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| Chapter III.—Texts of Holy Scripture used by these heretics to support their opinions.
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Chapter III.—Texts of Holy Scripture
used by these heretics to support their opinions.
1. Such,
then, is the account they give of what took place within the Pleroma;
such the calamities that flowed from the passion which seized upon the
Æon who has been named, and who was within a little of perishing by
being absorbed in the universal substance, through her inquisitive
searching after the Father; such the consolidation2681
| 2681 The reading is here very doubtful. We have
followed the text of Grabe (approved by Harvey), ἐξ
ἀγῶνος σύμπηξις. |
[of that Æon] from her condition of agony by Horos,
and Stauros, and Lytrotes, and Carpistes, and Horothetes, and
Metagoges.2682
| 2682 These are all
names of the same person: see above, ii. 4. Hence some have proposed the
reading ἑξαιώνιος instead
of ἐξ ἀγῶνος, alluding
to the sixfold appellation of the Æon Horos. | Such also is
the account of the generation of the later Æons, namely of the first
Christ and of the Holy Spirit, both of whom were produced by the Father
after the repentance2683
| 2683
Billius renders, “from the repentance of the Father,” but the
above seems preferable. | [of Sophia], and of the second2684
| 2684 Harvey remarks, “Even in
their Christology the Valentinians must have their part and
counterpart.” | Christ (whom they also style Saviour),
who owed his being to the joint contributions [of the Æons]. They tell us,
however, that this knowledge has not been openly divulged, because all
are not capable of receiving it, but has been mystically revealed by the
Saviour through means of parables to those qualified for understanding
it. This has been done as follows. The thirty Æons are indicated (as we
have already remarked) by the thirty years during which they say the
Saviour performed no public act, and by the parable of the labourers in
the vineyard. Paul also, they affirm, very clearly and frequently names
these Æons, and even goes so far as to preserve their order, when he
says, “To all the generations of the Æons of the Æon.”2685
| 2685 Or, “to all the
generations of the ages of the age.” See Eph. iii.
21. The apostle, of course, simply uses these words as a
strong expression to denote “for ever.” | Nay, we
ourselves, when at the giving2686
| 2686 Literally, “at the thanksgiving,” or
“eucharist.” Massuet, the Benedictine editor, refers this to
the Lord’s Supper, and hence concludes that some of the ancient
liturgies still extant must even then have been in use. Harvey and
others, however, deny that there is any necessity for supposing the Holy
Eucharist to be referred to; the ancient Latin version translates in the
plural, “in gratiarum actionibus.” | of thanks we
pronounce the words, “To Æons of Æons” (for ever and ever),
do set forth these Æons. And, in fine, wherever the words Æon or Æons
occur, they at once refer them to these beings.
2. The
production, again, of the Duodecad of the Æons, is indicated by the fact
that the Lord was twelve2687
years of
age when He disputed with the teachers of the law, and by the election of
the apostles, for of these there were twelve.2688
The other eighteen Æons are made manifest in this way: that the
Lord, [according to them,] conversed with His disciples for eighteen
months2689
| 2689 This opinion is in
positive contradiction to the forty days mentioned by St. Luke
(Acts i. 3). But the Valentinians seem to have
followed a spurious writing of their own called “The Gospel of
Truth.” See iii. 11, 8. | after His resurrection from the
dead. They
also affirm that these eighteen Æons are strikingly indicated by the
first two letters of His name [᾽Ιησοῦς], namely
Iota2690
| 2690 The numeral
value of Iota in Greek is ten, and of Eta, eight.
| and Eta. And, in like manner, they assert that the ten
Æons are pointed out by the letter Iota, which begins His name;
while, for the same reason, they tell us the Saviour said, “One
Iota, or one tittle, shall by no means pass away until all be
fulfilled.”2691
3. They further maintain
that the passion which took place in the case of the twelfth Æon is
pointed at by the apostasy of Judas, who was the twelfth apostle, and
also by the fact that Christ suffered in the twelfth month. For their
opinion is, that He continued to preach for one year only after His
baptism. The same thing is also most clearly indicated by the case of the
woman who suffered from an issue of blood. For after she had been thus
afflicted during twelve years, she was healed by the advent of the
Saviour, when she had touched the border of His garment; and on this
account the Saviour said, “Who touched me?”2692
—teaching his disciples the mystery which had occurred
among the Æons, and the healing of that Æon who had been involved in
suffering. For she who had been afflicted twelve years represented that
power whose essence, as they narrate, was stretching itself forth, and
flowing into immensity; and unless she had touched the garment of the
Son,2693
| 2693 The Latin reads
“filii,” which we have followed. Reference is made in this
word to Nous, who was, as we have already seen, also called Son,
and who interested himself in the recovery of Sophia. Aletheia was his
consort, and was typified by the hem of the Saviour’s garment.
| that is, Aletheia of the first Tetrad, who is denoted by the hem
spoken of, she would have been dissolved into the general essence2694
| 2694 Her individuality (μορφή) would have been
lost, while her substance (οὐσία) would have
survived in the common essence of the Æons. | [of which she
participated]. She stopped short, however, and ceased any longer to
suffer. For the power that went forth from the Son (and this power they
term Horos) healed her, and separated the passion from her.
4. They moreover affirm that the Saviour2695
| 2695 That is, the “second
Christ” referred to above, sec. 1. [It is much to be wished that
this second were always distinguished by the untranslated name
Soter.] | is shown to be derived from all the Æons, and
to be in Himself everything by the following passage: “Every
male that openeth the womb.”2696
For He, being everything, opened the womb2697
| 2697 Not as being born of it, but
as fecundating it, and so producing a manifold offspring. See below.
| of the enthymesis of the suffering Æon, when
it had
been expelled from the Pleroma. This they also style the second Ogdoad,
of which we shall speak presently. And they state that it was clearly on
this account that Paul said, “And He Himself is all
things;”2698
and again, “All
things are to Him, and of Him are all things;”2699
and further, “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead;”2700
and yet again, “All
things are gathered together by God in Christ.”2701
Thus do they interpret these and any like passages to be found in
Scripture.
5. They show, further, that that Horos of theirs, whom
they call by a variety of names, has two faculties,—the one of
supporting, and the other of separating; and in so far as he supports and
sustains, he is Stauros, while in so far as he divides and separates, he
is Horos. They then represent the Saviour as having indicated this
twofold faculty: first, the sustaining power, when He said,
“Whosoever doth not bear his cross (Stauros), and follow after me,
cannot be my disciple;”2702
| 2702 Luke xiv. 27. It will be observed
that the quotations of Scripture made by Irenæus often vary somewhat
from the received text. This may be due to various reasons—his
quoting from memory; his giving the texts in the form in which they were
quoted by the heretics; or, as Harvey conjectures, from his having been
more familiar with a Syriac version of the New Testament than with the
Greek original. | and again, “Taking up the cross, follow
me;”2703
but the separating power
when He said, “I came not to send peace, but a sword.”2704
They also maintain that John indicated the
same thing when he said, “The fan is in His hand, and He will
thoroughly purge the floor, and will gather the wheat into His garner;
but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable.”2705
By this declaration He set forth the faculty
of Horos. For that fan they explain to be the cross (Stauros), which
consumes, no doubt, all material2706
| 2706 Hence Stauros was called by the agricultural name
Carpistes, as separating what was gross and material from the spiritual
and heavenly. | objects, as fire does chaff, but it purifies
all them that are saved, as a fan does wheat. Moreover, they affirm that
the Apostle Paul himself made mention of this cross in the following
words: “The doctrine of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.”2707
And again: “God forbid that I should
glory in anything2708
save in the cross of Christ, by whom the
world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.”
6. Such, then, is the account which they all give
of their Pleroma, and of the formation2709
| 2709 Billius renders, “of their opinion.”
| of the universe, striving, as they do, to adapt the good words of
revelation to their own wicked inventions. And it is not only from the
writings of the evangelists and the apostles that they endeavour to
derive proofs for their opinions by means of perverse interpretations and
deceitful expositions: they deal in the same way with the law and the
prophets, which contain many parables and allegories that can frequently
be drawn into various senses, according to the kind of exegesis to which
they are subjected. And others2710
| 2710 The punctuation and rendering are here slightly
doubtful. | of them, with great craftiness, adapted such parts
of Scripture to their own figments, lead away captive from the truth
those who do not retain a stedfast faith in one God, the Father Almighty,
and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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