He too wishes to attribute our creation to principalities and powers, and holds that there exists, in some unnameable, most exalted heaven and aeon, a certain good God.
He asserts that the devil is the son of the great archon of the order of the powers, to whom he assigns the name, in one place Ialdabaoth, and in another Sabaoth.
1:4646
τοῦτονδὲγεννηθένταἐξαὐτοῦεἶναιὄφιν
而這被他所生的,乃是一條蛇。
And this one, having been begotten from him, is a serpent.
And he says that it was cast down from the power above onto the earth, and having come down, being serpent-like in form, it was driven into a frenzy of lust and mingled with the earth as with a woman, and that from it, having ejected the seed of its generative fluid, the vine sprouted forth.
Wherefore, in fabricating his myth to establish their nonsense, he wishes to depict the round, serpent-like form of the vine, saying that, because of the plant's winding shape, it resembles a serpent.
And he says that the grapes of the vine are like drops or splashes of venom, on account of the rounded, or tapering and doubly-curved, roundness of each berry.
And he says that wine, arising from this hypothesis, clouds the mind of humankind, and in one respect leads to the enchantment of sexual desire, in another rouses people to frenzied lust, and again produces anger, because the body is befuddled by the power that comes from the wine and from the venom of the aforementioned dragon.
1:4652
ὅθενἀπέχονταιοἴνουπαντελῶςοἱτοιοῦτοι
因此,這樣的人便完全禁絕飲酒。
Wherefore such people abstain from wine altogether.
For he says that the formation from the navel upward belongs to the power of God, while the formation from the navel downward belongs to the evil power.
Since the things that occur to us are both proper to our nature and pleasing to God, I could also show that the very appetite of bodily desire is not improper.
For it has been given for the begetting of children, in dignity, and for the glory of him who made all things — just as seeds are given to the earth for the pouring forth of the abundance of good produce created by God (I mean also of fruit-trees), so too it has been given to humankind for the fulfilling of, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.'
Such people make use also of certain apocryphal books, as we have also heard, but also, in part, of the recognized books, hunting out only those passages which they twist according to their own thinking and handle otherwise than intended.
For how could this be, when the Lord himself bears witness and says, 'I will not drink of this fruit of the vine, until I drink it new with you in the kingdom of heaven'? And since the truth, shining forth its rays altogether, prefigured its own words beforehand for our refutation, according to God's foreknowledge of the evils that were to come, the divine Scripture everywhere foretold beforehand the refutation of those who would in the future rise up against the truth.
As the Lord himself somewhere expressly declares, for the refutation of the pitiable and deluded Severus, calling himself the vine, saying, 'I am the true vine.'
And moreover the Lord himself, again in the Gospel, makes the parable of the vineyard: that a certain man, a householder, had a vineyard and let it out to tenant farmers, and sent servants seeking fruit, and they did not give it; and again, that a certain man, a householder, having a vineyard, went out seeking laborers for the vineyard, at the third hour, and the sixth, and the ninth, and the eleventh.
I have dealt with this heresy briefly, because I have already stated that, being easily captured, it does not require much labor for the establishment of the truth against it.
Especially since I suppose that perhaps there no longer exist any from this sect at all, but only, perhaps, a few rare ones in the most remote regions.
Having passed on from this one, having trampled underfoot all at once, as it were, a fearsome scorpion, let us examine those that follow, calling upon the power of God for help, both to speak the truth and that I myself may not be harmed, especially since I am about to expose the wicked cunning of such fearsome and destructive doctrines.
1:4676
ΚατὰΤατιανῶνˉκˉ, τῆςδὲἀκολουθίαςˉμˉ
駁塔提安派:〔異端〕第二十,依全書順序則為第四十。
Against the Tatianists: [Sect] 20, but in the sequence, 40.
A certain Tatian arose, succeeding these heretics, either living in their own times or after them, setting forth in turn his own teaching of empty talk.
And at first, inasmuch as he set out from among the Greeks and belonged to Greek education, he flourished alongside Justin the philosopher, a holy man and friend of God, who had come to believe in Christ from among the Samaritans.
This aforementioned Tatian, having flourished alongside him, was at first faring well and was found robust in the faith, for as long as he was with the holy martyr Justin.
But when the holy Justin died, Tatian became like a blind man being led by the hand, who, if he should be abandoned by his guide, and having been abandoned, gives himself over to a precipice because of the blindness that is upon him, is carried down without restraint, until he should be brought down to death — so also was he himself.
For after departing from Rome, following the martyrdom of the holy Justin, he passed over into the regions of the East, and while spending time there, having fallen into an evil frame of mind, he too introduced certain aeons, after the myths of Valentinus, and certain principalities and emanations.
He preaches continence, and considers marriage to be fornication and corruption, asserting that marriage differs in no way from fornication, but is the very same thing.
Hence, under the pretense of continence and of a self-controlled character, he adopted a deceitful manner of life, like a ravenous wolf clothing himself in a sheep's fleece, and leading astray, by this temporary pretense, those who were being deceived.
But this man too will fall in every way, since his teaching is incoherent; and indeed I think he has already been extinguished, and his school has ceased along with him.
For from what source will such a man not be refuted? First of all, according to what we have already shown above against the heresies that assert such things, namely that it is impossible for there to be many generative first principles of things generated in succession.
And there are no longer many first principles, but the cause of these has come to be one, and all things will be traced back to the one sole sovereignty; and thus such a man's plausible reasoning has collapsed—it is not truth, nor is it even able to sustain its own plausibility.
For if he, existing from marriage, will have salvation, then marriage—which begets those who partake of salvation—is not an abomination, whatever way he may wish to put it.
But if his argument that marriage is unlawful should stand, then all the more Adam would be saved, since he did not originate from marriage but was fashioned by the hand of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, according to what was said by the holy Father himself to the Son: 'Let us make man according to our image and likeness.'
Of the ruler of the synagogue. And if he himself was not the one who fashioned Adam from dust in the beginning, how did he spit on the ground and make clay and place it upon the eyes of the man born blind, and made him see, in order to show that he himself, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is the Fashioner, adding through the clay the missing part to the man born blind, in the place that was lacking? For he appears to have done this for the sake of correcting the missing part.
But if it is again the Lord himself who fashioned Adam, and he himself destroys the first-formed man while saving the others—O Tatian, how great is your folly!
For you are attaching powerlessness, with respect to power, to the Lord, as though he were unable to save his own first-formed man—who was cast out of paradise for a single act of disobedience, and who partook of no ordinary discipline, having spent his life in sweat and toil, and having dwelt opposite paradise, so that he might remember its goodness—through repentance kept in memory.
1:4707
ἢδυναμένῳμέν, μὴἐλεοῦντιδέ
或者說,彷彿他雖有能力卻不肯施憐憫。
Or else, as though he were able but unwilling to show mercy.
For what reason, then, did Christ descend even to the regions beneath the earth? By what reasoning, having slept for three days after his suffering, did he rise again? And how is it fulfilled that he should be Lord both of the dead and of the living? And of what dead and living, but of those who need his help both above and below? And how will those who come from the lump be holy, if the lump itself is not holy, as is also indicated by the holy Apostle? For the same Apostle also says concerning Eve that she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith and righteousness.
And much could be said about these things, so that to anyone possessed of understanding, the ready blasphemy and darkened mind of Tatian, and of those called Tatianists after him, will be evident.
Having briefly gone through these harmful things concerning them, and their bites like those of gnats, we have applied the moisture of the oil of the Lord's teaching to those bitten by the words of Tatian, and have healed them through the Lord's truth and power, he himself saying: 'I came for no other reason than for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'
Therefore he also spoke in parables, saying that a certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, whom he related as falling among robbers, in order to show the sheep—both the one who had gone down from Jerusalem, having been brought down from greater glory into diminishment, and the one who had been torn away from the single commandment of his own shepherd and gone astray.
For his sake, and for the sake of all of us who come from him, Christ came—to grant amnesty to those who had long known him and had not strayed from his divinity, yet were held fast in Hades on account of their faults: to those still in the world, through repentance, and to those in Hades, through mercy and salvation.
1:4714
οὐκἄλλῃπουἀλλ'ἢἔνθαἔκειτοτὸτοῦἈδὰμσῶμα
這並非在別處,而正是亞當的身體所安放之處。
Not anywhere else, but where the body of Adam lay.
For having gone out from paradise and having dwelt opposite it for a long time, and having passed through many days, he later came also to this place—I mean Jerusalem—and there, having paid the debt owed to nature, he was buried in that very place, at Golgotha.
Whence that place fittingly received its name, being interpreted as 'the Place of a Skull'; yet the shape of the place gives no indication of any resemblance to that name.
For it is not situated on any height, such that it might be interpreted as a 'skull' in the way the place of the head on a body is so called, nor is it on a lookout point.
1:4718
καὶγὰροὔτεἐνὕψεικεῖταιπαρὰτοὺςἄλλουςτόπους·
因為它與其他地方相比,並不居於高處。
For indeed it does not lie at a height in comparison with the other places.
For directly opposite, the Mount of Olives is higher, and Gibeon, eight milestones away, is the highest of all; but also the citadel that once existed on Zion, though now cut away, was itself higher than this place.
Upon this place, our Lord Jesus Christ, having been crucified, through the water and blood that flowed from him, from his side that had been pierced, mysteriously showed forth our salvation, beginning to sprinkle the remains of the forefather from the very beginning of the lump, so that he might also show us the sprinkling of his own blood, unto the cleansing of our common nature and of the repenting soul, and as a pattern of kneading and cleansing the filth of our sins—the water that was poured out upon the one who lay beneath that place and was buried, becoming a hope both for him and for us who were born from him.
For although this is said concerning us also, who are deadened by our works and asleep in the depth of the sleep of ignorance, nevertheless the beginning of this enigmatic saying takes its pattern from that place.
For it says: 'Many bodies of the saints arose,' as the Gospel has it, 'and entered with him into the holy city.' And it did not say, 'the souls of the saints arose,' but 'the bodies,' by nature belonging to the saints, and they entered with him into the holy city, and so forth.
Having thus repelled from every side the bites of this gnat by means of the oil of God's love for mankind, and the sojourn of our Lord, and the light of the gospel of truth, let us now hasten, as is our custom, to proceed to the topics that follow, by the power of God.
1:4727
ΚατὰἘγκρατιτῶνˉκˉζ, τῆςδὲἀκολουθίαςˉμˉζ
駁厄克拉提派(節制派),第二十七〔卷〕;依全書順序則為第四十七。
Against the Encratites, 27; but in the series, 47.
Certain people called Encratites succeed this Tatian, having been by nature led astray and deceived by him, yet having also come to hold other opinions besides his, and having given themselves over again to an even greater contentiousness.
For perhaps it was also by God's providence that this homeland came to be called by this name in the world, because its inhabitants have been 'burned' by the perversion of such great and manifold error.
These also assert that there are certain first principles, namely, the power of the devil set in opposition to the works of God, and that he is not subject to God, but is strong and acts as by his own authority, and not as one who came to be through a deviation.
And they make primary use of the writings called the Acts of Andrew and of John and of Thomas, and certain apocryphal books, and whatever passages of the Old Testament they wish.
1:4737
τὸνδὲγάμονσαφῶςτοῦδιαβόλουὁρίζονται·
他們明確地將婚姻界定為屬於魔鬼的事。
And they clearly define marriage as belonging to the devil.
And they abhor animate things, forbidding their use not for the sake of self-control or a manner of life, but out of fear and a fancy that they might be condemned by the eating of animate creatures.
1:4739
κέχρηνταιδὲκαὶαὐτοὶμυστηρίοιςδι'ὕδατος·
他們也自行採用藉水而行的奧祕(聖事)。
And they too make use of mysteries performed by means of water.
But they do not partake of wine at all, claiming that it is diabolical, and that both those who drink it and those who make use of it are lawless and sinners.
Indeed, one may see and marvel and be struck with astonishment—the man of understanding, that is—at any and every one of the things these strangers to the truth say and do, since everything said and done among them is incoherent and admits of no semblance of truth whatsoever.
For if they make use of the Old and New Testaments, how will differing first principles be found to exist, since the two Testaments agree in proclaiming the knowledge of one Godhead? And if there is indeed a resurrection of the dead, how then will honorable marriage still be found to belong to the devil—since God says, 'Increase and multiply,' and the Lord in the Gospel says, 'What God has joined together, let man not separate,' and the Apostle declares, 'Marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled'?
But when refuted, they blaspheme, calling him a promoter of drunkenness, and to support their own opinion and mythological presentation, they seize upon certain things against those who drink wine, speaking in a beastly manner, and say that such a practice is of the evil one.
'For,' they say, 'Noah drank of the wine and was uncovered,' and 'Lot,' they say, 'having become drunk, unknowingly lay with his own daughters,' and 'through drunkenness the making of the calf came about.'
'To whom is tumult? To whom are quarrels? To whom are unpleasantness and idle talk? To whom are bruises for nothing? Whose eyes are bloodshot? Is it not those who linger long over wine, those who go seeking where drinking bouts take place?' And they heap up certain other such texts, searching them out for the sake of their own plausibility, not knowing that everything excessive is everywhere grievous, and is forbidden apart from what is proper.
For this is also what the Lord taught, saying, 'Let not your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this life'; and also, 'If you are inclined to insatiable greed, do not desire the delicacies of the rich man.'
But even more, the holy Apostle, in cutting off the insatiable and the gluttonous, pronouncing a curse upon their gluttonous desires, said: 'Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods.'
1:4751
ὁδὲθεὸςκαὶταύτηνκαὶταῦτακαταργήσει
但神要廢掉這(肚腹)與這些(食物)。
But God will bring to nothing both this and these.
Moreover, Esau lost his birthright for a boiled dish of wheat, as Scripture says, calling the same dish both 'a boiled dish of wheat' and 'lentils.' Yet I think perhaps it was not made of wheat, that is, of grain, but rather that it was leftover lentils already cooked, and afterward put on the fire again and reheated—Scripture accordingly describing it as a 'boiled dish of wheat,' on account of its having been warmed anew after growing cold.
And just as that man was uncovered on account of wine, having suffered no wrong, so this man, having lost his birthright on account of hunger and insatiable greed, has been wronged even more than by wine.
They boast, so it seems, of self-control, while doing everything in a deceptive manner, being found in the midst of women and deceiving women on every side, traveling together with women, living together with them, and being served by such women—being outside the truth, possessing only its outward form, while having denied the power of true piety itself.
Whence they will also be refuted on this point by the straightforward word of the Savior, who says: 'I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on, until I drink it new with you in the kingdom of heaven.'
For these arose around the nineteenth year of Antoninus Pius, who came after Hadrian; and Marcion, and those around Tatian, and the Encratites who succeeded from him, arose in the times of Hadrian and after Hadrian.
For these who are called 'the Phrygians' likewise accept the whole Scripture of the Old and New Testaments, and they likewise affirm the resurrection of the dead; and they boast of having a certain Montanus as prophet, and Priscilla and Maximilla as prophetesses;
1:4764
οἷςπροσέχοντεςτὸννοῦνἐξετράπησαν
他們因專注留意這些人,就偏離了正道。
and by giving heed to these, they have been turned aside.
Concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they think the same as the holy catholic Church; but they have split themselves off, giving heed to spirits of error and to teachings of demons, saying, 'We must,' as they put it, 'also accept the gifts.'
And the holy Church of God likewise accepts the gifts — but the truly genuine gifts, which have already been tested in the holy Church of God through the Holy Spirit, by the prophets and apostles and the Lord himself; as the apostle John says in his epistle, 'Test the spirits, whether they are of God,' and again he says, 'You have heard that antichrist is coming, and even now many antichrists have arisen.'
1:4767
ἐξἡμῶνἐξῆλθον, ἀλλ'οὐκἦσανἐξἡμῶν·
「他們是從我們中間出去的,卻本不屬我們;」
'They went out from us, but they were not of us;'
1:4768
εἰγὰρἦσανἐξἡμῶν, μεμενήκεισανἂνμεθ'ἡμῶν·
「倘若他們是屬我們的,就必仍舊與我們同在;」
'for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us;'
1:4769
ἀλλ'ἵναγνωσθῶσινὅτιοὐκἦσανἐξἡμῶν
「但這樣做,是要顯明他們原不都是屬我們的。」
'but they went out so that it might be made known that they were not all of us.'
1:4770
τούτουχάρινγράφωὑμῖν, τεκνίακαὶτὰἑξῆς
「孩子們哪,因此我寫信給你們」,等等。
'For this reason I write to you, little children,' and so on.
1:4771
ἀληθῶςοὖνοὗτοιοὐκεἰσὶνἐξαὐτῶντῶνἁγίων
所以,這些人的確不是出於眾聖徒。
Truly, then, these people are not of the saints themselves.
For if it is necessary to accept the gifts, and there must be gifts in the church, how is it that after Montanus and Priscilla and Maximilla they no longer have prophets? Has grace, then, ceased to be active? But grace does not cease to be active in the holy Church;
But if those who prophesied did so only up to a certain point and prophesy no longer, then neither Priscilla nor Maximilla truly prophesied, coming after the prophecies given through the holy apostles, which had been tested in the holy Church.
Either let them show that there were prophets after Maximilla, so that the grace they speak of might not have ceased to be active, or those around Maximilla will be found to be false prophets, who, after the limit set for the prophetic gifts, dared to be inspired not by the Holy Spirit but by the delusion of demons, and to deceive with fantasies those who listened to them.
for whatever the prophets said, they spoke with understanding, being fully conscious of themselves, and what they said has been fulfilled and is still being fulfilled.
But this woman said that the consummation would be after her, and it has not yet come to pass, even though so many emperors have come and so much time has elapsed —
even up to the reign of Gratian — and still there is no consummation, according to this woman who boasted of herself as a prophetess, though she did not even know the day of her own death.
And one can see how all those who have alienated themselves from the truth have not remained in any stability of reason, but, like infants entangled by the ever-deceiving serpent, have given themselves over to destruction, and, being found outside the fold, have become food for the wolf, dragged off and thus destroyed, not holding fast to the beginning but abandoning the truth, and have delivered themselves over to shipwreck and to the surging flood of every kind of error.
For if Maximilla says that there will no longer be a prophet, then she thereby does away with the claim that the gift is still active among them even to this present day.
For when there was need of prophets, these same saints prophesied all things in a true spirit, with a sound mind and a fully conscious understanding, being filled with the Holy Spirit, according to the proportion of faith, the gifts of the Spirit being given to each one according to the proportion of faith, for what is beneficial.
What benefit, then, have these people spoken, or what proportion of faith is there in them? How are these not rather the very ones about whom the Lord said, 'Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves'?
For by comparing what has been said by them with what belongs to the Old and New Testaments — things that are true and have truly come to pass, having been prophesied — let us test which is truly prophecy and which is false prophecy.
The prophet spoke everything with a settled state of reasoning and full consciousness, and uttered his words out of the Holy Spirit, saying all things soundly — just as Moses, the servant of God and faithful in his house, the 'seer,' was called 'the prophet' in the Old Testament.
1:4792
ὅρασις, γάρφησιν, ἣνεἶδενἨσαΐαςυἱὸςἈμὼςὁπροφήτης·
因為經上說:「亞摩斯的兒子先知以賽亞所見的異象:」
For it says, 'The vision which Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet saw:'
Do you not see that this is the word of one who is fully conscious and not out of his mind, and that the utterance was not delivered as from a deranged understanding? Likewise also the prophet Ezekiel, hearing from the Lord, 'Make yourself bread over human dung,' said, 'By no means, Lord;'
1:4798
οὐδέποτεκοινὸνἢἀκάθαρτονεἰσῆλθενεἰςτὸστόμαμου
「凡俗污或不潔淨之物,從未進過我的口。」
'nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'
For knowing that the saying spoken to him by the Lord was by way of a threat, and not being carried along as one in a mental ecstasy, he did not set about doing this, but, having a sound and fully conscious mind, made his plea, saying, 'By no means, Lord.'
Who, then, among those who understand rightly, receive the word of profit with discernment, and take care for their own life, will not condemn such a fabricated pretense, and this discourse that boasts of being reckoned among the prophets, while unable to speak the same things as the prophets? For neither did the Holy Spirit speak in him.
For to say, 'I fly,' and 'I strike,' and 'I keep watch,' and 'the Lord throws hearts into ecstasy,' these are the sayings of one in ecstasy and not of one fully conscious, and they exhibit a character different from the character of the Holy Spirit who spoke in the prophets.