Hippolytus — Refutation of All Heresies 21
This (heresiarch) makes the following statement. There are three unbegotten principles of the universe , two male (and) one female. Of the male (principles), however, a certain one, is denominated good, and it alone is called after this manner, and possesses a power of prescience concerning the universe . But the other is father of all begotten things, devoid of prescience, and invisible. And the female (principle) is devoid of prescience, passionate, two-minded, two-bodied, in every respect answering (the description of) the girl in the legend of Herodotus, as far as the groin a virgin , and (in) the parts below (resembling) a snake, as Justinus says. But this girl is styled Edem and Israel .
And these principles of the universe are, he says, roots and fountains from which existing things have been produced, but that there was not anything else. The Father, then, who is devoid of prescience, beholding that half- woman Edem, passed into a concupiscent desire for her. But this Father, he says, is called Elohim. Not less did Edem also long for Elohim, and the mutual passion brought them together into the one nuptial couch of love . And from such an intercourse the Father generates out of Edem unto himself twelve angels . And the names of the angels begotten by the Father are these: Michael, Amen , Baruch, Gabriel, Esaddaeus....
And of the maternal angels which Edem brought forth, the names in like manner have been subjoined, and they are as follows: Babel, Achamoth, Naas, Bel, Belias, Satan , Saël, Adonaeus, Leviathan, Pharao, Carcamenos, (and) Lathen. Of these twenty-four angels the paternal ones are associated with the Father , and do all things according to His will ; and the maternal ( angels are associated with) Edem the Mother. And the multitude of all these angels together is Paradise, he says, concerning which Moses speaks: God planted a garden in Eden towards the east, that is, towards the face of Edem, that Edem might behold the garden — that is, the angels — continually. Allegorically the angels are styled trees of this garden, and the tree of life is the third of the paternal angels — Baruch.
And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the third of the maternal angels — Naas. For so, says (Justinus), one ought to interpret the words of Moses , observing, Moses said these things disguisedly, from the fact that all do not attain the truth . And, he says, Paradise being formed from the conjugal joy of Elohim and Edem, the angels of Elohim receiving from the most beauteous earth, that is, not from the portion of Edem resembling a monster, but from the parts above the groin of human shape, and gentle — in aspect — make man out of the earth. But out of the parts resembling a monster are produced wild beasts, and the rest of the animal creation. They made man, therefore, as a symbol of the unity and love (subsisting) between them; and they depute their own powers unto him, Edem the soul , but Elohim the spirit.