ek: homoousios]"; see Iren.,
I. 5. 1: [Greek: alla to men pneumatikon me dedunesthai auten morphosai,
epeide homoousion huperchen autei] (said of the Sophia): L. 5. 4,
[Greek: kai touton einai ton kat' eikona kai homoiosin gegonota; kat'
eikona men ton hulikon huparchein, paraplesion men, all' ouch homoousion
toi theoi kath' homoiosin de ton psuchikon.] I. 5. 5: [Greek: to de
kuema tes metros tes "Achamoth", homoousion huparchon tei metri.] In all
these cases the word means "of one substance." It is found in the same
sense in Clem., Hom. 20. 7: See also Philos. VII. 22; Clem., Exc. Theod.
42. Other terms also which have acquired great significance in the
Church since the days of Origen, (e.g., [Greek: agennetos]), are found
among the Gnostics, see Ep. Ptol. ad Floram, 5; and Bigg. (1. c. p. 58,
note 3) calls attention to the appearance [Greek: trias] in Excerpt. ex.
Theod. Sec. 80, perhaps the earliest passage.]

[Footnote 357: The characteristic of the Gnostic Christology is not
Docetism, in the strict sense, but the doctrine of the two natures, that
is, the distinction between Jesus and Christ, or the doctrine that the
Redeemer as Redeemer was not a man. The Gnostics based this view on the
inherent sinfulness of human nature, and it was shared by many teachers
of the age without being based on any principle (see above, p. 195 f.).
The most popular of the three Christologies briefly characterised above
was undoubtedly that of the Valentinians. It is found, with great
variety of details, in most of the nameless fragments of Gnostic
literature that have been preserved, as well as in Apelles. This
Christology might be accommodated to the accounts of the Gospels and the
baptismal confession (how far is shewn by the _regula_ of Apelles, and
that of the Valentinians may have run in similar terms). It was taught
here that Christ had passed through Mary as a channel; from this
doctrine followed very easily the notion of the Virginity of Mary,
uninjured even after the birth--it was already known to Clem. Alex.
(Strom. VII. 16. 93). The Church also, later on, accepted this view. It
is very difficult to get a clear idea of the Christology of Basilides,
as very diverse doctrines were afterwards set up in his school as is
shewn by the accounts. Among them is the doctrine, likewise held by
others, that Christ in descending from the highest heaven took to
himself something from every sphere through which he passed. Something
similar