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god, or something similar. For he is more than a god, since there is nothing above him, for no one lords it over him. For he does not exist in something inferior to him, since everything exists in him. For it is he who establishes himself. He is eternal, since he does not need anything. For he is total perfection.
126:
The Monad is a monarchy with nothing above it. It is he who exists as God and Father of everything, the invisible One who is above everything, who exists as incorruption, which is in the pure light into which no eye can look. "He is the invisible Spirit, of whom it is not right to think of him as a
179:, various divine entities and realms emerge from the One. Arranged hierarchically, they become progressively degraded due to their remoteness from the Father. The various emanations of the One, totaling thirty in number (or 365, according to
296:, who died at the age of 17, was the leader of Monadic Gnosticism. However, scholars think the legend may have come from misunderstanding of the Greek word
218:, or elements (similar to Aeons). In some versions of Christian gnosticism, especially those deriving from Valentinius, a lesser deity known as the
400:
238:, is often considered to have been the Demiurge, not the Monad, or sometimes different passages are interpreted as referring to each.
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230:) had a role in the creation of the material world separate from the Monad. In these forms of gnosticism, the God of the
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285:" that would later characterize Gnostic systems for their treatment of the Monad or One (see
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which may have been mistaken as a personal name if in text, when in fact the Greek means
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175:, the region of light constituting "the fullness of the Godhead." Through a process of
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Francis E. Peters Greek
Philosophical Terms: A Historical Lexicon 1970 p. 42.
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For a long time, legend persisted that a young man by the name of
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195:, whose fall results in the creation of the material world.
191:(who resides close to the Father) and the lowest emanation,
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210:(c. 150–210) used the term Monad to mean the highest
424:, available online by The Gnostic Society Library.
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171:taught that the Monad is the high source of the
102:. The Monad is an adaptation of concepts of the
148:singular, μονάς), "one unit," where the ending
152:in the nominative form resolves to the ending
23:Adaptation of the Greek philosophical concept
249:, for whom the first existing thing was the
401:Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
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328:Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit
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384:The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
371:The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
140:comes from the Greek feminine noun
122:, gives the following description:
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382:Louis P. Pojman, "gnosticism," in
369:Louis P. Pojman, "Valentinus," in
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204:Haereticarum Fabularum Compendium
245:, this view was inspired by the
420:Fragments of a Faith Forgotten
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269:, and so on. Pythagorean and
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287:Neoplatonism and Gnosticism
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206:i.18), the Arab Christian
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104:monad in Greek philosophy
78:(Before the Beginning,
322:Monad (disambiguation)
306:distinguished teacher.
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68:(Depth or Profundity,
18:Monad (disambiguation)
271:Platonic philosophers
202:'s book on heresies (
132:Historical background
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214:that created lesser
16:For other uses, see
413:Mead, G.R.S. 1900.
187:. Among them exist
450:Conceptions of God
261:, which begat the
257:, which begat the
253:, which begat the
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112:Apocryphon of John
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61:αἰών τέλεος
52:Aiōn Teleos
445:Gnosticism
434:Categories
416:"Epiphanes
335:References
304:, as in a
222:(see also
169:Valentinus
163:Prominent
158:declension
146:nominative
120: 180
115:, written
298:epiphanēs
294:Epiphanes
200:Theodoret
181:Basilides
177:emanation
136:The term
311:See also
279:Porphyry
275:Plotinus
228:Plotinus
220:Demiurge
208:Monoimus
86:Hē Archē
76:Proarchē
26:In some
259:numbers
173:Pleroma
94:), the
81:προαρχή
41:the One
28:Gnostic
283:gnosis
91:ἡ ἀρχή
66:Bythos
273:like
267:lines
263:point
251:Monad
189:Jesus
185:Aeons
142:monas
138:monad
71:Βυθός
36:Monad
277:and
255:dyad
236:YHWH
216:gods
109:The
56:Aeon
289:).
212:god
156:in
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