Fragments of Irenaeus 1-1 part 1/3

Inasmuch as certain men, setting the truth aside, are bringing in lying words and vain genealogies, which, as the Apostle says, minister questions rather than the edification of God which is in faith; and by means of their craftily constructed plausibility they lead astray the minds of the more inexperienced and take them captive, falsifying the oracles of the Lord and proving themselves bad interpreters of what was rightly spoken. They overturn many, drawing them away under the pretext of knowledge from him who founded and adorned this universe, as though they had something higher and greater to reveal than the God who made heaven and earth and all that is in them. With persuasive art they entice the simple into the habit of inquiry, but then unpersuasively destroy them by framing their opinion blasphemously and impiously concerning the Creator, while those they deceive are unable to distinguish falsehood from truth. For error does not show itself by itself, lest, being stripped bare, it be detected; but craftily adorned with a plausible covering, it contrives through outward appearance to present itself, to the more inexperienced, as truer even than the truth itself. As one better than we has said of such people, that a precious stone, an emerald of great value to some, is mimicked and counterfeited by glass made to resemble it through art, whenever there is no one able to test it and by skill to expose the skillfully made forgery; and when bronze is mixed with silver, who, being inexperienced, will easily be able to test it? Lest, then, through our fault some be carried off like sheep by wolves, not recognizing them because of their outward covering of sheep's skin (those whom the Lord charged us to beware of, speaking like us but thinking otherwise), I judged it necessary, having read the treatises of those who, as they themselves say, are disciples of Valentinus, and having met with some of them and grasped their opinion, to disclose to you, beloved, their monstrous and profound mysteries, which not all can contain, since not all have voided their brains; so that you also, learning them, may make them plain to all who are with you and exhort them to beware of the depth of folly and of the blasphemy against Christ God. And, so far as we are able, we shall briefly and clearly report the opinion of those who are now teaching these things, I mean the school of Ptolemaeus, which is a flower of the school of Valentinus, and we shall provide, according to our modest ability, the means to refute it, showing that what they say is foreign to and inconsistent with the truth. We are not accustomed to writing, nor have we practiced the art of words; but love urges us to disclose to you and to all who are with you those teachings hitherto hidden, but now by the grace of God come to light. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hidden that shall not be made known. You will not expect from us, who dwell among the Celts and are mostly occupied with a barbarous tongue, any art of speech, which we have not learned, nor any power of composition, which we have not practiced, nor beauty of words, nor persuasiveness, which we do not know; but you will receive in love what we have written to you in love, simply and truly and after the manner of a layman, and you yourself, being more capable than we, will enlarge it for yourself, as one who has received from us, as it were, seeds and beginnings, and in the breadth of your mind will bring forth abundant fruit from what we have said in few words, and will powerfully present to those with you what we have feebly reported. And as we have been zealous, since you have long sought to learn their opinion, not only to make it plain to you but also to give you means to show it false, so will you also zealously serve the rest, according to the grace given you by the Lord, that men may no longer be carried away by their plausible reasoning, which is of the following kind.

They say that in invisible and unnameable heights there is a certain perfect Aeon who existed before all things, whom they call Forefather and First-beginning and Bythos (Depth). He is uncontainable and invisible, eternal and unbegotten, and existed in great quiet and stillness through boundless ages of time. With him co-existed Thought, whom they also name Grace and Sige (Silence). At length this Bythos took thought to put forth from himself a beginning of all things; and this emission which he resolved to put forth he deposited, like a seed, as in a womb, in the Sige who co-existed with him. She, receiving this seed and becoming pregnant, brought forth Nous (Mind), like and equal to the one who emitted him, alone able to contain the greatness of the Father. This Nous they also call Only-begotten and Father and Beginning of all things. Together with him was emitted Aletheia (Truth); and these constitute the first and original Pythagorean Tetrad, which they also call the root of all things—namely Bythos and Sige, then Nous and Aletheia. This Only-begotten, perceiving for what purpose he had been put forth, himself emitted Logos (Word) and Zoe (Life), the father of all who were to come after him and the beginning and formation of the whole Pleroma. From Logos and Zoe were emitted, in conjugal pairing, Anthropos (Man) and Ecclesia (Church); and this is the original Ogdoad, the root and substance of all things, called among them by four names: Bythos, Nous, Logos, and Anthropos. For each of them is male-female: thus first the Forefather was united in pairing with his own Thought; the Only-begotten, that is Nous, with Aletheia; Logos with Zoe; and Anthropos with Ecclesia. These Aeons, having been emitted for the Father's glory and themselves wishing to glorify the Father by their own act, put forth emissions in pairs. Logos and Zoe, after emitting Anthropos and Ecclesia, emitted ten other Aeons, whose names they give as these: Bythios and Mixis, Ageratos and Henosis, Autophyes and Hedone, Akinetos and Synkrasis, Monogenes and Makaria—these are the ten Aeons whom they assert to have been emitted from Logos and Zoe. And Anthropos likewise, together with Ecclesia, emitted twelve Aeons, on whom they bestow these names: Parakletos and Pistis, Patrikos and Elpis, Metrikos and Agape, Aeinous and Synesis, Ekklesiastikos and Makariotes, Theletos and Sophia. These are the thirty Aeons of their error, who are kept silent and unknown. This is, according to them, the invisible and spiritual Pleroma, divided in three into an Ogdoad, a Decad, and a Dodecad. And for this reason they say that the Savior (for they do not wish to name him 'Lord') did nothing in public for thirty years, displaying the mystery of these Aeons. Moreover, in the parable of the laborers sent into the vineyard they say these thirty Aeons are most plainly indicated; for some are sent about the first hour, some about the third, some about the sixth, some about the ninth, and others about the eleventh. Now the aforesaid hours added together make up the number thirty: for one and three and six and nine and eleven make thirty; and so by the hours they would have the Aeons indicated. And these, they say, are the great and wonderful and ineffable Mysteries which they bring forth as fruit; and wherever anything said in many ways in the Scriptures can be fitted in, they liken it to their fabrication.

Now they say that their Forefather is known only to the Only-begotten who came into being from him, that is, to Nous; while to all the rest he is invisible and incomprehensible. According to them, Nous alone took delight in beholding the Father and rejoiced in contemplating his immeasurable greatness; and he was minded to communicate to the rest of the Aeons the greatness of the Father—how great and vast he was, and how he was without beginning and uncontainable and not to be comprehended by sight. But Sige restrained him by the Father's will, since the Father wished to lead them all to a thought and longing to seek out their aforesaid Forefather. And the rest of the Aeons likewise quietly longed in some way to see the one who had emitted their seed and to behold the root that had no beginning. But the last and youngest Aeon of the Dodecad, the one emitted by Anthropos and Ecclesia—that is, Sophia—rushed far ahead and suffered a passion apart from the embrace of her consort Theletos. This passion began among those around Nous and Aletheia, but turned aside into this perverted one, under the pretext of love, though in reality of audacity, because she had not been admitted to fellowship with the perfect Father as Nous had been. The passion was a search after the Father; for she wished, as they say, to grasp his greatness. Then, being unable to do so, because she had attempted an impossible thing, and being plunged into a very great struggle—both because of the magnitude of the Depth and the unsearchableness of the Father and her affection toward him—forever stretching forward, she would at last have been swallowed up by his sweetness and dissolved into the universal substance, had she not met with the power that strengthens and guards all things outside the ineffable greatness. This power they also call Horos (Limit); and by it she was checked and made firm, and with difficulty turned back to herself and convinced that the Father is incomprehensible, and laid aside her former intention along with the passion that had come upon her out of that astounding amazement.

Some of them, however, mythologize the passion of Sophia and her conversion in this way. Having attempted an impossible and incomprehensible thing, she brought forth a formless substance, of the kind that a female nature is able to bring forth. When she perceived it, she first grieved over the incompleteness of its generation, then feared that even its very existence might not be perfect; then she was beside herself and at a loss, seeking the cause and how she might conceal what had happened. Engulfed in these passions, she took a turning back, and attempted to run up to the Father; and having ventured for a time, she grew faint and became a suppliant of the Father. The rest of the Aeons joined in her entreaty, and especially Nous. From this, they say, substance had its first beginning—out of ignorance and grief and fear and consternation. Then the Father, upon these things, emits the aforesaid Horos through the Only-begotten, in his own image, without consort, without female. For sometimes they will have the Father exist with the consort Sige, and sometimes to be above-male and above-female. This Horos they also call Joint-Redeemer, Cross (Stauros), Redeemer, Emancipator, Limit-setter, and Conductor. By this Horos, they say, Sophia was purified and made firm and restored to her pairing. For when her Enthymesis (Intention) had been separated from her, together with the passion that came upon it, she herself remained within the Pleroma; but her Enthymesis, together with the passion, was set apart and excluded—crucified, as it were—by Horos, and being outside of it she was indeed a spiritual substance, being a kind of natural impulse of an Aeon, but formless and without shape because she had grasped nothing; and for this reason they call her a weak and female fruit.

After she had been set apart outside the Pleroma of the Aeons, and her Mother had been restored to her own pairing, the Only-begotten again, by the forethought of the Father, emitted another pair, Christ and the Holy Spirit, for the consolidating and strengthening of the Pleroma, lest any of the Aeons should suffer as she had; and by these the Aeons were perfected. For Christ taught them the nature of pairing, and that, having come to know the comprehension of the unbegotten, they were sufficient; and he proclaimed among them the knowledge of the Father—that he is uncontainable and incomprehensible, and cannot be seen or heard, but is known only through the Only-begotten. And the cause of eternal continuance for the rest is the first comprehensible aspect of the Father, while the cause of the generation and formation of the Only-begotten is that which is incomprehensible. Christ, just now emitted, wrought this among them. And the one Holy Spirit taught them, now made equal, to give thanks, and introduced the true rest. Thus, they say, the Aeons were established equal in form and disposition, all becoming Minds and all Words and all Men and all Christs; and the females likewise all Truths and all Lives and Spirits and Churches. When the whole had been made firm in this and had rested completely, with great joy, they say, it hymned the Forefather, having partaken of much gladness. And in return for this benefit, by one will and purpose the whole Pleroma of the Aeons, with the consent of Christ and the Spirit, and the Father setting his seal upon it, each one of the Aeons contributing and gathering together whatever was most beautiful and flourishing in himself, and weaving these together fittingly and uniting them harmoniously, put forth an emission to the honor and glory of Bythos—a most perfect beauty and star of the Pleroma, the perfect fruit, Jesus, who was also called Savior, and Christ, and Logos after the name of his fathers, and likewise All Things, because he is from all. And to him as bodyguards, for their own honor, kindred Angels were emitted along with him.

This, then, is what they call the transaction within the Pleroma: the calamity of the Aeon that suffered and was almost lost, as though through much matter, on account of its search for the Father; and the consolidation, out of struggle, of Horos—also called Pillar, Cross, Redeemer, Emancipator, Limit-setter, and Conductor; and the generation, later than the Aeons, of the first Christ together with the Holy Spirit, by their Father out of repentance; and the composite fashioning, out of a common contribution, of the second Christ, whom they also call Savior. These things, they say, were not stated openly, because not all can contain the knowledge, but were indicated in a mysterious way by the Savior through parables to those able to understand, thus: the thirty Aeons were indicated by the thirty years, as we said before, in which they assert the Savior did nothing in public; and by the parable of the laborers of the vineyard. They also say that Paul very plainly names these Aeons often, and even preserves their order, saying thus: 'unto all the generations of the age of the ages'; and that we too, in the Eucharist, when we say 'unto the ages of the ages,' signify those Aeons; and wherever an aeon or aeons are named, they would have the reference be to those. The emission of the Dodecad of the Aeons is indicated, they say, by the Lord's conversing with the teachers of the law when he was twelve years old, and by the choice of the Apostles, for there were twelve Apostles. And the remaining eighteen Aeons are made manifest, they say, by his being said to have stayed with the disciples for eighteen months after the resurrection from the dead; and also by the first two letters of his name, the iota and the eta, the eighteen Aeons are clearly indicated. And the ten Aeons likewise they say are signified by the letter iota, which is the first of his name; and for this reason the Savior said, 'One iota or one tittle shall not pass away until all be fulfilled.' The passion that occurred concerning the twelfth Aeon is hinted at, they say, by the apostasy through Judas, who was twelfth of the Apostles; the betrayal that took place demonstrates it, they say, and that he suffered in the twelfth month; for they hold that he preached for one year after his baptism. Further, this is shown in the woman with the issue of blood: for she suffered twelve years and was healed by the coming of the Savior, having touched the hem of his garment; and for this reason the Savior said, 'Who touched me?'—teaching the disciples the mystery that occurred among the Aeons and the healing of the Aeon that suffered. For the woman who suffered twelve years was that power; as her substance was being stretched out and flowing into the infinite, they say, had she not touched his garment—that is, the Truth of the first Tetrad, indicated by the hem—she would have been dissolved into her substance; but she stopped and ceased from the passion. For the power that went out from him—and this they will have to be Horos—healed her and separated the passion from her. And as for the Savior who, being from all, is the All, this is shown, they say, through the saying, 'Every male that opens the womb'; for he who is the All opened the womb of the Enthymesis of the Aeon that suffered, when it had been exiled outside the Pleroma—which they also call the second Ogdoad, of which we shall speak a little later. And they say this was plainly stated by Paul: 'And he is all things'; and again, 'All things unto him, and of him are all things'; and again, 'In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead'; and the saying, 'to gather up all things in Christ through God,' they interpret as spoken thus, and any other such passages.

Then, concerning their Horos, whom indeed they call by many names, they declare that he has two operations, the establishing and the dividing; and insofar as he establishes and makes firm, he is Cross, but insofar as he divides and separates, he is Horos (Limit). The Savior, they say, indicated his operations thus: first the establishing one, in saying, 'Whoever does not bear his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple,' and 'Taking up his cross, he follows me'; and the dividing one, in saying, 'I came not to bring peace but a sword.' John too, they say, indicated this very thing in saying, 'The winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire'; and by this he indicated the operation of Horos. For they interpret that winnowing fork to be the Cross, which indeed must consume all material things, as fire consumes chaff, but cleanse those who are saved, as the winnowing fork cleanses the wheat. And the Apostle Paul too, they say, makes mention of this Cross, thus: 'For the word of the cross is to those who perish foolishness, but to us who are saved the power of God'; and again, 'But far be it from me to glory in anything except in the cross of Jesus, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.' Such, then, are the things they say concerning their Pleroma and the fashioning of the universe, forcibly fitting what was rightly said to what they have wickedly devised. And not only from the Gospel and apostolic writings do they attempt to make their proofs, perverting the interpretations and falsifying the expositions, but also from the Law and the Prophets, inasmuch as many parables and allegories have been spoken, capable of being dragged into many meanings through their ambiguity by exposition; and others, terribly—nay, more terribly—and deceitfully fitting these to their fabrication, lead captive away from the truth those who do not keep firm their faith in one God the Father Almighty and in one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God.

The things they say concerning what is outside the Pleroma are of this kind. The Enthymesis (Intention) of the higher Sophia, which they also call (Achamoth), having been set apart from the upper Pleroma together with the passion, they say was cast out by necessity into places of shadow and emptiness. For she came to be outside the light and the Pleroma, formless and shapeless, like an abortion, because she had grasped nothing. The Christ above took pity on her and, having been extended through the Cross, by his own power gave her a forming—a forming according to substance only, but not according to knowledge; and having done this he ran back, withdrawing his power, and left her, so that, perceiving the passion that was about her on account of her separation from the Pleroma, she might long for the better things, having some fragrance of incorruptibility left to her by the Christ and the Holy Spirit. For this reason she too is called by both names—by the name of her father (for her father is called Sophia), and 'Holy Spirit' from the Spirit about Christ. Having been formed and made intelligent, but immediately emptied of the invisible Logos that had been with her—that is, of Christ—she set out in search of the light that had left her, and was unable to grasp it, because she was hindered by Horos. And here, they say, Horos, in hindering her from her forward impulse, said 'Iao'; whence, they assert, the name 'Iao' came to be. Unable to pass through Horos because she was entangled with the passion, and being left alone outside, she fell prey to every part of the passion, which is manifold and many-formed, and suffered: grief, that she had not grasped it; fear, lest, as the light had failed her, so life too might fail; and perplexity besides these; and all in ignorance. And not as her mother, the first Sophia and Aeon, did she have an alteration in her passions, but a contrariety. There also befell her another disposition, that of conversion toward the one who had given her life. They say this became the constitution and substance of matter, out of which this world is composed. For out of the conversion the whole soul of the world and of the Demiurge took its generation; and out of the fear and the grief the rest took their beginning. For from her tears came every watery substance; from her laughter, the luminous; and from her grief and consternation, the bodily elements of the world. For at one time she would weep and grieve, as they say, because she had been left alone in the darkness and the emptiness; at another, coming to a thought of the light that had left her, she would be diffused and laugh; and at another again she would fear; and at other times she would be at a loss and beside herself.

And what a great tragedy there was, after all, in this place, and the fanciful imagining of each one of them, expounding now this way and now that from what kind of passion and out of what element substance took its generation! These things seem to me, with good reason, not to be things they wish to teach all openly, but only those able to pay great fees for such great mysteries. For these are no longer like those of which our Lord said, 'Freely you have received, freely give,' but recondite and monstrous and profound mysteries, obtained with much labor by lovers of falsehood. For who would not spend all his possessions in order to learn that from the tears of the Enthymesis of the Aeon that suffered, seas and springs and rivers and every watery substance took their generation; from her laughter, the light; and from her consternation and helplessness, the bodily elements of the world? I wish, indeed, myself to contribute something to their fruit-bearing. Since I see that some waters are sweet, such as springs and rivers and showers and the like, but those in the seas are salt, I conceive that not all were emitted from her tears, since a tear is salt in quality; it is plain, then, that the salt waters are those from the tears. But it is likely that she, having come to be in much anguish and helplessness, also sweated; and hence, according to their hypothesis, we must suppose that springs and rivers and whatever other sweet waters exist took their generation from her sweat, not from her tears. For it is improbable, since the tears are of one quality, that both salt and sweet waters should proceed from them; this is more plausible, that some are from the tears and others from the sweat. And since there are also certain hot and acrid waters in the world, you ought to consider what she did, and from what part she emitted these; for such fruits suit their hypothesis. Having passed through every passion, then, and barely emerged, their Mother, they say, turned to supplication of the light that had left her—that is, of Christ. He, having ascended into the Pleroma, himself probably shrank from descending a second time, but sent forth to her the Paraclete—that is, the Savior—the Father having yielded to him all his power and handed over all things under his authority, and the Aeons likewise, so that in him all things might be created, visible and invisible, thrones, deities, dominions. He is sent forth to her with his contemporaries, the Angels. Achamoth, they say, abashed before him, at first out of modesty put on a veil; but afterward, seeing him with all his fruit-bearing, ran to him, receiving power from his appearing; and he gave her a forming—the forming according to knowledge—and effected a healing of her passions. Having separated these passions from her, yet not neglecting them—for they could not be made to vanish, like those of the former one, because they were now habitual and powerful—but having set them apart by separation, he then mingled and consolidated them, and changed them from incorporeal passion into the incorporeal substance of matter; and thus he wrought in them a fitness and nature such that they could come into combinations and bodies, so as to become two substances: the evil one of the passions, and the impassioned one of the conversion. And for this reason they assert that the Savior virtually became a Creator. And Achamoth, having come to be outside passion, and having conceived with joy the contemplation of the lights within him—that is, of the Angels who were with him—and having become pregnant by them, brought forth fruits after the image, they teach—a spiritual offspring formed after the likeness of the bodyguards of the Savior.