Refutation of All Heresies 5 part 3/4

There is the right-hand power that has authority over the fruits of the earth; this ignorance called 'Men', in whose image came into being Bumegas, Ostanes, Hermes Trismegistus, Kourites, Petosiris, Zodarion, Berosus, Astrampsychus, Zoroaster. There is the left-hand power of fire; this ignorance called 'Hephaestus', in whose image came into being Erichthonius, Achilles, Capaneus, Phlegon, Meleager ... Kelados, Raphael, Suriel, Omphale.

Three powers in the middle of the air, mingled together, are the causes of generation. These ignorance called 'the Fates', in whose image came into being the house of Priam, the house of Laius, Ino, Autonoe, Agave, Athamas, Procne, the Danaids, the daughters of Pelias.

There is a male-female power, ever infantile, ageless, the cause of beauty, pleasure, prime of life, longing, and desire, whom ignorance called 'Eros', in whose image came into being Paris, Narcissus, Ganymede, Endymion, Tithonus, Icarius, Leda, Amymone, Thetis, the Hesperides, Iasion, Leander, Hero. These are the 'suburban powers' extending as far as the ether; for so also the book is entitled.

It has become easily manifest to all that the heresy of the Peratae is transposed from that of the astrologers, differing only in names; and their other books contain the same manner of teaching, should anyone care to go through them all.

For, as I said, they consider that the causes of the generation of all begotten things are the unbegotten and the things above, and that our world, which they call the 'particular' world, came into being by effluence, and that all these stars together, observed in heaven, became causes of the generation of this world, though they have interchanged their names -- as one may discover by comparison, from what was said concerning the 'suburban powers'.

And in the second place, in the same manner: just as the world came into being as a world from the effluence flowing from above, so also they say that the things here below have generation and corruption from the effluence of the stars, and are administered by them.

Since, then, the astrologers know the horoscope, the midheaven, the setting, and the anti-midheaven, and know that these stars, moving at different times in different ways because of the constant revolution of the universe, produce at different times different declining places relative to the centers, and succeedent places to the centers -- allegorizing the arrangement of the astrologers, they depict the center as it were as god and monad and lord of all generation, the declining place as the left side, and the succeedent place as the right side.

Whenever, then, one meets in their writings and finds a power called by them 'right' or 'left', let him run back to the center, the declining place, and the succeedent place, and he will clearly perceive their whole system to be established as astrological teaching.

They call themselves 'Peratae', believing that nothing established within generation is able to escape the destiny determined by generation for the things generated. 'For if anything', he says, 'is begotten, it also, altogether, is subject to corruption, just as the Sibyl also holds. But we alone', he says, 'having come to know the necessity of generation, and the paths by which man has entered into the world, having been precisely taught, are alone able to pass through and get beyond corruption.'

'The corruption', he says, 'is water; nor was the world destroyed more swiftly by anything else than by water.' The water is that which has enveloped things in a sphere among the 'suburban powers', they say, namely Cronos; for, he says, 'it is a water-colored power, which power', he says, 'that is, Cronos, no one established within generation is able to escape.'

'For over every generation, as the cause of its falling subject to corruption, Cronos stands set; and there could be no generation in which Cronos does not hinder it.' This, he says, is what the poets too mean, when even the gods swear by it: 'Let earth now witness this, and the broad heaven above, and the down-flowing water of Styx, which is the greatest and most dreaded oath for the blessed gods.' And not only this, he says, do the poets say.

'But already also the wisest of the Greeks, of whom Heraclitus too is one, said: For souls it is death to become water. This death', he says, 'overtakes the Egyptians in the Red Sea, together with their chariots.'

'And all who are ignorant', he says, 'are Egyptians. And this', they say, 'is what it means to go out of Egypt, that is, out of the body -- for they consider the body to be a little Egypt -- and to cross the Red Sea, that is, the water of corruption, which is Cronos, and to come to be on the far side of the Red Sea, that is, of generation, and to come into the wilderness, that is, to come to be outside generation, where together are all the gods of destruction and the god of salvation.'

'And', he says, 'the gods of destruction are the stars, which bring upon the things generated the necessity of changeable generation. These', he says, 'Moses called the serpents of the wilderness, which bite and destroy those who suppose they have crossed the Red Sea.'

'Therefore', he says, 'in the wilderness Moses displayed to the sons of Israel the true and perfect serpent, in whom those who believed were not bitten in the wilderness', that is, by the powers. 'There is, then', he says, 'no one able to save and rescue those going forth out of Egypt' -- that is, out of the body and out of this world -- 'except the perfect one alone, the serpent full of fullnesses.'

'Whoever hopes in this one', he says, 'is not destroyed by the serpents of the wilderness', that is, of the gods of generation -- this, he says, is written in the book of Moses. 'This serpent', he says, 'is the power that accompanied Moses, the rod that was turned into a serpent. And the serpents of the magicians, the gods of destruction, opposed the power of Moses; but the rod of Moses subdued and destroyed them all. The universal serpent', he says, 'is this -- the wise word of Eve.'

'This', he says, 'is the mystery of Eden, this is the river that flows from Eden, this is the mark that was set upon Cain, so that no one finding him should kill him. This', he says, 'is Cain, whose sacrifice the god of this world did not accept, but he accepted the bloody sacrifice of Abel -- for the master of this world delights in blood.'

'This', he says, 'is he who in the last days appeared in the form of a man in the times of Herod, having come into being in the image of Joseph, who was sold by the hand of his brothers, the only one whose garment was of many colors. This', he says, 'is he who is in the image of Esau, whose robe was blessed even though he himself was not present, who did not receive', he says, 'the blessing of the dim-sighted one, but grew rich from outside, receiving nothing from the one who was dim of sight -- whose face Jacob saw as a man might see the face of god.'

'Concerning this one', he says, 'it is written: Nimrod, a giant hunter before the Lord. And there are', he says, 'many counterfeits of him -- as many as appeared biting the sons of Israel in the wilderness, from whom that perfect one whom Moses set up rescued those who were being bitten. This', he says, 'is what is meant by the saying: And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.'

'In his image', he says, 'came into being the bronze serpent in the wilderness, which Moses set up. Of him alone', he says, 'is the likeness ever seen in the sky, in light. This', he says, 'is the great first principle, concerning which it is written. Concerning this one', he says, 'it is said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being; what has come into being in him is life.'

'And in him', he says, 'Eve came into being -- Eve being life. And this', he says, 'is Eve, the mother of all the living, a common nature, that is, of angels, of the immortal and the mortal, of the irrational and the rational; for the one who said "of all"', he says, 'has spoken of all without exception.'

'And if anyone's eyes', he says, 'are blessed, he will see, looking up into the sky, the beautiful image of the serpent turning in the great first principle of heaven, becoming thereby the first principle of every motion for all things that come to be; and he will see that without him nothing of the heavenly, nor of the earthly, nor of the things under the earth has come into being -- no night, no moon, no fruits, no generation, no wealth, no journeying, nor is there at all anything among existing things apart from that one's signifying it.'

'Upon this one', he says, 'is the great wonder seen in the sky by those able to see it. For at', he says, 'this uppermost head of his -- which is the most incredible of all things to those who do not know it -- west and east mingle with one another. This is concerning what ignorance said: In the sky is coiled a great wonder, the Dragon of the dread monster. And on either side of it are arrayed the Crown and the Lyre.'

'And directly above that head is the pitiable man, who is seen in the constellation Engonasin, the Kneeler, having the tip of his right foot upon the coiling dragon. And along the back of the Kneeler is the imperfect serpent, gripped fast in both hands by the Serpent-Holder, and prevented from touching the crown that lies beside the perfect serpent.'

This is the all-variegated wisdom of the Peratic heresy, difficult to relate in its entirety, so twisted is it, seeming to be composed out of astrology. So, insofar as it was possible, we have set forth in brief the whole force of it. But in order that we may also set forth, in summary, their whole opinion, it seems good to add the following. According to them, the All is: Father, Son, Matter; each of these three has within itself infinite powers.

The Son, then, sits in the middle, between Matter and the Father -- the Logos, the serpent, ever moving toward the unmoved Father and the moving Matter; and at one time he turns toward the Father and takes up the powers into his own person, and having taken up the powers, he turns toward Matter; and Matter, being without quality and without form, is impressed with the forms from the Son, which the Son had been impressed with from the Father.

The Son is impressed from the Father ineffably, unspeakably, and without change of place, just as Moses says that the colors flowed from the rods at the watering-troughs onto those that had conceived.

In like manner also, they say, the powers flowed from the Son onto Matter, according to the pattern of conception effected by the power from the rods upon those that conceived; and the difference of colors and the unlikeness that flowed from the rods, through the waters, onto the sheep, is, he says, the difference between corruptible and incorruptible generation.

Or rather, just as a painter, taking nothing away from the living creatures, transfers with his stylus all their forms onto the tablet, inscribing them, so the Son, by his own power, transfers the paternal characters from the Father onto Matter. All the paternal realities, then, are here below, and nothing is lacking.

'For if anyone', he says, 'among those here below shall have the strength to conceive, from among the things here, that he is a paternal character transferred from above and become embodied here, just as, through the pattern of conception, that offspring became white from the rod -- then he becomes wholly consubstantial with the Father in the heavens, and he ascends thither. But if he does not happen upon this teaching, nor comes to recognize the necessity of generation, then, like an abortion born under night, he perishes under night.'

'Therefore', he says, 'when the Savior says, "Your Father who is in the heavens", he means that one, from whom the Son, having received the characters, transferred them here. But when he says, "Your father is a murderer from the beginning", he means the ruler and demiurge of Matter, who, having taken up the characters transmitted from the Son, engendered beings here -- he who is a murderer from the beginning; for his work produces corruption and death.'

'No one, then', he says, 'can be saved, nor ascend, apart from the Son, who is the serpent. For just as he brought down the paternal characters from above, so again from here he carries back up the paternal characters that have been awakened and have come into being, transferring them from here to there, made substantial from the non-subsistent.'

'This', he says, 'is what is meant by the saying: I am the door.' 'And he transfers', he says, in the twinkling of an eyelid, just as naphtha draws fire to itself from every side, or rather just as the Heraclean stone draws iron, and nothing else, or just as the hawk's quill draws gold.

...and nothing else; or just as chaff is drawn by amber, so, he says, is drawn back again, out of the world, by him, the perfected and consubstantial race that has been fashioned in his image, and nothing else, just as it was sent down by him.

In support of this proof they adduce the anatomy of the brain, likening the brain itself to the Father, because of its immobility, and the cerebellum to the Son, both because it moves and because it is serpent-shaped.

They assert that the cerebellum draws to itself, ineffably and imperceptibly, through the pineal gland, the spiritual and life-generating substance that flows out from the inner chamber; and having received this, the cerebellum, like the Son, unspeakably imparts the forms to Matter -- that is, the substance flows down onto the spinal marrow, conveying the seeds and the kinds of those begotten according to the flesh.

By employing this analogy they seem cleverly to introduce their unspeakable mysteries, transmitted without utterance -- mysteries which it is not lawful for us to disclose, but which are easy for many to understand from what has been said.

But since I think I have also clearly set forth the Peratic heresy, and through many proofs have made it evident that it is always a fabricated song, composed altogether artificially, concealing its own venom, it seems best to accuse them of nothing further beyond this, since the very doctrines taught by them are sufficient for their accusation.

Let us see, then, what the Sethians say. To them it seems that there are three defined first principles of the universe, and that each of the first principles has infinite powers. And when they speak of 'powers', let the hearer understand that they mean this: whatever you conceive in thought, or even leave out, unconceived, this each of the first principles is by nature capable of becoming -- just as in the human soul, any art whatsoever that is taught can become part of it.

For example, this child will become a flute-player if it spends time with a flute-player, or a geometer if with a geometer, a grammarian if with a grammarian, a carpenter if with a carpenter; and the same will happen likewise with all the other arts, if it comes into close contact with a practitioner. And the substances of the first principles, he says, are light and darkness; and between these is unmixed spirit.

But the spirit that is stationed in the midst of the darkness — which is below — and of the light — which is above — is not spirit such as can be conceived as a gust of wind or some thin breeze, but rather, as it were, a certain fragrance of myrrh, or of incense compounded from a mixture, a subtle pervading power, with a fragrance inconceivable and greater than can be expressed in words.

Since, then, the light is above and the darkness below, and between these, as I have said, is the spirit of such a nature, the light by nature shines from above, like a ray of the sun, into the darkness that lies beneath it; whereas, conversely, the fragrance of the spirit, occupying the middle position, extends and is borne everywhere, just as we know the fragrance of incense in fire to be borne everywhere.

Such, then, being the power of the [principles] that are divided in this threefold way, the power of the spirit and of the light together is in the darkness that is stationed below them. And the darkness is a fearful water, into which the light, together with the spirit, has been drawn down and transferred into such a nature.

The darkness is not without understanding, but altogether prudent, and knows that if the light is taken away from the darkness, the darkness remains desolate, invisible, without radiance, powerless, inactive, weak. Therefore with all prudence and understanding it strives forcibly to retain within itself the brightness and the spark of light together with the fragrance of the spirit.

And of these things one may see an image of their nature in the human face, in the pupil of the eye — dark from the waters beneath it, yet illumined by spirit. As, then, the darkness lays claim to the brightness, so that it may have the spark in servitude to it and may see, so likewise the light and the spirit lay claim to their own power; and they hasten to lift up and recover unto themselves their powers that have been mingled into the underlying dark and fearful water.

And all the powers of the three principles, being in number infinitely infinite, are each, according to their own essence, prudent and intelligent. Being innumerable, and being both prudent and intelligent, so long as they remain by themselves, they are all at rest.

But if a power draws near to a power, the dissimilarity of their juxtaposition produces a certain motion, and an activity shaped by that motion, in accordance with the concurrence of the juxtaposition of the powers that have come together.

For the concurrence of the powers becomes, as it were, a kind of imprint of a seal, formed by the concurrence resulting from an impact, in a manner similar to that of one who stamps the substances that are being impressed. Since, then, the powers of the three principles are infinite in number, and from the infinite powers there arise infinite concurrences, there have necessarily come to be images of infinite seals.

These, then, are the images that constitute the forms of the various animals. There came to be, then, from the first great concurrence of the three principles, a certain great form of a seal, that of heaven and earth. And heaven and earth have a shape resembling a womb, having its navel in the middle; and if, he says, one wishes to reduce this shape to the analogy of a serpent, let him examine skillfully the pregnant womb of whatever animal he wishes, and he will find lying beneath it, without variation, the impress of heaven and earth and of all the things in between.

Now the shape of heaven and earth came to be of such a kind, resembling a womb, at the first concurrence; but in the midst of heaven and earth there have come to be infinite concurrences of powers. And each concurrence produced and imprinted nothing other than a seal of heaven and earth resembling a womb; and within it, from the infinite seals, there sprang up infinite multitudes of various animals.

Into this whole infinite multitude of the various animals under heaven the fragrance of the spirit from above, together with the light, has been sown and distributed. There came to be, then, from the water, as a first-born principle, a wind, violent and turbulent, and the cause of all generation. For, producing a certain seething in the waters, it stirs up waves from the waters.

And the generation of the waves, being as it were a certain impulse [...] [that causes nature] to become pregnant with man or with mind, whenever, aroused by the impulse of the spirit, it is driven on. And when this wave, raised up by the wind out of the water, having made nature pregnant, has received within itself the offspring of a female, it retains the light that has been sown from above together with the fragrance of the spirit.

That is, mind formed in the various species — which is perfect God — brought down from above, out of the unbegotten light and spirit, into human nature as into a temple, begotten out of water by the movement of nature and of the wind, mingled and mixed together with bodies, existing as it were the salt of the things that have come to be, and the light of the darkness, hastening to be released from bodies but unable to find release and its own way out.

For a certain very small spark is mingled from... a song from above... after the manner of... among things dissolved together... of many, as, he says, is said in the psalm. All the care and concern, then, of the light from above is directed to this: how, and in what manner, the mind may be released from the death of the evil and dark body, [released] from the father below — that is, the wind — who, amid roaring and turmoil, has stirred up waves and begotten mind as his own perfect son, though it is not properly his own in substance.

For from above there was a ray from that perfect light, held fast in the dark, fearful, bitter, and withering water — which is the luminous spirit borne upon the surface of the water. Since, then... [lacuna: ...waves... in various... a certain womb... having been sown].

...as is observed in the case of all animals. And the wind, being at once turbulent and fearful in its motion, resembles a serpent in its trailing course, and is winged. From this wind — that is, from the serpent — the beginning of generation came to be in the manner described, all things alike having received from it the beginning of their generation.

Since, then, the light and the spirit have been seized, he says, and drawn into the unclean, much-suffering, disorderly womb — into which the serpent enters, the wind of darkness, the first-born of the waters — and begets man; and the unclean womb neither loves nor recognizes any other form.

The perfect Word from the light above, then, having made himself like unto the beast, the serpent, entered into the unclean womb, deceiving it by the likeness of the beast, in order that he might loose the bonds that lay about the perfect mind that is begotten in the uncleanness of the womb by the first-born of the water, the serpent, the wind, the beast. This, he says, is the form of a slave; and this is the necessity for the Word of God to descend into the womb of a virgin.

But it is not enough, he says, that the perfect man, the Word, should have entered into the womb of the virgin and loosed the birth-pangs that were in that darkness; but rather, after entering into the loathsome mysteries within the womb, he washed himself and drank the cup of living, leaping water, which every one who is about to strip off the servile form and put on the heavenly garment must by all means drink.

These are the things, to state them briefly, which the champions of the Sethian doctrines say. Their doctrine is composed of natural-philosophical terms and of expressions spoken with reference to other matters, which they transfer to their own doctrine and expound, as we have said. They say also that Moses himself supports their doctrine, when he speaks of darkness and gloom and tempest — these, he says, being the three [principles].

Or when he says that there were three in paradise, Adam, Eve, and the serpent; or when he speaks of three, Cain, Abel, and Seth, and again of three, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; or when he speaks of three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; or when he says that there were three days before the sun and moon came to be; or when he speaks of three laws — the prohibitive, the appetitive, and the assessive.

The prohibitive law is: 'Of every tree that is in paradise thou shalt freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ye shall not eat.' In the saying, 'Go forth from thy land and from thy kindred, and come into a land which I will show thee,' this, he says, is the appetitive law; for it is possible for one who chooses to go forth, and for one who does not choose, to remain. The assessive law is that which says, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not steal'; for a penalty has been assessed for each of the wrongdoings.

The whole teaching of their doctrine is derived from the ancient theologians, Musaeus and Linus, and especially from Orpheus, who instituted the rites and the mysteries.

For the account concerning their womb and the serpent, and the navel — which is virility — is stated explicitly in this way in the Bacchic writings of Orpheus. These things were performed as rites and handed down to men before the rite at Eleusis of Celeus and Triptolemus and Demeter and Kore and Dionysus, in Phlious of Attica; for before the Eleusinian mysteries there are, in Phlious, the orgies of her who is called the Great [Goddess].

There is a bridal-chamber there, and upon it there is inscribed, even to this day, the figure of all the aforesaid doctrines. Many, then, are the things inscribed upon that bridal-chamber, concerning which Plutarch composes discussions in his ten books addressed to Empedocles; and among the majority of them there is also inscribed a certain old man, grey-haired, winged, having his member erect, pursuing a fleeing woman resembling a dog.

It is inscribed upon the Old Man: 'Phaos Ruentes' [Light Flowing], and upon the woman: [corrupt, 'Pereëphicola']. It appears that, according to the Sethian doctrine, 'Phaos' is the light, the dark water is 'Phicola,' and the interval between them is the harmony of the spirit stationed in the middle. And the name 'Phaos Ruentes' signifies, as they say, the flowing of the light from above downward.

So that one might reasonably say that the Sethians perform among themselves, more or less, the orgies of the Great [Goddess] of Phlious. And the poet also seems to bear witness to this threefold division, when he says: 'All things have been divided threefold, and each obtained its portion of honor' — that is, that each of the things divided in three has received its power.

And that the water lying dark beneath is so because the light has sunk into it, and that it is necessary to recover and receive back from above the spark that has been brought down from it — of this the all-wise Sardians seem to speak, having taken it from Homer, saying:

'Let Earth now witness this,' he says, 'and the broad Heaven above, and the down-flowing water of Styx, which is the greatest and most dreadful oath for the blessed gods.' That is, according to Homer, the gods regard the water as something to be shunned and dreadful — which the doctrine of the Sethians says is fearful to the mind.

These are the things they say, and things similar to these, in countless writings. And they persuade those under instruction to study the treatise on 'blending and mixture,' a subject that has been examined by many, but [especially] by the Peripatetic.

The Sardians, then, say that the doctrine of blending and mixture is constituted in the following manner: that the luminous ray from above has been blended in, and that the smallest spark has been finely mixed with the dark waters below and united with them, and has come to be in one compound — just as one fragrance arises from many kinds of incense mixed together upon the fire.

And the knowledgeable person, possessing a keen faculty of smell, must from the one fragrance of the incense discern finely each of the components mixed together in the incense burned upon the fire — such as storax, myrrh, and frankincense, or whatever else may have been mixed in.

They also employ other examples, saying that copper too has been mixed with gold, and that a certain art has been discovered which distinguishes the copper from the gold. Likewise, if tin or copper or something of the same kind is found mixed in silver, this too is separated out by a certain superior art of assaying. And already someone has even distinguished water mixed with wine.

In this way, they say, all things that have been blended together are indeed separated out. And, he says, learn this also from animals: for when an animal dies, each element is separated out, and when they are thus dissolved, the animal disappears. This, he says, is what is meant by the saying: 'I came not to cast [peace] upon the earth, but a sword' — that is, to divide and separate the things that have been blended together.

For each of the things blended together is divided and separated, each attaining its own proper place. For just as there is one place of blending for all animals, so likewise there is established one place of separation, which no one knows, he says, except us alone, who are being reborn as spiritual, not carnal, whose citizenship is in the heavens above.

In this way, insinuating themselves, they corrupt [their hearers], sometimes making improper use of scriptural sayings, twisting badly to their own purpose things that have been well spoken, and concealing their own wrongdoing by means of parables of their own choosing.

All things, then, he says, as has been stated, that have been blended together have their own proper place, and run toward what is akin to them — iron toward the Heraclean stone [i.e., the magnet], and chaff toward amber, and gold toward the sting of the sea-hawk.