so denominated from the Hebrew language, for the serpent is called naas[1] [in Hebrew]. Subsequently, however, they have styled themselves Gnostics, alleging that they alone have sounded the depths of knowledge. Now, from the system of these [speculators], many, detaching parts, have constructed a heresy which, though with several subdivisions, is essentially one, and they explain precisely the same [tenets]; though conveyed under the guise of different opinions, as the following discussion, according as it progresses, will prove.
These [Naasseni], then, according to the system[2] advanced by them, magnify, [as the originating cause] of all things else, a man and a son of man. And this man is a hermaphrodite, and is denominated among them Adam; and hymns many and various are made to him. The hymns,[3] however — to be brief — are couched among them in some such form as this: "From thee [comes] father, and through thee [comes] mother, two names immortal, progenitors of Æons, O denizen of heaven, thou illustrious man." But they divide him as Ger- yon[4] into three parts. For, say they, of this man one part Is rational, another psychical, another earthly. And they suppose that the knowledge of him is the originating principle of the capacity for a knowledge of God, expressing themselves thus: "The originating principle of perfection is the knowledge[5] of man, while the knowledge of God is absolute perfection."
1 The Hebrew word is נָחָשׁ (nachash).
2 παρὰ τὸν αὐτῶν λόγον. Bernaysius suggests for these words, πατέρα τῷ αὐτῷ λόγῳ. Schneidewin regards the emendation as an error, and Bunsen partly so. The latter would read, πατέρα τὸν αὐτῶν λόγον, i.e. "The Naasseni honour the Father of all existent things, the Logos, as man and the Son of Man."
3 See Irenæus, Hær. i. 1.
4 Geryon (see note, chap, iii.) is afterwards mentioned as a synonyme with Jordan, i.e. "flowing from earth" (γῆ ῥύων).
5 γνῶσις — a term often alluded to by St. John, and which gives its name "Gnosticism" to the various forms of the Ophitic heresy. The aphorism in the text is one that embodies a grand principle which lies at the root of all correct philosophy. In this and other instances it will be found that the system, however wild and incoherent in its theology, of the Naasseni and of some of the other Gnostic sects, was one which was constructed by a subtle analysis of thought, and by observation of nature.
