Against Heresies, Book I

Book I

• Against Heresies I.1 — 1. They maintain, then, that in the invisible and ineffable heights above there exists a certain perfect, pre-existent Æon, whom they call Proarche, Propator, and Bythus, and describe as being invisible and…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.2 — 1. They proceed to tell us that the Propator of their scheme was known only to Monogenes, who sprang from him; in other words, only to Nous, while to all the others he was invisible and incomprehensible. And,…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.3 — Texts of Holy Scripture used by these heretics to support their opinions. 1. Such, then, is the account they give of what took place within the Pleroma; such the calamities that flowed from the passion which seized…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.4 — Account given by the heretics of the formation of Achamoth; origin of the visible world from her disturbances. 1. The following are the transactions which they narrate as having occurred outside of the Pleroma: The…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.5 — Formation of the Demiurge; description of him. He is the creator of everything outside of the Pleroma. 1. These three kinds of existence, then, having, according to them, been now formed,—one from the passion, which…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.6 — The threefold kind of man feigned by these heretics: good works needless for them, though necessary to others: their abandoned morals. 1. There being thus three kinds of substances, they declare of all that is…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.7 — 1. When all the seed shall have come to perfection, they state that then their mother Achamoth shall pass from the intermediate place, and enter in within the Pleroma, and shall receive as her spouse the Saviour, who…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.8 — How the Valentinians pervert the Scriptures to support their own pious opinions. 1. Such, then, is their system, which neither the prophets announced, nor the Lord taught, nor the apostles delivered, but of which…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.9 — Refutation of the impious interpretations of these heretics. 1. You see, my friend, the method which these men employ to deceive themselves, while they abuse the Scriptures by endeavouring to support their own system…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.10 — Unity of the faith of the Church throughout the whole world. 1. The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith:…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.11 — The opinions of Valentinus, with those of his disciples and others. 1. Let us now look at the inconsistent opinions of those heretics (for there are some two or three of them), how they do not agree in treating the…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.12 — The doctrines of the followers of Ptolemy and Colorbasus. 1. But the followers of Ptolemy say that he [Bythus] has two consorts, which they also name Diatheses (affections), viz., Ennœa and Thelesis. For, as they…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.13 — The deceitful arts and nefarious practices of Marcus. 1. But there is another among these heretics, Marcus by name, who boasts himself as having improved upon his master. He is a perfect adept in magical impostures,…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.14 — The various hypotheses of Marcus and others. Theories respecting letters and syllables. 1. This Marcus then, declaring that he alone was the matrix and receptacle of the Sige of Colorbasus, inasmuch as he was…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.15 — Sige relates to Marcus the generation of the twenty-four elements and of Jesus. Exposure of these absurdities. 1. The all-wise Sige then announced the production of the four-and-twenty elements to him as…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.16 — Absurd interpretations of the Marcosians. 1. Blending in one the production of their own Æons, and the straying and recovery of the sheep [spoken of in the Gospel], these persons endeavour to set forth things in a…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.17 — The theory of the Marcosians, that created things were made after the image of things invisible. 1. I wish also to explain to thee their theory as to the way in which the creation itself was formed through the mother…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.18 — Passages from Moses, which the heretics pervert to the support of their hypothesis. 1. And while they affirm such things as these concerning the creation, every one of them generates something new, day by day,…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.19 — Passages of Scripture by which they attempt to prove that the Supreme Father was unknown before the coming of Christ. 1. I judge it necessary to add to these details also what, by garbling passages of Scripture, they…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.20 — The apocryphal and spurious Scriptures of the Marcosians, with passages of the Gospels which they pervert. 1. Besides the above [misrepresentations], they adduce an unspeakable number of apocryphal and spurious…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.21 — The views of redemption entertained by these heretics. 1. It happens that their tradition respecting redemption is invisible and incomprehensible, as being the mother of things which are incomprehensible and…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.22 — Deviations of heretics from the truth. 1. The rule of truth which we hold, is, that there is one God Almighty, who made all things by His Word, and fashioned and formed, out of that which had no existence, all things…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.23 — Doctrines and practices of Simon Magus and Menander. 1. Simon the Samaritan was that magician of whom Luke, the disciple and follower of the apostles, says, “But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who beforetime…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.24 — Doctrines of Saturninus and Basilides. 1. Arising among these men, Saturninus (who was of that Antioch which is near Daphne) and Basilides laid hold of some favourable opportunities, and promulgated different systems…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.25 — Doctrines of Carpocrates. 1. Carpocrates, again, and his followers maintain that the world and the things which are therein were created by angels greatly inferior to the unbegotten Father. They also hold that Jesus…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.26 — Doctrines of Cerinthus, the Ebionites, and Nicolaitanes. 1. Cerinthus, again, a man who was educated in the wisdom of the Egyptians, taught that the world was not made by the primary God, but by a certain Power far…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.27 — Doctrines of Cerdo and Marcion. 1. Cerdo was one who took his system from the followers of Simon, and came to live at Rome in the time of Hyginus, who held the ninth place in the episcopal succession from the…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.28 — Doctrines of Tatian, the Encratites, and others. 1. Many offshoots of numerous heresies have already been formed from those heretics we have described. This arises from the fact that numbers of them—indeed, we may…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.29 — Doctrines of various other Gnostic sects, and especially of the Barbeliotes or Borborians. 1. Besides those, however, among these heretics who are Simonians, and of whom we have already spoken, a multitude of…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.30 — Doctrines of the Ophites and Sethians. 1. Others, again, portentously declare that there exists, in the power of Bythus, a certain primary light, blessed, incorruptible, and infinite: this is the Father of all, and…vatican.va
• Against Heresies I.31 — Doctrines of the Cainites. 1. Others again declare that Cain derived his being from the Power above, and acknowledge that Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and all such persons, are related to themselves. On this account,…vatican.va