325 1 Cor. xv. 50. The Latin text reads "apprehendunt," which can scarcely be the translation of klhronomhsai in the Greek text of the New Testament.
326 That is, Christ and Jesus.
327 The text of this sentence is hopelessly corrupt, but the meaning is as given above.
328 According to Harvey, Hystera corresponds to the "passions" of Achamoth. [Note the "Americanism," advocate used as a verb.]
329 The text is here imperfect, and the translation only conjectural.
330 [Cant. ii. 15; St. Luke xiii. 32.]
331 [Let the reader bear in mind that the Greek of this original and very precious author exists only in fragments. We are reading the translation of a translation; the Latin very rude, and the subject itself full of difficulties. It may yet be discovered that some of the faults of the work are not chargeable to Irenaeus.]
4 This passage is very obscure: we have supplied "et," which, as Harvey conjectures, may have dropped out of the text.
5 [This noble chapter is sort of homily on Hebrews i.]
6 The common text has "ut:" we prefer to read "aut" with Erasmus and others.
7 Vossius and others read "primus" instead of "prius," but on defective ms. authority.
8 Harvey here observes: "Grabe misses the meaning by applying to the redeemed that which the author says of the Redeemer;" but it may be doubted if this is really the case. Perhaps Massuet's rendering of the clause, "that that man might be formed who should know Him," is, after all, preferable to that given above.
12 Eph. iv. 6, differing somewhat from Text. Rec. of New Testament.
13 We have translated the text as it here stands in the mss. Grabe omits spiritalem et; Massuet proposes to read et invisibilem, and Stieren invisibilem.
14 In praesentia: Grabe proposes in praescientia, but without ms. authority. "The reader," says Harvey, "will observe that there are three suppositions advanced by the author: that theworld, as some heretics asserted, was eternal; that it was created in time, with no previous idea of it in the divine mind; or that it existed as a portion of the divine counsels from all eternity, though with no temporal subsistence until the time of its creation,-and of this the author now speaks." The whole passage is most obscurely expressed.
15 Literally, "should also possess a vacant substance"
16 The text has "reliquis omnibus," which would refer to the Aeons; but we follow the emendation proposed by Massuet, "reliquorum omnium," as the reference manifestly is to other heretics.
17 "Ab eo:" some refer "eo" to the Demiurge, but it is not unusual for the Latin translator to follow the Greek gender, although different from that of the Latin word which he has himself employed. We may therefore here "eo" to "labem," which is the translation of the neuter noun usterhma.
18 Labem is here repeated, probably by mistake.
19 The Latin is fieri eos: Massuet conjectures that the Greek had been poieisqai autouj, and that the translator rendered poieisqai as a passive instead of a middle verb, fieri for facere.
21 The Latin text here is, "et concludentur tales cum patre suo ab eo qui est extra Pleroma, in quo etiam et desinere eos necesse est." None of the editors notice the difficulty or obscurity of the clause, but it appears to us absolutely untranslateable. We have rendered it as if the reading were "ab eo quod," though, if the strict grammatical construction be followed, the translation must be, "from Him who." But then to what does "in quo," which follows, refer? It may be ascribed either to the immediate antecedent Pleroma, or to Him who is described as being beyond it.
23 This is an extremely difficult passage. We follow the reading aeternochoica adopted by Massuet, but Harvey reads aeterna choica, and renders, "They charge all other substance (i.e., spiritual) with the imperfections of the material creation, as though Aeon substance were equally ephemeral and choic."
24 The common reading is "aut;" we adopt Harvey's conjectural emendation of "at."
25 The above clause is very obscure; Massuet reads it interrogatively.
26 The text has "antiquius," literally "more ancient," but it may here be rendered as above.
28 Massuet refers this to the Roman emperor.
29 Harvey supposes that the translator here read h! quam instead of h qua (gloria); but Grabe, Massuet, and Stieren prefer to delete erit.
30 Reference is here made to the supposed wretched state of Achamoth as lying in the region of shadow, vacuity, and, in fact, non-existence, until compassionated by the Christ above, who gave her form as respected substance.
31 We have literally translated the above very obscure sentence. According to Massuet, the sense is: "There will some time be, or perhaps even now there is, some Aeon utterly destitute of such honour, inasmuch as those things which the Saviour, for the sake of honouring it, had formed after its image, have been destroyed; and then those things which are above will remain without honour," etc.
32 The Saviour is here referred to, as having formed all things through means of Achamoth and the Demiurge.