only-Begotten as a spirit of knowledge, existing in knowledge. Thus, there came into being both the one from knowledge—that is, knowledge proceeding from the paternal Enthymesis—which is to say, the Son; for by the Son the Father was known. But the spirit of love is mingled with that spirit of knowledge, just as the Father is with the Son, and Enthymesis with truth; just as knowledge proceeds from Enthymesis, so it proceeds from truth. And he who remained the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father reveals the Enthymesis through knowledge to the Æons, even as he who was brought forth from His bosom. But he who was seen here on earth is no longer C called the only-begotten, but is addressed by the Apostle as *as the only-begotten*, *the glory as of the Only-Begotten*; because, while being one and the same, in creation he is Jesus the firstborn, but in the Pleroma the only-begotten. He is the same, being such in each place as can be contained by that place, and he who descended is never divided from the one who remained; for the Apostle says: *For He who ascended is the same as He who descended.* They call the Demiurge the image of the Only-Begotten; whence the works of the image are themselves the same. Whence also the Lord, by creating an image of the spiritual resurrection, raised the dead whom He raised, not with a flesh immune to corruption, but as those who were again to die.
D VIII. We, however, say that the Word is God in God by identity, who is also said to be in the bosom of the Father, indivisible, undivided, one God. *All things were made through Him*, by the immediate power of the Word that is in identity, both spiritual things and intelligible things and those perceived by the senses. This Savior revealed the bosom of the Father. And Isaiah: *And I will repay their deeds into*
A their bosom, into their awareness within the soul, from which, as from the first source, the firstborn of all creation is energized. But the Only-Begotten, who is in identity with that from which the Savior works with inseparable power, is the light of the Church, which was previously in darkness and in ignorance. *And the darkness did not lay hold of it.* Those who apostatized and the rest of the men of that same stripe did not know him; and death did not lay hold of him.
IX. Faith is not one, but diverse. Thus the Savior says: *let it be done to you according to your faith.* Whence it is said that those of the calling will be deceived during the coming of Antichrist; but it is impossible for the elect to be so—hence he says, *And, if possible, my elect.* Again, when he says: *Depart from the house of my Father,* he speaks to those who have been called. Similarly, what is said to the one returning from a journey, who had squandered his property, and for whom the fatted calf B had been slaughtered, refers to the calling. Again, where the King invited those who were in the ways to the wedding feast. For all have been called equally, inasmuch as he rains upon the just and the unjust, and makes his sun shine upon all. Yet those are chosen who have been endowed with greater faith, to whom he says: *No one has seen my Father except the Son,* and: *You are the light of the world,* and: *Holy Father, sanctify them in your name.*
X. Neither spiritual nor intelligible things, nor the archangels who were the first of all to be created, nor indeed is he himself C without form, and without appearance, and without figure, and without a body; but he has a proper form, and a body proportionate to the excellence by which he surpasses all spirits. Just as those who were created first excel in proportion to the excellence which they possess over the holy ones who are below them. For that which is begotten is not entirely lacking in substance, although they do not have a form and body similar to bodies that are in this world. For those that exist here on earth are male and female, and distinct from one another: but there the Only-Begotten, who is endowed with the faculty of being properly understood, uses a form D of his own and an essence of his own—highest, pure, and most sovereign—and enjoys the power of the Father with great intensity. But those who were created first, although distinct in number, insofar as each of them is defined and circumscribed, nevertheless the likeness of things demonstrates unity and equality and uniformity. For it has not been granted to this one more, and to that one less, of the seven; nor is there any progress left for them from the beginning, having been...
A permitted every perfection together with their first origin from God through the Word. And indeed he is called the inaccessible light, as the Only-Begotten and firstborn, which "the eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man" 63: nor will there be anyone such, neither among those first-created, nor among men. But they always see B the face of the Father; and the face of the Father 64 is the Son, through whom the Father is known. Therefore, that which sees and that which is seen cannot be without shape or incorporeal. But they see not with a sensible eye, but with such a one as the Father has bestowed, namely, an intellectual one.
XI. When therefore the Lord says: "Do not despise one of these little ones; for I say to you, their angels always see the face of the Father," 65 he indicates that such as the nature of the “piercings” shall be, such will the elect be, having received the perfect progress. Blessed also are the pure in heart, for they themselves shall see God. But how can there be a face of the formless? At any rate, the Apostle knows that celestial bodies are beautiful and intelligent. And how, on the other hand, would he speak of their different names, if they were not circumscribed by figures, by form, and by body 67? "There is one glory of the celestial, another of the terrestrial, another of angels, another of archangels" 68. As compared to the bodies here, such as the stars, they are incorporeal and featureless; but when compared with the Son, they may be called defined and sensible bodies. It is thus also that the Son is compared to the Father. And each of the spiritual ones has, on the one hand, a power and dispensation peculiar to itself; but inasmuch as they came to be at once, and fixed C their perfection, the first-created have a common and indivisible ministry.
XII. The first-created, therefore, see both the Son and themselves and the things that are subordinate, just as the archangels see the first-created. But the Son is the beginning of the paternal vision, being called the face of the Father. And the angels, indeed, are an intellectual fire 69, and D
their substance is purified. But an intellectual light is the greatest progress from the intellectual fire, which is perfectly purified, into which the angels desire to look, as Peter says. But the Son is even purer than this, inaccessible light, and the power of God, and, according to the apostle, we were redeemed with precious and spotless and unblemished blood; whose garments shone as light, and whose face [shone] as the sun, into which it is not easy to look directly B.
XIII. This is the heavenly bread and spiritual food supplying life when it is eaten and understood. It is the light of men, that is to say, of the Church. For those who ate the heavenly bread died; but he who eats this true bread of the Spirit will not die. The living bread that was given by the Father is the Son, for those who wish to eat. The bread which I will give, He says, is My flesh, either that by which the flesh is nourished through the Eucharist; or, which is even more the case, the flesh is His body, which is the Church, the heavenly bread, the blessed congregation. And perhaps [it is called this] as those who are from the same substance become so in respect of the subject, and as they are one day to attain the same end.
XIV. Demons are said to be incorporeal, not as not having a body at all (for they have a certain shape; and for this reason they possess a perception of punishment); but because, in comparison with those bodies which are endowed with salvation, since they are but a shadow of spiritual things, they are said to be incorporeal. And the angels do have bodies C; for they are perceived by sight. Furthermore, the soul itself is corporeal; hence the Apostle says: It is sown an animal body, it is raised a spiritual body. How, then, do the souls that are punished perceive, if they are not bodies? Fear, then, He says, Him who after death has the power to cast both soul and body into hell. For that which appears to the senses is not purified by fire, but is dissolved into the earth. But to the contrary, from [the account of] Lazarus and the rich man, it is clearly shown that the soul is a body through the mention of bodily limbs.
XV.
As we have borne the image of the earthly,
DA we shall also bear the image of the heavenly, of the spiritual, being perfected according to progress. Yet he speaks again of an image, as if there were spiritual bodies. And again: "Now we see through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face." For immediately we begin to know. Nor is there face, nor species, nor figure, nor body. Thus figure is seen by figure, and face by face, and the characteristics are known by the figures and the essences.
XVI. Moreover, a corporal dove B was seen, which some say is the Holy Spirit, but the followers of Basilides call it the minister, and those who incline to the opinion of Valentinus call it the spirit of the Enthymesis, or contemplation of the Father, having made its descent upon the flesh of the Word.
XVII. Jesus and the Church and wisdom are, according to the Valentinians, a powerful mixture through all bodies. Just as human union, which is by marriage, effects the generation of one child from two mixed seeds; and the body, dissolved into earth, is mixed with the earth, and water with wine. But better and more excellent bodies admit of an easy mixture. Therefore spirit is mixed with spirit. To me, however, it seems this occurs by juxtaposition, not by mixture. Does the divine power, therefore, passing through the soul, sanctify it according to ultimate progress? For God is a spirit; where he wills, he breathes. For the C power does not pass through by essence, but by power and strength. But the divine Spirit is adjacent to the other spirit, in the same way, clearly, that the spirit is present to the soul.
XVIII. The Savior, when he descended to the earth, was seen by the angels; wherefore they also proclaimed the good news of his coming. But he was also seen by Abraham and the other just men who were in rest at the right hand: "For he rejoiced," he says, "that he might see my day," that is, my coming in the flesh. Whence the Lord, having risen, brought the good news to the just who were in rest, and removed them and translated them, and all shall live under his shadow. For the presence here is a shadow of the glory of the Savior which is with the Father; and the shadow of light is not darkness, but illumination.
XIX. Furthermore, "The Word was made flesh," D meaning not only that he became man by his presence, but also that in the beginning the Word, [being] in identity one with the Father, became man by circumscription and not essentially, that is, the Son; and again he was made flesh, having operated through the prophets. And the Savior is called the Son of the Word who is in identity; for this reason, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." What has been made in him is life, and the Lord is life. And
was with God. What was made in him, is life, and the life is the Lord. Paul similarly: *Put on the new man, which is created according to God* A. As if to say: Believe in him, that is, in him who was created by God, according to God, in the Word of God. The phrase "created according to God" may also indicate the end of progress to which man must attain, not unlike: *He cast away the end for which he was created.* Furthermore, he speaks more clearly and explicitly in other places: *Who is the image of the invisible God;* then he adds, *The firstborn of every creature* B. For he calls the Word the image of the invisible God, that Word which is in identity; but the firstborn of every creature, as having been impassibly begotten, having been made the creator and prince of the origin of the whole creation and substance. For in him the Father made all things; whence he is also said to have taken the *form of a servant*, not only in flesh by his presence, but also in essence from the subject; for the essence is servile, inasmuch as it is subject to suffering and subject to the active and most sovereign cause.
B XX. For the phrase: *Before the morning star I begat thee* C, we interpret thus in regard to the first-created Word of God, and that thy name is before the sun and moon, and before every creature.
XXI. Also the phrase: *According to the image of God he created them; male and female he created them* D, the Valentinians assert that the most excellent production of wisdom is meant, from which the males are the election, and the females are the calling; and they call the males angels, but the females themselves, the excellent spirit. Thus also in the case of Adam, that which was male remained in him; but all the feminine, since the seed from him was Eve, from whom are the females, just as the males are from him; therefore the males were gathered together with the Word; but the females, having un-manned themselves, are united to the angels, and pass into the Pleroma. For this reason a woman is said to be transformed into a man, and the Church here below into angels.
XXII. And when the Apostle says: *Otherwise what shall they do who are baptized for the dead* D?
A For, he says, the angels were baptized for us, of whom we are parts. But we are dead, being made dead unto this constitution; while those who have not shared in this constitution are living and male. If the dead do not rise, why then are we baptized? We therefore shall rise, having been restored as equal to the angels among the number of men, that we may be united, member to member. And the baptized, they say, on behalf of us dead, are the angels who are baptized for us, so that we, having the name, may not be detained, hindered from passing into the Pleroma by the boundary and the cross. Therefore, in the imposition of hands B they say at the end: "For an angelic redemption," that is, which the angels also have; so that he may be baptized who has obtained redemption by his own name, by which his angel was also baptized beforehand. Now the angels were baptized in the beginning into the redemption of the name of him who descended in the form of a dove upon Jesus and redeemed him. But there was need of redemption also for Jesus, so that he might not be detained by the conception of the deficiency to which he had been subjected approaching through wisdom, as Theodotus says.
XXIII. The followers of Valentinus call Jesus the Paraclete; because he came, full of the Æons, as if proceeding from the All. For Christ, having left the Wisdom that projected him and having entered into the Pleroma on behalf of the Wisdom that was left outside, asked for help; C and by the good pleasure of the Æons, Jesus is projected as the Paraclete for the passing age. And in the form of the Paraclete, Paul became an apostle of resurrection; immediately after the passion of the Lord, he too was sent to preach. And this is why he also preached in another way of the Savior as generated and subject to suffering, for the sake of the most excellent; because, having been able to know this, they are struck with fear at the contemplation of this place; and according to the spiritual [nature] from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin, as D [verse/fragment omitted].
CERTAIN EXTRACTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF THEODOTUS, ETC.
For we are truly baptized, on behalf of our own selves and our dead bodies, that we may attain the resurrection which is in Christ and the life, and not that which results from the benefit of the Creator, as if [these were] even of evil things, so that both in body and in the whole man by whom they sinned they might undergo punishment, although we believe it in this way and confess it from the symbol, out of which the most foolish Aristarchus too rashly strikes out the descent of Christ to the lower world. [D/COMBEF.]
A For the right-hand angels know. For each one uniquely recognizes the Lord, B and it is not in the same way that all the angels of these little ones, the elect, who are to be in the same inheritance and perfection, see the face of the Father. Perhaps the face is also the Son; yet it is also as much of the Father as is comprehensible, which they see, having been taught through the Son; but what remains of the Father is unknown.
XXIV. The Valentinians say that that Spirit which each of the prophets had for his ministry was poured out upon all those who are of the Church; for this reason, the signs of the Spirit, namely healings and prophecies, are accomplished through the members of the Church. But they are ignorant of the fact that the Paraclete, who works immediately in the Church now, is of the same substance and power as the One who worked immediately under the Old Testament.
XXV. The followers of Valentinus defined the angel as a word having an announcement of the Existent One. They also say that the Aeons are called Words, homonymously with the Word. The apostles, he says, were transferred to the twelve signs of the zodiac. For just as the generation of things is governed by those, so is regeneration by the apostles.
XXVI. What is visible of Jesus is seen. Wisdom and the Church were from the excellent seed, which he clothed himself with through his body, as Theodotus says. But the invisible name is the Son, the Only-Begotten. Whence, when he says: *I am the door*, he says this: that as far as the limit where I am, you shall come, as many of you as have been born of the excellent seed. But when he himself enters, the seed also enters together with him into the Plenitude, having been gathered and led in through the door. C
XXVII. The priest, entering within the second veil, both laid aside the leaf [*] near the altar of incense, and he himself entered in silence, having the name inscribed in his heart. D This signifies the laying aside of the soul, like a leaf of pure gold made light through the purification of, as it were, the body: in which the splendor and name of religious worship was inscribed, through which, to the principalities and powers, he who had obtained the name became known. But he lays aside this light leaf, having come within the second veil in the intelligible world, which indeed is the second comprehensive veil of all things, near the altar of incense, near the angels.
A The soul, however, being naked, having become through the power of conscience, as it were, a body of power, passes into spiritual things, becoming truly rational and pontifical, so that it may remain, so to speak, ensouled, immediately by the Word, just as the archangels have become pontiffs of the angels, and the first-created in turn of them. For where is there still the achievement of Scripture and learning for that soul which has become pure, where it is also deemed worthy to see God face to face? Having, therefore, surpassed the angelic teaching and the name that is taught in writing, it comes to the knowledge and comprehension of things, no longer a bride, but already having become Word and dwelling with the Bridegroom along with the first-called and first-created—friends, indeed, for the sake of love; sons, for the sake of teaching and obedience; and brothers, for the sake of the commonality of their birth. So that the one—for the plate to be laid upon the brow and to learn unto knowledge—was of the providence; but the other—for the human being to become God-bearing, being immediately energized by the Lord, and to become as it were His body—was of the power.
B XXVIII. The passage, *God rendering unto the third and fourth generation to those who disobey*, the followers of Basilides explain as concerning the imprisonments in bodies; but the followers of Valentinus contend that the three places are signified as the left, and the fourth generation as their seeds. *Showing mercy unto thousands*, [refers] to those who are on the right.
XXIX. Sige, they say, or Silence, being the mother of all those things which were brought forth by the Bythos, or Depth—what she could not speak of the Ineffable, she kept silent; but what she comprehended, this she called Incomprehensible.
XXX. Furthermore, being forgetful of the glory of God, they impiously contend that God suffers. *For the Father,* says Theodotus, *who is firm by His nature, and immovable, having rendered Himself yieldable so that Sige might comprehend this—this is a passion.* For compassion is the passion of someone on account of the passion of another; and certainly, when the passion had occurred, the whole also suffered along with Him, C and they were led to the correction of Him who suffered.
XXXI. But even if He who descended was the Eudocia, or Voluntas, of the Whole—(for in Him all the Fullness dwelt bodily)—He also suffered; and manifestly the seeds that were in Him also suffered along with Him, through which the Whole and the All are found suffering. D But also through the suffering of the twelfth Aeon, all things having been instructed, as they say, suffered along with Him. For then the Whole suffered along with [Him in His] passion.
Then indeed they knew that they exist by the grace of the Father, and that there is a Name that cannot be named, and finally a form and knowledge. But the Aeon who wished to seize that which is higher than knowledge fell into ignorance and deformity; whence also a vacuum of knowledge was produced, which is the shadow of the Name, which is the Son, the form of the Aeons. A This, strictly speaking, is the Aeon of the Name.
XXXII. Since, therefore, there is unity in the Plenitude, each of the Aeons has its own proper Plenitude as a marriage partner. Whatever, therefore, proceeds from a marriage, they say, are plenitudes, but whatever proceeds from one alone are images. Whence Theodotus called Christ, who proceeded from the contemplation of Wisdom, an image of the Plenitude. But the latter, leaving his mother and ascending to the Plenitude, was held back, just as [he was held] by the whole, so also by the Paraclete. B
XXXIII. Yet Christ was adopted, as being chosen from among the plenitudes, and the firstborn of the things in this world. This teaching of ours is therefore perverse because of the underlying matter, calling the Savior the firstborn, whereas He is as it were our root and head. But the Church, they say, is the fruit of Christ Himself, shunning what is alien, having been brought back into the Plenitude from the maternal intent; the mother in turn brought forth the ruler of the dispensation, in the image of him who had fled from her out of desire for a better one, who was the type of the Father of all; C wherefore he also becomes lesser, as one consisting of the passion of desire. She abhorred him, however, when she saw his severity, as they themselves say.
XXXIV. But even the powers on the left, produced by her before the ones on the right, are not formed by the arrival and presence of the light. The left ones, however, were left to be formed by the Place itself. When, therefore, the mother together with the Son and the seeds has entered into the Plenitude, then the Place will receive the power and order of the mother, which the mother now possesses.
XXXV. Jesus, our light, as the apostle says, emptying Himself, D that is, as Theodotus wishes, going outside the boundary—since He was an angel—led out with Himself the angels of the excellent seed from the Plenitude. And He indeed had redemption as one who had proceeded from the Plenitude, but He led the angels to the correction of the seed; for the angels entreat and beseech as for a part, and being detained for our sake, and hastening to enter, they ask for forgiveness for us, so that we may enter along with them; for they have need of us, so to speak, in order that they may enter (since without us it is not permitted to them; for this reason not even the mother...
A has entered without us), it is plausible that they pray on our behalf.
XXXVI. In unity, however, they say, our angels were produced, as those who proceeded from the One. But because it was we who had been divided, for this reason Jesus was baptized, so that what was indivisible might be divided, until he should unite us with them in the Pleroma; that we, the many, having become one, might all be commingled with the One who, for our sake, was divided.
XXXVII. As for those who have come forth from Adam, some, the righteous, making their journey through created things, were detained at the place, according to the followers of Valentinus; others, however, in the created darkness on the left, who are affected by the sense of fire.
XXXVIII. A river of fire was entering beneath the throne of the place, and flows into the void of the created world; this is Gehenna, which from the creation B of the flowing fire is not filled. And the place itself is fiery. For this reason, he says, it has a veil, so that things may not be dissolved from the sight. But the archangel alone enters toward it, under whose image the high priest once a year used to enter into the Holy of Holies. Hence also Jesus, having been summoned, sat down in the place, so that things might remain and not rise up before him, and that he might tame the place, and finally provide the seed a passage into the Pleroma.
XXXIX. After the mother had produced Christ whole, and was abandoned by him, thereafter she produced nothing more that was whole, but she provided those things for which the power was granted to her. And so, apart from the place and the clergy, she had produced angels together with herself, and she keeps them with herself, with the elect of the angels having been produced C previously by the male.
XL. For the things on the right were produced by the mother before the petition for light, but the seeds of the Church after the petition for light, when the angelic seeds were produced by the male.
XLI. The excellent seeds, he says, did not come forth either as passions (upon the dissolution of which the seeds would also be dissolved) or as a creation, but as children. For upon the dissolution of the creation, the seeds would also be dissolved simultaneously: for this reason they also have a kinship with the light, which he first brought forth, namely Jesus, the Christ who asked for the Aeons, in whom the seeds also, having come together with him into the Pleroma, were D similarly purified for the male, since it is for this reason that the Church is rightly said to have been chosen before the foundation of the world. In the beginning, therefore, they say, we were counted and manifested. For this reason the Savior says: "Let your light shine," speaking of the light of him who appeared and transformed, of whom the apostle says: "Who enlightens every man coming into the world," that is, into the world of the excellent seed. For when man was enlightened, then he came into the world, that is, he adorned himself, having separated from himself the darkness and passions that were intermingled with him.
A And the Creator, having given thought to Adam, brought him forth at the end of the creation.
XLII. Meaning of the Cross in the Pleroma
The cross is a sign of the boundary B of that which is in the Pleroma, or Fullness; for it separates the unbelievers from the believers, just as it separates the world from the Pleroma. For this reason, Jesus, taking the seeds upon his shoulders through this sign, leads them into the Pleroma; for Jesus is called the shoulders of the seed, but Christ is the head. Whence it is said, "He who does not take up his cross and follow me, is not my brother." He therefore took up the body of Jesus, which was consubstantial with the Church.
XLIII. The Powers and the Coming of Christ
They say, therefore, that the right-hand powers knew the names of Jesus and of Christ before his advent, but they say that they did not know the sign, that is, the power. And when the Spirit had given all authority, and the Pleroma had likewise approved, the Angel of the Counsels was sent, and he became the head of all things after the Father. For all things were created in him, visible and invisible, thrones, lordships, kingdoms, divinities, ministries; wherefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name which is above every name, so that every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ the Savior is Lord of glory, he who ascended and descended. For what is "he ascended," if not that he also descended? He who descended is himself the one who descended into the lower parts of the earth, and who ascended above the heavens.
XLIV. Wisdom's Recognition of the Light
C Wisdom, seeing him like to the light which had left her, recognized him, ran to him, rejoiced, and worshipped; but having seen the male angels who were sent with him, she was ashamed and put on a veil. Because of this mystery, Paul commands women to wear a sign of authority on their head, because of the angels.
XLV. The Healing of the Passions
Immediately, therefore, the Savior brings to her a formation—namely, the condemnation and healing of the passions—showing what things were in the Pleroma from the unbegotten Father, and what things reached as far as she; and removing the passions with which she had labored, he made her herself exempt from them. But he preserved the passions after discerning them, not as one freeing and stripping them away from the inner disposition, but he brought them forth D to the substance of a second disposition. In this way, through the appearing of the Savior, Wisdom is produced, and the things that are outside are created. For all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made.
XLVI. The Transposition of Passions into Matter
Therefore, first from an incorporeal passion and an accident into an incorporeal [nature], he transferred these same things into matter.
and poured [it] in and translated [it], then similarly into the mixed bodies of animals; for it could not be that the passions immediately created substance, and he bestowed upon the bodies utility according to the nature of those same things. A
XLVII. The first Demiurge, therefore, is the Savior, having become the universal workman; then Wisdom secondarily "builds a house for herself, and set up seven pillars"a; and first of all she puts forth God, the image of the Father, through whom he made heaven and earth—that is, the celestial and the terrestrial, the right and the left. He, as the image of the Father, becomes Father, and puts forth first the psychic Christ, the image of the Son; then the archangels, images of the Aeons; then the angels of the angels, out of the psychic and luminous substance of which the prophetic word speaks, "And the Spirit of God was moving over the waters"b—speaking of the pure [spirit] as being moved upon [the waters] according to the interweaving of the two substances which yield and follow [each other], while the heavy and material [part] he speaks of as subsiding, [being] turbid and thick. He hints that this [substance], too, is incorporeal in the beginning, when he calls it invisible; for it was not invisible to man, who did not yet exist, nor to the Demiurge as craftsman, for he himself created it: but he declared in this way that which was formless, and without shape or figure, of it. B
XLVIII. The Demiurge, then, having discerned the pure from the heavy, as one who thoroughly knew the nature of each, created light—that is, he manifested it and brought it forth into light and form; for the solar and celestial light is produced much later. And he makes out of the material things: C that which is substantial [derived] from sadness, [which] creates the "spiritual [forces] of wickedness," against which is our struggle, wherefore the Apostle also says, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed"c; from fear, [he creates] the beasts; and from the astonishment and despair, the elements of the world. In the three elements fire is poised aloft, and is sown and lies hidden, and is kindled by these and dies in these, not having a determined form of its own like the other elements from which mixed and living bodies are formed.
XLIX. But since he did not know [the one] acting through him, thinking that he was creating by his own power—being industrious by nature—because of this the Apostle said: "[He] was subjected to the vanity of the world not willingly, but because of him who subjected [it] in hope," that he himself also shall be liberated when the seeds of God have been collected. D And as a primary proof of his [working] unwillingly is the fact that he blessed the Sabbath and guards the rest from labors.
L. Having taken dust from the earth, not from the dry, but from a part of the manifold and diverse earthy matter, [he forms] a soul...
and a material nature, lacking reason, and of the same substance as the souls of beasts. This is the man "according to the image," but he who is "according to the likeness" is the one who is of the Demiurge himself, into whom he breathed and sowed something of the same substance, inserting it into him through the agency of angels; in that respect in which it is invisible and incorporeal, he called its substance "the breath of life," but when it took on form, it became a "living soul," which he himself also acknowledges in the prophetic writings.
356 LI. The man, therefore, is within B the man, the psychic within the earthy, not part within part, but whole within whole, being such by the ineffable power of God: whence he is created in Paradise, in the fourth heaven; for earthy flesh does not ascend there, but what was material was to the divine soul as flesh. This is indicated by that saying: "This is now bone of my bones." The divine soul itself, lying hidden in the flesh and being solid and ill-affected and more powerful, is signified in this place. And "flesh of my flesh" signifies the material soul, which is the body of the divine soul. The Savior speaks of both these souls when he says that one must fear him who can destroy this soul and this psychic body in hell.
LII. The Savior called this flesh an "adversary," C and Paul called it the "law" dwelling in his members, "warring against the law of my mind"; and the Savior counsels to bind and plunder the vessels of this strong one who wages war against the heavenly soul, and counsels us to be reconciled with him while we are in the way, lest we fall into prison and into punishment: likewise also to be benevolently disposed toward it, not feeding it and strengthening it by the license of sins, but rather mortifying it from this moment by abstaining from wickedness, that in its dissolution it may be scattered and, having evaporated, may vanish, neither having D the capacity to subsist by itself, nor retaining any strength to endure as it passes through the fire.
LIII. This is called the "tare" grown together with the soul, [alongside] the good seed. This is the seed of the devil, as being of the same substance with him, and a serpent and a supplanter, and a robber attacking the head of the king. Adam, however, had in himself, hidden from his own consciousness, the spiritual seed sown into the soul by Sophia, "ordained," he says, "through angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not of one, but God is one." Through male angels, therefore, are ministered the seeds which were produced by Sophia, so far as it is possible for this to happen. For since the Demiurge, moving obscurely by Sophia...
thinks himself to be self-moving, so likewise do men. The first spiritual seed, therefore, that which was in Adam, Sophia produced, so that the bone, the rational and heavenly soul, might not be empty, but full of spiritual marrow.
LIV. B From Adam, three natures are born: the first is the irrational, to which Cain belonged; the second is the rational and righteous, to which Abel belonged; the third is the spiritual, to which Seth belonged. And the earthly is according to the image, the animal is according to the likeness of God, and the spiritual is according to his own. Concerning these three, without the other children of Adam, it is said: *This is the book of the generation of men* [Gen. v, 1]. Because Seth was spiritual, he neither kept sheep nor tilled the ground, but brought forth offspring after the manner of spirits, and he who hoped to call upon the name of the Lord [Gen. iv, 26], looking upward, whose citizenship is in heaven [Phil. iii, 20]: him the world cannot contain.
LV. Upon the three incorporeal ones in Adam, he also puts on a fourth, the earthly one, the coats of skin. Adam, therefore, does not sow either from the spirit or from the breath, for both are divine, and through him they are brought forth, but they are not produced by him. But his material part, active for seed and generation, as if it were mingled with the seed, is of such a kind that it cannot depart from that harmony which is in life. In this way, our father Adam existed and begat.
LVI. *The first man is of the earth, earthly* [1 Cor. xv, 47]. If he had sown both from the animal and from the spiritual, just as he did from the material, all would have been born equal and righteous, and doctrine would have been in all. For this reason, many are earthly, but not many are animal, and rare are those who are spiritual. The spiritual, therefore, is saved by nature; the animal, being possessed of free will, has an aptitude for faith and incorruption, and for unbelief and corruption, according to its own choice; but the earthly perishes by nature. When, therefore, those which are animal are grafted into the good olive tree, unto faith and incorruption, and partake of the fatness of the olive, and when the Gentiles have entered in, *then so all Israel shall be saved* [Rom. xi, 26]. But Israel is allegorically understood as the spiritual one, who is to see God, the true son of the faithful Abraham, from the free woman, not according to the flesh, and from the Egyptian bondwoman.
LVII. From the three kinds, therefore, there comes about in the case of the one, the formation of the spiritual; in the case of the other, the translation of the animal from servitude into freedom.
LVIII. After the empire of death, therefore, having made a great and comely promise, C D
and power and deity having failed and grown weak, that great champion Jesus Christ took the Church into himself by his power—both the elect and the called; the one from the mother, that which is spiritual; the other from the dispensation, that which is animal—he who saved and raised up all he had taken, and through them, those who are like them. For if the first fruits be holy, the lump is also; and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
LIX. Therefore, he first put on the seed from the mother, not being grasped, but grasping it by his power, which is gradually formed through knowledge. But when he had come to the place, he found that he had put on Jesus Christ, who had been preached beforehand, whom the prophets and the law announced, and who was the image of the Savior. B Furthermore, this animal Christ, whom he had put on, was invisible. But it was necessary that he who was about to come into the world should be such that he could be seen, grasped, live with others, and finally possess a body of such a kind that it could be perceived by the senses. From this, therefore, he had a body from the invisible animal substance, but woven by the power of divine construction, when he arrived in the sensible world.
LX. Therefore, the phrase: "The Holy Spirit will come upon thee," C indicates the fabric of the Lord's body; but "The power of the Highest will overshadow thee," speaks of the formation of God, which formed the body in the Virgin.
LXI. That he who assumed it was different from that which he assumed is manifest from the things he confesses: "I am the life, I am the truth," and, "I and the Father are one." But he makes known the spiritual, and also the animal, which he assumed, in this manner: "But the child grew and became strong." For it was for Wisdom to show the spiritual, and for stature to show the animal. But through those things which flowed from his side, he indicated the effluences of the passions, and that the substances, having become free from passions from being led astray by base desires, had attained salvation. And when he says: "The Son of man must be rejected, insulted, and crucified," D he seems to speak as if of another, clearly of the one who is subject to passions. "And I will go before you," he says, "on the third day into Galilee"; for he himself goes before all things, and he hinted that he would raise up the soul, which is being invisibly saved, and restore it to where he now goes before. But he died when the Spirit, which had descended upon him at the Jordan, departed—not having done so of its own volition, but having withdrawn, so that death might also exert its power; for otherwise, how could the body have died while Life was present in it? For thus the death of the Savior himself would have prevailed, which is absurd. But by a ruse was death overcome: for when the body died and death had seized possession of it, the Savior withdrew the ray of power which had come upon it, and rendered death powerless, [alt-version omitted]
and by shaking off the passions, raised up the mortal body. Those, therefore, which are animal are raised and saved in this manner; but the spiritual, having been imbued with faith, obtain a more excellent salvation, their souls having acquired the wedding garments.
B LXII. Thus the animal Christ sits at the right hand of the Demiurge, just as David says: "Sit at my right hand," and what follows. He sits there until the consummation, that they may look upon him whom they pierced. But they pierced that which was subject to the senses, which was indeed the animal flesh. "For a bone of him shall not be broken," he says; just as in the case of Adam, the prophecy allegorized the soul as a "bone." For this soul of Christ, while the body was suffering, committed itself into the hands of the Father. But the spiritual element which was in the "bone" is no longer committed, but itself provides salvation.
LXIII. The rest, therefore, of the spiritual ones is in the Lord’s day, in the ogdoad or eighth [day], which is called the Lord’s day, where they have souls for garments beside the Mother until the consummation; but the other faithful souls are with the Demiurge: at the consummation, however, they too depart into the ogdoad. Then occurs the marriage feast, common to all who shall obtain salvation, until all things have become equal and have recognized one another.
C LXIV. Thenceforth, the spiritual ones, having laid aside the souls, together with the Mother having obtained the Bridegroom, and having themselves likewise obtained their own spouses, the angels, enter within the limit into the bridal chamber, and come into the sight of the Spirit, having become intelligent Æons, into the spiritual and eternal nuptials of the union.
LXV. But the one who is architriclinus of the feast, and the groomsman of the nuptials, the friend of the bridegroom, standing before the bridal chamber, hearing the voice of the bridegroom, rejoices with joy. This is the fullness of his joy and of his rest.
LXVI. The Savior taught the apostles, at first typically and mystically, then by parables and enigmatically, and lastly clearly and nakedly, when alone.
D LXVII. "When we were in the flesh," says the Apostle, as though he were already speaking from outside the body. They say, therefore, that by "flesh" he means that weakness which was an emanation from the woman above. And when the Savior says to Salome, that death would last as long as women were bearing, he was not speaking as if he were condemning generation—which is necessary for the salvation of those who believe; for it is necessary that this generation exist, until the seed...
A that was foreordained is brought forth. But he hints at the higher female, whose passions became creation, she who brings forth even the formless substances, through whom even the Lord descended, to snatch us away from passion, and to incorporate himself.
358 LXVIII. For as long as we were children of the female only, as if from a base union, we were imperfect and infants, foolish and weak and formless, brought forth like abortions—we were children of the woman. But since we have received form from the Savior, we have become children of the male and of the bridal chamber.
LXIX. Fate is a concurrence of many and contrary powers. Yet these are invisible and hidden, to whom the care of the movement of the stars has been committed, and through them they govern. For just as each one of them has seized the dominion over those things born according to that same inclination, being carried along with the movement of the universe, it has obtained it as its own children. B
LXX. Through the fixed and wandering stars, therefore, the invisible powers that preside over them are introduced, and they dispense and oversee births. But the stars themselves do nothing; they merely indicate the energy of the presiding powers, just as the flight of birds signifies something, yet does not cause it.
LXXI. The twelve signs, therefore, and the seven stars that enter into them and traverse them—sometimes accompanying them, sometimes occurring in opposition to them—rising as they do, moved by the powers, signify the movement of the substance toward the generation of living beings, and the changing of circumstances. Different, too, are both the stars C and the powers: beneficent, maleficent, right, left. They have in common that which is begotten. But each of them comes to be at its own proper time, since that which dominates performs what is according to its nature—the one in the beginning, the other at the end.
LXXII. From this rivalry and battle of the powers the Lord delivers us, and provides peace from this array of powers and angels, who are marshaled some for us and some against us. For some are like soldiers, acting as our allies, as if they were ministers of God; but others are like robbers. For the evil one did not receive the sword girded D by the king, but snatched it for himself through his own wickedness and pride.
LXXIII. Because of these adversaries, some invade the soul through the body and external things, and deliver it over to servitude. But those who are on the right are not sufficient to accompany us, to save and keep us; for they are not perfectly provident, as is the good Pastor, but each one is like a hireling, who when the wolf...
sees him coming, takes flight, and not he who promptly and with a ready soul lays down his life for his own sheep. Furthermore, man, for whose sake the struggle is, is a weak creature, easily swayed toward the worse, and he brings aid to those who hate him; hence it is that many evils befall him. For this reason the Lord descended, that He might bring peace—He who is from the heavens, and not A from the earth, as the Apostle says: "Peace on earth, and glory in the highest."
LXXIV. Therefore a strange and new star rose, dissolving the ancient arrangement of the stars with a new light, not one that shines upon the world, but one that points out new paths that lead to salvation. Indeed, the Lord Himself is the guide for men, He who descended to earth so that He might transfer those who believe in Christ from fate to His own providence.
LXXV. But they claim that fate exists, because what was foretold concerning others proved to be true. A clear proof, they say, is the contemplation of those branches of knowledge. Immediately the Magi not only saw the star of the Lord, but they also understood the truth, that a King was born, and indeed whose King He was: the King of the worshippers of God. For at that time, only the Jews B were renowned for the worship of God; for this reason, the Savior, descending to the worshippers of God, came first to those who at that time carried the reputation of being worshippers of God.
LXXVI. Just as the birth of the Savior delivered us from genesis and fate, so also did His baptism deliver us from fire, and His passion from passion, that we might follow Him in all things. For he who has been baptized into God has passed into God, and has received power to walk upon scorpions and serpents, that is, over the wicked powers. He also commands the apostles: "Going C about, preach, and baptize those who believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," into whom we are reborn, becoming superior to all the rest of the powers.
LXXVII. For this cause, baptism is called the death and end of the old life, as we renounce the wicked principalities; but the life according to Christ is that of which He alone is Lord. The power of this change in the one who is baptized is not considered with respect to the body—for the same one ascends—but with respect to the soul. Immediately the servant of God, as soon as he rises D from the baptism, is even heard by the unclean spirits themselves, and the one over whom they acted a little while before, him they now fear and tremble before.
LXXVIII. Thus, they say, fate is true up until baptism; but after it, they no longer speak the truth
A regarding the astrologers. But it is not only the laver that sets us free, but also the knowledge: who we were, what we have become; where we were, or where we have been cast; where we hasten, whence we are redeemed; what birth is, what rebirth is.
LXXIX. As long, then, as the seed is shapeless, they say, it is a child of the female; but once it is formed, it is transferred into a male, and becomes a son of the bridegroom, no longer weak and subject to the things of the world, visible and invisible, but having become a man, he has also become a male fruit.
LXXX. He whom the mother brings forth is drawn into death and into the world; but he whom Christ regenerates is transferred into life in the eighth, and they die indeed to the world, but live to God, so that death may be destroyed by death, and corruption by resurrection. For, having been sealed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he is beyond the reach of every other power; and through the three names he has been delivered B from all the triad that is in corruption; for when he had borne the image of the earthly, then he bears the image of the heavenly.
LXXXI. That part of fire which is corporeal touches all bodies; but that which is pure and incorporeal, they say, touches incorporeal things, such as demons, the angels of wickedness, and the devil himself. In this way, the fire above the heavens is twofold in its nature, namely, intelligible and sensible. And baptism, therefore, is likewise twofold: the one is sensible, which occurs through water, having the power to extinguish sensible fire; the other is intelligible, through the Spirit, C an antidote to the intelligible fire. And the corporeal spirit becomes food and fuel for the sensible fire, when it is small; but when it becomes greater, it is by nature an extinguisher. But the spirit given to us from above, being incorporeal, masters not only the elements but also the powers and wicked principalities.
LXXXII. Furthermore, the bread and the oil are sanctified by the power of the name, not being the same in reality as they appear to be when received, but are changed by power into spiritual power. In this way, also, the water D which is exorcised and becomes baptism, not only receives the worse part but also attains sanctification.
LXXXIII. It was fitting to approach baptism rejoicing. But since frequently, when some descend, impure spirits also descend along with them, and becoming participants of the seal with the man, they become incurable henceforth; and for this reason, fear is mingled with joy, so that one may descend pure only by oneself.
ECLOGUES FROM PROPHETIC SCRIPTURES.
A LXXXIV. Hence come fasts, supplications, prayers with outstretched hands, and genuflections, because the soul is rescued from the world and from the mouth of the lions. Hence, too, there are immediate temptations, as they from whom one has been snatched away are indignant, and even if someone carries such knowledge beforehand, these things that come from without shake him.
A LXXXV. The Lord immediately after baptism is cast about for our example, and is first with the beasts in the wilderness. Then, having overcome them and their prince, as one who is already truly king, he is ministered to by angels. For he who in the flesh commanded the angels, deservedly is now served by the angels. It is necessary, therefore, to be armed with the Lord's weapons, to possess body and soul invulnerable—with weapons of such a kind, surely, that can extinguish the darts of the devil, as the Apostle says.
B LXXXVI. When the coin was presented to the Lord, he said, not "Whose property is this?" but "Whose is the image and the inscription? Caesar's," so that whose it was, might be given to him. So also the believer has the name of God inscribed through Christ, but the Spirit as the image. Indeed, even animals, through marks, show whose each creature is, and are claimed by this sign. So too the soul that is faithful, having received the seal of truth, carries with it the stigmata of Christ. These are the children who are already resting in the bedchamber, and the prudent virgins, with whom those who were late did not enter into the prepared goods, into which the angels desire to look.
ECLOGUES FROM PROPHETIC SCRIPTURES.
You may deservedly doubt whether these excerpts from the prophetic scriptures were collected from the writings of Theodotus, and whether they were collected by Clement. For both the style, in some places, and the opinions differ from those preceding; nor does that little addition on p. 347 declare that all things were taken from the opinion of one author: *As we would say, pedagogical; but Pantaenus of ours used to say that he puts forth the prophecy of words indefinitely.* SYLBURG. These Epitomes and Electa are an indication that the work itself was held in esteem, but that its very length deterred people from copying it; and while learned men solaced themselves with its absence, it finally perished; as often happens to others whose fate has been the same. But that what we have of Clement's Eclogæ is trifling, is gathered from this, that brief expositions of almost all the passages of Scripture were mingled with others in them, as if confusedly, which now exist so few in these Electa. One must read with utmost caution what has reached us in this way—the true mingled with the false, and not sufficiently distinguished—monuments of this kind from the ancients, however great their erudition. COMBEF.
D I. Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, standing in the furnace of fire praising God, said: