chapter 10 the monism of darkness and the dualism of limit and ...

54 CHAPTER 10
Snake (probably as the Uroboros that surrounds the World, cf. e.g.
Acta Thomae 32) enters into the Cosmic Womb of Impurity and thus
Man is born: the impure and most-suffering (appleÔÏ˘appleԛ̈Ó) Womb
neither loves nor recognises nor admits inside her any form other than
that of the primaeval Serpent. For this reason when the perfect Logos
of the Light above wills to descend into the world in order to redeem
from the embrace of Darkness the effulgence of its radiance and the
spiritual breath that are imprisoned in nature wailing and crying for
liberation from the bonds of impurity and disorder, Logos deceives the
Womb of Abomination and penetrates her in the form of her beloved
reckless and lawless Wind, the Primordial Snake. After the completion
of the abominable mysteries of the Womb, Logos is purified together
with the entire con-substantial sequence of light and spirit as well as all
the intellects (Ùa âÓ ÁÓÒÛÂÈ appleÓ‡̷ٷ Ùɘ àÏËı›·˜) by means of
the chalice of upsurging living water, the cosmic semen, the warrant of
Salvation (19 §§19-21). 13
4. The proximity and connection of the analysed systems and
theories with one another is manifest. One characteristic feature of
Phoenician theologies was the importance attributed to the serpent, as
Philo, allegedly following Sanchouniathon, reports in detail (790
FrGrH F4; Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica I, 10, 45-53). This
feature is directly related to the Ophitic Gnosis and Philo himself
identifies the origin of Pherecydes’ theory on Ophioneus and the
Ophionites in Phoenician models (Eusebius op. cit. I, 10, 50 = 7 B4
DK). With reference to the philosophical theology of first principles
the salient feature of this group of beliefs is a radical or mediated
Dualism between an active life-generating principle of motion and a
passive principle of reception, between energetic fullness and inert
indeterminacy. The first principle is conceived as fertilizing breath,
Wind of impulse, Spirit of life; the second as Abyss of Waters,
Darkness of Chaos. 14 Philo Judaeus declares the life-generating power
of wind’s breath that permeates water, Quaestiones et Solutiones in
Genesin IV, 5: ultima vero divinorum sortitus est aer, animans
creaturas congregatas. Nam si aer non tangat moveatque aquam,
emoritur ista; vivifica autem magis comperitur non aliunde nisi aere in
eam intermixto. According to the Babylonian theology, in the
beginning there was the Darkness of the Abyss of Water from which