95. Likewise, Moses says in Deuteronomy that the Gentiles will be first, and the disobedient people last, and again he says, "You have not provoked Me with God, and you have grieved Me with your vain idols; and I will not provoke you to anger with a people, but with a foolish nation I will grieve you" (Deuteronomy XXII, 21). For they forsook the God who is, and served gods who were not, and slew the prophets of God, and prophesied for Baal, which was the idol of the Canaanites. They also despised the Son of God, who exists, chose the robber Barabbas, who was taken in murder (cf. Mark XV, 7), they renounced the eternal king and confessed the temporal Caesar as their king (John 15). Thus it pleased God to bestow His inheritance upon the foolish Gentiles, and upon those who did not walk in the ways of God, and did not know what God was. After life has been given to us by this calling, and after God has brought Abraham's faith in Him back to perfection in us, I think we should no longer go back to the first legislation. For we have received the Lord of the law, the Son of God. And through faith in Him we learn to love God with all our heart and our neighbors as ourselves. But love for God is far from all sin, and love for one's neighbor does no harm to one's neighbor (cf. Rom. XII, 10).

96. Therefore we have no need of any law as educator; behold, we speak with the Father, and stand before Him face to face, having become babes in malice, and strengthened in righteousness and propriety. For the law will no longer say, "Thou shalt not commit adultery" to him who never again has lustful desires for another man's wife; and the law will no longer say, "Thou shalt not kill" him who has removed from himself all anger and all enmity; He will not say, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor his ox, nor his ass," to those who do not care at all about earthly things, but gather heavenly fruits; and he will not say: "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" (Exodus XXI, 24) to him who considers no one to be his enemy, but all to be his neighbors; therefore he can never stretch out his hands for vengeance. It is impossible to demand tithes from one who brings all his possessions to God and leaves his father, mother and all his relatives and follows the Word of God. And it is not commanded to spend the day in rest and leisure for one who keeps the Sabbath every day. that is, in the temple of God, which is the body of man, he performs worthy service to God and does righteousness every hour. For I "desire mercy, and not sacrifice," He says, "and knowledge of God, and not burnt offerings" (Hos. VI, 6). "But if the wicked kill an ox to me, it is as if he had killed a dog; and he who sacrifices bread is the same as he who offers swine's blood" (Isa. LXVI, 3). But whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Joel. II, 32; cf. Rom. X, 13). "Nor is there any other name of the Lord under heaven, by which men have been saved" (Diary IV, 12), except the name of God, i.e. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to Whom also demons and evil spirits and all rebellious powers are subjected.

97. When the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, was invoked, there was a division in humanity. And where those who believe in Him will always call upon Him and do His will, there He is near and present and fulfills the petitions of those who call on Him from a pure heart. Thus receiving redemption, let us constantly give thanks to God, who saves us by His unsearchable and incomprehensible wisdom, and who proclaims to us salvation from heaven, that is, the visible coming of our Lord, that is, human life, which we alone could not attain. For what is not possible with men is possible with God (Lk. XVIIІ, 27). That is why Jeremiah also says of Him: "Who went up into heaven and took it (wisdom) and brought it down from the clouds? Who crossed the sea. he found it and brought it, the most precious of gold. There is no one who has found the way to it and who knows the paths to it. But He Who knows all things and knows it with His mind; He Who created the earth for ever, and filled it with four-footed beasts; Who sends light, and if He calls him again, he must obey Him. The stars shone in their order with joy, and when He calls them, they answer, "Here we are," and we have shone with joy for the sake of Him who created them. This is our God, no one can compare to Him. He found all the ways of wisdom and gave it to His servant Jacob and His beloved Israel. After that, He appeared on earth and spoke among people. This is the book of commandments and the law, which is eternal. All who hold on to it will live, but those who leave it will die" (Bar. III, 29 – IV, 1). But Jacob and Israel he calls the Son of God, Who received from the Father dominion over our lives; and after He had received it, He brought it to us, far from Him, when He appeared on earth and spoke among men. In this way, He mixes and unites the Spirit of God the Father with God's creation, so that man may be in the image and likeness of God.

98. This is the precious preaching of the truth, and it is the image of our salvation, and this is the way of life which the prophets foretold, and Christ fulfilled, and the apostles handed down, and which the Church entrusted to her children throughout the world. It (i.e., the truth) must be preserved in its entirety with a firm will and pleasing to God, with good deeds and a sound direction of thought.

99. God the Father must not be represented as different from our Creator; they despise the God who is and make the bearer a god for themselves. They create for themselves a Father far superior to our Creator; They think that in this way they have found something more indifferent than the truth. All such are impious and blaspheme their Creator and Father, as we have shown in the refutation and denunciation of the falsely called gnosis.

Others do not attach any importance to the descent of the Son of God and the economy of His incarnation. which the apostles proclaimed and the prophets foretold that through this the perfection of our humanity should be realized, as we have shown you in a few points. And such should be numbered among those of little faith.

Others again do not accept the gifts of the Spirit and reject the prophetic gifts, through the reception of which a person makes his life fruitful in God. These are those to whom Isaiah indicated: "For they will be," says God, "like an oak whose leaf has fallen off, and like a garden in which there is no water" (I, 30). Such are completely unfit for God, because they cannot bear any fruit.

100. Such are the false teachings concerning the three propositions of our seal (the confession of faith at baptism, cf. Chapter 7), which have deviated far from the truth. For they (false teachers) either blaspheme the Father, or reject the Son, because they teach against the economy of His incarnation, or do not receive the Spirit, that is, blaspheme prophecy.

We must beware of all such and avoid their morals, if we really wish to be pleasing to God and receive salvation from Him.

AGAINST HERESIES. Book One

Preface

1. Some, rejecting the truth, introduce false teachings and "vain genealogies," which, as the Apostle says, "produce more controversy than God's edification in the faith" (1 Tim. 1:4); by cunningly falsified plausibility they deceive the minds of the inexperienced and captivate them, distorting the sayings of the Lord and misinterpreting what is well said; and under the pretext of knowledge, they deceive many and turn them away from the Creator and Adorner of the universe, as if they could show something more exalted and greater than God, who created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. At the same time, they deliberately draw ordinary people to inquisitiveness by skillful turns of phrase, and meanwhile they destroy these unfortunate people, who cannot distinguish between falsehood and truth, arousing in them blasphemous and impious thoughts against the Creator.

2. For error does not show itself by itself, so that when it appears in its nakedness, it does not expose itself, but, cunningly dressed in alluring clothes, it achieves what in its outward appearance seems to the inexperienced to be truer than the truth itself. Of such people, someone better than I have said that among them glass skillfully forged to look like an emerald is preferred to the emerald itself, which is expensive and highly valued by others, when there is no one to test and find the counterfeit in any way; or when it is mixed, there will be copper with silver, who among the common can easily recognize this? Therefore, lest through our fault some like sheep should be snatched away by wolves, which they cannot recognize by their outward dress in sheep's skin, and whom the Lord commanded us to beware of, since they speak like us, but think differently, I thought it necessary, having read the writings of the disciples of Valentinus, as they call themselves, and having learned their way of thinking from personal conversation with some of them, to show you, beloved, their deep and monstrous mysteries, which not everyone understands, because not everyone has thrown away his brain, so that you yourself may know and reveal them to those close to you, and urge them to beware of the abyss of senselessness and blasphemy against Christ. To this end, as far as I can, I will briefly and clearly state the opinions of those who are at present spreading the perverse teaching, that is, the followers of Ptolemy, who are the offspring of the Valentinian school, and at the same time, to the best of my ability, I will present the means for refuting them, and I will expose the absurdity of their words and inconsistency with the truth. Not that I have the skill of writing or the art of words, but love impels me to reveal to you and to all your relatives those teachings which until now have been hidden in secret, and now, by the mercy of God, have become manifest. For "there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not be known" (Matt. 10:26).

3. You will not demand of me, who live among the Celts, and for the most part deal with a barbarous language, either the art of speech, which I have not studied, or the ability to write, which I have not endeavoured to acquire, or the beauty of expression and fascination, which are foreign to me. What I write to you simply, truly, and in ordinary language, but with love, you will also receive with love, and yourself, as the most capable of me, you will multiply in yourself the seeds and firstfruits received from me: what I have said briefly will grow abundantly in the breadth of your mind, and what I have preached will faintly appear in force before those with whom you deal. And just as I, out of your long-standing desire to know the opinions of those false teachers, have tried not only to reveal them to you, but also to give you the means to expose their falsehood, so you also diligently serve others according to the grace given to you from the Lord, so that people may not be carried away by their flattering speeches. Here are their speeches: