Prince of Mercy, or Scottish Trinitarian | Chapter 26 Part 2

Basilides held that out of the unrevealed God, who is at the head of the world of emanations, and exalted above all conception or designation [Ὁ ἀκατονόμαστος, ἄῤῥητος] were evolved seven living, self-subsistent, ever-active hypostatized powers:

FIRST: THE INTELLECTUAL POWERS.

1st. Nous	Νοῦς	The Mind.
2d. Logos	Λόγος	The Reason.
3d. Phronesis	Φρόνησις	The Thinking Power.
4th. Sophia	Σοφία	Wisdom.

 

SECOND: THE ACTIVE OR OPERATIVE POWER.

5th. Dunamis

Δυναμις

Might, accomplishing the purposes of Wisdom.

 

THIRD: THE MORAL ATTRIBUTES.

6th. Dikaiosune_	Δικαιοσύνη	Holiness or Moral Perfection.
7th. Eire_ne_	Εἰρήνη	Inward Tranquility.

 

These Seven Powers (Δυνάμεις . . Dunameis), with the Primal Ground out of which they were evolved, constituted in his scheme the Πρωτη Ὀγδοὰς [Prote Ogdoas], or First Octave, the root of all Existence. From this point, the spiritual life proceeded to evolve out of itself continually many gradations of existence, each lower one being still the impression, the antetype, of the immediate higher one. He supposed there were 365 of these regions or gradations, expressed by the mystical word Αβραξας [Abraxas].

The Αβραξας is thus interpreted, by the usual method of reckoning Greek letters numerically. . . . α, 1 . . β, 2 . . ρ, 100 . . α, 1 . . ξ, 60 . . α, 1 . . ς, 200=365:

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which is the whole Emanation-World, as the development of the Supreme Being.

In the system of Basilides, Light, Life, Soul, and Good were opposed to Darkness, Death, Matter, and Evil, throughout the whole course of the Universe.

According to the Gnostic view, God was represented as the immanent, incomprehensible and original source of all perfection; the unfathomable ABYSS (βυθος . . buthos), according to Valentinus, exalted above all possibility of designation; of whom, properly speaking, nothing can be predicated; the ἀκατονόμαστος of Basilides, the ὢν of Philo. From this incomprehensible Essence of God, an immediate transition to finite things is inconceivable. Self-limitation is the first beginning of a communication of life on the part of God–the first passing of the hidden Deity into manifestation; and from this proceeds all further self-developing manifestation of the Divine Essence. From this primal link in the chain of life there are evolved, in the first place, the manifold powers or attributes inherent in the divine Essence, which, until that first self-comprehension, were all hidden in the Abyss of His Essence. Each of these attributes presents the whole divine Essence under one particular aspect; and to each, therefore, in this respect, the title of God may appropriately be applied. These Divine Powers evolving themselves to self-subsistence, become thereupon the germs and principles of all further developments of life. The life contained in them unfolds and individualizes itself more and more, but in such a way that the successive grades of this evolution of life continually sink lower and lower; the spirits become feebler, the further they are removed from the first link in the series.

The first manifestation they termed πρῶτη κατάληψις ἑαυτοῦ [prote_ katale_psis heautou] or πρῶτον καταληπτὸν τοῦ θεου [proton Katale_pton tou Theou]; which was hypostatically represented in a νοῦς or λόγος, [Nous or Logos].

In the Alexandrian Gnosis, the Platonic notion of the ὕλη [Hule_] predominates. This is the dead, the unsubstantial–the boundary that limits from without the evolution of life in its gradually advancing progression, whereby the Perfect is ever evolving itself into the less Perfect. This ὕλη again, is represented under various images;–at one time as the darkness that exists alongside of the light; at another, as the void [κένωμα, κενὸν. . . . Kenoma, Kenon],

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