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| The Strange Jumble of the Pleroma. The Frantic Delight of the Members Thereof. Their Joint Contribution of Parts Set Forth with Humorous Irony.
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Chapter XII.—The Strange
Jumble of the Pleroma. The Frantic Delight of the Members Thereof.
Their Joint Contribution of Parts Set Forth with Humorous
Irony.
Thus they are all on the self-same footing in
respect of form and knowledge, all of them having become what each of
them severally is; none being a different being, because they are all
what the others are.6745
| 6745 Nemo aliud quia alteri
omnes. | They are all turned
into6746
Nuses, into Homos, into Theletuses;6747
| 6747 The reader will, of
course, see that we give a familiar English plural to these names, as
better expressing Tertullian’s irony. | and so in the case of the females, into
Siges, into Zoes, into Ecclesias, into Fortunatas, so that Ovid would
have blotted out his own Metamorphoses if he had only known our larger
one in the present day. Straightway they were reformed and
thoroughly established, and being composed to rest from the truth, they
celebrate the Father in a chorus6748
of praise in
the exuberance of their joy. The Father himself also
revelled6749
in the glad
feeling; of course, because his children and grandchildren sang so
well. And why should he not revel in absolute delight? Was not the
Pleroma freed (from all danger)? What ship’s captain6750
fails to rejoice even with indecent
frolic? Every day we observe the uproarious ebullitions of
sailors’ joys.6751
| 6751 Tertullian lived in a
seaport at Carthage. | Therefore, as
sailors always exult over the reckoning they pay in common, so do these
Æons enjoy a similar pleasure, one as they now all are in form,
and, as I may add,6752
in feeling too.
With the concurrence of even their new brethren and masters,6753
| 6753 Christ and the Holy
Spirit, [i.e. blasphemously.] | they contribute into one common stock the
best and most beautiful thing with which they are severally
adorned. Vainly, as I suppose. For if they were all one by reason
by the above-mentioned thorough equalization, there was no room for the
process of a common reckoning,6754
which for the most
part consists of a pleasing variety. They all contributed the one good
thing, which they all were. There would be, in all probability, a
formal procedure6755
in the mode or in
the form of the very equalization in question. Accordingly, out of the
donation which they contributed6756
| 6756 Ex ære
collaticio. In reference to the common symbola, Tertullian adds
the proverbial formula, “quod aiunt” (as they say). | to the honour
and glory of the Father, they jointly fashion6757
the most beautiful constellation of the Pleroma, and its perfect fruit,
Jesus. Him they also surname6758
Soter
(Saviour) and Christ, and Sermo (Word) after his
ancestors;6759
| 6759 De patritus.
Irenæus’ word here is πατρωνυμικῶς
(“patronymice”). | and lastly Omnia
(All Things), as formed from a universally culled
nosegay,6760
| 6760 Ex omnium
defloratione. | like the jay
of Æsop, the Pandora of Hesiod, the bowl6761
of
Accius, the honey-cake of Nestor, the miscellany of Ptolemy. How much
nearer the mark, if these idle title-mongers had called him Pancarpian,
after certain Athenian customs.6762
| 6762 Alluding to the
olive-branch, ornamented with all sorts of fruits (compare our
“Christmas tree”), which was carried about by boys in
Athens on a certain festival (White and Riddle). | By way of
adding external honour also to their wonderful puppet, they produce for
him a bodyguard of angels of like nature. If this be their mutual
condition, it may be all right; if, however, they are consubstantial
with Soter (for I have discovered how doubtfully the case is stated),
where will be his eminence when surrounded by attendants who are
co-equal with himself?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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