Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III:
Tertullian: Part II: At the Last Day Great Changes Take Place Amongst the Æons as Well as Among Men. How Achamoth and the Demiurge are Affected Then. Irony on the Subject.

Chapter XXXI.—At the Last Day Great Changes Take Place Amongst the Æons as Well as Among Men. How Achamoth and the Demiurge are Affected Then. Irony on the Subject.

It remains that we say something about the end of the world, 6893 and the dispensing of reward. As soon as Achamoth has completed the full harvest of her seed, and has then proceeded to gather it into her garner, or, after it has been taken to the mill and ground to flour, has hidden it in the kneading-trough with yeast until the whole be leavened, then shall the end speedily come. 6894 Then, to begin with, Achamoth herself removes from the middle region, 6895 from the second stage to the highest, since she is restored to the Pleroma: she is immediately received by that paragon of perfection 6896 Soter, as her spouse of course, and they two afterwards consummate 6897 new nuptials. This must be the spouse of the Scripture, 6898 the Pleroma of espousals (for you might suppose that the Julian laws 6899 were interposing, since there are these migrations from place to place). In like manner, the Demiurge, too, will then change the scene of his abode from the celestial Hebdomad 6900 to the higher regions, to his mother’s now vacant saloon 6901 —by this time knowing her, without however seeing her. (A happy coincidence!) For if he had caught a glance of her, he would have preferred never to have known her.

Footnotes

De consummatione.

Urgebit.

See above, ch. xxiii. p. 514.

Compacticius ille.

Fient.

Query, the Holy Scriptures, or the writings of the Valentinians?

Very severe against adultery, and even against celibacy.

In ch. xx. this “scenam de Hebdomade cælesti” is called “cælorum septemplicem scenam” ="the sevenfold stage of heaven.”

Cœnaculum. See above, ch. vii. p. 506.