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.

And let this be said by me about this heresy and about this myth. After this I will pass on to another heresy, for who will not see such a heresy of its own accord is a myth, as something like a horned serpent buried in the sand, and with its horn exposed to the air, and causing death to those who meet it. But the Lord also broke the horn of sinners, but only the horn of the righteous will be lifted up (Psalm 74:11), that is, faith in the truth. Wherefore, having crushed this heretic with the teaching of the truth, let us pass on to the following heresies, calling upon the help of God, to whom be glory and honor and worship forever and ever, Amen.

Against the Nicolaitanes, the fifth and twenty-fifth heresies

1. Nicholas was one of the seven deacons chosen by the apostles together with the saint and first martyr Stephen, with Prochorus, Parmenas and others. He, having come from Antioch, becomes a proselyte. And then, having received the word about the preaching of Christ, he himself was joined to the disciples, and had primacy among those who were preferred. Therefore he was numbered among those chosen at that time to care for widows. But afterwards the devil also entered into him and deceived his heart to be wounded by the same error with the ancients, of whom it was said before, even more than they. For, having a well-behaved wife and abstaining from communion with her, as if in imitation of those whom he saw cleaving to God, he remained in patience for a certain time. But he could not fully control his intemperance, but on the contrary, wishing, like a dog, to return to his vomit (2 Peter 2:22), catching for himself some unkind pretexts to justify his obscene passion, he invented what was more profitable for him. Then, not succeeding in his intention, he began to live carelessly with his wife. But being ashamed of this victory which he had ceded over himself, and fearing that the matter would be opened, he ventured to say that if one does not give himself up to lust every day, he cannot receive eternal life. For he passed from one pretext to another. And seeing that his concubine was remarkable in beauty and behaved humbly, he was jealous of her, and, judging others by his debauchery, at first began to treat his wife very badly, and in his speeches to raise certain slanders against her. And finally, he degraded himself not only to carnal deeds, which are not yet contrary to human nature, but also to blasphemous thoughts, to the corruption of morals and to slyly creeping errors.

2. And from this time on, the sowers of the falsely named gnosis, I mean the Gnostics (Γνωστικοί), and the Phibionites, and the so-called disciples of Epiphanes, the Stratiotics (Στρατιωτικοί), the Leviticians (Λευιτικοί), and many others, begin to appear for the evil of the world. Each of these heretics, reconciling his heresy with his passions, devised a thousand paths to vice. For some of them glorify a certain Barbelo (Βαρβηλώ), of whom it is said that she is on high in the eighth heaven. And it, according to them, was produced by the Father. It is said that she is the mother, according to some, of Yaldabaoth (Ἰαλδαβαώθ), and according to others, of Sabaoth (Σαβαώθ). Her son, with some audacity and violence, took possession of the seventh heaven. And he says of himself to his subordinates: "I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no other God." And Barbelo heard the word and began to cry. And it always appears to the princes in a good form, stealing from them in lust the seed that is poured out, apparently in order to regain its power scattered in various ones. And thus, on the basis of this assumption, Nicholas introduced into the world the mystery of his foul language. And some of those mentioned above, as I said, with great cunning in evil, taught, which is not permissible to say: to indulge in mingling with many women and to make them extremely shameful, as the most holy apostle says in one place: "What they do in secret is shameful even to speak" (Ephesians 5:12). But whoever wishes to see what the Holy Spirit opposes in refutation of the heresy of Nicholas, can learn this from the Revelation of St. John, who, writing in the presence of the Lord to one of the churches, that is, to the bishop there placed at the altar with the power of the holy angel, says: "But behold, it is good in thee, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitanes, and I also hate them" (Rev. 2:6).

3. Other heretics, like the Nicolaitanes, honoring a certain Prunik, again on the basis of this invention of shameful deeds, satisfying their passions, mythically say: the power of Prunicus (τῆς Προυνίκου τὴν δύναμιν) we gather from the bodies in the discharges, I mean in the seed and in the monthly purifications. Of these heretics a little later, when we begin to speak of them alone, I shall speak in more detail, not in order to defile the ears of my hearers or readers, but in order to arouse in those who are reasonable a great hatred of the teaching of the heretics, and a greater abhorrence of doing evil, not by slandering those who have gone astray, but by exposing to the truth what is going on among them. Others of those who have said before glorify Jaldabaoth, saying that he is, as has been said, the first son of Barbelo, and he ought to be honored, they say, because he has discovered many things. For this reason they issue certain books, composing them in the name of Yaldabaoth, and make up thousands of barbarous names for the principalities and powers, which in every heaven oppose the human soul. And in short, the great intrigues of the human race are arranged by the error of these heretics. Other heretics also glorify Kavlakava (Καυλακαῦ), thus naming a certain principle, and strengthening the imagination of the inexperienced to act with terrible names, and the barbarous composition of these names. Those who have experienced, who have received grace from God in every naming and assumption, seek the true knowledge of God, but do the teachings of mythological heretical delusion be exposed and resolved by themselves?

4. If Prunik is named, then all this is regurgitated by the voluptuousness of the heart. For every action called by the name of Prunicus (προυνικευόμενον) is co-called with lust and attempt at corruption. And whoever dishonored virginity, this Hellenic expression "ἐπρουνίκευσε τήνδε" is used, and therefore the deceivers of the Hellenes who described erotic deeds in myths, speaking of beauty, wrote thus: "the beauty of prunicus (κάλλος προύνικον)." And as for the word Kavlakab (Καυλακαῦ), who among those who know it will not laugh at the fact that the Hebrew sayings, well pronounced and well translated into the Hellenic language, which are still clear to those who know Hellenic and have nothing difficult in themselves, are turned by heretics into symbolic signs, into images, into realized principles, and, so to speak, into idols, while dreaming, instilling error in simple people, To dissipate through them his shameful and mythical art? For "kavlakab" is written in Isaiah in the twelfth vision, where the prophet says: "Sorrow for sorrow, hope for hope, wait a little, wait a little yet" (Isaiah 28:10). To these sayings I will add here the most Hebrew words, as it is written. For: σαυλασαῦ σαυλασαῦ translated sorrow into sorrow, καυλακαῦ καυλακαῦ — hope to hope, ζιηρσὰμ ζιηρσὰμ — still a little, still wait a little. So, where is the myth of the heretics? Where is this offspring of daydreaming? Where do the tares in the world come from? Who forced people to bring death on themselves? For if they, knowing them, turned names into a dream, then they obviously became the culprits of their own destruction. But if they did not know what they did not know, then there is nothing so pitiful as they are. For in fact this is not at all reasonable. And this can be seen by everyone who has come to understand from God. For heretics out of voluptuousness have destroyed and are destroying themselves and those who trust them. And this very horn is a likeness of the serpent in which the evil one spoke and deceived Eve. In the likeness of this image, this horn is also made for the deception of people. And look at the appearance of the horn player. Now he raises his head up, then lowers it down, like a serpent he inclines both to the right and to the left. The devil also takes upon himself these forms, in order to openly blaspheme the heavenly and to turn the earthly into nothing, to embrace the world and the right hand together, and to inflict it on those who have gone astray and have been deceived by it, as with the deceptive sounds of the instrument of music.

5. Others, some of the heretics, invent some empty names, saying that there were darkness, the deep, and water, and in the midst of them the spirit made a distinction between them. But the darkness was irritated against the spirit and hated it, and this darkness, running upward, was seized by the spirit. And she gave birth, they say, to a certain so-called Mithra (Μήτρα), who, having been born, had communion with the same spirit. From Mithras came four certain aeons, and from the four aeons another fourteen, and came into being the right hand (δεξιά) and the shuitsa (ἀριστερά), light (φῶς) and darkness (σκότος). Afterwards after all these there arose a certain shameful Aeon (τινα αἰσχρὸν αἰῶνα), and he mingled with the previously mentioned Mithras. From this shameful Aeon and from Mithras came the gods, angels, demons, and the seven spirits. But the ridiculous side of the heretics' error is revealed by itself. First naming and defining the one father, many gods were afterwards presented, showing that error itself arms against itself the lies it utters, and destroys itself, in proportion as the truth is constantly sought out in all parts.