Inasmuch, said they, as the Father willed to become known to the worlds, the Spirit of Gnosis produced the 'only begotten' 'Gnosis,' and therefore gave birth to 'Gnosis,' that is to 'the Son': in order that by 'the Son' 'the Father' might be made known.

While then that 'only begotten Son' abode 'in the bosom of the Father,' He caused that here upon earth should be seen, alluding to ver.

14, one 'as the only begotten Son.' In which, by the way, the reader is requested to note that the author of the Excerpta Theodoti (a production of the second century) reads St.
John i.

18 as we do.
I have gone into all these strange details,--derived, let it be remembered, from documents which carry us back to the former half of the second century,--because in no other way is the singular phenomenon which attends the text of St.John i.

18 to be explained and accounted for.