He says, 'Now since it was not allowable to say that something non-existent had come into being as a projection from a non-existent Deity--for Basilides avoids and shuns the existences of things brought into being by projection [Endnote 299:1]--for what need is there of projection, or why should matter be presupposed in order that God should make a world, just as a spider its web or as mortal man in making things takes brass or wood or any other portion of matter?
But He spake--so he says--and it was done, and this is, as these men say, that which is said by Moses: "Let there be light, and there was light." Whence, he says, came the light?
Out of nothing; for we are not told--he says--whence it came, but only that it was at the voice of Him that spake.

Now He that spake--he says--was not, and that which was made, was not.

Out of that which was not--he says-- was made the seed of the world, the word which was spoken, "Let there be light;" and this--he says--is that which is spoken in the Gospels; "That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.'" We must not indeed overlook the fact that the plural occurs once in the middle of this passage as introducing the words of Moses; 'as these men say.' And yet, though this decidedly modifies, I do not think that it removes the probability that Basilides himself is being quoted.

It seems a fair inference that at the beginning of the passage Hippolytus had the work of Basilides actually before him; and the single digression in [Greek: legousin houtoi] does not seem enough to show that it was laid aside.

This is confirmed when we look back two chapters at the terms in which the whole account of the Basilidian system is introduced.