The Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume I, part 2 of 3

' Literally, " in the place of God."

Literally, " the face of God."

7 Or, " Beersheba."

And he lighted on a spot, and slept there, for the sun was set ; and he gathered of the stones of the place, and put them under his head. And he slept in that place ; and he dreamed, and, behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, whose top reached to heaven ; and the angels of God ascended and descended upon it. And the Lord stood 9 above it, and He said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham thy father, and of Isaac ; be not afraid : the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed ; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and shall be extended to the west, and south, and north, and east : and in thee, and in thy seed, shall all families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, keeping thee in ever\' way wherein thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land ; for I will not leave thee, until I have done all that I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and said. Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said. How dreadful is this place ! this is none other than the house of Crod, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up in the morning, and took the stone which he had placed under his head, and he set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it ; and Jacob called the name of the place The House of God, and the name of the city formerly was Ulammaus.' " '°

CIL4P. LIX. GOD DISTINCT FROM THE F.\THER

CONVERSED WITH MOSES.

When I had spoken these words, I continued : " Permit me, further, to show you from the book of Exodus how this same One, who is both Angel, and God, and Lord, and man, and who appeared in human form to Abraham and Isaac," appeared in a flame of fire from the bush, and conversed with Moses." And after they said they would listen cheerfully, patiently, and eagerly, I went on : " These words are in the book which bears the title of Exodus : ' And after many days the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel groaned by reason of the works ; ' " and so on until, ' Go and gather the elders of Israel, and thou shalt say unto them. The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham., the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared to me, saying, I am surely beholding you, and the things wliich have befallen you in Egypt.' " '3 In addition to these words, I went on : " Have you perceived, sirs, that this very God whom Moses speaks of as an Angel that talked to him in the flame of fire, declares to

9 Literally, " was set up."

" Some conjecture " J.icob," others insert " Jacob " after " Isaac." [Gen. xxii. The Jehovah-angel was seen no doubt by Isaac, as well as by his father.]

Moses that He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob?"

CHAP. LX. OPINIONS OF THE JEWS WITH REGARD

TO HIM WHO APPEARED IN THE BUSH.

Then Trypho said, " We do not perceive this from the passage quoted by you, l)ut [only this], that it was an angel who appeared in the flame of fire, but God who conversed with Moses ; so that there were really two persons in company with each other, an angel and God, that appeared in that vision."

I again replied, " Even if this were so, my friends, that an angel and God were together in the vision seen by Moses, yet, as has already been proved to you by the passages previously quoted, it will not be the Creator of all things that is the God that said to Moses that He was the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, but it will be He who has been proved to you to have appeared to Abraham, ministering to the will of the Maker of all things, and likewise carrying into execution His counsel in the judgment of Sodom ; so that, even though it be as you say, that there were two — an angel and God — he who has but the smallest intelligence will not venture to assert that the Maker and Father of all things, having left all supercelestial matters, was visible on a little portion of the earth."

And Trypho said, " Since it has been previously proved that He who is called God and Lord, and appeared to Abraham, received from the Lord, who is in the heavens, that which He inflicted on the land of Sodom, even although an angel had accompanied the God who appeared to Moses, we shall perceive that the God who communed with Moses from the bush was not the Maker of all things, but He who has been shown to have manifested Himself to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob ; who also is called and is perceived to be the Angel of God the Maker of all things, because He publishes to men the commands of the Father and Maker of all things."

And I replied, " Now assuredly, Trypho, I shall show that, in the vision of Moses, this same One alone who is called an Angel, and who is God, appeared to and communed with Moses. For the Scripture says thus : ' The x^ngel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the bush ; and he sees that the bush burns with fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside and see this great sight, for the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he is turning aside to behold, the Lord called to him out of the bush.' ' In the same manner, therefore, in which the Scrip-

ture calls Him who appeared to Jacob in the dream an Angel, then [says] that the same Angel who appeared in the dream spoke to him,^ saying, ' I am the God that appeared to thee when thou didst flee from the face of Esau thv brother ;' and [again] says that, in the judgment which befell Sodom in the days of Abraham, the Lord had inflicted the punishment ^ of the Lord who [dwells] in the heavens; — even so here, the Scripture, in announcing that the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses, and in afterwards declaring him to be Lord and God, speaks of the same One, whom it declares by the many testimonies already (juoted to be minister to (iod, who is above the world, above whom there is no other [God].

CHAP. LXI WISDOM IS BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER,

AS FIRE FRO.M FIRE.

"I shall give you another testimony, my friends," said I, " from the Scriptures, that God begat before all creatures a Beginning,-* [who was] a certain rational power [proceeding] from Himself, who is called by the Holy Si)irit, now the Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, again an Angel, then God, and then Lord and Logos ; and on another occasion He calls Himself Captain, when He appeared in human form to Joshua the son of Nave (Nun). For He can be called by all those names, since He ministers to the Father's will, and since He was begotten of the Father by an act of will ; 5 just as we see^ happening among ourselves: for when we give out some word, we beget the word ; yet not by abscission, so as to lessen the word 7 [which remains] in us, when we give it out : and just as we see also happening in the case of a fire, which is not lessened when it has kindled [another], but remains the same; and that which has been kindled by it likewise appears to exist by itself, not diminishing that from which it was kindled. The Word of A\'isdom, who is Himself this God begotten of the Father of all things, and Word, and Wisdom, and Power, and the Glory of the Begetter, will bear e\-idence to me, when He speaks by Solomon the following : ' If I shall declare to you what happens daily, I shall call to mind events from everlastinsr, and review them. The Lord made me the

3 Liter.iiry, "judijment."

■• Or, " in the beg-inning, before .^ll creatures." [Justin's reference to Joshua (i. 13-15) ciesers'es special consiileration ; for he supposes that the true Joshua (Jesus) was the substance, and the true " captain of salvation, of whom this one was but a shadow (Heb. iv. 8, margin), type, and pledge. See cap. Ixii.]

5 The act of will or volition is on the part of the Father.

7 The word Adyo?, translated "word," means both the thinkinsj power or reason which produces ideas and the expression of these ide.is. And Justin passes here from the one meaning to the other. When we utter a thought, the utterance of it does not diminish the power of thought in us, though iii one sense the thought has gone away from

beginning of His ways for His works. From everlasting He established me in the beginning, before He had made the earth, and before He had made the deeps, before the springs of the waters had issued forth, before the mountains had been established. Before all the hills He begets me. God made the country, and the desert, and the highest inhabited places under the sky. When He made ready the heavens, I was along with Him, and when He set up His throne on the winds : when He made the high clouds strong, and the springs of the deep safe, when He made the foundations of the earth, I was with Him arranging. I was that in which He rejoiced ; daily and at all times I delighted in His countenance, because He delighted in the finishing of the habitable world, and delighted in the sons of men. Now, therefore, O son, hear me. Blessed is the man who shall listen to me, and the mortal who shall keep my ways, watching I daily at my doors, observing the posts of my ingoings. For my outgoings are the outgoings of life, and [my] will has been prepared by the Lord. But they who sin against me, trespass against their own souls ; and they who hate me love death.' ^

AGREE WITH THE TESTIMONY OF PROVERBS.

" And the same sentiment was expressed, my friends, by the word of God [written] by Moses, when it indicated to us, with regard to Him whom it has pointed out,^ that God speaks in the creation of man with the very same design, in the following words : ' Let Us make man after our image and likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heaven, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creeping things that creep on the earth. And God created man : after the image of God did He create him ; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and said, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and have power over it.+ And that you may not change the [force of the] words just quoted, and repeat what your teachers assert, — either that God said to Himself, ' Let Lis make,' just as we, when about to do something, oftentimes say to ourselves, ' Let us make ; ' or that God spoke to the elements, to wit, the earth and other similar substances of which we l^elieve man was formed, ' Let Us make,' — I shall (juote again the words narrated by Moses

' The Mss. of Justin read " sleeping," but this is regarded as the mistake of some careless transcriber.

5 Justin, since he is of opinion that the Word is the beginning of the universe, thinks that by these words, " in the beginning," Moses indicated the Word, like many other writers. Hence also he says in Ap. i. 23, that Moses declares the Word "to be begotten first by God." If this explanation does not satisfy, read, " with regard to Him whom I have pointed out" (Maranus).

himself, from which we can indisputably learn that [God] conversed with some one who was numerically distinct from Himself, and also a rational Being. These are the words : ' And God said. Behold, Adam has become as one of us, to know good and evil.' 5 In saying, therefore, ' as one of us,' [Moses] has declared that [there is a certain] numl)er of persons associated with one another, and that they are at least two. For I would not say that the dogma of that heresy ^ which is said to be among you ^ is true, or that the teachers of it can prove that [God] spoke to angels, or that the human frame was the workmanship of angels. But this Offspring, which was truly brought forth from the Father, was with the Father before all the creatures, and the Father communed with Him ; even as the Scripture by Solomon has made clear, that He whom Solomon calls Wisdom, was begotten as a Beginning before all His creatures and as Offspring by God, who has also declared this same thing in the revelation made by Joshua the son of Nave (Nun). Listen, therefore, to the following from the book of Joshua, that what I say may become manifest to you ; it is this : ' And it came to pass, when Joshua was near Jericho, he lifted up his eyes, and sees a man standing over against him. And Joshua approached to Him, and said. Art thou for us, or for our adversaries ? And He said to him, I am Captain of the Lord's host : now have I come. And Joshua fell on his face on the ground, and said to Him, Lord, what commandest Thou Thy servant? And the Lord's Captain says to Joshua, Loose the shoes off thy feet ; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. And Jericho was shut up and fortified, and no one went out of it. And the Lord said to Joshua, Behold, I give into thine hand Jericho, and its king, [and] its mighty men.' " ^

CHAP. LXIII. IT IS PROVED THAT THIS GOD WAS

INCARNATE.

And Trypho said, " This point has been proved to me forcibly, and by many arguments, my friend. It remains, then, to prove that He submitted to become man by the Virgin, according to the will of His Father ; and to be crucified, and to die. Prove also clearly, that after this He rose again and ascended to heaven."

I answered, " This, too, has been already de-

6 Heresy or sect.

' Or, " among us." Maranus pronounces against this latter re.ad ing for tfie following reasons: (i.) The Jews had their own heresies which supplied many things to the Christian heresies, especially to Menandcr and Saturninus. (2.) The sect which Ju.stm here refutes was of opinion that God spoke to ansjels. But those angels, as Menander and Saturninus invented, " exhorted themselves, saying, Let us make," etc. (3.) The expression SiSd<TKa\o{. suits the rabbins well. So Justin frequently calls them. (4.) Those teachers seem for no other cause to have put the words in the aiigels' mouths than to eradicate the testimony by which they proved divine persons.

monstrated by me in the previously quoted words of the prophecies, my friends ; which, by recalling and expounding for your sakes, I shall endeavour to lead you to agree with me also about this matter. The passage, then, which Isaiah records, 'Who shall declare His generation? for His life is taken away from the earth,' — does it not appear to you to refer to One who, not having descent from men, was said to be delivered over to death by God for the transgressions of the people? — of whose blood, Moses (as I mentioned before), when speaking in parable, said, that He would wash His garments in the blood of the grape ; since His blood did not spring from the seed of man, but from the will of God. And then, what is said by David, ' In the splendours of Thy holiness have I begotten Thee from the womb, before the morning star.^ The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent. Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek,' ^ — does this not declare to you-* that [He was] from of old, 5 and that the God and Father of all things intended Him to be begotten by a human womb? And speaking in other words, which also have been already quoted, [he says] : 'Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever : a sceptre of rectitude is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hast hated iniquity : therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. [He hath anointed Thee] with myrrh, and oil, and cassia from Thy garments, from the ivory palaces, whereby they made Thee glad. Kings' daughters are in Thy honour. The queen stood at Thy right hand, clad in garments embroidered with gold.'^ Hearken, O daughter, and behold, and incline thine ear, and forget thy people and the house of thy father ; and the King shall desire thy beauty : because he is thy Lord, and thou shalt worship Him.' 7 Therefore these words testify explicitly that He is witnessed to by Him who estabhshed these things,** as deserving to be worshipped, as God and as Christ. Moreover, that the word of God speaks to those who believe in Him as being one soul, and one synagogue, and one church, as to a daughter ; that it thus addresses the church which has sprung from His name and partakes of His name (for we are all called Christians), is distinctly proclaimed in like manner in the following words, which teach us also to forget [our] old ancestral customs, when they speak thus : 9 ' Hearken, O daughter, and behold.

2 Note this beautiful rendering, Ps. ex. 3.

5 di/u)S€i'; in Lat. vers, antiguitiis, which Maranus prefers.

Literally, " garments of gold, variegated."

8 The incarnation, etc.

9 " Being so," literally.

and incline thine ear ; forget thy people and the house of thy father, and the King shall desire thy beauty : because He is thy Lord, and thou shalt worship Him.' "

CHAP. LXIV. — JU.STIX ADDUCES OTHER PROOFS TO THE JEW, WHO DENIES THAT HE NEEDS 1 HIS CHRI.ST.

Here Tr}-pho said, " I^t Him be recognised as Lord and Christ and God, as the Scriptures declare, by you of the Gentiles, who have from His name been all called Christians ; but we who are servants of God that made this same [Christ], do not require to confess or worship Him."

To this I replied, " If I were to be quarrelsome and light-minded like you, Trypho, I would no longer continue to converse with you, since you are prepared not to understand what has been said, but only to return some captious answer ; ■" but now, since I fear the judgment of God, I do not state an untimely opinion concerning any one of your nation, as to whether or not some of them may be saved by the grace of the Lord of Sabaoth. Therefore, although you act wTongfully, I shall continue to reply to any proposition you shall bring forward, and to any contradiction which you make ; and, in fact, I do the very same to all men of every nation, who wish to examine along with me, or make inquiry at me, regarding this subject. Accordingly, if you had bestowed attention on the Scriptures previously quoted by me, you would already have understood, that those who are saved of your own nation are saved through this " [man], and partake of His lot; and you would not certainly have asked me about this matter. I shall again repeat the words of David previously quoted by me, and beg of you to comprehend them, and not to act wrongfully, and stir each other up to give merely some contradiction. The words which David speaks, then, are these : 'The Lord has reigned; let the nations be angry : [it is] He who sits upon the cherubim ; let the earth be shaken. The Lord is great in Zion ; and He is high above all the nations. Let them confess Thy great name, for it is fearful and holy ; and the honour of the king loves judgment. Thou hast prepared equity ; judgment and righteousness hast Thou performed in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God, and worship the footstool of His feet ; for He is holy. Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name ; they called on the Lord, and He heard them. In the pillar of the cloud He spake to them ; for they kept His testimonies and His commandments which He gave them."^ And

'° Literally, " but only sharpen yourselves to say something."

from the other words of David, also previously quoted, v^^hich you foolishly affirm refer to Solomon, [because] inscribed for Solomon, it can be proved that they do not refer to Solomon, and that this [Christ] existed before the sun, and that those of your nation who are saved shall be saved through Him. [The Avords] are these : ' O God, give Thy judgment to the king, and Thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge ' Thy people with righteousness, and Thy poor with judgment. The mountains shall take up peace to the people, and the little hills righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people, and shall save the children of the needy, and shall abase the slanderer : and He shall co-endure with the sun, and before the moon unto all generations ; ' and so on until, ' His name endureth before the sun, and all tribes of the earth shall be blessed in Him. All nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things : and blessed be His glorious name for ever and ever : and the whole earth shall be filled with His glory. Amen, Amen.'^ And you remember from other words also spoken by David, and which I have mentioned before, how it is declared that He would come forth from the highest heavens, and again return to the same places, in order that you may recognise Him as God coming forth from above, and man living among men ; and [how it is declared] that He will again appear, and they who pierced Him shall see Him, and shall bewail Him. [The words] are these : ' The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. They are not speeches or words whose voices are heard. Their sound has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. In the sun has he set his habitation ; and he, like a bridegroom going forth from his chamber, will rejoice as a giant to run his race : from the highest heaven is his going forth, and he returns to the highest heaven, and there is not one who shall be hidden from his heat.' " ^

CHAP. LXV. — THE JEW OBJECTS THAT GOD DOES NOT GIVE HIS GLORY TO ANOTHER. JUSTIN EX- PLAINS THE PASSAGE.

And Trypho said, " Being shaken ■* by so many Scriptures, I know not what to say about the Scripture which Isaiah writes, in which God says that He gives not His glory to another, speaking thus : ' I am the Lord God ; this is my name ; my glory will I not give to another, nor my virtues.' " 5

Literally, " importuned,"

And I answered, " If you spoke these words, Trypho, and then kept silence in simplicity and with no ill intent, neither repeating what goes before nor adding what comes after, you must be forgiven ; but if [you have done so] because you imagined that you could throw doubt on the passage, in order that I might say the Scriptures contradicted each other, you have erred. But I shall not venture to suppose or to say such a thing ; and if a Scripture which appears to be of such a kind be brought forward, and if there be a pretext [for saying] that it is contrary [to some other], since I am entirely convinced that no Scripture contradicts another, I shall admit rather that I do not understand what is recorded, and shall strive to persuade those who imagine that the Scriptures are contradictory, to be rather of the same opinion as myself. With what intent, then, you have brought forward the difficulty, God knows. But I shall remind you of what the passage says, in order that you may recognise even from this very [place] that God gives glory to His Christ alone. And I shall take up some short passages, sirs, those which are in connection with what has been said by Trypho, and those which are also joined on in consecutive order. For I will not repeat those of another section, but those which are joined together in one. Do you also give me your attention. [The words] are these : ' Thus saith the Lord, the God that created the heavens, and made ^ them fast, that established the earth, and that which is in it ; and gave breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them who walk therein : I the Lord God have called Thee in righteousness, and will hold Thine hand, and will strengthen Thee ; and I have given Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out them that are bound from the chains, and those who sit in darkness from the prison-house. I am the Lord God ; this is my name : my glory will I not give to another, nor my virtues to graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass ; new things which I announce, and before they are announced they are made manifest to you. Sing unto the Lord a new song : His sovereignty [is] from the end of the earth. [Sing], ye who descend into the sea, and continually sail ^ [on it] ; ye islands, and inhabitants thereof Rejoice, O wilderness, and the villages thereof, and the houses ; and the inhabitants of Cedar shall rejoice, and the inhabitants of the rock shall cry aloud from the top of the mountains : they shall give glory to God ; they shall publish His virtues among the islands. The Lord God of hosts shall go forth. He shall destroy war utterly. He shall stir up

Literally, " fixed."

7 Or, " ye islands which sail on it; " or without " continually."

zeal, and He shall cry aloud to the enemies with strength.' " ' And when I repeated this, I said to them, " Have you perceived, my friends, that God says He will give Him whom He has established as a light of the Gentiles, glory, and to no other ; and not, as Trypho said, that God was retaining the glory to Himself? "

Then Trypho answered, " \Ve have perceived this also ; pass on therefore to the remainder of the discourse."

CHAP. LXVI. HR PROVES FROM ISAIAH THAT GOD

And I, resuming the discourse where I had left off^ at a previous stage, when proving that He was born of a virgin, and that His birth of a virgin had been predicted by Isaiah, quoted again the same prophecy. It is as follows : 'And the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, Ask for thyself a sign from the Lord thy God, in the depth or in the height. And Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And Isaiah said, Hear then, O house of David ; Is it no small thing for you to contend with men ? y\nd how do you contend with the Lord ? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign ; Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat ; before he knows or prefers the evil he will choose out the good. For before the child knows ill or good, he rejects evil by choosing out the good. For before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall receive the power of Damascus, and the spoil of Samaria, in presence of the king of Assyria. And the land shall be forsaken, which ^ thou shalt with difficulty endure in consequence of the presence of its two kings. But God shall bring on thee, and on thy people, and on the house of thy father, days which have not yet come upon thee since the day in which Ephraim took away from Judah the king of Assyria.' "* And I continued : " Now it is evident to all, that in the race of Abraham according to the flesh no one has been born of a virgin, or is said to have been born [of a virgin], save this our Christ."

CHAP. LXVII. TRVPHO COMPARES JESUS WITH

PERSEUS; AND WOULD PREFER [tO SAY] THAT HE WAS ELECTED [tO BE CHRIST] ON ACCOUNT OF OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW. JUSTIN SPEAKS OF THE LAW AS FORMERLY.

And Trypho answered, " The Scripture has not, ' Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a

2 Chap, xliii.

3 ij,.^ which is in chap, xliii., is here omitted, but ought to be inserted without doubt.

Isa. vii. 10-17, with Isa. viii. 4 inserted between vers. 16 and

son,' but, ' Behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son,' and .so on, as you cjuoted. But the whole prophecy refers to Hezekiah, and it is proved that it was fulfilled in him, according to the terms of this prophecy. Moreover, in the fables of those who are called Greeks, it is written that Perseus was begotten of Danae, who was a virgin ; he who was called among them Zeus having descended on her in the form of a golden shower. And you ought to feel ashamed when you make assertions similar to theirs, and rather [should] say that this Jesus was born man of men. And if you prove from the Scriptures that He is the Christ, and that on account of ha\ing led a life conformed to the law, and perfect, He deserved the honour of being elected to be Christ, [it is well] ; but do not venture to tell monstrous phenomena, lest you be convicted of talking foolishly like the Greeks."

Then I said to this, " Trypho, I wish to persuade you, and all men in short, of this, that even though you talk worse things in ridicule and in jest, you will not move me from my fixed design ; but I shall always adduce from the words which you think can be brought fonvard [by you] as proof [of your own views], the demonstration of what I have stated along with the testimony of the Scriptures. You are not, however, acting fairly or truthfully in attempting to undo those things in which there has been constantly agreement between us ; namely, that certain commands were instituted by Moses on account of the hardness of your people's hearts. For you said that, by reason of His living conformably to law. He was elected and became Christ, if indeed He were proved to be so."

And Trypho said, " You admitted 5 to us that He was both circumcised, and obser\-ed the other legal ceremonies ordained by Moses."

And I replied, " I have admitted it, and do admit it : yet I have admitted that He endured all these not as if He were justified by them, but completing the dispensation which His Father, the Maker of all things, and Lord and God, wished Him [to complete]. For I admit that He endured crucifixion and death, and the incarnation, and the suffering of as many afflictions as your nation put upon Him. But since again you dissent from that to which you but lately assented, Trj-pho, answer me : Are those righteous patriarchs who lived before Moses, who observed none of those [ordinances] which, the Scripture shows, received the commencement of [their] institution from INIoses, saved, [and have they attained to] the inheritance of the blessed?"

5 We have not seen that Justin admitted this; but it is not to be supposed that the passage where he did admit it has been lost, as Perionius suspected; for sometimes Justin refers to passages at other places, which he did not relate in their own place. — Marani;s.

And Trypho said, "The Scriptures compel me to admit it."

" Likewise I again ask you," said I, " did God enjoin your fathers to present the offerings and sacrifices because He had need of them, or because of the hardness of their hearts and tendency to idolatry?"

"The latter," said he, "the Scriptures in like manner compel us to admit."

" Likewise," said I, " did not the Scriptures predict that God promised to dispense a new covenant besides that which [was dispensed] in the mountain Horeb?"

This, too, he replied, had been predicted.

Then I said again, " Was not the old covenant laid on your fathers with fear and trembling, so that they could not give ear to God? "

He admitted it.

"What then?" said I: "God promised that there would be another covenant, not like that old one, and said that it would be laid on them without fear, and trembling, and lightnings, and that it would be such as to show what kind of commands and deeds God knows to be eternal and suited to every nation, and what commandments He has given, suiting them to the hardness of your people's hearts, as He exclaims also by the prophets."

"To this also," said he, " those who are lovers of truth and not lovers of strife must assuredly assent."

Then I replied, " I know not how you speak of persons very fond of strife, [since] you yourself oftentimes were plainly acting in this very manner, frequently contradicting what you had agreed to."

CHAP. LXVIII. HE COMPL.4INS OF THE OBSTINACY

CONVICTS THE JEWS OF BAD FAITH.

And Trj^pho said, "You endeavour to prove an incredible and well-nigh impossible thing ; [namely], that God endured to be born and become man."

" If I undertook," said I, " to prove this by doctrines or arguments of man, you should not bear with me. But if I quote frequently Scriptures, and so many of them, referring to this point, and ask you to comprehend them, you are hard-hearted in the recognition of the mind and will of God. But if you wish to remain for ever so, I would not be injured at all ; and for ever retaining the same [opinions] which I had before I met with you, I shall leave you."

And Trypho said, " Look, my friend, you made yourself master of these [truths] with much labour and toil.' And we accordingly must diligently scrutinize all that we meet with, in

' [Note the courteous admission of Trypho, and the consent of both parties to the duty of searching the Scriptures.]

order to give our assent to those things which the Scriptures compel us [to believe]."

Then I said to this, " I do not ask you not to strive earnestly by all means, in making an investigation of the matters inquired into ; but [I ask you], when you have nothing to say, not to contradict those things which you said you had admitted."

And Trypho said, " So we shall endeavour to do."

I continued again : " In addition to the questions I have just now put to you, I wish to put more : for by means of these questions I shall strive to bring the discourse to a speedy termination."

And Trypho said, " Ask the questions."

Then I said, " Do you think that any other one is said to be worthy of worship and called Lord and God in the Scriptures, except the Maker of all, and Christ, who by so many Scriptures was proved to you to have become man?"

And Trypho replied, " How can we admit this, when we have instituted so great an inquiry as to whether there is any other than the Father alone? "

Then I again said, " I must ask you this also, that I may know whether or not )'ou are of a different opinion from that which you admitted some time ago." ^

He replied, " It is not, sir."

Then again I, " Since you certainly admit these things, and since Scripture says, 'Who shall declare His generation ? ' ought you not now to suppose that He is not the seed of a human race? "

And Trypho said, " How then does the Word say to David, that out of his loins God shall take to Himself a Son, and shall establish His kingdom, and shall set Him on the throne of His glory? "

And I said, " Trypho, if the prophecy which Isaiah uttered, " Behold, the virgin shall conceive,' is said not to the house of David, but to another house of the twelve tribes, perhaps the matter would have some difficulty ; but since this prophecy refers to the house of David, Isaiah has explained how that which was spoken by God to David in mystery would take place. But perhaps you are not aware of this, my friends, that there were many sayings written obscurely, or parabolically, or mysteriously, and symbolical actions, which the prophets who lived after the persons who said or did them expounded."

" Assuredly," said Trypho.

" If, therefore, I shall show that this prophecy of Isaiah refers to our Christ, and not to Hezekiah, as you say, shall I not in this matter, too, compel you not to believe your teachers, who venture to assert that the explanation which your

2 Ttwt : Vulg. n-apa ©ew, viiiose. — Otto.

seventy elders that were with Ptolemy the king of the Egyptians gave, is untrue in certain resjiects ? For some statements in the Scriptures, which appear explicitly to convict them of a foolish and vain opinion, these they venture to assert have not been so written. But other statements, which they fancy they can distort and harmonize with human actions,' these, they say, refer not to this Jesus Christ of ours, but to him of whom they are pleased to explain them. Thus, for instance, they have taught you that this Scripture which we are now discussing refers to Hezekiah, in which, as I promised, I shall show they are wrong. And since they are compelled, they agree that some Scriptures which we mention to them, and which expressly prove that Christ was to suffer, to be worshipped, and [to be called] God, and which I have already recited to you, do refer indeed to Christ, but they venture to assert that this man is not Christ. But they admit that He will come to suffer, and to reign, and to be worshipped, and to be God ; - and this opinion I shall in like manner show to be ridiculous and silly. But since I am pressed to answer first to what was said by you in jest, I shall make answer to it, and shall afterwards give replies to what follows.

CHAP. LXIX. — THE DEVIL, SINCE HE EMULATES THE TRUTH, HAS INVENTED FABLES ABOUT BAC- CHUS, HERCULES, AND ^SCULAPIUS.

" Be well assured, then, Trypho," I continued, " that I am established in the knowledge of arid faith in the Scriptures by those counterfeits which he who is called the devil is said to have performed among the Greeks ; just as some were wrought by the Magi in Egypt, and others by the false prophets in Elijah's days. For when they tell that Bacchus, son of Jupiter, was begotten by [Jupiter's] intercourse with Semele, and that he was the discoverer of the vine ; and when they relate, that being torn in pieces, and having died, he rose again, and ascended to heaven ; and when they introduce wine ^ into his mysteries, do I not perceive that [the devil] has imitated the prophecy announced by the patriarch Jacob, and recorded by Moses? And when they tell that Hercules was strong, and travelled over all the world, and was begotten by Jove of Alcmene, and ascended to heaven when he died, do I not perceive that the Scripture which speaks of Christ, ' strong as a giant to run his race,' * has been in like manner imitated? And when he [the devil] brings forward ^sculapius as the raiser of the dead and healer of all diseases, may I not say that in this matter likewise he has

' The text is corrupt, and various emendations have been proposed. ^ Or, " and to be worshipped as God."

3 Or, " an ass." The ass was sacred to Bacchus; and many fluctuate between oli'oi' and ocoi".

imitated the prophecies about Christ? But since I have not quoted to you such Scripture as tells that Christ will do these things, I must necessarily remind you of one such : from which you can understand, how that to those destitute of a knowledge of God, I mean the Gentiles, who, ' having eyes, saw not, and having a heart, understood not,' worshipping the images of wood, [how even to them] Scripture prophesied that they would renounce these [vanities], and hope in this Christ. It is thus written : ' Rejoice, thirsty wilderness : let the wilderness be glad, and blossom as the lily : the deserts of the Jordan shall both blossom and be glad : and the glory of Lebanon was given to it, and the honour of Carmel. And my people shall see the exaltation of the Lord, and the glory of God. Be strong, ye careless hands and enfeebled knees. Be comforted, ye faint in soul : be strong, fear not. Behold, our God gives, and will give, retributive judgment. He shall come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. Then the lame shall leap as an hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be distinct : for water has broken forth in the wilderness, and a valley in the thirsty land ; and the parched ground shall become pools, and a spring of water shall [rise up] in the thirsty land.' s The spring of living water which gushed forth from God in the land destitute of the knowledge of God, namely the land of the Gentiles, was this Christ, who also appeared in your nation, and healed those who were maimed, and deaf, and lame in body from their birth, causing them to leap, to hear, and to see, by His word. And having raised the dead, and causing them to live, by His deeds He compelled the men who lived at that time to recognise Him. But though they saw such works, they asserted it was magical art. For they dared to call Him a magician, and a deceiver of the people. Yet He wrought such works, and persuaded those who were [destined to] believe on Him ; for even if any one be labouring under a defect of body, yet be an obsener of the doctrines delivered by Him, He shall raise him up at His second advent perfectly sound, after He has made him immortal, and incorruptible, and free from grief.

CHAP. LXX. — so ALSO THE MYSTERIES OF 1MITHR.AS ARE DISTORTED FROM THE PROPHECIES OF D.ANIEL AND ISAIAH.

"And when those who record the mysteries of Mithras say that he was begotten of a rock, and call the place where those who believe in him are initiated a cave, do I not perceive here that the utterance of Daniel, that a stone with-

out hands was cut out of a great mountain, has been imitated by them, and that they have attempted hkewise to imitate the whole of Isaiah's ' words ?^ For they^ contrived that the words of righteousness be quoted also by them.^ But I must repeat to you the words of Isaiah referred to, in order that from them you may know that these things are so. They are these : ' Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done ; those that are near shall know my might. The sinners in Zion are removed ; trembling shall seize the impious. Who shall announce to you the everlasting place ? The man who walks in righteousness, speaks in the right way, hates sin and unrighteousness, and keeps his hands pure from bribes, stops the ears from hearing the unjust judgment of blood, closes the eyes from seeing unrighteousness : he shall dwell in the lofty cave of the strong rock. Bread shall be given to him, and his water [shall be] sure. Ye shall see the King with glory, and your eyes shall look far off. Your soul shall pursue diligently the fear of the Lord. Where is the scribe ? where are the counsellors ? where is he that numbers those who are nourished, — the small and great people ? with whom they did not take counsel, nor knew the depth of the voices, so that they heard not. The people who are become depreciated, and there is no understanding in him who hears.' 5 Now it is evident, that in this prophecy [allusion is made] to the bread which our Christ gave us to eat,*"^ in remembrance of His being made flesh for the sake of His behevers, for whom also He suffered ; and to the cup which He gave us to drink,^ in remembrance of His own blood, with giving of thanks. And this prophecy proves that we shall behold this very King with glory ; and the very terms of the prophecy declare loudly, that the people foreknown to believe in Him were foreknown to pursue diligently the fear of the Lord. Moreover, these Scriptures are equally explicit in saying, that those who are reputed to know the writings of the Scriptures, and who hear the prophecies, have no understanding. And when I hear, Trypho," said I, '•' that Perseus was be-

1 The text here has ravra -iroirjtTai ofioi'to?. Maranus suggests 'Hcraiov for Troirjo-oi : and so we have translated.

2 Justin says that the priests of Mithras imitated all the words of Isaiah about to be quoted; and to prove it, is content with a single example, namely, the precepts of righteousness, which they were wont to relate to him, as in these words of Isaiah: "He who walks in righteousness," etc. Justin omitted many other passages, as easy and obvious. For since Mithras is the same as fire, it manifestly answers to the fire of which Isaiah speaks. And since Justin reminded them who are initiated, that they are said to be initiated by Mithras himself, it was not necessary to remind them that the words of Isaiah are imitated in this: "You shall see the King with gl(5ry." Bread and water are referred to by Isaiah: so also in these mysteries of Mithras, Justin testifies that bread and a cup of water are placed before them

3 i.e.. the devils.

i.e., the priests of Mithras.

6 Literally, " to do," iroteii'. [The horrible charge of banqueting on blood, etc., constantly repeated against Christians, was probably based on the Eucharist. See Kaye's Illustrations from Tatiiin, Athenagorus, and Thcoph. Antioch., cap. ix. p. 153.]

gotten of a virgin, I understand that the deceiving serpent counterfeited also this.

CHAP. LXXI. THE JEWS REJECT THE INTERPRETA- TION OF THE LXX., FROM WHICH, MOREOVER, THEY HAVE TAKEN AWAY SOME PASSAGES.

" But I am far from putting reliance in your teachers, who refuse to admit that the interpretation made by the seventy elders who were with Ptolemy [king] of the Egyptians is a correct one ; and they attempt to frame another. And I wish you to observe, that they have altogether taken away many Scriptures from the translations effected by those seventy elders who were with Ptolemy, and by which this very man who was crucified is proved to have been set forth expressly as God, and man, and as being crucified, and as dying ; but since I am aware that this is denied by all of your nation, I do not address myself to these points, but I proceed ^ to carry on my discussions by means of those passages which are still admitted by you. For you assent to those which I have brought before your attention, except that you contradict the statement, ' Behold, the virgin shall conceive,' and say it ought to be read, ' Behold, the young woman shall conceive.' And I promised to prove that the prophecy referred, not, as you were taught, to Hezekiah, but to this Christ of mine : and now I shall go to the proof."

Here Trypho remarked, " We ask you first of all to tell us some of the Scriptures which you allege have been completely cancelled."

CHAP. LXXII. PASSAGES HAVE BEEN REMOVED

BY THE JEWS FROM ESDRAS AND JEREMUH.

And I said, " I shall do as you please. From the statements, then, which Esdras made in reference to the law of the passover, they have taken away the following : ' And Esdras said to the people. This passover is our Saviour and our refuge. And if you have understood, and your heart has taken it in, that we shall humble Him on a standard, and ^ thereafter hope in Him, then this place shall not be forsaken for ever, says the God of hosts. But if you Avill not be- Heve Him, and will not listen to His declaration, you shall be a laughing-stock to the nations.' ^ And from the sayings of Jeremiah they have cut out the following : ' I [was] like a lamb that is brought to the slaughter : they devised a device against me, saying, Come, let us lay on wood on His bread, and let us blot Him out from the land of the living ; and His name shall no more be remembered.' '° And since this passage from the sayings of Jeremiah is still written in some copies

7 Or, "profess."

9 It is not known where this passage comes from.

[of the Scriptures] in the synagogues of the Jews (for it is only a short time since they were cut out), and since from these words it is demonstrated that the Jews dehberatcd about the Christ Himself, to crucify and put Him to death. He Himself is both declared to be led as a sheep to the slaughter, as was predicted by Isaiah, and is here represented as a harmless lamb ; but being in a diificulty about them, they give themselves over to blasphemy. And again, from the sayings of the same Jeremiah these have been cut out : ' The Lord God remembered His dead people of Israel who lay in the graves ; and He descended to preach to them His own salva-

CH.A.P. LXXIII. [the words] "FROM THE WOOD"

"And from the ninety-fifth (ninety-sixth) Psalm they have taken away this short saying of the words of David : ' From the wood.' ^ For when the passage said, ' Tell ye among the nations, the Lord hath reigned from the wood,' they have left, ' Tell ye among the nations, the Lord hath reigned.' Now no one of your people has ever been said to have reigned as God and Lord among the nations, with the exception of Him only who was crucified, of whom also the Holy Spirit affirms in the same Psalm that He was raised again, and freed from [the grave] , declaring that there is none like Him among the gods of the nations : for they are idols of demons. But I shall repeat the whole Psalm to you, that you may perceive what has been said. It is thus : * Sing unto the Lord a new song ; sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, and bless His name ; show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all people. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised : He is to be feared above all the gods. For all the gods of the 'nations are demons but the Lord made the heavens. Confession and beauty are in His presence ; holiness and magnificence are in His sanctuary. Bring to the Lord, O ye countries of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honour, bring to the Lord glory in His name. Take sacrifices, and go into His courts ; worship the Lord in His holy temple. Let the whole earth be moved before Him : tell ye among the nations, the Lord hath reigned. ^ For He hath established the world, which shall not be moved ; He shall judge the nations with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, and the earth be glad ; let the sea and its fulness shake. Let the fields and all therein be joyful. Let all the

' This is wanting in our Scriptures: it is cited by Iren., iii. 20, under the name of Isaiah, and in iy. 22 under that of Jeremiah. — Maran'js.

2 These words were not taken away by the Jews, but added by some Christian. — Otto. [A statement not proved.]

3 It is strange that " from the wood" is noli added; but the audacity of the copyists in such matters is well known. — Maranus.

trees of the wood be glad before the Lord : for He comes, for He comes to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth.' "

Here Trypho remarked, " Whether [or not] the rulers of the people have erased any jjortion of the Script>ires, as you affirm, God knows ; but it seems incredible."

"Assuredly," said I, " it does seem incredible. For it is more horrible than the calf which they made, when satisfied with manna on the earth ; or than the sacrifice of children to demons ; or than the slaying of the prophets. But," said I, " you appear to me not to have heard the Scriptures which I said they had stolen away. For such as have been quoted are more than enough to prove the points in dispute, besides those which are retained by us,-* and shall yet be brought forward."

CHAP. LXXIV. — THE BEGINNING OF PS. XCVI. IS ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHER [bY TRVPHO]. BUT [it refers] TO CHRIST BY THESE WORDS : "tell ye among THE NATIONS THAT THE LORD," ETC.

Then Trypho said, " We know that you quoted these because we asked you. But it does not appear to me that this Psalm which you quoted last from the words of David refers to any other than the Father and Maker of the heavens and earth. You, however, asserted that it referred to Him who suffered, whom you also are eagerly endeavouring to prove to be Christ."

And I answered, "Attend to me, I beseech you, while I speak of the statement which the Holy Spirit gave utterance to in this Psalm ; and you shall know that I speak not sinfully, and that we 5 are not really bewitched ; for so you shall be enabled of yourselves to understand many other statements made by the Holy Spirit. ' Sing unto the Lord a new song ; sing unto the Lord, all the earth : sing unto the Lord, and bless His name ; show forth His salvation from day to day, His wonderful works among all people.' He bids the inhabitants of all the earth, who have known the mystery of this salvation, i.e., the suffering of Christ, by which He saved them, sing and give praises to God the Father of all things, and recognise that He is to be praised and feared, and that He is the Maker of heaven and earth, who effected this salvation in behalf of the human race, who also was crucified and was dead, and who was deemed worthy by Him (God) to reign over all the earth. As [is clearly seen '^J also by the land into which [He said] He would

5 In text, " you." Maranus suggests, as far better, " we."

6 Something is here wanting; the suggested reading of Maranus has been adopted. [As to omissions between this chapter and the next, critics are not agreed. The Benedictine editors see no proofs of

bring [your fathers] ; [for He thus speaks] : ' 'This people [shall go a whoring after other gods], and shall forsake Me, and shall break my covenant which I made with them in that day ; and I will forsake them, and will turn away My face from them ; and they shall be devoured,^ and many evils and afflictions shall find them out ; and they shall say in that day. Because the Lord my God is not amongst us, these misfortunes have found us out. And I shall certainly turn away My face from them in that day, on account of all the evils which they have committed, in that they have turned to other gods.' 3

CHAP. LXXV. IT IS PROVED THAT JESUS WAS THE

" Moreover, in the book of Exodus we have also perceived that the name of God Himself, which. He says, was not revealed to Abraham or to Jacob, was Jesus, and was declared mysteriously through Closes. Thus it is written : ' And the Lord spake to Moses, Say to this people, Behold, I send My angel before thy face, to keep thee in the way, to bring thee into the land which I have prepared for thee. Give heed to Him, and obey Him ; do not disobey Him. For He will not draw back from you ; for My name is in Him.' •♦ Now understand that He who led your fathers into the land is called by this name Jesus, and first called Auses 5 (Oshea). For if you shall understand this, you shall likewise perceive that the name of Him who said to Moses, ' for My name is in Him,' was Jesus. For, indeed. He was also called Israel, and Jacob's name was changed to this also. Now Isaiah shows that those prophets who are sent to publish tidings from God are called His angels and apostles. For Isaiah says in a certain place, ' Send me.' ^ And that the prophet whose name was changed, Jesus [Joshua], was strong and great, is manifest to all. If, then, we know that God revealed Himself in so many forms to Abraham, and to Jacob, and to Moses, how are we at a loss, and do not believe that, according to the will of the Father of all things, it was possible for Him to be born man of the Virgin, especially after we have such ^ Scriptures, from which it can be plainly perceived that He became so according to the will of the Father?

CHAP. LXXVI. FROM OTHER PASSAGES THE SAME

MAJESTY AND GOVERNMENT OF CHRIST ARE PROVED.

" For when Daniel speaks of ' one like unto

2 Literally, " for food."

3 The first conference seems to have ended hereabout. [It occupied two d.iys. But the student must consult the learned note of

the Son of man ' who received the everlasting kingdom, does he not hint at this very thing? For he declares that, in saying ' like unto the Son of man,' He appeared, and was man, but not of human seed. And the same thing he proclaimed in mystery when he speaks of this stone which was cut out without hands. For the expression ' it was cut out without hands ' signified that it is not a work of man, but [a work] of the will of the Father and God of all things, who brought Him forth. And when Isaiah says, ' Who shall declare His generation ? ' he meant that His descent could not be declared. Now no one who is a man of men has a descent that cannot be declared. And when Moses says that He will wash His garments in the blood of the grape, does not this signify what I have now often told you is an obscure prediction, namely, that He had blood, but not from men ; just as not man, but God, has begotten the blood of the vine? And when Isaiah calls Him the Angel of mighty counsel,^ did he not foretell Him to be the Teacher of those truths which He did teach when He came [to earth] ? For He alone taught openly those mighty counsels which the Father designed both for all those who have been and shall be well-pleasing to Him, and also for those who have rebelled against His will, whether men or angels, when He said : ' They shall come from the east [and from the west 9] , and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven : but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.' '° And, ' Many shall say to Me in that day. Lord, Lord, have we not eaten, and drunk, and prophesied, and cast out demons in Thy name ? And I will say to them. Depart from Me.' " Again, in other words, by which He shall condemn those who are unworthy of salvation. He said, ' Depart into outer darkness, which the Father has prepared for Satan and his angels.' " And again, in other words. He said, ' I give unto you power to tread on serpents, and on scorpions, and on scolopcndras, and on all the might of the enemy.' '^ And now we, who believe on our Lord Jesus, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, when we exorcise all demons and evil spirits, have them subjected to us. For if the prophets declared obscurely that Christ would suffer, and thereafter be Lord of all, yet that [declaration] could not be understood by any man until He Himself persuaded the apostles that such statements were expressly relate4 in the Scriptures. For He exclaimed before His crucifixion : 'The Son of man must suffer many

9 Not in all edd.

in the original.]

things, and be rejected by the Scribes and Pharisees, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.' ' And David predicted that He would be born from the womb before sun and moon,^ acconhng to the Father's will, and made Him known, being Christ, as God strong and to be worshipped."

CHAP. LXXVII. HE RETURNS TO EXPLAIN THE

PROPHECY OF ISAIAH.

Then Trypho said, " I admit that such and so great arguments are sufficient to persuade one ; but I wish [you] to know that I ask you for the proof which you have frequently proposed to give me. Proceed then to make this plain to us, that we may see how you prove that that [passage] refers to this Christ of yours. For we assert that the prophecy relates to Hezekiah." And I replied, " I shall do as you wish. But show me yourselves first of all how it is said of Hezekiah, that before he knew how to call father or mother, he received the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in the presence of the king of Assyria. For it will not be conceded to you, as you wish to explain it, that Hezekiah waged war with the inhabitants of Damascus and Samaria in presence of the king of Assyria. ' For before the child knows how to call father or mother,' the prophetic word said, ' He shall take the power of Damascus and spoils of Samaria in presence of the king of Assyria.' For if the Spirit of prophecy had not made the statement with an addition, ' Before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and spoils of Samaria,' but had only said, ' And shall bear a son, and he shall take the power of Damascus and spoils of Samaria,' then you might say that God foretold that he would take these things, since He foreknew it. But now the prophecy has stated it with this addition : 'Before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and spoils of Samaria.' And you cannot prove that such a thing ever happened to any one among the Jews. But we are able to prove that it happened in the case of our Christ. For at the time of His birth. Magi who came from Arabia worshipped Him, coming first to Herod, who then was sovereign in your land, and whom the Scripture calls king of Assyria on account of his ungodlyand sinful character. For you know," continued I, "that the Holy Spirit oftentimes announces such events by parables and similitudes ; just as He did towards all the people in

2 Justin puts " sun and moon" instead of" Lucifer." [Ps. ex. 3, Sept, compounded with Prov. viii. 27.] Maranus says, David did predict, not that Christ would be born of Mary before sun and moon, but that it would happea before sun and moon that He would be born of a virgin.

Jerusalem, frequently saying to them, 'Thy father is an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.' ^

CHAP. LXXVIir. HE PROVES TH.\T THIS PROPHECY

HARM(JNIZES WITH CHRIST ALONE, FRO.M WHAT IS AFIERWARDS WRITTEN.

" Now this king Herod, at the time when the Magi came to him from Arabia, and said they knew from a star which appeared in the heavens that a King had been born in your country, and that they had come to worship Him, learned from the elders of your people that it was thus written regarding Bethlehem in the prophet : ' And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art by no nieans least among the princes of Judah ; for out of thee shall go forth the leader who shall feed my people.' •♦ Accordingly the Magi from Arabia came to Bethlehem and worshipped the Child, and presented Him with gifts, gold and frankincense, and myrrh ; but returned not to Herod, being warned in a revelation after worshipping the Child in Bethlehem. And Joseph, the spouse of Mary, who wished at first to put away his betrothed Mary, supposing her to be pregnant by intercourse with a man, i.e., from fornication, was commanded in a vision not to put away his wife ; and the angel who appeared to him told him that what is in her womb is of the Holy Ghost. Then he was afraid, and did not put her away ; but on the occasion of the first census which was taken in Judaea, under Cyrenius, he went up from Nazareth, where he lived, to Bethlehem, to which he belonged, to be enrolled ; for his family was of the tribe of Judah, which then inhabited that region. Then along with Mary he is ordered to proceed into Egypt, and remain there with the Child until another revelation warn them to return into Judeea. But when the Child was born in Bethlehem, since Joseph could not find a lodging in that village, he took up his quarters in a certain cave near the village ; and while they were there Mary brought forth the Christ and placed Him in a manger, and here the Magi who came from Arabia found Him. I have repeated to you," I continued, " what Isaiah foretold about the sign which foreshadowed the cave ; but for the sake of those who have come with us to-day, I shall again remind you of the passage." Then I repeated the passage from Isaiah which I have already written, adding that, by means of those words, those who presided over the mysteries of Mithras were stirred up by the devil to say that in a place, called among them a cave, they were initiated by him. 5 "So Herod, when the Magi

5 Text has, by " them; " but Maranus says the artifice lay in the priest's compelling the initiated to say that Mithras himself was the mitiator in the cave.

from Arabia did not return to him, as he had asked them to do, but had departed by another way to their own country, according to the commands laid on them; and when Joseph, with Mary and the Child, had now gone into Egypt, as it was revealed to them to do ; as he did not know the Child whom the Magi had gone to worship, ordered simply the whole of the children then in Bethlehem to be massacred. And Jeremiah prophesied that this would happen, speaking by the Holy Ghost thus : ' A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and much wailing, Rachel weeping for her children ; and she would not be comforted, because they are not.' ' Therefore, on account of the voice which would be heard from Ramah, i.e., from Arabia (for there is in Arabia at this very time a place called Rama), wailing would come on the place where Rachel the wife of Jacob called Israel, the holy patriarch, has been buried, i.e., on Bethlehem ; while the women weep for their own slaughtered children, j and have no consolation by reason of what has , happened to them. For that expression of Isaiah, ; ' He shall take the power of Damascus and spoils I of Samaria,' foretold that the power of the evil | demon that dwelt in Damascus should be over- | come by Christ as soon as He was born ; and this is proved to have happened. For the Magi, who were held in bondage - for the commission of all evil deeds through the power of that demon, by coming to w^orship Christ, shows that they have revolted from that dominion which held them captive ; and this [dominion] the Scripture has showed us to reside in Damascus. Moreover, I that sinful and unjust power is termed well in j parable, Samaria.^ And none of you can deny ; that Damascus was, and is, in the region of Arabia, although now it belongs to what is called Syrophoenicia. Hence it would be becoming for you, sirs, to learn what you have not perceived, from those who have received grace from God, namely, from us Christians ; and not to strive in every way to maintain your own doctrines, dishonouring those of God. Therefore also this grace has been transferred to us, as Isaiah says^ speaking to the following effect: 'This people draws near to Me, they honour Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me ; but in vain they worship Me, teaching the commands and doctrines of men. Therefore, behold, I will proceed'* to remove this people, and I shall remove them ; and I shall take away the wisdom of their wise men, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent

CHAP. LXXIX. HE PROVES AGAIXST TRVPHO THAT

THE WICKED ANGELS H.A.VE REVOLTED FROM GOD.

On this, Tryjjho, who was somewhat angry, but respected the Scriptures, as was manifest from his countenance, said to me, " The utterances of God are holy, but your expositions are mere contrivances, as is plain from what has been explained by you ; nay, even blasphemies, for you assert that angels sinned and revolted from God."

And I, wishing to get him to listen to me, answered in milder tones, thus : " I admire, sir, this piety of yours ; and I pray that you may entertain the same disposition towards Him to whom angels are recorded to minister, as Daniel says ; for [one] like the Son of man is led to the Ancient of days, and every kingdom is given to Him for ever and ever. But that you may know% sir," continued I, " that it is not our audacity which has induced us to adopt this exposition, which you reprehend, I shall give you evidence ; from Isaiah himself ; for he affirms that evil '' angels have dwelt and do dwell in Tanis, in I Egypt. These are [his] words : ' Woe to the I rebelhous children ! Thus saith the Lord, You have taken counsel, but not through Me ; and [made] agreements, but not through My Spirit, to add sins to sins ; \vho have sinned ^ in going down to Egypt (but they have not inquired at Me), that they may be assisted by Pharaoh, and be covered with the shadow of the Egyptians. I For the shadow of Pharaoh shall be a disgrace I to you, and a reproach to those who trust in the i Egyptians ; for the princes in Tanis ? are evil i angels. In vain will they labour for a people which will not profit them by assistance, but [will be] for a disgrace and a reproach [to them].'** And, further, Zechariah tells, as you yourself have related, that the devil stood on the right hand of Joshua the priest, to resist him; and [the Lord] said, ' The Lord, who has taken ^ Jerusalem, rebuke thee.' '° And again, it is written in Job," as you said yourself, how that the angels came to stand before the Lord, and the devil came with them. And we have it recorded by Moses in the beginning of Genesis, that the serpent beguiled Eve, and was cursed. And we know that in Egypt there were magicians who emulated '^ the mighty power displayed by God through the faithful servant Moses. And you are aware that David said, 'The gods of the nations are demons.' " '^

men.

3 Justin thinks the " spoils of Samaria" denote spoils of Satan; Tertull. thinks that they are spoils of Christ.

Literally, " add."

6 LXX. " who walk," nopevofxevoi for TrovTjpevo^xeroi.

9 eKSefoMefo?; in chap. cxv. inf. it is eK\e^6.ix(V0':.

12 Maranus suggests the insertion of eiroujcrai' or iireipaaav betore

e^KTOvcrBai..

CHAP. LXXX. THE OPINION OF JUSTIN WITH

REGARD TO THE REIGN OF A THOUSAND YEARS. SEVERAL CATHOLICS REJECT' IT.

And Trypho to this replied, " I remarked to you sir, that you are very anxious to be safe in all respects, since you cling to the Scriptures. ]3ut tell me, do you really admit that this place, Jerusalem, shall be rebuilt ; and do you expect your people to be gathered together, and made joyful with Christ and the patriarchs, and the prophets, both the men of our nation, and other proselytes who joined them before your Christ came? or have you given way, and admitted this in order to have the appearance of worsting us in the controversies ? "

Then I answered, " I am not so miserable a fellow, lYypho, cOs to say one thing and think another. I admitted to you formerly,' that I and many others are of this opinion, and [believe] that such will take place, as you assuredly are aware ; ^ but, on the other hand, I signified to you that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise. Moreover, I pointed out to you that some who are called Christians, but are godless, impious heretics, teach doctrines that are in every way blasphemous, atheistical, and foolish. But that you may know that I do not say this before you alone, I shall draw up a statement, so far as I can, of all the arguments which have passed between us ; in which I shall record myself as admitting the very same things which I admit to you.3 For I choose to follow not men or men's doctrines, but God and the doctrines [delivered] by Him. For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this [truth], -* and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ; who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven ; do not imagine that they are Christians, even as one, if he would rightly consider it, would not admit that the Sadducees, or similar sects of Genistre, Merist3e,5 Galila^ans, Hellenists,^ Pharisees, Baptists, are Jews (do not

' Justin made no previous allusion to this point, so far as we know from the writing preserved.

,, ^. 9''' '' so as to believe thoroughly that such will take place "(after opinion ).

I.e., resurrection.

5 Maranus says, Hieron. thinks the GenisicE were so called because they were sprung from Abraham (yei-os) the Mcristar so called because they separated the Scriptures. Josephus bears testimony to the fiict thai the sects of the Jews difiered in regard to fate and providence: the Pliarisees submitting all things indeed to God, with the exception of human will; the Essenes making no exxeptions, and subniitting all to God. I believe therefore that the Genistce were so called because they believed the world to be in general governed by God; the. Merzstie, because they believed that a fate or providence belonged to each man.

^ Otto says, the author and chief of this sect of GaUlieans was Judas Galila;us, who, after the exile of king Archelaus, when the Romans wished to raise a ta.x in Juda;a, excited his countrymen to the retaining of their former liberty. — The Hellenists, or ra'ther Helle- "rf^,"f- ^'° """^ mentions this sect but Justin; perhaps Herodians or HiUelieans (from R. Hillel). 1- f

hear me impatiently when I tell you what I tnink), but are [onl\] called Jews and children of .\braham, worshipping God with the lips, as God Himself declared, but the heart was far from Him. But I antl others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are a.ssured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years ^ in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, [as] the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare.

CHAP. LXXXI. — HE ENDEAVOURS TO PROVE THIS OPINION FROM ISAUH AND THE APOCALYPSE.

" For Isaiah spake thus concerning this space of a thousand years : ' For there shafl be tlie new heaven and the new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, or come into their heart ; but they shall find joy and gladness in it. which things I create. For, Behold, I make Jerusalem a rejoicing, and My people a joy ; and I shall rejoice over Jerusalem, and be glad over My people. And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, or the voice of crying. And there shall be no more there a person of immature years, or an old man who shall not fulfil his days.^ For the young man shall be an hundred years old ; "> but the sinner who dies an hundred years old,'' he shall be accursed. And thev shall build houses, and shall themselves inhabit them ; and they shall plant vines, and shall themselves eat the produce of them, and drink the wine. They shall not build, and others inhabit ; they shall not plant, and others eat. For according to the days of the tree of life shall be the days of my people ; the works of their toil shall abound. '° Mine elect shall not toil fruitlessly, or beget children to be cursed ; for they shall be a seed righteous and blessed by the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will hear; while they are still speaking, I shall say, What is it? Then shall the wolves and the lambs feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox ; but the serpent [shall eat] earth as bread. They shall not hurt or maltreat each other on the holy mountain, saith the Lord.' " Now we have understood that the expression used among these words, ' .According to the days of the tree [of life '^] shall be the days of my people ; the works of their toil shall abound,' obscurely predicts a thousand years. For as Adam was told that in the day he ate of the tree he would die, we know that he did not

^ We have translated the text of Justin as it stands. Commentators make the sense, " and that there will be a thousand years in Jerusalem, " or " that the saints will live a thousand years in Jerusalem. "

8 Literally, " time."

9 Literally, " the son of an hundred years. "

'° Or,as in margin of .A.. V.," they shall make the works of their toil continue long," so reading -naXaiiiiaovaw for TrAeoiacroi/an': thus also LXX.

'- These words are not found in the MSS.

complete a thousand years. We have perceived, moreover, that the expression, ' The day of the Lord is as a thousand years,' ' is connected with this subject. And further, there was a certain man with us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation that was made to him, that those who believed in our Christ would dwell ^ a thousand years in Jerusalem ; and that thereafter the general, and, in short, the eternal resurrection and judgment of all men would likewise take place. Just as our Lord also said, ' They shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be equal to the angels, the children of the God of the resurrection.' ^

CHAP. LXXXII. THE PROPHETICAL GIFTS OF THE

JEWS WERE TRANSFERRED TO THE CHRISTIANS.

" For the prophetical gifts remain with us, even to the present time. And hence you ought to understand that [the gifts] formerly among your nation have been transferred to us. And just as there were false prophets contemporaneous with your holy prophets, so are there now many false teachers amongst us, of whom our Lord forewarned us to beware ; so that in no respect are we deficient, since we know that He foreknew all that would happen to us after His resurrection from the dead and ascension to heaven. For He said we would be put to death, and hated for His name's sake; and that many false prophets and false Christs would appear in His name, and deceive many : and so has it come about. For many have taught godless, blasphemous, and unholy doctrines, forging them in His name ; have taught, too, and even yet are teaching, those things which proceed from the unclean spirit of the devil, and which were .put into their hearts. Therefore we are most anxious that you be persuaded not to be misled by such persons, since we know that every one who can speak the truth, and yet speaks it not, shall be judged by God, as God testified by Ezekiel, when He said, ' I have made thee a watchman to the house of Judah. If the sinner sin, and thou warn him not, he himself shall die in his sin ; but his blood will I require at thine hand. But if thou warn him, thou shalt be innocent.' ■♦ And on this account we are, through fear, very earnest in desiring to converse [with men] according to the Scriptures, but not from love of money, or of glory, or of pleasure. For no man can convict us of any of these [vices]. No more do we wish to live like the rulers 'of your people, whom God reproaches when He says, ' Your rulers are com-

^ Literally, " make." [A very noteworthy passage, as a primitive exposition of Rev. xx. 4-5. See Kaye, chap, v.]

panions of thieves, lovers of bribes, followers of the rewards.' s Now, if you know certain amongst us to be of this sort, do not for their sakes blaspheme the Scriptures and Christ, and do not assiduously strive to give falsified interpretations.

CHAP. LXXXIII. IT IS PROVED THAT THE PSALM,

"THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD," ETC., DOES NOT SUIT HEZEKIAH.

" For your teachers have ventured to refer the passage, ' The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool,' to Hezekiah ; as if he were requested to sit on the right side of the temple, when the king of Assyria sent to him and threatened him ; and he was told by Isaiah not to be afraid. Now we know and admit that what Isaiah said took place ; that the king of Assyria desisted from waging war against Jerusalem in Hezekiah's days, and the angel of the Lord slew about 185,000 of the host of the Assyrians. But it is manifest that the Psalm does not refer to him. For thus it is wTitten, ' The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. He shall send forth a rod of power over ^ Jerusalem, and it shall rule in the midst of Thine ^ enemies. In the splendour of the saints before the morning star have I begotten Thee. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.' Who does not admit, then, that Hezekiah is no priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek? And who does not know that he is not the redeemer of Jerusalem? And who does not know that he neither sent a rod of power into Jerusalem, nor ruled in the midst of his enemies ; but that it was God who averted from him the enemies, after he mourned and was afflicted? But our Jesus, who has not yet come in glory, has sent into Jerusalem a rod of power, namely, the word of calling and repentance [meant] for all nations over which demons held sway, as David says, ' The gods of the nations are demons.' And His strong word has prevailed on many to forsake the demons whom they used to serve, and by means of it to believe in the Almighty God because the gods of the nations are demons.^ And we mentioned formerly that the statement, ' In the splendour of the saints before the morning star have I begotten Thee from the womb,' is made to Christ.

6 en-i, but afterwards «U. Maranus thinks that irri is the insertion of some copyist.

7 Or better, " His." This quotation from Ps. ex. is jiut very differently from the previous quotation of the same Psalm in chap, xxxii. [Justin often guotes from memory. Kaye, cap. viii.]

" This last clause is thought to be an interpolation.

DIALOGUE WITH TRVPIIO.

CHAP. LXXXIV. THAT PKOPHKCY, " HEHOLD, A

VIRGIN," EIC, SUITS CHRIST ALONE.

" Moreover, the prophecy, ' Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,' was uttered respecting Him. For if He to whom Isaiah referred was not to be begotten of a virgin, of whom ' did the Holy Si)irit declare, ' iiehold, the Lord Himself shall give us a sign : behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son ? ' For if He also were to be begotten of sexual intercourse, like all other first-born sons, why did God say that He would give a sign which is not common to all the first-born sons? But that which is truly a sign, and which was to be made trustworthy to mankind, — namely, that the firstbegotten of all creation should become incarnate by the Virgin's womli, and l>e a child, — this he anticipated by the Spirit of prophecy, and predicted it, as I have repeated to you, in various ways ; in order that, when the event sliould take place, it might be known as the operation of the power and will of the Maker of all things ; just as Eve was made from one of Adam's ribs, and as all living' beings were created in the beginning by the word of God. But yon in these matters venture to pervert the expositions which your elders that were with Ptolemy king of Egypt gave forth, since you assert that the Scripture is not so as they have expounded it, but says, ' Behold, the young woman shall conceive,' as if great events were to be inferred if a woman should beget from sexual intercourse : which indeed all young women, with the exception of the barren, do ; but even these, God, if He wills, is able to cause [to bear]. For Samuel's mother, who was barren, brought forth by the will of God; and so also the wife of the holy patriarch Abraham; and Elisabeth, who bore John the Baptist, and other such. So that you must not suppose that it is impossible for God to do anything He wills. And esi)ecially when it was predic<^^ed that this would take place, do not venture to pervert or misinterpret the prophecies, since you will injure yourselves alone, and will not harm God.

CHAP. LXXXV. HE PROVES THAT CHRIST IS THE

HIS AUTHORITY OVER DEMONS.

" Moreover, some of you venture to expound the prophecy which runs, ' Lift up your gates, ye rulers; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, that the King of glory may enter,' ^ as if it referred likewise to Hezekiah, and others of you [expound it] of Solomon ; but neither to the latter nor to the former, nor, in short, to any of your kings, can it be proved to have refer-

ence, but to this our Christ alone, who appeared without comeliness, and inglorious, as Isaiah and David and all the Scriptures said ; who is the Lord of hosts, by the will of theVather who conferred on Him [the dignity] ; who also rose from the dead, and ascended' to heaven, as the Psalm and the other Scriptures manifested when they announced Him to be Lord of hosts; and of this you may, if you will, easily be persuaded by the occurrences which take place before your eyes. For every demon, when exorcised in the name of this very Son of God — who is the Firstborn of every creature, who became man by the Virgin, who suffered, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate by your nation, who died, who rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven — is overcome and subdued. But though you exorcise any demon in the name of any of those who were amongst you — either kings, or righteous men, or prophets, or patriarchs — it will not be subject to you. But if any of you exorcise it in [the name of] the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, it will perhaps be subject to you. Now assuredly your exorcists, I have said,3 make use of craft when they exorcise, even as the Gentiles do, and employ fumigations and incantations.-* But that they are angels and powers whom the word of prophecy by David [commands] to lift up the gates, that He who rose from the dead, Jesus Christ, the Lord of hosts, according to the will of the Father, might enter, the word of Da\id has likewise showed ; which I shall again recall to your attention for the sake of those who were not with us yesterday, for whose benefit, moreover, I sum up many things I said yesterday. And now, if I say this to you, although I have repeated it many times, I know that it is not absurd so to do. For it is a ridiculous thing to see the sun, and the moon, and the other stars, continually keeping the same course, and bringing round the different seasons ; and to see the computer who may be asked how many are twice two, because he has frequently said that they are four, not ceasing to say again that they are four ; and eijually so other things, which are confidently admitted, to be continually mentioned and admitted in like manner; yet that he who founds his discourse on the prophetic Scriptures should leave them and abstain from constantly referring to the same Scriptures, because it is thought he can bring forth something better than Scripture. The passage, then, by which I ])roved that God reveals .that there are both angels and hosts in heaven is this : ' Praise

3 Chap. Ixxvi.

4 KaTa&ea^oi, by some thought to be verses by which evil spirits, once expelled, were kept from returning. Plato (/?<•/.) speaks of incantations by which demons were summoned to the help of those who practised such rites ; but Justin refers to them only as being expelled. Others regard them as drugs.

the Lord from the heavens : praise Him in the highest. Praise Him, all His angels : praise

Then one of those who had come with them on the second day, whose name was Mnaseas, said, " We are greatly pleased that you undertake to repeat the same things on our account."

And I said, " Listen, my friends, to the Scripture which induces me to act thus. Jesus commanded [us] to love even [our] enemies, as was predicted by Isaiah in many passages, in which also is contained the mystery of our own regeneration, as well, in fact, as the regeneration of all who expect that Christ will appear in Jerusalem, and by their works endeavour earnestly to please Him. These are the words spoken by Isaiah : ' Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word. Say, our brethren, to them that hate you and detest you, that the name of the Lord has been glorified. He has appeared to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple,- a voice of the Lord who rendereth recompense to the proud. Before she that travailed brought forth, and before the pains of labour came, she brought forth a male child. Who hath heard such a thing? and who hath seen such a thing ? has the earth brought forth in one day? and has she produced a nation at once? for Zion has travailed and borne her children. But I have given such an expectation even to her that does not bring forth, said the Lord. Behold, I have made her that begetteth, and her that is barren, saith the Lord. Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and hold a joyous assembly, all ye that love her. Be glad, all ye that mourn for her, that ye may suck and be filled with the breast of her consolation, that having suck ye may be delighted with the entrance of His

CHAP. LXXXVI. THERE ARE VARIOUS FIGURES IN

CROSS BY WHICH CHRIST REIGNED.

And when I had quoted this, I added, " Hear, then, how this Man, of whom the Scriptures declare that He will come again in glory after His crucifixion, was symbolized both by the tree of life, which was said to have been planted in paradise, and by those events which should happen to all the just. Moses was sent with a rod to effect the redemption of the people ; and with this in his hands at the head of the people, he divided the sea. By this he saw the water gushing out of the rock ; and when he cast a tree into the waters of Marah, which were bitter, he

Tatian, concerning angels and demons, are valuable aids to the understanding of Justin in his frequent references to tliis subject.]

- In both Mss. " people."

made them sweet. Jacob, by putting rods into the water-troughs, caused the sheep of his uncle to conceive, so that he should obtain their young. With his rod the same Jacob boasts that he had crossed the river. He said he had seen a ladder, and the Scripture has declared that God stood above it. But that this was not the Father, we have proved from the Scriptures. And Jacob, having poured oil on a stone in the same place, is testified to by the very God who appeared to him, that he had anointed a pillar to the God who appeared to him. And that the stone symbolically proclaimed Christ, we have also proved by many Scriptures ; and that the unguent, whether it was of oil, or of skicte,^ or of any other coi'jfipounded sweet balsams, had reference to Hijfn, we have also proved,5 inasmuch as the word says : ' Therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.' ^ For indeed all kings and anointed persons obtained from Him their share in the names of kings and anointed : just as He Himself received from the Father the titles of King, and Christ, and Priest, and Angel, and such like other titles which H§ bears or did bear. Aaron's rod, which blossomed, declared him to be the high priest. Isaiah prophesied that a rod would come forth from the root of Jesse, [and this was] Christ. And David says that the righteous man is ' like the tree that is planted by the channels of waters, which should yield its fruit in its season, and whose leaf should not fade.' 7 Again, the righteous is said to flourish like the palm-tree. God appeared from a tree to Abraham, as it is written, near the oak in Mamre. The people found seventy willows and twelve springs after crossing the Jordan.'^ David affirms that God comforted him with a rod and staff. Elisha, by casting a stick 9 into the river Jordan, recovered the iron part of the axe with which the sons of the prophets had gone to cut down trees to build the house in which they wished to read and study the law and commandments of God ; even as our Christ, by being crucified on the tree, and by purifying [us] with water, has redeemed us, though plunged in the direst offences which we have committed, and has made [us] a house of prayer and adoration. Moreover, it was a rod that pointed out Judah to be the father of Tamar's sons by a great mystery."

CttkP. LXXXVII. TRYPHO MAINTAINS IN OBJECTION

ETC. THEY ARE EXPLAINED BY JUSTIN.

Hereupon Trypho, after I had spoken these

-t [Nlyrrh. Christ the (Anointed) Rock is also referred to by

5 In chap. Ixiii. probably, where the same Psalm is quoted.

9 Literally, " a tree."

words, said, " Do not now suppose that I am endeavouring, by asking what I do ask, to overturn the statements you have made ; but I wish to receive information respecting those very points about which I now in<iuire. Tell me, then, how, when the ScriiJture asserts by Isaiah, ' There shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse ; and a flower shall grow up from the root of Jesse ; and the Spirit of God shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and piety : and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him : ' ' (now you admitted to me," continued he, " that this referred to Christ, and you maintain Him to be pre-existent God, and having become incarnate by God's will, to be born man by the Virgin :) how He can be demonstrated to have been pre-existent, who is filled with the powers of the Holy Ghost, which the Scripture by Isaiah enumerates, as if He were in lack of them?" Then I replied, " You have inquired most discreetly and most prudently, for truly there does seem to be a difficulty ; but listen to what I say, that you may perceive the reason of this also. The Scripture says that these enumerated powers of the Spirit have come on Him, not because He stood in need of them, but because they would rest in Him, i.e., would find their accomplishment in Him, so that there would be no more prophets in your nation after the ancient custom : and this fact you plainly perceive. For after Him no prophet has arisen among you. Now, that [you may know that] your prophets, each receiving some one or two powers from God, did and spoke the things which we have learned from the Scriptures, attend to the following remarks of mine. Solomon possessed the spirit of wisdom, Daniel that of understanding and counsel, Moses that of might and piety, Elijah that of fear, and Isaiah that of knowledge ; and so with the others : each possessed one power, or one joined alternately with another ; also Jeremiah, and the twelve [prophets], and David, and, in short, the rest who existed amongst you. Accordingly He ^ rested, i.e., ceased, when He came, after whom, in the times of this dispensation wrought out by Him amongst men,^ it was requisite that such gifts should cease from you ; and having received their rest in Hmi, should again, as had been predicted, become gifts which, from the grace of His Spirit's power, He imparts to those who believe in Him, according as He deems each man worthy thereof. I have already said, and do again say, that it had been prophesied that this would be done by Him after His ascension to heaven. It is accordingly said,'* ' He ascended

2 He, that is, the Spirit. The following " He" is Christ.

3 Or, " wrought out amongst His people." So Otto. * Literally, " He said accordinrlv." Ps. Ixviii. 18.

on high, He led captivity captive. He gave gifts unto the .sons of men.' And again, in another prophecy it is said : ' And it shall come to pass after this, I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and on My servants, and on My handmaids, and they shall prophesy.' 5

CH.AP. LXXXVIII. CHRIST H.\S NOT RECF.rVED THE

HOLY SPIRIT ON ACCOUNT OF POVERTY.

" Now, it is possible to see amongst us women and men who possess gifts of the Spirit of God ; so that it was prophesied that the powers enumerated by Isaiah would come upon Him, not because He needed power, but because these would not continue after Him. And let this be a proof to you, namely, what I told you was done by the Magi from Arabia, who as soon as the Child wa-s born came to worship Him, for even at His birth He was in possession of His power ; and as He grew up like all other men, by using the fitting means, He assigned its own [re(iuirements] to each development, and was sustained by all kinds of nourishment, and waited for thirty years, more or less, until John appeared before Him as the herald of His approach, and preceded Him in the way of baptism, as I have already shown. And then, when Jesus had gone to the river Jordan, where John was baptizing, and when He had stepped into the water, a fire ^^ was kindled in the Jordan ; and when He came out of the water, the Holy Ghost lighted on Him like a dove, [as] the apostles of this very Christ of ours wrote. Now, we know that he did not go to the river because He stood in need of baptism, or of the descent of the Spirit like a dove ; even as He submitted to be born and to be crucified, not because He needed such things, but because of the human race, which from Adam had fallen under the power of death and the guile of the serpent, and each one of which had committed personal transgression. For God, wishing both angels and men, who were endowed with freewill, and at their own disposal, to do whatever He had strengthened each to do, made them so, that if they chose the things acceptable to Himself, He would keep them free from death and from punishment ; but that if they did evil, He would punish each as He sees fit. For it was not His entrance into Jerusalem sitting on an ass, which we have showed was prophesied, that empowered Him to be Christ, but it furnished men with a proof that He is the Christ; just as it was necessary in the time of John that men have

6 [The Skecliinah probably attended the descent of the Holy Spirit, and what fdlows in the note seems a gratuitous explanaticjn The Ebionite corruption of a truth need not be resorted to. See chap, cxxviii: The fire in the bush.] Justin learned this either from tradition or from apocryphal books. Mention is made of a fire both in the Ebionite Gospel and in another publication called Pauli ^rccdicatio, the readers and users of which denied that the rite of baptism had been duly performed, unless quant mox in aguam descenderuHt,statim super aguam tgiiz's appareat.

proof, that they might know who is Christ. For when John remained ' by the Jordan, and preached the baptism of repentance, wearing only a leathern girdle and a vesture made of camels' hair, eating nothing but locusts and wild honey, men supposed him to be Christ ; but he cried to them, ' I am not the Christ, but the voice of one crying ; for He that is stronger than I shall come, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.' ^ And when Jesus came to the Jordan, He was considered to be the son of Joseph the carpenter; and He appeared without comeliness, as the Scriptures declared ; and He was deemed a carpenter (for He was in the habit of working as a carpenter when among men, making ploughs and yokes ; by which He taught the symbols of righteousness and an active life) ; but then the Holy Ghost, and for man's sake, as I formerly stated, lighted on Him in the form of a dove, and there came at the same instant from the heavens a voice, which was uttered also by David when he spoke, personating Christ, what the Father would say to Him : ' Thou art My Son : this day have I begotten Thee ; ' ^ [the Father] saying that His generation would take place for men, at the time when they would become acquainted with Him : ' Thou art My Son ; this day have I begotten

CHAP. LXXXIX. THE CROSS ALONE IS OFFENSIVE

TO TRYPHO ON ACCOUNT OF THE CURSE, YET IT PROVES THAT JESUS IS CHRIST.

Then Trypho remarked, " Be assured that all our nation waits for Christ ; and we admit that all the Scriptures which you have quoted refer to Him. Moreover, I do also admit that the name of Jesus, by which the the son of Nave (Nun) was called, has inclined me very strongly to adopt this view. But whether Christ should be so shamefully crucified, this we are in doubt about. For whosoever is crucified is said in the law to be accursed, so that I am exceedingly incredulous on this point. It is quite clear, indeed, that the Scriptures announce that Christ had to suffer ; but wewish to learn if you can prove it to us whether it was by the suffering cursed in the law."

I replied to him, " If Christ was not to suffer, and the prophets had not foretold that He would be led to death on account of the sins of the people, and be dishonoured and scourged, and reckoned among the transgressors, and as a sheep be led to the slaughter, whose generation, the prophet says, no man can declare, then you would have good cause to wonder. But if these are to be characteristic of Him and mark Him out to all, how is it possible for us to do anything else

' Literally, " sat."

The repetition seems quite superfluous.

than believe in Him most confidently? And will not as many as have understood the writings of the prophets, whenever they hear merely that He was crucified, say that this is He and no other?"

CHAP. XC. — THE STRETCHED-OUT HANDS OF MOSES SIGNIFIED BEFOREHAND THE CROSS.

"Bring us on, then," said [Trypho], "by the Scriptures, that we may also be persuaded by you ; for we know that He should suffer and be led as a sheep. But prove to us whether He must be crucified and die so disgracefully and so dishonourably by the death cursed in the law.5 For we cannot bring ourselves even to think of this."

"You know," said I, " that what the prophets said and did they veiled by parables and types, as you admitted to us ; so that it was not easy for all to understand the most [of what they said], since they concealed the truth by these means, that those who are eager to find out and learn it might do so with much labour."

They answered, " We admitted this."

"Listen, therefore," say I, "to what follows; for Moses first exhibited this seeming curse of Christ's by the signs which he made."

" Of what [signs] do you speak?" said he.

"When the people," replied I, "waged war with Amalek, and the son of Nave (Nun) by name Jesus (Joshua), led the fight, Moses himself prayed to God, stretching out both hands, and Hur with Aaron supported them during the whole day, so that they might not hang down when he got wearied. For if he gave up any part of this sign, which was an imitation of the cross, the people were beaten, as is recorded in the writings of Moses ; but if he remained in this form, Amalek was proportionally defeated, and he who prevailed prevailed by the cross. For it was not because Moses so prayed that the people were stronger, but because, while one who bore the name of Jesus (Joshua) was in the forefront of the battle, he himself made the sign of the cross. For who of you knows not that the prayer of one who accompanies it with lamentation and tears, with the body prostrate, or with bended knees, propitiates God most of all ? But in such a manner neither he nor any other one, while sitting on a stone, prayed. Nor even the stone symbolized Christ, as I have shown.

CHAP. XCI. — THE CROSS WAS FORETOLD IN THE r.LESSINGS OF JOSEPH, .AND IN THE SERPENT THAT WAS LIFTED UP.

" And God by Moses shows in another way the force of the mystery of the cross, when He said in the blessing wherewith Joseph was blessed,

S [This intense abhorrence of the cross made it worth while to show that these similitudes existed under the law. They were ad hominein appeals, and suited to Jewish modes of thought.]

' From the blessing of the Lord is his land ; for the seasons of heaven, and for the dews, and for th^ deep springs from beneath^>jind for the seasonable fruits of the sun," and for the coming together of the months, and for the heights of the everlasting mountains, and for the heights of the hills, and for the ever-flowing rivers, and for the fruits of the fatness of the earth ; and let the things accepted by Him who appeared in the bush come on the head and crown of Joseph. Let him be glorified among his brethren ; ^ his beauty is [like] the firstling of a bullock ; his horns the horns of an unicorn : with these shall he push the nations from one end of the earth to another.' ^ Now, no one could say or prove that the horns of an unicorn represent any other fact or figure than the t)'pe which portrays the cross. For the one beam is placed upright, from which the highest extremity is raised up into a horn, when the other beam is fitted on to it, and the ends appear on both sides as horns joined on to the one horn. And the part which is fixed in the centre, on which are suspended those who are crucified, also stands out like a horn ; and it also looks like a horn conjoined and fixed with the other horns. And the expression, ' With these shall he push as with horns the nations from one end of the earth to another,' is indicative of what is now the fact among all the nations. For some out of all the nations, through the power of this mystery, having been so pushed, that is, pricked in their hearts, have turned from vain idols and demons to serve God. But the same figure is revealed for the destruction and condemnation of the unbelievers ; even as Amalek was defeated and Israel victorious when the people came out of Egypt, by means of the type of the stretching out of Moses' hands, and the name of Jesus (Joshua), by which the son of Nave (Nun) was called. And it seems that the type and sign, which was erected to counteract the serpents which bit Israel, was intended for the salvation of those who believe that death was declared to come thereafter on the serpent through Him that would be crucified, but salvation to those who had been bitten by him and had betaken themselves to Him that sent His Son into the world to be crucified.^ For the Spirit of prophecy by JSIoses did not teach us to believe in the serpent, since it shows us that he was cursed by God from the beginning ; and in Isaiah tells us that he shall be put to death as an enemy by the mighty sword, which is Christ.

1 There is a variety of reading here: either djSucraou rr-qyioi' KOLTuiOev KaOapiiv ', or, afivcraov nrjyuiv Ka.Tuitid', Kal Ka.9' uipav yevvrjuaTiuv, k.t.A., which we prefer.

2 The translation in the text is a rendering of the Septiiagint. The MSS. of Justin read: " Being glorified as the first-born among his brethren. "

[A clumsy exposition of St. John, iii. 14.]

CHAP, XCII, UNLESS THE SCRIPTURES BE UNDER- STOOD THROUGH god's GREAT GRACE, GOD WILL NOT APPEAR TO HAVE TAUGHT ALWAYS THE SAME

" Unless, therefore, a man by God's great grace receives the power to understand what has been said and done by the prophets, the appearance of being able to repeat the words or the deeds will not profit him, if he cannot explain the argument of them. And will they not assuredly appear contemptible to many, since they are related by those who understood them not ? For if one should wish to ask you why, since Enoch, Noah with his sons, and all others in similar circumstances, who neither were circumcised nor kept the Sabbath, pleased God, God demanded by other leaders, and by the giving of the law after the lapse of so many generations, that those who lived between the times of Abraham and of Moses be justified by circumcision, and that those who lived after Closes be justified by circumcision and the other ordinances — to wit, the Sabbath, and sacrifices, and libations,5 and offerings ; [God will be slandered] unless you show, as I have already said, that God who foreknew was aware that your nation would deserve expulsion from Jenisalcm, and that none would be permitted to enter into it. (For^ you are not distinguished in any other way than by the fleshly circumcision, as I remarked previously. For Abraham was declared by God to be righteous, not on account of circumcision, but on account of faith. For before he was circumcised the following statement was made regarding him : ' Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.' ? And we, therefore, in the uncircumcision of our flesh, believing God through Christ, and having that circumcision which is of advantage to us who have acquired it — namely, that of the heart — we hope to appear righteous before and well-pleasing to Ciod : since already we have received His testimony through the words of the prophets.) [.\nd, further, God will be slandered unless }ou show] that you were commanded to obser\-e the Sabbath, and to present offerings, and that the Lord submitted to have a place called by the name of (iod, in order that, as has been said, you might not become impious and godless by worshipping idols and forgetting God, as indeed you do always appear to have been. (Now, that God enjoined the ordinances of Sabbaths and offerings for these reasons, I have proved in what I previously remarked ; but for the sake of those who came to-day, I

5 Or, " ashes," {jTroSuiv for anoiSiov.

6 Wc have adopted the parenthesis inserted by IMaranus. Langus would insert before it, n efcTc anoKpivaaSai.; " What will you have to answer ? "

wish to repeat nearly the whole.) For if this is not the case, God will be slandered,' as having no foreknowledge, and as not teaching all men to know and to do the same acts of righteousness (for many generations of men appear to have existed before Moses) ; and the Scripture is not true which affirms that ' God is true and righteous, and all His ways are judgments, and there is no unrighteousness in him.' But since the Scripture is true, God is always willing that such even as you be neither foolish nor lovers of yourselves, in order that you may obtain the salvation of Christ,^ who pleased God, and received testimony from Him, as I have already said, by alleging proof from the holy words of prophecy.

CHAP. XCIII. — THE SAME KIND OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS BESTOWED ON ALL. CHRIST COMPREHENDS IT IN TWO PRECEPTS.

" For [God] sets before every race of mankind that which is always and universally just, as well as all righteousness ; and every race knows that adultery, and fornication, and homicide,^ and such like, are sinful ; and though they all commit such practices, yet they do not escape from the knowledge that they act unrighteously whenever they so do, with the exception of those who are possessed with an unclean spirit, and who have been debased by education, by wicked customs, and by sinful institutions, and who have lost, or rather quenched and put under, their natural ideas. For we may see that such persons are unwilling to submit to the same things which they inflict upon others, and reproach each other with hostile consciences for the acts which they perpetrate. And hence I think that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ spoke well when He summed up all righteousness and piety in two commandments. They are these : ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbour as thyself.' '^ For the man who loves God with all the heart, and with all the strength, being filled with a God-fearing mind, will reverence no other god ; and since God wishes it, he would reverence that angel who is beloved by the same Lord and God. And the man who loves his neighbour as himself will wish for him the same good things that he wishes for himself, and no man will wish evil things for himself. Accordingly, he who loves his neighbour would pray and labour that his neighbour may be possessed of the same benefits as himself Now nothing else is neighbour to man than that similarlyaffectioned and reasonable being — man. There-

' We have supplied this phrase twice above.

2 Literally, salvation along with Christ, that is, salvation by the aid of Christ.

3 av5po)i.avLa. is read in MSS. for a.v&po<i>ovi*..

fore, since all righteousness is divided into two branches, namely, in so far as it regards God and men, whoever, says the Scripture, loves the Lord God with all the heart, and all the strength, and his neighbour as himself, would be truly a righteous man. But you were never shown to be possessed of friendship or love either towards God, or towards the prophets, or towards yourselves, but, as is evident, you are ever found to be idolaters and murderers of righteous men, so that you laid hands even on Christ Himself ; and to this very day you abide in your wickedness, execrating those who prove that this man who was crucified by you is the Christ. Nay, more than this, you suppose that He was crucified as hostile to and cursed by God, which supj)osition is the product of your most irrational mind. For though you have the means of understanding that this man is Christ from the signs given by Moses, yet you will not ; but, in addition, fancying that we can have no arguments, you put whatever question comes into your minds, while you yourselves are at a loss for arguments whenever you meet with some firmly established Christian.

CHAP. XCIV. IN WH.AT SENSE HE WHO HANGS ON

A TREE IS CURSED.

" For tell me, was it not God who commanded by Moses that no image or likeness of anything which was in heaven above or which was on the earth should be made, and yet who caused the brazen serpent to be made by Moses in the wilderness, and set it up for a sign by which those bitten by serpents were saved ? Yet is He free from unrighteousness. For by this, as I previously remarked, He proclaimed the mystery, by which He declared that He would break the power of the serpent which occasioned the transgression of Adam, and [would bring] to them that believe on Him [who was foreshadowed] by this sign, i.e.. Him who was to be crucified, salvation from the fangs of the serpent, which are wicked deeds, idolatries, and other unrighteous acts. Unless the matter be so understood, give me a reason why Moses set up the brazen serpent for a sign, and bade those that were bitten gaze at it, and the wounded were healed ; and this, too, when he had himself commanded that no likeness of anything whatsoever should be made."

On this, another of those who came on the second day said, " You have spoken truly : we cannot give a reason. For I have frequently interrogated the teachers about this matter, and none of them gave me a reason : therefore continue what you are speaking ; for we are paying attention while you unfold the mystery, on account of which the doctrines of the prophets are falsely slandered."

Then I replied, "Just as God commanded the sign to be made by the brazen serpent, and yet He is blameless ; even so, though a curse lies in the law against persons who are crucified, yet no curse lies on the Christ of God, by whom all that have committed things worthy of a curse are saved.'

CHAP. XCV. — CHRIST TOOK UPON HLMSELF THE CURSE DUE TO US.

" For the whole human race will be found to be under a curse. For it is written in the law of Moses, ' Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.' ^ And no one has accurately done all, nor will you venture to deny this ; but some more and some less than others have observed the ordinances enjoined. But if those who are under this law appear to be under a curse for not having observed all the requirements, how much more shall all the nations appear to be under a curse who practise idolatry, who seduce youths, and commit other crimes? If, then, the Father of all wished His Christ for the whole human family to take upon Him the curses of all, knowing that, after He had been crucified and was dead, He would raise Him up, why do you argue about Him, who submitted to suffer these things according to the Father's will, as if He were accursed, and do not rather bewail yourselves? For although His Father caused Him to suffer these things in behalf of the human family, yet you did not commit the deed as in obedience to the will of God. For you did not practise piety when you slew the prophets. And let none of you say : If His Father wished Him to suffer this, in order that by His stripes the human race might be healed, we have done no wrong. If, indeed, you repent of your sins, and recognise Him to be Christ, and observe His commandments, then you may assert this ; for, as I have said before, remission of sins shall be yours. But if you curse Him and them that believe on Him, and, when you have the power, put them to death, how is it possible that requisition shall not be made of you, as of unrighteous and sinful men, altogether hard-hearted and without understanding, because you laid your hands on Him ?

CHAP. XCVI. — THAT CURSE WAS A PREDICTION OF THE THINGS WHICH THE JEWS WOULD DO.

" For the statement in the law, ' Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,' ^ confirms our hope which depends on the crucified Christ, not because He who has been crucified is cursed by God, but because God foretold that which would

be done by you all, and by those like to you, who do not know * that this is He who existed before all, who is the eternal Priest of God, and King, and Christ. And you clearly see that this has come to pass. For you curse in your synagogues all those who are called 5 from Him Christians ; and other nations effectively carry out the curse, putting to death those who simply confess themselves to be Christians ; to all of whom we say, You are our brethren ; rather recognise the truth of God. And while neither they nor you are persuaded by us, but strive earnestly to cause us to deny the name of Christ, we choose rather and submit to death, in the full assurance that all the good which God has promised through Christ He will reward us with. And in addition to all this we pray for you, that Christ may have mercy upon you. For He taught us to pray for our enemies also, saying, ' Love your enemies ; be kind and merciful, as your heavenly Father is.' ^ For we see that the Almighty God is kind and merciful, causing His sun to rise on the unthankful and on the righteous, and sending rain on the holy and on the wicked ; all of whom He has taught us He will judge.

CHAP. XCVII. — OTHER PREDICTIONS OF THE CROSS

" For it was not without design that the prophet Moses, when Hur and Aaron upheld his hands, remained in this form until evening. For indeed the Lord remained upon the tree almost until evening, and they buried Him at eventide ; then on the third day He rose again. This was declared by David thus : ' With my voice I cried to the Lord, and He heard me out of His holy hill. I laid me down, and slept ; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me.' -' And Isaiah likewise mentions concerning Him the manner in which He would die, thus : ' I have spread out My hands unto a people disobedient, and gainsaying, that walk in a way which is not good.' ^ And that He would rise again, Isaiah himself said : ' His burial has been taken away from the midst, and I will give the rich for His death.' ^ And again, in other words, Uavid in the twenty-first '° Psalm thus refers to the suffering and to the cross in a parable of mystery : ' They pierced my hands and my feet ; they counted all my bones. They considered and gazed on me : they parted my garments among themselves, and cast lots upon my vesture.' For when they crucified Him, driving in the nails, they pierced His hands and feet ; and those who crucified Him parted

•♦ We read em<TTaij.evwv for eirKTTdfxei'Ov. Otherwise to be translated: " God foretold that which you did not know," etc.

5 Ac'yojaei'w*' for y€fOtJi^yujy,

His garments among themselves, each casting lots for what he chose to have, and receiving according to the decision of the lot. And this very Psalm you maintain does not refer to Christ ; for you are in all respects blind, and do not understand that no one in your nation who has been called King or Christ has ever had his hands or feet pierced while alive, or has died in this mysterious fashion — to wit, by the cross — save this Jesus alone.

CHAP. XCVIII. — PREDICTIONS OF CHRIST IN PS.

" I shall repeat the whole Psalm, in order that you may hear His reverence to the Father, and how He refers all things to Him, and prays to be delivered by Him from this death ; at the same time declaring in the Psalm who they are that rise up against Him, and showing that He has truly become man capable of suffering. It is as follows : ' O God, my God, attend to me : why hast Thou forsaken me ? The words of my transgressions are far from my salvation. O my God, I will cry to Thee in the day-time, and Thou wilt not hear ; and in the night-season, and it is not for want of understanding in me. But Thou, the Praise of Israel, inhabitest the holy place. Our fathers trusted in Thee ; they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee, and were delivered : they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man ; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laughed me to scorn ; they spake with the lips, they shook the head : He trusted on the Lord : let Him deliver him, let Him save him, since he desires Him. For Thou art He that took me out of the womb ; my hope from the breasts of my mother : I was cast upon Thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly : be not far from me, for trouble is near ; for there is none to help. Many calves have compassed me ; fat bulls have beset me round. They opened their mouth upon me, as a ravening and roaring lion. All my bones are poured out and dispersed like water. My heart has become like wax melting in the midst of my belly. My strength is dried up like a potsherd ; and my tongue has cleaved to my throat ; and Thou hast brought me into the clust of death. For many dogs have surrounded me ; the assembly of the wicked have beset me round. They pierced my hands and my feet, they did tell all my bones. They did look and stare upon me ; they parted my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. But do not Thou remove Thine assistance from me, O Lord : give heed to help me ; deliver my soul from the sword, and my ' only-

' Probably should be " Thy."

begotten from the hand of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, and my humility from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare Thy name to my brethren ; in the midst of the Church will I praise Thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him : all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him. Let all the seed of Israel fear Him.' "

CHAP. XCIX. — IN THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE PSALM ARE CHRIST'S DYING WORDS.

And when I had said these words, I continued : " Now I will demonstrate to you that the whole Psalm refers thus to Christ, by the words which I shall again explain. What is said at first — ' O God, my God, attend to me : why hast Thou forsaken me ? ' — announced from the beginning that which was to be said in the time of Christ. For when crucified, He spake : ' O God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ? ' And what follows : ' The words of my transgressions are far from my salvation. O my God, I will cry to Thee in the day-time, and Thou wilt not hear ; and in the night-season, and it is not for want of understanding in me.' These, as well as the things which He was to do, were spoken. For on the day on which He was to be crucified,^ having taken three of His disciples to the hill called Olivet, situated opposite to the temple in Jerusalem, He prayed in these words : ' Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.' ^ And again He prayed : " Not as 1 will, but as Thou wilt ; ' ^ showing by this that He had become truly a suffering man. But lest any one should say, He did not know then that He had to suffer. He adds immediately in the Psalm : ' And it is not for want of understanding in me.' Even as there was no ignorance on God's part when He asked Adam where he was, or asked Cain where Abel was ; but [it was done] to convince each what kind of man he was, and in order that through the record [of Scripture] we might have a knowledge of all : so likewise Christ declared that ignorance was not on His side, but on theirs, who thought that He was not the Christ, but fancied they would put Him to death, and that He, like some common mortal, would remain in Hades.

CHAP. C. IN WHAT SENSE CHRIST IS [cALLED]

" Then what follows — ' But Thou, the praise of Israel, inhabitest the holy place ' — declared that He is to do something worthy of praise and wonderment, being about to rise again from the dead on the third day after the crucifixion ; and this He has obtained from the Father. For I

2 [Jewish computation of the evening as part of the succeeding day.]

4 Ibid.

have showed already that Christ is called both Jacob and Israel ; and I have proved that it is not in the blessing of Joseph and Judah alone that what relates to Him was proclaimed mysteriously, but also in the Gospel it is written that He said : ' All things are delivered unto me by My Father ; ' and, ' No man knoweth the Father but the Son ; nor the Son but the Father, and they to whom the Son will reveal Him.' ' Accordingly He revealed to us all that we have perceived by His grace out of the Scriptures, so that we know Him to be the first-begotten of God, and to be before all creatures ; likewise to be the Son of the patriarchs, since He assumed flesh by the Virgin of their family, and submitted to become a man without comeliness, dishonoured, and subject to suffering. Hence, also, among His words He said, when He was discoursing about His future sufferings : ' The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the Pharisees and Scril)es, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.'- He said then that He was the Son of man, either because of His birth by the Virgin, who was, as I said, of the family of David,^ and Jacob, and Isaac, and i\.braham ; or because Adam ■♦ was the father both of Himself and of those who have been first enumerated from whom Mary derives her descent. For we know that the fathers of women are the fathers likewise of those children whom their daughters bear. For [Christ] called one of His disciples — previously known by the name of Simon — Peter ; since he recognised Him to be Christ the Son of God, by the revelation of His Father : and since we find it recorded in the memoirs of His apostles that He is the Son of God, and since we call Him the Son, we have understood that He proceeded before all creatures from the Father by His power and will (for He is addressed in the writings of the prophets in one way or another as Wisdom, and the Day,5 and the East, and a Sword, and a Stone, and a Rod, and Jacob, and Israel) ; and that He became man by the Virgin, in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent might receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when the angel

3 [Note this testimony to Mary's descent from David.]

The text is, avTov TOf ' A^paafx warepa. Thirlby proposed avTov Tou 'ASaix'. Maranus changed this into ax/Tov tov 'Afiafi irarepa,

S It is not easy, says Maranus, to say in what Scripture Christ is so called. [Clearly he refers to the Ilayspring (St. Luke, ii. 78) as the LXX. render many texts of the O. T. Sec Zech. iii. 8.] Perhaps Justin had in his mind the passage, " This is the day which the Lord hath made" (Ps. cxviii. 24). Clem. Alex, teaches that Christ is here referred to.

Gabriel announced the good tidings to her that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her, and the power of the Highest would overshadow her : wherefore also the Holy Thing begotten of her is the Son of God ; ^ and she replied, ' Be it unto me according to thy word.' " 7 And by her has He been born, to whom we have proved so many Scriptures refer, and by whom God destroys both the serpent and those angels and men who are like him ; but works deliverance from death to those who repent of their wickedness and beheve upon Him.

CH.\P. CL — CHRIST REFERS ALL THINGS TO THE

" Then what follows of the Psalm is this, in which He says : ' Our fathers trusted in Thee ; they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man ; a reproach of men, and despised of the people ; ' which show that He admits them to be His fathers, who trusted in God and were saved by Him, who also were the fathers of the Virgin, by whom He was born and became man ; and He foretells that He shall be saved by the same God, but boasts not in accomplishing anything through His own will or might. For when on earth He acted in the very same manner, and answered to one who addressed Him as ' Good Master : ' ' Why callest thou me good ? One is good, my Father who is in heaven.' ^ But when He says, ' I am a worm, and no man ; a reproach of men, and despised of the people,' He prophesied the things which do exist, and which happen to Him. For we who believe on Him are everywhere a reproach, ' despised of the people ; ' for, rejected and dishonoured by your nation, He suffered those indignities which you planned against Him. And the following: 'AH they that see me laughed me to scorn ; they spake with the lips, they shook the head : He trusted in the Lord ; let Him deliver him, since he desires Him ; ' this likewise He foretold should happen to Him. For they that saw Him crucified shook their heads each one of them, and distorted their lips, and twisting their noses to each other,'' they spake in mockery the words which are recorded in the memoirs of His apostles : ' He said he was the Son of God : let him come down ; let God save him.'

CHAP. CII. — THE PREDICTION OF THE EVENTS WHICH HAPPENED TO CHRIST WHEN HE WAS BORN. WHY GOD PERMITTED IT.

" And what follows — ' My hope from the

Luke xviii. iS f.

9 The text is corrupt, and the meaning doubtful. Otto translates: naribus inter se certantei.

breasts of my mother. On Thee have I been cast from the womb ; from my mother's belly Thou art my God : for there is no helper. Many calves have compassed me ; fat bulls have beset me round. They opened their mouth upon me, as a ravening and a roaring lion. All my bones are poured out and dispersed like water. My heart has become like wax melting in the midst of ray belly. My strength is become dry like a potsherd ; and my .tongue has cleaved to my throat ' — foretold what would come to pass ; for the statement, ' My hope from the breasts of my mother,' [is thus explained]. As soon as He was born in Bethlehem, as I previously remarked, king Herod, having learned from the Arabian Magi about Him, made a plot to put Him to death ; and by God's command Joseph took Him with Mary and departed into Egypt. For the Father had decreed that He whom He had begotten should be put to death, but not before He had grown to manhood, and proclaimed the word which proceeded from Him. But if any of you say to us, Could not God rather have put Herod to death ? I return answer by anticipation : Could not God have cut off in the beginning the serpent, so that he exist not, rather than have said, ' And I will put enmity between him and the woman, and between his seed and her seed ? ' ' Could He not have at once created a multitude of men? But yet, since He knew that it would be good. He created both angels and men free to do that which is righteous, and He appointed periods of time during which He knew it would be good for them to have the exercise of free-will ; and because He likewise knew it would be good, He made general and particular judgments ; each one's freedom of will, however, being guarded. Hence Scripture says the following, at the destruction of the tower, and division and alteration of tongues : ' And the Lord said. Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language ; and this they have begun to do : and now nothing will be restrained from them of all which they have attempted to do. ' ^ And the statement, ' My strength is become dry like a potsherd, and my tongue has cleaved to my throat,' was also a prophecy of what would be done by Him according to the Father's will. For the power of His strong word, by which He always confuted the Pharisees and Scribes, and, in short, all your nation's teachers that questioned Him, had a cessation like a plentiful and strong spring, the waters of which have been turned off, when He kef)t silence, and chose to return no answer to any one in the presence of Pilate ; as has been declared in the memoirs of His apostles, in

order that what is recorded by Isaiah might have efficacious fruit, where it is written, ' The Lord gives me a tongue, that I may know when I ought to speak.' ^ Again, when He said, ' Thou art my God ; be not far from me,' He taught that all men ought to hope in God who created all things, and seek salvation and help from Him alone ; and not suppose, as the rest of men do, that salvation can be obtained by birth, or wealth, or strength, or wisdom. And such have ever been your practices : at one time you made a calf, and always you have shown yourselves ungrateful, murderers of the righteous, and proud of your descent. For if the Son of God evidently states that He can be saved, [neither] ^ because He is a son, nor because He is strong or wise, but that without God He cannot be saved, even though He be sinless, as Isaiah declares in words to the effect that even in regard to His very language He committed no sin (for He committed no iniquity or guile with His mouth), how do you or others who expect to be saved without this hope, suppose that you are not deceiving yourselves ?

CHAP. cm. THE PHARISEES ARE THE BULLS : THE

ROARING LION IS HEROD OR THE DEVIL.

" Then what is next said in the Psalm — ' For trouble is near, for there is none to help me. Many calves have compassed me ; fat bulls have beset me round. They opened their mouth upon me as a ravening and roaring lion. All my bones are poured out and dispersed like water,' — was likewise a prediction of the events which happened to Him. For on that night when some of your nation, who had been sent by the Pharisees and Scribes, and teachers,^ came upon Him from the Mount ^ of Olives, those whom Scripture called butting and prematurely destructive calves surrounded Him. And the expression, ' Fat bulls have beset me round,' He spoke beforehand of those who acted similarly to the calves, when He was led before your teachers. And the Scripture described them as bulls, since we know that bulls are authors of calves' existence. As therefore the bulls are the begetters of the calves, so your teachers were the cause why their children went out to the Mount of Olives to take Him and bring Him to them. And the expression, ' For there is none to help,' is also indicative of what took place. For there was not even a single man to assist Him as an innocent person. And the expression, ' They opened their mouth upon me like a roaring lion,'

Not found in Mss.

5 Ktti Twv Si&a<TKd\u)v, adopted instead of KOTa TT)r Si.&aa-Ka\iav, " according to their instructions."

6 aTTo ToO bpov;. Justin seems to have supposed that the Jews came on Christ from some point of the hill while He was in the valley below. 'Eirl toO opous and «Jrl to opos have been suggested.

designates him who was then king of the Jews, and was called Herod, a successor of the Herod who, when Christ was born, slew all the infants in Bethlehem born about the same time, because he imagined that amongst them He would assuredly be of whom the Magi from Arabia had spoken ; for he was ignorant of the will of Him that is stronger than all, how He had commanded Joseph and Mary to take the Child and depart into Egypt, and tliere to remain until a revelation should again be made to them to return into their own country. And there they did remain until Herod, who slew the infants in Bethlehem, was dead, and Archelaus had succeeded him. And he died before Christ came to the dispensation on the cross which was given Him by His Father. And when Herod succeeded Archelaus,. having received the authority which had been allotted to him, Pilate sent to him by way of compliment Jesus bound ; and God foreknowing that this would happen, had thus spoken : 'And they brought Him to the Assyrian, a present to the king.' ' Or He meant the devil by the lion roaring against Him : whom Moses calls the serpent, but in Job and Zechariah he is called the devil, and by Jesus is addressed as Satan, showing that a compounded name was acquired by him from the deeds which he performed. For ' Sata' in the Jewish and Syrian tongue means apostate ; and ' Nas' is the word from which he is called by interpretation the serpent, i.e., according to the interpretation of the Hebrew term, from both of which there arises the single word Satanas. For this devil, when [Jesus] went up from the river Jordan, at the time when the voice spake to Him, ' Thou art my Son : this day have I begotten Thee,' ^ is recorded in the memoirs of the apostles to have come to Him and tempted Him, even so far as to say to Him, ' Worship me ; ' and Christ answered him, ' Get thee behind me, Satan : thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.' ^ For as he had deceived Adam, so he hoped ■» that he might contrive some mischief against Christ also. Moreover, the statement, ' All my bones are poured out 5 and dispersed like water ; my heart has become like wax, melting in the midst of my belly,' was a prediction of that which happened to Him on that night when men came out against Him to the Mount of Olives to seize Him. For in the memoirs which I say were drawn up by His apostles and those who followed them, [it is recorded] that His sweat fell down like drops of blood while He was praying, and saying, ' If it be possible, let this cup pass : ' ^

^ Literally, " said."

5 Maranus says it is hardly to be doubted that Justin read, " I am poured out like water," etc.

His heart and also His bones trembling ; His heart being like wax melting in His belly : ^ in order that we may perceive that the Father wished His Son really ^ to undergo such sufferings for our sakes, and may not say that He, being the Son of God, did not feel what was happening to Him and inflicted on Him. Further, the expression, ' My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue has cleaved to my throat,' was a prediction, as I previously remarked, of that silence, when He who convicted all your teachers of being unwise returned no answer at all.

CH.\P. CIV. — CIRCUMSTANCES OF CHRIST'S DE.\TH ARE PREDICTED IN THIS P.SALM.

" And the statement, ' Thou hast brought me into the dust of death ; for many dogs have surrounded me : the assembly of the wicked have beset me round. They pierced my hands and my feet. They did tell all my bones. They did look and stare upon me. They parted my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture,' — was a prediction, as I said before, of the death to which the synagogue of the wicked would condemn Him, whom He calls both dogs and hunters, declaring that those who hunted Him were both gathered together and assiduously striving to condemn Him, And this is recorded to have happened in the memoirs of His apostles. And I have shown that, after His crucifixion, they who crucified Him parted His garments among them.

CHAP. CV. THE PSALM AL.SO PREDICTS THE CRU- CIFIXION AND THE SUBJECT OF THE LAST PRAYERS OF CHRIST ON EARTH.

" And what follows of the Psalm, — ' But Thou, Lord, do not remove Thine a.ssistance from me ; give heed to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, and my ^ only-begotten from the hand of the dog ; save me from the lion's mouth, and my humility from the horns of the unicorns,' — was also information and prediction of the events which should befall Him. For I have already proved that He was the only-begotten of the Father of all things, being begotten in a peculiar manner Word and Power by Him, and having afterwards become man through the Virgin, as we have learned from the memoirs. Moreover, it is similarly foretold that He would die by crucifixion. For the passage, ' Deliver my soul from the sword, and my '° only-begotten from the hand of the dog ; save me from the lion's mouth, and my .humility from the horns of the unicorns,' is indicative of the suffering by which He should

7 [Breast, rather. The (koi'At)) cavity of the nobler viscera.']

8 Justin refers to the opinion of the Docetes, that Christ sufllered in appearance merely, and not in reality.

» See note on chap, xcviii.

die, i.e., by crucifixion. For the ' horns of the unicorns,' I have aheady explained to you, are the figure of the cross only. And the prayer that His soul should be saved from the sword, and lion's mouth, and hand of the dog, was a prayer that no one should take possession of His soul : so that, when we arrive at the end of life, we may ask the same petition from God, who is able to turn away every shameless evil angel from taking our souls. And that the souls survive, I have shown ' to you from the fact that the soul of Samuel was called up by the witch, as Saul demanded. And it appears also, that all tlie souls of similiar righteous men and prophets fell under the dominion of such powers, as is indeed to be inferred from the very facts in the case of that witch. Hence also God by His Son teaches ^ us for whose sake these things seem to have been done, always to strive earnestly, and at death to pray that our souls may not fall into the hands of any such power. For when Christ was giving up His spirit on the cross. He said, ' Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit,' ^ as I have learned also from the memoirs. For He exhorted His disciples to surpass the pharisaic way of living, with the warning, that if they did not, they might be sure they could not be saved ; and these words are recorded in the memoirs : ' Unless your righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' ■

CHAP. cvi. — Christ's resurrection is foretold m THE CONCLUSION OF THE PSALM.

" The remainder of the Psalm makes it manifest that He knew His Father would grant to Him all things which He asked, and would raise Him from the dead ; and that He urged all who fear God to praise Him because He had. compassion on all races of believing men, through the mystery of Him who was crucified ; and that He stood in the midst of His brethren the apostles (who repented of their flight from Him when He was crucified, after He rose from the dead, and after they were persuaded by Himself that, before His passion He had mentioned to them that He must suffer these things, and that they were announced beforehand by the prophets), and when living with them sang praises to God, as is made evident in the memoirs of the apostles. The words are the following : ' I will declare Thy name to my brethren ; in the midst of the Church will I praise Thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him ; all ye, the seed of Jacob, glorify Him.

' This demonstration is not given. \\i could not be. The woman was herself frightened by the direct interposition of God. i. Sam.

2 Sylburg proposed iiicaiovs yiveadai for 5i ov<; yiv, " to strive earnestly to become righteous, and at deatli to pray."

Let all the seed of Israel fear Him.' And when it is said that He changed the name of one of the apostles to Peter ; and when it is written in the memoirs of Him that this so happened, as well as that He changed the names of other two brothers, the sons of Zebedee, to Boanerges, which means sons of thunder ; this was an announcement of the fact that it was He by whom Jacob was called Israel, and Oshea called Jesus (Joshua), under whose name the people who survived of those that came from Egypt were conducted into the land promised to the patriarchs. And that He should arise like a star from the seed of Abraham, Moses showed beforehand when he thus said, ' A star shall arise from Jacob, and a leader from Israel ; ' s and another Scripture says, ' Behold a man ; the East is His name.' ^ Accordingly, when a star rose in heaven at the time of His birth, as is recorded in the memoirs of His apostles, the Magi from Arabia, recognising the sign by this, came and worshipped Him.

CHAP. CVII. — THE SAME IS TAUGHT FROM THE HISTORY OF JONAH.

" And that He would rise again on the third day after the crucifixion, it is written ^ in the memoirs that some of your nation, questioning Him, said, ' Show us a sign ; ' and He replied to them, ' An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and no sign shall be given them, save the sign of Jonah.' And since He spoke this obscurely, it was to be understood by the audience that after His crucifixion He should rise again on the third day. And He showed that your generation was more wicked and more adulterous than the city of Nineveh ; for the latter, when Jonah preached to them, after he had been cast up on the third day from the belly of the great fish, that after three (in other versions, forty) ^ days they should all perish, proclaimed a fast of all creatures, men and beasts, with sackcloth, and with earnest lamentation, with true repentance from the heart, and turning away from unrighteousness, in the belief that God is merciful and kind to all who turn from wickedness ; so that the king of that city himself, with his nobles also, put on sackcloth and remained fasting and praying, and obtained their request that the city should not be overthrown. But when Jonah was grieved that on the (fortieth) third day, as he proclaimed, the city was not overthrown, by the dispensation of a gourd ^ springing up from the earth for him, under which he sat

8 In the LXX. only three days are recorded, though in the Hebrew and other versions yor/y. The parenthetic clause is probably the work of a transcriber.

9 Read Ki,Kvi>va fur aiKviava,

-^Dj

and was shaded from the heat (now the gourd had sprung up suddenly, and Jonah had neither planted nor watered it, but it had come up all at once to afford him shade), and by the other dispensation of its withering away, for which Jonah grieved, [God] convicted him of l)eing unjustly displeased because the city of Nineveh had not been overthrown, and said, 'Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither niadest it grow ; which came up in a night, and perished in a night. And shall I not spare Nineveh, the great city, wherein dwell more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand ; and also much cattle ? ' '

CHAP. CVIII. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST DID

NOT CONVERT THE JEWS. BUT THROUGH THE WHOLE WORLD THEY HAVE SENT MEN TO AC- CUSE CHRIST.

" And though all the men of your nation knew the incidents in the life of Jonah, and though Christ said amongst you that He would give the sign of Jonah, exhorting you to repent of your wicked deeds at least after He rose again from the dead, and to mourn before God as did the Ninevites, in order that your nation and city might not be taken and destroyed, as they have been destroyed ; yet you not only have not repented, after you learned that He rose from the dead, but, as I said before,- you have sent chosen and ordained men throughout all the world to proclaim that a godless and lawless heresy had sprung from one Jesus, a Galilcean deceiver, whom we crucified, but his disciples stole him by night from the tomb, where he was laid when unfastened from the cross, and now deceive men by asserting that he has risen from the dead and ascended to heaven. Moreover, you accuse Him of having taught those godless, lawless, and unholy doctrines which you mention to the condemnation of those who confess Him to be Christ, and a Teacher from and Son of God. Besides this, even when your city is captured, and your land ravaged, you do not repent, but dare to utter imprecations on Him and all who believe in Him. Yet we do not hate you or those who, by your means, have conceived such prejudices against us ; but we pray that even now all of you may repent and obtain mercy from God, the compassionate and long-suffering Father of all.

CHAP. CIX. THE CONVERSION OF THE GENTILES

HAS BEEN PREDICTED BY JMICAH.

" But that the Gentiles would repent of the evil in which they led erring lives, when they heard the doctrine preached by His apostles

Chap. xvii.

from Jerusalem, and which they learned ^ tlirough them, suffer me to show you by (juoting a short statement from the prophecy of Micah, one of the twelve [minor prophets]. This is as follows : ' And in the last days the mountain of the Lxjrd shall be manifest, established on the tojj of the mountains ; it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it.-» And many nations shall go, and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob ; and they shall enlighten. us in His way, and we shall walk in His paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many peoples, and shall rebuke strong nations afar off ; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles : nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. And each man shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree ; and there shall be none to terrify : for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. For all people will walk in the name of their gods ; but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will assemble her that is afflicted, and gather her that is driven out, and whom I had plagued ; and I shall make her that is afflicted a remnant, and her that is oppressed a strong nation. And the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, and even

CHAP. ex. — A PORTION OF THE PROPHEC\' AL- READY FULFILLED IN THE CHRISTIANS : THE REST SHALL BE FULFILLED AT THE SECOND ADVENT.

And when I had finished these words, I continued : " Now I am aware that your teachers, sirs, admit the whole of the words of this passage to refer to Christ ; and I am likewise aware that they maintain He has not yet come ; or if they say that He has come, they assert that it is not known who He is ; but when He shall become manifest and glorious, then it shall be known who He is. And then, they say, the events mentioned in this passage shall happen, just as if there was no fruit as yet from the words of the prophecy. O unreasoning men ! understanding not what has been pro\ed by all these passages, that two advents of Christ have been announced : the one, in which He is set forth as suffering, inglorious, dishonoured, and crucified ; but the other, in which He shall come from heaven with glory, when the man of apostasy,*^ v/ho speaks strange things against the Most

3 Read liaBovra for iraBovra.

Literally, " people shall place a river in it."

High, shall venture to do unlawful deeds on the earth against us the Christians, who, having learned the true worship of God from the law, and the word which went forth from Jerusalem by means of the apostles of Jesus, have fled for safety to the God of Jacob and God of Israel ; and we who were filled with war, and mutual slaughter, and every wickedness, have each through the whole earth changed our warlike weapons, — our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into implements of tillage, — and we cultivate piety, righteousness, philanthropy, faith, and hope, which we have from the Father Himself through Him who was crucified ; and sitting each under his vine, i.e., each man possessing his own married wife. For you are aware that the prophetic word says, ' And his wife shall be like a fruitful vine.' ' Now it is evident that no one can terrify or subdue us who have believed in Jesus over all the world. For it is plain that, though beheaded, and crucified, and thrown to wild beasts, and chains, and fire, and all other kinds of torture, we do not give up our confession ; but the more such things happen, the more do others and in larger numbers become faithful, and worshippers of God through the name of Jesus. For just as if one should cut away the fruit-bearing parts of a vine, it grows up again, and yields other branches flourishing and fruitful ; even so the same thing happens with us. For the vine planted by God and Christ the Saviour is His people. But the rest of the prophecy shall be fulfilled at His second coming. For the expression, ' He that is afflicted [and driven out],' i.e., from the Avorld, [implies] that, so far as you and all other men have it in your power, each Christian has been driven out not only from his own property, but even from the whole world ; for you permit no Christian to live. But you say that the same fate has befallen your own nation. Now, if you have been cast out after defeat in battle, you have suffered such treatment justly indeed, as all the Scriptures bear witness ; but we, though we have done no such [evil acts] after we knew the truth of God, are testified to by God, that, together with the most righteous, and only spotless and sinless Christ, we are taken away out of the earth. For Isaiah cries, ' Behold how the righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart ; and righteous men are taken away, and no man considers it.' ^

CH.'VP. CXI. — THE TWO ADVENTS WERE SIGNIFIED BY THE TWO GOATS. OTHER FIGURES OF THE FIRST ADVENT, IN WHICH THE GENTILES ARE FREED BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST.

" And that it was declared by symbol, even in the time of Moses, that there would be two ad-

vents of this Christ, as I have mentioned previously, [is manifest] from the symbol of the goats presented for sacrifice during the fast. And again, by what Moses and Joshua did, the same thing was symbolically announced and told beforehand. For the one of them, stretching out his hands, remained till evening on the hill, his hands being supported ; and this reveals a type of no other thing than of the cross : and the other, whose name was altered to Jesus (Joshua), led the fight, and Israel conquered. Now this took place in the case of both those holy men and prophets of God, that you may perceive how one of them could not bear up both the mysteries : I mean, the type of the cross and the type of the name. For this is, was, and shall be the strength of Him alone, whose name every power dreads, being very much tormented because they shall be destroyed by Him. Therefore our suffering and crucified Christ was not cursed by the law, but made it manifest that He alone would save those who do not depart from His faith. And the blood of the passover, sprinkled on each man's doorposts and lintel, delivered those who were saved in Egypt, when the first-born of the Egyptians were destroyed. For the passover was Christ, who was afterwards sacrificed, as also Isaiah said, ' He was led as a sheep to the slaughter.' ^ And it is written, that on the day of the passover you seized Him, and that also during the passover you crucified Him. And as the blood of the passover saved those who were in Egypt, so also the blood of Christ will deliver from death those who have believed. Would God, then, have been deceived if this sign had not been above the doors ? I do not say that ; but I affirm that He announced beforehand the future salvation for the human race through the blood of Christ. For the sign of the scarlet thread, which the spies, sent to Jericho by Joshua, son of Nave (Nun), gave to Rahab the harlot, telling her to bind it to the window through which she let them down to escape from their enemies, also manifested the symbol of the blood of Christ, by which those who were at one time harlots and unrighteous persons out of all nations are saved, receiving remission of sins, and continuing no longer in sin.

CHAP. CXII. THE JEWS EXPOUND THESE SIGNS

JEJUNELY AND FEEBLY, AND TAKE UP THEIR ATTENTION ONLY WITH INSIGNIFICANT MATTERS.

" But you, expounding these things in a low [and earthly] manner, impute much weakness to God, if you thus listen to them merely, and do not investigate the force of the words spoken. Since even Moses would in this way be con-

sidered a transgressor : for he enjoined that no Hkeness of anything in heaven, or on earth, or ,n the sea, be made ; and then he himself made a brazen serpent and set it on a standard, and bade those who were bitten look at it : and they were saved when they looked at it. Will the serpent, then, which (I have already said) God had in the beginning cursed and cut off by the great sword, as Isaiah says,' be understood as having preserved at that time the people ? and shall we receive these things in the foolish acceptation of your teachers, and [regard] them not as signs? And shall we not rather refer the standard to the resemblance of the crucified Jesus, since also Moses by his outstretched hands, together with him who was named Jesus (Joshua), achieved a victory for your people? For in tills way we shall cease to be at a loss about the things which the lawgiver did, when he, witliout forsaking God, persuaded the people to hope in a beast through which transgression and disobedience had their origin. ' And this was done and said by the blessed prophet with much intelligence and mystery ; and there is nothing said or done by any one of the prophets, "without exception, which one can justly reprehend, if he possess the knowledge which is in them. But if your teachers only expound to you why female camels are spoken of in this passage, and are not in that ; or why so many measures of fine flour and so many measures of oil [are used] in the offerings ; and do so in a low and sordid manner, while they never venture either to speak of or to expound the points which are great and worthy of investigation, or command you to give no audience to us while we expound them, and to come not into conversation with us ; will they not deserve to hear what our Lord Jesus Christ said to them : 'Whited sepulchres, which appear beautiful outward, and within are full of dead men's bones ; which pay tithe of mint, and swallow a camel : ye blind guides ! ' ^ If, then, you will not despise the doctrines of those who exalt themselves and wish to be called Rabbi, Rabbi, and come with such earnestness and intelligence to the words of prophecy as to suffer the same inflictions from your own people which the prophets themselves did, you cannot receive any advantage whatsoever from the prophetic writings.

CHAP. CXIII. JOSHUA WAS A FIGURE OF CHRIST.

"What I mean is this. Jesus (Joshua), as I have now frequently remarked, who was called Oshea, when he was sent to spy out the land of Canaan, was named by Moses Jesus (Joshua).

rabbinical expositions. He consents to their principle, but gives nobler analogies.]

Why he did this you neither ask, nor are at a loss about it, nor make strict inquiries. Therefore Christ has escaped your notice ; and though you read, you understand not ; and even now, though you hear that Jesus is our Christ, you consider not that the name was bestowed on Him not purposelessly nor by chance. But you make a theological discussion as to why one ' a ' was added to Abraham's first name ; and as to why one * p ' was added to Sarah's name, you use similar high-sounding disputations.^ But why do you not similarly investigate the reason why the name of Oshea the son of Nave (Nun), which his father gave him, was changed to Jesus (Joshua) ? But since not only was his name altered, but he was also appointed successor to Moses, being the only one of his contemporaries who came out from Eg}'pt, he led the surviving people into the Holy Land ; and as he, not Moses, led the people into the Holy Land, and as he distributed it by lot to those who entered along with him, so also Jesus the Christ will turn again the dispersion of the people, and will distribute the good land to each one, though not in the same manner. For the former gave them a temporary inheritance, seeing he was neither Christ who is God, nor the Son of God ; but the latter, after the holy resurrection,-* shall give us the eternal possession. The former, after he had been named Jesus (Joshua), and after he had received strength from His Spirit, caused the sun to stand still. For I have proved that it was Jesus who appeared to and conversed with Moses, and Abraham, and all the other patriarchs without exception, ministering to the will of the Father ; who also, I say, came to be born man by the Virgin Mary, and lives for ever. For the latter is He after 5 whom and by whom the Father will renew both the heaven and the earth ; this is He who shall shine an eternal light in Jerusalem ; this is he who is the king of Salem after the order of Melchizedek, and the eternal Priest of the Most High. The former is said to have circumcised the people a second time with knives of stone (which was a sign of this circumcision with which Jesus Christ Himself has circumcised us from the idols made of stone and of other materials), and to have collected together those who were circumcised from the uncircumcision, i.e., from the error of the world, in every place by the knives of stone, to wit, the words of our Lord Jesus. For I have shown that Christ was proclaimed by the pro])hets in parables a Stone and a Rock. Accordingly, the knives of stone we shall take to mean His words, by means of

3 According to the LXX., ^dpa was altered to 2oppo, and "A/Span to 'AjSpao^i.

Or, " resurrection of the saints."

S Justin seems to mean that the renewal of heaven and earth dates from the incarnation of Christ. [St. Matt. xix. 28.]

which so many who were in error have been circumcised from uncircumcision with the circumcision of the heart, with which God by Jesus commanded those from that time to be circumcised who derived their circumcision from Abraham, saying that Jesus (Joshua) would circumcise a second time with knives of stone those who entered into that holy land.

CHAP. CXIV. SOME RULES FOR DISCERNING

WHAT IS SAID ABOUT CHRIST. THE CIRCUMCIS- ION OF THE JEWS IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM THAT WHICH CHRISTIANS RECEIVE.

" For the Holy Spirit sometimes brought about that something, which was the type of the future, should be done clearly ; sometimes He uttered words about what was to take place, as if it was then taking place, or had taken place. And unless those who read perceive this art, they will not be able to follow the words of the prophets as they ought. For example's sake, I shall repeat some prophetic passages, that you may understand what I say. When He speaks by Isaiah, ' He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before the shearer,' ' He speaks as if the suffering had already taken place. And when He says again, ' I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people ; ' ^ and when He says, ' Lord, who hath believed our report ? ' ^ — the words are spoken as if announcing events which had already come to pass. For I have shown that Christ is oftentimes called a Stone in parable, and in figurative speech Jacob and Israel. And again, when He says, ' I shall behold the heavens, the works of Thy fingers,' ■* unless I understand His method of using words, 5 I shall not understand intelligently, but just as your teachers suppose, fancying that the Father of all, the unbegotten God, has hands and feet, and fingers, and a soul, like a composite being ; and they for this reason teach that it was the Father Himself who appeared to Abraham and to Jacob. Blessed therefore are we who have been circumcised the second time with knives of stone. For your first circumcision was and is performed by iron instruments, for you remain hard-hearted ; but our circumcision, which is the second, having been instituted after yours, circunjpises us from idolatry and from absolutely every kind of wickedness by sharp stones, i.e., by the words [preached] by the ajwstles of the corner-stone cut out without hands. And our hearts are thus circumcised from evil, so that we

S Literally, " the operation of His words." Editors have changed Tutv Xoyiav into fov Aoyoi' or toO Aoyov: but there is no need of char)ge.

are happy to die for the name of the good Rock, which causes living water to burst forth for the hearts of those who by Him have loved the Father of all, and which gives those who are willing to drink of the water of life. But you do not comprehend me when I speak these things ; for you have not understood what it has been prophesied that Christ would do, and you do not believe us who draw your attention to what has been written. For Jeremiah thus cries : ' Woe unto you ! because you have forsaken the living fountain, and have digged for yourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. .Shall there be a wilderness where Mount Zion is, because I gave Jerusalem a bill of divorce in your sight ? ' ^

CHAP. CXV. PREDICTION ABOUT THE CHRISTIANS

IN ZECHARIAH. THE MALIGNANT WAY WHICH THE JEWS HAVE IN DISPUTATIONS.

" But you ought to believe Zechariah when he shows in parable the mystery of Christ, and announces it obscurely. The following are his words : ' Rejoice, and be glad, O daughter of Zion : for, lo, I come, and I shall dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be added to the Lord in that day. And they shall be my people, and I will dwell in the midst of thee ; and they shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee. And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and He shall choose Jerusalem again. Let all flesh fear before the Lord, for He is raised up out of His holy clouds. And He showed me Jesus (Joshua) the high priest standing before the angel [of the Lord ?] ; and the devil stood at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said to the devil. The Lord who hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Behold, is not this a brand

As Trypho was about to reply and contradict me, I said, " Wait and hear what I say first : for I am not to give the explanation which you suppose, as if there had been no priest of the name of Joshua (Jesus) in the land of Babylon, where your nation were prisoners. But even if I did, I have shown that if there 9 was a priest named Joshua (Jesus) in your nation, yet the prophet had not seen him in his revelation, just as he had not seen either the devil or the angel of the Lord by eyesight, and in his waking condition, but in a trance, at the time when the revelation was made to him.'° But I now say, that as [Scripture] said that the Son of Nave (Nun) by the name Jesus (Joshua) wrought powerful works and exploits which proclaimed beforehand what would be performed by our Lord ; so I proceed now to show

7 Omitted by Justin in this place.

9 The reading suggested by Maranus, €1 fi-iv jji/. '° [Noteworthy as to prophetic vision.]

DIALOGUE WITH TRVPIIO.

that the revelation made among your people in Babylon in the days of Jesus (Joshua) the priest, was an announcement of the things to be accomplished by our Priest, who is God, and Christ the Son of God the Father of all.

" Indeed, I wondered," continued I, " why a little ago you kept silence while I was speaking, and why you did not interru[jt me when I said that the son of Nave (Nun) was the only one of contemporaries who came out of Egypt that entered the Holy Land along with the men described as younger than that generation. For you swarm and liglit on sores like flies. For though one should speak ten thousand words well, if there happen to be one little word displeasing to you, because not sufficiently intelligible or accurate, you make no account of the many good words, but lay hold of the little word, and are very zealous in setting it up as something impious and guilty ; in order that, when you are judged with the very same judgment by God, you may have a much heavier account to render for your great audacities, whether evil actions, or bad interpretations which you obtain by falsifying the truth. For with what judgment you judge, it is righteous that you be judged withal.

CHAP. CXVI. — IT IS SHOWTSf HOW THIS PROPHECY SUITS THE CHRISTIANS.

" But to give you the account of the revelation of the holy Jesus Christ, I take up again my discourse, and I assert that even that revelation was made for us who believe on Christ the High Priest, namely this crucified One ; and though we lived in fornication and all kinds of filthy conversation, we have by the grace of our Jesus, according to His Father's will, stripped ourselves of all those filthy wickednesses with which we were imbued. And though the devil is ever at hand to resi^^t us, and anxious to seduce all to himself, yet the Angel of God, i.e., the Power of God sent to us through Jesus Christ, rebukes him, and he departs from us. And we are just as if drawn out from the fire, when purified from our former sins, and [rescued] from the affliction and the fiery trial by which the devil and all his coadjutors try us ; out of which Jesus the Son of God has promised again to deliver us,' and invest us witii prepared garments, if we do His commandments ; and has undertaken to provide an eternal kingdom [for us]. For just as that Jesus (Joshua), called by the prophet a priest, evidently had on filthy garments because he is said to have taken a harlot for a wife,^ and is called a

' Maranus changed airoCTTra into aTTOcTTrdi', an emendation adopted in our translation. Otto retains the reading of the MS., " out of which Jesus the Son of God again snatches us. He promised that He would clothe us with," etc.

2 Justin either confuses Joshua son of Josedech with Hosca the prophet, or he refers to the Jewish tradition that " filthy garments " signified either an illicit marriage, or sins of the people, or the squalor of captivity.

brand plucked out of the fire, because he had received remission of sins when the devil that resisted him was rebuked ; even so we, who through the name of Jesus have believed as one man in God the Maker of all, have been strii)ped, through the name of His first-begotten Son, of the filthy garments, i.e., of our sins ; and being vehemently inflamed by the word of His calling, we are the true high priesdy race of God, as even (iod Himself bears witness, saying that in every place among the Gentiles sacrifices are presented to Him well-pleasing and pure. Now (iod receives sacrifices from no one, except through His priests.^

CHAP. CXVII. — MAL-ACHI'S PROPHECY CONCERXTXG THE .SACRIFICES OF THE CHRISTIANS. IT CANNOT BE TAKEN AS REFERRING TO THE PRAYERS OF JEWS OF THE DISPERSION.

" Accordingly, God, anticipating all the sacrifices which we offer through this name, and which Jesus the Christ enjoined us to offer, i.e., in the Eucharist of the bread and the cup, and which are presented by Christians in all places throughout the world, bears witness that they are well-pleasing to Him. But He utterly rejects those presented by you and by those priests of yours, saying, ' And I will not accept your sacrifices at your hands ; for from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is glorified among the Gentiles (He says) ; but ye profane it.' * Yet even now, in your love of contention, you assert that God does not accept the sacrifices of those who dwelt then in Jerusalem, and were called Israelites ; but says that He is pleased with the prayers of the individuals of that nation then dispersed, and calls their prayers sacrifices. Now, that prayers and giving of thanks, when offered by worthy men, are the only perfect and wellpleasing sacrifices to God, I also admit. For such alone Christians have undertaken to offer, and in the remembrance effected by their solid and liquid food, wherebv the suffering of the Son of Gods which He endured is brought to mind, whose name the high priests of your nation and your teachers ha\'e caused to be profaned and blasphemed over all the earth. But these filthy garments, which have been put by you on all who have become Christians by the name of Jesus, God shows shall be taken away from us, when He shall raise all men from the dead, and appoint some to be incorruptible, immortal, and free Ironi sorrow in the everlasting and imperishable kingdom ; but shall send others away to the everlasting punishment of fire. But as to you and your teachers deceiving yourselves when you interpret what the Scripture says as referring to

those of your nation then in dispersion, and maintain that their prayers and sacrifices offered in every place are pure and well-pleasing, learn that you are speaking falsely, and trying by all means to cheat yourselves : for, first of all, not even now does your nation extend from the rising to the setting of the sun, but there are nations among which none of your race ever dwelt. For there is not one single race of men, whether barbarians, or Greeks, or whatever they may be called, nomads, or vagrants, or herdsmen living in tents, among whom prayers and giving of thanks are not offered through the name of the crucified Jesus.' And then,^ as the Scriptures show, at the time when Malachi wrote this, your dispersion over all the earth, which now exists, had not taken place.

CHAP. CXVIII. HE EXHORTS TO REPENTANCE BE- FORE CHRIST COMES ; IN WHOM CHRISTIANS, SINCE THEY BELIEVE, ARE FAR MORE RELIGIOUS THAN JEWS.

" So that you ought rather to desist from the love of strife, and repent before the great day of judgment come, wherein all those of your tribes who have pierced this Christ shall mourn, as I have shown has been' declared by the Scriptures. And I have explained that the Lord swore, ' after the order of Melchizedek,' ^ and what this prediction means ; and the prophecy of Isaiah which says, ' His burial is taken away from the midst,'-* I have already said, referred to the future burying and rising again of Christ ; and I have frequently remarked that this very Christ is the Judge of all the living and the dead. And Nathan hkewise, speaking to David about Him, thus continued : 'I will be His Father, and He shall be my Son ; and my mercy shall I not take away from Him, as I did from them that went before Him ; and I will establish Him in my house, and in His kingdom for ever.' s And Ezekiel says, ' There shall be no other prince in the house but He.' ^ For He is the chosen Priest and eternal King, the Christ, inasmuch as He is the Son of God ; and do not suppose that Isaiah or the other prophets speak of sacrifices of blood or libations being presented at the altar on His second advent, but of true and spiritual praises and giving of thanks. And we have not in vain believed in Him, and have not been led astray by those who taught us such doctrines ; but this has come to pass through the wonderful foreknowledge of God, in order that we, through the calling of the new and eternal covenant, that

' [Note this testimony to the catholicity of the Church in the second century. And see Kaye (compare with Gibbon), cap. vi. 112.]

2 ftra Si for eiSoTCi.

is, of Christ, might be found more intelligent and God-fearing than yourselves, who are considered to be lovers of God and men of understanding, but are not. Isaiah, filled with admiration of this, said : ' And kings shall shut their mouths : for those to whom no announcement has been made in regard to Him 7 shall see ; and those who heard not shall understand. Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ? ' ^

" And in repeating this,^ Tr^'pho," I continued, " as far as is allowable, I endeavour to do so for the sake of those who came with you to-day, yet briefly and concisely."

Then he replied, " You do well ; and though you repeat the same things at considerable length, be assured that I and my companions listen with pleasure."

CHAP. CXIX. CHRISTIANS ARE THE HOLY PEOPLE

CALLED LIKE ABRAHAM.

Then 1 said again, " Would you suppose, sirs, that we could ever have understqod these matters in the Scriptures, if we had not received grace to discern by the will of Him whose pleasure it was ? in order that the saying of Moses '° might come to pass, ' They provoked me with strange [gods], they pro\'oked me to anger with their abominations. They sacrificed to demons whom they knew not ; new gods that came newly up, whom their fathers knew not. Thou hast forsaken God that begat thee, and forgotten God that brought thee up. And the Lord saw, and was jealous, and was provoked to anger by reason of the rage of His sons and daughters : and He said, I will turn My face away from them, and I will show what shall come on them at the last ; for it is a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God, they have provoked Me to anger with their idols ; and I will move them to jealousy with that which is not a nation, I will provoke them to anger with a foolish people. For a fire is kindled from Mine anger, and it shall burn to Hades. It shall consume the earth and her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains ; I will heap mischief on them.'" And after that Righteous One was put to death, we flourished as another people, and shot forth as new and prosperous corn ; as the projihets said, ' And many nations shall betake themselves to the Lord in that day for a people : and they shall dwell in the midst of all the earth.' " But we are not

7 The Mss. read " them." Otto has changed it to " Him."

9 [Let this apology be noted.]

'° l.iterally, " in the time of Moses."

only a i)eople, but also a holy people, as we have shown already.' ' And they shall call them the holy people, redeemed by the Lord.'- Therefore we are not a people to be despised, nor a barbarous race, nor such as the Carian and Phrygian nations ; but Ciod has even chosen us, and He has become manifest to those who asked not after Him. ' Behold, I am God,' He says, ' to the nation which called not on My name.' ^ For this is that nation which God of old promised to Abraham, when He declared that He would make him a father of many nations ; not meaning, however, the Arabians, or Egyptians, or Idumreans, since Ishmael became the father of a mighty nation, and so did Esau ; and there is now a great multitude of Ammonites. Noah, moreover, was the father of Abraham, and in fact of all men ; and others were the progenitors of others. What larger measure of grace, then, did Christ bestow on Abraham ? This, namely, that He called him with His voice by the like calling, telling him to quit the land wherein he dwelt. And He has called all of us by that voice, and we have left already the way of living in which we used to spend our days, passing our time in evil after the fashions of the other inhabitants of the earth ; and along with Abraham we shall inherit the holy land, when we shall receive the inheritance for an endless eternity, being children of Abraham through the like faith. For as he believed the voice of God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness, in like manner we, having believed God's voice spoken by the apostles of Christ, and promulgated to us by the prophets, have renounced even to death all the things of the world. Accordingly, He promises to him a nation of similar faith. God-fearing, righteous, and delighting the Father; but it is not you, ' in whom is no faith.'

CHAP. CXX. CHRISTIANS WERE PROMISED TO

ISAAC, JACOB, AND JUDAH,

"Observe, too, how the same promises are made to Isaac and to Jacob. For thus He speaks to Isaac : ' And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.'-* And to Jacob : ' And in thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed.' s He says that neither to Esau nor to Reuben, nor to any other ; only to those of whom the Christ should arise, according to the dispensation, through the Virgin Mary. But if you would consider the blessing of Judah, you would perceive what I say. For the seed is divided from Jacob, and comes down through Judah, and Phares, and Jesse, and David. And this was a symbol of the fact that some of your

■ See chap. ex.

nation would be found children of Abraham, and found, too, in the lot of Christ ; but that others, who are indeed children of Abraham, would be like the sand on the sea-shore, barren and fruitless, much in (juantity, and without number indeed, but bearing no .fruit whatever, and only drinking the water of the sea. And a vast multitude in your nation are convicted of being of this kind, imbibing doctrines of bitterness and godlessness, but spurning the word of God. He speaks therefore in the passage relating to Judah : * A prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a ruler from his thighs, till that which is laid up for him come ; and He shall be the expectation of the nations.' ^^ And it is plain that this was spoken not of Judah, but of Christ. For all we out of all nations do expect not Judah, but Jesus, who led your fathers out of Egypt. For the prophecy referred even to the advent of Christ : ' Till He come for whom this is laid up, and He shall be the expectation of nations.' Jesus came, therefore, as we have shown at length, and is expected again to appear above the clouds ; whose name you profane, and labour hard to get it profaned over all the earth. It were possible for me, sirs," I continued, "to contend against you about the reading which you so interpret, saying it is written, 'Till the things laid up for Him come;' though the Seventy have not so explained it, but thus, ' Till He comes for whom this is laid up.' But since what follows indicates that the reference is to Christ (for it is, 'and He shall be the expectation of nations'), I do not proceed to have a mere verbal controversy with you, as I have not attempted to establish proof about Christ from the passages of Scripture which are not admitted by you,^ which I quoted from the words of Jeremiah the prophet, and Esdras, and David ; but from those which are even now admitted by you, which had your teachers comprehended, be well assured they would have deleted them, as they did those about the death of Isaiah, whom you sawed asunder with a wooden saw. And this was a mysterious t}'pe of Christ being about to cut your nation in two, and to raise those worthy of the honour to the everlasting kingdom along with the holy patriarchs and prophets ; but He has said that He will send others to the condemnation of the unquenchable fire along with similar disobedient and impenitent men from all the nations. ' For they shall come,' He said, ' from the west and from the east, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven ; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.' ^ And I have mentioned

7 [Note this important point. ment.J

He forbears to cite the New Tssta-

these things, taking nothing whatever into consideration, except the si)eaking of the truth, and refusing to be coerced by an)^ one, even though I should be forthwith torn in pieces by you. For I gave no thought to any of my people, that is, the Samaritans, when I had a communication in writing with Caesar,' but stated that they were wrong in trusting to the magician Simon of their own nation, who, they say, is God above all power, and authority, and might."

CHAP. CXXI. — FROM THE FACT' THAT THE GEN- TILES BELIEVE IN JESUS, IT IS EVIDENT THAT HE IS CHRIST.

And as they kept silence, I went on : " [The Scripture], speaking by David about this Christ, m\' friends, said no longer that ' in His seed ' the nations should be blessed, but ' in Him.' So it is here : ' His name shall rise up for ever above the sun ; and in Him shall all nations be blessed.' ^ But if all nations are blessed in Christ, and we of all nations believe in Him, then He is indeed the Christ, and we are those blessed by Him. God formerly gave the sun as an object of worship,^ as it is written, but no one ever was seen to endure death on account of his faith in the sun ; but for the name of Jesus you may see men of every nation who have endured and do endure all sufferings, rather than deny Him. For the word of His truth and wisdom is more ardent and more light-giving than the rays of the sun, and sinks down into the depths of heart and mind. Hence also the vScripture said, ' His name shall rise up above the sun.' And again, Zechariah says, ' His name is the East.' + And speaking of the same, he says that ' each tribe shall mourn.' = But if He so shone forth and was so mighty in His first advent (which was without honour and comeliness, and very contemptible), that in no nation He is unknown, and everywhere men have repented of the old wickedness in each nation's way of living, so that even demons were subject to His name, and all powers and kingdoms feared His name more than they feared all the dead, shall He not on His glorious advent destroy by all means all those who hated Him, and who unrighteously departed from Him, but give rest to His own, rewarding them with all they have looked for? To us, therefore, it has been granted to hear, and to understand, and to be saved by this Christ, and to recognise all the [truths revealed] by the Father, ^^'herefore He said to Him : ' It is a great thing for Thee to be called my servant, to raise u]) the tribes of Jacob, and turn again the dispersed of Israel. I have

appointed Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be their salvation unto the end of the earth.' ^

CHAP. CXXII. THE JEWS UNDERSTAND THIS OF

THE PROSELYTES WITHOUT REASON.

" You think that these words refer to the stranger ^ and the proselytes, but in fact they refer to us who have been illumined by Jesus. For Christ would have borne witness even to them ; but now you are become twofold more the children of hell, as He said Himself. "* Therefore what was written by the prophets was spoken not of those persons, but of us, concerning whom the Scripture speaks : * I will lead the blind by a way which they knew not ; and they shall walk in paths which they have not known. And I am witness, saith the Lord Gpd, and my servant whom I have chosen.' ^ To whom, then, does Christ bear witness? Manifestly to those who have believed. But the proselytes not only do not believe, but twofold more than yourselves blaspheme His name, and wish to torture and put to death us who believe in Him ; for in all points they strive to be like you. And again in other words He cries : ' I the Lord have called Thee in righteousness, and will hold Thine hand, and will strengthen Thee, and will give Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out the prisoners from their bonds.' '° These words, indeed, sirs, refer also to Christ, and concern the enlightened nations ; or will you say again, He speaks to them of the law and the proselytes? "

Then some of those who had come on the second day cried out as if they had been in a theatre, " But what ? does He not refer to the law, and to those illumined by it? Now these are proselytes."

" No," I said, looking towards Trj^^ho, " since, if the law were able to enlighten the nations and those who possess it, what need is there of a new covenant? But since God announced beforehand that He would send a new covenant, and an everlasting law and commandment, we will not understand this of the old law and its proselytes, but of Christ and His proselytes, namely us Gentiles, whom He has illumined, as He says somewhere : ' Thus saith the Lord, In an accei)table time have I heard Thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped Thee, and I have gi\'en Thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, and to inherit the deserted.' " What, then, is Christ's inheritance? Is it not the nations ? What is the covenant of God ? Is it not

ii. chap. XV.

■ The Apolngy, i. chap, xxvi

3 So Justin concludes from Dent. iv. 19; comp. chap. Iv. [The ex-

Juftin

anation is not very difficult (see Rom. i. 28), but the language of

unguarded.]

Christ ? As He says in another place : ' Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.' •

CHAP. CXXIII. — RIDICULOUS INTERPRETATIONS OF THE JEWS. CHRISTIANS ARE THE TRUE ISRAEL.

" As, therefore, all these latter prophecies refer to Christ and the nations, you should believe that the former refer to Him and them in like manner. For the proselytes have no need of a co\enant, if, since there is one and the same law imposed on all that are circumcised, the Scripture speaks about them thus : ' And the stranger shall also be joined with them, and shall be joined to the house of Jacob ; ' ^ and because the proselyte, who is circumcised that he may have access to the people, becomes like one of themselves,3 while we who have been deemed worthy to be called a people are yet Gentiles, because we have not been circumcised. Besides, it is ridiculous for you to imagine that the eyes of the proselytes are to be opened while your own are not, and that you be understood as blind and deaf while they are enlightened. And it will be still more ridiculous for you, if you say that the law has been given to the nations, but you have not known it. For you would have stood in awe of God's wrath, and would not have been lawless, wandering sons ; being much afraid of hearing God always say, ' Children in whom is no faith. And who are blind, but my servants? and deaf, but they that rule over them ? And the servants of God have been made blind. You see often, but have not observed ; your ears have been opened, and you have not heard.' •♦ Is God's commendation of you honourable ? and is God's testimony seemly for His servants? You are not ashamed though you often hear these words. You do not tremble at God's threats, for you are a people foolish and hard-hearted. ' Therefore, behold, I will proceed to remove this people,' saith the Lord ; ' and I will remove them, and destroy the wisdom of the wise, and hide the understanding of the prudent.' 5 Deservedly too : for you are neither wise nor prudent, but crafty and unscrupulous ; wise only to do evil, but utterly incompetent to know the hidden covuisel of God, or the faithful covenant of the Lord, or to find out the everlasting paths. ' Therefore, sailh the Lord, I will raise up to Israel and to Judah the seed of men and the seed of beasts.' '^ And by Isaiah He speaks thus concerning another Israel : ' In that day shall there be a third Israel among

3 Literally, " a native of the land."

the Assyrians and tlie E^gyptians, blessed in the land which the Lord of Sabaoth hath blessed, saying, blessed shall my people in Kgypt and in Assyria be, and Israel mine inheritance.' 7 Since then God blesses this people, and calls them Israel, and declares them to be His inheritiuice, how is it that you repent not of the deception you practise on yourselves, a.s if you alone were the Israel, and of execrating the people whom (iod has blessed? For when He speaks to Jerusalem and its environs, He thus added: 'And I will beget men upon you, even my people Israel ; and they shall inherit you, and you shall be a possession for them ; and you shall be no longer bereaved of

" What, then?" says Trypho ; "are you Israel ? and speaks He such things of you?"

" If, indeed," I replied to him, " we had not entered into a lengthy ^ discussion on these topics, I might have doubted whether you ask this question in ignorance ; but since we have brought the matter to a conclusion by demonstration and with your assent, I do not believe that you are ignorant of what I have just said, or desire again mere contention, but that you are urging me to exhibit the same proof to these men." And in compliance with the assent expressed in his eyes, I continued : " Again in Isaiah, if you have ears to hear it, God, speaking of Christ in parable, calls Him Jacob and Israel. He speaks thus : ' Jacob is my servant, I will uphold Him ; Israel is mine elect, I will put my Spirit upon Him, and He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall any one hear His voice in the street : a bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench ; but He shall bring forth judgment to truth : He shall shine, '° and shall not be broken till He have set judgment on the earth. And in His name shall the Gentiles trust.' " As therefore from the one man Jacob, who was surnamed Israel, all your nation has been called Jacob and Israel ; so we from Christ, who begat us unto Ciod, like Jacob, and Israel, and Judah, and Joseph, and David, are called and are the true sons of God, and keep the commandments

CHAP. CXXIV. — CHRISTI.A.NS ARE THE SONS OF GOD.

And when I saw that they were perturbed because I said that we are the sons of Gotl, I anticipated their questioning, and said, " Listen, sirs, how the Holy Ghost speaks of this people, saying that they are all sons of the Highest ; and how this very Christ will be present in their assembly, rendering judgment to all men. The

9 [I cannot forbear to note this " Americanism " in the text.]

10 LXX. dyaAoifn/fti, as above. The reading of the text is ai-aA./iei.

words are spoken l)y David, and are, according to your version of them, thus : ' God standeth in the congregation of gods ; He judgeth among the gods. How long do ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Judge for the orphan and the poor, and do justice to the humble and needy. Deliver the needy, and save the poor out of tiie hand of the wicked. They know not, neither have they understood ; they walk on in darkness : all the foundations of the earth shall be shaken. I said, Ye are gods, and are all children of the Most High. But ye die like men, and fall like one of the princes. Arise, O God ! judge the earth, for Thou shalt inherit all nations.' ' But in the version of the Seventy it is written, ' Behold, ye die like men, and fall Hke one of the princes,' ^ in order to manifest the disobedience of men, — I mean of Adam and Eve, — and the fall of one of the princes, i.e., of him who was called the serpent, who fell with a great overthrow, because he deceived Eve. But as my discourse is not intended to touch on this point, but to prove to you that the Holy Ghost reproaches men because they were made like God, free from suffering and death, provided that they kept His commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His sons, and yet they, becoming like Adam and Eve, work out death for themselves ; let the interpretation of the Psalm be held just as you wish, yet thereby it is demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming " gods," and of having power to become sons of the Highest ; and shall be each by himself judged and condemned like Adam and Eve. Now I have proved at length that Christ is called God.

CHAP. CXXV. HE EXPLAINS WHAT FORCE THE

WORD ISRAEL HAS, AND HOW IT SUITS CHRIST.

" I wish, sirs," I said, " to learn from you what is the force of the name Israel." And as they were silent, I continued : " I shall tell you what I know k for I do not think it right, when I know, not to speak ; or, suspecting that you do know, and yet from envy or from voluntary ignorance deceive yourselves, ^ to be continually solicitous ; but I speak all things simply and candidly, as my Lord said : ' A sower went forth to sow the seed ; and some fell by the wayside, and some among thorns, and some on stony ground, and some on good ground.' * I must speak, then, in the hope of finding good ground somewhere ; since that Lord of mine, as One strong and powerful, comes to demand back His own from all, and will not

2 In the text there is certainly no distinction jjiven. But if we read <i? avOpui-nos (WMi3\, "as a man," in the first quotation wc shall be able to follow Justin's argument.

^ The reading here is (Triaraaai auTcit, which is generally abandoned for anmai' eavTOvi.

condemn His steward if He recognises that he, by the knowledge that the Lord is powerful and has come to demand His own, has given it to every bank, and has not digged for any cause whatsoever. Accordingly the name Israel signifies this, A man who overcomes power ; for /sra is a man overcoming, and ^/ is power.s And that Christ would act so when He became man was foretold by the mystery of Jacob's wrestling with Him who appeared to him, in that He ministered to the will of the Father, yet nevertheless is God, in that He is the first-begotten of all creatures. For when He became man, as I previously remarked, the devil came to Him — i.e., that power which is called the serpent and Satan — tempting Him, and striving to effect His downfall by asking Him to worship him. But He destroyed and overthrew the devil, having proved him to be wicked, in that, he asked to be worshipped as God, contrary to the Scripture ; who is an apostate from the will of God. For He answers him, ' It is written. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.' ^ Then, overcome and convicted, the devil departed at that time. But since our Christ was to be numbed, i.e., by pain and experience of suffering, He made a previous intimation of this by touching Jacob's thigh, and causing it to shrink. But Israel was His name from the beginning, to which He altered the name of the blessed Jacob when He blessed him with His own name, proclaiming thereby that all who through Him have fled for refuge to the Father, constitute the blessed Israel. But you, having understood none of this, and not being prepared to understand, since you are the children of Jacob after the fleshly seed, expect that you shall be assuredly«saved. But that you deceive yourselves in such matters, I have proved by many words.

CHAP. CXXVI. — THE VARIOUS NAMES OF CHRIST ACCORDING TO BOTH NATURES. IT IS SHOWN THAT HE IS GOD, AND APPEARED TO THE PA- TRIARCHS.

" But if you knew, Trypho," continued I, " who He is that is called at one time the Angel of great counsel and a Man by Ezekiel, and like the Son of man by Daniel, and a Child by Isaiah, and Christ and God to be worshipped by David, and Christ and a Stone by many, and Wisdom by Solomon, and Joseph and Judah and a Star by Moses, and the East by Zechariah, and the Suffering One and Jacob and Israel by Isaiah again, and a Rod, and Flower, and Corner-Stone, and Son of God, you would not have blasphemed Him who has now come, and been

S rOn Justin's Hebrew, see Kaye, p 19.]

7 [By Isaiah. " Counsellor" in English version.]

born, and suffered, and ascended to heaven ; who shall also come again, and then your twelve tribes shall mourn. For if you had understood what has been written by the prophets, you would not. have denied that He was God, Son of the only, unbegotten, unutterable God. For Moses says somewhere in Exodus the following: 'The Lord spake to Moses, and said to him, I am the Lord, and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, being their God ; and my name I revealed not to them, and I established my covenant with them.' • And thus again he says, ' A man wrestled with Jacob,' ^ and asserts it was God ; narrating that Jacob said, ' I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.' And it is recorded that he called the ])lace where He wrestled with him, appeared to and blessed him, the Face of God (Peniel). And Moses says that God appeared also to Abraham near the oak in Mamre, when he was sitting at the door of his tent at mid-day. Then he goes on to say : ' And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, three men stood before him ; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them.'^ After a little, one of them promises a son to Abraham : 'Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying. Shall I of a surety bear a child, and I am old ? Is anything impossible with God? At the time appointed I will return, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. And they went away from Abraham.' ■* Again he speaks of them thus : ' And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom.' s Then to Abraham He who was and is again speaks : ' I will not hide from Abraham, my servant, what I intend to do.' " ^ And what follows in the writings of Moses I quoted and explained ; " from which I have demonstrated," I said, "that He who is described as God appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and the other patriarchs, was appointed under the authority of the Father and Lord, and ministers to His will." Then I went on to say what I had not said before : "And so, when the people desired to eat flesh, and Moses had lost faith in Him, who also there is called the Angel, and who promised that God would give them to satiety. He who is both God and the Angel, sent by the Father, is described as saying and doing these things. For thus the Scripture says : ' And the Lord said to Moses, Will the Lord's hand not be sufficient? thou shalt know now whether my word shall conceal thee or not.' 7 And again, in other words, it thus says : ' But the Lord spake unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan : the Lord thy God,

who goeth before thy face. He shall cut off the nations.' ^

CHAP. CXXVII. THE.se PASSAGE.S OF SCRIPTURE

DO NOT APPLY TO THE FATHER, BLTT TO THE WORD.

"These and other such sayings are recorded by the lawgiver and by the prophets ; and I suppose that I have stated sufficiently, that wherever 9 God says, ' God went up from Abraham,' '° or, 'The Lord sjtake to Moses,'" and 'The Lord came down to behold the tower which the sons of men had built,' '- or when ' God shut Noah into the ark,' '^ you must not imagine that the unbegotten God Himself came down or went up from any place. For the ineffable Father and Lord of all neither has come to any place, nor walks, nor sleeps, nor rises up, but remains in His own place, wherever that is, quick to behold and quick to hear, having neither eyes nor ears, but being of indescribable might ; and He sees all things, and knows all things, and none of us escapes His observation ; and He is not moved or confined to a spot in the whole world, for He existed before the world was made. How, then, could He talk with any one, or be seen by any one, or appear on the smallest portion of the earth, when the people at Sinai were not able to look even on the glory of Him who was sent from Him ; and Moses himself could not enter into the tabernacle which he had erected, when it was filled with the glory of God ; and the priest could not endure to stand before the temple when Solomon conveyed the ark into the house in Jerusalem which he had built for it? Therefore neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor any other man, saw the Father and ineffable Lord of all, and also of Christ, but [saw] Him who was according to His will His Son, being God, and the Angel because He ministered to His will ; whom also it pleased Him to be born man by the Virgin ; who also was fire when He conversed with Moses from the bush. Since, unless we thus comprehend the Scriptures, it must follow that the Father and Lord of all had not been in heaven when what Moses wrote took place : ' And the Lord rained upon Sodom fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven ; ' '•♦ and again, when it is thus said by David : ' Lift up your gates, ye rulers ; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting gates ; and the King of glory shall enter ; ' 'S and again, when He says : 'The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.' '^

9 oTav rroi' instead of OTav /xov,

CHAP. CXXVIII. THE WORD IS SENT NOT AS AN

INANIMATE POWER, BUT AS A PERSON BEGOTTEN OF THE father's SUBSTANCE.

" And that Christ being Lord, and God the Son of God, and appearing formerly in power as Man, and Angel, and in the glory of fire as at the bush, so also was manifested at the judgment executed on Sodom, has been demonstrated fully by what has been said." Then I repeated once more all that I had previously quoted from Exodus, about the vision in the bush, and the naming of Joshua (Jesus), and continued : "And do not suppose, sirs, that I am speaking superfluously when I repeat these words frequently : but it is because I know that some wish to anticipate these remarks, and to say that the power sent from the Father of all which appeared to Moses, or to Abraham, or to Jacob, is called an Angel because He came to men (for by Him the commands of the Father have been proclaimed to men) ; is called Glory, because He appears in a vision sometimes that cannot be borne ; is called a Man, and a human being, because He appears arrayed in such forms as the Father pleases ; and they call Him the Word, because He carries tidings from the Father to men : but maintain that this power is indivisible and inseparable from the Father, just as they say that the light of the sun on earth is indivisible and inseparable from the sun in the heavens ; as when it sinks, the light sinks along with it ; so the Father, when He chooses, say they, causes His power to spring forth, and when He chooses. He makes it return to Himself. In this way, they teach. He made the angels. But it is proved that there are angels who always exist, and are never reduced to that form out of which they sprang. And that this power which the prophetic word calls God, as has been also amply demonstrated, and Angel, is not numbered [as different] in name only like the light of the sun, but is indeed something numerically distinct, I have discussed briefly in what has gone before ; when I asserted that this power was begotten from the Father, by His power and will, but not by abscission, as if the essence of the Father were divided ; as all other things partitioned and divided are not the same after as before they were divided : and, for the sake of example, I took the case of fires kindled from a fire, which we see to be distinct from it, and yet that from which many can be kindled is by no means made less, but remains the same,

CHAP. CXXIX. — that IS CONFIRMED FROM OTHER PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE,

" And now I shall again recite the words which I have spoken in proof of this point. "When Scripture says, 'The Lord rained fire from the

Lord out of heaven,' the prophetic word indicates that there were two in number : One upon the earth, who, it says, descended to behold the cry of Sodom ; Another in heaven, who also is Lord of the Lord on earth, as He is Father and God ; the cause of His power and of His being Lord and God. Again, when the Scripture records that God said in the beginning, ' Behold, Adam has become like one of Us,' ' this phrase, ' like one of Us,' is also indicative of number ; and the words do not admit of a figurative meaning, as the sophists endeavour to affix on them, who are able neither to tell nor to understand the truth. And it is written in the book of Wisdom : ' If I should tell you daily events, I would be mindful to enumerate them from the beginning. The Lord created me the beginning of Hi's ways for His works. From everlasting He established me in the beginning, before He formed the earth, and before He made the depths, and before the springs of waters came forth, before the mountains were settled ; He begets me before all the hills.' " ^ When I repeated these words, I added : " You perceive, my hearers, if you bestow attention, that the Scripture has declared that this Offspring was begotten by the Father before all things created ; and that that which is begotten is numerically distinct from that which begets, any one will admit."

CHAP. CXXX. he RETURNS TO THE CONVERSION

FORETOLD.

And when all had given assent, I said : " I would now adduce some passages which I had not recounted before. They are recorded by the faithful servant Moses in parable, and are as follows : ' Rejoice, O ye heavens, with Him, and let all the angels of God worship Him ; ' " 3 and I added what follows of the passage : " ' Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people, and let all the angels of God be strengthened in Him : for the blood of His sons He avenges, and will avenge, and will recompense His enemies with vengeance, and will recompense those that hate Him ; and the Lord will purify the land of His people.' And by these words He dec;lares that we, the nations, rejoice with His people, — to wit, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets, and, in short, all of that people who are well-pleasing to God, according to what has been already agreed on between us. But we will not receive it of all your nation ; since we know from Isaiah ^ that the members of those who have transgressed shall be consumed

by the worm and unquenchable fire, remaining immortal ; so that they become a spectacle to all flesh, liut in addition to these, I wish, sirs," said I, " to add some other passages from the very words of Moses, from which you may understand that God has from of old dispersed all men according to tlieir kindreds and tongues ; and out of all kindreds has taken to Himself your kindred, a useless, disobedient, and faithless generation ; and has shown that those who were selected out of every nation have obeyed His will through Christ, — whom He calls also Jacob, and names Israel, — and these, then, as I mentioned fully previously, must be Jacob and Israel. For when He says, ' Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people,' He allots the same inheritance to them, and does not call them by the same name ; ' but when He says that they as Gentiles rejoice with His people, He calls them Gentiles to reproach you. For even as you provoked Him to anger by your idolatry, so also He has deemed those who were idolaters worthy of knowing His will, and of inheriting His inheritance.

CHAP. CXXXI. HOW MUCH MORE FAITHFUL TO

GOD THE GENTILES ARE WHO ARE CONVERTED TO CHRIST THAN THE JEWS.

" But I shall quote the passage by which it is made known that God divided all the nations. It is as follows : ' Ask thy father, and he will show thee ; thine elders, and they will tell thee ; when the Most High divided the nations, as He dispersed the sons of Adam. He set the bounds of the nations according to the numbers of the children of Israel ; and the Lord's portion became His people Jacob, and Israel was the lot of His inheritance.' " ^ And having said this, I added : " The Seventy have translated it, ' He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.' But because my argument is again in nowise weakened by this, I have adopted your exposition. And you yourselves, if you will confess the truth, must acknowledge that we, who have been called by God through the despised and shameful mystery of the cross (for the confession of which, and obedience to which, and for our piety, punishments even to death have been inflicted on us by demons, and by the host-of the devil, through the aid ministered to them by you), and endure all torments rather than deny Christ even by word, through whom we are called to the salvation prepared beforehand by the Father, are more faithful to God than you, who were redeemed from Egypt with a high hand and a visi-

' The reading is, " and calls them by the same name." But the whole argument shows that the Jews and Gentiles are distinguished by name. [Hut that Gentiles are also called (Israel) by the same name is the point here.]

tation of great glory, when the sea was parted for you, and a passage left dry, in which [God] slew those who pursued you with a very great equipment, and splendid chariots, bringing back upon them the sea which had been made a way for your sakes ; on whom also a pillar of light shone, in order that you, more than any other nation in the world, might possess a peculiar light, never-failing and never-setting ; for whom He rained manna as nourishment, fit for the heavenly angels, in order that you might have no need to prepare your food ; and the water at Marah was made sweet ; and a sign of Him that was to be crucified was made, both in the matter of the serpents which bit you, as I already mentioned (God anticipating before the proper times these mysteries, in order to confer grace upon you, to whom you are always convicted of being thankless), as well as in the type of the e.xtending of the hands of Moses, and of Oshea being named Jesus (Joshua) ; when you fought against Amalek : concerning which God enjoined that the incident be recorded, and the name of Jesus laid up in your understandings ; saying that this is He who would blot out the memorial of Amalek from under heaven. Now it is clear that the memorial of Amalek remained after the son of Nave (Nun) : but He makes it manifest through Jesus, who was crucified, of whom also those symbols were fore-announcements of all that would happen to Him, the demons would be destroyed, and would dread His name, and that all principalities and kingdoms would fear Him ; and that they who believe in Him out of all nations would be shown as God-fearing and peaceful men ; and the facts already quoted by me, Trypho, indicate this. Again, Avhen you desired flesh, so vast a quantity of quails was given you, that they could not be told; for whom also water gushed from the rock ; and a cloud followed you for a shade from heat, and covering fi-om cold, declaring the manner and signification of another and new heaven ; the latchets of your shoes did not break, and your shoes waxed not old, and your garments wore not away, but even those of the children grew along with them.

CHAP. CXXXII. HOW GREAT THE POWER WAS OF

THE NAME OF JESUS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

"Yet after this you made a calf, and were very zealous in committing fornication with the daughters of strangers, and in serving idols. And again, when the land was given up to you with so great a display of power, that you witnessed 3 the sun stand still in the heavens by the order of that man whose name was Jesus (Joshua), and not go down for thirty-six hours,

3 [Another Americanism. Greek, flea<ro<r6ai.J

as well as all the other miracles which were wrought for you as time served ; ' and of these it seems good to me now to speak of another, for it conduces to your hereby knowing Jesus, whom we also know to have been Christ the Son of God, who was crucified, and rose again, and ascended to heaven, and will come again to judge all men, even up to Adam himself. You are aware, then," I continued, " that when the ark of the testimony was seized by the enemies of Ashdod,- and a terrible and incurable malady had broken out among them, they resolved to place it on a cart to which they yoked cows that had recently calved, for the purpose of ascertaining by trial whether or not they had been plagued by God's power on account of the ark, and if God wished it to be taken back to the place from which it had been carried away. And when they had done this, the cows, led by no man, went not to the place whence the ark had been taken, but to the fields of a certain man whose name was Oshea, the same as his whose name was altered to Jesus (Joshua), as has been previously mentioned, who also led the people into the land and meted it out to them : and when the cows had come into these fields they remained there, showing to you thereby tliat they were guided by the name of power ; ^ just as formerly the people who survived of those that came out of Egypt, were guided into the land by him who had received the name Jesus (Joshua), who before was called Oshea.

CHAP. CXXXIII. THE HARD-HEARTEDNESS OF THE

JEWS, FOR WHOM THE CHRISTIANS PR.AY.

" Now, although these and all other such unexpected and marvellous works were wrought amongst and seen by you at different times, yet you are convicted by the prophets of having gone to such a length as offering your own children to demons ; and besides all this, of having dared to do such things against Christ ; and you still dare to do them : for all which may it be granted to you to obtain mercy and salvation from (iod and His Christ. For God, knowing before that you would do such things, pronovmced this curse upon you by the prophet Isaiah : ' Woe unto their soul ! they have devised evil counsel against themselves, saying, Let us bind the righteous man, for he is distasteful to us. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own doings. Woe to the wicked ! evil, according to the works of his hands, shall befall him. O my people, your exactors glean you, and those who extort from you shall rule over you. O my people, they who call you blessed cause you to err, and disorder

' The anacoloiithon is in the original.

English version.]

the way of your paths. But now the Lord shall sist His people to judgment, and He shall enter into judgment with the elders of the people and the princes thereof. But why have you burnt up my vineyard? and why is the spoil of the poor found in your houses ? Why do you wrong my people, and put to shaije the countenance of the humble ?'+ Again, m other words, the same prophet spake to the same effect : ' Woe unto them that draw their iniquity as with a long cord, and their transgressions as with the harness of an heifer's yoke : who say. Let His speed come near, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil ! that put light for darkness, and darkness for light ! that put bitter for sweet, and sweet/for bitter ! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight ! Woe unto those that are mighty among you, who drink wine, who are men of strength, who mingle strong drink ! who justify the wicked for a reward, and take away justice from the righteous ! Therefore, as the stubble shall be burnt by the coal of fire, and utterly consumed by the burning flame, their root shall be as wool, and their flower shall go up like dust. For they would not have the law of the Lord of Sabaoth, but despised s the word of the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. And the Lord of Sabaoth was very angry, and laid His hands upon them, and smote them ; and He was provoked against the mountains, and their carcases were in the midst like dung on the road. And for all this they have not repented,^ but their hand is still high.' 7 For verily your hand is high to commit evil, because ye slew the Christ, and do not repent of it ; but so far from that, ye hate and murder us who have believed through Him in the God and Father of all, as often as ye can ; and ye curse Him without ceasing, as well as those who side with Him ; while all of us pray for you, and for all men, as our Christ and Lord taught us to do, when He enjoined us to pray even for our enemies, and to love them that hate us, and to bless them that

CHAP. CXXXIV. THE MARRUGES OF J.\COB ARE

A FIGURE OF THE CHURCH.

" If, then, the teaching of the prophets and of Himself moves you, it is better for you to follow God than your imprudent and blind masters, who even till this time permit each man to have four or five wives ; and if any one see a beautiful woman and desire to have her, they quote the doings of Jacob [called] Israel, and of the other

s Literally, " provoked." ^ Literally, " turned away.'

patriarchs, and maintain that it is not wrong to do such things ; for they are miserably ignorant in this matter. For, as I before said, certain dispensations of weighty mysteries were accompUshed in each act of this sort. For in the marriages of Jacob I shall mention what dispensationVmd j)rophecy were accomplished, in order that you may thereby know that your teachers never looked at the divine motive which prompted each act, but only at the grovelling and corrupting passions. Attend therefore to what I say. 'I'he marriages of Jacob were types of that which Christ was about to accomplish. For it was not lawful for Jacob to marry two sisters at once. And he serves Laban for [one of] the daughters ; and being deceived in [the obtaining of] the yoimger, he again served seven years. Now Leah is your people and synagogue ; but Rachel is our Church. And for these, and for the servants in both, Christ even now serves. For while Noah gave to the two sons the seed of the third as servants, now on the other hand Christ has come to restore both the free sons and the servants amongst them, conferring the same honour on all of them who keep His commandments ; even as the children of the free women and the children of the bond women born to Jacob were all sons, and equal in dignity. And it was foretold what each should be according to rank and and according to fore-knowledge. Jacob served Laban for speckled and many-spotted sheep ; and Christ served, even to the slavery of the cross, for the various and many-formed races of mankind, acquiring them by the blood and mystery of the cross. Leah was weak-eyed ; for the eyes of your souls are excessively weak. Rachel stole the gods of Laban, and has hid them to this day ; and we have lost our paternal and material gods. Jacob was hated for all time by his brother ; and we now, and our Lord Himself, are hated by you and by all men, though we are brothers by nature. Jacob was called Israel ; and Israel has been demonstrated to be the Christ, who is, and is called, Jesus.

CH.\P. CXXXV. CHRIST IS KING OF ISRAEL, AND

CHRISTIANS ARE THE ISR.\ELITIC RACE.

" And when Scripture says, ' I am the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, who have made known Israel your King,' ' will you not understand that truly Christ is the everlasting King? For you are aware that Jacob the son of Isaac was never a king. And therefore Scripture again, explaining to us, says what king is meant by Jacob and Israel : 'Jacob is my Servant, I will uphold Him ; and Israel is mine Elect, my soul shall receive Him. I have given Him my Spirit ; antl He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

He shall not cry, and His voice shall not be heard without. The bruised reed He shall not break, and the smoking flax He shall not quench, until He shall bring forth judgment to victory. He shall shine, and shall not be broken, until He set judgment on the earth. And in His name shall the (ientiles trust.' ^ Then is it Jacob the patriarch in whom the Gentiles and yourselves shall trust? or is it not Christ? As, therefore, Christ is the Israel and the Jacob, even so we, who have been (juarried out from the bowels of Christ, are the true Israelitic race. But let us attend rather to the very word : * And I will bring forth_,' He says, ' the seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah : and it shall inherit My holy mountain ; and Mine Elect and My servants shall possess the inheritance, and shall dwell there ; and there shall be folds of flocks in the thicket, and the valley of Achor shall be a resting-place of cattle for the people who have sought ^Ie. But as for you, who forsake Me, and forget My holy mountain, and prepare a table for demons, and fill out drink for the demon, I shall give you to the sword. You shall all fall with a slaughter ; for I called you, and you hearkened not, and did evil before me, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.' ^ Such are the words of Scripture ; understand, therefore, that the seed of Jacob now referred to is something else, and not, as may be supposed, spoken of your people. For it is not possible for the seed of Jacob to leave an entrance for the descendants of Jacob, or for [God] to have accepted the ver)^ same persons whom He had reproached with unfitness for the inheritance, and promise it to them again ; but as there the i)rophet says, ' And now, O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord ; for He has sent away His peojile, the house of Jacob, because their land was full, as at the first, of soothsayers and divinations ; ' •* even so it is necessary for us here to observe that there are two seeds of Judah, and two races, as there are two houses of Jacob : the one begotten by blood and flesh, the other by faith and the Spirit.

CHAP. CXXXVI. THE JEWS, IN REJECTING CHRIST,

REJECTED GOD WHO SENT HLM.

" For you see how He now addresses the people, saying a little before : ' As the grape shall be found in the cluster, and they will say. Destroy it not, for. a blessing is in it ; so will I do for My servant's sake : for His sake I will not destroy them all.' 5 And thereafter He adds : ' And I shall bring forth the seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah.' It is plain then that if He thus be angr)' with them, and threaten to leave ^"ery few

of them, He promises to bring forth certain others, who shall dwell in His mountain. But these are the persons whom He said He would sow and beget. For you neither suffer Him when He calls you, nor hear Him when He speaks to you, but have done evil in the presence of the Lord. But the highest pitch of your wickedness lies in this, that you hate the Righteous One, and slew Him ; and so treat those who have received from Him all that they are and have, and who are pious, righteous, and humane. Therefore ' woe unto their soul,' says the Lord,' ' for they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying. Let us take away the righteous, for he is distasteful to us.' For indeed you are not in the habit of sacrificing to Baal, as were your fathers, or of placing cakes in groves and on high places for the host of heaven : but you have not accepted God's Christ. For he who knows not Him, knows not the will of God ; and he who insults and hates Him, insults and hates Him that sent Him. And whoever believes not in Him, believes not the declarations of the prophets, who preached and proclaimed Him to all.

CHAP. CXXXVII. HE EXHORTS THE JEWS TO BE

CONVERTED.

" Say no evil thing, my brothers, against Him that was crucified, and treat not scornfully the stripes wherewith all may be healed, even as we are healed. For it will be well if, persuaded by the Scriptures, you are circumcised from hardheartedness : not that circumcision which you have from the tenets that are put into you ; for that was given for a sign, and not for a work of rigliteousness, as the Scriptures compel you [to admit]. Assent, therefore, and pour no ridicule on the Son of God ; obey not the Pharisaic teachers, and scoff not at the King of Israel, as the rulers of your synagogues teach you to do after your prayers : for if he that touches those who are not pleasing ^ to God, is as one that touches the apple of God's eye, how much more so is he that touches His beloved ! And that this is He, has been sufficiently demonstrated."

And as they kept silence, I continued : " My friends, I now refer to the Scriptures as the Seventy have interpreted them ; for when I quoted them formerly as you possess them, I made proof of you [to ascertain] how you were disposed. ^ For, mentioning the Scripture which says, ' Woe unto them ! for they have devised evil counsel against themselves, saying ^ (as the Seventy have translated, I continued) : ' Let us

3 [Justin's varied quotations of the same text seem to have been of puriwse. But consult Kaye's most useful note as to the text of the LXX., in answer to objections of Wetstein, p. 20. tt.]

take away the righteous, for he is distasteful to us ; ' whereas at the commencement of the discussion I added what your version has : ' Let us bind the righteous, for he is distasteful to us.' But you had been busy about some other matter, and seem to have listened to the words without attending to them. But now, since the day is drawing to a close, for the sun is about to set, I shall add one remark to what I have said, and conclude. I have indeed made the very same remark already, but I think it would be right to bestow some consideration on it again.

CHAP. CXXXVIII. NOAH IS A FIGURE OF CHRIST,

WHO HAS REGENERATED US BY WATER, AND

" You know, then, sirs," I said, " that God has said in Isaiah to Jerusalem : ' I saved thee in the deluge of Noah.' 5 By this which God said was meant that the mystery of saved men appeared in the deluge. For righteous Noah, along with the other mortals at the deluge, i.e., with his own wife, his three sons and their wives, being eight in number, were a symbol of the eighth day, wherein Christ appeared when He rose from the dead, for ever the first in power. For Christ, being the first-born of every creature, became again the chief of another race regenerated by Himself through water, and faith, and wood, containing the mystery of the cross ; even as Noah was saved by wood when he rode over the waters with his household. Accordingly, when the prophet says, ' I saved thee in the times of Noah,' as I have already remarked, he addresses the people who are equally faithful to God, and possess the same signs. For when Moses had the rod in his hands, he led your nation through the sea. And you believe that this was spoken to your nation only, or to the land. But the whole earth, as the Scripture says, was inundated, and the water rose in height fifteen cubits above all the mountains : so that it is evident this was not spoken to the land, but to the people who obeyed Him : for whom also He had before prepared a resting-place in Jerusalem, as was previously demonstrated by all the symbols of the deluge ; I mean, that by water, faith, and wood, those who are afore-prepared, and who repent of the sins which they have committed, shall escape from the impending judgment of God.

CHAP. CXXXIX. THE BLESSINGS, AND ALSO THE

CURSE, PRONOUNCED BY NOAH WERE PROPHECIES OF THE FUTURE.

" For another mystery was accomplished and predicted in the days of Noah, of which you are

5 Isa. liv. 9 comes nearer to these words than any other passage; but still the exact quotation is not in Isaiah, or in any other part of Scripture. [It is quite probable that Isa. liv. 9 was thus misunderstood by the Jews, as Trypho seems to acquiesce.]

not aware. It is this : in the blessings wherewith Noah blessed his two sons, and in the curse pronounced on his son's son. For the Spirit of prophecy would not curse the son that had been by God blessed along with [his brothers]. But since the punishment of the sin would cleave to the whole descent of the son that mocked at his father's nakedness, he made the curse originate with his son.' Now, in what he said, he foretold that the descendants of Shem would keep in retention the property and dwellings of Canaan : and again, that the descendants of Jaj^heth would take possession of the jjroperty of which Shem's descendants had dispossessed Canaan's descendants ; and spoil the descendants of Shem, even as they plundered the sons of Canaan. And listen to the way in which it has so come to pass. For you, who have derived your lineage from Shem, invaded the territory of the sons of Canaan by the will of God ; and you possessed it. And it is manifest that the sons of Japheth, having invaded you in turn by the judgment of God, have taken your land from you, and have possessed it. Thus it is written : 'And Noah awoke from the wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him ; and he said, Cursed be Canaan, the servant ; a servant shall he be unto his brethren. And he said. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant. May the Lord enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the houses of Shem ; and let Canaan be his servant.' ^ Accordingly, as two peoples were blessed, — those from Shem, and those from Japheth, — and as the offspring of Shem were decreed first to possess the dwellings of Canaan, and the offspring of Japheth were predicted as in turn receiving the same possessions, and to the two peoples there was the one people of Canaan handed over for servants ; so Christ has come according to the power given Him from the Almighty Father, and summoning men to friendship, and blessing, and repentance, and dwelling together, has promised, as has already been proved, that there shall be a future jjossession for all the saints in this same land. And hence all men everywhere, whether bond or free, who believe in Christ, and recognise the truth in His own words and those of His prophets, know that they shall be with Him in that land, and inherit everlasting and incorruptible good.

JEWS HOPE FOR SALVATION IN VAIN BECAUSE THEV ARE SONS OF ABRAHAM.

" Hence also Jacob, as I remarked before.

' [But Justin goes on to show that it was prophetic foresight only : the curse cleaves only to wicked descendants, the authors of idolatry.

being himself a type of Christ, had married the two handmaids of his two free wives, and of them begat sons, for the purpose of indicating beforehand that Christ would receive even all those who amongst Japheth's race are descendants of Canaan, equally with the free, and would have the children fellow-heirs. And we are such ; but you cannot comjirehend this, because you cannot drink of the living fountain of God, l)ut of broken cisterns which can hold no water, as the Scrijjture says.^ But they are cisterns broken, and holding no water, which your own teachers have digged, as the .Scripture also expressly asserts, ' teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.' ■♦ And besides, they beguile themselves and you, supposing that the everlasting kingdom will be assuredly given to those of the dispersion who are of .•\l)raham after the flesh, although they be sinners, and faithless, and disobedient towards C}od, which the Scriptures have proved is not the case. For if so, Isaiah would never have said this : ' And unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would ha\e been like Sodom and Gomorrah.' 5 And Ezekiel : ' Even if Noah, and Jacob, and Daniel were to pray for sons or daughters, their request should not be granted.' '^ But neither shall the father perish for the son, nor the son for the father ; but every one for his own sin, and each shall be saved for his own righteousness. ^ And again Isaiah says : ' They shall look on the carcases ^ of them that have transgressed : their worm shall not cease, and their fire shall not be quenched ; and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh.''? And our Lord, according to the will of Him that sent Him, who is the Father and Lord of all, would not have said, 'They shall come from the east, and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.' '° Furthermore, I have proved in what has preceded," that those who were foreknown to be unrighteous, whether men or angels, are not made wicked by God's fault, but each man by his own fault is what he will appear to be.

CHAP. CXLI. FREE-WILL IN MEN AND .ANGELS.

" But that you may not have a pretext for saving that Christ must have been crucified, and that those who transgressed must have been among your nation, and that the matter could not have been otherwise, I said briefly by antici-

8 Literally, " limbs."

" Chap. Ixxxviii. cii.

pation, that God, wishing men and angels to follow His will, resolved to create them free to do righteousness ; possessing reason, that they may know by whom they are created, and through whom they, not existing formerly, do now exist ; and with a law that they should be judged by Him, if they do anything contrary to right reason : and of ourselves we, men and angels, shall be convicted of having acted sinfully, unless we repent beforehand. But if the word of God foretells that some angels and men shall be certainly punished, it did so because it foreknew that they would be unchangeably [wicked], but not because God had created them so. So that if they repent, all who wish for it can obtain mercy from God : and the Scripture foretells that they shall be blessed, saying, ' Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin j ' ' that is, having repented of his sins, that he may receive remission of them from God ; and not as you deceive yourselves, and some others who resemble you in this, who say, that even though they be sinners, but know God, the Lord will not impute sin to them. We have as proof of this the one fall of David, which happened through his boasting, which was forgiven then when he so mourned and wept, as it is written. But if even to such a man no remission was granted before repentance, and only when this great king, and anointed one, and prophet, mourned and conducted himself so, how can the impure and utterly abandoned, if they weep not, and mourn not, and repent not, entertain the hope that the Lord will not impute to them sin ? And this one fall of David, in the matter of Uriah's wife, proves, sirs," I said, " that the patriarchs had many wives, not to commit fornication, but that a certain dispensation and all mysteries might be accomplished by them ; since, if it were allowable to take any wife, or as many wives as one chooses, and how he chooses, which the men of your nation do over all the earth, wherever they

sojourn, or wherever they have been sent, taking women under the name of marriage, much more would David have been permitted to do this."

When I had said this, dearest Marcus Pompeius, I came to an end.

CHAP. CXLII. THK JEWS RETURN THANKS, AND

LEAVE JUSTIN.

Then Trypho, after a little delay, said, "You see that it was not intentionally that we came to discuss these points. And I confess that I have been particularly pleased with the conference ; and I think that these are of quite the same opinion as myself For we have found more than we expected, and more than it was possible to have expected. And if we could do this more frequently, we should be much helped in the searching of the Scriptures themselves. But since," he said, " you' are on the eve of departure, and expect daily to set sail, do not hesitate to remember us as friends when you are gone."

"For my part," I replied, "if I had remained, I would have wished to do the same thing daily. But now, since I expect, with God's will and aid, to set sail, I exhort you to give all diligence in this very great struggle for your own salvation, and to be earnest in setting a higher value on the Christ of the Almighty God than on your own teachers."

After this they left me, wishing me safety in my voyage, and from every misfortune. And I, praying for them, said, " I can wish no better thing for you, sirs, than this, that, recognising in this way that intelligence is given to every man, you may be of the same opinion as ourselves, and believe that Jesus is the Christ of God." ^

2 The last sentence is very dubious. For navrl OLvSpiinrivov vovv read n-ai'Tl acSpcoTro) toi' i-oOi'. For jroiijerjjTe read TrtcrTeuarjTe. And lastly, for to y]ixu>v read toi' 'Iijtroui'.

[But there is no doubt about the touching beauty of this close; and truly Trypho seems " not far from the kingdom of God." Note the marvellous knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures, whicl\ Justin had acquired, and which he could use in conversation. His quotations from the Psalms, mevioriter, are more accurate than others.

THE DISCOURSE TO THE GREEKS.

[TRANSLATED BY THE REV M. DODS, M.A.]

CHAP. I. — JUSTIN JUSTIFIES HIS DEPARTURE FROM GREEK CUSl'OMS.

Do not suppose, ye Greeks, that my separation from your customs is unreasonable and unthinking ; for I found in them nothing that is holy or acceptable to God. For the very compositions of your poets are monuments of madness and intemperance. For any one who becomes the scholar of your most eminent instructor, is more beset by difficulties than all men besides. For first they say that Agamemnon, abetting the extravagant lust of his brother, and his madness and unrestrained desire, readily gave even his daughter to be sacrificed, and troubled all Greece that he might rescue Helen, who had been ravished by the leprous ' shepherd. But when in the course of the war they took captives, Agamemnon was himself taken captive by Chryseis, and for Briseis' sake kindled a feud with the son of Thetis. And Pelides himself, who crossed the river,' overthrew Troy, and subdued Hector, this your hero became the slave of Polyxena, and was conquered by a dead Amazon ; and putting off the godfabricated armour, and donning the hymeneal robe, he became a sacrifice of love in the temple of Apollo. And the Ithacan Ulysses made a virtue of a vice.3 And indeed his sailing past the Sirens ■♦ gave evidence that he was destitute of worthy ])rudence, because he could not depend on his prudence for stopping his ears. Ajax, son of 'Felamon, who bore the shield of sevenfold ox-hide, went mad when he was defeated in the contest with Ulysses for the armour. Such things I have no desire to be instructed in. Of such virtue I am not covetous, that I should believe the myths of Homer. For the whole rhapsody, the beginning and end both of the Iliad and the Odyssey is — a woman.

' Potter would here read Kiirapov, "elegant" [ironically for effeminate] ; but the above reading is defended by Sylburg, on the ground that shepherds were so greatly despised, that this is not too hard an epithet to apply to Paris.

2 Of the many attempts to amend this clause, there seems to be none satisfactory.

3 Or, won the reputation of the virtue of wisdom by the vice of deceit.

That is, the manner in which he did it, stopping his companions' ears with wax, and having himself bound to the mast of his ship.

CHAP. IT. — THE GREEK THEOGOXY EXPOSED.

But since, next to Homer, Hesiod wrote his lVo>-ks and Days, who will believe his drivelling theogony? For they say that Chronos, the son of Ouranos,5 in the beginning slew his father, and possessed himself of his rule ; and that, being seized with a panic lest he should himself suffer in the same way, he preferred devouring his children ; but that, by the craft of the Curetes, Jupiter was conveyed away and kept in secret, and afterwards bound his father with chains, and divided the empire ; Jupiter receiving, as the story goes, the air, and Neptune the deep, and Pluto the portion of Hades. But Pluto ravished Proserpine ; and Ceres sought her child wandering through the deserts. And this myth was celebrated in the Eleusinian fire.'^ Again, Neptune ravished Melanippe when she was drawing water, besides abusing a host of Nereids not a few, whose names, were we to recount them, would cost us a multitude of words. And as for Jupiter, he was a various adulterer, with Antiope as a satyr, with Danae as gold, and with Europa as a bull ; with Leda, moreover, he assumed wings. For the love of Semele proved both his unchastity and the jealousy of Semele. And they say that he carried off the Phrygian Ganymede to be his cup-bearer. These, then, are the exploits of the sons of Saturn. And your illustrious son of Latona [Apollo], who professed soothsaying, convicted himself of lying. He pursued Daphne, but did not gain possession of her ; and to H}-acinthus,7 who loved him. he did not foretell his death. And I say nothing of the masculine character of Minerva, nor of the femi- ■ nine nature of Bacchus, nor of the fornicating disposition of Venus. Read to Jupiter, ye Greeks, the law against parricides, and the penalty of adultery, and the ignominy of prederasty. Teach Minerva and Diana the works of women, and Bacchus the works of men. What seemliness is

5 Or, Saturn son of Heaven.

6 In the mysteries of Eleusis, the return of Proserpine from the lower world was celebrated.

7 Apollo accidentally killed Hyacinthus by striking him on the head with a quoit.

THE DISCOURSE TO THE GREEKS.

there in a woman's girding herself with armour, or in a man's decorating himself with cymbals, and garlands, and female attire, and accompanied by a herd of bacchanalian women ?

CHAP. in. FOLLIES OF THE GREEK MYTHOLOGY.

For Hercules, celebrated by his three nights,' sung by the poets for his successful labours, the son of Jupiter, who slew the lion and destroyed the many-headed hydra ; who put to death the fierce and mighty boar, and was able to kill the fleet man-eating birds, and brought up from Hades the three-headed dog ; who effectually cleansed the huge Augean building from its dung, and killed the bulls and the stag whose nostrils breathed fire, and plucked the golden fruit from the tree, and slew the poisonous serpent (and for some reason, which it is not lawful to utter, killed Achelous, and the guest-slaying Busiris), and crossed the mountains that he might get water which gave forth an articulate speech, as the story goes : he who was able to do so many and such like and so great deeds as these, how childishly he was delighted to be stunned by the cymbals of the satyrs, and to be conquered by the love of woman, and to be struck on the hips by the laughing Lyda ! And at last, not being able to put off the tunic of Nessus, himself kindling his own funeral pile, so he died. Let Vulcan lay aside his envy, and not be jealous if he is hated because he is old and club-footed, and IVIars loved, because young and beautiful. Since, therefore, ye Greeks, your gods are convicted of intemperance, and your heroes are effeminate, as the histories on which your dramas are founded have declared, such as the curse of Atreus, the bed of Thyestes,- and the taint in the house of Pelops, and Uanaus murdering through hatred and making yEgyptus childless in the intoxication of his rage, and the Thyestean banquet spread by the Furies. ^ And Procne is to this' day flitting about, lamenting ; and her sister of Athens shrills with her tongue cut out. For what need is there of speaking of the goad ^ of CEdipus, and the murder of Laius, and the marrying his mother, and the mutual slaughter of those who were at once his brothers and his sons ?

CHAP. IV. SHAMELESS PRACTICES OF THE GREEKS.

And your public assemblies I have come to hate. For there are excessive banquetings, and

■ Tpie'o-Trepoi', so called, as some think, [from his origin: "ex conciibitu triiivi noctiiim."\

Thyestes seduced the wife of his brother Atreus, whence the tragic career of the family.

3 There is no apodosis in the Greek

_< Not, as the editors dispute, either the tongue of the buckle with which he put out his eyes, nor the awl witli which his heels were bored through, but the goad with which he killed his father.

subde flutes which provoke to lustful movements, and useless and luxurious anointings, and crowning with garlands. With such a mass of evils do you banish shame ; and ye fill your minds with them, and are carried away by intemj)erance, and indulge as a common practice in wicked and insane fornication. And this further I Avould say to you, why are you, being a Greek, indignant at your son when he imitates Jupiter, and rises against you and defrauds you of your own wife ? Why do you count him your enemy, and yet worship one that is like him ? And why do you blame your wife for living in unchastity, and yet honour Venus with shrines? If indeed these things had been related by others, they would have seemed to be mere slanderous accusations, and not truth. But now your own poets sing these things, and your histories noisily publish them.

CLOSING APPEAL.

Henceforth, ye Greeks, come and partake of incomparable wisdom, and be instructed by the Divine Word, and acquaint yourselves with the King immortal ; and do not recognise those men as heroes who slaughter whole nations. For our own Ruler,5 the Divine Word, who even now constantly aids us, does not desire strength of body and beauty of feature, nor yet the high spirit of earth's nobihty, but a pure soul, fortified by holiness, and the watchwords of our King, holy actions, for through the Word power passes into the soul. O trumpet of peace to the soul that is at war ! O weapon that puttest to flight terrible passions ! O instruction that quenches the innate fire of the soul ! The Word exercises an influence which does not make poets : it does not equip philosophers nor skilled orators, but by its instruction it makes mortals immortal, mortals gods ; and from the earth transports them to the realms above Olympus. Come, be taught ; become as I am, for I, too, was as ye are.^ These have conquered me — the divinity of the instruction, and the power of the Word : for as a skilled serpent-charmer lures the terrible reptile from his den and causes it to flee, so the Word drives the fearful passions of our sensual nature from the very recesses of the soul ; first driving forth lust, through which every ill is begotten — hatreds, strife, envy, emulations, anger, and such like. Lust being once banished, the soul becomes calm and serene. And being set free from the ills in which it was sunk up to the neck, it returns to Him who made it. For it is fit that it be restored to that state whence it departed, whence every soul was or is.

5 AvTos -irkfi riiJLiav,

[In . B. — It should be stated that modern critics consider this work as not improbably by another author.]

CHAP. I. — REASONS FOR ADDRESSING THE GREEKS.

As I begin this hortatory address to you, ye men of Greece, I pray God that I may know what I ought to say to you, and that you, shaking off your habitual ' love of disputing, and being delivered from the error of your fathers, may now choose what is profitable ; not fancying that you commit any offence against your forefathers, though the things which you formerly considered by no means salutary should now seem useful to you. For accurate investigation of matters, putting truth to the question with a more searching scrutiny, often reveals that things which have passed for excellent are of quite another sort. Since, then, we propose to discourse of the true religion (than which, 1 think, there is nothing which is counted more valuable by those who desire to pass through life without danger, on account of the judgment which is to be after the termination of this life, and which is announced not only by our forefathers according to God, to wit the prophets and lawgivers, but also by those among yourselves who have been esteemed wise, not poets alone, but also philosophers, who professed among you that they had attained the true and divine knowledge), I think it well first of all to examine the teachers of religion, both our own and yours, who they were, and how great, and in what times they lived ; in order that those who have formerly received from their fathers the false religion, may now, when they perceive this, be extricated from that inveterate error ; and that we may clearly and manifesdy show that we ourselves follow the religion of our forefathers according to God.

GIOUS TEACHERS.

Whom, then, ye men of Greece, do ye call your teachers of religion ? The poets ? It will do your cause no good to say so to men who know the poets ; for they know how very ridicu-

Literally, " former."

lous a theogony they have composed, — as we can learn from Homer, your most distinguished and prince of poets. For he says, first, that the gods were in the beginning generated from water ; for he has written thus : ^ —

" Both ocean, the origin of the gods, and their mother Tethys."

And then we must also remind you of what he further says of him whom ye consider the first of the gods, and whom he often calls " the father

" Zeus, who is the dispenser of war to men." Indeed, he says that he was not only the dispenser of war to the army, but also the cause of perjury to the Trojans, by means of his daughter ; 4 and Homer introduces him in love, and bitterly complaining, and bewailing himself, and plotted against by the other gods, and at one time exclaiming concerning his own son : s —

" Alas ! he falls, my most beloved of men !

Sarpedon, vanquished by Patroclus, falls.

So will the fates."

And at another time concerning Hector : ^ — " Ah ! I behold a warrior dear to me Around the walls of Ilium driven, and grieve For Hector."

And what he says of the conspiracy of the other gods against Zeus, they know who read these words : 7 "When the other Olympians — Juno, and Neptune, and Minerva — wished to ' bind him." And unless the blessed gods had feared him whom gods call Briareus, Zeus would have been bound by them. And what Homer sayS' of his intemperate loves, we must remind you in. the very words he used. For he said that Zeus spake thus to Juno ; ^ —

•» That i.s, Venus, who, after Paris had sworn that the war should be decided b>- single combat between himself and Menelaus, carried him off, and induced him, though defeated, to refuse performance of the articles agreed upon.

5 Iliad, xvi. 433. Sarpedon was a son of Zeus.

8 Iliad, .xiv. 315. (The passage is here given in full from Cowper's translation. In Justin's quotation one or two lines are omitted.)

" For never goddess pour'd, nor woman yet, So full a tide of love into my breast ; I never loved Ixion's consort thus, Nor sweet Acrisian Danae, from whom Sprang Perseus, noblest of the race of man ; Nor Phoenix' daughter fair, of whom were born Minos, unmatch'd but by the powers above, And Rhadamanthus ; nor yet Semele, Nor yet Alcmene, who in Thebes produced The valiant Hercules ; and though my son By Semele were Bacchus, joy of man ; Nor Ceres golden-hair'd, nor high-enthron'd Latona in the skies ; no — nor thyself As now I love thee, and my soul perceive O'erwhelm'd with sweetness of intense desire."

It is fit that we now mention what one can learn from the work of Homer of the other gods, and what they suffered at the hands of men. For he says that Mars and Venus were wounded by Diomed, and of many others of the gods he relates the sufferings. For thus we can, gather from the case of Dione consoHng her daughter ;

" Have patience, dearest child ; though much enforc'd

Restrain thine anger : we, in heav'n who dwell.

Have much to bear from mortals ; and ourselves

Too oft upon each other suff'rings lay :

Mars had his suff'rings ; by Aloeus' sons,

Otus and Ephialtes, strongly bound.

He thirteen months in brazen fetters lay :

Juno, too, suffer'd, when Amphitrvon's son

Thro' her right breast a three-barb'd arrow sent:

Dire, and unheard of, were the pangs she bore.

Great Pluto's self the stinging arrow felt.

When that same son of /Egis-bearing Jove

Assail'd him in the very gates of hell.

And wrought him keenest anguish; pierced with pain.

To high Olympus, to the courts of Jove,

Groaning, he came ; the bitter shaft remain'd

Deep in his shoulder fix'd, and griev'd his soul."

But if it is right to remind you of the battle of the gods, opposed to one another, your own poet himself will recount it, saying : ^ —

" Such was the shock when gods in battle met; For there to royal Neptune stood oppos'd Phoebus Apollo with his arrows keen ; The blue-eyed Pallas to the god of war; To Juno, Dian, heav'nly archeress. Sister of Phoebus, golden-shafted queen. Stout Hermes, helpful god, Latona fac'd."

These and such like things did Homer teach you ; and not Homer only, but also Hesiod. So that if you believe your most distinguished poets, who have given the genealogies of your gods, you must of necessity either suppose that the gods are such beings as these, or believe that there are no gods at all.

■ OPINIONS OF THE SCHOOL OF THALES.

And if you decline citing the poets, because you say it is allowable for them to frame myths, and to relate in a mythical way many things about the gods which are far from true, do you suppose you have some others for your religious

' fliad, V. 382 (from I^rd Derby's translation). 2 Liad, XX. 66 (from Lord Derby's translation).

teachers, or how do you say that they themselves ^ have learned this religion of yours? For it is impossible that any should know matters so great and divine, who have not themselves learned them first from the initiated.* You will no doubt say, " The sages and philosophers." For to them, as to a fortified wall, you are wont to flee, when any one quotes the opinions of your poets about the gods. Therefore, since it is fit that we commence with the ancients and the earliest, beginning thence I will produce the opinion of each, much more ridiculous as it is than the theology of the poets. For Thales of Miletus, who took the lead in the study of natural philosophy, declared that water was the first principle of all things ; for from water he says that all things are, and that into water all are resolved. And after him Anaximander, who came froin the same Miletus, said that the infinite was the first principle of all things ; for that from this indeed all things are produced, and into this do all decay. Thirdly, Anaximenes — and he too was from Miletus — says that air is the first principle of all things ; for he says that from this all things are produced, and into this all are resolved. Heraclitus and Hippasus, from Metapontus, say that fire is the first principle of all things ; for from fire all things proceed, and in fire do all things terminate. Anaxagoras of Clazomen?e said that the homogeneous parts are the first principles of all things. Archelaus, the son of Apollodorus, an Athenian, says that the infinite air and its density and rarity are the first principle of all things. All these, forming a succession from Thales, followed the philosophy called by themselves physical.

CHAP. IV. — OPINIONS OF PYTHAGORAS AND EPICU- RUS.

Then, in regular succession from another starting-point, Pythagoras the Samian, son of Mnesarchus, calls numbers, with their proportions and harmonies, and the elements composed of both, the first principles ; and he includes also unity and the indefinite binary.^ Epicurus, an Athenian, the son of Neocles, says that the first principles of the things that exist are bodies perceptible by reason, admitting no vacuity,^ unbegotten, indestructible, which can neither be broken, nor admit of any formation of their parts, nor alteration, and are therefore perceptible by reason. Erapedocles of Agrigentum,

3 i.e., these teachers.

■* Literally, " those who knew."

5 fiovaSn Kol Trjv aopiarov SvdSa, One, Or unity, was considered by Pythagoras as the essence of number, and also as God. Two, or the indefinite binary, was the equivalent of evil. So Plutarch, £fe placit. philosopli., c. 7; from which treatise the above opinions of the various sects are quoted, generally verbatim.

6 ofxeTox" Kivov'. the void being that in which these bodies move, while they themselves are of a difl'erent natute from it.

son of Meton, maintained that there were four elements — fire, air, water, earth ; and two elementary powers — love and hate,' of which the former is a power of union, the latter of separation. You see, then, the confusion of those who are considered by you to have been wise men, whom you assert to be your teachers of religion : some of them declaring that water is the first principle of all things ; others, air ; others, fire ; and others, some other of these fore-mentioned elements ; and all of them employing persuasive arguments for the establishment of their own errors, and attempting to prove their own peculiar dogma to be the most valuable. These things were said by them. How then, ye men of Greece, can it be safe for those who desire to be saved, to fancy that they can learn the true religion from these philosophers, who were neither able so to convince themselves as to prevent sectarian wrangling with one another, and not to appear definitely opposed to one another's opinions?

CHAP. v. OPINIONS OF PLATO AND ARISTOTLE.

But possibly those who are unwilling to give up the ancient and inveterate error, maintain that they have received the doctrine of their religion not from those who have now been mentioned, but from those who are esteemed among them as the most renowned and finished philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. For these, they say, have learned the perfect and true religion. But I would be glad to ask, first of all, from those who say so, from whom they say that these men have learned this knowledge ; for it is impossible that men who have not learned these so great and divine matters from some who knew them, should either themselves know them, or be able correctly to teach others ; and, in the second place, I think we ought to examine the opinions even of these sages. For we shall see whether each of these does not manifestly contradict the other. But if we find that even they do not agree with each other, I think it is easy to see clearly that they too are ignorant. For Plato, with the air of one that has descended from above, and has accurately ascertained and seen all that is in heaven, says that the most high God exists in a fiery substance.- But Aristotle, in a book addressed to Alexander of Macedon, giving a compendious explanation of his own philosophy, clearly and manifestly overthrows the opinion of Plato, saying that God does not exist in a fiery substance : but inventing, as a fifth substance, some kind of setherial and unchangeable body, says that God exists in it. Thus, at least, he wrote : " Not, as some of those who have erred

' Or, accord and discord, attraction and repulsion.

regarding the Deity say, that God exists in a fiery substance." Then, as if he were not satisfied with this blasphemy against Plato, he further, for the sake of proving what he says about the PCtherial body, cites as a witness him whom Plato had banished from his republic as a liar, and as being an imitator of the images of truth at three removes,^ for so Plato calls Homer ; for he wrote : " Thus at least did Homer speak,* ' And Zeus obtained the wide heaven in the air and the clouds,' " wishing to make his own opinion appear more worthy of credit by the testimony of Homer ; not being aware that if he used Homer as a witness to prove that he spoke truth, many of his tenets would be proved untrue. P'or Thales of Miletus, who was the founder of philosophy among them, taking occasion from him, 5 will contradict his first opinions about first principles. For Aristotle himself, having said that God and matter are the first principles of all things, Thales, the eldest of all their sages, says that water is the first principle of the things that exist ; for he says that all things are from water, and that all things are resolved into water. And he conjectures this, first, from the fact that the seed of all living creatures, which is their first principle, is moist ; and secondly, because all plants grow and bear fruit in moisture, but when deprived of moisture, wither. Then, as if not satisfied with his conjectures, he cites Homer as a most trustworthy testimony, who speaks thus : —

" Ocean, who is the origin of all."^

May not Thales, then, very fairly say to him, " What is the reason, Aristotle, why )'ou give heed to Homer, as if he spoke truth, when you wish to demolish the opinions of Plato ; but when yoi^ promulgate an opinion contrary to ours, you think Homer untruthful? "

CHAP. VI. — FURTHER DISAGREEMENTS BETWEEN PLATO AND ARISTOTLE.

And that these very wonderful sages of yours do not even agree in other respects, can be easily learned from this. For while Plato says that there are three first principles of all things, God, and matter, and form, — God, the maker of all ; and matter, which is the subject of the first production of all that is produced, and affords to God opportunity for His workmanship ; and form, which is the type of each of the things

3 See the Republic, x. 2. By the Platonic doctrine, the ideas of things in the mind of God were the realities; the things themselves, as seen by us, were the images of these realities: and poetry, therefore, describing the images of realities, was only at the third remove from nature. As Plato puts it briefly in this same passage, " the painitr, the bed-maker, God — these three arc the masters of three species of beds."

5 i.e., from Homer; using Homer's words as suggestive and confirmatory of his doctrine.

produced, — Aristotle makes no mention at all of form as a first principle, but says that there are two, God and matter. And again, while Plato says that the highest God and the ideas exist in the first place of the highest heavens, and in fixed sphere, Aristotle says that, next to the most high God, there are, not ideas, but certain gods, who can be perceived by the mind. Thus, then, do they differ concerning things heavenly. So that one can see that they not only are unable to understand our earthly matters, but also, being at variance among themselves regarding these things, they will appear unworthy of credit when they treat of things heavenly. And that even their doctrine regarding the human soul as it now is does not harmonize, is manifest from what has been said by each of them concerning it. For Plato says that it is of three parts, having the faculty of reason, of affection, and of appetite.' But Aristotle says that the soul is not so comprehensive as to include also corruptible parts, but only reason. And Plato loudly maintains that " the whole soul is immortal." But Aristotle, naming it " the actuality," ^ would have it to be mortal, not immortal. And the former says it is always in motion ; but Aristotle says that it is immoveable, since it must itself precede all motion.

INCONSISTENCIES OF PLATO S DOC- TRINE.

But in these things they are convicted of thinking in contradiction to each other. And if any one will accurately criticise their writings, they have chosen to abide in harmony not even with their own opinions. Plato, at any rate, at one time says that there are three first principles of the universe — God, and matter, and form ; but at another time four, for he adds the universal soul. And again, when he has already said that matter is eternal,^ he afterwards says that it is produced ; and when he has first given to form its peculiar rank as a first principle, and has asserted for its self-subsistence, he afterwards says that this same thing is among the things perceived by the understanding. Moreover, having first declared that everything that is made is mortal,-* he afterwards states that some of the things that are made are indestructible and immortal. What, then, is the cause why those who have been esteemed wise among you disagree not only with one another, but also with themselves? Manifestly, their unwillingness to learn from those who know, and their desire to attain accurate knowledge of things hea\'enly by their own human excess of wisdom ;

■ TO \oyi.K6v, TO dvfjLi.K6v, TO e7ri0i;/ur)TiKoi', — corresponding to what we roughly speak of as reason, the heart, and the appetites.

- e'i'TeAt-;^fia, —the completion or actuality to which each thing, by virtue of its peculiar nature (or potentiality, fiuva/utj), can arrive.

■5 Literally, " unbegotten."

Or, " liable to destruction."

though they were able to understand not even earthly matters. Certainly some of your philosophers say that the human soul is in us ; others, that it is around us. For not even in this did they choose to agree with one another, but, distributing, as it were, ignorance in various ways among themselves, thej thought fit to wrangle and dispute with one another even about the soul. For some of them say that the soul is fire, and some that it is the air ; and others, the mind ; and others, motion ; and others, an exhalation ; and certain others say that it is a power flowing from the stars ; and others, number capable of motion ; and others, a generating water. And a wholly confused and inharmonious opinion has prevailed among them, which only in this one respect appears praiseworthy to those who can form a right judgment, that they have been anxious to convict one another of error and falsehood.

CHAP. VIII. ANTIQUITY, INSPIRATION, AND HAR- MONY OF CHRISTIAN TEACHERS.

Since therefore it is impossible to learn anything true concerning religion from your teachers, who by their mutual disagreement have furnished you with sufficient proof of their own ignorance, I consider it reasonable to recur to our progenitors, who both in point of time have by a great way the precedence of your teachers, and who have taught us nothing from their own private fancy, nor differed with one another, nor attempted to overturn one another's positions, but without wrangling and contention received from God the knowledge which also they taught to us. For neither by nature nor by human conception is it possible for men to know things so great and divine, but by the gift which then descended from above upon the holy men, who had no need of rhetorical art, 5 nor of uttering anything in a contentious or quarrelsome manner, but to present themselves pure '' to the energy of the Divine Spirit, in order that the divine plectrum itself, descending from heaven, and using righteous men as an instrument like a harp or lyre, might reveal to us the knowledge of things divine and heavenly. Wherefore, as if with one mouth and one tongue, they have in succession, and in harmony with one another, taught us both concerning God, and the creation of the world, and the formation of man, and concerning the immortality of the human soul, and the judgment which is to be after this life, and concerning all things which it is need fill for us to know, and thus in divers times and places have afforded us the divine instruction. ^

5 Literally, " the art of words."

Literally, " clean," free from other influences.

7 [The diversities of Christian theology are to be regretted; but Justin here shows the harmony and order of truths, such as are everywhere received by Christians, to be an inestimable advantage.]

CHAP. IX. THE ANTIQUITY OF MOSES PROVED BY

GREEK WRITERS.

I will begin, then, with our first prophet and lawgiver, Moses; first explaining the times in which he lived, on authorities which among you are worthy of all credit. For I do not propose to prove these things only from our own divine histories, which as yet you are unwilling to credit on account of the inveterate error of your forefathers, but also from your own histories, and such, too, as have no reference to our worship, that you may know that, of all your teachers, whether sages, poets, historians, philosophers, or lawgivers, by far the oldest, as the Greek histories show us, was Moses, who was our first reli- -gious teacher.' For in the times of Ogyges and Inachus, whom some of your poets suppose to have been earth-born,= Moses is mentioned as the leader and ruler of the Jewish nation. For in this way he is mentioned both by Polemon in the first book of his Hellenics, and by Apion son of Posidonius in his book against the Jews, and in the fourth book of his history, where he says that during the reign of Inachus over Argos the Jews revolted from Amasis king of the Egyptians, and that Moses led them. And Ptolemaeus the Mendesian, in relating the history of Egypt, concurs in all this. And those who write the Athenian history, Hellanicus and Philochorus (the author of The Attic History), Castor and Thallus, and Alexander Polyhistor, and also the very well informed writers on Jewish affairs, Philo and Josephus, have mentioned Moses as a very ancient and time-honoured prince of the Jews. Josephus, certainly, desiring to signify even by the title of his work the antiquity and age of the history, wrote thus at the commencement of the history : " The Jewish antiquities ^ of Flavins Josephus,"— signifying the oldness of the history by the word " antiquities." And your most renowned historian Diodorus, who employed thirty whole years in epitomizing the libraries, and who, as he himself wrote, travelled over both Asia and Europe for the sake of great accuracy, and thus became an eye-witness of very many things, wrote forty entire books of his own history. And he in the first book, having said that he had learned from the Egyptian priests that Moses was an ancient lawgiver, and even the first, wrote of him in these very words: "For subsequent to the ancient manner of living in Egypt which gods and heroes are fabled to have regulated, they say that Moses •♦ first persuaded the people to use written laws, and to live by them; and he is

' The incongruity in this sentence is Justin's.

2 [Autochthones]. That is, sprung from the soil: and hence the oldest inhabitants, the aborigines.

3 Literally, archaeolojjy.

■< Unfortunately, Justin here mistook Menes for Moses. [But he may have so read the name in his conv. See Grabe's note on Diodorus, and the quotation following in another note.]

recorded to have been a man both great of soul and of great faculty in social matters." Then, having proceeded a little fiirther, and wishing to mention the ancient lawgivers, he mentions Moses first. For he spoke in these words: " Among the Jews they say that Moses ascribed his laws 5 to that (iod who is called Jehovah, whether because they judged it a marvellous and quite divine conception which promised to benefit a multitude of men, or because they were of opinion that the people would be the more obedient when they contemplated the majesty and power of those who were said to have invented the laws. And they say that Sasunchis was the second Egyptian legislator, a man of excellent understanding. And the third, they say, was Sesonchosis the king, who not only performed the most brilliant military exploits of any in Egypt, but also consolidated that warlike race by legislation. And the fourth lawgiver, they say, was Bocchoris the king, a wise and surpassingly skilful man. And after him it is said that Amasis the king acceded to the government, whom they relate to have regulated all that pertains to the rulers of provinces, and to the general administration of the government of Egypt. And they say that Darius, the father of Xerxes, was the sixth who legislated for the Egyptians."

CHAP. X. TR.A.INING AND INSPIR.VTION OF MOSES. ^

These things, ye men of Crreece, have been recorded in writing concerning the antiquity of Moses by those who were not of our religion ; and they said that they learned all these things from the Egyptian priests, among whom Moses was not only born, but also was thought worthy of jDartaking of all the education of the Eg)-ptians, on account of his being adopted by the king's daughter as her son ; and for the same reason was thought worthy of great attention, as the wisest of the historians relate, who have chosen to record his life and actions, and the rank of his descent, — I speak of Philo and Josephus. For these, in their narration of the history of the Jews, say that Moses was sprung from the race of the Chalda^ans, and that he was born in Egypt when his forefathei-s had migrated on account of famine from Phcenicia to that countr>' ; and him God chose to honour on account of his exceeding virtue, and judged him worthy to become the leader and lawgiver of his own race, when He thought it right that the peojile of the Hebrews should return out of Egypt into their owm land. To him first did God communicate that divine and prophetic gift which in those days descended upon the holy men, and him also did He first

s This sentence must be so completed from the context in Diodorus. See the note of Maranus.

[Consult the ponderous learning of Warburton's Divine Legation, passim J\

furnish that he might be our teacher in religion, and then after him the rest of the prophets, who both obtained the same gift as he, and taught us the same doctrines concerning the same subjects. These we assert to have been our teachers, who taught us nothing from their own human conception, but from the gift vouchsafed to them by God from above.

CHAP. XI. HEATHEN ORACLES TESTIFY OF MOSES.

But as you do not see the necessity of giving up the ancient error of your forefathers in obedience to these teachers [of ours], what teachers of your own do you maintain to have Hved worthy of credit in the matter of religion ? For, as I have frequently said, it is impossible that those who have not themselves learned these so great and divine things from such persons as are acquainted with them, should either themselves know them, or be able rightly to teach others. Since, therefore, it has been sufficiently proved that the opinions of your philosophers are obviously full of all ignorance and deceit, having now perhaps wholly abandoned the philosophers as formerly you abandoned the poets, you will turn to the deceit of the oracles ; for in this style I have heard some speaking. Therefore I think it fit to tell you at this step in our discourse what I formerly heard among you concerning their utterances. For when one inquired at your oracle — it is your own story — what religious men had at any time happened to live, you say that the oracle answered thus : " Only the Chaldaeans have obtained wisdom, and the Hebrews, who w^orship God Himself, the self-begotten King."

Since, therefore, you think that the truth can be learned from your oracles, when you read the histories and what has been written regarding the life of Moses by those who do not belong to our religion, and when you know that Moses and the rest of the prophets w^ere descended from the race of the Chaldaeans and Hebrews, do not think that anything incredible has taken place if a man sprung from a godly line, and who lived worthily of the godliness of his fathers, was chosen by God to be honoured with this great gift, and to be set forth as the first of all the

CHAP. XII. ANTIQUITY OF MOSES PROVED.

And I think it necessary also to consider the times in which your philosophers lived, that you may see that the time which produced them for you is very recent, and also short. For thus you will be able easily to recognise also the antiquity of Moses. But lest, by a complete survey of the periods, and by the use of a greater number of proofs, I should seem to be prolix, I thing it may be sufficiently demonstrated from the fol-

lowing. For Socrates was the teacher of Plato, and Plato of Aristotle. Now these men flourished in the time of Philip and Alexander of Macedon, in which time also the Athenian orators flourished, as the Philippics of Demosthenes plainly show us. And those who have narrated the deeds of Alexander sufficiently prove that during his reign Aristotle associated with him. From all manner of proofs, then, it is easy to see that the history of Moses is by far more ancient than all profane ' histories. And, besides, it is fit that you recognise this fact also, that nothing has been accurately recorded by Greeks before the era of the Olympiads, and that there is no ancient work which makes known any action of the C}reeks or Barbarians. But before that period existed only the history of the prophet Moses, which he wrote in the Hebrew character by the divine inspiration. For the Greek character was not yet in use, as the teachers of language themselves prove, telling us that Cadmus first brought the letters from Phoenicia, and communicated them to the Greeks. And your first of philosophers, Plato, testifies that they were a recent discovery. For in the Timceus ^ he wTote that Solon, the wasest of the wise men, on his return from Egypt, said to Critias that he had heard this from a very aged Egyptian priest, who said to him, "O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are ever children, and aged Greek there is none." Then again he said, " You are all youths in soul, for you hold no ancient opinion derived through remote tradition, nor any system of instruction hoary with time ; but all these things escape your knowledge, because for many generations the posterity of these ancient ages died mute, not having the use of letters." It is fit, therefore, that you understand that it is the fact that every history has been written in these recently-discovered Greek letters ; and if any one would make mention of old poets, or legislators, or historians, or philosophers, or orators, he will find that they wrote their own works in the Greek character.

CHAP. XIII. HISTORY OF THE SEPTUAGINT.

But if any one says that the writings of Moses and of the rest of the ])roi)hets were also written in the Greek character, let him read profane histories, and know that Ptolemy, king of Egypt, when he had built the library in Alexandria, and by gathering books from every cjuarter had filled it, then learnt that very ancient histories written in Hebrew happened to be carefully preserved ; and wishing to know their contents, he sent for seventy wise men from Jerusalem, who were acquainted with both the Greek and Hebrew language, and appointed them to translate the books ; and that in freedom from all disturb-

Literally, " without," not belonging to the true faith.

ance they might the more speedily complete the translation, he ordered that there should be constructed, not in the city itself, but seven stadia off (where the Pharos was built), as many little cots as there were translators, so that each by himself might complete his own translation ; and enjoined upon those officers who were appointed to this duty, to afford them all attendance, but to prevent communication with one another, in order tiiat the accuracy of the translation might be discernible even by their agreement. And when he ascertained that the seventy men had not only given the same meaning, but had employed the same words, and had tailed in agreement with one another not even to the extent of one word, but had written the same things, and concerning the same things, he was struck with amazement, and believed that the translation had been written by divine power, and perceived that the men were worthy of all honour, as beloved of God ; and with many gifts ordered them to return to their own country. And having, as was natural, marvelled at the books, and concluded them to be divine, he consecrated them in that library. These things, ye men of Greece, are no fable, nor do we narrate fictions ; but we ourselves having been in Alexandria, saw the remains of the little cots at the Pharos still preserved, and having heard these things from the inhabitants, who had received them as part of their country's tradition,' we now tell to you what you can also learn from others, and specially from those wise and esteemed men who have written of these things, Philo and Josephus, and many others. But if any of those who are wont to be forward in contradiction should say that these books do not belong to us, but to the Jews, and should assert that we in vain profess to have learnt our religion from them, let him know, as he may from those very things which are written in these books, that not to them, but to us, does the doctrine of them refer. That the books relating to our religion are to this day preserved among the Jews, has been a work of Divine Providence on our behalf; for lest, by producing them out of the Church, we should give occasion to those who wish to slander us to charge us with fraud, we demand that they be produced from the synagogue of the Jews, that from the very books still preserved among them it might clearly and evidently appear, that the laws which were written by holy men for instruction pertain to us.

CH.'^P. XIV. A WARNING APPEAL TO THE GREEKS.

It is therefore necessary, ye Greeks, that you

' [Doubtless Justin relates the tradition as he received it. Consult Dr. Selwyn's full account of the fables concerning the LXX., in

contemplate the things that are to be, and consider the judgment which is predicted by all, not only by the godly, but also by those who are irreligious, that ye do not without investigation commit yourselves to the error of your fathers, nor sujjpose that if they themselves have been in error, and have transmitted it to you, that this which they have taught you is true ; but looking to the danger of so terrible a mistake, inquire and investigate carefully into those things which are, as you say, spoken of even by your own teachers. For even unwillingly they were on your account forced to say many things by the Divine regard for mankind, especially those of them who were in Egypt, and profited by the godliness of Moses and his ancestry. For I think that some of you, when you read even carelessly the history of Diodorus, and of those others who wrote of these things, cannot fail to see that both Orpheus, and Homer, and Solon, who wrote the laws of the Athenians, and Pythagoras, and Plato, and some others, when they had been in Egypt, and had taken advantage of the history of Moses, afterwards published doctrines concerning the gods c^uite contrary to those which formerly they had erroneously promulgated.

CHAP. XV. — TESTIMONY OF ORPHEUS TO MONO- THEISM.

At all events, we must remind you what Orpheus, who was, as one might say, your first teacher of polytheism, latterly addressed to his son Musceus, and to the other legitimate auditors, concerning the one and only God. And he spoke thus : —

" I speak to those who lawfully may hear :

All others, ye profane, now close the doors,

And, O Musreus! hearken thou to me.

Who offspring art of the light-bringing moon :

The words I utter now are true indeed ;

And if thou former thoughts of mine hast seen,

Let them not rob thee of the blessed life.

But rather turn the dejiths of thine own heart

Unto the place where light and knowledge dwell.

Take thou the word divine to guide thy steps,

And walking well in the straight certain path,

Look to the one and universal King —

One, self-begotten, and the only One,

Of whom all things and we ourselves are sprung.

All things are open to His piercing gaze,

While He Himself is still invisible.

Present in all His works, though still unseen,

He gives to mortals evil out of good,

Sending both chilling wars and tearful griefs;

And other than the great King there is none.

The clouds for ever settle round His throne,

And mortal eyeballs in mere mortal eyes

Are weak, to see Jove reigning over all.

He sits established in the brazen heavens

Upon His golden throne; under His feet

He treads the earth, and stretches His right hand

To all the ends of ocean, and around

Tremble the mountain ranges and the streams,

The depths, too, of the blue and hoary sea."

2So JUSTIN'S HORTATORY ADDRESS TO THE GREEKS.

And again, in some other place he says : —

" There is one Zeus alone, one sun, one hell, One Bacchus ; and in all things but one God ; Nor of all these as diverse let me speak."

And when he swears he says : —

" Now I adjure thee by the highest heaven, The work of the great God, the only wise ; And I adjure thee by the P\ithcr's voice. Which first He uttered when He stablished The whole world by His counsel."

What does he mean by " I adjure thee by the Father's voice, which first He uttered ? " It is the Word of God which he here names " the voice," by whom heaven and earth and the whole creation were made, as the divine prophecies of the holy men teach us ; and these he himself also paid some attention to in Egypt, and understood that all creation was made by the Word of God ; and therefore, after he says, " I adjure thee by the Father's voice, which first He uttered," he adds this besides, " when by His counsel He established the whole world." Here he calls the Word " voice," for the sake of the poetical metre. And that this is so, is manifest from the fact, that a little further on, where the metre permits him, he names it " Word." For he said : —

" Take thou the IVord divine to guide thy steps." CHAP. XVI. TESTIMONY OF THE SIBYL.

We must also mention what the ancient and exceedingly remote Sibyl, whom Plato and Aristophanes, and others besides, mention as a prophetess, taught you in her oracular verses concerning one only God. And she speaks thus : —

" There is one only unbegotten God, Omnipotent, invisible, most high, All-seeing, but Himself seen by no flesh."

Then elsewhere thus : —

" But we have strayed from the Immortal's ways, And worship with a dull and senseless mind Idols, the workmanship of our own hands, And images and figures of dead men."

And again somewhere else : —

" Blessed shall be those men upon the earth Who shall love the great God before all else. Blessing Him when they eat and when they drink ; Trusting in this their piety alone. Who shall abjure all shrines which they may see, All altars and vain figures of dumb stones, Worthless and stained with blood of animals, And sacrifice of the four-footed tribes. Beholding the great glory of One God."

These are the Sibyl's words.

CHAP. XVII.

•TESTIMONY OF HOMER.

And the poet Homer, using the license of poetry, and rivalling the original opinion of Orpheus regarding the plurality of the gods, mentions, indeed, several gods in a mythical style,

lest he should seem to sing in a different strain from the poem of Grpheus, which he so distinctly proposed to rival, that even in the first line of his poem he indicated the relation he held to him. For as Orpheus in the beginning of his poem had said, " O goddess, sing the wrath of Demeter, who brings the goodly fruit," Homer began thus, " O goddess, sing the wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus," preferring, as it seems to me, even to violate the poetical metre in his first line, than that he should seem not to have remembered before all else the names of the gods. But shortly after he also clearly and explicitly presents his own opinion regarding one God only, somewhere ' saying to Achilles by the mouth of Phoenix, " Not though God Himself were to promise that He would peel off my old age, and give me the vigour of my youth," where he indicates by the pronoun the real and true God. And somewhere^ he makes Ulysses address the host of the Greeks thus : " The rule of many is not a good thing ; let there be one ruler." And that the rule of many is not a good thing, but on the contrary an evil, he proposed to evince by fact, recounting the wars which took place on account of the multitude of rulers, and the fights and factions, and their mutual counterplots. For monarchy is free from contention. So far the poet Homer.

CHAP. XVIII. TESTIMONY OF SOPHOCLES.

And if it is needful that we add testimonies concerning one God, even from the dramatists, hear even Sophocles speaking thus : —

" There is one God, in truth there is but one.

Who made the heavens and the broad earth beneath,

The glancing waves of ocean and the winds

But many of us mortals err in heart,

And set u]) for a solace in our woes

Images of the gods in stone and wood,

Or figures carved in brass or ivory,

And, furnishing for these our handiworks,

Both sacrifice and rite magnificent.

We think that thus we do a pious work."

Thus, then, Sophocles.

CHAP. XIX. — TESTIMONY OF PYTHAGORAS.

And Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchus, who expounded the doctrines of his own philosophy mystically by means of symbols, as those who have written his life show, himself seems to have entertained thoughts about the unity of God not unworthy of his foreign residence in Egypt. For when he says that unity is the first principle of all things, and that it is the cause of all good, he teaches by an allegory that God is one, ;ind alone.^ And that this is so, is evident from his saying that

3 Has no fellow.

unity and one differ widely from one another. For he says that unity belongs to the class of things perceived by the mind, but that one belongs to numbers. And if you desire to see a clearer proof of the opinion of Pythagoras concerning one God, hear his own opinion, for he spoke as follows : " God is one ; and He Him.- self does not, as some suppose, exist outside the world, but in it. He being wholly present in the whole circle, and beholding all generations ; being the regulating ingredient of all the ages, and the administrator of His own powers and works, the first principle of all things, the light of heaven, and Father of all, the intelligence and animating soul of the universe, the movement of all orbits." Thus, then, Pythagoras.

CHAP. XX.

■TESTIMONY OF PLATO.

But Plato, though he accepted, as is likely, the doctrine of Moses and the other prophets regarding one only God, which he learned while in Egypt, yet fearing, on account of what had befallen Socrates, lest he also should raise up some Anytus or Meletus against himself, vvho should accuse him before the Athenians, and say, " Plato is doing harm, and making himself mischievously busy, not acknowledging the gods recognised by the state ; " in fear of the hemlockjuice, contrives an elaborate and ambiguous discourse' concerning the gods, furnishing by his treatise gods to those who wish them, and none for those who are differently disposed, as may readily be seen from his own statements. For when he has laid down that everything that is made is mortal, he afterwards says that the gods were made. If, then, he would have God and matter to be the origin of all things, manifestly it is inevitably necessary to say that the gods were made of matter ; but if of matter, out of which he said that evil also had its origin, he leaves right-thinking persons to consider what kind of beings the gods should be thought who are produced out of matter. For, for this very reason did he say that matter was eternal,' that he might not seem to say that God is the creator of evil. And regarding the gods who were made by God, there is no doubt he said this : " Gods of gods, of whom I am the creator." And he manifestly held the correct opinion concerning the really existing God. For having heard in Egypt that God had said to Moses, when He was about to send him to the Hebrews, " I am that I am," 2 he understood that God had not mentioned to him His own proper name.

CHAP. XXI.

•THE NAMELESSNESS OF GOD.

For God cannot be called by any proper name, for names are given to mark out and distinguish

their subject-matters, because these are many and diverse ; but neither did any one exist before (rod who could give Him a name, nor did He Himself think it right to name Himself, seeing that He is one and uni(iue, as He Himself also by His own prophets testifies, when He says, " I God am the first," and after this, "And beside me there is no other God." ^ (Jn this account, then, as I before said, God did not, when He sent Moses to the Hebrews, mention any name, but by a participle He mystically teaches them that He is the one and only God. " For," says He, " I am the Being ; " manifestly contrasting Himself, "the Being," with those who are not,* that those who had hitherto been deceived might see that they were attaching themselves, not to beings, but to those who had no being. Since, therefore, God knew that the first men remembered the old delusion of their forefathers, whereby the misanthropic demon contrived to deceive them when he said to them, " If ye obey me in transgressing the commandment of God, ye shall be as gods," calling those gods which had no being, in order that men, supposing that there were other gods in existence, might believe that they themselves could become gods. On this account He said to Moses, " I am the Being," that by the participle " being " He might teach the difference between God who is and those who are not. 5 Men, therefore, having been duped by the deceiving demon, and having dared to disobey God, were cast out of Paradise, remembering the name of gods, but no longer being taught by God that there are no other gods. For it was not just that they who did not keep the first commandment, which it was easy to keep, should any longer be taught, but should rather be driven to just punishment. Being therefore banished from Paradise, and thinking that they were expelled on account of their disobedience only, not knowing that it was also because they had believed in the existence of gods which did not exist, they gave the name of gods even to the men who were afterwards born of themselves. This first false fancy, therefore, concerning gods, had its origin with the father of lies. God, therefore, knowing that the false opinion about the plurality of gods was burdening the soul of man like some disease, and wishing to remove and eradicate it. ajipeared first to Moses, and said to him, " I am He who is." For it was necessary, I think, that he who was to be the ruler and leader of the Hebrew people should first of all know the living God. Wherefore, having appeared to him first, as it was possible for God to appear to a man, He said to him, " I am He who is ; " then, being about to

■ Or, " uncreated."

♦ Literally, " with the not-beings."

S Literally, " between the God being and not-beings.'

282 JUSTIN'S HORTATORY ADDRESS TO THE GREEKS.

send him to the Hebrews, He further orders him to say, " He who is hath sent me to you."

CHAP. XXII. STUDIED AMBIGUITY OF PLATO.

Plato accordingly having learned this in Egypt, and being greatly taken with what was said about one God, did indeed consider it unsafe to mention the name of Moses, on account of his teaching the doctrine of one only God, for he dreaded the Areopagus ; but what is very well expressed by him in his elaborate treatise, the Timceus, he has written in exact correspondence with what Moses said regarding God, though he has done so, not as if he had learned it from him, but as if he were expressing his own opinion. For he said, " In my opinion, then, we must first define what that is which exists eternally, and has no generation,' and what that is which is always being generated, but never really is." Does not this, ye men of Greece, seem to those who are able to understand the matter to be one and the same thing, saving only the difference of the article? For Moses said, ''He who is," and Plato, "That which is." But either of the expressions seems to apply to the ever-existent God. For He is the only one who eternally exists, and has no generation. What, then, that other thing is which is contrasted with the ever-existent, and of which he said, " And what that is which is always being generated, but never really is," we must attentively consider. For we shall find him clearly and evidently saying that He who is unbegotten is eternal, but that those that are begotten and made are generated and perish^ — as he said of the same class, " gods of gods, of whom I am maker" — for he speaks in the following words : " In my opinion, then, we must first define what that is which is always existent and has no birth, and what that is which is always being generated but never really is. The former, indeed, which is apprehended by reflection combined with reason, always exists in the same way ; ^ while the latter, on the other hand, is conjectured by opinion formed by the perception of the senses unaided by reason, since it never really is, but is coming into being 'and perishing." These expressions declare to those who can rightly understand them the death and destruction of the gods that have been brought into being. And I think it necessary to attend to this also, that Plato never names him the creator, but the fashioner * of the gods, although, in the opinion of Plato, there is considerable difference between these two. For the creator creates the creature by his own capability and

power, being in need of nothing else ; but the fashioner frames his production when he has received from matter the capability for his work.

CHAP. XXIII.

PLATO S SELF-CONTRADICTION.

But, perhaps, some who are unwilling to abandon the doctrines of polytheism, will say that to these fashioned gods the maker said, " Since ye have been produced, ye are not immortal, nor at all imperishable ; yet shall ye not perish nor succumb to the fatality of death, because you have obtained my will, 5 which is a still greater and mightier bond." Here Plato, through fear of the adherents of polytheism, introduces his " maker " uttering words which contradict himself. For having formerly stated that he said that ever)'thing which is produced is perishable, he now introduces him saying the very opposite ; and he does not see that it is thus absolutely impossible for him to escape the charge of falsehood. For he either at first uttered what is false when he said that everything which is produced is perishable, or now, when he propounds the very opposite to what he had formerly said. For if, according to his former definition, it is absolutely necessary that every created thing be perishable, how can he consistently make that possible which is absolutely impossible ? So that Plato seems to grant an empty and impossible prerogative to his " maker," when he propounds that those who were once perishable because made from matter should again, by his intervention, become imperishable and enduring. For it is quite natural that the power of matter, which, according to Plato's opinion, is uncreated, and contemporary and coffival with the maker, should resist his will. For he who has not created has no power, in respect of that which is uncreated, so that it is not possible that it (matter), being free, can be controlled by any external necessity. Wherefore Plato himself, in consideration of this, has written thus : " It is necessary to affirm that God cannot suffer violence."

CHAP. XXIV. AGREEMENT OF PLATO AND HOMER.

How, then, does Plato banish Homer from his republic, since, in the embassy to Achilles, he represents Phoenix as saying to Achilles, " Even the gods themselves are not inflexible," ^ though Homer said this not of the king and Platonic maker of the gods, but of some of the multitude whom the Greeks esteem as gods, as one can gather from Plato's saying, "gods of gods?" For Homer, by that golden chain,^ refers all power and might to the one highest

That is, " is not produced or created; has no birth."

3 Kara Taiira, " .iccording to the same things," i.e., in eternal immut.ibilily.

^ Or, " demiurge or maker."

[cap isT.

7 That is, by the challenge of the chain introduced— Iliad,

Gofl. And the rest of the gods, he said, were so far distant from his divinity, that he thought fit to name them even along with men. At least he introduces Ulysses saying of Hector to Achilles, " He is raging terribly, trusting in Zeus, and values neither men nor gods." ' In this passage Homer seems to me without doubt to have learnt in Egypt, like Plato, concerning the one God, and plainly and openly to declare this, that he who trusts in the really existent God makes no account of those that do not exist. For thus the poet, in another i)assage, and employing another but equivalent word, to wit, a pronoun, made use of the same participle employed by Plato to designate the really existent God, concerning whom Plato said, "What that is which always exists, and has no birth." For not without a double sense does this expression of Phtenix seem to have been used : " Not even if God Himself were to promise me, that, having burnished off my old age. He should set me forth in the flower of youth." For the pronoun " Himself" signifies the really existing God. For thus, too, the oracle which was given to you concerning the Chaldceans and Hebrews signifies. For when some one inquired what men had ever lived godly, you say the answer

"Only the Chaldaeans and the Hebrews found wisdom, Worshipping God Himself, the unbegotten King."

CHAP. XXV. — PLATO'S KNOWLEDGE OF GOD'S ETERXITV.

How, then, does Plato blame Homer for saying that the gods are not inflexible, although, as is obvious from the expressions used. Homer said this for a useful purpose? For it is the property of those who expect to obtain mercy by prayer and sacrifices, to cease from and repent of their sins. For those who think that the Deity is inflexible, are by no means moved to abandon their sins, since they suppose that they will derive no benefit from repentance. How, then, does Plato the philosopher condemn the poet Homer for saying, " Even the gods themselves are not inflexible," and yet himself represent the maker of the gods as so easily turned, that he sometimes declares the gods to be mortal, and at other times declares the same to be immortal ? And not only concerning them, but also concerning matter, from which, as he says, it is necessary that the created gods have been produced, he sometimes says that it is uncreated, and at othex times that it is created ; and yet he does not see that he himself, when he says that the maker of the gods is so easily turned, is convicted of having fallen into the very errors for which he blames Homer, though Homer

said the very opposite concerning the maker of the gods. For he said that he spoke thus of himself: —

" For ne'er my promise shall deceive, or fail, (Jr be recall'd, if with a nod confirm'd."^

But Plato, as it seems, unwillingly entered into these strange dissertations concerning the gods, for he feared those who were attached to polytheism. And whatever he thinks fit to tell of all that he had learned from Moses and the prophets concerning one God, he preferred delivering in a mystical style, so that those who desired to be worshippers of (iod might have an inkling of his own ojMnion. For being charmed with that saying of God to Moses, " I am the really existing," and accepting with a great deal of thought the brief participial exjjression, he understood that God desired to signify to Moses His eternity, and therefore said, " I am the really existing ; " for this word " existing " expresses not one time only, but the three — the past, the present, and the future. For when Plato says, " and which never really is," he uses the verb " is " of time indefinite. For the word " never " is not spoken, as some suppose, of the past, but of the future time. And this has been accurately understood even by profane writers. And therefore, when Plato wished, as it were, to interpret to the uninitiated what had been mystically expressed by the participle concerning the eternity of God, he employed the following language : " God indeed, as the old tradition runs, includes the beginning, and end, and middle of all things." In this sentence he plainly and obviously names the law of Moses " the old tradition," fearing, through dread of the hemlockcup, to mention the name of Moses ; for he understood that the teaching of the man was hateful to the Greeks ; and he clearly enough indicates Moses by the antiquity of the tradition. And we have sufficiently proved from Diodorus and the rest of the historians, in the foregoing chapters, that the law of Moses is not only old, but even the first. For Diodorus says that he was the first of all lawgivers ; the letters which belong to the Greeks, and which they em])loyed in the writing of their histories, having not yet been discovered.

CH.\P. XXVL — PLATO INDEBTED TO THE PROPHETS.

And let no one wonder that Plato should believe Moses regarding the eternity of God. For you will find him mystically referring the true knowledge of realities to the prophets, next in order after the really existent God. For, discoursing in the Timaiis about certain first principles, he wrote thus : " This we lay down as the first principle of fire and the other bodies,

proceeding according to probability and necessity. But the first principles of these again God above knows, and whosoever among men is beloved of Him." • And what men does he think beloved of God, but Moses and the rest of the prophets? For their pro])hecies he read, and, having learned from them the doctrine of the judgment, he thus proclaims it in the first book of the Republic : " When a man begins to think he is soon to die, fear invades him, and concern about things which had never before entered his head. And those stories about what goes on in Hades, which tell us that the man who has here been unjust must there be punished, though formerly ridiculed, now torment his soul with apprehensions that they may be true. And he, either through the feebleness of age, or even because he is now nearer to the things of the other world, views them more attentively. He becomes, therefore, full of apprehension and dread, and begins to call himself to account, and to consider whether he has done any one an injury. And that man who finds in his life many iniquities, and who continually starts from his sleep as children do, lives in terror, and with a forlorn prospect. But to him who is conscious of no wrong-doing, sweet hope is the constant companion and good nurse of old age, as Pindar says.^ For this, Socrates, he has elegantly expressed, that ' whoever leads a life of holiness and justice, him sweet hope, the nurse of age, accompanies, cheering his heart, for she powerfully sways the changeful mind of mortals.' " ^ This Plato wrote in the first book of the Republic.

CHAP. XXVII. PLATO'S KNOWLEDGE OF THE

JUDGMENT.

And in the tenth book he plainly and manifestly wrote what he had learned from the prophets about the judgment, not as if he had learned it from them, but, on account of his fear of the Greeks, as if he had heard it from a man who had been slain in battle — for this story he thought fit to invent — and who, when he was about to be buried on the twelfth day, and was lying on the funeral pile, came to life again, and described the other world. The following are hi^ very words : ^ " For he said that he was present when one was asked by another person where the great Ardiaeus was. This Ardia^us had been prince in a certain city of Pamphylia, and had killed his aged father and his elder brother, and done many other unhallowed deeds, as was reported. He said, then, that the person who was asked said : He neither comes nor ever will come hither. For we saw, among other terrible

Pind., Fr., 233, a fragment preserved in this place.

sights, this also. When we were close to the mouth [of the pit], and were about to return to the upper air, and had suffered everything else, we suddenly beheld both him and others likewise, most of whom were tyrants. But there were also some private sinners who had committed great crimes. And these, when they thought they were to ascend, the mouth would not permit, but bellowed when any of those who were so incurably wicked attempted to ascend, unless they had paid the full penalty. Then fierce men, fiery to look at, stood close by, and hearing the din, 5 took some and led them away ; but Ardiaeus and the rest, having bound hand and foot, and striking their heads down, and flaying, they dragged to the road outside, tearing them with thorns, and signifying to those who were present the cause of their suffering these things, and that they were leading them away to cast them into Tartarus. Hence, he said, that amidst all their various fears, this one was the greatest, lest the mouth should bellow when they ascended, since if it were silent each one would most gladly ascend ; and that the punishments and torments were such as these, and that, on the other hand, the rewards were the reverse of these." Here Plato seems to me to have learnt from the prophets not only the doctrine of the judgment, but also of the resurrection, which the Greeks refuse to believe. For his saying that the soul is judged along with the body, proves nothing more clearly than that he believed the doctrine of the resurrection. Since how could Ardiffius and the rest have undergone such punishment in Hades, had they left on earth the body, with its head, hands, feet, and skin? For certainly they will never say that the soul has a head and hands, and feet and skin. But Plato, having fallen in with the testimonies of the prophets in Egypt, and having accepted what they teach concerning the resurrection of the body, teaches that the soul is judged in company with the body.

CHAP. XXVIII. homer's OBLIGATIONS TO THE

SACRED WRITERS.

And not only Plato, but Homer also, having received similar enlightenment in Egypt, said that Tityus was in like manner punished. For Ulysses speaks thus to Alcinous when he is recounting his divination by the shades of the

" There Tityus, large and long, in fetters bound, O'erspread nine acres of infernal ground ; Two ravenous vultures, furious for their food, Scream o'er the fiend, and riot in his blood. Incessant gore the liver in his breast, Th' immortal liver grows, and gives th' immortal feast."

S The bellowing of the mouth of the pit.

'' Odyssey, xi. 576 (Pope's translation, line 709).

For it is plain that it is not the soul, but the body, which has a liver. And in the same manner he has described both Sisyphus and Tantalus as enduring punishment with the body. And that Homer had been in Kgypt, and introduced into his own poem much of what he there learnt, Diodorus, the most esteemed of historians, plainly enough teaches us. For he said that when he was in Egypt he had learnt that Helen, having received from 'I'heon's wife, Polydamna, a drug, " lulling all sorrow and melancholy, and causing forgetfulness of all ills," ' brought it to Sparta. And Homer said that by making use of that drug Helen put an end to the lamentation of Menelaus, caused by the presence of Telemachus. And he also called Venus " golden," from what he had seen in Egypt. For he had seen the temple which in Egypt is called " the temple of golden Venus," and the plain which is named " the plain of golden Venus." And why do I now make mention of this? To show that the poet transferred to his own poem much of what is contained in the divine writings of the prophets. And first he transferred what Moses had related as the beginning of the creation of the world. For Moses wrote thus : " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," ^ then the sun, and the moon, and the stars. For having learned this in Egypt, and having been much taken with what Moses had written in the Genesis of the world, he fabled that Vulcan had made in the shield of Achilles a kind of representation of the creation of the world. For he wrote thus -J —

" There he described the earth, the heaven, the sea, The sun that rests not, and the moon full-orb'd ; There also, all the stars which round about, As with a radiant frontlet, bind the skies."

And he contrived also that the garden of Alcinous should preserve the likeness of Paradise, and through this likeness he represented it as ever-blooming and full of all fruits. For thus he

"Tall thriving trees confess'd the fruitful mould; The reddening apple ripens here to gold. Here the blue fig with luscious juice o'erflows, With deeper red the full pomegranate glows; The branch here bends beneath the weighty pear, And verdant olives flourish round the year. The balmy spirit of the western gale Eternal breathes on fruits, untaught to fail ; Each drojiping pear a following pear supplies, On apples ap])les, figs on figs arise. The same mild season gives the blooms to blow, The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow. Here ordcr'd vines in equal ranks appear, With all th' united labours of the year. Some to unload the fertile branches run. Some dry the blackening clusters in the sun,

Others to tread the liquid harvest join. The groaning presses foam with floods of wine. Here are the vines in early flower descry'd Here grapes discoloured on the sunny side, And there in autumn's richest purple dy'd."

Do not these words present a manifest and clear imitation of what the first prophet Moses said about Paradise? And if any one wish to know something of the building of the tower by which the men of that day fancied they woukl obtain access to heaven, he will find a sufficiently exact allegorical imitation of this in what the poet has ascribed to Otus and Ephialtes. For of them

" Proud of their strength, and more than mortal size, The gods they challenge, and affect the skies. Heav'd on Olympus tottering Ossa stood ; On Ossa, Pelion nods with all his wood."

And the same holds good regarding the enemy of mankind who was cast out of heaven, whom the Sacred Scriptures call the-Devil,^ a name which he obtained from his first devilry against man ; and if any one would attentively consider the matter, he would find that the poet, though he certainly never mentions the name of " the devil," yet gives him a name from his wickedest action. For the poet, calling him Ate,^ says that he was hurled from heaven by their god, just as if he had a distinct remembrance of the expressions which Isaiah the prophet had uttered regarding him. He wrote thus in his own

" And, seizing by her glossy locks The goddess Ate, in his wrath he swore That never to the starry skies again, And the Olympian heights, he would permit The universal mischief to return. Then, whirling her around, he cast her down To earth. She, mingling with all works of men, Caused many a pang to Jove."

CHAP. XXIX. — ORIGIN OF PLATO'S DOCTRINE OK FORM.

And Plato, too. when he says that form is the third original principle next to God and matter, has inanifestly received this suggestion from no other source than from Moses, ha\-ing learned, indeed, from the words of Moses the name of form, but not having at the same time been instructed by the initiated, that without mystic insight it is impossible to have any distinct knowledge of the writings of ]\Ioses. For Moses wrote that God had spoken to him regarding the tabernacle in the following words : " And thou shalt make for me according to all that I show thee in the mount, the pattern of the tabernacle." ^ And again : " And thou shalt erect the taber-

Odyssey, vii. 114 (Pope's translation, line 146).

5 Odyssey, xi. 312 (Pope's translation, line 385).

6 The false accuser; one who docs injury by slanderous accusations.

7 'Att), the goddess of mischief, from whom spring all rash, blind deeds and their results.

nacle according to the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shalt thou make it." ' And again, a little afterwards : " Thus then thou shalt make it according to the pattern which was showed to thee in the mount." ^ Plato, then, reading these passages, and not receiving what was written with the suitable insight, thought that form had some kind of separate existence before that which the senses perceive, and he often calls it the pattern of the things which are made, since the writing of Moses spoke thus of the tabernacle : " According to the form showed to thee in the mount, so shalt thou make it."

CHAP. XXX. homer's KNOWLEDGE OF MAN'S

ORIGIN.

And he was obviously deceived in the same way regarding the earth and heaven and man ; for he supposes that there are " ideas " of these. For as Moses wrote thus, " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," and then subjoins this sentence, "And the earth was invisible and unfashioned," he thought that it was the preexistent earth which was spoken of in the words, "The earth was," because Moses said, "And the earth was invisible and unfashioned ; " and he thought that the earth, concerning which he says, " God created the heaven and the earth," was that earth which we perceive by the senses, and which God made according to the preexistent form. And so also, of the heaven which was created, he thought that the heaven which was created — and which he also called the firmament— was that creation which the senses perceive ; and that the heaven which the intellect perceives is that other of which the prophet said, " The heaven of heavens is the Lord's, but the earth hath He given to the children of men." 3 And so also concerning man : Moses first mentions the name of man, and then after many other creations he makes mention of the formation of man, saying, "And God made man, taking dust from the earth." * He thought, accordingly, that the man first so named existed before the man who was made, and that he who was formed of the earth was afterwards made according to the pre-existent form. And that man was formed of earth. Homer, too, having discovered from the ancient and divine history which says, " Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," 5 calls the lifeless body of Hector dumb clay. For in condemnation of Achilles dragging the corpse of Hector after death, he says somewhere : ^ —

"On the dumb clay he cast indignity, I-ilinded with rage."

' Iliad, xxii.

And again, somewhere else,7 he introduces Menelaus, thus addressing those who were not accepting Hector's challenge to single combat with becoming alacrity, —

"To earth and water may you all return," — resolving them in his violent rage into their original and pristine formation from earth. These things Homer and Plato, having learned in Egypt from the ancient histories, wrote in their own words.

CHAP. XXXI. FURTHER PROOF OF PLATO'S AC- QUAINTANCE WITH SCRIPTURE.

For from what other source, if not from his reading the writings of the prophets, could Plato have derived the information he gives us, that Jupiter drives a winged chariot in heaven ? For he knew this from the following expressions of the prophet about the cherubim : " And the glory of the Lord went out from the house and rested on the cherubim ; and the cherubim lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them ; and the glory of the Lord God of Israel was over them above." « And borrowing this idea, the magniloquent Plato shouts aloud with vast assurance, " The great Jove, indeed, driving his winged chariot in heaven." For 'from what other source, if not from Moses and the prophets, did he learn this and so write ? And whence did he receive the suggestion of his saying that God exists in a fiery substance? Was it not from the third book of the history of the Kings, where it is written, " The Lord was not in the wind ; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake ; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire ; and after the fire a still small voice? " 9 But these things pious men must understand in a higher sense with profound and meditative insight. But Plato, not attending to the words with the suitable insight, said that God exists in a fiery substance.

CHAP. XXXII. PLATO'S DOCTRINE OF THE HEAV- ENLY GIFT.

And if any one will attentively consider the gift that descends from God on the holy men, — which gift the sacred prophets call the Holy Ghost, — he shall find that this was announced under another name by Plato in the dialogue with Meno. For, fearing to name the gift of C;od "the Holy Ghost," lest he should seem, by following the teaching of the prophets, to be an enemy to the Cireeks, he acknowledges, indeed, that it comes down from God, yet does not think fit to name it the Holy Ghost, but virtue.

For so in the dialogue with Meno, concerning reminiscence, after he had put many questions regarding virtue, whether it could be taught or whether it could not be taught, but must be gained by practice, or whether it could be attained neither by practice nor by learning, but was a natural gift in men, or whether it comes in some other way, he makes this declaration in these very words : " But if now through this whole dialogue we have conducted our inquiry and discussion aright, virtue must be neither a natural gift, nor what one can receive by teaching, but comes to those to whom it does come by divine destiny." These things, I think, Plato having learned from the prophets regarding the Holy Ghost, he has manifestly transferred to what he calls virtue. For as the sacred prophets say that one and the same spirit is divided into seven spirits, so he also, naming it one and the same virtue, says this is divided into four virtues ; wishing by all means to avoid mention of the Holy Spirit, but clearly declaring in a kind of allegory what the prophets said of the Holy Spirit. For to this effect he spoke in the dialogue with Meno towards the close : " From this reasoning, Meno, it appears that virtue conxes to those to whom it does come by a divine destiny. But we shall know clearly about this, in what kind of way virtue comes to men, when, as a first step, we shall have set ourselves to investigate, as an independent inquiry, what virtue itself is." You see how he calls only by the name of virtue, the gift that descends from above ; and yet he counts it worthy of inquiry, whether it is right that this [gift] be called virtue or some other thing, fearing to name it openly the Holy Spirit, lest he j should seem to be following the teaching of the

CHAP. XXXIII. PLATO'S IDEA OF THE BEGINNING '

OF TIME DRAW^ FROM MOSES.

And from what source did Plato draw the information that time was created along with the heavens ? For he wrote thus : " Time, accordingly, was created along with the heavens ; in order that, coming into being together, they might also be together dissolved, if ever their dissolution should take place." Had he not learned this from the divine history of Moses ? For he knew that the creation of time had received its original constitution from days and months and years. Since, then, the first day which was created along with the heavens constituted the beginning of all time (for thus Moses wTOte, " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," and then immediately subjoins, " And one day was made," as if he would designate the whole of time by one part of it), Plato names the day " time," lest, if

he mentioned the " day," he should seem to lay himself open to the accusation of the Athenians, that he was completely adopting the expressions of Moses. And from what source did he derive what he has written regarding the dissolution of the heavens? Had he not learned this, too, from the sacred prophets, and did he not think that this was their doctrine ?

CHAP. XXXIV. WHENCE MEN ATTRIBUTED TO GOD

HUMAN FORM.

And if any person investigates the subject of images, and incjuires on what ground those who first fashioned your gods conceived that they had the forms of men, he will find that this also was derived from the divine history. For seeing that Moses' history, speaking in the person of God, says, " Let Us make man in our image and likeness," these persons, under the impression that this meant that men were like God in form, began thus to fashion their gods, supposing they would make a likeness from a likeness. But why, ye men of Greece, am I now induced to recount these things ? That ye may know that it is not possible to learn the true religion from those who were unable, even on those subjects by which they won the admiration of the heathen," to write anything original, but merely propounded by some allegorical device in their own writings what they had learned from Moses and the other prophets.

CHAP. XXXV. — APPEAL TO THE GREEKS.

The time, then, ye men of Greece, is now come, that ye, having been persuaded by the secular histories that Moses and the rest of the prophets were far more ancient than any of those who have been esteemed sages among you, abandon the ancient delusion of your forefathers, and read the divine histories of the prophets, and ascertain from them the true religion ; for they do not present to you artful discourses, nor speak speciously and plausibly — for this is the proi)erty of those who wish to rob you of the truth — but use with simplicity the words and expressions which ofter themselves, and declare to you whatever the Holy Ghost, who descended upon them, chose to teach through them to those who are desirous to learn the true religion. Having then laid aside all false shame, and the inveterate error of mankind, with all its bombastic parade and empty noise, though by means of it you fancy you are possessed of all advantages, do you give yourselves to the things that profit you. For neither will you commit any offence against your fathers, if you now show a desire to betake yourselves to that which is quite opposed to their error, since it is likely enough that they

I Literally, " those without."

themselves are now lamenting in Hades, and repenting with a too late repentance ; and if it were possible for them to show you thence what had befallen them after the termination of this life, ye would know from what fearful ills they desired to deliver you. But now, since it is not possible in this present life that ye either learn from them, or from those who here profess to teach that philosophy which is falsely so called, it follows as the one thing that remains for you to do, that, renouncing the error of your fathers, ye read the prophecies of the sacred writers," not requiring from them unexceptionable diction (for the matters of our religion lie in works,- not in words), and learn from them what will give you life everlasting. For those who bootlessly disgrace the name of philosophy are convicted of knowing nothing at all, as they are themselves forced, though unwillingly, to confess, since not only do they disagree with each other, but also expressed their own opinions sometimes in one way, sometimes in another.

CHAP. XXXVI. TRUE KNOWLEDGE NOT HELD BY

THE PHILOSOPHERS.

And if " the discovery of the truth " be given among them as one definition of philosophy, how are they who are not in possession of the true knowledge worthy of the name of philosophy? For if Socrates, the wisest of your wise men, to whom even your oracle, as you yourselves say, bears witness, saying, " Of all men, Socrates is the wisest" — if he confesses that he knows nothing, how did those who came after him profess to know even things heavenly ? For Socrates said that he was on this account called wise, because, while other men pretended to know what they were ignorant of, he himself did not shrink from confessing that he knew nothing. For he said, " I seem to myself to be wisest by this little particular, that what I do not know, I do not suppose I know." Let no one fancy that Socrates ironically feigned ignorance, because he often used to do so in his dialogues. For the last expression of his apology which he uttered as he was being led away to the prison, proves that in seriousness and truth he was confessing his ignorance : " But now it is time to go away, I indeed to die, but you to live. And which of us goes to the better state, is hidden to all but God." Socrates, indeed, having uttered this last sentence in the Areopagus, departed to the prison, ascribing to God alone the knowledge of those things which are hidden from us ; but those who came after him, though they are unable to comprehend even earthly things, profess to understand things heavenly as if they had seen them. Aristotle at least — as if he had seen things

' Literally, " sacred men."

' |_A noteworthy apology for early Christian writers.]

heavenly with greater accuracy than Plato — declared that (iod did not exist, as Plato said, in the fiery substance (for this was Plato's doctrine) but in the fifth element, air. And while he demanded that concerning these matters he should be believed on account of the excellence of his language, he yet departed this life because he was overwhelmed with the infamy and disgrace of being unable to discover even the nature of the Euripus in Chalcis.^ Let not any one, therefore, of sound judgment prefer the elegant diction of these men to his own salvation, but let him, according to that old story, stop his ears with wax, and flee the sweet hurt which these sirens would inflict upon him. For the above-mentioned men, presenting their elegant language as a kind of bait, have sought to seduce many from the right religion, in imitation of him who dared to teach the first men polytheism. Be not persuaded by these persons, I entreat you, but read the prophecies of the sacred writers.* And if any slothfulness or old hereditary superstition prevents you from reading the prophecies of the holy men through which you can be instructed regarding the one only God, which is the first article of the true religion, yet believe him who, though at first he taught you polytheism, yet afterwards preferred to sing a useful and necessary recantation — I mean Orpheus, who said what I quoted a little before ; and believe the others who wrote the same things concerning one God. For it was the work of Divine Providence on your behalf, that they, though unwillingly, bore testimony that what the prophets said regarding one God was true, in order that, the doctrine of a plurality of gods being rejected by all, occasion might be afforded you of knowing the truth.

CHAP. XXXVn. OF THE SIBVL.5

And you may in part easily learn the right religion from the ancient Sibyl, who by some kind of potent inspiration teaches you, through her oracular predictions, truths which seem to be much akin to the teaching of the prophets. She, they say, was of Babylonian extraction, being the daughter of Berosus, who wrote the ChakL'ean History ; and when she had crossed over (how, I know not) into the region of Campania, she there uttered her oracular sayings in a city called Cumae, six miles from Baise, where the hot springs of Campania are found. And being in that city, we saw also a certain place, in which we were shown a very large basilica ^ cut out of one stone ; a vast affair, and worthy of all admiration. And they who had heard it from their fathers as part of their country's tradition, told us that it was

3 This is now supposed to be fable.

Literally, " sacred men."

S [In Grabe's edition consult notes of Lang and Kortholt, ii. p. 45.]

[Travellers must recognise the agreement of Justin's story with the traditional cave still shown in this re£;ion.]

here she used to pubUsh her oracles. And in the middle of the basilica they showed us three receptacles cut out of one stone, in which, when filled with water, they said that she washed, and having put on her robe again, retires into the inmost chamber of the basilica, which is still a part of the one stone ; and sitting in the middle of the chamber on a high rostrum and throne, thus proclaims her oracles. And both by many other writers has the Sibyl been mentioned as a prophetess, and also by Plato in hiS' Phcedrus. And Plato seems to me to have counted prophets divinely insj^ired when he read her prophecies. For he saw that what she had long ago predicted was accomplished ; and on this account he expresses in the Dialogue with Meno his wonder at and admiration of prophets in the following terms : " Those whom we now call prophetic persons we should rightly name divine. And not least would we say that they are divine, and are raised to the prophetic ecstasy by the inspiration and possession of God, when they correctly speak of many and important matters, and yet know nothing of what they are saying," — plainly and manifestly referring to the prophecies of the Sibyl. For, unlike the poets who, after their poems are y)enned, have power to correct and poHsh, specially in the way of increasing the accuracy of their verse, she was filled indeed with prophecy at the time of the inspiration, but as soon as the inspiration ceased, there ceased also the remembrance of all she had said. And this indeed was the cause why some only, and not all, the metres of the verses of the Sibyl were preserved. For we ourselves, when in that city, ascertained from our cicerone, who showed us the places in which she used to prophesy, that there was a certain coffer made of brass in which they said that her remains were preserved. And besides all else which they told us as they had heard it from their fathers, they said also that they who then took .down her prophecies, being illiterate persons, often went quite Jtstray from the accuracy of the metres ; and this, they said, was the cause of the want of metre in some of the verses, the prophetess having no remembrance of what she had said, after the possession and inspiration ceased, and the reporters having, through their lack of education, failed to record the metres with accuracy. And on this account, it is manifest that Plato had an eye to the prophecies of the Sibyl when he said this about prophets, for he said, "When they correctly speak of many and important matters, and yet know nothing of what they are saying.

CHAP. XXXVIII. CONCLUDING APPEAL.

But since, ye men of Greece, the matters of the true religion lie not in the metrical numbers of poetry, nor yet in that culture which is highly

esteemed among you, do ye henceforward pay less devotion to accuracy of metres and of language ; and giving heed without contentiousness to the words of the Sibyl, recognise how great are the benefits which she will confer upon you by predicting, as she does in a clear and patent manner, the advent of our Saviour Jesus Christ ; ' who, being the Word of God, inseparable from Him in power, having assumed man, who had been made in the image and likeness of God, restored to us the knowledge of the religion of our ancient forefathers, which the men who lived after them abandoned through the bewitching counsel of the envious devil, and turned to the worship of those who were no gods. And if you still hesitate and are hindered from belief regarding the formation of man, believe those whom you have hitherto thought it right to give heed to, and know that your own oracle, when asked by some one to utter a hymn of praise to the Almighty God, in the middle of the hymn spoke thus, " Who formed the first of men, and called him Adam." And this hymn is preser\-ed by many whom we know, for the conviction of those who are unwilling to believe the truth which all bear witness to. If therefore, ye men of Greece, ye do not esteem the false fancy concerning those that are no gods at a higher rate than your own salvation, believe, as I said, the most ancient and time-honoured Sibyl, whose books are preserved in all the world, and who by some kind of potent inspiration both teaches us in her oracular utterances concerning those that are called gods, that have no existence ; and also clearly and manifesdy prophesies concerning the predicted advent of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and concerning all those things which were to be done by Him. For the knowledge of these things will constitute your necessary preparatory training for the study of the prophecies of the sacred writers. And if any one supposes that he has learned the doctrine concerning God from the most ancient of those whom you name philosophers, let him listen to Ammon and Hermes : ^ to Ammon, who in his discourse concerning God calls Him wholly hidden ; and to Hermes, who says plainly and distinctly, " that it is difficult to comprehend God, and that it is impossible even for the man who can comprehend Him to declare Him to others." From every point of view, therefore, it must be seen that in no other way than only from the prophets who teach us by divine inspiration, is it at all possible to learn anything concerning God and the true religion.

' [The fascinating use made of this by Virgil must not be over-

" Ultima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas, etc

2 [Hermes Trismegistus. Milton (Penscroso, line 88,) translates

[N.li. — This work is not supposed to be Justm s by modem cntics. J

[TRANSLATED BY THE REV. G. REITH, M.A.]

CHAP. I. — OBJECT OF THE AUTHOR.

Although human nature at first received a union of intelligence and safety to discern the truth, and the worship due to the one Lord of all, yet envy, insinuating the excellence of human greatness, turned men away to the making of idols ; and this superstitious custom, after continuing for a long period, is handed down to the majority as if it were natural and true. It is the part of a lover of man, or rather of a lover of God, to remind men who have neglected it of that which they ought to know. For the truth is of itself sufficient to show forth, by means of those things which are contained under the pole of heaven, the order [instituted by] Him who has created them. But forgetfulness having taken possession of the minds of men, through the long-suffering of God, has acted recklessly in transferring to mortals the name which is applicable to the only true God ; and from the few the infection of sin spread to the many, who were blinded by popular usage to the knowledge of that which was lasting and unchangeable. For the men of former generations, who instituted private and public rites in honour of such as were more powerful, caused forgetfulness of the Catholic ^ faith to take possession of their posterity ; but I, as I have just stated, along with a Godloving mind, shall employ the speech of one who loves man, and set it before those who have intelligence, which all ought to have who are privileged to observe the administration of the universe, so that they should worship unchangeably Him who knows all things. This I shall do, not by mere display of words, but by altogether using demonstration drawn from the old poetry in Greek literature,^ and from writings very common amongst all. For from these the famous men who have handed down idol-worship as law to the multitudes, shall be taught and convicted by their own poets and literature of great ignorance.

' 0«ov is omitted in MSS., but ij-ovapxi-"- of itself implies it.

2 i.e., the doctrine that God only is to be worshipped.

3 Literally, " history."

CHAP. n. — TESTIMONIES TO THE UNITY OF GOD.

First, then, ^Eschylus,'* in expounding the arrangement of his work,5 expressed himself also as follows respecting the only God : —

" Afar from mortals place the holy God,

Nor ever think that He, like to thyself,

In fleshly robes is clad ; for all unknown

Is the great God to such a worm as thou.

Divers similitudes He bears ; at times

He seems as a consuming fire that burns

Unsated ; now like water, then again

In sable folds of darkness shrouds Himself.

Nay, even the very beasts of earth reflect

His sacred image ; whilst the wind, clouds, rain,

The roll of thunder and the lightnmg flash.

Reveal to men their great and sovereign Lord.

Before Him sea and rocks, with every fount,

And all the water floods, in reverence bend ;

And as they gaze upon His awful face,

Mountains and earth, with the profoundest depths

Of ocean, and the highest peaks of hills,

Tremble: for He is Lord Omnipotent;

And this the glory is of God Most High."

But he was not the only man initiated in the knowledge of God ; for Sophocles also thus describes the nature of the only Creator of all things, the One God : —

" There is one God, in truth there is but one.

Who made the heavens and the broad earth beneath,

The glancing waves of ocean, and the winds ;

But many of us mortals err in heart,

And set up, for a solace in our woes,

Images of the gods in stone and brass,

Or figures carved in gold or ivory ;

And, furnishing for these, our handiworks,

Both sacrifice and rite magnificent,

We think that thus we do a pious work."

And Philemon also, who published many explanations of ancient customs, shares in the knowledge of the truth ; and thus he writes : —

" Tell me what thoughts of God we should conceive ? One, all things seeing, yet Himself unseen."

Even Orpheus, too, who introduces three hundred and sixty gods, will bear testimony in my

Grotius supposes this to be iEschylus the younger in some prologue.

5 This m.iy also be translated: "expounding the set of opinions prevalent in his day."

favour from the tract called Diathecce, in which he appears to repent of his error by writing the following : —

" I'll speak to those who lawfully may hear ; All others, ye profane, now close the doors I And, O Musffius, hearken thou to me, Who offs])ring art of the light-bringing moon. The words I tell thee now arc true indeed, And if thou former tliougiits of mine hast seen, Let them not rob thee of the blessed life ; But rather turn the depths of thine own heart Unto that place where light and knowledge dwell. Take thou the word divine to guide thy steps; And walking well in the straight certam path, Look to the one and universal King, One, self-begotten, and the only One Of whom all things, and we ourselves, are sprung. All things are open to Mis piercing gaze, While He Himself is still invisible; Present in all His works, though still unseen, He gives to mortals evil out of good. Sending both chilling wars and tearful griefs; And other than the (ireat King there is none. The clouds for ever settle round His throne ; And mortal eyeballs in mere mortal eyes Are weak to see Jove, reigning over all. He sits established in the brazen heavens Upon His throne; and underneath His feet He treads the earth, and stretches His right hand To all the ends of ocean, and around Tremble the mountain ranges, and the streams. The depths, too, of the blue and hoary sea."

He speaks indeed as if he had been an eyewitness of God's greatness. And Pythagoras ' agrees with him when he writes : —

" Should one in boldness say, Lo, I am God ! Besides the One — Eternal — Infinite, Then let him from the throne he has usurped Put forth his power and form another globe. Such as we dwell in, saying. This is mine. Nor only so, but in this new domain For ever let him dwell. If this he can. Then verily he is a god proclaimed."

CHAP. III. TESTIMONIES TO A FLTITJRE JUDGMENT.

Then further concerning Him, that He alone is powerful, both to institute judgment on the deeds performed in life, and on the ignorance of the Deity [displayed by men], I can adduce witnesses from your own ranks ; and first Sophocles,^ who speaks as follows : —

" That time of times shall come, shall surely come, When from the golden ether down shall fall Fire's teeming treasure, and in burning flames All things of earth and heaven shall be consumed ; And then, when all creation is dissolved. The sea's last wave shall die upon the shore. The bald earth stript of trees, the burning air No winged thing upon its breast shall bear. There are two roads to Hades, well we know ; ■' ) By this the righteous, and by that the bad, \

On to their separate fates shall tend ; and He, ) Who all things had destroyed, shall all things save."

And Philemon '^ again : —

I " Pythagorei cujusdam fetus." — Otto, after Goezius.

3 Some propose to insert these three lines in the centre of the next quotation from Philemon, after the line, " Nay, there's an eye," etc. * Some say Diphilui.

" Think'st thou, Nicostratus, the dead, who here Enjoyed whate'er of good life offers man, Escape the notice of l)ivinity. As if they might forgotten be of Him ? Nay, there's an eye of Justice watching all ; For if the good and bad find the same end. Then go thou, rob, steal, plunder, at thy will, Do all the eviltiiat to thee seems grjod. Yet be not thou deceived ; for underneath There is a throne and jilace of judgment set. Which God the Lord of all shall occupy; Whose name is terrible, nor shall I dare To breathe it forth in feeble human speech."

And Euripides : 5 —

"Not grudgingly he gives a lease of life, That we the holders may be fairly judged; And if a mortal man doth think to hide His daily guilt from the keen eye of God, It is an evil thought ; so if perchance He meets with leisure-taking Justice, she Demands him as her lawful prisoner : But many of you hastily commit A twofold sin, and say there is no God. But, ah! there is; there is. Then see that he Who, being wicked, prospers, may redeem The time so precious, else hereafter waits For him the due reward of punishment."

CHAP. IV. GOD DESIRES NOT SACRIHCES, BUT

RIGHTEOUSN"ESS.

And that God is not appeased by the libations and incense of evil-doers, but awards vengeance in righteousness to each one, Philemon^ again shall bear testimony to me : —

" If any one should dream, O Pamphilus, By sacrifice of bulls or goats — nay, then. By Jupiter — of any such like things; Or by j)resenting gold or purple robes, Or images of ivory and gems ; If thus he thinks he may propitiate God, He errs, and shows himself a silly one. But let him rather useful be, and good. Committing neither theft nor lustful deeds. Nor murder foul, for earthly riches' sake. Let him of no man covet wife or child. His splendid house, his wide-spread property. His maiden, or his slave born in his house, His horses, or his cattle, or his beeves. Nay, covet not a pin, O Pamphilus, For God, close by you, sees whate'er you do. He ever with the wicked man is wroth. But in the righteous takes a pleasure still. Permitting him to reaj) fruit of his toil. And to enjoy the bread his sweat has won. But being righteous, see thou pay thy vows. And unto God the giver offer gifts. Place thy adorning not in outward shows. But in an inward purity of heart ; Hearing the thunder then, thou shalt not fear. Nor shalt thou flee, O master, at its voice. For thou art conscious of no evil deed. And God, close l.iy you, sees whate'er you do."

Again, Plato, in Timceus,'' says : " But if any one on consideration should actually institute

5 Grotius joins these lines to the preceding. Dement of Alexandria assigns them, and the others, which are under the name of Euripides, to Diphilus.

6 Some attribute these lines to Menander, others regard them as spurious.

a rigid inquiry, he would be ignorant of the distinction between the human and the divine nature ; because God mingles many ' things up into one, [and again is able to dissolve one into many things,] seeing that He is endued with knowledge and power ; but no man either is, or ever shall be, able to perform any of these."

CHAP. V. THE VAIN PRETENSIONS OF FALSE GODS.

But concerning those who think that they shall share the holy and perfect name, which some have received by a vain tradition as if they were gods, Menander in the Auriga says : —

" If there exists a god who walketh out With an old woman, or who enters in By stealth to houses through the folding-doors, He ne'er can please me ; nay, but only he Who stays at home, a just and righteous God, To give salvation to His worshippers."

The same Menander, in the Sacerdos, says : —

" There is no God, O woman, that can save One man by another ; if indeed a man. With sound of tinkling cymbals, charm a god Where'er he listeth, then assuredly He who doth so is much the greater god. But these, O Rhode, are but the cunning schemes Which daring men of intrigue, unabashed. Invent to earn themselves a livelihood, And yield a laughing-stock unto the age."

Again, the same Menander, stating his opinion about those who are received as gods, proving rather that they are not so, says : —

" Yea, if I this beheld, I then should wish That back to me again my soul returned. For tell me where, O Getas, in the world ' Tis possible to find out righteous gods ? "

And in the Depositwm : —

" There's an unrighteous judgment, as it seems, Even with the gods."

And Euripides the tragedian, in Orestes, says : —

" Apollo having caused by his command The murder of the mother, knoweth not What honesty and justice signify. We serve the gods, whoever they may be ; But from the central regions of the earth You see Apollo plainly gives response To mortals, and whate'er he says we do. I him obeyed, when she that bore me fell Slain by my hand: he is the wicked man. Then slav him, for 'twas he that sinned, not T. What coiild I do ? Think you not that the god Should free me from the blame which I do bear.?"

The same also in Hippolytiis : —

" But on these points the gods do not judge right."

" But in the daughter of Ercchtheus What interest have I? for that pertains Not unto such as me. But when I come With golden vessels for libations, I The dew shall sprinkle, and yet needs must warn

Apollo of his deeds ; for when he weds

Maidens by force, the children secretly

Begotten he betrays, and then neglects

When dying. Thus not you ; but while you may

Always pursue the virtues, for the gods

Will surely punish men of wickedness.

How is it right that you, who have prescribed

Laws for men's guidance, live unrighteously .''

But ye being absent, I shall freely speak.

And' ye to men shall satisfaction give

For marriage forced, thou Neptune, Jupiter,

Who over heaven presides. The temples ye

Have emptied, while injustice ye repay.

And though ye laud the prudent to the skies,

Yet have ye filled your hands with wickedness.

No longer is it riglit to call men ill

If they do imitate the sins ^ of gods ; ^

Nay, evil let their teachers rather be."

And in Archelaus : —

" Full oft, my son, do gods mankind perplex." And in BeUeropho?i : —

" They are no gods, who do not what is right." And again in the same : —

" Gods reign in heaven most certain]}-, says one ; But it is "false, — yea, false : and let not him Who speaks thus, be so foolish as to use Ancient tradition, or to pay regard Unto mv words : but with unclouded eye Behold the matter in its clearest light. Power absolute, I say, robs men of life And property ; transgresses plighted faith; Nor spares even cities, but with cruel hand Despoils and devastates them ruthless!)-. But they that do these things have more success Than those who live a gentle pious life ; And cities small, I know, which reverence gods, Submissive bend before the many spears Of larger impious ones ; yea, and methinks If any man lounge idly, and abstain From working with his hands for sustenance, Yet pray the gods ; he very soon will know If they from him misfortunes will avert."

And Menander in Dipliihis : + —

" Therefore ascribe we praise and honour great To Him who Father is, and Lord of all ; Sole maker and preserver of mankind, And who with all good things our earth has stored."

The same also in the Piscatores : —

" For I deem that which nourishes my life Is God ; but he whose custom 'tis to meet The wants of men, — He needs not at our hands Renewed supplies. Himself being all in all."^

The same in the Fratres : —

" God ever is intelligence to those Who righteous are : so wisest men have thought."

And in the Tibicince : —

" Good reason finds a temjile in all things Wherein to worship ; for what is the mind. But just the voice of God within us placed .'' "

' The MSS. are corrupt here. They seem to read, and one actually does read, " all " for " many." '' Many " is in Plato, and the clause in brackcu is taken from Plato to fill up the sense.

2 Kaxd in Euripedes, Ka\a in text.

s The words from " but" to "all " are assigned by Otto to Jusun, not to Menander.

And the tragedian in Phrixus : —

" But if the pious and the impious Share the same lot, how could we think it just, If Jove, the best, judges not uprightly? "

In Philoctetcs : —

" You see how honourable gain is deemed Even to the gods ; and how he is admired Whose shrine is laden most with yellow gold. What, then, doth hinder thee, since it is good To be like gods, from thus accepting gain? "

In Hecuba : —

" O Jupiter! whoever thou mayest be, Of whom except in word all knowledge fails ; "

and, —

" Jupiter, whether thou art indeed A great necessity, or the mind of man, I worship thee ! "

CHAP. VI. — WE SHOULD ACKNOWLEDGE ONE ONLY GOD.

Here, then, is a proof of virtue, and of a mind loving prudence, to recur to the communion of the unity,' and to attach one's self to prudence 1 for salvation, and make choice of the better things according to the free-will placed in man ; \ and not to think that those who are possessed of human passions are lords of all, when they shall not appear to have even equal power with men.

' See chap, i., the opening sentence.

For in Horner,^ Demodocus says he is selftaught —

" God inspired me with strains " —

though he is a mortal. yEsculapius and Apollo are taught to heal by Chiron the Centaur, — a very novel thing indeed, for gods to be taught by a man. What need I speak of Bacchus, who the poet says is mad ? or of Hercules, who he savs is unhappy? What need to speak of Mars and Venus, the leaders of adultery ; and by means of all these to establish the proof which has been undertaken? For if some one, in ignorance, should imitate the deeds which are said to be divine, he would be reckoned among impure men, and a stranger to life and humanity ; and if any one does so knowingly, he will have a plausible excuse for escaping vengeance, by showing that imitation of godlike deeds of audacity is no sin. But if any one should blame these deeds, he will take away their well-known names, and not cover them up with specious and plausible words. It is necessary, then, to accept the tme and invariable Name, not proclaimed by my words only, but by the words of those who have introduced us to the elements of learning, in order that we may not, by living idly in this present state of existence, not only as those who are ignorant of the heavenly glory, but also as having proved ourselves ungrateful, render our account to the Judge.

[N. B. — This tractate is probably the genuine work of Justin.]

FRAGMENTS OF THE LOST WORK OF JUSTIN ON THE

[TRANSLATED BY THE REV. M. DODS, M.A.]

•THE SELF-EVIDENCING POWER OF

The word of truth is free, and carries its own authority, disdaining to fall under any skilful argument, or to endure the logical scrutiny of its hearers. But it would be believed for its own nobility, and for the cojifidence due to Him who sends it. Now the word of truth is sent from God ; wherefore the freedom claimed by the truth is not arrogant. For being sent with authority, it were not fit that it should be required to produce proof of what is said ; since neither is there any proof beyond itself, which is God. For every proof is more powerful and trustworthy than that which it proves ; since what is disbeheved, until proof is produced, gets credit when such proof is produced, and is recognised as being what it was stated to be. But nothing is either more powerful or more trustworthy than the truth ; so that he who requires proof of this, is like one who wishes it demonstrated why the things that appear to the senses do appear. For the test of those things which are received through the reason, is sense ; but of sense itself there is no test beyond itself. As then we bring those things which reason hunts after, to sense, and by it judge what kind of things they are, whether the things spoken be true or false, and then sit in judgment no longer, giving full credit to its decision ; so also we refer all that is said regarding men and the world to the truth, and by it judge whether it be worthless or no. But the utterances of truth we judge by no separate test, giving full credit to itself. And God, the Father of the universe, who is the perfect intelligence, is the truth. And the Word, being His Son, came to us, having put on flesh, revealing both Himself and the Father, giving to us in Hims'elf resurrection from the dead, and eternal life afterwards. And this is Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. He, therefore, is Himself both the faith

and the proof of Himself and of all things. Wherefore those who follow Him, and know Him, having faith in Him as their proof, shall rest in Him. But since the adversary does not cease to resist many, and uses many and divers arts to ensnare them, that he may seduce the faithful from their faith, and that he may prevent the faithless from believing, it seems to me necessary that we also, being armed with the invulnerable doctrines of the faith, do battle against him in behalf of the weak.

CHAP. II. OBJECTIONS TO THE RESURRECTION

OF THE FLESH.

They who maintain the wrong opinion say that there is no resurrection of the flesh ; giving as their reason that it is impossible that what is corrupted and dissolved should be restored to the same as it had been. And besides the impossibility, they say that the salvation of the flesh is disadvantageous ; and they abuse the flesh, adducing its infirmities, and declare that it only is the cause of our sins, so that if the flesh, say they, rise again, our infirmities also rise with it. And such sophistical reasons as the following they elaborate : If the flesh rise again, it must rise either entire and possessed of all its parts, or imperfect. But its rising imperfect argues a want of power on God's part, if some parts could be saved, and others not ; but if all the parts are saved, then the body will manifestly have all its members. But is it not absurd to say that these members will exist after the resurrection from the dead, since the Saviour said, " They neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but shall be as the angels in heaven?"' And the angels, say they, have neither flesh, nor do they eat, nor have sexual intercourse ; therefore there shall be no resurrection of the flesh. By

these and such hke arguments, they attempt to distract men from the faith. And there are some who maintain that even Jesus Himself appeared only as spiritual, and not in llesh, but presented merely the appearance of flesh : these persons seek to rob the llesh of the promise. First, then, let us solve those things which seem to them to be insoluble ; then we will introduce in an orderly manner the demonstration concerning the flesh, proving that it partakes of salvation.

DISCHARGE THE SAME FUNCTIONS AS NOW?

They say, then, if the body shall rise entire, and in possession of all its members, it necessarily follows that the functions of the members shall also be in existence ; that the womb shall become pregnant, and the male also discharge his function of generation, and the rest of the members in like manner. Now let this argument stand or fall by this one assertion. For this being proved false, their whole objection will be removed. Now it is indeed evident that the members which discharge functions discharge those functions which in the present life we see ; but it does not follow that they necessarily discharge the same functions from the beginning. And that this may be more clearly seen, let us consider it thus. The function of the womb is to become pregnant ; and of the member of the male to impregnate. But as, though these members are destined to discharge such functions, it is not therefore necessary that they from the beginning discharge them (since we see many women who do not become pregnant, as those that are barren, even though they have wombs), so pregnancy is not the immediate and necessary consequence of having a womb ; but those even who are not barren abstain from sexual intercourse, some being virgins from the first, and others from a certain time. And we see men also keeping themselves virgins, some from the first, and some from a certain time ; so that by their means, marriage, made lawless through lust, is destroyed.' And we find that some even of the lower animals, though possessed of wombs, do not bear, such as the mule ; and the male mules do not beget their kind. So that both in the case of men and the irrational animals we can see sexual intercourse abolished ; and this, too, before the future world. And our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, for no other reason than that He might destroy the begetting by lawless desire, and might show to the ruler ^ that the formation of man was possible to God without human intervention. And when He had

' That is to say, their lives are a protest against entering into marriage for any other purpose than that of begetting children.

been born, and had submitted to the other conditions of the flesh, — I mean food, drink, and clothing, — this one condition only of discharging the sexual function He did not submit to ; for, regarding the desires of the flesh. He accepted some as necessary, while others, which were unnecessary. He did not submit to. For if the flesh were deprived of food, drink, and clothing, it would be destroyed ; but being deprived of lawless desire, it suffers no harm. And at the same time He foretold that, in the future world, sexual intercourse should be done away with ; as He says, " The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage ; but the children of the world to come neither marry nor are given in marriage, but shall be like the angels in heaven." ^ Let not, then, those that are unbelieving mar\'el, if in the world to come He do away with those acts of our fleshly members which even in this present life are abolished.

CHAP. IV. — MUST THE DEFORMED RISE DEFORMED?

Well, they say, if then the flesh rise, it must rise the same as it falls ; so that if it die with one eye, it must rise one-eyed ; if lame, lame ; if defective in any part of the body, in this part the man must rise deficient. How truly blinded are they in the eyes of their hearts ! For they have not seen on the earth blind men seeing again, and the lame walking by His word. All things which the Saviour did. He did in the first place in order that what was spoken concerning Him in the prophets might be fulfilled, " that the blind should receive sight, and the deaf hear,"-* and so on; but also to induce the belief that in the resurrection the flesh shall rise entire. For if on earth He healed the sicknesses of the flesh, and made the body whole, much more will He do this in the resurrection, so that the flesh shall rise perfect and entire. In this manner, then, shall those dreaded difficulties of theirs be healed.

CHAP. V. — THE RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH IS NOT I.MPOSSII5LE.

But again, of those who maintain that the flesh has no resurrection, some assert that it is impossible ; others that, considering how vile and despicable the flesh is, it is not fit that God should raise it ; and others, that it did not at the first receive the promise. First, then, in respect of those who say that it is impossible for God to raise it, it seems to me that I should show that they are ignorant, professing as they do in word that they are believers, yet by their works proving themselves to be unbelieving, even more

unbelieving than the unbelievers. For, seeing that all the heathen believe in their idols, and are persuaded that to them all things are possible (as even their poet Homer says,' "The gods can do all things, and that easily;" and he added the word " easily " that he might bring out the greatness of the power of the gods), many do seem to be more unbelieving than they. For if the heathen believe in their gods, which are idols (" which have ears, and they hear not ; they have eyes, and they see not"^), that they can do all things, though they be but devils, as saith the Scripture, "The gods of the nations are devils," ^ much more ought we, who hold the right, excellent, and true faith, to believe in our God, since also we have proofs [of His power], first in the creation of the first man, for he was made from the earth by God ; and this is sufficient evidence of God's power ; and then they who observe things can see how men are generated one by another, and can marvel in a still greater degree that from a little drop of moisture so grand a living creature is formed. And certainly if this were only recorded in a promise, and not seen accomplished, this too would be much more incredible than the other ; but it is rendered more credible by accomplishment.-* But even in the case of the resurrection the Saviour has shown us accomplishments, of which we will in a little speak. But now we are demonstrating that the resurrection of the flesh is possible, asking pardon of the children of the Church if we adduce arguments which seem to be secular s and physical : ^ first, because to God nothing is secular, not even the world itself, for it is His workmanship ; and secondly, because we are conducting our argument so as to meet unbelievers. For if we argued with beUevers, it were enough to say that we believe ; but now we must proceed by demonstrations. The foregoing proofs are indeed quite sufficient to evince the possibihty of the resurrection of the flesh ; but since these men are exceedingly unbelieving, we will further adduce a more convincing argument still, — an argument drawn not from faith, for they are not within its scope, but from their own mother unbelief, — I mean, of course, from physical reasons. For if by such arguments we prove to them that the resurrection of the flesh is possible, they are certainly worthy of great contempt if they can be persuaded neither by the deliverances of faith nor by the arguments of the world.

CHAP. VI. — THE RESURRECTION CONSISTENT WITH THE OPINIONS OF THE PHILOSOPHERS.

i.e., by actually happening under our observation. 5 efcufler, " without " or " outside," to which reference is made in

the next clause, which may be translated, " because nothing is outside God," or, " because to God nothing is ' without.' "

(> KoiTni.Kui', arguments drawn from the laws by which the world is governed.

Those, then, who are called natural philosophers, say, some of them, as Plato, that the universe is matter and God ; others, as I'^picurus, that it is atoms and the void ; 7 others, like the Stoics, that it is these four — fire, water, air, earth. For it is sufficient to mention the most prevalent opinions. And Plato says that all things are made from matter by God, and according to His design ; but Epicurus and his followers say that all things are made from the atom and the void by some kind of selfregulating action of the natural movement of the bodies ; and the Stoics, that all are made of the four elements, God pervading them. But while there is such discrepancy among them, there are some doctrines acknowledged by them all in common, one of which is that neither can anything be produced from what is not in being, nor anything be destroyed or dissolved into what has not any being, and that the elements exist indestructible out of which all things are generated. And this being so, the regeneration of the flesh will, according to all these philosophers, appear to be possible. For if, according to Plato, it is matter and God, both these are indestructible and God ; and God indeed occupies the position of an artificer, to wit, a potter ; and matter occupies the place of clay or wax, or some such thing. That, then, which is formed of matter, be it an image or a statue, is destructible; but the matter itself is indestructible, such as clay or wax, or any other such kind of matter. Thus the artist designs in the clay or wax, and makes the form of a living animal ; and again, if his handiwork be destroyed, it is not impossible for him to make the same form, by working up the same material, and fashioning it anew. So that, according to Plato, neither will it be impossible for God, who is Himself indestructible, and has also indestructible material, even after that which has been first formed of it has been destroyed, to make it anew again, and to make the same form just as it was before. But according to the Stoics even, the body being produced by the mixture of the four elementary substances, when this body has been dissolved into the four elements, these remaining indestructible, it is possible that they receive a second time the same fusion and composition, from God pervading them, and so re-make the body which they formerly made. Like as if a man shall make a composition of gold and silver, and brass and tin, and then shall wish to dissolve it again, so that each element exist separately, having again mixed them, he may, if he pleases, make the very same composition as he had for-

7 Tb Kfi'di', the void of space in which the infinity of atoms moved.

merly made. Again, according to Epicurus, the atoms and the void being indestructible, it is by a definite arrangement and adjustment of the atoms as they come together, that both all other formations are produced, and the body itself; and it being in course of time dissolved, is dissolved again into those atoms from which it was also produced. And as these remain indestructible, it is not at all impossible, that by coming together again, and receiving the same arrangement and position, they should make a body of like nature to what was formerly produced by them ; as if a jeweller should make in mosaic the form of an animal, and the stones should be scattered by time or by the man himself who made them, he having still in his possession the scattered stones, may gather them together again, and having gathered, may dispose them in the same way, and make the same form of an animal. And shall not God be able to collect again the decomposed members of the flesh, and make the same body as was formerly produced by Him?

CHAP. VII. THE BODY VALUABLE IN GOD'S SIGHT.

But the proof of the possibility of the resurrection of the flesh I have sufficiently demonstrated, in answer to men of the world. And if the resurrection of the flesh is not found impossible on the principles even of unbelievers, how much more will it be found in accordance with the mind of believers ! But following our order, we must now speak with respect to those who think meanly of the flesh, and say that it is not worthy of the resurrection nor of the heavenly economy,' because, first, its substance is earth ; and besides, because it is full of all wickedness, so that it forces the soul to sin along with it. But these persons seem to be ignorant of the whole work of God, both of the genesis and formation of man at the first, and why the things in the world were made.^ For does not the word say, " Let Us make man in our image, and after our likeness? "3 What kind of man? Manifestly He means fleshly man. For the word says, " And God took dust of the earth, and made man." '^ It is evident, therefore, that man made in the image of God was of flesh. Is it not, then, absurd to say, that the flesh made by God in His own image is contemptible, and worth nothing? But that the flesh is with God a precious possession is manifest, first from its being formed by Him, if at least the image is valuable to the former and artist ; and besides, its value can be gathered from the creation of the rest of

' Or, " citizenship."

2 This might also be rendered, " and the things in the world, on account of which he was made; " but the subsequent argument shows the propriety of the above rendering.

the world. For that on account of which the rest is made, is the most precious of all tp the maker.

CHAP. VIII. — DOES THE BODY CAUSE THE SOUL TO SIN?

Quite true, say they ; yet the flesh is a sinner, so much so, that it forces the soul to sin along with it. And thus they vainly accuse it, and lay to its charge alone the sins of both. But in what instance can the flesh possibly sin by itself, if it have not the soul going before it and inciting it? For as in the case of a yoke of oxen, if one or other is loosed from the yoke, neither of them can plough alone ; so neither can soul or body alone eflect anything, if they be unyoked from their communion. And if it is the flesh that is the sinner, then on its account alone did the Saviour come, as He says, " I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." s Since, then, the flesh has been proved to be \'aluable in the sight of God, and glorious above all His works, it would very justly be saved by Him.

We must meet, therefore, those who say, that even though it be the special handiwork of God, and beyond all else valued by Him, it would not immediately follow that it has the promise of the resurrection. Yet is it not absurd, that that which has been produced with such circumstance, and which is beyond all else valuable, should be so neglected by its Maker, as to pass to nonentity? Then the sculptor and painter, if they wish the works they have made to endure, that they may win glory by them, renew them when they begin to decay; but God would so neglect His own possession and work, that it becomes annihilated, and no longer exists. Should we not call this labour in vain? As if a man who has built a house should forthwith destroy it, or should neglect it, though he sees it falling into decay, and is able to repair it : we would blame him for labouring in vain ; and should we not so blame God ? But not such an one is the Incorruptible, — not senseless is the Intelligence of the universe. Let the unbelieving be silent, even though they themselves do not believe.

But, in truth, He has even called the flesh to the resurrection, and promises to it everlasting life. For where He promises to save man, there He gives the promise to the flesh. For what is man but the reasonable animal com])osed of body and soul ? Is the soul by itself man ? No ; but the soul of man. Would the body be called man? No, but it is called the body of man. If, then, neither of these is by itself man, but that which is made up of the two together is called man, and God has called man to life and

resurrection, He has called not a part, but the whole, which is the soul and the body. Since would it not be unquestionably absurd, if, while these two are in the same being and according to the same law, the one were saved and the other not ? And if it be not impossible, as has already been proved, that the flesh be regenerated, what is the distinction on the ground of which the soul is saved and the body not? Do they make God a grudging God? But He is good, and will have all to be saved. And by God and His proclamation, not only has your soul heard and believed on Jesus Christ, and with it the flesh,! ^^t both were washed, and both wrought righteousness. They make God, then, ungrateful and unjust, if, while both believe on Him, He desires to save one and not the other. Well, they say, but the soul is incorruptible, being a part of God and inspired by Him, and therefore He desires to save what is peculiarly His own and akin to Himself; but the flesh is corruptible, and not from Him, as the soul is. Then what thanks are due to Him, and what manifestation of His power and goodness is it, if He purposed to save what is by nature saved and exists as a part of Himself ? For it had its salvation from itself; so that in saving the soul, God does no great thing. For to be saved is its natural destiny, because it is a part of Himself, being His inspiration. But no thanks are due to one who saves what is his own ; for this is to save himself. For he who saves a part of himself, saves himself by his ov^rn means, lest he become defective in that part ; and this is not the act of a good man. For not even when a man does good to his children and offspring, does one call him a good man ; for even the most savage of the wild beasts do so, and indeed willingly endure death, if need be, for the sake of their cubs. But if a man were to perform the same acts in behalf of his slaves, that man would justly be called good. Wherefore the Saviour also taught us to love our enemies, since, says He, what thank have ye ? So that He has shown us that it is a good work not only to love those that are begotten of Him, but also those that are without. And what He enjoins upon us. He Himself first of all does.^

CHAP. IX. — THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST PROVES THAT THE BODY RISES.

If He had no need of the flesh, why did He heal it? And what is most forcible of all. He raised the dead. Why? Was it not to show

' Migne proposes to read here xaX ov vvv avTxi, " without the flesh," which gives a more obvious meaning. The above reading is, however, defensible. Justin means that the flesh was not merely partaking of the soul's faith and promise, but had rights of its own.

2 It is supposed that a part ol^ the treatise has been here dropped out.

what the resurrection should be ? How then did He raise the dead? Their souls or their bodies? Manifestly both. If the resurrection were only spiritual, it was requisite that He, in raising the dead, should show the body lying apart by itself, and the soul living apart by itself. But now He did not do so, but raised the body, confirming in it the promise of life. Why did He rise in the flesh in which He suffered, unless to show the resurrection of the fle.sh? And wishing to confirm this, when His disciples did not know whether to believe He had truly risen in the body, and were looking upon Him and doubting, He said to them, "Ye have not yet faith, see that it is I ;"3 and He let them handle Him, and showed them the prints of the nails in His hands. And when they were by every kind of proof persuaded that it was Himself, and in the body, they asked Him to eat with them, that they might thus still more accurately ascertain that He had in verity risen bodily ; and He did eat honey-comb and fish. And when He had thus shown them that there is truly a resurrection of the flesh, wishing to show them this also, that it is not impossible for flesh to ascend into heaven (as He had said that our dwelling-place is in heaven) , " He was taken up into heaven while they beheld," •* as He was in the flesh. If, therefore, after all that has been said, any one demand demonstration of the resurrection, he is in no respect different from the Sadducees, since the resurrection of the flesh is the power of God, and, being above all reasoning, is established by faith, and seen in works.

CHAP. X. THE BODY SAVED, AND WILL THERE- FORE RISE.

The resurrection is a resurrection of the flesh which died. For the spirit dies not ; the soul is in the body, and without a soul it cannot live. The body, when the soul forsakes it, is not. For the body is the house of the soul ; and the soul the house of the spirit. These three, in all those who cherish a sincere hope and unquestioning faith in God, will be saved. Considering, therefore, even such arguments as are suited to this world, and finding that, even according to them, it is not impossible that the flesh be regenerated ; and seeing that, besides all these proofs, the Saviour in the whole Gospel shows that there is salvation for the flesh, wliy do we any longer endure those unbelieving and dangerous arguments, and fail to see that we are retrograding when we listen to such an argument as this : that the soul is immortal, but the body mortal, and incapable of being revived? For this we used to hear from Pythagoras and Plato,

even before we learned the truth. If then the Saviour said this, and proclaimed salvation to the soul alone, what new thing, beyond what we heard from Pythagoras and Plato and all their band, did He bring us ? Put now He has come proclaiming the glad tidings of a new and strange hope to men. For indeed it was a strange and new thing for God to promise that He would not keep incorruption in incorruption, but would make corruption incorruption. Put because the prince of wickedness could in no other way corrupt the truth, he sent forth his apostles (evil men who introduced pestilent doctrines), choosing them from among those who crucified our Saviour ; and these men bore the name of the Saviour, but did the works of him that sent them, through whom the name itself has been spoken

against. Put if the flesh do not rise, why is it also guarded, and why do we not rather suffer it to indulge its desires ? Why do we not imitate physicians, who, it is said, when they get a patient that is despaired of and incurable, allow him to indulge his desires? For they know that he is dying ; and this indeed those who hate the flesh surely do, casting it out of its inheritance, so far as they can ; for on this account they also despise it, because it is shortly to become a corpse. Put if our physician Christ, God, having rescued us from our desires, regulates our flesh with His own wise and temperate rule, it is evident that He guards it from sins because it possesses a hope of salvation, as physicians do not suffer men whom they hope to save to indulge in what pleasures they please.

[N.B. — These fragments are probably genuine.]

OTHER FRAGMENTS FROM THE LOST WRITINGS OF JUSTIN.

The most admirable Justin rightly declared that the aforesaid demons ' resembled robbers. — Tatian's Address to the Greeks, chap, xviii.

II.

And Justin well said in his book against Marcion, that he would not have believed the Lord Himself, if He had announced any other God than the Fashioner and Maker [of the world], and our Nourisher. But since, from the one God, who both made this world and formed us, and contains as well as administers all things, there came to us the only-begotten Son, summing up His own workmanship in Himself, my faith in Him is stedfast, and my love towards the Father is immoveable, God bestowing both

III.

Justin well said : Before the advent of the Lord, Satan never ventured to blaspheme God, inasmuch as he was not yet sure of his own damnation, since that was announced concerning him by the prophets only in parables and allegories. But after the advent of the Lord, learning plainly from the discourses of Christ and His apostles that eternal fire was prepared for him who voluntarily departed from God, and for all who, without repentance, persevere in apostasy, then, by means of a man of this sort, he, as if already condemned, blasphemes that God who inflicts judgment upon him, and imputes the sin of his apostasy to his Maker, instead of to his own will and predilection. — Iren/EUS : Heresies, v. 26.

IV.

Expounding the reason of the incessant plotting of the devil against us, he declares : Before

[See, on the Resurrection, cap. vi.; and compare, — " And of those demons th.at are found In fire, air, flood, or under ground," etc.

Milton, Pens., line 93.]

the advent of the Lord, the devil did not so plainly know the measure of his own punishment, inasmuch as the divine prophets had but enigmatically announced it ; as, for instance, Isaiah, who in the person of the Assyrian tragically revealed the course to be followed against the devil. But when the Lord appeared, and the devil clearly understood that eternal fire was laid up and prepared for him and his angels, he then began to plot without ceasing against the faithful, being desirous to have many companions in his apostasy, that he might not by himself endure the shame of condemnation, comforting himself by this cold and malicious consolation. — From the writings of John of Antioch.

V.

And Justin of Neapolis, a man who was not far separated from the apostles either in age or excellence, says that that which is mortal is inherited, but that which is immortal inherits ; and that the flesh indeed dies, but the kingdom of heaven lives. — From ISIethodius On the Resurrection, in Photiiis.

VI.

Neither is there straitness with God, nor anything that is not absolutely perfect. — From manuscript of the writings of Justin.

VII.

We shall not injure God by remaining ignorant of Him, but shall deprive ourselves of His friendship.

The unskilfulness of the teacher proves destructive to his disciples, and the carelessness of the disciples entails danger on the teacher, and especially should they owe their negligence to his want of knowledge.

IX.

The soul can with difficulty be recalled to those good things from which it has fallen, and

FRAGMENTS FROM THE LOST WRITINGS OF JUSTIN. 301

is with difficulty dragged away from those evils to which it has become accustomed. If at any time thou showest a disposition to blame thyself, then perhaps, through the medicine of repentance, I should cherish good hopes regarding thee. But when thou altogether despisest fear, and rejectest with scorn the very faith of Christ, it were better for thee that thou hadst never been born from the womb. — From the writings of John of Damascus.

X.

By the two birds ' Christ is denoted, both dead as man, and living as God. He is likened to a bird, because He is understood and declared to be from above, and from heaven. And the living bird, having been dipped in the blood of the dead one, was after^vards let go. For the living and divine Word was in the crucified and dead temple [of the body], as being a partaker of the passion, and yet impassible to God.

By that which took place in the running^ water, in which the wood and the hyssop and the scarlet were dipped, is set forth the bloody passion of Christ on the cross for the salvation of those who are sprinkled with the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. Wherefore the material for purification was not provided chiefly with reference to leprosy, but with regard to the forgiveness of sins, that both leprosy might be understood to be an emblem of sin, and the things which were sacrificed an emblem of Him who was to be sacrificed for sins.

For this reason, consequently, he ordered that the scarlet should be dipped at the same time in the water, thus predicting that the flesh should no longer possess its natural [evil] properties. For this reason, also, were there the two birds, the one being sacrificed in the water, and the other dipped both in the blood and in the water, and then sent away, just as is narrated also respecting the goats.

The goat that was sent away presented a type of Him who taketh away the sins of men. But the tAvo contained a representation of the one economy of God incarnate. For He was wounded for our transgressions, and He bare the sins of many, and He was delivered for our iniquities. — From vianuscript of writings of Justin.

XI.

When God formed man at the beginning. He suspended the things of nature on his will, and made an experiment by means of one commandment. For He ordained that, if he kept this, he should partake of immortal existence ; but if he transgressed it, the contrary should be his lot. Man having been thus made, and immediately

2 Literally, " living."

looking towards transgression, naturally became subject to corruption. Corruption then becoming inherent in nature, it was necessary that He who wished to save should be one who destroyed the efficient cause of corruption. And this could not otherwise be done than by the life which is according to nature being united to that which had received the corruption, and so destroying the corruption, while preserving as immortal for the future that which had received it. It was therefore necessary that the ^^'ord should become possessed of a body, that He might deliver us from the death of natural corruption. For if, as ye 3 say. He had simply by a nod warded off death from us, death indeed would not have approached us on account of the expression of His will ; but none the less would we again have become corruptible, inasmuch as we carried about in ourselves that natural corruption. — Leontius against Eutychians, etc., book ii.

XII.

As it is inherent in all bodies formed by God to have a shadow, so it is fitting that God, who is just, should render to those who choose what is good, and to those who prefer what is evil, to every one according to his deserts. — From the writings of John of DA^L•^scus.

He speaks not of the Gentiles in foreign lands, but concerning [the people] who agree with the Gentiles, according to that which is spoken by Jeremiah : " It is a bitter thing for thee, that thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord thy God, that of old thou hast broken thy yoke, and torn asunder thy bands, and said, I will not ser\-e Thee, but will go to ever}' high hill, and underneath every tree, and there shall I become dissolute in my fornication." •♦ — From manuscript of the writings of Justin.

XIV.

Neither shall light ever be darkness as long as light exists, nor shall the truth of the things pertaining to us be controverted. For truth is that than which nothing is more powerful. Ever)- one who might speak the truth, and speaks it not, shall be judged by God. — Manuscript and works of John of D.am.ascus.

XV.

And the fact that it was not said of the seventh day equally with the other days, " And there was evening, and there was morning," is a distinct indication of the consummation which is to take place in it before it is finished, as the

3 The Gentiles are here referred to, who saw no necessity for the incarnation.

302 FRAGMENTS FROM THE LOST WRITINGS OF JUSTIN.

fathers declare, especially St. Clement, and Irenoeus, and Justin the martyr and philosopher, who, commenting with exceeding wisdom on the number six of the sixth day, affirms that the intelligent soul of man and his five susceptible senses were the six works of the sixth day. Whence also, having discoursed at length on the number six, he declares that all things which have been framed by God are divided into six classes, — viz., into things intelligent and immortal, such as are the angels; into things reasonable and mortal, such as mankind; into things sensitive and irrational, such as cattle, and birds, and fishes ; into things that can advance, and move, and are insensible, such as the winds, and the clouds, and the waters, and the stars ; into things which increase and are immoveable, such as the trees ; and into things which are insensible and immoveable, such as the mountains, the earth, and such like. For all the creatures of God, in heaven and on earth, fall under one or other of these divisions, and are circumscribed by them, — From the writings of Anastasius.

XVI.

Sound doctrine does not enter into the hard and disobedient heart ; but, as if beaten back, enters anew into itself.

As the good of the body is health, so the good of the soul is knowledge, which is indeed a kind of health of soul, by which a likeness to God is attained. — From the writings of John of Damascus.

To yield and give way to our passions is the lowest slavery, even as to rule over them is the only liberty.

The greatest of all good is to be free from sin, the next is to be justified ; but he must be reckoned the most unfortunate of men, who, while living unrighteously, remains for a long time unpunished.

Animals in harness cannot but be carried over a precipice by the inexperience and badness of their driver, even as by his skilfulness and excellence they will be saved.

The end contemplated by a philosopher is likeness to God, so far as that is possible. — From the writings of Antonius Melissa.

XIX.

[The words] of St. Justin, philosopher and martyr, from the fifth part of his Apology: ' — I reckon prosperity, O men, to consist in nothing else than in living according to truth. But we do not live properly, or according to truth, unless we understand the nature of things.

It escapes them apparently, that he who has by a true faith come forth from error to the truth, has truly known himself, not, as they say, as being in a state of frenzy, but as free from the unstable and (as to every variety of error) changeable corruption, by the simple and ever identical truth. — From the writings of John of Damascus.

I It is doubtful if these words are really Justin's, or, if so, from which, or what part, of his Apologies they are derived.

MARTYRDOM OF JUSTIN MARTYR.

Crescens, a cynic, has the ill-renown of stirring up the persecution in which Justin and his friends suffered for Christ. The story that he died by the hemlock seems to have originated among the Greeks, who naturally gave this turn to the sufferings of a philosopher.

The following Introductory Notice of the translator supplies all that need be added.

Though nothing is kno\\Ti as to the date or authorship of the following narrative, it is generally reckoned among the most trustworthy of the Martyria. An absurd addition was in some copies made to it, to the effect that Justin died by means of hemlock. Some have thought it necessary, on account of this story, to conceive of two Justins, one of whom, the celebrated defender of the Christian faith whose writings are given in this volume, died through poison, while the other suffered in the way here described, along with several of his friends. But the description of Justin given in the following account, is evidently such as compels us to refer it to the famous apologist and martyr of the second century.'

' [See Cave, Lives of the Fathers, i. 243. Epiphanius, by fixing the martyrdom under the prefecture of Rusticus, seems to idcntiiy this history; but, then, he also connects it with the reign of Hadrian. Ed. Oehler, torn. ii. 709. Berlin, 1859.]

THE MARTYRDOM OF THE HOLY MARTYRS,

JUSTIN, CHARITON, CHARITES, P^ON, AND LIBERIANUS, WHO SUFFERED

AT ROME.

[TRANSLATED BY THE REV. M. DODS, M.A.]

CHAP. I. EXAMINATION OF JUSTIN BY THE

PREFECT.

In the time of the lawless partisans of idolatry, wicked decrees were passed against the godly Christians in town and country, to force them to offer libations to vain idols ; and accordingly the holy men, having been apprehended, were brought before the prefect of Rome, Rusticus by name. And when they had been brought before his judgment-seat, Rusticus the prefect said to Justin, " Obey the gods at once, and submit to the kings.'" Justin said, "To obey the commandments of our Saviour Jesus Christ is worthy neither of blame nor of condemnation." Rusticus the prefect said, " What kind of doctrines do you profess ? " Justin said, " I have endeavoured to learn all doctrines ; but I have acquiesced at last in the true doctrines, those namely of the Christians, even though they do not please those who hold false opinions." Rusticus the prefect said, " Are those the doctrines that please you, you utterly wretched man? " Justin said, " Yes, since I adhere to them with right dogma." ^ Rusticus the prefect said, " What is the dogma? " Justin said, " That according to which we worship the God of the Christians, whom we reckon to be one from the beginning, the maker and fashioner of the whole creation, visible and invisible ; and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who had also been preached beforehand by the prophets as about to be present with the race of men, the herald of salvation and teacher of good disciples. And I, being a man, think that what I can say is insignificant in comparison with His boundless divinity, acknowledging a certain prophetic power,3 since it was prophesied concern-

' I.e., the emperors.

2 McTd ioyfioTos opBov, orthodoxy.

3 Th-^t i;, that a prophetic inspiration is required to speak worthily of Christ.

ing Him of whom now I say that He is the Son of God. For I know that of old the prophets foretold His appearance among men."

CHAP. II. — EXAMINATION OF JUSTIN CONTINUED.

Rusticus the prefect said, " Where do you assemble ? " Justin said, " Where each one chooses and can : for do you fancy that we all meet in the very same place ? Not so ; because the God of the Christians is not circumscribed by place ; but being invisible, fills heaven and eaVth, and everywhere is worshipped and glorified by the faithful." Rusticus the prefect said, "Tell me where you assemble, or into what place do you collect your followers?" Justin said, "I live above one Martinus, at the Timiotinian Bath; and during the whole time (and I am now living in Rome for the second time) I am unaware of any other meeting than his. And if any one wished to come to me, I communicated to him the doctrines of truth." Rusticus said, "Are you not, then, a Christian? " Justin said, " Yes, I am a Christian."

III. EXAMINATION OF CHARITON AND

OTHERS.

Then said the prefect Rusticus to Chariton, " Tell me further, Chariton, are you also a Christian? " Chariton said, " I am a Christian by the command of God." Rusticus the prefect asked the woman Charito, " What say you, Charito ? " Charito said, " I am a Christian by the grace of God." Rusticus said to Euelpistus, " And what are you ? " Euelpistus, a ser\'ant of Caesar, answered, " I too am a Christian, ha\ing been freed by Christ ; and by the grace of Christ I partake of the same hope." Rusticus the prefect said to Hierax, " And you, are you a Christian ? " Hierax said, " Yes, I am a Christian, for I revere and worship the same God." Rusticus the pre-

THE MARTYRDOM OF THE HOLY MARTYRS.

feet said, ''Did Justin make you Christians?" Hierax said, " I was a Christian, and will be a Christian." And Paeon stood up and said, " I too am a Christian." Rusticus the prefect said, " Who taught you ? " Paeon said, " From our parents we received this good confession." Euelpistus said, " I willingly heard the words of Justin. But from my parents also I learned to be a Christian." Rusticus the prefect said, " Where are your parents?" Euelpistus said, "In Cappadocia." Rusticus says to Hierax, "Where are your parents?" And he answered, and said, " Christ is our true father, and faith in Him is our mother ; and my earthly parents died ; and I, when I was driven from Iconium in Phrygia, came here." Rusticus the prefect said to Liberianus, " i\nd what say you ? Are you a Christian, and unwilling to worship [the gods] ? " Liberianus said, " 1 too am a Christian, for I worship and reverence the only true God."

CHAP. IV. RUSTICUS THREATENS THE CHRISTIANS

WITH DEATH.

The prefect says to Justin, " Hearken, you who are called learned, and think that you know true doctrines ; if you are scourged and beheaded, do you believe you will ascend into heaven?" Justin said, " I hope that, if I endure these things, I shall have His gifts.' For I know that, to all who have thus lived, there abides the divine favour until the completion of the whole world." Rusticus the prefect said, " Do you suppose, then, that you will ascend into heaven to receive some recompense?" Justin said, "I do not suppose it, but I know and am fully per-

Another reading is Soy/oiara, which may be translated, " I shall have what He teaches [us to expect]."

suaded of it." Rusticus the prefect said, "Let us, then, now come to the matter in hand, and which presses. Having come together, offer sacrifice with one accord to the gods." Justin said, " No right-thinking person falls away from piety to impiety." Rusticus the prefect said, " Unless ye obey, ye shall be mercilessly punished." Justin said, " Through prayer we can be saved on account of our Lord Jesus Christ, even when we have been punished,^ because this shall become to us salvation and confidence at the more fearful and universal judgment-seat of our Lord and Saviour." Thus also said the other martyrs : " Do what you will, for we are Christians, and do not sacrifice to idols."

-SENTENCE PRONOUNCED AND EXECUTED.

Rusticus the prefect pronounced sentence, saying, " Let those who have refused to sacrifice to the gods and to yield to the command of the emperor be scourged,^ and led away to suffer the punishment of decapitation, according to the laws." The holy martyrs having glorified God, and having gone forth to the accustomed place, were beheaded, and perfected their testimony in the confession of the Saviour. And some of the faithful having secretly removed their bodies, laid them in a suitable place, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ having wrought along with them, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

2 This passage admits of another rendering. Lord Hailes, following the common Latin version, thus translates: "It was our chief wish to endure tortures for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so to be saved."

3 [This wholesale sentence implies a great indifference to the probable Roman citizenship of some of them, if not of our heroic martyr himself ; but Acts xxii. 25-29 seems to allow that the condemned were not protected by the law.]

IREN^US.

[a.d. 120-202.] This history introduces us to the Church in her Western outposts. We reach the banks of the Rhone, where for nearly a century Christian missions have flourished. Between Marseilles and Smyrna there seems to have been a brisk trade, and Polycarp had sent Pothinus into Celtic Gaul at an early date as its evangelist. He had fixed his see at Lyons, when Irenseus joined him as a presbyter, having been his fellow-pupil under Polycarp. There, under the "good Aurelius," as he is miscalled (a.d. 177), arose the terrible persecution which made " the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne " so memorable. It was during this persecution that Irenaeus was sent to Rome with letters of remonstrance against the rising pestilence of heresy ; and he was probably the author of the account of the sufferings of the martyrs which is appended to their testimony.' But he had the mortification of finding the Montanist heresy patronized by Eleutherus the Bishop of Rome ; and there he met an old friend from the school of Polycarp, who had embraced the Valentinian heresy. \ye cannot doubt that to this visit we owe the lifelong struggle of Irenseus against the heresies that now came in, like locusts, to devour the harvests of the Gospel. But let it be noted here, that, so far from being " the mother and mistress " of even the Western Churches, Rome herself is a mission of the Greeks ; ^ Southern Gaul is evangelized from Asia Minor, and Lyons checks the heretical tendencies of the Bishop at Rome. Ante-Nicene Christianity, and indeed the Church herself, appears in Greek costume which lasts through the synodical period ; and Latin Christianity, when it begins to appear, is African, and not Roman. It is strange that those who have recorded this great historical fact have so little perceived its bearings upon Roman pretensions in the Middle Ages and modern times.

Returning to Lyons, our author found that the venerable Pothinus had closed his holy career by a martyr's death ; and naturally Irenseus became his successor. When the emissaries of heresy followed him, and began to disseminate their licentious practices and foolish doctrines by the aid of " silly women," the great work of his life began. He condescended to study these diseases of the human mind like a wise physician ; and, sickening as was the process of classifying and describing them, he made this also his laborious task, that he might enable others to withstand and to overcome them. The works he has left us are monuments of his fidelity to Christ, and to the charges of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Jude, whose solemn warnings now proved to be prophecies. No marvel that the great apostle, " night and day with tears," had forewarned the churches of " the grievous wolves " which were to make havoc of the fold.

If it shocks the young student of the virgin years of Christianity to find such a state of things, let him reflect that it was all foretold by Christ himself, and demonstrates the malice and power of the adversary. " An enemy hath done this," said the Master. The spirit that was then work-

' Eusebius, book v. to the twenty-seventh chapter, should be read as an introduction to this author. 2 Milman, Hist. Latin Christianity, b. i. pp. 27, 28, and the notes.

3IO INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

ing " in the children of disobedience," now manifested itself. The awful visions of the Apocalypse began to be realized. It was now evident in what sense " the Prince of peace " had pronounced His mission, " not peace, but a sword." In short, it became a conspicuous fact, that the Church here on earth is " militant ; " while, at the same time, there was seen to be a profound philosophy in the apostolic comment,' " There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest." In the divine economy of Providence it was permitted that every form of heresy which was ever to infest the Church should now exhibit its essential principle, and attract the censures of the faithful. Thus testimony to primitive truth was secured and recorded : the language of catholic orthodoxy was developed and defined, and landmarks of faith were set up for perpetual memorial to all generations. It is a striking example of this divine economy, that the see of Rome was allowed to exhibit its fallibility very conspicuously at this time, and not only to receive the rebukes of Irenseus, but to accept them as wholesome and necessary ; so that the heresy of Eleutherus, and the spirit of Diotrephes in Victor, have enabled reformers ever since, and even in the darkest days of pontifical despotism, to testify against the manifold errors patronized by Rome. Hilary and other Galileans have been strengthened by the example of Irenaeus, and by his faithful words of reproof and exhortation, to resist Rome, even down to our own times.

That the intolerable absurdities of Gnosticism should have gained so many disiciples, and proved itself an adversary to be grappled with and not despised, throws light on the condition of the human mind under heathenism, even when it professed "knowledge" and "philosophy." The task of Irenaeus was twofold : (i) to render it impossible for any one to confound Gnosticism with Christianity, and (2) to make it impossible for such a monstrous system to survive, or ever to rise again. His task was a nauseous one ; but never was the spirit enjoined by Scripture more patiently exhibited, nor with more entire success.^ If Julian had found Gnosticism just made to his hand, and powerful enough to suit his purposes, the whole history of his attempt to revive Paganism would have been widely different. Irenaeus demonstrated its essential unity with the old mythology, and with heathen systems of philosophy. If the fog and malaria that rose with the Day-star, and obscured it, were speedily dispersed, our author is largely to be identified with the radiance which flowed from the Sun of righteousness, and with the breath of the Spirit that banished them for ever.

The Episcopate of Irenaeus was distinguished by labours, "in season and out of season," for the evangelization of Southern Gaul ; and he seems to have sent missionaries into other regions of what we now call France, In spite of Paganism and heresy, he rendered Lyons a Christian city ; and Marcus seems to have retreated before his terrible castigation, taking himself off to regions beyond the Pyrenees.^ But the pacific name he bears, was rendered yet more illustrious by his interposition to compose the Easter Controversy, then threatening to impair, if not to destroy, the unity of the Church. The beautiful concordat between East and ^^'est, in which Polycarp and Anicetus had left the question, was now disturbed by Victor, Bishop of Rome, whose turbulent spirit would not accept the compromise of his predecessor. Irenaeus remonstrates with him in a catholic spirit, and overrules his impetuous temper. At the Council of Nice, the rule for the observance of Easter was finally setded by the whole Church ; and the forbearing example of Irenaeus, no doubt contributed greatly to this happy result. The blessed peacemaker survived this great triumph, for a short time only, closing his life, like a true shepherd, with thousands of his flock, in the massacre (a.d. 202) stimulated by the wolfish Emperor Scverus.

The Introductory Notice of the learned translators * is as follows : —

3 On the authority of St. Jerome. See Guettee, De Veglise dc France, vol. i. p. 27.

The first two books of Irenaeus A^ai'nsi Heresies have been tran.slatcd by Dr. Roberts. The groundwork of the translation of the third book, and that portion of the fourth book which is continued in this volume, has been furnished by the Rev. W. H. Rambaut. An attempt has been made, in rendering this important author into English, to adhere as closely as possible to the original. It would have been far easier to give a loose and flowing translation of the obscure and involved soiitences of lrcna:us; but the object has been studiou-sly kept in view, to place the English reader, as much as possible, in the position of one who has immediate access to the Greek or Latin text.

The work of Irena^us Against Heresies is one of the most precious remains of early Christian antiquity. It is devoted, on the one hand, to an account and refutation of those multiform Cnostic heresies which prevailed in the latter half of the second century ; and, on the other hand, to an exposition and defence of the Catholic faith.

In the prosecution of this plan, the author divides his work into five books. The first of these contains a minute description of the tenets of the various heretical sects, with occasional brief remarks in illustration of their absurdity, and in confirmation of the truth to which they were opposed. In his second book, Irenreus proceeds to a more complete demolition of those heresies which he has already explained, and argues at great length against them, on grounds principally of reason. The three remaining books set forth more directly the true doctrines of revelation, as being in utter antagonism to the views held by the Gnostic teachers. In the course of this argument, many passages of Scripture are quoted and commented on ; many interesting statements are made, bearing on the rule of faith ; and much important light is shed on the doctrinesheld, as well as the practices observed, by the Church of the second century.

It may be made matter of regret, that so large a portion of the work of Irenaeus is given to an exposition of the manifold Gnostic speculations. Nothing more absurd than these has probably ever been imagined by rational beings. Some ingenious and learned men have indeed endeavoured to reconcile the wild theories of these heretics with the principles of reason ; but, as Bishop Kaye remarks \EccL Hist, of the Second and Third Centuries, p. 524), "a more arduous or unpromising undertaking cannot well be conceived." The fundamental object of the Gnostic speculations was doubtless to solve the two grand problems of all religious philosophy, viz., How to account for the existence of evil ; and. How to reconcile the finite with the infinite. But these ancient theorists were not more successful in grappling with such questions than have been their successors in modern times. And by giving loose reins to their imagination, they built up the most incongruous and ridiculous systems ; while, by deserting the guidance of Scripture they were betrayed into the most pernicious and extravagant errors.

Accordingly, the patience of the reader is sorely tried, in following our author through those mazes of absurdity which he treads, in explaining and refuting these Gnostic speculations. This is especially felt in tlie perusal of the first two books, which, as has been said, are principally devoted to an exposition and subversion of the various heretical systems. But the vagaries of the human mind, however melancholy in themselves, are never altogether destitute of instruction. And in dealing with those set before us in this work, we have not only the satisfiiction of becoming acquainted with the currents of thought prevalent in these early times, but we obtain much valuable information regarding the primitive Church, which, had it not been for these heretical schemes, might never have reached our day.

Not a little of what is contained in the following pages will seem almost unintelligible to the English reader. And it is scarcely more comprehensible to those who have pondered long on the original. We have inserted brief notes of explanation where these seemed specially necessary. But we have not thought it worth while to devote a great deal of space to the elucidation of those obscure Gnostic views which, in so many varying forms, are set forth in this work. For the same reason, we give here no account of the origin, history, and successive phases of Gnosticism. Those who wish to know the views of the learned on these points, may consult the writings of Neander, Baur, and others, among the Germans, or the lectures of Dr. Burton in English ; while a succinct description of the whole matter will be found in the " Preliminary Observations on the Gnostic System," prefixed to Harvey's edition of Irenaeus.

The gi-eat work of Irenaeus, now for the first time translated into English, is unfortunately no longer extant in the original. It has come down to us only in an ancient Latin version, with the exception of the greater part of the first book, which has been preserved in the original Greek, through means of copious quotations made by Hippolytus and Epiphanius. The text, both Latin

and Greek, is often most uncertain. Only three mss. of the work Against Heresies are at present known to exist. Others, however, were used in the earhest printed editions put forth by Erasmus. And as these codices were more ancient than any now available, it is greatly to be regretted that they have disappeared or perished. One of our difficulties throughout, has been to fix the readings we should adopt, especially in the first book. Varieties of reading, actual or conjectural, have been noted only when some point of special importance seemed to be involved.

After the text has been settled, according to the best judgment which can be formed, the work of translation remains ; and that is, in this case, a matter of no small difficulty. Irenseus, even in the original Greek, is often a very obscure writer. At times he expresses himself with remarkable clearness and terseness ; but, upon the whole, his style is very involved and prolix. And the Latin version adds to these difficulties of the original, by being itself of the most barbarous character. In fact, it is often necessary to make a conjectural re-translation of it into Greek, in order to obtain some inkling of what the author wrote. Dodwell supposes this Latin version to have been made about the end of the fourth century ; but as Tertullian seems to have used it, we must rather place it in the beginning of the third. Its author is unknown, but he was certainly little qualified for his task. We have endeavoured to give as close and accurate a translation of the work as possible, but there are not a few passages in which a guess can only be made as to the probable meaning.

Ireneeus had manifestly taken great pains to make himself acquainted with the va.rious heretical systems which he describes. His mode of exposing and refuting these is generally very effective. It is plain that he possessed a good share of learning, and that he had a firm grasp of the doctrines of Scripture. Not unfrequently he indulges in a kind of sarcastic humour, while inveighing against the folly and impiety of the heretics. But at times he gives expression to very strange opinions. He is, for example, quite peculiar in imagining that our Lord lived to be an old man, and that His public ministry embraced at least ten years. But though, on these and some other points, the judgment of Irenaeus is clearly at fault, his work contains a vast deal of sound and valuable exposition of Scripture, in opposition to the fanciful systems of interpretation which prevailed in his day.

We possess only very scanty accounts of the personal history of Irenreus. It has been generally supposed that he was a native of Smyrna, or some neighbouring city, in Asia Minor. Harvey, however, thinks that he was probably born in Syria, and removed in boyhood to Smyrna. He himself tells us (iii. 3, 4) that he was in early youth acquainted with Polycarp, the illustrious bishop of that city. A sort of clue is thus furnished as to the date of his birth. Dodwell supposes that he was born so early as a.d. 97, but this is clearly a mistake; and the general date assigned to his birth is somewhere between a.d. 120 and a.d. 140.

It is certain that Irenaeus was bishop of Lyons, in France, during the latter quarter of the second century. The exact period or circumstances of his ordination cannot be determined. Eusebius states {Hist. EccL, v. 4) that he was, while yet a presbyter, sent with a letter, from certain members of the Church of Lyons awaiting martyrdom, to Eleutherus, bishop of Rome ; and that (v. 5) he succeeded Pothinus as bishop of Lyons, probably about a.d. 177. His great work Against Heresies was, we learn, written during the episcopate of Eleutherus, that is, between a.d. 182 and a.d. 188, for Victor succeeded to the bishopric of Rome in a.d. 189. This new bishop of Rome took very harsh measures for enforcing uniformity throughout the Church as to the observance of the paschal solemnities. On account of the severity thus evinced, Irenaeus addressed to him a letter (only a fragment of which remains), warning him that if he persisted in the course on which he had entered, the effect would be to rend the Catholic Church in pieces. This letter had the desired result ; and the question was more temperately debated, until finally settled by the Council of Nice.

The full title of the principal work of Irenaeus, as given by Eusebius {Hist. EccL, v. 7), and

indicated frequently by the author himself, was A Refutation and Subversion of Knowledge falsel\ so called, but it is generally referred to under the shorter title, Against Heresies. Several other smaller treatises are ascribed to Irenceus ; viz., An Epistle to Florinus, of which a small fragment has been preserved by Eusebius ; a treatise On the Valentinian Ogdoad ; a work called forth by the paschal controversy, entitled On Schism, and another On Science ; all of which that remain will be found in our next volume of his writings. Irenaius is supi)osed to have died about a.d. 202 ; but there is probably no real ground for the statement of Jerome, repeated liy subsequent writers, that he suffered martyrdom, since neither Tertullian nor Eusebius, nor other early authorities, make any mention of such a fact.

As has been already stated, the first printed copy of our author was given to the world by Erasmus. This was in the year 1526. Between that date and 15 71, a number of reprints were produced in both folio and octavo. All these contained merely the ancient barbarous Latin version, and were deficient towards the end by five entire chapters. These latter were supplied by the edition of Feuardent, Professor of Divinity 'at Paris, which was published in 1575, and went through six subsequent editions. Previously to this, however, another had been set forth by Gallasius, a minister of Geneva, which contained the first portions of the Greek text from Epiphanius. Then, in 1702, came the edition of Grabe, a learned Prussian, who had settled in England. It was published at Oxford, and contained considerable additions to the Greek text, with fragments. Ten years after this there appeared the important Paris edition by the Benedictine monk Massuet. This was reprinted at Venice in the year 1724, in two thin folio volumes, and again at Paris in a large octavo, by the Abb6 Migne, in 1857. A German edition was published by Stieren in 1853.

In the year 1857 there was also brought out a Cambridge edition, by the Rev. Wigan Har\^ey, in two octavo volumes. The two principal features of this edition are : the additions which havebeen made to the Greek text from the recently discovered Philosophou77iena of Hippolytus ; and the further addition of thirty-two fragments of a Syriac version of the Greek text of Irenaeus, culled from the Nitrian collection of Syriac mss. in the British Museum. These fragments are of considerable interest, and in some instances rectify the readings of the barbarous Latin version, where, without such aid, it would have been unintelligible. The edition of Harvey will be found constantly referred to in the notes appended to our translation.

IREN.CTS AGAINST HERESIES.

BOOK I.

1 . Inasmuch ' as certain men have set the tnith aside, and bring in lying words and vain genealogies, which, as the apostle says,^ " minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith," and by means of their craftily-constructed plausibilities draw away the minds of the inexperienced and take them captive, [I have felt constrained, my dear friend, to compose the following treatise in order to expose and counteract their machinations.] These men falsify the oracles of God, and prove themselves evil interpreters of the good word of revelation. They also overthrow the faith of many, by drawing them away, under a pretence of [superior] knowledge, from Him who founded and adorned the universe ; as if, forsooth, they had something more excellent and sublime to reveal, than that God who created the heaven and the earth, and all things that are therein. By means of specious and plausible words, they cunningly allure the simple-minded to inquire into their system ; but they nevertheless clumsily destroy them, while they initiate them into their blasphemous and impious opinions respecting the Demiurge ; ■'' and these simple ones are unable, even in such a matter, to distinguish falsehood from truth.

2. Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at I once be detected. But it is craftily decked out i in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, I

' The Greek original of the work of Irensus is from time to time recovered through the numerous quotations made from it by subsequent writers, especially by the author's pupil Hippolytus, and by Epiphanius. The latter preserves {Hcer., xxxt, sees. () 32) the preface of Irenaeus, and most of the first book. An important difference of reading occurs between the Latin and Greek in the very first word. The translator manifestly read end, qnaicnns^ while in Epiphanius we find eTTi, against. The former is probably correct, and has been followed in our version. We have also supplied a clause, ni order to avoid the extreme length of the sentence in the original, which runs on without any apodosis to the words kva-^Ko-lov ijyricrdfjLrii', " I have judged it necessary."

- I Tim. i. 4. The Latin has here genealogias iitfinitas, " endless genealogies," as in textiis receptus of New Testament.

3 As \vill be seen by and by, this fancied being was, in the Valentinian system, the creator of the material universe, but far inferior to the supreme ruler Bythus.

to make it appear to the inexperienced (ridiculous as the expression may seem) more true than the truth itself. One-* far superior to me has well said, in reference to this point, " A clever imitation in glass casts contempt, as it were, on that precious jewel the emerald (which is most highly esteemed by some), unless it come under the eye of one able to test and expose the counterfeit. Or, again, what inexperienced person can with ease detect the presence of brass when it has been mixed up with silver?" Lest, therefore, through my neglect, some should be carried off, even as sheep are by wolves, while they perceive not the true character of these men, — because they outwardly are covered with sheep's clothing (against whom the Lord has enjoined 5 us to be on our guard), and because their language resembles ours, while their sentiments are very different, — I have deemed it my duty (after reading some of the Cominentaries, as they call them, of the disciples of Valentinus, and after making myself acquainted with their tenets through personal intercourse with some of them ) to unfold to thee, my friend, these portentous and profound mysteries, which do not fall within the range of every intellect, because all have not sufficiently purged *" their brains. I do this, in order that thou, obtaining an acquaintance with these things, mayest in turn explain them to all those with whom thou art connected, and exhort them to avoid such an abyss of madness and of blasphemy against Christ. I intend, then, to the best of my ability, with brevity and clearness to set forth the opinions of those who are now

■♦ There are frequent references in Irenarus to some venerable men who had preceded him in the Church. It is supposed that Poihinij-., whom he succeeded at Lyons, is generally meant: but the reference may sometimes be to Polycarp, with whom in early life l>e had been acquainted.

> The original is iyKi^a.\ov e(f7rTv<aTiv, which the Latin translator renders simply, " have not sufficient brains." He prubibly followed a somewhat different reading. N'arious emendations h.ive been proposed, but the author may be understood by the ordinary" text to be referring ironically to li>e boasted subtlety and sublimity of the Gnostics.

promulgating heresy. I refer especially to the disciples of Ptolemaeus, whose school may be described as a bud from that of Valentinus. I shall also endeavour, according to my moderate ability, to furnish the means of overthrowing them, by showing how absurd and inconsistent with the truth are their statements. Not that I am practised either in composition or eloquence ; but my feeling of affection prompts me to make known to thee and all thy companions those doctrines which have been kept in concealment until now, but which are at last, through the goodness of God, brought to light. " For there is nothing hidden which shall not be revealed, nor secret that shall not be made known." '

3. Thou wilt not expect from me, who am resident among the Keltse,^ and am accustomed for the most part to use a barbarous dialect, any display of rhetoric, which I have never learned, or any excellence of composition, which I have never practised, or any beauty and persuasiveness of style, to which I make no pretensions. But thou wilt accept in a kindly spirit what I in a like spirit write to thee simply, truthfully, and in my own homely way ; whilst thou thyself (as being more capable than I am) wilt expand those ideas of which I send thee, as it were, only the seminal principles ; and in the comprehensiveness of thy understanding, wilt develop to their full extent the points on which I briefly touch, so as to set with power before thy companions those things which I have uttered in weakness. In fine, as I (to gratify thy long-cherished desire for information regarding the tenets of these persons) have spared no pains, not only to make these doctrines known to thee, but also to furnish the means of showing their falsity ; so shalt thou, according to the grace given to thee by the Lord, prove an earnest and efficient minister to others, that men may no longer be drawn away by the plausible system of these heretics, which I now proceed to describe.^

CHAP. I. ABSURD IDEAS OF THE DISCIPLES OF

VALENTINUS AS TO THE ORIGIN, NAME, ORDER, AND CONJUGAL PRODUCllONS OF THEIR FANCIED yEONS, WITH THE PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE WHICH THEY ADAPT TO THEIR OPINIONS.

I. They maintain, then, that in the invisible and ineffable heights above there exists a certain perfect, pre-existent JEon,-^ whom they call

2 As Caesar informs us (Coinm., i. i), Gaul was divided into three parts, one of which was called Celtic Gaul, lying between the Seine and the Garonne. Of this division Lyons is the principal city.

3 [The reader will find a logical and easy introduction to the crabbed details which follow, by turning to chap, xxiii., and reading through succeeding chapters down to chap. xxix.J

This term yEon (Aioji-) seems to have been formed from the words /iti wi', C7ier-existing. " We may take aiuji', therefore," says Harvey (lreu<eus, cxix.), " in the Valentinian acceptation of the word, to mean an emanation from the divine substance, subsisting coordinately and co-eiernally with the Deity, the Pleroma still remaining one.'

Proarche, Propator, and Bythus, and describe as being invisible and incomprehensible. Eternal and unbegotten, he remained throughout innumerable cycles of ages in profound serenity and quiescence. There existed along with him Ennoia, whom they also call Charis and Sige.5 At last this Bythus determined to send forth from himself the beginning of all things, and deposited this production (which he had resolved to bring forth) in his contemporary Sige, even as seed is deposited in the womb. She then, having received this seed, and becoming pregnant, gave birth to Nous, who was both similar and equal to him who had produced him, and was alone capable of comprehending his father's greatness. This Nous they call also Monogenes, and Father, and the Beginning of all Things. Along with him was also produced Aletheia ; and these four constituted the first and first-begotten Pythagorean Tetrad, which they also denominate the root of all things. For there are first Bythus and Sige, and then Nous and Aletheia. And Monogenes, perceiving for what purpose he had been produced, also himself sent forth Logos and Zoe, being the father of all those who were to come after him, and the beginning and fashioning of the entire Pleroma. By the conjunction of Logos and Zoe were brought forth Anthropos and Ecclesia ; and thus was formed the first-begotten Ogdoad, the root and substance of all things, called among them by four names, viz., Bythus, and Nous, and Logos, and Anthropos. For each of these is masculo-feminine, as follows : Propator was united by a conjunction with his Ennoea ; then Monogenes, that is Nous, with Aletheia ; Logos with Zoe, and Anthropos with Ecclesia.

2. These ^ons having been produced for the glory of the Father, and wishing, by their own efforts, to effect this object, sent forth emanations by means of conjunction. Logos and Zoe, after producing Anthropos and Ecclesia, sent forth other ten JEon?>, whose names are the following : Bythius and Mixis, Ageratos and Henosis, Autophyes and Hedone, Acinetos and Syncrasis, Monogenes and Macaria.'^ These are

5 Sige, however, was no true consort of Bythus, who included in himself the idea of male and female, and was the one cause of all things: comp. Hippolytus, Philosofi., vi. 29. There seems to have been considerable disagreement among these heretics as to the completion of the mystical number thirty. Valentinus himself appears to have considered Bythus as a monad, and Sige as a mere nonentity. . The two latest /Eons, Christ and the Holy Spirit, would then complete the number thirty. But other Gnostic teachers included both Bythus and Sige in that mystical number.

6 It may be well to give here the English equivalents of the names of these /Eons and their authors. They are as follows : Bythus. /"rofundity ; Proarche, First- Beginning ; Propator, First-Father ; Ennnea, Idea; Charis, (Jmrc/ Sige, Silence; Nous, Intelligence ; Aletheia, Truth ; Logos, IVord ; Zon, Life ; Anthropos, /!/«?« / Ecclesia, Church; Bythius, Deep; Mixis, Mingling; Ageratos, Undecaying ; Henosis, Union; Autophyes, Self-existent ; Hedone, Pleasure ; Acinetos, Immoveable ; Syncrasis, Blending ; Monogenes, Only-Begottc7i ; Macaria, Happiness ; Paraclctus, Advocate; Pistis, /''rt/V// ,• Vti-itico^, Ancestral ; )£X\>is, Hope ; Metricos, Metrical ; Agape, Z-OT/f," Ainos, Praise ; Synesls. Understanding/ Ecclesiasticus, Ecclesiastical ; Macariotes, Felicity; Theletos, Desiderated; Sophia, IVisdom.

the ten yEons whom they declare to have been produced Ijy Logos and Zoe. They then add that Anthropos himself, along with Ecclesia, produced twelve ^ons, to whom they give the following names : Paracletus and Pistis, Patricos and Elpis, Metricos and Agape, Ainos and Synesis, Ecclesiasticus and Macariotes, Theletos and Sophia.

3. Such are the thirty ^E^ons in the erroneous system of these men ; and they arc described as being wrappetl up, so to speak, in silence, and known to none [except these professing teachers]. Moreover, they declare that this invisible and spiritual Pleroma of theirs is tripartite, being divided into an Ogdoad, a Decad, and a Duodecad. And for this reason they affirm it was that the " Saviour " — for they do not please to call Him "Lord " — did no work in public during the space of thirty years,' thus setting forth the mystery of these ^ons. They maintain also, that these thirty JEons are most plainly indicated in the parable ^ of the labourers sent into the vineyard. For some are sent about the first hour, others about the third hour, others about the sixth hour, others about the ninth hour, and others about the eleventh hour. Now, if we add up the numbers of the hours here mentioned, the sum total will be thirty : for one, three, six, nine, and eleven, when added together, form thirty. And by the hours, they hold that the ALons were pointed out ; while they maintain that these are great, and wonderful, and hitherto unspeakable mysteries which it is their special function to develop ; and so they proceed when they find anything in the multitude ^ of things contained in the Scriptures which they can adopt and accommodate to their baseless speculations.

CHAP. II. — THE PROPATOR WAS KNOWN TO MONO- GENES ALONE. AMBITION, DISTURBANCE, AND DANGER INTO WHICH SOPHIA FELL ; HER SHAPE- LESS OFFSPRING : SHE IS RESTORED BY HOROS. THE PRODUCTION OF CHRIST AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, IN ORDER TO THE COMPLETION OF THE .EONS. MANNER OF THE PRODUCTION OF JESUS.

I. They proceed to tell us that the Propator of their scheme was known only to Monogenes, who sprang from him ; in other words, only to Nous, while to all the others he was invisible and incomprehensible. And, according to them, Nous alone took pleasure in contemplating the Father, and exulting in considering his immeasurable greatness ; while he also meditated hovv he might communicate to the rest of the ^ons the greatness of the Father, revealing to them how vast and mighty he was, and how he was without beginning, — beyond comprehension, and

3 Some omit ei' n-AiJSei, while others render the words " a definite number," thus: " And if there is anything else in Scripture which is referred to by a definite number."

altogether incapable of being seen. But, in accordance with the will of the Father, Sige restrained him, because it was his design to lead them all to an acquaintance with the aforesaid Propator, and to create within them a desire of investigating his nature. In like manner, the rest of the /Eons also, in a kind of quiet way, had a wish to behold the Author of their being, and to contemplate that First Cause which had no beginning.

2. But there rushed forth in advance of the rest that yEon who was much the latest of them, and was the youngest of the Duodecad which sprang from Anthropos and Ecclesia, namely Sophia, and suffered passion apart from the embrace of her consort Theletos. This passion, indeed, first arose among those who were connected with Nous and Aletheia, but passed as by contagion to this degenerate ^on, who acted under a pretence of love, but was in reality influenced by temerity, because she had not, like Nous, enjoyed communion with the perfect Father. This passion, they say, consisted in a desire to search into the nature of the Father ; for she wished, according to them, to comprehend his greatness. When she could not attain her end, inasmuch as she aimed at an impossibility, and thus became involved in an extreme agony of mind, while both on account of the vast profundity as well as the unsearchable nature of the Father, and on account of the love she bore him, she was ever stretching herself forward, there was danger lest she should at last have been absorbed by his sweetness, and resolved into his absolute essence, unless she had met with that Power which supports all things, and preserves them outside of the unspeakable greatness. This power they term Horos ; by whom, they say, she was restrained and supported ; and that then, having with difficulty been brought back to herself, she was convinced that the Father is incomprehensible, and so laid aside her original design, along with that passion which had arisen within her from the overwhelming influence of her admiration.

3. But others of them fabulously describe the passion and restoration of Sophia as follows : They say that she, having engaged in an impossible and impracticable attempt, brought forth an amorphous substance, such as her female nature enabled her to produce.-* When she looked uj^on it, her first feeling was one of grief, on account of the imperfection of its generation, and then of fear lest this should end 5 her own existence. Next she lost, as it were, all com-

•* Alluding to the Gnostic notion that, in generation, the male gives form, the female substance. Sophia, therefore, being a female /Eon, gave to herenthymesis substance alone, without form. Comp. Hippol., Philosop., vi. 30.

5 Some render this obscure clause, " lest it should never attain perfection," but the above seems preferable. See Hippol., vi. 31, where tlie fear referred to is extended to the whole Pleroma.

mand of herself, and was in the greatest perplexity while endeavouring to discover the cause of all this, and in what way she might conceal what had happened. Being greatly harassed by these passions, she at last changed her mind, and endeavoured to return anew to the Father. When, however, she in some measure made the attempt, strength failed her, and she became a suppliant of the Father. The other ^Eons, Nous in particular, presented their supplications along with her. And hence they declare material substance ' had its beginning from ignorance and grief, and fear and bewilderment.

4. The Father afterwards produces, in his own image, by means of Monogenes, the abovementioned Horos, without conjunction,- masculofeminine. For they maintain that sometimes the Father acts in conjunction with Sige, but that at other times he shows himself independent both of male and female. They term this Horos both Stauros and Lytrotes, and Carpistes, and Horothetes, and Metagoges.^ And by this Horos they declare that Sophia was purified and established, while she was also restored to her proper conjunction. For her enthyraesis (or inborn idea) having been taken away from her, along with its supervening passion, she herself certainly remained within the Pleroma ; but her enthymesis, with its passion, was separated from her by Horos, fenced ^ off, and expelled from that circle. This enthymesis was, no doubt, a spiritual substance, possessing some of the natural tendencies of an .4ion, but at the same time shapeless and without form, because it had received nothing.5 And on this account they say that it was an imbecile and feminine production.^

5. After this substance had been placed outside of the Pleroma of the ^ons, and its mother restored to her proper conjunction, they tell us that Monogenes, acting in accordance with the prudent forethought of the Father, gave origin to another conjugal pair, namely Christ and the Holy Spirit (lest any of the yEons should fall into a calamity similar to that of Sophia), for

' "The reader will observe the parallel; as the enthymesis of Bythus produced intelligent substance, so the enthymesis of Sophia resulted in the formation of material substance." — HARVF.y.

2 Some propose reading these words in the dative rather than the accusative, and thus to make them refer to the image of the

3 The meaning of these terms is as follows: Stauros means primarily n stake, An'X then a cross; Lytrotes is a Redeemer ; Carpistes, according to Grabe, means nn E>na>tcif>citor, according to Neander a Reaper ; Horothetes is one that Jixes boundaries ; and Metagoges is explained by Neander as being one that brings back, from the supposed function of Horos, to bring back all that sought to wander from the special grade of being assigned them.

■♦ The common tc.\t has a7ro<rTfp»)9>ji'ai, ivns deprived ; but Billius proposes to read a7roo-Taupw6>jiai, in conformity with the ancient Latin version, '' crucifixam."

5 That is, had not shared in any male influence, but was a purely female production.

'' Literally, " fruit." Harvey remarks on this expression, " that what we understand by emanations, the Gnostic described as spiritual frttctification ; and as the seed of a tree is in itself even in the embryo state, so these various /??ons, as existing always in the divine nature, were co-eternal with it."

the purpose of fortifying and strengthening the Pleroma, and who at the same time completed the number of the yEons. Christ then instructed them as to the nature of their conjunction, and taught them that those who possessed a comprehension of the Unbegotten were sufficient for themselves. 7 He also announced among them what related to the knowledge of the Father, — namely, that he cannot be understood or comprehended, nor so much as seen or heard, except in so far as he is known by Monogenes only. And the reason why the rest of the ^ons possess perpetual existence is found in that part of the Father's nature which is incomprehensible ; but the reason of their origin and formation was situated in that which may be comprehended regarding him, that is, in the Son.^ Christ, then, who had just been produced, effected these things among them.

6. But the Holy Spirit 9 taught them to give thanks on being all rendered ec|ual among themselves, and led them to a state of true repose. Thus, then, they tell us that the ^ons were constituted equal to each other in form and sentiment, so that all became as Nous, and Logos, and Anthropos, and Christus. The female /Eons, too, became all as Aletheia, and Zoe, and Spiritus, and Ecclesia. Everything, then, being thus established, and brought into a state of perfect rest, they next tell us that these beings sang praises with great joy to the Propator, who himself shared in the abounding exaltation. Then, out of gratitude for the great benefit which had been conferred on them, the whole Pleroma of the ^ons, with one design and desire, and with the concurrence of Christ and the Holy Spirit, their Father also setting the seal of His approval on their conduct, brought together whatever each one had in himself of the greatest beauty and preciousness ; and uniting all these contributions so as skilfully to blend the whole, they produced, to the honour and glory of Bythus, a being of most perfect beauty, the very star of the Pleroma, and the perfect fruit [of it], namely Jesus. Him they also speak of under the name of Saviour, and Christ, and patronymically. Logos, and Everything, because He was formed from the contributions of all. And then we are told that, by way of honour, angels of the same nature as Himself were simultaneously produced, to act as His body-guard.

^ This is an exceedingly obscure and difficult passage. Harvey's rendering is: " For, say they, Christ taught them the nature of their copula;, (namely,) that being cognisant of their (limited) perception of the Unbegotten they needed no higher knowledge, and that He enounced," etc. The words seem scarcely capable of yielding this sense: we have followed the interpretation of Billius.

Both the text and meaning are here very doubtful. Some think that the import «f the sentence is, that the knowledge that the Father is incomprehensible secured the continued safety of the /Kons, while the same knowledge conferred upon Monogenes his origin and form.

9 The Greek text inserts iv, one, before " Holy Spirit."

CHAP. in. — TEXTS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE USED BY THESE HERETICS TO SUPPORT THEIR OPINIONS.

I. Such, then, is the account they give of what took place within the Pleroma ; such the calamities that flowed from the passion which seized uj)on the ^Eon who has been named, and who was within a little of perishing by being absorbed in the universal su1)stance, through her inquisitive searching after the Father ; such the consolidation ' [of that ^i^:on] from her condition of agony by Horos, and Stauros, and Lytrotes, and Carpistes, and Horothetes, and Metagoges.^" Such also is the account of the generation of the later ^Eons, namely of the first Christ and of the Holy Spirit, both of whom were produced by the Father after the repentance ^ [of Sophia], and of the second ■♦ Christ (whom they also style Saviour), who owed his being to the joint contributions [of the ^ons]. They tell us, however, that this knowledge has not been openly divulged, because: all are not capable of receiving it, but has been mystically revealed by the Saviour through means of parables to those qualified for understanding it. This has been done as follows. The thirty ^ons are indicated (as we have already remarked) by the thirty years during which they say the Saviour performed no public act, and by the parable of the labourers in the vineyard. Paul also, they affirm, very clearly and frequently names these yEons, and even goes so far as to preserve their order, when he says, " To all the generations of the /Eons of the yEon." s Nay, we ourselves, when at the giving ^ of thanks we pronounce the words, "To ^ons of ^ons " (for ever and ever), do set forth these yEons. And, in fine, wherever the words ^on or ^lEons occur, they at once refer them to these beings.

2. The production, again, of the Duodecad of the ^ons, is indicated by the fact that the Lord was tiuelve 7 years of age when He disputed with the teachers of the law, and by the election of the apostles, for of these there were twelve.** The other eighteen /Eons are made manifest in this way : that the Lord, [according to them,]

' The reading is here very doubtful. We have followed the text of Grabe (approved by Harvey), ef a.yMvo<; (ri'M.7rr)fi?.

- These are all names of the same person: see above, ii. 4. Hence some have proposed the reading ef nwi'io? instead of cf o-ywj'o?, alluding to the six/old appellation of the yEon Horos.

3 Billius renders, "from the repentance of the Father," but the above seems preferable.

4 Harvey remarks, " Even in their Christology the Valentinians must have their part and counterpart."

5 Or, " to all the generations of the ages of the age." See Eph. iii. 21. The apostle, of course, simply uses these words as a strong expression to denote " for ever."

^ Literally, " at the thanksgiving," or " eucharist." Massuet, the Benedictme editor, refers this to the Lord's Supper, and hence concludes that some of the ancient liturgies still e.\tant must even then have been in use. Harv-ey and others, however, deny that there is any necessity for supposing the Holy Eucharist to be referred to; the ancient Latin version translates m the plural, "in gratiarum actionibus."

conversed with His disciples for eighteen months 9 after His resurrection from the dead. They also affirm that these eighteen yEons are strikingly indicated by the first two letters of His name [li^o-oCs], namely Iota''' and Eta. And, in like manner, they assert that the ten ^ons are pointed out by the letter Iota, which begins His name ; while, for the same reason, they tell us the Saviour said, " One Iota, or one tittle, shall by no means pass away until all be fulfilled.""

3. They further maintain that the passion which took place in the case of the twelfth .-Eon is pointed at by the apostasy of Judas, who was the twelfth apostle, and also by the fact that Christ suffered in the twelfth month. For their opinion is, that He continued to preach for one year only after His baptism. The same thing is also most clearly indicated by the case of the woman who suffered from an issue of blood. For after she had been thus afflicted during twelve years, she was healed by the advent of the Saviour, when she had touched the border of His garment ; and on this account the Saviour said, "Who touched me?"" — teaching his disciples the mystery which had occurred among the yEons, and the healing of that ^on who had been involved in suffering. For she who had been afflicted twelve years represented that power whose essence, as they narrate, was stretching itself forth, and flowing into immensity; and unless she had touched the garment of the Son,'3 that is, Aletheia of the first Tetrad, who is denoted by the hem spoken of, she would have been dissolved into the general essence''' [of which she participated]. She stopped short, however, and ceased any longer to suffer. For the power that went forth from the Son (and this power they term Horos) healed her, and separated the passion from her. 4. They moreover affirm that the Saviour '5 is shown to be derived from all the .Eons, and to be in Himself everything by the following passage : " Every male that openeth the womb." '^ For He, being everything, opened the womb '^ of the enthymesis of the suffering J^on, when

9 This opinion is in positive contradiction to the forty days mentioned by St. Luke (Acts i. 3). But the Valentinians seem to have followed a spurious writing of their own called " The Gospel of

-° The numeral value of lota in Greek is ten, and of Eta, eight.

'J The Latin reads " filii," which we have followed. Reference is made in this word to Nous, who was, as we have already seen, also called Sou, and who interested himself in the recover)- of Sophia. Aletheia was his consort, and was typified by the hem of the Saviour's garment.

'■» Her individuality {y.ap^-T\) would have been lost, while her substance (ouffia) would have survived in the common essence of the .lEons

'5 That is, the "second Christ" referred to above, sec. 1. [It is much to be wished that this second were always distinguished by the untranslated name Soter.'\

'7 Not as being born of it, but as fecundating it, and so producing a manifold offspring. See below.

it had been expelled from the Pleroma. This they also style the second Ogdoad, of which we shall speak presently. And they state that it was clearly on this account that Paul said, " And He Himself is all things ; " ' and again, " All things are to Him, and of Him are all things ; " ^ and further, " In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead ; " ^ and yet again, " All things are gathered together by God in Christ." ■* Thus do they interpret these and any like passages to be found in Scripture.

5. They show, further, that that Horos of theirs, whom they call by a variety of names, has two faculties, — the one of supporting, and the other of separating ; and in so far as he supports and sustains, he is Stauros, while in so far as he divides and separates, he is Horos. They then represent the Saviour as having indicated this twofold faculty : first, the sustaining power, when He said, " Whosoever doth not bear his cross (Stauros), and follow after me, cannot be my disciple ; " 5 and again, " Taking up the cross, follow me ;" ^ but the separating power when He said, " I came not to send peace, but a sword." ^ They also maintain that John indicated the same thing when he said, " The fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge the floor, and will gather the wheat into His garner ; but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable." ^ By this declaration He set forth the faculty of Horos. For that fan they explain to be the cross (Stauros), which consumes, no doubt, all material 9 objects, as fire does chaff, but it purifies all them that are saved, as a fan does wheat. Moreover, they affirm that the Apostle Paul himself made mention of this cross in the following words : " The doctrine of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God." ^° And again : " God forbid that I should glory in anything " save in the cross of Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world."

6. Such, then, is the account which they all give of their Pleroma, and of the formation '^ of the universe, striving, as they do, to adapt the good words of revelation to their own wicked in-

5 Luke xiv. 27. It will be observed that the quotations of Scripture made by Irenaeus often vary somewhat from the received text. This may be due to various reasons — his quoting from memory; his giving the texts in the form in which they were quoted by the heretics; or, as Harvey conjectures, from his havmg been more familiar with a Syriac version of the New Testament than with the Greek original.

9 Hence Stauros was called by the agricultural name Carpistes, as separating what was gross and material from the spiritual and heavenly.

" Gal. vi. 14. The words eV iiriSefi do not occur in the Greek text.

'2 Billius renders, " of their opinion."

ventions. And it is not only from the writings of the evangelists and the apostles that they endeavour to derive proofs for their opinions by means of perverse interpretations and deceitful expositions : they deal in the same way with the law and the prophets, which contain many parables and allegories that can frequently be drawn into various senses, according to the kind of exegesis to which they are subjected. And others '^ of them, with great craftiness, adapted such parts of Scripture to their own figments, lead away captive from the truth those who do not retain a stedfast faith in one God, the Father Almighty, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

CHAP. IV. — ACCOUNT GIVEN BY THE HERETICS OF THE FORMATION OF ACHAMOTH ; ORIGIN OF THE VISIBLE WORLD FROM HER DISTURBANCES.

I. The following are the transactions which they narrate as having occurred outside of the Pleroma : The enthymesis of that Sophia who dwells above, which they also term Achamoth,''* being removed from the Pleroma, together with her passion, they relate to have, as a matter of course~ become violently excited in those places of darkness and vacuity [to which she had been banished]. For she was excluded from light '5 and the Pleroma, and was without form or figure, like an untimely birth, because she had received nothing ^'^ [from a male parent] . But the Christ dwelling on high took pity upon her ; and having extended himself through and beyond Stauros, '^ he imparted a figure to her, but merely as respected^ substance, and not so as to convey intelligence.'^ Having effected this, he withdrew his influence, and returned, leaving Achamoth to herself, in order that she, becoming sensible of her suffering as being severed from the Pleroma, might be influenced by the desire of better things, while she possessed in the meantime a kind of odour of immortality left in her by Christ and the Holy Spirit. Wherefore also she is called by two names — Sophia after her father (for Sophia is spoken of as being her father) , and Holy Spirit from that Spirit who is along with Christ. Having then obtained a form, along with intelligence, and being immediately deserted by that Logos who had been invisibly present with her — that is, by Christ — she strained herself to discover that light which had forsaken her, but could not

13 The punctuation and rendering are here slightly doubtful.

^■^ This term, though Tertullian declares himself to have been ignorant of its derivation, was evidently formed from the Hebrew word n03n — chockmah, ivisdoin.

'5 The reader will observe that light and /itlttess are the exact correlatives of the darkness and vacuity which have just been mentioned.

"> As above stated (ii. 3), the Gnostics held that form and figure were due to the male, substance to the female parent.

■7 The Valentinian Stauros was the boundary fence of the Pleroma beyond which Christ extended himself to assist the enthymesis of Sophia.

'8 The peculiar ^m/j which Nous received from his father, and communicated to the other /Eons.

effect her purpose, inasmuch as she was prevented by Horos. And as Horos thus obstructed her further progress, he exclaimed, lAO," whence, they say, this name lao derived its origin. And when she could not pass by Horos on account of that passion in which she had been involved, and because she alone had been left without, she then resigned herself to every sort of that manifold and varied state of passion to which she was subject ; and thus she suffered grief on the one hand because she had not obtained the object of her desire, and fear on the other hand, lest life itself should fail her, as light had already done, while, in addition, she was in the greatest perplexity. All these feelings were associated with ignorance. And this ignorance of hers was not, like that of her mother, the first Sophia, an .'Eon, due to degeneracy by means of passion, but to an [innate] opposition [of nature to knowledge] .- Moreover, another kind of passion fell upon her (Achamoth), namely, that of desiring to return to him who gave her life.

2. This collection [of passions] they declare was the substance of the matter from which this world was formed. For from [her desire of] returning [to him who gave her life], every soul belonging to this world, and that of the Demiurge ^ himself, derived its origin. All other things owed their beginning to her terror and sorrow. For from her tears all that is of a liquid nature was formed ; from her smile all that is lucent ; and from her grief and perplexity all the corporeal elements of the world. For at one time, as they affirm, she would weep and lament on account of being left alone in the midst of darkness and vacuity ; while, at another time, reflecting on the light which had forsaken her, she would be filled with joy, and laugh ; then, again, she would be struck with terror ; or, at other times, would sink into consternation and bewilderment.

3. Now what follows from all this? No light tragedy comes out of it, as the fancy of every man among them pompously explains, one in one way, and another in another, from what kind of passion and from what element being derived its origin. They have good reason, as seems to me, why they should not feel inclined to teach these things to all in public, but only to such as are able to pay a high price for an acquaintance with such profound mysteries. For these doctrines are not at all similar to those of which our Lord said, " Freely ye have received, freely give." ■* They are, on the contrary, abstruse, and portentous, and profound mysteries, to be

' Probably corresponding to the Hebrew 71171', Jehovah.

2 This sentence is ver>' elliptical in the original, but the sense is as given above. Sophia fell from Gnosis by degradation; Achamoth never possessed this knowledge, her nature being from the first opposed to it.

J " The Demiurge derived from Enthymesis an animal, and not a spiritual nature." — H.\RVEY.

got at only with great labour by such as are in love with falsehood. For who would not expend all that he possessed, if only he might learn in return, that from the tears of the enthymesis of the /Eon involved in passion, seas, and fountains, and rivers, and every licjuid substance derived its origin ; that light burst forth from her smile ; and that from her perplexity and consternation the corporeal elements of the world had their formation ?

4. I feel somewhat inclined myself to contribute a few hints towards the development of their system. For when I perceive that waters are in part fresh, such as fountains, rivers, showefs, and so on, and in part salt, such as those in the sea, I reflect with myself that all such waters cannot be derived from her tears, inasmuch as these are of a saline quality only. It is clear, therefore, that the waters which are salt are alone those which are derived from her tears. But it is probable that she, in her intense agony and perplexity, was covered with perspiration. And hence, following out their notion, we may conceive that fountains and rivers, and all the fresh water in the world, are due to this source. For it is difficult, since we know that all tears are of the same quality, to believe that waters both salt and fresh proceeded from them. The more plausible supposition is, that some are from her tears, and some from her perspiration. And since there are also in the world certain waters which are hot and acrid in their nature, thou must be left to guess their origin, how and whence. Such are some of the results of their hypothesis.

5. They go on to state that, when the mother Achamoth had passed through all sorts of passion, and had with difficulty escaped from them,, she turned herself to supplicate the light which, had forsaken her, that is, Christ. He, however, having returned to the Pleroma, and being probably unwilling again to descend from it, sent forth to her the Paraclete, that is, the Saviour.5 This being was endowed with all power by the Father, who placed everything under his authority, the yEons*^ doing so likewise, so that "by him were all things, visible and invisible, created, thrones, divinities, dominions." ? He then was sent to her along with his contemporary angels. And they related that Achamoth, filled with reverence, at first veiled herself through modesty, but that by and by, when she had looked upon him with all his endowments, and had acquired strength from his appearance, she ran forward to meet him. He then imparted to her form as respected intelligence, and brought healing to her passions, separating them from her, but not

5 " Jesus, or Soter, was also called the Paraclete in the sense of Advocate, or one acting as the representative of others." — Harvey

6 Both the Father and the other iEons constituting Soter an impersonation of the entire Pleroma.

so as to drive them out of thought altogether. For it was not possible that they should be annihilated as in the former case/ because they had already taken root and acquired strength [so as to possess an indestructible existence]. All that he could do was to separate them and set them apart, and then commingle and condense them, so as to transmute them from incorporeal passion into unorganized matter.^ He then by this process conferred upon them a fitness and a nature to become concretions and corporeal structures, in order that two substances should be formed, — the one evil, resulting from the passions, and the other subject indeed to suffering, but originating from her conversion. And on this account (i.e., on account of this hypostatizing of ideal matter) they say that the Saviour virtually 3 created the world. But when Achamoth was freed from her passion, she gazed with rapture on the dazzling vision of the angels that were with him ; and in her ecstasy, conceiving by them, they tell us that she brought forth new beings, partly after her own image, and partly a spiritual progeny after the image of the Saviour's attendants.

CHAP. V. FORMATION OF THE DEMIURGE ; DE- SCRIPTION OF HIM. HE IS THE CREATOR OF EVERYTHING OUTSIDE OF THE PLEROMA.

I. These three kinds of existence, then, having, according to them, been now formed, — one from the passion, which was matter ; a second from the conversion, which was animal ; and the third, that which she (Achamoth) herself brought forth, which was spiritual, — she next addressed herself to the task of giving these form. But she could not succeed in doing this as respected the spiritual existence, because it was of the same nature with herself. She therefore applied herself to give form to the animal substance which had proceeded from her own conversion, and to bring forth to light the instructions of the Saviour.-* And they say she first formed out of animal substance him who is Father and King of all things, both of these which are of the same nature with himself, that is, animal substances, which they also call right-handed, and those which sprang from the passion, and from matter, which they call left-handed. For they afilirm that he formed all the things which came into existence after him, being secredy impelled thereto by his mother. From this circumstance they

' That is. as in the case of her mother Sophia, who is sometimes called " the Sophia above," Achamoth being " the Sophia below," or " the second Sophia "

Thus Harvey renders oo-io/u.aToi' i'Aijv ', so Baur, Ckr. Gnos., as quoted by Stieren. Billius proposes to read evauinarov, corporeal.

3 Though not actually, for that was the worlc of the Demiurge. See next chapter.

•* " In order that," says Orabe, " this formation might not be merely according to esience, but also nccflftiiiig to kiimvirdre, as the lormation of the mother Achamoth was characterized above.

Style him Metropator,^ Apator, Demiurge, and Father, saying that he is Father of the substances on the right hand, that is, of the animal, but Demiurge of those on the left, that is, of the material, while he is at the same time the king of all. For they say that this Enthymesis, desirous of making all things to the honour of the ^ons, formed images of them, or rather that the Saviour^ did so through her instrumentality. And she, in the image 7 of the invisible Father, kept herself concealed from the Demiurge. But he was in the image of the only-begotten Son, and the angels and archangels created by him were in the image of the rest of the ^ons.

2. They affirm, therefore, that he was constituted the Father and God of everything outside of the Pleroma, being the creator of all animal and material substances. For he it was that discriminated these two kinds of existence hitherto confused, and made corporeal from incorporeal substances, fashioned things heavenly and earthly, and became the Framer (Demiurge) of things material and animal, of those on the right and those on the left, of the light and of the heavy, and of those tending upwards as well as of those tending downwards. He created also seven heavens, above which they say that he, the Demiurge, exists. And on this account they term him Hebdomas, and his mother Achamoth Ogdoads, preserving the number of the first-begotten and primary Ogdoad as the Pleroma. They affirm, moreover, that these seven heavens are intelligent, and speak of them as being angels, while they refer to the Demiurge himself as being an angel bearing a likeness to God ; and in the same strain, they declare that Paradise, situated above the third heaven, is a fourth angel possessed of power, from whom Adam derived certain qualities while he conversed with him.

3. They go on to say that the Demiurge imagined that he created all tiiese things of himself, while he in reality made them in conjunction with the productive power of Achamoth. He formed the heavens, yet was ignorant of the heavens ; he fashioned man, yet knew not man ; he brought to light the earth, yet had no acquaintance with the earth ; and, in like manner, they declare that he was ignorant of the forms of all that he made, and knew not even of the existence of his own mother, but imagined that . he himself was all things. They further affirm

5 Metropator, as proceeding only from his mother Achamoth: Apator, as having no male progenitor.

f" Harvey remarks, " The Valentinian Saviour being an aggregation of all the a;onic perfections, the images of them were reproduced by the spiritual conception of Achamoth beholding the glory of Siuxrjp. The reader will not fail to observe that every successive development is the reflex of a more divine antecedent."

7 The relation indicated seems to be as follows: Achamoth, after being formed " according to knowledge," was outside of the Pleroma as the image of Propator, the Demiurge was as Nous, and the mundane angels which he formed corresponded to the other jEons of the Pleroma.

that his mother originated this opinion in his mind, because she desired to bring him forth possessed of such a character that he should be the head and source of his own essence, and the absolute ruler over every kind of operation [that was afterwards attempted]. This mother they also call Ogdoad, Sophia^ Terra, Jerusalem, Holy Spirit, and, with a masculine reference, Lord.' Her place of habitation is an intermediate one, above the Demiurge indeed, but below and outside of the Pleroma, even to the end.^

4. As, then, they represent all material substance to be formed from three passions, viz., fear, grief, and perplexity, the account they give is as follows : Animal substances originated from fear and from conversion ; the Demiurge they also describe as owing his origin to conversion ; but the existence of all the other animal substances they ascribe to fear, such as the souls of irrational animals, and of wild beasts, and men. And on this account, he (the Demiurge), being incapable of recognising any spiritual essences, imagined himself to be God alone, and declared through the prophets, " I am God, and besides me there is none else." ^ They further teach that the spirits of wickedness derived their origin from grief. Hence the devil, whom they also call Cosmocrator (the ruler of the world), and the demons, and the angels, and every wicked spiritual being that exists, found the source of their existence. They represent the Demiurge as being the son of that mother of theirs (Achamoth), and Cosmocrator as the creature of the Demiurge. Cosmocrator has knowledge of what is above himself, because he is a spirit of wickedness ; but the Demiurge is ignorant of such things, inasmuch as he is merely animal. Their mother dwells in that place which is above the heavens, that is, in the intermediate abode ; the Demiurge in the heavenly place, that is, in the hebdomad ; but the Cosmocrator in this our world. The corporeal elements of the world, again, sprang, as we before remarked, from bewilderment and perplexity, as from a more ignoble source. Thus the earth arose from her state of stupor ; water from the agitation caused by her fear ; air from the consolidation of her grief; while fire, producing death and corruption, was inherent in all these elements, even as they teach that ignorance also lay concealed in these three passions.

5. Having thus formed the world, he (the Demiurge) also created the earthy [part of] man, not taking him from this dry earth, but from an invisible substance consistinsr of fusible

' " Achamoth by these names must be understood to have an intermediate position between the divine prototj'pal idea and creation: she was the reflex of the one, and therefore masculo-femiititte ; she was the pattern to be reaUzed in the latter, and therefore was named Ea>-th and Jerusalem." — Harvey.

- But after the consummation here referred to, Achamoth regained the Pleroma: see below, chap. vii. i.

and fluid matter, and then afterwards, as they define the process, breathed into him the aniinal part of his nature. It was this latter which was created after his image and likeness. The material part, indeed, was very near to God, so far as the image went, but not of the same substance with him. The animal, on the other hand, was so in respect to likeness ; and hence his substance was called the spirit of life, because it took its rise from a spiritual outflowing. After all this, he was, they say, enveloped all round with a covering of skin ; and by this they mean the outward sensitive flesh.

6. But they further affirm that the Demiurge himself was ignorant of that offspring of his mother Achamoth, which she brought forth as a consequence of her contemplation of those angels who waited on the Saviour, and which was, like herself, of a spiritual nature. She took advantage of this ignorance to deposit it (her production) in him without his knowledge, in order that, being by his instrumentality infused into that animal soul proceeding from himself, and being thus carried as in a womb in this material body, while it gradually increased in strength, might in course of time become fitted for the reception of perfect rationality.-* Thus it came to pass, then, according to them, that, without any knowledge on the part of the Demiurge, the man formed by his inspiration was at the same time, through an unspeakable providence, ren-' dered a spiritual man by the simultaneous inspiration received from Sophia. For, as he was ignorant of his mother, so neither did he recognise her offspring. This [offspring] they also declare to be the Ecclesia, an emblem of the Ecclesia which is above. This, then, is the kind of man whom they conceive of: he has his animal soul from the Demiurge, his body from the earth, his fleshy part from matter, and his spiritual man from the mother Achamoth.

CHAP. VI. THE THREEFOLD KIND OF MAN FEIGNED

BY THESE HERETICS : GOOD WORKS NEEDLESS FOR THEM, THOUGH NECESSARY TO OTHERS : THEIR ABANDONED MORALS.

I. There being thus three kinds of substances, they declare of all that is material (which they also describe as being " on the left hand " ) that it must of necessity perish, inasmuch as it is in-- capable of receiving any afflatus of incorruption. As to every animal existence (which they also denominate "on the right hand"), they hold that, inasmuch as it is a mean between the spiritual and the material, it passes to the side to

■* An account is here given of the infusion of a spiritual principle into mankind. The Demiurge himself could give no more than the animal soul; but, unwittingly to himself, he was made the instrument of conveying that spiritual essence from Achamoth, which had grown up within her from the contemplation of those angels who accompanied the Saviour,

which indination draws it. Spiritual substance, again, they describe as having been sent forth for this end, that, being here united with that which is animal, it might assume shape, the two elements being simultaneously subjected to the same discipline. And this they declare to be " the salt " ' and " the light of the world." For the animal substance had need of training by means of the outward senses ; and on this account they affirm that the world was created, as well as that the Saviour came to the animal substance (which was possessed of free-will), that He might secure for it salvation. For they affirm that He received the first-fruits of those whom He was to save [as follows], from Achamoth that which was spiritual, while He was invested by the Demiurge with the animal Christ, but was begirt^ by a [special] dispensation with a body endowed with an animal nature, yet constructed with unspeakable skill, so that it might be visible and tangible, and capable of enduring suffering. At the same time, they deny that He assumed anything material [into His nature], since indeed matter is incapable of salvation. They further hold that the consummation of all things will take place when all that is spiritual has been formed and perfected by Gnosis (knowledge) ; and by this they mean spiritual men who have attained to the perfect knowledge of God, and been initiated into these mysteries by Achamoth. And they represent themselves to be these persons.

2. Animal men, again, are instructed in animal things ; such men, namely, as are established by their works, and by a mere faith, while they have not perfect knowledge. We of the Church, they say, are these persons. ^ Wherefore also they maintain that good works are necessary to us, for that otherwise it is impossible we should be saved. But as to themselves, they hold that they shall be entirely and undoubtedly saved, not by means of conduct, but because they are spiritual by nature.'* For, just as it is impossible that material substance should partake of salvation (since, indeed, they maintain that it is incapable of receiving it), so again it is impossible that spiritual substance (by which they mean themselves) should ever come under the power of corruption, whatever the sort of actions in which they indulged. For even as gold, when submersed in filth, loses not on that account its beauty, but retains its own native qualities, the filth having no power to injure the gold, so they affirm that they cannot in any measure suffer

- " The doctrine of Valentinus, therefore," says Harvey, " as regards the human nature of Christ, was essentially Docetic. His body was animal, but not material, and only visible and tangible as having been formed /car o\.KOvott.ia.v and KaTiaKiva.(j)t.ivov apprJTw Tex>'}j."

3 [That is, carnal ; men of the carnal mind, psychic instead of pneumatic. Rom viii. 6.]

On account of what they had received from Achamoth.

hurt, or lose their s]>iritual substance, whatever the material actions in which they may be involved.

3. Wherefore also it comes to pass, that the " most perfect " among them addict themselves without fear to all those kinds of forbidden deeds of which the Scriptures assure us that " they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 5 For instance, they make no scruple about eating meats offered in sacrifice to idols, imagining that they can in this way contract no defilement. Then, again, at every heathen festival celebrated in honour of the idols, these men are the first to assemble ; and to such a pitch do they go, that some of them do not even keep away from that bloody spectacle hateful both to God and men, in which gladiators either fight with wild beasts, or singly encounter one another. Others of them yield themselves up to the lusts of the flesh with the utmost greediness, maintaining that carnal things should be allowed to the carnal nature, while spiritual things are provided for the spiritual. Some of them, moreover, are in the habit of defiling those women to whom they have taught the above doctrine, as has frequently been confessed by those women who have been led astray by certain of them, on their returning to the Church of God, and acknowledging this along with the rest of their errors. Others of them, too, openly and without a blush, having become passionately attached to certain women, seduce them away from their husbands, and contract marriages of their own with them. Others of them, again, who pretend at first to live in all modesty with them as with sisters, have in course of time been revealed in their true colours, when the sister has been found with child by her [pretended] brother.

4. And committing many other abominations and impieties, they run us down (who from the fear of God guard against sinning even in thought or word) as utterly contemptible and ignorant persons, while they highly exalt themselves, and claim to be perfect, and the elect seed. For they declare that we simply receive grace for use, wherefore also it will again be taken away from us ; but that they themselves have grace as their own special possession, which has descended from above by means of an unspeakable and indescribable conjunction ; and on this account more will be given them.^ They maintain, therefore, that in every way it is always necessary for them to practise the mystery of conjunction. And that they may persuade the thoughtless to believe this, they are in the habit of using these very words, " Whosoever being in this world does not so love a woman as to

obtain possession of her, is not of the truth, nor shall attain to the truth. But whosoever being of^ this .vorld has intercourse with woman, shall not attain to the truth, because he has so acted under the power of concupiscence." On this account, they teil us that it is necessary for us whom they call animal men, and describe as being of the world, to practise continence and good works, that by this means we may attain at length to the intermediate habitation, but that to them who are called " the spiritual and perfect " such a course of conduct is not at all necessary. For it is not conduct of any kind which leads into the Pleroma, but the seed sent forth thence in a feeble, immature state, and here brought to perfection.

CHAP. VII. THE MOTHER ACH.4M0TH, WHEN ATX

HER SEED ARE PERFECTED, SHALL PASS INTO THE PLEROMA, ACCOMPANIED BY THOSE MEN WHO ARE spiritual; THE DEMIURGE, WITH ANIMAL MEN, SHALL PASS INTO THE INTERME- DIATE HABITATION; BUT ALL MATERIAL MEN SHALL GO INTO CORRUPTION. THEIR BLASPHE- MOUS OPINIONS AGAINST THE TRUE INCARNA- TION OF CHRIST BY THE VIRGIN MARY. THEIR VIEWS AS TO THE PROPHECIES. STUPID IGNO- RANCE OF THE DEMIURGE.

I. When all the seed shall have come to perfection, they state that then their mother Achamoth shall pass from the intermediate place, and enter in within the Pleroma, and shall receive as her spouse the Saviour, who sprang from all the yEons, that thus a conjunction may be formed between the Saviour and Sophia, that is, Achamoth. These, then, are the bridegroom and bride, while the nuptial chamber is the full extent of the Pleroma. The spiritual seed, again, being divested of their animal souls,- and becoming intelligent spirits, shall in an irresistible and invisil)le manner enter in within the Pleroma, and be bestowed as brides on those angels who wait upon the Saviour. The Demiurge himself will pass into the place of his mother Sophia ; ^ that is, the intermediate habitation. In this intermediate place, also, shall the souls of the righteous repose ; but nothing of an animal nature shall find admittance to the Pleroma. ^Vhen these things have taken place as described, then shall that fire which lies hidden in the world blaze forth and burn ; and while destroying all matter, shall also be extinguished along with it, and ha\e no fiirther existence. They at^rm that the Demiurge was acquainted with none of these thinijs before the advent of the Saviour.

' Comp. John xvii. i6. The Valentinians, while in the world, claimed to be not of the world, as animal men were.

- Their spiritual substance was received from Achamoth; their animal souls were created by the Demiurge. These are now separated; the spirit enters the Pleroma, while the soul remains in heaven.

^ Viz., Achamoth.

2. There are also some who maintain that he also produced Christ as his own proper son, but of an animal nature, and that mention was-* made of him by the prophets. This Christ passed through Mary 5 just as water flows through a tube ; and there descended upon him in the form of a dove at the time of his baptism, that Saviour who belonged to the Pleroma, and was formed by the combined efforts of all its inhabitants. In him there existed also that spiritual seed which proceeded from Achamoth. They hold, accordingly, that our Lord, while preserving the type of the first-begotten and primary tetrad, was compounded of these four substances, — of that which is spiritual, in so far as He was from Achamoth ; of that which is animal, as being from the Demiurge by a special dispensation, inasmuch as He was formed [corporeally] with unspeakable skill ; and of the Saviour, as respects that dove which descended upon Him. He also continued free from all suffering, since indeed it was not possible that He should suffer who was at once incomprehensible and invisible. And for this reason the Spirit of Christ, who had been placed within Him, was taken away when He was brought before Pilate. They maintain, further, that not even the seed which He had received from the mother [Achamoth] was subject to suffering ; for it, too, was impassible, as being spiritual, and invisible even to the Demiurge himself. It follows, then, according to them, that the animal Christ, and that which had been formed mysteriously by a special dispensation, underwent suffering, that the mother might exhibit through him a type of the Christ above, namely, of him who extended himself through Stauros,*^ and imparted to Achamoth shape, so far as substance was concerned. For they declare that all these transactions were counterparts of what took place above.

3. They maintain, moreover, that those souls which possess the seed of Achamoth are superior to the rest, and are more dearly loved by the Demiurge than others, while he knows not the true cause thereof, but imagines that they are what they are through his favour towards them. Wherefore, also, they say he distributed them to prophets, priests, and kings ; and they declare that many things were spoken ? by this seed through the prophets, inasmuch as it was endowed with a transcendently lofty nature. The

A Syriac fragment here reads, " He spake by the prophets through hun."

5 " Thus," says Harvey, " we may trace back to the Gnostic period the Apollinarian error, closely allied to the Docetic, that the body of Christ was not derived from the blessed Virgin, but that it was of heavenly substance, and was only brought forth into the world through her instrumentality."

<> By thus extending himself through Stauros, who bounded the Pleroma, the Christ above became the type of the Christ below, who was extended upon the cross

7 Billius, following the old Latin version, reads, " They interpret many things, spoken by the prophets, of this seed."

IRENiEUS AGAINST HERESIES.

mother also, they say, spake much about things above, and that both through him and through the souls which were formed by him. Then, again, they divide the prophecies [into different classes], maintaining that one portion was uttered by the mother, a second by her seed, and a third by the Demiurge. In like manner, they hold that Jesus uttered some things under the influence of the Saviour, others under that of the mother, and others still under that of the Demiurge, as we shall show further on in our work.

4. The Demiurge, while ignorant of those things which were higher than himself, was indeed excited by the announcements made [through the prophets], but treated them with contempt, attributing them sometimes to one cause and sometimes to another; either to the prophetic spirit (which itself possesses the power of selfexcitement) , or to [mere unassisted] man, or that it was simply a crafty device of the lower [and baser order of men].' He remained thus ignorant until the appearing of the Lord. But they relate that when the Saviour came, the Demiurge learned all things from Him, and gladly with all his power joined himself to Him. They maintain that he is the centurion mentioned in the Gospel, who addressed the Saviour in these words : " For I also am one having soldiers and servants under my authority ; and whatsoever I command they do." ^ They further hold that he will continue administering the affairs of the world as long as that is fitting and needful, and specially that he may exercise a care over the Church ; while at the same time he is influenced by the knowledge of the reward prepared for him, namely, that he may attain to the habitation of his mother.

5. They conceive, then, of three kinds of men, spiritual, material, and animal, represented by Cain, Abel, and Seth. These three natures are no longer found in one person, ^ but constitute various kinds [of men]. The material goes, as a matter of course, into corruption. The animal, if it make choice of the better part, finds repose in the intermediate place ; but if the worse, it too shall pass into destruction. But they assert that the spiritual principles which have been sown by Achamoth, being disciplined and nourished here from that time until now in righteous souls (because when given forth by her they were yet but weak), at last attaining to perfection, shall be given as brides to the angels of the Saviour, while their animal souls of necessity rest for ever with the Demiurge in the intermediate place. And again subdividing the animal souls them-

' Such appears to be the meaning of this sentence, but the original is very obscure. The writer seems to refer to the spiritual, the animal, and the material classes of men, and to imply that the Demiurge supposed some propehcies to be due to one of these classes, and some to the others.

3 As was the case at first, in Adam.

selves, they say that some are by nature good, and others by nature evil. The good are those who become capable of receiving the [spiritual] seed ; the evil by nature are those wb j are never able to receive that seed,

CHAP. VIII. HOW THE VALEI-JTINIANS PERVERT

THE SCRIPTURES TO SUPPORT THEIR OWN IM- PIOUS OPINIONS.

1. Such, then, is their system, which neither the prophets announced, nor the Lord taught, nor the apostles delivered, but of which they boast that beyond all others they have a perfect knowledge. They gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures ; '^ and, to use a common proverb, they strive to weave ropes of sand, while they endeavour to adapt with an air of probability to their own peculiar assertions the parables of the Lord, the sayings of the prophets, and the words of the apostles, in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support. In doing so, however, they disregard the order and the connection of the Scriptures, and so far as in them lies, dismember and destroy the truth. By transferring passages, and dressing them up anew, and making one thing out of another, they succeed in deluding many through their wicked art in adapting the oracles of the Lord to their opinions. Their manner of acting is just as if one, when a beautiful image of a king has been constructed by some skilful artist out of precious jewels, should then take this likeness of the man all to pieces, should re-arrange the gems, and so fit them together as to make them into the form of a dog or of a fox, and even that but poorly executed ; and should then maintain and declare that f/its was the beautiful image of the king which the skilful artist constructed, pointing to the jewels which had been admirably fitted together by the first artist to form the image of the king, but have been with bad effect transferred by the latter one to the shape of a dog, and by thus exhibiting the jewels, should deceive the ignorant who had no conception what a king's form was like, and persuade them that that miserable likeness of the fox was, in fact, the beautiful image of the king. In like manner do these persons patch together old wives' fables, and then endeavour, by violently drawing away from their proper connection, words, expressions, and parables whenever found, to adapt the oracles of God to their baseless fictions. We have already stated how far they proceed in this way with respect to the interior of the Pleroma.

2. Then, again, as to those things outside of their Bleroma, the following are some specimens of what they attempt to accommodate out of the Scriptures to their opinions. They affirm that

Literally, " reading from things unwritten."

the Lord came in ilic last times of the world to endure suffering, for this end, that He might indicate the passion which occurred to the last of the yEons, and might l)y His own end announce the cessation of that disturbance which had risen among the yEons. They maintain, further, that that girl of twelve years old, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue,' to whom the Lord approached and raised her from the dead, was a type of Achamoth, to whom their Christ, by extending himself, imparted shape, and whom he led anew to the perception of that light which had forsaken her. And that the Saviour appeared to her when she lay outside of the Pleroma as a kind of al)ortion, they affirm Paul to have declared in his Epistle to the Corinthians [in these words], "And last of all, He appeared to me also, as to one born out of due time." ^ Again, the coming of the Saviour with His attendants to Achamoth is declared in like manner by him in the same Epistle, when he says, "A woman ought to have a veil upon her head, because of the angels." ^ Now, that Achamoth, when the Saviour came to her, drew a veil over herself through modesty, Moses rendered manifest when he put a veil upon his face. Then, also, they say that the passions which she endured were indicated by the Lord upon the cross. Thus, when He said, " My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ? " * He simply sliowed that Sophia was deserted by the light, and was restrained by Horos from making any advance forward. Her anguish, again, was indicated when He said, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death ; " s her fear by the words, " Eather, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me ;" ^ and her perplexity, too, when He said, " And what I shall say, I know not." ?

3. And they teach that He pointed out the three kinds of men as follows : the material, when He said to him that asked Him, " Shall I follow Thee ? " '^ " The Son of man hath not where to lay His head;" — the animal, when He said to him that declared, " I will follow Thee, but suffer me first to bid them farewell that are in my house," " No man, putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven " ^ (for this man they declare to be of the intermediate class, even as they do that other who, though he professed to

3 I Cor. xi. 10. Ireneeus here reads icoiAvniun, veil, instead of k^nvaiav, potver, as in the received text. [An interesting fact, as it betokens an old gloss, vifhich may have slipped into the text of some ancient Mss.]

' John xii. 27. The Valentinians seem, for their own purposes, to have added ouk oi5a to this text.

have wrought a large amount of righteousness, yet refused to follow Him, and was so overcome by [the love of] riches, as never to reach perfection) — this one it pleases them to place in the animal class ; — the spiritual, again, when He said, " Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God," '° and when He said to Zaccheus the publican, " Make haste, and come down, for to-day I must abide in thine house"" — for these they declared to have belonged to the spiritual class. Also the parable of the leaven which the woman is described as having hid in three measures of meal, they declare to make manifest the three classes. Eor, according to their teaching, the woman represented Sophia ; the three measures of meal, the three kinds of men — spiritual, animal, and material ; while the leaven denoted the Saviour Himself. Paul, too, very plainly set forth the material, animal, and spiritual, sa\ing in one place, " As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy ; " '^ and in another place, " But the animal man receiveth not the things of the Spirit ; " '^ and again : " He that is spiritual judgeth all things."'-* And this, "The animal man receiveth not the things of the Spirit," they affirm to have been spoken concerning the Demiurge, who, as being animal, knew neither his mother who was spiritual, nor her seed, nor the yEons in the Pleroma. And that the Saviour received first-fruits of those whom He was to save, Paul declared when he said, " And if the first-fruits be holy, the lump is also holy," '5 teaching that the expression " first-fruits " denoted that which is spiritual, but that " the lump " meant us, that is, the animal Church, the lump of which they say He assumed, and blended it with Himself, inasmuch as He is " the leaven."

4. Moreover, that Achamoth wandered beyond the Pleroma, and received form from Christ, and was sought after by the Saviour,, they declare that He indicated when He said, that He had come after that sheep which was gone astray."^ Eor they explain the wandering sheep to mean their mother, by whom they represent the Church as having been sown. The wandering itself denotes her stay outside of the Pleroma in a state of varied passion, from which they maintain that matter derived its origin. The woman, again, who sweeps the house and finds the piece of money, they declare to denote the Sophia above, who, having lost her enthymesis, afterwards recovered it, on all things

being purified by the advent of the Saviour. Wherefore this substance also, according to them, was reinstated in Pleroma. They say, too, that Simeon, " who took Christ into his arms, and gave thanks to God, and said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word," ' was a type of the Demiurge, who, on the arrival of the Saviour, learned his own change of place, and gave thanks to Bythus. They also assert that by Anna, who is spoken of in the gospel^ as a prophetess, and who, after living seven years with her husband, passed all the rest of her life in widowhood until she saw the Saviour, and recognised Him, and spoke of Him to all, was most plainly indicated Achamoth, who, having for a little while looked upon the Saviour with His associates, and dwelling all the rest of the time in the intermediate place, waited for Him till He should come again, and restore her to her proper consort. Her name, too, was indicated by the Saviour, when He said, " Yet wisdom is justified by her children." ^ This, too, was done by Paul in these words, " But we speak wisdom among them that are perfect." * They declare also that Paul has referred to the conjunctions within the Pleroma, showing them forth by means of one ; for, when writing of the conjugal union in this life, he expressed himself thus : " This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church." 5

5. Further, they teach that John, the disciple of the Lord, indicated the first Ogdoad, expressing themselves in these words : John, the disciple of the Lord, wishing to set forth the origin of all things, so as to explain how the Father produced the whole, lays down a certain principle, — that, namely, which was first-begotten by God, which Being he has termed both the onlybegotten Son and God, in whom the Father, after a seminal manner, brought forth all things. By him the Word was produced, and in him the whole substance of the ^'Eons, to which the Word himself afterwards imparted form. Since, therefore, he treats of the first origin of things, he rightly proceeds in his teaching from the beginning, that is, from God and the Word. And he expresses himself thus : " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ; the same was in the beginning with God." ^ Having first of all distinguished these three — God, the Beginning, and the Word — he again unites them, that he may exhibit the production of each of them, that is, of the Son and of the Word, and may at the same

time show their union with one another, and with the Father. For " the beginning " is in the Father, and of the Father, while " the Word " is in the beginning, and of the beginning. Very properly, then, did he say, " In the beginning was the Word," for He was in the Son ; " and the Word was with God," for He was the beginning ; " and the Word was God," of course, for that which is begotten of God is God. " The same was in the beginning with God" — this clause discloses the order of production. " All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made ; " 7 for the Word was the author of form and beginning to all the ^ons that came into existence after Him. But " what was made in Him," says John, "is life."^ Here again he indicated conjunction ; for all things, he said, were made l>y Him, but /« Him was life. This, then, which is in Him, is more closely connected with Him than those things which were simply made by Him, for it exists along with Him, and is developed by Him. When, again, he adds, " And the life was the light of men," while thus mentioning Anthropos, he indicated also Ecclesia by that one expression, in order that, by using only one name, he might disclose their fellowship with one another, in virtue of their conjunction. For Anthropos and Ecclesia spring from Logos and Zoe. Moreover, he styled life (Zoe) the light of men, because they are enlightened by her, that is, formed and made manifest. This also Paul declares in these words : " For whatsoever doth make manifest is light." ^ Since, therefore, Zoe manifested and begat both Anthropos and Ecclesia, she is termed their light. Thus, then, did John by these words reveal both other things and the second Tetrad, Logos and Zoe, Anthropos and Ecclesia. And still further, he also indicated the first Tetrad. For, in discoursing of the Saviour, and declaring that all things beyond the Pleroma received form from Him, he says that He is the fruit of the entire Pleroma. For he styles Him a " light which shineth in darkness, and which was not comprehended " '° by it, inasmuch as, when He imparted form to all those things which had their origin from passion. He was not known by it." He also styles Him Son, and Aletheia, and Zoe, and the "Word made flesh, whose glory," he says, "we beheld ; and His glory was as that of the Onlybegotten (given to Him by the Father), full of grace and truth." •- (But what John really does

^ John i. 3, 4. The punctuation here followed is different from that commonly adopted, but is found in many of the Fathers, and in some of the most ancient MSS.

II utt' aurrjs, occurring twice, is rendered both times in the old Latin version, " ab eis." The reference is to (TKOTia, darkness, i.e., all those not belonging to the spiritual seed,

say is this : " And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us ; and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." ') Thus, then, does he [according to them] distinctly set forth the first Tetrad, when he speaks of the Father, and Charis, and Monogenes, and Aletheia. In this way, too, does John tell of the first Ogdoad, and that which is the mother of all the ^ons. For he mentions the Father, and Charis, and Monogenes, and Aletheia, and Logos, and Zoe, and Anthropos, and Ecclesia. Such are the views of Ptolemxus.-

CHAP. IX. REFUTATION OF THE IMPIOUS INTER- PRETATIONS OF THESE HERETICS.

1. You see, my friend, the method which these men employ to deceive themselves, while they abuse the Scriptures by endeavouring to support their own system out of them. For this reason, I have brought forward their modes of expressing themselves, that thus thou mightest understand the deceitfulness of their procedure, and the wickedness of their error. For, in the first place, if it had been John's intention to set forth that Ogdoad above, he would surely have preserved the order of its production, and would doubtless have placed the primary Tetrad first, as being, according to them, most venerable, and would then have annexed the second, that, by the sequence of the names, the order of the Ogdoad might be exhibited, and not after so long an interval, as if forgetful for the moment ; and then again calling the matter to mind, he, last of all, made mention of the primary Tetrad. In flie next place, if he had meant to indicate their conjunctions, he certainly would not have omitted the name of Ecclesia ; while, with respect to the other conjunctions, he either would have been satisfied with the mention of the male [^ons] (since the others [like Ecclesia] might be understood), so as to preserve a uniformity throughout ; or if he enumerated the conjunctions of the rest, he would also have announced the spouse of Anthropos, and would not have left us to find out her name by divination.

2. The fallacy, then, of this exposition is manifest. For when John, proclaiming one God,

• the Almighty, and one Jesus Christ, the Onlybegotten, by whom all things were made, declares that this was the Son of God, this the Only-begotten, this the Former of all things, this the true Light who enlighteneth every man, this the Creator of the world, this He that came to His own, this He that became flesh and dwelt among us, — these men, by a plausible kind of

' This is parenthetically inserted by the author, to show the misquotation of Scripture by these heretics

- These words are wanting in the Greek, but are inserted in the old Latin version.

exposition, perverting these statements, maintain that there was another Monogenes, according to production, whom they also style Arche. They also maintain that there was another Saviour, and another Logos, the son of Monogenes, and another Christ produced for the re-establishment of the Pleroma. Thus it is that, wresting from the truth every one of the expressions which have been cited, and taking a bad advantage of the names, they have transferred them to their own system ; so that, according to them, in all these terms John makes no mention of the Lord Jesus Christ. For if he has named the Father, and Charis, and Monogenes, and Aletheia, and Logos, and Zoe, and Anthropos, and Ecclesia, according to their hypothesis, he has, by thus speaking, referred to the primary Ogdoad, in which there was as yet no Jesus, and no Christ, the teacher of John. But that the apostle did not speak concerning their conjunctions, but concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he also acknowledges as the Word of God, he himself has made evident. For, summing up his statements respecting the Word previously mentioned by him, he further declares, " And the \\'ord was made flesh, and dwelt among us." But, according to their hypothesis, the Word did not become flesh at all, inasmuch as He never went outside of the Pleroma, but that Saviour [became flesh] who was formed by a special dispensation [out of all the yEons], and was of later date than the Word.

3. Learn then, ye foolish men, that Jesus who suffered for us, and who dwelt among us, is Himself the Word of God. For if any other of the .^ons had become flesh for our salvation, it would have been probable that the apostle spoke of another. But if the Word of the Father who descended is the same also that ascended, He, namely, the Only-begotten Son of the only God, who, according to the good pleasure of the Father, became flesh for the sake of men, the apostle certainly does not speak regarding any other, or concerning any Ogdoad, but respecting our Lord Jesus Christ. For, according to them, the Word did not originally become flesh. For they maintain that the Saviour assumed an animal body, formed in accordance with a special dispensation by an unspeakable providence, so as to become visible and palpable. Bi\t /^es/i is that which was of old formed for Adam by God out of the dust, and it is this that John has declared the ^^'ord of God became. Thus is their primary and first-begotten Ogdoad brought to nought. For, since Logos, and Monogenes. and Zoe, and Phos, and Soter, and Christus, and the Son of God, and He who became incarnate for us, have been proved to be one and the same, the Ogdoad which they have built up at once falls to pieces. And when this is destroyed,

their whole system sinks into ruin, — a system which they falsely dream into existence, and thus inflict injury on the Scriptures, while they build up their own hypothesis.

4. Then, again, collecting a set of expressions and names scattered here and there [in Scripture], they twist them, as we have already said, from a natural to a non-natural sense. In so doing, they act like those who bring forward any kind of hypothesis they fancy, and then endeavour to support ' them out of the poems of Homer, so that the ignorant imagine that Homer actually composed the verses bearing upon that hypothesis, which has, in fact, been but newly constructed ; and many others are led so far by the regularlyformed sequence of the verses, as to doubt whether Homer may not have composed them. Of this kindis the following passage, where one, describing Hercules as having been sent by Eurystheus to the dog in the infernal regions, does so by means of these Homeric verses, — for there can be no objection to our citing these by way of illustration, since the same sort of attempt appears in both : —

" Thus saying, there sent forth from his house deeply

" The hero Hercules conversant with mighty deeds."

Eurystheus, the son of Sthenelus, descended from

" That he might bring from Erebus the dog of gloomy

" And he advanced like a mountain-bred lion confi-

" Rapidlv through the city, while all his friends fol-

" Both maidens, and youths, and much-enduring old

" Mourning for him bitterly as one going forward to

"But Mercury and the blue-eyed Minerva conducted

" For she knew the mind of her brother, how it la-

Now, what simple-minded man, I ask, would not be led away by such verses as these to think that Homer actually framed them so with reference to the subject indicated? But he who is acquainted with the Homeric writings will recognise the verses indeed, but not the subject to which they are applied, as knowing that some of them were spoken of Ulysses, others of Hercules himself, others still of Priam, and others again of Menelaus and Agamemnon. P.ut if he takes them and restores each of them to its proper position, he at once destroys the narrative in question. In like manner he also who retains

' It is difficult to give an exact rendering of neAerar in this passage; the old I.at. version translates it by meditari, which Massuet proposes to render " skilfully to fit."

' Tertullian refers {I'm-icri/). l/eer.) to those Homeric centos of which a specimen follows. We have given each line as it stands in the original: the text followed by Irenaeus differs slightly from the received text.

unchangeable ^ in his heart the rule of the truth which he received by means of baptism, will doubtless recognise the names, the expressions, and the parables taken from the Scriptures, but will by no means acknowledge the blasphemous use which these men make of them. For, though he will acknowledge the gems, he will certainly not receive the fox instead of the likeness of the king. But when he has restored every one of the expressions quoted to its proper position, and has fitted it to the body of the truth, he will lay bare, and prove to be without any foundation, the figment of these heretics.

5 . But since what may prove a finishing-stroke ^ to this exhibition is wanting, so that any one, on following out their farce to the end, may then at once append an argument which shall overthrow it, we have judged it well to point out, first of all, in what respects the very fathers of this fable differ among themselves, as if they were inspired by different spirits of error. For this very fact forms an a priori proof that the truth proclaimed by the Church is immoveable,^ and that the theories of these men are but a tissue of falsehoods,

CHAP. X. UNITY OF THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH

THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE WORLD.

r. The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith : [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them ; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation ; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the disi^nsations *" of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father " to gather all things in one," 7 and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, ''every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess " '^ to Him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all ; that He may send "spiritual wickednesses," ^ and

3 Literally, " immoveable in himself," the word axXivri being used with an apparent reference to the original meaning of xavova, a builder's rule.

The meaning of the word aTroXvTpuxrn; here is not easily determined ; but it is probably a scenic term equivalent to airoAuo-is, and may be rendered as above.

5 [The Creed, in the sublime simplicity of its fundamental articles, is established; that is, by the impossibility of framing anything to take their place.]

6 " Of God " is added from the old Latin.

the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire ; but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love, some from the beginning [of their Christian course], and others from [the date of] their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory.

2. As I have already observed, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth. For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same. For the Churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those which have been established in the central regions ' of the world. But as the sun, that creature of God, is one and the same throughout the whole world, so also the preaching of the truth shineth everywhere, and enlightens all men that are willing to come to a knowledge of the truth. Nor will any one of the rulers in the Churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these (for no one is greater than the Master) ; nor, on the other hand, will he who is deficient in power of expression inflict injury on the tradition. For the faith being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little, diminish it.

3. It does not follow because men are endowed with greater and less degrees of intelligence, that they should therefore change the subject-matter [of the faith] itself, and should conceive of some other God besides Him who is the Framer, Maker, and Preserver of this universe, (as if He were not sufficient ^ for them), or of another Christ, or another Only-begotten. But the fact referred to simply implies this, that one may [more accurately than another] bring out the meaning of those things which have been spoken in parables, and accommodate them to the general scheme of the faith ; and explain [with

special clearness] the operation and dispensation of God connected with human salvation ; and show that God manifested longsuffering in regard to the apostasy of the angels who transgressed, as also with respect to the disobedience of men ; and set forth why it is that one and the same God has made some things temporal and some eternal, some heavenly and others earthly ; and understand for what reason God, though invisible, manifested Himself to the prophets not under one form, but differently to different individuals ; and show why it was that more covenants than one were given to mankind ; and teach what was the special character of each of these covenants ; and search out for what reason " God 3 hath concluded every man •* in unbelief, that He may have mercy upon all ; " and gratefully 5 describe on what account the Word of God became flesh and suffered ; and relate why the advent of the Son of God took place in these last times, that is, in the end, rather than in the beginning [of the world] ; and unfold what is contained in the Scriptures concerning the end [itself], and things to come; and not be silent as to how it is that God has made the Gentiles, whose salvation was despaired of, fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers with the saints ; and discourse how it is that " this mortal body shall put on immortality, and this corruptible shall put on incorruption ; " '' and proclaim in what sense [God] says, " That is a people who was not a people ; and she is beloved who was not beloved ; " ^ and in what sense He says that " more are the children of her that was desolate, than of her who possessed a husband." ^ For in reference to these points, and others of a like nature, the apostle exclaims : " Oh ! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ; how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out ! " 9 But [the superior skill spoken of] is not found in this, that any one should, beyond the Creator and Framer [of the world], conceive of the Enthymesis of an erring ^Ton, their mother and his, and should thus proceed to such a pitch of blasphemy ; nor does it consist in this, that he should again falsely imagine, as being above this [fancied being], a Pleroma at one time supposed to contain thirty, and at another time an innumerable tribe of ^Tons, as these teachers who are destitute of truly divine wisdom maintain ; while the Catholic Church pos-

' Probably referring to the Churches in Palestine.

2 The text here is -^pKOu/nerom: toutovs, which is manifestlv corrupt. Various emendations have been proposed: we prefer reading apKovfj.epoi toutois, and have translated accordingly.

Irenaius here reads navra instead of Trd^ras, as in Text. Rec. of New Testament.

5 (ii^np'O^re^v — this word has been deemed corrupt, as it certainly appears out of keeping with the other verbs ; but it may be rendered as above.

sesses one and the same faith throughout the whole world, as we have already said.

CHAP. XI. THE OPINIONS OF VALENTINUS, WITH

THOSE OF HIS DISCIPLES AND OTHERS.

I. Let us now look at the inconsistent opinions of those heretics (for there are some two or three of them), how they do not agree in treating the same points, but alike, in things and names, set forth opinions mutually discordant. The first ' of them, Valentinus, who adapted the principles of the heresy called "Gnostic" to the peculiar character of his own school, taught as follows : He maintained that there is a certain Dyad (twofold being), who is inexpressible by any name, of whom one part should be called Arrhetus (unspeakable), and the other Sige (silence). But of this Dyad a second was produced, one part of whom he names Pater, and the other Aletheia. From this Tetrad, again, arose Logos and Zoe, x^nthropos and Ecclesia. These constitute the primary Ogdoad. He next states that from Logos and Zoe ten powers were produced, as we have before mentioned. But from Anthropos and Ecclesia proceeded twelve, one of which separating from the rest, and falling from its original condition, produced the rest ^ of the universe. He also supposed two beings of the name of Horos, the one of whom has his place between Bythus and the rest of the Pleroma, and divides the created /Eons from the uncreated Father, while the other separates their mother from the Pleroma. Christ also was not produced from the ^ons within the Pleroma, but was brought forth by the mother who had been excluded from it, in virtue of her remembrance of better things, but not without a kind of shadow. He, indeed, as being masculine, having severed the shadow from himself, returned to the Pleroma ; but his mother being left with the shadow, and deprived of her spiritual substance, brought forth another son, namely, the Demiurge, whom he also styles the supreme ruler of all those things which are subject to him. He also asserts that, along with the Demiurge, there was produced a left-hand power, in which particular he agrees with those falsely called Gnostics, of whom to we have yet to speak. Sometimes, again, he maintains that Jesus was produced from him who was separated from their mother, and united to the rest, that is, from Theletus, sometimes as springing from him who returned into the Pleroma, that is, from Christ ; and at other times still as derived from Anthropos and Ecclesia. And he declares that the Holy Spirit was produced by

■ That is, the first of the two or three here referred to, not the first of the Cnostic teachers, as some have imagined. [ i'lie (Inosticism of one age may be essentially the same in spirit as the Agnosticism of another.]

2 Viz., all outside of the Pleroma.

Aletheia ^ for the inspection and fructification of the .i^ons, by entering invisibly into them, and that, in this way, the yEons brought forth the plants of truth.

2. Secundus again affirms that the primary Ogdoad consists of a right hand and a left hand Tetrad, and teaches that the one of these is called light, and the other darkness. But he maintains that the power which separated from the rest, and fell away, did not proceed directly from the thirty /Eons, but from their fruits.

3. There is another,-* who is a renowned teacher among them, and who, struggling to reach something more sublime, and to attain to a kind of higher knowledge, has explained the primary Tetrad as follows : There is [he says] a certain Proarche who existed before all things, surpassing all thought, speech, and nomenclature, whom I call Monotes (unity) . Together with this Monotes there exists a power, which again I term Henotes (oneness). This Henotes and Monotes, being one, produced, yet not so as to bring forth [apart from themselves, as an emanation] the beginning of all things, an intelligent, unbegotten, and invisible being, which beginning language terms " Monad." W^ith this McAiad there co-exists a power of the same essence, which again I term Hen (One). These powers then — Monotes, and Henotes, and Monas, and Hen — produced the remaining company of the /Eons.

utter these tragic exclamations at such a pitch of audacity in the coining of names as he has displayed without a blush, in devising a nomenclature for his system of falsehood. For when he declares : There is a certain Proarche before all things, surpassing all thought, whom I call Monotes ; and again, with this Monotes there co-exists a power which I also call Henotes, — it is most manifest that he confesses the things which have been said to be his own invention, and that he himself has given names to his scheme of things, which had never been previously suggested by any other. It is manifest also, that he himself is the one who has had sufficient audacity to coin these names ; so that, unless he had appeared in the world, the truth would still have been destitute of a name. But, in that case, nothing hinders any other, in dealing with the same subject, to affix names after such a fashion as the following : There 5 is a certain Proarche, royal, suri)assing all thought, a power existing before every other substance, and extended into space in every direction. But along with it there exists a power which I term a Gourd ; and along

3 Corrected from Ecclesia in the text.

•* Some have supposed that the name of this teacher was Ef>i/>haties, and that the old Latin mistakenly translates this by clams ; others think that Colorbasus is the teacher in question.

5 The Greek text is wanting till the end of this section.

with this Gourd there exists a power which again I term Utter-Emptiness. This Gourd and Yaw\)- tiness, since they are one, produced (and yet did not simply produce, so as to be apart from themselves) a fruit, everywhere visible, eatable, and delicious, which fruit-language calls a Cucumber. Along with this Cucumber exists a power of the same essence, which again I call a Melon. These powers, the Gourd, Utter- Emptiness, the Cucumber, and the Melon, brought forth the remaining multitude of the delirious melons of Valentinus.' For if it is fitting that that language which is used respecting the universe be transformed to the primary Tetrad, and if any one may assign names at his pleasure, who shall prevent us from adopting these names, as being much more credible [than the others], as well as in general use, and understood by all ?

5. Others still, however, have called their primary and first-begotten Ogdoad by the following names : first, Proarche ; then Anennoetos ; thirdly, Arrhetos ; and fourthly, Aoratos. Then, from the first, Proarche, there was produced, in the first and fifth place, Arche ; from Anennoetos, in the second and sixth place, Acataleptos ; from Arrhetos, in the third and seventh place, Anonomastos ; and from Aoratos, in the fourth and eighth place, Agennetos. This is the Pleroma of the first Ogdoad. They maintain that these powers were anterior to Bythus and Sige, that they may appear more perfect than the perfect, and more knowing than the very Gnostics ! To these persons one may justly exclaim : " O ye trilling sophists ! " since, even respecting Bythus himself, there are among them many and discordant opinions. For some declare him to be without a consort, and neither male nor female, and, in fact, nothing at all ; while others affirm him to be masculo-feminine, assigning to him the nature of a hermaphrodite ; others, again, allot Sige to him as a spouse, that thus may be formed the first conjunction.

CHAP. XII. — THE DOCTRINES OF THE FOLLOWERS OF PTOLEMY AND COLORBASUS.

I. But the followers of Ptolemy say^ that he [Bythos] has two consorts, which they also name Diatheses (affections), viz., Ennoea and Thelesis. For, as they affirm, he first conceived the thought of producing something, and then willed to that effect. Wherefore, again, these two affections, or powers, Ennoea and Thelesis, having intercourse, as it were, between themselves, the production of Monogenes and Aletheia took place according to conjunction. These two came forth

' [i Kings xviii. 27. " It came to pass that Elijah mocked them," etc. This reductio ad nbsurduin of our author is singularly applicable to certain forms of what is called " Modern Thought."]

^ We here follow the Greek as preser\ed by Hippolytus (Pltilosoph., vi. 3S). The te.\t followed by Epiphanius ( Hcer., xxxiii. i) does not so well agree with the Latin.

as types and images of the two affections of the Father, — visible representations of those that were invisible, — Nous (i.e., Monogenes) of Thelesis, and Aletheia of Ennoea, and accordingly the image resulting from Thelesis was mas- Qliline,^ while that from Ennoea was feminine. Thus Thelesis (will) became, as it were, a faculty of Ennoea (thought). For Enn(jea continually yearned after offspring ; but she could not of herself bring forth that which she desired. But when the power of Thelesis (the faculty of will) came upon her, then she brought forth that on which she had brooded.

2. These fancied beings'* (like the Jove of Homer, who is represented s as passing an anxious sleepless night in devising plans for honouring Achilles and destroying numbers of the Greeks) will not appear to you, my dear friend, to be possessed of greater knowledge than He who is the God of the universe. He, as soon as He thinks, also performs what He has willed ; and as soon as He wills, also thinks that which He has willed ; then thinking when He wills, and then willing when He thinks, since He is all thought, [all will, all mind, all light,] '' all eye, all ear, the one entire fountain of all good things.

3. Those of them, however, who are deemed more skilful than the persons who have just been mentioned, say that the first Ogdoad was not produced gradually, so' that one ^on was sent forth by another, but that all 7 the JEons were brought into existence at once by Propator and his Elnnoea. He (Colorbasus) affirms this as confidently as if he had assisted at their birth. Accordingly, he and his followers maintain that Anthropos and Ecclesia were not produced,^ as others hold, from Logos and Zoe ; but, on the contrary, Logos and Zoe from Anthropos and Ecclesia. But they express this in another form, as follows : When the Propator conceived the thought of producing something, he received the name of Father. But because what he did produce was true, it was named Aletheia. Again, when he wished to reveal himself, this was termed Anthropos. Finally, when he produced those whom he had previously thought of, these were named Ecclesia. Anthropos, by speaking, formed Logos : this is the first-born son. But Zoe followed upon Logos ; and thus the first Ogdoad was completed.

4. They have much contention also among themselves respecting the Saviour. For some

3 The text is here hopelessly corrupt; but the general meaning seems to be that given above.

< This sentence exists only in the Latin version, and we can give only a free translation.

'' These words are found in Epi/<hanius, but omitted in the old Latin version. The Latin gives " sense" instead of " light."

7 The text is here very uncertain. Some propose to read six .lEons instead o{ all.

5 Here again the text is corrupt and obscure. We have followed what seems the most probable emendation.

maintain that he was formed out of all ; wherefore also he was called Eudocetos, because the whole Pleroma was well pleased through him to glorify the Father. But others assert that he was produced from those ten /Eons alone who sprung from Logos and Zoe, and that on this account^e was called Logos and Zoe, thus preserving the ancestral names.' Others, again, affirm that he had his being from those twelve y^ons who were the offspring of Anthropos and Ecclesia ; and on this account he acknowledges himself the Son of man, as being a descendant of Anthropos. Others still, assert that he was produced by Christ and the Holy Spirit, who were brought forth for the security of the Pleroma ; and that on this account he was called Christ, thus preserving the appellation of the Father, by whom he was produced. And there are yet others among them who declare that the Propator of the whole, Proarche, and Proanennoetos is called Anthropos ; and that this is the great and abstruse mystery, namely, that the Power which is above all others, and contains all in his embrace, is termed Anthropos ; hence does the Saviour style himself the " Son of man."

CHAP. XIII. THE DECEITFUL ARTS AND NEFARI- OUS PR.4.CTICES OF MARCUS.

1 . But ^ there is another among these heretics, Marcus by name, who boasts himself as having improved upon his master. He is a perfect adept in magical impostures, and by this means drawing away a great number of men, and not a few women, he has induced them to join themselves to him, as to one who is possessed of the greatest knowledge and perfection, and who has received the highest power from the invisible and ineffable regions above. Thus it appears as if he really were the precursor of Antichrist. For, joining the buffooneries of Anaxilaus ^ to the craftiness of the magi, as they are called, he is regarded by his senseless and cracked-brain followers as working miracles by these means.

2. Pretending"* to consecrate cups mixed with wine, and protracting to great length the word of invocation, he contrives to give them a purple and reddish colour, so that Charis,5 who is one of those that are superior to all things, should be thought to drop her own blood into that cup through means of his invocation, and that thus those who

■ Harvey justly remarks, that " one cause of perplexity in unravelling the Valentinian scheme is the recurrence of similar names at different points of the system, e g., the Enthymesis of Sophia was called Sophia and Spiritus; and Pater, Arche, Monogenes, Christus, Anthropos, Ecclesia, were all of them terms of a double denomina-

The Greek text of this section is preserved both by Epiphanius {HcKr., xxxiv. i) and by Hippolytus {Phitosofik., vi. 39, 40). Their citations are somewhat discordant, and we therefore follow the old Latin version.

J Pliny, Hist. Ntit.^ xxxv. 15, etc.

Epiphanius now gives the Greek text verbatim, to which, therefore, we return.

5 Probably referring to Sigc, the consort of Bythus.

are present should be led to rejoice to taste of that cup, in order that, by so doing, the Charis, who is set forth by this magician, may also flow into them. Again, handing mixed cups to the women, he bids them consecrate these in his presence. When this has been done, he himself produces another cup of much larger size than that which the deluded woman has consecrated, and pouring from the smaller one consecrated by the woman into that which has been brought forward by himself, he at the same time pronounces these words : " May that Charis who is before all things, and who transcends all knowledge and speech, fill thine inner man, and multiply in thee her own knowledge, by sowing the grain of mustard seed in thee as in good soil." Repeating certain other like words, and thus goading on the wretched woman [to madness], he then appears a worker of wonders when the large cup is seen to have been filled out of the small one, so as even to overflow by what has been obtained from it. By accomplishing several other similar things, he has completely deceived many, and drawn them away after him.

3. It appears probable enough that this man possesses a demon as his familiar spirit, by means of whom he seems able to prophesy,^ and also enables as many as he counts worthy to be partakers of his Charis themselves to prophesy. He devotes himself especially to women, and those such as are well-bred, and elegantly attired, and of great wealth, whom he frequently seeks to draw after him, by addressing them in such seductive words as these : " I am eager to make thee a partaker of my Charis, since the Father of all doth continually behold thy angel before His face. Now the place of thy angel is among us : ^ it behoves us to become one. Receive first from me and by me [the gift of] Charis. Adorn thyself as a bride who is expecting her bridegroom, that thou mayest be what I am, and I what thou art. Establish the germ of light in thy nuptial chamber. Receive from me a spouse, and become receptive of him, while thou art received by him. Behold Charis has descended upon thee ; open thy mouth and prophesy." On the woman replying, " I have never at any time prophesied, nor do I know how to prophesy ; " then engaging, for the second time, in certain invocations, so as to astound his deluded victim, he says to her, " Open thy mouth, speak whatsoever occurs to thee, and thou shalt prophesy." She then, vainly puffed up and elated by these words, and greatly excited in soul by the expectation that it is herself who is to prophesy, her heart beating violently [from emotion], reaches the requisite pitch of audacity, and idly as well as impudently utters some nonsense as it happens to occur to her, such as might be ex-

^ Literally, " the place of thy mightiness is in us."

pected from one heated by an empty spirit. (Referring to tliis, one superior to me has observed, that the soul is both audacious and impudent when heated with empty air.) Henceforth she reckons herself a prophetess, and e.xpresses her thanks to Marcus for having imparted to her of his own Charis. She then makes the effort to reward him, not only by the gift of her possessions (in which way he has collected a very large fortune), but also by yielding up to him her person, desiring in every way to be united to him, that she may become altogether one with him.

4. But already some of the most faithful women, possessed of the fear of God, and not being deceived (whom, nevertheless, he did his best to seduce like the rest by bidding them prophesy), abhorring and execrating him, have withdrawn from such a vile company of revellers. This they have done, as being well aware that the gift of prophecy is not conferred on men by Marcus, the magician, but that only those to whom God sends His grace from above possess the divinely-bestowed power of prophesying ; and then they speak where and when God pleases, and not when Marcus orders them to do so. For that which commands is greater and of higher authority than that which is commanded, inasmuch as the former rules, while the latter is in a state of subjection. If, then, Marcus, or any one else, does command, — as these are accustomed continually at their feasts to play at drawing lots, and [in accordance with the lot] to command one another to prophesy, giving forth as oracles what is in harmony with their own desires, — it will follow that he who commands is greater and of higher authority than the prophetic spirit, though he is but a man, which is impossible. But such spirits as are commanded by these men, and speak when they desire it, are earthly and weak, audacious and impudent, sent forth by Satan for the seduction and perdition of those who do not hold fast that wellcompacted faith which they received at first through the Church.

5. Moreover, that this Marcus compounds philters and love-potions, in order to insult the persons of some of these women, if not of all, those of them who have returned to the Church of God — a thing which frequently occurs — have acknowledged, confessing, too, that they have been defiled by him, and that they were filled with a burning passion towards him. A sad example of this occurred in the case of a certain Asiatic, one of our deacons, who had received him (Marcus) into his house. His wife, a woman of remarkable beauty, fell a victim both in mind and body to this magician, and, for a long time, travelled about with him. At last, when, with no small difficulty, the brethren had con-

verted her, she spent her whole time in the exercise of public confession,' weeping over and lamenting the defilement which she had received from this magician.

6. Some of his disciples, too, addicting themselves ^ to the same practices, have deceived many silly women, and defiled them. They proclaim themselves as being " perfect," so that no one can be compared to them with respect to the immensity of their knowledge, nor even were you to mention Paul or Peter, or any other of the apostles. They assert that they themselves know more than all others, and that they alone have imbibed the greatness of the knowledge of that power which is unspeakable. They also maintain that they have attained to a height above all power, and that therefore they are free in every respect to act as they please, having no one to fear in anything. For they affirm, that because of the " Redemption " ^ it has come to pass that they can neither be apprehended, nor even seen by the judge. But even if he should happen to lay hold upon them, then they might simply repeat these words, while standing in his presence along with the " Redemption : " " O thou, who sittest beside God,-* and the mystical, eternal Sige, thou through whom the angels (mightiness), who continually behold the face of the Father, having thee as their guide and introducer, do derive their forms 5 from above, which she in the greatness of her daring inspiring with mind on account of the goodness of the Propator, produced us as their images, having her mind then intent upon the things above, as in a dream, — behold, the judge is at hand, and the crier orders me to make my defence. But do thou, as being acquainted with the affairs of both, present the cause of both of us to the judge, inasmuch as it is in reality but one cause." ^ Now, as soon as the Mother hears these words, she puts the Homeric ^ helmet of Pluto upon them, so that they may invisibly escape the judge. And then she immediately catches them up, conducts them into the bridal chamber, and hands them over to their consorts.

■ [Note this manner of primitive " confession ; " and see Bingham, Antiquities, book xv. cap. 8 ]

- We here follow the rendering of Billius, " in iisdem studiis versantes." Others adhere to the received text, and translate -ntpmoKi- ^oi'Tf? " going about idly."

3 Grabe is of opinion that reference is made in this term to an imprecatory' formula in use among the Marcosians, analogous to the form of thanksgiving employed night and morning by the Jews for their redemption from Egypt. Harvey refers the word to the second baptism practised among these and other heretics, by which it was supposed they were removed from the cognizance of the Demiurge, who is styled the "judge " in the close of the above sentence.

•♦ That is, Sophia, of whom Achamoth, afterwards referred to, was the emanation.

5 The angels accompanying Soter were the lonaorts of spiritual Gnostics, to whom they were restored after death.

^ The syntax in this long sentence is v«b^- confused, but the meaning is tolerably plain. The gist of it is, that these Gnostics, as being the spiritual seed, claimed a consub.stantiality with Achamoth, and consequently escaped from the material Demiurge, and attained at last to the Pleroma.

' Rendering the wearer invisible. See //., v. 844.

7. Such are the words and deeds by w^hich, in our own district of the Rhone, they have deluded many women, who have their consciences seared as with a hot iron.' Some of them, indeed, make a pubUc confession of their sins ; but others of them are ashamed to do this, and in a tacit kind of way, despairing of [attaining to] the Hfe of God, have, some of them, apostatized altogether ; while others hesitate between the two courses, and incur that which is implied in the proverb, " neither without nor within ; " possessing this as the fruit from the seed of the children of knowledge.

CHAP. XIV. THE VARIOUS HYPOTHESES OF MARCUS

AND OTHERS. THEORIES RESPECTIXG LETTERS AND SYLLABLES.

I. This Marcus^ then, declaring that he alone was the matrix and receptacle of the Sige of Colorbasus, inasmuch as he was only-begotten, has brought to the birth in some such way as follows that which was committed to him of the defective Enthymesis. He declares that the infinitely exalted Tetrad descended upon him from the invisible and indescribable places in the form of a woman (for the world could not have borne it coming in its male form), and expounded to him alone its own nature, and the origin of all things, which it had never before revealed to any one either of gods or men. This was done in the following terms : When first the unoriginated, inconceivable Father, who is without material substance,^ and is neither male nor female, willed to bring forth that which is ineffable to Him, and to endow with form that which is invisible. He opened His mouth, and sent forth the Word similar to Himself, who, standing near, showed Him what He Himself was, inasmuch as H^e had been manifested in the form of that which was invisible. Moreover, the pronunciation of His name took place as follows : — He spake the first word of it, which was the beginning ■* [of all the rest], and that utterance consisted of four letters. He added the second, and this also consisted of four letters. Next He uttered the third, and this again embraced ten letters. Finally, He pronounced the fourth.

2 This sentence has completely baffled all the critics. [Its banter, or mock gravity, has not been self-evident.] We cannot enter upon the wide field of discussion which it has opened up, but would simply state that Irenseus here seems to us, as often, to be playing upon the term!? which were in common use among these heretics. Marcus probably received his system from Colorbasus, and is here declared, by the use of that jargon which Irenaeus means to ridicule while so employing it, to have proceeded to develop it in the way described.

3 Such appears to be the meaning of avov<no9 in this passage. The meaning of oiV.n fluctuated for a time in the early Church, and was sometimes used to denote jitaterial substance, instead of its usual significance of being.

The old Latin preserves "PX'I untranslated, implying that this was the first word which the Father spoke. Some modern editors adopt this view, while others hold the meaning simply to be, as given above, that that first sound which the Father uttered was the origin »f all the rest.

which was composed of twelve letters. Thus took place the enunciation of the whole name, consisting of thirty letters, and four distinct utterances. Each of these elements has its own peculiar letters, and character, and pronunciation, and forms, and images, and there is not one of them that perceives the shape of that [utterance] of which it is an element. Neither does any one know s itself, nor is it acquainted with the pronunciation of its neighbour, but each one imagines that by its own utterance it does in fact name the whole. For while every one of them is a part of the whole, it imagines its own sound to be the whole name, and does not leave off sounding until, by its own utterance, it has reached the last letter of each of the elements. This teacher declares that the restitution of all things will take place, when all these, mixing into one letter, shall utter one and the same sound. He imagines that the emblem of this utterance is found in Ameii, which we pronounce in concert.^ The diverse sounds (he adds) are those which give form to that ^Elon who is without material substance and unbegotten, and these, again, are the forms which the Lord has called angels, who continually behold the face of the Father. 7

2. Those names of the elements which may be told, and are common, he has called ^ons, and words, and roots, and seeds, and fulnesses, and fruits. He asserts that each of these, and all that is peculiar to every one of them, is to be understood as contained in the name Ecclesia. Of these elements, the last letter of the last one uttered its voice, and this sojand*^ goii'^g forth generated its own elements after the image of the [other] elements, by which he affirms, that both the things here below were arranged into the order they occupy, and those that preceded them were called into existence. He also maintains that the letter itself, the sound of which followed that sound below, was received up again by the syllable to which it belonged, in order to the completion of the whole, but that the sound remained below as if cast outside. But the element itself from which the letter with its special pronunciation descended to that below, he affirms to consist of thirty letters, while each of these letters, again, contains other letters in itself, by means of which the name of the letter is expressed. And thus, again, others are named by other letters, and others still by others, so that the multitude of letters swells out into infinitude. You may more clearly understand what I mean by the following example : — The word Delta con-

5 The letters are here confounded with the iEons, which they represented.

7 Matt, xviii. lo.

8 By this Achamoth is denoted, who was said to give rise lo the material elements, after the image of the Divine.

tains five letters, viz., D, K, L, T, A : these letters, again, are written by other letters,' and others still by others. If, then, the entire composition of the word Delta [when thus analyzed] runs out into infinitude, letters continually generating other letters, and following one another in constant succession, how much vaster than that [one] word is the [entire] ocean of letters ! And if even one letter be thus infinite, just consider the immensity of the letters in the entire name, out of which the Sige of Marcus has taught us the Proj:)ator is composed. For which reason the Father, knowing the incomprehensibleness of His own nature, assigned to the elements, which He also terms /Eons, [the power] of each one uttering its own enunciation, because no one of them was capable by itself of uttering the whole.

3. Moreover, the Tetrad, explaining these things to him more fully, said : — I wish to show thee Aletheia (Truth) herself; for I have brought her down from the dwellings above, that thou mayest see her without a veil, and understand her beauty — that thou mayest also hear her speaking, and admire her wisdom. Behold, then, her head on high, Alpha and Omega ; her neck, Be fa and Psi ; her shoulders with her hands. Gamma and Chi ; her breast. Delta and Phi ; her diaphragm, Epsilon and Upsilon ; her back, Zeta and Tau ; her belly, Eta and Sigma ; her thighs, Theta and Rho ; her knees, Iota and Pi ; her legs. Kappa and Omicron ; her ancles, Lambda and Xi ; her feet, Mii and Nu. Such is the body of Truth, according to this magician, such the figure of the element, such the character of the letter. And he calls this element Anthropos (Man), and says that is the fountain of all speech, and the beginning of all sound, and the expression of all that is unspeakable, and the mouth of the silent Sige. This indeed is the body of Truth. But do thou, elevating the thoughts of thy mind on high, listen from the mouth of Truth to the selfbegotten Word, who is also the dispenser of the bounty of the Father.

4. When she (the Tetrad) had spoken these things, Aletheia looked at him, opened her mouth, and uttered a word. That word was a name, and the name was this one which we do know and speak of, viz., Christ Jesus. When she had uttered this name, she at once relapsed into silence. And as Marcus waited in the expectation that she would say something more, the Tetrad again came forward and said, " Thou hast reckoned as contemptible that word which thou hast heard from the mouth of Aletheia. This which thou knowest and seemest to possess, is not an ancient name. For thou possessest the sound of

' That is, their names are spelt by other letters.

it merely, whilst thou art ignorant of its power. For Jesus ('Irjo-o?;?) is a name arithmetically^ symbolical, consisting of six letters, and is known by all those that belong to the called. But that which is among the ^^2ons of the Pleroma consists of many parts, and is of another form and shape, and is known by those [angels] who are joined in affinity with Him, and whose figures (mightinesses) are always present with Him.

5. Know, then, that the four-and-twenty letters which you possess are symbolical emanations of the three powers that contain the entire number of the elements above. For you are to reckon thus — that the nine mute ^ letters are [the images] of Pater and Aletheia, because they are without voice, that is, of such a nature as cannot be uttered or pronounced. But the semi-vowels ■♦ represent Logos and Zoe, because they are, as it were, midway between the consonants and the vowels, partaking 5 of the nature of both. The vowels, again, are representative of Anthropos and Ecclesia, inasmuch as a voice proceeding from Anthropos gave being to them all ; for the sound of the voice imparted to them form. Thus, then. Logos and Zoe possess eight [of these letters] ; Anthropos and Ecclesia seven ; and Pater and Aletheia nine. But since the number allotted to each was unequal. He who existed in the Father came down, having been specially sent by Him from whom He was separated, for the rectification of what had taken place, that the unity of the Pleromas, being endowed with equality, might develop in all that one power which flows from all. Thus that division which had only seven letters, received the power of eight,*" and the three sets were rendered alike in point of number, all becoming Ogdoads; which three, when brought together, constitute the number four-and-twenty. The three elements, too (which he declares to exist in conjunction with three powers, ^ and thus form the six from which have flowed the twentyfour letters), being quadrupled by the word of the ineffable Tetrad, give rise to the same number with them ; and these elements he maintains to belong to Him who cannot be named. These, again, were endowed by the three powers with a resemblance to Him who is invisible. And he says that those letters which we call double ^ are the images of

- The old Latin version renders eiriar^nov. itisi'^ie, ilhtsirious, but there seems to be a reference to the Valentinian notion of the merical value of the letters in the word 'ItjctoOs.

5 It seems scarcely possible to give a more definite rendering of this clause: it may be literally translated thus: "And because they receive the outflow of those above, but the turning back again of those below."

^ The ninth letter being taken from the mutes and added to the semi-vowels, an equal division of the twenty-four was thus secured.

7 Viz., Pater, Athropos, and Logos.

the images of these elements ; and if these be added to the four-and-twenty letters, by the force of analogy they form the number thirty.

6. He asserts that the fruit of this arrangement and analogy has been manifested in the likeness of an image, namely, Him who, after six days, ascended ' into the mountain along with three others, and then became one of six (the sixth), ^ in which character He descended, and was contained in the Hebdomad, since He was the illustrious Ogdoad,^ and contained in Himself the entire number of the elements, which the descent of the dove (who is Alpha and Omega) made clearly manifest, when He came to be baptized ; for the number of the dove is eight hundred and one.-* And for this reason did Moses declare that man was formed on the sixth day ; and then, again, according to arrangement, it was on the sixth day, which is the preparation, that the last man appeared, for the regeneration of the first. Of this arrangement, both the beginning and the end were formed at that sixth hour, at which He was nailed to the tree. For that perfect being Nous, knowing that the number six had the power both of formation and regeneration, declared to the children of light, that regeneration which has been wrought out by Him who appeared as the Episeinon in regard to that number. Whence also he declares it is that the double letters s contain the Episemon number ; for this Episemon, when joined to the twenty-four elements, completed the name of thirty letters.

7. He employed as his instnunent, as the Sige of Marcus declares, the power of seven letters,'^ in order that the fruit of the independent will [of Achamoth] might be revealed. " Consider this present Episemon," s]\q says — " Him who was formed after the [original] Episemon, as being, as it were, divided or cut into two parts, and remaining outside ; who, by His own power and wisdom, through means of that which had been produced by Himself, gave life to this world, consisting of seven powers,^ after the likeness of the power of the Hebdomad, and so formed it, that it is the soul of everything visible. And He indeed uses this work Himself as if it had been formed by His own free will ; but the rest, as being images of what cannot be

2 Moses and Elias being added to the company.

3 Referring to the word XpetcrTo?, according to Harvey, who remarks, that " generally the Ogdoad was the receptacle of the spiritual seed."

The Saviour, as Alpha and Omega, was symbolized by the dove, the sum of the Greek numerals, n, e, p, i, <r, t, e, p, a {nepicrTepd, dove), being, like that of A and n, 801.

5 That is, the letters i, f , 1// all contain s, whose value is six, and which was called iniarfixov by the Greeks.

Referring to Aletheia, which, in Greek, contains seven letters.

' By these seven powers are meant the seven heavens (also called angels) , formed by the Demiurge.

[fully] imitated, are subservient to the Enthymesis of the mother. And the first heaven indeed pronounces Alpha, the next to this Epsilon, the third Eta, the fourth, which is also in the midst of the seven, utters the sound of Iota, the fifth Omicron, the sixth Upsilon, the seventh, which is also the fourth from the middle, utters the elegant Omega,'' — as the Sige of Marcus, talking a deal of nonsense, but uttering no word of truth, confidently asserts. " And these powers," she adds, " being all simultaneously clasped in each other's embrace, do sound out the glory of Him by whom they were produced ; and the glory of that sound is transmitted upwards to the Propator." She asserts, moreover, that " the sound of this uttering of praise, having been wafted to the earth, has become the Framer and the Parent of those things which are on the earth."

8. He instances, in proof of this, the case of infants who have just been born, the cry of whom, as soon as they have issued from the womb, is in accordance with the sound of every one of these elements. As, then, he says, the seven powers glorify the Word, so also does the complaining soul of infants.^ For this reason, too, David said : " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise ; " 9 and again : " The heavens declare the glory of God." '° Hence also it comes to pass, that when the soul is involved in difficulties and distresses, for its own relief it calls out, " Oh " (fi), in honour of the letter in question," so that its cognate soul above may recognise [its distress], and send down to it relief.

9. Thus it is, that in regard to the whole name,'^ which consists of thirty letters, and Bythus, who receives his increase from the letters of this [name], and, moreover, the body of Aletheia, which is composed of twelve members, each of which consists of two letters, and the voice which she uttered without having spoken at all, and in regard to the analysis of that name which cannot be expressed in words, and the soul of the world and of man, according as they possess that arrangement, w-hich is after the image [of things above], he has uttered his nonsensical opinions. It remains that I relate how the Tetrad showed him from the names a power equal in number ; so that nothing, my friend, which I have received as spoken by him, may remain unknown to thee ; and thus thy request, often proposed to me, may be fulfilled.

8 We here follow the text of Hippolytus: the ordinarytext and the old Latin read, " So does the soul of infants, weeping and mourning over Marcus, deify him."

" The text is here altogether uncertain: we have given the probable meaning.

'2 That IS, the name of Soter, the perfect result of the whole Pleroma.

CHAP. XV. SIGE RELATES TO MARCUS THE GEN-

ERA'IION OF THE TWENTY-FOUR ELEMENTS AND OF JESUS. EXPOSURE OF THESE ABSURDITIES.

I. The all-wise Sige then announced the production of the four-and-twenty elements to him as follows: — Along with Monotes there coexisted Henotes, from which sprang two productions, as we have remarked above, Monas and Hen, which, added to the other two, make four, for twice two are four. And again, two and four, when added together, exhibit the number six. And further, these six being quadrupled, give rise to the twenty-four forms. And the names of the first Tetrad, which are understood to be most holy, and not capable of being expressed in words, are known by the Son alone, while the father also knows what they are. The other names which are to be uttered with respect, and faith, and reverence, are, according to him, Arrhetos and Sige, Pater and Aletheia. Now the entire number of this Tetrad amounts to four-andtwenty letters ; for the name Arrhetos contains in itself seven letters, Seige ' five, Pater five, and Aletheia seven. If all these be added together — twice five, and twice seven — they complete the number twenty-four. In like manner, also, the second Tetrad, Logos and Zoe, Anthropos and Ecclesia, reveal the same number of elements. Moreover, that name of the Saviour which may be pronounced, viz., Jesus ['It^o-ovs], consists of six letters, but His unutterable name comprises four-and-twenty letters. The name Christ the Son ^ (vtos Xpeiords) comprises twelve letters, but that which is unpronounceable in Christ contains thirty letters. And for this reason he declares that He is Alpha and Omcf^a, that he may indicate the dove, inasmuch as that bird has this number [in its name].

2. But Jesus, he affirms, has the following unspeakable origin. From the mother of all things, that is, the first Tetrad, there came forth the second Tetrad, after the manner of a daughter ; and thus an Ogdoad was formed, from which, again, a Decad proceeded : thus was produced a Decad and an Ogdoad. The Decad, then, being joined with the Ogdoad, and multiplying it ten times, gave rise to the number eii^hty; and, again, multiplying eighty ten times, produced the number eii^ht hundred. Thus, then, the whole number of the letters proceeding from the Ogdoad [multiplied] into the Decad, is eight hundred and eighty-eight.^ This is the name of Jesus ; for this name,"if you reckon up the numerical value of the letters, amounts to eight hundred and eighty-eight. Thus, then,

' Manifestly to be so spelt here, as io the sequel Chrcistus, for Christus. y

- The text is here altogether uncertain, and the meaning obscure.

3 The reading is exceedingly doubtful: some prefer the number iighty-eight.

you have a clear statement of their opinion as to the origin of the supercelestial Jesus. Wherefore, also, the alphabet of the Greeks contains eight Monads, eight Decads, and eight Hecatads-», which present the number eight hundred and eighty-eight, that is, Jesus, who is formed of all numbers ; and on this account He is called Alpha and Omega, indicating His origin from all. And, again, they put the matter thus : If the first Tetrad be added up according to the progression of number, the number ten appears. For one, and two, and three, and four, when added together, form ten ; and this, as they will have it, is Jesus. Moreover, Chreistus, he says, being a word of eight letters, indicates the first Ogdoad, and this, when multiplied by ten, gives birth to Jesus (888). And Christ the Son, he says, is also spoken of, that is, the Duodecad. For the name Son, (mo's) contains four letters, and Christ (Chreistus) eight, which, being combined, point out the greatness of the Duodecad. But, he alleges, before the Episemon of this name appeared, that is Jesus the Son, mankind were involved in great ignorance and error. But when this name of six letters was manifested (the person bearing it clothing Himself in flesh, that He might come under the apprehension of man's senses, and having in Himself these six and twenty-four letters), then, becoming acquainted with Him, they ceased from their ignorance, and passed from death unto life, this name serving as their guide to the Father of truth.s For the Father of all had resolved to put an end to ignorance, and to destroy death. But this abolishing of ignorance was just the knowledge of Him. And therefore that man (Anthropos) was chosen according to His will, having been formed after the image of the [corresponding] power above.

3. As to the yEons, they proceeded from the Tetrad, and in that Tetrad were Anthropos and Ecclesia, Logos and Zoe. The powers, then, he declares, who emanated from these, generated that Jesus who appeared upon the earth. The angel Gabriel took the place of Logos, the Holy Spirit that of Zoe, the Power of the Highest that of Anthropos, while the Virgin pointed out the place of Ecclesia. And thus, by a special dispensation, there was generated by Him, through Mary, that man, whom, as He passed through the womb, the Father of all chose to [obtain] the knowledge of Himself by means of the Word. And on His coming to the water [of baptism], there descended on Him, in the form of a dove.

There were, as Harvey here observes, three extraneous characters introduced into the Greek alphabet for the sake of numeration — the three rptsetna for 6,90, and 900 respectively. The true alphabet, then, as employed to denote number, included eight units, eight tens, and eight hundreds.

5 Or, according to the Greek text, " being as the way to the Father; " comp. John xiv. 6.

that Being who had formerly ascended on high, and completed the twelfth number, in whom there existed the seed of those who were produced contemporaneously with Himself, and who descended and ascended along with Him. Moreover, he maintains that that power which descended was the seed of the Father, which had in itself both the Father and the Son, as well as that power of Sige which is known by means of them, but cannot be expressed in language, and also all the ^ons. And this was that Spirit who spoke by the mouth of Jesus, and who confessed that He was the son of Man as well as revealed the Father, and who, having descended into Jesus, was made one with Him. And he says that the Saviour formed by special dispensation did indeed destroy death, but that Christ made known the Father.' He maintains, therefore, that Jesus is the name of that man forjned by a special dispensation, and that He was formed after the likeness and form of that [heavenly] .A.nthropos, who was about to descend upon Him. After He had received that /Eon, He possessed Anthropos himself, and Logos himself, and Pater, and Arrhetus, and Sige, and xVletheia, and Ecclesia, and Zoe.

4. Such ravings, we may now well say, go beyond ///, ///, Pheii, Pheu, and every kind of tragic exclamation or utterance of misery.^ For who would not detest one who is the wretched contriver of such audacious falsehoods, when he perceives the truth turned by Marcus into a mere image, and that punctured all over with the letters of the alphabet? The Greeks confess that they first received sixteen letters from Cadmus, and that but recently, as compared with the beginning, [the vast antiquity of which is implied] in the common proverb: "Yesterday and before ; " 3 and afterwards, in the course of time, they themselves invented at one period the aspirates, and at another the double letters, while, last of all, they say Palamedes added the long letters to the former. Was it so, then, that until these things took place among the Greeks, truth had no existence ? For, according to thee, Marcus, the body of truth is posterior to Cadmus and those who preceded him — posterior also to those who added the rest of the letters — posterior even to thyself ! For thou alone hast formed that which is called by thee the truth into an [outward, visible] image.

5. But who will tolerate thy nonsensical Sige, who names Him that cannot be named, and expounds the nature of Him that is unspeakable, and searches out Him that is unsearchable, and declares that He whom thou maintainest to be

■ The text is here uncertain : we follow that suggested by Grabe.

3 Comp. Gen xxxi. 2. — We here follow the punctuation of Scalieer, now generally accepted by the editors, though entirely different from the old Latin.

destitute of body and form, opened His mouth and sent forth the Word, as if He were included among organized beings ; and that His Word, while like to His Author, and bearing the image of the invisible, nevertheless consisted of thirty elements and four syllables? It will follow, then, according to thy theory, that the Father of all, in accordance with the likeness of the Word, consists of thirty elements and four syllables ! Or, again, who will tolerate thee in thy juggling with forms and numbers, — at one time thirty, at another twenty-four, and at another, again, only six, — whilst thou shuttest up [in these] the Word of God, the Founder, and Framer, and Maker of all things ; and then, again, cutting Him up piecemeal into four syllables and thirty elements ; and bringing down the Lord of all who founded the heavens to the number eight hundred and eighty-eight, so that He should be similar to the alphabet ; and subdividing the Father, who cannot be contained, but contains all things, into a Tetrad, and an Ogdoad, and a Decad, and a Duodecad ; and by such multiplications, setting forth the unspeakable and inconceivable nature of the Father, as thou thyself declarest it to be ? And showing thyself a very Djedalus for evil invention, and the wicked architect of the supreme power, thou dost construct a nature and substance for Him whom thou callest incorporeal and immaterial, out of a multitude of letters, generated the one by the other. And that power whom thou afifirmest to be indivisible, thou dost nevertheless divide into consonants, and vowels, and semivowels ; and, falsely ascribing those letters which are mute to the Father of all things, and to His Ennoea (thought), thou hast driven on all that place confidence in thee to the highest point of blasphemy, and to the grossest impiety.^

6. With good reason, therefore, and very fittingly, in reference to thy rash attempt, has that divine elder s and preacher of the truth burst forth in verse against thee as follows : —

" Marcus, thou former of idols, inspector of portents,

Skill'd in consulting the stars, and deep in the black arts of magic,

Ever by tricks such as these confirming the doctrines of error,

Furnishing signs unto those involved by thee in decep-

Wonders of power that is utterly severed from God and apostate,

\Vhich Satan, thy true father, enables thee still to acconi])li.sh,

P.y means of Azazel, that fallen and yet mighty angel, —

Thus making thee the precursor of his own impious actions."

Such are the words of the saindy elder. And I shall endeavour to state the remainder of their mystical system, which rims out to great length, in brief compass, and to bring to the light what

[Mosheim thinks this Marcus was a lunatic] 5 [Some think Pothiaus.]

has for a long time been concealed. For in this way such things will become easily susceptible of exposure by all.

CHAP. XVI. ABSURD INTERPRETATIONS OF THE

MARCOSIANS.

1. Blending in one the production of their own /Itons, and the straying and recovery of the sheep [spoken of in the Gospel '], these persons endeavour to set forth things in a more mystical style, while they refer everything to numbers, maintaining that the universe has been formed out of a Monad and a Dyad. And then, reckoning from unity on to four, they thus generate the Decad. For when one, two, three, and four are added together, they give rise to the number of the ten Aions. And, again, the Dyad advancing from itself [by twos] up to six — two, and four, and six — brings out the Duodecad. Once more, if we reckon in the same way up to ten, the number thirty appears, in which are found eight, and ten, and twelve. They therefore term the Duodecad — because it contains the Episemon,^ and because the Episemon [so to speak] waits upon it — the passion. And for this reason, because an error occurred in connection with the twelfth number,^ the sheep frisked off, and went astray ; for they assert that a defection took place from the Duodecad. In the same way they oracularly declare, that one power having departed also from the Duodecad, has perished ; and this was represented by the woman who lost the drachma,-" and, lighting a lamp, again found it. Thus, therefore, the numbers that were left, viz., nine, as respects the pieces of money, and eleven in regard to the sheep,5 when multiplied together, give birth to the . number ninety-nine, for nine times eleven are ninety-nine. Wherefore also they maintain the word " Amen " contains this number.

2. I will not, however, weary thee by recounting their other interpretations, that you may perceive the results everywhere. They maintain, for instance, that the letter ^/a (q) along with the Episemon (c) constitutes an Ogdoad, inasmuch as it occupies the eighth place from the first letter. Then, again, without the Episemon, reckoning the number of the letters, and adding them up till we come, to Eta, they bring out the Triacontad. For if one begins at Alpha and ends with Eta, omitting the Episemon, and adds together the value of the letters in succession, he will find their number altogether to amount to thirty. For up to Epsilon (e) fifteen are formed ;

2 All the editors, Grabe, Massuet, Stieren, and Harvey, differ as to the text and interpretation of this sentence. We have given what seems the simplest rendering of the text as it stands.

3 Referring to the last of the twelve iEons.

5 Meaning the JE.on who left the Duodecad, when eleven remained, »nd not referring to the lost sheep of the paraljle.

then adding seven to that number, the sum of twenty-two is reached. Next, Eia being added to these, since its value is eight, the most wonderful Triacontad is completed. And hence they give forth that the Ogdoad is the mother of the thirty yEons. Since, therefore, the number thirty is composed of three powers [the Ogdoad, Decad, and Duodecad], when multiplied by three, it produces ninety, for three times thirty are ninety. Likewise this Triad, when multiplied by itself, gives rise to nine. Thus the Ogdoad generates, by these means, ninety-nine. And since the twelfth JEon, by her defection, left eleven in the heights above, they maintain that therefore the position of the letters is a true co-ordinate of the method of their calculation^' (for Lambda is the eleventh in order among the letters, and represents the number thirty), and also forms a representation of the arrangement of affairs above, since, on from Alpha, omitting Episemon, the number of the letters up to Lambda, when added together according to the successive value of the letters, and including Lambda itself, forms the sum of ninetynine ; but that this Lambda, being the eleventh in order, descended to seek after one equal to itself, so as to complete the number of twelve letters, and when it found such a one, the number was completed, is manifest from the very configuration of the letter ; for Lambda being engaged, as it were, in the quest of one similar to itself, and finding such an one, and clasping it to itself, thus filled up the place of the twelfth, the letter Mu (M) being composed of two Lambdas (AA). Wherefore also they, by means of their " knowledge," avoid the place of ninety-nine, that is, the defection — a type of the left hand,' — but endeavour to secure o7ie more, which, when added to the ninety and nine, has the effect of changing their reckoning to the right hand.

3. I well know, my dear friend, that when thou hast read through all this, thou wilt indulge in a hearty laugh over this their inflated wi.se folly ! But those men are really worthy of being mourned over, who promulgate such a kind of religion, and who so frigidly and perversely pull to pieces the greatness of the truly unspeakable power, and the dispensations of God in themselves so striking, by means of Alpha and Beta, and through the aid of numbers. But as many as separate from the Church, and give heed to such old wives' fables as these, are truly self-condemned ; and these men Paul commands us, "after a first and second admonition, to avoid."

6 Harvey gives the above paraphrase of the very obscure original; others propose to read A instead of Aoyou.

7 Alassuet explains this and the following reference, by remarking that the ancients used the fingers of the hand in counting; by the left hand they indicated all the numbers below a hundred, but by the right hand all above that sum. — Comp. Juvenal, Sat., x. 249.

And John, the disciple of the Lord, has intensified their condemnation, when he desires us not even to address to them the salutation of " good-speed ; " for, says he, " He that bids them be of good-speed is a partaker with their evil deeds ; " ' and that with reason, " for there is no good-speed to the ungodly," ^ saith the Lord. Impious indeed, beyond all impiety, are these men, who assert that the Maker of heaven and earth, the only God Almighty, besides whom there is no God, was produced by means of a defect, which itself sprang from another defect, so that, according to them. He was the product of the third defect.^ Such an opinion we should detest and execrate, while we ought everywhere to flee far apart from those that hold it ; and in proportion as they vehemently maintain and rejoice in their fictitious doctrines, so much the more should we be convinced that they are under the influence of the wicked spirits of the Ogdoad, — just as those persons who fall into a fit of frenzy, the more they laugh, and imagine themselves to be well, and do all things as if they were in good health [both of body and mind], yea, some things better than those who really are so, are only thus shown to be the more seriously diseased. In like ntanner do these men, the more they seem to excel others in wisdom, and waste their strength by drawing the bow too tightly,-* the greater fools do they show themselves. For when the unclean spirit of folly has gone forth, and when afterwards he finds them not waiting upon God, but occupied with mere worldly questions, then, " taking seven other spirits more wicked than himself," 5 and inflating the minds of these men with the notion of their being able to conceive of something beyond God, and having fitly prepared them for the reception of deceit, he implants within them the Ogdoad of the foolish spirits of wickedness.

CHAP. XVII. THE THEORY OF THE MARCOSUNS,

THAT CREATED THINGS WERE MADE AFTER THE IMAGE OF THINGS INVISIBLE.

I. I wish also to explain to thee their theory as to the way in which the creation itself was formed through the mother by the Demiurge (as it were without his knowledge), after the image of things invisible. They maintain, then, that first of all the four elements, fire, water, earth, and air, were produced after the image of the primary Tetrad above, and that then, if we add their operations, viz., heat, cold, dryness, and humidity, an exact likeness of the Ogdoad

3 The Demiurge being the fruit of the abortive conversion of the abortive passion of Achamoth, who, again, was the abortive issue of Sophia.

i.e., by aiming at what transcends their ability, they fall into absurdity, as a bow is broken by bending it too far.

is presented. They next reckon up ten powers in the following manner : — There are seven globular bodies, which they also call heavens ; then that globular body which contains these, which also they name the eighth heaven ; and, in addition to these, the sun and moon. These, being ten in number, they declare to be types of the invisible Decad, which proceeded from Logos and Zoe. As to the Duodecad, it is indicated by the zodiacal circle, as it is called ; for they afiirm that the twelve signs do most manifestly shadow forth the Duodecad, the daughter of Anthropos and Ecclesia. And since the highest heaven, bearing upon the very sphere [of the seventh heaven], has been linked with the most rapid precession of the whole system, as a check, and balancing that system with its own gravity, so that it completes the cycle from sign to sign in thirty years, — they say that this is an image of Horus, encircling their thirty-named mother.^ And then, again, as the moon travels through her allotted space of heaven in thirty days, they hold, that by these days she expresses the number of the thirty ^ons. The sun also, who runs through his orbit in twelve months, and then returns to the same point in the circle, makes the Duodecad manifest by these twelve months ; and the days, as being measured by twelve hours, are a type of the invisible Duodecad. Moreover, they declare that the hour, which is the twelfth part of the day, is composed ^ of thirty parts, in order to set forth the image of the Triacontad. Also the circumference of the zodiacal circle itself contains three hundred and sixty degrees (for each of its signs comprises thirty) ; and thus also they affirm, that by means of this circle an image is preserved of that connection which exists between the twelve and the thirty. Still further, asserting that the earth is divided into twelve zones, and that in each zone it receives power from the' heavens, according to the perpendicular [position of the sun above it], bringing forth productions coiTCsponding to that power which sends down its influence upon it, they maintain that this is a most evident type of the Duodecad and its offspring.

2. In addition to these things, they declare that the Demiurge, desiring to imitate the infinitude, and eternity, and immensity, and freedom from all measurement by time of the Ogdoad above, but, as he was the fruit of defect, being unable to express its permanence and eternity, had recourse to the expedient of spreading out its eternity into times, and seasons, and vast numbers of years, imagining, that by the multitude of such times he might imitate its immen-

6 Such is the translation which Harvey, following the text preserved by Hippolytus, gives of the above iutricatc and obscure sentence.

' Literally, " is adorned with."

sity. They declare further, that the truth having escaped him, he followed that which was false, and that, for this reason, when the times are fulfilled, his work shall perish.

CHAP. XVIII. PASSAGES FROM MOSES, WHICH THE

HERETICS PERVERT TO THE SUPPORT OF THEIR HYPOTHESIS.

I. And while they affirm such things as these concerning the creation, every one of them generates something new, day by day, according to his ability ; for no one is deemed " perfect," who does not tlevelop among them some mighty fictions. It is thus necessary, first, to indicate what things they metamorphose [to their own use] out of the prophetical writings, and next, to refute them. Moses, then, they declare, by his mode of beginning the account of the creation, has at the commencement pointed out the mother of all things when he says, " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth ;" ' for, as they maintain, by naming these four, — God, beginning, heaven, and earth, — he set forth their Tetrad. Indicating also its invisible and hidden nature, he said, " Now the earth was invisible and unformed." ^ They will have it, moreover, that he spoke of the second Tetrad, the offspring of the first, in this way — by naming an abyss and darkness, in which were also water, and the Spirit moving upon the water. Then, proceeding to mention the Decad, he names light, day, night, the firmament, the evening, the morning, dry land, sea, plants, and, in the tenth place, trees. Thus, by means of these ten names, he indicated the ten /Eons. The power of the Duodecad, again, was shadowed forth by him thus : — He names the sun, moon, stars, seasons, years, whales, fishes, reptiles, birds, quadrupeds, wild beasts, and after all these, in the twelfth place, man. Thus they teach that the Triacontad was spoken of through Moses by the Spirit. Moreover, man also, being formed after the image of the power above, had in himself that ability which flows from the one source. This ability was seated in the region of the brain, from which four faculties proceed, after the image of the Tetrad above, and these are called : the first, s/i^/U, the second, hearing, the third, smell, and the fourth,^ taste. And they say that the Ogdoad is indicated by man in this way : that he possesses two ears, the like number of eyes, also two nostrils, and a twofold taste, namely, of bitter and sweet. Moreover, they teach that the whole man contains the entire image of the Triacontad as follows : In his hands, by means of his fingers, he bears the

3 One of the senses was thus capriciously cancelled by these

Decad ; and in his whole body the Duodecad, inasmuch as his body is divided into twelve members ; for they portion that out, as the body of Truth is divided by them — a point of which we have already spoken. •♦ But the Ogdoad, as being unspeakable and invisible, is understood as hidden in the viscera.

2. Again, they assert that the sun, the great light-giver, was formed on the fourth day, with a reference to the number of the Tetrad. So also, according to them, the courts 5 of the tabernacle constructed by Moses, being composed of fine linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, pointed to the same image. Moreover, they maintain that the long robe of the priest falling over his feet, as being adorned with four rows of precious stones,*" indicates the Tetrad ; and if there are any other things in the Scriptures which can possibly be dragged into the number_/<?/^r, they declare that these had their being with a view to the Tetrad. The Ogdoad, again, was shown as follows: — They aftirm that man was formed on the eighth day, for sometimes they will have him to have been made on the sixth day, and sometimes on the eighth, unless, perchance, they mean that his earthly part was formed on the sixth day, but his fleshly part on the eighth, for these two things are distinguished by them. Some of them also hold that one man was formed after the image and likeness of God, masculo-feminine, and that this was the spiritual man ; and that another man was formed out of the earth.

3. Further, they declare that the arrangement made with respect to the ark in the Deluge, by means of which eight persons were saved,^ most clearly indicates the Ogdoad which brings salvation. David also shows forth the same, as holding the eighth place in point of age among his brethren.^ Moreover, that circumcision which took place on the eighth day ,9 represented the circumcision of the Ogdoad above. In a word, whatever they find in the Scriptures capable of being referred to the number eight, they declare to fulfil the mystery of the Ogdoad. With respect, again, to the Decad, they maintain that it is indicated by those ten nations which God promised to Abraham for a possession.'" The arrangement also made by Sarah when, after ten years, she gave " her handmaid Hagar to him, that by her he might have a son, showed the same thing. Moreover, the ser\-ant of Abraham who was sent to Rebekah, and presented her at the well with ten bracelets of gold, and her

5 Or, rather, perhaps " curtains."

brethren who detained her for ten days ; ' Jeroboam also, who received the ten sceptres^ (tribes), and the ten courts ^ of the tabernacle, and the columns of ten cubits •♦ [high], and the ten sons of Jacob who were at first sent into Egypt to buy corn,5 and the ten apostles to whom the Lord appeared after His resurrection,

— Thomas ^ being absent, — represented, according to them, the invisible Decad.

4. As to the Duodecad, in connection with which the mystery of the passion of the defect occurred, from which passion they maintain that all things visible were framed, they assert that is to be found strikingly and manifestly everywhere [in Scripture]. For they declare that the twelve sons of Jacob,^ from whom also sprung twelve tribes, — the breastplate of the high priest, which bore twelve precious stones and twelve little bells,*^ — the twelve stones which were placed by Moses at the foot of the mountain,9 — the same number which was placed by Joshua in the river, '° and again, on the other side, the bearers of the ark of the covenant," — those stones which were set up by Elijah when the heifer was offered as a burnt-offering ; '^ the number, too, of the apostles ; and, in fine, every event which embraces in it the number tiuelve,

— set forth their Duodecad. And then the union of all these, which is called the Triacontad, they strenuously endeavour to demonstrate by the ark of Noah, the height of which was thirty cubits ; '^ by the case of Samuel, who assigned Saul the chief place among thirty guests ; '■* by David, when for thirty days he concealed himself in the field ; '^ by those who entered along with him into the cave ; also by the fact that the length (height) of the holy tabernacle was thirty cubits ; '"^ and if they meet with any other like numbers, they still apply these to their Triacontad.

CHAP. XIX. PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE BY WHICH

THEY AITEMPT TO PROVE THAT THE SUPREME FATHER WAS UNKNOWN BEFORE THE COMING OF

I . I judge it necessary to add to these details also what, by garbling passages of Scripture, they try to persuade us concerning their Propa-

8 Ex. xxviii. 2. — There is no mention of the number of the bells «n Scripture.

'* Ex. xxvi. 8. Numbers appear to have been often capriciously introduced by these heretics to give a colour of support to their own theories.

tor, who was unknown to all before the coming of Christ. Their object in this is to show that our Lord announced another Father than the Maker of this universe, whom, as we said before, they impiously declare to have been the fruit of a defect. For instance, when the prophet Isaiah says, " But Israel hath not known Me, and My people have not understood Me," '? they pervert his words to mean ignorance of the invisible Bythus. And that which is spoken by Hosea, " There is no truth in them, nor the knowledge of God," '^ they strive to give the same reference. And, " There is none that understandeth, or that seeketh after God : they have all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable," '^ they maintain to be said concerning ignorance of Bythus. Also that which is spoken by Moses, " No man shall see God and live," ^° has, as they would persuade us, the same reference.

2. For they falsely hold, that the Creator was seen by the prophets. But this passage, " No man shall see God and live," they would interpret as spoken of His greatness unseen and unknown by all ; and indeed that these words, " No man shall see God," are spoken concerning the invisible Father, the Maker of the universe, is evident to us all ; but that they are not used concerning that Bythus whom they conjure into existence, but concerning the Creator (and He is the invisible God), shall be shown as we proceed. They maintain that Daniel also set forth the same thing when he begged of the angels explanations of the parables, as being himself ignorant of them. But the angel, hiding from him the great mystery of Bythus, said unto him, " Go thy way quickly, Daniel, for these sayings are closed up until those who have understanding do understand them, and those who are white be made white." ^' Moreover, they vaunt themselves as being the white and the men of good understanding.

THE APOCRYPHAL AND SPURIOUS

SCRIPTURES OF THE MARCOSIANS, WITH PAS- SAGES OF THE GOSPELS WHICH THEY PERVERT.

I. Besides the above [misrepresentations], they adduce an unspeakable number of apocryphal and spurious writings, which they themselves have forged, to bewilder the minds of foolish men, and of such as are ignorant of the Scriptures of truth. Among other things, they bring forward that false and wicked story ^- which

2' Dan. xii. 9, 10. The words in the above quotation not occurring in the Hebrew text of the passage, seem to have been interpolated by these heretics.

^- [From the Protevangel of Thomas. Compare the curious work of Dominic Dcodati, De Christo Grace ioguente, p. 95.

relates that our Lord, when He was a boy learning His letters, on the teacher saying to Him, as is usual, " Pronounce Alpha," replied [as He was bid], "Alpha." But when, again, the teacher bade Him say, " Beta," the Loril replied, " Do thou first tell me what Alpha is, and then I will tell thee what Beta is." This they expound as meaning that He alone knew the Unknown, which He revealed under its type Alpha.

2. Some passages, also, which occur in the Gospels, receive from them a colouring of the same kind, such as the answer which He gave His mother when He was twelve years of age : " Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?"' Thus, they say. He announced to them the Father of whom they were ignorant. On this account, also. He sent forth the disciples to the twelve tribes, that they might proclaim to them the unknown God. And to the person who said to Him, "Good Master,"- He confessed that Ciod who is truly good, saying, " Why callest thou Me good : there is One who is good, the Father in the heavens ; " ^ and they assert that in this passage the ^ons receive the name of heavens. Moreover, by His not replying to those who said to Him, " By what power doest Thou this ? " ^ but by a question on His own side, put them to utter confusion ; by His thus not replying, according to their interpretation, He showed the unutterable nature of the Father. Moreover, when He said. " I have often desired to hear one of these words, and I had no one who could utter it," 5 they maintain, that by this expression " one " He set forth the one true God whom they knew not. Further, w-hen, as He drew nigh to Jerusalem, He wept over it and said, "If thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace, but they are hidden from thee," ^ by this word " hidden " He showed the abstruse nature of Bythus. And again, when He said, " Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and learn of Me," '' He announced the Father of truth. For what they knew not, these men say that He promised to teach them.

3. But they adduce the following passage as the highest testimony,^ and, as it were, the very crown of their system : — "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Even so, my Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight.

5 Taken from some apocryphal writing.

Luke xix. 42, loosely quoted.

5 The translator evidently read rCiv for r^v, in which case the rendering will he " proof of those most high," but the Greek text seems preferable.

All things have been delivered to Me by My Father ; and no one knoweth the Father but the Son, or the Son but the Father, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him." '-' In these words they affirm that He clearly showed that the Father of truth, conjured into existence by them, was known to no one before His advent. And they desire to construe the passage as if teaching that the Maker and P^amer [of the world] was always known by all, while the Lord spoke these words concerning the Father unknown to all, whom they now proclaim.

CHAP. XXL THE VIEWS OF REDEMPTION ENTER- TAINED BY THESE HERETICS.

1. It happens that their tradition respecting redemption '° is invisible and incomprehensible, as being the mother of things which are incomprehensible and invisible ; and on this account, since it is fluctuating, it is impossible simply and all at once to make known its nature, for every one of them hands it down just as his own inclination prompts. Thus there are as many schemes of " redemption " as there are teachers of these mystical opinions. And when we come to refute them, we shall show in its fitting-place, that this class of men have been instigated by Satan to a denial of that baptism which is regeneration to God, and thus to a renunciation of the whole [Christian] faith.

2. They maintain that those who have attained to perfect knowledge must of necessity be regenerated into that power which is above all. For it is otherwise impossible to find admittance within the Pleroma, since this [regeneration] it is which leads them down into the depths of Bythus. For the baptism instituted by the visible Jesus was for the remission of sins, but the redemption brought in by that Christ who descended upon Him, was for perfection ; and they allege that the former is animal, but the latter spiritual. And the baptism of John was proclaimed with a view to repentance, but the redemption by Jesus " was brought in for the sake of perfection. And to this He refers when He says, " And I have another baptism to be baptized with, and I hasten eagerly towards it." '^ Moreo\'er, they affirm that the Lord added this redemption to the sons of Zebedee, when their mother asked that they might sit. the one on His right hand, and the other on His left, in His kingdom, saying, " Can ye be baptized with the baptism which I shall be baptized with?"'^ Paul, too, they declare, has often set forth, in express terms, the redemption which is in Christ

" The Latin reads "Christ."

'- Luke xii. 50. The text was probably thus corrupted by the

Jesus ; and this was the same which is handed down by them in so varied and discordant forms.

3. For some of them prepare a nuptial couch, and perform a sort of mystic rite (pronouncing certain expressions) with those who are being initiated, and affirm that it is a spiritual marriage which is celebrated by them, after the likeness of the conjunctions above. Others, again, lead them to a place where water is, and baptize them, with the utterance of these words, " Into the name of the unknown Father of the universe — into truth, the mother of all things — into Him who descended on Jesus — into union, and redemption, and communion with the powers." Others still repeat certain Hebrew words, in order the more thoroughly to bewilder those who are being initiated, as follows : " Basema, Chamosse, Baoenaora, Mistadia, Ruada, Kousta, Babaphor, Kalachthei." ' The interpretation of these terms runs thus : " I invoke that which is above every power of the Father, which is called light, and good Spirit, and life, because Thou hast reigned in the body." Others, again, set forth the redemption thus : The name which is hidden from every deity, and dominion, and truth, which Jesus of Nazareth was clothed with in the lives ^ of the light of Christ — of Christ, who lives by the Holy Ghost, for the angelic redemption. The name of restitution stands thus : Messia, Uphareg, Namempsoeman, Chaldceaur, Mosomedoea, Acphranoe, Psaua, Jesus Nazaria.^ The interpretation of these words is as follows : " I do not divide the Spirit of Christ, neither the heart nor the supercelestial power which is merciful ; may I enjoy Thy name, O Saviour of truth ! " Such are words of the initiators ; but he who is initiated, replies, " I am established, and I am redeemed ; I redeem my soul from this age (world), and from all things connected with it in the name of lao, who redeemed his own soul into redemption in Christ who liveth." Then the bystanders add these words, " Peace be to all on whom this name rests." After this they anoint the initiated person with balsam ; for they assert that this unguent is a type of that sweet odour which is above all things.

4. But there are some of them who assert that it is superfluous to bring persons to the water, but mixing oil and water together, they place this mixture on the heads of those who are to be initiated, with the use of some such expressions as we have already mentioned. And this they maintain to be the redemption. They, too, are accustomed to anoint with balsam. Others, however, reject all these practices, and maintain that the mystery of the unspeakable and invisible

' We have given these words as they stand in the Greek text: a very different list, but equally unmeaninK, is found in the Latin.

- The Latin reads zoiiis, " zones," instead of " lives," as in the Greek.

■5 Here, again, are many variations.

power ought not to be performed by visible and corruptible creatures, nor should that of those [beings] who are inconceivable, and incorporeal, and beyond the reach of sense, [be performed] by such as are the objects of sense, and possessed of a body. These hold that the knowledge of the unsi>eakable Greatness is itself perfect redemption. For since both defect and passion flowed from ignorance, the whole substance of what was thus formed is destroyed by knowledge ; and therefore knowledge is the redemption of the inner man. This, however, is not of a corporeal nature, for the body is corruptible ; nor is it animal, since the animal soul is the fruit of a defect, and is, as it were, the abode of the spirit. The redemption must therefore be of a spiritual nature ; for they affirm that the inner and spiritual man is redeemed by means of knowledge, and that they, having acquired the knowledge of all things, stand thenceforth in need of nothing else. This, then, is the true redemption.

5. Others still there are who continue to redeem persons even up to the moment of death, by placing on their heads oil and water, or the pre-mentioned ointment with water, using at the same time the above-named invocations, that the persons referred to may become incapable of being seized or seen by the principalities and powers, and that their inner man may ascend on high in an invisible manner, as if their body were left among created things in this world, while their soul is sent forward to the Demiurge. And they instruct them, on their reaching the principalities and powers, to make use of these words : " I am a son from the Father — the Father who had a pre-existence,and a son in Him who is preexistent. I have come to behold all things, both those which belong to myself and others, although, strictly speaking, they do not belong to others, but to Achamoth, who is female in nature, and made these things for herself. For I derive being from Him who is pre-existent, and I come again to my own place whence I went forth." And they affirm that, by saying these things, he escapes from the powers. He then advances to the companions of the Demiurge, and thus addresses them : — "I am a vessel more precious than the female who formed you. If your mother is ignorant of her own descent, I know m)self, and am aware whence I am, and I call upon the incorruptible Sophia, who is in the Father, and is the mother of your mother, who has no father, nor any male consort ; but a female springing from a female formed you, while ignorant of her own mother, and imagining that she alone existe4 ; but I call upon her mother." And they declare, that when the companions of the Demiurge hear these words, they are greatly agitated, and upbraid their origin and the race of their mother. But he goes into his own place, having

thrown [off] his chain, that is, his animal nature. These, then, are the particulars which have reached us respecting " redemption." ' But since they differ so widely among themselves both as respects doctrine and tradition, and since those of them who are recognised as being most modern make it their effort daily to invent some new opinion, and to bring out what no one ever before thought of, it is a difficult matter to describe all their opinions.

CHAP. XXII. — DEVIATIONS OF HERETICS FROM THE

I. The rule^ of truth which we hold, is, that there is one (jod Almighty, who made all things by His Word, and fashioned and formed, out of that which had no existence, all things which exist. Thus saith the Scripture, to that effect : " By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established, and all the might of them, by the spirit of His mouth." ^ And again, " All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made." ^ There is no exception or deduction stated ; but the Father made all things by Him, whether visible or invisible, objects of sense or of intelligence, temporal, on account of a certain character given them, or eternal ; and these eternal 5 things He did not make by angels, or by any powers separated from His Ennoea. For God needs none of all these things, but is He who, by His Word and Spirit, makes, and disposes, and governs all things, and commands all things into existence, — He who formed the world (for the world is of all), — He who fashioned man, — He [who] ^ is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, above whom there is no other God, nor initial principle, nor power, nor pleroma, — He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we shall prove. Holding, therefore, this rule, we shall easily show, notwithstanding the great variety and multitude of their opinions, that these men have deviated from the truth ; for almost all the different sects of heretics admit that there is one God ; but then, by their pernicious doctrines, they change [this truth into error], even as the Gentiles do through idolatry, — thus proving themselves ungrateful to Him that created them. Moreover, they despise the workmanship of God, speaking against their own salvation, becoming

' The Greek text, which has hitherto been preserved almost entire, ends at this point. With only brief extracts from the original, now and then, we are henceforth exclusivelj^ dependent on the old Latin version, with some Syriac and Armenian fragments recently discovered.

2 The Latin here begins with the words '' cum teneamus," and the apodosis is found afterwards at " facile arguimus." But we have broken up the one long sentence into several,

5 The text is here uncertain and obscure : eternal things seem to be referred to, not as regarded substance, but the forms assigned

^ I'his word would perhaps be better cancelled.

their own bitterest accusers, and being false witnesses [against themselves]. Yet, reluctant as they may be, these men shall one day rise again in the flesh, to confess the power of Him who raises them from the dead ; but they shall not be numbered among the righteous on account of their unbelief.

2. Since, therefore, it is a complex and multiform task to detect and convict all the heretics, and since our design is to reply to them all according to their special characters, we have judged it necessary, first of all, to give an account of their source and root, in order that, by getting a knowledge of their most exalted Bythus, thou mayest understand the nature of the tree which has produced such fruits.

CILA.P. XXIII. DOCTRINES AND PR.\CTICES OF SIMON

MAGUS AND MENANDER.

I. Simon the Samaritan was that magician of whom Luke, the disciple and follower of the apostles, says, " But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who beforetime used magical arts in that city, and led astray the people of Samaria, declaring that he himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying. This is the power of God, which is called great. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had driven them mad by his sorceries." ^ This Simon, then — who feigned faith, supposing that the apostles themselves performed their cures by the art of magic, and not by the power of God ; and with respect to their lilling with the Holy Ghost, through the imposition of hands, those that believed in God through Him who was preached by them, namely, Christ Jesus — suspecting that even this was done through a kind of greater knowledge of magic, and offering money to the apostles, thought he, too, might receive this power of bestowing the Holy Spirit on whomsoever he would, — was addressed in these words by Peter : " Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God can be purchased with money : thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God ; for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." '^ He, then, not putting faith in God a whit the more, set himself eagerly to contend against the apostles, in order that he himself might seem to be a wonderful being, and applied himself with still greater zeal to the study of the whole magic art, that he might the better bewilder and overpower multitudes of men. Such was his procedure in the reign of Claudius C^sar, by whom also he is said to have been honoured with a statue, on account of his

magical power.' This man, then, was glorified by many as if he were a god ; and he taught that it was himself who apj^eared among the Jews as the Son, but descended in Samaria as the Father, while he came to other nations in the character of the Holy Spirit. He represented himself, in a word, as being the loftiest of all powers, that is, the Being who is the Father over all, and he allowed himself to be called by whatsoever title men were pleased to address hint.

2. Now this Simon of Samaria, from whom all sorts of heresies derive their origin, formed his sect out of the following materials : — Having redeemed from slavery at Tyre, a city of Phoenicia, a certain woman named Helena, he was in the habit of carrying her about with him. declaring that this woman was the first conception of his mind, the mother of all, by whom, in the beginning, he conceived in his mind [the thought] of forming angels and archangels. For this Ennoea leaping forth from him, and comprehending the will of her father, descended to the lower regions [of space], and generated angels and powers, by whom also he declared this world was formed. But after she had produced them, she was detained by them through motives of jealousy, because they were unwilling to be looked upon as the progeny of any other being. As to himself, they had no knowledge of him whatever ; but his Ennoea was detained by those powers and angels who had been produced by her. She suffered all kinds of contumely from them, so that she could not return upwards to her father, but was even shut up in a human body, and for ages passed in succession from one female body to another, as from vessel to vessel. She was, for example, in that Helen on whose account the Trojan war was undertaken ; for whose sake also Stesichorus ^ was struck blind, because he had cursed her in his verses, but afterwards, repenting and writing what are called palinodes, in which he sang her praise, he was restored to sight. Thus she, passing from body to body, and suffering insults in every one of them, at last became a common prostitute ; and she it was that was meant by the lost sheep. 3

3. For this purpose, then, he had come that he might win her first, and free her from slavery, while he conferred salvation upon men, by making himself known to them. For since the angels ruled the world ill because each one of them coveted the principal power for himself, he had come to amend matters, and had descended, transfigured and assimilated to powers and prin-

' Comp. Just. Mart., Apnl , i. 26. It is generally siipposcd that Simon Magus was thus confounded with the Sabine god, Semo Sancus; but see our note. loc. cit. (And mine at end of the P'irst Apology. Consult OrcUi's Inscriptions there noted.]

2 A lyric poet of Sicily, said to have been dealt with, as stated above, by Castor and Pollux.

cipalities and angels, so that he might appear among men to be a man, while yet he was not a man ; and that thus he was thought to have suffered in Judosa, when he had not suffered. Moreover, the prophets uttered their predictions under the inspiration of those angels who formed the world ; for which reason those who place their trust in him and Helena no longer regarded them, but, as being free, live as they please ; for men are saved through his grace, and not on account of their own righteous actions. For such deeds are not righteous in the nature of things, but by mere accident, just as those angels who made the world, have thought fit to constitute them, seeking, by means of such precepts, to bring men into bondage. On this account, he pledged himself that the world should be dissolved, and that those who are his should be freed from the rule of them who made the world.

4. Thus, then, the mystic priests belonging to this sect both lead profligate lives and practise magical arts, each one to the extent of his ability. They use exorcisms and incantations. Love-potions, too, and charms, as well as those beings who are called " Paredri " (familiars) and " Oniropompi " (dream-senders), and whatever other curious arts can be had recourse to, are eagerly pressed into their service. They also have an image of Simon fashioned after the likeness of Jupiter, and another of Helena in the shape of Minerva ; and these they worship. In fine, they have a name derived from Simon, the author of these most impious doctrines, being called Simonians ; and from them " knowledge, falsely so called," ■♦ received its beginning, as one may learn even from their own assertions.

5. The successor of this man was Menander, also a Samaritan by birth, and he, too, was a perfect adept in the practice of magic. He affirms that the primary Power continues unknown to all, but that he himself is the person who has been sent forth from the presence of the invisible beings as a saviour, for the deliverance of men. The world was made by angels, whom, like Simon, he maintains to have been produced by Ennoea. He gives, too, as he afiirms, by means of that magic which he teaches, knowledge to this effect, that one may overcome those very angels that made the world ; for his disciples obtain the resurrection by being baptized into him, and can die no more, but remain in the possession of immortal youth. •

CHAP. XXIV.

DOCTRINES OF SATURNINUS AND BASILIDES.

I, Arising among these men, Saturninus (who was of that Antioch which is near Daphne) and Basilides laid hold of some favourable opportunities, and promulgated different systems of

doctrine — the one in Syria, the other at Alexandria. Saturninus, Hke Menander, set forth one father unknown to all, who made angels, archangels, powers, and potentates. The world, again, and all things therein, were made by a certain company of seven angels. Man, too, was the workmanship of angels, a shining image bursting forth below from the presence of the supreme power ; and when they could not, he says, keep hold of this, because it immediately darted upwards again, they exhorted each other, saying, " Let us make man after our image and likeness." ' He was accordingly formed, yet was unable to stand erect, through the inability of the angels to convey to him that power, but wriggled [on the ground] like a worm. Then the power above taking pity upon him, since he was made after his likeness, sent forth a spark of life, which gave man an erect posture, compacted his joints, and made him live. He declares, therefore, that this spark of life, after the death of a man, returns to those things which are of the same nature with itself, and the rest of the body is decomposed into its original elements.

2. He has also laid it down as a truth, that the Saviour was without birth, without body, and without figure, but was, by supposition, a visible man ; and he maintained that the God of the Jews was one of the angels ; and, on this account, because all the powers wished to annihilate his father, Christ came to destroy the God of the Jews, but to save such as believe in him ; that is, those who possess the spark of his life. This heretic was the first to affirm that two kinds of men were formed by the angels, — the one wicked, and the other good. And since the demons assist the most wicked, the Saviour came for the destruction of evil men and of the demons, but for the salvation of the good. They declare also, that marriage and generation are from Satan.^ Many of those, too, who belong to his school, abstain from animal food, and draw away multitudes by a feigned temperance of this kind. They hold, moreover, that some of the prophecies were uttered by those angels who made the world, and some by Satan ; whom Saturninus represents as being himself an angel, the enemy of the creators of the world, but especially of the God of the Jews.

3. Basilides again, that he may appear to have discovered something more sublime and plausible, gives an immense development to his doctrines. He sets forth that Nous was first born of the unborn father, that from him, again, was born Logos, from Logos Phronesis, from Phronesis Sophia and Dynamis, and from Dynamis and Sophia the powers, and principalities, and angels, whom he also calls the first; and that

by them the first heaven was made. Then other powers, being formed by emanation from these, created another heaven similar to the first ; and in like manner, when others, again, had been formed by emanation from them, corresponding exactly to those above them, these, too, framed another third heaven; and then from this third, in downward order, there was a fourth succession of descendants ; and so on, after the same fashion, they declare that more and more principalities and angels were formed, and three hundred and sixty-five heavens.^ Wherefore the year contains the same number of days in conformity with the number of the heavens.

4. 'rhose angels who occupy the lowest heaven, that, namely, which is visible to us, formed all the things which are in the world, and made allotments among themselves of the earth and of those nations which are upon it. The chief of them is he who is thought to be the God of the Jews ; and inasmuch as he desired to render the other nations subject to his own people, that is, the Jews, all the other princes resisted and opposed him. Wherefore all other nations were at enmity with his nation. But the father without birth and without name, perceiving that they would be destroyed, sent his own first-begotten Nous (he it is who is called Christ) to bestow deliverance on them that believe in him, from the power of those who made the world. He appeared, then, on earth as a man, to the nations of these powers, and wrought miracles. \Mierefore he did not himself suffer death, but Simon, a certain man of Cyrene, being compelled, bore the cross in his stead ; so that this latter being transfigured by him, that he might be thought to be Jesus, was crucified, through ignorance and error, while Jesus himself received the form of Simon, and, standing by, laughed at them. F^or since he was an incorporeal power, and the Nous (mind) of the unborn father, he transfigured himself as he pleased, and thus ascended to him who had sent him, deriding them, inasmuch as he could not be laid hold of, and was invisible to all. Those, then, who know these things have been freed from the principalities who formed the world ; so that it is not incumbent on us to confess him who was crucified, but him who came in the form of a man, and was thought to be crucified, and was called Jesus, and was sent by the father, that by this dispensation he might destroy the works of the makers of the world. If any one, therefore, he declares, confesses the crucified, that man is still a slave, and under the power of those who formed our bodies ; but he who denies him has been freed from these beings, and is acquainted with the dispensation of the unborn father.

3 The ordinary text reads, " three hundred and seventj'-five," but it should manifestly be corrected as above.

5. Salvation belongs to the soul alone, for the body is by nature subject to corruption. He declares, too, that the prophecies were derived from those powers who were the makers of the world, but the law was specially given by their chief, who led the people out of the land of Egypt. He attaches no importance to [the question regarding] meats offered in sacrifice to idols, thinks them of no consequence, and makes use of them without any hesitation ; he holds also the use of other things, and the practice of every kind of lust, a matter of perfect indifference. These men, moreover, practise magic, and use images, incantations, invocations, and every other kind of curious art. Coining also certain names as if they were those of the angels, they proclaim some of these as belonging to the first, and others to the second heaven ; and then they strive to set forth the names, principles, angels, and powers of the three hundred and sixty-five imagined heavens. They also affirm that the barbarous name in which the Saviour ascended and descended, is Caulacau.'

6. He, then, who has learned [these things], and known all the angels and their causes, is rendered invisible and incomprehensible to the angels and all the powers, even as Caulacau also was. And as the son was unknown to all, so must they also be known by no one ; but while they know all, and pass through all, they themselves remain invisible and unknown to all ; for, " Do thou," they say, " know all, but let nobody know thee." For this reason, persons of such a persuasion are also ready to recant [their opinions], yea, rather, it is impossible that they should suffer on account of a mere name, since they are like to all. The multitude, however, cannot understand these matters, but only one out of a thousand, or two out of ten thousand. They declare that they are no longer Jews, and that they are not yet Christians ; and that it is not at all fitting to speak openly of their mysteries, but right to keep them secret by preserving silence.

7. They make out the local position of the three hundred and sixty-five heavens in the same way as do mathematicians. For, accepting the theorems of these latter, they have transferred them to their own type of doctrine. They hold that their chief is Abraxas ;'^ and, on this account, that word contains in itself the numbers amounting to three hundred and sixtyfive.

' This sentence is wholly unintelligible as it stands in the Latin version. Critics dilTcr greatly as to its meanirij?; Harvey tries to bring out of it something like the translation given above. [This

name is manufactured from a curious abuse of ("Ip/ Ip) Isaiah

xxviii. 10-13, which is variously imderstood. See (Epiphanius ed.

2 So written in Latin, but in Greek 'ASpaaof , the numerical value of the letters in which is three hundred and sixty-five. [See Aii^. (ed. Migiic), vol. viii. p. 26.] It is doubtful to whom or what this word rclers; probably to the heavens.

CHAP. XXV.

■DOCTRINES OF CARPOCRATES.

1. Carpocrates, again, and his followers maintain that the world and the things which are therein were created by angels greatly inferior to the unbegotten Father. They also hold that Jesus was the son of Joseph, and was just like other men, with the exception that he differed from them in this respect, that inasmuch as his soul was stedfast and pure, he perfectly remembered those things which he had witnessed ^ within the sphere of the unbegotten God. On this account, a power descended upon him from the Father, that by means of it he might escape from the creators of the world ; and they say that it, after passing through them all, and remaining in all points free, ascended again to him, and to the powers,-* which in the same way embraced like things to itself. They further declare, that the soul of Jesus, although educated in the practices of the Jews, regarded these with contempt, and that for this reason he was endowed with faculties, by means of which he destroyed those passions which dwelt in men as a punishment [for their sins].

2. The soul, therefore, which is like that of Christ can despise those rulers who were the creators of the world, and, in like manner, receives power for accomplishing the same results. This idea has raised them to such a pitch of pride, that some of them declare themselves similar to Jesus ; while others, still more mighty, maintain that they are superior to his disciples, such as Peter and Paul, and the rest of the apostles, whom they consider to be in no respect inferior to Jesus. For their souls, descending from the same sphere as his, and therefore despising in like manner the creators of the world, are deemed worthy of the same power, and again depart to the same place. But if any one shall have despised the things in this world more than he did, he thus proves himself superior to him.

3. They practise also magical arts and incantations ; philters, also, and love-potions ; and have recourse to familiar spirits, dream-sending demons, and other abominations, declaring that they possess power to rule over, even now, the princes and formers of this world ; and not only them, but also all things that are in it. These men, even as the Gentiles, have been sent forth by Satan 5 to bring dishonour upon the Church, so that, in one way or another, men hearing the things which they speak, and imagining that we all are such as they, may turn away their ears from the preaching of the truth ; or, again, seeing the things they practise, may speak evil of

3 [I note again this " Americanism."]

ich seems to be the meaning of the Latin, but the original text is conjectural.

us all, who have in fact no fellowship with them, either in doctrine or in morals, or in our daily conduct. But they lead a licentious life,' and, to conceal their impious doctrines, they abuse the name [of Christ], as a means of hiding their wickedness ; so that " their condemnation is just," ^ when they receive from God a recompense suited to their works.

4. So unbridled is their madness, that they declare they have in their power all things which are irreligious and impious, and are at liberty to practise them ; for they maintain that things are evil or good, simply in virtue of human opinion. 3 They deem it necessary, therefore, that by means of transmigration from body to body, souls should have experience of every kind of life as well as every kind of action (unless, indeed, by a single incarnation, one may be able to prevent any need for others, by once for all, and with equal completeness, doing all those things which we dare not either speak or hear of, nay, which we must not even conceive in our thoughts, nor think credible, if any such thing is mooted among those persons who are our fellow-citizens), in order that, as their writings express it, their souls, having made trial of every kind of life, may, at their departure, not be wanting in any particular. It is necessary* to insist upon this, lest, on account of some one thing being still wanting to their deliverance, they should be compelled once more to become incarnate. They affirm that for this reason Jesus spoke the following parable : — "Whilst thou art with thine adversary in the way, give all diligence, that thou mayest be delivered from him, lest he give thee up to the jiidge, and the judge surrender thee to the officer, and he cast thee into prison. Verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt not go out thence until thou pay the very last farthing." 5 They also declare the " adversary " is one of those angels who are in the world, whom they call the Devil, maintaining that he was formed for this purpose, that he might lead those souls which have perished from the world to the Supreme Ruler. They describe him also as being chief among the makers of the world, and maintain that he delivers such souls [as have been mentioned] to another angel, who ministers to him, that he may shut them up in other bodies ; for they declare that the body is " the prison." Again, they interpret these expressions, " Thou shalt not go out thence until thou pay the very last farthing," as meaning that no one can escape from the power of those angels

' The text is here defective, but the above meaning seems to be indicnted bv Epiphanius.

3 [Isaiah v. 20. Home Tooke derives our word Truth from what any one troiuetli.^

The text here has greatly puzzled the editors. We follow the simple emendation proposed by Harvey.

who made the world, but that he must pass from body to body, until he has experience of every kind of action which can be practised in this world, and when nothing is longer wanting to him, then his liberated soul should soar upwards to that God who is above the angels, the makers of the world. In this way also all souls are sav^ed, whether their own which, guarding against all delay, participate in all sorts of actions during one incarnation, or those, again, who, by passing from body to body, are set free, on fulfilling and accomplishing what is requisite in every form of life into which they are sent, so that at length they shall no longer be [shut up] in the body.

5. And thus, if ungodly, unlawful, and forbidden actions are committed among them, I can no longer find ground for believing them to be such.'' And in their writings we read as follows, the interpretation which they give [of their views], declaring that Jesus spoke in a mystery to His disciples and aposdes privately, and that they requested and obtained permission to hand down the things thus taught them, to others who should be worthy and believing. We are saved, indeed, by means of faith and love ; but all other things, while in their nature indifferent, are reckoned by the opinion of men — some good and some evil, there being nothing really evil by nature.

6. Others of them employ outward marks, branding their disciples inside the lobe of the right ear. From among these also arose Marcellina, who came to Rome under [the episcopate of] Anicetus, and, holding these doctrines, she led multitudes astray. They style themselves Gnostics. They also possess images, some of them painted, and others formed from different kinds of material ; while they maintain that a likeness of Christ was made by Pilate at that time when Jesus lived among them.^ They crown these images, and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world ; that is to say, with the images of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Aristotle, and the rest. They have also other modes of honouring these images, after the same manner of the Gentiles.

CHAP. XXVI. — DOCTRINES OF CERINTHUS, THE EBIONITES, AND NICOLAITANES.

I. Cerinthus, again, a man who was educated ^ in the wisdom of the Egyptians, taught that the world was not made by the primary God, but by a certain Power far separated from him, and at a distance from that Principality who is su-

6 The meaning is here very doubtful, but Tertullian understood the words as above. If sinning were a necessity, then it could no longer be regarded as evil.

' [This censure of images as a Gnostic peculiarity, and as a heathenish corruption, should be noted.]

8 We here follow the text as preserved by Hippolytus. The Latin has, " a certain man in Asia."

preme over the universe, and ignorant of him who is above all. He represented Jesus as having not been born of a virgin, but as being the son of Joseph and Mary according to the ordinary course of human generation, while he nevertheless was more righteous, prudent, and wise than other men. Moreover, after his baptism, Christ descended upon him in the form of a dove from the Supreme Ruler, and that then he proclaimed the unknown Father, and performed miracles. Bnt at last Christ departed from Jesus, and that then Jesus suffered and rose again, while Christ remained impassible, inasmuch as he was a spiritual being.

2. Those who are called Ebionites agree that the world was made by God ; but their opinions with respect to the Lord are similar to those of Cerintlius and Carpocrates. They use the Gospel according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the law. As to the prophetical writings, they endeavour to expound them in a somewhat singular manner : they practise circumcision, persevere in the observance of those customs which are enjoined by the law, and are so Judaic in their style of life, that they even adore Jerusalem as if it were the house of God.

3. The Nicolaitanes are the followers of that Nicolas who was one of the seven first ordained to the diaconate by the apostles.' They lead lives of unrestrained indulgence. The character of these men is very plainly pointed out in the Apocalypse of John, [when they are represented] as teaching that it is a matter of indifference to practise adultery, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. \Vherefore the Word has also spoken of them thus : " But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also

CHAP. XXVII. DOCTRINES OF CERDO AND MAR-

CION.

1. Cerdo was one who took his system from the followers of Simon, and came to live at Rome in the time of Hyginus, who held the ninth place in the episcopal succession from the apostles downwards. He taught that the God proclaimed by the law and the prophets was not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the former was known, but the latter unknown ; while the one also was righteous, but the other benevolent.

2. Marcion of Pontus succeeded him, and developed his doctrine. In so doing, he advanced the most daring blasphemy against Him who is proclaimed as God by the law and the prophets, declaring Him to be the author of evils, to take delight in war, to be infirm of pur-

' [This is disputed by other primitive authorities.]

pose, and even to be contrary to Himself. But Jesus being derived from that father who is above the God that made the world, and coming into Judosa in the times .of Pontius Plate the governor, who was the procurator of Tiberius Caesar, was manifested in the form of a man to those who were in Judaea, abolishing the prophets and the law, and all the works of that God who made the world, whom also he calls Cosmocrator. Besides this, he mutilates the Gospel which is according to Luke, removing all that is written respecting the generation of the Lord, and setting aside a great deal of the teaching of the Lord, in which the Lord is recorded as most clearly confessing that the Maker of this universe is His Father. He likewise persuaded his disciples that he himself was more worthy of credit than are those apostles who have handed down the Gospel to us, furnishing them not with the Gospel, but merely a fragment of it. In like manner, too, he dismembered the Epistles of Paul, removing all that is said by the apostle respecting that God who made the world, to the effect that He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and also those passages from the prophetical writings which the apostle quotes, in order to teach us that they announced beforehand the coming of the Lord.

3. Salvation will be the attainment only of those souls which had learned his doctrine ; while the body, as having been taken from the earth, is incapable of sharing in salvation. In addition to his blasphemy against God Himself, he advanced this also, truly speaking as with the mouth of the devil, and saying all things in direct opposition to the twth, — that Cain, and those like him, and the Sodomites, and the Egyptians, and others like them, and, in fine, all the nations who walked in all sorts of abomination, were saved by the Lord, on His descending into Hades, and on their running unto Him, and that they welcomed Him into their kingdom. But the serpent ^ which was in Marcion declared that Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and those other righteous men who sprang •♦ from the patriarch Abraham, with all the prophets, and those who were pleasing to God, did not partake in salvation. For since these men, he says, knew that their God was constantly tempting them, so now they suspected that He was tempting them, and did not run to Jesus, or believe His announcement : and for this reason he declared that their souls remained in Hades.

4. But since this man is the only one who has dared openly to mutilate the Scriptures, and unblushingly above all others to inveigh against God, I purpose specially to refute him, convict-

We here follow the amended version proposed by the Benedictine editor.

IRKN/EUS AGAINST HERESIES.

ing him out of his own writings ; and, with the help of God, I shall overthrow him out of those ' discourses of the Lord and the apostles, which are of authority with him, and of which he makes use. At present, however, I have simply been led to mention him, that thou mightest know that all those who in any way corrupt the truth, and injuriously affect the preaching of the Church, are the disciples and successors of Simon Magus of Samaria. Although they do not confess the name of their master, in order all the more to seduce others, yet they do teach his doctrines. They set forth, indeed, the name of Christ Jesus as a sort of lure, but in various ways they introduce the impieties of Simon ; and thus they destroy multitudes, wickedly disseminating their own doctrines by the use of a good name, and, through means of its sweetness and beauty, extending to their hearers the bitter and malignant poison of the serpent, the great author of apostasy.^

CHAP. XXVIII. DOCTRINES OF TATIAN, THE

ENCR.'^TITES, AND OTHERS.

I. Many offshoots of numerous heresies have already been formed from those heretics we have descril)ed. This arises from the fact that numbers of them — indeed, we may say all — desire themselves to be teachers, and to break off from the particular heresy in which they have been involved. Forming one set of doctrines out of a totally different system of opinions, and then again others from others, they insist upon teaching something new, declaring themselves the inventors of an\' sort of opinion which they may have been able to call into existence. To give an example : Springing from Saturninus and Marcion, those who are called Encratites (self-controlled) preached against marriage, thus setting aside the original creation of God, and indirectly blaming Him who made the male and female for the ])ropagation of the human race. Some of those reckoned among them have also introduced abstinence from animal food, thus proving themselves ungrateful to God, who formed all things. They deny, too, the salvation of liim who was first created. It is but lately, however, that this opinion has been invented among them. A certain man named Tatian first introduced the blasphemy. He was a hearer of Justin's, and as long as he continued with him he expressed no such views ; but after his martyrdom he separated from the Church, and, excited and puffed up by the thought of being a teacher, as if he were superior to others, he composed his own peculiar type of doctrine. He invented a system of certain invisible ^-Eons, like the followers of Valen-

' A promise never fulfilled: comp. book iii. 12, and Euseb., Hist.

tinus ; while, like Marcion and Saturninus, he declared that marriage was nothing else than corruption and fornication.^ But his denial of Adam's salvation was an opinion due entirely to himself.

2. Others, again, following upon Basilides and Carpocrates, have introduced promiscuous intercourse and a ])lurality of wives, and are indifferent about eating meats sacrificed to idols, maintaining that God does not greatly regard such matters. But why continue? For it is an impracticable attempt to mention all those who, in one way or another, have fallen away from the

CHAP. XXIX. — DOCTRINES OF VARIOUS OTHER GNOSTIC SECTS, AND ESPECIALLY OF THE BAR- BELIOTES OR BORBORIANS.

1. Besides those, however, among these heretics who are Simonians, and of whom we have already spoken, a multitude of Gnostics have sprung up, and have been manifested like mushrooms growing out of the ground. I now proceed to describe the principal opinions held by them. Some of them, then, set forth a certain JiLon who never grows old, and exists in a virgin spirit : him they style Barbelos.-* They declare that somewhere or other there exists a certain father who cannot be named, and that he was desirous to reveal himself to this Barbelos. Then this Enncea went forward, stood before his face, and demanded from him Prognosis (prescience). But when Prognosis had, [as wa* requested,] come forth, these two asked for Aphtharsia (incorruption), which also came forth, and after that Zoe Aionios (eternal life). Barbelos, glorying in these, and contemplating their greatness, and in conceptions [thus formed], rejoicing in this greatness, generated light similar to it. They declare that this was the beginning both of light and of the generation of all things^: and that the Father, beholding this light, anointed it with his own benignity, that it might be rendered perfect. Moreover, they maintain that this was Christ, who again, according to them, requested that Nous should be given him as an assistant ; and Nous came forth accordingly. Besides these, the Father sent forth Logos. The conjunctions of Ennoea and Logos, and of Aphtharsia and Christ, will thus be formed ; while Zoe Aionios was united to Thelema, and Nous to Prognosis. These, then, magnified the great light and Barbelos.

2. They also aftirm that Autogenes was afterwards sent forth from Ennoea and Logos, to be

3 [The whole casuistical system of the Trent divines, De Matritnonio, proceeds on this piinciple: marriage is licensed evil.]

Harvey supposes this name to be derived from two Syriac words, meaning " God in a Tetrad." Matter again derives it from two Hebrew words, denoting " Daughter of the Lord."

Both the te.xt and meaning are here altogether doubtful.

a representation of the great light, and that he was greatly honoured, all things being rendered subject unto him. Along with him was sent forth Aletheia, and a conjunction was formed between Autogenes and Aletheia. But they declare that from the Light, which is Christ, and from Aphtharsia, four luminaries were sent forth to surround Autogenes ; and again from Thelema and Zoe Aionios four other emissions took place, to wait upon these four luminaries ; and these they name Charis (grace), Thelesis (will), Synesis (understanding), and Phronesis (prudence). Of these, Charis is connected with the great and first luminary : him they represent as Soter (Saviour), and style Armogenes.' Thelesis, again,, is united to the second luminary, whom they also name Raguel ; Synesis to the third, whom they call David ; and Phronesis to the fourth, whom they name Eleleth.

3. All these, then, being thus settled, Autogenes moreover produces a perfect and true man, whom they also call Adamas, inasmuch as neither has he himself ever been conquered, nor have those from whom he sprang ; he also was, along with the first Hght, severed from Armogenes. Moreover, perfect knowledge was sent forth by Autogenes along with man, and was united to him ; hence he attained to the knowledge of him that is above all. Invincible power was also conferred on him by the virgin spirit ; and all things then rested in him, to sing praises to the great ^on. Hence also they declare were manifested the mother, the father, the son ; while from Anthropos and Gnosis that Tree was produced which they also style Gnosis itself.

4. Next they maintain, that from the first angel, who stands by the side of Monogenes, the Holy Spirit has been sent forth, whom they also term Sophia and Prunicus.^ He then, perceiving that all the others had consorts, while he himself was destitute of one, searched after a being to whom he might be united ; and not finding one, he exerted and extended himself to the uttermost, and looked down into the lower regions, in the expectation of there finding a consort ; and still not meeting with one, he leaped forth [from his place] in a state of great impatience, [which had come upon him] because he had made his attempt without the good-will of his father. Afterwards, under the influence of simplicity and kindness, he produced a work in which were to be found ignorance and audacity. This work of his they declare to be Protarchontes, the former of this [lower] creation. But they relate that a mighty power carried him away from his mother, and that he settled far away

' Harvey refers to the cabb.ilistic books in explanation of this and the following names, but their meanings are very uncertain.

- Various explanations of this word have been proposed, but its signification remains altogether doubtful.

from her in the lower regions, and formed the firmament of heaven, in which also they affirm that he dwells. And in his ignorance he formed those powers which are inferior to himself — angels, and firmaments, and all things earthly. They affirm that he, being united to Authadia (audacity), produced Kakia (wickedness), Zelos (emulation), Phthonos (envy), Erinnys (fury), and Epithymia (lust). When these were generated, the mother Soyjhia deeply grieved, fled away, departed into the upper regions, and became the last of the Ogdoad, reckoning it downwards. On her thus departing, he imagined he was the only being in existence ; and on this account declared, " I am a jealous God, and besides me there is no one." ^ Such are the falsehoods which these people invent.

CHAP. XXX. DOCTRINES OF THE OPHITES AND

SETHUNS.

1. Others, again, portentously declare that there exists, in the power of Bythus, a certain primary light, blessed, incorruptible, and infinite : this is the Father of all, and is styled the first man. They also maintain that his Ennoea, going forth from him, produced a son, and that this is the son of man — the second man. Below these, again, is the Holy Spirit, and under this superior spirit the elements were separated from each other, viz., water, darkness, the abyss, chaos, above which they declare the Spirit was borne, calling him the first woman. Afterwards, they maintain, the first man, with his son, delighting over the beauty of the Spirit — that is, of the woman — and shedding light upon her, begat by her an incorruptible light, the third male, whom they call Christ, — the son of the first and second man, and of the Holy Spirit, the first woman.

2. The father and son thus both had intercourse with the woman (whom they also call the mother of the living). When, however,** she could not bear nor receive into herself the greatness of the lights, they declare that she was filled to repletion, and became ebuUient on the left side ; and that thus their only son Christ, as belonging to the right side, and ever tending to what was higher, was immediately caught up with his mother to form an incorruptible ^on. This constitutes the true and holy Church, which has become the appellation, the meeting together, and the union of the father of all, of the first man, of the son, of the second man, of Christ their son, and of the woman who has been mentioned.

3. They teach, however, that the power which proceeded from the woman by ebullition, being besprinkled with light, fell downward from the place occupied by its progenitors, yet possessing

■* The punctuation is here difficult and doubtful.

by its own will that l)csprinkling of light ; and it they call Sinistra, Prunicus, and Sophia, as well as masculo-feminine. This being, in its simplicity, descended into the waters while they were yet in a state of immobility, and imparted motion to them also, wantonly acting upon them even to their lowest depths, and assumed from them a body. For they affirm that all things rushed towards and clung to that sprinkling of light, and begirt it all round. Unless it had possessed that, it would perhaps have been totally absorbed in, and overwhelmed by, material substance. Being therefore bound down by a body which was composed of matter, and greatly burdened by it, this power regretted the course it had followed, and made an attempt to escape from the waters and ascend to its mother : it could not effect this, however, on account of the weight of the body lying over and around it. But feeling very ill at ease, it endeavoured at least to conceal that light which came from above, fearing lest it too might be injured by the inferior elements, as had happened to itself. And when it had received power from that besprinkling of light which it possessed, it sprang back again, and was borne aloft ; and being on high, it extended itself, covered [a portion of space], and formed this visible heaven out of its body ; yet remained under the heaven which it made, as still possessing the form of a watery body. But w^hen it had conceived a desire for the light above, and had received power by all things, it laid down this body, and was freed from it. This body which they speak of that power as having thrown off, they call a female from a female.

4. They declare, moreover, that her son had also himself a certain breath of incorruption left him by his mother, and that through means of it he works ; and becoming powerful, he himself, as they affirm, also sent forth from the waters a son without a mother ; for they do not allow him either to have known a mother. His son, again, after the example of his father, sent forth another son. This third one, too, generated a fourth ; the fourth also generated a son : they maintain that again a son was generated by the fifth ; and the sixth, too, generated a seventh. Thus was the Hebdomad, according to them, completed, the mother possessing the eighth place ; and as in the case of their generations, so also in regard to dignities and powers, they precede each other in turn.

5. They have also given names to [the several persons] in their system of falsehood, such as the following : he who was the first descendant of the mother is called laldabaoth ; ' he.

■ The probable meaning of this and the following names is thus given by Harvey: laldabaoth, Lord God 0/ the Fathers; lao, 'Jehovah ; Oreus, Light; Astanphaeus, Crown: Sabaoth, of course, means Hosts ; Adoneus, Lord ; and Eloeiis, Cod. All the names are derived from the cabbalistic theology of the Jews.

again, descended from him, is named lao ; he, from this one, is called Sabaoth ; the fourth is named Adoneus ; the fifth, Eloeus ; the sixth, Oreus ; and the seventh and last of all, Astanphaeus. Moreover, they represent these heavens, l)Otentates, powers, angels, and creators, as sitting in their proper order in heaven, according to their generation, and as invisibly ruling over things celestial and terrestrial. The first of them, namely laldabaoth, holds his mother in contempt, inasmuch as he produced sons and grandsons without the permission of any one, yea, even angels, archangels, powers, potentates, and dominions. After these things had been done, his sons turned to strive and quarrel with him about the supreme power, — conduct which deeply grieved laldabaoth, and drove him to despair. In these circumstances, he cast his eyes upon the subjacent dregs of matter, and fixed his desire upon it, to which they declare his son owes his origin. This son is Nous himself, twisted into the form of a serpent ; - and hence were derived the spirit, the soul, and all mundane things : from this too were generated all oblivion, wickedness, emulation, envy, and death. They declare that the father imparted ^ still greater crookedness to this serpent-like and contorted Nous of theirs, when he was with their father in heaven and Paradise.

6. On this account, laldabaoth, becoming uplifted in spirit, boasted himself over all those things that were below him, and exclaimed, " I am father, and God, and above me there is no one." But his mother, hearing him speak thus, cried out against him, " Do not lie, laldabaoth : for the father of all, the first Anthropos (man), is above thee ; and so is Anthropos the son of Anthropos." Then, as all were disturbed by this new voice, and by the unexpected proclamation, and as they were inquiring whence the noise proceeded, in order to lead them away and attract them to himself, they affirm that laldabaoth exclaimed, " Come, let us make man after our image." ^ The six powers, on hearing this, and their mother furnishing them with the idea of a man (in order that by means of him she might empty them of their original power), jointly formed a man of immense size, both in regard to breadth and length. But as he could merel}' writhe along the ground, they carried him to their father ; Sophia so labouring in this matter, that she might empty him (laldabaoth) of the light with which he had been sprinkled, so that he might no longer, though still powerful, be abl,e to lift up himself against the powers above. They declare, then, that by breathing

2 Hence their name of Ophites, from o<J>is, a serpent.

3 The Latin has evertisse, implying that thus Nous was mote degraded.

into man the spirit of life, he was secretly emptied of his power ; that hence man became a possessor of nous (intelligence) and enthymesis (thought) ; and they affirm that these are the faculties which partake in salvation. He [they further assert] at once gave thanks to the first Anthropos (man), forsaking those who had created him.

7. But laldabaoth, feeling envious at this, was pleased to form the design of again emptying man by means of woman, and produced a woman from his own enthymesis, whom that Prunicus [above mentioned] laying hold of, imperceptibly emptied her of power. But the others coming and admiring her beauty, named her Eve, and falling in love with her, begat sons by her, whom they also declare to be the angels. But their mother (Sophia) cunningly devised a scheme to seduce Eve and Adam, by means of the serpent, to transgress the command of laldabaoth. Eve listened to this as if it had proceeded from a son of God, and yielded an easy belief. She also persuaded Adam to eat of the tree regarding which God had said that they should not eat of it. They then declare that, on their thus eating, they attained to the knowledge of that power which is above all, and departed from those who had created them.' When Prunicus perceived that the powers were thus baffled by their own creature, she greatly rejoiced, and again cried out, that since the father was incorruptible, he (laldabaoth) who formerly called himself the father was a liar ; and that, while Anthropos and the first woman (the Spirit) existed previously, this one (Eve) sinned by committing adultery.

8. laldabaoth, however, through that oblivion in which he was involved, and not paying any regard to these things, cast Adam and Eve out of Paradise, because they had transgressed his commandment. For he had a desire to beget sons by Eve, but did not accomplish his wish, because his mother opposed him in every point, and secretly emptied Adam and Eve of the hght with which they had been sprinkled, in order that that spirit which proceeded from the supreme power might participate neither in tire curse nor opprolirium [caused by transgression]. They also teach that, thus being emptied of the divine substance, they were cursed by him, and cast down from heaven to this world.- But the serpent also, who was acting against the father, was cast down by him into this lower world ; he reduced, however, under his power the angels here, and begat six sons, he himself forming the seventh person, after the example of that Hebdomad which surrounds the father. •. They further declare that these are the seven mundane demons, who always oppose and resist the human

' That is, from laldabaoth, etc. [Pltilasir. {?it supra), Oehler,

- I here is constant reference ni this section to rabbinical conceits and follies.

race, because it was on their account that their father was cast down to this lower world.

9. Adam and Eve previously had light, and clear, and as it were spiritual bodies, such as they were at their creation ; but when they came to this world, these changed into bodies more opaque, and gross, and sluggish. Their soul also was feeble and languid, inasmuch as they had received from their creator a merely mundane inspiration. This continued until Prunicus, moved with compassion towards them, restored to them the sweet savour of the besprinkling of light, by means of which they came to a remembrance of themselves, and knew that they were naked, as well as that the body was a material substance, and thus recognised that they bore death about with them. They thereupon became patient, knowing that only for a time they would be enveloped in the body. They also found out food, through the guidance of Sophia ; and when they were satisfied, they had carnal knowledge of each other, and begat Cain, whom the serpent, that had been cast down along with his sons, immediately laid hold of and destroyed by filling him with mundane oblivion, and urging into folly and audacity, so that, by slaying his brother Abel, he was the first to bring to light envy and death. After these, they affirm that, by the forethought of Prunicus, Seth was begotten, and then Norea,^ from whom they represent all the rest of mankind as being descended. They were urged on to all kinds of wickedness by the inferior Hebdomad, and to apostasy, idolatry, and a general contempt for everything by the superior holy Hebdomad,* since the mother was always secretly opposed to them, and carefully preserveti what was peculiarly her own, that is, the besprinkling of light. They maintain, moreover, that the holy Hebdomad is the seven stars which they call planets ; and they affirm that the serpent cast down has two names, Michael and Samael.

10. laldabaoth, again, being incensed with men, because they did not worship or honour him as father and God, sent forth a deluge upon them, that he might at once destroy them all. But Sophia opposed him in this point also, and Noah and his family were saved in the ark by means of the besprinkling of that light which proceeded from her, and through it the world was again filled with mankind. laldabaoth himself chose a certain man named Abraham from among these, and made a covenant with him, to the effect that, if his seed continued to serve him, he would give to them the earth for an inheritance. Afterwards, by means of Moses, he

3 A name probably derived from the Hebrew ni>'J, £"'1, but of the person referred to we know nothing.

< We here follow the emendation of Crabe: the defection of Prunicus is intended.

brought forth Abraham's descendants from Egypt, and gave them the law, and made them the Jews. Among that people he chose seven days,' which they also call the holy Hebdomad. Each of these receives his own herald for the purpose of glorifying and proclaiming God ; so that, when the rest hear these praises, they too may serve those who are announced as gods by the prophets.

11. Moreover, they distribute the prophets in the following manner : Moses, and Joshua the son of Nun, and Amos, and Habakkuk, belonged to laldabaoth ; Samuel, and Nathan, and Jonah, and Micah, to lao ; Elijah, Joel, and Zechariah, to Sabaoth ; Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Daniel, to Adonai ; Tobias and Haggai to Eloi ; Michaiah and Nahum to Oreus ; Esdras and Zephaniah to Astanphaeus.* Each one of these, then, glorifies his own father and God, and they maintain that Sophia herself has also spoken many things through them regarding the first Anthropos (man),^ and concerning that Christ who is above, thus admonishing and reminding men of the incorruptible light, the first Anthropos, and of the descent of Christ. The [other] powers being terrified by these things, and marvelling at the novelty of those things which were announced by the prophets, Prunicus brought it about by means of laldabaoth (who knew not what he did), that emissions of two men took place, the one from the barren Elizabeth, and the other from the Virgin Mary.

12. And since she herself had no rest either in heaven or on earth, she invoked her mother to assist her in her distress. Upon this, her mother, the first woman, was moved with compassion towards her daughter, on her repentance, and begged from the first man that Christ should be sent to her assistance, who, being sent forth, descended to his sister, and to the besprinkling of light. When he recognised her (that is, the Sophia below), her brother descended to her, and announced his advent through means of John,- and prepared the baptism of repentance, and adopted Jesus beforehand, in order that on Christ descending he might find a pure vessel, and that by the son of that laldabaoth the woman might be announced by Christ. They further declare that he descended through the seven heavens, having assumed the likeness of their sons, and gradually emptied them of their power. For they maintain that the whole besprinkling of light rushed to him, and that Christ, descending to this world, first clothed his sister Sophia [with it], and that then both exulted in the mutual

' The Latin here is " ex quibus," and the meaning is exceedingly obscure. Harvey thinks it is the representative e'f wr {xpoviav) in the Greek, but we prefer to refer it to " Juda;os," as above. The next sentence seems unintelHgible; but, according to Harvey, "each deified day of the week had his ministering prophets."

^ The common text in.serts " et incorruptibili JEone," but this ieems better rejected as a glossarial interpolation.

refreshment they felt in each other's society : this scene they describe as relating to bridegroom and bride. But Jesus, inasmuch as he was begotten of the Virgin through the agency of God, was wiser, purer, and more righteous than all other men : Christ united to Sophia descended into him, and thus Jesus Christ was produced.

13. They affirm that many of his disciples were not aware of the descent of Christ into him ; but that, when Christ did descend on Jesus, he then began to work miracles, and heal, and announce the unknown Father, and openly to confess himself the son of the first man. The powers and the father of Jesus were angry at these proceedings, and laboured to destroy him ; and when he was being led away for this purpose, they say that Christ himself, along with Sophia, departed from him into the state of an incorruptible ^on, while Jesus was crucified. Christ, however, was not forgetful of his Jesus, but sent down a certain energy into him from above, which raised him up again in the body, which they call both animal and spiritual ; for he sent the mundane parts back again into the world. When his disciples saw that he had risen, they did not recognise him — no, not even Jesus himself, by whom he rose again from the dead. And they assert that this very great error prevailed among his disciples, that they imagined he had risen in a mundane body, not knowing that " flesh ^ and blood do not attain to the kingdom of God."

14. They strove to establish the descent and ascent of Christ, by the fact that neither before his baptism, nor after his resurrection from the dead, do his disciples state that he did any mighty works, not being aware that Jesus was united to Christ, and the incorruptible /Eon to the Hebdomad ; and they declare his mundane body to be of the same nature as that of animals. But after his resurrection he tarried [on earth] eighteen months ; and knowledge descending into him from above, he taught what was clear. He instructed a few of his disciples, whom he knew to be capable of understanding so great mysteries, in these things, and was then received up into heaven, Christ sitting down at the right hand of his father laldabaoth, that he may receive to himself the souls of those who have known them,^ after they have laid aside their mundane flesh, thus enriching himself without the knowledge or perception of his father ; so that, in proportion as Jesus enriches himself with holy souls, to such an e.xtent does his father suffer loss and is diminished, being emptied of his own power by these souls. For he will not now possess holy souls to send them down again into

3 I Cor. XV. 50. The Latin te.\t reads " apprehendunt," which can scarcely be the translation of KAjipovofi^trat in the Greek text of the New Testament.

That is, Christ and Jesus.

the world, except those only which are of his substance, that is, those into which he has breathed. But the consummation [of all things] will take place, when the whole besprinkling of the spirit of light is gathered together, and is carried off to form an incorruptible ^on.

15. Such are the opinions which prevail among these persons, by whom, like the Lernaean hydra, a many-headed beast has been generated from the school of Valentinus. For some of them assert that Sophia herself became the serpent ; on which account she was hostile to the creator of Adam, and implanted knowledge in men, for which reason the serpent was called wiser than all others. Moreover, by the position of our intestines, through which the food is conveyed, and by the fact that they possess such a figure, our internal configuration ' in the form of a serpent reveals our hidden generatrix.

CHAP. XXXI.

DOCTRINES OF THE C.'^INITES.

1. Others again declare that Cain derived his being from the Power above, and acknowledge that Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and all such persons, are related to themselves. On this account, they add, they have been assailed by the Creator, yet no one of them has suffered injury. For Sophia was in the habit of carrying off that which belonged to her from them to herself They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal ; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas.

2. I have also made a collection of their writings in which they advocate the abolition of the doings of Hystera.^ Moreover, they call this Hystera the creator of heaven and earth. They also hold, like Carpocrates, that men cannot be saved until they have gone through all kinds of experience. An angel, they maintain, attends them in every one of their sinful and abominable actions, and urges them to venture on audacity and incur pollution. Whatever may be the nature ^ of the action, they declare that they do it in the name of the angel, saying, " O thou angel, I use thy work ; O thou i)ower, I accomplish thy operation ! " And they maintain that this is " perfect knowledge," without shrinking to rush into such actions as it is not lawful even to name.

3. It was necessary clearly to prove, that, as their very opinions and regulations exhibit them.

' The lext of this sentence is hopelessly corrupt, but the meaning is as given above.

^ According to Harvey, Hystera corresponds to the " passions" of Achamoth. [Note the Americanism," advocate used as a verb.]

3 The text is here imperfect, and the translation only conjectural.

those who are of the school of Valentinus derive their origin from such mothers, fathers, and ancestors, and also to bring forward their doctrines, with the hope that perchance some of them, exercising repentance and returning to the only Creator, and God the Former of the universe, may obtain salvation, and that others may not henceforth be drawn away by their wicked, although plausible, persuasions, imagining that they will obtain from them the knowledge of some greater and more sublime mysteries. But let them rather, learning to good effect from us the wicked tenets of these men, look with contempt upon their doctrines, while at the same time they pity those who, still cleaving to these miserable and baseless fables, have reached such a pitch of arrogance as to reckon themselves superior to all others on account of such knowledge, or, as it should rather be called, ignorance. They have now been fully exposed ; and simply to exhibit their sentiments, is to obtain a victory over them. 4. Wherefore I have laboured to bring forward, and make clearly manifest, the utterly illconditioned carcase of this miserable little fox.'* For there will not now be need of many words to overturn their system of doctrine, when it has been made manifest to all. It is as when, on a beast hiding itself in a wood, and by rushing forth from it is in the habit of destroying multitudes, one who beats round the wood and thoroughly explores it, so as to compel the animal to break cover, does not strive to capture it, seeing that it is truly a ferocious beast ; but those present can then watch and avoid its assaults, and can cast darts at it from all sides, and wound it, and finally slay that destructive brute. So, in our case, since we have brought their hidden mysteries, which they keep in silence among themselves, to the light, it will not now be necessary to use many words in destroying their system of opinions. For it is now in thy power, and in the power of all thy associates, to familiarize yourselves with what has been said, to overthrow their wicked and undigested doctrines, and to set forth doctrines agreeable to the truth. Since then the case is so, I shall, according to promise, and as my ability serves, labour to o\erthrow them, by refuting them all in the following book. Even to give an account of them is a tedious affair, as thou seest.5 But I shall fiirnish means for overthrowing them, by meeting all their opinions in the order in which they have been described, that I may not only expose the wild beast to view, but may inflict wounds upon it from every side.

S [Let the reader bear in mind that the Greek of this original and very precious author exists only in fragments. We are reading the translation of a translation; the Latin very nide, and the subject itself full of difficulties. It may yet be discovered that some of the faults of the work arc not chargeable to Irenasus. j

BOOK II.

I. In the first book, which immediately precedes this, exposing " knowledge falsely so called," ' I showed thee, my very dear ft-iend, that the whole system devised, in many and oi:)posite ways, by those who are of the school of Valentinus, was false and baseless. I also set forth the tenets of their predecessors, proving that they not only differed among themselves, but had long previously swerved from the truth itself. I further explained, with all diligence, the doctrine as well as practice of Marcus the magician, since he, too, belongs to these persons ; and I carefully noticed ^ the passages which they garble from the Scriptures, with the view of adapting them to their own fictions. Moreover, I minutely narrated the manner in which, by means of numbers, and by the twenty-four letters of the alj^habet, they boldly endeavour to establish [what they regard as] truth. I have also related how they think and teach that creation at large was formed after the image of their invisible Pleroma, and what they hold respecting the Demiurge, declaring at the same time the doctrine of Simon Magus of Samaria, their progenitor, and of all those who succeeded him. I mentioned, too, the multitude of those Gnostics who are sprung from him, and noticedthe points of difference between them, their several doctrines, and the order of their succession, while I set forth all those heresies which have been originated by them. I showed, moreover, that all these heretics, taking their rise from Simon, have introduced impious and irreligious doctrines into this life ; and I explained the nature of their "redemption," and their method of initiating those who are rendered "perfect," along with their invocations and their mysteries. I proved also that there is one God, the Creator, and that He is not the fruit of any defect, nor is there anything either above Him, or after Him.

2 [Note this " Americanism."]

2. In the present book, I shall establish those points which fit in with my design, so far. as time permits, and overthrow, by means of lengthened treatment under distinct heads, their whole system ; for which reason, since it is an exposure and subversion of their opinions, I have so entitled the composition of this work. For it is fitting, by a plain revelation and overthrow of their conjunctions, to put an end to these hidden alliances,^ and to Bythus himself, and thus to obtain a demonstration that he never existed at any previous time, nor now has any existence.

SIBILITY OF ITS BEING OTHERWISE.

1. It is proper, then, that I should begin with the first and most important head, that is, God the Creator, who made the heaven and the earth, and all things that are therein (whom these men blasphemously style the fruit of a defect), and to demonstrate that there is nothing either above Him or after Him ; nor that, influenced by any one, but of His own free will. He created all things, since He is the only God, the only Lord, the only Creator, the only Father, alone containing all things, and Himself commanding all things into existence.

2. For how can there be any other Fulness, or Principle, or Power, or God, above Him, since it is matter of necessity that God, the Pleroma (Fulness) of all these, should contain all things in His immensity, and should be contained by no one? But if there is anything beyond Him, He is not then the Pleroma of all, nor does He contain all. For that which they declare to be beyond Him ^nll be wanting to the Pleroma, or, [in other words,] to that God who is above all things. But that which is wanting, and falls in any way short, is not the

3 This passage is venobscure: we have supplied " et," which, as Harvey conjectures, may have dropped out of the text.

Pleroma of all things. In such a case, He would have both beginning, middle, and end, with respect to those who are beyond Him. And if He has an end in regard to those things which are below, He has also a beginning with respect to those things which are above. In like manner, there is an absolute necessity that He should experience the very same thing at all other points, and should be held in, bounded, and enclosed by those existences that are outside of H^m. For that being who is the end downwards, necessarily circumscribes and surrounds him who finds his end in it. And thus, according to them, the Father of all (that is, He whom they call Proon and Proarche), with their Pleroma, and the good God of Marcion, is established and enclosed in some other, and is surrounded from without by another mighty Being, who must of necessity be greater, inasmuch as that which contains is greater than that which is contained. But then that which is greater is also stronger, and in a greater degree Lord ; and that which is greater, and stronger, and in a greater degree Lord — must be God.

3. Now, since there exists, according to them, also something else which they declare to be outside of the Pleroma, into which they further hold there descended that higher power who went astray, it is in every way necessary that the Pleroma either contains that which is beyond, yet is contained (for otherwise, it will not be beyond the Pleroma ; for if there is anything beyond the Pleroma, there will be a Pleroma within this very Pleroma which they declare to be outside of the Pleroma, and the Pleroma will be contained by that which is beyond : and with the Pleroma is understood also the first God) ; or, again, they must be an infinite distance separated from each other — the Pleroma [I mean], and that which is beyond it. But if they maintain this, there will then be a third kind of existence, which separates by immensity the Pleroma and that which is beyond it. This third kind of existence will therefore bound and contain both the others, and will be greater both than the Pleroma, and than that which is beyond it, inasmuch as it contains both in its bosom. In this way, talk might go on for ever concerning those things which are contained, and those which contain. For if this third existence has its beginning above, and its end beneath, there is an absolute necessity that it be also bounded on the sides, either beginning or ceasing at certain other points, [where new existences begin.] These, again, and others which are above and below, will have their beginnings at certain other points, and so on a^/ infinitum ; so that their thoughts would never rest in one God, but, in consequence of seeking after more than exists,

would wander away to that which has no existence, and depart from the true God.

4. These remarks are, in like manner, applicable against the followers of Marcion. For his two gods will also be contained and circumscribed by an immense interval which separates them from one another. But then there is a necessity to suppose a multitude of gods separated by an immense distance from each other on every side, beginning with one another, and ending in one another. Thus, by that very process of reasoning on which they depend for teaching that there is a certain Pleroma or God above the Creator of heaven and earth, any one who chooses to employ it may maintain that there is another Pleroma above the Pleroma, above that again another, and above Bythus another ocean of Deity, while in like manner the same successions hold with respect to the sides ; and thus, their doctrine flowing out into immensity, there will always be a necessity to conceive of other Pleromata, and other Bythi, so as never at any time to stop, but always to continue seeking for others besides those already mentioned. Moreover, it will be uncertain whether these which we conceive of are below, or are, in fact, themselves the things which are above ; and, in like manner, [it will be doubtful] respecting those things which are said by them to be above, whether they are really above or below ; and thus our opinions will have no fixed conclusion or certainty, but will of necessity wander forth after worlds without limits, and gods that cannot be numbered.

5. These things, then, being so, each deity will be contented with his own possessions, and will not be moved with any curiosity respecting the affairs of others ; otherwise he would be unjust, and rapacious, and would cease to be what God is. Each creation, too, will glorify its own maker, and will be contented with him, not knowing any other ; otherwise it would most justly be deemed an apostate by all the others, and would receive a richly-deserved punishment. For it must be either that there is one Being who contains all things, and formed in His own territory all those things which have been created, according to His own will ; or, again, that there are numerous unlimited creators and gods, who begin from each other, and end in each other on every side ; and it will then be necessary to allow that all the rest are contained from without by some one who is greater, and that they are each of them shut up within their own territory, and remain in it. No one of them all, therefore, is God. For there will be [much] wanting to every one of them, possessing [as he will do] only a very small })art when compared with all the rest. The name of the Omnipotent will thus be brought to an end, and such an opinion will of necessity fall into impiety.

ANGELS, OR BY ANY OTHER BELVG, CONTRARY TO THE WILL OF THE MOST HIGH GOD, BUT WAS MADE BY THE FATHER THROUGH THE WORD.'

I. Those, moreover, who say that the world was formed by angels, or by any other maker of it, contrary to the will of Him who is the Supreme Father, err first of all in this very point, that they maintain that angels formed such and so mighty a creation, contrary to the will of the Most High God. This would imply that angels were more powerful than God ; or if not so, that He was either careless, or inferior, or paid no regard to those things which took place among His own possessions, whether they turned out ill or well, so that He might drive away and prevent the one, while He praised and rejoiced over the other. But if one would not ascribe such conduct even to a man of any ability, how much less to God !

2. Next let them tell us whether these things have been formed within the limits which are contained by Him, and in His proper territory, or in regions belonging to others, and lying beyond Him ? But if they say [that these things were done] beyond Him, then all the absurdities already mentioned will face them, and the Supreme God will be enclosed by that which is beyond Him, in which also it will be necessary that He should find His end. If, on the other hand, [these things were done] within His own proper territory, it will be very idle to say that the world was thus formed within His proper territory against His will by angels who are themselves under His power, or by any other being, as if either He Himself did not behold all things which take place among His own possessions, or - was not aware of the things to be done by angels.

3. If, however, [the things referred to were done] not against His will, but with His concurrence and knowledge, as some [of these men] think, the angels, or the Former of the world [whoever that may have been], will no longer be the causes of that formation, but the will of God. For if He is the Former of the world. He too made the angels, or at least was the cause of their creation ; and He will be regarded as having made the world who prepared the causes of its formation. Although they maintain that the angels were made by a long succession downwards, or that the Former of the world [sprang] from the Supreme Father, as Basilides asserts; nevertheless that which is the cause of those things which have been made will still be traced to Him who was the Author of such a succession. [The case stands] just as regards success in war,

Ihe common text has " ut : " we prefer to read " aut " with iu-asmus and others.

which is ascribed to the king who prepared those things which are the cause of victory ; and, in like manner, the creation of any state, or of any work, is referred to him who prepared materials for the accomplishment of those results which were afterwards brought about, ^\l^erefore, we do not say that it was the axe which cut the wood, or the saw which divided it; but one would very properly say that the man cut and divided it who formed the axe and the saw for this purpose, and [who also formed] at a much earlier date all the tools by which the axe and the saw themselves were formed. With justice, therefore, according to an analogous process of 'reasoning, the Father of all will be declared the Former of this world, and not the angels, nor any other [so-called] former of the world, other than He who was its Author, and had formerly 3 been the cause of the preparation for a creation of this kind.

4. This manner of speech may perhaps be plausible or persuasi\'e to those who know not God, and who liken Him to needy human beings, and to those who cannot immediately and without assistance form anything, but require many instrumentalities to produce what they intend. But it will not be regarded as at all probable by those who know that God stands in need of nothing, and that He created and made all things by His Word, while He neither recjuired angels to assist Him in the production of those things which are made, nor of any power greatly inferior to Himself, and ignorant of the Father, nor of any defect or ignorance, in order that he who should know Him might become man.-* But He Himself in Himself, after a fashion which we can neither describe nor conceive, predestinating all things, formed them as He pleased, bestowing harmony on all things, and assigning them their own place, and the beginning of their creation. In this way He conferred on spiritual things a spiritual and invisible nature, on supercelestial things a celestial, on angels an angelical, on animals an animal, on beings that swim a nature suited to the water, and on those that live on the land one fitted for the land — on all, in short, a nature suitable to the character of the life assigned them — while He formed all things that were made by His "Word that ne\er wearies. 5. For this is a peculiarity of the pre-eminence of God, not to stand in need of other instruments for the creation of those things which are summoned into existence. His own Word is both suitable and sufficient for the formation of all things, even as John, the disciple of the Lord,

3 Vossius and others read "primus" instead of " prius," but on defective ms. authority.

■* Harvey here obseries: " Grabe misses the meaning by applying to the redeemed that which the author says of the Redeemer: " but It may be doubted if this is really the case. Perhaps Massuet's rendering of the clause, " that that man might be formed who should know Him,' is, after all, preferable to that given above.

declares regarding Him : " All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made." ' Now, among the " all things " our world must be embraced. It too, therefore, was made by His Word, as Scripture tells us in the book of Genesis that He made all things connected with our world by His Word. David also expresses the same truth [when he says], " For He spake, and they were made ; He commanded, and they were created." ^ Whom, therefore, shall we believe as to the creation of the world — these heretics who have been mentioned that prate so foolishly and inconsistently on the subject, or the disciples of the Lord, and Moses, who was both a faithful servant of God and a prophet? He at first narrated the formation of the world in these words : " In the beginning God created the heaven arid the earth," ^ and all other things in succession ; but neither gods nor angels [had any share in the work] .

Now, that this God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul the apostle also has declared, [saying,] " There is one God, the Father, who is above all, and through all things, and in us all."-* I have indeed proved already that there is only one God ; but I shall further demonstrate this from the apostles themselves, and from the discourses of the Lord. For what sort of conduct would it be, were we to forsake the utterances of the prophets, of the Lord, and of the apostles, that we might give heed to these persons, who speak not a word of sense ?

CHAP. III. — THE BYTHUS AND PLEROINIA OF THE VALENTINIANS, AS WELL AS THE GOD OF MAR- CION, SHOWN TO BE ABSURD ; THE WORLD WAS ACTUALLY CREATED BY THE SAME BEING WHO HAD CONCEIVED THE IDEA OF IT, AND WAS NOT THE FRUIT OF DEFECT OR IGNORANCE.

I. The Bythus, therefore, whom they conceive of with his Pleroma, and the God of Marcion, are inconsistent. If indeed, as they affirm, he has something subjacent and beyond himself, which they style vacuity and shadow, this vacuum is then proved to be greater than their Pleroma. But it is inconsistent even to make this statement, that while he contains all things within himself, the creation was formed by some other. For it is absolutely necessary that they acknowledge a certain void and chaotic kind of existence (below the spiritual Pleroma) in which this universe was formed, and that the Propator purposely left this chaos as it was, either 5 knowing beforehand what things were to happen in it, or

Eph. iv. 6, differing somewhat from Text. Rcc. of New Testa-

5 In the barbarous Latin version we here find uirmn . . . tin as the translation of ij ... 17, instead olant . . . aut.

being ignorant of them. If he was really ignorant, then God will not be prescient of all things. But they will not even [in that case] be able to assign a reason on what account He thus left this place void during so long a period of time. If, again. He is prescient, and contemplated mentally that creation which was about to have a being in that place, then He Himself created it who also formed it beforehand [ideally] in Himself.

2. Let them cease, therefore, to affirm that the world was made by any other ; for as soon as God formed a conception in His mind, that was also done which He had thus mentally conceived. For it was not possible that one Being should mentally form the conception, and another actually produce the things which had been conceived by Him in His mind. But God, according to these heretics, mentally conceived either an eternal world or a temporal one, both of Avhich suppositions cannot be true. Yet if He had mentally conceived of it as eternal, spiritual,*^ and visible, it would also have been formed such. But if it was formed such as it really is, then He made it such who had mentally conceived of it as such ; or He willed it to exist in the ideality ^ of the Father, according to the conception of His mind, such as it now is, compound, mutable, and transient. Since, then, it is just such as the Father had [ideally] formed in counsel with Himself, it must be worthy of the Father. But to affirm that what was mentally conceived and pre-created by the Father of all, just as it has been actually formed, is the fruit of defect, and the production of ignorance, is to be guilty of great blasphemy. For, according to them, the Father of all will thus be [regarded as] generating in His breast, according to His own mental conception, the emanations of defect and the fruits of ignorance, since the things which He had conceived in His mind have actually been produced.

CHAP. TV. — THE ABSURDITY OF THE SUPPOSED VACUUM AND DEFECT OF THE HERETICS IS DEMONSTRATED.

I. The cause, then, of such a dispensation on the part of God, is to be inquired after ; but the formation of the world is not to be ascribed to any other. And all things are to be spoken of as having been so prepared by God beforehand, that they should be made as they have been

6 We have translated the text as it here stands in the MSS. Grabe am\\.% spiritnlem et ; Massuet proposes to read et invisibiletn,3.m\ Sticren invisibitem.

' In priesentia: Grabe proposes in prcescientia, but without MS. authority. " The reader," says Harvey, " will observe that there are three suppositions advanced by the author: that the world, as some heretics asserted, was eternal; that it was created in time, with no previous idea of it in the divine mind; or that it existed as a portion of the divine counsels from all eternity, though with no temporal subsistence until the time of its creation, — and of this the author now speaks." The whole passage is most obscurely expressed.

made ; but shadow and vacuity are not to be conjured into existence. But whence, let me ask, came this vacuity [of which they speak] ? If it was indeed produced Ijy Him who, according to them, is the Father and Author of all things, then it is both e(]ual in honour and related to the rest of the ^ons, perchance even more ancient than they are. Moreover, if it ];roceeded from the same source [as they did], it must be similar in nature to Him who produced it, as well as to those along with whom it was produced. There will therefore be an absolute necessity, both that the Bythus of whom they si)eak, along with Sige, be similar in nature to a vacuum, that is, that He really is a vacuum ; and that the rest of the .^ons, since they are the brothers of vacuity, should also be devoid ' of substance. If, on the other hand, it has not been thus produced, it must have sprung from and been generated by itself, and in that case it will be equal in point of age to that Bythus who is, according to them, the Father of all ; and thus vacuity will be of the same nature and of the same honour with Him who is, according to them, the universal Father. For it must of necessity have been either produced by some one, or generated by itself, and sprung from itself. But if, in truth, vacuity was produced, then its producer Valentinus is also a vacuum, as are likewise his followers. If, again, it was not produced, but was generated by itself, then that which is really a vacuum is similar to, and the brother of, and of the same honour with, that Father who has been proclaimed by Valentinus ; while it is more ancient, and dating its existence from a period greatly anterior, and more exalted in honour than the remaining .Eons of Ptolemy himself, and Heracleon, and all the rest ^ who hold the same opinions.

2. But if, driven to despair in regard to these points, they confess that the Father of all contains all things, and that there is nothing whatever outside of the Pleroma (for it is an absolute necessity that, [if there be anything outside of it,] it should be bounded and circumscribed by something greater than itself), and that they speak of what is without and what zuithin in reference to knowledge and ignorance, and not with respect to local distance \ but that, in the Pleroma, or in those things which are contained by the Father, the whole creation which we know to have been formed, having been made by the Demiurge, or by the angels, is contained by the unspeakable greatness, as the centre is in a circle, or as a spot is in a garment, — then, in the first place, what sort of a being must that

' Literally, " should also possess a vacant substance " ^ The text has " reliquis omnibus," which would refer to the i^ons; but we follow the emendation proposed by Massuet, " reliquorum omnium," as the reference manifestly is to other heretics.

Bythus be, who allows a stain to have place in His own bosom, and permits another one to create or produce within His territory, contrary to His own will? Such a mode of acting would truly entail [the charge of] degeneracy upon the entire Pleroma, since it might from the first have cut off that defect, and those emanations which derived theiir origin from it,^ and not have agreed to permit the formation of creation either in ignorance, or passion, or in defect. For he who can afterwards rectify a defect, and does, as it were, wash away a stain,'* could at a much earlier date have taken care that no such stain should, even at first, be found among his possessions. Or if at the first he allowed that the things which were made [should be as they are] , since they could not, in fact, be formed otherwise, then it follows that they must always continue in the same condition. For how is it possible, that those things which cannot at the first obtain rectification, should subsequently receive it ? Or how can men say that they are called to perfection, when those very beings who are the causes from which men derive their origin — either the Demiurge himself, or the angels — are declared to exist in defect ? And if, as is maintained, [the Supreme Being,] inasmuch as He is benignant, did at last take pity upon men, and bestow on them perfection. He ought at first to have pitied those who were the creators of man, and to have conferred on them perfection. In this way, men too would verily have shared in His compassion, being formed perfect by those that were perfect. For if He pitied the work of these beings, He ought long before to have pitied themselves, and not to have allowed them to fall into such awful blindness.

3. Their talk also about shadow and vacuity, in which they maintain that the creation with which we are concerned was formed, will be brought to nothing, if the things referred to were created within the territory which is contained by the Father. For if they hold that the light of their Father is such that it fills all things which are inside of Him, and illuminates them all, how can any vacuum or shadow possibly exist within that territory which is contained by the Pleroma, and by the light of the Father? For, in that case, it behoves them to point out some place within the Propator, or within the Pleroma, which is not illuminated, nor kept possession of by any one, and in which either the angels or the Demiurge formed whatever they pleased. Nor will it be a small amount of space in which such and so great a creation can be

3 ^^ Ab eo:" some refer "eo" to the Demiurge, but it is not unusual for the Latin translator to follow the Greek gender, although different from that of the Latin word which he has himself employed. We may therefore here refer "eo" to " labem," which is the translation of the neuter noun ixTTepri/jLa.

Labem is here repeated, probably by mistake.

conceived of as having been formed. There will therefore be an absolute necessity that, within the Pleroma, or within the Father of whom they speak, they should conceive ' of some place, void, formless, and full of darkness, in which those things were formed which have been formed. By such a supposition, however, the light of their Father would incur a reproach, as if He could not illuminate and fill those things which are within Himself. Thus, then, when they maintain that these things were the fruit of defect and the work of error, they do moreover introduce defect and error within the Pleroma, and into the bosom of the Father,

CHAP. V. THIS WORLD WAS NOT FORMED BY ANY

OTHER BEINGS WITHIN THE TERRITORY WHICH IS CONTAINED BY THE FATHER.

I. The remarks, therefore, which I made a little while ago - are suitable in answer to those who assert that this world was formed outside of the Pleroma, or under a " good God ; " and such persons, with the Father they speak of, will be quite cut off from that which is outside the Pleroma, in which, at the same time, it is necessary that they should finally rest.^ In answer to those, again, who maintain that this world was formed by certain other beings within that territory which is contained by the Father, all those points which have now* been noticed will present themselves [as exhibiting their] absurdities and incoherencies ; and they will be compelled either to acknowledge all those things which are within the Father, lucid, full, and energetic, or to accuse the light of the Father as if He could not illuminate all things ; or, as a portion of their Pleroma [is so described], the whole of it must be confessed to be void, chaotic, and full of darkness. And they accuse all other created things as if these were merely temporal, or [at the best], if eternal,^ yet material. But'^ these (the ^ons) ought to be regarded as beyond the reach of such accusations, since they are within the Pleroma, or the charges in question will equally fall against the entire Pleroma ; and thus the Christ of whom they speak is dis-

' The Latin \% fieri eos: Massuet conjectures that the Greek had been jrotcier^ai aiiToii?, and that the translator rendered jroteicrSat as a passive instead of a middle verb, fieri for face re.

^ See above, chap. i.

3 The Latin text here is, "et concludentur tales cum patre sue ab CO qui est extra Pleroma, in quo etiam ct desinere eos necesse est." None of the editors notice the difficulty or obscurity of the clause, but it appears to us absolutely untranslateablc. We have rendered it as if the reading were " ab eo quod" though, if the strict grammatical construction be followed, the translation must be, " from Him who." But then to what does " in quo," which follows, refer? It may be ascribed either to the immediate antecedent Plcrovta, or to Him who IS described as beinjj beyond it.

5 This is an extremely difficult passage. We follow the reading aternochoica adopted by .\Iassuct, but Harvey reads ceteriia choica, and renders, " They charge all other substance (i.e., spiritual) with the imperfections of the material creation, as though yEon substance were equally ephemeral and choic."

The common reading is " aut; " we adopt Harvey's conjectural emendation of " at."

covered to be the author of ignorance. For, according to their statements, when He had given a form so far as substance was concerned to the Mother they conceive of. He cast her outside of the Pleroma ; that is. He cut her off from knowledge. He, therefore, who separated her from knowledge, did in reality produce ignorance in her. How then could the very same person bestow the gift of knowledge on the rest of the vF^ons, those who were anterior to Him [in production], and yet be the author of ignorance to His Mother? For He placed her beyond the pale of knowledge, when He cast her outside of the Pleroma.

2. Moreover, if they explain being within and without the Pleroma as implying knowledge and ignorance respectively, as certain of them do (since he who has knowledge is within that which knows) , then they must of necessity grant that the Saviour Himself (whom they designate All Thitigs) was in a state of ignorance. For they maintain that, on His coming forth outside of the Pleroma, He imparted form to their Mother [Achamoth]. If, then, they assert that whatever is outside [the Pleroma] is ignorant of all things, and if the Saviour went forth to impart form to their Mother, then He was situated beyond the pale of the knowledge of all things ; that is, He was in ignorance. How then could He communicate knowledge to her, when He Himself was beyond the pale of knowledge? For we, too, they declare to be outside the Pleroma, inasmuch as we are outside of the knowledge which they possess. And once more : If the Saviour really went forth beyond the Pleroma to seek after the sheep which was lost, but the Pleroma is [co-extensive with] knowledge, then He placed Himself beyond the pale of knowledge, that is, in ignorance. For it is necessary either that they grant that what is outside the Pleroma is so in a local sense, in which case all the remarks formerly made will rise up against them ; or if they speak of that vvhich is within in regard to knowledge, and of, that which is without in respect to ignorance, then their Saviour, and Christ long before Him, must have been formed in ignorance, inasmuch as they went forth beyond the Pleroma, that is, beyond the pale of knowledge, in order to impart form to their Mother.

3. These arguments may, in like manner, be adapted to meet the case of all those who, in any way, maintain that the world was formed either by angels or by any other one than the true God. For the charges which they bring against the Demiurge, and those things which were made material and temporal, will in truth fall back on the Father ; if indeed the ' very things Wiich

' The above clause is very obscure; Massuet reads it in' lively.

Wrhic

nWFOJ

O'JD

were formed in the bosom of the Pleroma began by and by in fact to be dissolved, in accordance with the permission and good-will of the Father. The [immediate] Creator, then, is not the [real] Author of this work, thinking, as He did, that He formed it very good, but He who allows and approves of the productions of defect, and the I works of error having a place among his own possessions, and that temporal things should be | mixed up with eternal, corruptible with incorrupt- 1 ible, and those which partake of error with those | which belong to truth. If, however, these things were formed without the permission or approbation of the Father of all, then that Being must be more powerful, stronger, and more kingly, who made these things within a territory which properly belongs to Him (the Father), and did so without His permission. If again, as some say, their Father permitted these things without approving of them, then He gave the permission on account of some necessity, being either able to prevent [such procedure] , or not able. But if indeed He could not [hinder it], then He is weak and powerless; while, if He could. He is a seducer, a hypocrite, and a slave of necessity, inasmuch as' He does not consent [to such a course], and yet allows it as if He did consent. And allowing error to arise at the first, and to go on increasing. He endeavours in later times to destroy it, when already many have miserably perished on account of the [original] defect.

4. It isnot seemly, however, to say of Him who is God over all, since He is free and independent, that He was a slave to necessity, or that anything takes place with His permission, yet against His desire ; otherwise they will make necessity greater and more kingly than God, since that which has the most power is superior ' to all [others]. And He ought at the very beginning to have cut off the causes of [the fancied] necessity, and not to have allowed Himself to be shut up to yielding to that necessity, by permitting anything besides that which became Him. For it would have been much better, more consistent, and more God-like, to cut off at the beginning the principle of this kind of necessity, than afterwards, as if moved by repentance, to endeavour to extirpate .the results of necessity when they had reached such a development. And if the Father of all be a slave to necessity, and must yield to fate, while He unwillingly tolerates the things which are done, but is at the same time powerless to do anything in opposition to necessity and fate (like the Homeric Jupiter, who says of necessity, " I have willingly given thee, yet with unwilling mind "), then, according to this reasoning, the By thus of whom they speak will be found to be the slave of necessity and fate,

' The text has " antiquius," literally " more ancient," but it may here be rendered as above.

CHAP. VI. — THE ANGELS AND THE CREATOR OF THE WORLD COULD NOT HAVE BEEN IGNORANT OF THE SUPRE.ME GOD.

I. How, again, could either the angels, or the Creator of the world, have been ignorant of the Supreme God, seeing they were His property, and His creatures, and were contained by Him ? He might indeed have been invisible to them on account of His superiority, but He could by no means have been unknown to them on account of His providence. For though it is true, as they declare, that they \vere very far separated from Him through their inferiority [of nature], yet, as His dominion extended over all of them, it behoved them to know their Ruler, and to be aware of this in particular, that He who created them is Lord of all. For since His invisible essence is mighty, it confers on all a profound mental intuition and perception of His most powerful, yea, omnipotent greatness. Wherefore, although " no one knows the Father, except the Son, nor the Son except the Father, and those to whom the Son will reveal Him," ^ yet all [beings] do know this one fact at least, because reason, implanted in their minds, moves them, and reveals to them [the truth] that there is one God, the Lord of all.

2. And on this account all things have been [by general consent] placed under the sway of Him who is styled the Most High, and the Almighty. By calling upon Him, even before the coming of our Lord, men were saved both from most wicked spirits, and from all kinds of demons, and from e\ery sort of apostate power. This was the case, not as if earflily spirits or demons had seen Him. but because they knew of the existence of Him who is God over all, at whose invocation they trembled, as there does tremble e\-ery creature, and principality, and power, and every being endowed with energy under His government. By way of parallel, shall not those who live under the empire of the Romans, although they have never seen the emperor, but are far separated from him both by land and sea, know very well, as they experience his rule, who it is that possesses the principal power in the state? How then could it be, that those angels who were superior to us [in nature], or even He whom they call the Creator of the world, did not know the Almight}-, when even dumb animals tremble and I yield at the invocation of His name? And as, i although they have not seen Him, yet all things are subject to the name of our Lord,-^ so must they also be to His who made and established all things bv His word, since it was no other than He who" formed the world. And for this reason do the Jews even now put demons to flight b}' means

3 Massuet refers this to the Roman emperor.

of this very adjuration, inasmuch as all beings fear the invocation of Him who created them.

3. If, then, they shrink from affirming that the angels are more irrational than the dumb animals, they will find that it behoved these, although they had not seen Him who is God over all, to know His power and sovereignty. For it will appear truly ridiculous, if they maintain that they themselves indeed, who dwell upon the earth, know Him who is God over all whom they have never seen, but will not allow Him who, according to their opinion, formed them and the whole world, although He dwells in the heights and above the heavens, to know those things with which they themselves, though they dwell below, are acquainted. [This is the case], unless perchance they maintain that By thus lives in Tartarus below the earth, and that on this account they have attained to a knowledge of Him before those angels who have their abode on high. Thus do they rush into such an abyss of madness as to pronounce the Creator of the world void of understanding. They are truly deserving of pity, since with such utter folly they affirm that He (the Creator of the world) neither knew His Mother, nor her seed, nor the Pleroma of the ^Eons, nor the Propator, nor what the things were which He made ; but that these are images of those things which are within the Pleroma, the Saviour having secretly laboured that they should be so formed [by the unconscious Demiurge], in honour of those things which are above.

CREATED THINGS ARE NOT THE IM-

AGES OF THOSE ^ONS WHO ARE WITHIN THE

I. While the Demiurge was thus ignorant of all things, they tell us that the Saviour conferred honour upon the Pleroma by the creation [which he summoned into existence] through means of his Mother, inasmuch as he produced similitudes and images of those things which are above. But I have already shown that it was impossible that anything should exist beyond the Pleroma (in which external region they tell us that images were made of those things which are within the Pleroma), or that this world was formed by any other one than the Supreme God. But if it is a pleasant thing to overthrow them on every side, and to prove them vendors of flilsehood ; let us say, in opposition to them, that if these things were made by the Saviour to the honour of those which are above, after their likeness, then it behoved them always to endure, that those things which have been honoured should perpetually continue in honour. But if they do in fact pass away, what is the use of this very brief period of honour, — an honour which at one time had no existence, and which shall again come to nothi:ig? In that case I shall prove that the Saviour

is rather an aspirant after vainglory, than ' one who honours those things which are above. For what honour can those things which are temporal confer on such as are eternal and endure for ever? or those which pass away on such as remain ? or those which are corruptible on such as are incorruptible?— since, even among men who are themselves mortal, there is no value attached to that honour which speedily passes away, but to that which endures as long as it possibl)- can. But those things which, as soon as they are made, come to an end, may justly be said rather to have been formed for the contempt of such as are thought to be honoured by them ; and that that which is eternal is contumeliously treated when its image is corrupted and dissolved. But what if their Mother had not wept, and laughed, and been involved in despair? The Saviour would not then have possessed any means of honouring the Fulness, inasmuch as her last state of confusion^ did not have substance of its own by which it might honour the Propator.

2. x^las for the honour of vainglory which at once passes away, and no longer appears ! There will be some ^ ^'Eon, in whose case such honour will not be thought at all to have had an existence, and then the things which are above will be unhonoured ; or it will be necessary to produce once more another Mother weeping, and in despair, in order to the honour of the Pleroma. What a dissimilar, and at the same time blasphemous image ! Do you tell me that an image of the Only-begotten was produced by the former* of the world, whom 5 again ye wish to be considered the Nous (mind) of the Father of all, and [yet maintain] that this image was ignorant of itself, ignorant of creation, — ignorant, too, of the Mother, — ignorant of everything that exists, and of those things which were made by it ; and are you not ashamed while, in opposition to yourselves, you ascribe ignorance even to the Onlybegotten Himself ? For if these things [below] were made by the Saviour after the similitude of those which are above, while He (the Demiurge) who was made after such similitude was in so great ignorance, it necessarily follows that around Him, and in accordance with Him, after whose likeness he that is thus ignorant was formed, ignorance of the kind in question spiritually exists.

' Harvey supposes that the translator here read >; giiaui instead of 17 qjid (gloria) ; but Grabe, Massuet, and Stieren prefer to delete erit.

~ Reference is here made to the supposed wretched state of Achamoth as lying in the region of shadow, vacuity, and, in fact, nonexistence, until compassionated by the Christ above, who gave her form as respected substance.

3 We have literally translated the above very obscure sentence. According to Massuet, the sense is: "There will some time be, or perhaps even now tliere is, some M,c>ti utterly destitute of such honour, inasmuch as those things which the Saviour, for the sake of honouring it, had formed after its image, have been destroyed: and then those things which are above will remain without honour," etc.

The Saviour is here referred to, as having formed all things through means of Achamoth and the Demiurge.

S Massuet deletes quem, and reads nun as a genitive.

For it is not possible, since both were produced spiritually, and neither flishioned nor composed, that in some the likeness was preserved, while in others the likeness of the image was spoiled, that image which was here produced that it might be according to the image of that production which is above. But if it is not similar, the charge will then attach to the Saviour, who produced a dissimilar image, — of being, so to speak, an incompetent workman. Fur it is out of their power to affirm that the Saviour had not the faculty of production, since they style Him All Things. If, then, the image is dissimilar, he is a poor workman, and the blame lies, according to their hypothesis, with the Saviour. If, on the other hand, it is similar, then the same ignorance will be found to exist in the Nous (mind) of their Propator, that is, in the Only-begotten. The Nous of the Father, in that case, was ignorant of Himself; ignorant, too, of the Father; ignorant, moreover, of those very things which were formed by Him. But if He has knowledge, it necessarily follows also that he who was formed after his likeness by the Saviour should know the things which are like ; and thus, according to their own principles, their monstrous blasphemy is overthrown.

3. Apart from this, however, how can those things which belong to creation, various, manifold, and innumerable as they are, be the images of those thirty /Eons which are within the Pleroma, whose names, as these men fix them, I have set forth in the book which precedes this ? And not only will they be unable to adapt the [vast] variety of creation at large to the [comparative] smallness of their Pleroma, but they cannot clo this even with respect to any one part of it, whether [that possessed by] celestial or terrestrial beings, or those that live in the waters. For they themselves testify that their Pleroma consists of thirty ^Eons ; but any one will undertake to show that, in a single department of those [created beings] which have been mentioned, they reckon that there are not thirty, but many thousands of species. How then can those things, which constitute such a multiform creation, which are opposed in nature to each other, and disagree among themselves, and destroy the one the other, be the images and likenesses of the thirty /Eons of the Pleroma, if indeed, as they declare, these being possessed of one nature, are of equal and similar properties, and exhibit no ditferences [among themselves] ? For it was incumbent, if these things are images of those yEons, — inasmuch as they declare that some men are wicked by nature, and some, on the other hand, naturally good, — to point out such differences also among their yEons, and to maintain that some of them were produced naturally good, while some were naturally evil, so that the

supposition of the likeness of those things might harmonize with the .^E^ons. Moreover, since there are in the world some creatures that are gentle, and others that are fierce, some that are innocuous, while others are hurtful and destroy the rest ; some have their abode on the earth, others in the water, others in the air, and others in the heaven ; in like manner, they are bound to show that the /Eons possess such properties, if indeed the one are the images of the others. And besides ; " the eternal fire which the Father has prepared for the devil and his angels," ^ — they ought to show of which of those /Eons that are above it is the image ; for it, too, is reckoned part of the creation.

4. If, however, they say that these things are the images of the Enthymesis of that /Eon who fell into passion, then, first of all, they will act impiously against their Mother, by declaring her to be the first cause of evil and corruptible images. And then, again, how can those things which are manifold, and dissimilar, and contrary in their nature, be the images of one and the same Being? And if they say that the angels of the Pleroma are numerous, and that those things which are many are the images of these — not in this way either will the account they gi\'e be satisfactory. For, in the first place, they are then bound to point out differences among the angels of the Pleroma, which are mutually opposed to each other, even as the images existing below are of a contrary nature among themselves. And then, again, since there are many, yea, innumerable angels who surround the Creator, as all the prophets acknowledge, — [saying, for instance,] " Ten thousand times ten thousand stood beside Him, and many thousands of thousands minis-

1 tered unto Him," - — then, according ^ to them, the angels of the Pleroma will have as images

I the angels of the Creator, and the entire creation remains in the image of the Pleroma, but so that the thirty /Eons no longer correspond to the manifold variety of the creation.

5. Still further, if these things [below] were made after the similitude of those [above] , after the likeness of which again will those then be made ? For if the Creator of the world did not form these things direcdy from His own ^ conception, but, like an architect of no ability, or a boy receiving his first lesson, copied them from archetypes furnished by others, then whence did their Bythus obtain the forms of that creation which He at first produced? It clearly follows

2 Dan. vii. 10, agreeing neither with the Greek nor Hebrew text.

3 This clause is exceedingly obscure. Harvey remarks upon it as follows: " The reasoning of Irenaeus seems to be this: According to the Gnostic theorj', the X.owh and angels of the Pleroma were homogeneous. They were also the archetj-pes of things created. But things created are heterogeneous : therefore either these iEons are heterogeneous, which is contrarj' to theory ; or things created are homogeneous, which is contrary to fact."

Literally, " from Hims«lf."

that He must have received the model from some other one who is above Him, and that one, in turn, from another. And none the less [for these suppositions], the talk about images, as about gods, will extend to infinity, if we do not at once fix our mind on one Artificer, and on one God, who of Himself formed those things which have been created. Or is it really the case that, in regard to mere men, one will allow that they have of themselves invented what is useful for the purposes of life, but will not grant to that God who formed the world, that of Himself He created the forms of those things which have been made, and imparted to it its orderly arrangement ?

6. But, again, how can these things [below] be images of those [above] , since they are really contrary to them, and can in no respect have sympathy with them ? For those things which are contrary to each other may indeed be destructive of those to which they are contrary, but can by no means be their images — as, for instance, water and fire ; or, again, light and darkness, and other such things, can never be the images of one another. In like manner, neither can those things which are corruptible and earthly, and of a compound nature, and transitory, be the images of those which, according to these men, are spiritual ; unless these very things themselves be allowed to be compound, limited in space, and of a definite shape, and thus no longer spiritual, and diffused, and spreading into vast extent, and incomprehensible. For they must of necessity be possessed of a definite figure, and confined within certain limits, that they may be true images ; and then it is decided that they are not spiritual. If, however, these men maintain that they are spiritual, and diffused, and incomprehensible, how can those things which are possessed of figure, and confined within certain limits, be the images of such as are destitute of figure and incomprehensible?

7. If, again, they affirm that neither according to configuration nor formation, but according to number and the order of production, those things [above] are the images [of these below], then, in the first j)lace, these things [below] ought not to be spoken of as images and likenesses of those /Eons that are above. For how can the things which have neither the fashion nor shape of those [above] be their images? And, in the next place, they would adapt both the numbers and productions of the /Ii)ons above, so as to render them identical with and similar to thoseth at belong to the creation [below]. But now, since they refer to only thirty yEons, and declare that the vast multitude of things which are embraced within the creation [below] are images of those that are but thirty, we may justly condemn them as utterly destitute of sense.

CHAP. VIII. — CREATED THINGS ARE NOT A SHADOW OF THE PLEROMA,

1. If, again, they declare that these things [below] are a shadow of those [above] , as some of them are bold enough to maintain, so that in this respect they are images, then it will be necessary for them to allow that those things which are above are possessed of bodies. For those bodies which are above do cast a shadow, but spiritual substances do not, since they can in no degree darken others. If, however, we also grant them this point (though it is, in fact, an impossibihty), that there is a shadow belonging to those essences which are spiritual and lucent, into which they declare their Mother descended ; yet, since those things [which are above] are eternal, and that shadow which is cast by them endures for ever, [it follows that] these things [below] are also not transitory, but endure along with those which cast their shadow over them. If, on the other hand, these things [below] are transitory, it is a necessary consequence that those [above] also, of which these are the shadow, pass away ; while, if they endure, their shadow likewise endures.

2. If, however, they maintain that the shadow spoken of does not exist as being produced by the shade of [those above], but simply in this respect, that [the things below] are far separated from those [above], they will then charge the light of their Father with weakness and insufficiency, as if it cannot extend so far as these things, but fails to fill that which is empty, and to dispel the shadow, and that when no one is offering any hindrance. For, according to them, the light of their Father will be changed into darkness and buried in obscurity, and will come to an end in those places which are characterized by emptiness, since it cannot penetrate and fill all things. Let them then no longer declare that their Bythus is the fulness of all things, if indeed he has neither filled nor illuminated that which is vacuum and shadow ; or, on the other hand, let them cease talking of vacuum and shadow, if the light of their Father does in truth fill all things.

3. Beyond the primary Father, then — that is, the God who is over all — there can neither be any Pleroma into which they declare the Enthymesis of that yEon who suffered passion, descended (so that the Pleroma itself, or the primary God, should not be limited and circumscribed by that which is beyond, and should, in fact, be contained by it) ; nor can vacuum or shadow have any existence, since the Father exists beforehand, so that His light cannot fail, and find end in a vacuum. It is, moreover, irrational and impious to conceive of a place in which He who is, according to them, Propator, and Proarche, and Father of all, and of this

Plcroma, ceases and has an end. Nor, again, is it allowable, for the reasons ' already stated, to allege that some other being formed so vast a creation in the bosom of the Father, either with or without His consent. For it is equally impious and infatuated to affirm that so great a creation wasformed by angels, or by some particular production ignorant of the true God in that territory which is His own. Nor is it possible that those things which are earthly and material could have been formed within their Pleroma, since that is wholly spiritual. And further, it is not even possible that those things which belong to a multiform creation, and have been formed with mutually opposite qualities, [could have been created] after the image of the things above, since these (i.e., the /Eons) are said to be few, and of a like formatioii, and homogeneous. Their talk, too, about the shadow of kenoma — that is, of a vacuum — has in all point.; turned out false. Their figment, then, [in what way soever viewed,] has been proved groundless,^ and their doctrines untenable. Empty, too, are those who listen to them, and are verily descending into the abyss of perdition.

CHAP. IX. THERE IS BUT ONE CREATOR OF THE

WORLD, GOD THE FATHER : THIS THE CONSTANT BELIEF OF THE CHURCH.

I. That God is the Creator of the world is accepted even by those very persons who in many ways speak against Him, and yet acknowledge Him, styling Him the Creator, and an angel, not to mention that all the Scriptures call out [to the same effect], and the Lord teaches us of this Father ■♦ who is in heaven, and no other, as I shall show in the sequel of this work. For the present, however, that proof which is derived from those who allege doctrines opposite to ours, is of itself sufficient, — all men, in fact, consenting to this truth : the ancients on their part preserving with special care, from the tradition of the first-formed man, this persuasion, while they celebrate the praises of one God, the Maker of heaven and earth ; others, again, after them, being reminded of this fact by the prophets of God, while the very heathen learned it from creation itself. For even creation reveals Him who formed it, and the very work made suggests Him who made it, andthe world manifests Him who ordered it. The Universal Church, moreover, through the whole world, has received this tradition from the aposdes.

' See above, chap. ii. and v.

2 The text ha.?, /abri'cdsse, for which, says Massuet, should be TffxA /abricatatn esse; or /abrudsse itself must be taken in a passive signification. It is possible, however, to translate, as Harvey indicates, " that He (Bythus) formed so great a creation by angels," etc., though this seems harsh and unsuitable.

3 Literally, entfity: there is a play on the words vacuum and vacui (which immediately follows), as there had been in the original Greek.

2. This God, then, being acknowledged, as I have said, and receiving testimony from all to the fact of His existence, that Father whom they conjure into existence is beyond doubt untenable, and has no witnesses [to his existence]. Simon Magus was the first who said that he himself was God over all, and that the world was formed by his angels. Then those who succeeded him, as I have shown in the first book,' by their several opinions, still further depraved [his teaching] through their impious and irreligious doctrines against the Creator. These [heretics now referred to],*" being the disciples of those mentioned, render such as assent to them worse than the heathen. For the former " serve the creature rather than the Creator," ? and " those which are not gods," ** notwithstanding that they ascribe the first place in Deity to that God who was the Maker of this universe. But the latter maintain that He, [i.e., the Creator of this world,] is the fruit of a defect, and describe Him as being of an animal nature, and as not knowing that Power which is above Him, while He also exclaims, " I am God, and besides Me there is no other God." 9 Affirming that He lies, they are themselves liars, attributing all sorts of wickedness to Him ; and conceiving of one who is not above this Being as really having an existence, they are thus convicted by their own views of blasphemy against that God who really exists, while they conjure into existence a god who has no existence, to their own condemnation. And thus those who declare themselves " perfect," and as being possessed of the knowledge of all things, are found to be worse than the heathen, and to entertain more blasphemous opinions even against their own Creator.

CHAP. X. — PERVERSE INTERPRET.'\TIONS OF SCRIP- TURE BY THE HERETICS : GOD CREATED ALL THINGS OUT OF NOTHING, AND NOT FROM PRE- EXISTENT MATTER.

I. It is therefore in the highest degree irrational, that we should take no account of Him who is truly God, and who receives testimony from all, while we inquire whether there is above Him that [other being] who really has no existence, and has never been proclaimed by any one. For that nothing has been clearly spoken regarding Him, they themselves furnish testimony ; for since they, with wretched success, transfer to that being who has been conceived of by them, those parables [of Scripture] which, whatever the form in which they have been spoken, are sought after [for this purpose], it is manifest that they now generate another [god], who was

5 See chap, xxiii. etc.

6 Viz., the Valentinians.

never previously sought after. For by the fact that they thus endeavour to explain ambiguous passages of Scripture (ambiguous, however, not as if referring to another god, but as regards the dispensations of [the true] God), they have constructed another god, weaving, as I said before, ropes of sand, and affixing a more important to a less important question. For no question can be solved by means of another which itself awaits solution ; nor, in the opinion of those possessed of sense, can an ambiguity be explained by means of another ambiguity, or enigmas by means of another greater enigma, but things of such character receive their solution from those which are manifest, and consistent, and clear.

2. But these [heretics], while striving to explain passages of Scripture and parables, bring forward another more important, and indeed impious question, to this effect, " Whether there be really another god above that God who was the Creator of the world ? " They are not in the way of solving the questions [which they propose] ; for how could they find means of doing so ? But they append an important question to one of less consequence, and thus insert [in their speculations] a difficulty incapable of solution. For in order that they may ' know " knowledge " itself (yet not learning this fact, that the Lord, when thirty years old, came to the baptism of truth), they do impiously despise that God who was the Creator, and who sent Him for the salvation of men. And that they may be deemed capable of informing us wlience is the substance of matter, while they believe not that God, according to His pleasure, in the exercise of His own will and power, formed all things (so that those things which now are should have an existence) out of what did not previously exist, they have collected [a multitute of] vain discourses. They thus truly reveal their infidehty ; they do not believe in that which really exists, and they have fallen away into [the belief of] that which has, in fact, no existence.

3. For, when they tell us that all moist substance proceeded from the tears of Achamoth, all lucid substance from her smile, all solid substance from her sadness, all mobile substance from her terror, and that thus they have sublime knowledge on account of which they are superior to others, — how can these things fail to be regarded as worthy of contempt, and truly ridiculous? They do not believe that God (being powerful, and rich in all resources) created matter itself, inasmiich as they know not how much a spiritual and divine essence can accomplish. But they do believe that their Mother, whom they style a female from a female, produced from

I This clause is unintelligible in the Latin text; by a conjectural fesloration of the Greek we nave given the above translation.

her passions aforesaid the so vast material substance of creation. They inquire, too, whence the substance of creation was supplied to the Creator ; but they do not incjuire whence [were supplied] to their Mother (whom they call the Enthymesis and impulse of the ^on that went astray) so great an amount of tears, or perspiration, or sadness, or that which produced the remainder of matter.

4. For, to attribute the substance of created things to the power and will of Him who is God of all, is worthy both of credit and acceptance. It is also agreeable [to reason], and there may be well said regarding such a belief, that " the things which are impossible with men are possible with God."^ While men, indeed, cannot make anything out of nothing, but only out of matter already existing, yet God is in this point preeminently superior to men, that He Himself called into being the substance of His creation, when previously it had no existence. But the assertion that matter was produced from the Enthymesis of an ^on going astray, and that the ^on [referred to] was far separated from her Enthymesis, and that, again, her passion and feeling, apart 'from herself, became matter — is incredible, infatuated, impossible, and untenable.

CHAP. XI. THE HERETICS, FROM THEIR DISBE- LIEF OF THE TRUTH, HAVE FALLEN INTO AN ABYSS OF ERROR : REASONS FOR INVESTIGATING THEIR SYSTEMS.

I. They do not believe that He, who is God above all, formed by His Word, in His own territory, as He Himself pleased, the various and diversified [works of creation which exist], inasmuch as He is the former of all things, like a wise architect, and a most powerful monarch. But they believe that angels, or some power separate from God, and who was ignorant of Him, formed this universe. By this course, therefore, not yielding credit to the truth, but wallowing in falsehood, they have lost the bread of true life, and have fallen into vacuity ^ and an abyss of shadow. They are like the dog of .-Esop, which dropped the bread, and made an attempt at seizing its shadow, thus losing the [real] food. It is easy to prove from the very words of the Lord, that He acknowledges one Father and Creator of the world, and Fashioner of man, who was proclaimed by the law and the prophets, while He knows no other, and that this One is really God over all ; and that He teaches that that adoption of sons pertaining to the Father, which is eternal life, takes place through Himself, conferring it [as He does] on all the righteous.

3 Playing upon the doctrines of the heretics with respect to vacttitf and shade.

2. But since these men delight in attacking us, and in their true character of cavillers assail us with points which really tell not at all against us, bringing forward in opposition to us a multitude of parables and [captious] questions, I have thought it well, on the other side, first of all to put to them the following inciuiries concerning their own doctrines, to exhibit their improbability, and to put an end to their audacity. After this has been done, [I intend] to bring forward the discourses of the Lord, so that they may not only be rendered destitute of the means of attacking us, but that, since they will be unable reasonably to reply to those questions which are i)ut, they may see that their plan of argument is destroyed ; so that, either returning to the truth, and humbling themselves, and ceasing from their multifarious phantasies, they may propitiate God for those blasphemies they have uttered against Him, and obtain salvation ; or that, if they still persevere in that system of vainglory which has taken possession of their minds, they may at least find it necessary to change their kind of argument against us.

CHAP. XII. THE TRIACONTAD OF THE HERETICS

ERRS BOTH BY DEFECF AND EXCESS : SOPHIA COULD NEVER HAVE PRODUCED ANYTHING APART FROM HER CONSORT ; LOGOS AND SIGE COULD NOT HAVE BEEN CONTEMPORARIES.

I . We may ' remark, in the first place, regarding their Triacontad, that the whole of it marvellously falls to ruin on both sides, that is, both as respects defect and excess. They say that to indicate it the Lord came to be baptized at the age of thirty years. But this assertion really amounts to a manifest subversion of their entire argument. As to defect, this happens as follows : first of all, because they reckon the Propator among the other yEons. For the Father of all ought not to be counted with other productions ; He who was not produced with that which was produced ; He who was unbegotten with that which was born ; He whom no one comprehends with that which is comprehended by Him, and who is on this account [Himself] incomprehensible ; and He who is without figure with that which has a definite shape. For inasmuch as He is superior to the rest. He ought not to be numbered with them, and that so that He who is impassible and not in error should be reckoned with an JEon subject to passion, and actually in error. For I have shown in the book which immediately precedes this, that, beginning with Bythus, they reckon up the Tricontad to Sophia, whom they describe as the erring yEon ; and I have also there set forth the names of their [.-Eons] ; but if He be not reckoned,

The text vacillates bet^veen " dkemus" and " dica

there are no longer, on their own showing, thirty productions of yEons, but these then become only twenty-nine.

2. Next, with respect to the first production Ennoea, whom they also term Sige, from whom again they describe Nous and Aletheia as having been sent forth, they err in both particulars. For it is impossible that the thought (Ennoea) of any one, or his silence (Sige), should be understood apart from himself; and that, being sent forth beyond him, it should possess a special figure of its own. But if they assert that the (Enncea) was not sent forth beyond Him, but continued one with the Propator, why then do they reckon her with the other yEons — with those who were not one [with the Father], and are on this account ignorant of His greatness? If, however, she was so united (let us take this also into consideration), there is then an absolute necessity, that from this united and inseparable conjunction, which constitutes but one being, there - should proceed an unseparated and united production, so that it should not be dissimilar to Him who sent it forth. But if this be so, then just as Bythus and Sige, so also Nous and Aletheia will form one and the same being, ever cleaving mutually together. And inasmuch as the one cannot be conceived of without the other, just as water cannot [be conceived of] without [the thought of] moisture, or fire without [the thought of] heat, or a stone without [the thought] of hardness (for these things are mutually bound together, and the one cannot be separated from the other, but always co-exists with it), so it behoves Bythus to be united in the same way with Ennoea, and Nous with Aletheia. Logos and Zoe again, as being sent forth by those that are thus united, ought themselves to be united, and to constitute only one being. But, according to such a process of reasoning, Homo and Ecclesia too, and indeed all the remaining conjunctions of the yEons produced, ought to be united, and always to co-exist, the one with the other. For there is a necessity in their opinion, that a female yEon should exist side by side with a male one, inasmuch as she is, so to speak, [the forthputting of] his affection.

3. These things being so, and such opinions being proclaimed by them, they again venture, without a blush, to teach that the younger yEon of the Duodecad, whom they also style Sophia, did, apart from union with her consort, whom they call Theletus, endure passion, and separately, without any assistance from him, gave birth to a production which they name "a female from a female." They thus rush into such utter frenzy, as to form two most clearly opposite opinions respecting the same point. For if

2 This sentence is confused in the Latin text, but the meaning l« evidently that given above.

Bythus is ever one with Sige, Nous with Aletheia, Logos with Zoe, and so on, as respects the rest, how could Sophia, without union with her consort, either suffer or generate anything? And if, again, she did really suffer passion apart from him, it necessarily follows that the other conjunctions also admit of disjunction and separation among themselves, — a thing which I have already shown to be impossible. It is also impossible, therefore, that Sophia suffered passion apart from Theletus ; and thus, again, their whole system of argument is overthrown. For they have yet ' again derived the whole of remaining [material substance], like the composition of a tragedy, from that passion which they affirm she experienced apart from union with her consort.

4. If, however, they impudently maintain, in order to preserve from ruin their vain imaginations, that the rest of the conjunctions also were disjoined and separated from one another on account of this latest conjunction, then [I reply that], in the first place, they rest upon a thing which is impossible. For how can they separate the Propator from his Ennoea, or Nous from Aletheia, or Logos from Zoe, and so on with the rest? And how can they themselves maintain that they tend again to unity, and are, in fact, all at one, if indeed these very conjunctions, which are within the Pleroma, do not preserve unity, but are separate from one another ; and that to such a degree, that they both endure passion and perform the work of generation without union one with another, just as hens do apart from intercourse with cocks.

5. Then, again, their first and first-begotten Ogdoad will be overthrown as follows : They must admit that Bythus and Sige, Nous and Aletheia, Logos and Zoe, Anthropos and Ecclesia, do individually dwell in the same Pleroma. But it is impossible that Sige (silence) can exist in the presence of Logos (speech), or again, that Logos can manifest himself in the presence of Sige. For these are mutually destructive of each other, even as light and darkness can by no possibility exist in the same place : for if light prevails, there cannot be darkness ; and if darkness, there cannot be light, since, where light appears, darkness is put to flight. In like manner, where Sige is, there cannot be Logos ; and where Logos is, there certainly cannot be Sige. But if they say that Logos simply exists within ^ (unexpressed), Sige also will exist within, and will not the less be destroyed by the Logos within. I'jut that he really is not merely conceived of in the mind, the very order of the production of their (/Eons) shows.

^ It is difficult to see the meaning of " iterum " here. Harvey begins a new paragraph with this sentence.

- tVStaflcTo? — simply conceived in the mind — used in opposition to rTpo<t)0fiuc6f , exj/ressed.

6. Let them not then declare that the first and principal Ogdoad consists of Logos and Sige, but let them [as a matter of necessity] exclude either Sige or Logos ; and then their first and principal Ogdoad is at an end. For if they describe the conjunctions [of the ^ons] as united, then their whole argument falls to pieces. Since, if they were united, how could Sophia have generated a defect without union with her consort? If, on the other hand, they maintain that, as in production, each of the JEons possesses his own peculiar substance, then how can Sige and Logos manifest themselves in the same place ? So far, then, with respect to defect.

7. But again, their Triacontad is overthrown as to excess by the following considerations. They represent Horos (whom they call by a variety of names which I have mentioned in the preceding book) as having been produced by Monogenes just like the other ^ons. Some of them maintain that this Horos was produced by Monogenes, while others affirm that he was sent forth by the Propator himself in His own image. They affirm further, that a production was formed by Monogenes — Christ and the Holy Spirit ; and they do not reckon these in the number of the Pleroma, nor the Saviour either, whom they also declare to be Totum ^ (all things). Now, it is evident even to a blind man, that not merely thirty productions, as they maintain, were sent forth, but four more along with these thirty. For they reckon the Propator himself in the Pleroma, and those too, who in succession were produced by one another. Why is it, then, that those [other beings] are not reckoned as existing with these in the same Pleroma, since they were produced in the same manner? For what just reason can they assign for not reckoning along with the other ^ons, either Christ, whom they describe as having, according to the Father's will, been produced by Monogenes, or the Holy Spirit, or Horos, whom they also call Soter"* (Saviour), and not even the Saviour Himself, who came to impart assistance and form to their Mother? Whether is tliis as if these latter were weaker than the former, and therefore unworthy of the name of yEons, or of being numbered among them, or as if they were superior and more excellent? But how could they be weaker, since they were produced for the establishment and rectification of the others? And then, again, they cannot possibly be superior to the first and princii)al Tetrad, by which they were also produced ; for it, too, is reckoned in the number above men-

3 Harvey remarks that " the author perliaps wrote Opov {Horcs), which was read hy the translator" 'OKov {ti'iuiit),

^ Since Sotpr does not occur among the various appellations of Horos mentioned by Ircn;cns (i. 71,4), Grabe proposes to read Stouros, and Massuet Lvtroies; but Harvey ccmceives that the difficulty is exjjlaiued by tlie fact that Horos was & power of Soter (i. 3, 3).

tioned. These latter lacings, then, ought also to have been numbered in the Pleroma of the ALona, or that shourd be deprived of the honour of those /Eons which bear this appellation (the Tetrad). 8. Since, therefore, their Triacontad is thus brought to nought, as I have shown, both with respect to defect and excess (for in dealing with such a number, either excess or defect [to any extent] will render the number untenable, and how much more so great variations?), it follows that what they maintain respecting their Ogdoad and Duodecad is a mere fable which cannot stand, 'ilieir whole system, moreover, falls to the ground, when their very foundation is destroyed and dissolved into Bythus,' that is, into what has no existence. Let t"hem, then, henceforth seek to set forth some other reasons why the Lord came to be baptized at the age of thirty years, and [explain in some other way] the Duodecad of the apostles ; and [the fact stated regarding] her who suffered from an issue of blood ; and all the other points respecting which they so madly labour in vain.

CH.A.P. Xlir. THE FIRST ORDER OF PRODUCTION

MAINTAINED BY THE HERETICS IS ALTOGETHER INDEFENSIBLE.

I . I now proceed to show, as follows, that the first order of production, as conceived of by them, must be rejected. For they maintain that Nous and Aletheia were produced from Bythus and his Ennoea, which is proved to be a contradiction. For Nous is that which is itself chief, and highest, and, as it were, the principle and source of all understanding. Ennoea, again, which arises from him, is any sort of emotion concerning any subject. It cannot be, therefore, that Nous was produced by Bythus and Enncea ; it would be more like the truth for them to maintain that Ennoia was produced as the daughter of the Propator and this Nous. For Ennoea is not the daughter of Nous, as they assert, but Nous becomes the father of Ennoea. For how can Nous have been produced by the Propator, when he holds the chief and primary place of that hidden and invisible affection which is within Him ? By this affection sense is produced, and Ennuea, and Enthymesis, and other things which are simply synonyms for Nous himself. As I have said already, they are merely certain definite exercises in thought of that very power concerning some particular subject. We understand the [several] terms according to their ^ length

1 Irenajus here, after his custom, plays upon the word Bytlnis (profundity), which, in the phraseology of the Valentinians, was a name of the Propator, but is in this passage used to denote «« un- Jathomable abyss. '

2 This sentence appears to us, after long study, totally untranslateable. The general meaning seems to be, that whatever name is given to mental acts, whether they are called Ennoea, Enthytnesis, or by whatever other appellation, they are all but exercises of the same fimdamental power, stj-led N'oiis. Compare the following sec-

and breadth of meaning, not according to any [fundamental] change [of signification] ; and the [various exercises of thought] are limited by [the same sphere ofj knowledge, and are expressed together by [the same] term, the [very same] sense remaining within, and creating, and administering, and freely governing even by its own power, and as it pleases, the things which have been previously mentioned.

2. For the first exercise of that [power] respecting anything, is styled Ennoea ; but when it continues, and gathers strength, and takes possession of the whole soul, it is called Enthymesis. This Enthymesis, again, when it exercises itself a long time on the same point, and has, as it were, been proved, is named Sensation. And this Sensation, when it is much developed, becomes Counsel. The increase, again, and gready developed exercise of this Counsel becomes the Examination of thought (Judgment) ; and this remaining in the mind is most properly termed Logos (reason), from which the spoken Logos (word) proceeds.^ But all the [exercises of thought] which have been mentioned are [fundamentally] one and the same, receiving their origin from Nous, and obtaining [different] appellation according to their increase. Just as the human body, which is at one time young, then in the prime of life, and then old, has received [different] appellations according to its increase and continuance, but not according to any change of substance, or on account of any [real] loss of body, so is it with those [mental exercises] . For, when one [mentally] contemplates anything, he also thinks of it ; and when he thinks of it, he has also knowledge regarding it ; and when he knows it, he also considers it ; and when he considers it, he also mentally handles it ; and when he mentally handles it, he also speaks of it. But, as I have already said, it is Nous who governs all these [mental processes], while He is hiniself invisible, and utters speech of himself by means of those processes which have been mentioned, as it were by rays [proceeding from Him], but He himself is not sent forth by any other.

3. These things may properly be said to hold good in men, since they are compound by nature, and consist of a body and a soul. But those who affirm that Ennoja was sent forth from God, and Nous from Ennoea, and then, in succession. Logos from these, are, in the first place, to be blamed as having improperly used these productions; and, in the next place, as describing the affections, and passions, and mental tendencies of men, while they [thus prove them-

3 " The following," says Harsey, " may be considered to be consecutive steps in the evolution of Aoyo': as a psychological entity. Ennoea, conception ; Enthymesis, intention ; Sensation, thought ; Consilium, reasoning; Cogitationis Examinatio, judgment ; in Meiite Pcrseverans, Aoyos e^Sia^eTos ; Emissibile Verbum, A070S

selves] ignorant of God. By their manner of speaking, they ascribe those things which apply to men to the Father of all, whom they also declare to be unknown to all ; and they deny that He himself made the world, to guard against attributing want of power ' to Him ; while, at the same time, they endow Him with human affections and passions. But if they had known the Scriptures, and been taught by the truth, they would have known, beyond doubt, that God is not as men are ; and that His thoughts are not like the thoughts of men.^ For the Father of all is at a vast distance from those affections and passions which operate among men. He is a simple, uncompounded Being, without diverse members,^ and altogether like, and equal to Himself, since He is wholly understanding, and wholly spirit, and wholly thought, and wholly intelligence, and wholly reason, and wholly hearing, and wholly seeing, and wholly light, and the whole source of all that is good — even as the religious and pious are wont to speak concerning God.

4. He is, however, above [all] these properties, and therefore indescribable. For He may well and properly be called an Understanding which comprehends all things, but He is not [on that account] like the understanding of men ; and He may most properly be termed Light, but He is nothing like that light with which we are acquainted. And so, in all other particulars, the Father of all is in no degree similar to human weakness. He is spoken of in these terms according to the love [we bear Him] ; but in point of greatness, our thoughts regarding Him transcend these expressions. If then, even in the case of human beings, understanding itself does not arise from emission, nor is that intelligence which produces other things separated from the living man, while its motions and affections come into manifestation, much more will the mind of God, who is all understanding, never by any means be separated from Himself; nor can anything '^ [in His case] be produced as if by a different Being.

5. For if He produced intelligence, then He who did thus produce intelligence must be understood, in accordance with their views, as a compound and corporeal Being ; so that God, who sent forth [the intelligence referred to], is separate from it, and the intelligence which was sent forth separate [from Him]. But if they affirm that intelligence was sent forth from intelligence, they then cut asunder the intelligence of

' That is, lest He should be thought destitute of power, as having been unable to prevent evil from having a place in creation.

3 The Latin expression is " similimembrius," which some regard as the translation of ohoiokcuAo?, and others of o/iioiOM«p»i! ; but in either case the meaning will be as given above.

•• That is, His Kous, Ennoea, etc., can have no independent existence. The text fluctuates between " emittitur" and " emittetur."

God, and divide it into parts. And whither has it gone? Whence was it sent forth? For whatever is sent forth from any place, passes of necessity into some other. But what existence was there more ancient than the intelligence of God, into which they maintain it was sent forth ? And what a vast region that must have been which was capable of receiving and containing the intelligence of God ! If, however, they affirm [that this emission took place] just as a ray proceeds from the sun, then, as the subjacent air which receives the ray must have had an existence prior to it, so [by such reasoning] they will indicate that there was something in existence, into which the intelligence of God was sent forth, capable of containing it, and more ancient than itself. Following upon this, we must hold that, as we see the sun, which is less than all things, sending forth rays from himself to a great distance, so likewise we say that the Propator sent forth a ray beyond, and to a great distance from. Himself. But what can be conceived of beyond, or at a distance from, God, into which He sent forth this ray?

6. If, again, they affirm that that [intelligence] was not sent forth beyond the Father, but within the Father Himself, then, in the first place, it becomes superfluous to say that it was sent forth at all. For how could it have been sent forth if it continued within the Father? For an emission is the manifestation of that which is emitted, be- A^ond him who emits it. In the next place, this [intelligence] being sent forth, both that Logos who springs from Him will still be within the Father, as will also be the future emissions proceeding from Logos. These, then, cannot in such a case be ignorant of the Father, since they are within Him ; nor, being all equally surrounded by the Father, can any one know Him less [than another] according to the descending order of their emission. And all of them must also in an ecjual measure continue impassible, since they exist in the bosom of their Father, and none of them can ever sink into a state of degeneracy or degradation. For with the Father there is no degeneracy, unless perchance as in a great circle a smaller is contained, and within this one again a smaller ; or unless they affirm of the Father, that, after the manner of a sphere or a square, He contains within Himself on all sides the likeness of a sphere, or the production of the rest of the yEons in the form of a square, each one of these being surrounded by that one who is above him in greatness, and surrounding in turn that one who is after him in smallness ; and that on this account, the smallest and the last of all, having its place in the centre, and thus being far separated from the Father, was really ignorant of the Propator. But if they maintain any such hypothesis, they must shut up their By thus with.

in a definite form and space, while He both sur- ; rounds others, and is surrounded by them ; for j they must of necessity acknowledge that there is something outside of Him which surrounds Him. And none the less will the talk concerning those that contain, and those that are contained, flow on into infinitude ; and all [the ^ons] will most clearly appear to be bodies enclosed [by one another] .

7. Further, they must also confess either that He is mere vacuity, or that the entire universe is within Him ; and in that case all will in like degree partake of the Father. Just as, if one forms circles in water, or round or square figures, all these will equally partake of water ; just as those, again, which are framed in the air, must necessarily partake of air, and those which [are formed] in light, of light ; so must those also who are within Him all ecjually partake of the Father, ignorance having no place among them, ^\'here, then, is this partaking of the Father who fills [all things]? If, indeed. He has filled [all things], there will be no ignorance among them. On this ground, then, their work of [supposed] degeneracy is brought to nothing, and the production of matter with the formation of the rest of the world ; which things they maintain to have derived their substance from passion and ignorance. If, on the other hand, they acknowledge that He is vacuity, then they fall into the greatest blasphemy ; they deny His spiritual nature. For how can He 1)6 a spiritual being, who cannot fill even those things which are within Him?

8. Now, these remarks which have been made concerning the emission of intelligence are in like manner applicable in opposition to those who belong to the school of Basilides, as well as in opposition to the rest of the Gnostics, from whom these also (the Valentinians) have adopted the ideas about emissions, and were refuted in the first book. But I have now plainly shown that the first production of Nous, that is, of the intelligence they speak of, is an untenable and impossible opinion. And let us see how the matter stands with respect to the rest [of the ^ons]. For they maintain that Logos and Zoe were sent forth by him (i.e.. Nous) as fashioners of this Pleroma ; while they conceive of an emission of Logos, that is, the \\'ord after the analogy of human feelings, and rashly form conjectures respecting God, as if they had discovered something wonderful in their assertion that Logos was produced by Nous. All indeed have a clear perception that this may be logically afifirnied with respect to men.' But in Him who is God over all, since He is all Nous, and all Logos, as I have said before, and has in Himself nothing more ancient or late than another, and nothing

' That is, in human beings no doubt, thought (Nous) precedes speech (Logos/.

at variance with another, but continues altogether equal, and similar, and homogeneous, there is no longer ground for conceiving of such production in the order which has been mentioned. Just as he does not err who declares that God is all vision, and all hearing (for in what manner He sees, in that also He hears ; and in what manner He hears, in that also He sees), so also he who affirms that He is all intelligence, and all word, and that, in whatever respect He is intelligence, in that also He is word, and that this Nous is His Logos, will still indeed have only an inadequate conception of the Father of all, but will entertain far more becoming [thoughts regarding Him] than do those who transfer the generation of the word to which men gave utterance to the eternal ^Vord of God, assigning a beginning and course of production [to Him], even as they do to their own word. And in what respect will the ^^'ord of God — yea, rather God Himself, since He is the Word — differ from the word of men, if He follows the same order and process of generation?

9. They have fallen into error, too, respecting Zoe, by maintaining that she was produced in the sixth place, when it behoved her to take precedence of all [the rest], since God is life, and incorruption, and truth. And these and such like attributes have not been produced according to a gi-adual scale of descent, but they are names of those perfections which always exist in God, so far as it is possible and proper for men to hear and to speak of God. For with the name of God the following words will harmonize : intelligence, word, life, incorruption, truth, wisdom, goodness, and such like. And neither can any one maintain that intelligence is more ancient than life, for intelligence itself is life ; nor that life is later than intelligence, so that He who is the intellect of all, that is God, should at one time have been destitute of life. But if they aflfirm that Hfe was indeed [previously] in the Father, but was produced in the sixth place in order that the Word might live, surely it ought long before, [according to such reasoning,] to have been sent forth, in the fourth place, that Nous might have life ; and still further, even before Him, [it should have been] with Bythus, that their Bythus might live. For to reckon Sige, indeed, along with their Propator, and to assign her to Him as His consort, while they do not join Zoe to the number, — is not this to surpass all other madness?

10. Again, as to the second production which proceeds from these [.^^lons who have been mentioned], — that, namely, of Homo and Ecclesia, — their very fathers, falsely styled Gnostics, strive among themselves, each one seeking to make good his own o])inions, and thus convicting themselves of beintf wicked thieves.

They maintain that it is more suitable to [the theory of] production — as being, in fact, truthhke — that the Word was produced by man, and not man by the Word ; and that man existed prior to the Word, and that this is really He who is God over all. And thus it is, as I have previously remarked, that heaping together with a kind of plausibility all human feelings, and mental exercises, and formation of intentions, and utterances of words, they have lied with no plausibility at all against God. For while they ascribe the things which happen to men, and whatsoever they recognise themselves as experiencing, to the divine reason, they seem to those who are ignorant of God to make statements suitable enough. And by these human passions, drawing away their intelligence, while they describe the origin and production of the Word of God in the fifth place, they assert that thus they teach wonderful mysteries, unspeakable and sublime, known to no one but themselves. It was, [they affirm,] concerning these that the Lord said, " Seek, and ye shall find," ' that is, that they should inquire how Nous and Aletheia proceeded from Bythus and Sige ; whether Logos and Zoe again derive their origin from these ; and then, whether Anthropos and Ecclesia proceed from Logos and Zoe.

CHAP. XIV. VALENTINUS AND HIS FOLLOWERS DE- RIVED THE PRINCIPLES OF THEIR SYSTEM FROM THE HEATHEN ; THE NAMES ONLY ARE CHANGED.

I. Much more like the truth, and more pleasing, is the account which Antiphanes,- one of the ancient comic poets, gives in his Theogony as to the origin of all things. For he speaks of Chaos as being produced from Night and Silence ; relates that then Love ^ sprang from Chaos and Night ; from this again. Light ; and that from this, in his opinion, were derived all the rest of the first generation of the gods. After these he next introduces a second generation of gods, and the creation of the world ; then he narrates the formation of mankind by the second order of the gods. These men (the heretics), adopting this fable as their own, have ranged their opinions round it, as if by a sort of natural process, changing only the names of the things referred to, and setting forth the very same beginning of the generation of all things, and their production. In place of Night and Silence they substitute Bythus and Sige ; instead of Chaos, they put Nous ; and for Love (by whom, says the comic poet, all other things were

2 Nothing is known of this writer. Several of the same name are mentioned by the ancients, but to none of them is a work named Tkcogonia ascribed. He is supposed to be the same poet as is cited by Athcnaius, but that writer quotes from a work styled ' Ai^poStVi;? ■yoi'at.

3 The Latin is " Cupidinem; " and Harvey here refers to Aristotle, who " quotes the authority of Hesiod and Parmenides as saying that Love is the eternal intellect, reducing Chaos into order."

set in order) they have brought forward the Word ; while for the primary and greatest gods they have formed the ^ons ; and in place of the secondary gods, they tell us of that creation by their mother which is outside of the Pleroma, calling it the second Ogdoad. They proclaim to us, like the writer referred to, that from this (Ogdoad) came the creation of the world and the formation of man, maintaining that they alone are acquainted with these ineffable and unknown mysteries. Those things which are everywhere acted in the theatres by comedians with the clearest voices they transfer to their own system, teaching them undoubtedly through means of the same arguments, and merely changing the names.

2. And not only are they convicted of bringing forwaid, as if their own [original ideas], those things which are to be found among the comic poets, but they also bring together the things which have been said by all those who were ignorant of God, and who are termed philosophers ; and sewing together, as it were, a motley garment out of a heap of miserable rags, they have, by their subtle manner of expression, furnished themselves with a cloak which is really not their own. They do, it is true, introduce a new kind of doctrine, inasmuch as by a new sort of art it has been substituted [for the old]. Yet it is in reality both old and useless, since these very opinions have been sewed together out of ancient dogmas redolent of ignorance and irreligion. For instance, Thales •♦ of IMiletus afiirmed that water was the generative and initial principle of all things. Now it is just the same thing whether we say water or Bythus. The poet Homer,^ again, held the opinion that Oceanus, along with mother Tethys, was the origin of the gods : this idea these men have transferred to Bythus and Sige. Anaximander laid it down that infinitude is the first principle of all things, having seminally in itself the generation of them all, and from this he declares the immense worlds [which exist] were formed : this, too, they have dressed up anew, and referred to Bythus and their ^ons. Anaxagoras, again, who has also been surnamed " Atheist," gave it as his opinion that animals were formed from seeds falling down from heaven upon earth. This thought, too, these men have transferred to " the seed " of their Mother, which they maintain to be themselves ; thus acknowledging at once, in the judgment of such as are possessed of sense, that they themselves are the offspring of the irreligious Anaxagoras.

3. Again, adopting the [ideas of] shade and vacuity from Democritus and Epicurus, they

Compare, on the opinions of the philosophers referred to in this chapter, Hippolytus, Phitosoph., book i.

have fitted these to their own views, following upon those [teachers] who had already talked a great deal about a vacuum and atoms, the one of which they called that which is, and the other that which is not. In like manner, these men call those things which are within the Pleroma real existences, just as those philosophers did the atoms ; while they maintain that those which are without the Pleroma have no true existence, even as those did respecting the vacuum. They have thus banished themselves in this world (since they are here outside of the Pleroma) into a place which has no existence. Again, when they maintain that these things [below] are images of those which have a true existence [above], they again most manifestly rehearse the doctrine of Democritus and Plato. For Democritus was the first who maintained that numerous and diverse figures were stamped, as it were, with the forms [of things above], and descended from universal space into this world. But Plato, for his part, speaks of matter, and exemplar,' and God. These men, following those distinctions, have styled what he calls ideas, and exemplar, the i??iages of those things which are above ; while, through a mere change of name, they boast themselves as being discoverers and contrivers of this kind of imaginary fiction.

4. This opinion, too, that they hold the Creator formed the world out of previously existing matter, both Anaxagoras, Empedocles, and Plato expressed before them ; as, forsooth, we learn they also do under the inspiration of their Mother. Then again, as to the opinion that everything of necessity passes away to those things out of which they maintain it was also formed, and that God is the slave of this necessity, so that He cannot impart immortality to what is mortal, or bestow incorruption on what is coriruptible, but every one passes into a substance similar in nature to itself, both those who are named Stoics from the portico (oToa), and indeed all that are ignorant of God. poets and historians alike, make the same affirmation.^ Those [heretics] who hold the same [system of] infidelity have ascribed, no doubt, their own proper region to spiritual beings, — that, namely, which is within the Pleroma, but to animal beings the intermediate space, while to corporeal they assign that which is material. And they assert that God Himself can do no otherwise, but that every one of the [different kinds of substance] mentioned passes

' The Latin has here exemplum, corresponding doubtless to irapaBiLyfj-a., and referring to those c6cat of all things which Plato supposed to have existed for ever in the divine mind.

- [Our author's demonstration of the essential harmony of Gnosticism with the old mythologies, and the philosophies of the heathen, explains the hold it seems to have gained among nominal converts to Christianity-, and also the necessity for a painstaking refutation of what seem to us mere absurdities. The great merit of Irenaeus is thus illustrated: he gave the death-blow to heathenism in extirpating heresy.]

away to those things which are of the same nature [with itself].

5. Moreover, as to their saying that the Saviour was formed out of all the zEons, by every one of them depositing, so to speak, in Him his own special flower, they bring forward nothing new that may not be found in the Pandora of -Hesiod. Vox what he says respecting her, these men insinuate concerning the Sa\'iour, bringing Him before us as Pandoros (All-gifted), as if each of the ^ons had bestowed on Him what He possessed in the greatest perfection. Again, their opinion as to the indifference of [eating of] meats and other actions, and as to their thinking that, from the nobility of their nature, they can in no degree at all contract pollution, whatever they eat or perform, they have derived it from the Cynics, since they do in fact belong to the same' society as do these [philosophers]. They also strive to transfer to [the treatment of matters of] faith that hairsplitting and subtle mode of handling questions which is, in fact, a copying of Aristotle.

6. Again, as to the desire they exhibit to refer this whole universe to numbers, they have learned it from the Pythagoreans. For these were the first who set forth numbers as the initial principle of all things, and [described] that initial principle of theirs as being both equal and unecjual, out of which [two properties] they conceived that both things sensible ^ and immaterial derived their origin. And [they held] that one set of first principles + gave rise to the matter [of things], and another to their form. They affirm that from these first principles all things have been made, just as a statue is of its metal and its special form. Now, the heretics have adapted this to the things which are outside of, the Pleroma. The [Pythagoreans] maintained that the 5 principle of intellect is proportionate to the energy wherewith mind, as a recipient of the comprehensible, pursues its inquiries, until, worn out, it is resolved at length in the Indivisible and One. They further affirm that Hen — that is, One — is the first principle of all things, and the substance of all that has been formed. From this again proceeded the Dyad, the Tetrad, tlie Pentad, and the manifold generation of the others. These things the heretics repeat, word for word, with a reference to their Pleroma and Bythus.

3 The Latin text reads " sensibilia et insensata ; " but these words, as Har\'ey observes, must be the translation of aiaOrjTa xai avaiaSr^Ta, — " the former referring to material objects of sense, the latter tQ the immaterial world of intellect."

■• This clause is verj' obscure, and we are not sure if the above rendering brings out the real meaning of the author. Harvey takes a different view of it, and supposes the original Greek to have been, KaX aAAa5 fi-kv t^? i/TrocrTacreuis apxa^ iivai aAAa? 6e t^? aiaSijo-euiT KoX TJ)? oiKTia?. He then remarks: "The reader will observe that the word u7ro<n-a<ri? here means inteUeciiial substance, oiinia. viaterial; as in V. c. ult. The meaning therefore of the sentence will be, And they affirmed that the first f>rinciplcs of hitellcctiial substance and of sensible and material existence 7uere diverse, viz., unity was the exponent of the first, duality of the second."

5 W\ the editors confess the above sentence hopelessly obscure. We have given Harvey's conjectural translation.

From the same source, too, they strive to bring into vogue those conjunctions which proceed from unity. Marcus boasts of such views as if they were his own, and as if he were seen to have discovered something more novel than others, while he simply sets forth the Tetrad of Pythagoras as the originating principle and mother of all things.

7. But I will merely say, in opposition to these men — Did all those who have been mentioned, with whom you have been proved to coincide in expression, know, or not know, the truth? If they knew it, then the descent of the Saviour into this world was superfluous. For why [in that case] did He descend? Was it that He might bring that truth which was [already] known to the knowledge of those who knew it? If, on the other hand, these men did fio/ know it, then how is it that, while you express yourselves in the same terms as do those who knew not the truth, ye boast that yourselves alone possess that knowledge which is above all things, although they who are ignorant of God [likewise] possess it? Thus, then, by a complete perversion ' of language, they style ignorance of the truth knowledge : and Paul well says [of them, that [they make use of] " novelties of words of false knowledge." - For that knowledge of theirs is truly found to be false. If, however, taking an impudent course with respect to these points, they declare that men indeed did not know the truth, but that their Mother,' the seed of the Father, proclaimed the mysteries of truth through such men, even as also through the prophets, while the Demiurge was ignorant [of the proceeding], then I answer, in the first place, that the things which were predicted were not of such a nature as to be intelligible to no one ; for the men themselves knew what they were saying, as did also their disciples, and those again succeeded these. And, in the next place, if either the Mother or her seed knew and proclaimed those things which were of the truth (and the Father'* is truth), then on their theory the Saviour spake falsely when He said, " No one knoweth the Father but the Son," 5 unless indeed they maintain that their seed or Mother is No-one.

8. Thus far, then, by means of [ascribing to their y-Eons] human feelings, and by the fact that they largely coincide in their language with many of those who are ignorant of God, they have been seen plausibly drawing a certain number away [from the truth]. They lead them on

' Literally, " antiphrasis."

2 I Tim. vi. 20. The text is, " Vocum novitates falsae agnitionis," KaifO(|)ioi'tas having apparently been read in the Greek instead of Ksvo^<avi.a.<; as in Text. Rec.

3 Grabc and others insert " vel " between these words.

■• It seems necessary to regard these words as parenthetical, though the point is overlooked by all the editors.

by the use of those [expressions] with which they have been familiar, to that sort of discourse which treats of all things, setting forth the production of the Word of God, and of Zoe, and of Nous, and bringing into the world, as it were, the [successive] emanations of the Deity. The views, again, which they propound, without either plausibility or parade, are simply lies from beginning to end. Just as those who, in order to lure and capture any kind of animals, place their accustomed food before them, gradually drawing them on by means of the familiar aliment, until at length they seize it, but, when they have taken them captive, they subject them to the bitterest of bondage, and drag them along with violence whithersoever they please ; so also do these men gradually and gently persuading [others], by means of their plausible speeches, to accept of the emission which has been mentioned, then bring forward things which are not consistent, and forms of the remaining emissions which are not such as might have been expected. They declare, for instance, that [ten] ^ ^ons were sent forth by Logos and Zoe, while from Anthropos and Ecclesia there proceeded twelve, although they have neither proof, nor testimony, nor probability, nor anything whatever of such a nature [to support these assertions] ; and with equal folly and audacity do they wish it to be believed that from Logos and Zoe, being ^Eons, were sent forth Bythus and Mixis, Ageratos and Henosis, Autophyes and Hedone, Acinetos and Syncrasis, Monogenes and Macaria. Moreover, [as they affirm,] there were sent forth, in a similar way, from Anthropos and Ecclesia, being yEons, Paracletus and Pistis, Patricos and Elpis, Metricos and Agape, Ainos and Synesis, Ecclesiasticus and Macariotes, Theletos and Sophia.

9. The passions and error of this Sophia, and how she ran the risk of perishing through her investigation [of the nature] of the Father, as they relate, and what took place outside of the Pleroma, and from what sort of a defect they teach that the Maker of the world was produced, I have set forth in the preceding book, describing in it, with all diligence, the opinions of these heretics. [I have also detailed their views] respecting Christ, whom they describe as having been produced subsequently to all these, and also regarding Soter, who, [according to them,] derived his being from those ^ons who were formed within the Pleroma.'' But I have of necessity mentioned their names at present, that from these the absurdity of their falsehood may be made manifest, and also the confused nature of the nomenclature they have devised. For

6 " Decem " is of doubtful authority.

7 The text has " qui in labe facti sunt; " but, according to Harvey, " the sense requires TtKr\pui^o.Ti. instead of iKTpuiixaTi. in the original."

they themselves detract from [the dignity of] their .^ons by a multitude of names of this sort. They give out names plausible and credible to the heathen, [as being similar] to those who are called their twelve gods,' and even these they will have to be images of their twelve ^ons. But the images [so called] can produce names [of their own] much more seemly, and more powerful through their etymology to indicate divinity [than are those of their fancied prototypes].

CHAP. XV. — NO .'ACCOUNT CAN BE GIVEN OF THESE PRODUCTIONS.

1. But let us return to the fore-mentioned question as to the production [of the /Eons]. And, in the first place, let them tell us the reason of the production of the /Eons being of such a kind that they do not come in contact with any of those things which belong to creation. For they maintain that those things [above] were not made on account of creation, but creation on account of them ; and that the former are not images of the latter, but the latter of the former. As, therefore, they render a reason for the images, by saying that the month has thirty days on account of the thirty ^^ons, and the day twelve hours, and the year twelve months, on account of the twelve /Eons which are within the Pleroma, with other such nonsense of the same kind, let them now tell us also the reason for that i)roduction of the ^ons, why it was of such a nature, for what reason the first and firstbegotten OgJoad was sent forth, and not a Pentad, or a Triad, or a Septenad, or any one of those which are defined by a different number? Moreover, how did it come to pass, that from Logos and Zoe were sent forth ten JEons, and neither more nor less ; while again from Anthropos and Ecclesia proceeded twelve, although these might have been either more or lees numerous ?

2. And then, again, with reference to the entire Pleroma, what reason is there that it should be divided into these three — an Ogdoad, a Decad, and a Duodecad — and not into some other number different from these ? Moreover, with respect to the division itself, why has it been made into three parts, and not into four, or five, or six, or into some other number among those which have no connection with such numbers - as belong to creation ? For they describe those [."Eons above] as being more ancient than these [created things below] , and it behoves them to possess their principle [of being] in themselves, one which existed before creation, and

' Viz., the " Dii raajorum gentium" of the Gentiles.

^ Referring to numbers like 4, 5, 6, which do not correspond to any important fact in creation, as 7 e.g., does to the number of the planets.

not after the pattern of creation, all exactly agreeing as to the point. ^

3. The account which we give of creation is one harmonious with that regular order [of things prevailing in the world], for this scheme of ours is adapted to the ■♦ things which have [actually] been made ; but it is a matter of necessity that they, being unable to assign any reason belonging to the things themselves, with regard to those beings that existed before [creation], and were perfected by themselves, should fall into the greatest perplexity. For, as to the points on which they interrogate us as knowing nothing of creation, they themselves, when questioned in turn respecting the Pleroma, either make mention of mere human feelings, or have recourse to that sort of speech which bears only upon that harmony observable in creation, improperly giving us replies concerning things which are secondary, arid not concerning those which, as they maintain, are primary. For we do not question them concerning that harmony which belongs to creation, nor concerning human feelings ; but because they must acknowledge, as to their octiform, deciform, and duodeciform Pleroma (the image of which they declare creation to be), that their Father formed it of that figure vainly and thoughtlessly, and must ascribe to Him deformity, if He made anything without a reason. Or, again, if they declare that the Pleroma was so produced in accordance with the foresight of the Father, for the sake of creation, as if He had thus symmetrically arranged its very essence, then it follows that the Pleroma can no longer be regarded as having been formed on its own account, but for the sake of that [creation] which was to be its image as possessing its likeness (just as the clay model is not moulded for its own sake, but for the sake of the statue in brass, or gold, or silver about to be formed), then creation will have greater honour than the Pleroma, if, for its sake, those things [above] were produced.

CHAP. XVI. THE CREATOR OF THE WORLD EITHER

PRODUCED OF HIMSELF THE IMAGES OF THINGS TO BE MADE, OR THE PLEROMA \V.\S FORMED AFTER THE IMAGE OF SOME PREVIOUS SYSTEM ; AND SO ON AD INFINITUM.

I. But if they will not yield assent to any one of these conclusions, since in that case they would be proved by us as incapable of rendering any reason for such a production of their Pleroma, they will of necessity be shut up to this — that they confess that, above the Pleroma, there was some other system more spiritual and more powerful, after the image of which their Pleroma was

3 The Latin text is here scarcely intelligible, and is variously pointed by the editors.

•• Harvey e.xplains " his " as here denoting " in his," but we are at a loss to know how he would translate the passage. It is in the highest degree obscure.

formed. For if the Demiurge did not of himself construct that figure of creation which exists, but made it after the form of those things which are above, then from whom did their Bythus — who, to be sure, brought it about that the Pleroma should be possessed of a configuration of this kind — receive the figure of those things which existed before Himself? For it must needs be, either that the intention [of creating] dwelt in that god who made the world, so that of his own power, and from himself, he obtained the model of its formation ; or, if any departure is made from this being, then there will arise a necessity for constantly asking whence there came to that one who is above him the configuration of those things which have been made ; what, too, was the number of the productions ; and what the substance of the model itself? If, however, it was in the power of Bythus to impart of himself such a configuration to the Pleroma, then wliy may it not have been in the power of the Demiurge to form of himself such a world as exists ? And then, again, if creation be an image of those things [above], why should we not affirm that those are, in turn, images of others above them, and those above these again, of others, and thus go on supposing innumerable images of images?

2. This difficulty presented itself to Basilides after he had utterly missed the truth, and was conceiving that, by an infinite succession of those beings that were formed from one another, he might escape such perplexity. When he had proclaimed that three hundred and sixty-five heavens were formed through succession and similitude by one another, and that a manifest proof [of the existence] of these was found in the number of the days of the year, as I stated before ; and that above these there was a power which they also style Unnameable, and its dispensation — he did not even in this way escape such perplexity. For, when asked whence came the image of its confi.guration to that heaven which is above all, and from which he wishes the rest to be regarded as having been formed by means of succession, he will say, from that dispensation which belongs to the Unnameable. He must then say, either that the Unspeakable formed it of himself, or he will find it necessary to acknowledge that there is some other power above this l)eing, from whom his unnameable One derived such vast numbers of configurations as do, according to him, exist.

3. How much safer and more accurate a course is it, then, to confess at once that which is true : tliat this God, the Creator, who formed the world, is the only God, and that there is no other God besides Him — He Himself receiving from Himself the model and figure of those things which have been made — than that, after wearying ourselves with such an impious and circuitous de-

scription, we should be compelled, at some point or another, to fix the mind on some One, and to confess that from Him proceeded the configuration of things created.

4. As to the accusation brought against us by the followers of Valentinus, when they declare that we continue in that Hebdomad which is below, as if we could not lift our minds on high, nor understand those things which are above, because we do not accept their monstrous assertions : this very charge do the followers of Basilides bring in turn against them, inasmuch as they (the Valentinians) keep circling about those things which are below, [going] as far as the first and second Ogdoad, and because they unskilfully imagine that, immediately after the thirty ^ons, they have discovered Him who is above all things Father, not following out in thought their investigations to that Pleroma which is above the three hundred and sixty-five heavens, which ' is above forty-five Ogdoads. And any one, again, might bring against them the same charge, by imagining four thousand three hundred and eighty heavens, or ^ons, since the days of the year contain that number of hours. If, again, some one adds also the nights, thus doubling the hours which have been mentioned, imagining that [in this way] he has discovered a great multitude of Ogdoads, and a kind of innumerable company^ of ^ons, and thus, in opposition to Him who is above all things Father, conceiving himself more perfect than all [others], he will bring the same charge against all, inasmuch as they are not capable of rising to the conception of such a multitude of heavens or yEons as he has announced, but are either so deficient as to remain among those things which are below, or continue in the intermediate space.

CHAP. XVII. INQUIRY INTO THE PRODUCflON OF

THE .EONS : WHATEVER ITS SUPPOSED NATURE, IT IS IN EVERY RESPECT INCONSISTENT ; AND ON THE HYPOTHESIS OF THE HERETICS, EVEN NOUS AND THE FATHER HIMSELF WOULD BE STAINED WITH IGNORANCE.

I. That system, then, which has respect to their Pleroma, and especially that part of it which refers to the primary Ogdoad being thus burdened with so great contradictions and perplexities, let me now go on to examine the remainder of their scheme. [In doing so] on account of their madness, I shall be making in(|uiry respecting things which have no real existence ; yet it is necessary to do this, since the treatment of this subject has been entrusted to mc, and since I desire all men

' The text is here doubtful: Harvey proposes to read " qui " instead of " quse," but we prefer " quod " with Grabe. The meaning is, that three hundred and sixty-five is more than forty-five Ogdoads

^ " Opcrositatcm," corresponding to TrpayixaT^iav, lit. ma}n(/aciure.

to come to the knowledge of the truth, as well as because thou thyself hast asked to receive from me full and complete means for overturning [the views of] these men.

2. I ask, then, in what manner were the rest of the yEons produced? Was it so as to be united with Him who produced them, even as the solar rays are with the sim ; or was it actually ' and se])arately, so that each of them possessed an indei)endent existence and his own special form, just as has a man from another man, and one herd of cattle from another? Or was it after the manner of germination, as branches from a tree? And were they of the same substance with those who produced them, or did they derive their substance from some other [kind of] substance? Also, were they produced at the same time, so as to be contemporaries ; or after a certain order, so that some of them were older, and others younger ? And, again, are they uncompounded and uniform, and altogether equal and similar among themselves, as spirit and light are produced ; or are they compounded and different, unlike [to each other] in their members?

3. If each of them was produced, after the manner of men, actually and according to its own generation, then either those thus generated by the Father will be of the same substance with Him, and similar to their Author ; or if^ they appear dissimilar, then it must of necessity be acknowledged that they are [formed of some different substance. Now, if the beings generated by the Father be similar to their Author, then those who have been produced must remain for ever impassible, even as is He who produced them ; but if, on the other hand, they are of a different substance, which is capable of passion, then whence came this dissimilar substance to find a place within the incorruptible Pleroma? Further, too, according to this principle, each one of them must be understood as being completely separated from every other, even as men are not mixed with nor united the one to the other, but each having a distinct shape of his own, and a definite sphere of action, while each one of them, too, is formed of a particular size, — qualities characteristic of a body, and not of a spirit. Let them therefore no longer speak of the Pleroma as being spiritual, or of themselves as " spiritual," if indeed their ^Eons sit feasting with the Father, just as if they were men, and He Himself is of such a configuration as those reveal Him to be who were produced by Him.

4. If, again, the .-^ons were derived from

' Ejfficabiliter in the Latin text is thought to correspond to ivtftyw'i in the original Greek.

^ Si is inserted by most of the editors; and although Harvey argues for its omission, we agree with Massuet in deeming it indispensable.

Logos, Logos from Nous, and Nous from Bythus, just as lights are kindled from a light — as, for example, torches are from a torch — then they may no doubt differ in generation and size from one another ; but since they are of the same substance with the Author of their production, they must either all remain for ever impassible, or their Father Himself must partici- ])ate in j^assion. For the torch which has been kindled subse([uently cannot be possessed of a different kind of light from that which preceded it. Wherefore also their lights, when blended in one, return to the original identity, since that one light is then formed which has existed even from the l^eginning. But we cannot speak, with respect to light itself, of some part being more recent in its origin, and another being more ancient (for the whole is but one light) ; nor can we so speak even in regard to those torches which have received the light (for these are all contemporary as respects their material substance, for the substance of torches is one and the same), but simply as to [the time of] its being kindled, since one was lighted a little while ago, and another has just now been kindled.

5. The defect, therefore, of that passion which has regard to ignorance, will either attach alike to their whole Pleroma, since [all its members] are of the same substance ; and the Propator will share in this defect of ignorance -»- that is, will be ignorant of Himself; or, on the other hand, all those lights which are within the Pleroma will alike remain for ever impassible. Whence, then, comes the passion of the youngest ^^on, if the light of the Father is that from which all other lights have been formed, and which is by nature impassible? And how can one ^on be spoken of as either younger or older among themselves, since there is but one light in the entire Pleroma? And if any one calls them stars, they will all nevertheless appear to participate in the same nature. For if " one star differs from another star in glory," ^ but not in quahties, nor substance, nor in the f.ict of being passible or impassible ; so all these, since they are alike derived from the light of the Father, must either be naturally impassible and immutable, or they must all, in common with the light of the Fatlier, be passible, and are capable of the varying phases of corruption.

6. The same conclusion will follow, although they afiirm that the production of /Eons sprang from Logos, as branches from a tree, since Logos has his generation from their Father. For all [the /Eons] are formed of the same substance with the Father, differing from one another only in size, and not in nature, and filling up the greatness of the Father, even as the fingers com-

plete the hand. If therefore He exists in passion and ignorance, so must also those ^ons who have been generated by Him. But if it is impious to ascribe ignorance and passion to the Father of all, how can they describe an JEon produced by Him as being passible ; and while they ascribe the same impiety to the very wisdom (Sophia) of God, how can they still call themselves religious men?

7. If, again, they declare that their ^^ons were sent forth just as rays are from the sun, then, since all are of the same substance and sprung from the same source, all must either be capable of passion along with Him who produced them, or all will remain impassible for ever. For they can no longer maintain that, of beings so produced, some are impassible and others passible. If, then, they declare all impassible, they do themselves destroy their own argument. For how could the youngest ^on have suffered passion if all were impassible? If, on the other hand, they declare that all partook of this passion, as indeed some of them venture to maintain, then, inasmuch as it originated with Logos,' but flowed onwards to Sophia, they will thus be convicted of tracing back the passion to Logos, who is the^ Nous of this Propator, and so acknowledging the Nous of the Propator and the Father Himself to have experienced passion. For the Father of all is not to be regarded as a kind of compound Being, who can be separated from his Nous (mind), as I have already shown ; but Nous is the Father, and the Father Nous. It necessarily follows, therefore, both that he who springs from Him as Logos, or rather that Nous himself, since he is Logos, must be perfect and impassible, and that those productions which proceed from him, seeing that they are of the same substance with himself, should be perfect and impassible, and should ever remain similar to him who produced them.

8. It cannot therefore longer be held, as these men teach, that Logos, as occupying the third place in generation, was ignorant of the Father. Such a thing might indeed perhaps be deemed probable in the case of the generation of human beings, inasmuch as these frequently know nothing of their parents ; but it is altogether impossible in the case of the Logos of the Father. For if, existing in the Father, he knows Him in whom he exists — that is, is not ignorant of himself — then those productions which issue from him being his powers (faculties), and always present with him, will not be ignorant of him who emitted them, any more than rays [may be supposed to be] of the sun. It is impossible.

It seems needless to insert an " ct " before this word, as Harvey suggests, or, as an alternative, to strike out the first " Nun Propa toris."

therefore, that the Sophia (wisdom) of God, she who is within the Pleroma, inasmuch as she has been produced in such a manner, should have fallen under the influence of passion, and conceived such ignorance. But it is possible that that Sophia (wisdom) who pertains to [the scheme] of Valentinus, inasmuch as she is a production of the devil, should fall into every kind of passion, and exhibit the profoundest ignorance. For when they themselves bear testimony concerning their mother, to the effect that she was the otTspring of an erring ^on, we need no longer search for a reason why the sons of such a mother should be ever swimming in the depths of ignorance.

9. I am not aware that, besides these productions [which have been mentioned], they are able to speak of any other ; indeed, they have not been known to me (although I have had very frequent discussions with them concerning forms of this kind) as ever setting forth any other pecuhar kind of being as produced [in the manner under consideration]. This only they maintain, that each one of these was so produced as to know merely that one who produced him, while he was ignorant of the one who immediately preceded. But they do not in this matter go forward [in their account] with any kind of demonstration as to the manner in which these were produced, or how such a thing could take place among spiritual beings. For, in whatsoever way they may choose to go forward, they will feel themselves bound (while, as regards the truth, they depart ^ entirely from right reason) to proceed so far as to maintain that their Word, who springs from the Nous of the Propator, — to maintain, I say, that he was produced in a state of degeneracy. For [they hold] that perfect Nous, previously begotten by the perfect Bythus, was not capable of rendering that production which issued from him perfect, but [could only bring it forth] utterly blind to the knowledge and greatness of the Father. They also maintain that the Saviour exhibited an emblem of this mystery in the case of that man who was blind from his birth ,•♦ since the iEon was in this manner produced by Monogenes blind, that is, in ignorance, thus falsely ascribing ignorance and blindness to the Word of God, who, according to their own theory, holds the second [place of] production from the Propator. Admirable sophists, and explorers of the sublimities of the unknown Father, and rehearsers of those super-celestial mysteries " which the angels desire to look into ! " 5 — that they may learn that from the Nous of that Father who is above all, tlie Word was produced blind, that is, ignorant of the Father who produced him !

3 Some read " caccutientes " instead of " circumeuntes," as above.

10. But, ye miserable sophists, how could the Nous of the Father, or rather the very Father Himself, since He is Nous and perfect in all things, have produced his own Logos as an imperfect and blind ALon, when He was able also to produce along with him the knowledge of the Father? As ye affirm that Christ was generated ' after the rest, and yet declare that he was produced perfect, much more then should Logos, who is anterior to him in age, be produced by the same Nous, unquestionably perfect, and not blind ; nor could he, again, have produced yEons still blinder than himself, until at last your Sophia, always utterly blinded, gave birth to so vast a body of evils. And your Father is the cause of all this mischief; for ye declare the magnitude and power of your Father to be the causes of ignorance, assimilating Him to Bythus, and assigning this as a name to Him who is the unnameable Father. But if ignorance is an evil, and ye declare all evils to have derived their strength from it, while ye maintain that the greatness and power of the Father is the cause of this ignorance, ye do thus set Him forth as the author of [all] evils. For ye state as the cause of evil this fact, that [no one] could contemplate His greatness. But if it was really impossible for the Father to make Himself known from the beginning to those [beings] that were formed by Him, He must in that case be held free from blame, inasmuch as He coi^/d not remove the ignorance of those who came after Him. But if, at a subsequent period, when He so willed it, He could take away that ignorance which had increased with the successive productions as they followed each other, and thus become deeply seated in the .-Flons, much more, had He so willed it might He formerly have prevented that ignorance, which as yet was not, from coming into existence.

1 1 . Since therefore, as soon as He so pleased, He did become known not only to the ^ons, but also to these men who lived in these latter times ; but, as He did not so please to be known from the beginning, He remained unknown — the cause of ignorance is, according to you, the will of the Father. For if He foreknew that these things would in future happen in such a manner, why then did He not guard against the ignorance of these beings before it had obtained a place among them, rather than afterwards, as if under the influence of repentance, deal with it through the production of Christ? For the knowledge which through Christ He conveyed to all. He might long before have imparted through Logos, who was also the first-begotten

" Postgenitum quidem reliquis," the representative, according to Grabe, of aTro-yoroi' y-iv Aoittoi; in the Greel^. Hars'ey remarks that ^^av AoiTTMi' would have been better, and proposes to read " progenitum" in the Latin; but we do not see any necessity for change.

of Monogenes. Or if, knowing them beforehand, He willed that these things should happen [as they have done], then the works of ignorance must endure for ever, and never pass away. For the things which have been made in accordance with the will of your Propator must continue along with the will of Him who willed thern ; or if they pass away, the will of Him also who decreed that they should have a being will pass away along with them. And why did the /Eons find rest and attain perfect knowledge through learning [at last] that the Father is altogether - incomprehensible? They might surely have possessed this knowledge before they became involved in passion ; for the greatness of the Father did not suffer diminution from the beginning, so that these might ^ know that He was altogether incomprehensible. For if, on account of His infinite greatness. He remained unknown, He ought also on account of His infinite love to have preser\^ed those impassible who were produced by Him, since nothing hindered, and expediency rather required, that they should have known from the beginning that the Father was altogether incomprehensible.

CHAP. XVIII. SOPHIA \V.\S NEVER REALLY IN IG- NORANCE OR PASSION ; HER ENl'HYMESIS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN SEPARATED FROM HERSELF, OR EXHIBITED SPECIAL TENDENCIES OF ITS OWTSI.

1. How can it be regarded as othenvise than absurd, that they also affirm this Sophia (wisdom) to have been involved in ignorance, and degeneracy, and passion ? For these things are alien and contrary to wisdom, nor can they ever be qualities belonging to it. For wherever there is a want of foresight, and an ignorance of the course of utility, there wisdom does not exist. Let them therefore no longer call this suffering ^on, Sophia, but let them give up either her name or her sufferings. And let them, moreover, not call their entire Pleroma spiritual, if this ^on had a place within it when she was involved in such a tumult of passion. For even a vigorous soul, not to say a spiritual substance, would not pass through any such experience.

2. And, again, how could her Enthymesis, going forth [from her] along with the passion, have become a separate existence ? For Enthymesis (thought) is understood in connection with some person, and can never have an isolated existence by itself. For a bad Enthymesis is destroyed and absorbed by a good one, even as a state of disease is by health. What, then, was the sort of Enthymesis which preceded that of passion? [It was this] : to investigate the [nature of] the Father, and to consider His

2 " Incapabilis et incomprehensibilis," corresponding to axwp'JTOs Kox oKaTdATjjTTo? in the Greek.

3 Literally, " to these knowing," " his scientibus."

M

greatness. But what did she afterwards become persuaded of, and so was restored to health? [This, viz.], that the Father is incomprehensible, and that He is past finding out. It was not, then, a proper feeling that she wished to know the Father, and on this account she became passible ; but when she became persuaded that He is unsearchable, she was restored to health. And even Nous himself, who was inquiring into the [nature of) the Father, ceased, according to them, to continue his researches, on learning that the Father is incomprehensible.

3. How then could the Enthymesis separately conceive passions, which themselves also were her affections ? For affection is necessarily connected with an individual : it cannot come into being or exist apart by itself. This opinion [of theirs], however, is not only untenable, but also opposed to that which was spoken by our Lord : " Seek, and ye shall find." ' For the Lord renders His disciples perfect by their seeking after and finding the Father ; but that Christ of theirs, who is abo\e, has rendered them perfect, by the fact that He has commanded the /Eons not to seek after the Father, persuading them that, though they should labour hard, they would not find Him. And they ^ declare that they themselves are perfect, by the fact that they maintain they have found their Bythus ; while the yEons [have been made perfect] through means of this, that I/e is unsearchable who was inquired after by them.

4. Since, therefore, the Enthymesis herself could not exist separately, apart from the yEon, [it is obvious that] they bring forward still greater falsehood concerning her passion, when they further proceed to divide and separate it from her, while they declare that it was the substance of matter. As if God were not light, and as if no Word existed who could convict them, and overthrow their wickedness. For it is certainly true, that whatsoever the ^Eon thought, that she also suffered ; and what she suffered, that she also thought. And her Enthymesis was, according to them, nothing else than the passion of one thinking how she might comprehend the incomprehensible. And thus Enthymesis (thought) was the passion ; for she was thinking of things impossible. How then could affection and passion be separated and set apart from the Enthymesis, so as to become the substance of so vast a material creation, when Enthymesis herself was the passion, and the passion Enthymesis? Neither, therefore, can Enthymesis apart from the -^on, nor the affections apart from iMithymesis, separately possess substance ; and thus once more their system breaks down and is destroyed.

5. But how did it come to pass that the /Eon

2 It seems iiecessar>' ;c read " se quidcm " instead of " si quidcm," as in the mss.

was both dissolved [into her component parts], and became subject to passion? She was undoubtedly of the same substance as the Pleroma ; but the entire Pleroma was of the Father. Now, any substance, when brought in contact with what is of a similar nature, will not be dissolved into nothing, nor will be in danger of perishing, but will rather continue and increase, such as fire in fire, spirit in spirit, and water in water ; but those which are of a contrary nature to each other do, [when they meet,] suffer and are changed and destroyed. And, in like manner, if there had been a production of light, it would not suffer passion, or incur any danger in light like itself, but would rather glow with the greater brightness, and increase, as the day does from [the increasing brilliance of] the sun ; for they maintain that Bythus [himself] was the image of their father ^ (Sophia) . Whatever animals are alien [in habits] and strange to each other, or are mutually opposed in nature, fall into danger [on meeting together], and are destroyed; whereas, on the other hand, those who are accustomed to each other, and of a harmonious disposition, suffer no peril from being together in the same place, but rather secure both safety and life by such a fact. If, therefore, this /Eon was produced by the Pleroma of the same substance as the whole of it, she could never have undergone change, since she was consorting with beings similar to and familiar with herself, a spiritual essence among those that were spiritual. For fear, terror, passion, dissolution, and such like, may perhaps occur through the struggle of contraries among such beings as we are, who are possessed of bodies ; but among spiritual beings, and those that have the light diffused among them, no such calamities can possibly happen. But these men appear to me to have endowed their ^on with the [same sort of] passion as belongs to that character in the comic poet Menander,'* who was himself deeply in love, but an object of hatred [to his beloved]. For those who have invented such opinions have rather had an idea and mental conception of some unhappy lover among men, than of a spiritual and divine substance.

6. Moreover, to meditate how to search into [the nature of] the perfect Father, and to have a desire to exist within Him, and to have a comprehension of His [greatness], could not entail the stain of ignorance or passion, and that upon a spiritual /Eon ; but would rather [give rise to] perfection, and impassibility, and truth. For they do not say that even they, though they be but men, by meditating on Him who was before

3 AlthouKh Sophia was a feminine JEon, she was regarded as being the father of Enthymesis, who again was the mother of the Valentinians.

Stieren refers for this allusion to Mcineke's edition of the Reliquioe Menan. et fhilein., p. 116.

them, — and while now, as it were, comprehending the perfect, and being placed within the knowledge of Him, — are thus involved in a I)assion of perplexity, but rather attain to the knowledge and apprehension of truth. P'or they affirm that the Saviour said, " Seek, and ye shall find," to His disciples with this view, that they should seek after Him who, by means of imagination, has been conceived of by them as being above the Maker of all — the ineffable Bythus ; and they desire themselves to be regarded as " the perfect," because they have sought and found the perfect One, while they are still on earth. Yet they declare that that ^on who was within the Pleroma, a wholly spiritual being, by seeking after the Propator, and endeavouring to find a place within His greatness, and desiring to have a comprehension of the truth of the Father, fell down into [the endurance of] passion, and such a passion that, unless she had met with that Power who upholds all things, she would have been dissolved into the general substance [of the ^Eons], and thus come to an end of her [personal] existence.

7. Absurd is such presumption, and. truly an opinion of men totally destitute of the truth. For, that this ^on is superior to themselves, and of greater antiquity, they themselves acknowledge, according to their own system, when they affirm that they are the fruit of the Enthymesis of that ^on who suffered passion, so that this JEon is the father of their mother, that is, their own grandfather. And to them, the later grandchildren, the search after the Father brings, as they m,aintain, truth, and perfection, and establishment, and deliverance from unstable matter, and reconciliation to the Father ; but on their grandfather this same search entailed ignorance, and passion, and terror, and perplexity, from which [disturbances] they also declare that the substance of matter was formed. To say, therefore, that the search after and investigation of the perfect ^ather, and the desire for communion and union with Him, were things quite beneficial to them, but to an ^on, from whom also they derive their origin, these things were the cause of dissolution and destruction, how can such assertions be otherwise viewed than as totally inconsistent, foolish, and irrational? Those, too, who listen to these teachers, truly blind themselves, while they possess blind guides, justly [are left to] fall along with them into the gulf of ignorance which lies below them.

CHAP. XIX. ABSURDITIES OF THE HERETICS AS TO

THEIR OWN ORIGIN : THEIR OPINIONS RESPECTING THE DEMIURGE SHOWN TO BE EQUALLY UNTENA- BLE AND RIDICULOUS.

I. But what sort of talk also is this concerning their seed — that it was conceived by the mother

according to the configuration of those angels who wait upon the Saviour, — shapeless, without form, and imperfect ; and that it was deposited in the Demiurge without his knowledge, in order that through his instrumentality it might attain to perfection and form in that soul which he had, [so to speak,] filled with seed? This is to affirm, in the first place, that those angels who wait ui)on their Saviour are imperfect, and without figure or form ; if indeed that which was conceived according to their appearance was generated any such kind of being [as has been described] .

2. Then, in the next place, as to their saying that the Creator was ignorant of that deposit of seed which took place into him, and again, of that impartation of seed which was made by him to man, their words are futile and vain, and are in no way susceptible of proof. For how could he have been ignorant of it, if that seed had possessed any substance and peculiar properties? If, on the other hand, it was without substance and without quality, and so was really nothing, then, as a matter of course, he was ignorant of it. For those things which have a certain motion of their own, and quality, either of heat, or swiftness, or sweetness, or which differ from others in brilliance, do not escape the notice even of men, since they mingle in the sphere of human action : far less can they [be hidden from] God, the Maker of this universe. With reason, however, [is it said, that] their seed was not known to Him, since it is without any quality of general utility, and without the substance requisite for any action, and is, in fact, a pure nonentity. It really seems to me, that, with a view to such opinions, the Lord expressed Himself thus: " For every idle word that men speak, they shall give account on the day of judgment." ' For all teachers of a like character to these, who fill men's ears with idle talk, shall, when they stand at the throne of judgment, render an account for those things which they have vainly imagined and falsely uttered against the Lord, proceeding, as they have done, to such a height of audacity as to declare of themselves that, on account of the substance of their seed, they are acquainted with the spiritual Pleroma, because that man who dwells within reveals to them the true Father ; for the animal nature requiredto be disciplined by means of the senses. But [they hold that] the Demiurge, while receiving into himself the whole of this seed, through its being deposited in him by the Mother, still remained utterly ignorant of all things, and had no understanding of anything connected with the Pleroma.

it as exposition. J

6. [The serious spirit of this remark lends force to

3. And that they are the truly "spiritual," inasmuch as a certain particle of the Father of the universe has been deposited in their souls, since, according to their assertions, they have souls formed of the same substance as the Demiurge himself, yet that he, although he received from the Mother, once for all, the whole [of the divine] seed, and possessed it in himself, still remained of an animal nature, and had not the slightest understanding of those things which are above, which things they boast that they themselves understand, while they are still on earth ; — does not this crown all possible absurdity? For to imagine that the very same seed conveyed knowledge and perfection to the souls of these men, while it only gave rise to ignorance in the God who made them, is an opinion that can be held only by those utterly frantic, and totally destitute of common sense.

4. Further, it is also a most absurd and groundless thing for them to say that the seed was, by being thus deposited, reduced to form and increased, and so was prepared for all the reception of perfect rationality. For there will be in it an admixture of matter — that substance which they hold to have been derived from ignorance and defect ; [and this will prove itself] more apt and useful than was the light of their Father, if indeed, when born, according to the contemplation of that [light], it was without form or figure, but derived from this [matter], form, and appearance, and increase, and perfection. For if that light which proceeds from the Pleroma was the cause to a spiritual being that it possessed neither form, nor appearance, nor its own special magnitude, while its descent to this world added all these things to it, and brought it to perfection, then a sojourn here (which they also term darkness) would seem much more efficacious and useful than was the hght of their Father. But how can it be regarded as other than ridiculous, to affirm that their mother ran the risk of being almost extinguished in matter, and was almost on the point of being destroyed by it, had she not then with difficulty stretched herself outwards, and leaped, [as it were,] out of herself, receiving assistance from the Father ; but that her seed increased in this same matter, and received a form, and was made fit for the reception of perfect rationality ; and this, too, while " bubbling up " among substances dissimilar and unfamiliar to itself, according to their own declaration that the earthly is opposed to the spiritual, and the spiritual to the earthly? How, then, could "a little particle," ' as they say, increase, and receive shape, and reach perfection, in the midst of substances contrary to and unfamiliar to itself?

5. But further, and in addition to what has

" Parvum emissum" — a small emission.

been said, the question occurs, Did their mother, when she beheld the angels, bring forth the seed all at once, or only one by one [in succession] ? If she brought forth the whole simultaneously and at once, that which was thus produced cannot now be of an infantile character : its descent, therefore, into those men who now exist must be superfluous.^ But if one by one, then she did not form her conception according to the figure of those angels whom she beheld ; for, contemplating them all together, and once for all, so as to conceive by them, she ought to have brought forth once for all the offspring of those from whose forms she had once for all conceived.

6. Why was it, too, that, beholding the angels along with the Saviour, she did indeed conceive iheir images, but not that of the Saviour, who is far more beautiful than they? Did He not please her ; and did she not, on that account, conceive after His Hkeness ? ^ How was it, too, that the Demiurge, whom they can call an animal being, having, as they maintain, his own special magnitude and figure, was produced perfect as respects his substance ; while that which is spiritual, which also ought to be more effective than that which is animal, was sent forth imperfect, and he required to descend into a soul, that in it he might obtain form, and thus becoming perfect, might be rendered fit for the reception ofperfect reason? If, then, he obtains form in mere earthly and anim.al men, he can no longer be said to be after the likeness of angels whom they call lights, but [after the likeness] of those men who are here below. For he will not possess in that case the likeness and appearance of angels, but of those souls in whom also he receives shape ; just as water when poured into a vessel takes the form of that vessel, and if on any occasion it happens to congeal in it, it will acquire the form of the vessel in which it has thus been frozen, since souls themselves possess the figure ■♦ of the body [in which they dwell] ; for they themselves have been adapted to the vessel [in which they exist], as I have said before. If, then, that seed [referred to] is here solidified and formed into a definite shape, it will possess the figure of a man, and not the form of the angels. How is it possible, therefore, that that seed should be after images of the angels, seeing it has obtained a form after the likeness of men? Why, again, since it was of a spiritual nature, had it any need of descending into flesh? For what is carnal stands in need of that which is spiritual, if indeed

2 That is, there could be no need for its descending into them that it might increase, receive form, and thus be prepared for the reception of perfect reason.

3 Or, " on beholding Him."

•♦ As Massuet here remarks, we may infer from this passage that IrenjEus believed souls to be corporeal, as being possessed of a definite form, — an opinion entertained by not a few of the ancients. [And, before we censure them, let us reflect whether their perceptions of " the carnal mind " as differing from the spirit of a man, may not

it is to be saved, that in it it may be sanctified and cleared from all impurity, .and that what is mortal may be swallowed up by immortality ; ' but that which is spiritual has no need whatever of those things which are here below. For it is not we who benefit it, but it that improves us.

7. Still more manifestly is that talk, of theirs concerning their seed proved to be false, and that in a way which must be evident to every one, by the fact that they declare those souls' which have received seed from the Mother to be superior to all others ; wherefore also they have been honoured by the Demiurge, and constituted princes, and kings, and priests. For if this were true, the high priest Caiaphas, and Annas, and the rest of the chief priests, and doctors of the law, and rulers of the people, would have been the first to believe in the Lord, agreeing as they did with respect - to that relationship ; and even before them should have been Herod the king. But since neither he, nor the chief priests, nor the rulers, nor the eminent of the people, turned to Him [in faith], but, on the contrary, those who sat begging by the highway, the deaf, and the blind, w'hile He was rejected and despised by others, according to what Paul declares, " For ye see your calling, brethen, that there are not many wise men among you, not many noble, not many mighty ; but those things of the world which were despised hath God chosen." ^ Such souls, therefore, were not superior to others on account of the seed deposited in them, nor on this account were they honoured by the Demiurge.

8. As to the point, then, that their system is weak and untenable as well as utterly chimerical, enough has been said. For it is not needful, to use a common proverb, that one should drink up the ocean who wishes to learn that its water is salt. But, just as in the case of a statue which is made of clay, but coloured on the outside that it may be thought to be of gold, while it really is of clay, any one who takes out of it a small particle, and thus laying it open reveals the clay, will set free those who seek the truth from a false opinion ; in the same way have I (by exposing not a small part only, but the several heads of their system which are of the greatest importance) shown to as many as do not wish wittingly to be led astray, what is wicked, deceitful, seductive, and pernicious, connected with the school of the Valentinians, and all those other

accept everything contained in the Biblical Psychology of Dr. Dclitzsch, but may I entreat the reader who has notstudicd it to do so before dismissing the ideas of Irena;us on such topics. A translation has been provided for English readers, by the Messrs. T. & T. Clark of Edinburgh, 1867.]

2 The meaning apparently is, that by the high position which all these in common occupied, they proved themselves, on the principles of the heretics, to belong to the favoured " seed," and should therefore have eagerly have welcomed the Lord. Or the meaning may be, " hurrying together to that relationship," that is, to the relationship secured by faith in Christ.

^ I Cor. i. 26, 28, somewhat loosely quoted.

heretics who promulgate * wicked opinions respecting the Demiurge, that is, the Fashioner and Former of this universe, and who is in fact the only true God — exhibiting, [as I have done,] how easily their views are overthrown.

9. For who that has any intelligence, and possesses only a small proportion of truth, can tolerate them, when they affirm that there is another god above the Creator ; and that there is another Monogenes as well as another Word of God, whom also they describe as having been produced in [a state of] degeneracy ; and another Christ, whom they assert to have been formed, along with the Holy Spirit, later than the rest of the ^ons ; and another Saviour, who, they say, did not proceed from the Father of all, but was a kind of joint production of those ^ons who were formed in [a state of] degeneracy, and that He was produced of necessity on account of this very degeneracy? It is thus their opinion that, unless the ^ons had been in a state of ignorance and degeneracy, neither Christ, nor the Holy Spirit, nor Horos, nor the Saviour, nor the angels, nor their Mother, nor her seed, nor the rest of the fabric of the world, would have been produced at all ; but the universe would have been a desert, and destitute of the many good things which exist in it. They are therefore not only chargeable with impiety against the Creator, declaring Him the fruit of a defect, but also against Christ and the Holy Spirit, affirming that they were produced on account of that defect ; and, in like manner, that the Saviour [was produced] subsequently to [the existence of] that defect. And who will tolerate the remainder of their vain talk, which they cunningly endeavour to accommodate to the parables, and have in this way plunged both themselves, and those who give credit to them, in the profoundest depths of impiety?

CHAP. XX. FUTILITY OF THE ARGUMENTS AD- DUCED TO DEMONSTRATE THE SUFFERINGS OF THE TWELFTH ^ON, FROM THE PARABLES, THE TREACHERY OF JUDAS, AND THE PASSION OF OUR SAVIOUR.

I. That they improperly and illogically apply both the parables and the actions of the Lord to their falsely-devised system, I prove as follows : They endeavour, for instance, to demonstrate that passion which, they say, happened in the case of the twelfth yEon, from this fact, that the passion of the Saviour was brought about by the twelfth apostle, and happened in the twelfth month. For they hold that He preached [only] for one year after His baptism. They maintain also that the same thing was clearly set forth in the case of her who suffered from the issue of blood. For the woman suffered during twelve years, and

♦ " Male tractant; " literally, handle badly.

through touching the hem of the Saviour's garment she was made whole by that power which went forth from the Saviour, and which, they affirm, had a previous existence. For that Power who suffered was stretching herself outwards and flowing into immensity, so that she was in danger of being dissolved into the general substance [of the i^ons] ; but then, touching the primary Tetrad, which is typified by the hem of the garment, she was arrested, and ceased from her passion.

2, Then, again, as to their assertion that the passion of the twelfth /Eon was proved through the conduct of Judas, how is it possible that Judas can be compared [with this ^'Eon] as being an emblem of her — he who was expelled from the number of the twelve,' and never restored to his place? For that ^on, whose type they declare Judas to be, after being separated from her Enthyniesis, was restored or recalled [to her former position] ; but Judas was deprived [of his office], and cast out, while Matthias was ordained in his place, according to what is written, "And his bishopric let another take." ^ They ought therefore to maintain that the twelfth ^on was cast out of the Pleroma, and that another was produced, or sent forth to fill her place ; if, that is to say, she is pointed at in Judas. Moreover, they tell us that it was the ^on herself who suffered, but Judas was the betrayer, [and not the sufferer.] Even they themselves acknowledge that it was the suffering Christ, and not Judas, who came to [the endurance of] passion. How, then, could Judas, the betrayer of Him who had to suffer for our salvation, be the type and image of that JEon who suffered ?

3. But, in truth, the passion of Christ was neither similar to the passion of the ^on, nor did it take place in similar circumstances. For the ^on underwent a passion of dissolution and destruction, so that she who suffered was in danger also of being destroyed. But the Lord, our Christ, underwent a valid, and not a merely ^ accidental passion ; not only was He Himself not in danger of being destroyed, but He also established fallen man'' by His own strength, and recalled him to incorruption. The ^on, again, underwent passion while she was seeking after the Father, and was not able to find Him ; but the Lord suffered that He might bring those who have wandered from the Father, back to knowledge and to His fellowship. The search into the greatness of the Father became to her a passion leading to destruction ; but the Lord,

' Or, "from the twelfth number" — the twelfth position among the apostles.

3 The text is here uncertain. Most editions read " et quae non cederet," but Harvey prefers " quae non accederet " (for " accidcrct ") , and remarks that the corresponding Greek would be Kal ov rup^oi', which we have translated as above.

"• " Corruptum hominem."

having suffered, and bestowing the knowledge of the Father, conferred on us salvation. Her passion, as they declare, gave origin to a female offspring, weak, infirm, unformed, and ineffective ; but His passion gave rise to strength and power. For the Lord, through means of suffering, " ascending into the lofty place, led captivity captive, gave gifts to men," 5 and conferred on those that believe in Him the power " to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and on all the power of the enemy," ^ that is, of the leader of apostasy. Our Lord also by His passion destroyed death, and dispersed error, and put an end to corruption, and destroyed ignorance, while He manifested life and revealed truth, and bestowed the gift of incorruption. But their ^on, when she had suffered, established ^ ignorance, and brought forth a substance without shape, out of which all material works have been produced — death, corruption, error, and such like.

4. Judas, then, the twelfth in order of the disciples, was not a type of the suffering ^on, nor, again, was the passion of the Lord ; for these two things have been shown to be in every respect mutually dissimilar and inharmonious. This is the case not only as respects the points which I have already mentioned, but with regard to the very number. For that Judas the traitor is the twelfth in order, is agreed upon by all, there being twelve apostles mentioned by name in the Gospel. But this ^on is not the fzoe////i, but the thirtieth; for, according to the views under consideration, there were not twelve a'Eons only produced by the will of the Father, nor was she sent forth the twelfth in order : they reckon her, [on the contrary,] as having been produced in the thirtieth place. How, then, can Judas, the twelfth in order, be the type and image of that ^on who occupies the thirtieth place ?

5. But if they say that Judas in perishing was the image of her Enthymesis, neither in this way will the image bear any analogy to that truth which [by hypothesis] corresponds to it. For the Enthymesis having been separated fromt he yEon, and itself afterwards receiving a shape from Christ,** then being made a partaker of intelligence by the Saviour, and having formed all things which are outside of the Pleroma, after the image of those which are within the Pleroma, is said at last to have been received by them into the Pleroma, and, according to [the principle of] conjunction, to have been united to that Saviour who was formed out of all. But Judas having been once for all cast away, never returns

7 Though the reading " substituit " is found in all the M.ss. and editions, it has been deemed corrupt, and " sustinuit" has been proposed instead of it. Harvey supposes it the equivalent of uire-7T>i •• , and then somewhat strangely adds " for on-fiTTrjo-f ." There seems to us no difficulty in the word, and consequently no necessity for change.

" Compare, lu iUoStralio.i of lliis seuteacc, book i. 4, 1, and i. 4, 5.

into the number of the disciples ; otherwise a different person would not have been chosen to fill his place. Besides, the Lord also declared regarding him, " Woe to the man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed ; " ' and, " It were better for him if he had never been born ;" ^ and he was called the " son of perdition " ^ by Him. If, however, they say that Judas was a type of the Enthymesis, not as separated from the yEon, but of the passion eiiTwined with her, neither in this way can the number twelve be regarded as a [fitting] type of the number three. For in the one case Judas was cast away, and Matthias was ordained instead of him ; but in the other case, the yEon is said to have been in danger of dissolution and destruction, and [there are also] her Enthymesis and passion : for they markedly distinguish Enthymesis from the passion ; and they represent the ^on as being restored, and Enthymesis as acquiring form, but the passion, when separated from these, as becoming matter. Since, therefore, there are thus these three, the ^on, her Enthymesis, and her passion, Judas and Matthias, being only two, cannot be the types of them.

CHAP. XXI. THE TWELVE APOSTLES WERE NOT

I. If, again, they maintain that the twelve apostles were a type only of that group of twelve ^'Eons which Anthropos in conjunction with Ecclesia produced, then let them produce ten other apostles as a type of those ten remaining ^ons, who, as they declare, were produced by Logos and Zoe. For it is unreasonable to suppose that the jvmior, and for that reason inferior yEons, were set forth by the Saviour through the election of the apostles, while their seniors, and on this account their superiors, were not thus foreshown ; since the Saviour (if, that is to say, He chose the apostles with this view, that by means of them He might show forth the JEons who are in the Pleroma) might have chosen other ten apostles also, and likewise other eight before these, that thus He might set forth the original and primary Ogdoad. He could not,-* in regard to the second [Duo] Decad, show forth [any emblem of it] through the number of the apostles being [already] constituted a type. For [He made choice of no such other number of disciples ; but] after the twelve apostles, our Lord is found to have sent seventy others before Him.5 Now severity cannot possibly be the type either of an Ogdoad,

■< This passage is hopelessly corrupt. The editors have twisted it in every direciion, but with no satisfactory result. Our version is quite as far from being certainly trustworthy as any other that has been proposed, but it seems something like the meaning of the words as they stand. Both the text and punctuation of the Latin are in utter confusion.

a Decad, or a Triacontad. What is the reason, then, that the inferior /Eons are, as I have said, represented by means of the apostles ; but the superior, from whom, too, the former derived their being, are not prefigured at all? But if*^ the twelve apostles were chosen with this object, that the number of the twelve yEons might be indicated by means of them, then the seventy also ought to have been chosen to be the type of seventy /E)ons ; ^id in that case, they must affirm that the yEons are no longer thirty, but eighty-two in number. For He who made choice of the apostles, that they might be a type of those /E^ons existing in the Pleroma, would never have constituted them types of some and not of others ; but by means of the apostles He would have tried to preserve an image and to exhibit a type of those /Eons that exist in the Pleroma.

2. Moreover, we must not keep silence respecting Paul, but demand from them after the type of what ^on that apostle has been handed down to us, unless perchance [they affirm that he is a representative] of the Saviour compounded of them [all], who derived his being from the collected gifts of the whole, and whom they term All Things, as having been formed out of them all. Respecting this being the poet Hesiod has strikingly expressed himself, styling him Pandora — that is, "The gii't of all" — for this reason, that the best gift in the possession of all was centred in him. In describing these gifts the following account is given : Hermes (so 7 he is called in the Greek language), At/xuAt'on? ^ Tc Adyov? /cat cttikAottoi/ rfOo<i avrols Kar^ero (or to express this in the English ^ language), "implanted words of fraud and deceit in their minds, and thievish habits," for the purpose of leading foolish men astray, that such should believe their falsehoods. For their Mother — that is, Leto '° — secretly stirred them up (whence also she is called Leto," according to the meaning of the Greek word, because she secretly stirred up men), without the knowledge of the Demiurge, to give forth profound and unspeakable mysteries to itching ears.'^ And not only did their Mother bring it about that this mystery should be declared by Hesiod ; but very skilfully also by means of the lyric poet Pindar, when he describes to the Demiurge '^ the

6 " Si " is wanting in the MSs. and early editions, and Harvey pleads for its exclusion, but the sense becomes clearer through inserting it.

' This clause is, of course, an interpolation by the Latin translator.

^ The words are loosely quoted mentpriter, as is the custom with Irenaeus. See Hesiod, Worlts nrid Days, i. 77, etc.

9 Latin, of course, in the text.

■° There is here a play upon the words AtjtuJ and AjjOf Fr, the former being supposed to be derived from the latter, so as to denote secrecy.

" This clause is probably an interpolation by the translator.

■3 " Coelet Demiurgo," such is the reading in all the MSS. and editions. Harvey, however, proposes to read " celet Demiurgum; " but the change which he suggests, besides being without authority, does not clear away the obscurity which hangs upon the sentence.

case of Pelops, whose flesh was cut in pieces by the Father, and then collected and brought together, and compacted anew by all the gods/ did she in this way indicate Pandora ; and these men having their consciences seared^ by her, declaring, as they maintain, the very same things, are [proved] of the same family and spirit as the others.

CHAP. XXII. THE THIRTY MO'NS ARE NOT TYPIFIED

BY THE FACT THAT CHRIST WAS BAPTIZED IN HIS THIRTIETH YEAR : HE DID NOT SUFFER IN THE TWELFTH MONTH AFTER HIS BAPTISM, BUT WAS MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS OLD WHEN HE DIED.

1. I have shown that the number //«'r/i' fails them in every respect ; too few ^ons, as they represent them, being at one time found within the Pleroma, and then again too many [to correspond with that number]. There are not, therefore, thirty ^ons, nor did the Saviour come to be baptized when He was thirty years old, for this reason, that He might show forth the thirty silent 3 ^ons of their system, otherwise they must first of all separate and eject [the Saviour] Himself from the Pleroma of all. Moreover, they a^rm that He suffered in the twelfth month, so that He continued to preach for one year after His baptism ; and they endeavour to establish this point out of the prophet (for it is written, "To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of retribution" •>), being truly blind, inasmuch as they affirm they have found out the mysteries of Bythus, yet not understanding that which is called by Isaiah the acceptable year of the Lord, nor the day of retribution. For the prophet neither speaks concerning a day which includes the space of twelve hours, nor of a year the length of which is twelve months. For even they themselves acknowledge that the prophets have very often expressed themselves in parables and allegories, and [are] not [to be understood] according to the mere sound of the words.

2. That, then, was called the day of retribution on which the Lord will render to every one according to his works — that is, the judgment. The acceptable year of the Lord, again, is this present time, in which those who believe Him are called by Him, and become acceptable to God — that is, the whole time from His advent onwards to the consummation [of all things], during which He acquires to Himself as fruits [of the scheme of mercy] those who are saved.

^ " Compuncti," supposed to correspond to (tftavTTjpioo-jneVoi.: see 1 Tim. iv. 2. The whole passage is difficult and obscure.

3 Harvey wishes, without any authority, to substitute " tacitus " for " tacitos," but there is no necessity for alteration. Irena;us is here playing upon the word, according to a practice in which he delights, and quietly scoffs at the Sif^e (Silence) of the heretics by styling those j'Eons silent who were derived from her.

For, according to the phraseology of the prophet, the day of retribution follows the [acceptable] year ; and the prophet will be proved guilty of falsehood if the Lord preached only for a year, and if he speaks of it. For where is the day of retribution ? For the year has passed, and the day of retribution has not yet come ; but He still " makes His sun to rise upon the good and upon the evil, and sends rain upon the just and unjust." 5 And the righteous suffer persecution, are afflicted, and are slain, while sinners are possessed of abundance, and " drink with the sound of the harp and psaltery, but do not regard the works of the Lord." ^ But, according to the language [used by the prophet], they ought to be combined, and the day of retribution to follow the [acceptable] year. For the words are, " to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of retribution." This present time, therefore, in which men are called and saved by the Lord, is properly understood to be denoted by "the acceptable year of the Lord;" and there follows on this " the day of retribution," that is, the judgment. And the time thus referred to is not called "a year" only, but is also named " a day " both by the prophet and by Paul, of whom the apostle, calling to mind the Scripture, says in the Epistle addressed to the Romans, " As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." ^ But here the expression " all the day long" is put for all this time during which we suffer persecution, and are killed as sheep. As then this day does not signify one which consists of twelve hours, but the whole time during which believers in Christ suffer and are put to death for His sake, so also the year there mentioned does not denote one which consists of twelve months, but the whole time of faith during which men hear and believe the preaching of the Gospel, and those become acceptable to God who unite themselves to Him. 3. But it is gready to be wondered at, how it has come to pass that, while affirming that they have found out the mysteries of God, they have not examined the Gospels to ascertain how often after His baptism the Lord went up, at the time of the passover, to Jerusalem, in accordance with what was the practice of the Jews from every land, and every year, that they should assemble at this period in Jerusalem, and there celebrate the feast of the passover. First of all, after He had made the water wine at Cana of Galilee, He went up to the festival day of the passover, on which occasion it is written, " For many believed in Him, when they saw the signs which He did,"

as John the disciple of the Lord records. Then, again, withdrawing Himself [from Judcea], He is found in Samaria; on which occasion, too. He conversed with the Samaritan woman, and while at a distance, cured the son of the centurion by a word, saying, " Go thy way, thy son liveth." ' Afterwards He went up, the second time, to observe the festival day of the passover ^ in Jerusalem ; on which occasion He cured the paralytic man, who had lain beside the pool thirty-eight years, bidding him rise, take up his couch, and depart. Again, withdrawing from thence to the other side of the sea of Tiberias,^ He there, seeing a great crowd had followed Him, fed all that multitude with five loaves of bread, and twelve baskets of fragments remained over and above. Th.en, when He had raised Lazarus from the dead, and plots were formed against Him by the Pharisees, He withdrew to a city called Ephraim ; and from that place, as it is written, " He came to Bethany six days before the passover," •• and going up from Bethany to Jerusalem, He there ate the passover, and suffered on the day following. Now, that these three occasions of the passover are not included within one year, every person whatever must acknowledge. And that the special month in which the passover was celebrated, and in which also the Lord suffered, was not the twelfth, but the first, those men who boast that they know all things, if they know not this, may learn it from Moses. Their ex[)lanation, therefore, both of the year and of the twelfth month has been proved false, and they ought to reject either their explanation or the Gospel ; otherwise [this unanswerable question forces itself upon them]. How is it possible that the Lord preached for one year only?

4. Being thirty years old when He came to be baptized, and then ])ossessing the full age of a Master,5 He came to Jerusalem, so that He might be properly acknowledged^ by all as a Master. For He did not seem one thing while He was another, as those affirm who describe Him as being man only in appearance ; but what He was, that He also appeared to be. Being a Master, therefore. He also possessed the age of a Master, not despising or evading any condition

2 John V. I , etc. It is well known that, to fix what is meant by the iopTij, referred to in this passage of St. John, is one of the most difficult points in New Testament criticism. Some modern scholars think that the feast of Purim is intended by the Evangelist; but, upon the whole, the current of opinion that has always prevailed in the Church has been in favour of the statement here made by Irena;us. Christ would therefore be present at four passovers after His bap-

Harvey strangely remarks here, that " the reading audiret, followed by Massuet, makes no sense." He gives audiretur in his text, but proposes to read ordiretur. The passage may, however, be tr.inslated as above, without departing from the Benedictine reading audiret.

of humanity, nor setting aside in Himself that law which He had ^ appointed for the human race, but sanctifying every age, by that period corresponding to it which belonged to Himself. For He came to save all through means of Himself — all, I say, who through Him are bom again to God*' — infants,^ and children, and boys, and youths, and old men. He therefore passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants, thus sanctifying infants ; a child for children, thus sanctifying those who are of this age, being at the same time made to them an example of piety, righteousness, and submission ; a youth for youths, becoming an example to youths, and thus sanctifying them for the Lord. So likewise He was an old man for old men, that He might be a perfect Master for all, not merely as respects the setting forth of the truth, but also as regards age, sanctifying at the same time the aged also, and becoming an e.xample to them likewise. Then, at last. He came on to death itself, that He might be " the first-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence,"'" the Prince of life," existing before all, and going before all.'^

5. They, however, that they may establish their false opinion regarding that which is written, " to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord," maintain that He preached for one year only, and then suffered in the twelfth month. [In speaking thus], they are forgetful to their own disadvantage, destroying His whole work, and robbing Him of that age which is both more necessary and more honourable than any other ; that more advanced age, I mean, during which also as a teacher He excelled all others. For how could He have had disciples, if He did not teach? And how could He have taught, unless He had reached the age of a Master? For when He came to be baptized. He had not yet completed His thirtieth year, but was beginning to be about thirty years of age (for thus Luke, who has mentioned His years, has expressed it : " Now Jesus was, as it were, beginning to be thirty years old," '^ when He came to receive baptism) ; and, [according to these men,] He preached only one year reckoning from His baptism. On completing His thirtieth year He suffered, being in fact still a young man, and who had by no means attained to advanced age. Now, that the first

7 " Neque solvens suam legem in se humani generis." Massuet would expunge "suam;" but, as Harvey well observes, "it has a peculiar significance, nor abrcgatine: his oivn law."

^ " Renascuntur in Deum." The reference in these words is doubtless to baptism, as clearly appears from comparing book iii. 17, i. 9 It has been remarked by Wall and others, that we have here the statement of a valuable fact as to the baptism of infants in the primitive Church.

'- [That our Ixjrd ■<>i?& prematurely old may be inferred from the text w-liich Irenaeus regards as proof that he literally lived to be old.

stage of early life embraces thirty years,' and that this extends onwards to the fortieth year, every one will admit ; but from the fortieth and fiftieth year a man begins to decline towards old age, which our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled the office of a Teacher, even as the Gospel and all the elders testify ; those who were conversant in Asia with John, the disciple of the Lord, [affirming] that John conveyed to them that information.^ And he remained among them up to the times of Trajan. ^ Some of them, moreover, saw not only John, but the other apostles also, and heard the very same account from them, and bear testimony as to the [validity of] the statement. Whom then should we rather believe ? Whether such men as these, or Ptolemaeus, who never saw the apostles, and who never even in his dreams attained to the slightest trace of an apostle ?

6. But, besides this, those very Jews .who then disputed with the Lord Jesus Christ have most clearly indicated the same thing. For when the Lord said to them, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day ; and he saw it, and was glad," they answered Him, " Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham ? " ■♦ Now, such language is fittingly applied to one who has already passed the age of forty, without having as yet reached his fiftieth year, yet is not far from this latter period. But to one who is only thirty years old it would unquestionably be said, "Thou art not yet forty years old." For those who wished to convict Him of falsehood would certainly not extend the number of His years far beyond the age which they saw He had attained ; but they mentioned a period near His real age, whether they had truly ascertained this out of the entry in the public register, or simply made a conjecture from what they observed that He was above forty years old, and that He certainly was not one of only thirty years of age. For it is altogether unreasonable to suppose that they were mistaken by twenty years, when they wished to prove Him younger than the times of Abraham. For what they saw, that they also expressed ; and He whom they beheld was not

' The Latin text of this clause is, " Quia autem triginta annorum stas prima indolis est juvenis " — words which it seems almost impossible to translate. Grabe regarded " indolis " as being in the nominative, while Massuet contends it is in the genitive case; and so regarding it, we might translate, " Now that the age of thirty is the first age of the mind of youth," etc. But Harvey re-translates the clause into Greek as follows: 'Ort Be r; tmv TptaKovra eTuiv j)\iKia >) n-puJTj) Ti)? 6iafleo-cui5 eari l■ia^; — words which we have endeavoured to render as above The meaning clearly is, that the age of thirty marked the transition point from youth to maturity.

^ With respect to this extraordinary assertion of Irena;us, Harvey remarks: " The reader may here perceive the unsatisfactory character of tradition, where a mere fact is concerned. From reasonings founded upon the evan;jelical history, as well as from a preponderance of external testimony. It is most certain that our 1-ord's ministry extended but little over three years; yet here Iren.-cus states that it included more than ten years, and appeals to a tradition derived, as he says, from those who had conversed with an apostle.

3 Trajan's reign commenced AD. 98, and St. John is said to have lived to the age of a hundred years.

a mere phantasm, but an actual being 5 of flesh and blood. He did not then want much of being fifty years old ; ^ and, i-.i accordance with that fact, they said to Him, "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham?" He did not therefore preach only for one year, nor did He suffer in the twelfth month of the year. For the period included between the thirtieth and the fiftieth year can never be regarded as one year, unless indeed, among their yEons, there be so long years assigned to those who sit in their ranks with Bythus in the Pleroma ; of which beings Homer the poet, too, has spoken, doubtless being inspired by the Mother of their [system of] error : —

01 6e deal irtip Xrjvl KadrjiitvoL rjyopduiVTo Xpvaeu ev damSc^: ^

which we may thus render into English : ^ —

"The gods sat round, while Jove presided o'er, And cuiiverse held upon the golden floor."

CHAP. XXIII. THE WOMAN WHO SUFFERED FROM

SUFFERING ^ON.

I. Moreover, their ignorance comes out in a clear light with respect to the case of that woman who, suffering from an issue of blood, touched the hem of the Lord's garment, and so was made whole ; for they maintain that through her was" shown forth that twelfth power who suffered passion, and flowed out towards immensity, that is, the twelfth ALon. [This ignorance of theirs appears] first, because, as I have shown, according to their own system, that was not the twelfth ALon. But even granting them this point [in the meantime], there being twelve yEons, eleven of these are said to have continued impassible, while the twelfth suffered passion ; but the woman, on the other hand, being healed in the twelfth year, it is manifest that she had continued to suffer during eleven years, and was healed in the twelfth. If indeed they were to say that eleven .^ons were involved in passion, but the t\velfth one was healed, it would then be a plausible thing to say that the woman was a type of these. But since she suffered during eleven years, and [all that time] obtained no cure, but was healed in the twelfth year, in what way can she be a type of the twelfth of the ^Eons, eleven of whom, [according to hypothesis,] did not suffer at all, but the twelfth alone participated in suffering? For a type and emblem is, no doubt, sometimes diverse from the truth [signified] as to matter and substance ; but it ought, as to the general form and features, to maintain

5 Sed Veritas " — literally, " the truth."

^ [This statement is simply astounding, and might seem a provi. dcntial illustration of the wortlilessness of mere tradition unsuslained by the written Word. No mere tradition could be more creditably authorized than this.]

8 Latin, of course, in the text.

a likeness [to what is typified], and in this way to shadow forth by means of things present those which are yet to come.

2. And not only in the case of this woman have the years of her infirmity (which they affirm to fit in with their figment) been mentioned, l)ut, lo ! another woman was also healed, after suffering in like manner for eighteen years ; concerning whom the Lord said, " And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound during eighteen years, to be set free on the Sabbath-day?"' If, then, the former was a type of the twelfth /Eon that suffered, the latter should also be a type of the eighteenth /Eon in suffering. But they cannot maintain this ; otherwise their primary and original Ogdoad will be included in the number of ^ons who suffered together. Moreover, there was also a certain other person - healed by the Lord, after he had suffered for eight-and-thirty years : they ought therefore to affirm that the ^on who occupies the thirty-eighth place suffered. For if they assert that the things which were done by the Lord were types of what took place in the Pleroma, the type ought to be preserved throughout. But they can neither adapt to their fictitious system the case of her who was cured after eighteen years, nor of him who was cured after thirty-eight years. Now, it is in every way absurd and inconsistent to declare that the Saviour preserved the type in certain cases, while He did not do so in others. The type of the woman, therefore, [with the issue of blood] is shown to have no analogy to their system of ^-Eons.^

CHAP. XXIV. FOLLY OF THE ARGUMENTS DE- RIVED BY THE HERETICS FROM NUMBERS, LET- TERS, AND SYLLABLES.

I. This very thing, too, still further demonstrates their opinion false, and their fictitious system untenable, that they endeavour to bring forward proofs of it, sometimes through means of numbers and the syllables of names, sometimes also through the letter of syllables, and yet again through those numbers which are, according to the practice followed by the Greeks, contained in [different] letters ; — [this, I say,] demonstrates in the clearest manner their over- . throw or confusion,'* as well as the untenable and perverse character of their [professed] knowledge. For, transferring the name Jesus, which belongs to another language, to the numeration of the Greeks, they sometimes call it " Episemon," s as having six letters, and at other

times " the Plenitude of the Ogdoads," as containing the number eight hundred and eightyeight. But His [corresponding] Greek name, which is " Soter," that is, Saviour, because it does not fit in with their system, either with respect to numerical value or as regards its letters, they pass over in silence. Yet surely, if they regard the names of the Lord, as, in accordance with the preconceived purpose of the Father, by means of their numerical value and letters, indicating number in the Pleroma, Soter, as being a Greek name, ought by means of its letters and the numbers [expressed by these], in virtue of its being Greek, to show forth the mystery of the Pleroma. But the case is not so, because it is a word of five letters, and its numerical value is one thousand four hundred and eight.*' But these things do not in any way correspond with their Pleroma : the account, therefore, which they give of transactions in the Pleroma cannot be true.

2. Moreover, Jesus, which is a word belonging to the proper tongue of the Hebrews, contains, as the learned among them declare, two letters and a half," and signifies that Lord who contains heaven and earth ; ^ for Jesus in the ancient Hebrew language means " heaven," while again " earth " is expressed by the words sura usser.'^ The word, therefore, which contains heaven and earth is just Jesus. Their explanation, then, of the Episeinon is false, and their numerical calculation is also manifestly overthrown. For, in their own language, Soter is a Greek word of five letters ; but, on the other hand, in the Hebrew tongue, Jesus contains only two letters and a half. The total which they reckon up, viz., eight hundred and eighty-eight, therefore falls to the ground. And throughout, the Hebrew letters do not correspond in number with the Greek, although these especially, as being the more ancient and unchanging, ought to uphold the reckoning connected with the names. For these ancient, original, and generally called sacred letters '° of the Hebrews are ten in number (but they are written by means of fifteen"), the last letter

' Lvike xiii. i6.

3 The text of this sentence is very uncertain. We follow M.issiiet's reading, " negotio /Eonum," in preference to that suggested by Harvey.

■t " Sive confusionem " is very probably a marginal gloss which has found its way into the text. The whole clause is difficult and obscure.

7 Being written thus, "^iil" , and the small ' being apparently regarded as only half a letter. Harvey proposes a different solution which seems less probable.

8 This is one of the most obscure passages in the whole work of Irenseus, and the editors have succeeded in throwing very little light upon it. We may merely state that 'ii'' seems to be regarded as containing in itself the initials of the three words niil', Jehovah; D'Dty. heaven; and V'^N\ and earth.

9 Nothing can be made of these words; they have probably been corrupted by ignorant transcribers, and are now wholly unintelligible.

'° " Li terse sacerdotales," — another enigma which no man can solve. Massuet supposes the reference to be to the archaic Hebrew characters, still used by the pritsts after the square Chaldaic letters had been generally adopted. Harvey thinks ihal saceniotnles represents the Greek Af iroipyiKa, " meaning letters as popularly used in common computation."

" The editors have again long notes on this most obscure passage. Massuet expunges " qua;iiue," and gives a lengthened explanation of I the clause, to which we can only refer the curious reader.

being joined to the first. And thus they write some of these letters according to their natural sequence, just as we do, but others in a reverse direction, from the right hand towards the left, thus tracing the letters backwards. The name Christ, too, ought to be capable of being reckoned up in harmony with the ^ons of their Pleroma, inasmuch as, according to their statements. He was produced for the establishment and rectification of their Pleroma. The Father, too, in the same way, ought, both by means of letters and numerical value, to contain the number of those yEons who were produced by Him ; Bythus, in like manner, and not less Monogenes ; but pre-eminently the name which is above all others, by which God is called, and which in the Hebrew tongue is expressed by Baruch,^ [a word] which also contains two and a half letters. From this fact, therefore, that the more important names, both in the Hebrew and Greek languages, do not conform to their system, either as respects the number of letters or the reckoning brought out of them, the forced character of their calculations respecting the rest becomes clearly manifest.

3. For, choosing out of the law whatever things agree with the number adopted in their system, they thus violently strive to obtain proofs of its validity. But if it was really the purpose of their Mother, or the Saviour, to set forth, by means of the Demiurge, types of those things which are in the Pleroma, they should have taken care that the types were found in things more exactly correspondent and more holy ; and, above all, in the case of the Ark of the Covenant, on account of which the whole tabernacle of witness was formed. Now it was constructed thus : its length ^ was two cubits and a half, its breadth one cubit and a half, its height one cubit and a half; but such a number of cubits in no respect corresponds with their system, yet by it the type ought to have been, beyond everything else, clearly set forth. The mercy-seat ^ also does in like manner not at all harmonize with their expositions. Moreover, the table of shew-bread^ was two cubits in length, while its height was a cubit and a half. These stood before the holy of holies, and yet in them not a single number is of such an amount as contains an indication of the Tetrad, or the Ogdoad, or of the rest of their Pleroma. What of the candlestick,5 too, which had seven'' branches and seven lamps? while, if these had

' ^n3, Baruch, blessed, one of the commonest titles of the

Almighty. The final T seems to be reckoned only a half-letter, as being different in form from what it is when accompanied by a vowel at the beginning or in the middle of a word.

' Only six branches are mentioned in Ex. xxv. 32.

been made according to the type, it ought to have had eight branches and a like number of lamps, after the type of the primary Ogdoad, which shines pre-eminently among the yEons, and illuminates the whole Pleroma. They have carefully enumerated the curtains ^ as being ten, declaring these a type of the ten ^ons ; but they have forgotten to count the coverings of skin, which were eleven^ in number. Nor, again, have they measured the size of these very curtains, each curtain ^ being eight-and-twenty cubits in length. And they set forth the length of the pillars as being ten cubits, with a reference to the Decad of ^ons. " But the breadth of each pillar was a cubit and a half; " '° and this they do not explain, any more than they do the entire number of the pillars or of their bars, because that does not suit the argument. But what of the anointing oil," which sanctified the whole tabernacle? Perhaps it escaped the notice of the Saviour, or, while their Mother was sleeping, the Demiurge of himself gave instructions as to its weight ; and on this account it is out of harmony with their Pleroma, consisting,'^ as it did, of five hundred shekels of myrrh, five hundred of cassia, two hundred and fifty of cinnamon, two hundred and fifty of calamus, and oil in addition, so that it was composed of five ingredients. The incense '^ also, in like manner, [was compounded] of stacte, onycha, galbanum, mint, and frankincense, all which do in no respect, either as to their mixture or weight, harmonize with their argument. It is therefore unreasonable and altogether absurd [to maintain] that the types were not preserved in the sublime and more imposing enactments of the law ; but in other points, when any number coincides with their assertions, to affirm that it was a type of the things in the Pleroma ; while [the truth is, that] every number occurs with the utmost variety in the Scriptures, so that, should any one desire it, he might form not only an Ogdoad, and a Decad, and a Duodecad, but any sort of number from the Scriptures, and then maintain that this was a type of the system of error devised by himself.

4. But that this point is true, that that number which is called 7?z;<?, which agrees in no respect with their argument, and does not harmonize with their system, nor is suitable for a typical manifestation of the things in the Pleroma, [yet has a wide prevalence, '+] will be proved as follows from the Scriptures. Soter is a name of

'•* Some such supplement as this seems requisite, but the syntax in the Latin text is very confused.

five letters ; Pater, too, contains five letters ; Agape (love), too, consists of five letters; and our Lord, after ' blessing the five loaves, fed with them five thousand men. Five virgins^ were called wise by the Lord ; and, in like manner, five were styled foolish. Again, five men are said to have been with the Lord when He obtained testimony ^ from the Father, — namely, Peter, and James, and John, and Moses, and Elias. The Lord also, as the fifth person, entered into the apartment of the dead maiden, and raised her up again ; for, says [the Scripture], " He suffered no man to go in, save Peter and James,** and the father and mother of the maiden." 5 The rich man in hell'' declared that he had five brothers, to whom he desired that one rising from the dead should go. The pool from which the Lord, commanded the paralytic man to go into his house, had five porches. The very form of the cross, too, has five extremities,^ two in length, two in breadth, and one in the middle, on which [last] the person rests who is fixed by the nails. Each of our hands has five fingers ; we have also five senses ; our internal organs may also be reckoned as five, viz., the heart, the liver, the lungs, the spleen, and the kidneys. Moreover, even the whole person may be divided into this number [of parts] , — the head, the breast, the belly, the thighs, and the feet. The human race passes through five ages : first infancy, then boyhood, then youth, then maturity,** and then old age. Moses delivered the law to the people in five books. Each table which he received from God contained five^ commandments. The veil covering '° the holy of holies had five pillars. The altar of burntoffering also was five cubits in breadth." Five priests were chosen in the wilderness, — namely, Aaron, '^ Nadab, Abiud, Eleazar, Ithamar. The ephod and the breastplate, and other sacerdotal vestments, were formed out of five '^ materials ; for they combined in themselves gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. And there were five '^ kings of the Amorites, whom Joshua the son of Nun shut up in a cave, and directed the people to trample upon their heads. Any one, in fact, might collect many thousand

St John is here strangely overlooked.

7 " Fines et summitates;" comp. Justin Mart., Dial. c. Tryph.,

8 " Juvenis," one in the prime of life.

9 It has been usual in the Christian Church to reckon four commandments in the first table, and six in the second; but the above was the ancient Jewish division. See Joseph., Antig., iii. 6.

"Ex. xxvii. i; "altitudo" in the text must be exchanged for " latitudo."

other things of the same kind, both with respecf to this number and any other he chose to fiy upon, either from the Scriptures, or from the works of nature lying under hi3 observation.'-' But although such is the case, we do not there' fore affirm that there are five .A^ons above the Demiurge ; nor do we consecrate the Pentad, a? if it were some divine thing ; nor do we strive to establish things that are untenable, nor ravings [such as they indulge in], by means ol that vain kind of labour ; nor do we perversely forca a creation well adapted by God [for the ends intended to be served], to change itself into typey of things which have no real existence ; nor d^j we seek to bring forward impious and abominable doctrines, the detection and overthrow of which are easy to all possessed of intelligence.

5. For who can concede to them that the year has three hundred and sixty-five days only, in order that there may be twelve months of thirty days each, after the type of the twelve ^ons, when the type is in fact altogether out of harmony [with the antitype] ? For, in the one case, each of the .^ons is a thirtieth part of the entire Pleroma, while in the other they declare that a month is the twelfth part of a year. If, indeed, the year were divided into thirty parts, and the month into twelve, then a fitting type might be regarded as having been found for their fictitious system. But, on the contrary, as the case really stands, their Pleroma is divided into thirty parts, and a portion of it into twelve ; while again the whole year is divided into twelve parts, and a certain portion of it into thirty. The Saviour therefore acted unwisely in constituting the month a type of the entire Pleroma, but the year a type only of that Duodecad which exists in the Pleroma ; for it was more fitting to divide the year into thirty parts, even as the whole Pleroma is divided, but the month into twelve, just as the ^ons are in their Pleroma. Moreover, they divide the entire Pleroma into three portions, — namely, into an Ogdoad, a Decad, and a Duodecad. But our year is divided into four parts, — namely, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. And again, not even do the months, which they maintain to be a type of the Triacontad, consist precisely of thirty days, but some have more and some less, inasmuch as five days' remain to them as an overplus.'^ The day, too, does not always consist precisely of twelve hours, but rises from nine '^ to fifteen, and then falls again from fit'teen to nine. It cannot therefore be held that months of thirty days each were so formed for the sake of [typifying]

'5 [Note the manly contempt with which our author dismisses a class of similitudes, which seem, even in our day, to have great attractions for some minds not otherwise narrow.]

'7 I'hese hours of daylight, at the winter and summer solstice respectively, correspond to the latitude of Lyon.s, 45" 45' N., where Irenaeus resided.

the ^ons ; for, in that case, they would have consisted precisely of thirty days : nor, again, the days of these months, that by means of twelve hours they might symbolize the twelve ^ons ; for, in that case, they would always have consisted precisely of twelve hours.

6. But further, as to their calling material substances "on the left hand," and maintaining that those things which are thus on the left hand of necessity f^ill into corruption, while they also affirm that the Saviour came to the lost sheep, in order to transfer it to the right hand, that is, to the ninety and nine sheep which were in safety, and perished not, but continued within the fold, yet were of the left hand," it follows that they must acknowledge that the enjoyment^ of rest did not imply salvation. And that which has not in like manner the same number, they will be compelled to acknowledge as belonging to the left hand, that is, to corruption. This Greek word Agape (love), then, according to the letters of the Greeks, by means of which reckoning is carried on among them, having a numerical value of ninetythree T> is in like manner assigned to the place of rest on the left hand. Aletheia (truth), too, having in like manner, according to the principle indicated above, a numerical value of sixty-four,'^ exists among material substances. And thus, in fine, they will be compelled to acknowledge that all those sacred names which do not reach a numerical value of one hundred, but only contain the numbers summed by the left hand, are corruptible and material.

CHAP. XXV. GOD IS NOT TO BE SOUGHT AFTER

BY MEANS OF LETTERS, SYLLABLES, AND NUM- BERS ; NECESSITY OF HUMILITY IN SUCH INVES- TIGATIONS.

I. If any one, however, say in reply to these things. What then? Is it a meaningless and accidental thing, that the positions of names, and the election of the apostles, and the working of the Lord, and the arrangement of created things, are what they are? — we answer them: Certainly not ; but with great wisdom and dihgence, all things have clearly been made by God, fitted and prepared [for their special purposes] ; and His word formed both things ancient and those belonging to the latest times ; and men ought not to connect those things with the

I " Alluding," says Harvey, " to a custom among the ancients, of summing the numbers below looby various positions of the left hand and its fingers; loo and upwards being reckoned by corresponding gestures of the right hand. The ninety and nine sheep, therefore, that remained quietly in the fold were summed upon the left hand, and Gnostics professed that they were typical of the true spiritual seed; but Scripture always places the workers of iniijuity on the left hand, and in the Gnostic theory the evil principle of matter was sinistral, therefore," etc., as above.

' " Levamen," corresponding probably to the Greek a.va.-na.v<riv.

number thirty,^ but to harmonize them with what actually exists, or with right reason. Nor should they seek to prosecute inquiries respecting God by means of numbers, syllables, and letters. For this is an uncertain mode of proceeding, on account of their varied and diverse systems, and because every sort of hypothesis may at the present day be, in like manner, devised ^ by any one ; so that 7 they can derive arguments against the truth from these very theories, inasmuch as they may be turned in many different directions. But, on the contrary, they ought to adapt the numbers themselves, and those things which have been formed, to the true theory lying before them. For system^ does not spring out of numbers, but numbers from a system ; nor does God derive His being from things made, but things made from God. For all things originate from one and the same God.

2. But since created things are various and numerous, they are indeed well fitted and adapted to the whole creation ; yet, when viewed individually, are mutually opposite and inharmonious, just as the sound of the lyre, which consists of many and opposite notes, gives rise to one unbroken melody, through means of the interval which separates each one from the others. The lover of truth therefore ought not to be deceived by the interval between each note, nor should he imagine that one was due to one artist and author, and another to another, nor that one person fitted the treble, another the bass, and yet another the tenor strings ; but he should hold that one and the same person [formed the whole], so as to prove the judgment, goodness, and skill exhibited in the whole work and [specimen of] wisdom. Those, too, who listen to the melody, ought to praise and extol the artist, to admire the tension of some notes, to attend to the softness of others, to catch the sound of others between both these extremes, and to consider the special character of others, so as to inquire at what each one aims, and what is the cause of their variety, never failing to apply our rule, neither giving up the [one 9] artist, nor casting off faith in the one God who formed all things, nor blaspheming our Creator.

3. If, however, any one do not discover the cause of all those things which become objects of investigation, let him reflect that man is infinitely inferior to God ; that he has received grace only in part, and is not yet equal or similar to his Maker ; and, moreover, that he cannot have experience or form a conception of all things

s Some read XX., but xxx. is probably correct. ^ Harvey proposes " commentitum" instead of " commcntatum," but the alteration .seems unnecessary.

^ 'I'hc syntax is in confusion, and the meaning obscure.

9 " Errantes ab artifice. " The whole sentence is most obscure.

like God ; but in the same proportion as he who was formed but to-day, and received the beginning of his creation, is inferior to Him who is uncreated, and who is ahvays the same, in that proportion is he, as respects knowledge and the faculity of investigating the causes of all things, inferior to Him who made him. For thou, O man, art not an uncreated being, nor didst thou always co-exist ' with God, as did His own Word ; but now, through His pre-eminent goodness, receiving the beginning of thy creation, thou dost gradually learn from the Word the dispensations of God who made thee.

4. Preserve therefore the proper order of thy knowledge, and do not, as being ignorant of things really good, seek to rise above God Himself, for He cannot be surpassed ; nor do thou seek after any one above the Creator, for thou wilt not discover such. For thy Former cannot be contained within limits ; nor, although thou shouldst measure all this [universe], and pass through all His creation, and consider it in all its depth, and height, and length, wouldst thou be able to conceive of any other above the Father Himself. For thou wilt not be able to think Him fully out, but, indulging in trains of reflection opposed to thy nature, thou wilt prove thyself foolish ; and if thou persevere in such a course, thou wilt fall into utter madness, whilst thou deemest thyself loftier and greater than thy Creator, and imaginest that thou canst penetiate beyond His dominions.

CHAP. XXVI. " KNOWLEDGE PUFFETH UP, BUT

LOVE EDIFIETH."

I. It is therefore better and more profitable to belong to the simple and unlettered class, and by means of love to attain to nearness to God, than, by imagining ourselves learned and skilful, to be found [among those who are] blasphemous against their own God, inasmuch as they conjure up another God as the Father. And for this reason Paul exclaimed, " Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth : " ^ not that he meant to inveigh against a true knowledge of God, for in that case he would have accused himself; but-, because he knew that some, puffed up by the pretence of knowledge, fell away from the love of God, and imagine that they themselves are perfect, for this reason that they set forth an imperfect Creator, with the view of putting an end to the pride which they feel on account of knowledge of this kind, he says, " Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth." Now there can be no greater conceit than this, that any one should imagine he is better and more perfect than He who made and fashioned him, and im-

Alluding to the imaginary JEon Anthropos, who existed from eternity.

parted to him the breath of life, and commanded this very thing into existence. It is therefore better, as I have said, that one should have no knowledge whatever of any one reason why a single thing in creation has been made, but should believe in God, and continue in His love, than 3 that, puffed up through knowledge of this kind, he should fall away from that love which is the life of man ; and that he should search after no other knowledge except [the knowledge of] Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was crucified for us, than that by subtle questions and hairsplitting expressions he should fall into impiety.'

2. For how would it be, if any one, gradually elated by attempts of the kind referred to, should, because the Lord said that " even the hairs of your head are all numbered," 5 set about inquiring into the number of hairs on each one's head, and endeavour to search out the reason on account of which one man has so many, and another so many, since all have not an equal number, but many thousands upon thousands are to be found with still varying numbers, on this account that some have larger and others smaller heads, some have bushy heads of hair, others thin, and others scarcely any hair at all, — and then those who imagine that they have discovered the number of the hairs, should endeavour to apply that for the commendation of their own sect which they have conceived? Or again, if any one should, because of this expression which occurs in the Gospel, " Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them falls to the ground without the will of your Father," ^ take occasion to reckon up the number of sparrows caught daily, whether over all the world or in some particular district, and to make inquiry as to the reason of so many having been captured yesterday, so many the day before, and so many again on this day, and should then join on the number of sparrows to his [particular] hypothesis, would he not in that case mislead himself altogether, and drive into absolute insanity those that agreed with him, since men are always eager in such matters to be thought to have discovered something more extraordinary than their mas-

3. But if any one should ask us whether every number of all the things which have been made, and which are made, is known to God, and whether every one of these [numbers] has, according to His providence, received that special amount which it contains ; and on our agreeing

3 " Aut; " T) having been thus mistakenly rendered instead of

•• [This seems anticipatory of the dialectics of schola.sticism, and of its immense influence In \\'estern Christendom, after St. Bernard's feeble adhesion to the Biblical system of the ancieiits.]

7 [Illustrated by the history of modern thought in Germany. See the meritorious work of Professor Kahnis. on Cerntnn Protestant-

that such is the case, and acknowledging that not one of the things which have been, or are, or shall be made, escapes the knowledge of God, but that through His providence every one of them has obtained its nature, and rank, and number, and special cjuantity, and that nothing whatever either has been or is produced in vain or accidentally, but with exceeding suitability [to the purpose intended], and in the exercise of transcendent knowledge, and that it was an admirable and truly divine intellect • which could both distinguish and bring forth the proper causes of such a system : if, [I say,] any one, on obtaining our adherence and consent to this, should proceed to reckon up the sand and pebbles of the earth, yea also the waves of the sea and the stars of heaven, and should endeavour to think out the causes of the number which he imagines himself to have discovered, would not his labour be in vain, and would not such a man be justly declared mad, and destitute of reason, by all possessed of common sense ? And the more he occupied himself beyond others in questions of this kind, and the more he imagines himself to find out beyond others, styling them unskilful, ignorant, and animal beings, because they do not enter into his so useless labour, the more is he [in reality] insane, foolish, struck as it were with a thunderbolt, since indeed he does in no one point own himself inferior to God ; but, by the knowledge which he imagines himself to have discovered, he changes God Himself, and exalts his own opinion above the greatness of the Creator.

CHAP. XXVII. PROPER MODE OF INTERPRETING

PARABLES AND OBSCURE PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE.

I. A sound mind, and one which does not expose its possessor to danger, and is devoted to piety and the love of truth, will eagerly meditate upon those things which God has placed within the power of mankind, and has subjected to our knowledge, and will make advancement in [acquaintance with] them, rendering the knowledge of them easy to him by means of daily study. These things are such as fall [plainly] imder our observation, and are clearly and unambiguously in express terms set forth in the Sacred Scriptures. And therefore the parables ought not to be adapted to ambiguous expressions. For, if this be not done, both he who explains them will do so without danger, and the parables will receive a like interpretation from all, and the body ^ of truth remains entire, with a harmonious adaptation of its members, and without any collision [of its several parts]. But to apply expressions which are not clear or evident to

text

Rationem." * We read " veritatis corpus" for "a veritate rorpus" in the

interpretations of the parables, such as every one discovers for himself as inclination leads him, [is absurd. 3] For in this way no one will possess the rule of truth ; but in accordance with the number of persons who explain the parables will be found the various systems of truth, in mutual opposition to each other, and setting forth antagonistic doctrines, like the questions current among the Gentile philosophers.

2. According to this course of procedure, therefore, man would always be inquiring but never finding, because he has rejected the very method of discovery. And when the Bridegroom 4 comes, he who has his lamp untrimmed, and not burning with the brightness of a steady light, is classed among those who obscure the interpretations of the parables, forsaking Him who by His plain announcements freely imparts gifts to all who come to Him, and is excluded from His marriage-chamber. Since, therefore, the entire Scriptures, the prophets, and the Gospels, can be clearly, unambiguously, and harmoniously understood by all, although all do not believe them ; and 5 since they proclaim that one only God, to the exclusion of all others, formed all things by His w^ord, whether visible or invisible, heavenly or earthly, in the water or under the earth, as I have shown ^ from the very words of Scripture ; and since the very system of creation to which we belong testifies, by what falls under our notice, that one Being made and governs it, — those persons will seem truly foolish who blind their eyes to such a clear demonstration, and will not behold the light of the announcement [made to them] ; but they put fetters upon themselves, and every one of them imagines, by means of their obscure interpretations of the parables, that he has found out a God of his own. For that there is nothing whatever openly, expressly, and without controversy said in any part of Scripture respecting the Father conceived of by those who hold a contrary opinion, they themselves testify, when they maintain that the Saviour privately taught these same things not to all, but to certain only of His disciples who could comprehend them, and who understood what was intended by Him through means of arguments, enigmas, and parables. They come, [in fine,] to this, that they maintain there is one Being who is proclaimed as God, and another as Father, He who is set forth as such through means of parables and enigmas.

3 Some such expression of disapproval must evidently be supplied, though wanting in the Latin text.

5 The text is here elliptical, and we have supplied what seem? necessary to complete the sense.

b It is doubtful whether" dcmonstravimus " or " demonstrabimus" be the proper reading: if ihe former, the reference will be to book L

3. But since parables admit of many interpretations, what lover of truth will not acknowledge, that for them to assert God is to be searched out from these, while they desert what is certain, indul)ital)le, and true, is the part of men who eagerly throw themselves into danger, and act as if destitute of reason ? And is not such a course of conduct not to build one's house upon a rock ' which is firm, strong, and placed in an open position, but upon the shifting sand? Hence the overthrow of such a building is a matter of ease.

CH.\P. XXVIII. PERFECT KNOWLEDGE CANNOT BE AT- TAINED IN THE PRESENT LIFE : MANY QUESTIONS MUST BE SUBMISSIVELY LEFT IN THE HANDS OF GOD.

1. Having therefore the truth itself as our rule, and the testimony concerning God set clearly before us, we ought not, by running after numerous and diverse answers to questions, to cast away the firm and true knowledge of God. But* it is much more suitable that we, directing our inquiries after this fashion, should exercise ourselves in the investigation cf the mystery and administration of the living God, and should increase in the love of Him who has done, and still does, so great things for us ; but never should fall from the belief by which it is most clearly proclaimed that this Being alone is truly God and Father, who both formed this world, fashioned man, and bestowed the faculty of increase on His own creation, and called him upwards from lesser things to those greater ones which are in His own presence, just as He brings an infant which has been conceived in the womb into the light of the sim, and lays up wheat in the barn after He has given it full strength on the stalk. But it is one and the same Creator who both fashioned the womb and created the sun ; and one and the same I>ord who both reared the stalk of corn, increased and multiplied the wheat, and prepared the barn.

2. If, however, we cannot discover explanations of all those things in Scripture which are made the subject of investigation, yet let us not on that account seek after any other God besides Him who really exists. For this is the very greatest impiety. We should leave things of that nature to God who created us, being most properly assured that the Scriptures are indeed perfect, since they were spoken by the Word of God and His Spirit ; but we, inasmuch as we are inferior to, and later in existence than, the Word of God and His Spirit, are on that very account ^ destitute of the knowledge of His mysteries. And there is no cause for wonder if this is the case with us as respects things spiritual and heavenly, and such as require to be made known to us by revelation, since many even of

those things which lie at our very feet (I mean such as belong to this world, which we handle, and see, and are in close contact with) transcend our knowledge, so that even these we must leave to God. For it is fitting that He should excel all [in knowledge]. For how stands the case, for instance, if we endeavour to explain the cause of the rising of the Nile? We may say a great deal, plausible or otherwise, on the subject ; but what is true, sure, and incontrovertible regarding it, belongs only to God. Then, again, the dwelling-place of birds — of those, I mean, which come to us in spring, but fly away again on the approach of autumn — though it is a matter connected with this world, escapes our knowledge. What explanation, again, can we give of the flow and ebb of the ocean, although every one admits there must be a certain cause [for these phenomena] ? Or what can we say as to the nature of those things which lie beyond it ? ^ What, moreover, can we say as to the formation of rain, lightning, thunder, gatherings of clouds, vapours, the bursting forth of winds, and such like things ; or tell as to the storehouses of snow, hail, and other like things? [What do we know respecting] the conditions requisite for the preparation of clouds, or what is the real nature of the vapours in the sky ? What as to the reason why the moon waxes and wanes, or what as to the cause of the difference of nature among various waters, metals, stones, and such like things ? On all these points we may indeed say a great deal while we search into their causes, but God alone who made them can declare the truth regarding them.

3. If, therefore, even with respect to creation, there are some things [the knowledge of] which belongs only to God, and others which come within the range of our own knowledge, what ground is there for complaint, if, in regard to those things which we investigate in the Scriptures (which are throughout spiritual), we are able by the grace of God to explain some of them, while we must leave others in the hands of God, and that not only in the present world, but also in that which is to come, so that God should for ever teach, and man should for ever learn the things taught him by God? As the apostle has said on this point, that, when other things have been done away, then these three, " faith, hope, and charity, shall endure."^ For faith, which has respect to our Master, endures 5 unchangeably,

5 " Permanet firma," — no doubt corresponding to the fxerei of the apostle, i Cor. xiii. 13. Har\-ey here remarks, that "' the author seems to misapprehend the apostle's meaning. . . . There will be no longer room for hope, when the substance of things hoped for shall have become a matter of fruition : neither will there be any room for faith, when the soul shall be admitted to see God as He is." But the best modern interpreters take the same view of the passage as Irenaeus. They regard the luri hi of St. Paul as not being temporal, but logical, and conclude therefore the meaning to be, thaty<i/'^/j and ho/'e, as well as love, will, in a sense, endure for ever. Comp., e.g , Alford, in loc.

assuring us that there is but one true God, and that we should truly love Him for ever, seeing that He alone is our Father ; while we hope ever to be receiving more and more from God, and to learn from Him, because He is good, and possesses boundless riches, a kingdom without end, and instruction that can never be exhausted. If, therefore, according to the rule which I have stated, we leave some questions in the hands of God, we shall both preserve our faith uninjured, and shall continue without danger ; and all Scripture, which has been given to us by God, shall be found by us perfectly consistent ; and the parables shall harmonize with those passages which are perfecdy plain ; and those statements the meaning of which is clear, shall serve to explain the parables ; and through the many diversified utterances [of Scripture] there shall be heard ' one harmonious melody in us, praising in hymns that God who created all things. If, for instance, any one asks, " What was God doing before He made the world ? " we reply that the answer to such a question lies with God Himself. For that this world was formed perfect ^ by God, receiving a beginning in time, the Scriptures teach us ; but no Scripture reveals to us what God was employed about before this event. The answer therefore to that question remains with God, and it is not proper ^ for us to aim at bringing forward foolish, rash, and blasphemous suppositions [in reply to it] ; so, as by one's imagining that he has discovered the origin of matter, he should in reality set aside God Himself who made all things.

4. For consider, all ye who invent such opinions, since the Father Himself is alone called God, who has a real existence, but whom ye style the Demiurge ; since, moreover, the Scriptures acknowledge Him alone as God ; and yet again, since the Lord confesses Him alone as His own Father, and knows no other, as I shall show from His very words, — when ye style this very Being the fruit of defect, and the offspring of ignorance, and describe Him as being ignorant of those things which are above Him, with the various other allegations which you make regarding Him, — consider the terrible blasphemy [ye are thus guilty of ] against Him who truly is God. Ye seem to affirm gravely and honestly enough that ye believe in God ; but then, as ye are utterly unable to reveal any other God, ye declare this very Being in whom ye profess to believe, the fruit of defect and the offspring of ignorance. Now this blindness and foolish talk-

' The Latin text is here untranslateable. Grabe proposes to read, " u>ia consonans mclodia in nobis sentietur ;" v/\A\t Stieren and others prefer to exchange aiaOriaeTai for •Vfl^ireTai.

2 " Apotelesticos." This word, says Harvey, " may also refer to the vital energy of nature, whereby its effects are for ever reproduced in unceasing succession." Comp. Hippo)., Philos., vii. 24.

3 We here follow Grabe, who nndr-r^'nnds liecet. Harvey less simply explains tnc very obscure Latin text.

ing flow to you from the fact that ye reserve nothing for God, but ye wish to proclaim the nativity and production both of God Himself, of His Enncjua, of His Logos, and Life, and Christ ; and ye form the idea of these from no other than a mere human experience ; not understanding, as I said before, that it is possible, in the case of man, who is a compound being, to speak in this way of the mind of man and the thought of man ; and to say that thought (ennoea) springs from mind (sensus), intention (enthymesis) again from thought, and word (logos) from intention (but which logos?'* for there is among the Greeks one logos which is the principle that thinks, and another which is the instrument by means of which thought is expressed) ; and [to say] that a man sometimes is at rest and silent, while at other times he speaks and is active. But since God is 5 all mind, all reason, all active spirit, all light, and always exists one and the same, as it is both beneficial for us to think of God, and as we learn regarding Him from the Scriptures, such feelings and divisions [of operation] cannot fittingly be ascribed to Him. For our tongue, as being carnal, is not sufficient to minister to the rapidity of the human mind, inasmuch as that is of a spiritual nature, for which reason our word is restrained ^ within us, and is not at once expressed as it has been conceived by the mind, but is uttered by successive efforts, just as the tongue is able to serve it.

5. But God being all Mind, and all Logos, both speaks exactly what He thinks, and thinks exactly what He speaks. For His thought is Logos, and Logos is Mind, and Mind comprehending all things is the Father Himself. He, therefore, who speaks of the mind of God, and ascribes to it a special origin of its own, declares Him a compound Being, as if God were one thing, and the original Mind another. So, again, with respect to Logos, when one attributes to him the third ^ place of production from the Father ; on which supposition he is ignorant of His greatness ; and thus Logos has been far separated from God. As for the prophet, he declares respecting Him, " Who shall describe His generation? " ^ But ye pretend to set forth His generation from the Father, and ye transfer the production of the word of men which takes place by means of a tongue to the Word of God, and thus are righteously exposed by your own

The Greek term Adyo5, as is well known, denotes both ratio (reason) and sertno (speech). Some deem the above parenthesis an interpolation.

6 " Suffugatur: " some read " suffocatur; " and Harvey proposes " suffragatur," as the representative of the Greek i/z^jrAi^erai. The me,^ning in any case is, that while ideas are instantaneously formed in the human mind, they can be expressed through means of words only fractionally, and by successive utterances.

irentEus against heresies.

selves as knowing neither things human nor divine.

6. But, beyond reason inflated [with your own wisdom], ye presumptuously maintain that ye are acquainted with the unspeakable mysteries of Ciod ; while even the Lord, the very Son of God, allowed that the Father alone knows the very day and hour of judgment, when He plainly declares, " But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, neither the Son, but the Father only." ' If, then, the Son was not ashamed to ascribe the knowledge of that day to the Father only, but declared what was true regarding the matter, neither let us be ashamed to reserve for God those greater questions which may occur to us. For no man is superior to his master.^ If any one, therefore, says to us, " How then was the Son produced by the Father?" we reply to him, that no man understands that production, or generation, or calling, or revelation, or by whatever name one may describe His generation, which is in fact altogether indescribable. Neither Valentinus, nor Marcion, nor Saturninus, nor Basilides, nor angels, nor archangels, nor principalities, nor powers [possess this knowledge], but the Father only who begat, and the Son who was begotten. Since therefore His generation is unspeakable, those who strive to set forth generations and productions cannot be in their right mind, inasmuch as they undertake to describe things which are indescribable. For that a word is uttered at the bidding of thought and mind, all men indeed well understand. Those, therefore, who have excogitated [the theory of] emissions have not discovered anything great, or revealed any abstruse mystery, when they have simply transferred what all understand to the only-begotten Word of God ; and while they style Him unspeakable and unnameable, they nevertheless .set forth the production and formation of His first generation, as if they themselves had assisted at His birth, thus assimilating Him to the word of mankind formed by emissions.

7. But we shall not be wrong if we affirm the same thing also concerning the substance of matter, that God produced it. For we have learned from the Scriptures that God holds the supremacy over all things. But whence or in what way He produced it, neither has Scripture anywhere declared ; nor does it become us to conjecture, so as, in accordance with our own opinions, to form endless conjectures concerning God, but we should leave such knowledge in the hands of God Himself. In like manner, also, we must leave the cause why, while all things were made by God, certain of His creatures

' Mark xiii. 32. The words, " neither the angels which are in heaven," are here omitted, probably because, as usual, the writer quotes from memory.

sinned and revolted from a state of submission to God, and others, indeed the great majority, persevered, and do still persevere, in [willing] subjection to Him who formed them, and also of what nature those are who sinned, and of what nature those who persevere, — [we must, I say, leave the cause of these things] to God and His Word, to whom alone He said, " Sit at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." ^ But as for us, we still dwell upon the earth, and have not yet sat down upon His throne. For although the Spirit of the Saviour that is in Him " searcheth all things, even the deep things of God," •* yet as to us " there are diversities of gifts, differences of administrations, and diversities of operations ; " s and we, while upon the earth, as Paul also declares, " know in part, and prophesy in part." ^ Since, therefore, we know but in part, we ought to leave all sorts of [difficult] questions in the hands of Him who in some measure, [and that only,] bestows grace on us. That eternal fire, [for instance,] is prepared for sinners, both the Lord has plainly declared, and the rest of the Scriptures demonstrate. And that God foreknew that this would happen, the Scriptures do in like manner demonstrate, since He prepared eternal fire from the beginning for those who were [afterwards] to transgress [His commandments] ; but the cause itself of the nature of such transgressors neither has any Scripture informed us, nor has an apostle told us, nor has the Lord taught us. It becomes us, therefore, to leave the knowledge of this matter to God, even as the Lord does of the day and hour [of judgment], and not to rush to such an extreme of danger, that we will leave nothing in the hands of God, even though we have received only a measure of grace [from Him in this world]. But when we investigate points which are above us, and with respect to which we cannot reach satisfaction, [it is absurd -"] that we should display such an extreme of presumption as to lay open God, and things which are not yet discovered,*^ as if already we had found out, by the vain talk about emissions, God Himself, the Creator of all things, and to assert that He derived His substance from apostasy and ignorance, so as to frame an impious hypothesis in opposition to God.

8. Moreover, they possess no proof of their system, which has but recently been invented by them, sometimes resting upon certain numbers, sometimes on syllables, and sometimes, again, on names ; and there are occasions, too, when,

7 Massuet proposes to insert these words, and some such supplement seems clearly necessary to complete the sense. But the sentence still remains confused and doubtful.

IRENy^US AGAINST HERESIES.

by means of those letters which are contained in letters, by parables not properly interpreted, or by certain [baseless] conjectures, they strive to establish that fabulous account which they have devised. For if any one should inquire the reason why the Father, who has fellowship with the Son in all things, has been declared by the Lord alone to know the hour and the day [of judgment], he will find at present no more suitable, or becoming, or safe reason than this (since, indeed, the Lord is the only true Master), that we may learn through Him that the Father is above all things. For " the Father," says He, "is greater than L" ' The Father, therefore, has been declared by our Lord to excel with respect to knowledge ; for this reason, that we, too, as long as we are connected with the scheme of things in this world, should leave perfect knowledge, and such questions [as have been mentioned], to God, and should not by any chance, while we seek to investigate the sublime nature of the Father, fall into the danger of starting the question whether there is another God above God.=

9. But if any lover of strife contradict what I have said, and also what the apostle affirms, that " we know in part, and prophesy in part," ^ and imagine that he has acquired not a partial, but a universal, knowledge of all that exists, — being such an one as Valentinus, or Ptolemgeus, or Basilides, or any other of those who maintain that they have searched out the deep * things of God, — let hira not (arraying himself in vainglory) boast that he has acquired greater knowledge than others with respect to those things which are invisible, or cannot be placed under our observation ; but let him, by making diligent inquiry, and obtaining information from the Father, tell us the reasons (which we know not) of those things which are in this world, — as, for instance, the number of hairs on his own head, and the sparrows which are captured day by day, and such other points with which we are not previously acquainted, — so that we may credit him also with respect to more important points. But if those who are perfect do not yet understand the very things in their hands, and at their feet, and before their eyes, and on the earth, and especially the rule followed with respect to the hairs of their head, how can we believe them regarding things spiritual, and super-celestial, 5 and those which, with a vain confidence, they assert to be above God ? So much, then, I have said concerning numbers, and names, and syl-

2 (On the great matter of the irfpi.x'oprirTi';, the subordination of the Son, etc., Bull has explored Patristic doctrine, and may well be consulted here. De/ens. Fid. Niccenee, sect. iv. ; see also vol. v. 363 ]

■♦ " Altitudines," literally, heights.

i [Wisdom, ix. 13, 17. A passage of marvellous beauty.]

lables, and questions respecting such things as are above our comprehension, and concerning their improper expositions of the parables : [I add no more on these points,] since thou thyself mayest enlarge upon them.

CHAP. XXIX. REFUTATION OF THE VIEWS OF THE

HERETICS AS TO THE FUTURE DESTINY OF THE SOUL AND BODY.

I. Let US return, however, to the remaining points of their system. For when they declare ^ that, at the consummation of all things, their mother shall re-enter the Pleroma, and receive the Saviour as her consort ; that they themselves, as being spiritual, when they have got rid of their animal souls, and become intellectual .spirits, will be the consorts of the spiritual angels ; but that the Demiurge, since they call him animal, will pass into the place of the Mother ; that the souls of the righteous shall psychically repose in the intermediate place ; — when they declare that like will be gathered to like, spiritual things to spiritual, while material things continue among those that are material, they do in fact contradict themselves, inasmuch as they no longer maintain that souls pass, on account of their nature, into the intermediate place to those substances which are similar to themselves, but [that they do so] on account of the deeds done [in the body], since they affirm that those of the righteous do pass [into that abode] , but those of the impious continue in the fire. For if it is on account of their nature that all souls attain to the place of enjoyment,^ and all belong to the intermediate place simply because they are souls, as being thus of the same nature with it, then it follows that faith is altogether superfluous, as was also the descent^ of the Saviour [to this world]. If, on the other hand, it is on account of their righteousness [that they attain to such a place of rest], then it is no longer because they are sotds but because they are righteous. But if souls would have ^ perished unless they had been righteous, then righteousness must have power to save the bodies also [which these souls inhabited] ; for why should it not save them, since they, too, participated in righteousness? For if nature and substance are the means of salvation, then all souls shall be saved ; but if righteousness and faith, why should these not save those bodies which, equally with the souls, will enter '° into

' " Refrigerium," filace of refreshmetit.

5 Billius, with great apparent reason, proposes to read " dcscensio " for the iniintelligible " discessio " of the Latin te.xt.

9 Grabe and Massuet read, " Si autem anima; perire inciperent, nisi justa; fuissent," for " Si autem anima; quse peritura: essent inciperent nisi jusla; fuissent," — words which defy all translation.

'" The text is here uncertain and confu.sed; but, as Harvey remarks, " the argument is this, That if souls are saved tjitn intellectual substance, then all are saved alike; but if by reason of any moral qualities, then the bodies that have executed the moral purposes of the soul, must also be considered to be heirs of salvation."

immortality? For righteousness will appear, in matters of this kind, either impotent or unjust, if indeed it saves some substances through participating in it, but not others.

2. For it is manifest that those acts which are deemed righteous are performed in bodies. Either, therefore, all souls will of necessity pass into the intermediate place, and there will never be a judgment ; or bodies, too, which have participated in righteousness, will attain to the place of enjoyment, along with the souls which have in like manner jjarticipated, if indeed righteousness is powerful enough to bring thither those substances which have participated in it. And then the doctrine concerning the resurrection of bodies which we believe, will emerge true and certain [from their system] ; since, [as we hold,] God, when He resuscitates our mortal bodies which preserved righteousness, will render them incorruptible and immortal. For God is superior to nature, and has in Himself the disposition [to show kindness], because He is good ; and the ability to do so, because He is mighty ; and the faculty of fully carrying out His purpose, because He is rich and perfect.

3. But these men are in all points inconsistent with themselves, when they decide that all souls do not enter into the intermediate place, but those of the righteous only. For they maintain that, according to nature and substance, three sorts [of being] were produced by the Mother : the first, which proceeded from perplexity, and weariness, and fear — that is material substance ; the second from impetuosity ' — that is animal substance ; but that which she brought forth after the vision of those angels who wait upon Christ, is spiritual substance. If. then, that substance - which she brought forth will by all means enter into the Pleroma because it is spiritual, while that which is material will remain below because it is material, and shall be totally consumed by the fire which burns within it, why should not the whole animal substance go into the intermediate place, into which also they send the Demiurge? But what is it which shall enter within their Pleroma? For they maintain that souls shall continue in the intermediate place, while bodies, because they possess material substance, when they have been resolved into matter, shall be consumed by that fire which exists in it ; but their body being thus destroyed, and their soul remaining in the intermediate place, no part of man will any longer be left to enter in within the Pleroma. For the intellect of man — his mind, thought, mental intention, and such like — is nothing else than his soul ; but the

' " De impetu: " it is generally supposed that these words correspond to iic T))? fVio-Tpo^^s (comp. i. 5, i), but Harvey thinks i^ opfjirii preferable (i. 4,1).

- The syntax of this sentence is in utter confusion, but the meaning is doubtless that given above.

emotions and operations of the soul itself have no substance apart from the soul. What part of them, then, will still remain to enter into the Pleroma? For they themselves, in as far as they are souls, remain in the intermediate place ; while, in as far as they are body, they will be consumed with the rest of matter.

CHAP. XXX. ABSURDITY OF THEIR ST\'LIXG THEM- SELVES SPIRITUAL, WHILE THE DEMIURGE IS DECLARED TO BE ANIMAL.

1. Such being the state of the case, these infatuated men declare that they rise above the Creator (Demiurge) ; and, inasmuch as they proclaim themselves superior to that God who made and adorned the heavens, and the earth, and all things that are in them, and maintain that they themselves are spiritual, while they are in fact shamefully carnal on account of their so great impiety, — affirming that He, who has made His angels ^ spirits, and is clothed with light as with a garment, and holds the circle ■♦ of the earth, as it were, in His hand, in whose sight its inhabitants are counted as grasshoppers, and who is the Creator and Lord of all spiritual substance, is of an animal nature, — they do beyond doubt and verily betray their own madness ; and, as if truly struck with thunder, even more than those giants who are spoken of in [heathen] fables, they lift up their opinions against God, inflated by a vain presumption and unstable glory, — men for whose purgation all the hellebore s on earth would not suffice, so that they should get rid of their intense folly.

2. The superior person is to be proved by his deeds. In what way, then, can they show themselves superior to the Creator (that I too, through the necessity of the argument in hand, may come down to the level of their impiety, instituting a comparison between God and foolish men, and, by descending to their argument, may often refute them by their own doctrines ; but in thus acting may God be merciful to me, for I venture on these statements, not with the view of comparing Him to them, but of convicting and overthrowing their insane opinions) — they, for whom many foolish persons entertain so great an admiration, as if, forsooth, they could learn from them something more precious than the truth itself ! That expression of Scripture, " Seek, and ye shall find," ^ they interpret as spoken with this view, that they should discover themselves to be above the Creator, stjling themselves greater and better than God, and calling themselves spiritual, but the Creator animal ; and [affirming] that for this reason they rise upwards above God, for that

5 Irenaeus was evidently familiar with Horace; comp. Ars Poei.,

D.

they enter in within the Pleroma, while He remains in the intermediate place. Let them, then, prove themselves by their deeds superior to the Creator ; for the superior person ought to be proved not by what is said, but by what has a real existence.

3. What work, then, will they point to as having been accomplished through themselves by the Saviour, or by their Mother, either greater, or more glorious, or more adorned with wisdom, than those which have been produced by Him who was the disposer of all around us? What heavens have they established? what earth have they founded ? what stars have they called into existence? or what lights of heaven have they caused to shine ? within what circles, moreover, have they confined them? or, what rains, or frosts, or snows, each suited to the season, and to every special climate, have they brought upon the earth? And again, in opposition to these, what heat or dryness have they set over against them? or, what rivers have they made to flow? what fountains have they brought forth? with what flowers and trees have they adorned this sublunary world? or, what multitude of animals have they formed, some rational, and others irrational, but all adorned with beauty ? And who can enumerate one by one all the remaining objects which have been constituted by the power of God, and are governed by His wisdom? or who can search out the greatness of that God who made them ? And what can be told of those existences which are above heaven, and which do not pass away, such as Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Dominions, and Powers innumerable? Against what one of these works, then, do they set themselves in opposition ? What have they similar to show, as having been made through themselves, or by themselves, since even they too are the workmanship and creatures of this [Creator] ? For whether the Saviour or their Morfier (to use their own expressions, proving them false by means of the very terms they themselves employ) used this Being, as they maintain, to make an image of those things which are within the Pleroma, and of all those beings which she saw waiting upon the Saviour, she used him (the Demiurge) as being [in a sense] superior to herself, and better fitted to accomplish her purpose through his instrumentality ; for she would by no means form the images of such important beings through means of an inferior, but by a superior, agent.

4. For, [be it observed,] they themselves, according to their own declarations, were then existing, as a spiritual conception, in consequence of the contemplation of those beings who were arranged as satellites around Pandora. And they indeed continued useless, the Mother accomplishing nothing through their instrumental-

ity,'— an idle conception, owing their being to the Saviour, and fit for nothing, for not a thing appears to have been done by them. But the God who, according to them, was produced, while, as they argue, inferior to themselves (for they maintain that he is of an animal nature), was nevertheless the active agent in all things, efficient, and fit for the work to be done, so that by him the images of all things were made ; and not only were these things which are seen formed by him, but also all things invisible, Angels, Archangels, Dominations, Powers, and Virtues, — [by him, I say,] as being the superior, and capable of ministering to her desire. But it seems that the Mother made nothing whatever through their instrumentality, as indeed they themselves acknowledge ; so that one may justly reckon them as having been an abortion produced by the painful travail of their Mother. For no accoucheurs performed their office upon her, and therefore they were cast forth as an abortion, useful for nothing, and formed to accomplish no work of the Mother. And yet they describe themselves as being superior to Him by whom so vast and admirable works have been accomplished and arranged, although by their own reasoning they are found to be so wretchedly inferior !

5 . It is as if there were two iron tools, or instnmients, the one of which was continually in the workman's hands and in constant use, and by the use of which he made whatever he pleased, and displayed his art and skill, but the other of which remained idle and useless, never being called into operation, the workman ne\'er appearing to make anything by it, and making no use of it in any of his labours ; and then one should maintain that this useless, and idle, and unemployed tool was superior in nature and value to that which the artisan employed in his work, and by means of which he acquired his reputation. Such a man, if any such were found, would justly be regarded as imbecile, and not in his right mind. And so should those be judged of who speak of themselves as being spiritual and superior, and of the Creator as possessed of an animal nature, and maintain that for this reason they will ascend on high, and penetrate within the Pleroma to their own husbands (for, according to their own statements, they are themselves feminine), but that God [the Creator] is of an inferior nature, and therefore remains in the intermediate place, while all the time they bring forward no proofs of these assertions : for the better man is shown by his works, and all works have been accomplished by the Creator ; but they, having nothing worthy of reason to point to as having been produced by themselves, are

' The punctuation is here doubtful. With Massuet and Stiereo we expunge " vel " from the text.

labouring under the greatest and most incurable madness.

6. If, however, they labour to maintain that, while all material things, such as the heaven, and the whole world which exists below it, were indeed formed by the Demiurge, yet all things of a more spiritual nature than these, — those, namely, which are above the heavens, such as Principalities, Powers, Angels, Archangels, Dominations, Virtues, — were produced by a spiritual process of birth (which they declare themselves to be), then, in the first place, we prove from the authoritative Scriptures ' that all the things which have been mentioned, visible and invisible, have been made by one God. For these men are not more to be depended on than the Scriptures ; nor ought we to give up the declarations of the Lord, Moses, and the rest of the prophets, who have proclaimed the truth, and give credit to them, who do indeed utter nothing of a sensible nature, but rave about untenable opinions. And, in the next place, if those things which are above the heavens were really made through their instrumentality, then let them inform us what is the nature of things invisible, recount the number of the Angels, and the ranks of the Archangels, reveal the mysteries of the Thrones, and teach us the differences between the Dominations, Principalities, Powers, and Virtues. But they can say nothing respecting them ; therefore these beings were not made by them. If, on the other hand, these were made by the Creator, as was really the case, and are of a spiritual and holy character, then it follows that He who produced spiritual beings is not Himself of an animal nature, and thus their fearful system of blasphemy is overthrown.

7. For that there are spiritual creatures in the heavens, all the Scriptures loudly proclaim ; and Paul expressly testifies that there are spiritual things when he declares that he was caught up into the third heaven, ^ and again, that he was carried away to paradise, and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. But what did that profit him, either his entrance into paradise or his assumption into the third heaven, since all these things are still but under the power of the Demiurge, if, as some venture to maintain, he had already begun ^ to be a spectator and a hearer of those mysteries which are affirmed to be above the Demiurge ? For if it is true that he was becoming acquainted with that order of things which is above the Demiurge, he would by no means have remained in the regions of the Demiurge, and that so as not even thoroughly to explore even these (for, according to

' Or, " the Scriptures of the Lord; " but the words " dominicis scripturis" probably here represent the Greek xvpiuiv ypa<l>'>ii', and are to be rendered as above.

3 " Inciperet fieri; " perhaps for " futurus esset," was to be.

their manner of speaking, there still lay before him four heavens,-* if he were to approach the Demiurge, and thus behold the whole seven lying beneath him) ; but he might have been admitted, perhaps, into the intermediate place, that is, into the presence of the Mother, that he might receive instruction from her as to the things within the Pleroma. For that inner man which was in him, and spoke in him, as they say, though invisible, could have attained not only to the third heaven, but even as far as the presence of their Mother. For if they maintain that they themselves, that is, their [inner] man, at once ascends above the Demiurge, and departs to the Mother, much more must this have occurred to the [inner] man of the apostle ; for the Demiurge would not have hindered him, being, as they assert, himself already subject to the Saviour. But if he had tried to hinder him, the effort would have gone for nothing. For it is not possible that he should prove stronger than the providence of the Father, and that when the inner man is said to be invisible even to the Demiurge. But since he (Paul) has described that assumption of himself up to the third heaven as something great and pre-eminent, it cannot be that these men ascend above the seventh heaven, for they are certainly not superior to the apostle. If they do maintain that they are more excellent than he, let them prove themselves so by their works, for they have never pretended to anything like [what he describes as occurring to himself]. And for this reason he added, "Whether in the body, or whether out of the body, God knoweth," 5 that the body might neither be thought to be a partaker in that vision,'' as if it could have participated in those things which it had seen and heard ; nor, again, that any one should say that he was not carried higher on account of the weight of the body ; but it is therefore thus far permitted even without the body to behold spiritual mysteries which are the operations of God, who made the heavens and the earth, and formed man, and placed him in paradise, so that those should be spectators of them who, like the apostle, have reached a high degree of perfection in the love of God.

8. This Being, therefore, also made spiritual things, of which, as far as to the third heaven, the apostle was made a spectator, and heard un-

■♦ "Quartum coslum; " there still being, according to their theory of seven heavens, a fourth beyond that to which St. Paul had penetrated.

5 2 Cor. xii. 3, defectively quoted.

6 This is an exceedingly obscure and difficult .sentence. Grabe and some of the later editors read, " uti neque von corpus," thus making Irenseus affirm that the body did participate in the vision. But Massuet contends strenuously that this is contrary to the author's purpose, as wishing to maintain, against a possible exception of the Valentinians, that Paul then witnessed spiritual realities, and by omitting this " non " before " corpus," makes Irenseus deny that the body was a partaker in the vision. The point can only be doubtfully decided, but Massuet's ingenious note inclines us to his side of the question.

speakable words which it is not possible for a man to utter, inasmuch as they are spiritual ; and He Himself bestows ■ [gifts] on the worthy as inclination prompts Him, for paradise is His ; and He is truly the Spirit of God, and not an animal Demiurge, otherwise He should never have created spiritual things. But if He really is of an animal nature, then let them inform us by whom spiritual things were made. They have no proof which they can give that this was done by means of the travail of their Mother, which they declare themselves to be. For, not to speak of spiritual things, these men cannot create even a fly, or a gnat, or any other small and insignificant animal, without observing that law by which from the beginning animals have been and are naturally produced by God — through the deposition of seed in those that are of the same species. Nor was anything formed by the Mother alone ; [for] they say that this Demiurge was produced by her, and that he was the Lord (the author) of all creation. And they maintain that he who is the Creator and Lord of all that has been made is of an animal nature, while they assert that they themselves are spiritual, — they who are neither the authors nor lords of any one work, not only of those things which are extraneous to them, but not even of their own bodies ! Moreover, these men, who call themselves spiritual, and superior to the Creator, do often suffer much bodily pain, sorely against their will.

9. Justly, therefore, do we convict them of having departed far and wide from the truth. For if the Saviour formed the things which have been made, by means of him (the Demiurge), he is proved in that case not to be inferior but superior to them, since he is found to have been the former even of themselves ; for they, too, have a place among created things. How, then, can it be argued that these men indeed are spiritual, but that he by whom they were created is of an animal nature? Or, again, if (which is indeed the only true supposition, as I have shown by numerous arguments of the very clearest nature) He (the Creator) made all things freely, and 1)y His own ])o\ver, and arranged and finished them, and His will is the sul)stance ^ of all things, then He is discovered to be the one only God who created all things, who alone is Omnipotent, and who is the only Father founding and forming all things, visible and invisible, such as may be perceived by our senses and such as cannot, heavenly and earthly, " by the word of His ])ower ; " ^ and He has fitted and arranged all things by His wisdom, while He contains all things, but He Himself can be contained by no one :

' " Praestat dignis: " here a very ambigtiovis expression.

^ That is, as \Iassuet notes, all things derive not only their existence, but their gun/ities, from His will. Harvey proposes to read causa instead of substantia, but the change seems needless.

He is the Former, He the Builder, He the Discoverer, He the Creator, He the Lord of all; and there is no one besides Him, or above Him) neither has He any mother, as they falsely ascribe to Him ; nor is there a second God, as Marcion has imagined ; nor is there a Pleroma of thirty ^ons, which has been shown a vain supposition ; nor is there any such being as Bythu^ or Proarche ; nor are there a series of heavens ,' nor is there a virginal light,'* nor an unnameable ^on, nor, in fact, any one of those things which are madly dreamt of by these, and by all the heretics. But there is one only God, the Creator— He who is above every Principality, and Power, and Dominion, and Virtue : He is Father, He is God, He the Founder, He the Maker, He the Creator, who made those things by Himself, that is, through His Word and His Wisdom — heaven and earth, and the seas, and all things that are in them : He is just ; He is good ; He it is who formed man, who planted paradise, who made the world, who gave rise to the flood, who saved Noah ; He is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of the living : He it is whom the law proclaims, whom the prophets preach, whom Christ reveals, whom the apostles make known 5 to us, and in whom the Church believes. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ : through His Word, who is His Son, through Him He is revealed and manifested to all to whom He is revealed ; for those [only] know Him to whom the Son has revealed Him. But the Son, eternally co-existing with the Father, from of old, yea, from the beginning, always reveals the Father to Angels, Archangels, Powers, Virtues, and all to whom He wills that God should be revealed.

CHAP. XXXI. — RECAPITULATION AND APPLICATION OF THE FOREGOING ARGUMENTS.

I. Those, then, who are of the school of Valentinus being overthrown, the whole multitude of heretics are, in fact, also subverted. For all the arguments I have advanced against their Pleroma, and with respect to those things which are beyond it, showing how the Father of all is shut up and circumscribed l)y that which is beyond Him (if, indeed, there be anything beyond Him), and how there is an absolute necessity [on their theory] to conceive of many Fathers, and many Pleromas, and many creations of worlds, beginning with one set and ending with another, as existing on every side ; and that all [the beings referred to] continue in their own domains, and do not curiously intermeddle with others, since, indeed, no common interest nor any fellowshi]) exists between them ; and that there is no other

5 " Tradunt;" literally, hatid down.

God of all, but that that name belongs only to the Almighty; — [all these arguments, I say,] will in like manner apply against those who are of the school of Marcion, and Simon, and Menander, or whate\er others there may be who, like them, cut off that creation with which we are connected from the Father. The arguments, again, which I have employed against those who maintain that the Father of all no doubt contains all things, but that the creation to which we belong was not formed by Him, but by a certain other power, or by angels having no knowledge of the Propator, who is surrounded as a centre by the immense extent of the universe, just as a stain is by the [surrounding] cloak ; when I showed that it is not a probable supposition that any other being than the Father of all formed that creation to which we belong, — these same arguments will apply against the followers of Saturninus, Basilides, Carpocrates, ana the rest of the Gnostics, who express similar opinions. Those statements, again, which have been made with respect to the emanations, and the ^ons, and the [supposed state of] degeneracy, and the inconstant character of their Mother, equally overthrow Basilides, and all who are falsely styled Gnostics, who do, in fact, just repeat the same views under different names, but do, to a greater extent than the former," transfer those things which lie outside ^ of the truth to the system of their own doctrine. And the remarks I have made respecting numbers will also apply against all those who misappropriate things belonging to the truth for the support of a system of this kind. And all that has been said respecting the Creator (Demiurge) to show that he alone is God and Father of all, and whatever remarks may yet be made in the following books, I apply against the heretics at large. The more moderate and reasonable among them thou wilt convert and convince, so as to lead them no longer to blaspheme their Creator, and Maker, and Sustainer, and Lord, nor to ascribe His origin to defect and ignorance ; but the fierce, and terrible, and irrational [among them] thou wilt drive far from thee, that you may no longer have to endure their idle loquaciousness.

2. Moreover, those also will be thus confuted who belong to Simon and Carpocrates, and if there be any others who are said to perform miracles — who do not perform what they do either through the power of God, or in connection with the truth, nor for the well-being of men, but for the sake of destroying and misleading mankind, by means of magical deceptions, and with universal deceit, thus entailing

' Qui. though here found in all the MSS., seems to have been rightly expunged by the editors.

- The reference probably is to opinions and theories of the heathen.

greater harm than good on those who believe them, with respect to the point on which they lead them astray. For they can neither confer sight on the blind, nor hearing on the deaf, nor chase away all sorts of demons — [none, indeed,] except those that are sent into others by themselves, if they can even do so much as this. Nor can they cure the weak, or the lame, or the paralytic, or those who are distressed in any other part of the body, as has often been done in regard to bodily infirmity. Nor can they furnish effective remedies for those external accidents which may occur. And so far are they from being able to raise the dead, as the Lord raised them, and the apostles did by means of prayer, and as has been frequently done in the brotherhood on account of some necessity — the entire Church in that particular locality entreating [the boon] with much fasting and prayer, the spirit of the dead man has returned, and he has been bestowed in answer to the prayers of the saints — that they do not even believe this can be possibly be done, [and hold] that the resurrection from the dead^ is simply an acquaintance with that truth which they proclaim. 3. Since, therefore, there exist among them error and misleading influences, and magical illusions are impiously wrought in the sight of men.; but in the Church, sympathy, and compassion, and stedfastness, and truth, for the aid and encouragement of mankind, are not only displayed •♦ without fee or reward, but we ourselves lay out for the benefit of others our own means ; and inasmuch as those who are cured very frequently do not possess the things which they require, they receive them from us ; — [since such is the case,] these men are in this way undoubtedly proved to be utter aliens from the divine nature, the beneficence of God, and all spiritual excellence. But they are altogether full of deceit of every kind, apostate inspiration, demoniacal working, and the phantasms of idolatry, and are in reality the predecessors of that dragon s who, by means of a deception of the same kind, will with his tail cause a third part of the stars to fall from their place, and will cast them down to the earth. It behoves us to flee from them as we would from him ; and the greater the display with which they are said to perform [their mar\'els], the more carefully should we watch them, as having been endowed with a greater spirit of wickedness. If any one will consider the prophecy referred to, and the daily practices of these men, he will find that

subject of miracles, Newman, in spite of his sophistical argumentation, may well be consulted for his references, etc. Translation 0/ the

•* " Perficiatur: " it is difficult here to give a fitting translation of this word. Some prefer to read " impertiatur."

their manner of acting is one and the same with the demons.

CHAP. XXXII. — FURTHER EXPOSURE OF THE WICKED AND BLASPHEMOUS DOCTRINES OF THE HERETICS.

I. Moreover, this impious opinion of theirs with respect to actions — namely, that it is incumbent on them to have experience of all kinds of deeds, even the most abominable — is refuted by the teaching of the Lord, with whom not only is the adulterer rejected, but also the man who desires to commit adultery ; ' and not only is the actual murderer held guilty of having killed another to his own damnation, but the man also who is angry with his brother without a cause : who commanded [His disciples] not only not to hate men, but also to love their enemies ; and enjoined them not only not to swear falsely, but not even to swear at all ; and not only not to speak evil of their neighbours, but not even to style any one " Raca " and " fool ; " [declaring] that otherwise they were in danger of hell-fire ; and not only not to strike, but even, when themselves struck, to present the other cheek [to those that maltreated them] ; and not only not to refuse to give up the property of others, but even if their own were taken away, not to demand it back again from those that took it ; and not only not to injure their neighbours, nor to do them any evil, but also, when themselves wickedly dealt with, to be long-suffering, and to show kindness towards those [that injured them], and to pray for them, that by means of repentance they might be saved — so that we should in no respect imitate the arrogance, lust, and pride of others. Since, therefore, He whom these men boast of as their Master, and of whom they affirm that He had a soul greatly better and more highly toned than others, did indeed, with much earnestness, command certain things to be done as being good and excellent, and certain things to be abstained from not only in their actual perpetration, but even in the thoughts which lead to their performance, as being wicked, pernicious, and abominable, — how then can they escape being put to confusion, when they affirm that such a Master was more highly toned [in spirit] and better than others, and yet manifestly give instruction of a kind utterly opposed to His teaching? And, again, if there were really no such thing as good and evil, but certain things were deemed righteous, and certain others unrighteous, in human opinion only, He never would have expressed Himself thus in His teaching : " The righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father ; " ^ but He shall send the unrighteous, and those who do not

the works of righteousness, " into everlasting fire, where their worm shall not die, and the fire shall not be quenched." ^

2. When they further maintain that it is incumbent on them to have experience of every kind 4 of work and conduct, so that, if it be possible, accomplishing all during one manifestation in this life, they may [at once] pass over to the state of perfection, they are, by no chance, found striving to do those things which wait upon virtue, and are laborious, glorious, and skilful,5 which also are approved universally as being good. For if it be necessary to go through every work and every kind of operation, they ought, in the first place, to learn all the arts : all of them, [I say,] whether referring to theory or practice, whether they be acquired by self-denial, or are mastered through means of labour, exercise, and perseverance ; as, for example, every kind of music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and all such as are occupied with intellectual pursuits : then, again, the whole study of medicine, and the knowledge of plants, so as to become acquainted with those which are prepared for the health of man ; the art of painting and sculpture, brass and marble work, and the kindred arts : moreover, [they have to study] every kind of country labour, the veterinary art, pastoral occupations, the various kinds of skilled labour, which are said to pervade the whole circle of [human] exertion • those, again, connected with a maritime life, g)'mnastic exercises, hunting, military and kingly pursuits, and as many others as may exist, of which, with the utmost labour, they could not learn the tenth, or even the thousandth part, in the whole course of their lives. The fact indeed is, that they endea\'our to learn none of these, although they maintain that it is incumbent on them to have experience of every kind of work ; but, turning aside to voluptuousness, and lust, and abominable actions, they stand self-condemned when they are tried by their own doctrine. For, since they are destitute of all those [virtues] which have been mentioned, they will [of necessity] pass into the destruction of fire. These men, while they boast of Jesus as being their Master, do in fact emulate the philosophy of Epicurus and the indifference of the Cynics, [calling Jesus their Master,] who not only turned His disciples away from evil deeds, but even from [wicked] words and thoughts, as I have already shown.