Refutation of All Heresies

not even considering that God is long-suffering while being blasphemed by them, so that they might either feel shame and repent, or, by persisting, be duly judged—constrained, I proceed to reveal their secret mysteries, which they hand down to the initiates with great confidence, not confessing them before they have held the person in suspense for a time, made him blasphemous toward the truly existing God, and seen him burning with curiosity for the promise. And then, when they have tested that he is bound by the chains of sin, they initiate him, handing down the fulfillment of evils, having bound him with oaths not to divulge them nor to share them with just anyone, unless he has likewise been enslaved; once he has been so delivered, an oath is no longer necessary. For he who has endured suffering and receiving their perfect mysteries will be sufficiently bound by the very act, both for his own conscience and to prevent him from divulging it to others. For if he were to divulge such wickedness to any human being, he would neither be counted among men nor deemed worthy to behold the light, if indeed not even irrational creatures attempt such wickedness, as we shall say when we come to those places.

But since reason compels us to embark upon the deep abyss of this narrative, we do not think one should keep silent, but rather, having set forth the doctrines of all in detail, we shall omit nothing. It seems good, even if the discourse should be long, not to weary. For we shall leave behind no small aid for human life so that men may no longer wander, once everyone sees openly their clandestine and secret orgies, which they store up and hand down only to the mystics.

These things, however, no one will refute except the Holy Spirit which is handed down in the Church, which the apostles, having received it first, imparted to those who rightly believed. We, being their successors and partakers of the same grace, high-priesthood, and teaching, and accounted guardians of the Church, do not "sleep with an eye of slumber" [Ps. 120:4], nor do we keep silent the right word; rather, we do not weary of working with every soul and body, attempting to repay worthy things worthily to God, our benefactor, and not even thus rewarding Him according to His merit, except that in the matters entrusted to us we do not slacken, but fulfill the measures of our own season, and impart to all without stint whatever the Holy Spirit will provide; not only bringing into the light through refutation that which is foreign, but also whatever truth, having received it by the grace of the Father, has ministered to men, these things we denote by word and, making them attested by letters, we proclaim without shame. In order, therefore, as we said before, that we may demonstrate them to be atheists in sentiment, in way of life, and in deed, and [to show] whence their attempts have originated, and that nothing [is theirs] from...

What the natural philosophers held to be true, and who they were; and what those held to be true by the moral philosophers, and who they were; and what those held to be true by the dialecticians, and who the dialecticians were.

The natural philosophers, then, are: Thales, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Heraclitus, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Archelaus, Parmenides, Leucippus, Democritus, Xenophanes, Ecphantus, and Hippon.

The moral philosophers are: Socrates, pupil of the natural philosopher Archelaus; and Plato, pupil of Socrates—he integrated the three philosophies.

The dialecticians are: Aristotle, pupil of Plato—he established the dialectical method. The Stoics are Chrysippus and Zeno.

^A And then, having tested that he is a captive of sin, they initiate him into the perfection of evils, binding him with oaths neither to divulge it nor to communicate it to any chance person, unless he should be enslaved in the same way. When this alone has been handed over, no oath is any longer necessary, for he who has endured to undergo and receive their perfect mysteries will be sufficiently bound by the act itself, both to his own conscience and to not divulge it to others. For if he were to tell such an iniquity to any of mankind, he would be counted neither among men nor held worthy to see the light, ^B both which things, although they are irrational and wicked, he does not attempt, as we shall say when we have come to those places. But since the argument compels us to step into a great depth of narrations, we do not think fit to remain silent, but by setting forth minutely the doctrines of all, we shall be silent about nothing. It seems, even if the argument is longer, one should not tire. For we shall not be leaving behind any small help for the life of men towards no longer being deceived, when all clearly see their hidden and unspeakable rites, which, hoarding them up, they hand over only to the initiated.

^A It is, indeed, a task full of labor and one requiring much investigation, yet we shall not be in want; for afterwards it will gladden him, like an athlete having attained a crown after much toil, or a merchant after a great tossing of the sea having brought back gains, or a farmer after the sweat of his brow having enjoyed the fruits, or a prophet after insults and abuses seeing the things spoken coming to pass. Having begun, therefore, we shall say who among the Greeks were the first to demonstrate natural philosophy. For the leaders of the heresies have become, most of all, plagiarists of these men, as we shall demonstrate later in the comparison with one another. By assigning to each of those who preceded them their own arguments, we shall show the heresiarchs to be naked and unsightly. It is said that Thales the Milesian, one of the seven wise men, was the first to attempt natural philosophy. He said that water is the beginning and the end of existence. ^{B C D}

^A And he who was initiated would mingle with the others and remain among the disciples, and also at the same time share in their meals; if he did not, he was taken back and rejected. Those who were on the inside were called Pythagoreans, the others Pythagorists. Among his disciples, those who escaped the conflagration were Lysis and Archippus, and the servant of Zalmoxis, who is also said to have taught the Pythagorean philosophy to the Druids among the Celts.

They say that Pythagoras learned numbers and measures from the Egyptians, having been struck by the reliable and fanciful and difficult-to-attain wisdom of the priests; imitating them, he himself likewise ordered silence and caused those learning to lead a solitary life in underground adyta.

^B 3. Empedocles, who was born after these men, also said many things about the nature of demons, how they move about and manage things upon the earth. He said that the principle of the universe is strife and friendship, and that God is intellectual fire, and that all things will be dissolved into fire and into fire, a doctrine to which the Stoics almost agree, expecting a conflagration. Most of all, however, he agrees with the transmigration of souls, saying:

For already I have been a boy and a girl, and a bush and a bird and a mute fish leaping out of the sea.

He said that all souls are transmuted into all animals. For the author of these things, Pythagoras, said that he had been Euphorbus, who campaigned at Troy, claiming to recognize his own shield. So much for Empedocles.

^C 4. Heraclitus the natural philosopher, an Ephesian, lamented all things, condemning the ignorance of the whole of life and of all men, but pitying the life of mortals. He said that he himself knew all things, but the rest of mankind knew nothing. He, too, spoke almost in harmony with Empedocles, stating that strife and friendship are the principle of all things, and that God is intellectual fire ^D and that all things are carried along towards each other and do not stand firm; and just as Empedocles said that the whole region around us is full of evils and that these evils extend as far as the moon and reach from that region down to the earth, but go no further, since everything above the moon is a purer region. So it also seemed to Heraclitus.

5. After these there were other natural philosophers, whom we did not think it necessary to mention, since none of them differ from what has been said above. But since in general no small school of these has emerged...

The entirety of the numbers taken from the genus are four (the genus, however, was an indeterminate number), from which they derive their perfect number, the decad; for one, two, three, and four make ten, provided that to each of these numbers its proper name is preserved according to essence. Pythagoras called this the holy tetractys, the source of everlasting nature having "roots" in itself, and from this number, he held, numbers have their origin; for eleven, twelve, and the rest derive their principle of being from the ten. Of this decad, the perfect number, there are called four parts: number, monad, power, and cube. Just as interweavings and mixtures occur for the generation of increase, forming a generative number according to nature; for when a power is cubed by itself, it becomes a power-of-a-power; when a power is raised to a cube, it becomes a power-cube; when a cube is raised, it becomes a cube-cube; so that all numbers, from which the generation of existing things occurs, become seven: number, monad, power, cube, power-of-a-power, power-cube, and cube-cube. This man also spoke of an immortal soul and of reincarnation; on account of which he used to say that he himself had been Aethalides before the Trojan War, and during the Trojan—

War ^A Euphorbus, and after that Hermotimus, and after that Pyrrhus, and lastly Pythagoras. He says that the proof of this is that if someone chews a bean and places it in the sun for a certain time—for it will take an impression—it will give off the smell of human semen. He mentions another, clearer example: if, when the bean is blooming, we take the bean and its blossom and place them in a pot, and after smearing it with mud we bury it in the ground, and after a few days we uncover it, we would see it hold the shape, first of a woman's shame, and after that, upon closer observation, of a child's head growing together with it. ^B This man, together with his disciples, was burned to death in Croton in Italy. A custom of his was this: whenever anyone came to be his student, he would sell his possessions and deposit the money, sealed, with Pythagoras, and he would wait in silence—sometimes for three years, sometimes for five—learning; then, he would mix with the others and remain a student and dine with them; if he did not, he would take back his own property and be cast out. Those of the inner circle were called Pythagoreans, while the others were called Pythagorists. Of his disciples, those who escaped the fire were Lysis and Archippus, and the servant of Pythagoras, ^C who is said to have taught the Druids among the Celts to philosophize according to the Pythagorean philosophy.

^A For I was already a boy and a girl, a bush and a bird and a mute fish leaping out of the sea.

He said that souls change into all animals. For indeed, Pythagoras, the teacher of these, stated that he himself was Euphorbus, who had campaigned at Ilium, claiming that he recognized the shield. Such were the words of Empedocles.

But Heraclitus the Ephesian, a natural philosopher, lamented everything, condemning the ignorance of all human life and pitying the life of all mortals. For he claimed that he himself knew all things, but the rest of mankind knew nothing. And he too spoke in a way nearly in agreement with Empedocles, stating that strife and love were the principle of all things, and that God was an intellectual fire, and that all things were being borne along together and were not standing still; and like Empedocles, he said that the whole region around us was full of evils, and that up to the moon evils...

^A did not reach.

of Apollodorus. He says that the mixture of matter is like Anaxagoras’s, and that the principles are in the mind, a mixture immediately present. And that the principle of motion is the separation of hot and cold, and the hot moves, while the cold remains at rest. And that the liquefied water flows into the middle, in which the burnt-up air becomes and the earth, one of which is carried above, while the other settles below. He says therefore that the earth remains at rest, and the cold stays in the middle, which, if one may say so, is no part of the universe, but is what is thrown out from the conflagration, from which first the nature of the stars was separated, of which the sun is the greatest, the second the moon, and of the others some are smaller, some larger. Superimposed upon this, he says, is the heaven, and thus the sun pours light onto the earth, making the air transparent and the earth dry. For the lake is first, being circular all around, and the middle is cold. He brings as a sign of its concavity that the sun does not rise and set for all at once, which ought to happen if it were level. Concerning animals, he says that when the earth was heated first in the lower part, where the hot and cold mingled, many other kinds of animals appeared, and all of them used the same nourishment, namely, they were nurtured by mud, and were short-lived; afterward, however, generation from each other arose, and humans were distinguished from the other animals, and authorities, and laws, and arts, and cities, and the rest were established. He says that mind is innate in all animals alike; for each uses its body according to whether it is slower or faster.

10. Natural philosophy lasted from Thales ^D to Archelaus. Socrates became a hearer of his. But there are many others who professed different opinions concerning the nature of the universe, and if we wished to set forth all of their opinions, a great deal of book-material would have to be consumed. But having recorded those of them that it was necessary to record, especially those who were illustrious 26-27 and who, so to speak, were among the most prominent, and provided a starting point for those who philosophized after them, we shall commit ourselves to the things we intend to discuss.

11. For Parmenides thinks that the universe is one, unbegotten, and spheroidal. Not even he himself escaping the opinion of the multitude, saying that fire and earth are the principles of the universe, and that earth is like matter, and fire is the efficient and acting cause, he said that the world would be consumed, but by what manner he did not say. The same man said, however, that the universe is eternal and not begotten, and spheroidal, and equal, having nothing ^D

^A in itself, neither place, nor unmoved, nor finite.

12. Leucippus, a companion of Zeno, did not maintain the same opinion, but says that things are infinite and always moving, and that generation and change are ever-present. He claims the elements are the full and the empty. He says that worlds come to be as follows: when many bodies are gathered together from the surrounding space and become entangled, they collide, and those that are similar in shape and appearance become intertwined, and those that are displaced turn into other things; they grow and decay through a certain necessity. What this necessity might be, he did not define.

13. Democritus, a disciple of Leucippus, becomes familiar. Democritus, son of Damasippus, of Abdera, having associated with many gymnosophists in India, and with priests in Egypt, and with magi in Babylon. He says, similarly to Leucippus, regarding the elements, the full and the empty, calling the full "that which is" and the empty "that which is not." He said, however, that because things move always, there are infinite things, and that they differ in magnitude. He says that in some [worlds] there is neither sun nor moon, and in others there is a sun and moon greater than ours, and in others more numerous. He says that the distances between the worlds are unequal, in some places having more worlds, in others fewer; and some are increasing, others at their prime, others decaying, and in some places they are coming to be, in others they are failing. And they perish by crashing into one another. He says that there are some worlds devoid of animals and plants and all moisture. Before our world, the earth where the stars are came to be, then the moon below, then the sun, then the fixed stars. He says that the planets follow their own high course. The world is at its prime until it can no longer take in anything from the outside. He laughed at everything, as if all things among men were worthy of laughter.

14. Xenophanes, the Colophonian, son of Orthomenes. This man lived until the time of Cyrus. He said that he was the first to claim there is an incomprehensibility of all things, speaking as follows:

Even if one should happen to say that which is most perfect, Still he does not know it; for opinion exists regarding all things.

He says that nothing is generated, nor does anything perish, nor is it moved, and that the All is not subject to change. He says that God is eternal, and One, and similar in every respect, and finite, ^D and spheroidal, and sensible in all His parts. The sun, however, from the descendants of this one. And the nature of air is such: when it is most uniform, it is invisible to sight, but becomes manifest through cold and heat and moisture and motion. It is always in motion; for things that change would not change if they were not in motion. For when it is condensed and rarefied, it appears different; for when it is rarefied into fire, it becomes fire, and again, when wind is condensed into air, it comes to be from air by compression, and even more so, when condensed further, it becomes earth, and when at its most condensed, stones. So that the primary elements of generation are opposites, heat and cold. And the earth is flat, being supported upon the air, and similarly both the sun and the moon and all the other stars, being fiery, are supported upon the air because of their flatness.

And when clouds are cloven by the force of winds, these being rent apart, a brilliant and fiery light appears. A rainbow is produced when the sun’s rays fall upon a condensed air. An earthquake occurs when the earth is altered to a greater degree by heat and moisture. These, then, are the views of Anaximenes. He flourished around the first year of the fifty-eighth Olympiad. After him comes Anaxagoras, son of Hegesibulus, the Clazomenian. He stated that the principle of the universe is Mind and matter: Mind as the creator, and matter as that which comes to be. For while all things were together, Mind came and set them in order. He says that material principles are infinite and that the smallest particles of them are likewise infinite. He says that all things participate in motion, being set in motion by the Mind, so that like things come together. And he says that the heavens were adorned by that circular motion. The dense, the moist, the dark, the cold, and all heavy things came together toward the center, from which, as they solidified, the earth was formed; the things contrary to these—the hot, the bright, the dry, and the light—rushed outward into the further part of the ether. He asserts that the earth is flat in shape and remains suspended due to its size and because there is no vacuum; and for this reason the air, being very powerful, bears up the earth which rides upon it.

And that the heat of the stars is not felt on account of their distance and the remoteness of the earth; furthermore, that they are not equally hot as the sun, having a colder region. The moon is lower than the sun, closer to us. The sun exceeds the Peloponnese in size. The moon does not possess its own light, but receives it from the sun. The revolution of the stars takes place under the earth. The moon is eclipsed when the earth acts as a screen, and sometimes also by those things located beneath the moon; the sun is eclipsed at the new moons when the moon acts as a screen. Both the sun and the moon undergo solstices, being pushed back by the air. The moon is often turned back because it is unable to withstand the cold. He was the first to define the matters concerning eclipses and illuminations. He said that the moon is earthy and contains within itself plains and chasms. The galaxy is a reflection of the light of the stars that are not illuminated by the sun. The shooting stars occur like sparks leaping forth from the motion of the pole.

^A of the Olympiad, during which time they say Plato also lived. They say that he was also prophetic. Archelaus was an Athenian by birth, the son of Apollodorus. He stated that the mixture of matter was similar to that of Anaxagoras, and likewise the principles; and that a certain mixture was immediately present in the Mind. He declared the beginning of motion to be the separation of the hot and the cold from one another; the hot is moved, while the cold remains at rest. As the water melts, it flows into the center, where, being consumed by fire, it becomes air and earth, of which the one is carried upward while the other settles downward. Thus, the earth remains at rest and was formed for these reasons, and it lies in the center, being no part, so to speak, of the whole; and the air encompasses everything, released from the ignition, ^B from which first proceeds the nature of the stars, of which the sun is the greatest, the moon the second, while of the others, some are smaller and some are larger.

For Parmenides also posited the whole to be one, unbegotten, and spheroidal; yet he himself does not escape the opinion of the many, speaking of fire and earth as the principles of the universe—earth as the matter, and fire as the cause and the active agent. He said that the world is subject to corruption, though he did not state in what manner. The same person said that the whole is eternal, not generated, spheroidal, and uniform, having nothing within itself, unmoved and finite.

Leucippus, a companion of Zeno, did not maintain the same opinion; rather, he says that things are infinite, always moving, and that there is a continuous change. He calls the full and the void the elements. He says that worlds come into existence when a great void collects many bodies from the surrounding space and they flow together; as they strike one another, those with similar shapes and similar forms become intertwined, and from these entwined masses, stars are formed, which grow and perish through necessity. What this necessity might be, he did not define.

Democritus became a pupil of Leucippus. Democritus, a Damasippian from Abdera, associated with many gymnosophists among the Indians, and with priests in Egypt, and with astrologers, and with the magi in Babylon. He speaks similarly to Leucippus regarding the elements—the full and the void—calling the full "being" and the void "non-being." He said that the things that are are always moving in the void; and that the worlds are infinite and of various sizes.

^A ..., father, son; the "where," for instance, at Athens, at Megara; the "when," for instance, at the tenth Olympiad; to "have," for instance, to possess; to "do," for instance, to write and generally to perform some action; to "lie," for instance, to lie on the ground; to "suffer," for instance, to be struck. He himself also posits that some things have a mean, while others are immediate, as we also said concerning Plato. And in almost most respects he is in agreement with Plato, except for the doctrine concerning the soul. For Plato holds it to be immortal, whereas Aristotle posits that it persists for a time after these things and even itself vanishes into the fifth body—which he posits to be, along with the other four (fire, earth, water, and air), more subtle, like breath. Plato, then, says that only the things concerning the soul are truly good and that they suffice for happiness. But Aristotle introduces a threefold division of goods and says that the wise man is not perfect unless there are present to him also the goods of the body and the external goods: the bodily ones are beauty, strength, sensory vigor, integrity, health; the external ones are wealth, nobility, glory, power, peace, friendship. The internal ones are those concerning the soul, as also seemed good to Plato: prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude. He says that evils also came to be by opposition to the goods, and that they exist in the region under the moon, but do not reach above the moon. He holds that the soul of the whole world is immortal, and the world itself eternal, but that the soul of each individual, as we said before, perishes. This man, then, used to philosophize while spending his time in the Lyceum, whereas Zeno did so in the porch which was called the Poecile. The disciples of Zeno obtained their name from the place, since they were called Stoics from the Stoa, but those of Aristotle [obtained their name] from the work; for because they inquired while walking about in the Lyceum, for this reason they were called Peripatetics. Such, then, is the doctrine of Aristotle.

^C The Stoics likewise increased the syllogistic part of philosophy and almost circumscribed it with definitions, Chrysippus and Zeno being of the same opinion, who also themselves posited God as the principle of all things, being the purest body, and that His providence extends through all things, and they affirmed with certainty that all things happen according to fate, using such an example as this: just as when a dog is tied to a carriage, if it wishes to follow, it is both pulled and follows willingly, doing even what is voluntary along with necessity, as it were, namely fate; but if it does not wish to follow, it will certainly be compelled. And they say that the same holds true for human beings; for even when they do not wish to follow, they will certainly be compelled to enter into that which is fated. They say that the soul remains after death, and that it is a body and came to be from the cooling of the surrounding air, for which reason it is also called—

^A soul. They acknowledge also that the transmigration of souls happens, with a determinate number of souls existing. They accept that there will be a conflagration and a purgation of this world—some say of the whole, others of a part—and they say that it is even purged in parts; and they quite nearly call destruction and the generation of something else from it a purgation. They posit that all things are bodies, and that body cannot pass through body, but that there is a refraction, ^B and that all things are filled and there is nothing void. These things are also maintained by the Stoics.

Epicurus

Academics

others have added the "not more"; saying, it is not more fire than it is something else. They did not, however, declare what it IS itself, but rather that it is "of such a kind." ^B And they say that one should not make an assertion about anything, but merely attempt to let it pass. Others have added the "not more," saying, "not more fire than anything else." Yet they did not reveal what that thing is itself, but rather that it is "of such a kind."

^C § 1. There is also a school of philosophers among the Brahmans in India. They choose a life of self-sufficiency, and abstain from all living things and from any food cooked by fire, being content with the fruits of the trees; nor do they even pluck these, but live by gathering what has fallen to the ground, drinking the water of the river Tagabena. They live their whole lives naked, claiming that the body is a garment for the soul bestowed by God. They say that God is light, not such as one sees, nor such as the sun and fire, but to them God is the Word—not the articulated word, but the word of knowledge, through which the hidden mysteries of nature are seen by the wise. And this light, which they call the Word of God, they say that they alone—the Brahmans—know, because they alone have cast aside vanity, which is the final garment of the soul. ^D These men despise death; they always invoke God in their own language, as we said before, and send up hymns to him. Neither women nor children are among them. But those who desire a life like theirs cross over from the opposite side of the river and remain there, never returning; and they, too, are called Brahmans.

However, they do not lead their lives in the same way; for there are also women in that region, from whom those who dwell there are born and beget children. Now, they say that this Word, whom they call God, is corporeal and clothed in a body from without, just as if one were wearing a sheep's skin, and that when the body with which he is clothed is put off, he appears clearly to the eyes. The Brahmans say that there is a war in the body with which they are clothed—[and they consider the body to be full of enemies]—against which they fight, marshaled as if against enemies, as we have indicated before. They say that all men are captives of their own innate enemies: the belly and the genitals, the throat, anger, joy, sorrow, desire, and the like. Only he who has erected a trophy of victory over these advances toward God. For this reason, the Brahmans venerate Dandamis, whom Alexander the Macedonian visited, as one who had conquered the war within the body; but they denounce Calanus, as one who impiously abandoned their philosophy. For, having put off the body, the Brahmans, like fish leaping out of the water into the pure air, behold the sun.

^A He accepts the natures of demons, and says that some of them are good, while others are evil. And regarding the soul, some say that he calls it unbegotten and imperishable, when he says: "Every soul is immortal, for that which is ever-moving is immortal"; and when he demonstrates it to be self-moving and a principle of motion. Others say that it is begotten, but imperishable through the will of God. Still others [say] that it is composite, and begotten, and perishable; for it is maintained that he posits a "mixing vessel" for it, and that it has a luminous body, and that everything which has come into being must necessarily perish. ^B Those, however, who say that it is immortal rely especially upon those passages in which he says that there are judgments after death in the tribunal of Hades, and that good souls obtain a good reward, while evil ones [obtain] corresponding punishments. Some, then, say that he also confesses the transmigration of souls, and that the souls, being definite in number, pass from one body to another according to the merit of each, and after certain fixed periods are sent back again into this world to provide a trial of their own choices.

^A [Theia] and Rhea, and Themis and Mnemosyne, Phoebe with the golden crown, and lovely Tethys; After these, however, was born the supreme Saturn, crafty, ^A Most ferocious of sons, and he hated his lively parent. He brought forth again the Cyclopes, possessing a fierce spirit. And he enumerates all the rest of the Giants from Saturn. But at some point later, Zeus was born from Rhea.

These, then, all declared these things concerning the nature and generation of the universe, according to their own opinion, just as we have set them forth. But all of them, having descended below that which is divine, occupied themselves with the essence of created things; being struck with amazement at the magnitudes of the world, and believing these very things to be the Divine, one preferring one part of the world and another another, they did not recognize God, the creator of all these things. ^B

I think, therefore, that the doctrines of those who have undertaken to philosophize among the Greeks have been sufficiently set forth, from whom the heretics, having taken their starting points, embarked upon the things that will be spoken of shortly. But it seems good to me now, having set forth the mystical things, to state also whatever some have laboriously devised concerning the stars and the spaces. For indeed, the heretics, having proceeded from them, are thought by the multitude to utter prodigies. Then, in succession, we shall illuminate their futile inventions.

REFUTATION OF ALL HERESIES

BOOK FOUR

1. [Stellarum autem appellant terminos in uno- ^C quoque signo, in quibus unaquæque stella a quota parte ad quotam usque partem potest plurimum. De quibus non exigua] est apud illos secundum [tabulas suas diversitas. Stipari autem tanquam a satellitibus] stellas aiunt [quando media sunt inter alias stellas in confiniis] signorum, veluti, quando [ejusdem signi stella aliqua primas occupat partes], alia [extremas, alia denique quæ sunt in medio], stipari a satellitibus dicitur ea quæ est 1. [……] [partes, et quantum ad quotam partem] plurimum valet. Concerning which, there is no small disagreement among them according to [their tables.] They say that stars are said to be "escorted as by satellites" [when they are in the middle between other stars in the boundaries] of the signs, for instance, when [in the same sign one star occupies the first parts,] another [the last, and another finally those which are in the middle], that star which is in the middle is said to be escorted by those occupying the parts at the extremities. [They are also said to "look upon" one another and to agree] with one another as those which are at the triangle. They call these "boundaries" of the stars in each sign, in which each of the stars [has the most power from a certain part to a certain part.]

^A in itself, and immutable and finite.

12. Leucippus, a companion of Zeno, did not maintain the same opinion, but says that things are infinite and always moving, and that there is a continuous generation and change. He calls the elements the "full" and the "void." He says that worlds are produced thus: when many bodies are gathered together into the great void from the surrounding space and congregate, those that are of similar form and appearance collide and become intertwined, while those that do not become intertwined are carried elsewhere. He says that worlds grow and perish according to a certain necessity; what that necessity is, he did not define.

13. Democritus became a student of Leucippus. Democritus, son of Damasippus, an Abderite, associated with many gymnosophists in India, with priests in Egypt, and with astrologers and magi in Babylon. He speaks similarly to Leucippus concerning the elements, the full and the void, calling the full "that which exists," and the void "that which does not exist." He said, however, that things which exist are always moving in the void. He stated that there are infinite worlds, differing in size; in some there is neither sun nor moon, in others they are larger than ours, and in others ^B more numerous. He said that the distances between the worlds are unequal, and that in some places there are more worlds, in others fewer, and that some are growing, others flourishing, others perishing, and that in some places they are coming into being, while in others they are failing; and that they perish by colliding with one another. He said that some worlds are devoid of animals, plants, and all moisture. Regarding our own world, he said that the earth was produced before the stars, and that the moon is below, then the sun, and then the fixed stars. He said that even the planets do not have an equal altitude. A world flourishes until it can no longer receive anything from the outside. He laughed at everything, as if all human affairs were worthy of laughter.

14. Xenophanes, the Colophonian, son of Orthomenes. He lived until the time of Cyrus. He was the first to say that all things are incomprehensible, speaking thus:

For even if one should chance to say the perfect word, ^C Yet he himself does not know it, and opinion exists in all things.

He says that nothing is produced, nor does anything perish, nor is it moved, and that the All is one and without change. He also says that God is eternal, and one, and similar in every way, and finite, and spherical, and capable of perception in all his parts. He says the sun ^D

^A also says that evils come into being in opposition to goods, and that they exist in the region beneath the moon, but no longer above the moon. He holds that the soul of the universe as a whole is immortal, and the universe itself eternal, but that the soul of each individual, as we said before, perishes. This philosopher, therefore, pursued his philosophy while holding discussions in the Lyceum, while Zeno did so in the Painted Stoa. Those who followed Zeno took their name from the place, that is, from the Stoa, and were called Stoics, whereas those who followed Aristotle took theirs from their activity. For because they would walk about in the ^B Lyceum while they debated, they were called Peripatetics. So much, then, for Aristotle.

The Stoics, for their part, advanced philosophy further towards the logical, and encompassed it with definitions, as held by those like-minded thinkers Chrysippus and Zeno. They too postulated as a first principle the God of all things, who they said was the purest body, and that his providence extends through all things. They also asserted that everything happens according to fate, employing the following illustration: that just as when a dog is tied to a carriage, if it wishes to follow, it is both drawn and follows, exercising its own will along with the necessity—that is, ^C of fate—but if it does not wish to follow, it will necessarily be dragged; the same is surely true also in the case of men. For even if they do not wish to follow, they will necessarily be forced to enter into what has been fated.

Epicurus, however, proposed an opinion almost contrary to everyone else. He postulated that the principles of all things were atoms and the void: the void being a kind of space for things to come into being, and the atoms being the matter from which all things are made. He claimed that from the concourse of atoms, both God and the elements came to be, as well as all things within them, including living creatures and everything else, so that nothing could be produced or exist unless it were from atoms. He called these atoms the smallest bodies, parts which could have no center, nor point, nor any division, which is why he named them "atoms." Although he admitted that God is eternal and incorruptible, he claimed that He provides for nothing, and that there is absolutely no providence nor fate, but that all things happen by chance. For he held that God sits in what he called the "inter-mundane spaces"—for he set up an abode for God outside the universe, which he called the "inter-mundane"—and that He enjoys His ease with the highest happiness, neither having business Himself nor causing any to others.

^A those who do not know the quantity of time of the change [p. 37-39] will not know the time of conception either. Furthermore, just as women differ from one another in the rest of the parts of the body in their activity and the other causes, so too do they differ in the activity of the womb, some conceiving faster and others slower. And it is not paradoxical, since even when compared with themselves, they are seen at one time to be easily able to conceive, and at another time not at all. This being so, it is impossible to say with precision when the seed that has been injected is retained, so that the Chaldeans might determine the horoscope of the birth from this time.

4. For this reason, it is impossible that the horoscope should be set from the conception. But not from the birth either. For first, it is a difficulty to say when the birth is to be stated to occur: is it when what is born begins to emerge into the cold air, or when it protrudes a little, or when it has been brought down to the ground? Nor in each of these cases is it possible to grasp the precise ^B time of the birth or to define it. For indeed, because of the state of mind, the suitability of the body, the choice of place, the experience of the midwife, and other countless causes, the time at which what is born emerges—whether after the membranes have broken, or when it has emerged a little to the outside, or when it has been brought down to the ground—is not the same, but it is one thing in one case and another in another. The Chaldeans, being unable to calculate this time again in a definite and accurate manner, will fail to define the hour of the birth as they ought. That the Chaldeans profess to know the horoscope at the times of birth, even if they do not know it, is manifest from these things; and that not even the horoscope is unerring for them, it is possible to infer. For when they say that the one sitting by the woman in labor, at the moment of birth, signals with a disk to the Chaldean astronomer watching from an elevated place, and that he, looking up to heaven, notes the zodiac sign that is rising, ^C let us first demonstrate to them that, since the birth is not definite, as we showed a little earlier, it is not easy to signal it even with the disk. Furthermore, even granted that the birth can be grasped, it is certainly impossible to signal it at an accurate time; for since the sound of the disk can be divided for the senses only after a longer interval of time, it happens that it is moved to the peak with difficulty. And there is a proof of this, which is observed in those who cut wood at a distance. For after a sufficiently long time…

from the descent of the axe, the sound of the blow is heard, as it reaches the listener only after a longer duration. And for this reason, therefore, it is not possible for the Chaldeans to obtain accurately the time of the rising sign and of that which is truly the moment of rising. And indeed, not only does a longer interval of time pass after the delivery, while he who attends the woman in labor strikes the disk, and then, after the striking, he who sits upon the summit hears it; but also, while he is looking around and observing in which of the signs the moon is, and in which sign each of the remaining stars is situated, it ^B necessarily follows that the configuration regarding the stars becomes different, since the motion of the pole is carried with an ineffable speed, before he can cautiously observe and mark the time of the one born, as it is viewed in the heaven. But if one should say that the nativity can be examined through questions put to the person consulting, or regarding whom he is being consulted, it is clear that not even in this way can he arrive at the accurate result. For if such great attention is recorded among them regarding the art, and yet they themselves do not arrive at the truth, as we have shown, how has the layman grasped the ^C time of the delivery accurately, so that the Chaldean, having learned it from him, may establish the horoscope truly? But neither from the point of view of the horizon will the same rising star appear everywhere; rather, in one place the declination will be considered the horoscope, and in another the succession, according to the surface of the places being either lower or higher. So that, even in this respect, the prediction will not appear accurate, since many are born throughout the whole world at the same hour, while one observes the stars differently from another. The method of measurement believed to be possible through water-clocks is also futile. For an ^D amphora will not flow in the same way when it is full as when it is half-empty, while the pole itself, according to their account, is carried with one impulse at an equal speed. But if, turning back, they should say that they do not take the accurate time, but as it happens, within a certain latitude, they will almost be refuted by the very results. For those who were born at the same time did not live the same life; but some, for example, reigned, while others grew old in chains. Certainly no one has been born equal to Alexander the Macedonian, although many were born throughout the world in the same way as he was, and no one equal to Plato the philosopher. So that, if the Chaldean examines the time of birth within a latitude…

that he may have for the blessed gods an abode secure forever. She brought forth the long mountains, the charming haunts of the Nymphs who dwell in the thick glens. And she also bore the barren sea, swelling with its surge, Pontus, without delightful union; but then joining with Heaven, she bore deep-eddying Ocean, and Coeus, and Crius, and Hyperion, and Iapetus, and Theia, and Rhea, and Themis, and Mnemosyne, and golden-crowned Phoebe, and lovely Tethys. And after these, the youngest was born, Cronus, the crafty counselor, the most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty father. She also brought forth the Cyclopes, having overbearing spirits. And he enumerates all the other Giants as being from Cronus. And later, he says, Zeus was born from Rhea. These, then, all spoke according to their own opinion, as we have set forth, regarding the nature and the generation of the universe. All of them, falling short of the divine, occupied themselves with the substance of created things, being struck with awe at the magnitudes of creation and thinking these things themselves to be the divine, preferring one part of the creation over another, and they did not recognize the God and Creator of these things. I consider that the opinions of those among the Greeks who have attempted to philosophize have been sufficiently set forth, from whom the heretics took the starting points for what will shortly be said. It seems proper first to set forth what is mystical and whatever some have imagined with curiosity about the stars or magnitudes; for having taken starting points from them, they are thought by many to tell monsters; then, consequently, we shall expose the doctrines they hold that are powerless.

BOOK IV OF THE REFUTATION OF ALL HERESIES

But now, lest someone should think that the matters traditionally held by the Chaldeans regarding the astrological discipline are trustworthy and certain, we shall not hesitate to set forth briefly an examination of them, demonstrating that the art is vain, and one capable rather of deceiving and destroying a soul hoping for vain things than of benefiting it. We do not challenge these men based on an experience of the art, but from a knowledge of practical reason. Those who have practiced this learning, having become students of the Chaldeans, as though passing on foreign and wondrous mysteries to men, and by altering names, have established a sect from this. But since, having considered the art of the astrologers to be powerful, they wish to have the things attempted through them believed using testimonies from them, we will now, as it has seemed good, demonstrate that the astrological art is groundless, intending to invalidate the Peratic sect as well, as one grown from an unfounded root.

The beginning, then, and as it were the foundation, is to establish the horoscope. For from this, the rest of the pivots are taken, both the declinations and the ascensions, and the triangles and the squares, and the configurations of the stars themselves; and from all these come the predictions. For this reason, once the horoscope is taken away, by necessity neither the midheaven, nor the setting, nor the lower midheaven is knowable, and with these being incomprehensible, the whole Chaldean [system] vanishes.

How, then, the method of the Chaldeans is inconsistent, let us now state. Having first defined the genesis of those who fall under investigation, they seek to take it either from the casting of the seed and the conception, or from the birth. And if, on the one hand, one should attempt to take it from the conception, the precise account concerning this is unattainable, being a rapid time; and rightly so, for we are not able to say whether the conception happened simultaneously with the transfer of the seed or not. For this is able to happen even in a thought, just as fat brought to the white-hot furnaces is immediately fused. But it is also able to happen after a time. For there being a distance from the mouth of the womb unto the bottom, where physicians say the conceptions occur, by all means it is of the nature of the seed being cast in to traverse this distance in some time.

What, then, is the time of birth? Is it when the thing being born begins to emerge into the outer air, or when it is fully out, or when it is brought down to the earth? It is not possible in any of these cases to grasp exactly the moment of birth or to define the time. For because of the interval of the soul, and the fitness of the body, and the choice of places, and the experience of the midwife, and infinite other pretexts, the time in which the offspring emerges once the membranes are ruptured, or becomes wholly external, or is brought down to the earth, is not the same, but varies from one to another. Being unable to measure this precisely and accurately again, the Chaldeans will fail to define the time of birth as they ought. That they make promises concerning the times of birth while claiming to know the horoscope, yet do not know it, is clear from these things. And that the horoscope itself is not unerring for them, it is possible to calculate. For when they say that the one standing by the laboring woman signals to the Chaldean watching the stars from the mountain peak at the moment of birth, and he, looking up into the sky, marks the rising zodiac sign, we shall first demonstrate to them that, since the birth is indefinite, as we showed a little earlier, it is not easy to signal this even with the disk.

^A For from these, no harmonious or consonant system could exist. But the whole world and its parts are composed in a manner that is in every way harmonious and consonant. Harmonious and consonant ratios are preserved, as we have said before, through double and triple intervals. If, therefore, we have deemed Archimedes to be reliable in the one first interval—that from the moon to the earth—it is easy to find the remaining intervals by increasing them according to the double and triple ratio. Let the distance from the earth to the moon, according to Archimedes, be 554,413 stadia; then the double of this number, which is the distance of the sun from the moon, will be 1,108,826 stadia; and the sun is distant from the earth by 16,652,390 stadia. And Venus is distant from the sun by 16,632,390 stadia, and from the earth by [34,989,710] stadia; Mercury is distant from Venus by 22,176,520 stadia, and from the earth by 55,443,300 stadia; Mars is distant from Mercury by 49,897,170 stadia, and from the earth by 105,338,470 stadia; Jupiter is distant from Mars by 44,354,040 stadia, and from the earth by 149,691,510 stadia; ^B Saturn is distant from Jupiter by 149,691,510 stadia, and from the earth by 299,383,020 stadia.

Was this achieved with such great labor? This Ptolemy, the investigator of these truths, does not seem to me useless, save that this one thing is grievous: that, being born quite recently, he could not be of use to the sons of the giants, who, ignorant of these measures and thinking the height of the heavens to be close at hand, vainly attempted to build a tower. Had he been present at that time and explained these measures, they would not have attempted it in vain. But if anyone says that he does not have faith in this man, let him measure it himself and be convinced; for he has no proof clearer than this to offer the incredulous. O vainly laboring swelling of the soul and faithless belief, that Ptolemy may by all means be considered wise among those who have practiced similar wisdom! For having judged these things to be worthy of study, they have established immense and infinite heresies. ^C Of these, one is Colarbasus, who attempts to explain the worship of the gods through measures and numbers; and others likewise, whom we shall demonstrate when we begin to speak about them, who follow the Pythagorean computation as if it were effective and devise a stable philosophy through numbers and elements, prophesying vanity. From these, certain others, having snatched up their arguments, lead the ignorant into error, calling themselves prognosticators, who, when by prophesying many things they happen upon one, are not ashamed of the many failures, but—

furthermore, if one is born in the urn of Aquarius, he is fated to be shipwrecked; how is it then that those of the Greeks sailing from Troy were plunged into the depths near the hollows of Euboea? For it is improbable that all of them, differing from one another by a great length of time, were born while the urn of Aquarius was rising. For one cannot say that because of one man, who is fated to perish at sea, all who are in the ship must perish together. Why, indeed, should the fate of this one man prevail over the fate of all others? Or rather, why, because of the one man who is fated to die on land, are not all of them saved along with him? But since they also discourse upon the power of the signs of the zodiac, to which they say those who are born resemble, we shall not omit this point either: for instance, that one born in Leo will be brave, but one in Virgo will have straight hair, be pale of skin, childless, and modest.

Thus these things also are shown to be unworthy of so much effort to those who are determined to think clearly and do not pay heed to the arrogance of the Chaldeans, who even make kings disappear by attributing cowardice to them, and encourage private citizens to attempt great things. But if one should fail, having been ensnared by misfortune, the one who suffered is not made a teacher for all; they, wishing to deceive the minds of those who are led into failures, by pushing their understanding into infinity, say that it is impossible for the alignment of the same stars to occur in the same way except through the restoration of the Great Year, after seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven years. How, therefore, could human observation manage to keep up with such vast ages in the course of a single human life? And this, not once but many times—I think one might have omitted—it would have been necessary to refute the Chaldean art, although we have mentioned it for the sake of other matters, and not specifically for its own sake.

with its own proper force, and likewise to carry itself around from east to west. And he says this motion is left as one and undivided, first because the revolutions of all the fixed stars are accomplished in equal times and are not divided into longer and shorter periods, and second because they all possess one surface, that of the outermost motion, while the wandering stars are divided into longer and different periods of movement and into unequal distances from the earth.

He says that the [motion] of the other is split six times into seven circles, reasonably so; for however many cuts are made to each, the sections created are one more than the cuts. For example, if it is divided by one cut, there will be two sections; if by two, three sections; thus, if something is cut six times, there will be seven sections.

He says that their distances are arranged alternately by doubles and triples, there being three of each, which he also demonstrated regarding the composition of the soul in the seven numbers.

^A For the numbers set forth by Archimedes, and the ratios mentioned by the others concerning the distances, if they were not in consonant ratios—that is, the doubles and triples spoken of by Plato—being found outside of the concords, they would not preserve the universe as constructed according to harmony. For it is neither plausible nor possible that their distances should be irrational and outside of the concords and harmonic ratios, except perhaps for the moon alone, because of the eclipses and the shadow of the earth, concerning which distance alone—that is, the lunar distance from the earth—one might believe Archimedes. Having grasped this, it will be easy, following the Platonic method of increasing by the double and triple, as Plato maintains, to encompass the remaining distances also by number. If, then, according to Archimedes, the moon is distant from the surface of the earth by 554,830 stadia, it is easy to find the intervals of the others by increasing these numbers according to the double ^B and triple, taking the number of stadia by which the moon is distant from the earth as a single part. That the other numbers mentioned by Archimedes concerning the distance of the planets are not in consonant ratios is easy to know, once one has contemplated how they stand in relation to each other and in what ratios they exist; but it is impossible that these, being parts of a world established according to harmony, should not be in harmony. For while the first number, by which the moon is distant from the earth, consists of 554,830? stadia, the second number, by which the sun is distant from the moon, consisting of 2,650,000? stadia, is in a ratio greater than ninefold. In relation to this, the number above it, being 7,000,000? stadia, is in a ratio less than a half. In relation to this, the number above it, being 16,765,000? stadia, is in a ratio greater than twofold. In relation to this, the number above it, being 454,000,000? stadia, will be in a ratio less than one and a fourth, and in relation to this, the number above it, being 800,000,000? stadia, is in a ratio greater than a half. In relation to this, the highest number, being 2,500,000,000? stadia, is in a ratio ^C less than twofold.

And from the earth [it is] 10,000 stadia. Mercury is distant from Venus by 217 myriads of stadia, and from the earth by 544 myriads of stadia. Mars is distant from Mercury by 89 myriads and 757 stadia, and from the earth by 10,000 myriads and 533 stadia. Jupiter is distant from Mars by 215 myriads of stadia, and from the earth by 10,000 myriads and… and [so many] stadia. Saturn is distant from Jupiter by 10,000 myriads of stadia, and from the earth by 10,000 myriads and 838 stadia. Who would not admire such great concern, brought about with such great labor? This Ptolemy, the researcher of these matters, does not seem useless to me; but this alone causes grief, that having been born recently, he has not become useful to the children of the giants, who [knew] these measures.

Those who suppose that they can divine by means of tallies, numbers, elements, and names, make this the starting point of the reasoning peculiar to them, asserting that there is a "root" for each of the numbers. In the case of thousands, the root consists of as many units as there are thousands; for example, the root of six thousand is six units, of seven thousand seven units, of eight thousand eight units, and similarly for the rest, following the same rule. Likewise, with hundreds, the root consists of as many units as there are hundreds; for example, seven hundred contains seven hundreds, and their root is seven units; six hundred contains six hundreds, and their root is six units. The same applies to the tens: eighty has eight units, sixty has six, forty has four, and ten has one unit. In the case of the units themselves, the units are their own roots; for example, the root of nine is nine, of eight is eight, of seven is seven. Therefore, one must do the same in the case of the elements; for each element is assigned to a certain number; for example, [the letter] stands for fifty units, and the root of fifty is five, and thus the root of the element is five.

^A They are thus by nature: great-souled, simple, irascible, parsimonious, talkative; in their early years they will be somnolent; they wish to conduct their affairs by themselves, are avid for glory, or bold, emulous, accusatory, prone to moving from place to place, lovers, dancers, useful for friendship.

21. Since we have set forth their wondrous wisdom and have not hidden their painstaking art of divination through craftiness, we shall not be silent even about those matters in which they err and deal in trifles. For in comparing the shapes and natures of men to the names of the stars, how little they achieve! For we know that those who named the stars from the beginning called them by names [derived] from their own understanding, so that they might be easy to signify and to recognize. For what similarity is there between these and the image of the animals, or what similar nature of acting and working [is there in them], such that one should say that he who is under Leo is irascible, ^B or he who is under Virgo is moderate, or he who is under Cancer is evil, or those who are under...

23. He orders the inquirer to write down whatever he wishes to ask of the demons, [using] water alone. Then, folding the paper, he gives it to a boy and sends it off to be burned in a fire, so that the smoke may carry the writing to the demons. In the meantime, while he is carrying out what was ordered, the magician first removes equal parts of the paper, and pretends to write down several more demons in Hebrew characters; then, having sacrificed [using] the fumigation of the Egyptian magi, which is called *cyphi*, he moves these [papers] held over the fumigation. What the inquirer wrote, he placed upon coals and burned. Then, appearing to be moved by divine Spirit, he rushes into a corner of the house and cries out [in a voice] loud and dissonant and unknown to all... ^C ...the boy, they chant many things over him, partly in the Greek language, partly as if in Hebrew, which are the customary incantations of the magi. He then departs to inquire. Inside, there is a phial full of water, into which he casts chalcanthum [copper sulfate], and, liquefying the medicinal substance, he smears it over the paper—which, having been rendered invisible, he forces the latent and hidden letters to come back into the light, by means of which he learns what the inquirer wrote. And if one writes with chalcanthum and fumigates with finely ground gall [oak apple], the hidden letters will clearly appear. And if one writes with milk, then by sprinkling crushed, burned paper and rubbing it upon the letters written in milk, they will become manifest. And urine, indeed, and fish-sauce ^D and the sap of spurge and fig produce the same result. After he has discovered the question in this manner, he provides [the answer] in the manner in which one ought to respond. And then...

he orders those present to go out, having laurel branches and shaking them and crying out and calling upon the ^A a demon; for it is fitting to call upon them for these things; and it is fitting to ask this of demons, which [the medium] by means of them—those who have lost their minds—does not wish to provide. The lack of order in the shouting and the noise, in which he is considered to have done [the action] in secret, prevented 61 observation. What these things are, now is the time to pursue more fully. Great indeed are the obscurities. ^B For it does not fall to human nature to perceive divine things; it is enough to have come into the communion of the gods. And he says that the child, having been laid face down and with two tablets—which had been inscribed with Hebrew characters, as they claim, the names of demons—placed upon the side of each, the rest [of the instructions] the demon will whisper into the ears. But this is necessary, that one should apply an instrument to the ears of the child, by which it is allowed to signify whatever ^C one wishes. Moreover, first the child is cast into terror, then he moves the tympanum, and lastly he speaks through the instrument, what he wishes the child to say; and he awaits the outcome of the matter, then bids those who are present to be silent, and claims to have received what he had heard from the demons. The instrument that is applied to the ears is a natural instrument, consisting of the tracheae of long-necked cranes or of swans, of which, if neither is at hand, there are other instruments of art. For certain brazen pipes, ^D ten in number, fitted together into one another, become adjustable, ending in a narrow opening, through which he speaks whatever he wishes. And the child, hearing these things and trembling as if being addressed by demons, is compelled to speak. But if he wraps moist skin around a rod and lets it dry and, having gathered it, fits it [over the pipes], or pulls the rod out like a pipe to act as skin, he creates a similar effect. And if neither of these is at hand, having taken a book and drawn it out from within as much as is needed, extending it in length, he effectuates similar things. And if he foresees who is coming to consult, he is readier for all things to happen. But if he also learns of the inquiry beforehand, he writes with a medicinal substance, and as if he were fully prepared, he considers [the outcome] as though forewarned. But if he is ignorant, he makes a suggestion; and he declares [the answer] in a way that is ambiguous and varied, receiving an interpretation that is acceptable, so that the beginning at least is considered to have been uttered as a proem with prophetic power regarding the upcoming events, in line with what had occurred. Then, having filled a basin with water as one who is prepared, he allows the papyrus to be folded together with vitriol. Thus it emerges ^B, carrying the answer which the document provides. To the child, and [to] the fantasies—

[The Greek column continues, beginning from the newly supplied text:]

Again, Ajax produces four units, Hector, according to the enneadic calculation, produces one unit. And the tetrad is even, but the unit is odd; and in the case of such things, we said the greater wins; Ajax wins. Again, Alexander and Menelaus. Alexander has the proper name "Paris." But Paris produces units according to the enneadic [calculation], ^C and Menelaus, according to the enneadic, produces nine units; and the nine win over the four; for it has been said: "whenever one is odd and the other is even, the greater wins; but when both are even or both are odd, the lesser wins." Again, Amycus and Polydeuces. Amycus produces two units according to the enneadic, and Polydeuces produces seven; Polydeuces wins. Ajax and Odysseus wrestled at the funeral games. Ajax produces, according to the enneadic, [four] units, Odysseus, according to the enneadic: could it be then that it is an epithet of Odysseus ^D and not his proper name? For he won. According to the numbers, Ajax wins, but history hands down [the victory to] Odysseus.

I believe that the conception of those who think they can distinguish the character of a life through numbers and names has been clearly exposed. I perceive these men to be at leisure and, having practiced with the counting-board, to have desired—by means of the craft handed down to them from childhood—to be acclaimed as prophets. These men, measuring the elements up and down, have descended into nonsense. For when they fail, they pose the difficulty by saying, "Perhaps this name was not the given name, but an epithet," just as they spoke incorrectly when they missed the mark in the case of Odysseus and Ajax. Who, having taken his starting points from this marvelous philosophy and desiring to be called a heresiarch, would not be esteemed? But since there is another craft, deeper still, among the all-wise seekers of the Greeks—men whom the heretics pray to be disciples of, because they use their dogmas for the tasks they undertake, as will be pointed out shortly—namely, the divination of physiognomy, or rather, madness—we shall not pass over this in silence either.

Those of the same nature are pleasing, intelligent, naturally gifted, pious, just, rustic, cheerful, hard-working, easily irritated from youth, and dull. Their stomachs are small; they fill up quickly, are given to much deliberation, are prudent, stingy toward themselves but generous to others, do-gooders, and slow of body. In some respects, they are irritable, negligent, useful in friendship because of their intelligence, and capable of enduring hardship.

The type of "The Twins": red-faced, not very tall in stature, with well-proportioned features, black eyes appearing as if anointed, cheeks inclined downward, thick mouth, and joined eyebrows. They are self-restrained, have everything, are ultimately wealthy, parsimonious, stingy with their own possessions, generous in matters of desire, fair-minded, musical, and liars. Those of the same nature are learned, intelligent, meddlesome, guided by their own judgments, given to desire, and stingy with their own possessions. They are generous, quiet, prudent, deceitful, much given to deliberation, accountants, accusers, unsuccessful, loved by women, merchants, and not very useful for any length of time in friendship.

Type in Virgo: In appearance beautiful, eyes not large, charming, black, properly aligned, cheerful, liquid. They are thin in body, of beautiful countenance, with hair well-arranged, a large forehead, and a prominent nose. These are by nature: quick to learn, moderate, thoughtful, playful, learned, slow to speak, much given to deliberation, easily persuaded to kindness, observing all things with pleasure, and gifted students; what they have learned they retain; moderate, disparaging, pedophilic, habitual, of great soul, contemptuous, neglectful of affairs, attentive to instruction, better in the affairs of others than their own, useful for friendship.

Type in Libra: With thin, prominent, reddish hair, an oblong forehead that is sharp and wrinkled, with eyebrows well-formed, beautiful eyes with black pupils, long, thin ears, a tilted head, and a wide mouth. These are by nature: understanding, honoring the Muses, gossiping about one another, merchants, grasping, not possessing any gains, liars, not loving in affairs, truthful in thought, free-spoken, doers of good, ignorant, liars, habitual, neglectful; it is not in their nature to act unjustly. They are contemptuous, derisive, quick, glorious, attentive, and for them nothing progresses; they are useful for friendship.

In the sign of Capricorn the type is as follows: a reddish complexion, hair slightly gray and unkempt, a round mouth, eyes like an eagle’s, eyebrows joined together, a broad forehead, somewhat bald, and the lower parts of their bodies are stronger. The same [people] are by nature philosophers, disdainful and mockers of present things, irascible, inclined to overlook offenses, good, doers of good, lovers of music, but quarrelsome when under the influence of wine; they are jocular, sociable, talkative, fond of boys, cheerful, likeable, friendly, prone to provocation, and useful for companionship.

Since we have set forth the marvelous wisdom of these men, and have not concealed their painstaking divination through folly, neither shall we keep silent about those things in which they err and utter vanities. For how feeble they are, comparing the forms and natures of men to the names of the stars! For we know those who, from the beginning, thought that the stars were ^A [intended for observation], having named them in order that they might be recognizable and easy to discern. For what similarity exists between them and the image of the zodiacal signs, or what likeness is there between their nature and human action and activity, such that someone would claim that he who is under Leo is spirited, or he who is under Virgo is moderate, or he who is under Cancer is malicious, or those who are in... taking [it], he asks the inquirer to write down whatever he wishes to learn from the demons... only. Then, having folded the paper and given it to the boy, he sends him away to be burned, so that the smoke might go and carry the letters to the demons. And once the boy has done what was commanded, first he removes equal portions of the paper:

also, if one should write in milk, and then burn the paper, and having levigated it, sprinkle and rub it over the letters written in the milk, they will become manifest. Urine, and fish-sauce (garon), and the sap of spurge, and of figs, produce the same effect. Since he had learned the question in this way, he took thought as to what manner of response he should make. And then he ordered those present to enter inside, holding laurel branches, and shaking them, and shouting, and calling out the demon Phrenes; for it is fitting to laugh at these things, and to see if they demand this from demons, which they are unwilling to provide by themselves, having lost their minds. The disorder of the shouting and the noise prevented anyone from perceiving what he thought he had performed in secret. But it is time to say what these things are. The darkness is indeed great; for he says it is impossible for mortal nature to see divine things, for it is sufficient to converse. Having laid the boy down face-down, and placing two of those little papers, which were inscribed with what were supposedly Hebrew letters as the names of demons, upon each side, he says that he will insert the rest into his ears. But this is necessary, for it to place an instrument at the ears of the boy, through which it is possible to signal everything he wishes to be signified; therefore the first sound is made so that the boy might be frightened, and a second noise is made, then a third he speaks through the instrument what he wishes the boy to say, and the

^A sound of the blow is heard, inasmuch as it penetrates with a longer interval to the one who is listening. For this reason, therefore, it is not possible for the Chaldeans to grasp the time of the rising sign and what is truly held to be the horoscope. Although not only does a greater interval of time intervene after the birth, while he who sits by the woman in labor strikes the disc, and then, after he has struck it, the one who is sitting on the summit hears it: but also, while he is looking around and discerning in which of the signs the moon is, and in which sign each of the other stars is, it necessarily follows that a different disposition of the stars exists, since the motion of the pole is carried with an ineffable speed before he who is carefully observing can accommodate to the moment of the one being born what is observed in the heavens. ^B

5. In this way the art of the Chaldeans will be shown to be insecure. But if someone should say that it is possible to perceive the nativity from the questions of him who asks the Chaldean, it is manifest that not even by this method can he grasp [the time] accurately. For if there is such great skill among them in their art, and even they themselves do not grasp the accurate time, as we have demonstrated, who then is he who is unskilled in that art who grasps the time of birth accurately, from whom the Chaldean has been taught to set the horoscope correctly? For not even from the contemplation of the horizon will the same rising star appear everywhere, but where the horoscope is thought to be, there will be the declination; and on the other side will be the succession, according to whether the places fall into view as higher or lower: consequently, not even from this part will the prediction appear accurate, since many throughout the whole world are born at the same hour, while one observes the stars differently. Vain also is the comprehension had by clepsydræ. For the vessel will not flow equally when it is full as when it is emptying, while the pole itself, according to their doctrine, is carried with one impulse at an equal speed. ^C But if, hesitating, they say that they do not take the accurate time, but as it happens in any latitude, they will be refuted almost by the very results. For those who were born at the same time have not lived the same life, but some, for example, have become kings, while others have grown old in chains. Certainly no one has existed who was comparable to Alexander the Macedonian, although many throughout the world were born at the same time as he, and no one comparable to Plato the philosopher; so that the Chaldean ^D

^A sea in an earthen jar, boiled with something sweet; if you bring a lighted lamp to it while it is boiling, it seizes the fire and ignites, and if poured over the head, it does not burn at all. And if you sprinkle frankincense on it while it is boiling, it ignites all the more. It works better if it also includes some myrrh. Thunder is produced in several ways: for many large stones falling down precipices fall onto bronze plates through wooden boards and create a sound similar to thunder. Also, they take a thin board, such as the fullers use to press garments, wrap a thin cord around it, and then by pulling the rope with a whirring motion, they spin the board, and as it moves, it produces the sound of thunder. These are played in this way. There are other things which those who are fooled by them believe to be great wonders. Placing a cauldron full of pitch over burning coals, when it boils, they lower their hands into it and are not burned; they even walk on burning coals with bare feet and are not burned; they even place a stone pyramid on a pyre and cause it to burn; it brings forth much smoke from its mouth, even fiery smoke; then, placing a linen cloth over a basin of water, they pile many burning coals upon it and keep the linen cloth unburnt.

For he thrusts his hands as if into a boiling cauldron of pitch; but he also introduces vinegar and natron, and by lighting a fire beneath brings the pitch to a state where the vinegar, when mixed with the natron and catching the heat, stirs the pitch so that it produces bubbles up to the surface, presenting only the appearance of boiling. He often washes his hands beforehand in brine, for which reason it does not burn him much, even if it is truly boiling; and if he mixes it with myrtle, natron, and myrrh in vinegar, and having smeared them on, washes his hands many times in brine, he is not burned; nor are his feet burned if he anoints them with isinglass and salamander.

The cause of the pyramid burning like a torch, though it is a stone, is this: it is Cretan earth, fashioned in the shape of a pyramid, and in color like milky stone, and it is prepared in this way: having soaked the lump in plenty of oil, he places it on coals, bakes it, then soaks it again and burns it a second and third time, and prepares it to be able to burn many times, even if it is soaked in water; for it contains much oil within it. The fire is ignited by the magician himself as he pours a libation, having quicklime burning beneath in place of ashes, along with fine and abundant frankincense. And by means of torches smeared with spontaneous naphtha and gall-nuts that are empty within, containing fire, he releases smoke from his mouth, having held it for a time, and by placing fire into the gall-nut and wrapping it with the tow, and blowing into his mouth.

Moreover, the linen cloth placed over the basin, on which he sets the coals, did not burn because of the brine underneath. And it itself had been soaked in brine, then smeared with egg white combined with liquid alum. If one were also to mix the juice of houseleek with these in vinegar and coat it for a very long time beforehand, once dyed with the drug, it remains completely fireproof.

But now the concern for many young people, who are capable of being saved, has convinced me to teach and forewarn them for the sake of their guard; for just as one might use these things for the learning of evil, so too another, having learned of them, will be on his guard. And the very corrupters of life themselves, the magicians, will be ashamed to employ this craft. Having learned that these things have been foretold by us, they will perhaps be hindered from their recklessness. And that the seal may not be dissolved by this means, one should mix lard and hair with the wax when sealing.

Furthermore, I will not keep silent about their "lecanomancy" [basin-divination], which is a piece of knavery. For they prepare a locked room, paint the ceiling with blue, and then introduce certain blue vessels which they suspend; in the middle, resting on the ground, a basin full of water is placed, which, by the reflection of the blue, represents the sky. The floor also has a concealed opening, where the basin is placed; the basin itself has a glass bottom, though it is made of stone. Beneath it is a hidden chamber, into which the accomplices go; they dress themselves in the costumes of gods and demons that the magician wishes to show, and they make them manifest—all of which has astonished Mero the deceiver, who is a trickster of the magicians, and henceforth he believes everything that is to be said by him.

He causes a demon to burn by tracing on a wall the figure he desires, and then he secretly smears it with a drug mixed in this manner: Laconian earth and Zacynthian asphalt. Then, as if divining, he brings a lamp near the wall, and the drug, bursting into flame, burns.

They also show the moon appearing on a ceiling, along with stars, in this manner: having fixed a mirror in a section of the middle of the ceiling and placed a basin full of water in the middle of the floor exactly opposite it, and having set a dim lamp shining down from the middle, higher than the basin, he thus causes the moon to appear by reflection through the mirror. Furthermore, they often hang a drum on high, at a distance, upright and covered by some garment, concealed by an accomplice so that it does not appear before the proper time. Having placed a lamp behind it, when he gives the signal to the accomplice, he removes as much of the covering as will contribute to the imitation of the shape of the moon at that time. He smears the parts of the drum that show through with cinnabar and gum. And, having cut away the neck and the bottom of a flask, he puts a lamp inside, and, having placed something suitable around it for the sake of a clear outline, one of the accomplices stands on high, hidden under some covering. After receiving the signal, he lets down the machine from above, so that the moon appears to be descending from heaven.

They show the liver as if it were inscribed, for he inscribes with his left hand whatever he wishes, adapted to the inquiry, and the letters are written with gall and sharp vinegar. Then, taking up the liver and resting it upon his left hand, he delays for a time, and it absorbs the impression, and it is thought to have been written. They also make a skull speak by placing it on the ground and carrying out the operation in this way: it is constructed from the caul of an ox, fashioned by Etruscan art and with plaster mixed in; when the membrane is placed around it, it gives the appearance of a skull, which seems to speak to everyone as the instrument operates—in the same manner that we described regarding the children. Having prepared the windpipe of a crane or some such long-necked animal and attached it to the skull, the accomplice, remaining hidden, utters whatever he wishes. When he desires for it to disappear, he places a quantity of coals in a circle around it so that it appears as if he is offering incense; catching the heat from these, the wax dissolves, and thus the skull is thought to have vanished. These are works of magicians and ten thousand others like them, which persuade the foolish by the symmetry of the verses and the spectacle of the actions performed so credibly. The heresiarchs, struck with wonder at their art, have imitated it, some of them handing down their supposed insights in secret and darkness, while others paraphrase them as their own. For this reason, desiring to remind the many, we have been more detailed in order not to leave any room for those who wish to be led astray. We have been led, not without reason, into some of the secrets of the magicians—things which were not entirely necessary for the matter at hand, but which were considered useful for guarding against the crafty and unstable art of the magicians.

Those who thought they had penetrated more deeply into the truth, the Persians, declared that God is luminous, a light held within the air. The Babylonians, however, declared that God is dark, which itself seems to be the consequence of the other; for day follows night, and night follows day. The Egyptians, thinking themselves to be the most ancient of all, and having calculated by a most divine inspiration the intervals of the degrees, declared that God is an indivisible monad, generating itself, and that from it all things have been constructed; for it—they say—being unbegotten, generates the numbers that follow it. For example, the monad, when added to itself, generates the duad, and in like manner, when added, it generates the triad and the tetrad up to the decad, which is the beginning and the end of numbers, so that the monad becomes the first and the tenth, because the decad is equivalent to and is counted as a monad. And this multiplied by ten becomes a hundred, and again it becomes a monad; and the hundred multiplied by ten will produce a thousand, and this will be a monad; thus even if the thousands multiplied by ten complete a myriad, in the same way it will be a monad. And the numbers kin to the monad according to their indivisible composition

^A and fire is male, while spirit is female; and again water is male, and earth female. And thus from the beginning fire has coexisted with spirit, and water with earth. For just as fire is the power of spirit, so too is water the power of earth. And these elements themselves, when calculated and analyzed by the subtraction of enneads, end appropriately, some into the masculine number, others into the feminine. The ennead, moreover, is subtracted for this reason, because the three hundred and sixty degrees of the whole consist of enneads, and for this reason the four bricks of the cosmos are circumscribed by ninety perfect degrees. Light is appropriated to the monad, and darkness to the dyad; and to light by nature belongs life, and to the dyad death; and to life justice, and to death injustice. Wherefore, everything generated within the masculine numbers is beneficent, while that which is in the feminine is maleficent, according to how they calculate them.

^A generation is made from the hebdomad, which is a number: the monad, the power, the cube, the dynamodynamis, the cubocube. Simon and Valentinus used this hebdomad, having changed the names, as a miracle to adorn their own work, whence they snatched an argument for themselves. For Simon calls it thus: Mind, Intelligence, Name, Voice, Reasoning, Thought, who stands, stood, will stand. And Valentinus: Mind, Truth, Word, Life, Man, Church, and the Father. [128-129] As they also, who have practiced arithmetic philosophy, which they as unknown to many admired and imitated, established heresies from their excogitated notions. But some, also attempting to establish the hebdomads from the medical art, are astounded by the dissection of the brain, when they say that the substance and power of the universe and the paternal divinity must be taught from the disposition of the brain. For the brain, since it is the principal part of the body of the universe, lies above, firm and immobile, having the spirit within itself. Now such a narrative is not incredible, but it stands far apart from their effort. For the brain, when cut, has what is called the camera, ^B about which, on both sides, there are thin membranes which they call pterygia; and they say that the spirit, moved by the spirit and again pushing the spirit toward the cerebellum, which running through a vessel similar to a reed, goes to the conarium, to which is attached the opening of the cerebellum receiving the spirit that runs through and transfusing it to the dorsal, which is called the marrow, from whence the entire body receives the spiritual, since arteries like branches from this vessel are attached, the end of which terminates in the genital vessels, from whence the seeds going through the femur from the brain are separated. The habit of the cerebellum is similar to the head of a serpent, about which much talk is instituted by those falsely named of knowledge, as we shall demonstrate. ^C Another, moreover, are those born from the brain, six joints, which extend around the head and contain bodies in the head itself; the seventh from the cerebellum to the lower parts of the remaining body, as we have said. And of this also much talk is made, whence Simon and Valentinus are found, and from this they took the handles of their doctrines, even if they do not confess, first being liars, then heretics. When, however, these things also seem to us sufficiently explained, all things, moreover, which appear to be the dogmas of terrestrial philosophy, are contained in four books, it seems best to proceed to their disciples, or I shall say, interpreters. ^D Sufficiently, therefore, it seems to us that these things also have been set forth. Indeed, I think I have left behind no opinion of terrestrial and groveling wisdom, nor do I see that the concern for these things, which we have displayed, is useless; for those who have encountered our extensive careful research will both admire the earnestness and will not despise the laboriousness, nor will they declare Christians to be fools when they see what they themselves foolishly believe. Moreover, the argument will also advance those who attend to the truth, being lovers of learning, making them more prudent, so that they might not only learn the starting points of the heresies and easily refute those who have dared to deceive, but also the opinions of those called wise, of which, having become not inexperienced, they will neither be disturbed by them as if unlearned, nor will they be deceived by any as if they were acting by some power, but they will also observe those being deceived.

REFUTATION OF ALL HERESIES BOOK V

1. ^A The contents of the fifth book of the Refutation of All Heresies are as follows:

2. Who the Naasseni are, who call themselves Gnostics, and that they teach those things which the philosophers of the Greeks and those who handed down the mysteries previously taught, from whom, having taken the starting points, they established their heresies.

3. And what are the opinions held by the Peratae, and that their doctrine does not derive from the holy Scriptures, but from astrological principles.

4. What is the account according to the Sethians, and that they have stitched together their own doctrine by plagiarizing the wisdom of the Greeks—Musaeus, Linus, and Orpheus.

5. What are the opinions held by Justin, and that his doctrine does not derive from the holy Scriptures, but from the mythological tales of Herodotus the historian. ^B

6. I consider that the opinions held by all the philosophers, both among the Greeks and the barbarians, concerning the Divine and the creation of the world have been set forth in the four books preceding this. I have not even omitted the curiosities, and have undertaken no ordinary labor for my readers, inciting many to a desire for learning and to a certain knowledge of the truth. It remains, therefore, to proceed to the refutation of the heresies, for the sake of which we have set forth also the aforementioned matters; from these, the heresiarchs, having taken their points of departure, ^C like menders of old clothes, have stitched together and proposed the errors of the ancients as something new to their own minds for those capable of being led into error, as we shall demonstrate in what follows. Now, time invites us to proceed to the treatment of the matters at hand, beginning with those who have dared to praise the serpent—the author of error—through certain words devised by his own inspiration. Therefore, let the priests and overseers...

^A of the doctrine be those first ones called Naassenes, so named in the Hebrew tongue; for *naas* is interpreted as "serpent." After this, they called themselves Gnostics, claiming that they alone possess the knowledge of the deep things. From them, many branched off and created a manifold heresy while remaining one, as the unfolding argument will refute, setting forth the same things through different teachings. These men, more than all others, honor man and the son of man according to their own doctrine. This man is androgynous, and is called by them Adamas; many varied hymns have been composed to him. These hymns, to speak of them briefly, are said among them in such a manner as this: "From thee, Father, and through thee, Mother—the two immortal names, progenitors of the aeons, citizens of heaven, O renowned man." They divide him, like Geryon, into three parts ^B. For they say that this being has a rational part, an animate part, and a choicic (earthly) part; and they believe that his knowledge is the beginning of the ability to know God, speaking thus: "The beginning of perfection is the knowledge of man; but the knowledge of God is the absolute and completed perfection." These, he says, all the rational, the animate, and the choicic elements, have been contained and have descended into one man ^C together, Jesus, who was born of Mary. And they said, he claims, that these three men together spoke from their own substances to their own kind. For according to them, there are three genera of all things: angelic, animate, and choicic; and three churches: angelic, animate, and choicic; and their names are "the elect," "the called," and "the captive."

7. These are the main points from the very many discourses which he says were handed down to Mariamne ^D by James, the brother of the Lord. Therefore, so that the impious may no longer slander Mariamne, nor James, nor the Savior himself, let us come to the mysteries (whence this myth belongs to them) if you please, to the barbarian and E—

Greek ones, and let us see how they, by gathering together the hidden and secret mysteries of all the nations at once, and slandering Christ, deceive those who are ignorant of the orgies of the nations. For since their subject is the man Adamas, and they say it is written concerning him: "Who shall declare his generation?" (Isa. LIII, 8), learn how, having taken from the nations the inscrutable and ambiguous generation of man, they falsely attribute it to Christ. The earth, say the Greeks, first gave forth man, having brought him as a fair gift, not wishing to be the mother of insensitive plants nor of irrational beasts, but of a tame and God-loving ^B creature. It is difficult, he says, to discover whether Alalcomeneus first arose from among men over Lake Cephisus for the Boeotians, or if the Curetes were the Idaean ones, a divine race, or the Phrygian Corybantes, whom the sun first saw springing up like trees, or the proselenaean Pelasgus in Arcadia, or Diaulus the inhabitant of Raria in Eleusis, or if Lemnos brought forth the fair-child Cabirus, the parent of unspeakable orgies, or if Pallene brought forth the Phlegraean Alcyoneus, the oldest of the Giants. But the Libyans say that Jarbas, the first-born, emerged from the parched fields and began to feed on the sweet acorn of Zeus. And he says that the Nile, by infesting the slime of the Egyptians, until this day begets living creatures, and produces living bodies taking on flesh through humid heat. The Assyrians say that Oannes the fish-eater appeared among them, but the Chaldaeans say it was Adam. And this man, they claim, is the one whom the earth alone gave forth; but that he lay lifeless, motionless, and unshaken like a statue, the image of Him who is above, ^C of the celebrated Adamas, made by the powers.

VARIOUS READINGS

Strophe: The earth first gave forth man, having brought him as a fair gift, / but it is difficult to discover / whether Alalcomeneus first arose from among men / over Lake Cephisus for the Boeotians, / or if the Curetes were the Idaean ones, a race of gods, / or the Phrygian Corybantes, / whom the sun first saw springing up like trees, / or the proselenaean Pelasgus in Arcadia, / or Diaulus, the inhabitant of Raria in Eleusis. / Antistrophe: Or if Lemnos brought forth the fair-child Cabirus / of unspeakable orgies, / or if Pallene brought forth the Phlegraean Alcyoneus, / the oldest of the Giants. / Epode: The Libyans say that the first-born Garamas / emerged from the parched fields / and began to feed on the sweet acorn of Zeus. / And the Nile / produces living bodies taking on flesh through humid heat.

^A That it should lie breathless, motionless, and unshaken, like a statue, being an image of that one above, of the one being sung of as Adamas the man, brought into being by the powers of the many, concerning whom the detailed account is long. In order, then, that the great man might be completely mastered from above, from whom, as they say, every family named in heaven and on earth has its constitution, a soul was also given to him, so that through the soul he might suffer and be punished, having been enslaved—a molding of the great and most beautiful and perfect man; for indeed, that is what they call him. They inquire, therefore, again ^B as to what the soul is, and whence it is, and what it is like in its nature, so that, having come into man and having stirred him, it might enslave and punish the molding of the perfect man; and they inquire not from the Scriptures, but also this from the mystic writings. They say that the soul is very difficult to find and hard to comprehend; for it does not remain in the same state or the same form always, nor in one single affection, so that one might point it out by a sign or grasp it by reality and fact. These various changes they have set down in the writing inscribed the Gospel according to the Egyptians. They are in doubt, therefore, just as all other men ^C of the nations, whether it is from the pre-existent, or from the self-generated, or from the poured-out Chaos. And first they have recourse to the mysteries of the Assyrians, contemplating the threefold division of man; for the Assyrians are the first to consider the soul as tripartite and one. For every nature, they say, of the soul desires in one way or another. For the soul is the cause of all things that come into being; all things whatsoever that are nourished, he says, and grow, have need of a soul. For nothing, he says, can receive either nourishment or growth if a soul is absent. For even stones, he says, are ensouled; for they possess the power of growth, and growth would never occur without ^D nourishment. For things that grow increase by addition, and the addition is the nourishment of that which is being nourished. Every nature, therefore, he says, of celestial, terrestrial, and subterranean things desires a soul. The Assyrians call such a thing Adonis or Endymion; and whenever he is called Adonis, Aphrodite, he says, loves and desires the soul of such a name. But Aphrodite is, according to them, generation. Whenever, however, Persephone or the Maiden loves Adonis, a mortal, he says, soul is something separated from Aphrodite (that is, from generation). If the Moon comes into desire and love for the form of Endymion, the nature of the higher things, he says, also itself desires a soul. But if, he says, the mother of the gods castrates Attis, and she herself, having this beloved, draws back to herself the masculine power of the soul of the supermundane and eternal beings above. For, he says, man is male-female. On account of this reasoning, therefore, it is very shameful and forbidden by the doctrine for a woman to be with a man.

demonstrated custom. For Attis indeed is said to have been castrated, or rather, to have passed from the earthly, lower parts of creation up to the eternal, higher nature, where, he says, there exists neither female nor male, but a new creation, a new human being, who is mas-femina. Where they speak of this "above," I will show in its proper place. They say, moreover, that it is not merely Rhea who bears witness to their narrative, but almost the entire creation, and that this is what is declared by the Word: ^B "For his invisible features are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood by his works, as are his eternal power and divinity, so that they are without excuse. Because, having known God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for images resembling the corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. For this reason God also delivered them over to passions of dishonor; for their females exchanged the natural use for that which is contrary to nature." What is the natural use ^C according to them, we shall state later. "And likewise also the males, having left the natural use of the female, burned in their desire for one another, males in males working deformity" (deformity, according to them, is the primary and blessed unformed nature, which is the cause of all forms to those that are formed) "and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due for their error." For in these words, which Paul spoke, they say their whole hidden and ineffable mystery of blessed pleasure is contained. For the promise of the washing, according to them, is nothing other than the bringing of the one who is washed into the unfading pleasure, ^D according to them, with living water and being anointed with an ineffable ointment. Nor do they say that only the mysteries of the Assyrians bear witness to their doctrine, but also those of the Phrygians concerning what has been, what is being done, and what will be hereafter—the blessed nature, at once hidden and revealed, which is said to be the kingdom of heaven sought within man, of which they speak clearly in the Gospel inscribed according to Thomas, saying thus: "He who seeks me will find me in children from seven years old, for there in the fourteenth year I am hidden and brought to light." But this is not of Christ, but of Hippocrates, who says:

...[base/body] flowing into the depths becomes a body. When it has become solid, thus from the smallest point the nature of the great body has altogether subsisted; and this is what Simon says: "The small shall be great," like a point that is smaller, but the great [is] infinite, following after a geometrical point. Since philosophy holds to wisdom according to the composition of arithmetic, number has become the beginning, which is indefinite, incomprehensible, containing in itself all the numbers capable of proceeding to infinity in multitude. The beginning of the numbers according to subsistence has become the first monad, which is a male monad, engendering paternally all the other numbers. Second is the dyad, a female number; the same is also called 'even' by arithmeticians. Third is the triad, a male number; this also has been ordained by arithmeticians to be called 'odd.' Beyond all these is the tetrad, a female number; this same one is also called 'even,' because it is female. Therefore all the numbers have been taken from the genus—four (the genus was a number, an indefinite one)—from which the perfect number for them consists, the decad; for one, two, three, four become ten, as has been demonstrated beforehand, if to each of the numbers its proper name is preserved according to essence.

^A Some, indeed, also from the medical art, attempt to establish these weeks, being struck with wonder at the anatomy of the brain, saying that the substance of the whole, and the power, and the paternal divinity are taught from the state of the brain. For the brain, being the ruling part of the whole body, is situated in an undisturbed and immovable state, having the spirit within itself. Such a theory, then, is not implausible, but it is far from the undertaking of these men. For the brain, when dissected, has inside what is called the vault, on both sides of which are thin membranes, which they call "wings," moved gently by the spirit and in turn driving the spirit back toward the cerebellum; which passing through a certain vessel similar to a reed, goes toward the conarium, to which is attached the aperture of the cerebellum, receiving the spirit that passes through and distributing it to what is called the spinal marrow, from whence the whole body partakes of the spiritual element, all the arteries being suspended from this vessel like a branch, the end of which terminates at the reproductive organs; from whence also the seeds, passing from the brain through the loins, are secreted.

Naasseni

^A What the Naasseni say, those who call themselves Gnostics, and that they dogmatize those very things which the Greek philosophers previously dogmatized and those who delivered the mysteries; from whom, having taken their starting points, they established their heresies. And what are the doctrines of the Peratae, and that their dogma is not established from the Holy Scriptures, but from astrological [teachings]. What is the discourse according to the Sethians, and that they stitched together their own dogma by pilfering from the wise men among the Greeks—Musaeus, Linus, and Orpheus. What are the doctrines of Justinus, and that his dogma is not established from the Holy Scriptures, but from the wonder-tales of Herodotus the historian.

After this, they called themselves Gnostics, claiming that they alone understand the depths. From them, many separated and rendered the heresy many-branched, which was [originally] one, using diverse names for the same things, as the discourse will show as it proceeds. These men, more than all others, honor a man and a son of man, contrary to their own doctrine. This man is androgynous, and is called by them Adamas. There are many and varied hymns composed to him; these hymns, to speak briefly, are recited among them in such a way as this: "From thee is the father, and through thee the mother, the two immortal names, the parents of the aeons, citizen of heaven, great-named man." They divide him, like Geryon, into three parts; for they say that part of him is intellectual, part psychic, and part earthly. And they believe that the knowledge of him is the beginning of the ability to know God, saying as follows: "The beginning of perfection is the knowledge of man, but the knowledge of God is completed perfection." All these things, he says—the intellectual, the psychic, and the earthly—have been contained and have descended into one man at once, Jesus, who was born of Mary; and these three men, he says, spoke together at the same time, each from their own substances to their own [kind]. For there are three genera of all things according to them: angelic, psychic, and earthly; and three churches: angelic, psychic, and earthly; and their names are "the elect," "the called," and "the captive."

BOOK V. REFUTATION OF ALL HERESIES. BOOK V.

^A 1. 130-131 These things are contained in the fifth book of the Refutation of all heresies:

2. What the Naassenes claim, who call themselves Gnostics, and that they teach those things which the philosophers of the Greeks and those who handed down the mysteries previously taught, from whom they took the starting points and established their heresies.

3. And what the opinions of the Peratae are, and that their dogma is not derived from the holy Scriptures, but from astrology.

4. What is the doctrine according to the Sethians, and that they patched together their own dogma by pilfering from the doctrine of the Greek sages, Musaeus, Linus, and Orpheus.

^B 5. What are the views of Justin, and that his dogma is not derived from the holy Scriptures, but from the miraculous narrations of the historian Herodotus.

6. I think that the opinions of all the philosophers, both among the Greeks and the barbarians, concerning the Divine and the creation of the world have been set forth with great labor in the four books preceding this one. I have not passed over even the curious matters, nor have I undertaken a common task for those who may read them, but I have incited many to the desire of learning and to a certain knowledge of the truth. It remains, therefore, to approach the refutation of the heresies, for the sake of which we have also set forth the aforementioned matters; from these, having taken the starting points, the heresiarchs, like menders of old shoes, patching together the errors of the ancients to suit their own opinion, ^C have proposed them as new to those who are capable of being led into error, as we shall demonstrate in what follows. Finally, time now calls us to proceed to the treatment of the matters intended; and we must begin from those who have dared to celebrate the serpent, the author of error, through certain expressions invented by his inspiration. Therefore, the priests and the prelates...

^A For every nature, they say, reaches out for soul, though each in a different way. For the soul is the cause of all things that come into being; for all things, they say, that are nourished and increase have need of soul. For nothing, they say, is able to attain either nourishment or growth without the presence of the soul. For even these things, they say, are ensouled, for they possess the power of growth. Now growth could never come about without nourishment; for things that increase, increase by addition; and addition is the nourishment of that which is being nourished. Every nature, therefore, of “things heavenly,” they say, “and earthly and subterranean,” reaches out for soul. The Assyrians call such a thing Adonis or Endymion; and whenever it is called Adonis, Aphrodite, they say, loves and desires the soul of such a name; now Aphrodite, according to them, is generation. But when Persephone, who is also called Core, loves Adonis, the soul, they say, is a certain mortal [being] separated from the generations of Aphrodite. And if the Moon come into desire and love for the form of Endymion, the creation of higher things, they say, has need itself of soul.

^A They say that not only Rhea bears testimony to their doctrine, but, so to speak, the whole of creation. And they explain this as being what is spoken of by the Word: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature"—and what the "natural use" is according to them, we shall say later—"and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly"—and the "unseemly" is, according to them, the first and blessed unshaped essence, the cause of all shapes for those that are shaped—"and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet."

They proclaim the rites and orgies of all the gods together, first of all—indeed they proclaim those very things as ideas and activities, holy and venerable, even to those who have not been initiated into the mysteries of Isis. And these are nothing other than the ravishing and the seeking of Osiris by the seven-stolaed and black-clad shame. Now, they say that Osiris is water. The seven-stolaed nature, having about herself and clothed in seven celestial stolas—for this is how they allegorize, calling the planets "celestial"—is interchangeable genesis; by the wordless, and un-depictable, and unthinkable, and formless one, the creation is transformed and revealed. And this, he says, is what is meant in the Scripture: "A righteous man shall fall seven times and shall rise again" (Prov. 24:16). For these falls, he says, are the movements of the stars, moved by the one who moves all things.

They speak, therefore, concerning the substance of the seed, which is the cause of all things that come into being, saying that it is none of these things, but rather that it begets and makes all things that come to be, saying thus: "I become what I wish, and I am what I am." For this reason he says that the one who moves all things is unmoved; for it remains what it is while making all things, and it becomes none of the things that come into being.

The Hermes, he says, whom we behold among them honored in such a form, the Cyllenians honor in a distinguished manner. For he says: Hermes is reason, who being interpreter and creator of things both past, present, and future, stands honored among them characterized by such a form, which is the shame of a man, having an impulse from things below to things above. And that this one, that is, such a Hermes, is a soul-guide, he says, and a soul-conductor and a cause of souls, this does not escape the notice of the poets of the *Mnai*, saying thus: "And Cyllenian Hermes called forth the souls of the suitors." Not, he says, you wretches, the suitors of Penelope, but those who are awakened and have remembered from what honor and how great a length of wealth—that is, from the blessed man above or the primordial man or Adamas, as seems good to them—they were brought down hither into the clay-molded form, that they might serve the creator of this creation, Ialdabaoth, a fiery god, the fourth in number.

the rod to him. It charms the eyes of the dead, as he says, and again it wakens those who are sleeping, those who have been wakened and have become suitors. Concerning these, he says, the Scripture says: "Awake, you that sleepest, and arise, and Christ shall give thee light." This is the Christ, who in all generated things, he says, is the Son of Man, characterized by the uncharacterizable Word. This, he says, is the great and ineffable mystery of the Eleusinians, "rain, conceive"; and because, he says, "all things have been subjected" to him, this also is what was said: "Into all the earth their sound has gone forth." As the one who moves the rod leads, the souls follow, chirping continuously, just as the poet has shown through the image, saying:

"As when bats in the hollow of a wondrous cave chirp as they fly, when one falls down from the cluster from off the rock, and they cling to one another."

The "rock," he says, he means the Adamas.

^A Thus they went along together, and in the lead—the opening of the mouth—was Hermes the healer, along the murky paths; that is to say, he says, into the eternal places that are altogether free from all wickedness. For where, he says, did they come? "Past the streams of Ocean and the White Rock, and ^B past the gates of the sun and the district of dreams." This, he says, is the Ocean, "the genesis of gods, and the genesis of men," as it is perpetually turning because of the tides, now upwards, now downwards. But when, he says, the Ocean flows downwards, there is the genesis of men; but when it flows upwards toward the wall and the rampart and the White Rock, there is the ^C genesis of gods. This is, he says, what is written: "I have said, you are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High," if you hasten to flee from Egypt and come to the other side of the Red Sea into the wilderness—that is to say, from the lower mingling to the Jerusalem above, which is the mother of the living; but if you turn again toward Egypt, ^D that is to say, toward the lower mingling, "you shall die as men."

For there is one, he says, the blessed nature of the blessed man who is above, of Adamas; but there is another which is mortal and below; there is one lineage without a king which has come to be above, where, he says, is Mary who is sought after, and Jethro the great sage, and Zipporah who sees, and Moses, whose generation is not in Egypt; for children were born to him in Midian. And this, he says, has not escaped the notice of the poets: "But all things have been divided into three parts, and each has obtained his honor." For it is necessary, he says, that the magnitudes be spoken of, and be spoken of in such a way by all in every place, "that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not hear." For if the magnitudes were not spoken of, he says, the world could not stand together. These are the three preeminent words: Caulacau, Saulasau, Zealar; Caulacau of the one above, of Adamas; Saulasau of the one below, the mortal; Zealar of the Jordan which has flowed unto the things above. This is, he says, the man who is hermaphroditic in all things. Him, those who are ignorant call Geryon, triple-bodied, as if flowing from the earth, Geryon; but collectively the Greeks call him the heavenly horn of the moon, because he has mixed and blended all things with all things. "For all things," he says, "were made through him, and without him not one thing was made. That which has come to be in him is life." This, he says, is the life, the ineffable lineage of the perfect men, which [is joined] to the former.

^A This, he says, is the kingdom of heaven lying within us as a treasure, as leaven "in three measures of meal" hidden. This is, he says, the great and ineffable mystery of the Samothracians, which it is permitted to know only to us, the perfect; for the Samothracians expressly deliver that Adam in the mysteries celebrated among them as the archetypal man. And statues are standing...

this is, he says, what was said: "You have heard his voice, but you have not seen his form." For the form of him who is formed, he says, his voice is heard, but the form which descended from above from the unformed, no one has seen what he is. He is in the earthen vessel, but no one knows him. This, he says, is "the God who keeps the flood" according to the Psalter, and who utters and cries out from "many waters." Waters, he says, are the manifold birth of mortal men, from which he cries out and shouts to the unformed man, saying, "Deliver my only one from the lions." To this one, he says, it is said: "You are my servant Israel, fear not; if you pass through rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; if you pass through fire, it shall not burn you." By rivers, he says, he means the moist substance of generation, and by fire, the impulse and desire directed toward generation: "You are mine, fear not."

"" [Regarding] these things, he says, the Savior spoke: "None can come to me, unless any man" — for this, he says, is nothing other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. For this reason, he says, Jesus says: "I am the true gate." And he who says these things, he says, is the perfected man characterized from above by the uncharacterized one. The perfected man, therefore, he says, cannot be saved, unless he is born again having entered through this gate.

The Phrygians, he says, call this same one *Papa*, because he brought to rest everything that was in motion disorderly and improperly before his own manifestation. For the name, he says, of *Papa* is of all things together, celestial, terrestrial, and infernal, saying: "Cease, cease the discord of the world and make 'peace to those who are far off,'" that is, to the material and earthly, "'and peace to those who are near,'" that is, to the spiritual and intellectual perfected men. The Phrygians, he says, also call this same one a *corpse*, as if entombed in a monument and grave within the body. This, he says, is what is meant: "You are whitewashed tombs," he says, "filled within with dead men's bones," because the living man is not in you. And again, he says, "The dead shall leap from the monuments," that is, from the earthly bodies, having been born again as spiritual, not carnal.

Concerning these things, he says, the Savior stated: "No one can come to me, unless my heavenly Father draws him." For it is, he says, very difficult to accept and receive this great and ineffable mystery. And again, he says, the Savior stated: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." Whoever accomplishes this—not merely hearing it—must enter the kingdom of heaven. And again, he says, He said: "The tax collectors and the harlots go before you into the kingdom of heaven." For tax collectors, he says, are those who receive the ends [taxes] of the universe; and we, he says, are the tax collectors, "upon whom the ends of the ages have come." For the ends, he says, are the seeds scattered from the Uncharacterized One into the world, through which the whole world is brought to completion; for through them it also began to come into being. And this, he says, is what was said: "The sower went out to sow; and some fell by the wayside and were trodden down, and some fell upon the rocky places and sprang up," he says, "and because they had no depth, they withered and died; but others fell," he says, "upon the good and fair land, and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has," he says, "ears to hear, let him hear." This means, he says: no one has become a hearer of these mysteries except the perfect Gnostics alone. This, he says, is the fair and good land, as Moses says: "I will bring you into a fair and good land, into a land flowing with milk and honey." This, he says, is the milk and honey, of which having tasted, the perfect become kings and partake of the Fullness. This, he says, is the Fullness, through which all generated things came into existence from the Unbegotten and have been filled.

that is what he says, meaning: "Do not cast what is holy to the dogs, nor pearls before swine," stating that the intercourse of a woman with a man is the work of swine and dogs. This same person, he says, the Phrygians call a goat-herd, not because, he says, he was pasturing goats and he-goats, as the psychic ones name it, but because, he says, he is an "ever-polos," that is, the one who is forever spinning and turning and driving the whole world round in a turn. For to "polein" is to turn and to change things about; hence, he says, everyone calls the two centers of heaven "poles." And the poet also says: "And there comes, from hither, the old man of the sea, truth-telling, immortal Egyptian Proteus." He is not sold, he says, but he turns himself, as it were, and goes about, he says. And the cities in which we dwell, because we turn and move about in them, are also called "poleis" (cities).

The Phrygians, he says, also call him a green ear of corn mown; and after the Phrygians, the Athenians, when they initiate into the Eleusinia and show to those who are admitted to the highest rites that great and marvelous and most perfect epoptic mystery in silence, [show] a mown ear of corn. And this ear of corn is also for the Athenians the great and perfect light from the uncharacterized One, just as the hierophant himself—not castrated, as Attis, but made a eunuch by hemlock and separated from all carnal generation—performs the great and unspeakable mysteries at night at Eleusis amidst much fire, crying out and shouting, saying: "The Queen has borne a sacred child, Brimo to Brimos," that is, the Strong One to the Strong One. And the Queen, he says, is the spiritual, heavenly generation from above; and the one thus born is strong. For Eleusis and the Anactoron are the mystery so-called, because we, the spiritual ones, says he, came down flowing from Adamas—for "to come" (eleusesthai) is "to have arrived"—and the Anactoron [is so called] because of the one above. This, he says, is what they who have been initiated into the mysteries of the Eleusinians say; but it is a rule that those who have been initiated into the lesser mysteries

for this is the virgin who has in her womb, conceiving and bringing forth a son, not a psychic, not a somatic, but a blessed aeon of aeons. Regarding these, he says, the Savior has spoken explicitly: "Narrow and strait is the way that leads to life, and few are they who enter into it; but wide and spacious is the way that leads to destruction, and many are they who pass through it." Furthermore, the Phrygians say that the Father of all is an almond—not, he says, a tree—but that that pre-existent one is an almond, who, having within himself the perfect fruit, as it were pulsating and moving in the depths, tore open his bosoms and brought forth his invisible, unnameable, and ineffable child, of whom we speak. For "to cut" (amyxai) is, as it were, to break and to divide, just as, he says, in the case of inflamed bodies that have within them some constriction, which physicians call "scars" (amychas) when they cut them open; in this way, he says, the Phrygians call the pre-existent one an almond, from whom the invisible was born, through whom all things "were made, and without him was not anything made."

The indivisible point existing within the body, which, he says, no one knows except the spiritual ones alone. This, he says, is that which was spoken: "There are no speeches nor languages where their voices are not heard." These things they invent in this way, interpreting everything said and done by all men according to their own mind, as if all things were spiritual. Whence they also say that those who perform in theaters do not say or do anything without aim. Therefore, he says, when the people gather in the theaters, someone enters wearing an outlandish garment, carrying a lyre and singing, thus he says, chanting the great mysteries not knowing what he says: "Whether of Cronus, or of blessed Zeus, or of the great Rhea, hail, O sound of Attis! The Assyrians call you the thrice-longed-for Adonis, but all Egypt calls you Osiris, the heavenly horn of the moon, Greek wisdom; the Samothracians call you the venerable Adamnas, the Haemonians, Corybas, and the Phrygians, at one time Papas, and at another time a corpse, or a god, or the barren goat-herd, or the green ear of corn mown down, or the man whom the fruit-bearing almond brought forth, the piper."

^A Naas, moreover, is the serpent, from whom they say that all the temples under heaven are named "naoi" (temples) after Naas; and to that Naas alone every temple and every ritual and every mystery is dedicated, and in general that no ritual can be found under heaven in which there is no temple and the Naas within it, from whom it received the name of temple. They also say that this serpent is the moist substance, just as Thales the Milesian says, and that nothing at all of the things that are, whether immortal or mortal, animate or inanimate, could subsist without it. They hold that all things are subject to it, and that it is good, and that it contains the beauty of all others within itself, as if in the horn of a unicorn, and bestows beauty upon all things that exist according to their own nature and kinship, as if passing through all things, ^B "as if proceeding out of Eden and dividing itself into four heads."

^A Upon this water, he says, every nature enters, selecting its own substances; and from this water, he says, that which is proper to each nature approaches it, more so than iron to the Heraclean stone, or gold to the sting of the sea-hawk, or chaff to amber. But if anyone, he says, is blind from birth and has not seen the "true light, which lightens every man coming into the world," let him receive sight through us and see, as it were, through a certain paradise of many plants and many seeds, water passing through all the plants and seeds. And he shall see that from one and the same water ^B the olive tree selects and draws to itself the oil, and the vine the wine, and so on for each kind of plant. He says that this man is "dishonored in the world and highly valued" by those who do not know him, regarded by those who do not know him as "a drop from a bucket." But we, he says, are the spiritual ones, who select for ourselves that which is proper from the living water of the Euphrates flowing through the midst of Babylon, journeying through the true gate, which is the blessed Jesus.

^A I shall show the forms of the gods; I shall deliver the hidden things of the holy way, having called them knowledge. These things, then, the Naassenes attempt, naming themselves Gnostics. But since the error is many-headed and truly a many-branched hydra, by striking one head of it through refutation, using the rod of truth, we shall destroy the whole beast. For the remaining heresies do not differ much from this one, being held fast by one spirit of error. But since they have exchanged the words and names of the serpent and have desired there to be many heads of the serpent, not even so shall we be in need of refuting them as they wish. There is, at any rate, another heresy, the Peratic. For many years the blasphemy against Christ of those people remained hidden, whose secret mysteries it has seemed good now to bring into the light. These men claim that the world is one, divided in three. And of the threefold division among them, one part is as it were a single principle, just like a great spring capable in speech of being divided into infinite cuttings. The first and closest cutting, according to them, is a triad and is called perfect good, the paternal magnitude. The second part of their triad is as it were an infinite multitude of powers which have been born from them; the third is specific.

^A 19. Let us see, then, what the Sethians say. They hold that there are three infinite principles, and when they speak of powers, let the listener understand them to say this: that whatever is conceptualized by thought, or perhaps passed over as unthinkable, of each of these principles is able to come into being, just as human ^B 63 art, when taught—as, for instance, this child who is taught to play the pipes, becomes a piper in time, the geometer becomes a geometer, the grammarian a grammarian, the carpenter a carpenter, and likewise in all other arts—will similarly come to be. Of the principles, however, they say that there is essence, light, and darkness; in the midst of these is an undefiled spirit. This middle spirit is placed between the darkness, which is below, and the light, which is above; it is not, however, a spirit in the sense of a breeze or ^B a subtle air that can be perceived, but rather as if the scent of an ointment made from a composition of fragrances, a subtle, permeating power more incomprehensible and violent to the word than can be expressed by speech. And since the light is above and the darkness below, and of these, as I said, the spirit is in the middle, the light, as a ray of the sun 71 shining from above 72 upon the underlying darkness, extends in the opposite direction to the scent of the spirit, which holds the middle place, moving everywhere, just as the scent 73 brought to every place from incense set on fire is spread about; ^C such being the nature of the power divided 74 in three—the spirit, the darkness, and the light together—this power is in the darkness that is set below them. And the darkness is terrible water, into which the light has been brought down and translated into such a nature along with the spirit. But the darkness is not without reason, but is perfectly intelligent, and it knows 76 that if the light is taken away from the darkness, the darkness remains desolate, lacking luster, powerless, inactive, and weak. Therefore, with all intelligence and understanding, it strives to keep within ^D itself 77 the luster and the scent of the spirit along with the light. And of these one may see an image of the nature in the visage of man, the pupil of the eye, darkened by the underlying waters, illuminated by the spirit. 141 As, therefore, the darkness desires the luster, so that it may have the spark serving it, 80 so the light and the spirit desire the power of their own; and they hasten to take and bring back to themselves the powers of them mingled in the dark and terrible water. All the powers of the three principles, which are infinite in number...

are each, according to its own substance, prudent and intellectual; and since they are infinite in number, they are prudent and intellectual, and when they remain by themselves, they all keep quiet. But if a power approaches a power, the dissimilarity of the juxtaposition produces a certain motion and energy, fashioned from the motion according to the concurrence of the juxtaposition of the powers that have come together. For the concurrence of the powers occurs as if it were a type of seal ^A struck by concurrence, in a manner similar to one who fashions the substances referred to. Since, therefore, the powers of the three principles are infinite in number, and from the infinite powers result infinite concurrences, necessarily there have come to be images of infinite seals. These, therefore, are the images, the ideas of the diverse animals. There came to be, therefore, from the first concurrence of the three principles, a great, certain idea of a seal, heaven and earth. Both heaven and earth have a shape similar to a womb, having an umbilicus in the middle, and if, he says, one wishes to bring this shape under view, let him examine technically a pregnant womb of whatever animal he wishes, and he will discover the impression of heaven and earth and of all things that are immutably ^B lying in the middle. The shape of heaven and earth happened to be such, as if similar to a womb, according to the first concurrence. And again, in the middle of heaven and earth, infinite concurrences of powers have come to be. And each concurrence did not work and impress anything else but a seal of heaven and earth, similar to a womb. And again on the earth, infinite multitudes of diverse animals sprang up from the infinite seals. And into this whole infinity, which is under heaven, in the diverse animals, the fragrance of the spirit from above has been sown and distributed together with the light ^C of the spirit. There came to be, therefore, from the water, a firstborn principle, a wind, heavy and violent, and the cause of all generation. For by causing a certain boiling in the waters, it rouses waves from the waters; and the motion of the waves, being as it were a certain impetuosity, which has been made to be pregnant with man or mind, when it is surged under the impetuosity of the spirit, it is urged on. And when this wave, from the wind, takes the nature of the generation of a female in itself, it holds the light sown from above together with the fragrance ^D of the spirit—that is, a mind fashioned in its diverse species; and this light is the perfect God, who, from the ungenerated light from above and the spirit, is brought down into human nature as if into a temple, by the force of nature and the motion of the wind, generated from the water and rendered pregnant.

intermingled with the bodies as if it were the salt of those things which exist and the light of the darkness, hastening to be released from the bodies and not being able to find the release and its own exit; for a certain most minute spark has been intermingled as from above, being like—according to what he says in the Psalm. Every care and concern of the light, therefore, is from above: how and in what manner the mind might be released from the death of the evil and dark body, from the father who is from below, which is the wind, which in the boiling and turmoil raised up waves and generated a perfect mind, his own son, not being his own by nature. For there was from above a ray from that perfect light, being held in the dark and terrible and bitter and filthy water, which is a luminous spirit borne upon the water; when, therefore... the waves [in various ways a womb]... as is observed in all animals. The wind, however, being both keen and vehement, is similar in its hissing to the serpent. The beginning of generation, therefore, happened first from the wind—that is, from the serpent—in the manner spoken of, for all things at once [received] the beginning of generation. Since, therefore, the light and the spirit have been caught, he says, in the unclean and wretched and disordered womb, the serpent entering within, the wind of darkness, the first-born of the waters, generates the man; and the unclean womb loves and recognizes no other form. Therefore, the perfect word of the light coming down from above, having been made like to the beast, the serpent, entered as if into the unclean womb, having deceived it by the likeness of the beast, so that he might loosen the bonds surrounding the perfect mind generated in the uncleanness of the womb by the first-born of the water, the serpent, the wind. This, he says, is the form of a servant, and this is the necessity for the Word of God to descend into a virgin’s womb. But, he says, it is not sufficient to have entered as the perfect man, the Word, into a virgin’s womb and to have loosened the throes that were in that darkness; but rather, after he entered into the filthy mysteries of the womb, he was washed and drank of the cup of living, leaping water, which it is absolutely necessary for him to drink who shall wish to put off the servile form and to put on the heavenly garment.

^A The power of the abyssal vault, which bears upward the mud of the incorruptible, hollow uliginous [substance], and the whole power of the watery, ever-moving, yet unrecognized [substance], holding the trembling, releasing the coming, lightening the staying, cleansing the rising, the faithful steward of the trace of the elements, enjoying the commands flowing from the twelve eyes, manifesting seals towards the power of the invisible waters that are brought upon them and are stewarded together with them, was called Thalassa (the Sea). This power, Ignorance called Cronus, guarded by bonds, because it constrained the complex of the dense and misty, invisible, dark Tartarus. After his image came Cepheus, Prometheus, and Iapetus.

The power entrusted with the sea, hermaphroditic, or the one that adjusts the sounding hiss running through from the twelve mouths to the twelve pipes, being fine and cleansing the one holding the violent flowing, and sealing the paths of its own rays, so that it may not fight or change, and neither [might] its daughter, the Typhonian, the faithful guardian of All-waters. Its name is Chorzar; this Ignorance called Poseidon, after whose image came Glaucus, Melicertes, ^B Ino, and Nebroë.

Circling the dodecagonal pyramid, darkening the gate to the pyramid with varied colors and perfecting the whole night-colored [aspect]. This Ignorance called Core, whose ministers are five: first Ou, second Aoai, third Ouï, fourth Ouab, fifth... [and] other faithful stewards of his toparchy of day and night, who rest in their authority. These Ignorance called the wandering stars, upon which [our] corruptible genesis is suspended. The steward of the rising of the air, [is] Karfakasmeocheir, Ekkabdachara; these Ignorance called the Curetes. The third ruler of the winds is Ariel, after whose image came Aeolus and Briareus. ^C And the ruler of the twelve-hour night is Soclal, whom Ignorance called Osiris; after whose image came Admetus, Medea, Hellen, and Athusa. The ruler of the twelve-hour day is Euro; this is the steward of the first-fashioned rising and of the ether, whom Ignorance called Isis. The sign of this one is the dog-star, after whose image came Ptolemy with Arsinoe, Didyma, Cleopatra, and Olympias. The right hand power of God, which Ignorance called Aräa, after whose image came ^D [the following]... [original-script column: see facsimile]

power, which is the cause of fruits; this Ignorance called Mēra, after whose image came Boumygas, Ostanes, Hermes Trismegistus, Kourētes, Petsiris, Zodarios, Berossos, Astrampseuchos, Zoroastris. The left hand power of fire; this Ignorance called Hephaistos, after whose image came Erichthonios, Achilles, Kapaneus, Phlegon, Meleagros, the Dēken, Kelados, Raphael, Suriel, Omphale. The three middle powers suspended in the air, causes of generation. These Ignorance called Moirai, after whose image came the house of Priam, the house of Laius, Ino, Autonoe, Agave, Athamas, Procne, the Danaides, the Peliades. [p. 130. 131] The power of beauty, of pleasure, of vigor, of appetite, of desire, which Ignorance called Eros, after whose image came Paris, Narcissus, Ganymedes, Endymion, Tithonus, Icarius, Leda, Amymone, Thetis, the Hesperides, Iasion, Leander, Hero. These are the suburbs as far as the ether; for thus it is inscribed in the book.

15. It is not easy for anyone to easily understand the heresy of the Peratae, transferred by the astrologers merely into names. But the remaining books of theirs also contain the same system, if it pleases one to examine them all. For, as I said, they posit the causes of all things that are born to be things unborn and transcendent, and [they say] that the birth comes through the flowing down of the universe, whom they call special, and [that] all the stars together, which are seen in heaven, are the authors of the generation of this world, [by] changing their names, so that by comparison with the suburbs one may see the institutions; then, however, [they say] that in the same manner, as the world of old came from the flowing down from above, so things here are said to have their birth and destruction from the flowing down of the stars and are administered. For since the astrologers know the horoscope and the meridian, and the setting and the anti-meridian, and [the positions] of these stars moving otherwise for the sake of the turning of the whole, and others possessing other declinations according to the center and the successions—the others diverging from the description of the astrologers—they indeed shadow forth the center as if it were God and the monad and the lord of the whole generation, the left [part] as the declination, and the succession as the right ^D. When someone therefore happens upon their books, he will find the power to be, according to the said right or left, [that he must] run back to the center and the declination and the succession, and he will clearly see that their whole teaching is astrological.

16. They call themselves Peratae, [saying] that nothing can...

[GREEK COLUMN] ...light-bearer, descent [from] the brilliance. Light descending, the flow, [and] the things in the... toward... [those] in the ten books on Empedocles. There is also in the books—in the greater ones—a certain old man drawn, white-haired, winged, not having his modesty covered, pursuing a dark-blue woman fleeing. And it is inscribed on the old man, "Light-bearer, descent," and on the woman, "Light-descending [r]." And this is seen to be, according to the doctrine of the Sethians, the "light-bearer," that is, the light; but the dark water is the "descent," and the space in the midst of these is the order of the spirit set between them. And the name "light-bearer" signifies the nature, as they say, of the light from above [flowing] down [q]. So that one might reasonably say that the Sethians perform somewhere among them the mysteries of the Great Phlyas [s]. And the poet also seems to bear witness to the threefold division, saying: "Everything is divided in three, and each has obtained a share of honor"; that is, each of the things divided in three has received a power. And [they interpret] the water lying below as dark, because the light has descended [into it], and [the soul] must recover and take back from it the spark brought down from above; thus the all-wise Sethians seem, having taken from Homer, to say: "For let Earth bear witness (he says), and wide Heaven from above, And the flowing water of Styx, which is the greatest and most terrible oath for the blessed gods"; that is, the gods according to Homer consider the water to be something aversive and terrifying, which the doctrine of the Sethians says is fearful to the mind [t].

21. These are the things they say, and similar ones in infinite writings; they persuade those who are being initiated to occupy themselves with the discourse on mixture and combination, which [u] has been practiced by many, but also by Andronicus the Peripatetic. The Sethians therefore say that the discourse on mixture and combination consists in this way: the luminous ray from above has been mixed [in], and the smallest spark has been mixed fine in the dark waters below and united and has become in one mixture, like one odor [produced] from many perfumes mixed together upon the fire; and the expert, having a pure criterion of smell, must from the one odor of the perfume finely discern each of the perfumes mixed upon the fire, such as styrax and myrrh and frankincense, or whatever else may have been mixed. They use also other examples, saying that copper has been mixed with gold [v]...

and that there is a certain art for discerning these things. And who, they say, can discern water mixed with wine? In this way, they say, all things that are mixed together are discerned. Nay, he says, learn from animals. For when an animal is dead, each thing is discerned, and once the animal is dissolved, that which was mixed disappears. This, he says, is what is meant: *I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword*, that is, to divide and discern things that have been mixed together. For the things that are mixed are divided and each of them occupies its own place. For just as there is a place of mixing for all animals, so too is there a place of discernment known to no one, he says, except to us alone, who are reborn as spiritual, not carnal, whose citizenship is above in the heavens. ^B Thus they creep in secretly and corrupt those who listen, whenever they distort well-spoken words into whatever evil they wish, hiding their own sin through all comparisons. All things, therefore, he says, as it is written, have their own place for things that are mixed and for things that are domestic, just as iron approaches the Heraclean stone, and chaff approaches amber, and the center of the sea attracts gold. Thus, what is mixed with the water of the Word, having obtained a domestic place through discipline and instruction, hastens to the Word that came down from above in the form of a servant, and it comes to be with the Word, where the Word is, or rather, iron comes to be with the Heraclean stone. And if things are thus, he says, and all things are discerned ^C in their own places while they are mixed, learn this: There is a well in Persia, in the city of Ampe, near the Tigris river. It is built in such a way that it has a structure with three outlets. From this well, whoever draws water, whatever he extracts from the well as a draught, he pours into the adjacent receptacle. But when the liquid comes into the outlets, into one vessel the salt that is realized is discerned, and in one is placed the concrete salt, in another the asphalt, and in the third the oil. But the oil is black, as, he says, even Herodotus narrates, and it gives off a heavy odor, and the Persians call it rhadinakes. ^D The Sethians, he says, use this to demonstrate that the proposition is better proved by the likeness of the well than by all things that have been said before.

22. The opinion of the Sethians seems to us to be sufficiently declared. But if anyone wishes to follow along with them, know, he says, that this is the earth and the broad heaven above and the descending water of Styx, which is the greatest and most terrible oath for the blessed gods. And of this, he says, not only do the poets speak, but even the wisest of the Greeks, among whom is Heraclitus, saying: "For it is death to souls to become water." This death, he says, overtakes the Egyptians in the Red Sea along with their chariots; and all who are ignorant, he says, are Egyptians. And this, they say, is what it means to go out of Egypt, out of the body—for they consider Egypt to be the small body—and to cross the Red Sea, that is, the water of corruption, which is Cronus, and to come to the other side of the Red Sea, that is, of generation, and to go into the desert, which is to be outside of generation, where all the gods of destruction and the God of salvation are together.

^A This is he, he says, who in the last days appeared in the form of a man in the times of Herod, having been born according to the likeness of Joseph, who was sold by the hands of his brothers, the garment of whom alone was variegated. This is he, he says, who is according to the likeness of Esau, whose robe was blessed even when he was not present, who did not receive, he says, the dim-sighted blessing, but grew rich from without, having taken nothing from the one who was dim-sighted, whose face Jacob saw "as one might see the face of God." Of this one, he says, it is written: "And Nimrod was a giant hunter before the Lord." There are, he says, many who imitate him, as many as were seen in the desert biting the sons of Israel, from whom that perfect one, whom Moses set up, rescued those being bitten. This, he says, is what is meant: "And in the way that Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." According to the likeness of him, the bronze serpent in the desert was made, which Moses set up. Of this one, he says, the likeness alone is always seen in heaven by light. This, he says, is the great beginning, concerning which it is written. Concerning this, he says, it is said: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be; that which has come to be in him is life."

^A Herodotus indeed narrates that Heracles, driving the cattle of Geryon from Erytheia into Scythia, had traveled as far as the desert; and having been a little weary from the journey, he lay down and fell asleep. When he awoke, the horse was nowhere to be found, and he began a diligent search in the desert to recover his horse. He did not find the horse, but he caught sight of a certain half-virgin in the desert and asked her if by chance she had seen the horse. The girl replied that she had indeed seen it, but would not show it to him unless he were to unite with her in the intimacy of friendship. Now, Herodotus says that parts of her above the groin were of a virgin, but all the body below the groin was a horrible viper-like monster. ^B Heracles was persuaded by the beast for the sake of finding his horse; for he recognized her and made her pregnant, and told her that after this union she would have in her womb three sons together, who would be illustrious. He ordered her, when they were born, to give the names Agathyrsus, Gelonus, and Scythes to those she bore. Having engaged in this, he received the horse from the beastly girl as his reward and departed, having his cattle. This story is a long one in Herodotus, let it suffice for the present. But we shall narrate what Justin, who transferred that myth into the generation of the universe, pleases to say.

26. He says: There were three principles of all things ungenerated, two masculine, one feminine. ^C And the masculine one is called Good, and this alone is named, foreknowing all things. The other is the Father of all generated things, not foreknowing and lacking sight. The feminine one, however, is irascible, fearful, two-bodied, by all means similar to the virgin in the tale of Herodotus, a virgin up to the groin, and a viper below, who, as Justin says, is named Eden and Israel. These, he says, are the principles of all things, the roots and springs, from which all things came to be; and there was nothing else. ^D When therefore that father who foreknows saw the half-virgin, he came into desire for her. Now Elohim, he says, is called this father. And the desire of the two—of Elohim and Eden—was also a desire. And he brought them together into one embrace of love. But he generates from such a union with Eden for himself twelve angels. The names of the paternal angels are these: Michael, Amen, Baruch, Gabriel, Essaddaeus.... And the maternal angels that Eden brought forth are similarly and likewise subject. They are these: Babel, Achamoth, Naas, Bel, Bellias, Satan, Sael, a great wonder, the dragon of the terrible monster, is rolled about. And on either side of it, the Crown and the Lyre are set out, and above its head itself is the pitiable man, who is seen in the Kneeler, having the tip of his right foot upon the crooked dragon. And along the back of the Kneeler is an incomplete snake, grasped by both hands by Ophiuchus and prevented from touching the crown lying beside the complete snake.

Rather, like a painter who, taking nothing away from the animals, transfers with his stylus all the ideas onto the tablet as he draws, so the Son, by his own power, transfers from the Father to matter the paternal characters. Thus, all the paternal things are here, and yet nothing is.

If, he says, someone among those here is able to understand that there is a paternal character transferred from above, remaining here and embodied—just as a certain conception became white because of the rod—consubstantial with the Father in the heavens, in every way, he ascends thither. But if he does not happen upon this teaching, nor recognizes the necessity of generation, he is destroyed like a miscarriage born in the night, in the night.

So, when, he says, the Savior says, "Your Father who is in the heavens," he is speaking of Him from whom the Son, having received the characters, has transferred them here; but when he says, "Your father from the beginning is a murderer," he speaks of the ruler and creator of matter, who, having taken up the characters distributed by the Son, gave birth to them here, who is a murderer from the beginning; for his work produces corruption and death.

To this demonstration they bring the anatomy of the brain, likening the brain itself to the Father because of its immobility, and the cerebellum to the Son because of its being mobile and serpentine. This, they say, in an ineffable and unspeakable manner, draws in through the pineal gland the spiritual and life-giving substance flowing down from the vault, and the cerebellum, having received it like the Son, inarticulately transmits the forms to the matter—that is, the seeds and the genera of those born in the flesh flow down to the spinal marrow. By using this example, they seem cleverly to introduce their ineffable mysteries, which the uninitiated are not permitted to utter, but which are easily understood by many through what has been said. But since I think that the Peratic heresy has been openly set forth and through many points rendered manifest—always a Muse, and one which altogether hides its own venom while seeming to put forward nothing beyond these things—it is sufficient for their accusation that their own doctrines be laid out.

^A In Elohim, the being existing in men, throughout the separations and such like, he is tormented, grieving, and suffering the same things as Eden, who was abandoned. And Eden gives great power to her third angel, Naas, so that he may punish with all punishments the spirit of Elohim which is in men, so that, being punished through the spirit, Elohim, who even abandoned, contrary to the agreements made by them with his consort, might be tormented. Seeing these things, the Father Elohim sends Baruch, the third of his own angels, to the aid of the spirit which is in men. ^B Baruch, having come again, stood in the midst of the angels of Eden, that is, in the midst of the paradise (for the angels are paradise, and he stood in their midst), and commanded the man to eat of every tree that was in the paradise, but of the tree of knowing good and evil not to eat, which is Naas—that is to say, to obey the other eleven angels of Eden; for the eleven have passions, but they do not have lawlessness. But Naas had lawlessness: for he approached Eve, and having deceived her, he defiled her, which is lawless; and he approached Adam, and had him as a boy, which is also itself ^C lawless. From there came adultery and sodomy. From then on evils prevailed for men, and goods [prevailed] as originating from one source, that of the Father. For the Father, having ascended to the Good, showed the way to those wishing to ascend. But having departed from Eden, he made a beginning of evils for the spirit that is in men. Baruch was therefore sent to Moses, and through him spoke to the sons of Israel, that they might turn to the Good. But the third... through the soul dwelling from Eden in Moses, just as also in all men, obscured the commandments of Baruch and made his own heard. For this reason the soul ^D is arrayed against the spirit, and the spirit against the soul. For the soul is Eden, but the spirit is Elohim, both of which are in all men, in females and males. Again, after these things, Baruch was sent to the prophets, that through the prophets the spirit dwelling in men might hear and flee Eden and the evil creation, just as the Father Elohim fled; likewise also through the prophets Naas, by the same intent, through the soul dwelling in the man together with the spirit of the Father, lured the prophets, and they were all lured, and did not follow the words of Baruch which Elohim had commanded.

^A of the spirit, being luminous, or a mind fashioned in diverse forms, which is the perfect god, having descended from the unborn light from above and having been breathed into human nature, as into a vessel, by the motion of nature and of the wind, having been born into water, joined to the ancients and commingled with the bodies as a kind of salt of things that are unborn, existing for the ancients, and a light of the darkness, hastening to be released from the bodies and not being able to find the release and its own exit; for there is mingled in the water a certain smallest spark, a fragment from above for the ancients, and the mind in the manner of those mentioned in the many, as he says in the Psalm. Every care and concern of the light from above, therefore, is how and in what manner the mind might be released from the death of the wicked and dark body, from the father who is below, which is the wind; which in ferment and disturbance raised up waves and begot the perfect mind, its own son, not his own by substance. For from above he was led from that perfect light, being held fast in the dark and terrible and bitter and defiled water, as there is a luminous spirit borne upon the water; upon the... billows of the chariots... into a certain womb... sown... as is observed in all animals. But the wind, fierce and at the same time vehement, is being warmed by the hissing: similar to a serpent. ^B Therefore, foremost from the wind, that is to say from the serpent, the beginning of the generation happened in the manner we have spoken, all of them having taken the beginning of the generation at once. Since, therefore, the light and the spirit have been caught into the unclean, he says, and calamitous and in-disordered womb, the serpent entering within, the wind of darkness, the first-born of the waters, begets a man, and the unclean womb neither loves nor knows any other form. So the perfect Word of the light from above, having been made like to the beast, the serpent, entered into the unclean womb, having deceived it by the likeness of the beast, in order that he might loosen the bonds which are cast around the perfect mind which is being born in the impurity of the womb by the first-born of the water, the serpent, the wind. This, he says, is the form of a servant, and this is the necessity, for the Word of God to descend into the womb of a virgin. But it is not, he says, sufficient that it has entered, the perfect man, the Word, into the womb of a virgin and loosened the graves that were in that darkness; but indeed after the mysteries in the womb he went in and washed and drank the cup of living water, which one must necessarily drink who wishes to put off the servant’s form and put on the heavenly garment.

To the man, the [term] Elohim; but by “earth,” the soul which is in the man of the spirit; and by “Lord,” Baruch. And [by] Israel, Edem; for Edem is also called Israel, the consort of Elohim. “It did not know me,” he says, “[Israel], for if it had known that I am near the Good, it would not have punished the spirit which is in men on account of the paternal ignorance.”

^B 21. From this point, “it is also recorded” in the “first book which is inscribed Baruch,” by which they bind those who intend to listen to these mysteries and to be initiated by the Good—which oath, he says, our father Elohim swore when he came into the presence of the Good, and he did not repent of the oath, concerning whom it is written, he says: “The Lord has sworn and he will not repent.” And this is that oath: “I swear by Him who is over all, the Good, to keep these mysteries and report them to no one, nor to go back from the Good to the creation.” And when he has sworn this oath, he enters into the presence of the Good and sees things which “eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not ascended into the heart of man,” and he drinks from the living water, which is to them—as they suppose—a fountain of living water springing up. For it is separated, he says, between water and water; and there is water below the firmament of the wicked creation, in which the earthen and natural men are washed; and there is water above the firmament of the Good, living, in which the spiritual, living men are washed, in which Elohim washed, and having washed, he did not repent. And when, he says, the prophet is told to “take unto himself a wife of whoredom,” because “the land will surely go whoring from behind the Lord,” that is, Edem from Elohim—in these things, he says, the prophet clearly declares the whole mystery, and it is not heard on account of the malice of Naas. In that same manner, they likewise pervert the other prophetic utterances through many books; but for them there is primarily a book inscribed Baruch, in which the one who comes upon it will know the whole course of their myth. Having come upon many heresies, beloved, I have encountered none worse in its evil than this one. Truly, however, as it is said, one must emulate the Hercules of that [myth] to purge the Augean stable—or rather, the marsh—into which those who have fallen and are held by it shall never be washed clean, nor will they even be able to lift their heads.

^C 28. Since, therefore, we have also set forth the attempts of Justin the pseudo-gnostic, it seems good in the following books to set forth the opinions of the succeeding heresies, leaving no one of them irrefuted, while setting forth the things said by them, as these are sufficient for demonstration—even if only those things which are secret and arcane among them were to be brought to light, things which are only discovered with difficulty and much labor by men.

Or when he says that three were in paradise: Adam, Eve, and the serpent; or when he speaks of three: Cain, Abel, and Seth, and again three: Shem, Ham, and Japheth; or when he speaks of three patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; or when he says that three days were created before the sun and the moon; or when he mentions three laws: prohibitive, elective, and directive. A prohibitive law is: "Of every tree that is in the garden you shall eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat." When he says: "Go forth from your land and from your kindred and come to the land which I shall show you," he says this is an elective law; for he has the choice to go out, and if he does not choose, to remain. A directive law is one which says: "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal"; for the penalty for each of these offenses has been directed. Their entire doctrine of the Word proceeds from the ancient theologians, Musaeus and Linus and Orpheus, who above all others introduced rites and mysteries. For the discourse concerning their womb and the serpent and the navel, which is courage, is explicitly thus in the Bacchic rites of Orpheus. These things were performed and handed down to men before the rite of Celeus, Triptolemus, Demeter, Kore, and Dionysus in Eleusis, in Phlius

^A which was much more wisely and modestly done than by Apsethus the Libyan, who, desiring to be considered a god in Libya, attempted something whose tale, not differing much from the vanity of Simon’s desire, seems worthy of being recounted as it pertains to this undertaking.

^B 8. Apsethus the Libyan desired to become a god; but since, for all his busy scheming, he kept failing in his desire, he wished at least to appear to have become one, and he did indeed, after a long time, appear to have become a god. For the foolish Libyans sacrificed to him as to some divine power, thinking they were trusting a voice sent down from heaven. For he gathered many parrots into one and the same enclosure and shut them in; there are very many parrots throughout Libya, and they very clearly mimic human speech. After keeping the birds for a sufficiently long time, this man taught them to say: "Apsethus is a god." When the birds had been trained for a long time and said exactly what he thought would suffice to make it believed that Apsethus was a god, he then opened the enclosure and let the parrots fly off in different directions. As the birds flew about, the cry went out throughout all Libya, and their words reached even as far as the Greek lands. The Libyans, thus struck with awe by the voice of the birds and not understanding the fraud committed by Apsethus, held Apsethus to be a god. But a certain Greek, having accurately perceived the evil trickery of the man who was selling himself as a god by means of these very parrots, did not merely expose him, but also destroyed that glorious and vain man. For the Greek man taught many of the parrots he had caught in a cage to say: "Apsethus shut us up and forced us to say: Apsethus is a god." The Libyans, having heard this recantation of the parrots, all gathered together unanimously and burned Apsethus.

^C 9. In the same way we must think of Simon the Magus, comparing him to that Libyan who quickly became a man, and then a god. If the comparison holds precisely, and the magus experienced a passion somewhat similar to that of Apsethus, let us try to teach Simon’s parrots that Christ was not Simon—who stands, stood, and shall stand—but that he was a man from seed, offspring of a woman, born of blood and carnal desire just as the rest of mankind; and that these things are so, we shall easily demonstrate as our argument proceeds. ^D Simon, moreover, interprets the law of Moses both foolishly and maliciously. For when Moses says: "God is a consuming and devouring fire," he takes what was said by Moses not...

rightly, as he does not understand the principle of all things to be fire; rather, he does not perceive that God is fire, but a fire that consumes and destroys, not one that tears apart only the law of Moses, but one that also plunders the obscure Heraclitus. ^A Simon calls the Infinite Power the beginning of all things, using these words: "This decree of the voice and of the intelligence of the great and infinite power." Therefore, it shall be sealed, hidden, covered, placed in the tabernacle where the root of all things is founded. He says the tabernacle is this man born from blood, and that the infinite power dwells within him, and he says that the root of all things is therein. And this infinite power, which is fire, according to Simon, is not some simple thing, as many others say, nor have they considered fire to be simple; but indeed, he considers fire to have a twofold ^B nature, and he calls one part of this duality hidden, and the other manifest. Moreover, these hidden things lie latent in manifest things, and manifest fire arises from hidden things. There is, however, the same thing, which Aristotle calls potency and actuality, or Plato calls intelligible and sensible. For the manifest part contains within itself whatever one might perceive, and perhaps, should it escape one, it pertains to sensible things; but the hidden part is whatever one perceives as intelligible and escaping the sense, or even overlooked, because one did not perceive it. Universally, therefore, he can say this: of all things that exist, both sensible and intelligible, which he calls hidden and manifest, the treasure is the supercelestial fire, like a vast tree, as appeared in a dream to Nebuchadnezzar, ^C from which all flesh is fed. He deems the manifest fire to be the trunk, the branches, the leaves, and the bark surrounding it externally. All things, he says, that are of that great tree, being consumed as a flame, burn everything. But when the fruit of the tree has been perfected and has obtained its own form, it is placed in the storehouse, and is not cast into the fire. For he says that the fruit which is placed in the storehouse is born, but the chaff, as it is led to the fire, which is the trunk, having not been produced for its own sake, but for the sake of the fruit, is then placed in the storehouse. ^D 10. And this, he says, is what is written in Scripture: "The vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is a pleasant shoot." If the man of Judah is a pleasant shoot, it is demonstrated, he says, that the tree is nothing but man. And with regard to this separation and discrimination, he says, Scripture is sufficient for those who have been instructed, and what is written is: "All flesh is grass..."

^A and all the glory of flesh as the flower of grass; the grass withered, and its flower fell off; but the Word of the Lord abides forever." The Word of the Lord, he says, is that which is born in the mouth, the Word and the Logic; as for another, there is no other place of generation.

11. Such being the case, to speak briefly, according to Simon regarding the fire—and all existing things, both visible and invisible, likewise articulate and inarticulate, numerable things and numbers—in the Great Announcement he calls it the perfect rational being, ^B in such a way that each of those things capable of being conceived of infinitely many times can speak and think and act, just as Empedocles says:

For with earth we perceive earth, with water aqua, With ether the divine ether, but with fire the unseen fire, And with love, love, and discord with discord that is sad.

12. For, he says, he considered that all parts of the fire, both the visible and the invisible, have reason and a share of intelligence. The generated world, therefore, came into existence from the ungenerated fire. And it began, he says, to come into existence in this way. Having taken the six roots, which are the first of the principle of generation, ^C from the principle of that fire, the generated world was made. And he says that these roots came into existence by conjugation from the fire, which roots he now calls mind and intelligence, voice and name, reasoning and reflection; and that in these six roots is contained the whole of that infinite power, in potentiality, not in actuality. This infinite power, he says, is he who stands, has stood, and will stand. And when it is imaged, as it were, in those six powers, it will be in substance, in potentiality, in magnitude, from the result, one and the same as the ungenerated and infinite power, and having nothing at all lacking that belongs to that ungenerated and immutable and infinite power. But if it remains only by potentiality ^D in those six powers and is not imaged, it vanishes, he says, and perishes, just as the power of grammar or geometry in the human soul. For when the power has acquired art, it becomes the light of things that come into being, but when it has not acquired it, it becomes lack of art and darkness, and as when it was not, it perishes together with the dying man.

13. Now, he calls these six powers and the seventh which is with them the first conjugation, mind and intelligence, heaven and earth; and he says that the male looks down from above and provides for the consort,

^A having thus sealed these matters with many myths, he leads souls astray through many books, and in this way he brings them to the good, perfecting the initiates in the unspeakable mysteries. But so that we might not travel through many [books], we shall demonstrate the ineffable things from one of his books, which he considers glorious. This one is entitled Baruch; in it we shall show one of the many mythologies set forth by him, which is in Herodotus, which he fabricated and relates as something foreign to his audience, constructing from it the entire synthesis of the school according to him. Herodotus, then, says that Heracles, driving the cattle from Erytheia of Geryon, came into Scythia, and, having grown weary from the journey, he fell asleep in a desolate place, having ^B spread out. As he slept a little, the horse on which he had journeyed the long road disappeared. When he woke up, he searched much in the wilderness, trying to find the horse.

invisible. The female, however, is unforeseeing, irascible, double-minded, double-bodied, in all respects similar to the myth of the traitor, a virgin down to the loins, but an adder below, as Justin says; and this maiden is called Eden, and Israel. These, he says, are the principles of the universe, roots and fountains, from which all beings originated; and seeing that the Father was not aware of that half-virgin Eden, he was moved by desire for her. Eloim, he says, is the name of the Father; and none the less, Eden also desired Eloim, and that desire brought them into a single benevolence of friendship. From such a union, the Father begets with Eden twelve angels for himself. The names of the paternal angels are these: Michael, Amen, Baruch, Gabriel, Esassaeus, and [the names] of the maternal angels,

the beasts and the remaining animals. Therefore, they created man as a symbol of their unity and benevolence, and they deposited their own powers into him—Eden [depositing] the soul, and Eloim [depositing] the spirit. And thus man, Adam, becomes a kind of seal and a memorial of friendship and an eternal symbol of the marriage of Eden and Eloim. And likewise, Eve also was created, she, too, as it is said, just as it is written in Moses, [being] an image and symbol, a seal ordained to be kept forever for Eden. And similarly, there was deposited in Eve, the image, a soul from Eden and a spirit from Eloim. And commandments were given to them: "Increase and multiply and replenish the earth," that is, Eden; for so, he says, it is written. For Eden offered all her own power, as it were a kind of substance, to Eloim in marriage. Whence, following the imitation of that first marriage, women to this day offer a dowry to their husbands, being persuaded by a certain divine and paternal law which was established toward Eloim by Eden.

The necessity of evil arises from a cause such as this: Eloim, having fashioned and created the world by mutual consent, wished to ascend to the high parts of the heaven and look to see if anything had been made lacking in the creation, taking his own angels with him. For he was naturally inclined upward, but he left Eden below; for being earth, she did not wish to follow her spouse above. Eloim, therefore, having arrived at the upper limit of the heaven and having beheld a light stronger than what he himself had created, said: "Open the gates for me, that I may enter and confess to the Lord; for I thought that I was the Lord." A voice was given to him from the light, saying: "This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it." And the gate was immediately opened, and the father entered, apart from his angels, to the Good [One] and saw "things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not ascended into the heart of man." Then the Good [One] says to him: "Sit at my right hand." And the father says to the Good [One]: "Permit me, Lord, to destroy the world that I have made; for my spirit is bound within men, and I wish to take it back."

So that he may punish with punishments the spirit of Eloim which is in men, so that by means of the spirit, Eloim, who abandoned the covenant made with him, might be punished—having seen these things, the Father Eloim sends out Baruch, the third of his own angels, for the assistance of the spirit that is in all men. Then Baruch stood in the midst of the angels of Eden, that is to say, in the midst of the paradise—for the angels are the paradise, in whose midst he stood—and he charged the man, "From every tree that is in the paradise you may eat, but from the tree of knowing good and evil you shall not eat," which is Naas, that is to say, [he charged him] to obey the other eleven angels of Eden; for the eleven have passions, but they do not have lawlessness, whereas Naas possesses lawlessness; for he approached Eve, deceiving her, and he committed adultery with her, which is lawless; he approached Adam also and took him as a boy, which is also lawless; thence originated adultery and sodomy. From that time forth, evils multiplied for men, and goods, having originated from one source, that of the Father; for having ascended to the Good [One], the Father showed the way to those who wish to ascend, but having departed from Eden, he made it the beginning of evils for the spirit of the Father that is in men. Baruch was therefore sent to Moses, and through him he spoke to the sons of Israel, so that they might turn back to the Good [One].

Last of all, from the uncircumcised, he chose for himself the prophet Heracles and sent him, so that he might overcome the twelve angels of Edem and deliver the Father from the twelve angels of the creation of the wicked. These are the twelve labors of Heracles, which Heracles overcame in order, from the first to the last—the lion and the hydra and the boar and the rest; for these are the names of the nations, which, they say, have been renamed after the operation of the maternal angels. ^A Just when it seemed he had conquered, Omphale is entwined with him—she who is Babel or Aphrodite—and she undermines Heracles and strips him of his power, the instructions of Baruch which Elohim had commanded, and she reclothes him in her own garment, that is, the power of Edem, of the lower power; and thus the prophecy and the works of Heracles became incomplete. ^B Finally, "in the days of Herod the king," Baruch is sent, being dispatched again by Elohim, and coming to Nazareth he found Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, tending sheep, a boy of twelve years old, and he announced to him all things from the beginning, whatever had happened from Edem and Elohim and the things to come thereafter; and he said: "All the prophets before you have been undermined. Try therefore, Jesus, son of man, not to be undermined, but preach this word to men and announce to them the things concerning the Father and the things concerning the Good, and ascend to the Good ^C and sit there with our Father of all, Elohim."

When, therefore, he says, you hear men saying that a swan came upon Leda and begot children from her, the swan is Elohim and Leda is Edem. And when men say that an eagle came upon Ganymede, the eagle is Naas, and Ganymede is Adama. And when they say that gold came upon Danae and begot children from her, the gold is Elohim and Danae is Edem. And likewise, in the same manner, they set forth all such sayings, which are similar to myths, and teach them. When, therefore, prophets say, "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken," he says that by "heaven" they mean the spirit that is in man, which is of Elohim, and by "earth" the soul that is in man together with the spirit, and by "Lord" Baruch, and by "Israel" Edem; for Edem is also called Israel, the consort of Elohim. "Israel," he says, "did not know me"; for if he had known that I am near the Good, he would not have punished the spirit which is in the foreheads, on account of their ancestral ignorance, from thence...

And when he says, he asserts, the prophet [says]: "Take unto thyself a wife of whoredom, for the land shall commit great whoredom from following the Lord," that is to say, Eden from Elohim—in these things, he says, the prophet clearly speaks the whole mystery, and is not heard because of the wickedness of Noah. In that same manner, they likewise distort the other prophetic utterances through use of many books; there is, however, primarily among them a book entitled Baruch, in which anyone who encounters it will understand the entire course of their myth. Having encountered many heresies, beloved, I have encountered none more evil than this one. Truly, just as he says—and one must, like his Hercules, cleanse the stable of Augeas, or rather a sea of filth into which those who are taken by him have fallen—they will never be set free, nor will they even be able to lift their heads. Since, then, we have set forth the arguments of Justin even the pseudo-gnostic, it seems best to set forth [the arguments] of the subsequent heresies in the next books, leaving none of them unmentioned, since the things said by them are sufficient for...

What Valentinus teaches, and that his doctrine is not established out of the Scriptures, but out of the Platonic and Pythagorean dogmas. And what is held by Secundus, Ptolemy, and Heracleon, since they themselves also utilized the same dogmas as the wise Greeks, though in different words. What is thought by Marcus and Colarbasus, and that some of them relied upon magic arts and Pythagorean numbers.

^A the principle of bodies, as the monad is of the intelligible [things]. And that it generates the tetrad, he says, is the perfect number, as in the intelligible [things] the monad is, [p. 179. 180] as they who teach in this way: if anyone beginning to count says that there is one, and adds two, then similarly three, these will be six; further, to these [adding] the four, it will similarly be ten in total. For one, two, three, four become ten, which is a perfect number. Thus, he says, in every way the tetrad was able to generate the intelligible monad, the perfect number.

24. Therefore, according to Pythagoras there are two worlds, one intelligible, which has the monad as its principle, but the other sensible; and of this, the tetrad is, having the iota, one stroke, as the perfect [number]; and it is according to the Pythagoreans the tenth, and the one stroke, the first and chief of the intelligible essences ^{B C}... [and] including nine incorporeal accidents, which cannot exist apart from essence, such as quality and quantity and toward-something and where and when and position and to have and to act and to be acted upon. There are, therefore, nine accidents, which, when added to essence, contain the perfect number of ten. Therefore, having divided the universe, as we have said, into the intelligible and sensible world, we have also from the intelligible a rationale, so that by the rationale we look upon the intelligibles and the incorporeal and divine essence, while the senses, he says, we have [as] five: smell, sight, hearing, taste, and touch, through which we arrive at the knowledge ^D of the sensible [things]; and thus, he says, the sensible is divided off from the intelligible world. And that we have a sensory organ of knowledge for each of these, from this we understand. Nothing, he says, of the intelligible things can become known to us through sensation; for neither has an eye seen, nor has an ear heard, nor, he says, has any of the other senses perceived any of it. But again, by rationale, one cannot arrive at the knowledge of any sensible thing, but one must see that something is white, and taste that it is sweet, and know by hearing of sounds and of what sort the odor is, whether it be fragrant or unpleasant; this is the work of smell, not of rationale. The same holds true for touch. For one cannot perceive the hard or the soft, or the hot or the cold, through hearing, but the judgment of such things belongs to touch. Since these things are arranged in this way, the order of things that are and things that come to be is understood [to be] made, as it were, by numbers. For just as starting from the monad [we make] by the addition of units or triads or the subsequent finishers of numbers one certain system, the greatest of number, and then again from the number by composition and by the subtraction of the composed arithmetic...

^A we work. In this way it is said that even the world is bound by a certain numerical and musical bond, and through addition and subtraction is always and forever preserved intact. Therefore, even concerning the dispensation of the world, the Pythagoreans judge similarly:

“For it was, and it shall be, and never ^B Shall it be empty of both these.”

Empty of what? Of strife and of love. For love produces among them an indissoluble, eternal world, as they suppose; for the world is one. But strife breaks apart and differs and attempts to divide the world into many parts, as if someone were to cut the myriad into thousands, and hundreds, and tens, and drachmas into obols and small farthings; so, they say, strife cuts the essence of the world, it cuts living beings, plants, metals and what is similar to these, and the generation of those things that are born. And according to them, strife is the artificer again, while love administers and guards the universe so that it remains, and, having dissected it into one and removed it from the whole, leadeth it forth and joins it to the life of the whole, and adds to the whole, so that it might remain. And it is. So neither will strife cease to divide the world, nor will love cease to assign to the world the things that have been cut. This is, as it seems, according to Pythagoras, the dispensation of the world. He says also that, according to Pythagoras, the stars and the souls ^C of animals are cut off from the stars. That they are subject to death, as long as they are in the body, as if buried as in a tomb, but that they rise up and become immortal, when they are released from the bodies. Whence also Plato, being asked by someone what philosophy is, replied: “A departure of the soul from the body,” in the way that Pythagoras and his disciples discuss—in those things where he discourses through riddles and statements of this sort: “From that from which you have departed, do not return; if, however, you do, the Furies, the helpers of Justice, will pursue you,” calling the body the Furies and the passions. If therefore, he says, you depart, that is if you go out from the body, do not return to it; if you should return, the passions will drag you down ^D into the body. For these believe that souls are reincarnated, just as Empedocles also speaks, according to the Pythagorean tradition.

^A It is necessary, he says, for pleasure-loving souls, as Plato says, if they have entered into a human being and have philosophized, to ascend after being among all living things and plants into a human body again, and if they have philosophized three times in the same way, to ascend into the nature of their kindred star; but if they do not philosophize, they return again to the same things. He says that the soul can become mortal if it is mastered by the Furies—that is, the passions—and immortal if it escapes the Furies.

27. But since we have begun to speak of the things obscurely stated by Pythagoras to his disciples through symbols, it is pleasing to touch upon the rest, because the heresiarchs likewise have attempted to use such symbols, though they are not their own, but borrowed from Pythagorean sayings. He teaches his disciples, then, by saying: "Tie up the bundle of bedding"; for since they were about to go on a journey, he wants them to tie up their bedding for the preparation of the road; so he wants the disciples to be ready at every moment for the onset of death, having nothing lacking. Therefore, of necessity, when it began ^B to be day, he taught them to urge themselves to bind up the bedding, that is to say, to be ready for death. "Do not stir the fire with a sword"—that is, do not provoke the angry man—for the angry man is like fire, and the sword is like the word. "Do not disregard small things." "Do not plant a palm-tree in a house," for there is a palm-tree in a house; do not create discord, for strife and discord are the sign of the palm-tree. "Do not eat from a chair," do not practice a base craft, so that you may not serve the body which is perishable, but make life from the Word and nourish the body and make the soul better. "Do not take from a whole loaf," do not consume your possessions, but live from the income and guard the substance. "Do not accept a chair," for they used to be assigned to offices of the city by beans at that time.

28. These things, then, and such as these, the Pythagoreans teach, and the heretics, imitating them, think they are saying great things. They say the Creator of all things that exist is the Pythagorean Word, the great geometrician and arithmetician, the sun, and that He is fixed in the universe as in bodies, as Plato also says. For fire is the soul, as they say, and the earth is the body. Separated ^C from fire, nothing could ever be seen nor perceived without some

^A solid; but there is no solid without earth. Whence it is said that God, having placed fire and earth in the middle, created the entire body of the universe. He measures the world, he says, by number, just as a geometer does, and the sun in such a manner. The world is the perceptible one, of which we now speak. He divides it, as an arithmetician and geometer would, into twelve parts. And the names for these parts are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, ^B Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. Again, of these twelve parts, he divides each into thirty parts, which are days of the month. Again, he divides each of these thirty parts into sixty minutes, and these minutes into even smaller parts. And doing this without ceasing, he gathers them from these divided parts, making a year, and again resolving and dividing them, he finishes the great year of the world.

29. Such is the opinion, if we have reached its essence, which rests upon Pythagoras and Plato. From which it follows that Valentinus, not having gathered his heresy from the Gospels, as we shall demonstrate, should rightly be considered a Pythagorean and a Platonist, not a Christian. Valentinus, therefore, and Heracleo and Ptolemy, and their entire school, as disciples of Pythagoras and Plato, followed their masters and laid down arithmetic as the foundation of their doctrine. For ^C of them exists the monad of all things—unbegotten, imperishable, incomprehensible, inconceivable, fruitful, and the cause of all that comes to be—called by them the aforementioned Monad, the Father. But there is a great diversity found among them. For some of them, as if to make the doctrine of Valentinus purely Pythagorean, posit that the Father is without a consort and alone; while others think it impossible that he could stand alone, as if generation exists solely from a male, and they necessarily add a consort to the Father of all, so that he may be a father. But whether the consort exists ^D or does not exist, let them struggle among themselves. But we, guarding the Pythagorean principle—that the One is unallied, female-less, and unbegotten—will show what they themselves teach. There was nothing, he says, and the Father was alone, unbegotten, having no place, no time, no counselor, no other thing that could in any way be perceived by thought. But he was alone, resting in himself alone.

But regarding his separation and distinction, he says, Scripture has spoken sufficiently, and what has been said suffices for the instruction of those who are formed: "That all flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh as the flower of grass. The grass has withered, and the flower of it has fallen; but the word of the Lord abides forever." The word, he says, is the word and discourse generated in the mouth of the Lord, and it has no other place of meaning. Such being the case, to speak briefly according to Simon regarding the fire and all things that are visible and invisible, of which he is the one bringing them in and bringing them out, both numerically and without number, in the great [power(?)] he calls them. Of the perfect intelligible beings, in such a way that each of those which can be conceived of infinite times can speak and think and act, just as Empedocles says: "For with earth we see earth, and with water water, and with ether divine ether, but with fire destructive fire, and with love love, and with woeful strife strife."

^A Resting in himself alone. But since he was generative, it seemed good to him at some point to generate and bring forth the most beautiful and perfect thing that he had within himself; for he was not a lover of solitude. For Love, he says, was integral, but love is not love unless there be that which is loved. Therefore, he himself, the Father, while he was alone, projected and generated Mind and Truth, that is, a dyad, which became mistress and source and mother of all the aeons that are counted within the Pleroma by them. But Mind and Truth, having been projected from the Father, a generative being from a generative being, projected in turn Logus and Life, imitating the Father; and Logus and Life project Man and Church. But Mind and Truth, when they saw their own offspring generated as generative, gave thanks to the Father of all and offer him a perfect number, ten aeons. For, he says, a number more perfect than this, Mind and Truth were unable to offer to the Father. For it was necessary that the Father, being perfect, should be glorified by a perfect number, and the number ten is perfect, because it is the first of those that come into being by multitude that is perfect. Yet the Father is more perfect, because, being alone unbegotten, through the first syzygy of Mind and Truth he was able to project all the roots of those things that come into being.

^B Seeing therefore also Logus and Life themselves that Mind and Truth had glorified the Father of all in a perfect number, Logus himself with Life wished also to glorify their own father and mother, Mind and Truth. But since Mind and Truth were generated and did not have the paternal perfection—that is, unbegottenness—Logus and Life no longer glorify their own father, Mind, with a perfect number, but rather with an imperfect one; for twelve aeons do Logus and Life offer to Mind and Truth. For these were, according to Valentinus, the first roots of the aeons: Mind and Truth, Logus and Life, Man and Church, ten are those of Mind and Truth, and twelve are those of Logus and Life, twenty-eight in all; ^C to which they give these names: Bythios and Mixis, Ageratos and Henosis, Autophyes and Hedone, Acinetos and Syncrasis, Monogenes and Macaria. These are the ten aeons which some say belong to Mind and Truth, while others say they belong to Logus and Life. Others [attribute] the twelve to Man and Church, others to Logus and Life, to which these names are granted: Paracletus and Pistis, Patricus and Elpis, Metricus and Agape, Ainos and Synesis, Ecclesiasticus and Macariotes, Theletus and Sophia. From the twelve, however,

the twelfth and youngest of all the twenty-eight aeons, being feminine and called Sophia, contemplated the multitude and the power of the aeons that had generated, and she ran back into the depth of the Father, and perceived that all the other aeons, being generated, generate through conjunction, but the Father alone, without a yoke, had generated. She wished, therefore, to imitate the Father and to generate by herself, apart from a spouse, so that she might produce no work inferior to the Father—ignorant that he who is unbegotten, existing as the beginning of all things and the root and depth and abyss, has the power to generate alone, but Sophia, being generated and having come into existence after many, could not possess the power of the Unbegotten. ^A For in the Unbegotten, he says, all things are together, but in the generated, the feminine is the projector of essence, and the masculine the formator of the essence projected by the feminine. Sophia, therefore, projected only what she could, an essence formless and incondite. And this is, he says, what Moses says: "The earth was invisible and incondite." This is, he says, that good and heavenly Jerusalem, into which God promised he would lead the sons of Israel, saying: "I will lead you into a good land flowing with milk and honey."

31. Ignorance having occurred within the Pleroma according to Sophia, and formlessness according to the offspring of Sophia, there was a tumult in the Pleroma, lest the offspring of the aeons should turn out similarly formless and imperfect, and some corruption should at no long time seize the aeons. All the aeons, therefore, took refuge in prayer to the Father, that he might give rest to the mourning Sophia; for she was weeping and lamenting over the abortion generated by her—for thus they call it. The Father, therefore, having pitied the tears of Sophia and accepted the prayer of the aeons, commanded that they project additionally—for he himself, he says, did not project—but the Nous and Truth ^B [projected] Christ and the Holy Spirit for the formation and division of the abortion and for the consolation and placation of Sophia’s lamentations. And there come to be thirty aeons with Christ and the Holy Spirit. Some, therefore, of them wish this to be the triad of the aeons, but others wish that Sige should exist together with the Father and that the aeons should be counted together with them. The Christ and the Holy Spirit, therefore, having been projected by the Nous and Truth, immediately separate this formless abortion of Sophia, generated by her alone and apart from a spouse, from all the aeons, lest, beholding it, ^D [the other aeons] should become distraught by seeing an imperfect form. So he says, having made ^C it invisible—for the abortion was a formless substance—he strengthened and formed it, so that there should be no confusion within the Pleroma.

And that the formlessness of the abortion might not at all be apparent to the perfect aeons, the Father again projects over them one aeon, ^A the Stauros (the Cross), who, having been born great as from a great and perfect Father, was projected for the guardianship and defense of the aeons. He becomes the Limit (Horos) of the Pleroma, having within himself all the thirty aeons together; for these are the ones who were projected. This one is called Limit because he separates the deficiency outside from the Pleroma; he is also called Partaker (Metocheus), because he partakes also of the deficiency; and he is called Cross (Stauros), because he is fixed/established steadfastly and immutably, ^B so that nothing from the deficiency can reach the aeons that are within the Pleroma.

Outside the Limit, the Cross, and the Partaker, therefore, is what they call the Ogdoad, which is the Sophia that is outside the Pleroma, whom Christ, having been projected over them by Nous and Aletheia, formed and rendered a perfect aeon, in no way inferior to those within the Pleroma. ^C

Since Sophia had been formed outside, and it was not possible for Christ and the Holy Spirit—who had been projected from Nous and Aletheia—to remain outside the Pleroma, Christ and the Holy Spirit ran back from her who had been formed toward Nous and Aletheia, within the Limit, along with the other aeons, glorifying the Father.

Chapter 32. Since, therefore, there was a certain peace and harmony of all the aeons within the Pleroma, it pleased them not only to have glorified Him by conjugation, but also to glorify Him through an offering of fruits befitting the Father. ^D All the thirty aeons therefore consented to project one aeon, the common fruit of the Pleroma, so that it might be a symbol of their unity, consension, and peace. And this one, projected alone by all the aeons to the Father, is he who is called by them the common fruit of the Pleroma.

These things, then, were thus within the Pleroma. And the common fruit of the Pleroma was projected, Jesus (for this is his name), the great high priest. But the Sophia who is outside the Pleroma, seeking Christ, who had formed her, and the Holy Spirit, was cast into great fear, lest she should perish, having been separated from him who had formed and strengthened her. And she was grieved and fell into great perplexity, considering who it was that had formed her, who the Holy Spirit was, where they had gone, who had prevented them from being present, and who had envied her that beautiful and blessed sight. Established in these affections, she turns to prayer and supplication to him who had departed from her. And as she was praying, Christ, who is within the Pleroma, and all the rest of the aeons, took pity on her.

^A They emit outside the Pleroma the common fruit of the Pleroma, the spouse of the Sophia who is outside, and the corrector of the passions which she suffered while seeking Christ. The common fruit of the Pleroma, then, having come outside the Pleroma and having found her in the four primary affections—namely, fear, sorrow, consternation, and entreaty—corrected her affections. While correcting them, he saw that it was not fitting that they, being eternal and proper to Sophia, should perish, nor that Sophia should remain in such affections as fear, sorrow, supplication, and consternation. Therefore, he acted as such an aeon and offspring of the whole Pleroma would: he caused the affections to depart from her and made them into substantial essences. He made fear into an animal [psychic] essence, sorrow into a material one, consternation into the essence of demons, and he made the conversion, entreaty, and supplication into an ascent, repentance, and power of the animal essence, which is called the "right." ^B The Demiurge [arose] from fear; this is what the Scripture means, he says, when it says: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" [Ps. cx, 10; Prov. i, 7]. For this is the beginning of the passions of Sophia; for she feared, then she was saddened, then she suffered consternation, and thus she fled to entreaty and supplication. The animal essence, he says, is fiery, and it is called by them a "place of [mediocrity]," and a "hebdomad," and the "Ancient of Days" [Dan. vii, 9]; and whatever they say regarding this, they say pertains to the animal [nature], which they claim is the creator of the world; and it is fiery. Moses also says, he notes: "The Lord thy God is a consuming fire" [Deut. iv, 24]. For he wishes for this to be written in this way. There is, he says, a twofold power of fire; for there is an all-devouring fire which cannot be extinguished . . . . In this respect, therefore, the soul is something mortal, being a certain mediocrity; for it is a hebdomad and a rest. It is, moreover, underneath the Ogdoad, where Sophia is—the formed day—and the common fruit of the Pleroma, and above the matter of which he is the creator. Therefore, if it is assimilated to the things above, to the Ogdoad, it becomes immortal and enters into the Ogdoad, which, he says, is the heavenly Jerusalem; but if it is assimilated to matter, that is, to the material passions, it will be corruptible and will perish. ^D 33. Just as, therefore, the first and greatest power of the animal essence became . . . an image, the devil, the ruler of this world; and [the ruler] of the essence of the demons, which is from consternation, is Beelzebul, with Sophia working from above from the Ogdoad down to the hebdomad. 282-283 The Demiurge, they say, knows nothing at all.

He is devoid of intellect and foolish according to them, and he does not know or understand what he is doing or producing. To him in his ignorance, Sophia acts and strengthens all things, and while she was working, he supposed that he was creating the world of his own accord; hence he began to say: "I am God, and beside me there is no other." ^A A fountain of "everlasting nature having roots," and Sophia, from whom the psychic and material creation now consists. Sophia is called spirit, the Demiurge is called soul, the devil is the ruler of this world, and Beelzebul is the ruler of the demons. These are the things they say.

Furthermore, in addition to these, constructing their entire teaching arithmetically, as I said before, they maintain that the thirty aeons within the Pleroma have in turn projected other aeons for themselves by that same logic, so that the Pleroma might be gathered together in a perfect number. For just as the Pythagoreans divided into twelve and thirty and sixty—[and it has been shown what the "fractions of fractions" ^B are for them]—so do these subdivide the things within the Pleroma. The things in the Ogdoad have also been subdivided, and they have projected Sophia, who is the mother of all living according to them, and the common fruit of the Pleroma, the *logoi*, which are heavenly angels living in the Jerusalem above, the one in the heavens; for this Jerusalem is the Sophia who is outside, and her spouse is the common fruit of the Pleroma. The Demiurge also projected souls; for this is the essence of souls. This is, according to them, Abraham, and these are the children of Abraham. Therefore, from the material and diabolical substance, the Demiurge made bodies for the souls. This is what was said: "And God formed ^C man, taking dust from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

This is, according to them, the inner man, the psychic one, dwelling in a material body, which is material, perishable, imperfect, formed from the diabolical substance. This material man is, according to them, a kind of inn or dwelling place, at times of the soul alone, at other times of the soul and demons, and at other times of the soul and the *logoi*. These *logoi* are those sown from above by the common fruit of the Pleroma and Sophia into this world, dwelling in a ^D dusty body along with the soul, whenever demons do not cohabit with the soul. This, he says, is what is written in the Scripture: "For this cause I bow my knees to the God and Father and Lord of our Lord Jesus Christ, that God may grant you to have Christ in the inner man," that is the psychic one, not the bodily one, "that you may be able to understand what is the deep," which is the Father of the universe, and what...

of which one appears from above, which is a great power, the mind of all things, governing all things, being male, while the other from below, a great conception, female, bringing forth all things. Hence, being set one against the other, they hold a union, and occupy the intervening space, the incomprehensible air, which has neither beginning nor end. And in this is the father, bearing all things and nourishing all things that have a beginning and an end. This is he who is standing, who stands, and who will stand, being a male-female power according to the pre-existing infinite power, which has neither beginning nor end, being in oneness. For from this, proceeding, the conception in oneness became two. And he was one; for having her in himself, he was alone. Not, however, the first, although pre-existing, but appearing to himself from himself, he became the second. And he was not even called father, before he himself called himself father. As therefore he, having brought himself forward from himself, manifested to himself his own conception, so also ^A the manifested conception did not act, but seeing him, she hid the father in herself, that is, the power, and is a male-female power and conception; whence they correspond to each other—for there is no difference.

Thus, for example, Stesichorus, having reviled her in his verses, was blinded; but again, after he had repented and written his palinodes, in which he sang her praises, he recovered his sight. And, as he says, she was transmigrated by the lower powers, those who also fashioned the world, and later she stood on the roofs of a city in Phoenicia, in Tyre, where he found her. For he says he had arrived there in search of her, to deliver her from her bonds; and having delivered her, he led her about with him, claiming that this was the lost sheep, while he himself claimed to be the power that is above all. But this cold-hearted man, having fallen in love with this woman, who was called Helen, bought her and kept her, and—fearing his disciples—told this myth. Those who later became imitators of this deceiver and of Simon Magus do similar things, shamelessly claiming that it is necessary to intermingle, saying: "All earth is earth, and it makes no difference where one sows, provided that one sows." Nay, they even congratulate themselves on their promiscuous intercourse, calling this "perfect love," and "holy of holies," whereby one is sanctified; for they claim they can no longer be held by anything deemed evil, since they have been redeemed. And thus, having redeemed Helen, he offered salvation to mankind.

The disciples of this man practice magic and perform incantations, love charms, and spells for inducement, and they send forth those called dream-sending demons to disturb whomsoever they wish. Moreover, they employ so-called familiar spirits, and they possess an image of Simon in the form of Zeus and of Helen in the form of Athena, and they worship these, calling the one "Lord" and the other "Lady." If anyone should address these images by the name of Simon or Helen when they see them, he is rejected as one who is ignorant of the mysteries.

This Simon, having deceived many in Samaria with his magic, was rebuked by the apostles and, having been cursed, as it is written in the Acts, he later turned away from them and attempted the same things again. Eventually, he arrived in Rome and opposed the apostles; toward him Peter frequently stood in opposition as he led many astray with his magic.

Coming to the end in that place, he taught while being buried beneath a plane tree. And so, when he was close to being exposed because of the duration of time, he said that if he were buried alive, he would rise again on the third day. And so, having ordered a trench to be dug by his disciples, he commanded that he be buried. The disciples, therefore, did as they were instructed, but he remained there until now; for he was not the Christ.

These things the Egyptians received and taught to the Greeks, though the latter falsely claimed them as their own, attempting to establish a doctrine of their own invention, ^A tearing apart the things of others with names and numbers, yet calling them individually by their own names and defining them by measures, so that they might establish a Greek heresy—varied, indeed, but inconsistent and in no way belonging to Christ. The origin of the hypothesis, therefore, is to be found in the *Timaeus* of Plato and the wisdom of the Egyptians; for from there, Solon taught the Greeks the whole hypothesis concerning the generation and corruption of the world by means of an ancient and prophetic account, as Plato says, they being but children and knowing no more ancient theological teaching. In order, therefore, that we may follow the arguments upon which Valentinus has built, I shall first set forth what Pythagoras the Samian taught, along with that philosophy so celebrated among the Greeks, and then demonstrate what it is that Valentinus, having taken from Pythagoras and Plato, ascribes to Christ, and, before Christ, to the Father of all and to Silence, who is conjoined to the Father. Pythagoras, then, declared the Monad to be the unbegotten principle of all things, and the Dyad to be begotten, as well as all the other numbers. And he says that the Monad is the father of the Dyad, but the Dyad is the mother of all created things, being the begetter of the begotten.

There are, then, according to Pythagoras, two worlds: one which possesses the Monad as its beginning, and another which is sensible. Of this latter, the Tetractys consists, having the iota, the "one jot," as a perfect number. And if, according to the Pythagoreans, the *iota* is the one jot, it is the first and most sovereign [principle], both of the intelligible and of the sensible, being substance intelligibly and [possessing] nine incorporeal accidental categories, which cannot exist apart from substance: quality, quantity, relation, place, time, position, state, action, and passion. There are, therefore, nine accidents belonging to substance, by which, when numbered together, it possesses the perfect number, the 10. Wherefore, the whole having been divided, as we have said, into the intelligible and the sensible world, we also possess the *logos* from the intelligible, in order that by the *logos* we may contemplate the substance of intelligible, incorporeal, and divine things. But our senses, he says, are five: smell, sight, hearing, taste, and touch, by which we arrive at the knowledge of sensible things. And thus, he says, the sensible is divided from the intelligible, and we possess an organ of knowledge for each of them.

Thus he says that the world is bound by a kind of numerical and musical tie, through tension and relaxation, and addition and subtraction, and is preserved undecaying always and through everything. Therefore, regarding the endurance of the world, the Pythagoreans declare something of this sort: "For it was and shall be, and I do not think the unceasing age will ever be emptied of both of these." Of which things? Of strife and of love. Love produces for them an imperishable, eternal world, as they suppose—for essence and the world are one—[but] strife tears and disperses, and attempts in many ways to divide the world.

^C words: "If you depart from your own [place/state], do not turn back; otherwise, the Erinyes, the aides of Justice, will follow you." By "own" they mean the body, and by "Erinyes" they mean the passions. So, they say, if you depart—that is, if you exit the body—do not grasp at it; for if you do, the passions will again imprison you in a body. For these people suppose there is a transmigration of souls, just as Empedocles says, following the Pythagorean tradition. For he claims that pleasure-loving souls, as Plato says, if they come to be in a human experience and do not philosophize, must pass through all animals and plants before returning again into a human body; and if one philosophizes the same thing three times, it rises to the nature of the star corresponding to it, but if it does not philosophize, it returns again to the same states. Therefore, he says, the soul can at times become mortal if it is held by the Erinyes—that is, the passions—and immortal if it escapes the Erinyes, which are the passions. But since we have begun to speak of the things obscurely stated by Pythagoras to his disciples through symbols, it seems appropriate to be reminded of others, because the heresiarchs also have attempted to converse in such a manner through symbols, and this they have not produced from their own, but have stolen from the Pythagorean discourses.

“Do not bite off a whole loaf of bread,” meaning do not diminish your assets, but live off the proceeds, and preserve your substance as a whole loaf. “Do not eat beans,” meaning do not accept a magistracy in the city, for in that age they used to draw lots for magistracies with beans.

These things, then, and suchlike, the Pythagoreans say, and the heretics, by imitating them, imagine that they are saying something great. The Pythagorean doctrine claims that the sun is the great geometer and arithmetician, the creator of all things that have come to be, and that it is fixed in the whole cosmos, just as the soul is in the body, as Plato says. For the sun is fire (as soul), and the earth is body. “Nothing visible could ever have come into being, separated off, nor could it be touched without some solid; and there is nothing solid without earth. Therefore, placing air between fire and earth, God created the body of the universe.” And, it says, the sun measures and geometrizes the cosmos in some such way as this:

But a great difference is found among them; for some of them, in order that the doctrine of Valentinus may be purely Pythagorean, consider the Father to be without a female partner, and without a yoke, and solitary. Others, thinking it impossible that there could be any generation of created things from a male alone, of necessity count Silence (Sige) as a spouse together with the Father of all, so that He might be a Father. But as for Silence, whether she is a spouse or not, let them have this contention among themselves. But let us now, keeping to the Pythagorean principle—that it is one, and unyoked, and sexless, and needing nothing—relate those things which they teach. For, it says, nothing whatever was generated; but the Father was alone, unbegotten, having no place, no time, no counselor, no other substance that could be conceived of in any way; but He was alone, resting, as they say, and reposing in Himself alone. But since He was productive, it seemed good to Him at some point to generate and bring forth the most beautiful and most perfect thing that He possessed within Himself; for He was not a lover of solitude. For, it says, He was entirely love, and love is not love if there is not that which is loved.

Seeing, therefore, the Word and the Life, the Mind and the Truth themselves glorified the Father of all things with a perfect number, the Word himself, together with the Life, also desired to glorify his own father and mother, the Mind and the Truth. But since the Mind and the Truth were generated and did not possess the paternal perfection of ingeneracy, the Word and the Life did not offer their father, the Mind, to the perfect number, but rather to an incomplete one; for the Word and the Life offer twelve aeons to the Mind and the Truth. For these, according to Valentinus, were the first roots of the aeons: Mind and Truth, Word and Life, Man and Church. But ten belong to the Mind and the Truth, and twelve to the Word and the Life; twenty-eight are the total.

But the Father, who is alone without a consort, brought forth; yet She, wishing to imitate the Father and to bring forth of Herself without a consort, that she might not appear to have produced a work inferior to the Father, seeing that He is unborn and is existing as the beginning of all things, and root, and depth, and abyss, and is able to bring forth alone, whereas she, being born and being with many others, cannot possess the power of the Unborn—for in the Unborn, he says, all things are together, but in those who are born, the feminine is productive of substance, while the masculine gives form to the substance produced by the feminine. Therefore, Sophia brought forth only that which she was able: a substance without form or decoration. And this, he says, is what Moses speaks of: "The earth was invisible and without form." This, he says, is the "good," the "heavenly Jerusalem," into which God promised to bring the sons of Israel, saying: "I will bring you into a good land, flowing with milk and honey." When, therefore, ignorance occurred within the fullness, according to Sophia, and lack of form, according to the offspring of Sophia, a disturbance arose within the fullness; for the aeons, imagining that the offspring of the aeons would become likewise formless and imperfect, and that some destruction would eventually overtake the aeons before long.

^A In order, therefore, that the shapelessness of the abortion might not be in any way manifest to the perfect aeons, the Father again projects one aeon, the Cross, which, having been begotten as great—as the offspring of a great and perfect Father—is projected for the guarding and fortification of the aeons, and becomes the boundary of the Pleroma, holding within itself all thirty aeons; for these are the ones that were projected. This aeon is called "Boundary," because it separates the deficiency outside from the Pleroma; "Participant," because it participates also in the deficiency; and "Cross," because it is extended inflexibly and immovably, so that nothing of the deficiency might be able to come near the aeons within the Pleroma. Outside, then, of the Boundary, the Cross, and the Participant, exists what is called by them the Ogdoad, which is the Sophia that is outside the Pleroma, whom the Christ, having been projected ^B by Nous and Truth, fashioned and made a perfect aeon, capable of being inferior to none of those within the Pleroma. But since Sophia had been fashioned outside, and it was not possible for the Christ and the Holy Spirit, having been projected from Nous and Truth, to remain outside the Pleroma, the Christ and the Holy Spirit ascended from the one that had been fashioned to Nous and Truth, to glorify the Father within the boundary with the other aeons.

^A Being in need, therefore, she was pitied by Christ, who is within the Pleroma, and by all the other aeons. And they sent forth outside the Pleroma the common Fruit of the Pleroma, the consort of the Sophia that is outside, and the corrector of the passions which she suffered while seeking after Christ. Having come, then, outside the Pleroma, ^B the common Fruit of the Pleroma found her in the primary passions of four kinds—fear, grief, perplexity, and supplication—and corrected her passions. While correcting them, he saw that it was not good for them, being eternal, to perish, nor for Sophia to remain in such passions—in fear, grief, and perplexity. Therefore, as he was such an aeon and the offspring of the whole Pleroma, he caused these passions to stand apart from her and made them into substantial existences. Fear he made into a psychic substance, grief into a material one, and perplexity into that of demons, while the turn of heart, the prayer, ^C the supplication, and the repentance he made into a psychic power which is called the right hand.

Just as the first and greatest power of the psychic substance became a devil, the ruler of this world; so too of the substance of the demons, which exists out of perplexity, Beelzebub [is the ruler]. ^A Sophia, they say, acting from above the Ogdoad as far as the Hebdomad, is utterly unknown to the Demiurge; indeed, according to them, he is mindless and foolish, and does not know what he is doing or creating. But while he was ignorant of what he was doing, Sophia performed and strengthened all things, and while she was acting, he imagined that he was creating the world of his own accord; whence he began to say, "I am God, and besides me there is no other." ^B Therefore, the Tetrad according to Valentinus is "the fountain of ever-flowing nature, having roots," along with Sophia, from whom the psychic and material creation now consists. Sophia is called spirit, the Demiurge soul, the devil the ruler of the world, and Beelzebub [the ruler] of the demons. These are the things they say. Furthermore, by making their entire teaching arithmetical, as I said before, they claim that the thirty aeons within the Pleroma have in turn projected other aeons for themselves by analogy, so that the Pleroma might be gathered together in a perfect number. For just as the Pythagoreans divided them into twelve and thirty and sixty, and there are fractions of fractions for them, so too these men subdivide those within the Pleroma. And those things in the Ogdoad are also subdivided, and they have projected...

This is, he says, that which is written in the Scripture: "For this cause I bow my knees unto God and the Father and Lord of our Lord Jesus Christ, that God may grant you to have Christ dwell in the inner man," that is, the psychic, not the somatic, "that you may be strong to comprehend what is the depth," which is the Father of all, "and what is the breadth," which is the cross, the boundary of the Pleroma, or "what is the fullness of the aeons." For this reason, he says, "the psychic man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him." And foolishness, he says, is the power of the Demiurge. For he was foolish and senseless and thought that he himself was creating the world, ignorant that everything was being worked through him by Sophia, the Mother, the Ogdoad, for the creation of the world, though he knew it not. All the prophets, therefore, and the law spake from the Demiurge, he says, a foolish god, and they were foolish, knowing nothing. For this reason, he says, the Savior says: "All that came before me are thieves and robbers." And the Apostle: "The mystery [which] in other generations was not made known."

^A Regarding this, there is a great dispute among them, and it is a source of schisms and disagreement. From this, their doctrine has become divided, and one is called by them the Eastern doctrine, and another the Italian. Those from Italy, among whom are Heracleon and Ptolemy, say that the body of Jesus was psychical (soulish), and for this reason, at his baptism, the Spirit descended as a dove—that is, the Word from the Mother above, from Sophia—and [entered] into the psychic [body], and raised it from the dead. This, he says, is what is meant by: "He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies," that is, your psychical [bodies]. For the dust has come under a curse: "For earth you are," he says, "and to earth you shall return." ^B But those from the East, among whom are Axionicus and Arsesianes, say that the body of the Savior was spiritual; for the Holy Spirit came upon Mary—that is, Sophia—and the power of the Most High, the creative art, in order that the body formed by the Spirit in Mary might be fashioned. Let them, therefore, investigate these matters among themselves, and whosoever else finds it agreeable to inquire into them. But he adds: as the errors concerning the aeons within had been corrected, and those concerning the ignorance, the outer Sophia, had been corrected, and [as] it had been corrected also concerning the Hebdomad—

By means of many arguments, I believe I have sufficiently outlined the Pythagorean system of Valentinus. It also seems fitting, having set forth what they believe by way of refutation, to bring the matter to a close. Plato, therefore, wishing to set forth the mysteries of the universe to Dionysius, expresses himself in some such a way as this: "I will speak to you in riddles, so that if the tablet should suffer any mishap on sea or land, he who reads it might not grasp its meaning. It is thus: All things are around the King of all, and all things exist for his sake, and he is the cause of all things beautiful. The second is around the second, and the third around the third. Now that which concerns the King and those things of which I have spoken is of such a nature. But the soul strives to understand what kind of things these are, looking to its own kindred, of which it has nothing sufficiently. This is the question, O Dionysius and Doris, which is the cause of all evils; or rather, the concern about this which arises in the soul, which if one does not remove, one shall never truly attain to the truth." What is marvelous in his account is this:

^A I behold everything suspended from the ether by spirit, and I perceive everything borne by spirit: flesh suspended from the soul, the soul suspended from the air, the air suspended from the ether; and fruits being brought forth from the abyss, and a babe being brought forth from the womb. Perceiving these things in this way, [I say that] the flesh is the matter, and them [the psychics], which hangs from the soul of the demiurge. ^B The soul is sustained by the air; that is the demiurge of the spirit of the outer pleroma. It hangs from the ether, that is, the outer Sophia, [who is] outside the Limit and the entire pleroma. And from the abyss the fruits are borne, [that is] the entire projection of the aeons that took place from the Father. These things, then, have been sufficiently stated concerning the views of Valentinus; ^C but it is impossible for those who have emerged from the school to be content, as one person may dogmatize about their perceived truths in one way, and another in another.

And the fourth, Invisible. And from the first Pre-beginning (Proarchē) they say that the Beginning (Archē) was projected in the first and fifth place; from the Unthought (Anennoētos), the Incomprehensible (Akatalēpton) in the second and sixth place; from the Unspeakable (Arrētos), the Unnameable (Anonomaston) in the third and seventh place; and from the Invisible (Aoratos) the Unspeakable, completing the first ogdoad. These powers, they wish to claim, pre-existed Propator (the Depth) and Silence (Sigē). Yet there are many varied opinions regarding the Depth itself: some call him "ayzygous" (without a yokefellow), neither male nor female; others say that Silence is present with him as a female, and that this is the first syzygy (pairing). Those who follow Ptolemy say that he has two syzygies, which they also call dispositions: Thought (Ennoia) and Will (Thelēsis). For first, they say, he thought to project something, and then he wished to do so. Wherefore, from these very dispositions and powers, Thought and Will, as if they were blended together into one another, the projection of the Only-Begotten and the Truth took place by way of pairing; these were the types and images of the two dispositions of the Father which proceeded from the invisible into the visible: the Mind (Nous) from the Will, and the Truth from the Thought. And for this reason, they say, the projection of the later Will...

for, a drug capable of imparting such a color, they would secretly inject into the mixture, and after babbling a great deal, they would wait for it to absorb the moisture, dissolve, and, once mixed, color the drink. We have already listed the drugs capable of causing this in the book on magi, setting them forth, showing how by deceiving many they make them vanish; if anyone wishes to examine more carefully what was said there, they will learn of the error of Marcus.

He, too, when mixing a smaller cup, would give it to a woman to offer thanks, while he himself stood by holding another, larger, empty one; and when the deceived woman had offered thanks, he would take it and pour it into the larger one, and by frequently pouring one into the other, he would say: "May the grace that is before all things, unthinkable and ineffable, fill your inner man and multiply within you the knowledge of her, sowing the mustard seed into the good earth." By saying such things and putting the deceived woman and those present into a state of shock, he was thought to be a worker of wonders, as the larger cup was filled from the smaller one, to the point of even overflowing in its abundance.

And by such knavery they seem to hold fast their hearers, whom, when they deem them proved and able to keep secure for them the secrets, they then bring to this, not being content with this alone, but also promising something else to keep them held fast in hope, so that they may be inseparable. For they say something in an unutterable voice, laying a hand upon him who has received the redemption, which they declare cannot easily be uttered, unless one should be thoroughly proved, or else at the moment of death, when the bishop approaches the ear and speaks it.

^A ...which he has never revealed to any, neither god nor man, but has related it to him alone, telling it thus: "When the Father, who is beyond thought and beyond substance, who is neither male nor female, first desired that his ineffable element should become uttered and his invisible nature should take form, he opened his mouth and sent forth a Word like unto himself; and this Word, having stood forth, revealed to him what he was, appearing as the form of the invisible one." And the pronunciation of the name was as follows: He spoke the first word of his name, which was the beginning, and this syllable consisted of four elements. Then he added the second, and it also consisted of four elements; he spoke the third, which consisted of ten elements; and he spoke the fourth, and it also consisted of twelve elements. Thus, the pronunciation of the whole name came to be of thirty elements and four syllables. And they say that each of the elements possesses its own characters, its own signature, its own pronunciation, figures, and images; and that none of them is able to contemplate the form of that one of which it is itself an element, nor does any of them know the pronunciation of its neighbor, but each believes that it is the whole, since it utters the entire ^B

^A element itself, from which the letter, along with its own pronunciation, descended below; he says there are thirty letters, and that each one of the thirty letters has within itself other letters, by which the name of the letter is named, and furthermore again the others are named by other letters, and those others by others, so that the multitude falls away into infinity, the letters being written individually. One might learn more clearly what is meant in this way: the letter delta has within itself five letters, delta, epsilon, lambda, tau, and alpha, and these very letters are themselves written by other letters, and those others by others. If, therefore, every substance of the delta falls away into infinity, as others always generate and succeed other letters, how much more must the sea of letters be greater than that element? And if one letter is in this way infinite, you see the abyss of letters of the whole name, from which the industry—or rather, the laborious futility—of Marcus wishes to construct the Forefather.

And he calls this element "Man"; and he says that it is the source of every word, and the beginning of every voice, and the utterance of every ineffable thing, and the mouth of the silent Silence. And this is her [manifestation]; but do you, having raised up the thought of your mind on high, hear the self-begotten and Forefather Word [proceeding] from the lips of Truth. After she had said these things, Truth looked upon him, and having opened her mouth to speak a word, the word became a name, and this name was that which we know and speak: Christ Jesus. And when she had named him, she immediately fell silent. And as Marcus was expecting that she was about to say something more, the Tetrad again came into the midst and said: "Do you consider this word, which you heard from the lips of Truth, to be simple? This, which you have known and thought you possessed for a long time, this is the name; for you have only its sound, but you are ignorant of its power. For Jesus is an illustrious name, having six letters, used by all those of the [uninitiated]; but that which is among the five aeons of the Pleroma, being manifold, is of another form and a different type, known to those kindred beings whose magnitudes are at all times with him."

^A The poets of the Greeks astutely narrate the use of the cruelty of the inhospitable beasts; for their ferocity was distinguished against those who sailed the sea. The Sirens, while singing melodiously and musically, deceived those sailing past, persuading them with a sweet voice to bring those who were listening to them. Upon learning of this, they say that Odysseus stopped up the ears of his companions with wax, and having tied himself to the mast, sailed past the Sirens in safety, hearing their song. I exhort those who encounter these things ^B both to stop up their ears, due to weakness, so as to sail past the dogmas of the heresies without even listening to them—as they can easily persuade one toward pleasure, like the melodious song of the Sirens—or, having faithfully tied oneself to the wood of Christ, to listen without being troubled, trusting in the One to whom he is fastened, and standing firm.

14. Since, therefore, in the books preceding this one we have set forth the former matters, it seems right now not to pass over the doctrines of Basilides, which are the dogmas of Aristotle the Stagirite, not of Christ. But even though the doctrines of Aristotle have been set forth before, we will not hesitate now to touch upon them briefly, so that readers, through a closer juxtaposition of these things, may immediately perceive that the dogmas of Basilides are Aristotelian sophistries.

15. Aristotle, then, divides substance into three parts. ^C For there is in it, as he says, a genus, and a certain species, and a certain individual; but an individual is not [so called] because of the smallness of the body, but because it is by nature unable to admit of any division whatsoever. The genus is like a certain heap of many and diverse seeds mixed together, from which genus, as from a certain heap, all the species of existing things are arranged. And the genus is a sufficient cause for all things that have come into existence. But that what I say may be clear, I will show it by an example, through which it will be possible to arrive at the entire doctrine of the Peripatetics.

16. We say that there is animal simply, not some animal. This animal is not an ox, not a horse, not a man, not God, ^D not any other thing of those that exist, but simply animal. From this animal the ideas of all individual animals have their subsistence. And for animals that have been generated in species, this formless animal—which is nothing of those that have been generated—is the substance. For a man is an animal taking its beginning from that [universal] animal, and a horse is an animal taking its beginning from that [universal] animal. And the horse, and the ox, and the dog,

and each of the other animals, takes its beginning from the simple animal, which is the ^A one of these. But if it is not one of these, that animal, according to Aristotle, came into being from non-existent things, as the substance of created things; for even that animal, from which these things were taken in part, is not one. If then not even one has come into being, there is no one principle of things that exist. But the person who has posed this substance of things that exist thereafter as a principle—when we come to the place reserved for these matters, we shall speak of it. ^B

18. Since, however, substance is divided in three ways, as I was saying, into genus, species, and individual, and we posited that the genus is animal, but that man is a species already separated from the group of animals, yet still confused and not yet shaped into the species of a particular substance: when I have identified man by name as taken from the genus, calling him Socrates or Diogenes or one of the many names, and by name have comprehended the man who has been made a species of the genus, I call such a substance an individual. For the genus has been cut into species, and the species into individual; but the individual, when it has been comprehended by name, ^C cannot be cut into anything else, as we were cutting each of those things which were spoken of previously. This Aristotle calls substance, primarily and most especially and most properly, which is neither spoken of any subject, nor is in a subject. But he says "of a subject" such as the genus, which I was saying was animal, which is spoken by a common name of all the animals subject to it individually, such as the ox, the horse, and those which are the rest. For it is true to say that man is an animal, and the horse is an animal, and the ox is an animal, and each of the rest. This is what is meant by "of a subject"—that which, being one, can be said equally ^D of many and various things differing in species. For a horse does not differ from a man as far as it is an animal, nor does an ox; for the definition of animal is what is said to apply equally to all animals. For what is an animal? When we define it, the common definition will include all animals. For an animal is an animate, sensible substance, such as the ox, man, horse, and each of the other things. In a subject, he says, is that which is in something not as a part existing, and it cannot be separate from that in which it is, such as each of the substances of accidents, which is called quality, according to which we are called of a certain quality, such as white, grey, black, just, unjust, sober, and such things.

^A And it is impossible for any one of these to exist by itself, but it must exist in something. If, then, neither the animal, by which I mean the genus of all individual animals, nor the accidents which are found in all things to which they occur, can exist by themselves, but from these individuals are completed, then, from things that are not, the substance ^B which is divided in three ways, and not composed of others, is established. Therefore, if the substance which is primarily and most properly and most especially so-called, exists from these, it exists, if one listens to Aristotle, from things that are not.

19. On the Subdivisions of Philosophy

19. But let what has been said now regarding substance suffice. For substance is not only called genus, species, and individual, but also matter, and species, and privation. But it makes no difference, provided the division remains in these. Such being the nature of substance, the arrangement of the world was determined by him in some such way as this. The world, according to Aristotle, is divided into many and various parts; and that part of the world which is from the earth up to the moon is ^C devoid of providence, devoid of government, ruled only by its own nature; while that which is beyond the moon is established in all order and providence and government up to the surface of the heavens; and the surface, which is a certain fifth substance, is freed from all the natural elements from which the world has its composition, and this is, according to Aristotle, a certain fifth substance, as it were a certain supermundane substance.

And according to the division of the world, his discourse on philosophy is also divided. For a certain Physics was elaborated by him, in which he accurately treated of things which are administered by nature and not by providence from the earth up to the moon. And another peculiar ^D work of his was written after the Physics, concerning those things which are beyond the moon, which thence received the name Metaphysics. A peculiar book was also written by him concerning the fifth substance, which is for him a book concerning God and divine things. Such also is the division of the whole, to grasp it in outline, of the philosophy according to Aristotle. But his discourse on the soul is obscure. For in three entire books, it is not possible to say clearly what Aristotle thinks concerning the soul. For the definition of the soul which he renders is easy to state, but what is signified by that definition is difficult to inquire into. For he says that the soul is the entelechy of a natural organic body, and what that ultimately means stands in need of very many arguments and great inquiry. But God, the cause of all these good things, he is the soul's...

greatest difficulty to know or even to contemplate at leisure. The definition, however, which Aristotle gives concerning God is not difficult to understand, but it is impossible to conceive. For thought, he says, is of thought, which is entirely non-existent. But the world is imperishable and eternal according to Aristotle; for it has nothing faulty within it, since it is governed by providence and nature. Aristotle, furthermore, inaugurated discussions not only concerning nature, the world, providence, and God, but there was also composed by him a certain work of ethics, and he entitled these books the *Ethics*, through which he makes the characters of his listeners turn from evil to good. Since, therefore, Basilides is detected not only by ^A force, but even by the very words and names of Aristotle, transferring those dogmas into our evangelical and saving doctrine, what will be left, except that, by rendering what he took from elsewhere, we may declare to the disciples of this man that, since they are heathens, they will be helped in no way by Christ?

20. Basilides, therefore, and Isidore, the genuine son and disciple of Basilides, claim that Matthias told them secret words which he heard, having been taught privately by the Savior. Let us see, therefore, how openly Basilides and Isidore, and their entire band, not only falsely accuse Matthew, but even the Savior himself. There was, he says, when there was nothing, but not even that *nothing* was any one of the things which exist, but plainly and candidly, with any sophistry removed, it was absolutely nothing. But when I say, he says, "there was," I do not mean that it existed, but ^B so that I may declare what I intend, I say, he says, that there was absolutely nothing. For that thing, he says, is not simply ineffable, which is called ineffable; for we call this ineffable, but that is not even ineffable; for that which is not even ineffable is not called ineffable, but is, he says, above every name that is named. For not even for the world, he says, do names suffice, so multifariously divided is it, but they fall short; nor is it possible, he says, for the proper names of all things to be found, but it is necessary in the mind to understand ineffably the properties of those things which are named from those same names. For the equality ^C of names has struck confusion and substitution of things into the hearers. This is the first ^D

AGAINST HERESIES BOOK VII.

^Ato those who hear. This is the first piece of plagiarism and theft they take from the school of the Peripatetics, deceiving the ignorance of those who gather to them. For since Aristotle preceded Basilides by many generations, he has expounded the discourse on homonyms in his books of the Categories, which these men boast of as if it were something of their own, something new, and one of the hidden discourses of Matthias.

21. Since, therefore, there was nothing—no matter, no substance, nothing insubstantial, nothing simple, nothing composite, nothing incomprehensible, nothing insensible, neither man, nor angel, nor God, nor indeed anything at all of those things which are named or perceived either by sense or by intellect—but rather when all things had been ^B altogether and even more subtly removed, the non-existent God (whom Aristotle calls the thought of thought, but these men call the non-existent) wished to create the world without thought, without sense, without counsel, without purpose, without passion, without desire. “But when I say ‘wished’,” he says, “I say it for the sake of signification, [meaning] without will, without thought, and without sense.” And [he implies] not the world that was afterward created and divided in breadth and separation, but the seed of the world. Now, the seed of the world had all things in itself, just as the grain of mustard seed, though it is smallest, contains all things together—the roots, the trunk, the branches, the leaves, and the countless seeds ^C of plants generated from the plant, from which other plants and often others again are poured forth. Thus, the non-existent God created the non-existent world out of non-existent things, by casting down and laying a foundation of a certain seed that contained in itself the whole "all-seed" (panspermia) of the world. But that I may make more clearly what those men say: just as an egg of some bird of many patterns and many colors, such as a peacock or some other bird still more variegated and multicolored, although it is one thing, in reality contains within itself many forms of multiform and multicolored and composite substances—so, he says, the semen cast down by the non-existent God is the non-existent "all-seed" of the world, multiform and multifaceted in itself.

22. All things, therefore, that it is possible to name, and any that were not found and thus passed over, which were to accrue ^D to the future world from the seed at the necessary times and in their own way, by accretion

^A of the element, composed of two lambdas and an eta. For this reason, they say, one must flee through knowledge from the region of the ninety-nine—that is to say, the deficiency—which is the type of the left hand, and pursue the 'one,' which, when added to the ninety-nine, will place them on the right hand.

They say that the four elements—which, he says, are fire, water, earth, and air—were first fashioned by the mother, and that they were projected as an image of the upper tetrad; and by enumerating their operations, such as hot, cold, moist, and dry, they say that these accurately represent ^B the ogdoad. Next, they enumerate the ten powers as follows: seven circular bodies, which they also call heavens; then the circle that encompasses them, which they also call the eighth heaven; and in addition to these, the sun and the moon. And these, being ten in number, they say are images of the invisible decad, which is from the Word and Life; and they say that the dodecad is signified by what is called the zodiacal circle. For they say that the twelve *zodia* declare most clearly the daughter of Man and the Church, ^C the dodecad.

Thus, indeed, they say that through this circle the image of the union of the twelve with the thirty is maintained; and asserting that the earth is divided into twelve climates, they say that each climate receives from the heavens, in a vertical descent, one power, and produces children made like the power that sent down the efflux, being a type of the higher dodecad. Moreover, they say that the creator of the higher ogdoad, wishing to imitate the boundless, eternal, indeterminate, and timeless nature, and being unable to stamp its permanent and everlasting character because he is a fruit of deficiency, established for this purpose times and seasons and multi-year counts to correspond to its eternity, thinking that in the multitude of times he could imitate its boundless nature. And here they say that when the Truth escaped him, the Falsehood followed, and for this reason, when the times were fulfilled, his work received its dissolution.

BOOK VII OF THE REFUTATION OF ALL HERESIES

These are the contents of the seventh book of the Refutation of All Heresies: What is the opinion of Basilides, and how, struck with wonder by the dogmas of Aristotle, he constructed his heresy from them. And what Saturnilus says, who flourished together with Basilides.

^A being among the superior ones, so that it might not fall down. But the third sonship, he says, is in need of purification, having remained with the great one. In what manner it is benefited, and benefits, we shall say later, according to its own reason.

25. Since therefore the first and second ascent of the sonship has occurred and the Spirit has remained there in the manner we have described, the firmament is positioned between the supramundane and the mundane—for Basilides divides the things that are into two proximate and chief classes, and he calls one ^B of these the world, and the other the supramundane, and the one that is between the world and the supramundane is this Spirit, which is holy and has the sonship remaining in itself, and the scent—therefore, existing as a firmament that is above the heaven, it erupted and was generated from the mundane seed and the great store of the mass, the great archon, the head of the world, whose beauty and magnitude and power cannot be dissolved. For it is, he says, more ineffable ^C than the ineffable, and more powerful than the powerful, and wiser than the wise, and superior to all that one might call by the name of beauty. This one, after it was generated on high, lifted itself up and went aloft, and being lifted up, it was entirely above as far as the firmament; but thinking that the firmament was the limit of the ascent and the sublimation, and that there was nothing at all beyond this, he deemed himself to be wiser, more powerful, more illustrious, more splendid, and in a word, superior in beauty to everything except the sonship, which also remained ^D there in the store. He did not know that the sonship was wiser and more powerful and superior to him. Therefore, thinking himself to be lord and ruler and an intelligent architect, he turned to the creation of the individual parts of the world. And he decided not to remain alone, but made and generated for himself a son from the things beneath, having far greater superiority and wisdom than himself. For all these things were predetermined by him who was not God, when he established the store. Having seen his son, he marveled and loved him and was struck with awe; for such a beauty appeared to the great archon of the son; and he caused him to sit at his right hand. This is what is called by them the ogdoad, where the great archon sits. Therefore, the whole celestial fabric, this ethereal one, he himself fabricated, since the great wise one breathed power into him, and the son was subject to him.

^A and it suggested that the son born from him was far wiser than the Demiurge himself.

24. This is that which, according to Aristotle, is the *entelechy* of an organic physical body, the soul being active in the body, without which the body can do nothing, as being something greater and more illustrious and more powerful and wiser than the body. This, then, is the rationale that Aristotle gave concerning the soul and the body. Basilides, who was before him, clarifies this for the Great Archon and his son. For the Archon, according to Basilides, ^B has brought forth the soul, which he states is the *entelechy* of the organic physical body. Just as, therefore, the *entelechy* governs the body, so the son, according to Basilides, governs the god who is more ineffable than the ineffable. And so, all things are provided and governed by the *entelechy* of the Great Archon, the ethereal things, which reach as far as the moon; for from there, the air is distinguished from the ether. Since all these ethereal things were ordered, there arose again from the *panspermia* another Archon, smaller than all the things placed beneath him, but apart from the remaining filiation, ^C much inferior to the first Archon. And this one is also ineffable, according to them, and he is called the "Place of the Hebdomad," and he is the ruler and maker of all those things that are placed beneath him; for he also made for himself a son out of the *panspermia*, and he himself, being wiser and more intelligent than those of whom we spoke first, resembles them. But as for that which is in this interval, he says that it is the heap, and the *panspermia*, and it comes to be by nature and in reality, having been predetermined by those things which were to be spoken of, when it was necessary and as it was necessary and as it was reckoned. And of these things, the ^D Demiurge is not the overseer; for that calculation, which he did not reckon when he made them, is sufficient for them.

25. Since, therefore, the cosmos is perfect according to them and that which is above the cosmos, and nothing is lacking, there remains in the *panspermia* that the third filiation, which was left behind in the seed to be benefited and to benefit, should also be revealed and restored upward above the limit of the spirit toward the filiation, being refined and imitative, and not toward the non-existent, just as it is written, he says: "For the creation itself waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God." And we, he says, are the spiritual ones, who have been left behind here to order What the Ebionites believe, and how they cling more to Jewish customs. How Theodotus also has been led astray, having gathered some things from the Ebionites and others from Cerinthus. And what seemed right to Cerdo, who also expressed the doctrines of Empedocles and falsely instructed Marcion. And how Lucian, having become a disciple of Marcion, was likewise shameless in blaspheming God.

I advise those who encounter these things either to wax their ears on account of their weakness, as they sail past the doctrines of the heresies, so as not to listen to those things that easily persuade toward pleasure, just like the clear song of the Sirens, or else, having faithfully bound themselves to the cross of Christ, to listen without being disturbed, trusting in Him to whom they are bound, and to stand upright. Since, therefore, we have set forth the previous matters in the six books before this one, it seems appropriate now not to be silent about the doctrines of Basilides, which are those of Aristotle the Stagirite, not of Christ. But even if the things that seem good to Aristotle have been set forth before, we shall not hesitate now to presuppose them in brief, so that through the juxtaposition of these things, those who encounter them may easily perceive the Aristotelian sophistries that are held by Basilides.

Aristotle, then, divides essence into three: for some part of it is genus, some part is species, as he says, and some part is individual. An individual is not so called on account of the smallness of its body, but because it is by nature unable to undergo any division whatsoever. The genus is, as it were, a certain heap composed of many and different seeds, from which genus, as if from a certain heap, all the species of generated things have been distinguished. And the genus is one, being sufficient for all things that have been generated. But so that what is said may be clear, I will show it by means of an example, through which it will be possible to run back to the whole theory of the Peripatetic school.

Since substance is divided in three ways, as I said—genus, species, and individual—and we have posited that the genus is "animal," while man is a species of the many animals already separated, yet still mixed and not yet formed into a species of substantial hypostasis, I name the man taken from the genus by a name, calling him Socrates or Diogenes or one of many names; and when I grasp the man who has become a species of the genus by a name, I call such a substance an individual. For the genus was divided into the species, and the species into the individual, and the individual, once it is grasped by a name, cannot by nature be divided into anything else, as we divided each of the things spoken of before. This, Aristotle calls substance primary, and especially and most properly, as it is neither said of any subject nor in a subject. By "said of a subject" he means, for instance, the genus, which I said is "animal," which is said of all the animals that exist part by part, such as ox, horse, and so on, spoken of by a common name. For it is true to say that a man is an animal, a horse is an animal, an ox is an animal, and each of the others. This is what is meant by "of a subject," which being one, can be said in the same way of many and diverse things according to their species.

But for now, what has been said regarding substance will suffice. And it is not only genus, species, and individual that are called substance, but also matter, form, and privation. However, there is no difference in these matters provided the division remains. Such being the nature of substance, the arrangement of the cosmos has come to be according to such a principle. For the cosmos, according to Aristotle, is divided into many and different parts; and that part of the cosmos which is from the earth up to the moon is without providence, ungoverned, and satisfied solely by its own nature, while what is beyond the moon is disposed in every order, providence, and governance up to the surface of the heavens. This surface, being a certain fifth substance, is exempt from all physical elements from which the cosmos has its composition; and this, according to Aristotle, is as it were a certain fifth substance, a substance beyond the cosmos. And thus, for him, the discourse of philosophy has also become divided in accordance with the division of the cosmos.

^A The definition which Aristotle gives of God is not difficult to know, but it is impossible to understand. For, he says, "it is an intellect of intellect," which is absolutely non-existent. The cosmos, however, according to Aristotle, is incorruptible and eternal; for it has nothing faulty within itself, being governed by providence and nature. Aristotle has been refuted not only regarding his discourses on nature, the cosmos, providence, and God, but he also produced a treatise on ethical discourses, which he titled *Ethics*, in which he works to make the character of his listeners virtuous from being base. If Basilides is found to be adapting the doctrines of Aristotle to our evangelical and saving word, not only in power but in the very words and names themselves, what will be left but to show his disciples, by returning what belongs to others, that as they are pagans, Christ will be of no benefit to them? Basilides, therefore, and Isidore, the legitimate son and disciple of Basilides, say that Matthias spoke to them secret discourses, which he heard from the Savior when taught privately. Let us see, then, how clearly Basilides, together with Isidore and their whole band, falsely accuses not only Matthias but the Savior himself. "There was," he says, "a time when there was nothing; but not even that 'nothing' was anything of those things which exist. Rather, absolutely and without any conceptualization or any sophistry, there was altogether not even one thing. But when I say," he says, "the 'was,' I do not mean that it was, but to signify this which I wish to demonstrate, I say," he says, "that it was altogether

non-being, non-essence, not simple, not composite, not unreasoning, not insensible, not human, not angel, not god, nor in total any of those things that are named or grasped by sensation or through intellectual things, but even more subtly—everything having been simply limited—that which is 'not-being,' which Aristotle calls the 'intellection of intellection,' these men call 'not-being.' ^A Unknowingly, insensibly, unwillingly, without choice, without passion, without desire, he willed to make a world. And by saying "he willed," he says, "I mean it for the sake of signification, unintentionally, unknowingly, and insensibly." By "world," however, he does not mean the one that came to be later, extensive and divided, but rather the "seed of the world." The seed of the world had everything in itself, just as a grain of mustard seed holds in its tiny compass everything at once: the roots, the trunk, the branches, the countless leaves, the seeds of the seeds born from the plant, and seeds of yet other plants, many times over, dispersed. So, the non-being God made a non-being world out of non-being things, by casting down ^B and establishing a single seed that contained within itself the whole panspermia of the world. And to make this more clear, which these men say: just as the egg of some elaborately variegated and multi-colored bird—as it were, of a peacock or something even more polymorphous and multi-colored—contains within itself many forms of polymorphous, multi-colored, and complex substances, so too, he says, does that which was cast down by the non-being God, the non-being seed, hold the panspermia of the world, all together and comprising many substances.

^A demons helped the evil ones, and that the Savior came for the destruction of the wicked men and demons, but for the salvation of the good. And he says that marrying and procreating is from Satan; and most of those who are his abstain even from living things, through this feigned continence... And he says that the prophecies were spoken, some by the angels who made the world, and others by Satan, even though he supposed him to be an angel acting in opposition to the worldly ones, and especially to the God of the Jews. These things, then, are [the position of] Saturnilus.

^B Marcion the Pontian, being much more frenzied than these, having cast aside the many things of the majority and rushed into greater shamelessness, supposed two principles of the universe, calling one good and the other evil; and he too, thinking to introduce something new, prepared a school full of madness and cynicism, being a certain argumentative fellow. This man, thinking to deceive the many—that he was not a disciple of Christ, but of Empedocles who lived long before him—defined and dogmatized the same things, that there are two causes of the universe: strife and friendship. For what, he says, does Empedocles say concerning the administration of the world? Even if we have spoken of it before, yet even now, in order to set it over against the doctrine of the plagiarist, I will not be silent. He says that all the elements from which the world consists and exists are six: two material ones, earth and water; two instruments by which the material ones are adorned and transformed, fire and air; and two which work the matter with ^C the instruments and create it, strife and friendship, speaking thus:

Hear first the four roots of all things: Zeus [the shining], and Hera, life-bearing, and Aidoneus, And Nestis, who with tears moistens the mortal fount.

Zeus is fire; Hera, life-bearing, is the earth which brings forth one thing or another; the one being... while the demons helped the worst ones, and [he says] the Savior came for the dissolution of wicked men and demons, but for the salvation of the good. And [he says] that marrying and procreating is from Satan. Many, however, of those who are his, abstain even from living things, deceiving many through this feigned continence. Concerning the prophecies, some were spoken by those angels who fabricated the world, others by Satan, whom he also shows to be an angel who acts as an adversary to the fabricators of the world, and especially to the God of the Jews.

The sonship which was more coarse-grained feathered itself, therefore, with such a wing as Plato, the teacher of Aristotle, uses to feather the soul in the *Phaedrus*; and Basilides calls such a thing not a "wing," but a "holy spirit," which the sonship benefits by donning it, and is itself benefited in return. It benefits it in that, just as the wing of a bird, divorced from the bird itself, could never become lofty or high-flying, nor could a bird deprived of its wing ever become lofty or high-flying—so the sonship maintained a certain relationship with the holy spirit, and the spirit with the sonship. For the sonship, being borne upward by the spirit as if by a wing, carries the wing—that is, the spirit—along with it; and upon drawing near to the subtle sonship and to the God who is not and who created out of things that are not, it could not retain the spirit there with itself. For it was not of the same essence, nor did it share the same nature as the sonship. Rather, just as pure and dry air is unnatural and lethal to fish, so that place—more ineffable than the ineffable, and higher than all names—of the non-existent God and of the sonship, was unnatural to the holy spirit. The sonship left it, therefore, near to the place of that Blessed One who cannot be understood or characterized by any word, yet the spirit was not entirely desolate or divorced from the sonship.

The firmament being thus in existence, which is above the heaven, the great Archon—the head of the world—broke forth and was born from the cosmically gathered seed and the pan-spermia of the heap; he was a being of such beauty, magnitude, and power that they cannot be expressed. For he is, he says, more ineffable than the ineffable, mightier than the mighty, wiser than the wise, and superior to all things excellent that one could name. Having been born, he raised himself up, soared, and was borne entirely upward as far as the firmament. He stood there, and considering that firmament to be the end of his ascent and elevation, and conceiving that there was absolutely nothing beyond it, he became, therefore, the subject of all that remained cosmic. He was wiser, more powerful, more distinguished, more luminous, and superior to every lovely thing one could name, except only for the sonship which was still left behind in the pan-spermia; for he was ignorant of the fact that it was wiser, more powerful, and superior to him. Thinking himself, therefore, to be lord and master and a wise architect, he set about the individual creation of the world. And first of all, he did not deem it proper to be alone, but made for himself and gave birth from the things subject to him to a son of his own, who was far superior and wiser than himself.

[The text continues:] For as the entelechy directs the body, so the son, according to Basilides, directs the god who is more ineffable than ineffable. All things, therefore—those ethereal things which reach as far as the moon—are provided for and directed by the entelechy of this great archon; for from that point onwards, the air is distinguished from the aether.

Since, then, all the ethereal things were adorned, another archon rose up again from the substance of all seeds, greater indeed than all those subject to him, except for the abandoned sonship, but far inferior to the first archon. He also is called ineffable by them. And this place is called the hebdomad, and he is the manager and creator of all those things subject to him, having himself also made for himself a son from the substance of all seeds, who was also more prudent and wiser than himself, in a manner similar to what was said regarding the first.

The heap itself, he says, is in this interval, and the substance of all seeds, and what comes to be happens according to nature, as if birthed by the one who had reasoned when things future ought to be spoken, of what sort they ought to be, and how they ought to be. And of these there is no supervisor, or curator, or creator; for that reasoning suffices for them, which the One Who Is Not was reasoning when He was creating.

For the great ruler reigned, he who holds his end up to the firmament, thinking himself to be the only God and that there is nothing above him; for all things were being guarded in hidden silence. This, he says, is the mystery which was not made known to the previous generations, but in those times the great ruler, the Ogdoad, was king and lord, as it seemed, of all things. The Hebdomad was also king and lord of this interval, and the Ogdoad is unspeakable, but the Hebdomad is speakable. This, he says, is the ruler of the Hebdomad who spoke to Moses and said: "I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and I did not make known to them the name of God"—for thus they wish it to be written—that is, [the name] of the God of the unspeakable Ogdoad ruler. Therefore, all the prophets before the Savior, he says, spoke from that [Hebdomad]. Since, therefore, it was necessary for us, the children of God, to be revealed, concerning whom, he says, the creation groaned and travailed in pain awaiting the revelation, the Gospel came into the world and passed through every principality and authority and lordship and every name that is named. But it came in truth; nothing descended from above, nor did that blessed sonship depart from that conceived-of and blessed God who is not. Rather, just as the Indian naphtha, when seen merely from a very great distance, kindles a fire, so from below, from the formlessness of the heap, the powers extend upward to the sonship.

^A This, he says, is what is meant by: "I acknowledged my sin, and I know my iniquity; for this I will confess forever." Since, therefore, the great archon had been catechized, and the entire creation of the eighth sphere had been catechized and taught, and the mystery had been made known to the heavenly beings, it was necessary, then, that the gospel should also come to the hebdomad, so that the archon of the hebdomad might likewise be taught and evangelized. The son of the great archon caused the light, which he himself had ignited from above from the sonship, to shine upon the son of the archon of the hebdomad, and the son of the archon of the hebdomad was enlightened and preached the gospel to the archon of the hebdomad; and, similarly, according to the first account, he too feared and confessed. ^B Since, therefore, all things in the hebdomad had been illuminated and the gospel had been proclaimed to them — for according to them, creations exist throughout these intervals, and by them [there are] infinite [beings], and principalities, and powers, and authorities, concerning whom there is a very long account among them told through many [words], where they even state that there are three hundred and sixty-five heavens, and that the great archon of them is Abrasax, because his name contains the number 365, as if the number of the name, indeed, contained everything, and because of this, the year consists of so many days — :

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When, therefore, it comes, he says, every sonship, and shall be above the boundary—the spirit—then the creation shall be pitied; for it is groaning until now, and in travail, and awaits the revelation of the sons of God, in order that all the men of the sonship may ascend from here; since when this comes to pass, he says, God shall cast upon the whole world the great ignorance, so that all things may remain according to nature, and nothing may desire any of the things that are contrary to nature. But, for all the souls of this nature have it in them to remain immortal solely in this [sphere], they shall remain knowing nothing of something better than this interval, nor shall there be any report of the things above in those things that are below, nor knowledge. In order that the souls that are below, by desiring the impossible, might not be tortured, just like a fish desiring to graze upon the mountains with the sheep; for such a desire, he says, became destruction for them. All things, therefore, he says, are incorruptible if they remain in their [proper] place, but corruptible if they should wish to leap over and transcend the things that are according to nature. Thus, the ruler of the hebdomad shall know nothing of the things that are above; for the great ignorance shall seize him also, in order that "sorrow, and sighing, and groaning" may depart from him; for he shall desire none of the things that are impossible, nor shall he be grieved.

^A But that we may omit nothing of what they teach, I will also set forth what they say concerning the Gospel. According to them, the Gospel is the knowledge of supracosmic things, as has been shown, which the great archon did not know. When, therefore, it was made known to him that there is also a Holy Spirit—that is, the limit—and sonship, and a God who is the cause of all these things, the One who is not, he rejoiced at the things that were told him and exulted; this, according to them, is the Gospel. Now, Jesus was born, according to them, as we have said before; and after the birth before-mentioned had taken place, all that is concerned with the Savior came to pass, according to them, as it is written in the Gospels. These things came to pass, he says, in order that Jesus might become the beginning of the separation of things that have been blended together. For since the world is divided into an Ogdoad, which is the head of the entire world—and the great archon is the head of the entire world—and into a Hebdomad, which is the head of the Hebdomad, the creator of the things that are subject [to him], and into this expanse which we occupy, where there is formlessness, it was necessary for the things that had been blended together to be separated through the division made by Jesus.

^A These, then, are the things that Basilides also weaves into his myths, having spent his time in Egypt and, having been taught such wisdom by them, brought forth such fruits. Satornilus, however, who flourished at the same time as Basilides and spent his time in Antioch of Syria, taught doctrines similar to those of Menander. He says that there is one Father, unknown to all, who made the angels, archangels, powers, and authorities. He maintains that the world and everything in it were created by certain seven angels, and that man, too, is a work of angels; that a shining image appeared from the power above, which, he says, they were unable to seize because it immediately ascended upwards; and so they exhorted one another, saying, "Let us make man after our image and likeness." When man had been formed, he says, and the structure could not stand erect because of the weakness of the angels, but moved like a worm, the power from above, pitying him because he was made in its likeness...

^A He declares that marriage and procreation are from Satan; and the majority of his followers abstain from living creatures, deceiving people through this feigned self-control. Some of the prophecies, he says, were spoken by the angels who made the world, and others by Satan, whom he supposed to be an angel acting in opposition to the world-makers, and especially to the God of the Jews. These, then, are the teachings of Saturnilus. ^B Marcion of Pontus, however, was much more insane than these; he discarded most of the preceding matters and, rushing toward greater shamelessness, hypothesized two principles of the universe, calling one good and the other evil; and he, too, thinking he was introducing something new, prepared a school full of madness and Cynic life, being a person prone to strife. This man, thinking he would escape the notice of the masses—since he was not a disciple of Christ but of Empedocles, who existed long before him—defined and taught the same things, namely that there are two causes of the universe: strife and friendship.

^C And he calls the earth "life-bearing Hera," because it bears the fruits necessary for life; and the air "Aidoneus," because we see all things through it, yet we do not perceive it itself; and water "Nestis," because, although it is the sole vehicle for nourishment for all living things, it is not by itself able to nourish them. For he says, if it did nourish them, animals would never be captured by hunger, since water always abounds in the world. For this reason, he calls the water "Nestis," because although it causes nourishment, it has not the strength to nourish those being nourished. These things, then, are, to grasp them in summary, the elements holding together the whole hypothesis of the world: water and earth, from which things come to be; fire and spirit, the instruments and the active forces; and strife and friendship, those things that create with craft. And friendship is a kind of peace, harmony, and affection, intending the world to be one complete, perfected whole; while strife always tears the one apart and fragments it, or produces many from the one. ^D

^A Unable to endure, the fire and the water, and the earth and the air, die and come back to life. For when these die, being brought about by strife, love takes them in, brings them forward, adds them, and reconciles them to the whole, so that the whole may remain one, always ordered in a single manner and form by love. And when love makes the one out of the many and reconciles the dispersed to the one, strife again draws them out from the one and makes them many—that is to say, fire, water, earth, air, the living creatures and plants born from these, and as many parts of the world as we perceive. And concerning the form of the world, what kind it is when ordered by love, he speaks in some such way as this:

He who, having sinned, shall swear a false oath, the spirits who have obtained a long-lived life—calling the spirits the souls, because they are immortal and live for long ages. "Thrice ten thousand hours wandering apart from the blessed," calling the blessed those who are gathered together by love from the many into the unity of the intelligible world. These, therefore, he says, wander apart, "and throughout time [are] born in all kinds of forms of mortals, exchanging the grievous paths of life." He says these grievous paths of life are the changes and transmigrations of souls into bodies. This is what he means: "exchanging the grievous paths of life," for the souls exchange body for body, being changed by strife and punished and not permitted to remain in the One; but that the souls are punished in all punishments by being changed by strife from body to body.

^A a hungry magnitude, numberless in quantity, independent for generation, a refuge for those who are afraid, a covering for the naked, a veil for shame, a sought-after fruit—for which the seeker came, he says, three times and did not find it; therefore he cursed, he says, the fig tree, because he did not find that sweet fruit in it, the fruit which was sought. And since it is such, to speak briefly, and so great—that is, small and minute according to them—the world, as it pleases them, was made in roughly this manner: after the branches of the fig tree became tender, leaves came forth, as it is permitted to see, and then the fruit, in which the infinite and innumerable seed of the fig is stored and kept. We think, therefore, that there are three things which came to be first from the fig seed: the trunk, which is the fig tree, the leaves, and the fruit, the fig, as we said before. ^B Thus, he says, there came to be three aeons, principles from the first principle of all things; and this, he says, not even Moses passed over in silence, when he says that the voices of God are three: Darkness, gloom, tempest, and he added nothing. For God, he says, added nothing to the three aeons, but they themselves provided and provide everything to all things that have been born. But God himself remains by himself, far removed from the three aeons. These aeons, he says, having obtained a principle of generation, as has been said, grew little by little and were magnified and became perfect. They opine that what is perfect is that which is numbered as ten. Since, therefore, the aeons had become equal among themselves in number and perfection, as they think, there came to be thirty aeons in total, each of them completed by a decade. They are separated from one another and have honor toward one another, differing only in position, because one thing is first, another second, and another the third of them. Yet position provided them with a difference of power; for he who ^C was nearest to the first God, who is like a seed, and obtained a position, possessed a more generative power than the others, measuring himself ten times in magnitude, though he is immeasurable; and he who became second by the position of the first, that incomprehensible one, comprehended himself six times; and he who was already third by position, having been carried off into an infinite distance on account of the growth of his brothers, when he thought of himself three times, bound himself, as it were, like a certain chain of unity, as an aeon. 9. And they think that this is what was said by the Saviour: The sower went forth to sow, and that which fell on the ^D beautiful and good earth brought forth some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

^A And for this reason, he says: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear, because these things are not for all to hear. All these æons, both those three and those which have sprung from them, the infinitely infinite, are all male-female æons. When, therefore, they had increased and grown great and had come into being 60 from that one first seed, all of them—in their harmony and unity—combined into one æon, their middle, and all together generated a common offspring from one virgin, the Saviour of those who are in the middle, of all, one having potency in all respects equal to the fig-seed, save that this one is generated, while that first seed, from which the fig tree came to be, is ungenerated. ^B After, therefore, those three æons were adorned with all virtue and holiness, as these teachers believe, and that only-begotten son 61 (for he was generated alone for the infinite æons from the tri-generated: for three immense æons, being of one mind, generated him)—the entire intelligible nature was adorned; and all those intelligible and eternal things were light, and this light was not formless nor idle, nor as one in need of anything to help it, but having in itself, according to the multitude of those infinitely infinite things, after the example of the fig tree, infinite ideas of the animals 62 that are there, of many various kinds, shone down from above into the underlying chaos. But that 63 which was lightened and at the same time fashioned by these 64 ideas from above, took firm hold 65 and received all the ideas from above from the third æon, which had tripled itself 66. ^C But this third æon, seeing all its 67 characteristics all at once caught in the underlying darkness below, and not being ignorant of the power of the darkness, nor of the simplicity and liberality of the light, did not suffer the luminous characteristics to be dragged down for long from above by the darkness; but rather, he placed 68 a [firmament] 69 under the æons. Having therefore made firm the region below, and 70 separated between the darkness and between 71 the light, he called the light day, which was above the firmament, and the darkness he called night. ^D Since, therefore, as I said, all the infinite ideas of the third æon were caught in this lowest darkness, the imprint of this æon itself along with the others was sealed, a living fire generated from light, whence the great archon came to be, of whom Moses speaks 72 (from the bush) (for the bush is uni-

that the light descended from above—saying that there passed through all species of light, by which the air is permeable. But no less is the word made known to us from the bush; for voice, which signifies the word, is air that has been struck, and by the removal of this, human speech is not recognized. Not only, however, does the word give laws to us and dwell with us from the bush—that is, from the air—but also odors and colors manifest their faculties to us through the air.

10. This fiery god, then, who came to be as fire from light, made the world as Moses says, ^B he himself not truly existing, using darkness as his substance, perpetually insulting those eternal marks of light received from above in the regions below. Up to the time of the Savior’s appearance, therefore, from the god of the fiery light, the demiurge, there was a great wandering of souls; for souls are called ideas, because, having cooled from the heavenly realms, they spend their time in darkness, changed from bodies into bodies, guarded by the demiurge. And that this is so, he says, one may understand even from Job, when he says: "And I am a wanderer, and moving from place to place and from house to house," and when the Savior says: "And if you are willing to receive it, he himself is Elijah who is to come." He who has ears to hear, let him hear. From the Savior onward, the migration of souls has ceased, and faith is preached for the remission of sins.

In some such way, that unique Son, seeing the ideas of the higher æons transmuted from above into ^C dark bodies, desired to descend to set them free. But knowing that the fullness of all the æons, nor even the æons themselves, could withstand seeing Him at once, but rather that, struck with terror, they would suffer corruption, being overcome by the magnitude and splendor of his power, He contracted Himself like a great lightning bolt within a tiny body; or rather, as the light of the eye is contracted beneath the eyelids, He reached even unto heaven, and having touched the stars that are there, He again contracts Himself beneath the eyelids of the eye whenever He wills. And the light of the eye does the same thing, which both exists everywhere and [perceives] all things; to us, however, it is invisible, and we perceive nothing except the eyelids of the eye, the white corners, the loose, sinuous, and veined membrane, the ^D corneal tunic, and beneath this, the grape-like, reticulated, and circular pupil, and whatever other tunics the light of the eye possesses, by which it is dressed and hidden. In this way, He says, the only-begotten Son, eternal from above, having put on according to each of the individual æons of the third æon—when He came to be within the thirty æons—intro-

- ^A duced Himself into this world, being as great as we have said, hidden, unknown, without glory, and uncredited. In order, therefore, the Docetists say, that He might also be clothed in the outer darkness—by which he means the flesh—an angel who accompanied Him from above brought the glad tidings to Mary, He says, just as it is written. That which was born from her was generated, just as it is written. But having been generated, He who came from above clothed Himself in it, and He did all things just as it is written in the Gospels: He was washed in the Jordan, and He was washed by receiving a pattern and seal in the water of that body which was generated by the Virgin, so that when the archon should sentence his own creature to death by the cross, that soul which had been nourished within the body, having put off the body and having nailed it to the wood, and having triumphed through it over the principalities and powers, might not be found naked, but might be clothed in the body which was formed in the water, when He was baptized, in place of that flesh. This, He says, is what the Saviour means: "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven; for that which is born of the flesh is flesh." From the thirty æons, therefore, He put on thirty ideas; for this reason that eternal One remained upon the earth for thirty years, with each æon being manifested individually by the year. ^B There are also souls within each of the thirty æons that have caught all the ideas, and each of these has the nature to discern the Jesus who is according to nature, whom that only-begotten eternal One put on from the eternal regions; but these [souls] are different from one another. For this reason, so many heresies seek Jesus with such contention, and He is proper to all of them; but to one He appears as different from the Jesus of another region, toward whom each one is carried, He says, and hastens, thinking this one alone to be that which is akin to it, its own kinsman and fellow-citizen, whom having seen first, it recognized as its own brother, while it deemed the others spurious. Those, therefore, who have their nature from the lower regions cannot discern the ideas of the Saviour which are above them, but those from above, He says—from the middle decade and the most excellent ogdoad, from whence we are—say that they know Jesus the Saviour not in part, but entirely, and they alone are perfect from above, ^C while all the rest are in part.

11. I judge that these things are sufficient for the prudent for the knowledge of the complex and dissolute heresy of the Docetae, who, because they disputed audaciously about ^A inaccessible and incomprehensible matter, called themselves Docetae; we do not call those who are foolish in their own opinion "somebodies," but we convict the beam that is carried in the eye from such great matter, in case they might perhaps be able to see clearly; if not, at least so that they may not blind others: the dogma of whom the wise men of the Greeks long ago invented for the most part, as the readers may know. These, therefore, are the things that pleased the Docetae. But we will not keep silent as to what pleases Monoimus.

12. Monoimus the Arab departed far from the glory of the loud-voiced poet, ^B having judged the human to be such a one as the poet says the Ocean is, speaking thus: *Oceanus is the genesis of gods and the genesis of men.* Having changed this into other words, he says that the man is the universe (which is the beginning of all things), unbegotten, immortal, eternal, and the son of the man above mentioned, begotten and passible, not made in time, not by counsel, not by predestination. For such, he says, is the power of that man. But since his power is of such a kind, the son is born quicker than ^C thought and will. And this, he says, is that which is said in the Scriptures: *And it was and it came to be*, which is: *there was man, and his son came to be*, as if one were to say: *there was fire and light came to be*, without time and not by will nor by predestination, as soon as the fire was. But this man is one monad, non-composite, indivisible, composite, divisible, altogether friendly, altogether peaceful, ^D altogether pugnacious, altogether hostile toward itself, dissimilar, similar, just like a certain musical harmony containing all things in itself, whatsoever anyone might speak and omit when he has not thought of it, exhibiting all things, generating all things. This is mother, this is father, two immortal names. But for the sake of an example of the perfect man, consider, he says, the greatest image, the iota, one, that one apex, which is one apex, non-composite, simple, a pure monad having no composition at all, composite, multifarious, multipartite. That indivisible one, he says, is the one instructed with many faces and innumerable eyes and innumerable names, the apex of the letter iota, which is the image of that perfect invisible man.

^A 43. The Monad, he says, is therefore one point, that is to say the tenth—for the power of the ten is in it—the one point, and the Dyad, and the Triad, and the Tetrad, and the Pentad, and the Hexad, and the Heptad, and the Ogdoad, and the Ennead, up to the ten. For these, he says, are the manifold numbers that dwell in that simple and uncompounded point of the letter iota. And this is what is spoken of: "For it was well-pleasing that all the fullness should dwell in the Son of man bodily." For such compositions of numbers from that simple and uncompounded one point of the letter iota have become, he says, corporal substances. ^B There has arisen, therefore, he says, from the perfect man, the Son of man, whom no one has known; but the whole creation fashions for itself, he says, like the offspring of a female, the Son whom it does not know, whose Son the rays, being very obscure, when approaching this world, hold together and contain the change, the generation. The beauty of that Son of man is to this day incomprehensible to all men, as many as have been led astray concerning the offspring of the female. There has been formed, therefore, he says, from that man nothing of the things that are here, nor will there ever be; but all things that have been made have been made not from the whole, but from a certain part of the Son of man. For the Son of man is, he says, one iota, one point, that has flowed from above, fulfilling all things, having in itself whatever also the man has, the Father of the Son of man.

^D The world, then, came to be, as Moses says, in six days—that is to say, in six powers that are in the one point of the iota; the seventh is the rest and the Sabbath, by the hebdomad that is there […] of earth and of water and of fire and of air, from which the world came to be from the one point. For the cubes, and the octahedra, and the pyramids, and all the shapes similar to these, from which fire, air, water, and earth consist, have come to be from the numbers comprised in that simple point of the iota, which is the perfect Son of the perfect man. When, therefore, he says, Moses speaks of the rod being turned in various ways at the plagues against Egypt, which, he says, are symbols of the creation spoken of by allegory, he shapes the rod, which is that one point, into no more than ten plagues. This twofold, manifold thing, he says, is the ten-plagued, cosmic creation. For all things, when they are struck, are generated and bear fruit just like... Man bursts forth from man, he says, and is torn away.

^A Again, he says that he was crucified by the Jews and after three days rose again, appearing to the disciples, showing the typos of the nails and of his side, convincing them that it was he himself and not a phantom; rather, he was flesh-bearing. Flesh, he says, having shown, he gave back to the earth, from which substance it was, taking nothing alien, but having used each thing for a time, he returned what was his own, again loosening the bond of the body—heat to heat, cold to cold, moist to moist, dry to dry—and thus he journeyed to the good Father, having left the seed of life in the world through his disciples for those who believe. ^B It seems to us that these things have also been set forth sufficiently; but since we have decided to leave nothing unexamined of what has been dogmatized by certain persons, let us see what also has been devised by the Docetae.

^A How Tatian has come to construct his own views from the doctrines of Valentinus and Marcion, while Hermogenes makes use of the dogmas of Socrates, not those of Christ. How those who contentiously insist on celebrating the Pascha on the fourteenth day are in error. What is the delusion of the Phrygians, who believe Montanus, Priscilla, and Maximilla to be prophets. What is the vainglory of the Encratites, and that their dogmas consist not of the holy Scriptures, but of the gymnosophists among the Indians.

^A 13. “The monad,” he says, “is the apex, and the decad; for the power of the one apex is also the dyad, and the triad, and the tetrad, and the pentad, and the hexad, and the heptad, and the ogdoad, and the ennead, up to ten. For these,” he says, “are the multifarious numbers residing in that single, simple, and uncompounded apex of the iota.” And this is what is said: “For it was the good pleasure of the Father that all the fullness should dwell in the Son of man bodily.” For such compositions of numbers from the simple and uncompounded apex of the iota have become, he says, bodily substances. The Son of man, therefore, he says, has come into being from the perfect man whom no one has known; but the whole of creation, he says, imagines Him to be the offspring of a female, not knowing the Son, whose sons are extremely dim rays approaching this world, holding fast and sustaining transformation and generation. But the beauty of that Son of man is even now incomprehensible to all men, as many as have been led astray concerning the offspring ^B of the female. Nothing of the things that are here has come into being, nor will it ever come into being, from that Man; but all the things that have been made were made not from the whole, but from a certain part of the Son of man. For the Son of man, he says, is one iota, one apex, which flowed from above, full, filling all things, having in itself as many things as even man has, the Father of the Son of man.

14. “The world came into being, therefore,” as Moses says, “in six days,” that is to say, in the six powers which are in the one apex of the iota; the seventh is the rest and the Sabbath ^C from the hebdomad that is there.... and earth and water and fire and air, from which the world came into being from that one apex. For the cubes, and the octahedra, and the pyramids, and all the shapes similar to these, from which fire, air, water, and earth consist, have come into being from the numbers contained in that simple apex of the iota, which is the perfect Son of the perfect Man. “When, therefore,” he says, “Moses speaks of a rod being turned in various ways against the torments in Egypt, which,” he says, “are symbols of creation allegorized, he does not fashion the rod, which is that one apex, into more than ten torments. This duplex, manifold thing,” he says, “is the ten-plague, the cosmic creation. For all things, ^D when they are struck, are generated and bear fruit like vines. Man springs forth from man,” he says, and is torn...

away in every respect by the fig-seed, save that this one is created, whereas that first seed, whence the fig-tree came into being, is uncreated. Those three aeons, then, having been adorned most virtuously and most holily, as these teachers suppose, and that child, the only-begotten—for he alone was born to the infinite aeons from the three-begotten; for three immeasurable aeons, being of one mind, begat him—the whole intelligible nature was adorned and in no way needy, and light [shone] upon all those intelligible and eternal things; a light not formless, nor inert, nor in need of any shaping agent, but having within itself, according to the multitude of the infinitely infinite [aeons], after the example of the fig-tree, infinite ideas of the manifold living beings that exist there, it shone down from above into the underlying chaos. And that which was illumined and simultaneously fashioned by those ideas from above took solid shape and received all the ideas from above from the third aeon which had tripled itself. And this third aeon, seeing all its own characters suddenly seized into the underlying darkness below, and not being ignorant of the power of the darkness and the simplicity and abundance of the light, did not allow the luminous characters to be dragged down from above by the darkness for very long; but rather he made subject to the aeons a firmament of heaven beneath, "and divided between the darkness and between the light, and he called the light day, which was above the firmament, and the darkness he called night."

This fiery god, then, who became fire from light, created the world in this manner, as Moses says, being himself insubstantial, having darkness as his essence, always insulting the eternal characters of the light that are seized from above and brought down. Therefore, until the manifestation of the Savior by the god of the light, the fiery one, the demiurge, there was much error for the souls—for the souls are called the ideas, because having cooled from the things above, they continue in darkness, changing from bodies to bodies, guarded by the demiurge. That this is so, he says, can be understood from Job as well, who says: "And I am a wanderer and changing from place to place and from house to house," and from the Savior saying: "And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear"—but from the Savior onwards, reincarnation has ceased, and faith is proclaimed for the forgiveness of sins in such a way: that only-begotten Son, seeing from above the ideas of the aeons changing on high in the darkened bodies, wished to descend to rescue them. Knowing, however, that neither the fullness of all the aeons nor the aeons themselves can bear to look upon him at once, but being overwhelmed, the corruptible ones undergo destruction, seized by the magnitude and glory of his power, he contracted himself like a great lightning flash into a very small body, or rather like the light of a serpent contracted under its eyelids, he reaches up to heaven and, having touched the stars there, again he contracts himself under the eyelids of the serpent when he wishes;

and he himself, lured on by time, rushed into ^A the same things, while Callistus was his counselor and fellow-combatant in evils, whose life and the heresy he invented I shall soon set forth. The school of these men remained and strengthened and increased by continuous succession, because Zephyrinus and Callistus assisted them, although we never yielded to them, but most ^B frequently opposed them, refuted them, and against their will compelled them to confess the truth; for while they were for the moment ashamed and, compelled by the truth, would confess, not long after they would wallow in the same mire.

8. Since, however, we have demonstrated the ^A succession of their genealogy, it seems proper now to set forth also the depraved doctrine of their dogmas, ^B and, having brought forward first the opinions of Heraclitus the Obscure, to demonstrate that some of these things are also Heraclitean, which perhaps those who now preside over the heresy do not know to be the Obscure man’s, while they imagine them to be Christ’s. If they were to read these, even in this manner, being ashamed, they would desist from their impious calumny. Yet even though the opinion of Heraclitus was previously set forth by us in the *Philosophumena*, nonetheless it seems proper to set it forth in contrast even now, so that through a closer refutation those who imagine themselves to be disciples of Christ may be openly taught that they are not, but rather disciples of that Obscure one.

9. ^C Heraclitus, then, says that the universe is divisible indivisible, generated ungenerated, mortal immortal, Word, Aeon, Father, Son, God, just. It is wise for those who have hearkened, not to me, but to the Word, to confess that it is one to have known the universe as one, says Heraclitus; and that not all know this nor confess it, he finds fault in this manner: They do not understand how that which is different from itself is in agreement; a reflex harmony, as of a bow and a lyre. And that the Word is always, being in the universe and throughout the universe, he speaks in this manner: Of this Word, which is always, men prove to be ^D incapable of understanding, both before they have heard it and when they have first heard it; for although all things come to pass according to this Word, they are like unto the inexperienced, while they experience both words and

works ^A of such a kind as I describe, dividing according to nature and explaining how things are. That the universe is indeed a Child, and for the eternal age [281, 282] the king of all, he speaks thus: "The Age is a child, playing, playing at checkers; the kingdom is of a child." And that the Father of all things that have come into being is generated, yet ungenerated, a creation, yet the creator, we hear from him saying: "War is the father of all, and king of all; and some he has shown to be gods, and others men; some he has made slaves, and others free." And that there is a harmony just as of a bow and a lyre. And that ^B the invisible and unknown is hidden to men, in these things he says: "A hidden harmony is better than a visible one." He praises and admires that which is unknown and invisible in his power over that which is known. And that it is visible to men and not inaccessible, he says in these words: "Whatever things there are of sight, hearing, learning, these I prefer," he says, that is, visible things over invisible ones. And from such words of his, it is easy to understand: "Men," he says, "are deceived regarding the knowledge of manifest things, similar to Homer, who was the wisest of all Greeks." For him indeed, children killing lice deceived by saying: "What things we saw and grasped, these we leave behind; but what things we did not see nor grasp, these we carry with us."

10. Thus Heraclitus places in equal share and honors the manifest with the hidden, ^C as though both the manifest and the hidden were known to exist. "For there is," he says, "a harmony hidden, better than the visible," and, "Whatever things are of sight, hearing, learning (that is, the organs), these," he says, "I prefer, not preferring the hidden." Therefore, Heraclitus says that neither darkness nor light, nor evil nor good, is something else, but truly one and the same. He finds fault, therefore, with Hesiod, that he did not know day and night; for day, he says, and night are one, using these words: "The teacher of most is Hesiod; him they think to have known most, who did not know day and night; for it is one." And good and evil: [p. 282, 283]

^A physicians, Heraclitus says, cutting and burning, certainly cause ill in every way to the sick, and yet complain that they do not receive a worthy wage from the sick for bringing about these good results and diseases. And immediately, he says, the turning—the way that is straight and crooked—is in the fuller’s implement called the screw ^B at the fuller's workshop. One and the same, he says, is the upward and downward path, and it revolves on the same path. The road up and road down are one and the same. It is the same, he says, as regards the sea, that it is the purest and most impure water: for fish, indeed, it is drinkable and life-sustaining, but for humans, it is undrinkable and deadly. He says that it is agreed by both that the mortal and the immortal are the same through such words: "Mortals immortal, immortals mortal, living the death of the other, and dying the life of the other." He asserts that the resurrection of this tangible flesh, in which we were born, is clear, and he knows God as the author of this resurrection by these words: ^C He says, moreover, that the judgment of the world and of everything in it comes about through fire, with these words: "Everything the lightning steers," this being the spark, he calls it the eternal fire. He says that the wise man directs this fire and is the cause of all things; he calls it "need and satiety." The description of the world's end is from this opinion, for the end is the conflagration. "Everything," he says, "fire coming upon it will judge and seize." ^D In this chapter he has set forth his whole opinion at once, and at the same time I have shown in a few words that it is not of Christ, but of the disciple of Heraclitus. For he says that the created world itself is its own maker and creator, in this manner: God is day night, winter summer, war peace, satiety hunger—all things are opposites—this is the meaning—and it changes just as when mixed with incense it is named according to the pleasure of each. But it is manifest to all that the foolish successors of Noetus and leaders of this heresy, even if they deny that they have been hearers of Heraclitus, nevertheless openly embrace the same tenets. Thus

^A they acknowledge the same things, for they say that there is one and the same God, the Creator of all and Father, who, however, was pleased to appear to the righteous of old, being invisible; for when He is not seen, He was invisible, [but when He is seen, He is visible;] and He is incomprehensible when He does not wish to be comprehended, but comprehensible [when He is comprehended;] and so by the same logic, insuperable and superable, unbegotten [and begotten,] immortal and mortal. How will such men not be shown to be disciples of Heraclitus? Did not that dark philosopher philosophize this very thing in his own words? And no one is ignorant that he also says the Son and the Father are one and the same. He speaks in this manner: "When, therefore, the Father had not been made, He was rightly called Father; but when it pleased Him to undergo generation, having been begotten, the Son became Himself of Himself, and not of another." Thus he imagines that the monarchy is proved, saying that one and the same is called Father and Son, not one from another, but Himself from Himself, called by the name of Father and Son according to the vicissitudes of times, but that He is one who appeared and underwent generation from the Virgin and lived as a man among men, confessing Himself to be the Son to those who saw Him on account of the generation that took place, yet not concealing that He is also the Father to those who can comprehend it. This One, who was affixed to the passion of the wood and commended His spirit to Himself, who died and did not die, and who raised Himself on the third day, having been hidden in a sepulchre and wounded by a spear and pierced with nails, this One—Cleomenes and his chorus ^C say—is the God and Father of all, bringing Heraclitean darkness upon many.

11. This heresy was strengthened by Callistus, a man ^D cunning in malice and versatile for the purpose of seduction, who hunted for the episcopal chair. He led Zephyrinus, an unlearned and illiterate man and ignorant of ecclesiastical definitions, whom he swayed by flattering him with gifts and prohibited demands to whatever he wished; since he was a receiver of gifts and greedy for money, he persuaded him to stir up strife constantly among the brothers, while he himself would afterwards reconcile the will of both parties to himself with cunning words, and then indeed, to those who thought correctly, he would declare in private that he felt the same, ^C

[continuation of the English translation]

^A and kept deceiving them, and again those who followed the opinion of Sabellius, in like manner, whom he also perverted, though he could have been upright. For when he was admonished by us, he did not harden himself, but when he was alone with Callistus, he was urged by him to incline toward the doctrine of Cleomenes, claiming that he himself thought the same. At that time, he did not understand his fraudulence, but later he realized it, as I shall relate not long from now.

He brought forward Zephyrinus himself and persuaded him to say publicly to the people: "I know one God, Christ Jesus, and except for Him, I know no other who is begotten and subject to passion." And he would say at other times: "The Father did not die, but the Son." In this way, he maintained incessant strife among the people; when we understood his designs, we did not concede, but refuted him and stood in defense of the truth. Driven to madness because everyone else gave in to his hypocrisy while we did not, he called us "ditheists," voluntarily spewing out the poison that lay hidden in his innermost parts. It pleases us to set forth his life, because he existed in the same age as we did, so that when the character of such a man is revealed, the heresy adopted by him may be easily perceived and despised by those who are endowed with understanding. This man suffered martyrdom when Fuscianus was Prefect of the City of Rome. And the manner of his martyrdom was thus:

^B 12. There was a slave of a certain man named Carpophorus, who was a believer from the household of Caesar. Carpophorus, because he was a believer, entrusted no small amount of money to him, and ordered him to procure profit for himself from a banking business. Having taken the money, he set up a bank in what is called the Piscina Publica, where, in the course of time, no small amount of deposits were entrusted to him by widows and brothers under the pretext of Carpophorus. But he, having squandered everything, was in distress. When he had done these things, someone was not wanting who would report it to Carpophorus; he, however, said that he demanded an accounting from him. Callistus, conscious of these matters and suspecting the danger impending from his master, took flight, making his way to the sea. ^C Having found a ship in the Port ready for departure, where it happened to be sailing, he boarded with the intention of sailing away. But not even thus was he able to remain hidden; for someone was not wanting to report to Carpophorus what had happened. He, having arrived at the port, attempted to board the ship to be brought to the messenger who had followed him, but it was anchored in the middle of the harbor. While the ferryman was delaying, Callistus, who from a distance ^D

^A saw the master, and knowing that he had been caught, cast aside his life and—thinking that these were the final moments—threw himself into the sea. But the sailors leaped into the skiffs and picked him up against his will; those on the shore cried out with a loud voice. And in this manner, handed over to the master, he was brought back to Rome, whom the master gave over to a mill. Time having passed, as it happened, his brothers approached ^B Carpophorus and besought him to release the fugitive from punishment, saying that he confessed to having money deposited with certain persons. Carpophorus, however, being a devout man, said that he was not sparing of his own, but was concerned for those of others—for many who were weeping said that they had trusted Callistus with their money on his (Carpophorus') account—and, being persuaded by their entreaties, ordered him to be brought out. But he, having nothing that he could restore and being unable to flee again because he was under guard, ^C thought up a ruse of death, and on the Sabbath, pretending to go to his creditors, rushed to the assembly of the Jews who were gathered; and standing there, he created a disturbance among them. The Jews, agitated by his insults and the blows they suffered, dragged him before the prefect of the city, Fuscianus. They answered as follows: "Romans have granted us the right to read our ancestral laws publicly, but this man, coming in amongst us, ^D was bothering us and disrupting us, claiming to be a Christian." Fuscianus, however, was on the tribunal, and upon hearing what was said by the Jews against Callistus, he did not fail to report it to Carpophorus as it was being done. He, hastening to the tribunal of the prefect, cried out: "I beseech you, master Fuscianus, believe him not, for he is not a Christian; rather, he seeks death, having squandered much of my money, as I shall prove." The Jews, thinking this to be a trick—as if Carpophorus were under a pretext trying to free him—the prefect, being even more enraged, handed him over to be beaten and sent to the mines of Sardinia. Time having passed, and other martyrs being there, Marcia, wishing to do a good deed, being a lover of God and ^D the concubine of Commodus, called for the blessed Victor, who at that time was bishop of the Church, and was inquiring who the martyrs were in Sardinia. And when he had delivered everyone’s names, he did not give that of Callistus, knowing his audacity; but Marcia, having obtained what she desired from Commodus, gave the letter of release to Hyacinth, a certain eunuch presbyter, who, having received the letter, sailed to Sardinia, and when he had delivered them, he liberated the martyrs except for Callistus. He, however, fell on his knees and wept, imploring...

that he too might obtain his release. Moved by pity, Hyacinthus obtained his release as well, saying that he was a tutor—for he had cared for Marcia—and pledged for his safety. Being persuaded, he released Callistus. When he had arrived, Victor was very distressed by what had happened, but as he was compassionate, he remained silent, though being cautious against the reproaches of many (for it was not long before he had committed these things). ^A Since Carpophorus was also opposing him, he sent him to stay at Antium, having fixed a monthly allowance for his support. ^B After his death, Zephyrinus, who had associated with him and kept him in the same position, honored him by his own evil, and transferred him from Antium to the cemetery. As he was always with him, and as I have said before, he spoiled the man, who was able to judge neither things said nor sense the treachery of Callistus, since he was the one with whom he was conversing, and who was rendering him things that were grateful. Thus, thinking he had obtained after Zephyrinus's death what he was hunting for, he expelled Sabellius, as one who did not think correctly, fearing that if he turned to me he could wipe away the accusation among the Churches as if he did not think differently. ^C He was, therefore, a charlatan and crafty, and in time he led many along with him. Since he had the virus implanted in his heart, and at the same time he was ashamed to speak the truth because he was publicly reproached by us—as he was constantly accused by Sabellius as having transgressed the first faith—he invented such a heresy, saying that the Word himself is the Son, and he is the Father by name, yet in reality it is one Spirit indivisible; ^D and that he is not one thing as Father and another as Son, but that the same being is full of the divine Spirit, both the upper and the lower, and that the Spirit is the same in the Virgin’s flesh, and that it is not another beside the Father, but the same and one. This is what was said: *Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?* For the visible, which is man, this is the Son, but that which is contained in the Son, the Spirit, this, he says, is the Father. For, he says, I will not... [index: entries preserved]

Some of them, agreeing with the heresy of the Noetians, say that the Father himself is the Son, and that he has come under birth, and passion, and death. About these, I shall set forth again in further detail; for the heresy of these men has become a source of evils for many. We judge, then, that what has been said regarding these is sufficient, having shown in a few words that their many foolish books and arguments are weak and unworthy of any serious consideration, to which those who possess a sound mind should not pay attention. Others, calling themselves Encratites, confess things concerning God and Christ similarly to the Church, but they conduct themselves in a puffed-up way regarding their manner of life, thinking to glorify themselves through foods by abstaining from living things, drinking water, forbidding marriage, and adhering to the rest of their life in an arid manner; such persons are judged more as Cynics than as Christians, not paying attention to those things said to them through the Apostle Paul, who, prophesying about those things that were to be vainly introduced by some in the future, spoke thus:

one, so that the Father and the Son are called one God, and that for this person, being one, there cannot be two, and so that the Father is said to have suffered with the Son; for he does not want to say that the Father suffered in one person, so he avoids the blasphemy against the Father, a foolish man who scatters blasphemies upwards and downwards ^A in such a way that he appears to speak against the truth, falling into the doctrine of Sabellius, nor does that teacher of iniquity blush at the doctrine of Theodotus. For that imposter established a school against the Church, speaking in this way, and he was the first to dare to concede to everyone that their sins are forgiven, saying that if by chance anyone who gathers to another and is called a Christian has sinned, it is not imputed to him as sin, provided he joins the school of Callistus. Embracing whose definition, many, stung by their conscience, and having been rejected by many sects, and some who had been excommunicated by us from the Church, transgressed and filled his school. For he prescribes that even if a bishop sins, even unto death, he ought not to be removed from his place. In his time, bishops ^B and 460-461 presbyters and deacons began to be admitted who had been married twice or three times. But also, if anyone in the order enters into marriage, he prescribes that such a man remain in his order as if he had not sinned, utilizing for this the saying which was spoken by the Apostle: Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? But he also says that the parable of the weeds pertains to this: Suffer the weeds to grow with the wheat, that is, those sinners in the Church. But he also said that the ark of Noah was made in the likeness of the Church, in which there were dogs and wolves and crows and all things clean and unclean, so stating that there ought to be such persons in the Church; ^C and whatever else could be gathered to this effect, he interpreted in this way. Whose hearers, delighted by these dogmas, remain, mocking themselves and many others, towards whom a crowd flows into that school. Therefore, they increase, swelling with pride on account of the pleasures which Christ did not permit, because such contempt prevents no sin, saying that he acknowledges those who are willing to repent. For he permitted women, if they were unmarried and were burning with a desire unworthy of their age, or if they did not wish to lose their dignity by a lawful marriage, to have whom they chose, whether a concubine or a servant or a free man, and while she had him as a husband without him being lawfully ^D known as a husband, she might consider him to be such, and while she was not married, she might possess the appearance of marriage so that she might not fall into the judgment of God.

These are the contents of the ninth book of the Refutation of All Heresies.

What is the blasphemous folly of Noetus, and how it is based on the dogmas of Heraclitus. And how Callistus, having mixed the heresy of Cleomenes, a disciple of Noetus, and of Theodotus, established another newer heresy, and what is the life of this man. What is the new visitation of the strange demon Elchasai, and how the impression of observing the law is a cover for his errors, while in reality he is devoted to Gnostic dogmas or to astrology and magic.

they were inflamed, and not wishing to remain content with their own status, they desired to be married in accordance with the law to whomsoever they might choose, whether a servant or a free man, and to claim this union as lawful marriage. Hence they began to ^A attempt to use abortifacient drugs and to gird themselves so as to cause a miscarriage, because they could not have children by a slave or a man of low birth, due to their nobility and excessive wealth. See to what a pitch of impiety that lawless man proceeded, teaching adultery and murder at the same time; and over and above these audacious acts ^B they even attempted to call themselves the Catholic Church, and some who think they are doing well flock to them. The first to whom this audacity was permitted—a second baptism—was Callistus, after whom the school was organized, and his school remains to this day, preserving the customs and the tradition, not distinguishing with whom they ought to communicate, but offering communion to all without discrimination, from which they have also derived their name, so that they are called Callistians after their leader in such works, Callistus.

13. The doctrine of this man having spread throughout the world, a certain man full of cleverness and wickedness, ^C of the name Alcibiades, a resident of Apamea in Syria, when he saw the trickery and the ingenious fraud of Callistus, came to Rome bringing a certain book, claiming that he had received it from a certain just man of the Parthians, Elchasai, whom he had handed over to a certain person named Sobiai, who had been informed by an angel that its height was twenty-four ^D schoenoi, which equals ninety-six miles, and its breadth four schoenoi, and from shoulder to shoulder six schoenoi; and that the tracks of his feet were three and a half schoenoi in length, which equals fourteen miles, and a schoenus and a half in breadth, and its height a schoenus and a half. With him he also says there is a female, whose measurements he says are in accordance with what has been previously stated, and he says the male is the Son of God, and the female is to be called the Holy Spirit. Uttering these monstrosities, he thinks he can confuse the foolish, saying that he has preached to men a new remission of sins in the third year of Emperor Trajan; and thirdly, he defines a baptism, which I shall also relate, claiming that those who are bogged down in all sorts of licentiousness and lawlessness, even if they are believers,

^A can obtain remission of sins through baptism. Now, when he attempted these deceptions, finding an opportunity in the school mentioned earlier, over which Callistus presided—for many, when they observed that they were trapped by such a promise, thought it was a timely opportunity to undertake it. And we, having resisted this, did not allow many to be led astray for long, when we refuted that these were the workings of a spirit of imposture and an invention of an arrogant heart, and that he had been stirred up like a wolf against the many sheep whom Callistus was scattering by leading them astray. But since we have begun, and we shall not remain silent about his doctrines, nor shall we fail to bring his life and his supposedly simulated asceticism into the light, as we promised before, I shall again set forth his main points, so that the reader, with his eyes fixed on his writings, may perceive who he is and what kind of heresy he has attempted.

14. He holds out a discipline of law ^B as if it were a bait of blandishment, saying that it is necessary to be circumcised and to live according to the law for those who have believed, thus tearing away some from the aforementioned heresies. He says that Christ did not become man in the same way for all mankind, but that he was not born of a Virgin for the first time, but was born already many times before and has appeared and exists, changing his births and migrating into other bodies, using that Pythagorean ^C doctrine. And they are puffed up with such arrogance that they even call themselves prescient of the future, that is to say, by the measures and numbers of the aforementioned Pythagorean art, as if it were their foundation. They also apply themselves to mathematics, astrology, and magic as if they were certainties, using which they upset the foolish by making them believe that they are able to participate in the power of the Word; and they teach certain incantations and addresses to those who have been bitten by dogs, and to those afflicted with demonic possessions and other diseases, of whom we shall speak further ^D below. Since, therefore, I have set forth the origins of these people and the reasons for their attempts, I shall move on to relate their writings, through which the readers will recognize their nonsense and their impious machinations.

466-467 15. Therefore, he hands down baptism to his followers in this way, speaking to those who have fallen: "If any man, children, has had intercourse with any beast, or with a male, or a sister, or a daughter, or has committed adultery or fornication, and wishes to obtain remission of sins,"

^A let him be baptized a second time in the name of the great and highest God and in the name of his Son, the 60 great king, and let him be purified 61 and cleansed and let him testify unto himself by these seven witnesses written in this book: heaven, and water 62, and the holy spirits, and the angels of prayer, and oil, and salt, and the earth. Such are the wonderful mysteries of the Elchasai 63—the unspeakable and great things which he delivers to the worthy disciples; to which the lawless man does not suffice, but even by two witnesses he seals his own evil deeds, again speaking thus: "Again I say, O adulterers and adulteresses and pseudoprophets, if you wish to be converted, your sins shall be forgiven you; and you shall have peace and a share with the righteous, from the time that you hear this book and are baptized a second time with the clothes 64." But since ^B we said that these use incantations against others, we shall show it. He speaks after this manner: "If therefore any man, or woman, or younger man, or younger woman, a dog, rabid and mad, in which is a spirit of destruction, shall bite or touch, or shall touch, in that hour let him run with all his garment, and going down into a river or into a spring, wherever there is a deep place, let him be plunged with all his garment and let him pray to the great and highest God with a heart of faith, and then let him testify by the seven witnesses written in this book. ^C Behold, I testify by heaven, and water 65, and the holy spirits, and the angels of prayer, and oil, and salt, and the earth. By these seven [p. 295. 296] witnesses, I shall no longer sin, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor do injury, nor act greedily, nor hate, nor forswear, nor in all things wicked take pleasure." Having said these things, let him be baptized with all his garment 66 in the name of the great and highest God.

16. He prattles many other things, these things, and especially ^D upon phthisics, commanding them to be sung over and to be immersed in cold water forty times for seven days, likewise also upon demoniacs 67. O, wisdom inimitable and spells of power 68 stuffed full! Who would not be amazed at such and so great a power of words? But since he has used astrological error, we shall show it from them as we have said, for he speaks thus: "There are evil stars of impurity." This is now said to you, pious ones and disciples: Beware of the authority of the days, under which they hold power, and do not make a beginning of works on their days, nor undertake...

to wash a man or a woman on the days of their authority, whenever the moon is passing through them and accompanying them. Guard that day until it departs from them, and then wash and make a beginning in every beginning ^A of your works. Also, you must honor the day of the Sabbath, because it is one of the days of them. But even of the third Sabbath you must beware, that you do not make a beginning, because again when the three years of Trajan Caesar are completed, when they are completed, the war breaks out between the angels of the impiety of the north: therefore all the kingdoms of impiety are troubled.

17. Therefore, considering ^B it absurd that these great and secret mysteries should be trampled underfoot or delivered to many, he renders counsel as if they were precious pearls, saying: But do not read this book to all men, and guard these precepts diligently, for not all men are faithful, nor are all women upright. These things not even the wise men of the Egyptians perceived in their adyta, nor did the wise Pythagoras of the Greeks perceive them. For if by chance at that time there existed Elchasai: why was it necessary for Pythagoras or Thales or Solon, or the wise Plato or even the other wise men of the Greeks, to become disciples of the Egyptian priests, to have such and so great wisdom according to the opinion of Alcibiades, as the most wondrous interpreter of the wretched Elchasai? Therefore, it seems that these things are sufficient for the knowledge of those who possess a sound mind; wherefore it did not please me to use many words, since there are very many things worthy of mockery. ^C But since we do not pass over even these things, which have arisen in our own time, nor those which were before us, I am pleased that we should not leave anything untold, to say what the customs of the Greeks and the Jews are and what the difference is between them; I judge that these things also should be left behind, which I think I must not pass over, so that I may not leave even these things untold, and when I have finished pointing them out, I shall proceed to the proof of the word of truth, so that after the long struggle against all the heresies, we may be established once again, having reached the crown of the kingdom, and not be troubled ^D as those who piously believe.

18. Indeed, the custom of the Jews was one of old; for there was one teacher given to them by God, Moses, and through him one law was given, and one was the desert region, and one was Mount Sinai, for to them one was the lawgiver, God. Moreover, The servant happened to be of a certain Carpophorus, a man who was faithful of Caesar's household. So...

Carpophorus, as to a faithful man, entrusted not a small sum of money, upon his promise to bring a profit from banking business. He, having taken the bank, attempted business in the place called the Public Piscina, where not a few deposits were entrusted to him over time, in the name of Carpophorus, by widows and brothers; but he, having made it all disappear, was at a loss. When he had done these things, one was not wanting to report it to Carpophorus; he said he would demand an accounting from him. Callistus, having realized these things and fearing the danger from his master, fled, making his escape by sea. Having found a ship in the Port ready for departure, he went aboard, wherever it happened to be sailing. But not even in this way was he able to remain hidden, for one was not wanting to report what had happened to Carpophorus. He, having arrived at the harbor, attempted to rush onto the ship according to what had been reported; the ship was standing in the middle of the harbor. As the ferryman was slow, Callistus, seeing his master from afar while he was on the ship and knowing himself to be caught, became desperate for his life, and having counted these things as the end, threw himself into the sea.

But he, having nothing to pay and being unable to flee anymore because he was being guarded, devised a stratagem of death. Pretending on the Sabbath that he was going out to his debtors, he rushed to the synagogue of the Jews, who were assembled, and standing there, he caused a disturbance among them. Those who were troubled by him, having insulted him and inflicted blows upon him, dragged him to Fuscianus, who was the prefect of the city. They replied as follows: "The Romans have granted us leave to read our ancestral laws in public, but this man, entering in, hindered us by causing a disturbance, claiming to be a Christian."

With Fuscianus being before the judgment seat and growing angry at what was being said by the Jews against Callistus, the one who had reported the proceedings to Carpophorus did not cease. Hastening to the judgment seat of the prefect, he cried out: "I beseech you, Lord Fuscianus, do not believe him, for he is not a Christian; rather, he seeks a pretext for death, having made away with much of my money, as I shall prove."

Now the Jews, considering this a stratagem—as if Carpophorus were seeking by this pretext to rescue him—cried out against the prefect with even greater malice. Stirred by them, he scourged him and sent him to the mines of Sardinia. After some time, other martyrs being there, Marcia—who was a God-loving concubine of Commodus—desiring to perform some good work, summoned the blessed Victor, who was bishop of the church at that time, and asked who the martyrs in Sardinia might be. He gave the names of all the others, but did not give that of Callistus, knowing what he had done.

Zephyrinus, having him as a helper in the management of the clergy, honored him to his own detriment, and transferring him from Antheus, set him over the cemetery. He, always being with him, and—as I said before—currying favor with him by hypocrisy, led him astray; for he was able neither to judge what was said nor to understand the treachery of Callistus, who always spoke to him in ways that pleased him. Thus, after the death of Zephyrinus, thinking he had attained what he was hunting for, he cast off Sabellius as one who did not think rightly, fearing me and thinking that in this way he could wipe away the accusation against him before the churches: as if he did not hold to [the heretical] view. He was therefore a sorcerer and a knave, and for a time he led many astray. Carrying also the poison concealed in his heart, and at once thinking nothing sound, but at the same time ashamed to speak the truth—because he had publicly reproached us, saying, "You are Ditheists," and also because he was frequently accused by Sabellius of having abandoned the first faith—he invented such a heresy as this: saying that the Word himself is the Son, and that he is called by name one thing and the Father another, but that one indivisible spirit is one thing; that there is not one being as Father and another as Son, but one and the same existing; and that all things are full of the divine spirit, both those above and those below; and that the spirit which was incarnate in the Virgin is not different from the Father, but one and the same. And this is

in the school of Callistus. Those who are pleased with his ruling, many who have stricken consciences and at the same time have been rejected by many heresies—and some who, having been rejected from the Church by us on account of condemnation, have approached them—have filled his school. This man dogmatized that if a bishop should sin, even if it be a sin unto death, he must not be deposed. Under him, bishops, presbyters, and deacons began to be appointed to clergy even if they were digamists or trigamists; and if anyone who was already in the clergy should marry, he said that such a person should remain in the clergy as if he had not sinned, claiming that the word spoken by the Apostle was said with regards to this: "Who are you to judge another man’s servant?" But he also said that the parable of the tares was spoken in relation to this: "Let the tares grow together with the wheat," that is, let the sinners grow within the Church. Furthermore, he claimed that the ark of Noah was made as a likeness of the Church, in which there were dogs, wolves, ravens, and all things clean and unclean alike, claiming that it must be so in the Church as well; and he was powerful in gathering to this view, interpreting it in this way. Those who heard him, having been pleased with these dogmas, continue to deceive themselves and many others, to whose school crowds flock.

Upon this man, for the first time, a second baptism was dared. These things, then, the most wonderful Callistus established, whose school remains, guarding its customs and tradition, making no distinction as to whom one ought to commune with, but offering communion to all; from which they also received the name of being called "Callistians" because of Callistus, the one who took the lead in such works. After his teaching had been heard of throughout the whole world, a deceitful man, filled with madness, a certain man called Alcibiades, dwelling in Apamea of Syria, deeming himself faster and more clever in his tricks than Callistus, arrived in Rome carrying a certain book, claiming that he had received this from a righteous man of the Seres of Parthia, Elchasai, which he delivered to a certain man called Sobiai, having been revealed by an angel, the stature of whom was 24 schoeni, which equals miles—but its width was 4 schoeni, and from shoulder to shoulder, 6 schoeni, and the prints of his feet in length were 3 and a half schoeni, which equals fourteen miles, and the width was one and a half schoenus, and the height was half a schoenus. And he says that there was also a female with him, whose measurements he says were according to those already mentioned; and the male indeed was the Son of God, and the female was called the Holy Spirit. By babbling these monstrous things, he thinks to disturb the foolish, saying this word:

This man puts forward the way of life according to the Law as if it were bait, claiming that those who have believed must be circumcised and live according to the Law, drawing away some from the aforementioned heresies. He says that Christ became a man in common to all, and that He was not born of a virgin now for the first time, but had also been born and appeared and come into being many times before, exchanging births and transmigrating into other bodies, using that Pythagorean dogma. They are so puffed up as to claim for themselves prophetic powers, making use of the measures and numbers of the aforementioned Pythagorean art as starting points. These men pay attention to mathematicians, astrologers, and magicians as if they were speaking the truth, and by using them, they disturb the foolish into thinking that they possess powerful reasoning. They teach incantations and certain epilogues for those bitten by dogs, for those possessed by demons, and for those afflicted by other diseases, about which we will not remain silent either. Having sufficiently recounted their origins and the causes of their boldness, I shall proceed to relate the written documents, through which those who encounter them will learn of their nonsense and their godless arguments.

We have said that they use these incantations for those bitten by dogs and for others; we shall demonstrate this. He speaks as follows: "If a dog, mad and rabid, in which there is a spirit of corruption, bites a man or a woman or a younger man or woman, or tears or touches them, in that very hour, let them run with all their clothing, and having gone down into a river or a spring, wherever there is a deep place, let them be baptized with all their clothing, and let them pray to the great and most high God with faith in their heart, and then let them call as witness the seven witnesses written in this book: Behold, I call to witness heaven and water and the holy spirits and the angels of prayer and the oil and the salt and the earth. These seven witnesses I call to witness, that I will no longer sin, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor act unjustly, nor be greedy, nor hate, nor break my word, nor take pleasure in anything evil. Having said these things, therefore, let them be baptized with all their clothing in the name of the great and most high God." He babbles about many other things, teaching that the same things should be said over those suffering from consumption, and that they should be baptized in cold water forty times for seven days, and similarly for those possessed by demons. O, inimitable wisdom and incantations filled with powers! Who would not be amazed at such great power in these words? But since we said that they also use astrological deceit, we shall show this from their own words. For he says as follows:

Concerning the Sects of the Jews, and their differences

^A These, then, are the great and secret mysteries, which, regarding it as irrational that they should be trampled upon or betrayed to the many, he advises that they be guarded like precious pearls, saying: "Read not this discourse to all men, and keep these commandments carefully, for not all men are faithful, nor are all women upright." These things the sages of the Egyptians did not contain in their inner sanctuaries, nor did the wise Pythagoras of the Greeks contain them. For if at that time Elchasai had occurred, what necessity would there have been for Pythagoras or Thales or Solon or the wise Plato or the remaining sages of the Greeks to be taught by the priests of the Egyptians, having such and so great wisdom from Alcibiades, the most admirable interpreter of the miserable Elchasai? ^B It seems, therefore, that the things said are sufficient for the realization of the madness of these men, ^C for those who possess a sound mind; wherefore it did not seem best to use more sayings, since they are very many and ridiculous. But since we have not omitted even these matters that have been raised in our own time, and have not remained silent about those before us, it seems best, in order that we may have traveled through everything and left nothing untold, to speak of what the customs of the Jews are, and what the differences among them.

these men practice a more solemn life, being philanthropic and temperate; they turn away from the work of every desire, and are even hostile to hearing of such things, and they forbid marriage. They take in the children of others, adopt them, and guide them to their own customs; thus they rear them and advance them in their teachings—not prohibiting marriage [in general], but abstaining from it themselves. As for women, even if they wish to adhere to the same purpose, they do not accept them, under no circumstances trusting women. They despise wealth, and do not shrink from sharing with those in need; nor does anyone among them become wealthier than another. For it is their law that anyone joining the sect must sell their possessions and bring them to the common fund, which an official receives and distributes to all according to their needs. Thus, there is no one in want among them. They do not use oil, considering anointing to be essentially a defilement. Their treasurers, who attend to all common matters, are chosen by vote; and they always wear white clothing. They do not have one single city; rather, many of them reside in every city. And if any of their sectaries arrive from abroad, they consider everything to be common for him, and they treat those whom they did not know before as kinsmen and acquaintances.

REFUTATION OF ALL HERESIES, BOOK TEN.

^A 1. These things are contained in the tenth book of the Refutation of all heresies: 2. A summary of all the philosophers. 3. A summary of all the heresies. 4. And finally, after all, what the doctrine of truth is.

5. Now that we have not violently shattered the labyrinth of the heresies, but have dissolved them by the power of the refutation of the truth alone, we approach the demonstration of the truth. For then the artificial and evil sophisms of error will be shown to be unstable, when the definition of truth has been demonstrated; not having taken its principles from the wisdom of the Greeks, nor having been taught the vain, supposedly secret doctrines held with such confidence among the Egyptians, nor having been deluded by the empty curiosity of the Chaldeans, nor having been terrified by the senseless madness of the Babylonians, ^B but resting upon that which is truly the Way, being guileless and uncorrupted, which alone, when it appears, refutes error. And although we have often enough opened up its reasoning and have liberally shown the rule of truth to those who desire it, yet now, not deeming it enough to bring before all the dogmas of the Greeks and those of the heretics, we have decided to add this demonstration as a crowning work to the books for the tenth book.

6. Having therefore embraced the dogmas of all the wise men among the Greeks in four books, and those that have pleased the heresiarchs in five, we shall declare the doctrine of truth in one, recapitulating first the things approved by all. For those among the Greeks who are dogmatists have divided philosophy into three parts, calling some physical, some ethical, and others ^C dialectical. And those who were physical... [The text here continues to discuss the physical philosophers, stating that] the inquiry regarding generation and corruption is [a concern] for the Skeptics, as it is for the Physical philosophers, and for all who have reflected upon the constitution of the universe; some generated all things from one, others from many; and of those from one, some said from the undefined, others from the defined; and of the defined, some from air, others from water, and others...

from earth; and of those from many, some from the numerable, others from the infinite; and of those from the numerable, some from two, others from four, others from five, others from six; and of those from the infinite, some from things similar to those which are generated, others from dissimilar; and of these, some from the impassible, others from the passible. ^A The Stoics, therefore, established the origin of the universe from a body devoid of quality and, in that respect, one. For the principle of the universe, according to their opinion, is matter devoid of quality and altogether mutable; and when this changes, fire, air, water, and earth are born. But those around Hippasus, Anaximander, and Thales the Milesian wish for all things to have been made from one and a qualified thing. Hippasus the Metapontine and Heraclitus the Ephesian declared the origin of things to be from fire, Anaximander from air, Thales from water, and Xenophanes from earth. For he says, "All things are from earth, and into earth all things end."

§ 7. ^B The poet Homer affirms that the universe consists of more than one thing—namely, of two, earth and water—when he says at one time: "Ocean, the source of the gods, and mother Tethys," and at another: "But you may all become water and earth." ^C The Colophonian Xenophanes also seems to agree with him, for he says: "For we all were born of earth and water."

^A E-ven so, Euripides [is born] from earth and ether, as one may recognize from his saying: *Ether and earth I sing, the mother of all.* From four [elements], moreover, Empedocles, when he speaks in this manner: 500-501 *Four roots of all things first hear,* *Bright Zeus, and life-bearing Hera, and Aidoneus,* *And Nestis, who bedews human springs with tears.*

From five, moreover, Ocellus Lucanus and Aristotle; for together with the four elements they took up a fifth, the circular-moving body, from which they say the heavenly things are composed. From six, moreover, the school of Empedocles posited the origin of the universe. For when he says: *Four roots of all things first hear*, he establishes the origin as being from four; but when he adds: *And baneful Strife apart from these, everywhere equal,* *And Love amongst them, equal in length and breadth,*

^B he hands down six principles of the universe: four, indeed, material—earth, water, fire, air—and two active: Love and Strife. From infinite [principles], however, those around Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, and Democritus, and Epicurus, and very many others, whose names we have mentioned previously in part, opined that there is an origin of all things. But Anaxagoras [holds they are made] from things similar to what is generated; the school of Democritus and Epicurus, from things dissimilar and impassible—that is, from the atoms; ^C the schools of Heraclides Ponticus and Asclepiades, from things dissimilar but passible, as if from irregular corpuscles. And the school of Plato [says they come] from three; these they say are God, and matter, and the pattern. And he divides matter into four principles:

From earth and ether [comes] Euripides, as it is possible to understand from his saying: *Ether and earth I sing, the mother of all.* From four [elements], Empedocles: *Four roots of all things first hear,* *Bright Zeus, and life-bearing Hera, and Aidoneus,* *And Nestis, who bedews human springs with tears.*

From five, Ocellus Lucanus and Aristotle; for together with the four elements they took up a fifth, the circular-moving body, from which they say the heavenly things are. From six, those around Empedocles posited the origin of all things. For in those passages where he says *four roots of all things*, he makes the generation from four; but when he adds: *And baneful Strife apart from these, everywhere equal,* *And Love amongst them, equal in length and breadth,*

he hands down the principles of existing things, four indeed as material—earth, water, air, fire—and two as active: love and strife. From infinite [principles], those around Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, and Democritus, and Epicurus, and very many others, opined that the generation of things is [derived]. But Anaxagoras [derived it] from things similar to the things being generated; those around Democritus and Epicurus from things dissimilar and impassible, that is, from the atoms; those around Heraclides Ponticus and Asclepiades from things dissimilar, yet passible, just as—

^A fire, water, earth, air; and that God is the maker of this, and the archetype is the mind.

8. Persuaded, therefore, that in all these things the method of natural philosophy is found to be undeniably at a loss, we ourselves shall speak fearlessly concerning the archetypes of truth, as they are and as we have believed, ^B and furthermore, having first briefly set forth the tenets of the leaders of the heresies, so that when we have shown the dogmas of all men exposed in this way, we might demonstrate the clear and manifest truth.

9. But since it seems good, let us begin first from the servants of the serpent. The Naassenes ^C call man the first principle of all things, and the same one also the Son of man, and they divide him into three parts. For they say that of him, one part is rational, one is animal, and one is choicic (earthly). They call him Adamas, and they believe that the knowledge of him is the beginning of the ability to know God. And they say that all these—the rational, the animal, and the choicic—have passed into Jesus, and simultaneously through him have spoken the three substances to the three genera. They proclaim that the genera of the universe are three: angelic, animal, and choicic; and that there are three churches: angelic, animal, and choicic; and their names are: elect, called, and captive. These are the heads of doctrine according to them, as ^D one can grasp in brief. They say that James, the brother of the Lord, delivered these to Mariamne, slandering both.

10. The Peratae, Ademes the Carystian, and Euphrates the Peratic, say that the world is one, so calling it, divided into three parts. And there is for them, during the threefold division, one part, as it were, a single principle like a great fountain, able to be divided into infinite segments by reason. And the first cutting and the more proximate one, according to them, is the triad, and one part is called the good perfect, the magnitude of the Father; and the second part of the triad is as it were a certain infinite multitude of powers of the unadapted masses. Having already assumed that for all these the method of natural philosophy is shown to be at a loss, once generation and corruption have been removed, we shall more readily approach the arguments; although if we were to examine them, the head of the matter was already sufficiently set forth through the preceding parts. Ademes the Carystian and Euphrates the Peratic, from whom those like-minded with them were called Peratae, say that the world is one, divided into three parts. And one part is like some great fountain, able to be divided into infinites by reason. And they call the first division the triad and name it the good perfect, the magnitude of the Father. And the second is an infinite multitude of powers;

and the third, the specific. And the first, they say, is unbegotten ^A (which is good), the second is good self-begotten, the third is begotten; whence they say explicitly: three Gods, three Logoi, three Minds, three men. For to each part of the world, by a distinct division, they ascribe both Gods and Logoi and men and the rest. But from above, from the unbegotten state and the first division of the world, when the world had finally been established at (the time of) its consummation, they say that there descended in the times of Herod a certain tri-natured and tri-corporeal and tri-potent man, called Christ, having within himself from the three parts of the world all the concretions and powers. And this they wish to be what is said: "In whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." ^B And they say that there were brought down from the two superior worlds, the unbegotten one and the self-begotten one, into this world in which we are, seeds of all kinds of powers. And that Christ descended from above, from the unbegotten (one), so that through his descent all things might be saved, insofar as they were divided into three parts. For what has come down from above, he says, will ascend again through him, but that which laid snares for those who had come down is abandoned, and being punished, is sent away. And he says that there are two parts which are saved, (namely) the ones superior (and) separated from destruction, but the third perishes, which he calls the 'specific' world. These are the teachings of the Peratae.

11. But to the Sethians, it seems that there are three limited principles of the universe. ^C And each of the principles is naturally adapted to be able to become (anything), just as in the human soul any art whatever that is taught can exist—for instance, as a child, when he has drawn near to a flute-player, can be able to play the flute by means of him, or as one might be able to understand geometry by a geometer, or (learn) any other art in the same way. But the natures of the principles, they say, are light and darkness; and between these there is the spirit, commingled. And the spirit being situated in the middle... ^D

and light, which is above, they say: it is not a spirit like as a gust of wind or some subtle breeze that can be perceived, but rather like a certain scent of ointment or of incense made from a mixture, being subtle, and passing through with a power that is inconceivable and with a motion of fragrance superior to words. ^A Since, therefore, the light is above and the darkness is below, and the spirit is between them, and the light is like a ray of the sun shining from above into the underlying darkness, while the fragrance of the spirit is borne along possessing a middle rank and extends itself, just as the scent of incenses is borne upon the fire; and since there is such a power of these three things that are divided: the power of the spirit and the light [is] together below in the darkness that is subjected. But they say that the darkness is a terrible water, into which it has been snatched ^B and transferred into such a nature, along with the spirit and the light. Since the darkness is intelligent, and knows that if the light be taken away from it, the darkness remains desolate, unseen, lightless, powerless, inactive, [and] weak, for this reason with all understanding and intelligence it strives to keep within itself the brightness and the spark of the light along with the fragrance of the spirit. They introduce an image of this, saying: Just as the pupil of the eye appears dark under the underlying waters, but is illuminated by the spirit, so the darkness seeks after the spirit; and they have among themselves all the powers that wish to withdraw and to return. ^C But these are infinitely infinite, from which all things are fashioned and come into being as they come into contact like seals. For just as a seal, having communicated with wax, both produces the impression and remains itself what it was, so also the powers, having communicated, work out all the infinite kinds of living creatures. There came to be, then, from the first concurrence of the three principles, the idea of the great seal—heaven and earth—possessing a form similar to a womb having a navel in the middle. And in this way also the rest of the figures of all things were fashioned, just as heaven and earth are similar to a womb. And they say that from the water there came to be a first-born principle, a wind, fierce ^D and violent and the cause of all generation, producing a certain seething and agitation in the world from the movement of the waters. This they say accomplishes a form similar to the hissing of a serpent, bearing [itself] to the place from which the bearer came; the world, having been aroused with a longing for generation as a womb, and from this they wish the generation of all things to be constituted. And they say that this spirit of the wind is a perfect God born from the fragrance of the waters and the spirit and the splendor of the light, and is the offspring of the female...

11 intellect 13 that has been mingled below with the entangled 14 body 15 and is hastening to escape 16, and having escaped 17 [p. 518. 319] it proceeds to find the release that is in the waters. Therefore, let there be an end 18 to this mixture of the waters according to the Psalm, as they say. All concern, therefore, is for the upper light, how the spark below may escape from the father below, the agitation and confusion stirred up by the wind, and having rendered the intellect to itself 19, not the intellect of that one—for they say that [though] having seen 20 the perfect Word of the light above, it has been transformed into the state of the mother 21—so that it might be able to take up that intellect from the light. And this is also what is meant by: "Who, being in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant." And ^B this servile form the wretched Sethians wish it to be. These things, therefore, they say.

And this [servile] 23 form the wretches 24, the Sethians, wish [to imply] 25. Thus much do these men say.

12. But the most wise 26 Simon speaks in this manner: an infinite power, he says, is this root of the universe. This, he says, is the infinite power, that is fire, in itself simple, as many say that there are four simple elements, and they have considered fire to be simple, but he says that the nature of this fire is two-fold, and he calls one part of this two-fold nature hidden, ^C the other manifest; and that the hidden part of the fire lies concealed in the manifest, and the manifest part of the fire has come into being from the hidden. But, he says, all the parts of the fire, both visible and invisible, have understanding. Therefore, he says, that which is generated has come into existence from the ungenerated fire. And it began, he says, to come into being in this manner: Six roots and their first principles of generation, he who is generated is from the principle of this fire; for these roots have existed as conjugations from the fire, which he calls Mind and Intelligence, Voice and Name, Reasoning and Cogitation. And in these six roots there is that infinite power 512-513 at once, which he says is he who stands, stood, and will stand, ^D who, when he shall be brought to perfection in these six powers, will be equal in power, in magnitude, in perfection, and one and the same who is ungenerated and infinite power, possessing nothing at all from among...

the things that are generated, nor has it been fashioned, it perishes, he says, and in the same way is this power of grammar or geometry, which in the human soul being present, having not taken unto itself the craftsman who teaches it. Even he, Simon says, who stands, has stood, will stand, is that power which is above all things. Such, then, is Simon also.

13. Valentinus and those of his school say that there is a beginning of the universe, the Father, but they depart into contrary opinions. Some of them believe Him to be alone and generative, while others say He cannot generate without a female, and to this they add a spouse, whom they name Silence. From this one and from his spouse, they say, the projections came to be: six, Mind and Truth, Word and Life, Man and Church, and this they call the first-born octave; and the projections within the Term, they call them again within the fullness, and the second, those that are from within the fullness, and the third, those outside the Term, whose generation exists as a miscarriage. The one produced from the miscarriage, he says, is the Demiurge, not wishing him to be the first god, but speaking blasphemously of him and of those things made by him; but Christ, from those things which are within the fullness, descending to save the spirit that has wandered, which dwells in our interior man, whom they say is saved for the sake of the one who inhabits it. He wishes the flesh not to be saved, calling it a skin tunic and a perishing man. These are in summary what he has posited, with a great deal of matter according to them and differences of opinions. So then it seems to the Valentinian school. ^B

14. Basilides also himself says there is a God who does not exist, a world made out of non-existent things, not out of anything, but, like the grain of the mustard seed, having in itself the stem, the leaves, the branches, the fruit, and as the egg of a peacock having in itself the varying abundance of colors, and this they say is the seed of the world, from which all things have come to be. For it has in itself all things such as non-existences planned by the non-existent God to happen. There was then, they say, in the seed a three-fold sonship, in every…

[Translation of the Greek continuation follows]

…way all things, while others say from more; and of those from one, some from that which is without quality, others from that which has quality; and of those from that having quality, some from fire, others from water, others from earth; and of those from more, some from countable things, others from infinite things; and of those from countable things, some from two, others from four, others from five, others from six; and of those from infinite things, some from things similar to those begotten, others from things dissimilar; and besides these, some from impassible things, others from passible things. The Stoics constructed the generation of the universe from a qualityless and unique body. For the beginning of all things according to them is qualityless matter and changeable throughout; and as it changes, fire, air, water, and earth come to be. And those around Hippasus, Anaximander, and Thales the Milesian wish for all things to have been generated from one thing having quality; of whom Hippasus of Metapontum and Heraclitus of Ephesus declared the generation to be from fire, Anaximander from air, Thales from water, and Xenophanes from earth. "For from earth," he says, "all things are, and into earth all things end." Homer the poet says that the universe is constructed from more things and countable things, namely from two, earth and water, when he says:

"I sing of the ether and of earth, the mother of all things."

And from four, Empedocles, saying thus:

"Hear first the four roots of all things: Zeus is air, and Hera the life-bringer, and Aidoneus, And Nestis, who moistens the human spring with tears."

And from five, Ocellus the Lucanian and Aristotle; for they took along with the four elements a fifth and circular-moving body, from which they say the heavenly things are composed. And from six, those around Empedocles posited the generation of things. For in the places where he says, "Hear first the four roots of all things," he makes generation from four; but when he adds, "and destructive Strife apart from these, equal in every way, and Love among them, equal in length and breadth," he hands down six principles of the whole: four that are material—earth, fire, water, air—and two that are active—Love and Strife. From infinite things, those around Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, Democritus, and Epicurus, and a vast multitude of others, whose tenets we have previously mentioned in part, dogmatized that the generation of all things proceeds.

^A But since it seems best, let us begin first with the ministers of the serpent. The Naassenes call the first principle of all things "Man," and the same [they call] the "Son of Man." Him they divide into three parts; for of him, they say, there is an intellectual part, a psychic part, and an earthly part. They call him Adamas, and they believe that the knowledge of him is the beginning of the ability to know God. And [they say] that all these—the intellectual, the psychic, and the earthly—have been contained in Jesus, and that he has spoken simultaneously of the three essences to the three genera. They declare that there are three genera of the whole: the angelic, the psychic, and the earthly; and three churches: the angelic, the psychic, and the earthly; and that their names are the elect, the called, and the captive. These are the main points according to them, as one can grasp in a short space. These things, they say, were handed down by James, the brother of the Lord, to Mariamne, slandering both of them.

^A For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. They claim that [these seeds] were brought down from two worlds, the unbegotten and the self-begotten, into this world in which we are, as seeds of all kinds of powers. They say that Christ descended from above, from the Unbegotten, so that through His descent all things divided into three parts might be saved. For those things, he says, which have been brought down from above, will ascend through Him; and that they are as a certain great spring capable of being divided into infinite parts by the Word. The first division they call a triad, and they name it the perfect good, the paternal magnitude. The second, they say, is a multitude of infinite powers. The third they call the "idical" (specific). And the first they call unbegotten, and they name them three gods, three words, three minds, three men. ^B And they say that from above, from the Unbegotten and the first division of the world, near the very consummation of the world, in the times of Herod, there descended a certain three-natured, three-bodied, and three-powered man, who is called Christ. He traversed the unbegotten world, which had plotted against those that had been brought down, and [because he had plotted] he is dismissed as worthless, and having been punished, he is sent away. He says that there are two parts being saved, the higher ones, which have been delivered from corruption, but the third one, which he calls the "idical" world, perishes. These are the views of the Peratae.

The Sethians, however, hold that there are three limited principles of the universe. Moreover, each of the principles is naturally able to become, just as in a human soul any craft whatsoever that is taught—for example, if a child were to become a flute-player, he would be able to play the flute, or if a geometer, he would be able to practice geometry, or [would be able to perform] likewise with any other craft.

They introduce an image of this, saying: just as the pupil of the eye appears dark because of the underlying waters, but is illuminated by the spirit, so the darkness participates in the spirit, and possesses within itself all the powers that desire to depart and ascend. These powers are infinitely infinite. From them all things are fashioned and come into being, being mixed like seals. For just as a seal, having communed with wax, has created an impression while remaining itself what it was, so these powers, having communed, produce all the infinite genera of living creatures. They say, therefore, that from the first convergence of the three principles there came about the idea of the great seal, heaven and earth, having a form similar to a womb with an umbilicus in the middle. And in this way, they say, the remaining imprints of all things have been imprinted, similar to the womb [that produced] heaven and earth. And they say that from the water came into being a primal principle, a wind, violent and impetuous, and the cause of all generation, producing a certain turbulence and motion in the world from the motion of the waters. They say that this fulfills the form of a serpent, winged; wearing which, the world was moved toward generation, like a womb. And from this they wish the generation of the whole to consist.

The all-wise Simon speaks as follows: that there is a boundless power, and that this is the root of all things. He says, moreover, that this boundless power is fire, not according to the simple sense, as the many think, who say that the four elements are simple, and have supposed that fire is simple; but he says the nature of fire is twofold, and of this twofold nature he calls one part hidden, and the other manifest. He holds that the hidden things are concealed within the manifest things of the fire, and that the manifest things of the fire come into being from the hidden things. And he says that all the parts of the fire, both visible and invisible, are believed to possess intelligence. The generated world, therefore, they say, came into being from the ungenerated fire. And he says it began to come into being in this way, with the generated world taking from the principle of that fire the six primary roots of the origin of generation; for these roots, they say, came into being in pairs from the fire, which he calls Mind and Insight, Voice and Name, Reason and Reflection. And he says that within these six roots the boundless power exists purely in potentiality, not in actuality; and this boundless power he says is the One who stood, stands, and will stand. If this Power should be in the six powers, it will be in essence, in potentiality, in magnitude, and in operation one and the same as the ungenerated and potential power, having nothing whatever lacking to that ungenerated, unchanging, and boundless power.

From this they say that there have been projections of the syzygy: Nous and Truth, Word and Life, Man and Church; and that this octad is those projections made within the boundary, which are again called those within the Pleroma; that those outside the Pleroma are second; and those outside the boundary are third, whose birth constitutes the deficiency. He says that the one who came from the aeon projected in the deficiency is the creator, not wishing him to be the first God, but blaspheming both him and the things that have been created by him. He says that Christ came down from within the Pleroma for the salvation of the straying spirit, which dwells in the man like us, whom they say is saved for the sake of this indwelling one. He does not wish for the flesh to be saved, calling it a tunic of skin and a man who is perishing. I have spoken these things in summary, as there is much material according to them and varying opinions. Thus, it seems, it is also for the school of Valentinus. Basilides himself also says that there is a non-existent God, that a world was made from non-existence by the non-existent, casting down a seed, as it were a mustard seed having in itself the trunk, the leaves, the branches, the fruit, or as a peacock’s egg having in itself the varied multitude of colors; and they say this is the seed of the world, from which all things have been made.

The third sonship requires purification; it remained in the heap of the pan-spermia, and it is both benefited and benefits. There is said to be something called the world, and there are things above the world. For by it [the world] beings are divided into the two first divisions. And it calls the middle of these the boundary holy spirit, having the scent of sonship. From the pan-spermia of the heap of the cosmic seed, there was exhaled and born the great archon, the head of the world, in beauty and magnitude inexpressible. He, having raised himself as far as the firmament, thought there was no other above himself, and he became brighter and more powerful than all the things underneath him, except for the remaining sonship, which he did not know to be wiser than himself. He, therefore, turning to the creation of the world, first begets a son for himself, better than himself, and he seated him at his right hand; and this, they say, is the Ogdoad. He himself, therefore, works the whole heavenly creation. Another archon ascended from the pan-spermia, greater indeed than all the things underneath him except for the abandoned sonship, but much less than the former; him they call the Hebdomad. He is the maker and creator and administrator of all things under him; and this one also made for himself a son more sensible and wiser.

The female, however, is lacking in foreknowledge, irascible, and double-bodied, as we have described in detail in the discourses concerning him: her upper parts as far as the groin are those of a virgin, but from the groin downwards those of a viper. Such a one is called Edem and Israel. He claims that these are the sources of all things, from which all things were made. Eloim, he says, came in lack of foreknowledge to desire the mixture with the virgin, and having mingled with her, he begat twelve angels. Their names are * *; and those pertaining to the father join with the father, while those pertaining to the mother join with the mother. These are the * * * of Moses, who allegorically stated what was written in the Law. Everything was made by Eloim and Edem, the animals and the rest coming from the bestial part, but man from the parts above the groin. And Edem deposited in him the soul, which was her own power, while Eloim deposited the spirit. This one [man], then, [in relation] to the Good One, has also abandoned Edem; wherefore she, having become enraged,

these having taken counsel and assembled together from the middle aeon, gave birth from the virgin Mary to the savior of all, in all things like the first body in the fig-seed, but in this [he is] inferior, in that he is generated; for the seed, from which the fig tree [comes], is ungenerated. There was, therefore, the great light of the aeons, whole, receiving no arrangement, having in itself the ideas of all living creatures; this, having descended into the underlying chaos, provided the cause for things that have come into existence and that exist, and having descended from above, it stamped the eternal ideas downwards into the chaos; for the third aeon, the one that has tripled itself,

and for the Son of Man to be *iota*, which is ten, a lordly number, in which is the substance of the entire number, by which every number and the genesis of the whole—fire, air, water, earth—has been constituted. And this being *iota* [10] and one serif, perfect from perfect, is a serif flowed from above, possessing all things [as many as] it itself has, as many as the man has, he who is of the Son of Man. Therefore Moses says the world was made in six days, that is to say in six powers, from which the world came to be from the one serif. For both the cubes, and the octahedra, and the pyramids, and all figures similar to these [were equal], composed of fire, air, water, and earth, have come from numbers grasped in that simple serif of the *iota*, which is the Son of Man. Whenever, therefore, he says, Moses speaks of a rod being turned into Egypt, he is listing the passions, allegorizing the world of the *iota*, and he fashioned no more than the ten passions.

All of these men say that the good God has made nothing at all, but as for the just God—some call him evil, while others call him only just—they claim that he made all things out of the underlying matter; for he made them not well, but irrationally, for the things produced must necessarily be similar to the one who produced them. Therefore, they also use the evangelical parables in this way, saying, "A good tree cannot bear evil fruit," and the rest, claiming that the things he [the Creator] regarded as evil were spoken of in this context. And they say that Christ is the son of the good God and was sent by him for the salvation of souls—whom he calls the "inner man"—saying that he appeared as man while not being man, and as incarnate while not incarnate, having appeared in semblance only, enduring neither birth nor suffering, but only in appearance. He does not wish for the flesh to be resurrected, and by saying that marriage is corruption, he leads his disciples toward a more cynical life, believing that in these matters he grieves the Creator, if one were to abstain from that which he had created or ordained. Apelles, a disciple of this man, being displeased with the things said by his teacher, as we mentioned earlier, posited in another argument that there are four gods: of whom he says one is *good*, whose son he does not say Christ is; another is the creator of the universe, whom he does not wish to call God; another is the fiery one who appeared; and another is evil; whom he calls angels, adding also that Christ is, he will say, a fifth.

And after the baptism, he says, Christ came down upon him from the authority above all things in the form of a dove, and then he preached the unknown Father and performed miracles; but at the end of the passion, Christ flew away from Jesus, and Jesus suffered, but Christ remained impassible, being the Spirit of the Lord. The Ebionites, however, say that the world was created by the true God, but they speak of Christ in the same way as Cerinthus. They live, moreover, according to the Law of Moses in all things, alleging that they are justified in this way. Theodotus of Byzantium introduced such a heresy as this, alleging that all things were created by the true God, while he says that Christ appeared to men in such a manner as the aforementioned Gnostics described; he maintains that Christ was a man common to all, differing only in that he was born of a virgin by the counsel of God, the Holy Spirit having overshadowed her, though not having been incarnate in the virgin; later, at his baptism, Christ came down upon Jesus in the form of a dove, from which point they say that the powers were not active in him before. He does not wish Christ to be God. Such are the tenets of Theodotus.