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 garments 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 to read the writings of the disciples of Valentinus, as they call themselves, and having learned their way of thinking from private 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 – for the purpose that you yourself may know and reveal them to those close to you and convince 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 that you have received from me: what I have said briefly will grow abundantly in the breadth of your mind, and what I have preached will hardly 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:

Hl. I. The Valentinian Doctrine of the Aeons

1. They say that in the invisible and unnameable heights there first existed some perfect Aeon, who is called the First Principle (Proarch), the First Father (Propatwr) and the Depth (BaqoV). He is boundless and invisible, eternal and beginningless, and has existed for countless centuries of time in the greatest peace and tranquility. Inherent in it was "Thought (Ennoia), which is also called Grace (CariV) and silence (Eigh). This Depth once thought to produce from itself the beginning of all things, and this work which it thought to beget, like a seed in the womb of the mother, was laid in the Silence that coexisted with it.

The latter, having received this seed and conceived, gave birth to the Mind (NouV), which is like and equal to its parent, and alone contains in itself the greatness of the Father. They call this Mind the Only-begotten, also the Father and Principle of all. The Truth was born with him. Here is the first and original Pythagorean quaternary, which they call the root of everything: namely, Depth and Silence, then Mind and Truth. But when the Only-begotten felt what he was created for, He Himself produced the Word (LogoV) and the Life (Zwh), the Father of all who are to come after him, the beginning and formation of all Fullness (Plhrwma). From the Word and the Life, through the combination (suzugia), came Man and the Church. And this is the primordial osmeritsa (ogdoaV), the root and beginning of all things, which they call by four names, namely, Depth, Mind, Word, and Man. For each of them is together a man and a woman in this way: first the First Father copulated with his Thought; but the Only-begotten, i.e., the Mind with the Truth. The Word is with Life and Man is with the Church.

2) These aeons, produced for the glory of the Father, desired to glorify the Father of their own accord, and produced new works by their combination; namely, the Word and Life, after the work of Man and the Church, produced ten other aeons, which are called (by the Valentinians) by the following names: Deep (BuqioV) and Confusion (MixiV), Ageless (AghratoV) and Unity (EnwsiV), Native (AutofuhV) and Pleasure (Hdonh), Immovable (AkinhtoV) and Dissolution (ZugkrasiV), Only-begotten (MonogenhV) and Blessed (Makaria). These are the ten aeons that they say came from the Word and Life. Further, Man himself, together with the Church, produced twelve aeons, to which the following names are bestowed: the Comforter (ParaklhtoV) and Faith (PistiV), the Father (PatrikoV) and Hope (ElpiV), the Maternius (MhtrikoV) and Love (Agaph), the Eternal Mind (Aeinous) and Understanding (ZuuesiV), the Ecclesiastical (EkklhsiastikoV) and Bliss (MakariothV), the Desired (QhlhtoV) and the Wisdom (Sofia).

3. Here are thirty aeons of misguided people, aeons that hide in silence and are unknown to anyone. Here is their invisible and spiritual Fullness (Plhroma), divided in three parts: into osmeritsa, tenth, and twelve. For this reason, they say, the Saviour (for they do not want to call Him Lord) did nothing in reality for thirty years to indicate the mystery of these aeons. It is also asserted that in the parable of the laborers sent to the vineyard these thirty aeons are very clearly indicated: for some of them are sent at the first hour, others at the third, some at the sixth, others at the ninth, and some at the eleventh (Matt. 20:1-16), in complexity the aforesaid hours make up the number thirty; for one, three, six, nine, and eleven are equal to thirty; and the hours, according to them, signify the aeons. And such are the great wonderful and ineffable mysteries they engender, applying and adapting to their fiction everything that is said anywhere in the Scriptures in a certain number.