Philosophumena; or The Refutation of All Heresies (Vol. 2 of 2)

BOOK VI SIMON MAGUS, VALENTINUS, AND THEIR FOLLOWERS — 1. About Simon. — 2. Concerning Valentinus. — 3. About Secundus and Epiphanes. [166] — 4. About Ptolemy. [175] — 5. About Marcus. [179] — FOOTNOTES

BOOK VII BASILIDES, SATURNILUS, AND OTHERS — 1. About Basilides. [1] — 2. Satornilus. [103] — 3. Concerning Marcion. [112] — 4. Carpocrates. [164] — 5. Cerinthus. [174] — 6. Ebionæi. [178] — 7. Theodotus the Byzantian. [181] — 8. Another Theodotus. — 9. Cerdo and Lucian. [189] — 10. Apelles. [191] — FOOTNOTES

BOOK VIII THE DOCETAE, MONOIMUS, AND OTHERS — 1. The Docetae. — 2. Monoimus. — 3. Tatian. — 4. Hermogenes. — 5. About the Quartodecimans. [75] — 6. Phrygians. [77] — 7. Encratites. — FOOTNOTES

p. 396. 1. These are the contents of the 8th [Book] of the Refutation of all Heresies.

2. What are the opinions of the Docetae,[1] and that they teach things which they say are from the Physicist Philosophy.[2]

3. How Monoimus speaks foolishly, giving heed to poets and geometricians and arithmeticians.

4. How Tatian’s [heresy] sprang from the opinions of Valentinus and Marcion wherefrom he compounded his own. And that Hermogenes has made use of the teachings of Socrates, not of Christ.

5. How those err who contend that Easter should be celebrated on the 14th day [of the month].

6. What is the error of the Phrygians, who think Montanus and Priscilla and Maximilla to be prophets.

p. 397. 7. What is the vain doctrine of the Encratites, and that their teachings are compounded not out of the Holy Scriptures, but from their own [views] and from those of the Gymnosophists among the Indians.[3]

8. Since the many, making no use of the Lord’s counsel, while having the beam[4] in their eye, yet give out that they can see, it seems to us that we should not be silent as to their doctrines. So that they, being brought to shame by our forthcoming refutation, shall recognize how the Saviour counselled them to take away the beam from their own eye, and then to see clearly the straw which was in their brother’s eye. Now, therefore, having set forth sufficiently and adequately the opinions of most of the heretics in the seven books before this, we shall not now be silent upon those which follow. Exhibiting the ungrudging grace of the Holy Spirit, we shall also refute those who seem to have p. 398. attained security, They call themselves Docetae and teach thus:—The first God[5] is as it were the seed of a fig, in size altogether of the smallest, but in power boundless, a magnitude unreckoned in quantity, lacking nothing for bringing forth, a refuge for the fearful, a covering for the naked, or veil for shame, a fruit sought for, whereto, he says, the Seeker came thrice and found not.[6] Wherefore, he says, He cursed the fig-tree,[7] so that that sweet fruit was not found on it, [i. e.] the fruit that was sought for. And [the seed] being, so to speak briefly, of such a nature and so old [yet] small and without magnitude, the cosmos came into being from God, as they think, in some such way as this:—The branches of the tree becoming tender, put forth leaves, as is seen, and fruit follows, wherein is preserved the innumerable p. 399. [and] stored-up seed of the fig. We think, therefore, that three things first come into being from the seed of the fig, the stem which is the fig-tree, leaves, and the fruit or fig, as we have before said. Thus, says he, three Aeons came into being as principles from the First Principle of the universals.[8] And on this, he says, Moses was not silent, when he said that the words of God were three: “Darkness, cloud and whirlwind and he added no more.”[9] For, he says, God added nothing to the Three Aeons, but they sufficed and do suffice for all things which come into being. But God Himself abides by Himself and far removed from all the Aeons.[10]

When, therefore, each of these Aeons, he says, had received a principle of generation, as has been said, it little by little increased and grew great and became perfect. Now they think that the perfect number [is] ten.[11] Then the Aeons having come into being equal in number and perfection, as they think, they were thirty Aeons in all,[12] each of them being complete in a decad. But they are divided and the three having equal honour among themselves, differ in position only, because one of them is first, p. 400. another second, and another third. But this position produced a difference of power. For he who is nearest to the First God—to the seed as it were—chances to have a power more fruitful than the others, he who is the Immeasureable One having measured himself ten times in magnitude. And the Incomprehensible One, who has become second in position to the first, comprehended himself six times. And the third in position, becoming removed to an infinite distance by reason of his brethren’s dilatation, conceived[13] himself three times and, as it were, bound himself by a certain eternal bond of unity.[14]

9. And this they think is the Saviour’s saying:—“The sower went forth to sow and that which fell upon good and fair ground made some 100, some 60, and some 30.”[15] And hence, says he, He said, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” because this is not what all understand.[16] All these Aeons [to wit] the Three and all the boundlessly boundless ones [who come] from them, are masculo-feminine ones.[17] Therefore having increased and become great, and all of them being from that one first seed of their concord p. 401. and unity, and all becoming together one Aeon, they all begat from the one Virgin Mary, the begettal common to them all, a Saviour in the midst of them all,[18] of equal power in everything with the seed of the fig, save that He was begotten. But that first seed whence is born the fig is unbegotten. Then those three Aeons having been adorned[19] with all virtue and holiness, as these teachers think, all the conceivable, lacking-nothing, nature of that Only-Begotten[20] Son—for He alone was born to the boundless Aeons by a triple generation; for three immeasureable Aeons with one mind begot Him—was adorned also. But all these conceivable and eternal things were Light; but the Light was not formless and idle, nor did it lack anything superadded to it: but it contained within itself the boundless forms of the various animals here below corresponding in number to the boundlessly boundless after the pattern of the fig-tree. And it shone from on high into p. 402. the underlying chaos. And this [chaos], being at once illuminated and given form from the various forms on high, received consistence[21] and took all the supernal forms from the Third Aeon who had tripled himself.[22] But this Third Aeon, seeing all the types[23] that were his at once intercepted in the underlying darkness beneath, and not being ignorant of the power of the darkness and the simplicity and generosity[24] of the light, would not allow the shining types from on high to be drawn far down by the darkness beneath. But he subjected [the Firmament] to the Aeons. Then, having fixed it below, he divided in twain the darkness and the light.[25] “And he called the light which is above the firmament, Day, and the darkness he called Night.”[26] Therefore, as I have said, when all the boundless forms of the Third Aeon were intercepted in this lowest darkness, and the impress[27] of that same Aeon was stamped upon it along with the rest, a living fire came from the light whence the Great Ruler came into being p. 403. of whom Moses says: “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth.”[28] Moses says that this fiery God[29] spoke from the bush, that is from the darksome air, for batos [bush] is the whole air which underlies the darkness. But it is batos, says Moses according to him, because all the forms of light go from on high downwards, having the air as a passage.[30] And the word from the bush is no less recognized by us. For a sound significant of speech is reverberating air, without which human speech could not be recognized. And not only does our word from the bush, that is from the air, make laws for and be a fellow-citizen with us, but also odours and colours manifest their powers to us through the air.

10. Then this fiery God—the fire born from the light—made the cosmos, as Moses says, in this manner, he being substanceless,[31] [and] darkness having the substance and being ever silent towards the eternal types of the light which are intercepted below.[32] Therefore, until the Saviour’s manifestation, there was a certain great wandering of souls by reason of the God of the Light, the fiery Demiurge. For the forms are called souls, having been cooled down[33] from the things above and they continue in darkness to change about from body to body under the supervision of p. 404. the Demiurge. And that this is so, we may know from the words of Job: “And I also am a wanderer from place to place and from house to house.”[34] The Saviour also says: “And if you will receive it, this is the Elias who shall come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”[35] But by the Saviour, change of bodies has been made to cease; and faith is preached for the putting-away of transgressions.[36] In some such way that Only-Begotten Son beholding from on high the forms of the Aeons changing about in the darksome bodies willed to come down for their deliverance. When He saw that the multitude of Aeons could not bear to behold without ceasing the Pleroma of all the Aeons, but remained as mortals dreading corruption,[37] being held by the greatness and glory of power, He drew Himself together as a very great flash in a very small body, or rather, like the light of the eye drawn together under the eyelids, and goes forth to the p. 405. heaven and the shining stars. And there He again withdraws Himself under the eyelids at His pleasure. Thus does the light of the eye, and although it is everywhere present and is all things to us, it is invisible; but we see only the lids of the eye, the white corners, a broad membrane of many folds and fibres, a horn-like coat, and under this a berry-like pupil, both net-like and disk-like, and if there are any other coats to the light of the eye, it is enwrapped and lies hidden within them.

Thus, he says, the Only-Begotten Son, eternal on high, did on Himself (a form) corresponding to each Aeon of the Three Aeons, and being in the triacontad of Aeons, came into the world of the Decad[38] being of such age and as little as we have said, invisible, unknown, without glory and not believed upon. in order then, say the Docetae,[39] that he might do on also the Outer Darkness which is the flesh, an angel came down with Him from p. 406. on high and made announcement[40] to Mary as it is written, and He was born from her as it is written. And He who came from on high put on that which was born, and did all things as it is written in the Gospels; and was baptized in Jordan. And he was baptized, receiving the type and seal in the water of the body born from the Virgin, in order that when the Ruler should condemn the form which was his to death, to the Cross, that soul which had grown up within the body should strip off that body and affix it to the Tree. And thus (the soul) having triumphed by its means over the Principles and Authorities would not be found naked, but would put on that body reflected in the likeness of that flesh in the water when He was baptized. This he says, is the Saviour’s saying: “Unless a man be born of water and of [the] Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of the heavens; because that which is born of the flesh is flesh.”[41]

From the thirty Aeons, then, He did on thirty forms. Wherefore that Eternal One was thirty years on the earth, every Aeon being manifested in his own year. And souls are all the forms which have been intercepted from each of p. 407. the thirty Aeons, and each of them possesses a nature capable of understanding the Jesus who exists according to nature which that Only-Begotten One from the eternal places puts on. But these places are different. Therefore so many heresies contending [with each other] about it, seek Jesus. And He is claimed[42] by them all, but is seen differently by each from the different places. Towards whom, he says, each [soul] is borne and hurries, thinking that she is alone. Who is indeed her kinsman and fellow-citizen. Whom she beholding for the first time recognizes as her own brother and all the rest as bastards. Those then who have their nature from the lower places cannot see the forms of the Saviour above them. But those on high, he say, from the middle Decad and the most excellent Ogdoad[43]—whence, say they, we are—know Jesus the Saviour not in part but wholly, and are alone the Perfect from above, while the others are only partly so.

p. 408. 11. I think then that this is for right-thinking persons sufficient for the knowledge of the complicated and inconsistent heresy of the Docetae—those who attempt to make arguments about inaccessible and incomprehensible matter calling themselves thus. Certain of whom do not only seem[44] to be mad; and we have proved that the beam from such matter has entered their own eye, if they are anyhow able to see clearly; and, if not, they will be unable to blind others. Whose dogma the early sophists of Greece anticipated in many points of sophistry, as our readers will understand. These then are the teachings of the Docetae.[45] It seems right also that we should not keep silence as to the [teachings] of Monoimus.

12. Monoimus the Arab[46] was a long way off[47] the glory of the great-voiced poet; for he thinks that some such man as Oceanus existed, of whom the poet speaks somehow like this:—

Turning this into other words, he says that a Man is the All which is the source of the universals, [being] unbegotten, incorruptible, and eternal; and that there is a Son of the aforesaid Man, who is begotten, and capable of suffering, being born in a timeless, unwilled, and previously undefined way. For such, says he, is the Power of that Man. And when it was so, the son of the Power came into being more quickly than reasoning or counsel. And this is, he says, the saying in the Scriptures: “He was and came into being,”[49] which is: Man was and his son came into being, as if one were to say: Fire was and Light came into being in a timeless, unwilled, and previously undefined way, while being at the same time fire. But this Man is a single monad, uncompounded [and] undifferentiated, [and yet] compounded [and] differentiated, loving and at peace with all things, [and yet] fighting with and at war with all things before him,[50] unlike and like, as it were a certain musical p. 410. harmony which contains whatever one may say or leave unsaid, showing all things and giving birth to all things. “This is Father, this is Mother, Two Immortal names.”[51] But for the sake of an instance, conceive, he says, as the greatest image of the Perfect Man, the one tittle which is one tittle uncompounded, simple, a pure monad having no composition whatever from anything, [yet] compounded of many forms, of many parts. That undivided One, he says, is the many-faced and myriad-eyed and myriad-named one tittle of the Iota,[52] which is an image of that Perfect and Invisible Man.

13. The one tittle, he says, is then the monad and a decad. For by this power of the one tittle of the Iota [are produced] also [the] dyad and triad and tetrad and pentad and hexad and heptad and ogdoad and ennead up to the ten. For these are the diversified numbers dwelling within that simple and uncompounded tittle of the p. 411. Iota. And this is the saying:—“Because it pleased the whole Pleroma to dwell within the Son of Man bodily.”[53] For such compounds of numbers from the simple and uncompounded one tittle of the Iota become he says bodily hypostases. Therefore, he says, the Son of Man was born from the Perfect Man, whom none know. But, he says, every creature who is ignorant of the Son, represents Him as the offspring of a woman. Of which Son some shadowy rays come very close to this world and secure and control change [of bodies and] birth. And the beauty of that Son of Man is till now unrevealed to all men who are misled as to the offspring of a woman. Nothing then of the things here come into being, he says, from that Man, nor will they ever do so; but all things that have come into being have done so not from the whole, but from some part of the Son of Man. For, says he, the Son of Man is one Iota, one tittle flowing from on high, full, and filling full all things, and containing within itself whatever the Man, Father of the Son of Man possesses.[54]

p. 412. 14. Now the cosmos, as Moses says, came into being in six days, that is, in six powers which are in the one tittle of the Iota.[55] [But] the seventh, a rest and a Sabbath, came into being from the Hebdomad which is over Earth and Water and Fire and Air, out of which the cosmos came into being by the one tittle. For the cubes and the octahedrons, and [the] pyramids and all the figures like these of which Fire, Air, Water, [and earth] consist, came into being from the numbers which are comprised in that single tittle of the Iota, which is a Perfect Son of a Perfect Man. When then, says he, Moses says that (the) rod was turned about in different ways for the plagues on Egypt,[56] these [plagues], he says, are symbols allegorizing the Creation. [For] he does not use the rod which is one tittle of the Iota, duplex and varied, as a figure[57] for more plagues than ten. This Creation of the world, he says, is the ten plagues.[58] For p. 413. everything struck produces and bears fruit as, for instance, vine-shoots. Man, he says, has burst forth from Man, and was severed from him by a certain blow,[59] so that he might be born and might declare the Law which Moses laid down after having received it from God. The Law is according to that one tittle, the Decalogue which allegorizes the divine mysteries of the words. For, says he, the Ten Plagues and the Decalogue[60] are the whole knowledge of the universals which none has known who has been misled concerning the offspring of the woman. And if you say that the whole Law is a Pentateuch, it is [still] from the pentad which is comprised in the one tittle. But the whole Law is for those who have not thoroughly crippled their understanding [a] mystery, a new feast not yet grown old, legal and eternal, a Passover of the Lord God kept unto our generations by those who can see [and] beginning on the 14th [day] which is the beginning, he says, of the decad from which they reckon.[61] For the monad up to 14 is the sum total of the one tittle of the perfect number. And p. 414. one + two + three + four become ten, wherefore it is the one tittle. But from fourteen up to twenty-one, a hebdomad subsists in the one tittle, the unleavened creature of the world in all these.[62] For what, says he, should the one tittle want of any substance like leaven for the Passover of the Lord, the eternal feast which is given for generations. For the whole cosmos and all the causes of creation are the Passover Feast of the Lord. For God rejoices in the transmutation of creation which is wrought under the strokes of the one tittle. The which is the rod of Moses given by God, which strikes the Egyptians and changes the bodies, as did the hand of Moses, from water into blood. And the other [plagues] are in nearly the same way [such as that of the] locusts, wherefore change of the elements he calls flesh into grass: “for all flesh is grass,”[63] he says. p. 415. But none the less do these men in some such way receive the whole Law. Following, perhaps, as it seems to me, the Greeks who say that there are Substance and Quality and Quantity and Relation and Position and Action and Possession and Passion.[64]

15. So for example Monoimus himself says distinctly in his letter to Theophrastus:[65] “Leave aside enquiry concerning God and Creation and the like, and enquire about Him from thyself, and learn who it is who simply makes His own all that is within thee, saying ‘My God, my mind, my understanding, my soul, my body.’ Learn also what are grief and rejoicing, and love and hate, and undesired watching and sleep, and undesired anger and love. And if,” says he, “thou dost carefully seek out this, thou wilt find Him in thyself [as both] one and many things after the likeness of that one tittle, he finding the outlet for Himself.”[66] This then is what these [men] say, which we are under no necessity to compare with what has been before excogitated by the Greeks. Since it is plain from p. 416. their statements that they have their origin from the geometrical and arithmetical art, which the disciples of Pythagoras set forth more excellently. As the reader may learn in the passages where we have before explained all the wisdom of the Greeks.

But since we have sufficiently refuted Monoimus,[67] let us see what others have elaborated who wish thereby to raise for themselves an idle name.

16. But Tatian, although himself a disciple of Justin Martyr, was not of like mind with his master, but attempted something new. He says that there were certain Aeons [about whom] he fables in the like way with the Valentinians. But in the same way as Marcion he says that marriage is destruction. And he asserts that Adam will not be saved, through his becoming a leader of rebellion. And thus Tatian.[68]

p. 417. 17. A certain Hermogenes[69] thinking also to devise something new, says that God created all things from co-existent and ungenerated matter. For he held it impossible that God should create the things that are from those that are not. And that God is ever Lord and Maker, but Matter ever a slave and [in process of] becoming. But yet not all [matter], for, as it was being borne about violently and disorderly, He set it in order in this manner. Beholding it boiling like a pot on the fire, He divided it into parts; and that part which he took from the All He reclaimed, and the other He allowed to be borne about disorderly. And the reclaimed part, he says, is the cosmos; and that the other remains waste and is called acosmic[70] matter. He says that this is the essence[71] of all things, as if he were introducing p. 418. a new doctrine to his disciples; but he does not consider that this fable happens to be Socratic, and is better worked out by Plato than by Hermogenes. But he confesses that Christ is the Son of the God who created all things, and that He was begotten of the Virgin and of Spirit according to the [common] voice of the Gospels. Who after He had suffered rose again in a body and appeared to His disciples, and ascending to the heavens, left His body in the Sun, but Himself went on into the presence of the Father. And in witness of this,[72] he thinks he is corroborated by the word which David the Psalmist spake: “In the Sun he set up his tent, and like a bridegroom coming forth from his bridal chamber, he will rejoice like a giant to run his course.”[73] This then is what Hermogenes attempts.[74]

18. But certain others, lovers of strife by nature, unskilled p. 419. in knowledge, very quarrelsome by habit, maintain that the Passover ought to be kept on the 14th day of the First Month, according to the ordinance of the Law, on whatever day [of the week] it may fall. They have regard [merely] to that which has been written in the Law: [that is] that he will be accursed who does not keep it as it is laid down. They pay no attention to the fact that it was enacted for the Jews, who were to kill the True Passover. Which [Law] has spread to the Gentiles and is understood by faith, not kept strictly in the letter. They pay attention to this one commandment, but do not regard the saying of the Apostle: “For I bear witness to every man who is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law.”[76] In other matters they agree concerning all things handed down to the Church by the Apostles.

19. But there are others also very heretical by nature, Phrygians by race, who have fallen away after being deceived p. 420. by certain women, Priscilla and Maximilla by name, whom they imagine to be prophetesses. Into these they say the Spirit Paraclete has entered and they likewise glorify [even] above these one Montanus as a prophet. Having endless books of their own, they are not judging what is said in them according to reason, nor giving heed to those capable of judgment; but, carried along heedlessly by the faith that they have in them, imagine that they learn more through them than from the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospels. They glorify these wenches[78] above Apostles and every grace,[79] since some of them dare to say that there are those among them who have become greater than Christ. They confess that God is the Father of the universals, and the creator of all things in the same way as [does] the Church, and also [confess] whatever the Gospel testifies concerning Christ. But they innovate in the matter of feasts and fasts and the eating of vegetable food and roots,[80] thinking that they have learned this from the women. And some of them, agreeing with the heresy of the Noetians, say that the Father is the Son, and that He by being born, underwent p. 421. both suffering and death. Concerning these, I shall later explain more minutely; for to many their heresy has become the starting-point of evils. We judge then that what has been said is sufficient, we having proved briefly to all that their many absurd books and attempts are feeble and not worth consideration, whereto those of sound mind need pay no heed.[81]

20. But others calling themselves Encratites[82] confess the [facts] about God and Christ in like manner with the Church. But with regard to the way of life, they having become puffed up,[83] have reverted [to earlier opinions]. They think themselves glorified through food by abstaining from things which have had life, drinking water, and forbidding marriage, and in the other things of life are austerely careful. Such as they are judged to be rather Cynics than Christians, seeing that they pay no heed to what was said to them aforetime through the Apostle Paul, who prophesied the innovations that would come by the folly of some, saying p. 422. thus:—“The Spirit says expressly: In the last times some will fall away from the wholesome teaching,[84] giving heed to deceiving spirits and the teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own consciences as with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and (commanding) to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected which is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified through the words of God and prayer....”[85] This saying then of the Blessed Paul is sufficient for the refutation of those who live thus and honour themselves as righteous men, and to show that this also is a heresy.[86]

But although some other heresies are named [to wit those] of the Cainites, Ophites or Noachites[87] and others such as they, I do not think it necessary to set forth their sayings and doings, lest they should thereby think themselves somebody or worthy of argument.[88] But since what p. 423. has been said about them seems to be sufficient, we will come to the source of all evils, the heresy of the Noetians, and having disclosed its root and proved plainly the poison lurking within it, we will hold back from such error those who have been swept away by a violent spirit as by a torrent.

BOOK IX NOETUS, CALLISTUS, AND OTHERS — 1. About Noetus. — 2. About Callistus. — 3. Concerning Elchesaites. [82] — 4. Jews. [111] — FOOTNOTES

1. These are the contents of the 9th (Book) of the Refutation of All Heresies.

2. What is the blasphemous folly of Noetus and that he gave heed to the doctrines of Heraclitus the Obscure and not to those of Christ.

3. And how Callistus having mingled the heresy of Cleomenes, Noetus’ disciple, with that of Theodotus, set up another and newer heresy, and what was his life.

4. What was the fresh invasion[1] of the stranger spirit Elchesai and that he covers his own transgressions by appearing to keep to the Law, while he in fact devotes himself to Gnostic opinions [entirely], or to astrological and magical ones in addition.

5. What are the customs of the Jews and how many their differences.

6. A long fight has now been fought by us concerning all [early] heresies, and we have left nothing unrefuted. There still remains the greatest fight of all, [to wit] to p. 425. thoroughly describe and refute the heresies risen up in our own day, by means whereof certain unlearned and daring men have attempted to scatter the Church to the winds, [thereby] casting the greatest confusion among all the faithful throughout the world. For it seems fit that we should attack the opinion which was the first cause of [these] evils and expose its roots, so that its offshoots, being thoroughly known to all, may be contemned.

7. There was a certain man, Noetus[2] by name, by birth a Smyrnæan. He introduced a heresy from the opinions of Heraclitus. Of which [Noetus], a certain man named Epigonus becomes the minister and pupil, and on his arrival at Rome sowed broadcast the godless doctrine. Whose teaching Cleomenes, by life and manners alien to the Church, confirmed, when he had become his disciple.[3] p. 426. At that time Zephyrinus, an ignorant and greedy man, thought that he ruled the Church, and, persuaded by the gain offered, gave leave to those coming to him to learn of Cleomenes.[4] And himself also being in time beguiled, ran into the same errors, his fellow-counsellor and comrade in this wickedness being Callistus, whose life and the heresy invented by him, I shall shortly set forth. The school of these successive [teachers] continued to grow stronger and increased through the help given to it by Zephyrinus and Callistus. Yet we never yielded, but many times withstood them to the face, refuted them, and compelled them perforce to confess the truth. They being ashamed for a season, and being brought by the truth to confession, before long returned to wallowing in the same mire.[5]

8. But since we have pointed out the genealogical succession of these [men], it appears left to us to set forth their evil mode of teaching their doctrines. The opinions of Heraclitus the Obscure being first explained, we shall then make evident the parts of [their doctrines] which are p. 427. Heraclitan, but which, perhaps, the present chiefs of the heresy do not know to be those of the Obscure, but think to be those of Christ. Should they meet with these [words], they might, thus being put to shame, cease from their godless blasphemy.[6] And although the teachings of Heraclitus have been before expounded by us in this [our] Philosophumena,[7] yet it seems expedient to repeat them now, so that by their closer refutation, those who think they are disciples of Christ may be plainly taught that they are not His, but are those of the Obscure.

9. Now Heraclitus says that the All is (one),[8] divided [and] undivided, originated [and] unoriginated, mortal [and] immortal, reason [and] eternity,[9] Father [and] Son, a just God. “It is wise,” says Heraclitus, “that those who listen, not to me, but to reason,[10] should acknowledge all things to be one.” And because all men do not know nor acknowledge this, he reproves them somehow thus: “They do not understand how anything that is diverse can agree p. 428. with itself. It is an inverse harmony, like that of a bow and a lyre.” But that the All is ever Reason[11] and exists by it, he thus declares:—“That this Reason ever exists, men do not understand either before they hear it or when they hear it first. For while all things come to pass according to this Reason, they seem to be ignorant of it, although they seem to have attempted endlessly[12] by words and deeds such a description as I now give by analysis of their nature and by saying how things are.” But that the All is a Son and for ever an eternal being of the universals, he says thus: “A boy playing at tables[13] is Eternity; the kingdom is a boy’s.” That he is father of all things that have been generated, begotten and unbegotten, the creation and [its] Demiurge, we have his saying: “War is father of p. 429. all, but king of all; and it displays some men as gods, others as men; some it makes slaves, others free. Because [this][14] is a harmony like that of bow and lyre.” But that the unapparent, the unseen and unknown by men is [better],[15] he says in these words: “An unapparent harmony is better than an apparent.” He thus commends and admires that which is unknown to him before that which is known, and the invisible before that which can be [seen]. And that it is to be seen of men and is not undiscoverable, he says in these words: “Whatever sight, hearing [and] learning can receive,[16] I honour before all,” he says, that is, [I prefer][17] the things seen to those unseen. From such phrases of his it is easy to comprehend his argument. He says that men are deceived in regard to the knowledge of things apparent like Homer, who was the wisest of all the Greeks. For children when killing lice, tricked him by p. 430. saying: “What we see and clutch we leave behind; but what we neither see nor clutch, we take away with us.”

10. Thus Heraclitus supposes the apparent to have an equal lot and honour with the unapparent, as if the apparent and the unapparent were admittedly one. “For,” he says, “an unapparent harmony is better than an apparent,” and “Whatever sight, hearing [and] learning [these are the organs] can receive, this, he says, I honour above all,” thus not honouring by preference the unapparent. And so Heraclitus says that neither darkness nor light, nor good nor evil are different,[18] but are one and the same. Therefore he blames Hesiod that he did not know Day and Night, for Day and Night, he says, are one, speaking somehow like this: “Hesiod is the teacher of most things, and they feel sure that he knew most things, who did not [however] know Day and Night. For they are one.” And [as to] good and evil:—“Now the surgeons,” says Heraclitus, “usually cut, burn, and in every way torture the sick, and complain that they receive from them no fitting reward for their labours, although they do these good works on p. 431. the diseases.” And both straight and crooked, he says, are the same. “The way of wool-carders, he says, is both straight and crooked, [because] the revolution of the tool called cochleus[19] is both straight and crooked; for it revolves and moves upwards at the same time. It is, he says, one and the same.” And upward and downward are, he says, one and the same: “The way up and down is one and the same.” And he says that the polluted and the pure are one and the same, and the drinkable and the undrinkable also. “The sea,” he says, “is at once the purest and the most polluted water, for to fish it is drinkable and salutary, but to man undrinkable and hurtful.”[20] And in the same way, he says, admittedly the immortal is mortal and the mortal immortal, in such words as these: “Deathless are mortals, and mortals are deathless, when the living take death from these, and the dead life from those.” But he speaks here of the resurrection of this visible flesh p. 432. wherein we have been born. And he knows God to be the cause of this resurrection, saying thus: “Those here will rise again and will become the busy guardians of living and dead.” And he says also that the judgment of the ordered world and of all therein will be by fire, speaking thus: “Thunder governs all things,” that is, it corrects them, meaning by “thunder” the everlasting fire. But he says also that this fire is discerning and the cause of the government of the universals, and he calls it Need[21] and Satiety. Now Need is according to him the Ordering [of the world],[22] but Satiety the Ecpyrosis. For “Fire,” he says, “coming suddenly will judge and seize all things.”[23]

In this chapter [entitled] “All Things Together,” the peculiar thought of Heraclitus is set forth.[24] But I have also shown briefly that it is that of Noetus’ heresy, he being a disciple not of Christ, but of Heraclitus. For that the created world was its own Demiurge and creator, he declares thus: “God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, satiety and hunger.” “All things are contraries.” This is the thought “but there is a change, as when one p. 433. incense is mixed with others; which [incense] is named according to the pleasure of each.”

But it is plain to all that the intelligent[25] successors of Noetus and the chiefs of the heresy, although you may say that they were not [actual] hearers of Heraclitus, yet by openly choosing[26] the opinions of Noetus, acknowledge the same things. For they say this: One and the same God is the Father and Demiurge of all, having been pleased, though invisible, to appear to the righteous men of old. For when He is not seen He is invisible [but when seen visible].[27] And when He wishes to be uncontained, He is uncontainable,[28] and when He is contained, He is containable. Thus by the same reasoning, He is unconquerable[29] [and conquerable], unbegotten [and begotten], immortal and mortal. How can such as they be shown not to be disciples of Heraclitus? Did not the Obscure long ago philosophize in these very words?

Now that [Noetus] says the Father and Son are the same, no one is ignorant. These are his words. When, then, the Father had not been born, He was rightly proclaimed Father. And when He was pleased to undergo p. 434. birth, He having been begotten, became the Son of Himself and not of another. For thus [Noetus] seems to establish Monarchia[30] by asserting the Father and the Son so-called are one and the same, not another from another, but Himself from Himself. And that He is called by the name of Father [or Son] according to the change of times. But that One was He who appeared and underwent birth from a Virgin and dwelt as a man among men. And acknowledged Himself to those who saw Him to be a Son by reason of the birth that had taken place, but did not conceal from those who could receive it that He was also Father. And that He also suffered, being nailed to the Tree and gave up His Spirit to Himself, and died and did not die. And that He raised Himself again the third day after having been buried in a tomb and pierced with a spear and nailed with nails. This One Cleomenes and his band say was God and Father of the universals, thereby drawing a Heraclitan darkness over many.[31]

11. To this heresy Callistus[32] gave strength—a man artful in evil and versatile in falsehood, who was seeking after the p. 435. bishop’s throne. And he led whither he liked Zephyrinus,[33] an ignorant man, unlearned and unskilled in the Church’s rules, whom [Callistus] persuaded by gifts and extravagant demands. [And as Zephyrinus] was a receiver of bribes and a money-lover, he induced him to be ever making faction between the brethren, while he himself by crafty words contrived that at the last both parties should be friendly to himself. And sometimes he deceived those who thought truly, by saying that he thought for his own part like things with them; and again he said likewise to those [who held] the opinions of Sabellius, whom, when he might have brought him into the right way, he abandoned. For Sabellius did not harden [his heart] to our[34] admonitions, but when he got alone with Callistus, he was urged by him to relapse towards the doctrine of Cleomenes, alleging that he was of like opinions. [Sabellius] did not then understand his trickery, but knew it afterwards, as I will shortly explain.[35]

Now [Callistus] bringing forward Zephyrinus himself, persuaded him to say publicly: “I know one God, Christ Jesus, p. 436. and beside Him I know no other, begotten and susceptible of suffering.” And at one time he said: “The Father did not die but the Son,” and thus maintained without ceasing the faction among the people.[36] Knowing whose designs, we did not give way to him, but refuted and withstood him for the Truth’s sake. He also, advancing towards madness, through everyone concurring with him—though we did not—called us ditheists,[37] thus violently spitting forth the concealed poison within him. It seems good to us then to set forth the lovable[38] life of this man since he was born at the same time as ourselves, in order that by the mode of life of such a one being made apparent, the heresy which he has taken in hand may become well and quickly known to those who have right mind. He bore witness[39] when Fuscianus was Prefect of Rome;[40] and the manner of his martyrdom was on this wise.

12. [Callistus] chanced to be a house-slave of a certain Carpophorus,[41] a man of the faith who was of Cæsar’s household. To him as to one of the faith Carpophorus entrusted no little money on his promising to bring in profit from the business of a money-dealer. Who taking it, set up a money-changer’s stall in the place called the Piscina Publica,[42] to whom in course of time not a few deposits were entrusted by p. 437. widows and brethren on the strength of Carpophorus’ name. But he having made everything disappear,[43] was in difficulties. When he had done this, one[44] was not lacking to tell Carpophorus; and Carpophorus said that he required accounts from him. Callistus being aware of this and suspecting danger from his master,[45] took flight and made for the sea. Who finding a ship at Portus[46] ready to sail when she should have her cargo, went on board intending to sail. But he could not thus escape; for one was not lacking to tell Carpophorus what had happened. And he having halted at the harbour according to the news given him, tried to hurry to the ship. But she was lying in the middle of the harbour, and the ferryman being slow, Callistus saw his master afar off, and knew that as he was in the ship he would be taken. So he disregarded life and thinking that his end had come, cast himself into the sea.[47] But the sailors, jumping down into the boats, dragged him out p. 438. against his will amid a great shouting from the shore. And thus he was handed over to his master and taken away to Rome, whence his master sentenced him to the Pistrinum.[48]

But time having gone on, some brethren, as generally happens, came forward and besought Carpophorus that he would set free the runaway from punishment, affirming that he had admitted having gold laid up with certain persons.[49] And Carpophorus like a pious man said that he did not care about his own [money], but that he was concerned about the deposits. For many cried to him with tears that they had trusted to his name when confiding money to Callistus, and [Carpophorus] being persuaded, ordered him to be released. But he having nothing to pay back and not being able to run away again because he was watched, devised a scheme for [obtaining] death. On a Sabbath day, pretending to go forth to his debtors, he rushed into the synagogue of the assembled Jews, and stayed there factiously opposing them.[50] But when they were factiously opposed by him, they abused and rained blows upon him and haled him before Fuscianus, who was then Prefect of the City. And this was their accusation:—“The Romans have conceded to us the right to read aloud publicly the laws of our fathers. But this man coming in forbade it, making a p. 439. faction against us, and affirming that he was a Christian.” And as Fuscianus chanced to be on the judgment-seat, and was angered by the words of the Jews against Callistus, one was not lacking to tell Carpophorus what was being done. And he, hastening to the judgment-seat, cried out to the Prefect, “I beseech you, O Lord Fuscianus, do not believe this man, for he is not a Christian, but seeks occasion of death, having made away[51] with much money of mine, as I will prove.”[52] But the Jews thinking this to be a fetch, as if Carpophorus were seeking by this speech to get him set at liberty, cried out against him to the Prefect with increased fury. And he being moved by them, had [Callistus] scourged and sent him to a mine in Sardinia.

But after a time, there being other martyrs there, Marcia, being a God-loving woman and a concubine of Commodus p. 440. and having wished to do some good work, summoned before her the blessed Victor, who was Bishop of the Church at that time,[53] and enquired what martyrs there were in Sardinia. And he gave her the names of all, but did not give her that of Callistus, knowing what he had dared to do. Then Marcia, having succeeded in her petition to Commodus, gave the liberating letter to an elder named Hyacinthus, a eunuch,[54] who took it and sailed for Sardinia, and having handed it to the Administrator[55] of the place for the time being, set free all the martyrs with the exception of Callistus. But he, on his knees and weeping, besought that he also might be set free. Then Hyacinthus was moved by entreaty and required the Administrator [to do this] affirming that he was the foster-father of Marcia and arranging to hold the Administrator harmless. And he being persuaded [in turn] set free Callistus also.[56] Upon whose coming [to Rome], Victor was much annoyed at what had befallen; but, as he was a compassionate man, held his peace. But to guard against the reproach of many—for p. 441. the audacities of Callistus were not a long way off—and Carpophorus was still an obstacle, he sends him to abide in Antium, making him a certain monthly allowance for his support.[57] After [Victor’s] falling asleep, Zephyrinus having had [Callistus] as a coadjutor in the management of the clergy, honoured him to his own detriment, and sending for him from Antium, set him over the cemetery.[58] And Callistus being ever with [Zephyrinus], and as I have said before, serving him with guile,[59] put him in the background[60] as neither able to judge what was said to him nor to comprehend all the counsels of Callistus when talking to him of what things pleased him. Thus, after the death of Zephyrinus, [Callistus] thinking that he had succeeded in his pursuit,[61] put away Sabellius as one who does not hold right opinions. For [Callistus] was afraid of me and deemed that he could thus wipe off the charge [against him] before the Churches,[62] just as if he held no different opinions from theirs.

Now Callistus was a sorcerer[63] and a trickster and in time p. 442. snatched away many. And harbouring the poison in his heart, and devising nothing straight, besides being ashamed to declare the truth because he had reproached us in public, saying: “Ye are ditheists,”[64] but especially because he had often been accused by Sabellius of having strayed from his first faith, he invented some such heresy as this:—He says that the Word is the Son and that He is also the Father, being called by that name, but being one undivided Spirit.[65] And that the Father is not one thing and the Son another; but that they subsist [as] one and the same. And that all things above and below are filled with the Divine Spirit, and that the Spirit which was incarnate in the Virgin was not other than the Father, but one and the same. And that this is the saying: “Dost thou not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?”[66] For that which is seen, which is a man, that is the Son; but the Spirit which is contained in the Son, that is the Father. “For I do not,” p. 443. he says, “say that there are two Gods, Father and Son, but One. For the Father who existed in Him, having taken on Him the flesh, made it God by union with Himself and made it one [Being] so that He is called Father and Son, one God. And that this [God] being one Person cannot be two.”[67] And so he said that the Father had suffered with the Son; for he did not like to say that the Father suffered and was One Person, [so as] to avoid[68] blasphemy against the Father. [Thus this] senseless and shifty fellow, scattering blasphemies high and low, so that he may only seem [not] to speak against the Truth, is not ashamed to lean now towards the doctrine of Sabellius and now towards that of Theodotus.[69]

The sorcerer having dared such things, set up a school against that of the Church,[70] thus to teach. And first he contrived to make concessions to men in respect of their pleasures, telling every one that their sins were remitted by himself. For if any one who has been received[71] by another and calls himself Christian should transgress, he says, the transgression of him will not be reckoned against him if he hastens to the school of Callistus. And many were pleased with this proposition,[72] having been stricken with conscience as well as cast out of many heresies. And p. 444. some even after having been cast by us out of the Church by a [regular] judgment, joining with these last, filled the school of Callistus. He laid it down that if [even] a bishop commits any sin, though it should be one unto death, he ought not to be deposed. In his time bishops and priests and deacons who had married twice and even thrice began to keep their places among the clergy.[73] For if any one who was in the clerical order[74] should marry, he [decided] that he should remain in the order as if he had not sinned, saying that what was spoken by the Apostle was said with regard to this [viz.:] “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant?”[75] And also the Parable of the Tares, he says spoke as to this: “Let the tares grow to the harvest,”[76] that is, let the sinners remain in the Church. But he also said that the ark of Noah was made into an image[77] of the Church, wherein were dogs and wolves and crows and all clean and unclean [animals]. Thus, he affirms, ought the Church to do likewise; and as many things as he could bring together on this point, he thus interpreted.

Whose hearers being attracted by these doctrines continue [to exist], deluding themselves and many others, crowds of p. 445. whom flock into the school. Wherefore they are multiplied and rejoice in the crowds, by reason of the pleasures which Christ did not permit. Whom slightly regarding, they forbid no one to sin, affirming that they themselves remit sins to those with whom they are well pleased. For [Callistus] has also permitted women, if they, being unmarried and in the prime of life, turned towards some one unworthy of their station, or did not wish to lessen it by [marriage], to hold any bedfellow they might choose as lawfully married to them, whether he was a house slave or free,[78] and to consider this person although not married by law as in the place of a husband.[79] From this the so-called faithful women began to make attempts with abortifacient drugs and to gird themselves tightly so that they might cast out what they had conceived, through their not wishing on account of their family or superabundant wealth to have a child by a slave or some mean person. See now what impiety the lawless one has reached when he teaches p. 446. adultery and murder at the same time! And in the face of these audacities the shameless ones attempt to call themselves a Catholic Church, and some think that they do well to join with them.

Under this [Callistus, too], a second baptism has been ventured upon by them for the first time.[80] These things the most amazing Callistus has set on foot, whose school still persists and preserves the customs and tradition [of the Church], nor does it discriminate as to whom it should hold communion with, but offers communion indiscriminately to all. From whom also they are called by a name that they share with him, and, by reason of the protagonist of such works being Callistus, are called Callistians.[81]

13. When the teaching of this [Callistus] had been dispersed p. 447. over the whole world, a certain man called Alcibiades dwelling at Apamea in Syria, who was crafty and full of impudence, and having looked into the matter, deemed himself more forcible and expert in tricks than Callistus, arrived in Rome bringing with him a book.[83] He pretended that a righteous man (called) Elchasai, had received the same from the Seres[84] of Parthia and gave it to one called Sobiae,[85] as having been revealed by an angel. The height of which angel was 24 schoeni,[86] which is 96 miles; but the girth was 4 schoeni, and from shoulder to shoulder 6 schoeni; and his footprints were 3½ schoeni in length, which is 14 miles,[87] their width 1½ schoeni, and their depth half a schoenus. And that there was with him also a female whose measure, he says, accorded with those aforesaid. And that the male is the Son of God, and that the female is called the Holy Spirit. Describing these portents, he is wont to distract the foolish by this address: “A new remission of sins was brought as good news to men in the third year of the reign of Trajan.” And he prescribes (therefore) a baptism which I will explain (later). He affirms that of those wrapped in all licentiousness and pollution and breaches of the Law, if any such be a believer and turns again and hearkens to and believes on the book, he determines p. 448. that he shall receive by baptism remission of sins.

These tricks he audaciously elaborated, starting from the doctrine before described which Callistus had brought forward. For he, having understood that many rejoiced at such an announcement,[88] thought that his enterprise would be timely.[89] Yet we withstood him also, and did not permit very many to go astray, refuting them[90] [with the argument] that this was the work of a spurious[91] spirit and of a puffed-up heart; and that the man like a wolf had risen up among the many stray sheep which the false guide Callistus had scattered abroad. But, since we have begun, we shall not be silent regarding the doctrines of this man also; and we shall bring to light the (mode of) life (he advocates),[92] and shall then prove that his supposed discipline is a make-believe. And then again I will explain the chief of his sayings, so that the reader who has studied p. 449. his writings may know thoroughly what and of what quality is the heresy on which he has ventured.

14. He puts forward as a bait, conformity with the Law,[93] claiming that those who have believed ought to be circumcised and to live according to the Law while clutching at something from the heresies aforesaid. And he says that Christ was a man born in the way common to all; and that He was not now begotten for the first time from a virgin, but that both in the first instance and then many times since, He had been begotten and born, appeared and grown up, alternating births and changing one body for another, wherein He makes use of the Pythagorean teaching.[94] But [the Elchesaites] are so vainglorious as to say that they themselves foretell the future, starting evidently from the measures and numbers of the Pythagorean art before described. And they give heed to mathematics and astrology and magic as if they were true, and they use these things to astonish the weak-minded, so that they may think themselves partakers in a mighty matter. They give also incantations and spells[95] to those bitten by dogs and to possessed and other diseased persons concerning which we p. 450. shall not be silent. Having then sufficiently detailed the sources and causes of their audacities, I will proceed to repeat their writings, whereby the reader may know at once their folly and their godless endeavours.

15. To his catechumens, then, [Alcibiades] administers baptism, speaking such words as these to those whom he deceives: “If, therefore, any one has gone in unto a child, or to any kind of animal, or to a male or to a brother or to a daughter, or has committed adultery or fornication, and wishes to receive remission of sins, immediately he hears this book, let him be baptized a second time in the name of the Great and Highest God and in the name of His Son, the Great King. And let him be purified and be chaste and call to witness the seven witnesses who are written in this book [to wit], the Heaven and the Water, and the Holy Spirit and the Angel of Prayer and the oil and the salt and the Earth.”[96] These are the wonderful mysteries of Elchasai, the hidden and great things which he hands p. 451. down to the disciples who are worthy. And the lawless one is not content with these, but before two or three witnesses puts the seal on his own crimes, again speaking thus: “I say again, O adulterers and adulteresses and false prophets, if you wish to turn again so that your sins may be remitted unto you, peace shall be yours, and a portion with the just, if immediately you hearken to this book and are baptized a second time with your garments.”

But since we have said that these persons use incantations over those bitten by dogs and over others, we shall point out [these also]. Thus he speaks: “If a furious and mad dog in whom is the breath of death,[97] bite or tear or touch any man or woman or man-child or maid-child, in the same hour let [the bitten one] run with all his clothing and go down to a river or a pool where there is a deep place, and let him be baptized there with all his clothing, and let him pray[98] to the Great and Highest God in faith of heart, and then call to witness the Seven Witnesses who are written p. 452. in this book, saying: ‘Lo! I call to witness the Heaven and the Water and the Holy Spirit and the Angel of Prayer and the oil and the salt and the Earth. I call to witness these Seven Witnesses that I will no more sin, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor do injustice, nor be greedy, nor cherish hatred, nor break faith, nor take pleasure in any evil deeds.’ Then upon saying this, let him be baptized with all his clothing in the name of the Great and Highest God.”

16. But in most other matters he talks nonsense, and teaches [the repetition of] the same spells over the phthisical, and the baptizing of them in cold water forty times a week. And in the same way with those possessed of devils. O wisdom inimitable and incantations filled full of powers! Who will not be struck at such and so great a power of words? But since we have said that they also make use of the error of the astrologers, let us prove this out of their own mouths. Thus he says: “There are evil stars of impiety. This is now spoken unto you, O God-fearing p. 453. men[99] and disciples. Beware of the days of their authority,[100] and begin no works on these days, and baptize not man nor woman in the days of their authority when the moon goes forth with them and journeys with them.[101] Be ye ware from that day until the moon leaves them utterly and then baptize and begin in every beginning of your works. Honour also the Sabbath Day for it is one day out of these.[102] But beware of beginning ought in the third day from the Sabbath, because when three years of the reign of Trajan Cæsar were fulfilled, he brought the Parthians under his sway.[103] And when three years more are completed war will rage between the angels of the impiety of the North,[104] and thereby all the kingdoms of iniquity will be troubled.”[105]

17. Since, now, he believes it would be unreasonable that these great and secret mysteries should be trampled p. 454. underfoot or delivered to many, he advises that they should be preserved as if they were costly pearls,[106] saying thus: “Read not these words to all men and keep their commandments carefully, since not all men are faithful nor all women straight.” But these things neither the sages of the Egyptians, nor Pythagoras the sage of the Greeks withdrew within their sanctuaries. For had Elchasai chanced to live at the time, what need would there have been for Pythagoras, or Thales, or Solon, or Plato the wise, or the rest of the Greeks to learn of the priests of the Egyptians, seeing that they would have had so much and so great wisdom from Alcibiades, the most wonderful interpreter of the wretched Elchasai? Now therefore it seems that enough has been said for persons of sound mind to have a complete knowledge of the madness of these [heretics], wherefore it does not seem fit to make use of any more of their sayings, which are many and laughable.

But since we have not passed over the things which have sprung up among ourselves, and have not been silent on those which [happened] before our time, it seems proper, so that we may go into everything and leave nothing unexpounded, to say something of the [customs] of the Jews p. 455. also, and what are the differences among them; for I think that up till now this has been passed over.[107] [And] when I shall have spoken of these,[108] I shall proceed to the exposition of the Word of Truth.[109] So that after the lengthy struggle of the discourse against all heresies, we, firmly pressing forward to the crown of the kingdom, and believing on the things which are true, may not be confounded.[110]

18. Originally there was one nation of Jews. For one teacher had been given them by God [namely] Moses, and through him was given one Law. And there was one desert and one mountain [namely] Sinai; for one God was their legislator. But after they had crossed the river Jordan and had divided by lot the land won by the spear, they rent asunder in different ways the Law of God, each understanding the precepts differently. And thus they set up teachers for themselves and found out heretical opinions and advanced in schism. Whose diversity I shall set forth; but although for a long time they have been scattered in many divisions, yet I will expose [only] the chief of them, whence the lovers of learning[112] may easily know the rest. p. 456. For three sects[113] are distinguished among them, and the adherents of one of these are Pharisees, of another Sadducees, and the others[114] are Essenes. These [last] practise the more holy life [of the three], loving one another and observing continence. And they turn away from every deed of concupiscence, holding it hateful even to listen to such things. They renounce marriage, but take the children of others and bring them up in their customs, thus adopting[115] them and impelling them to the sciences, [but] not forbidding them to marry, although they themselves abstain from it. But they admit no women, even those who are willing to devote themselves to the same policy, nor give heed to them, for they distrust women altogether.

19. And they despise wealth and do not shrink from sharing with those who lack [it], although none of them is richer than another. For it is a law among them that any one entering the heresy must sell his possessions and offer p. 457. the price to the common stock, which the ruler receives and distributes to all for their needs. Thus there is no want among them. And they use not oil, thinking anointing their bodies pollution. But there are stewards appointed by vote who look after all their property in common, and all of them wear white garments always.

20. And there is not one city of them, but many of them dwell in every city. And if one of the practisers of the heresy[116] should arrive from a strange country, they hold all things in common for him, and those whom they knew not before they receive as guests and intimates. And they travel about their native land, and when they go on a journey they carry nothing with them except arms. And they have in every city a ruler who spends what is collected for the purpose of providing clothes and food for them. And their dress and its fashion are modest. They do not possess two tunics or a double set of footgear; but when those in use become old, they take others. And they neither buy nor sell anything at all; but if one possesses ought, he gives it to him who lacks, and what he has not, he receives [in its stead].[117]

p. 458. 21. But they lead a well-ordered and regular life, and always pray at dawn, not speaking before they have praised God. And thus they all go forth and do what work they will, and after working until the fifth hour, leave off. Then, assembling again in one place, they gird themselves with linen cinctures so as to conceal their privities, and thus wash in cold water. And after having thus purified themselves, they gather together in one dwelling—but no one who thinks differently from them is with them in the house—and they get to breakfast. And sitting down in order, they are offered bread in silence, and then some one kind of food from which each has a sufficient portion. But none of them tastes anything till the priest has blessed and prayed over it. And after breakfast, when he has again prayed, they offer up praises to God. Then, laying aside as holy the garments with which they are clothed while indoors—and these are of linen—and receiving again the p. 459. others in the vestibule, they hasten to their favourite work until the afternoon. And they take supper in all respects as before described. And none ever shouts, nor is any other uproarious sound heard, but each one speaks quietly, every one decently yielding the conversation to the other, so that to those without the silence of those within seems somewhat of a mystery. And they are at all times sober, eating and drinking everything by measure.[118]

22. Now all give heed to the president[119] and what he commands they obey as law. For they are zealous to pity and help the downtrodden. And before all things they abstain from rage and anger and such-like, judging that these betray mankind. And none takes oath to the other, but what each one says is judged stronger than an oath. And if any one takes an oath, he is condemned as one not to be believed (without God).[120] And they are diligent concerning the recital of the Law and the Prophets, and also if p. 460. there should be any summary[121] [of these] [made by one] of the faithful, [they listen to it?] And they are very curious concerning plants and stones, being very inquisitive as to their operation, as they think that these did not come into being in vain.

23. But to those who wish to become disciples of the heresy, they do not straightway impart the traditions, until they have first made trial of them. For a year they set before them the same sort of food as [is served] to themselves, but outside their assembly and in another house. And they give them a hatchet and the linen cincture and white garments. When they have during this period given proof of continence, they draw nearer to the way of living [of the others] and are purified more thoroughly than at first, but they do not take their food with them. For after they have shown that they can practise continence, for another two years’ trial is made of such a one’s character, and on his appearing worthy, he is adjudged so [to be received] by them. Before, however, he can eat with them, he is sworn with fearful oaths; first, that he will show piety towards the Divine, then that he will observe justice towards men, and will in no way wrong any, nor hate anyone who p. 461. wrongs him or who is an enemy to him, but will pray for him. And that he will fight on the side of the just and will keep faith with all, especially with those who bear sway, nor be disobedient to them. For it happens to none to rule save by God. And if [the aspirant] should bear rule, that he will never be arrogant in authority, nor make more use than is customary of any ornament; but is to love the truth, p. 462. to refute the liar, and not to steal, nor soil his conscience with unlawful gain, nor hide ought from his fellow-heretics. And will tell nothing [of their secrets] to others even if he shall suffer violence unto death. Besides this, he swears to them to impart none of the doctrines [of the sect] otherwise than as he himself received them. By such oaths, therefore, do they bind those who come unto them.[122]

24. But if any should be convicted in any transgression, he is cast out of the order, and he that is cast out sometimes perishes by a fearful fate. For, being bound by the oaths and customs, he cannot take food with other people. Therefore sometimes they utterly destroy the body by famine. Wherefore in the last extremity they sometimes take pity on many already dying, thinking the penalty unto death sufficient for them.[123]

25. Concerning their judgments, they are most careful and just. They deliver judgment after assembling not less p. 463. than a hundred and what they determine is irrevocable. And they honour the Lawgiver [next] after God, and if anyone blasphemes him, he is punished. And they are taught to give ear to the rulers and elders; and if ten are sitting in the same place, one will not speak unless the others wish. And they are careful of spitting in front of them or on the right side; and more than all the Jews, they arrange to abstain from work on the Sabbath. For not only do they prepare their food one day before, so as not to light a fire, but they neither move an implement nor relieve nature. And some of them will not even get out of bed. But on other days, when they wish to evacuate, they dig a pit a foot long—with the hoe—for such is the hatchet which they give their adherents when first becoming disciples[124]—and covering it on all sides with their cloak, sit down, affirming that they must not insult the rays [of the Sun]. Then they throw back the excavated earth into the pit. And this they do choosing the most deserted places, [and] when they have done this they straightway wash, as if the p. 464. secretion were polluting.[125]

26. But in course of time they have drawn apart and do not [all] observe the discipline in the same way,[126] being divided into four parts. For some of them are more austere than they need be, so that they will carry no coin, saying that they must not bear any image, nor look upon it, nor make it. Wherefore none of them goes into a city, lest he shall enter in through a gate whereon are statues, as they think it unlawful to pass under an image. And others, if they hear anyone holding forth about God and His Law, will watch such an one until he is alone in some place, and threaten to kill him if he be not circumcised. Whom, if he does not consent, he does not spare, but slays him. Whence from this occurrence they take their name, being called Zealots, but by some Sicarii. And yet others of them name none Lord but God, even if any should torture or slay them. And those who succeeded them became so much worse than their discipline that they would not touch p. 465. those who remained in the ancient customs: [or] if they did so [by accident] they straightway washed themselves as if they had touched one of another sect. And the majority are long-lived, so that they live more than a hundred years. Now they say that the cause of this is their consummate piety towards God, and their condemning the serving [of food] without measure and to their being continent and slow to anger. And they despise death rejoicing that they can make an end with a good conscience. But if any one should torture such [men] to make them speak ill of the Law or to eat food offered to idols, they would not do so, suffering death and supporting tortures so that they may not go beyond their conscience.[127]

27. But the doctrine of the Resurrection is also strong among them. For they confess that the flesh rises again and will be immortal in the same way that the soul is already immortal. Which soul when it departs from the body, abides in an airy and well-lighted place until judgment, which place the Greeks hearing of it called [the] Islands of the Blessed. But there are other opinions of them which p. 466. many of the Greeks appropriated and maintained as their own teaching. For the discipline among them concerning the Divine is earlier than all nations, as is proved by all that the Greeks have ventured to say about God or the fashioning of the things that are starting from no other source than the Jewish Law. Wherefrom especially Pythagoras and those of the Porch took much, having been instructed in it by the Egyptians. And [the Essenes] say also that there will be a judgment and a conflagration of the All, and that the unjust will be punished everlastingly. And prophecy and the foretelling of things to come are practised among them.[128]

28. Now there is another order of Essenes making use of their customs and way of life, but they differ from these [just described] in the one [point of] marriage; saying that those who reject marriage do a fearful thing. And they declare that this comes to the taking-away of life, and that one must not cut off the succession of children, and that if everyone thought like this, the whole race of men might easily be cut off. They certainly try their wives for a period of three years; but when they have had three purifications, so as to prove that they can bear children, they wed them. p. 467. But they do not company with them when pregnant, proving [thereby] that they do not marry for pleasure but from need of children. And the women wash themselves in the same way and don linen garments in the same way as the men with their cinctures. This, then, concerning the Essenes.[129]

But there are others also disciplined in the customs of the Jews, and called both legally and generically Pharisees. The majority of whom are [to be found] in every place, and all call themselves Jews, but on account of the special opinions held by them are called besides by specific names.[130] Now they, while holding fast the ancient tradition, continue to enquire methodically into what things are clean and what unclean according to the Law. And they interpret the things of the Law, putting forward teachers for that purpose. And they say that Fate is, and that some things are due to free-will and some to Fate, so that some [come] by ourselves and some by Fate. But that God is the cause of all, and that nothing is arranged or happens without His will. And they confess the Resurrection of the Flesh and that the p. 468. soul is immortal, and [admit] a judgment to come and a future conflagration, and that the wicked will be punished in unquenchable fire.

29. But the Sadducees eliminate Fate, and confess that God neither does nor contemplates anything evil; but that man has the power to choose the good or evil. But they deny not only the Resurrection of the Flesh, but also consider that the soul does not survive. But that its [function] is to live and that that is why man is born. And that the doctrine of the Resurrection is fulfilled by leaving children on earth when we die. But that after death there will be no hope of suffering either evil or good. For [they say that] there will be a dissolution of soul and body and that man will go to that which is not in the same way as the other animals. And that if a man has great possessions, and having become rich is [thereby] glorified, he is so far the gainer; but that God does not take care of the affairs of p. 469. any one individual. And while the Pharisees love one another, the Sadducees love [only] themselves. The same heresy was especially strong round about Samaria. And they give heed to the customs of the Law, saying that one ought to do so that one may live well and leave children behind on earth. But they pay no attention to the Prophets, nor to any other wise men, but only to the Law [given] through Moses. Nor do they interpret anything. This then is the heresy of the Sadducees.[131]

30. Since now we have set forth the differences among the Jews, it seems proper not to pass over in silence the discipline of their service of God. Now there is a fourfold system with regard to the service of God among all Jews [to wit] Theological, Physical, Moral and Ceremonial.[132] And they say that there is one God, the Demiurge of the All and the Maker of all things that before were not,[133] nor did He make them from any subordinate essence, but He willed and created. And that there are angels and that they have come into being for the service of creation; but that there is also a Spirit having authority ever standing beside Him for the glory and praise of God. And that all things in the creation have sensation and that nothing is without soul.[134] And they pursue customs tending to a holy p. 470. and temperate life as is to be recognized in their Law. But these things were of old carefully laid down by those who originally received a God-made Law, so that the reader will be astonished at so much moderation and care in the customs prescribed for man. But the ceremonial service offered in becoming fashion was excellently performed by them as it is easy for those who wish to learn by reading the Book discoursing on these matters.[135] [There they will see] how reverently and devoutly they offered to God the things given by Him for the use and enjoyment of man, obeying Him orderly and constantly. Some of these [doctrines] the Sadducees reject; for they hold that neither angels nor spirit exist.[136]

p. 471. But all alike wait for Christ, the Coming One foretold by the Law and the Prophets. But the time of the Coming was not known of the Jews, [so that] the supposition endured that the sayings which appeared to concern the Coming were unfulfilled. But they expect that Christ will presently come, since they did not recognize His presence. And seeing the signs of the times of His having come already, this troubles them, and they are ashamed to confess that He has come, since with their own hands they became His murderers, through anger at being convicted by Him of not having hearkened to their Laws. And they say that He who was thus sent by God is not Christ. But they confess that another will come who as yet is not, and will bear some of the signs which the Law and the Prophets foreshowed; but some things they imagine wrongly. For they say that his birth will be from the race of David, but not from a Virgin and [the] Holy Spirit, but from a woman and a man, as it is a rule for all to be begotten from seed. And they declare that he will be a king over them, a man of war and a mighty one, who, having gathered together the whole nation of Jews, will make war on all the nations and p. 472. re-establish for them Jerusalem as the royal city. Whereunto he will gather in the whole nation, and again will restore the ancient customs, while [the nation] is king and priest[137] and dwells in security for a sufficient time. Then shall again spring up against them a war of [the nations] gathered together. In this war the Christ shall fall by the sword and not long afterwards the end and conflagration of the All shall draw near, and thus their conjectures about the Resurrection shall be fulfilled, and everyone shall be recompensed according to his works.[138]

31. It seems to us that the opinions of all Greeks and Barbarians have been sufficiently set forth, and that nothing has been left undemonstrated either of the philosophizings[139] or of the things imagined by the heretics. To those among them [who read this], the refutation from what has been set forth is clear [viz.] that either plagiarizing from or laying under contribution what the Greeks have elaborated, they have put them forward as divine. Now, having run through all [these systems] and having declared with much labour in the nine books [above] all these opinions, thereby leaving to all men a little guide through life, and furnishing to the p. 473. readers a study of no little joy and gladness, we think it reasonable to present as the conclusion of the whole [work] a discourse on the Truth.[140] And we shall write this in one book, [viz.] the Tenth. So that the reader, having recognized the overthrow which the heresies of these audacious men have sustained, may not only despise their follies, but by also recognizing the power of the Truth, [and] by worthily believing in God, can be saved.

BOOK X SUMMARIES, AND THE WORD OF TRUTH — 1. Naassenes. — 2. Peratæ. — 3. The Sethiani. — 4. Simon. — 5. Valentinus. — 6. Basilides. — 7. Justinus. [36] — 8. The Docetae. — 9. Monoimus. — 10. Tatian. — 11. Marcion. [56] — 12. Apelles. — 13. Cerinthus. — 14. Ebionæi. — 15. Theodotus. — 16. Other Theodotians. — 17. Phrygians. — 18. Noetus. — 19. Hermogenes. — 20. Elchasaitae. — 21. [ Title lacking ]. [74] — FOOTNOTES

1. These are the contents of the 10th [Book] of the Refutation of all Heresies.

2. An epitome of all the philosophers.

3. An epitome of all [the] heresies.[1]

4. And what is in all things the Word of Truth.

5. Having broken through the labyrinth[2] of the heresies without violence but rather having dissolved them by our single refutation in the power of Truth, we now draw near to the demonstration of the Truth itself. For then the manufactured sophistries of the error will appear inconsistent, when the definition of the Truth has shown that it has not taken its beginnings from the philosophy of the Greeks. Nor [has it taken] from [the] Egyptians [the] doctrines (and) the follies which are adored among them as worthy of faith—as [the] mysteries have taught—nor has it been devised out of the inconsistent jugglery of [the] Chaldæans, nor been forged by the unreasoning madness of [the] Babylonians through the activity of demons.[3] In whatever shape, however, the definition subsists, it is true, unguarded, and unadorned,[4] and by its appearance alone will refute the p. 475. error. Concerning which, although we have many times made demonstrations, and have pointed out the Rule of Truth sufficiently and abundantly for those who are willing to learn, yet once again we judge it reasonable on the top of all the doctrines of the Greeks and heretics, to place as if it were [the] crown of the books [preceding], this demonstration by means of the tenth book.

6. Now having brought together the teachings of all the sages among [the] Greeks in four books,[5] and those of the heresiarchs in five, we shall point out the Doctrine concerning the Truth in one, after having first made a summary of what has been the opinions of all. For the teachers of the Greeks, dividing philosophy into three parts, so philosophize, some preaching Physics, some Ethics and some Dialectic.[6] And those who preached Physics thus declared, some that all things were born from one, others from many. And of those who said [they came] from one, some [said they came] from what had no Quality, and others from that which had Quality. And of those who [said they came] from that which had Quality, some [said that they came] p. 476. from fire, others from air, others from water and yet others from earth. And of those who [said they came forth] from many things, some [said that they came] from numerable things [others from boundless ones. And of those who said they came from numerable things], some [say that they came] from two, others from four, others from five, and others from six. And of those [who say] that they came from the boundless things, some [say that they came] from things like generated things, others from those unlike. And some of them say that they came from things impassible, others from things passible. The Stoics indeed would establish the birth of the universals from that which has no Quality and one body. For according to them, matter unqualified and capable of change by means of the universals is their source. And when it is transformed, fire, air, water and earth come into being. And those who will have all things to come into being from that which has Quality are the followers of Hippasus and Anaximander and Thales the Milesian. Hippasus the Metapontian[7] and Heraclitus the Ephesian declared the genesis of things to be from fire, but Anaximander from air, Thales from water, and Xenophanes from earth.

p. 477. 7. Of those who would derive the universals from [the] many and [the] numerable, the poet Homer declares that the universals have been composed of earth and water when he says:—

and again:—

And Xenophanes the Colophonian seems to agree with him, for he says:—

But Euripides says from earth and aether, as he lets us see from his saying:—

But Empedocles from four, saying thus:—

But from five, Ocellus the Lucanian[13] and Aristotle. For with the four elements they include the fifth and rotating body whence, they say, are all heavenly things. But from six, the followers of Empedocles derived the birth of all things. For in the verses where he says:—

he makes everything come from four. But when he adds to this:—

he is handing down six things as sources of the universals [i. e.] four material: earth, water, fire, [and] air and two, p. 479. the agents Love and Strife. But the followers of Anaxagoras the Clazomenian and Democritus and Epicurus and very many others whose [opinions] we have before recorded in part, taught that the genesis of all things was from the boundless. But Anaxagoras says they came from things like those produced; but the followers of Democritus and Epicurus, from those unlike and impassible, that is from the atoms; and those of Heraclides the Pontian[15] and Asclepiades[16] from those which are unlike, but passible, such as disconnected corpuscles. But the followers of Plato say that they came from three, and that these are God, Matter and Exemplar; but he divides matter into four principles: fire, water, earth, air; and says that God is the Demiurge of Matter, but Exemplar the Mind.

8. Now, having been persuaded that the system of Natural Science[17] is confessedly found unworkable by all these [philosophers], we ourselves shall unhesitatingly say concerning the examples of the Truth what they are and how we believe in them. But in addition we will first set forth in epitome the [opinions] of the heresiarchs, so that p. 480. the opinions of all being thereby easy to discern, we may display the Truth as clear and easy to discern also.

9. But since this seems fitting, we will begin first with the ministers of the serpent. The Naassenes call the first principle of the universals a man and also Son of Man,[18] and him they divide into three. For part of him, they say, is intellectual, part psychic, and part earthly. And they call him Adamas and think the knowledge of him is the beginning of the power to know God. And they say that all these intellectual and psychic and earthly [parts] came into Jesus, and that the three substances spoke together through Him to the three races of the All. Thus they declare that there are three races, [the] angelic, psychic [and] earthly, and that there are three Churches, angelic, psychic and earthly; but that their names are [the] Called, Chosen, [and] Captive. These are the heads of their doctrine in so far as it can be briefly comprehended. They p. 481. say that they were handed down by James the Brother of the Lord to Mariamne, thereby belying both.[19]

10. But the Peratæ, Ademes the Carystian and Euphrates the Peratic[20] say that a certain cosmos—this is what they call it—is one divided into three. But of this threefold division of theirs, there is a single source, as it were a great fountain, capable of being cut by the reason into boundless sections. And the first and most excellent section is according to them the triad and the one part of it is called Perfect Good [and] Fatherly Greatness. But the second part of the Triad is, as it were a certain boundless multitude of powers, and the third is that of form. And the first [of the Triad] is unbegotten (since it is good: but the second good and self-begotten and the third, begotten).[21] Whence they say explicitly that there are three gods, three words, p. 482. three minds [and] three men. For to each part of the cosmos when the division was made, they assign Gods and Words and Men and the rest. But from on high, from the unbegotten state and from the first section of the cosmos, when the cosmos had already been brought to completion, there came down in the time of Herod a certain triple-natured and triple-bodied and triple-powered man called Christ, having within Him all the compounds and powers from the three parts of the cosmos. And this they will have to be the saying: “In Him dwells all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily.” For [they say that] there came down from the two overlying worlds, namely from the unbegotten and the self-begotten, to this world in which we are, all sorts of seeds of powers. And that Christ came down from the Unbegottenness in order that through His descent all the things triply divided may be saved. For the things, he says, brought down from on high shall ascend through Him; but those who take counsel together against those brought down shall be ruthlessly rejected and having been punished shall be sent away. And he says that those [worlds] which will be saved are two, the overlying ones p. 483. released from corruption. But the third will be destroyed, which is the world of form.[22] And thus the Peratæ.

11. But to the Sethians it appears that there are three definite principles of the universals. And that each of these principles (has boundless powers ... everything which you perceive by your mind or which you pass over for lack of thought)[23] is formed by nature to become [each of the principles] as in the human soul every art is to be learned. As if [they say] there should come to a boy spending some time with a pipe-player, the power of pipe-playing, or with a geometrician the power of measurement, or in like manner with any other art. But the substances of the principles, they say, are light and darkness. And between them is pure spirit. But the spirit which is set between the darkness which is below and the light which is above is, they say, not spirit like a gust of wind or any small breeze which may be perceived, but resembles some faint fragrance of balsam or p. 484. of incense artificially compounded as a power penetrating by force of fragrance and better than words can say. But because the light is above and the darkness below and the spirit between them, the light, like a ray of the sun on high, shines on the underlying darkness, and the fragrance of the spirit holding the middle place is borne and spread abroad as the odour of incense on the fire is borne. And as the power of the triply divided is such, the power of the spirit and the light together are below in the darkness beneath. But, they say, the darkness is a fearful water into which the light is drawn down with the spirit and changed into a similar nature. Now the darkness is sensible, and knows that if the light is taken away from it, the darkness will remain desolate, viewless, without light, powerless, idle and weak. In this way by all its wit and foresight it is forced to retain within itself the brilliance and scintillation of the light along with the fragrance of the spirit.

And with regard to this, they bring in this image, saying that as the pupil of the eye appears dark because of the p. 485. waters underneath it, but it is made light by the spirit, thus the light seeks after the spirit and retains for itself all the powers which wish to withdraw and to depart. But these are ever boundless, wherefrom all things are modelled and become like mingled seals. For, as the seal coming into conjunction with the wax, makes the impress, while itself remains by itself whatever it was, so the powers coming into conjunction with each other elaborate all the boundless races of living things. Therefore [they say] came into being from the first conjunction of the three principles, the form of a great seal [i. e.] of heaven and earth, which had a shape like a womb with the navel in the midst. Thus also the rest of the models of all things were modelled resembling a womb like heaven and earth. But they say that from the water came into being the first born principle, a violent and rushing wind the cause of all generation, which sets in action a certain heat and movement in the cosmos from the movement of the waters. And [they say] p. 486. that this was changed into a complete form like the hissing of a serpent, beholding which the cosmos is driven to generation, being excited like a womb, and therefrom they will have it the generation of the universals is established. And they say that this wind is a spirit and that a perfect god came into being from the waters and from the fragrance of the spirit and from the brilliance of the light. And that there is also the begetting of a female, Mind, the spark from on high which is mingled with the accretions of the body and hastens to flee away so that it may escape and not find dissolution through being enchained in the waters. Whence it cries aloud from the mingling of the waters according to the Psalmist, as they say. “Thus the whole care of the light on high is how it shall draw the spark beneath from the Father who is below,” [that is], from the wind which puts in action heat and disturbance and creates for himself Mind (a perfect son) who is not (peculiar) to himself, [whom] they declare, beholding the p. 487. perfect Word of the light from on high, changed Himself into the form of a serpent and entered into a womb, so that He might take again that mind which is a spark of the light. And this, [they say] is the saying: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” And this the unhappy and wicked Sethians will have to be the [servile] form.[24] This then is what they say.

12. And the all-wise Simon says thus. There is a boundless power and this is the root of the universals. The boundless power is, he says, fire. According to him, it is not simple, as the many say the four elements are simple and therefore think fire is simple; but [he says] that the nature of the fire is double, and of this double [nature] he calls one part hidden and the other manifest. And p. 488. that the hidden parts are concealed within the manifest parts of the fire, and the manifest parts of the fire are produced by the hidden. But, he says, that all the seen and unseen parts of the fire are to be considered as having sense.[25] Therefore, he says, the begotten world came into being from the unbegotten fire. But it began to come into being, he says, thus. The begotten [cosmos] took from the principle of that fire the first six roots of the principle of generation. For these six roots were born from the fire by pairs, which he calls Nous and Epinoia, Phonê and Onoma, Logismos and Enthymesis. And [he says] that in these six roots [taken] together, the Boundless Power exists (potentially but not actively, which Boundless Power) he says is the “He who Stands, Stood, and will Stand,” which if it be exactly reflected will be within the six powers in substance, powers, greatness and influence, being one and the same as the Unbegotten and Boundless Power, and in no way inferior to that Unbegotten and Unchangeable and Boundless Power. But if it remains only potentially in the Six Powers and is not exactly p. 489. reflected, it, he says, vanishes and will die away like the grammatical or geometrical power in the mind of a man, when he does not receive technical teaching in addition. And Simon says that himself is the He Who Stands, Stood, and will Stand, being the Power which is above all.[26] Thus, then, Simon.

13. But Valentinus and those from his school say the Source of the All is a Father and yet are carried into conflicting opinions [about him]. For some of them [think] that he is alone and capable of generation, while others hold that he is incapable of bringing forth without a female, and give him as a spouse Sigê, calling him Bythos. From whom and from his spouse some say that six projections came into being, [viz.] Nous and Aletheia, Logos and Zoë, Anthropos and Ecclesia, and that this is the first Ogdoad which brings forth.[27] And, again, [they say] that the projections which were first born within the Limit[28] are called the things within the Pleroma; but those second, those p. 490. without the Pleroma; and those third, those without the Limit, the offspring of which last exists as the Hysterema.[29] But he says that there was born from that which was projected in the Hysterema, an Aeon, and that this is the Demiurge, for he does not wish him to be the First God, but speaks ill both of him and of what came into being by him. And [he says] that Christ came down from that which was within the Pleroma for the salvation of the Spirit that went astray, which dwells in our inner man, which they say will be saved for the sake of the indwelling one. But [Valentinus] will not have it that the flesh will be saved, calling it a “coat of skin” and a corrupter of mankind. I have described this in epitome, as one meets with much matter [concerning it] and differing opinions among them. This then is what Valentinus’ school thinks.[30]

14. But Basilides also says that there is a God-Who-Is-Not who, being non-existent [made] the created world out p. 491. of the things that are not. [He says] that a certain seed, like a grain of mustard-seed was cast down, which contained within itself the stem, the leaves, the branches [and] the fruit; or, like a peacock’s egg, contains within itself a varied multitude of colours, and they say that this is the seed of the cosmos, from which all things were produced. For [he says] the seed contained all things within itself, inasmuch as thus the things that were not were preordained to come into being by the God-Who-Is-Not. Then there was, they say, in that seed a Sonhood, tripartite and in all things of the same substance with the God-Who-Is-Not, being begotten from the things that were not. And of this tripartite Sonhood, one part was [itself] finely divided, another coarsely so, while the other part needed purification. But the finely-divided part, straightway and concurrently with the happening of the first casting-down of the seed by the God-Who-Is-Not, escaped and went on high and came into the presence of Him-Who-Is-Not. For every nature yearns for Him because of His superabundance of beauty, but each in a different way. But the more coarsely divided [part] abode in the Seed and being merely imitative could not go on high, for it was much inferior p. 492. to the finer part.[31] And it was given wings by the Holy Spirit, for the Sonhood putting them on, both gives and receives benefit.[32] But the third Sonhood has need of purification. It remains in the heap of the Panspermia and it gives and receives benefit. And [he says] that there is something called [the] Cosmos and something hypercosmic for (the things that are) are divided by him into these two primary divisions. And what is between them, he calls [the] Boundary Holy Spirit, having the fragrance of the Sonhood.

From the Panspermia of the heap of the cosmic seed, there escaped and was brought forth the Great Ruler, the chief of the Cosmos, [a being] of unspeakable beauty and greatness. And he, uplifting himself to the firmament thought there was none other above him. And he became brighter and mightier than all below him, save the Sonhood left behind whom he did not know to be wiser than he. This [Ruler] having turned to the fashioning of the Cosmos, first begat for himself a Son better than he, and made him sit at his right hand. And this [place of the Ruler] they declare the Ogdoad. He then builds the whole p. 493. heavenly creation. But another Ruler ascended from the Panspermia, greater than all those lying beneath save the Sonhood left behind, but much inferior to the first, and he is called Hebdomad. He is the Creator and Demiurge and Controller of all below him; and he also made for himself a son more foresighted and wiser than he. But all these, they say, are according to the predetermination of that One-Who-Is-Not, and are worlds and boundless spaces.[33] And [Basilides] says that on Jesus who was born of Mary the power of [the] Gospel came, which descended and illumined the Son of the Ogdoad and the Son of the Hebdomad for the illumination and separation and purification of the Sonhood left behind that he might benefit and receive benefits from the souls. And they say that themselves are sons [of God], who for this purpose are in the world, [viz.] that they may purify the souls by their teaching and go on high together with the [third] Sonhood to the presence of the Father above, from whom the first Sonhood proceeded.[34] And they declare that the cosmos shall endure until all the souls together with the Sonhood shall withdraw [from it]. And Basilides is not ashamed to narrate these portents.[35]

15. Justinus also daring to [advance] things like these, says thus: “There are three unbegotten principles of the universals, two male [and] one female.” Of the male, one is a certain principle called the Good, and is alone thus called, having foreknowledge of the universals. But the other [male] is the Father of all begotten ones, and has no foreknowledge and is unknown and unseen and is called, they say, Elohim. [But] the female is without foreknowledge, inclined to passion, double-minded, double-bodied, as in the stories about her[37] which we have above related in detail, the upper parts of her down to the groin being a virgin and those [below] a viper. The same is called Edem and Israel. And he declares that these are the principles of the universals wherefrom all things came into being. And [he says] that Elohim came without foreknowledge to desire for the composite virgin, and, companying with her, begat p. 495. twelve angels. The names of these are....[38] And of these the paternal ones take sides with the (father); but the maternal ones with the mother. The same are (the trees of Paradise)[39] whereof Moses, speaking allegorically, wrote in the Law. And all things were made by Elohim and Edem; and the animals together with the rest of [creation] come from the beast-like parts, but man from those above the groin. And Edem deposited in [man] the soul which is her power (but Elohim the spirit). But he declares that Elohim having learned [of the light above him] ascended to the presence of the Good One and left Edem behind. Whereat she being angered makes every plot against the spirit of Elohim which is deposited in man. And for his sake, the Father sent Baruch and commanded the Prophets (to speak) so that he might set free the spirit of Elohim and draw all men away from Edem. But he p. 496. declares that Heracles became a prophet and that he was worsted by Omphale, that is by Babel, whom they name Aphrodite. And at last in the days of Herod Jesus became the son of Mary and Joseph, to Whom he declares Baruch to have spoken. And that Edem plotted against Him, but could not beguile Him, and therefore made Him to be crucified. Whose spirit [Justinus] says went on high to the Good One. And thus (the spirits) of all who believe these silly and feeble stories will be saved; but the body and soul belonging to Edem, whom the foolish Justinus calls the Earth,[40] will be left behind.[41]

16. But the Docetae say things like this: That the first God is as the seed of the fig-tree from whom have come three Aeons, like the stem and the leaves and p. 497. the fruit. And that these have projected thirty Aeons, each of them (ten). But all are linked together in tens and only differ in arrangement by some being before others.[42] And they projected infinitely boundless Aeons and are all masculo-feminine. And having taken counsel they all came together into one and from this intermediate Aeon was begotten from the Virgin Mary the Saviour of all, like in all things to the seed of the fig-tree, but inferior to it in that He was begotten. For the seed whence the fig-tree [comes] is unbegotten.[43] This then was the great light of the Aeons, complete, receiving no setting in order,[44] containing within itself the forms of all the animals. And [they say] that this [light] shining into the underlying chaos provided a cause to the things which have been and are, and descending from on high impressed [on the] chaos below the forms of the Aeonic exemplars.[45] For the third Aeon which had tripled itself, seeing that all his types were drawn down into the darkness below and not being ignorant of the terrible nature of the darkness and the simplicity of the light, created heaven and having fixed it between, divided in twain the darkness and the light.[46] Then all the forms of the third Aeon having been overcome, p. 498. they say, by the darkness, his likeness[47] subsisted as a living fire coming into being by the light. From which, they say, the Great Ruler came to be, of whom Moses talks when he says that this God is a fiery God and a Demiurge who ever transfers the forms[48] of all (Aeons) into bodies. But they declare that it is these souls for whose sake the Saviour came,[49] and showed the way whereby those that had been overcome may escape. And [they say] that Jesus did on that unique power, wherefore He could not be gazed upon by any by reason of the overpowering greatness of His glory. And they say that all things happened to Him as is written in the Gospels.[50]

17. But the followers of Monoimus the Arab say that p. 499. the principle of the All is a First Man[51] and Son of Man, and that the things which have come to pass as Moses says, came into being not by the First Man but by the Son of Man, and not from the whole, but from part of him. And that the Son of Man is Iota, which is the Decad, a dominant number wherein is the substance of all number, whereby every number subsists, and is the birth of the All [viz.] Fire, Air, Water [and] Earth. But this being so, Iota is one and one tittle, a perfect thing from the Perfect, a tittle flowing from on high, having within itself whatever also has the Man the Father of the Son of Man. Therefore [Monoimus] says that the world of Moses came into being in six days, that is, in six powers, from which the cosmos came forth from the one tittle. For cubes and octahedrons and pyramids and all the equal-sided figures like these, whence are made up Fire, Air, Water [and] Earth, have came into being from the numbers left behind in that simple tittle of the Iota which is the Son of Man. When therefore, he says, Moses speaks of a rod turning p. 500. towards Egypt he is attributing allegorically the woes[52] of the world to the Iota, nor does he figure more than the ten woes. But if, he says, you wish to understand the All, enquire within thyself who it is who says, “My soul, my flesh, my mind,”[53] and who within thee makes each thing his own as another does to him. Understand that this is a perfect thing from the Perfect who considers all the so-called non-existent and all the existent as peculiar to himself.[54] This then is what Monoimus thinks.

18. But Tatian, like Valentinus and the others, says that there are certain unseen Aeons, by one of whom below the cosmos and the things that are, were fashioned. And he practises a very cynical mode of life, and hardly differs from Marcion in his blasphemies and his rules about marriage.[55]

19. Marcion the Pontian, and Cerdo his teacher, also determined that there are three principles of the All, a Good One, a Just One, and Matter. But certain disciples of theirs add to this, saying that there are a Good One, a Just One, a Wicked One, and Matter. But all [agree] that the Good One created nothing wholly;[57] but they say that the Just One, whom some name the Wicked One, but others merely the Just, made all things out of the underlying Matter. For he made them not well but absurdly.[58] For things must need be like their creator. Wherefore they make use of the parable in the Gospels, saying, “A good tree cannot make evil fruits,”[59] and so on, declaring that in this it is said that things were devised wickedly by [the Just One]. And he says that Christ is the son of the Good One and was sent for the salvation of souls. Whom he calls [the] inner man, saying that He appeared as a man, p. 502. but was not man, and as incarnate, but was not incarnate, and was manifested in appearance [only], but underwent neither birth nor suffering, but seemed [to do so]. And [Marcion] does not wish that [the] flesh shall rise again. And, saying that marriage is destruction, he leads his disciples to a very Cynical life, thinking thereby to vex the Demiurge by abstaining from the things brought into being or laid down by him.[60]

20. But Apelles, the disciple of [Marcion] displeased with what was said by his teacher, as we have before said, proposed by another theory that there are four Gods, declaring that one is (good) whom the Prophets knew not, but of whom Christ is the Son. And that another is the Demiurge of the All, whom he does not wish to be a god, and another a fiery one who is manifest, and yet another a wicked one: [all of] whom he calls angels. And adding Christ to these, he says that He is the fifth. But he gives heed to a book which he calls Manifestations of a certain Philumene whom he thinks a prophetess. And he says p. 503. that Christ did not receive the flesh from the Virgin, but from the adjacent substance of the cosmos. Thus he has written treatises[61] against the Law and the Prophets attempting to discredit them as false speakers and ignorant of God. And he says, like Marcion, that [all] flesh will be destroyed.[62]

21. But Cerinthus, who had been trained in Egypt, would have it that the cosmos did not come into being by the First God, but by a certain angelic power far removed and standing apart from the Authority [set] over the universals and ignorant of the God over all things. And he says that Jesus was not begotten from a Virgin, but was the son of Joseph and Mary in the same way as the rest of mankind, and that He excelled all other men in righteousness, moderation and intelligence. And that at the Baptism, there descended upon Him from the Authority over the universals, the Christ in the form of a dove, and that He then preached the unknown God and perfected his powers;[63] p. 504. but that at the end of the passion the Christ fell away from Jesus. And Jesus suffered, but the Christ remained passionless, being a spirit of [the] Lord.[64]

22. But the Ebionæi say that the cosmos came into being from the true God; but speak of the Christ as does Cerinthus. And they live in all things according to the Law of Moses, thus declaring themselves justified.[65]

23. Theodotus the Byzantian brought in another heresy such as this, declaring that the universals came into being by the true God. But he says, like the Gnostics before described, that the Christ appeared in some such fashion [as this]. He said that the Christ was a man akin to all, but He differed [from others] in that He by the will of God was born from a Virgin who had been overshadowed by the p. 505. Holy Spirit. And that he was not incarnate in the Virgin, but at length at the Baptism the Christ descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove, whence they say He did not before then exercise powers. But he will not have the Christ to be God. And so Theodotus.[66]

24. And others of them say all things like those aforesaid, altering one single thing only in that they accept Melchizedek as some very great power, declaring him to exist above every power. After whose likeness they will have the Christ to be.[67]

25. But the Phrygians take the beginnings of their heresy from one Montanus and Priscilla and Maximilla, thinking the wenches prophetesses and Montanus a prophet. But p. 506. they are considered to speak rightly in what they say about the beginning and the fashioning of the All, and they receive not otherwise the things about the Christ. But they stumble with those aforesaid to whose words they erringly give heed rather than to the Gospels, and they prescribe new and unusual fasts.

26. But others of them approaching the heresy of the Noetians think in like manner concerning the wenches and Montanus, but blaspheme the Father of the universals saying that He is at once Son and Father, seen and unseen, begotten and unbegotten, mortal and immortal. These take their starting-points from one Noetus.[68]

27. And in the same way Noetus, being a Smyrnæan by birth, a garrulous and versatile man, brought in this heresy, which from one Epigonus reached Cleomenes and has so remained with his successors until now. It says that the p. 507. Father and God of the universals is one and that He made all things, and became invisible to the things which are when He willed, and then appeared when he wished. And that He is invisible when He is not seen; but visible when He is seen; and unbegotten when He is not begotten, but begotten when He is begotten from a Virgin; and passionless and immortal when He does not suffer and die, but that when [the] Passion comes, He suffers and dies. They think this Father is Himself called Son according to times and circumstances.[69] The heresy of these persons Callistus confirmed, whose life we have faithfully set forth. Who himself gave birth to a heresy, taking starting-points from them, while himself confessing that this Fashioner the All is the Father and God; but that He is spoken of by name and named Son, while in substance He is (one Spirit). For God, he says is a Spirit not other than the Logos nor the Logos than God, and therefore this Person is divided in name indeed, but not in substance. And he names this one God, and says that He was incarnated. And he wishes the Son to be He who was seen and overcome according to p. 508. the flesh, but the Father to be He who dwelt within [Him]. He sometimes branches off to the heresy of Noetus and sometimes to that of Theodotus, but holds nothing steadfastly. This now Callistus.

28. But one Hermogenes having also wished to say something [new] said that God made all things out of co-existent and underlying matter. For that it is impossible to hold that God created existing things from those which are not.[70]

29. But certain others, as if bringing in something new [and] collecting things from all heresies, prepared a foreign book bearing the name of one Elchasai. These in the same way [as their predecessors] confess that the principles of the All came into being by God, but do not confess Christ to be one. But they say that there is one on high p. 509. who is often transferred[71] into [many] bodies, and that he is now in Jesus. Likewise that at one time, this one was born from God, and at another became [the] Spirit, and sometimes was born from a Virgin and sometimes not. And that thereafter he is ever transferred into [many] bodies, and is manifested in many according to [the] times. And they use incantations and baptisms for their confession of the elements.[72] And they are excited about astrology and mathematics and (give heed) to magic (acts). And they say they foreknow the future.[73]

30. (Abraham being commanded) by God, migrates from Mesopotamia and the city of Harran to the part now called Palestine and Judæa but then Canaanitis, concerning which we have in part but not without care handed down the p. 510. account in other discourses.[75] Through this occurred the beginning of [the] increase [of population] in Judæa, which got the name from Judah the fourth son of Jacob, of whom it was also called the kingdom, through the royal race being from him. (Abraham)[76] migrates from Mesopotamia (being 75 years old) and being in his hundredth year (begat Isaac). (And Isaac being) 60 years old begat Jacob. And Jacob [when] 87 years old begat Levi. But Levi when 40 years old begat Kohath.[77] And Kohath [was 4] years old when he went down with Jacob into Egypt. Therefore the whole time which Abraham and all his race by Isaac dwelt in the land then called [the] Canaanitis was 215 years.[78] And his (father) was Terah. This, one’s [father] was Nahor, his Serug (his Zeu, his Peleg, his Eber) whence (the Jews) are p. 511. called Hebrews. There were 72 (sons of Abraham from whom also were 72) nations, whose names also we have set forth in other books.[79] Nor did we omit this in its place as we wished to show to the learned[80] our affection concerning the Divine and the accurate knowledge concerning the Truth which we have painfully acquired. But the father of this Eber was Shelah, and his Canaan, and his Arphaxad, who was born to Shem; and his father was Noah in whose time the flood over the whole world came to pass, which neither Egyptians, nor Chaldæans, nor Greeks record. For to them the floods in the time of Ogyges and Deacalion were [only] in places. Now in their time[81] were 5 generations, or 435 years.[82] This [Noah] being a most pious man and one who loved God, alone with [his] wife and children and their three wives escaped the coming flood, being saved in an ark, the measurements and remains of which, as we have set forth[83] [elsewhere], are shown to this day in the p. 512. mountains called Ararat which are near the land of the Adiabeni. It is then to be observed by those who wish to give a painstaking account how plainly it is shown that the God fearing race are older than all Chaldæans, Egyptians, [or] Greeks. But what need is there to name here those before Noah who both feared and spake with God, when to what has gone before the witness of antiquity is sufficient?

31. But since it seems not unreasonable to show that those nations who occupy themselves with philosophy[84] are later in date than they who feared God, it is right to say both where their race came from, and that when they migrated to these countries, they did not take a name from them, but themselves gained [one] from those who first ruled[85] and dwelt [there]. The three sons of Noah were Shem, Ham and Japhet. From them the whole race of men multiplied and dwelt in every country. For the word of God[86] was confirmed by them which said, “Increase and multiply and fill the earth.”[87] So mighty was this one saying, that 72 children were begotten by the 3 sons, family p. 513. by family, of whom 25 were Shem’s, 15 Japhet’s, and 32 Ham’s. And the sons of Ham were, as has been said 32:—his were Canaan, from whom the Canaanites, Misraim, from whom the Egyptians, Cush, from whom the Ethiopians, Phut, from whom the Libyans. These in their own speech unto this day are called by the common name of their ancestors and even in the Greek are named by the names by which they have just been called. But if it were shown that there were formerly none to inhabit their countries, nor a beginning of [any] race[88] of men, yet there are still these sons of Noah, a God-fearing man who was himself a disciple of God-fearing men, thanks to which he escaped the great although temporary threat of [the] waters. How then can it be denied that there were God-fearing men earlier than all Chaldæans, Egyptians [and] Greeks,[89] the father of which [last] was born to that Japhet [and had the] name Jovan, whence [the] Greeks and Ionians? And if the nations who occupy themselves with matters of philosophy are shown to be altogether of much later date than the God-fearing race and the Flood, will not the Barbarian p. 514. and whatever races in the world are known and unknown, appear later than these? Wherefore now, do ye Greeks, Egyptians and Chaldæans and every race of men master this argument and learn what is the Divine and what His well-ordered creation from us, the friends of God, who have not been trained in dainty phrase, but in the knowledge of Truth and the practice of moderation find words for His demonstration.[90]

32. One God is the First and Only One and Creator and Ruler of all. He has no coæval, neither boundless chaos, nor immeasureable water, nor solid earth, nor compact air, nor hot fire, nor subtle spirit, nor the blue canopy of great heaven.[91] But He was One, alone with Himself, who when He willed created the things which are, which at first were not, save that He willed to create them as knowing of what they would be. For foreknowledge also is present with Him. He fashioned first the different principles of things to come—fire and spirit,[92] water and earth,—from which different [principles] He made His creation. And some p. 515. things He [made of] one substance and some he bound together out of two, others of three and yet others of four. And those that are of one were immortal, for dissolution does not dog them, for that which is one will never be dissolved. But those [made] from two or three or four [substances] are dissoluble, wherefore they are called mortal. For death is called this, the dissolution of what is bound together. We think we have now answered sufficiently those who have sound perception, who, if for love of learning they will enquire further into these substances and the causes of the fashioning of all things, they will learn them by reading our book, treating of “the Substance of the All.”[93] And I think that it is here enough to set forth the causes from ignorance whereof the Greeks glorified with dainty phrase the parts of the creation, but ignored the Creator. Starting wherefrom the heresiarchs, transfiguring into like expressions what was formerly said by [the Greeks] have composed laughable heresies.

33. This God, then, One and Over All having first conceived p. 516. in His mind begat [the] Word, not a word in the sense of a voice, but the indwelling Reason[94] of the All. He begot Him alone from the things which are. For the Father Himself was what is, from Whom was the Word, the cause of the begetting of things coming into being, bearing within Himself the will of His begetter, not ignorant of the thought of the Father. For from the time[95] of His coming forth from Him who begat Him, becoming His first-born voice, He holds within Himself the ideas conceived in His Father’s mind. Whence, on the Father ordering the world to come into being, the Word completed it in detail,[96] [thus] pleasing God. And the things which multiply by generation, He formed male and female; but all those for service and ministry he made either males who have no need of females or neither male nor female. For when the first substances p. 517. of these came into being [namely] Fire and Spirit, Earth and Water, from the things that were not, neither male nor female things existed. Nor could male and female have come forth from each of these, unless the God who gave the command had willed that the Word should do this service.[97] I confess that angels are [formed] of fire and I say that no females are present with them. But I consider that Sun and Moon and stars were in like manner [formed] of fire and spirit and are neither male nor female. But I say that swimming animals were [formed] of water and that winged ones are male and female.[98] For thus God willed and commanded that the watery substance should be fruitful. In like manner, serpents and wild beasts and all sorts of animals were [formed] from earth and are male and female; for this the nature of begotten things allowed. For whatever things He willed, those God created. These He fashioned by the Word, for they could not have come into being otherwise than they did. But when as He had willed He also created, He called and designated them by name. Thereafter He fashioned the ruler of them all, and equipped him from all substances brought together. Nor did He wish to make a God and fail, nor an angel—be not deceived—but p. 518. a man. For had God willed to make thee a God, He could: thou hast the example of the Word. But He willed a man and created thee a man. But if thou dost wish also to become a God, hearken to the Creator and withstand Him not now, so that being found faithful over a little, thou mayest be entrusted with much.[99]

Only the Word of this [God] is from Him. Wherefore He also is God, being the substance of God. But the world is from nothing. Wherefore it is not God and it will be dissolved[100] when the Creator wills. But God who created makes nothing evil; but he creates it fair and good. For He who creates is good. But man when he came into being was an animal with free-will,[101] not having a ruling mind, nor dominating all things by reflection and authority and power, but a slave[102] and full of all contrary [desires].[103] Who, in that he is free to choose produces evil, which when it is completed by accident is nothing unless thou dost make [it].[104] For it is by the thinking and willing something p. 519. evil, that it is named evil; which was not from the beginning, but came into being later. [And] as man was free to choose, a Law was laid down by God, not vainly. For if man were not free to will or not to will, what need of a Law?[105] For the Law is not decreed for a dumb beast, but a bridle and a whip; but to man was appointed a commandment and a penalty in respect of what he was to do and not to do. And [the] Law as to this was laid down of old through righteous men. Nearer to our own times, a Law full of majesty and justice was laid down through the Moses aforesaid, a steadfast man and one who loved God.

All these things, the Word of God directs, the First-born Son of [the] Father, the light-bringing voice before dawn.[106] Thereafter there came into being righteous men who loved God. These were called prophets from their showing beforehand the things to come.[107] To whom word came not at one season [only], but through all generations the utterances of things foretold was most clearly brought forward.[108] p. 520. Nor did they merely give an answer to those present there at the time, but through several generations also the things to come were foreshadowed. [And this] because speaking of things past they recalled them to mankind; but by showing what was then happening they put away carelessness, and by foretelling the future have made every one of us fearful by the sight of the fulfilment of prophecies and the expectation of the future. Such is our faith, O all ye men who are not persuaded by vain speeches, nor captured by sudden movings of the heart, nor enchanted by plausible and eloquent words, but have not been obdurate to words uttered by Divine power. And these things God commanded [the] Word; and the Word speaking through [the prophets], uttered them for the turning of man from disobedience and emancipating him from the force of Fate, but calling him to liberty by his free choice.[109]

The Father in the last days sent forth this Word, not speaking through a prophet, and not wishing that the Word when proclaimed should be darkly guessed at, but that He should be manifested to the very eyes of all. He, I say, p. 521. (sent Him forth) that the world when it beheld Him should be put to shame. For He did not give commandment through the person of prophets, nor affright [the] soul by an angel, but was Himself present and spake. Him we know to have taken body from a Virgin and to have moulded[110] the old man through a new formation. [We know] that He passed in life through every age,[111] so that He might become a law for every age, and that His presence might show forth His manhood as an example[112] to all men; and that through Him it might be proved that God makes nothing evil, and that man as master of himself can will or not will [evil], being capable of both. We know, too, that this man came into being out of the same material[113] as ourselves; for were He not of the same [matter] it would be vain to order that the Teacher be imitated. For had that Man chanced to be of another substance [than ours] why should he order me who am weak by nature to do things like Himself? And [in that case] how is He good and just? But in order that He might not be thought different from us, He underwent toil, and was willing to hunger, and denied not thirst,[114] and was stilled in sleep, and renounced not suffering, and p. 522. submitted to death, and manifested resurrection, sacrificing in all this His own manhood, so that thou when suffering may not be faint-hearted, but mayst confess thyself a man and expect also what the Father promised Him.

34. Such is the true word about the Divine.[115] O all ye men, Greeks and Barbarians, Chaldæans and Assyrians, Egyptians and Libyans, Indians and Ethiopians, Celts and ye army-leading Latins,[116] and all ye dwellers in Europe, Asia and Libya.[117] To you I am become a counsellor, being a disciple of the Word who loves man and myself a lover of mankind, so that you may hasten to be taught by us who is the real God and what His well-ordered creation. And that you give not heed to the sophistries of artificial discourses,[118] nor to the crazy promises of plagiarizing heretics, but to the august simplicity of unboastful truth. Through the knowledge of which, you shall escape the coming menace of the judgment of fire, and the unlighted vision of gloomy Tartarus unillumined by the voice of the Word, and p. 523. the boiling of the Lake of the eternal Gehenna of flame, and the ever-threatening eye of the angels punished in Tartarus,[119] and the worm which through the filth of the body turns towards the body which threw it forth as for food. And these things thou shalt escape when thou hast been taught the God Who Is. And thou shalt have an immortal body together with an incorruptible soul. And thou shalt receive the kingdom of the heavens, who whilst on earth didst also recognize the heavenly King. But thou shall speak with God and be joint heir with Christ, not enslaved by desires nor sufferings nor diseases.[120] For thou [wilt] have become God. For whatever sufferings thou underwent as man, thou hast shown that thou art a man; but whatever is appurtenant to a God, that God has promised to bestow, because thou hast been made divine, since thou hast been begotten immortal. This is the [true] “Know Thyself,” the knowledge of the Creator God. For to him who knows himself has occurred the being known to Him by whom p. 524. he is called. Wherefore now, O men, be not your own enemies, nor hesitate to turn again. For Christ is the God over all, Who has arranged to wash away iniquity from among men, and to make anew the old man who from the beginning was called His image, thus showing forth His love towards thee. Having hearkened to Whose august precepts, and having become a good imitator of the Good One, thou wilt be like unto and be honoured by Him. For God asks no alms,[121] and has made thee God for His own glory.

INDEX

• Adam of Cabala, i. 120 n. 6;
• the first man, ap. Chaldæans, i. 122;
• arch-man of Samothrace, i. 132;
• made by Jaldabaoth and his sons, ap. Ophites, i. 122 n. 3.
• See Tatian
• Adamas, supreme god of Naassenes, i. 120;
• the “unsubdued,” epithet of Hades, Dionysos and Attis, i. 120 n. 6;
• called the arch-man, i. 128, 129;
• Isaiah’s words attributed to, i. 134
• Adonis, Assyrian name of Attis, i. 124
• Aetius, Philosophumena attributed to, i. 5;
• his de Placitis Philosoph. quoted, i. 39 n. 3, 43 n. 1, 56 n. 1
• Aipolos = goatherd according to Phrygians, i. 137
• Akembes, the Carystian, joint founder of Peratic heresy, i. 69, 149; ii. 154.
• See Euphrates
• Alcibiades, of Apamea. See Elchesaites
• Alcinous, chief source of Hippolytus for Plato’s doctrines, i. 51 n. 3
• Alés, Adhémar d’, his Théologie de St. Hippolyte quoted, i. 66 n. 1
• Amygdalus, Phrygian name of Attis, i. 140
• Anaxagoras, his teaching, i. 44-46
• Anaximander, his teaching, i. 42, 43
• Anaximenes, his teaching, i. 43, 44
• Andronicus the Peripatetic, quoted by Sethiani, i. 167
• Apelles, follower of Marcion. His tenets, ii. 96, 97;
• his prophetess Philumena, ii. 96;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 166
• Apocatastasis, return of worlds to Deity, ii. 75 n. 4
• Apparitions of gods, how produced by magicians, i. 97, 100
• Apsethus the Libyan, story of, ii. 3, 4
• Archelaus, his teaching, i. 46, 47
• Aristotle, i. 16;
• his teaching, i. 55-57;
• his Categories, i. 55 n. 5;
• his Quintessence, i. 56 n. 1; ii. 72 n. 4;
• phrase of, used by Simon M., ii. 11 n. 4;
• Basilides’ tenets attributed to, ii. 62-66. See Plato
• Arithmomancy, i. 83-87
• Armellini attributes Philosophumena to Novatian, i. 6
• Arnold, Prof. E. V., his Roman Stoicism quoted, i. 57 n. 3, 127 n. 3, 136 n. 5; ii. 45 n. 7, 79 n. 6
• Asclepiades, i. 19; ii. 152
• Assyrians = Syrians, i. 123 n. 6;
• teach triune nature of Deity, ib.
• Astrology, source of heresy, i. 34;
• the Chaldæan system of, i. 67-69;
• folly of, i. 70-75, 113;
• zodiacal types of, i. 88-91
• Astronomers, calculations of, i. 76-83;
• Hippolytus’ contempt for, i. 82
• Athenæus, his Deipnosophistæ quoted, i. 108 n. 3
• Attis, legend of, i. 118 n. 1;
• hymns to, sung in Mysteries of great Mother, i. 141, 142;
• names of: Adonis, Osiris, Moon, Sophia, Adamna, Corybas, Papas, Aipolos, Amygdalus, Syrictas, ib.
• Babylonians, say god is Darkness, ap. Hippolytus, i. 104
• Baptism, in primitive Church followed by milk and honey, i. 136 n. 9
• Barbelo, the earth-goddess, of Gnostics, i. 139 n. 5
• Baruch, book of. See Justinus
• Basilides, i. 13, 14, 16;
• his tenets, ii. 59-79;
• hearer of Glaucias, ii. 59 n. 1;
• of Matthias, ii. 66;
• his son Isidore, ib.;
• his God-who-is-Not, ii. 67.
• The Panspermia, ii. 68;
• Ascension of First Sonhood, ii. 69;
• of Second Sonhood, ii. 70;
• the Boundary Spirit, ib.;
• the Great Ruler and his greater Son, ii. 71, 72;
• the second ruler or Hebdomad, ii. 73;
• descent of the Gospel, ii. 75;
• the 365 heavens and Habrasax, ii. 76;
• light which shines upon Jesus and His Passion, ib.;
• Apocatastasis of Formlessness and Mission of Jesus, ii. 77-79;
• the great ignorance, ii. 77;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 159-161.
• See Simon of Cyrene, Aristotle
• Baubo. See Hecate
• Baur, Chr. F., attributes Philosophumena to Caius the presbyter, i. 6
• Beelzebuth, made from perplexity of Sophia, ap. Valentinus, ii. 31;
• name parody of Jabezebuth, ii. 31 n. 2
• Benn, Alfred W., his Philosophy of Greece quoted, i. 37 n. 6, 43 n. 1
• Bigourdan, G., his L’Astronomie: Evolution des Idées, etc., quoted, i. 80 n. 3
• Blastus, heretic mentioned by pseudo-Tertullian, i. 13
• Bouché-Leclercq, A., his L’Astrologie Grecque quoted, i. 67 n. 1, 74 n. 5; 108 n. 2, 148 n. 4
• Bousset, Prof. Wilhelm, his Hauptprobleme der Gnosis quoted, i. 123 n. 2; ii. 80 n. 2, 163 n. 7
• Brachmans, their lives and teaching, i. 60-61; ii. 99 n. 1
• Brandt, Prof. A. S. H. W. See Elchesaites
• Brimo, name of Demeter in Mysteries, i. 138
• Bruce, the, Papyrus, i. 3 n. 1;
• quoted, ii. 12 n. 2
• Buddhism, known to Clement of Alexandria, ii. 59 n. 1
• Budge, Sir Ernest A. W. T., his Miscellaneous Coptic Texts quoted, i. 30; ii. 178 n. 1
• Bunsen, Baron von, his Hippolytus and his Age, i. 5
• Cabala, the Jewish process of gematria, i. 131 n. 1;
• explanation of, ii. 40 n. 3;
• measurements in, ii. 133 n. 4
• Caius the presbyter, Philosophumena attributed to, i. 6
• Callistus, Pope (218-223 A.D.), i. 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 29;
• leans towards heresy of Noetus, ii. 118;
• his life and tenets, ii. 124-132;
• fails with Sabellius, ii. 124;
• calls Hippolytus’ party ditheists, ii. 125, 129;
• formerly slave to Carpophorus, ii. 125;
• his misdeeds and flight, ii. 126;
• condemned to mill by Carpophorus, ib.;
• makes riot in synagogue and sent to mines by Fuscianus, ii. 127;
• released by Victor and Marcia, ii. 128, 129;
• promoted to charge of cemetery by Zephyrinus, ii. 128;
• excommunicates Sabellius, ii. 129;
• his leanings towards Sabellius and Theodotus, ii. 130;
• favours laxity of morals in Church, ii. 130-132;
• and second baptism, ii. 132
• Carpocrates, i. 17;
• his tenets, ii. 90-92;
• assigns sinless soul to Jesus, ii. 91;
• says all men may be Christs, ib.;
• lawlessness of followers of, ii. 91-92.
• See Magic
• Carpophorus. See Callistus
• Caulacau, used with Saulasau and Zeesar by Naassenes, i. 131;
• Adamas identified with, ib.;
• name in which Saviour descended, ib. n. 6
• Cerdo, i. 16;
• teacher of Marcion, ii. 95, 96
• Cerinthus, i. 17;
• his tenets, ii. 92, 93;
• adoptionist views of, ii. 93;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 166
• Chaldæans, horoscopy of, described, i. 67-76
• Charles, R. H., his Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of O. T. quoted, i. 154
• Cicero, quoted, i. 68 n. 1, 107 n. 2
• Clement of Alexandria, i. 11;
• quoted, i. 144 n. 2, 146 n. 1; ii. 12 n. 5, 20 n. 1, 78 n. 8, 105 n. 4, 122 n. 3
• Cleomenes, preacher of Noetian heresy, ii. 118, 123
• Colarbasus, his arithmetical heresy, i. 83;
• name of, ii. 57 n. 4
• Constellation figures, interpretation of, i. 107-114
• Corybas, god of Phrygians, i. 133;
• his legend, ib. n. 5
• Cruice, Abbé Patrice M., Philosophumena, etc., i. 4 n. 5;
• Études sur les P., i. 12 n. 2
• Cumont, Franz, his Textes et Monuments de Mithra quoted, i. 98 n. 5;
• Les Mystères de Mithra, ib.;
• Recherches sur le Manichéisme, i. 110 n. 2;
• Cosmogonie Manichéenne, i. 176 n. 5
• Cybele, or Great Mother, worship of, i. 3;
• legend of, i. 118 n. 1.
• See Attis, Naassenes, Ophites, Rhea
• Cyphi, Egyptian incense used in magic, i. 92
• Demiurge, or architect of Universe;
• fiery god of Naassenes, i. 128;
• made from fear of Sophia, ap. Valentinus, ii. 30
• Democritus, his teaching, i. 48, 49
• Devil, ruler of this world made from grief of Sophia, ap. Valentinus, ii. 31
• Didymus of Alexandria, Philosophumena attributed to, i. 5
• Diels, Hermann, edits Book I. of Philosophumena, i. 31 n. 1
• Diodorus of Eretria, mentioned by no other author, i. 38 n. 6
• Diogenes Laertius, source of Hippolytus’ summary of philosophies, i. 64 n. 2;
• quoted, i. 35 n. 7, 36 nn. 2, 3; 37 n. 6; 40 nn. 2, 3; 41 nn. 2, 3; 42 n. 1; 44 nn. 1, 3; 48 nn. 3, 4; 54 n. 1; 56 nn. 1, 2; 58 n. 1; 59 nn. 1, 3;
• mentions Gymnosophists and Druids, 60 n. 1
• Docetae, i. 15, 17;
• their tenets, ii. 99-105;
• interpretation of story of fig-tree, ii. 99, 100.
• And of Parable of Sower, ii. 101;
• views on Annunciation and Passion of Jesus, ii. 104;
• probably Valentinian, ii. 105 n. 4;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 162, 163
• Döllinger, Dr. Ignaz, i. 6, 7;
• his Hippolytus and Callistus quoted, ii. 124 n. 1; 125 n. 3; 126 nn. 4, 6; 127 nn. 1, 2, 4; 128 nn. 4, 5; 129 n. 4; 130 nn. 1, 7; 131 n. 6
• Dositheus, a Samaritan heretic, i. 13, 14
• Druids, Pythagoreans, i. 61, 62.
• See Diogenes Laertius
• Duchesne, Mgr. Louis, his Histoire Ancienne de l’Église quoted, i. 6, 7; ii. 124 n. 1; 125 n. 7
• Duncker, Ludwig, Philosophumena, etc., i. 4
• Ebionites, their tenets, ii. 93;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 167.
• See Mughtasila
• Ecphantus, his teaching, i. 50
• Edem (Eden), garden of, compared to brain, ap. Naassenes, i. 143;
• river of, compared to serpent, ap. Peratæ, i. 155;
• to four senses of man, ap. Simon Magus, ii. 10;
• name of Israel wife of Elohim, ap. Justinus, i. 175
• Egypt = the body, ap. Naassenes, i. 130;
• and Peratæ, i. 155
• Egyptians, used for Alexandrians, i. 40 n. 1;
• astrology of, 48 n. 4;
• “Wisdom” of, i. 104-107;
• Gospel accdg. to, quoted, i. 123
• Elchesaites, i. 14, 17;
• Brandt’s Elchesai, ii. 132 n. 3;
• Alcibiades introduces heresy of, into Rome, ii. 133;
• the Book of Elchesai quoted, ib.;
• their belief in transmigration, ii. 134;
• repeated baptisms and spells used by, ii. 135, 136;
• prophecies of, ii. 137;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 169, 170.
• See Mughtasila
• Eleusis (Mysteries of), words used in, i. 129;
• rites of, described, i. 138, 139
• Empedocles, i. 9, 16;
• his teaching, i. 40, 41
• Encratites, their tenets, ii. 114, 115;
• their connection with Tatian, ii. 114 n. 5;
• extreme asceticism of, ii. 115
• Epicurus, his teaching, i. 58, 59
• Epiphanes (supposed follower of Valentinus), his tenets, ii. 38
• Epiphanius, quoted, i. 5, 11, 122 n. 3; ii. 39 n. 7, 48 n. 2, 49 n. 1, 76 n. 1, 80 nn. 2, 3; 90 n. 4, 92 nn. 3, 4; 93 n. 7, 95 n. 4, 113 n. 6, 118 n. 1, 132 n. 3
• Essenes, Book of Job attributed to, i. 109 n. 2;
• Ebionites and, 110 n. 3.
• See Jews, Mughtasila, Zealots
• Euphrates (the Peratic), his story of war in heaven, i. 69;
• meaning of name of, i. 146 n. 1;
• founder of Ophite heresy, ib.;
• and with Akembes of Peratæ, i. 149
• Eusebius, quoted, i. 7, 14 n. 1; ii. 96 n. 2, 111 n. 2, 112 n. 6, 132 n. 3
• Fabricius, edits Book I of Philosophumena, i. 1
• Faye, Eugène de, his Introduction, etc., and Gnostiques et Gnosticisme quoted, i. 8 n. 3
• Fessler, Prof., attributes Philosophumena to Caius, i. 6
• Firmicus, J. Maternus, his Matheseos quoted, i. 68 n. 1
• Flora. See Ptolemy, follower of V.
• Flügel, Prof., his Mani quoted, ii. 132 n. 3
• Fuscianus, prefect of city (188-193 A.D.), sentences Callistus to mines, ii. 127
• Ganschinietz, Richard, his Hippolytus’ Kapitel gegen die Magier quoted, i. 92 n. 2
• Geryon, the triple-bodied, pervades everything, ap. Naassenes, i. 131
• Gnostics, Mysteries of, i. 32, 33;
• derive tenets from Greeks and barbarians, i. 119.
• See Naassenes, Philo
• Graillot, L., his Le Culte de Cybèle quoted, i. 135 n. 1
• Greeks, Phœnician origin of, attributed to Herodotus, i. 111;
• tenets of Physicists among, taken from Sextus Empiricus, ii. 150-153
• Gronovius, annotates Book I of Philosophumena, i. 1
• Hatch, Edwin, Dr., his Hibbert Lectures quoted, i. 38 n. 1, 123 n. 4, 136 n. 9; ii. 45 n. 6, 52 n. 8, 62 n. 7.
• Hebrew words used by magicians, i. 92, 93.
• Hecate, hymn to, i. 100, 101;
• identified with Baubo, Gorgo, Mormo and Mene, i. 101;
• also with Artemis, Persephone and Eriskigal, ib. n. 1
• Hemerobaptists, i. 18; ii. 132 n. 3.
• See Mughtasila
• Heracleon, follower of Valentinus, his tenets not described by Hippolytus, ii. 38 n. 2
• Heraclides of Pontus, i. 19; ii. 152
• Heraclitus of Ephesus, i. 10, 16, 17;
• his teaching, i. 41; ii. 119.
• See Noetus
• Hermes, street statues of, i. 127
• Hermogenes, i. 16;
• his tenets, ii. 111-112;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 169
• Hesiod (the poet), his Theogony quoted, i. 62, 63
• Hippasus, i. 19; ii. 151
• Hippo, his teaching, i. 50, 51
• Hippocrates, quoted, i. 126
• Hippolytus, schismatic Pope (218-235 A.D.), i. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16;
• denies Pauline authorship of Hebrews, i. 23 n. 1;
• calls himself guardian of the Church, i. 34;
• heterodoxy of, ii. 125 n. 3, 129 n. 4;
• Chronicon of, ii. 171;
• his own doctrine stated, ii. 172 to end;
• his Substance of the All, ii. 173
• Homoousios, first used by Hippolytus, ii. 69 n. 1
• Hyacinthus. See Marcia
• Irenæus, St., Hippolytus’ indebtedness to, i. 11, 12, 13;
• his Five Books Against Heresies quoted, i. 122 n. 3, 139 n. 5, 160 n. 1; ii. 15 n. 2, 17 n. 4, 25 n. 6, 27 n. 2, 38 n. 2, 39 nn. 3, 4; 40 n. 2, 44 n. 2, 45 n. 5, 48 n. 1, 49 nn. 2, 3, 6; 50 n. 2, 51 nn. 2, 8; 53 n. 3, 54 n. 1, 56 n. 2, 57 nn. 4, 5; 59 n. 1, 76 n. 1, 79 n. 2, 80 n. 2, 90 n. 4, 91 n. 5, 92 nn. 3, 4; 93 nn. 4, 5; 111 nn. 2, 3.
• See Jesus
• Isidore. See Basilides
• Isis identified with the Earth, i. 105 n. 4;
• Mysteries of, i. 126
• Jacobi, Prof., first to declare Hippolytus author of Philosophumena, i. 5
• Jaldabaoth, a fiery god, i. 128, 132 n. 3; ii. 102 n. 9;
• a “fourth number,” ib.
• See Adam, Sophia
• James, the brother of the Lord, alleged transmitter of Naassene doctrines, i. 121; ii. 153
• Jerusalem, the heavenly, mother of all living, i. 130;
• the city in Phœnicia, i. 138
• Jesus, His triple nature, ap. Naassenes, i. 121;
• the Perfect Man, i. 134;
• reason of His Incarnation, i. 145;
• His triple powers, ap. Peratæ, i. 147;
• Intermediate between the Father and matter, i. 158;
• Son of Joseph and Mary, ap. Justinus and Carpocrates, i. 178; ii. 96;
• the great High Priest, ii. 29;
• mystic name of, ap. Irenæus, ii. 47;
• self-generated, ap. Marcus, ii. 52;
• His Illumination Mission and Passion, ap. Basilides, ii. 78, 79;
• the One God of Zephyrinus, ii. 123;
• so of Callistus, ii. 129.
• See Carpocrates, Cerinthus, Ebionites, Docetae, Justinus
• Jeû of Bruce Papyrus, called the Great Man, i. 122 n. 4
• Jews, history of, from Josephus and others, ii. 138-148;
• divided into Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes, ii. 139;
• tenets of Essenes, ii. 139-145;
• the like of Pharisees, ii. 145;
• the like of Sadducees, ii. 145-147;
• all expect Messiah, ii. 147;
• chronology of history of, ii. 170-172
• Josephus, i. 10 n. 3; i. 17.
• See Jews
• Jothor, father-in-law of Moses, i. 131
• Justin Martyr, says Simon Magus claimed divinity, i. 14
• Justinus, the Gnostic, i. 3;
• perhaps not Ophite, i. 28 n. 2;
• his tenets, i. 169-180;
• probably one of the later Gnostics, i. 169 n. 4;
• his oath of secrecy, i. 171, 179;
• his Baruch quoted, i. 171;
• allegorizes Herodotus’ Scythian story, i. 172;
• his Triad of the Good One, Elohim and Edem, i. 172, 173;
• the twenty-four angels of, and their names, i. 173;
• likeness of these to Bar Khôni’s Ophites, ib. nn. 3, 4;
• angels of, called Trees, i. 174;
• creation of protoplasts, i. 174;
• ascent of Elohim, i. 175, 176;
• sin of Eve and Naas, i. 176;
• origin of evil, i. 177;
• Heracles a Saviour, ib.;
• Jesus called by Baruch when twelve years old, i. 178;
• explanation of Pagan myths, i. 179;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 161, 162;
• put by summarizer after Basilides, i. 161 n. 2
• Kessler, Konrad, his Mani quoted, i. 82 n. 2
• King, C. W., his Gnostics and their Remains quoted, ii. 17 n. 2
• Lane, E. W., his Modern Egyptians quoted, i. 97 n. 2
• Langdon, Dr. Stephen, his Tammuz and Ishtar quoted, i. 105 n. 3
• Latinisms in text of Philosophumena, i. 23
• Leemans, Prof. C., his Papyri Græci quoted, ii. 44 n. 4
• Legge, F., his Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity quoted, i. 2 n. 2, 9 n. 1, 27 n. 1, 39 n. 1, 40 n. 1, 94 n. 1, 105 nn. 3, 4; 109 n. 2, 114 n. 2, 122 n. 1, 123 nn. 1, 2, 3; 128 n. 2, 130 n. 1, 135 n. 4, 137 n. 2, 139 n. 5, 155 nn. 2, 3; 156 n. 4, 160 n. 1, 162 n. 2, 165 n. 2, 169 n. 5, 173 n. 4, 174 n. 2, 175 n. 2; ii. 7 nn. 1, 3; 25 n. 3, 34 n. 5, 72 n. 3, 82 n. 3, 88 n. 3, 89 n. 2, 95 n. 4, 97 n. 1, 103 n. 6, 163 n. 7
• Leucippus, his teaching, i. 48
• Lipsius, R. A., opposes Hippolytus’ authorship, i. 6;
• his articles in D.C.B. quoted, ii. 38 nn. 1, 2
• Lucian of Samosata, his Alexander quoted, i. 92 n. 2, 99 n. 4;
• follower of Cerdo, ii. 96
• Macmahon, J. H., translates Philosophumena, i. 5
• Magic, its connection with astrology, i. 91 n. 4;
• practised by Simon’s disciples, ii. 16;
• and Carpocratians, ii. 91
• Magicians, tricks of, described, i. 92-103
• Man, Perfect, ap. Naassenes, i. 123, 134, 138;
• in Pistis Sophia, i. 123 n. 3;
• ap. Sethiani, i. 165;
• First, ap. Manichæans, i. 27, 123 n. 2;
• expression used in Summary, ii. 163.
• See Adam, Adamas, Monoimus, Pindar
• Manichæism, the Atlas or Omophorus of, i. 110 n. 2;
• First Man of, captured by powers of darkness, i. 123 n. 2; ii. 7 n. 3;
• hostility of, to Jews, i. 165 n. 3;
• Justinus’s anticipation of, i. 169 n. 4, 176 n. 5;
• Valentinus’s, ii. 17 n. 5;
• evocation of First Man in, ii. 34 n. 5;
• our earth worst of all worlds, ii. 35 n. 3;
• column of praises in, ii. 50 n. 5;
• secrecy of, ii. 59 n. 1.
• See Cumont, Flügel, Kessler
• Marcia, concubine of Commodus, ii. 127;
• takes counsel with Pope Victor, ib.;
• her foster brother Hyacinthus, ib.
• Marcion, i. 10, 16, 17;
• his tenets, ii. 82-90;
• compared with those of Empedocles, ii. 82-88;
• Prepon’s address to Bardesanes, ii. 89;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 165
• Marcus, follower of Valentinus, i. 12;
• his tenets, ii. 40-57;
• his frauds and juggling tricks, ii. 41-43;
• vision of the Tetrad, ii. 45-48;
• his cabalistic system of numbers, ii. 48-56
• Mariam, aunt of Moses, i. 131
• Mariamne, said to have received Naassene tradition from St. James, i. 121; ii. 153;
• known to Origen and Celsus, i. 121 n. 5
• Mark, St., story of self-mutilation to avoid orders, ii. 87
• Maspero, Sir Gaston Charles, his Hist. anc^me de l’Orient quoted, i. 47 n. 1
• Matter, Jacques, Hist. du Gnosticisme quoted, ii. 59 n. 1
• Maximilla. See Phrygians
• Melchizidek. See Theodotus the Banker
• Menander, successor of Simon Magus, i. 17; ii. 59 n. 1
• Metoposcopy, divination by physiognomy, i. 87-92
• Michael, scribe of MS., i. 4
• Miller, Bénigne Emanuel, first editor of Philosophumena, i. 4, 5;
• his Mélanges de Litt. Grecque quoted, i. 100, n. 5
• Monarchia, doctrine of one supreme source of all things, ii. 123
• Monoimus Arabs, i. 17;
• his tenets, ii. 106-111;
• not Christian, ii. 106 n. 1;
• his heavenly man, ii. 107, 163;
• cabalistic theory of numbers, ii. 109;
• letter to Theophrastus quoted, ii. 110;
• summary of doctrines of, 163, 164
• Montanus. See Phrygians.
• Mughtasila, washers or Hemerobaptists, Elchesaites derived from, ii. 132 n. 3;
• make converts among Essenes and Ebionites, ib.
• Mynas, Mynoïdes, discoverer of MS. of Philosophumena, i. 2, 3, 5
• Mysteries of the heretics, i. 23, 33, 125, 180;
• promise to describe, i. 63;
• probably described in missing Books, i. 65;
• source of Naassene heresy, i. 121;
• M. of Assyrians, i. 123;
• of Phrygians, i. 126, 133, 135-138, 140;
• ineffable M. of Isis, i. 126;
• M. of Greeks, i. 127;
• Hye Cye in Eleusinian, i. 129;
• M. of Samothrace, i. 132;
• great secret of Eleusinian, i. 138;
• Lesser and Great, i. 139;
• M. of the Great Mother, i. 141, 142;
• Phliasian, older than Eleusinian, i. 166;
• M. of Justinus, i. 171
• Naas, the serpent, i. 120, 142;
• one of Justinus’ maternal angels, i. 173
• Naassenes, i. 3;
• their tenets, i. 118-146;
• call themselves Gnostics, i. 120, 142;
• their supreme deity Adamas, i. 120;
• all his powers in Jesus, i. 121;
• the names of the Three Churches, ib.;
• the first man, i. 122;
• their connection with the Mysteries, i. 123;
• with the Gospel of the Egyptians, ib.;
• the myth of Attis, i. 124;
• their interpretation of the mysteries of Isis, i. 126, 127;
• the demiurge Jaldabaoth, i. 128;
• their interpretation of Homer, i. 130;
• of the Cabiric mysteries, i. 132;
• the myths of Corybas and Pappas, i. 133-135;
• other names of Attis, i. 135-140;
• N. mentioned by Irenæus, i. 139 n. 5;
• why so called, i. 142;
• hymns of, i. 142, 144, 145;
• interpretation of anatomy of brain, i. 143, 144;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 153.
• See Adamas, Eleusis, Geryon, Serpent
• Neologisms used by Hippolytus, i. 24
• Noetus, i. 3, 13, 15, 17;
• his tenets, ii. 118-123;
• his heresy, derived
• from Heraclitus, ii. 118-123;
• his followers, ii. 118;
• identifies Father and Son, ii. 123;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 168, 169.
• See Cleomenes, Phrygians
• Novatian, Philosophumena attributed to, i. 6;
• Hippolytus said to follow, i. 7 n. 4.
• Oannes, the fist man, ap. Assyrians, i. 122
• Ocellus Lucanus, i. 19; ii. 152
• Ophites, i. 16, 17;
• heresy derived from worship of Cybele or Great Mother, i. 118 n. 1;
• curse Christ, ap. Origen, i. 121 n. 1;
• comparative, insignificance of, i. 20 n. 1; ii. 116.
• See Attis, Euphrates, Naassenes
• Origen, Philosophumena attributed to, i. 5, 6;
• Contra Celsum quoted, i, 20 n. 1, 121 nn. 1, 5; 130 n. 1; 146 n. 1
• Orpheus, a theologist, i. 103 n. 4;
• discloser of mysteries, i. 166;
• his Bacchica quoted, but otherwise unknown, ib.;
• Sethian heresy derived from, ib.
• Osiris, his mutilation, i. 126;
• signifies water, i. 105 n. 4;
• his statue in the temple of Isis, i. 127
• Papas, god of Phrygians, i. 135;
• name of Attis, ib. n. 1;
• means Father, ib.
• Parmenides, his teaching, i. 47, 48
• Parthey, Gustav, his Zwei griechische Zauberpapyri quoted, i. 93 n. 5
• Patripassianism, heresy of, ii. 118 n. 1, 168 n. 1
• Paul, St., Acts of, and Thekla, quoted, i. 30 n. 1
• Peratæ, i. 3;
• mentioned by Clem, Alex., i. 146 n. 1;
• their teaching, i. 146-159;
• their triple division of the cosmos, i. 146; ii. 154;
• their Christology, i. 147;
• their astrological theories, i. 148, 149;
• their book Proastii quoted, i. 50-153;
• why called Peratæ, i. 154;
• their saviour Serpent, i. 155;
• Serpent is type of Christ, Joseph and Nimrod, i. 155, 156;
• the constellation Draco, i. 157;
• anatomy of brain typifies Father and Son, i. 159;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 154, 155.
• See Edem, Euphrates
• Persephone, as lover of Adonis, i. 124.
• See Hecate
• Persians say God is Light, i. 104
• Pharisees. See Jews
• Philo, his Logos and Gnostic ideas, ii. 7 n. 3, 8 n. 2, 173 n. 4
• Philumena. See Apelles
• Photius, his Bibliotheca quoted, i. 12, 13 n. 1.
• Phrên. See Râ
• Phrygians (Montanists), their tenets, ii. 113, 114;
• followers of Montanus, Priscilla and Maximilla, ii. 113;
• lean towards Noetian and Patripassian heresies, ii. 114;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 167, 168.
• See Mysteries, Naassenes
• Pindar, ode on first man assigned to, i. 122
• Pistis Sophia, The, quoted, i. 3 n. 1, 9 n. 1, 123 nn. 1, 3, 124 n. 11, 150 nn. 1, 3, 152 n. 2, 155 n. 1, 162 n. 2, 173 n. 1, 177 n. 5; ii. 5 n. 4, 16 n. 4, 43 n. 2, 45 n. 4, 48 n. 3, 52 n. 9, 53 n. 2, 71 n. 6, 79 n. 3, 93 n. 7, 97 n. 1, 102 n. 2
• Plato, i. 16;
• his teaching, i, 51-55;
• passages from Aristotle ascribed by Hippolytus to, i. 53, 54;
• his Clitopho quoted as Republic, i. 55 n. 7;
• analogy between his teaching and Simon M.’s, ii. 5;
• and Valentinus’, ii. 18, 19, 25;
• quoted, ii. 23, 36, 37.
• See Alcinous
• Plutarch, his de Iside et Osiride quoted, i. 129 n. 3;
• de Exilio, ii, 23 n. 1
• Point, indivisible, from which all things spring, i. 115, 141; ii. 9
• Pontianus, Pope (230-235 A.D.), i. 7
• Praxeas, a heretic refuted by Tertullian and mentioned by pseudo-Tert., but not by Irenæus or Hippolytus, i. 13
• Prepon the Assyrian. See Marcion
• Priscilla. See Phrygians
• Proastii. See Peratæ
• Proteus, identified with Attis, i. 137
• Prudentius quoted, i. 7
• Ptolemy, Claudius, the astronomer, mentioned, i. 82;
• his Tetrabiblos quoted, i. 88 n. 2
• —— follower of Valentinus, his tenets, ii. 39, 40;
• his letter to his “fair sister Flora,” ii. 39 n. 7
• Pyrrho, wrongly called an Academic by Hippolytus, i. 32;
• his teaching, i. 59
• Pythagoras, i. 15, 16, 17;
• his life and followers, i. 36-39;
• his theory of numbers, i. 37, 115 n. 6, 116; ii. 20;
• Accidents attributed to, ii. 21;
• his theory of metempsychosis, ii. 23;
• gnomic sayings of, ii. 23, 24;
• solar theory of, ii. 24
• Quartodecimans, i. 17;
• their tenets, ii. 112, 113;
• Irenæus their advocate, ii. 112 n. 6
• Râ, Egyptian Sun-God, invoked by magicians, i. 92 n. 7
• Rhea, an androgyne deity, i. 125;
• identified with Gê and Cybele, ib. n. 1
• Rogers, Dr. R. W., Religion of Babylonia and Assyria quoted, i. 151 n. 2
• Sabellius. See Callistus
• Sadducees. See Jews
• Salmon, Dr. George, his Cross-references in Philosophumena quoted, i. 8; ii. 38 n. 1.;
• his articles in D.C.B. i. 6 n. 1, 7 n. 4, 22 n. 1, 69 n. 6; ii. 38 n. 2, 40 n. 3, 80 n. 1, 98 n. 1, 100 n. 1, 105 n. 4, 108 n. 3, 109 n. 6, 113 n. 2, 118 n. 1, 149 n. 2, 173 n. 3
• Saturnilus, i. 16;
• his tenets, ii. 80, 81;
• his Unknown Father, ii. 81;
• angels make man in His image, ib.;
• Christ sent to depose God of Jews, ib.
• See Simon of Cyrene
• Saulasau. See Caulacau.
• Schneidewin, F. G., with Duncker edits part of Philosophumena, i. 4
• Schürer, Prof., his History of Jewish People quoted, ii. 7 n. 3, 8 n. 2
• Secundus, follower of Valentinus, his tenets, ii. 38
• Sephora, wife of Moses, i. 131
• Serpent, inspirer of Naassene doctrine, i. 120, 142;
• identified with substance of water, i. 142;
• the constellation Draco, i. 146 n. 1;
• the brazen, ap. Peratæ, i. 155, 156;
• the Son and the Word, i. 157;
• wind of darkness ap. Sethiani, i. 164, 165;
• of Justinus wholly evil, i. 169 n. 5
• Seth, Paraphrase of. See Sethiani.
• Sethiani, their tenets, i. 160-169;
• authors who mention, i. 160 n. 1;
• the Sitheus of Bruce Papyrus, ib.;
• their triad of Light, Darkness and Spirit, i. 161;
• Light and Spirit caught by Darkness, i. 162;
• impregnation of Darkness, i. 163;
• analogy with other triads, i. 165, 166;
• system of, derived from Orphic, i. 166;
• Phliasian Mysteries of Great Mother, ib.;
• simile of oil-well at Ampe, i. 168, 169;
• their Paraphrase of Seth, i. 169;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 155-157.
• See Andronicus, Man
• Sextus Empiricus, Hippolytus’ borrowings from, i. 10, 69 n. 1; ii. 150.
• See Greek
• Simon of Cyrene, story of his substitution for Jesus on the Cross probably Saturnilian, not Basilidian, ii. 59 n. 1, 79 n. 2
• Simon Magus, i. 3, 13, 14;
• his system derived from art of arithmetic, i. 115, 116;
• his six roots, i. 116; ii. 7;
• his Great Announcement quoted, i. 115, 140, 141; ii. 4-14;
• his life and tenets, ii. 2-17;
• his supreme God, fire, ii. 4;
• his account of the creation of Man, ii. 9;
• his Epinoia Helen of Tyre, ii. 15;
• his death, ii. 17;
• source of Valentinian heresy, ii. 17, 40 n. 3;
• summary of doctrines of, 157, 158.
• See Edem, Justin, Magic, Menander
• Socrates, i. 16;
• his teaching, i. 51
• Sophia, name given to Helen of Tyre by Simon M., i. 13 n. 3;
• Sethians make her cause of Flood, ib.;
• identified with Earth, i. 105 n. 3; ii. 27 n. 4;
• mother of Jaldabaoth, ap. Naassenes, i. 118 n. 1, 132 n. 3;
• in Naassene hymn, i. 145 n. 3;
• her name of Achamoth, i. 173 n. 4;
• fall of, ap. Valentinus, ii. 7 n. 3, 27;
• decides fate of men, ii. 17 n. 5;
• her adventures, ii. 28-36;
• the heaven of, ii. 31 n. 1;
• identified with Holy Spirit, ii. 33
• Sotion of Alexandria, Hippolytus’ borrowings from, i. 49 n. 3; 64 n. 2
• Stähelin, Heinrich, his Die Gnostischen Quellen Hippolyts quoted, i. 8 n. 2
• Stoics, their teaching, i. 57, 58;
• Hippolytus’ reluctance to mention, i. 157 n. 2
• Syrictas, the pipe-player, name of Attis, i. 142
• Tatian the Gnostic, i. 17;
• his tenets, ii. 111;
• holds Adam not saved, ib.;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 164.
• See Encratites
• Tertullian, Philosophumena assigned to, i. 6;
• quoted, ii. 82 n. 3, 96 nn. 2, 3, 111 n. 3.
• See Praxeas
• Tertullian, Pseudo-, Adversus Omnes Hæreses, i. 11-13;
• quoted, i. 160 n. 1; ii. 95 n. 4, 97 n. 2.
• See Praxeas
• Thales, i. 9, his teaching, i. 35, 36;
• quoted, i. 142
• Theodore bar Khôni, his Book of Scholia quoted, i. 169 n. 4, 173 n. 3
• Theodoret calls Hippolytus Bishop and Martyr, i. 7, 11, 12;
• his account of Peratæ, i. 146 n. 1;
• quotes summary and not text of Philosophumena, ii. 154 n. 1
• Theodotus the Banker, his tenets, ii. 94, 95;
• holds Melchizidek greater than Christ, ii. 94;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 167
• Theodotus of Byzantium, his tenets, ii. 93, 94;
• adoptionist views of, ii. 94;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 167
• Theophrastus. See Monoimus
• Thomas, Gospel according to, quoted, i. 126
• Urbanus, Pope (223-230 A.D.), i. 7
• Valentinus, his system derived from arithmetical art, i. 15;
• from Pythagoras and Plato, ii. 17-19;
• Zoroastrian and Egyptian features of, ii. 17 n. 1;
• division of followers as to Supreme Being, ii. 25;
• his system of Aeons, ii. 26, 27;
• Sophia and her Ectroma, ii. 28;
• projection of Horos, ii. 29;
• Jesus the Common Friend of the Pleroma, ib.;
• salvation of Ectroma and result of her passions, ii. 30;
• fourfold division of world, ii. 31, and of man, ii. 32;
• analogies of myths of, with Manichæism, ii. 34 n. 5, 35 n. 3;
• Anatolic and Italiote schools of, ii. 34;
• purpose of Incarnation, ap. ii. 35;
• summary of doctrines of, ii. 158, 159.
• See Beelzebuth, Demiurge, Devil, Pleroma and Sophia
• Victor, Pope (189-202 A.D.). See Callistus
• Wessely, his Griechische Zauberpapyri quoted, i. 93 n. 5
• Wilson, James, his Complete Dictionary of Astrology quoted, i. 67 n. 1
• Wordsworth, Bishop Christopher, his Hippolytus and the Church of Rome quoted, i. 4 n. 2; i. 6; i. 12 n. 1; ii. 119 n. 2, 129 n. 5
• Xenophanes, his teaching, i. 49, 50
• Zaratas (Zoroaster) quoted, i. 9, 104 n. 3; ii. 20;
• Amshaspands
• of, and Simon Magus’ roots, ii. 2 n. 2;
• the like and Aeons of Valentinus, ii. 17 n. 5
• Zealots, said by Hippolytus to be a sect of Essenes, ii. 143, 144 n. 1
• Zeesar. See Caulacau
• Zephyrinus, Pope (202-218 A.D.), i. 3;
• said by Hippolytus to be ignorant and unskilled, ii. 118, 124;
• leans towards heresy, ii. 118

THE END