For example, the Lord says: "They will come and rest in the bosom of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob "in the Kingdom of Heaven from the east," and so on (Matthew 8:11). And this is also what is prophesied about Him in the person of David: "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand" (Matt. 22:44); and again what He Himself said to the Pharisees: Do you bear it? a stone that does not build it (Matt. 21:42). And Luke affirms that the Saviour Himself appeared on the way to Nathanael and Cleopas in the resurrection from the dead, and reminded them of the prophets, that it was fitting for Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day (Luke 24:46). And in general, the coming of the Lord in the flesh does not contradict the prophecies of the prophets in any way.

7. But let this end what has been said about the Satornil heresy, so that I may not waste time in dealing with the foolish questions of Satornil and refuting it. Passing from it in order, I will reveal the heresy of Basilides, who was a fellow disciple of Satornilus and shared the same error with him. For they have something in common, as if borrowing poison from each other, according to a well-known proverb: like an adder borrowing poison from an echidna. For both in the school and in the congregation one with the other together, but each defended his own heresy, and they took evil from each other, and kept the dissension among themselves. And so, whether Satornil, like the viper, having entered into communion with the ancients, conveyed to Basilis, or the latter to the former: "Their poison, as equally destructive, and proceeding from such reptiles, but by the teaching of the Lord, as an antidote, weakened and destroyed, let it be put aside by us; but we, beloved, having called upon God for help, will proceed further.

Against Basilides, the Fourth and Twenty-Fourth Heresies

1. Basilides, as it was announced above, having directed his procession into the land of the Egyptians, spent his time there; then he comes to the countries of Prosopit and Atribitus, and even to Sais [and Alexandria], and to the region or district (νομός) of Alexandria. For the Egyptians call a district the neighbourhood of each city, or the region adjacent to it. And even in this the lover can find benefit for himself in the inquisitive study and explanation of the pious composition and exposition of those passages in the Divine Scriptures which some are perplexed by their inexperience. For where in the holy prophet Isaiah one finds that it is written about the districts (περὶ νομῶν) of the cities of Egypt, such as Tanes or Memphis, or about the district of Bubastus, there the word "district" in Egyptian means "the surroundings" of any city. And let this be interpreted for the sake of curiosity. In such places the above-mentioned deceiver had a dwelling, and it is in them that his heresy appears, and to this day flourishes there, having received a pretext for its appearance from his teaching. And there he begins to preach higher than his fellow disciple, the deceiver who remained in Syria, and, of course, with this thought he discusses subjects more exalted than Satornil, in order to swoon his listeners more, to please the crowd, and to gather a greater number of disciples before his comrade Satornil. Finally, abounding in some dreamy myths, he begins thus, or, if the truth is told, does not offer us a dangerous and pernicious doctrine from his own conception, but borrows the beginnings of this from Satornil and Simon, whom we have previously refuted. But he wants to take up the same thing in a different way, and to give more importance to mythologies; namely, he says: The Unborn (τὸ Ἀγέννητον) was one, the Father of all. From Him, he says, proceeded the Mind (Νοῦς), from the Mind the Word (Λόγος), from the Word Thought (Φρόνησις), from Thought Power (Δύναμις) and Wisdom (Σοφία), and from Power and Wisdom the principalities, powers, angels (ἀρχαὶ ἐξουσίαι ἄγγελοι). From these same powers and angels came the first supreme heaven, and from them came the other angels; And the angels, who received existence from them, then created the second heaven, and they also created the angels, and these last ones, descended from them, then created the third heaven, and thus building another and another beyond one heaven, the number of heavens from the highest to this heaven of ours increased to three hundred and sixty-five.

2. But it will be characteristic of the unreasonable to believe the insane idle talk of Basilides, and for those who are sensible, both his word and opinion will be easily exposed and extravagant. For they will see to what excessive and indefinable corruption he has come in his opinion. For, as if by some poetic inspiration he was driven out of his mind, this wretched man defines and gives names to every heavenly prince, so that by the names which he invents, he may gain faith for those who have no sound mind, to the destruction of the souls of those who are deceived. But in the meantime this deceiver did not cease to engage in magical tricks and searches. In the end, he says that the visible creation was brought into being by the angels who dwell in this heaven nearest to us, and by the power that is in this same heaven. He calls God one of these angels; he says that only one, taken separately, is the God of the Jews; and it is Him, numbering Him among the angels, placing Him on a par with those named, that Basilides imitatively affirms that by Him man was created, that together with him the angels divided the world, that in the division by lot cast by a multitude of angels, He received the race of the Jews. Thus he blasphemes not someone else, but the Almighty Lord Himself, Who alone is the true God. For we confess Him that He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Basilides, denying Him, wishes to represent Him as one of those whom he calls angels, as I have previously declared, in whose lot the Jews were entered; and it is He, who surpasses the other angels in arrogance, who drives the children of Israel out of Egypt with the height of His own arm, because He is more courageous and arrogant than others. As a result of this, out of arrogance, the deceiver blasphemously says, this same God wanted to subjugate all other nations to the race of Israel, and for this purpose he prepared wars. And many other things are not ashamed to utter this pitiful one, untying his tongue and raising his mouth against the Holy God. For he says, "For this reason the other nations also made war on this people, and caused them many calamities, because of the rivalry of the other angels, because they, being provoked, like the Jews despised by God, and their own nations, whichever of them came to them, stirred up against the people of Israel; and from this arose among them incessant wars and disorders.

3. This is the persuasiveness of the deceiver! Likewise, he thinks of Christ as appearing illusory. He says that in Christ the visible is a dream, and not a man, that Christ did not take upon Himself the flesh. And this new actor composes for us a new work of acting, saying in his discourse on the cross of Christ that it was not Jesus who suffered, but Simon of Cyrene. For when the Lord was already outside of Jerusalem, as can be seen from the connection of the Gospel narrative, a certain Simon of Cyrene had to bear the cross (Mark 15:21; Matthew 27:32). In this Basilides finds an opportunity for himself to compose his story and says that the Lord, while he was carrying the cross, transformed Simon into His own form, and Himself into the form of Simons, and instead of Himself He gave Simon over to be crucified. When He was crucified, Jesus stood there invisibly, laughing at those who crucified Simon. And He Himself ascended to the most heavenly lands, having delivered Simon to be nailed to the cross, and without suffering He withdrew to heaven; but Simon was crucified, and not Christ. For Jesus, says Basilides, having reached heaven, went through all his strength until he returned to his Father. For He, Basilides continues, is the previously named Son of the Father, sent to help the sons of men because of the disorder which the Father saw in men and in the angels, and, adds the heretic, He, who came to us alone to reveal this truth, is our salvation. Such are the excerpts from the mythology of this deceiver. But since from that time onwards the impurity, which had its origin in Simon, was also successful, Basilides allowed those who studied under him to commit all kinds of evil deeds and lewdness, and taught the men who had entrusted themselves to him, by some evil arbitrariness, to mingle with many women. The Apostle says of them and others like them: "The wrath of God is revealed" and righteous judgment is revealed against "those who have truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18). For this reason, that is, through voluptuousness, many fall into heresy, finding in it the opportunity to fearlessly perform shameful deeds for their pleasure.

4. And also the heretic teaches and corrupts, saying: "He must not be a martyr." For he who is tormented will not deserve a reward, suffering a punishment for Him Who created man; because he suffers for the crucified Simon. Whence will he be rewarded, when he dies for the crucified Simon, and confesses that he does it for Christ's sake, while he does not know this, dying for an unknown to him? Therefore one must renounce the faith and not go to death without reasoning.

5. But it will be evident that Basilides brings the power of the devil upon souls, teaching them to renounce the faith, when the Lord Himself says: "Whosoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 10:33). The deceiver retorts to this: "We," he says of himself, are men, all other swine and dogs, and therefore the Lord said: "Do not cast pearls before swine, neither give the holy one to the dog" (Matt. 7:6). A heretic hides his unrighteousness from those who have understanding, but reveals it to his disciples and to those who have been deceived by him. For truly, what they say and do is shameful and say (Ephesians 5:12). Basilides says that we must confess the truth before men, and we are men, and the rest are pigs and dogs, as was said before. He also says that only about the Father and about His mystery should not be revealed to anyone, but in silence keep it in oneself; and open it only to one in a thousand, or two out of ten thousand. And he adds, saying to his disciples, "Know all things; let no one know you. He himself and his followers, when questioned, say that they are not Jews, and have not yet been Christians, but always renounce, keep the faith within themselves in silence and do not reveal it to anyone, avoiding their shame, but the fear of being subjected to it by shameful deeds and their bad teaching.

6. And the beginning of this worthless heresy had as its cause the question and the speech of whence the evil whence comes. In every matter he will be shown what he is. Evil, and not good, is bought by the one who does evil, as the Scripture says: "Those who seek evil will be overtaken by evil" (Proverbs 11:37). For once evil did not exist, and the root of vice did not appear, and evil did not have a permanent existence; there was no evil; but when brought in by chance, it is in each of those who do evil: when we do not do evil, it is not, as explained above. For the Lord, having created the world, says: "Behold, all good is evil" (Gen. 1:31), showing that evil was not of old, that it did not exist in the beginning, until it was begun by man. It comes from us, and it doesn't come from us. Therefore, because every man can do no evil, and can do evil, when he does, there is evil, and when he does not, there is no evil. Where, then, is the root of evil, or the constant existence of wickedness?

7. But Basilides uttered a very foolish speech, saying that Power had taken out of itself the Mind, and the Mind the Word, and the Word the Thought, and the Thought the Power and Wisdom; and from Power and Wisdom are powers, powers, and angels. He also says that the highest power and principle of these is Abrasax (Ἀβρασάξ), because the word Abrasax is calculated to contain the number three hundred and sixty-five, so that from this he attempts to make a proof of his myth of the three hundred and sixty-five heavens. Trying to mathematically distribute the locations of these heavens, and bring them into one composition, he carefully takes care of this. For Basilides himself and his followers, having adopted the empty propositions in a peculiar way, have turned into the cause of their own false teaching, full of sensual images and errors, and wish to compose them from similar calculations, as I have said before, of Abrasaxes, who contains the number three hundred and sixty-five; proving that a year also has three hundred and sixty-five days, the number of its full conversion. But this extravagant reasoning of Basilides did not stand, because the year turns out to consist of three hundred and sixty-five days and three hours. Then the heretic says, "From this also a man has three hundred and sixty-five members, so that each power is given one member; but even in this his cunning and false teaching is uncertain; for a man has three hundred and sixty-four members.

8. But Blessed Irenaeus, the successor of the Apostles (ὁ τῶν ἀποστόλων διάδοχος), analyzing this in detail, miraculously exposed the stupidity and impotence of Basilides. Even now the idle talk of this heretic, who descended from above and clearly examined the things above, or rather, who descended from above from the goal of truth, will be refuted; for if this heaven, according to him, was brought into being by angels, and these angels were brought into being by other higher ones, and the higher ones were still higher, then there will be found a supreme power called Abrasax, who created all things and caused all beings; And it will be found that without it nothing came into being, as soon as it is proclaimed by them as the cause and the first archetype (τὸ πρῶτον ἀρχέτυπον), and what they call the deficiency (ὑστέρημα) of this world did not come from anyone else, but from this first principle, from this cause of all that happened afterwards. But Basilides must ask: on what basis do you lead us to such a multitude, O sage, and not to the Beginning, that is, to the One God Almighty? To all appearances, speaking in one way or another, the Lord must be recognized as the only Author of everything. But also with regard to the assumption of Christ, answer, the author of this mythical work. If Simon of Cyrene was crucified, then our salvation was not accomplished by Jesus, but by Simon, and the world cannot hope to be saved by Jesus Christ, who did not suffer. Nor can Simon be saved, being nothing but a mere man. And at the same time, Basilides condemns the only-begotten Son of God with his slander, if the good Lord gave another over to a violent death instead of Himself. And such a deed will be a kind of dream, or rather, something unkind and cunning, if the Lord, having concealed Himself with some cunning, betrayed another for Himself. And your boisterousness, Basilides, which slanders the truth, will prove to have no force, but is denounced by the truth itself as introducing this untenable fiction.

9. For this heresiarch is exposed to all by the truth in the Old and New Testaments.

For this reason he denounces the heretics, saying: "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed" and killed; "And on the third day he shall rise again" (Mark 10:33-34), and to the sons of Zebedee, saying, "Can ye drink the cup which I shall drink?" (Matthew 20:22). Thus the Apostle Peter says: "He was put to death according to the flesh, but was made alive in the Spirit" (1 Peter 3:18); and again: Who "suffered for us in the flesh" (1 Peter 4:1). And John also says: "If anyone does not confess Christ who is come in the flesh," this is the Antichrist (1 John 4:3). And St. Paul says: having tasted death, "the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8). In the same way, Moses foretold and said, "Ye shall see our life hanging before you on a tree" (Deuteronomy 28:66). And our life is not Simon of Cyrene, but Who suffered for us, in order to deliver us from the passions and, having died in the flesh, to become the death of death, in order to crush the sting of death, descending into hell to break the adamantine locks. Having done this, He brought out captive souls, and made hell empty.

10. Thus Christ did not become the cause of Simon's death, but gave himself up to death. What sayest thou, O most wretched of all men? Could not Christ speak freely with the crucifiers and depart from them, if He did not want to be crucified? But the bold joke, in your opinion, is made by the Word of God, who gave up another in his place to death and crucifixion: "I am the truth and the life" (John 14:6). But life cannot prepare death for another. And the truth will not really hide what it does, and will not show one thing instead of another. For the truth will no longer be the truth, producing error, concealing its work, and acting by inventing the opposite. And in a word, I will say this, so as not to prolong the speech, throughout the whole "woe to the world from offense" (Matt. 18:7) and from "those who do iniquity" (Matt. 13:41). How many have found darkness for themselves, and for others who have entrusted themselves to their darkness! But the truth will be revealed to the prudent. And the work of Basilides and others like him will expose itself as the work of error.