Against Heresies 1.0.1–1.4.5

Since certain people, setting the truth aside, bring in words and endless genealogies, “which promote questions rather than the edification of God which is in faith,” as the apostle says, and by their craftily practised plausibility lead astray the minds of the less experienced and take them captive, falsifying the words of the Lord, having become bad interpreters of what was well said; and they overthrow many, drawing them away, under pretext of knowledge, from him who established and ordered this universe, as though they had something higher and greater to show than him who made heaven and earth and all that is in them. Persuasively they entice the simpler by the art of words into their manner of inquiry, but ruinously they destroy them, in that they form their blasphemous and impious opinion against the Maker, while these people cannot tell the false from the true.

For error is not displayed as it is in itself, lest, stripped bare, it become detectable; but, craftily adorned with a persuasive covering, it makes itself appear by its outward show truer than the truth itself (it is ridiculous even to say so), so as to deceive the inexperienced. As one better than we has said of such things: a piece of glass made by art to resemble the precious stone, the emerald so highly valued by some, insults it, until someone is present who can test it and expose the craft by which it was cunningly made. And when brass has been mixed with silver, who that is unskilled will easily be able to test it? Therefore, lest through our fault some should be carried off like sheep by wolves, not recognizing them because of their outer covering of sheepskin (those against whom the Lord warned us to beware, who speak like us but think otherwise), I have thought it necessary, having read the commentaries of the disciples of Valentinus, as they themselves call them, and having met some of them and grasped their opinion, to make known to you, beloved, their portentous and profound mysteries, which not all grasp, because not all have brains; so that you too, knowing them, may make them known to all who are with you, and urge them to guard themselves against the abyss of senselessness and of blasphemy against God. And as far as our ability allows, we will set out briefly and clearly the opinion of those who now teach otherwise (I mean the followers of Ptolemy, which is a kind of flower of the school of Valentinus), and will give others occasions, according to our modest ability, to overthrow it, showing that what they say has no foundation and does not fit the truth. We are not accustomed to writing, nor have we studied the art of speech; but love urges us to make known to you and to all who are with you the doctrines that until now were hidden, but have now by the grace of God come into the open. “For nothing is covered that will not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not be known.”

You will not expect from us, who live among the Celts and are mostly occupied with a barbarous language, the art of speech, which we have not learned, nor a writer's power, which we have not cultivated, nor elegance of words, nor persuasiveness, which we do not know. But you will receive with love what has been written to you with love, simply, truly, and plainly; and you yourself will make it grow in your own mind, as one more capable than we, receiving it from us as seed and beginnings; and in the breadth of your understanding you will make fruitful in abundance what we have said in few words, and will powerfully present to those who are with you what we have weakly related. And as we, at your long-standing request to learn their opinion, have taken pains not only to make it plain to you but also to supply the means of showing it to be false, so you too will effectively minister to the rest, according to the grace given you by the Lord, so that people may no longer be drawn away by their persuasion, which is as follows.

They say that in the invisible and unnameable heights there was a perfect Aeon, existing before all. Him they also call Proarche (First Beginning), Propator (First Father), and Bythus (Depth). And that he was invisible, and such that nothing could contain him; and since he could be contained by nothing, and was invisible, everlasting, and unbegotten, he was in silence and in deep rest for boundless ages; and that with him was Ennoea (Thought), whom they also call Charis (Grace) and Sige (Silence). And at some time this Bythus wished to put forth from himself the beginning of all things, and willed that this emission be put forth like a seed, and deposited it, as in a womb, in Sige, who was with him. She received this seed, became pregnant, and bore Nus (Mind), like and equal to the one who had emitted him, and alone grasping the greatness of the Father. This Nus they also call the Only-begotten, the Father, and the Beginning of all things. Together with him Aletheia (Truth) was emitted; and this is the first and primal Pythagorean Tetrad, which they also call the root of all things: for there are Bythus and Sige, then Nus and Aletheia. And this Only-begotten, perceiving for what purpose he had been put forth, himself emitted Logos (Word) and Zoe (Life), the father of all who were to come after him, and the beginning and formation of the whole Pleroma. From Logos and Zoe, by conjunction, Anthropos (Man) and Ecclesia (Church) were emitted; and this is the primal Ogdoad, the root and substance of all things, called among them by four names: Bythus, Nus, Logos, and Anthropos. For each of them is male-female, thus: first the Propator was joined in conjunction with his Ennoea, that is, Thought, whom they call Grace and Silence; the Only-begotten, that is, Nus, with Aletheia, that is, Truth; Logos with Zoe, that is, Life; and Anthropos with Ecclesia.

These Aeons, emitted for the glory of the Father, and wishing themselves to glorify the Father by something of their own, emitted emissions in conjunction. Logos and Zoe, after Anthropos and Ecclesia had been emitted, emitted ten other Aeons, whose names they give as these: Bythius and Mixis, Ageratos and Henosis, Autophyes and Hedone, Acinetos and Syncrasis, Monogenes and Macaria. These are the ten Aeons whom they say were emitted from Logos and Zoe. And Anthropos himself, with Ecclesia, emitted twelve Aeons, to whom they give these names: Paracletus and Pistis, Patricos and Elpis, Metricos and Agape, Aenos and Synesis, Ecclesiasticos and Macariotes, Theletos and Sophia.

These are the thirty Aeons of their error, which are kept in silence and not known. This, according to them, is the invisible and spiritual Pleroma, divided into three: an Ogdoad, a Decad, and a Duodecad. And for this reason they say that the Saviour (for they will not call him Lord) did nothing openly for thirty years, showing the mystery of these Aeons. And in the parable of the labourers sent into the vineyard, they say, these thirty Aeons are most plainly declared: for some are sent about the first hour, others about the third, others about the sixth, others about the ninth, others about the eleventh. These hours, added together, make up the number thirty: for one, three, six, nine, and eleven make thirty. By the hours they hold that the Aeons are shown. And these are the great, wonderful, and hidden mysteries which they themselves bring to fruit, wherever they can adapt and liken anything said in the Scriptures to their fiction.

Their Propator, they say, is known only to the one born from him, the Monogenes, that is, Nus; to all the rest he is invisible and incomprehensible. According to them, Nus alone delighted in seeing the Father and exulted in considering his immeasurable greatness, and planned to share with the other Aeons too the greatness of the Father: how great and how vast he was, and how he was without beginning, uncontainable, and incomprehensible to sight. But Sige restrained him by the Father's will, because he wished to lead them all to the thought and desire of seeking out their Father. And the other Aeons, all of them, in a kind of quiet way desired to see the one who had emitted their seed and to contemplate the root that is without beginning.

But the very last and youngest of the Dodecad emitted by Anthropos and Ecclesia, the Aeon Sophia, leapt far forward and suffered a passion without the embrace of her consort Theletos. The passion had begun among those around Nus and Aletheia, but it passed over into this [Aeon, that is, Sophia], who was changed, under pretext of love but really of rashness, because she had not had communion with the perfect Father, as Nus had. The passion was a search for the Father: for she wished, as they say, to comprehend his greatness. Then, being unable, since she was attempting an impossible thing, and finding herself in great agony because of the greatness of the depth, the unsearchableness of the Father, and her love for him, as she strained ever forward she would at last have been swallowed up by his sweetness and dissolved into the universal substance, had she not met the power that strengthens all things and guards them outside the unutterable greatness. This power they also call Horos (Limit). Restrained and strengthened by it, and brought back to herself with difficulty, and persuaded now that the Father is incomprehensible, she laid aside her former intention, together with the passion that had come upon her from that stupefied amazement.

Some of them tell the passion and return of Sophia like a fable: that, having attempted an impossible and incomprehensible thing, she brought forth a formless substance, such a nature as a female could bear. When she looked at it she was first grieved because of the imperfection of the birth, then afraid lest it should come to an end, then terrified and at a loss, that is, confused, seeking the cause and how she might hide what had been born. Being in these passions, she turned back and tried to return to the Father; and after daring for a while she failed and became a suppliant of the Father. The other Aeons, especially Nus, joined her in entreaty. Hence, they say, the substance of matter had its first beginning, from ignorance, grief, fear, and stupor.

The Father, through the Monogenes, puts forth the aforesaid Horos in his own image, without consort, male-female. For they hold that the Father is at one time with his consort Sige, but at another above male and above female. This Horos they also call Stauros (Cross), Lytrotes (Redeemer), Carpistes (Emancipator), Horothetes (Limit-setter), and Metagogeus (Conductor). [By him], they say, Sophia was purified and strengthened and restored to her consort. For when her intention had been separated from her with its accompanying passion, she herself remained within the Pleroma; but her [intention] with the passion was separated by Horos, crucified, and placed outside it. It was indeed a spiritual substance, being a natural impulse of an Aeon, but formless and without shape, because it had grasped nothing. And for this reason they call it a weak and female fruit.

After this had been separated outside the Pleroma of the Aeons, and its mother restored to her conjunction, the Monogenes, according to the Father's forethought, emitted yet another pair, Christ and the Holy Spirit, by whom, they say, the Aeons were brought to completion. For Christ taught them the nature of conjunction, that those who know the comprehension of the Unbegotten are sufficient, or fit; and he declared among them the knowledge of the Father: that he is uncontainable and incomprehensible, and cannot be seen or heard except through the Monogenes alone. And the cause of the everlasting continuance of them all is what is incomprehensible of the Father; the cause of their generation and formation is what is comprehensible of him, that is, the Son. And these things the Christ who had just been emitted worked in them.

The Holy Spirit taught them, all now made equal, to give thanks, and brought in true rest. And so, they say, the Aeons were made alike in form and mind, all becoming Nuses and Logoi and Anthropoi and Christs, and the females likewise all Aletheias and Zoes and Spirits and Ecclesias. Everything being established in this and resting perfectly, with great joy, they say, they hymned the Propator, who shared in the great exultation. And for this benefit the whole Pleroma of the Aeons, with one will and mind, Christ and the Spirit consenting, each Aeon contributing what it had best and most flourishing in itself, made a collection; and fitting these together skilfully, [they emitted] to the glory of Bythus a most perfect beauty, as it were the star of the Pleroma, the perfect fruit, Jesus, whom they also call Saviour, Christ, and Logos after his Father, and All, because he was from all. And as his bodyguards, in their honour, angels of the same kind were emitted with him.

This, then, is what they tell of the transactions within their Pleroma: the calamity of the Aeon who suffered and nearly perished, as it were in much matter, through her search for the Father; her consolidation out of agony by Horos and their Cross, Redeemer, Emancipator, Limit-setter, and Conductor; the later generation of the Aeons, of the first Christ with the Holy Spirit, from the Father after the repentance; and the composite fabrication of the second Christ, whom they call Saviour, from the collection. These things, they say, were not stated openly, because not all grasp the knowledge, but were shown by the Saviour in parables to those able to understand, thus: the thirty Aeons are signified by the thirty years, as we said before, in which they say the Saviour did nothing openly, and by the parable of the labourers in the vineyard. And they say that Paul very plainly names the Aeons very often, and even keeps their order, when he says, “To all generations of the age of ages.” And they say that we ourselves, when we say “ages of ages” in the thanksgivings, signify those Aeons; and wherever “aeon” or “aeons” is named, they want it referred to them.

The emission of the Duodecad of Aeons is signified, they say, by the Lord's disputing with the teachers of the law when he was twelve years old, and by the choice of the apostles: for he chose twelve apostles. And the remaining eighteen Aeons are shown by his having lived with the disciples, as they say, for eighteen months after his resurrection from the dead. And the first two letters of his name, Iota and Eta, show the eighteen Aeons by their numerical value. Likewise, they say, the ten Aeons are signified by the letter Iota, which begins his name. And for this reason the Saviour said, “One iota or one stroke will not pass away until all things take place.”

This passion which happened to the twelfth Aeon, they say, is signified by the apostasy of Judas, who was the twelfth of the apostles, and by the Lord's suffering in the twelfth month; for they hold that he preached for one year after his baptism. Further, it is most plainly signified, they say, in the woman who suffered from a flow of blood: for after suffering twelve years she was healed by the Lord's coming, when she had touched the fringe of his garment; and for this reason the Saviour said, “Who touched me?”, teaching the disciples the mystery that had happened among the Aeons and the healing of the suffering Aeon. For by the woman who suffered twelve years that power is signified which was stretching out and whose substance was flowing into immensity, as they say; and had she not touched the garment of the Son, that is, Aletheia of the first Tetrad, who is shown by the fringe, she would have been dissolved into her universal substance. But she stood still and ceased from her passion through the power of the Son that went out. This, they hold, was Horos, who healed her and separated the passion from her.

That the Saviour, existing from all, is the All, they say is shown by this saying: “Every male that opens the womb.” For he, being the All, opened the womb of the Thought of the suffering Aeon, when it had been separated outside the Pleroma, which they also call the second Ogdoad, of which we shall speak shortly. And they say that Paul plainly spoke for this reason: “And he is all things”; and again: “All things are to him, and from him are all things”; and again: “In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead”; and that saying: “All things are summed up in Christ by God.” So they interpret these sayings and any others of the kind.

They also show that their Horos (whom they call by several names) has two operations, a strengthening one and a separating one: in so far as he strengthens and makes firm he is the Cross; in so far as he divides, Horos. The Saviour, they say, showed his operations thus: first the strengthening one, when he says, “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple”; and again, “Taking up the cross, follow me”; and the separating one when he says, “I have not come to bring peace but a sword.” And they say John showed the same thing when he said, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear the threshing floor, and he will gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire”; and that by this he signified the operation of Horos. For they interpret that winnowing fork to be the Cross, which consumes all material things, as fire consumes chaff, but cleanses those who are saved, as the winnowing fork cleanses the wheat. And they say that the apostle Paul himself also mentions this Cross thus: “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God”; and again: “But far be it from me to glory in anything except in the cross of Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Such things, then, they say about their Pleroma and the formation of the universe, wishing to adapt what was well said to what they have wickedly invented. And they try to draw proofs not only from the Gospels and the apostolic writings, twisting the interpretations and adulterating the expositions, but also from the Law and the Prophets: since many parables and allegories are spoken there, which can be drawn into many senses because of their ambiguity, they adapt them all the more readily and craftily to their fiction, and lead captive from the truth those who do not keep a firm faith in one God, the Father almighty, and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

What they say about the things outside the Pleroma is as follows. The Enthymesis (Intention) of that upper Sophia, whom they also call Achamoth, separated from the upper Pleroma with the passion, they say, necessarily boiled over in places of shadow and emptiness; for she had come to be outside the light and outside the Pleroma, formless and without shape, like an untimely birth, because she had grasped nothing. But the upper Christ took pity on her, and, stretched out through the Cross, by his own power gave her a form, the form that is according to substance only, not according to knowledge; and having done this he hurried back, withdrawing his power, and left her, so that, perceiving the passion that was hers through her separation from the Pleroma, she might long for the better things, having some fragrance of immortality left in herself by Christ and the Holy Spirit. For this reason she too is called by two names: Sophia, after her father (for her father is called Sophia), and Holy Spirit, from the Spirit who is with Christ. Having been formed and made conscious, but at once emptied of the Word who was invisibly with her, that is, Christ, she went out in search of the light that had left her, and could not grasp it, because she was held back by Horos. And so Horos, holding her back from rushing further, said “Iao”; hence, they say, the name Iao arose. And since she could not pass beyond Horos, because she was entangled in the passion, and had been left alone outside, she fell under every part of the passion, which is manifold and varied: she suffered grief, because she had not grasped it; fear, lest life should leave her as the light had; and bewilderment besides; and all these [in] ignorance. And not as her mother, the first Sophia, an Aeon, had change in her passions, but contrariety. Besides these, another state came upon her, that of turning back to him who had given her life.

This, they say, was the origin and substance of the matter from which this world consists. From her turning back every soul of the world and of the Demiurge took its origin; from her fear and grief the rest had their beginning. From her tears came all moist substance; from her laughter, the shining; from her grief and terror, the bodily elements of the world. For at times she wept and grieved, as they say, because she had been left alone in darkness and emptiness; at times, coming to think of the light that had left her, she was cheered and laughed; at times again she feared; at times she was bewildered and beside herself.

And indeed there is much tragedy here, and each of them fancies something different, expounding pompously in one way or another from what passion and from what element the substance took its origin. It seems to me fitting that they do not all want to teach these things openly, but only to those who can pay large fees for such mysteries. For what they say is no longer like that of which our Lord said, “Freely you have received, freely give,” but secret, portentous, and profound mysteries, sought out with great labour by deceivers. For who would not spend all he has to learn that from the tears of the Enthymesis, which came from the passion of the Aeon, the seas, springs, rivers, and all moist matter took their origin; from her laughter, light; and from her terror and instability, the bodily elements of the world?

I too want to contribute something to their fruitfulness. Since I see that some waters are fresh, such as springs, rivers, rains, and the like, and that those in the sea are salt, I find that not all were emitted from her tears, since tears are salt in quality. It is clear, then, that the salt waters are those from the tears. But I suppose that, placed in agony and great distress, she also sweated. Hence, following their reasoning, one must suppose that the springs and rivers and whatever other fresh waters there are had their origin from her sweat. For it is not credible that, tears being of one quality, salt waters and fresh should both have come from them. This is more credible: that some are from the tears, others from the sweat. And since there are also some hot and acrid waters in the world, you must work out what she was doing and from what member she emitted these. Such fruits suit their argument.

When their mother had gone through every passion and had with difficulty raised herself, she turned, they say, to entreat the light that had left her, that is, Christ. He, having returned into the Pleroma, was, as one may gather, unwilling to come down a second time, but sent to her the Paraclete, that is, the Saviour, the Father giving him all power and handing all things over to his authority, and the Aeons likewise, so that in him all things might be founded, visible and invisible, thrones, divinities, dominions. He is sent to her with his fellow angels. Achamoth, they say, in awe of him, first put on a veil out of reverence; then, when she saw him with all his fruitfulness, she ran to him, receiving power from the sight of him. And he formed her with the formation that is according to knowledge, and healed her passions, separating them from her. He did not neglect them, for it was not possible for them to be done away with as those of the former had been, because they had already become settled and powerful; but setting them apart, he mixed and solidified them, and changed them from incorporeal passion into incorporeal matter. And so he gave them aptitude and a nature to come together into compounds and bodies, so that two substances came into being, one evil, from the passions, the other passible, from the turning back. And for this reason they say that the Saviour was in power the maker. Achamoth, freed from passion, conceived from joy at the sight of the lights that are with him, that is, of the angels who were with him; and, delighted at the sight [conception] of them, she bore fruits according to their image, they teach, a spiritual offspring made in the likeness of the Saviour's bodyguards.