TERTULLIAN - AGAINST ALL HERESIES
[TRANSLATED BY THE REV. S. THELWALL.]
CHAP. I.--EARLIEST HERETICS:[2] SIMON MAGUS, MENANDER, SATURNINUS, BASILIDES, NICOLAUS. [THE WORK BEGINS AS A FRAGMENT.]
Of which heretics I will (to pass by a good deal)
summarize some few particulars. For of Judaism's heretics
I am silent--Dositheus the Samaritan, I mean, who was
the first who had the hardihood to repudiate the prophets,
on the ground that they had not spoken under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. Of the Sadducees I am silent, who,
springing from the root of this error, had the hardihood
to adjoin to this heresy the denial likewise of the
resurrection of the flesh.[3] The Pharisees I pretermit,
who were "divided" from the Jews by their
superimposing of certain additaments to the law, which
fact likewise made them worthy of receiving this very
name;[4] and, together with them, the Herodians likewise,
who said that Herod was Christ. To those I betake myself
who have chosen to make the gospel the starting-point
of their heresies.
Of these the first of all is Simon Magus, who in
the Acts of the Apostles earned a condign and just
sentence from the Apostle Peter.[5] He had the hardihood
to call himself the Supreme Virtue,[6] that is, the
Supreme God; and moreover, (to assert) that the universe[7]
had been originated by his angels; that he had descended
in quest of an erring daemon,[8] which was Wisdom;
that, in a phantasmal semblance of God, he had not
suffered among the Jews, but was as if he had suffered.[9]
After him Menander, his disciple (likewise a magician[10]),
saying the same as Simon. Whatever Simon had affirmed
himself to be, this did Menander equally affirm himself
to be, asserting that none could possibly have salvation
without being baptized in his name.
Afterwards, again, followed Saturninus: he, too,
affirming that the innascible[11] Virtue, that is God,
abides in the highest regions, and that those regions
are infinite, and in the regions immediately above
us; but that angels far removed from Him made the lower
world;[12] and that, because light from above had flashed
refulgently in the lower regions, the angels had carefully
tried to form man after the similitude of that light;
that man lay crawling on the surface of the earth;
that this light and this higher virtue was, thanks
to mercy, the salvable spark in man, while all the
rest of him perishes;[13] that Christ had not existed
in a bodily substance, and had endured a quasi-passion
in a phantasmal shape merely; that a resurrection of
the flesh there will by no means be.
Afterwards broke out the heretic Basilides. He affirms
that there is a supreme Deity, by name Abraxas,[14]
by whom was created Mind, which in Greek he calls N<greek>ous</greek>;
that thence sprang the Word; that of Him issued Providence,
Virtue,[15] and Wisdom; that out of
650
these subsequently were made Principalities, powers,[1]
and Angels; that there ensued infinite issues and processions
of angels; that by these angels 365 heavens were formed,
and the world,[2] in honour of Abraxas, whose name,
if computed, has in itself this number. Now, among
the last of the angels, those who made this world,[2]
he places the God of the Jews latest, that is, the
God of the Law and of the Prophets, whom he denies
to be a God, but affirms to be an angel. To him, he
says, was allotted the seed of Abraham, and accordingly
he it was who transferred the sons of Israel from the
land of Egypt into the land of Canaan; affirming him
to be turbulent above the other angels, and accordingly
given to the frequent arousing of seditions and wars,
yes, and the shedding of human blood. Christ, moreover,
he affirms to have been sent, not by this maker of
the world,[3] but by the above-named Abraxas; and to
have come in a phantasm, and been destitute of the
substance of flesh: that it was not He who suffered
among the Jews, but that Simon[4] was crucified in
His stead: whence, again, there must be no believing
on him who was crucified, lest one confess to having
believed on Simon. Martyrdoms, he says, are not to
be endured. The resurrection of the flesh he strenuously
impugns, affirming that salvation has not been promised
to bodies.
A brother heretic[5] emerged in Nicolaus. He was
one of the seven deacons who were appointed in the
Acts of the Apostles.[6] He affirms that Darkness was
seized with a concupiscence--and, indeed, a foul and
obscene one--after Light: out of this permixture it
is a shame to say what fetid and unclean (combinations
arose). The rest (of his tenets), too, are obscene.
For he tells of certain Aeons, sons of turpitude, and
of conjunctions of execrable and obscene embraces and
per-mixtures,[7] and certain yet baser outcomes of
these. He teaches that there were born, moreover, daemons,
and gods, and spirits seven, and other things sufficiently
sacrilegious. alike and foul, which we blush to recount,
and at once pass them by. Enough it is for us that
this heresy of the Nicolaitans has been condemned by
the Apocalypse of the Lord with the weightiest authority
attaching to a sentence, in saying "Because this
thou holdest, thou hatest the doctrine of the Nicolaitans,
which I too hate."[8]
CHAP. II.--OPHITES, CAINITES, SETHITES.
To these are added those heretics likewise who are called Ophites:[9] for they magnify the serpent to such a degree, that they prefer him even to Christ Himself; for it was he, they say, who gave us the origin of the knowledge of good and of evil.[10] His power and majesty (they say) Moses perceiving, set up the brazen serpent; and whoever gazed upon him obtained health.[11] Christ Himself (they say further) in His gospel imitates Moses' serpent's sacred power, in saying: "And as Moses upreared the serpent in the desert, so it behoveth the Son of man to be upreared."[12] Him they introduce to bless their eucharistic (elements).[13] Now the whole parade and doctrine of this error flowed from the following source. They say that from the supreme primary Aeon whom then speak of[14] there emanated several other inferior Aeons. To all these, however, there opposed himself an Aeon who name is Ialdabaoth.[15] He had been conceived by the permixture of a second Aeon with inferior Aeons; and afterwards, when he[16] had been desirous of forcing his way into the higher regions, had been disabled by the permixture of the gravity of matter with himself to arrive at the higher regions; had been left in the midst, and had extended himself to his full dimensions, and thus had made the sky.[17] Ialdabaoth, however, had descended lower, and had made him seven sons, and had shut from their view the upper regions by self-distension, in order that, since (these) angels could not know what was above,[18] they might think him the sole God. These inferior Virtues and angels, therefore, had made man; and, because he had been originated by weaker and mediocre powers, he lay crawling, worm-like. That Aeon, however, out of which Ialdaboath had proceeded, moved to the heart with envy, had injected into man as he lay a certain spark; excited whereby, he was through prudence to grow wise, and be able to understand the things above. So, again, the Ialdaboath aforesaid, turning indignant, had emitted out of himself the Virtue and similitude of the serpent; and this had been
651
the Virtue in paradise--that is, this had been the serpent--whom
Eve had believed as if he had been God the Son.[1]
He[2] plucked, say they, from the fruit of the tree,
and thus conferred on mankind the knowledge of things
good and evil.[3] Christ, moreover, existed not in
substance of flesh: salvation of the flesh is not to
be hoped for at all.
Moreover, also, there has broken out another heresy
also, which is called that of the Cainites.[4] And
the reason is, that they magnify Cain as if he had
been conceived of some. potent Virtue which operated
in him; for Abel had been procreated after being conceived
of an inferior Virtue, and accordingly had been found
inferior. They who assert this likewise defend the
traitor Judas, telling us that he is admirable and
great, because of the advantages he is vaunted to have
conferred on mankind; for some of them think that thanksgiving
is to be rendered to Judas on this account: viz., Judas,
they say, observing that Christ wished to subvert the
truth, betrayed Him, in order that there might be no
possibility of truth's being subverted. And others
thus dispute against them, and say: Because the powers
of this world[5] were unwilling that Christ should
suffer, lest through His death salvation should be
prepared for mankind, he, consulting for the salvation
of mankind, betrayed Christ, in order that there might
be no possibility at all of the salvation being impeded,
which was being impeded through the Virtues which were
opposing Christ's passion; and thus, through the passion
of Christ, there might be no possibility of the salvation
of mankind being retarded.
But, again, the heresy has started forth which is
called that of the Sethites.[6] The doctrine of this
perversity is as follows. Two human beings were formed
by the angels--Cain and Abel. On their account arose
great contentions and discords among the angels; for
this reason, that Virtue which was above all the Virtues--which
they style the Mother--when they said[7] that Abel
had been slain, willed this Seth of theirs to be conceived
and born in place of Abel, in order that those angels
might be escheated who had created those two former
human beings, while this pure seed rises and is born.
For they say that there had been iniquitous permixtures
of two angels and human beings; for which reason that
Virtue which (as we have said) they style the Mother
brought on the deluge even, for the purpose of vengeance,
in order that that seed of permixture might be swept
away, and this only seed which was pure be kept entire.
But (in vain): for they who had originated those of
the former seed sent into the ark (secretly and stealthily,
and unknown to that Mother-Virtue), together with those
"eight souls,"[8] the seed likewise of Ham,
in order that the seed of evil should not perish, but
should, together with the rest, be preserved, and after
the deluge be restored to the earth, and, by example
of the rest, should grow up and diffuse itself, and
fill and occupy the whole orb.[9] Of Christ, moreover,
their sentiments are such that they call Him merely
Seth, and say that He was instead of the actual Seth.
CHAP. III.--CARPOCRATES, CERINTHUS, EBION.
Carpocrates, futhermore, introduced the following
sect. He affirms that there is one Virtue, the chief
among the upper (regions): that out of this were produced
angels and Virtues, which, being far distant from the
upper Virtues, created this world[10] in the lower
regions: that Christ was not born of the Virgin Mary,
but was generated--a mere human being--of the seed
of Joseph, superior (they admit) above all others in
the practice of righteousness and in integrity of life;
that He suffered among the Jews; and that His soul
alone was received in heaven as having been more firm
and hardy than all others: whence he would infer, retaining
only the salvation of souls, that there are no resurrections
of the body.
After him brake out the heretic Cerinthus, teaching
similarly. For he, too, says that the world[10] was
originated by those angels;[11] and sets forth Christ
as born of the seed of Joseph, contending that He was
merely human, without divinity; affirming also that
the Law was given by angels;[12] representing the God
of the Jews as not the Lord, but an angel.
His successor was Ebion,[13] not agreeing with Cerinthus
in every point; in that he affirms the world[13] to
have been made by God, not by angels; and because it
is written, "No disciple above his master, nor
servant above his lord, "[14] sets forth likewise
the law
652
as binding,[1] of course for the purpose of excluding the gospel and vindicating Judaism.
CHAP. IV.--VALENTINUS, PTOLEMY AND SECUN
DUS, HERACLEON.
Valentinus the heretic, moreover, introduced many
fables. These I will retrench and briefly summarize.
For he introduces the Pleroma and the thirty Aeons.
These Aeons, moreover, he explains in the way of syzygies,
that is, conjugal unions[2] of some kind. For among
the first,[3] he says, were Depth[4] and Silence; of
these proceeded Mind and Truth; out of whom burst the
Word and Life; from whom, again, were created Man[5]
and the Church. But (these are not all); for of these
last also proceeded twelve Aeons; from Speech,[6] moreover,
and Life proceeded other ten Aeons: such is the Triacontad
of Aeons, which is made up in the Pleroma of an ogdoad,
a decad, and a duodecad. The thirtieth Aeon, moreover,
willed to see the great Bythus; and, to see him, had
the hardihood to ascend into the upper regions; and
not being capable of seeing his magnitude, desponded,[7]
and almost suffered dissolution, had not some one,--he
whom he calls Horos, to wit,--sent to invigorate him,
strengthened him by pronouncing the word "Iao."[8]
This Aeon, moreover, which was thus reduced to despondency,
he calls Achamoth, (and says) that he was seized with
certain regretful passions, and out of his passions
gave birth to material essences.[9] For he was panic-stricken,
he says, and terror-stricken, and overcome with sadness;
and of these passions he conceived and bare. Hence
he made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and
whatever is in them: for which cause all things made
by him are infirm, and frail, and capable of falling,
and mortal, inasmuch as he himself was conceived and
produced from despondency. He, however, originated
this world[10] out of those material essences which
Achamoth, by his panic, or terror, or sadness, or sweat,
had supplied. For of his panic, he says, was made darkness;
of his fear and ignorance, the spirits of wickedness
and malignity; of his sadness and tears, the humidities
of founts, the material essence of floods and sea.
Christ, moreover, was sent by that First-Father who
is Bythus. He, moreover, was not in the substance of
our flesh; but, bringing down from heaven some spiritual
body or other, passed through the Virgin Mary as water
through a pipe, neither receiving nor borrowing aught
thence. The resurrection of our present flesh he denies,
but (maintains that) of some sister-flesh.[11] Of the
Law and the prophets some parts he approves, some he
disapproves; that is, he disapproves all in reprobating
some. A Gospel of his own he likewise has, beside these
of ours.
After him arose the heretics Ptolemy and Secundus,
who agree throughout with Valentinus, differing only
in the following point: viz., whereas Valentinus had
reigned but thirty Aeons, they have added several more;
for they first added four, and subsequently four more.
And Valentine's assertion, that it was the thirtieth
Aeon which strayed out from the Pleroma, (as falling
into despondency,) they deny; for the one which desponded
on account of disappointed yearning to see the First-Father
was not of the original triacontad, they say.
There arose, besides, Heracleon, a brother[12]-heretic,
whose sentiments pair with Valentine's; but, by some
novelty of terminology, he is desirous of seeming to
differ in sentiment. For he introduces the notion that
there existed first what he terms (a Monad);[13] and
then out of that Monad (arose) two, and then the
653
rest of the Aeons. Then he introduces the whole system of Valentine.
CHAP. V.--MARCUS AND COLARBASUS.
After these there were not wanting a Marcus and a Colarbasus, composing a novel heresy out of the Greek alphabet. For they affirm that without those letters truth cannot be found; nay more, that in those letters the whole plenitude and perfection of truth is comprised; for this was why Christ said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega."[1] In fact, they say that Jesus Christ descended,[2] that is, that the dove came down on Jesus;[3] and, since the dove is styled by the Greek name <greek>peristera</greek>--(peristera), it has in itself this number DCCCI.[4] These men run through their <greek>W</greek>, <greek>Y</greek>, X, <greek>g</greek>, T--through the whole alphabet, indeed, up to A and B--and compute ogdoads and decads. So we may grant it useless and idle to recount all their trifles. What, however, must be allowed not merely vain, but likewise dangerous, is this: they feign a second God, beside the Creator; they affirm that Christ was not in the substance of flesh; they say there is to be no resurrection of the flesh.
CHAP. VI.--CERDO, MARCION, LUGAN, APELLES.
To this is added one Cerdo. He introduces two first
causes,[5] that is, two Gods--one good, the other cruel:[6]
the good being the superior; the latter, the cruel
one, being the creator of the world.[7] He repudiates
the prophecies and the Law; renounces God the Creator;
maintains that Christ who came was the Son of the superior
God; affirms that He was not in the substance of flesh;
states Him to have been only in a phantasmal shape,
to have not really suffered,but undergone a quasipassion,
and not to have been born of a virgin, nay, really
not to have been born at all. A resurrection of the
soul merely does he approve, denying that of the body.
The Gospel of Luke alone, and that not entire, does
he receive. Of the Apostle Paul he takes neither all
the epistles, nor in their integrity. The Acts of the
Apostles and the Apocalypse he rejects as false.
After him emerged a disciple of his, one Marcion
by name, a native of Pontus,[8] son of a bishop, excommunicated
because of a rape committed on a certain virgin.[9]
He, starting from the fact that it is said, "Every
good tree beareth good fruit, but an evil evil,"[10]
attempted to approve the heresy of Cerdo; so that his
assertions are identical with those of the former heretic
before him.
After him arose one Lucan by name, a follower and
disciple of Marcion. He, too, wading through the same
kinds of blasphemy, teaches the same as Marcion and
Cerdo had taught.
Close on their heels follows Apelles, a disciple
of Marcion, who after lapsing, into his own carnality,[11]
was severed from Marcion. He introduces one God in
the infinite upper regions, and states that He made
many powers and angels; beside Him, withal, another
Virtue, which he affirms to be called Lord, but represents
as an angel. By him he will have it appear that the
world[12]. was originated in imitation of a superior
world.[13] With this lower world he mingled throughout
(a principle of) repentance, because he had not made
it so perfectly as that superior world had been originated.
The Law and the prophets he repudiates. Christ he neither,
like Marcion, affirms to have been in a phantasmal
shape, nor yet in substance of a true body, as the
Gospel teaches; but says, because He descended from
the upper regions, that in the course of His descent
He wove together for Himself a starry and airy[14]
flesh; and, in His resurrection, restored, in the course
of His ascent, to the several individual elements whatever
had been borrowed in His descent: and thus--the several
parts of His body dispersed--He reinstated in heaven
His spirit only. This man denies the resurrection of
the flesh. He uses, too, one only apostle; but that
is Marcion's, that is, a mutilated one. He teaches
the salvation of souls alone.
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He has, besides, private but extraordinary lections of his own, which he calls "Manifestations,[1] of one Philumene,[2] a girl whom he follows as a prophetess. He has, besides, his own books, which he has entitled books of Syllogisms, in which he seeks to prove that whatever Moses has written about God is not true, but is false.
CHAP. VII.--TATIAN, CATAPHRYGIANS, CATAPROCLANS, CATHESCHINETANS.
To all these heretics is added one Tatian, a brother-heretic.
This man was Justin Martyr's disciple. After Justin's
death he began to cherish different opinions from his.
For he wholly savours of Valentinus; adding this, that
Adam cannot even attain salvation: as if, when the
branches become salvable,[3] the root were not!
Other heretics swell the list who are called Cataphrygians,
but their teaching is not uniform. For there are (of
them) same who are called Cataproclans;[4] there are
others who are termed Cataeschinetans.[5] These have
a blasphemy common, and a blasphemy not common, but
peculiar and special. The common blasphemy lies in
their saying that the Holy Spirit was in the apostles
indeed, the Paraclete was not; and in their saying
that the Paraclete has spoken in Montanus more things
than Christ brought forward into (the compass of) the
Gospel, and not merely more, but likewise better and
greater. But the particular one they who follow Aeschines
have; this, namely, whereby they add this, that they
affirm Christ to be Himself Son and Father.
CHAP. VIII.--BLASTUS, TWO THEODOTI, PRAXEAS.
In addition to all these, there is likewise Blastus,
who would latently introduce Judaism. For he says the
passover is not to be kept otherwise than according
to the law of Moses, on the fourteenth of the month.
But who would fail to see that evangelical grace is
escheated if he recalls Christ to the Law?
Add to these Theodotus the Byzantine, who, after
being apprehended for Christ's Name, and apostatizing,[6]
ceased not to blaspheme against Christ. For he introduced
a doctrine by which to affirm that Christ was merely
a human being, but deny His deity; teaching that He
was born of the Holy Spirit indeed of a virgin, but
was a solitary and bare human being,[7] with no pre-eminence
above the rest (of mankind), but only that of righteousness.
After him brake out a second heretical Theodotus,
who again himself introduced a sister-sect, and says
that the human being Christ Himself[8] was merely conceived
alike, and born, of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin
Mary, but that He was inferior to Melchizedek; because
it is said of Christ, "Thou art a priest unto
eternity, after the order of Melchizedek."[9]
For that Melchizedek, he says, was a heavenly Virtue
of pre-eminent grace; in that Christ acts for human
beings, being made their Deprecator and Advocate: Melchizedek
does so[10] for heavenly angels and Virtues. For to
such a degree, he says, is he better than Christ, that
he is <greek>apatwr</greek> (fatherless),
<greek>amhtwr</greek> (motherless), <greek>agenealoghtos</greek>
(without genealogy), of whom neither the beginning
nor the end has been comprehended, nor can be comprehended.[11]
But after all these, again, one Praxeas introduced
a heresy which Victorinus[22] was careful to corroborate.
He asserts that Jesus Christ is God the Father Almighty.
Him he contends to have been crucified, and suffered,
and died; beside which, with a profane and sacrilegious
temerity, he maintains the proposition that He is Himself
sitting at His own right hand.[13]
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