And what things seem [true] to Secundus and Ptolemy and Heracleon, in that they too made use of the same doctrines as the Greek sages, [only] in different words.
As many things, then, as seemed [true] to those who had received their first principles from the Serpent, and who, at the completion of the ages, willingly brought their opinions out into the open, I have set forth in the previous, fifth, book of the Refutation of Heresies. Now I will not pass over in silence the opinions of the succeeding [heresies] either, nor will I leave a single one unrefuted, if indeed it be possible to recall them all, along with their secret rites — which may rightly be called 'orgies'; for those who have dared such things are not far removed from wrath, to make use also of the etymology.
It seems fitting now also to set forth the teachings of Simon of Gitta, a village of Samaria, from whom we shall also show that the succeeding [heretics] took their starting points and dared similar things under other names. This Simon, being experienced in magic, having in part deluded many by the art of Thrasymedes, in the manner we described above, and having in part also worked mischief through demons, attempted to make himself out to be a god — a man who was a charlatan and full of folly, whom the apostles refuted in the Acts [of the Apostles].
Not much more wisely nor more moderately did Apsethus the Libyan attempt, in Libya, to be reckoned a god by desiring it; his story, which does not differ much from the vain desire of Simon, it seems worthwhile to narrate, as being suited to [illustrate] this man's undertaking.
Apsethus the Libyan desired to become a god; and as, though busying himself very much [about it], he kept failing of his desire, he wished at least to seem to have become one, and indeed for quite a long time he seemed truly to have become a god. For the foolish Libyans sacrificed to him, believing, by [what they took for] some divine power, that they had come to trust a voice from heaven above.
For, having gathered a great many parrot-birds into one and the same little house, he shut them up together; and there are very many parrots throughout Libya, which imitate the human voice quite vividly. This man, having reared these birds for a while, taught them to say: 'Apsethus is a god.' And when the birds, after a long time, had practiced and were saying this — which he thought would make Apsethus [seem] a god — then, having noted the trick's success, he let the parrots go, one here, another there.
And as the birds flew off, their utterance went out into all Libya, and their words spread even as far as the land of the Greeks; and thus the Libyans, astonished at the voice of the birds, and not perceiving the trick worked by Apsethus, held Apsethus to be a god.
But one of the Greeks, having accurately perceived the sophistry of him who had been reckoned a god, not only exposes him by means of those very same parrots, but also utterly bereaves that boastful and vulgar fellow [of his reputation]. For the Greek, having shut up many of the parrots again, retaught them to say: 'Apsethus shut you up and compelled you to say: Apsethus is a god.' And when the Libyans heard this recantation of the parrots, they all came together with one accord and burned Apsethus.
So we must reckon Simon the magician, comparing him to the Libyan [Apsethus], a man who thus became [reputed to be] a god. And if the magician too has some affliction closely resembling that of Apsethus, let us undertake to reteach the parrots of Simon, [namely,] that Christ was not Simon 'who stood, stands, and shall stand.'
But he was a man born of seed, the offspring of a woman, generated from blood and fleshly desire, just as the rest [of mankind] also are; and that these things are so, as our discourse proceeds, we shall easily demonstrate.
Simon, in paraphrasing the Law of Moses, speaks both foolishly and with evil art. For since Moses says that God is a burning and consuming fire, Simon, having taken what was said by Moses incorrectly, says that the first principle of all things is fire — not having understood what was said, [namely,] that [Moses spoke] not [of] fire [simply], but of a burning and consuming fire — not only tearing apart the Law of Moses, but also plundering the obscure Heraclitus.
Simon calls the first principle of all things an 'infinite power,' speaking thus: 'This is the writing of the Declaration, of the voice and name, [proceeding] from the conception of the great, infinite Power. Wherefore it shall remain sealed, hidden, covered, laid up in the dwelling-place where the root of all things has been founded.'
By 'dwelling-place' he means this man who is born of blood, and [says] that the infinite power dwells in him, which he says is the root of all things. And the infinite power is fire, which, according to Simon, is not something simple, as most people say the four elements are simple and have reckoned fire to be simple; but rather the nature of fire is a certain twofold thing, and of this twofold nature he calls the one part hidden, and the other part manifest.
And the hidden [parts] of the fire are concealed within the manifest [parts] of the fire, and the manifest [parts] of the fire have come to be from the hidden [parts]. This is what Aristotle calls potentiality and actuality, or [what] Plato [calls] the intelligible and the sensible.
And the manifest [part] of the fire has in itself all things, as many as one might conceive of, or even inadvertently leave out, among visible things; while the hidden [part contains] everything, whatever intelligible thing one might conceive, which escapes sense-perception, or which one leaves out without even having thought of it.
And in general, the fire that is above the heavens is the treasury of all things that exist, both sensible and intelligible, which he calls hidden and manifest — like some great tree, such as was seen in a dream by Nebuchadnezzar, from which all flesh is nourished.
And he considers the manifest [part] of the fire to be the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the bark surrounding it on the outside; [it] says, [it] says, that these parts of the great tree, when set alight, are made to vanish by the all-devouring flame of the fire.
But the fruit of the tree, if it be fully formed and receive its own [proper] shape, is placed in the storehouse, not into the fire. For, [it] says, the fruit came into being in order to be placed in the storehouse, whereas the chaff [came into being] in order to be delivered to the fire — and this [is also true] of the trunk, which came into being not for its own sake, but for the sake of the fruit.
'And this,' he says, 'is what is written in Scripture: For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is his beloved new plant.' And if the man of Judah is [called] his beloved new plant, it has been shown, [it] says, that a tree is nothing other than a man.
But concerning his separating-out and discrimination, [it] says, Scripture has spoken sufficiently, and for those who have been [fully] formed, the saying suffices for instruction: 'All flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh is like the flower of grass. The grass withered, and its flower fell; but the word of the Lord remains forever.' And the 'word of the Lord,' [it] says, is the word and reason [logos] that is generated in the mouth, and there is no other place of generation.
Such, then, to speak briefly, being the nature of the fire, and of all things that exist, visible and invisible, according to Simon — things which he himself [calls] resounding and non-resounding, numerable and unnumerable — in that Great [Fire] he calls them perfect and intellectual, so that each of the things capable of being conceived infinitely many times in infinite ways can also speak and think and act, just as Empedocles says: 'For with earth we behold earth, with water water, with aether the divine aether, but with fire consuming fire, and with love love, and with strife baneful strife.'
For, [it] says, he considered that all the parts of the fire, both visible and invisible, possess intelligence and equal understanding. The begotten world, then, came to be from the unbegotten fire. And it began, [it] says, to come into being in this manner: the begotten [world], taking six first roots of the beginning of generation from the first principle of that fire...
He says that the roots came to be from the fire in pairs [syzygies], which roots he calls: mind and thought, voice and name, reasoning and reflection; and [he says] that in these six roots is present the whole of the infinite power together, potentially, not actually.
This infinite power he calls 'him who stood, stands, and shall stand.' And if he, being in the six powers, is [fully] formed, he will be, in substance, in power, in magnitude, in accomplishment, one and the same as the unbegotten and infinite power, lacking absolutely nothing in comparison with that unbegotten, unchangeable, and infinite power.
But if he remains merely potentially in the six powers and is not [fully] formed, he vanishes, [it] says, and perishes, just as the grammatical or geometrical faculty [perishes] in a man's soul; for the faculty, having received [its] skill, becomes a light for the things that come to be, but if it does not receive it, [it remains] unskilled and dark, and, just as when it was not [yet developed], it perishes together with the man when he dies.
Of these six powers, together with the seventh, [which is] with the six, he calls the first pair mind and thought, [that is,] heaven and earth; and [he says] that the male [principle] looks down from above and exercises forethought for its consort, while the earth below receives the intellectual fruits, kindred to it, that come down from heaven. For this reason, [Simon's] discourse, often looking to the things begotten from mind and thought, that is, from heaven, also says: 'Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have begotten and exalted sons, but they have rejected me.' And the one saying this, [it] says, is the seventh power, 'the one who stood, stands, and shall stand'; for he himself is the cause of these good things which Moses praised, saying [they were] 'very good.' The voice and the name are sun and moon; and reasoning and reflection are air and water. And in all these things there is mingled and blended together, as I said, the great, infinite power, the one who stands.
Moses, then, having said: 'In six days, in which God made heaven and earth, and on the seventh he rested from all his works,' Simon, having reinterpreted [Scripture] according to the manner described, makes himself out to be a god.
Whenever, then, they say that there are three days that came into being before sun and moon, they are hinting at mind and thought, that is, heaven and earth, and the seventh, infinite power; for these three powers are the ones that came into being before all the others.
And when they say, '[Wisdom says:] Beget me before all the ages,' such things, [it] says, are said concerning the seventh power. And this seventh power is that power which existed [potentially] within the infinite power, [that power] which came into being before all the ages.
This, [it] says, is the seventh power, concerning which Moses says: 'And the Spirit of God was borne upon the water' — that is, [it] says, the spirit that has all things within itself, an image of the infinite power, concerning which Simon says: 'An image out of an incorruptible form, which alone adorns all things.'
For this power, that which was borne upon the water, having come into being, [it] says, out of an incorruptible form, alone adorns all things. The construction of the world among them, then, being of this sort and similar to it, God, [it] says, formed man, taking dust from the earth; but he formed him not simple, but twofold, according to image and according to likeness.
The 'image' is the spirit that came to be upon the water; which, if it is not [fully] formed, will perish together with the world, having remained merely potential and not having come into actuality — this is what is meant by [the saying]: 'lest we be condemned along with the world.' But if it is [fully] formed and comes to be from an indivisible point, as it is written in the Declaration, the small will grow into the great; and the great will exist unto the infinite and unchangeable age, no longer subject to becoming.
And how, and in what manner, [it] says, does God form man? In paradise — for so it seems [good] to him [Simon]. Let 'paradise,' [it] says, be understood as the womb. And that this is true, Scripture will teach when it says: 'I am he who forms you in the womb of your mother.' For this too, [Simon] wishes it to have been written thus. He who allegorizes, [it] says, in allegorizing 'paradise,' has meant 'the womb' — if indeed one must trust the account.
And if God forms man in the womb of the mother, that is, in paradise, as I said, let paradise be the womb, and Edem the placenta, and the river going forth from Edem to water paradise, the umbilical cord. This umbilical cord, [it] says, is divided into four principal [branches]; for on each side of the navel there are two arteries stretched out, channels of spirit, and two veins, channels of blood.
And when, [it] says, the umbilical cord, going forth from the chorion, Edem, grows into what is formed at the abdomen, which all commonly call the navel... and the two veins, through which the blood flows and is carried from Edem the chorion, [pass] by way of what are called the [gates] of the liver, which nourish the one being begotten.
The arteries, which we said are channels of spirit, encircling the bladder on either side along the broad bone, connect with the great artery, called the aorta, which runs along the spine; and thus the spirit, having traveled through the side-passages to the heart, produces the movement of the embryo.
For the infant, being formed in paradise, neither takes food with the mouth nor breathes with the nostrils; for since it exists in fluids, death would have been right at hand for it if it had breathed — for it would have drawn in [fluid] from the liquids and been destroyed. But rather, it is entirely wrapped round by what is called the amniotic membrane. It is nourished through the navel, and, through the aorta which runs along the spine, as I said, it receives the substance of the spirit.
The river, then, [it] says, that goes forth from Edem, is divided into four principal [branches], four channels — that is, into the four senses of the one being begotten: sight, [hearing,] smell, taste, and touch; for these are the only senses the child, being formed in paradise, has. This, [it] says, is the Law which Moses laid down, and it is with reference to this very Law that each of the [five] books [of Moses] has been written, as [their titles] make clear.
[As their titles] make clear. The first book is Genesis. The title of the book, [it] says, was sufficient for the knowledge of the whole [matter]. For this, [it] says, is 'sight' — the [branch] into which the one division of the river is marked off; for the world was beheld by sight. The title of the second book is Exodus; for it was necessary that the one begotten...
...having passed through the Red Sea, come into the wilderness — and by 'Red [Sea],' they say, [Simon] means the blood — and taste bitter water. For the water after the Red Sea, [it] says, is bitter, which is the path of the knowledge pertaining to [this] life, traveled through toils and bitterness.
But when turned by Moses, that is, by the Word (Logos), that bitter thing becomes sweet. And that these things are so, anyone may hear from the poets when they say: "Black was it at the root, but its flower like milk; moly the gods call it, and it is hard for mortal men to dig, but the gods can do all things."
It is enough, he says, what has been said by the nations for the recognition of the universe, for those who have ears to hear. For he who tastes of this fruit, he says, was not merely kept from being turned into a beast by Circe, but by using the power of such fruit he also reshaped and remolded and recalled to their own original character those who had already been made beasts.
The faithful man, beloved by that sorceress, is found, he says, to be the milk-white and divine fruit. Likewise Leviticus, the third book, is smell, or breath. For that book concerns sacrifices and offerings. And where there is sacrifice, a certain fragrant odor arises from the sacrifice through the incense-offerings; and it is concerning this fragrance that smell is...
Numbers is the fourth of the books: it signifies taste, for the Word (reason) is active in it; for it is called after the numbering of all things in order. Deuteronomy, he says, is inscribed with reference to the touch of the molded child.
For just as touch, by touching what has been perceived by the other senses, recapitulates and confirms it, testing whether it is hard or hot or sticky, so the fifth book of the Law is a recapitulation of the four written before it.
All the unbegotten things, I say, are in us potentially, not actually, as grammar or geometry is. If, then, one obtains the fitting word (logos) and instruction, the bitter will be turned to sweet -- that is, the spears into sickles and the swords into ploughshares -- and the things begotten will not be strongholds and wood consumed by fire, but a perfect being fashioned in the image, as I said, equal to and like the unbegotten and infinite power.
But if it remains only a tree, bearing no fruit, not having been fashioned in the image, it will perish. For the axe, somewhere near, lies at the roots of the tree; every tree, he says, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
According to Simon, then, that blessed and incorruptible one lies hidden in everything potentially, not actually -- this is the one who has stood, stands, and will stand: having stood above in the unbegotten power, having stood below, begotten in an image in the flow of the waters, he will stand above beside the blessed and infinite power, if he is fashioned into the image.
For there are, he says, three that stand; and without there being three standing aeons, the Unbegotten One is not adorned -- the one who, according to them, is borne upon the water, having been remolded after a likeness, perfect and heavenly, and lacking in no notion whatsoever compared to the unbegotten power. This is what they say:
"I and you are one; before me, you; what is after you, I" -- this, he says, is a single power, divided above and below, generating itself, augmenting itself, seeking itself, finding itself; its own mother, its own father, its own sister, its own spouse, its own daughter, its own son -- mother, father, one, the root of all things.
And that, he says, the origin of generation of begotten things is from fire -- consider it in some such way: of all things that have generation, the origin of the desire for generation comes from fire. Hence to desire changeable generation is termed "to be inflamed."
Being one, fire is turned in two changes. For, he says, in the man the blood is turned, being hot and yellow as fire, being shaped into seed; while in the woman this same blood is turned into milk. And the turning of the male becomes generation, while the turning of the female becomes nourishment for what is generated. This, he says, is the flaming sword that turns to guard the way to the tree of life.
The blood turns into seed and milk, and this power becomes mother and father, father of the things that come to be and increase of those nourished, needing nothing, self-sufficient. And the tree of life, he says, is guarded by the turning flaming sword -- as we have said -- that is, the seventh power, which comes forth from itself, which possesses all things, which lies within the six powers.
For if the flaming sword does not turn, that beautiful thing will be corrupted and perish; but if it turns into seed and milk, then he who lies within these potentially, having obtained the fitting word and a proper place -- the lordly place -- in which the word is generated, beginning as from the smallest spark, will be altogether magnified and will grow, and will become a power infinite, unchangeable, equal and like to the unchangeable aeon, no longer subject to change, into the boundless age.
So then, according to this account, Simon has become -- as is admitted, to the foolish -- like that Libyan, namely Aesop: begotten and subject to suffering when he is in potentiality, but incapable of suffering -- passing beyond his begotten state -- when he is fashioned into the image, and, having become perfect, is composed out of the first two powers, that is, heaven and earth.
For Simon says expressly concerning this, in the Great Declaration (Apophasis), as follows: "To you, therefore, I say what I say, and I write what I write, this writing: There are two offshoots of all the aeons, having neither beginning nor end, springing from one root, which is a power, Silence, invisible, incomprehensible."
Of these two, the one appears from above, which is a great power, the Mind (Nous) of the universe, administering all things, male; while the other, from below, is a great Thought (Epinoia), female, generating all things. Hence, corresponding to one another, they form a syzygy (conjugal pair), and they manifest the intervening space as an incomprehensible air, having neither beginning nor end.
And within this space is the Father, who bears all things and nourishes those things that have beginning and end. This is the one who has stood, stands, and will stand, being a male-female power, in accordance with the pre-existing infinite power, which has neither beginning nor end, existing in unity; for coming forth from this, the thought that was in unity became two.
And that one was one; for, having her within himself, he was alone. Yet he was not first, although preexisting; but having appeared to himself from himself, he became second. Nor indeed was he called father, before she named him father.
As, therefore, he, having brought himself forth from himself, manifested to himself his own thought (Epinoia), so also the thought that had appeared did not create, but, having seen him, hid the father within herself -- that is, the power -- and she is a male-female power and thought; hence they correspond to one another -- for power differs in nothing from thought -- being one;
From what is above is found power, and from what is below, thought. So too is that which appears from them: being one, it is found to be two, containing the female within itself as male-female. Thus mind (Nous) is in thought (Epinoia), inseparable from one another, being one, yet found to be two.
Having devised these things, Simon not only maliciously reworked and reinterpreted the writings of Moses to suit his own purposes, but also those of the poets. He allegorizes the wooden horse, and Helen together with the torch, and very many other things, transferring them and fabricating a fictional account concerning himself and Thought (Epinoia). And he called her the Lost Sheep.
She, ever dwelling among women, threw into confusion the powers in the world through her surpassing beauty; hence also the Trojan War came about because of her. For Thought dwelt within the Helen who lived at that time; and thus, as all the powers laid claim to her, strife and war arose among the nations in which she appeared.
Thus indeed Stesichorus, having reviled her in his verses, was blinded in his eyes; but afterward, having repented and written his Palinodes, in which he sang her praises, he regained his sight. And she, being transmigrated from body to body by the lower powers -- the very powers, he says, who made the world -- was found later standing upon a rooftop in Tyre, a city of Phoenicia, where Simon indeed found her.
For he said that he had come for the sake of the first search for her, in order to rescue her from her bonds; and having redeemed her, he took her about with him, declaring that this was the lost sheep, and calling himself the power that is above all things. This cold-hearted man, having fallen in love with this little woman called Helen, purchased her and kept her; and, out of shame before his disciples, he devised this myth...
Those who in turn became imitators of the deceiver and of Simon the magician do similar things, irrationally claiming that promiscuous intercourse is necessary, saying: "All earth is alike as earth, and it makes no difference where one sows, so long as one sows"; but they also count themselves blessed on account of this strange intermixing, calling it the perfect love, and the Holy of Holies... shall be sanctified; for they claim that they are no longer held by anything reckoned as evil, since they have been redeemed. And by thus redeeming Helen, Simon provided salvation to mankind through his own particular knowledge (epignosis).
For since the angels administered the world badly, because they loved rule, he said that he himself had come for its correction, transformed and made to resemble the principalities, the powers, and the angels, so as to appear as a man though not being a man; and that he seemed to suffer in Judea, though he did not actually suffer, but appeared to the Jews as the Son, in Samaria as the Father, and among the rest of the nations as the Holy Spirit; and that he endures being called by whatever name men wish to call him.
And he said that the prophets, inspired by the world-making angels, had spoken their prophecies; wherefore those who to this day have believed in Simon and Helen pay no heed to them, and do as they please, as being free; for they claim to be saved through his grace.
For, they say, no one is liable to judgment if he acts wickedly; for nothing is evil by nature, but only by convention. For the angels who made the world, he says, established whatever laws they wished, thinking by such words to enslave those who heard them. And they say further that the world will be destroyed for the redemption of their own people.
His disciples, then, practice magic and perform incantations, love-charms and attraction-spells, and send forth the so-called dream-sending demons in order to disturb whomever they wish; but they also cultivate the so-called familiar spirits, and they possess an image of Simon in the form of Zeus, and of Helen in the form of Athena, and they worship these, calling the one "Lord" and the other "Lady."
And if anyone among them, having seen the images, calls upon either Simon or Helen by name, he is cast out, as one ignorant of the mysteries. This Simon, deceiving many in Samaria by his magic arts, was refuted by the apostles, and, having been cursed, as is written in the Acts, he later, refusing to accept this defeat, again attempted the same things; he even journeyed to Rome and opposed the apostles there. Against him Peter offered much resistance, since he was deceiving many by his magic arts. He, coming at last to...
...[a certain place], sitting beneath a plane tree, he taught. And now, at last, being on the verge of exposure because his prophecy was taking so long to be fulfilled, he declared that if he were buried alive, he would rise again on the third day. And so, having ordered a pit to be dug, he commanded his disciples to bury him. They then did as they were ordered, but he has remained there until now; for he was not the Christ.
Such, then, is also the myth according to Simon, from which Valentinus, having taken his starting-points, renamed the same elements with other names. For Mind (Nous) and Truth (Aletheia) and Word (Logos) and Life (Zoe) and Man (Anthropos) and Church (Ekklesia) -- Valentinus's aeons -- are, admittedly, the six roots of Simon: Mind, Thought, Voice, Name, Reasoning, and Reflection. But since Simon's myth-making seems to have been set forth sufficiently, let us see what Valentinus also says.
The heresy of Valentinus, then, has as its basis the Pythagorean and Platonic hypothesis. For Plato, throughout the Timaeus, closely imitated Pythagoras; indeed, Timaeus himself is for him a Pythagorean stranger. It seems fitting, therefore, having briefly recalled a few points of the Pythagorean and Platonic hypothesis, to take these up and then speak of what belongs to Valentinus.
For even if what has been decided by Pythagoras and Plato is already contained in our earlier labors, nevertheless it will not be unreasonable for me even now to recall in summary the most essential points of their doctrines, so that what seemed good to Valentinus may become easily recognizable through close juxtaposition and comparison of similar things, since long ago...