Refutation of All Heresies 5 part 4/4

So likewise the ray of light that has been mingled [with matter], having received knowledge of its own proper place through teaching and instruction, hastens toward the Word that has come from above in a servile likeness, and comes to be with the Word, there where the Word is, even more readily than iron [hastens] toward the Heraclean stone. And that these things are so, and that all blended things are separated out into their own proper places, learn, he says, [from the following]:

There is a well among the Persians, in the city of Ampe, beside the river Tigris. Built above, beside the well, there is a certain reservoir, having three outlet-channels leading from it. Having drawn from the well with a bucket, and having brought up whatever it is that is drawn up from the well, one pours it into the adjoining reservoir; and what is thus poured out, taken up in one vessel into the outlet-channels, is separated out, and in the [first channel...]

[in the first channel] there is shown salt congealing, in another of the channels bitumen, and in the third, oil. The oil is black, as, he says, Herodotus also relates, and gives off a heavy odor; and the Persians call it rhadinace.

The likeness of the well, say the Caianoi, was sufficient, more than all the aforementioned examples, for the demonstration of the matter in hand.

It seems to us that the doctrine of the Sethians has now been sufficiently clarified. But if anyone wishes to learn their entire system in full, let him consult the book entitled Paraphrase of Seth; for there he will find all their secret teachings set forth. But since we have set forth the doctrines concerning the Sethians, let us see also what are the opinions held by Justin.

Justin, having become altogether opposed to the teaching of the holy scriptures, and moreover also to the writing or utterance of the blessed evangelists — as the Word taught the disciples, saying, 'Go not into the way of the Gentiles' — which shows that one ought not to give heed to the vain [teaching] of the Gentiles — this man attempts to lead his hearers off into the monstrous tales and teachings of the Gentiles, relating word for word the myths current among the Greeks, neither teaching beforehand nor handing over his perfect mystery, unless he first binds the one who is being led astray by an oath.

Then he lets loose the myths for the sake of entertainment, so that those who chance upon the countless nonsense of his books may have the mythical tales as a diversion — in the manner of one traveling a long road, who, coming upon a lodging-place, seems to find rest there — and thus, turning again to the abundance of readings, they may not come to hate it, until, having had it dinned into their ears, they rush headlong, deluded, upon the wickedness that has been contrived by him. These he first binds with dreadful oaths, compelling them to swear neither to divulge nor to depart, and thus he hands over to them the mysteries devised by him with impiety — in part, as we have said before, making use of Greek myths, and in part of forged books that bear some resemblance to the heresies previously mentioned.

For all of them, being driven together by one and the same spirit, are gathered into one abyss of folly, different ones relating and mythologizing the same things in different ways — these men in their own particular manner — all of whom call themselves Gnostics, as though they alone had swallowed down the wondrous knowledge of the perfect and the good.

'Swear,' says Justin, 'if you wish to know the things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man — [swear] by him who is above all good things, the Highest, [to keep] as unspeakable the silent things of the teaching. For our father too, having seen the Good One and having been initiated by him, kept the unspeakable things of silence, and swore, even as the Lord swore, and will not repent.'

Having thus sealed these things in this manner, he entertains [his followers] with more numerous myths through a greater number of books, and thus leads them on to the Good One, initiating the mystics into the unspoken mysteries. But that we may not travel through many of them, we shall from one of his books demonstrate his unspeakable teachings — that book being, as he considers it, the most glorious.

This book is entitled Baruch; in it we shall show one of the many myths set forth by him, being [in fact] a myth found in Herodotus, which he narrates, having reshaped it as though it were something novel to his hearers, constructing from it the entire framework of his school of teaching.

Herodotus, then, says that Heracles, driving the cattle of Geryon from Erytheia, came into Scythia, and, being weary from the journey, lay down in some desert place and slept a little; and while he slept, the horse on which he had ridden, having traveled the long journey, vanished. Upon waking he made a long search through the wilderness, trying to find the horse.

And he failed to find the horse; but, finding in the wilderness a certain maiden who was half-virgin [part-woman, part-serpent], he asked her whether she had anywhere seen it. And the maiden said that she did know, but that she would not show it to him first, unless Heracles should come together with her in the union of love.

Now, says Herodotus, her upper parts, as far as the groin, were those of a virgin, but all her lower parts, below the groin, were the dreadful spectacle of a viper. And in his eagerness to find the horse, Heracles yields to the beast: for he knew her and made her pregnant, and, after the union, foretold to her that she would bear in her womb, by him, three sons together, who would be illustrious.

And he bade the mother, when they were born, to give them the names Agathyrsus, Gelonus, and Scythes. And, having received as his reward the horse from the beastly maiden, he departed, taking the cattle with him as well. The rest of the myth in Herodotus is long, and let it now be set aside. But we shall now relate what are the opinions of Justin, who transfers this myth to the generation of his own [aeons].

He says: There were three unbegotten principles of the universe, two male and one female. Of the male ones, one is called the Good, being called by that name alone, foreknowing of all things. The other is the father of all begotten things, without foreknowledge, unknown, and invisible. The female is without foreknowledge, irascible, of two minds, of two bodies, in every respect resembling the [maiden] in the myth of Herodotus — a virgin as far as the groin, but below, a viper — as Justin says.

This maiden is called both Edem and Israel. These, he says, are the principles of the universe, the roots and springs from which existing things came into being. Now nothing else [existed]; and the father, being without foreknowledge, upon seeing that half-virgin, Edem, came to desire her. And the father, he says, is called Elohim. And Edem, no less, desired Elohim; and their desire brought them together into one mutual goodwill of love.

From this union the father begets for himself, from Edem, twelve angels. The names of the paternal angels are these: Michael, Amen, Baruch, Gabriel, Esaddaeus... [lacuna] ...and of the maternal angels...

...whom Edem made, whose names are likewise set down: they are Babel, Achamoth, Naas, Bel, Belias, Satan, Sael, Adonaios, Kauithan, Pharaoth, Karkamenos, Lathen.

Of these twenty-four angels, the paternal ones cooperate with the father and do all things according to his will, while the maternal ones cooperate with the mother Edem. And, he says, the multitude of all these angels together is paradise. Concerning this Moses says: 'God planted a paradise in Edem, toward the east' — that is, facing Edem — so that Edem might continually look upon paradise, that is, upon the angels.

The angels of this paradise are allegorically called trees; and the tree of life is the third of the paternal angels, Baruch, while the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the third of the maternal angels, Naas. For thus he wishes to interpret the words of Moses, saying: Moses spoke of these things in a veiled manner, because not all [could grasp] the truth.

Paradise, he says, having come into being through the mutual satisfaction of Elohim and Edem, the angels of Elohim, taking from the fairest part of the earth — that is, not from the bestial part of Edem, but from the human-formed and gentle regions of the earth above the groin — made man. And from the bestial parts, he says, the wild beasts and the rest of the animals come to be.

Man, then, they made a symbol of their unity and mutual goodwill, and they deposited their own powers into him — Edem the soul, and Elohim the spirit. And thus man, Adam, becomes, as it were, a kind of seal, and a memorial of their love, and an eternal symbol of the marriage of Edem and Elohim.

Likewise also, he says, as it is written by Moses, [Eve] came to be an image and a symbol, a seal of Edem to be preserved forever; and there was likewise deposited in Eve, the image, soul from Edem, and spirit from Elohim. And commandments were given to them: 'Increase and multiply and inherit the earth' — that is, Edem; for so, he says, it is written.

For Edem brought to Elohim, as it were, all her own power as a kind of substance, in marriage. Whence, in imitation of that first marriage, women to this day offer a dowry to their husbands, obeying a certain divine and paternal law that arose in the [union] made toward Elohim by Edem.

When all things had been created, as it is written by Moses — heaven and earth and the things in it — the twelve angels of the mother were divided into four principalities; and each fourth part of these is called a river: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates, as, he says, Moses states. These twelve angels, entwined together, go about in four groups and administer the world, having received from Edem a certain satrap-like authority over the world.

They do not, however, remain always in the same places, but go about, as it were, in a circular dance, exchanging place for place and yielding up to one another, in ordered times and intervals, their appointed places. And whenever Pishon has dominion over the [various] places, famine, distress, and affliction come to be in that part of the earth; for the array of these angels is grudging.

Likewise also, for each of the four parts, according to the power and nature of each, there come to be evil times and outbreaks of diseases; and this, forever, according to [the rotation] of the fourfold divisions, like a river-stream of evil, according to the will of Edem, continually goes about the world without ceasing.

The necessity of evil arose from some such cause as this: Elohim, having constructed and fashioned the world by their common consent, wished to ascend to the higher regions of heaven and to see whether anything in the creation was deficient, taking his own angels along with him — for he had an upward tendency — leaving Edem below; for she, being earth, did not wish to follow her spouse upward.

Elohim, then, having come to the uppermost boundary of heaven and having beheld a light better than that which he himself had fashioned, said: 'Open the gates for me, that entering I may confess to the Lord' — for he supposed that he himself was Lord. And a voice was given to him from the light, saying:

'This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous enter through it.' And at once the gate was opened, and the father went in, apart from the angels, to the Good One, and saw what eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man. Then the Good One says to him: 'Sit at my right hand.'

And the father says to the Good One: 'Allow me, Lord, to destroy the world which I have made; for my spirit is bound within men, and I wish to recover it.'

Then the Good One says: 'You can do no evil, now that you have come to be with me; for you and Edem made the world by common consent. Allow Edem, then, to keep her creation for as long as she wishes; but you, remain with me.'

Then Edem, knowing that she had been abandoned by Elohim, being grieved, arrayed her own angels about her and adorned [herself] becomingly, in hope that Elohim, coming into desire, might come down to her.

But since Elohim, held fast by the Good, no longer came down to Edem, Edem ordered Babel, who is Aphrodite, to contrive adulteries and separations of marriages among men, so that just as she herself had been separated from Elohim, so also the spirit of Elohim which is present amid such separations might be tormented, grieving, and suffer the same things that the forsaken Edem suffered.

And Edem gives great authority to her third angel, Naas, that he might punish with every kind of punishment the spirit of Elohim that is in men, so that through the spirit Elohim might be punished — Elohim who, contrary to the covenants made with him, had abandoned his consort. Seeing this, the father Elohim sends forth Baruch, the third of his own angels, to bring help to the spirit that is in all men.

Baruch, then, coming, took his stand in the midst of the angels of Edem, that is, in the midst of paradise — for the angels are paradise, in whose midst he stood — and commanded man to eat of every tree in paradise, but not to eat of the tree of knowing good and evil, which is Naas — that is, [he commanded man] to obey the other eleven angels of Edem; for the eleven have passions but do not have transgression, whereas Naas had transgression. For he approached...

[Naas] deceived her and committed adultery with her, which is transgression; he also approached Adam and had him as a boy [in pederasty], which is likewise transgression. From this arose adultery and sodomy. From that time evils prevailed among men, and so did the goods that came from the one first principle, that of the Father; for the Father, having ascended to the Good, showed the way to those wishing to ascend.

But [Elohim's] departure from Edem became the beginning of evils for the spirit of the Father which is in men. Baruch, then, was sent to Moses, and through him spoke to the sons of Israel, that they might turn back to the Good.

But the third [angel], through the soul which dwells [in men] from Edem — in Moses, as in all men — overshadowed the commandments of Baruch and caused his own to be heeded instead. For this reason the soul is arrayed against the spirit and the spirit against the soul. For the soul is Edem, and the spirit is Elohim, each of the two being present in all men, both female and male.

Again after this Baruch was sent to the prophets, that through the prophets the spirit dwelling in men might hear and flee from Edem and from the evil formation, just as the father Elohim had fled. Likewise, through the prophets, by the same device, Naas, through the soul dwelling in man together with the spirit of the Father, dragged away the prophets, and all were dragged away and did not follow the words of Baruch which Elohim had commanded.

Finally, Elohim chose Heracles as a prophet from among the uncircumcised, and sent him to fight against the twelve angels of Edem and to free the Father from the twelve evil angels of creation. These are the twelve labors of Heracles, which Heracles fought through in order, from the first to the last: the lion and the hydra and the boar and the rest.

For these names belong to the nations, [names] which, they say, have been renamed from the activity of the maternal angels. But when he seemed to have overcome them, Omphale, who is Babel or Aphrodite, entangles herself with him, and drags Heracles away, and strips off his power — the commandments of Baruch which Elohim had enjoined — and clothes him instead in her own robe, that is, the power of Edem, the power from below; and so the prophecy of Heracles and his works became incomplete.

Finally, in the days of Herod the king, Baruch is sent, sent down again by Elohim, and coming to Nazareth found Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary, tending sheep, a boy of twelve years, and announced to him from the beginning all that had happened from Edem and Elohim, and what was to happen afterward, and said —

'All the prophets before you were dragged away. Try, therefore, Jesus, son of man, not to be dragged away, but preach this word to men and announce to them the things concerning the Father and concerning the Good, and go up to the Good and sit there with Elohim, the father of us all.'

And Jesus obeyed the angel, saying, 'Lord, I will do all things,' and he preached. Naas, then, did not neglect to try to drag him away too, but was unable to; for he remained faithful. Naas, therefore, being angered that he was unable to drag him away, caused him to be crucified; but he, leaving the body of Edem at the wood [the cross], went up to the Good, and said to Edem —

'Woman, you have back your son' — that is, the psychic man and the earthly [choic] man — while he himself, having committed the spirit of the Father into [the Father's] hands, went up to the Good. And the Good is Priapus, who made [things] before anything existed.

For this reason he is called Priapus, because he gave animal form to all things. For this reason, [it] says, he stands in every temple, honored by the whole creation, and along the roads bears the fruits [of the season] upon himself, that is, the fruits of creation, of which he became the cause, having fashioned creation beforehand, when it did not yet exist.

Whenever, then, [it] says, you hear men saying that a swan came upon Leda and begot children from her, the swan is Elohim and Leda is Edem. And whenever men say that an eagle came upon Ganymede, the eagle is Naas, and Ganymede is Adam.

And whenever they say that gold came upon Danae and begot a child from her, the gold is Elohim, and Danae is Edem. Likewise, in the same manner, adducing all such similar accounts, resembling myths, they teach [their doctrine].

Whenever, then, the prophets say: 'Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, the Lord has spoken,' [they say that] 'heaven' means the spirit that is in man, the [spirit] of Elohim; 'earth' means the soul that is in man together with the spirit; 'Lord' means Baruch; and 'Israel' means Edem — for Edem, the consort of Elohim, is also called Israel. 'He did not know me,' [it says] —

[the Lord speaks] concerning Israel; for if she had known that I am with the Good, she would not have punished the spirit that is in [men's] bodies on account of ignorance of the Father. Hence... [text corrupt]

There is also written an oath in the first book entitled 'Baruch,' with which they make those who are about to hear these mysteries swear, and to be initiated in the presence of the Good. This oath, [it] says, our father Elohim swore, having come to be with the Good, and he did not repent of having sworn it — concerning which it is written, [it] says: 'The Lord has sworn and will not repent.'

This is the oath: 'I swear by him who is above all, the Good, to keep these mysteries and to divulge them to no one, and not to turn back from the Good to creation.' And when he has sworn this oath, he enters into the presence of the Good and sees what eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, and drinks of the living water — which is, for them, as they suppose, the bath, a spring of living water springing up.

For, [it] says, there is a division between water and water: there is water below the firmament of the evil creation, in which the earthly and psychic men wash, and there is water above the firmament of the living Good, in which the living spiritual men wash — in which Elohim washed and, having washed, did not repent.

And when, [it] says, the prophet is told to take for himself a wife of harlotry, because the land will surely go a-whoring, departing from behind the Lord — that is, Edem [departing] from Elohim — in these words, [it] says, the prophet speaks the whole mystery plainly, yet is not heeded, on account of the wickedness of Naas.

In that same manner they likewise hand down the other prophetic sayings, through a good many books; and their principal book is one entitled 'Baruch,' in which whoever reads it will learn the whole progress of their myth. Now having encountered many heresies, beloved, I have encountered none worse in evil than this one.

Truly, indeed, as is said also concerning his own Heracles, we must imitate him and cleanse the dung of Augeas — or rather the cesspool — into which those who embrace this [heresy] have fallen, and from which they will never be released, nor will they even be able to lift up their heads.

Since, then, we have set forth the attempts of Justin the pseudo-gnostic, it seems fitting also to set forth the [doctrines] of the succeeding heresies in the following books, and to leave none of them unrefuted, since the things said by them, when set out, are sufficient for [their own] exposure, even if only the secret and unspeakable things among them — into which the foolish are, with great toil, scarcely initiated — were made use of. Let us see, then, what Simon also says.