Chapter XXXV.-Yet More Discrepancies. Just Now the Sex of Bythus Was an Object of Dispute; Now His Rank Comes in Question. Absurd Substitutes for Bythus Criticised by Tertullian.
There are some who do not claim the first place for Bythus, but only a lower one. They put their Ogdoad in the foremost rank; itself, however, derived from a Tetrad, but under different names. For they put Proarche ( Before the Beginning ) first, Anennoetos ( Inconceivable ) second, Arrhetos ( Indescribable ) third, Aoratos ( Invisible ) fourth. Then after Proarche they say Arche ( Beginning ) came forth and occupied the first and the fifth place; from Anennoetos came Acataleptos ( Incomprehensible ) in the second and the sixth place; from Arrhetos came Anonomastos ( Nameless ) in the third and the seventh place; from Aoratos came Agennetos ( Unbegotten ) in the fourth and the eight place. Now by what method he arranges this, that each of these ¦ons should be born in two places, and that, too, at such intervals, I prefer to be ignorant of than to be informed. For what can be right in a system which is propounded with such absurd particulars?