—of whom, a little before, we set forth the words concerning the marvellous Justin, relating that he was a disciple of the martyr. And Irenaeus makes this clear in the first book of his work Against the Heresies, writing thus, at once concerning the man himself and concerning the heresy associated with him:
「From Saturninus and Marcion those called Encratites preached celibacy, setting aside the original formation of God, and quietly accusing him who made male and female for the generation of men. They also introduced abstinence from what are called by them animate things, being ungrateful to God who made all things; and they contradict the salvation of the first-formed man.」
「And this has now been invented among them, a certain Tatian having been the first to bring in this blasphemy; who, having been a hearer of Justin, disclosed nothing of the kind so long as he was with him, but after that one's martyrdom, having departed from the church and being lifted up and puffed up with the conceit of a teacher, as though superior to the rest, he established a peculiar stamp of doctrine, fabling, like those from Valentinus, of certain invisible aeons; and declaring marriage to be corruption and fornication, like Marcion and Saturninus; and making the denial of Adam's salvation a matter of his own devising.」
These things, then, Irenaeus said at that time. But a little later a certain man named Severus, having strengthened the aforesaid heresy, became the cause why those who set out from it received the designation Severians, derived from him.
These men, then, make use of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospels, interpreting the meanings of the holy Scriptures after their own fashion; but blaspheming Paul the apostle, they set aside his epistles, and do not even accept the Acts of the Apostles.
Their former leader, Tatian, having put together some sort of combination and collection of the Gospels—I know not how—gave to it the name Diatessaron, which is still extant in the hands of some. And they say that he dared to paraphrase certain expressions of the apostle, as though correcting the composition of their phrasing.
This man left behind a very great multitude of writings, of which the most remembered among many is his famous discourse Against the Greeks, in which, having made mention of the earliest times, he demonstrated Moses and the prophets of the Hebrews to be more ancient than all those of repute among the Greeks; which indeed seems to be the most beautiful and most useful of all his writings. Such, then, were the things concerning these men.