Sophia Scriptura

Against Heresies 2.2.1–2.6.3

Irenaeus of Lyons · Against Heresies · ca. 180–190 · Lyons · 17 passages

Latin text: Harvey 1857 (Latin text: Harvey (1857), transcribed from archive.org OCR of the printed volumes; section numbers checked against Stieren (1853)).English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0). Compare: Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885), Irenaeus, Against Heresies.

Against 2, chapter 2

2.2.1Harvey 1:254

Qui autem ab angelis mundum dicunt fabricatum, vel ab alio quodam mundi fabricatore, preter sententiam ejus qui super omnia Pater est, primo quidem ex hoc ipso peccant, preter voluntatem primi Dei talem et tantam conditionem angelos fecisse dicentes: quasi efficaciores sint angeli quam Deus, aut rursus quasi ille negligens sit, aut minor exsistens, aut nullam curam habens eorum qua in propriis ipsius fiant, utrumnam male an bene fiant, ut illud quidem dissipet et prohibeat, alterum autem laudet et gaudeat: hoc autem ne homini quidem solerti applicet quis, quanto magis Deo?

Those who say the world was made by angels, or by some other world-maker, against the will of the Father who is above all, err first in this very point, saying that angels made such a great creation against the will of the first God, as though angels were more effective than God, or as though he were negligent, or inferior, or had no care for what happens in his own domain, whether it is done badly or well, so as to scatter and prevent the one and praise and rejoice in the other. But one would not ascribe this even to a capable man; how much less to God?

Notes and citation

Summary: To say angels made the world against the Father's will makes them stronger than God or God careless.

  • Harvey's chapter title (“That no one else among those contained by the Father made this world, nor did the Father make our creation through other instruments, but only through his Word; and that the Founder is he who is above all”) is removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (editor's chapter title): Neque iterum, in ws que continentur a Patre, alium quendam, fabricasse hunc mundum; neque Patrem per alia adminicula eam, que secundum nos est, fecisse conditionem, sed, tantum per Verbum suum: esse autem Conditorem eum qui est super omnia → .

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.2.1 (Harvey 1:254; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-2-1).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

2.2.2Harvey 1:254–255

Post deinde dicant nobis: Utrumnam in his, quae ab illo continentur, et in propriis ejus, fabricata sunt hsc, an in alienis et extra eum positis? Sed si quidem dicant extra eum, similiter omnia praedicta inconvenientia occurrent eis, et includetur primus Deus ab eo qui extra eum est, in quo et desinere eum necesse erit. Si autem in illius, valde vanum erit preter sententiam ejus, in ejus propriis, ab angelis et ipsis qui sunt potestatis ejus, aut ab alio quodam dicere fabricatum esse mundum, aut quasi non omnia prospiciat ipse, que sint in suis, ut non sciat que ab angelis futura sunt.

Next let them tell us: were these things made within what is contained by him and in his own domain, or in regions belonging to others and placed outside him? If they say outside him, all the absurdities mentioned will meet them, and the first God will be enclosed by what is outside him, where he must also end. But if in his own, it will be quite idle to say that the world was made against his will, in his own domain, by angels who are themselves under his power, or by someone else, as though he did not see everything that happens among his own, or did not know what the angels were going to do.

Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.

Notes and citation

Summary: If the world was made within God's domain, it cannot have been made against his will or without his knowledge.

  • Words lost in the scan of Harvey's edition are supplied from Stieren's edition. A margin note and stray marks are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR debris (digit); fragment of Harvey's note; stray mark): illius", valde → illius, valde; sunt 3 potestatis → sunt potestatis; ut GRaABE no MS. non sciat → ut non sciat.

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.2.2 (Harvey 1:254–255; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-2-2).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

2.2.3Harvey 1:255

Si autem non preter voluntatem ejus sed volente et sciente, quemadmodum quidam opinantur, jam non angeli vel mundi fabricator cause erunt fabricationis istius, sed voluntas Dei, Si enim mundi fabricator est, angelos ipse fecit, aut etiam causa creationis eorum ipse fuit, et mundum ipse videbitur fecisse, qui causas fabricationis ejus praeparavit. Licet per longam successionem deorsum angelos dicant factos, vel mundi fabricatorem a primo Patre, quemadmodum Basilides ait, nihilominus id quod est causa eorum que facta sunt, in illum qui prolator fuit talis successionis, recurret: quemadmodum in regem eorrectio belli refertur, qui preparavit ea que sunt causa victori; et conditio hujus civitatis, aut hujus operis, in eum qui preparavit causas ad perfectionem eorum qua deorsum facta sunt. Quapropter non jam securim dicimus concidere ligna, vel serram secare, sed hominem concidere et secare rectissime quis dicat eum, qui ipsam securim et serram ad hoc fecit, et multo prius armamenta Omnia, per que fabricata sunt securis et serra. Sic igitur juste secundum illorum rationem, Pater omnium dicetur fabricator hujus mundi, et non angeli, neque alius quis mundi fabricator, praeter illum qui fuit prolator, et prius causa factionis hujusmodi praeparationis exsistens.

But if it was not against his will, but with his will and knowledge, as some think, then the angels or the world-maker will no longer be the causes of this making, but the will of God. For if he is the world-maker, he made the angels, or at least was the cause of their creation; and he will be seen to have made the world who prepared the causes of its making. Even if they say the angels were made by a long succession downwards, or the world-maker from the first Father, as Basilides says, nonetheless the cause of what was made will go back to the one who was the author of such a succession: just as the success of a war is credited to the king who prepared the causes of victory, and the founding of a city or a work to the one who prepared the causes for completing what was later done. So we do not say that the axe cut the wood or the saw cut it, but one would very rightly say that the man cut and sawed it who made the axe and saw for this, and long before that all the tools by which the axe and saw were made. So, justly by their own reasoning, the Father of all will be called the maker of this world, and not the angels, nor any other world-maker, besides him who was its author and was beforehand the cause of the preparation for such a making.

Notes and citation

Summary: If the world was made with God's will, he is its true maker, as the craftsman, not the tool, is said to cut.

  • Margin references and stray marks are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR digits for que; margin reference; stray marks): non preter 118.11. n.2. voluntatem → non preter voluntatem; quidam ™48s. 1r. i opinantur → quidam opinantur; cause erunt ———— fabricationis → cause erunt fabricationis; eorum 406 facta → eorum que facta; armamenta 6.117. Omnia → armamenta Omnia.

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.2.3 (Harvey 1:255; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-2-3).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

2.2.4Harvey 1:255–256

Sit fortasse hic sermo suasorius aut seductorius apud eos, qui ignorant Deum et [qui] hominibus assimilant eum inopibus, et his qui non possunt statim aliquid ex parato fabricare, sed indigentibus multis organis ad eorum fabricationem: non autem verisimilis in totum apud eos, qui sciunt. quoniam nullius indigens omnium Deus verbo condidit omnia et fecit; neque angelis indigens adjutoribus ad ea, qus fiunt, neque virtute aliqua valde inferiori ab illo, et ignorante patrem; neque aliqua labe, neque ignorantia, ut is qui inciperet eum cognoscere, homo fieret: sed ipse in semetipso, secundum id quod est inenarrabile et inexcogitabile nobis omnia praedestinans, fecit quemadmodum voluit; omnibus consonantiam, et ordinem suum, et initium creationis donans; spiritalibus quidem spiritalem et invisibilem, et supercaelestibus coelestem, et angelis angelicam, et animalibus animalem, et natantibus aquatilem, et terrigenis terrigenam, omnibus aptam aequalitatis substantiam: omnia autem quie facta sunt, infatigabili Verbo fecit.

This argument may perhaps be persuasive or seductive among those who do not know God [and who] liken him to needy men and to those who cannot make anything at once from what is ready, but need many tools to make things; but it is not at all plausible to those who know that God, needing nothing at all, founded and made all things by the Word; not needing angels as helpers for what is made, nor any power far inferior to him and ignorant of the Father, nor any deficiency or ignorance, so that one who began to know him should become man. But he himself in himself, in a way unspeakable and inconceivable to us, predestining all things, made them as he willed, giving all things harmony, their own order and the beginning of their creation: to spiritual things a spiritual and invisible nature, to supercelestial things a heavenly one, to angels an angelic one, to animals an animal one, to swimming things one fit for water, and to those born of the earth an earthly one, to all a substance fitted to them; and all that was made he made by his untiring Word.

Notes and citation

Summary: God, needing nothing, made all things by his Word, giving each its fitting nature and order.

  • A fragment of Harvey's note on the Latin translator, margin references and stray marks are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (fragment of Harvey's notes and running head intruded into the text; margin reference; margin reference inside a word; stray mark; stray marks): et?[qui] → et [qui]; fabriM. 113. care → fabricare; suum, 1 Interpres non satis apte κατόρθωμα primus. est quod omnes temperantie numeros Greek there is no ambiguity, ἵνα ὁ μέλLIB.. i.3. et initium → suum, et initium; et MASS. 11. ii. invisibilem → et invisibilem; angelicam, — ———— et animalibus → angelicam, et animalibus.

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.2.4 (Harvey 1:255–256; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-2-4).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

2.2.5Harvey 1:256

Proprium est enim hoc Dei supereminentie, non indigere aliis organis ad conditionem eorum, que fiunt: et idoneus est et sufficiens ad formationem omnium proprium ejus Verbum, quemadmodum et Johannes Domini discipulus ait de eo; Omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine tpso factum est nihil. In omnibus autem est et hic qui est secundum nos mundus. Et hic ergo a Verbo ejus factus est, sicut scriptura Geneseos dicit, omnia qua sunt secundum nos fecisse Deum per Verbum suum. Similiter autem et David exsequitur: Quoniam ipse. dizit, et facta sunt: ipse mandavit, et creata sunt. Cui igitur magis credemus de mundi fabricatione, hisne qui praedicti sunt hereticis sic fatua et inconstantia garrientibus; an discipulis Domini, et fideli famulo Dei Moysi et Prophet Qui et primo genesim mundi enarravit, dicens: In principio Deus fecit calum et terram, et deinceps reliqua omnia: sed non dii, neque angeli. Quoniam autem hic Deus est Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et de hoc Paulus Apostolus dixit: Unus Deus Pater, qui super omnes, et per omnia, et in omnibus nobis; jam quidem ostendimus unum esse Deum: ex ipsis autem Apostolis, et ex Domini sermonibus adhuc ostendemus. Quale enim est, Prophetarum et Domini et Apostolorum relinquentes nos voces, attendere his nihil sani dicentibus?

For this is proper to God's pre-eminence, not to need other instruments for making what is made; and his own Word is fit and sufficient for forming all things, as John, the Lord's disciple, says of him: “All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made.” And among all things is this world of ours too. So it too was made by his Word, as the Scripture of Genesis says that God made all things around us by his Word. Likewise David declares: “For he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created.” Whom, then, shall we believe about the making of the world: these heretics, babbling so foolishly and inconsistently, or the Lord's disciples, and Moses, God's faithful servant and prophet? He first told of the origin of the world, saying: “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth,” and then all the rest; but not gods, nor angels. And that this God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul the apostle also said of him: “One God, the Father, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.” We have already shown that God is one; we shall show it further from the apostles themselves and from the words of the Lord. For what would it be, to leave the voices of the prophets, the Lord and the apostles, and attend to these men, who say nothing sound?

Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.

John 1:3 (quotation, high confidence) · Ps 33:9 (32:9 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Gen 1:1 (quotation, high confidence) · Num 12:7 (allusion, medium confidence) · Eph 4:6 (quotation, high confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: God made the world by his Word, as John, Genesis, David, Moses and Paul testify, not by angels or other gods.

  • Words lost in the scan of Harvey's edition are supplied from Stieren's edition. Quotations: John 1:3; Ps 33:9 (32:9 LXX; cf. Ps 148:5); Gen 1:1; Eph 4:6. Allusions: Gen 1; Num 12:7 (Heb 3:5). Harvey's note, margin references and stray marks are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (Harvey's note, removed; margin reference; running head; stray mark; stray marks inside a word): [i. e. Λόγος] → ; Jesu 9.1t Christi → Jesu Christi; Unus Deus * Pater → Unus Deus Pater; jam quidem LIB. ru. s. ostendimus → jam quidem ostendimus; et ex MASS. II. ii. Domini → et ex Domini; Pro———— phetarum → Prophetarum.

Topics: Scripture and canon, Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.2.5 (Harvey 1:256; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-2-5).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

Against 2, chapter 3

2.3.1Harvey 1:256–257

IwsrABILIS igitur qui est secundum eos Bythus, et id quod est hujus pleroma, et Marcionis Deus. Siquidem, quemadmodum dicunt, extra se habet subjacens aliquid, quod vacuum et umbram vocant, et vacuum hoc majus pleromate ipsorum ostenditur. Instabile est autem et hoc dicere, infra se omnia continente eo, ab altero quodam fabricatam esse conditionem. Oportet enim illos necessario vacuum aliquid et informe confiteri, in quo fabricatum est hoc quod est universum, infra spiritale Pleroma; et informe hoc, utrum presciente Propatore qui in eo futura erant, ex studio sic reliquisse, an ignorante? Et si quidem ignorante, jam non omnium erit prescius Deus. Sed nec quidem causam reddere habebunt, propter quam rem locum hune temporibus tantis otiosum sic reliquit. Si autem praescius est, et mente contemplatus est eam conditionem, que in eo logo futura esset, ipse fecit eam qui etiam preformavit eam in semetipso.

Unstable, then, is their Bythus and his Pleroma, and Marcion's God. For if, as they say, he has outside himself something lying beneath, which they call void and shadow, this void is shown to be greater than their Pleroma. And it is also untenable to say that, while he contains all things within himself, the creation was made by someone else. For they must necessarily confess some void and formless thing, beneath the spiritual Pleroma, in which this universe was made; and as to this formless thing, did the Propator leave it so on purpose, foreknowing what would happen in it, or not knowing? If not knowing, God will no longer foreknow all things; and they will not even be able to give the reason why he left this place idle for so long. But if he foreknew and contemplated in his mind the creation that would be in that place, then he made it who also formed it beforehand in himself.

Notes and citation

Summary: If the Father foresaw the creation in the void, he himself made it; if not, he is not all-knowing.

  • A margin reference is removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (margin reference): pleromate ipsorum I i.7,sub ostenditur → pleromate ipsorum ostenditur.

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.3.1 (Harvey 1:256–257; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-3-1).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

2.3.2Harvey 1:257–258

Quiescant igitur dicere ab alio factum esse mundum: simul enim ac mente cepit Deus, et factum est hoc quod mente conceperat. Nec enim possibile erat alium quidem mente concipere, alium vero facere, qus ab illo mente concepta fuerant. Sed aut sternum mundum mente concepit secundum eos hereticos Deus, aut temporalem: que utraque incredibilia. Sed si quidem seternum eum mente concepit, et spiritalem et visibilem, talis et factus fuisset. Si autem talis qualis est, et: ipse fecit eum talem, qui talem quidem mente conceperat; aut in praesentia Patris voluit esse eum secundum mentis conceptionem talem, et compositum, et mutabilem, et transeuntem. Cum autem sit talis, qualem Pater deformaverat apud semetipsum, dignam esse Patris fabricationem. Quod autem a Patre universorum mente conceptum est et praeformatum sic, quemadmodum et factum est, labis esse dicere fructum, et ignorantiae prolationem, magne blasphemie est. Erit enim secundum illos Pater omnium secundum suam mentis conceptionem in pectore suo labis emissiones et ignorantis fructus generans: quse enim mente conceperat, hec facta sunt.

Let them stop saying, then, that the world was made by another; for as soon as God conceived in his mind, what he had conceived was also made. For it was not possible for one to conceive in his mind and another to make what had been conceived by him. But according to these heretics God conceived the world either as eternal or as temporal, both of which are incredible. If he had conceived it as eternal, spiritual and visible, it would have been made so. But if it was made such as it is, then he made it such who had conceived it such; or he willed it to be in the Father's presence, according to his mental conception, such as it is, composite, changeable and passing. And since it is such as the Father had shaped it within himself, it is a work worthy of the Father. But to say that what was conceived in mind and pre-formed by the Father of all exactly as it was made is the fruit of deficiency and the product of ignorance is great blasphemy. For according to them the Father of all will be generating in his breast, by his own mental conception, emissions of deficiency and fruits of ignorance; for what he had conceived in mind, that was made.

Notes and citation

Summary: What God conceived he made, so the world as it is is worthy of the Father, not the fruit of ignorance.

  • Margin references and stray marks are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (margin reference; stray mark): 5spiritalem et, 19. visibilem → spiritalem et visibilem; talis ! qualis → talis qualis.

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.3.2 (Harvey 1:257–258; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-3-2).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

Against 2, chapter 4

2.4.1Harvey 1:258–259

Causa igitur quaerenda est hujusmodi dispositionis Dei, sed non fabricatio mundi alteri adscribenda: et ante preparata omnia dicenda sunt a Deo, ut fierent, quemadmodum et facta sunt, sed non umbra et vacuitas confingenda est. Caeterum, unde vacuitas? quaeretur, utrum ab omnium Patre et prolatore secundum eos et ipsum prolatum, et est sequalis honore et cognatum reliquis /Eonibus, forte autem et antiquius ipsis. Si autem ab eodem emissum est, simile est ei qui emisit, et his cum quibus emissum est. Necessitas ergo erit omni modo, et Bythum ipsorum cum Sige vacuo similem esse, hoc est vacuum esse: et reliquos Aeonas, cum sint vacui fratres, vacuam et substantiam habere. Si autem non est emissum, a se natum est et a se generatum est et squiparans in tempore ei qui est secundum eos Bytho omnium patri; et sic ejusdem nature, et ejusdem honoris erit vacuum ei qui est secundum eos, omnium Patri. Oportet enim illum aut emissum esse ab aliquo; aut a se generatum, et a se natum esse. Sed si quidem emissum est vacuum, vacuus et prolator est Valentinus, vacui et sectatores ejus. Si autem non prolatum est, sed a se generatum est; et simile est et fraternum et ejusdem honoris, id quod est vacuum, ei Patri qui predictus est a Valentino: antiquius autem et multo ante exsistens, et honorificentius reliquis /Eonibus ipsius Ptolemei et Heracleonis, et reliquis omnibus qui eadem opinantur.

So the cause of such a dispensation of God must be sought, but the making of the world must not be ascribed to another; and all things must be said to have been prepared beforehand by God to be made as they were made, and shadow and void must not be invented. Besides, where does the void come from? It will be asked whether it too was emitted by the Father and author of all, according to them; then it is equal in honour and akin to the other Aeons, and perhaps even older than they. And if it was emitted by the same, it is like the one who emitted it and those with whom it was emitted. So it will be absolutely necessary that their Bythus with Sige is like the void, that is, is void; and that the other Aeons, being brothers of the void, have a void substance. But if it was not emitted, it was born of itself and generated of itself, and is equal in time to their Bythus, the Father of all; and so the void will be of the same nature and the same honour as their Father of all. For it must either have been emitted by someone, or have been generated and born of itself. But if the void was emitted, its emitter Valentinus is void, and so are his followers. If it was not emitted but generated of itself, then the void is like, and brother to, and of the same honour as, the Father proclaimed by Valentinus, and older, existing long before, and more honourable than the other Aeons of Ptolemy himself and Heracleon and all the others who hold the same.

Notes and citation

Summary: Irenaeus asks where the heretics' 'void' came from: whether emitted or self-generated, it makes nonsense of their system.

  • Ptolemy and Heracleon were leading Valentinian teachers. Margin references and stray marks are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (margin reference and stray marks; running head; stray mark): LIB II ui. habere → habere; a se MASS D iv. generatum est et squiparans in tempore ei qui est secundum —— —— eos → a se generatum est et squiparans in tempore ei qui est secundum eos; * Ptolemei → Ptolemei.

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.4.1 (Harvey 1:258–259; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-4-1).

BibTeX · RIS (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-irenaeus-adversus-haereses-2-4-1) · Report an error

Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

2.4.2Harvey 1:259–260

Si autem aporiati in his confiteantur continere omnia Patrem omnium, et extra Pleroma esse nihil, (nam necessitas est omni modo definiri eum et circumscribi ab aliquo majore, et id quod extra et quod intus dicere eos secundum agnitionem et ignorantiam, sed non secundum localem distantiam) in Pleromate autem vel in his, quae continentur a Patre, facta a Demiurgo aut ab angelis, quecunque et facta scimus, contineri ab inenarrabili magnitudine, velut in circulo centrum, aut velut in tunica maculam: primo quidem qualis Bythus erit sustinens in sinu suo maculam fieri, et permittens in suis alterum quendam condere vel proferre, preter suam mentem? Quod quidem indescibilitatem universo Pleromati afferre inciperet, cum posset ab initio abscindere labem, et eas quse ab eo initium acceperunt emissiones; neque in ignorantia, neque in passione, neque in labe constitutionem creationis permittere accipere. Qui enim postea emendat labem, et velut maculam emundat labem, multo prius poterat observare, ne quidem initio in suis fieri talem maculam. Vel si initio quidem concessit, quoniam aliter fieri non poterant, quse facta sunt; oportet et semper sic fieri illa. Qus enim initio non possunt emendationem percipere, quemadmodum hanc postea percipient? Aut quemadmodum homines advocari ad perfectum dicunt, cum illa ipsa que sunt caus, ex quibus facti sunt homines, vel ipse Demiurgus vel Angeli in labe dicantur esse? Et si ideo quod benignus sit, in novissimis temporibus misertus est hominum et perfectum eis dat; illorum primo misereri debuit, qui fuerunt hominis factores, et dare eis perfectum. Sic utique et homines miserationem percepissent, de perfectis perfecti facti. Si enim operis ipsorum misertus est, multo prius illorum misereri debuit, et non sinere in tantum cexcitatis venire eos.

But if, at a loss on these points, they confess that the Father of all contains all things, and that there is nothing outside the Pleroma (for it is absolutely necessary that it be bounded and circumscribed by something greater), and that they speak of outside and inside with reference to knowledge and ignorance and not to local position), that in the Pleroma, or in the things contained by the Father, whatever was made by the Demiurge or by the angels, all that we know was made, is contained by the unspeakable greatness, as the centre in a circle or as a stain in a garment: then, first, what sort of Bythus will he be, who allows a stain to come about in his bosom, and permits someone else to found or emit within his domain against his mind? This would bring disgrace on the whole Pleroma, since it could have cut off the deficiency from the beginning, and the emissions that took their beginning from it, and not have allowed the constitution of creation to take place in ignorance, passion or deficiency. For he who afterwards corrects the deficiency and, as it were, washes out the stain, could much earlier have taken care that no such stain should arise among his own even at the beginning. Or if at the beginning he allowed it, because the things made could not be made otherwise, they must always be so; for how will things that cannot receive correction at the beginning receive it afterwards? Or how do they say men are called to perfection, when the very causes from which men were made, either the Demiurge himself or the angels, are said to be in deficiency? And if, because he is kind, he took pity on men in the last times and gives them perfection, he ought first to have pitied those who were the makers of man and given them perfection. So men too would surely have received pity, made perfect by the perfect. For if he pitied their work, much earlier he ought to have pitied them, and not let them come into such blindness.

Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.

Notes and citation

Summary: If creation is a stain within the Father's domain, he should have prevented or first healed it, and pitied the makers before their work.

  • Words lost in the scan of Harvey's edition are supplied from Stieren's edition. A fragment of Harvey's notes (on “void” and Heracleon), running heads and stray marks are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR debris (digit); fragment of Harvey's notes and running head intruded into the text; stray letter; stray marks inside a word): 5indescibilitatem → indescibilitatem; labem,. 120. 1 Vacui, τοῦ κενοῦ. — Heracleon alter hereticus, qui cum Vap. 267, n.a. LIBILi3 et eas → labem, et eas; neque in D ignorantia → neque in ignorantia; crea——— lionis → creationis.

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.4.2 (Harvey 1:259–260; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-4-2).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

2.4.3Harvey 1:260–261

Solvetur autem eorum et ille qui est de umbra et vacuo sermo, in quibus eam qus est secundum nos factam dicunt conditionem, si in his que continentur a Patre facta sunt hec. Si enim paternum illorum lumen tale opinantur, ut omnia adimplere possit que intra eum sunt, et omnia illuminare, quemadmodum vacuum et umbra in his que a Pleromate et a paterno lumine continentur, poterat esse? Oportet enim eos locum ostendere intra Propatorem, aut intra Pleroma, non illuminatum nec retentum ab aliquo, in quo aut Angeli aut Demiurgus fecit quaecunque voluit. Nec enim modicus locus est, in quo tanta et talis conditio facta est. Necessitas erit itaque universa, intra Pleroma aut intra Patrem ipsorum localiter vacuum aliquid et informe et tenebrosum fieri eos, in quo fabricata sunt, quse fabricata sunt. Incusationem quoque recipiet paternum ipsorum lumen, quasi non possit ea qu intra ipsum sunt illuminare, et implere. Adhuc autem et labis fructum dicentes ea, et erroris operam, labem et errorem inducent intra Pleroma et in sinum Patris.

Their talk of shadow and void, in which they say our creation was made, will also be dissolved if these things were made within what is contained by the Father. For if they think their Father's light is such that it can fill all things within him and illuminate them all, how could there be void and shadow within what is contained by the Pleroma and the Father's light? They must show a place within the Propator or within the Pleroma, not illuminated and not held by anyone, in which either the angels or the Demiurge made whatever he wished; and it is no small place in which so great and such a creation was made. So it will be absolutely necessary for them to make something void, formless and dark, locally, within the Pleroma or within their Father, in which the things made were made. Their Father's light too will be accused, as though it could not illuminate and fill what is within it. And further, by calling these things the fruit of deficiency and the work of error, they bring deficiency and error within the Pleroma and into the bosom of the Father.

Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.

Notes and citation

Summary: A void or shadow within the Father's light would accuse that light of failing to fill what is within it.

  • Words lost in the scan of Harvey's edition are supplied from Stieren's edition. Stray marks are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (stray letters; stray marks): "οὗ locum → locum; qu intra o.in ipsum → qu intra ipsum.

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.4.3 (Harvey 1:260–261; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-4-3).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

Against 2, chapter 5

2.5.1Harvey 1:261–262

AÁpvznsus eos igitur qui dicunt extra Pleroma, vel sub bono Deo, hune mundum factum, ea que paulo ante dicta sunt a nobis, apta sunt; et concludentur tales cum patre suo ab eo qui est extra Pleroma, in quo etiam et desinere eos necesse est. Adversus eos autem qui dicunt, in his quae continentur a Patre, ab aliis quibusdam faetum hune mundum, omnia qus nunc dieta sunt, absurda et inconvenientia occurrent; et cogentur aut omnia lucida et plena et operosa ea que sunt intra Patrem confiteri, aut paternum lumen accusare, quasi qui non possit omnia luminare: aut sicut pars, sic et universum Pleroma ipsorum vacuum, et indispositum, et tenebrosum confitendum; et reliqua omnia quscunque sunt conditionis accusant, quasi temporalia sint, et aeterna choica. Aut [At] inaccusabilia esse oportet, cum sint intra Pleroma et in sinu patris: aut etiam in universum Pleroma similiter venient incusationes. Et causa ignorantiae invenietur Christus eorum. — Sicut enim dicunt, cum formasset secundum eubetantiam matrem ipsorum, foras projecit extra Pleroma, id est, separavit ab agnitione. Ipse igitur in ea ignorantiam fecit, qui separavit eam ab agnitione. Quomodo igitur idem ipse reliquis quidem /Eonibus, iis qui eo anteriores erant, praestare agnitionem poterat, matri autem ejus causa eaae ignorantise? Extra agnitionem enim fecit eam, extra Pleroma eam projiciens.

Against those, then, who say this world was made outside the Pleroma, or under the good God, what we said a little before applies; and such people, with their Father, will be shut in by what is outside the Pleroma, in which they must also end. Against those who say this world was made by certain others within what is contained by the Father, all that has now been said will appear absurd and incongruous; and they will be compelled either to confess that all things within the Father are bright, full and active, or to accuse the Father's light as unable to illuminate all things; or else to confess that, like the part, so their whole Pleroma is void, disordered and dark. And they accuse all the other things of creation as being temporal, or, if eternal, earthly. But these must either be beyond accusation, since they are within the Pleroma and in the Father's bosom, or else the accusations will come equally against the whole Pleroma. And their Christ will be found to be the cause of ignorance. For, as they say, when he had formed their Mother according to substance, he cast her outside the Pleroma, that is, he separated her from knowledge. He, then, who separated her from knowledge made ignorance in her. How then could the same one give knowledge to the other Aeons, those who were before him, and yet be the cause of ignorance to his Mother? For he put her outside knowledge when he cast her outside the Pleroma.

Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.

Notes and citation

Summary: If the world was made within the Father's domain by others, either all within him is light or the Pleroma itself is dark, and their Christ becomes the cause of ignorance.

  • Words lost in the scan of Harvey's edition are supplied from Stieren's edition. Harvey's chapter title (“That the Father is invisible but not unknown, and the angels could not be ignorant of him, however far below him they were cast”), a running head and stray marks are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR slip; editor's chapter title; running head; stray mark; stray marks): Quoniam invisibilis quidem est Pater, sed non incognitus, neque ignorare eum quidem poterant angel, licet plurimum deorsum dejecti essent ab eo.. → ; & nobis → a nobis; quasi ` qui → quasi qui; *:eterna → aeterna; matri autem LIB. IL iv.2. ejus → matri autem ejus.

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.5.1 (Harvey 1:261–262; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-5-1).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

2.5.2Harvey 1:262

Adhuc quoque si secundum agnitionem et ignorantiam, intra Pleroma et extra Pleroma dicunt, sicut quidam ex ipsis dicunt, quoniam qui in agnitione est, intra id est, quod agnoscit; ipsum Salvatorem (quem Omnia esse dicunt) in ignorantia fuisse consentire eos necesse est. Dicunt enim eum, cum foras extra Pleroma venisset, formasse Matrem ipsorum. Si igitur id quod est extra, ignorantiam dicunt universorum, exiit autem Salvator ad formationem Matris ipsorum, extra agnitionem universorum factus est, hoc est in ignorantia. Quomodo igitur illi agnitionem prestare poterat, cum et ipse extra agnitionem esset? Et nos enim, extra agnitionem cum simus ipsorum, extra Pleroma esse dicunt. Et iterum: Si igitur Salvator exivit extra Pleroma ad investigationem perdite ovis, Pleroma autem est agnitio, extra agnitionem factus est, quod est in ignorantia. Aut enim localiter, quod est extra Pleroma consentire eos necesse est; et omnia que przedieta sunt contraria occurrent eis: vel si secundum agnitionem dicunt quod est intus, et ignorantiam quod est extra, Salvator illorum, et multo ante Christus, in ignorantia facti erunt, extra Pleroma egressi ad formationem matris ipsorum, quod est extra agnitionem.

Further, if they speak of inside and outside the Pleroma in terms of knowledge and ignorance, as some of them do, because one who is in knowledge is within what he knows, they must agree that the Saviour himself (whom they call All Things) was in ignorance. For they say that when he came outside the Pleroma he formed their Mother. If, then, they call what is outside ignorance of all things, and the Saviour went out to form their Mother, he came to be outside the knowledge of all things, that is, in ignorance. How then could he give her knowledge, when he himself was outside knowledge? For they say that we too, being outside their knowledge, are outside the Pleroma. And again: if the Saviour went out of the Pleroma to search for the lost sheep, and the Pleroma is knowledge, he came to be outside knowledge, that is, in ignorance. For either they must agree that what is outside the Pleroma is so locally, and all the things said before will meet them as contradictions; or, if they call what is inside knowledge and what is outside ignorance, their Saviour, and long before him Christ, will have been in ignorance, having gone out of the Pleroma, that is, outside knowledge, to form their Mother.

Luke 15:4 (allusion, medium confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: If 'outside the Pleroma' means ignorance, then the Saviour and Christ, who went out to form the Mother, were themselves in ignorance.

  • Allusion: Luke 15:4 (the lost sheep). A stray mark inside a word is removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (stray mark inside a word): ipso¢ e rum → ipsorum.

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.5.2 (Harvey 1:262; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-5-2).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

2.5.3Harvey 1:262–263

Hec autem adversus omnes qui quolibet modo vel ab angelis, vel ab alio quodam prseter verum Deum mundum factum esse dicunt, similiter adaptabuntur. Quam enim incusationem faciunt de Demiurgo, et de his, quse facta sunt materialia et temporalia, recurret in Patrem: siquidem quemadmodum in ventre Pleromatis facta sunt, que inciperent mox demum dissolvi secundum concessionem et ad placitum Patris. Jam igitur non est fabricator causa hujus operationis, valde bene putans semetipsum fabricare, sed qui in suis concedit et probat labis prolationes et erroris opera fieri, et in seternis veritatis sunt, ea que sunt erroris. Si autem non concedente, neque approbante Patre universorum, facta sunt hee; potentior, et fortior, et dominatior is, qui fecit in iis, que propria illius sunt, queeeunque ille non concessit. Si autem non approbans concessit Pater ipsorum, quemadmodum quidam dicunt, aut potens prohibere concessit propter necessitatem quandam, aut non potens. Sed siquidem non poterat, invalidus et infirmus est: si autem potens, seductor et hypocrita, et necessitatis Servus: non consentiens quidem, concedens autem quasi consentjat. Et initio concedens sistere errorem et crescere illum, in posterioribus temporibus solvere illum conatur, quando jam multi male perierunt propter labem.

These arguments will likewise fit all who say in any way that the world was made by angels or by anyone other than the true God. For the accusation they make against the Demiurge, and against the material and temporal things that were made, will fall back on the Father, if indeed the things that were made in the womb of the Pleroma began soon after to be dissolved by the Father's permission and good pleasure. So the maker, who thought very well of himself as making it, is no longer the cause of this work, but he who permits and approves the products of deficiency and the works of error to come about among his own, and allows what belongs to error to be in the eternal things of truth. But if these things were made without the permission or approval of the Father of all, then he who made within the Father's own domain whatever the Father did not permit is more powerful, stronger and more sovereign. And if their Father permitted without approving, as some say, he permitted either because of some necessity while able to prevent it, or not able. If he could not, he is powerless and weak; if he could, he is a deceiver, a hypocrite and a slave of necessity, not consenting yet permitting as though he consented. And having permitted error at the beginning to stand and grow, he tries in later times to dissolve it, when many have already perished miserably because of the deficiency.

Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.

Notes and citation

Summary: If creation is a deficiency, its blame falls on the Father who permitted it, who is then either weak or a hypocrite.

  • The clause on “what belongs to error” appears shortened in the OCR; ANF's text has “that temporal things be mixed with eternal, corruptible with incorruptible, and things of error with things of truth”. Running heads are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (margin reference; running head): aut LIB. IL iv. 3. potens → aut potens; aut MAss. IL v. non potens → aut non potens.

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.5.3 (Harvey 1:262–263; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-5-3).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

2.5.4Harvey 1:263

Non decet autem eum qui super omnia sit Deus, cum sit liber et sus potestatis, necessitati servisse dicere, ut sit aliquid secundum conceseionem praeter sententiam ejus: alioquin necessitatem majorem et dominatiorem facient quam Deum, quando id quod magis potest, antiquius sit omnibus. Et statim in principio causas abscidere necessitatis debuit, et non coneludere semetipsum ad habendam necessitatem, concedendo aliquid preterquam deceat eum. — Multo enim melius, et consequentius, et magis deificum erat, ut in principio initium excideret hujusmodi necessitatis, quam postea, quasi de pecenitentia, conaretur tantam fructificationem necessitatis eradicare, Et si necessitati serviens erit Pater universorum, et sub fatum cadet moleste ferens in his qu fiunt, preter necessitatem autem et fatum nihil agere possit: similiter atque Homericus Jupiter, qui per necessitatem dicit: JEt ego enim tibi dedi velut volens, nolente animo. Secundum igitur hane rationem necessitatis et fati invenietur servus, Bythua ipsorum.

It is not fitting to say that God who is above all, being free and his own master, served necessity, so that something should happen by permission against his mind; otherwise they will make necessity greater and more sovereign than God, since what is more powerful is the most ancient of all. And he ought to have cut off the causes of necessity at once at the beginning, and not to have shut himself in to having necessity by permitting something other than befits him. For it was much better, more consistent and more godlike to cut off the beginning of such necessity at the beginning than afterwards, as though from repentance, to try to root out so great a crop of necessity. And if the Father of all will be a slave of necessity and fall under fate, bearing with displeasure what happens, but unable to do anything against necessity and fate, like the Homeric Jupiter, who says from necessity, “For I too have given it to you, as though willing, with unwilling heart”: then by this reasoning their Bythus will be found a slave of necessity and fate.

Notes and citation

Summary: To make God permit what he does not will is to make him a slave of necessity, like Homer's Zeus.

  • Quotation: Homer, Il. 4.43. A stray mark is removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (stray mark): animo. | → animo..

Extrabiblical texts: Homer, Il. 4.43 (Homer, Iliad; quotation)

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.5.4 (Harvey 1:263; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-5-4).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

Against 2, chapter 6

2.6.1Harvey 1:263–264

Quomodo autem et ignorabant vel angeli aut mundi fabricator primum Deum, quando in ejus propriis essent, et creatura existerent ejus, et continerentur ab ipso? Invisibilis quidem poterat eis esse propter eminentiam, ignotus autem nequaquam propter providentiam, Etenim licet valde per descensionem multum separati essent ab eo, quomodo dicunt; sed tamen dominio in omnes extenso, oportuit cognoscere dominantem ipsorum, et hoc ipsum scire, quoniam qui ereavit eos, est Dominus omnium. Invisibile enim ejus cum sit potens, magnam mentis intuitionem et sensibilitatem omnibus praestat potentissims et omnipotentis eminentie, Unde etiamsi nemo cognoscit Patrem nisi Filius, neque Filiwn, nisi Pater, et. quibus Filius revelacerit, tamen hoc ipsum omnia cognoscunt, quando ratio mentibus infixa moveat ea et revelet eis, quoniam est unus Deus, omnium Dominus.

And how could the angels or the world-maker not know the first God, since they were in his own domain, were his creatures and were contained by him? He could be invisible to them because of his pre-eminence, but by no means unknown, because of his providence. For though, as they say, they were very far separated from him by their descent, yet since his dominion extends over all, they had to know their ruler, and to know this very thing, that he who created them is Lord of all. For since his invisible nature is mighty, it gives to all a great mental insight and perception of his most mighty and almighty pre-eminence. Hence, although no one knows the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father and those to whom the Son reveals him, yet all know this very thing, since reason implanted in their minds moves them and reveals to them that there is one God, the Lord of all.

Matt 11:27 (allusion, high confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: The angels and the world-maker could not be ignorant of the God who made and contains them, since reason implanted in all reveals one God, the Lord of all.

  • Allusion: Matt 11:27. A long fragment of Harvey's notes, margin references and stray marks are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR digit for c; fragment of Harvey's notes and running head intruded into the text; margin reference; margin reference and stray marks; stray marks): 3ereatura → creatura; ignotus autem mom. 19, nequaquam → ignotus autem nequaquam; ^ Etenim licet valde per T descensionem → Etenim licet valde per descensionem; quando 1 Sistere, Grece συνίστασθαι. BILL. 3 krloua, Ita MSS, creature Epp. γε θυμῷ. I1. 8. 43. order, aa at p. 180; but wee TV. GN. Yi —2á LIB II iv.6. ratio mentibus ! infixa → quando ratio mentibus infixa; unus Mass. 11.vi. Deus, omnium Dominus. ——--- 6. → unus Deus, omnium Dominus..

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.6.1 (Harvey 1:263–264; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-6-1).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

2.6.2Harvey 1:264

Et propter hoc Altissimi et Omnipotentis appellationi omnia subjecta sunt: et hujus invocatione etiam ante adventum Domini nostri salvabantur homines, et a spiritibus nequissimis, et a daemoniis universis, et ab apostasia universa: non quasi vidissent eum terreni spiritus aut daemones, sed cum scirent quoniam est, qui est super omnia Deus, cujus et invocationem tremebant, et tremit universa creatura et principatus et potentia et omnis subjecta virtus. Aut nunquid hi qui sub Romanorum imperio sunt, quamvis nunquam viderint Imperatorem, sed valde et per terram, et per mare separati ab eo, cognoscent propter dominium eum qui maximam potestatem habet principatus; qui autem super nos erant angeli, vel ille quem mundi fabricatorem dieunt, non cognoscent omnipotentem, quando jam et muta animalia tremant et cedant tali invocationi? Et utique non viderunt eum, tamen Domini nostri nomini subjecta sunt omnia: Bic et ejus qui omnia fecit et condidit vocabulo, cum alter non sit quam ipse qui mundum fecit. Et propter hoc Judei usque nunc hac ipsa affatione demonas effugant, quando omnia timeant invocationem ejus qui fecit ea.

And for this reason all things are subject to the name of the Most High and Almighty; and by invoking him, even before the coming of our Lord, men were saved from the most wicked spirits, from all demons and from all apostasy; not as though the earthly spirits or demons had seen him, but because they knew that he exists who is God above all, at whose invocation they trembled, as all creation trembles, and principality and power and every subject power. Or will those under the empire of the Romans, though they have never seen the Emperor but are far separated from him by land and sea, know because of his rule the one who has the greatest power of government; while the angels who were above us, or the one they call world-maker, will not know the Almighty, when even dumb animals tremble and yield to such an invocation? And just as, though they have not seen him, all things are subject to the name of our Lord, so also to the name of him who made and founded all things, since he is no other than the one who made the world. And for this reason the Jews to this day drive out demons by this very invocation, since all things fear the invocation of him who made them.

Jas 2:19 (echo, low confidence) · Phil 2:10 (echo, low confidence) · Acts 19:13 (allusion, low confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: Even demons, animals and distant subjects of the Emperor know the supreme ruler; how much more must the angels know the Almighty.

  • Allusions: Jas 2:19 (demons tremble); Phil 2:10; Acts 19:13 (Jewish exorcists), cited in Harvey's margin. Margin references and stray marks are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (margin reference; margin reference; OCR slip; stray marks): non Cf. git quam → non sit quam; Judei usque Ac-xix.13 nunc → Judei usque nunc; omniac.™ timeant → omnia timeant.

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.6.2 (Harvey 1:264; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-6-2).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).

2.6.3Harvey 1:264–265

Si itaque mutis animalibus irrationabiliores noluerint angelos esse, invenient. quoniam oportebat, licet non vidissent hi eum qui super omnia Deus est, uti cognoscerent potentatum et dominium ejus. Ridiculum enim vere apparebit, si se quidem, qui super terram sunt, cognoscere dicunt eum qui super omnia est Deus, quem nunquam viderunt; ei autem qui eos fecit, et universum mundum secundum eos, non permittant, cum sit in summis et super ecelos, cognoscere ea quz ipsi, quum sint in humilibus, sciunt. Nisi forte sub terra in tartaro esse Bythum suum dicunt, quapropter et primos se cognovisse eum, quam hi qui in altitudine habitant angeli; in tantam amentiam venientes, uti dementem pronuntient mundi fabricatorem: quorum vere quidem est misereri, cum in tanta dementia dicant, neque Matrem agnovisse eum, neque semen ejus, neque Pleroma Aeonum, neque Propatorem, neque quid essent que fabricavit; esse autem imagines eorum, qus intra Pleroma sunt, latenter Salvatore operato sic fieri in honorem eorum qui sursum sunt.

If, then, they will not have the angels more irrational than the dumb animals, they will find that, even though they had not seen the God who is above all, they had to know his power and dominion. For it will appear truly ridiculous if they say that they themselves, who are on earth, know the God who is above all, whom they have never seen, but will not allow the one who made them and, according to them, the whole world, though he is on high above the heavens, to know what they themselves know, though they are below; unless perhaps they say their Bythus is under the earth in Tartarus, and that therefore they knew him before the angels who dwell on high; coming to such madness as to pronounce the world-maker out of his mind. They are truly to be pitied, since in such great madness they say that he knew neither the Mother, nor her seed, nor the Pleroma of Aeons, nor the Propator, nor what the things were that he made; but that they are images of what is within the Pleroma, the Saviour having secretly worked that they should come about so, in honour of those above.

Notes and citation

Summary: It is absurd that the heretics claim to know the supreme God while denying such knowledge to the world-maker.

  • A fragment of Harvey's notes and a running head at the end are removed.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (fragment of Harvey's notes and running head intruded into the text; stray mark inside a word): A€onum → Aeonum; 1 Cr. infizus, i.e. λόγος. Et cap. 29. Sexcenti itaque anni Nos, 3 Sic lib. v. cap. 24. Dominatus sub quo fuit diluvium propter apostaest (Diabolus) homini per apostasiam, ^ siam. III, xxxv. IV. lxxix. UNIVERSORUM IMAGO. 265 → .

Topics: Heresy

Cite (SBL): Irenaeus, Haer. 2.6.3 (Harvey 1:264–265; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/irenaeus-adversus-haereses/2-2-1/#p-2-6-3).

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Translation: Translated by Claude (Opus) from the ancient Latin translation as printed by Harvey (Cambridge, 1857), from the OCR of the printed edition with slips corrected as logged, in Massuet's section numbering; lines lost in the scan supplied from Stieren's edition (1848–53) where noted; each batch compared afterwards with the public-domain translation in ANF 1 (1885).