Understanding How Epiphanius Wrote the Panarion

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Understanding How Epiphanius Wrote the Panarion

Post by Secret Alias »

Image

I think once we go back and actually incorporate what we know about Epiphanius's composition methods for the Panarion it becomes very obvious that the added section with the readings from Marcionite canon were added later and not at the time of the original composition.

Παραθήσομαι δὲ καὶ ἣν ἐποιησάμην κατ' αὐτοῦ πραγματείαν πρὶν τοῦ ταύτην μου τὴν σύνταξιν ἐσπουδακέναι διὰ τῆς ὑμῶν τῶν ἀδελφῶν προτροπῆς ποιήσασθαι.

I shall here insert the work which I composed against him before I devoted myself to this work which I undertook at your urging, my brothers.

I am also going to append the treatise which I had written against him before, at your instance, brothers, hastening to compose this one. (Williams)
I should start by noting that Epiphanius, as Williams notes, was dictating the contents of the Panarion to his scribe.
Epiphanius must have started composing, or at least mapping out the Panarion*, or “Medicine Chest [against Heresies],” while he was still working on the Ancoratus. Ancoratus 12.7–13.8 (GCS n.F. 10.1:20–22) already lists the eighty heresies (twenty before Christ, sixty after) of the Panarion. The main composition of the Panarion took place roughly in the years 375–378. Like the Ancoratus, the Panarion was composed upon request: a certain Acacius and Paul had “heard the names applied by Your Honor to the heresies,” and asked for a full explanation of them.58 Whether they had read the Ancoratus and were puzzled by the (out-of-the-blue) list of heresies, or whether Epiphanius was publicizing his list by other means, we cannot know. Epiphanius composed the Panarion rather quickly (in under three years), considering its length, complexity, and (presumably) his other episcopal duties during this period. As is the case with the Ancoratus, Epiphanius's compositional style seems to have left little time for editing after his initial dictation. The Panarion contains a wealth of other Christian documents (from both “heretics” and "orthodox") our only Greek fragments of Irenaeus's Against Heresies, Ptolemy's Letter to Flora, and various documents pertaining to theological struggles during Epiphanius's own time, to name just a few. In addition to these texts, Epiphanius has also included writings of his own, dictated directly into the Panarion, including a lengthy “refutation” (elenchos) of Marcion's Bible, which he had written “some years before” (apo etōn hikanōn)59 and later embedded in Panarion 42 (against the Marcionites),60 and his aforementioned Epistula ad Arabos, in defense of Mary's virginity. These are merely the two earlier writings he names: given that he also copies material from the Ancoratus (sometimes without signaling that he is doing so61) we might also imagine Epiphanius economically recycling other earlier written materials at hand that have not otherwise survived.[Jacobs Epiphanius of Cyprus: A Cultural Biography of Late Antiquity p. 20, 21]

58. Epistula Acacii et Pauli 1.9 (GCS n.F. 10.1:154).
59. Epiphanius, Panarion 42.10.2 (GCS 31:106).
60. Epiphanius, Panarion 42.11–12 (GCS 31:107–82). Note that, although this refutatio is only two chapters of the Panarion, it covers 75 pages in the critical edition.
61. See, for instance, Panarion 70.7.6–8.4 (GCS 37:239–40), which repeats the argument of Ancoratus 54.1–7 (GCS n.F. 10.1.63, 64)
At at least one another juncture he sends a 'mental note' to the scribe to go back and 'fill in the space' that follows with a written work. So in the section that deals with the Marcosians he is just blabbering on half remembering or carelessly reading from Irenaeus when he declares to the secretary:
But for my part, so as not to commit myself to a second hard task I feel I should be content with the work written against Marcus himself and his successors by the most holy and blessed Irenaeus

τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ λεπτολογίας οὐκ ἐβουλήθην ἀπ' ἐμαυτοῦ συντάξαι, εὑρὼν παρὰ τῷ ἁγιωτάτῳ Εἰρηναίῳ τῷ ἀρχαίῳ τὴν κατ' αὐτοῦ πραγματείαν γεγενημένην.
Indeed the question that is rarely asked by scholars is how was the Panarion composed. I see very clearly laid out in this section.

Quite clearly Epiphanius had in his possession Against Heresies. He has been loosely citing from in chapter 30, 31, 32 to identify the details about the Valentinians (30), the Secundians (31 developed from the Latin word 'second' which originally appeared in Irenaeus's text) and the Ptolemaeans (32). Clearly Epiphanius is bored by the undertaking. He has the text of Adversus Haereses but out of boredom needs to make this more interesting and so - in the discussion of Ptolemy for instance - 'jazzes up' what he is reading from Irenaeus with embellishments of his own.

First Irenaeus:
But the followers of Ptolemy say that he [Bythos] has two consorts, which they also name Diatheses (affections), viz., Ennoae 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 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 masculine,(3) while that from Ennoea was feminine. Thus Thelesis (will) became, as it were, a faculty of Ennoea (thought). For Ennoea 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 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,](6) all eye, all ear, the one entire fountain of all good things.
And then Epiphanius's bored 'riffing' for his section:
Ptolemy succeeds Secundus, and the man named Epiphanes who got the cue for his own opinion by barter from Isidore. He belongs to the same sect of the so-called Gnostics, and with certain others is one of the Valentinians, but he has suppositions which are different from his teachers'. His adherents even pride themselves on his name and are called Ptolemaeans. This 'Ptolemy, with his adherents, has come before us as someone still more expert' than his own teachers and one who invents lots and lots of a sort of addition to their teaching. 'He invented two consorts for the god they call Depth and bestowed them on him; and these he also called 'dispositions,3 Conception' (ἐννοια) and Will.' Conception had always coexisted with him, continually conceiving of the emission of something, but Will arose in him later. 'For he first conceived of emitting something,' Ptolemy says, 'and then he willed to.

Thus when Conception and Will, these two dispositions or faculties'—in turn he calls them faculties—'had been mixed together as it were, the emission as a pair of Only-Begotten and Truth took place. These came forth as types and visible images of the Father's two invisible dispositions; Mind of Will, and Truth of Conception. And thus the male became an image of the later Will, but the female, of the ingenerate Conception. Will, then, was a faculty of Conception. For Conception had always conceived of the emission, but was unable by herself to emit what she had conceived of. But when the faculty of Will supervened, she then emitted that of which she had conceived.'

What nonsense of the lame-brain! No one of sound mind could understand this even of man, let alone of God. Homer strikes me as more sensible than he, with his portrayal of Zeus' worrying, fretting and angry, and lying awake all night over a way to plot against the Achaeans, because Thetis had demanded that the Greek leaders, and the Greeks themselves, be punished for their insult to Achilles. For Ptolemy has thought of nothing more suitable in glorification of what he calls Father of all and Depth, than what Homer has said of Zeus.

But rather, he has understood him to be 'Zeus, as though he had got the notion from Homer.' For one may fairly say that when he was belching out such impudence, he had 'Homer's apprehension' of Zeus and the Achaeans 'rather than that of the Lord of all, who simultaneously with the conceiving of it has likewise accomplished that which he willed, and simultaneously with the willing also conceives of that which he willed, for he conceives when he wills, and wills when he conceives. He is all conception, all will, all mind, all light, all eye, all ear, all fount of all that is good,' and is subject to no vicissitudes. He is God, and not worried or at a loss like Depth, or Zeus. For in speaking of Depth, Ptolemy mimicked Homer speaking of Zeus.

At this point in the Panarion the Letter to Flora is inserted which begs the question - was the letter in Epiphanius's hand when he dictated to his secretary or was it added later? The answer is clearly later when you look at what immediately follows the citation of the Letter - viz. a section which necessarily originally followed the loose lazy and improvised citation of Irenaeus:
Who can put up with these words and the idiocy of this charlatan and his supporters—I mean Ptolemy and his circle, who concoct fabrications at such length and baste them together? None of the ancient tragic poets, nor the imitative ones after them—I mean Philistion, and Diogenes who composed incredible yarns, or all the others who wrote the myths down and recited them, could make up as much falsehood as these people have manufactured horrors for themselves in their impudent attack on their own life, and have smothered their converts' minds with foolish questions and endless genealogies.

In fact they themselves did not understand what was under their noses, and yet they professed to survey the heavens with measurements of some sort, and adopted the profession of midwives as though for some heavenly mothers—for non-existent mothers as though they existed. When one hears this from them—if he is a complete fool—he will think that he has learned something sublime from them and easily be swept off his feet by the lie. (Scripture says, 'Every bird flocketh with its kind, and a man will cleave to his like.')

But if a person of understanding and sound reason should happen on them he will laugh at so much silliness, and from the very subject of the things they say will know the refutation of them. For they are convicted in every way of arming their useless labour's lies against themselves. Where did you learn Depth's dimensions, you gentleman and lady Ptolemaeans? And the pregnant mothers' deliveries, and the reasons they got pregnant? You profess to give us the knowledge, as though you had been there and seen the origins of the heavenly beings, as though you were in existence before your so-called Depth himself. But no prophet has ever said this, not Moses himself, not the prophets before him, not the prophets after him, not the evangelists, not the apostles—unless you mean the works of heathen mythology by Orpheus, Hesiod, Hicesius and Stesichorus, in whose writings the generations of men have been turned into names of gods, and human doings made into dramatic poetry. For they too held beliefs of this kind and by making gods of Zeus, Rhea, Hera, Athena, Apollo and Aphrodite and honouring the children of their wickedness, they pushed the world into a delusion of polytheism and idolatry.

But I won't have much further need for the refutation and rebuttal of you and your kind, Ptolemy, since your forebears have already received the refutation in sufficient measure. Since I have achieved your disgrace through the things I have said, I am going over imposture of the others—calling on God as the aid of my meagre ability so that, in every people, I may discover the doctrine they have wickedly invented and make a spectacle of it. And I ask God’s grace for my zealous undertaking.
In other words in the original Panarion dictation, Epiphanius was standing with the text of Adversus Haereses in his hand and doesn't even acknowledge that Irenaeus is his source. He dictates a loose improvised narration based on Irenaeus's report without naming Irenaeus as his source which looked like this:
Ptolemy succeeds Secundus, and the man named Epiphanes who got the cue for his own opinion by barter from Isidore. He belongs to the same sect of the so-called Gnostics, and with certain others is one of the Valentinians, but he has suppositions which are different from his teachers'. His adherents even pride themselves on his name and are called Ptolemaeans. This 'Ptolemy, with his adherents, has come before us as someone still more expert' than his own teachers and one who invents lots and lots of a sort of addition to their teaching. 'He invented two consorts for the god they call Depth and bestowed them on him; and these he also called 'dispositions,3 Conception' (ἐννοια) and Will.' Conception had always coexisted with him, continually conceiving of the emission of something, but Will arose in him later. 'For he first conceived of emitting something,' Ptolemy says, 'and then he willed to.

Thus when Conception and Will, these two dispositions or faculties'—in turn he calls them faculties—'had been mixed together as it were, the emission as a pair of Only-Begotten and Truth took place. These came forth as types and visible images of the Father's two invisible dispositions; Mind of Will, and Truth of Conception. And thus the male became an image of the later Will, but the female, of the ingenerate Conception. Will, then, was a faculty of Conception. For Conception had always conceived of the emission, but was unable by herself to emit what she had conceived of. But when the faculty of Will supervened, she then emitted that of which she had conceived.'

What nonsense of the lame-brain! No one of sound mind could understand this even of man, let alone of God. Homer strikes me as more sensible than he, with his portrayal of Zeus' worrying, fretting and angry, and lying awake all night over a way to plot against the Achaeans, because Thetis had demanded that the Greek leaders, and the Greeks themselves, be punished for their insult to Achilles. For Ptolemy has thought of nothing more suitable in glorification of what he calls Father of all and Depth, than what Homer has said of Zeus.

But rather, he has understood him to be 'Zeus, as though he had got the notion from Homer.' For one may fairly say that when he was belching out such impudence, he had 'Homer's apprehension' of Zeus and the Achaeans 'rather than that of the Lord of all, who simultaneously with the conceiving of it has likewise accomplished that which he willed, and simultaneously with the willing also conceives of that which he willed, for he conceives when he wills, and wills when he conceives. He is all conception, all will, all mind, all light, all eye, all ear, all fount of all that is good,' and is subject to no vicissitudes. He is God, and not worried or at a loss like Depth, or Zeus. For in speaking of Depth, Ptolemy mimicked Homer speaking of Zeus.

Who can put up with these words and the idiocy of this charlatan and his supporters—I mean Ptolemy and his circle, who concoct fabrications at such length and baste them together? None of the ancient tragic poets, nor the imitative ones after them—I mean Philistion, and Diogenes who composed incredible yarns, or all the others who wrote the myths down and recited them, could make up as much falsehood as these people have manufactured horrors for themselves in their impudent attack on their own life, and have smothered their converts' minds with foolish questions and endless genealogies.

In fact they themselves did not understand what was under their noses, and yet they professed to survey the heavens with measurements of some sort, and adopted the profession of midwives as though for some heavenly mothers—for non-existent mothers as though they existed. When one hears this from them—if he is a complete fool—he will think that he has learned something sublime from them and easily be swept off his feet by the lie. (Scripture says, 'Every bird flocketh with its kind, and a man will cleave to his like.')

But if a person of understanding and sound reason should happen on them he will laugh at so much silliness, and from the very subject of the things they say will know the refutation of them. For they are convicted in every way of arming their useless labour's lies against themselves. Where did you learn Depth's dimensions, you gentleman and lady Ptolemaeans? And the pregnant mothers' deliveries, and the reasons they got pregnant? You profess to give us the knowledge, as though you had been there and seen the origins of the heavenly beings, as though you were in existence before your so-called Depth himself. But no prophet has ever said this, not Moses himself, not the prophets before him, not the prophets after him, not the evangelists, not the apostles—unless you mean the works of heathen mythology by Orpheus, Hesiod, Hicesius and Stesichorus, in whose writings the generations of men have been turned into names of gods, and human doings made into dramatic poetry. For they too held beliefs of this kind and by making gods of Zeus, Rhea, Hera, Athena, Apollo and Aphrodite and honouring the children of their wickedness, they pushed the world into a delusion of polytheism and idolatry.

But I won't have much further need for the refutation and rebuttal of you and your kind, Ptolemy, since your forebears have already received the refutation in sufficient measure. Since I have achieved your disgrace through the things I have said, I am going over imposture of the others—calling on God as the aid of my meagre ability so that, in every people, I may discover the doctrine they have wickedly invented and make a spectacle of it. And I ask God’s grace for my zealous undertaking.
Clearly Epiphanius tiring under the weight of a lengthy dictation of material from Adversus Haereses and anyone who had the original text of Irenaeus would see how sloppy Epiphanius's reporting was.

As a result at some point subsequent to the original dictation the Letter to Flora is added - in order to brighten up the text from being a mere sloppy citation of Irenaeus. Pay special notice to the manner in which the new material is appended both between the end of the original reporting of Irenaeus (and Epiphanius 'improv' interpretation) and then an additional 'improv' interpretation of the added Letter to Flora is itself appended onto the end of the original conclusion:
Ptolemy succeeds Secundus, and the man named Epiphanes who got the cue for his own opinion by barter from Isidore. He belongs to the same sect of the so-called Gnostics, and with certain others is one of the Valentinians, but he has suppositions which are different from his teachers'. His adherents even pride themselves on his name and are called Ptolemaeans. This 'Ptolemy, with his adherents, has come before us as someone still more expert' than his own teachers and one who invents lots and lots of a sort of addition to their teaching. 'He invented two consorts for the god they call Depth and bestowed them on him; and these he also called 'dispositions,3 Conception' (ἐννοια) and Will.' Conception had always coexisted with him, continually conceiving of the emission of something, but Will arose in him later. 'For he first conceived of emitting something,' Ptolemy says, 'and then he willed to.

Thus when Conception and Will, these two dispositions or faculties'—in turn he calls them faculties—'had been mixed together as it were, the emission as a pair of Only-Begotten and Truth took place. These came forth as types and visible images of the Father's two invisible dispositions; Mind of Will, and Truth of Conception. And thus the male became an image of the later Will, but the female, of the ingenerate Conception. Will, then, was a faculty of Conception. For Conception had always conceived of the emission, but was unable by herself to emit what she had conceived of. But when the faculty of Will supervened, she then emitted that of which she had conceived.'

What nonsense of the lame-brain! No one of sound mind could understand this even of man, let alone of God. Homer strikes me as more sensible than he, with his portrayal of Zeus' worrying, fretting and angry, and lying awake all night over a way to plot against the Achaeans, because Thetis had demanded that the Greek leaders, and the Greeks themselves, be punished for their insult to Achilles. For Ptolemy has thought of nothing more suitable in glorification of what he calls Father of all and Depth, than what Homer has said of Zeus.

But rather, he has understood him to be 'Zeus, as though he had got the notion from Homer.' For one may fairly say that when he was belching out such impudence, he had 'Homer's apprehension' of Zeus and the Achaeans 'rather than that of the Lord of all, who simultaneously with the conceiving of it has likewise accomplished that which he willed, and simultaneously with the willing also conceives of that which he willed, for he conceives when he wills, and wills when he conceives. He is all conception, all will, all mind, all light, all eye, all ear, all fount of all that is good,' and is subject to no vicissitudes. He is God, and not worried or at a loss like Depth, or Zeus. For in speaking of Depth, Ptolemy mimicked Homer speaking of Zeus.
2:6 But next, in further refutation of the fraud, I am going to subjoin and quote the seductive and dangerous words which were actually written by himself to a woman named Flora—lest anyone think that I am refuting the cheat from hearsay only, without becoming acquainted with his phoney teaching first. For besides the things I have mentioned, he is not ashamed to blaspheme God's Law given through Moses as well. Here are his words: Ptolemy's Letter to Flora

3:1 After noting the discrepant opinions about it, my good sister Flora, I think you too will see at once that not many before us have understood the Law given through Moses by accurate knowledge either of the Lawgiver himself or of his commandments.

3:2 For some say it was given by our God and Father but others, taking the direction opposite to theirs, insist that it was given by our adversary the devil, the author of corruption—as, indeed, they ascribe the creation of the world to him, calling him the father and maker of this universe.

3:3 But these parties have certainly stuttered in singing their rival songs and, each in their own way, have completely missed the truth of the matter.

3:4 It is evident, since logical, that the Law has not been made by the perfect God and Father, since it is imperfect and in need of fulfilment by another person, and contains ordinances inappropriate to the nature and intention of such a God.

3:5 Nor, again, is it appropriate to attribute to the iniquity of the adversary a Law which abolishes iniquity—this must be the opinion of fools, and persons who cannot draw inferences—in accordance with our Saviour's words, 'A house or city divided against itself cannot stand.'4

3:6 And further, depriving the liars beforehand of their unfounded wisdom, the apostle says that the creation of the world is the Saviour's, that all things were made by him and without him nothing is made,5 and that creation is the work of a righteous God who hates iniquity, not of a god of corruption. This latter is the view of thoughtless persons who take no account of the Creator's providence and are blinded, not only in the eye of the soul, but in the eye of the body as well.

3:7 From the foregoing it will be plain to you that they have completely missed the truth. Each party has got into this predicament in its own way—the one through its ignorance of the God of justice; the other through ignorance of the Father of all, whom none but the only One who knows him has come and made known.

3:8 But as I have been vouchsafed knowledge of both, it is left to me to declare to you and accurately describe both the nature of the Law itself and the person by whom it was given, the lawgiver. I shall provide the proofs of the things I shall say from the words of our Saviour, by which alone we are surely guided to the perception of the truth.

4:1 First, it must be understood that the whole of that Law which is contained in the five books of Moses has not been made by one legislator. I mean that it has not been made by God alone, but some of its provisions have been made by men. And the words of the Saviour teach us that it is triply divided.

4:2 It is divided into (the words of) God himself and his legislation, but it is also divided into (the words of) Moses—not as God legislates through him, but as Moses too made certain provisions of his own notion. And it is divided into (the words of) the elders of the people, for it is plain that they too have inserted certain commandments of their own.

4:3 You may now learn how the truth of this can be proved from the words of the Saviour.

4:4 In the Saviour's discussion with those who were disputing with him about the bill of divorce—the bill which had been sanctioned by the Law—the Saviour told them, 'Moses for the hardness of your hearts permitted a man to divorce his wife. For from the beginning it was not so. For God,' he said, 'hath joined this pair together, and what the Lord hath joined,' he said, 'let not man put asunder.'6

4:5 Here he proves that the Law of God, which forbids the separation of a wife from her husband, is one law; but the law of Moses, which permits this couple’s separation because of the hardness of their hearts, is another.

4:6 Indeed, in this case Moses is giving a law contrary to God's, for separating is contrary to not separating. If, however, we examine Moses purpose in making this law, we shall find that he made it not of his own choice but of necessity, owing to the frailty of those for whom the laws were made.

4:7 They could not honour God's intention if forbidden to divorce their wives with whom some were living unwillingly, and so risking being turned further to wickedness and consequent destruction.

4:8 On his own initiative then, to end this discontent by which they were risking destruction as well, Moses gave them a second law, the law of the bill of divorce, as though exchanging, in a pinch, a lesser evil for a greater.

4:9 Thus if they could not keep the former law, they would at least keep this, and not be turned to iniquities and evils from which their utter destruction would result.

4:10 This is Moses' intent in the instances in which he makes laws contrary to God's. Still it is undeniable that Moses' law is here shown to be other than God's, even if for the present we have proved it from (only) one example.

4:11 That certain traditions of the elders have been intermingled with the Law the Saviour also makes plain. 'For God said, Honour thy father and thy mother that it may be well with thee,' he says.

4:12 'But ye,' he says, speaking to the elders, 'have said, That wherewith thou mightest be profited by me is a gift to God; and ye have nullified the Law of God by the tradition of you elders.

4:13 And Isaiah cried this out when he said, 'This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.' '7

4:14 From these passages, then, it is plainly shown that that Law as a whole is divided into three. For in it we have found Moses' own legislation, the legislation of the elders, and the legislation of God himself. And this division of that Law as a whole which I have made here has made clear what in it is true.

5:1 But the one portion, the Law of God himself, is again divided into some three parts. It is divided into the pure legislation with no admixture of evil, which is properly termed the 'law' which the Saviour came not to destroy but to fulfil. (For that which he fulfilled was not foreign to him but was in need of fulfilment, for it was incomplete.) It is also divided into law mixed with inferior matter and injustice, which the Saviour abolished as incongruous with his nature.

5:2 And it is divided also into the typical and allegorical legislation in the image of things that are spiritual and excellent. This the Saviour transformed from the perceptible and phenomenal into the spiritual and invisible.

5:3 And the Law of God, the pure Law unmixed with inferior matter, is the Decalogue itself—those ten commandments engraved on the two tablets to prohibit what must be eschewed and enjoin what must be done. These were in need of fulfilment by the Saviour, for though they contained the legislation in its pure form they were incomplete.

5:4 The law intermingled with injustice is the law which regards retribution and the requital of those who committed the prior injustice, and enjoins the knocking out of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and the retribution of a murder with a murder.8 For the second offender does no less of an injustice and commits the same act, changing it merely in its order.

5:5 In any case this commandment was and is just, though owing to the frailty of its recipients it was given in violation of the pure law. But it is not in accord with the nature and goodness of the Father of all.

5:6 It is perhaps appropriate, but is rather a matter of necessity. For in requiring the murderer to be murdered in retaliation, making a second law, and presiding over two murders after forbidding the one, he who opposed even the one murder by saying, 'Thou shalt not kill'9 was an unwitting victim of necessity.

5:7 Thus the Son who came from him has abolished this portion of the Law, while acknowledging that it too was a law of God—just as he has shown agreement with the old school, both in other matters and in his words, 'It is God who said, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.'10

5:8 But this is the typical portion of the Law, the part that has been made the image of things which are spiritual and excellent, I mean the laws of sacrifices, circumcision, the Sabbath, fasting, the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread and the like.

5:9 For all these, being images and allegories, were transformed when the truth appeared. Outwardly and in bodily observance they were abrogated but spiritually they were adopted, with the names remaining the same but the things altered.

5:10 For the Saviour has commanded us to offer sacrifices, not of dumb animals or their odours but by means of spiritual hymns, praises, and thanksgiving, and of charity and acts of kindness to our neighbours.

5:11 He also desires that we have a circumcision, not of the bodily foreskin but of the spiritual heart—

5:12 and that we keep the Sabbath, for it is his will that we desist from evil works.

5:13 And that we fast—but it is his will that we keep not the bodily fast but the spiritual, which includes abstinence from all evil. We do observe outward fasting however, since this can be of some use to the soul as well when done with reason—not in mimicry of someone or by custom, or for the sake of a day, as though a day were set aside for it.

5:14 At the same time it serves as a reminder of the true fast, so that those who are as yet unable to keep that may have a reminder of it through the outward fasting.

5:15 That both the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread were likewise images, Paul the apostle makes plain by saying, 'As our Passover, Christ has been sacrificed,' and, 'that ye may be unleavened, not partaking of leaven'—by 'leaven' here he means evil—'but that ye may be a new lump.11

6:1 Thus even the Law which is acknowledged to be God's is divided into three—into the part which is fulfilled by the Saviour (for 'Thou shalt not kill,' 'Thou shalt not commit adultery,' and 'Thou shalt not bear false witness' are included in his prohibition of anger, lust and oaths).

6:2 And also into the part that is annulled altogether, for 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,'12 which is intermingled with injustice and itself contains an act of injustice, was annulled by the Saviour through its opposites.

6:3 But opposites have the property of cancelling each other: 'For I say unto you that ye resist not evil by any means, but if a man smite thee, turn to him the other cheek also.'13

6:4 There is also the division which has been transformed and altered from the physical to the spiritual—this allegorical legislation in the image of the things that are excellent.

6:5 For since the images and allegories were indicative of other things, they were rightly performed as long as the truth was not here. But once the truth is here we must do what is proper to the truth, not to the image.

6:6 The Saviour's disciples have given proof of these divisions, and so has the apostle Paul. For our sakes he gave proof of the part which consists of images with (his remarks about) the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, as we have said already. And of the part which consists of the law which is mixed with injustice by saying, 'The law of commandments contained in ordinances is abolished.'14 And of the part which consists of the law with no admixture of inferior matter by saying, 'The Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.'15

7:1 I think you have been given sufficient proof, so far as this can be done concisely, of the human legislation which has invaded the Law, and of God's Law itself with its triple division.

7:2 It remains for me to say who this God is who has made the Law. But I feel that this too has been shown you in my earlier remarks, if you have listened attentively.

7:3 If, as we have explained, the Law was not given by the perfect God himself, and certainly not by the devil—it is not proper even to say this—then this lawgiver is someone other than these.

7:4 But this is the demiurge and maker of this entire world and everything in it. As he differs from the essences of the other two and stands in between them, he may properly be titled 'The Intermediate.'

7:5 And if, by his own nature, the perfect God is good—as indeed he is, for our Saviour has declared that his Father, whom he made manifest, is the one and only good God—16 and if a god of the adversary's nature is evil and is marked as wicked by his injustice—then a God who stands between them, and is neither good17 nor, certainly, evil or unjust, may properly be called 'just,'18 being the arbiter of his sort of justice.

7:6 As he is generate, not ingenerate, this God will naturally be weaker than the perfect God and inferior to his righteousness (there is one Ingenerate, the Father, of whom are all things since all things, each in its own way, have been framed by him. But he will be greater and possessed of more authority than the adversary, and will be of an essence and nature different from the essence of either of these.

7:7 For the essence of the adversary is corruption and darkness, since he is material and composite. The essence of the unbegotten Father of all is incorruption and self-existent light, simple and uniform. And the essence of this God has shown a sort of dual capacity, but in himself he is the image of the better.

7:8 Do not let this disturb you for now, even though you desire to learn how these natures, that of corruption and that of the intermediate, natures which differ in kind, arose from one first principle of all, one which is simple and is confessed and believed by us, the unbegotten, imperishable and good—though it is the nature of the good to beget and bring forth its like and its own kind.

7:9 God willing, you shall learn both their origin and their generation next, since you are adjudged worthy of the apostolic tradition which I have received in my turn, together with the assessment of all its statements by the standard of our Saviour's teaching.

7:10 I have not begrudged19 you these things which have been said in a few words, my sister Flora, and have set forth the brief statement of them, at the same time making the matter sufficiently plain. They will be of the utmost value to you in what follows as well, if, like good soil, hospitable to fertile seeds, you bear the fruit which is their product. This concludes the Letter to Flora.
Who can put up with these words and the idiocy of this charlatan and his supporters—I mean Ptolemy and his circle, who concoct fabrications at such length and baste them together? None of the ancient tragic poets, nor the imitative ones after them—I mean Philistion, and Diogenes who composed incredible yarns, or all the others who wrote the myths down and recited them, could make up as much falsehood as these people have manufactured horrors for themselves in their impudent attack on their own life, and have smothered their converts' minds with foolish questions and endless genealogies.

In fact they themselves did not understand what was under their noses, and yet they professed to survey the heavens with measurements of some sort, and adopted the profession of midwives as though for some heavenly mothers—for non-existent mothers as though they existed. When one hears this from them—if he is a complete fool—he will think that he has learned something sublime from them and easily be swept off his feet by the lie. (Scripture says, 'Every bird flocketh with its kind, and a man will cleave to his like.')

But if a person of understanding and sound reason should happen on them he will laugh at so much silliness, and from the very subject of the things they say will know the refutation of them. For they are convicted in every way of arming their useless labour's lies against themselves. Where did you learn Depth's dimensions, you gentleman and lady Ptolemaeans? And the pregnant mothers' deliveries, and the reasons they got pregnant? You profess to give us the knowledge, as though you had been there and seen the origins of the heavenly beings, as though you were in existence before your so-called Depth himself. But no prophet has ever said this, not Moses himself, not the prophets before him, not the prophets after him, not the evangelists, not the apostles—unless you mean the works of heathen mythology by Orpheus, Hesiod, Hicesius and Stesichorus, in whose writings the generations of men have been turned into names of gods, and human doings made into dramatic poetry. For they too held beliefs of this kind and by making gods of Zeus, Rhea, Hera, Athena, Apollo and Aphrodite and honouring the children of their wickedness, they pushed the world into a delusion of polytheism and idolatry.

But I won't have much further need for the refutation and rebuttal of you and your kind, Ptolemy, since your forebears have already received the refutation in sufficient measure. Since I have achieved your disgrace through the things I have said, I am going over imposture of the others—calling on God as the aid of my meagre ability so that, in every people, I may discover the doctrine they have wickedly invented and make a spectacle of it. And I ask God’s grace for my zealous undertaking.

However, Ptolemy, not to leave unchallenged the three little literary efforts, the ones you boasted of sending to your girlfriend Flora—(the teachings of serpents always 'deceive silly women laden with sins,'21 as the apostle said).—I have quoted the words themselves here at the right time, and will next give their corresponding refutation—an essential one, or the the root of your tare-like crop might be left.

9:2 You claim that the Law has three divisions, Mister, and that one owes something to God, but one comes from Moses and one from the elders.

9:3 You can't show the part you think was written by the elders; this much is plain. The traditions of the elders are nowhere to be found in the Law. From your ignorance both of the books and of the truth you are imagining these by misrepresenting and altering the consequences of every kind of accurate knowledge.

9:4 The traditions of the elders are called 'repetitions'22 by the Jews, and there are four of them. One is circulated in the name of Moses, a second in that of the person named Rabbi Aqiba, a third of Adda or Judah, and a fourth of the sons of Hasmonaeus.

9:5 Where, you trouble-maker with your erratic judgment, can you show that the words mentioned by the Saviour—'He who shall say to his father Korban, that is, a gift, he shall profit nothing from him'23—were said in the five books of the Pentateuch and God's legislation?

9:6 You can't show it. Your argument has failed then, since the saying is nowhere to be found in the Pentateuch, and you have deceived your dupe Flora for nothing.

9:7 And neither were the laws given by Moses given independently of God. They came from God through Moses, as is shown by the Saviour's own verification (of the fact). The very texts you have brought forward, you have assembled against yourself.

9:8 In the Gospel the Lord says, 'Moses wrote for the hardness of your hearts.'24 But what Moses wrote, he did not write independently of God's will; his legislation was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

9:9 For the Lord in the Gospel said, 'That which God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.' And to let us know how God joined them, he explained it fully by affixing the saying, 'For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.'

9:10 He then adds, 'That which God hath joined together, let not man put asunder25—although the Lord said nothing like this at the time when he formed Adam and Eve, but only, 'Let us make him an helpmeet like himself.'26

9:11 Those words were said by Adam when he awoke and said, 'This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called wife, for she was taken out of her husband.'27—And then he says, 'Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.'28

9:12 Now since God did not say this but Adam did, and yet the Lord in the Gospel testifies that the words spoken through Adam were God's, by his statement itself he proved that in the one case29 Adam spoke but uttered the words by God's will, while in this one30 Moses made a law because God had commanded the legislation.

9:13 And that the making of laws is God's business; this is plain. But God makes laws everywhere, some temporary, some typical, and some to reveal the good things to come, whose fulfilment our Lord Jesus Christ, when he had come, made known in the Gospel.

10:1 But I shall take up your other distinction of gods—again, a triple distinction—and show that this too is slander on your part and simply the work of a charlatan.

10:2 What sort of third God do we have here—made up of two likenesses although he is neither of the two, having no wickedness or injustice, as you said, and no goodness or luminous essence either, but right in between, 'just?'

10:3 As you are in fact strange to all justice you naturally do not know what justice is, and so you think it is something other than goodness. You’ll get good and refuted you tamperer, you stranger to the truth! Justice comes from nowhere but from goodness, and no one can become good other than by being just.

10:4 And so, to praise the legislation and its just men, the Lord said, 'Ye garnish the tombs of the prophets, and build the sepulchres of the just, and your fathers killed them.'31 But where have prophets and just men come from, if not from the Father’s goodness?

10:5 And, to prove that the just man belongs in the category of goodness, he said, 'Be ye like unto your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on good and evil, and sendeth rain on just and unjust,'32 to make it plain that just is good and good is just, and that evil is unjust, and unjust, evil.

10:6 Nor can you prove the Law's intermixture (with evil) of which you spoke. You have been caught making a false accusation against the Law by your ascription of some intermixture to it because the Law has said, 'eye for eye and tooth for tooth,'33 and because the Law murders the murderer.

10:7 But it will be shown, from our Lord Jesus Christ's own treatment of the matter, that there was no intermixture, but that the legislation was the same and had the same effect as the commandment given by the Saviour, 'If a man smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.'34

10:8 For the Law too ensured this long ago by saying 'an eye for an eye,' or in other words, 'Turn your other cheek to him.' To avoid what would happen to him if he struck a blow, a man would present his cheek to the one who was striking him—knowing that if he put an eye out, he would suffer the same because of the Law.

11:1 A father who wishes to discipline his children progresses with the discipline by suiting it to each age. He surely does not discipline a little baby like a boy, a boy like a youth, or a youth like a grown man.

11:2 An infant is disciplined with a finger, an older child with the slap of a hand, a boy with a strap, and a youth with a cane. But by law a man is punished with the sword for the more serious offences. Thus the Lord too, in consequence, made the laws that were suitable for each generation.

11:3 He chastened the earlier one with fear, as though he were speaking with little children who did not know the power of the Holy Spirit, but he considered full grown adults worthy of full mysteries.

11:4 For in the Gospel as well, in many places, he tells the disciples something like, 'Ye know not what I do, but ye shall know hereafter'35—that is, 'when you grow up.' And again, 'They knew not until he was risen from the dead.'36

11:5 And Paul says, 'Ye were not able, neither yet are ye able,'37 to show that commandments become more advanced as time goes on—the same ones, but changed to another form, formulated in one way for the young; in another for the more mature.

11:6 For when the Law enjoined 'an eye for an eye,'38 it did not tell them, 'Put one eye out after another,' but, 'If someone puts an eye out, the eye of the one who put it out will be put out.' And to spare his own body, everyone would present his cheek to be struck, and not strike himself.

11:7 And what is now stated clearly in the Gospel was observed from that time on—by compulsion then, as though children were being trained, but now by choice, since adults are being persuaded.

11:8 But if you claim that this is an involvement—to say 'an eye for an eye' and have a murderer put to death—then observe! Even of the day of judgment we see the Saviour saying, 'His Lord shall come'—but he was saying this of himself, since he is Lord of all—and he says, 'and cut the servant himself asunder and appoint his portion with the unbelievers.'39

11:9 In other words, by quibbling about words again you are taking up arms even against the Saviour; and you would say that he is not good but just—although he is begotten of a good Father, and is good himself—and is different from the Father.

11:10 So you are capable of separating even him from the nature of the Father, Mister—you who appear before us once more as a dissector and surveyor of the laws, dividing everything into threes!

11:11 And by saying that some things in the Law are written allegorically, as types, you have touched on little bits of the truth, so that with the little bits you can fool people in the other points.

11:12 'These things' indeed 'happened unto them typically, and were written for our admonition on whom the ends of the ages have come'40 as the most holy apostle says, speaking of circumcision, the Sabbath and so on.

11:13 If only you would tell the truth about everything, and not inflict your nonexistent third, intermediate God on us any more—or rather, not inflict him on yourself any more, and on your dupes!

12:1 But by now, you tramp, I feel that enough has also been said about your remarks. Having refuted them I shall go to the remaining sects, calling as usual on the same God to aid my meagre ability in making plain the rebuttal of every distorted heresy.

12:2 For by what has been said it has been shown that Ptolemy deceived Flora and others with her with a letter as though he had risen out of the sea, summoning sharks and a viper with his own piping.

12:3 But by entangling him in the net of the truth—the symbolic meaning of which the Lord in the Gospel declared to be the kingdom of heaven—and by exposing him as one of the bad fish by bringing his unsound words to light, we have overcome him with the teaching of the true faith.

12:4 Having thrashed him by the power of God let us give thanks to God ourselves, and set ourselves, as I said, to go on to the rest as well.
Last edited by Secret Alias on Wed Jun 07, 2017 8:32 am, edited 2 times in total.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: Panarion Addition Detailing Marcion Canon Was Added Late

Post by Secret Alias »

So the point again is that once we see the organic development of the Panarion it becomes plain that after laboring through the Valentinians (chapter 30), the Secundians (31) and the Ptolemaeans (32) Epiphanius reached the Marcosians in the order that appears in Adversus Haereses. He's bored, disinterest and tired and so just after dictating what we saw in the last section he continues with his loose dictation based on Adversus Haereses to say this about the Marcosians;
A certain Marcus, the founder of the so-called Marcosians, came from the Gnostics and dared to vomit evils into the world that were different from theirs. For he succeeded Secundus, Epiphanes, Ptolemy and Valentinus, but was inspired to gather a further crowd of tramps. For the wretch attracted female and male dupes of his own, and was supposed to be a corrector of the cheats we have mentioned since he was the most adept in magical trickery. But because he deceived all these men and women into regarding him as the most gnostic of all and possessed of the greatest power from the unseen, ineffable realms, he has truly been shown to be the forerunner of the Antichrist.

For by combining Anaxilaus' jokes with the villainy of the so-called magicians, and deceiving and bewitching the people who saw and trusted him with these, he drove them to distraction—as his followers still manage to do, even today. The people who see the effects that have been produced by jugglery suppose that miracles of some sort are being performed by the hands of Marcus and such Marcosians as do these things. For they have lost their minds themselves and, because they do not know how to evaluate it, they do not see that his stunt, as we might call it, has been performed by magic. For they have become completely cracked themselves from being carried away with an wrong opinion. It is said that they prepare three chalices of white vinegar mixed with white wine, and during the incantation Marcus gives, his supposed eucharistic prayer, these are suddenly transformed, with one turning red as blood, another purple, and another dark blue.

The naturalists speak of a viper called the dipsas, which does the following sort of harm. In certain places where there are depressions in the rocks, or little basins hollowed out of rocks as a receptacle, the dipsas finds water, drinks and, after drinking puts its poison into these pools of water. Then any animal that approaches and drinks its fill will feel refreshed because it drank, but it will fall right down and die from the viper's venom, beside the receptacle which has received it. Moreover, if the dipsas strikes someone, his pain from its extremely hot poison will make him thirsty and want a drink, and impel him to keep coming up and drinking. Each time the victim feels such deadly pain and has some water he will think that it does his injury some good but later, with his stomach filled by that very drink and unable to hold any more, he will vomit his life out along with the drink. Thus Marcus too causes the death of his dupes with a drink. But since we have been rescued from this poison by the power of God, let us go on to the rest.
The 'looseness' of the citation is evident from the curious expansion of what Irenaeus says with respect to the chalices before he looses interest and prepares to go on to the next heresy (which oddly enough goes back to the end of the original section on Valentinians). Irenaeus wrote:
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 ... [a]gain, 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 pouting 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 ...
into:
It is said that they prepare three chalices of white vinegar mixed with white wine, and during the incantation Marcus gives, his supposed eucharistic prayer, these are suddenly transformed, with one turning red as blood, another purple, and another dark blue.
The bit about vinegar and three cups in three different colors is all newly made up by a bored Epiphanius who goes back to chapter 12 to rescue 'the Colorbasians' (Williams notes "Epiph draws his account of the teaching he ascribes to Colorbasus from Iren. 1.12.3-4 ... Epiph assumes that Colorbasus must be one of the unnamed teachers who, at Iren. 1.12.3, are called qui ... putantur prudentiores illorum, and that Marcus' connection with them is confirmed by Iren. 1.13.1) and then realizes that another sect is mentioned at the end of chapter 11:
To these persons one may justly exclaim: "O ye trifling 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.
to rescue out of this reference yet another group - the followers of Heracleon - to whom is added the remaining bits about 'redemption' baptism which appears at the end of the Marcosian section.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: Panarion Addition Detailing Marcion Canon Was Added Late

Post by Secret Alias »

As noted above, I suspect again that Epiphanius got increasingly sloppy as he went through Adversus Haereses. The cutting off of the Marcosian account with the mention of the three cups red, purple and blue to go back and 'rescue' the Colorbasians and Heracleonites led to the mistaken placement of redemption baptism in a wholly invented section. Nevertheless it is worth noting that someone decided - exactly in the manner of what we just saw with the Ptolemians - that a lengthy citation from Irenaeus was necessary:
A certain Marcus, the founder of the so-called Marcosians, came from the Gnostics and dared to vomit evils into the world that were different from theirs. For he succeeded Secundus, Epiphanes, Ptolemy and Valentinus, but was inspired to gather a further crowd of tramps. For the wretch attracted female and male dupes of his own, and was supposed to be a corrector of the cheats we have mentioned since he was the most adept in magical trickery. But because he deceived all these men and women into regarding him as the most gnostic of all and possessed of the greatest power from the unseen, ineffable realms, he has truly been shown to be the forerunner of the Antichrist.

For by combining Anaxilaus' jokes with the villainy of the so-called magicians, and deceiving and bewitching the people who saw and trusted him with these, he drove them to distraction—as his followers still manage to do, even today. The people who see the effects that have been produced by jugglery suppose that miracles of some sort are being performed by the hands of Marcus and such Marcosians as do these things. For they have lost their minds themselves and, because they do not know how to evaluate it, they do not see that his stunt, as we might call it, has been performed by magic. For they have become completely cracked themselves from being carried away with an wrong opinion. It is said that they prepare three chalices of white vinegar mixed with white wine, and during the incantation Marcus gives, his supposed eucharistic prayer, these are suddenly transformed, with one turning red as blood, another purple, and another dark blue.

1:8 But for my part, so as not to commit myself to a second hard task I feel I should be content with the work written against Marcus himself and his successors by the most holy and blessed Irenaeus. I hasten to publish this here word for word, and it runs as follows. For St. Irenaeus himself says the following in his disclosure of the things they did: From the writings of St. Irenaeus ......3

2:1 Pretending to consecrate liquids mixed with wine and spinning his invocation out at length, he makes them turn purple and scarlet. It thus seems that Grace, from the realms above the universe, is shedding drops of her blood into his cup at his invocation. And the onlookers are most eager for a taste of that drink, so that the Grace who is being summoned by this magician may shower on them as well.

2:2 Again, he would hand chalices already mixed to women and tell them to consecrate them with him standing by. And when they had, he would bring another chalice out, much larger than the one his dupe had consecrated, empty the smaller one consecrated by the woman into the one he had brought in and say the eucharistic prayer adding the words,

2:3 'May she that is before all, the inconceivable and ineffable Grace, fill thine inner man and increase in thee her knowledge, by sowing the grain of the mustard seed in the good ground.'

2:4 And after he had said things of this sort and had driven the wretched woman to madness it would appear that he was a wonder worker, for the big chalice would be filled from the little one so as even to overflow from it. And by doing other things quite like these he has fooled many people completely and won them to his following.

2:5 He probably has a familiar spirit too, through which he both appears to prophesy himself, and causes such women as he considers worthy of becoming participants in his grace to prophesy.

2:6 (He spends most of his time on women, and the best-dressed, highest-ranking and wealthiest of these.) In the effort to get them in his power he often tells them in flattering terms, 'I desire to share my grace with you, for the Father of all continually beholds your angel before his face. But the Majesty's place is in us; we must be restored to the One.

2:7 First receive Grace from me and through me. Prepare yourself as a bride awaiting her bridegroom, that you may be what I am, and I what you are. Plant the seed of the light in your bridal chamber.4 Receive the bridegroom from me; contain him and be contained in him. Lo, Grace has descended upon you; open your mouth and prophesy!'

2:8 But if the woman answers, 'I have never prophesied and don't know how,' he gives another set of invocations to his dupe's consternation, and tells her, 'Open your mouth and say any old thing, and you will be prophesying!'

2:9 And made conceited and feather-brained by this, fevered in soul with the expectation that she is going to prophesy, with her heart beating harder than it should, she

2:10 will pluck up the courage to babble silly things at random—all vainly and impudently, since she has been made feverish by a vain spirit. (As a greater man than I has said of such prophets, 'An impudent and shameless thing is a soul made feverish by empty air.')

2:11 And from then on she takes herself for a prophetess and is grateful to Marcus for bestowing his own grace on her, and attempts to repay him not only with the gift of her money—he has amassed considerable wealth in this way—but with bodily union too. For she is eager to be altogether united with him, so as to be restored to the One with him.

2:12 Already—though he took care to cajole them like the rest by telling them to prophesy—some of the more faithful women, who fear God and were not fooled, have spat, cursed, and abandoned such a charlatan as this, who pretends to breathe something divine (into them).

2:13 They know perfectly well that prophecy is not engendered in men by the sorcerer Marcus. Those to whom God sends his grace from above possess prophecy as a divine gift and speak where and when God wills, not when Marcus says to.

2:14 A thing that gives an order is greater and more authoritative than a thing that is given an order, since the one takes precedence while the other is subject. Hence if Marcus or anyone else, orders prophecy—and at their dinners they make a regular game of having each other prophesy by lot, and divine for them as their passions dictate—then, though he is only a man, the one who orders it is greater than the prophetic spirit and possessed of more authority. But that is not possible.

2:15 Such spirits as are at their bidding and speak when they choose, are earthy and feeble, although presumptuous and impudent. They are sent by Satan for the deception and ruin of those who fail to maintain in its vigour the faith they received through the church at the outset.

3:1 But that Marcus administers philtres and love-potions to some if not all of the women in order to outrage their bodies as well, they have often confessed on returning to God's church—and to having been corrupted in body by him, and having loved him with great passion.

3:2 Even one of our deacons in Asia had this misfortune because he welcomed Marcus into his home. His wife was a handsome woman, and she was seduced both in mind and body by this sorcerer, and followed him for a long time.

3:3 Then, when the brethren had brought her to repentance with great difficulty, she spent the rest of her life in confession, mourning and lamenting her seduction by the magician.

3:4 Certain of his disciples too, who wander about in the same area, have deceived and seduced many women by proclaiming themselves so perfect that no one can equal the greatness of their knowledge—not even Paul or Peter or any other apostle.

3:5 (They) claim that they know more than everyone, that they alone have drunk in the greatness of the knowledge of the ineffable power, and that they are higher than any power.

3:6 Hence they can do everything freely5 and have no fear in anything. Because of their redemption they have become untouchable by the judge, and invisible to him. But even if he were to apprehend them they would stand before him with their redemption and say this:6

3:7 'O Counsellor of God and the primordial mysterious Silence, through whom the Majesties, who ever behold the Father's face, draw their forms heavenward with thee as their leader and guide,—the forms that First Progenitor's goodness, that audacious one, imagined,7—who then had a dreamlike notion of the things on high and emitted us in their image—

3:8 Lo, the judge is nigh and the herald bids me offer my defence. But do thou, as understanding the case of us both, render an account for us both, as one, to the judge!'

3:9 And the Mother hears them without delay and puts Homer’s helmet of invisibility on them, so that they escape the judge unseen,8 and drawing them up instantly conducts them to the marriage chamber and gives them to their bridegrooms.

3:10 By saying and doing such things they have completely fooled many women in our own area, the Rhone valley, as well. Branded in conscience some of these women even make open confession. Others, who are ashamed to do this but have quietly withdrawn themselves somehow, despair of God's life and in some cases have become entirely apostate; while others vacillate, in the proverbial predicament of being neither in nor out—having this fruit from the seed of the children of knowledge!

4:1 This Marcus then, says that he and he alone in his uniqueness has become the womb and receptacle of Colorbasus' Silence and brought forth the actual seed of Defect,9 which has somehow been sown in him here.

4:2 The all-sublime Tetrad has descended to him herself, from the invisible, ineffable realms, in feminine form10—because the world could not bear her masculine one, he says—disclosed who she was and to him and him alone explained the origin of all things, which she had never revealed to any god or man, speaking as follows:

4:311 'When, at the first, the Father of whom none is the father, who is inconceivable and without essence, who is neither male nor female, willed that his unutterability become utterable and his invisibility be given form,12 he opened his mouth and uttered a word13 like himself. This stood by him and showed him what he was, itself manifest as a form of the invisible.14

4:4 But the pronunciation of the name was as follows: He spoke the first word of his name, which was a 'beginning,' and its syllable was of four sounds. And he subjoined the second syllable, and it too was of four sounds. Next he pronounced the third, and it was a syllable of ten sounds. And he spoke the final one, and it was of twelve sounds. The pronouncing of the entire name, then, became thirty sounds but four syllables.

4:515 'Each of the sounds has its own letters, its own impress, and its own pronunciation, forms and representations. There is not one of them that sees the form of that of which it is a sound. Nor can it know it16 nor, certainly, the pronunciation of its neighbour but, as though it were pronouncing the All, it thinks that what it pronounces names the whole.

4:6 For though each of them is a part of the whole, it makes its own sound as though it had named the All, and does not stop making it until, with its one utterance, it reaches the last letter of the last sound.'

4:7 She said that the restoration of all things will come when all have arrived at the one letter, and sound the same exclamation. She supposed that 'Amen,' when we say it together, is an image of this exclamation. It is the utterances which give form to the Aeon which has no essence and is ingenerate. And they are forms which the Lord has termed 'angels' and continually behold the Father's face.17

4:8 She called the common, spoken names of the sounds Aeons, words, roots, seeds, fullnesses and fruits, but said that the individual names peculiar to each one are observably included in the church's name.

4:9 The last letter of the last of these sounds sent forth its voice. The echo of it came forth in the image of the sounds, and generated sounds of its own. From these, she says, the things here have been reconstituted,18 and the things before them generated.

4:10 But the letter itself, she said, whose echo was simultaneous with the echo below, was taken up on high by its own syllable for the completion of the whole.19 The echo, as though cast outside, has remained below.

4:11 The sound itself, she says, from which the letter, together with its own pronunciation, came below, is of thirty letters. Each of the thirty letters contains other letters, the ones by which the letter’s name is said.

4:12 And the other letters are named with other letters in turn, and the others with others, so that the number of the letters is infinite. But you can understand this better from the following example:

5:1 The sound, delta, contains five letters: delta itself, epsilon, lamda, tau and alpha. These letters, in turn, are written with other letters and the others with others.

5:2 Now if the entire essence of the delta is infinite, with other letters continually generating others and succeeding each other, how much greater than that sound is the sea of the letters!

5:3 And if the one letter is infinite in this way, see the depth of the letters of the whole name of which Marcus' Silence held that First Progenitor is made!

5:4 Hence the Father, who knows that nothing can contain the name, has permitted each of the sounds—which he also calls Aeons—to cry its own pronunciation aloud, since one cannot pronounce the whole.

5:5 After explaining this to him Tetrad said, 'Now I wish to show you the Truth herself. I have brought her down from the habitations on high so that you may see her naked and observe her beauty—hear her speak, moreover, and admire her wisdom.

5:6 See her head, alpha and omega, at the top. Her neck, beta and psi. Her shoulders and arms, gamma and chi. Her breasts, delta and phi. Her diaphragm, epsilon and ypsilon. Her belly, zeta and tau. Her privy parts, eta and sigma. Her thighs, theta and rho. Her knees, iota and pi. Her shins, kappa and omicron. Her ankles, lamda and xi. Her feet, mu and nu.' This, according to the sorcerer, is the body of 'Truth,' this is the form of the sound, this is the impress of the letter.

5:7 He also calls this sound 'Man,' and says it is the source of all speech, the origin of every sound, the utterance of everything unutterable, and the mouth of the Silence who cannot be spoken of.

5:8 'And this is her body. But raising the thought of your mind aloft, hear from the Truth's own mouth the self-begetting utterance, dispenser of fatherly bounty.'

6:1 When Tetrad had said this, Truth looked at him, opened her mouth, and spoke a word. But the word was a name, and the name was the one we know and say, 'Christ Jesus.' And after naming it she fell silent at once.

6:2 But while Marcus was waiting for her to say something further, Tetrad came forward again and said,

6:3 'How trivial you considered the word you heard from the lips of Truth! The one you know, and think you have always had, is not a name. You have only a sound; you do not know its meaning.20

6:4 'Jesous' is a notable21 name of six letters known by all who are called. But the name as known to the Aeons of the Pleroma is complex, and is of a different form and a different impression, known by those brethren whose Majesties are always in its presence.22

6:5 'Learn, then, that these twenty-four letters of your alphabet are effluences in the image of the three powers which comprise the sum total of the powers on high.

6:623 Regard the nine mute consonants as images of the Father and Truth, for they are 'mute'—that is, ineffable and unutterable.

6:7 Regard the voiced consonants, of which there are eight, as images of Word and Life because of their being as it were between the mutes and vowels and receiving the effluence of the ones above them, and the vapour of the ones below.

6:8 But regard the vowels, of which in turn there are seven, as images of Man and Church; since it was through Man that the voice came forth and gave form to the whole. For the echo of the voice provided a form for them.

6:9 Thus there are Word and Life with the eight letters, Man and Church with the seven, and Father and Truth with the nine.

6:10 But the number that had run away in the Father came down upon the sum that lacked (a number). It was sent to the sum from which it had been parted to remedy the situation, so that the equality of the sums, being uniform, would yield one value from all in all cases.

6:11 And thus the sum of seven acquired the value of eight, and the three spaces became correspondent with the numbers, since they were ogdoads. Added in three operations they gave the sum of twenty-four.'

6:12 But when the three sounds which Marcus himself says are paired with the three values—that is, of (the) six from which the twenty-four sounds flowed out—are multiplied fourfold by the number of the ineffable tetrad, they yield the same total as those (24 sounds) which Marcus says are the number of the unnameable.

6:13 They (i.e., the three sounds) are worn by the three values in the likeness of the invisible. Our double letters are images of images of these sounds; and when they are included with the twenty-four sounds (of the alphabet) they give the sum of the thirty (Aeons), by the value which is proportionate (to the Aeons' value).

7:1 Marcus says that as the fruit of this computation and this dispensation there has appeared, in the likeness of its image, the One who went up the mountain fourth after the six days and became the sixth, and who came down and was held fast on the seventh—a notable (ἐπίσημον) ogdoad and containing in himself the full total of the sounds.

7:2 When he came for baptism the descent of the dove, which is omega and alpha, made him manifest, for its sum is 801.24

7:3 Also for this reason Moses has said that man was created on the sixth day. The dispensation of the passion also took place on the sixth day; for on the sixth day, the day of the preparation, the last man appeared for the restoration of the first.25 The sixth hour, at which he was nailed to the tree, is also the beginning and end of this dispensation.26

7:4 For because the perfect Mind, knowing the number six with its power of creation and regeneration, is showing the sons of light its restoration to itself by itself through the appearance of the episemon. This, he says, is why the double letters have the episemon as their total. For combined with the twenty-four sounds, the episemon has completed the thirty-letter name.

7:5 'As its minister this number has employed the quantity of seven,'27 so says Marcus' Silence, 'so that the fruit of its self-willed will may be made manifest. But for the present,' she says, 'understand this total of six as the one who is formed on the model of the episemon, was as it were divided or cut in two, and remained outside28—who, through an emanation from himself, has by his own power and wisdom quickened this world of the seven values29 which is patterned after the value of the hebdomad, and who has been designated the soul of the visible universe.

7:6 'For his part he does this work as a work performed by his own choice; but since they (i.e., the seven vowel sounds) serve the Mother's Purpose,30 they are imitations of the inimitable.

7:731 And the first heaven utters the alpha, the next, the epsilon, the third, the eta. The fourth and midmost of the seven, pronounces the value of the iota, the fifth, the omicron, the sixth, the ypsilon. But the seventh, and fourth from the middle, cries out the sound, omega,' as Marcus' Silence affirms, who talks all sorts of nonsense but says nothing that is true.

7:8 'These values,' she says, 'all ring out together in unison and glorify him by whom they were emitted; and the glory of the sound is sent to First Progenitor. But the echo of this praise drifts earthward,' she says, 'to become that which forms and generates the things on earth.'

7:9 She gives her proof of this from the new-born babes, whose soul, as they issue from the womb, cries out the echo of each of these sounds. Thus, as the seven values glorify the Word, so the soul in infants glorifies him by weeping and wailing like Marcus.

7:10 David, also, has said, 'Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise,'32 on this account, and again, 'The heavens declare the glory of God.'33 And thus, when a soul is in trouble and misfortune, to purge itself it cries, 'Oh!' as a sign of praise, so that the soul on high will recognize its kinship with it and send it aid.

8:1 And these were the foolish things he said about this whole name which is made of thirty letters, and about Depth, who grew from its letters. And further, about the body of Truth with its twelve members each composed of two letters, and her voice with which she conversed without conversing; and the explanation of the name that was not spoken—and the soul of the world and man, insofar as they have been constituted in an image.

8:2 But next, beloved, I shall tell you how Tetrad produced an equal numerical value for him from the names (of the Aeons) so that, as you have often asked me, you will not be unacquainted with any of his teachings which I happen to know.

8:3 Here, then, is what their all-wise Silence has to say about the origin of the twenty-four sounds. With Soleness there co-exists Oneness. Two emanations from these, Unit and One as we have said, were two times two and made four; for two times two are four.

8:4 And again, when the two and the four were added they displayed the number six; but these six, multiplied by four, brought forth the twenty-four forms.

8:5 And the names of the first tetrad, which are understood to be holiest of the holy and not utterable, can be known by the Son alone—what they are, the Father knows. But the ones which are pronounced, reverently and with faith, before him, are these: Arretos and Sige, Pater and Aletheia.

8:6 The full total of this tetrad is twenty-four sounds. For the name, Arretos, has seven letters, Seige has five, Pater five, and Aletheia seven. Added together, the twice five and the twice seven, these gave the same number of sounds.

8:7 And the Saviour's spoken name, Jesous, is of six letters, but his unutterable name of twenty-four. 'Uios Chreistos' is of twelve letters, but the ineffable name in Christ is of thirty. And she calls him alpha and omega for this reason, to make mention of the dove, since this is 'dove's' numerical value.

9:1 But Jesus has the following ineffable origin, she says. From the Mother of all, the first tetrad, the second tetrad34 came forth in the role of daughter and became an ogdoad, out of which a decad came forth. Now there were a decad and an ogdoad.

9:2 Joining the ogdoad once more and multiplying it by ten,35 the decad produced the next number, eighty. Multiplying the eighty by ten again it generated the number 800, so that the sum total of the letters which issue from eight times ten is an eight, an eighty, and an 800, which is 'Jesus.'

9:3 For counted by the sum which is found in its letters, the word, 'Jesus,' is 888. You are now clear as to Jesus' origin beyond the heavens, as they explain it.

9:4 And this is why the Greek alphabet contains eight units, eight tens, and eight hundreds, giving the figure of 888—in other words, Jesus, who is composed of all the numbers. He is thus called 'alpha and omega' to indicate his origin from all.

9:5 And again: When the first tetrad was added to itself cumulatively the number ten was produced; for when one, two, three and four are added they make ten, or iota, and they hold that this is Jesus.

9:6 But 'Chreistos' too, she says, which has eight letters, means the first ogdoad which, in the iota's embrace, brought forth Jesus.

9:7 He is also called 'Uios Chreistos,' that is, the dodecad. For the name, Uios, has four letters, while Chreistos has eight; added together these gave the amount of twelve.

9:8 Before the six-letter mark of this name—that is, 'Jesus,' the Son—appeared, men were in profound ignorance and error.

9:9 But when the six-letter name was made manifest, which was clothed with flesh to be perceptible to man and contained the six itself and the twenty-four, men learned it, ceased from their ignorance and ascended from death to life, for the name became their way to the Father of truth.

9:10 For the Father of all has willed to dissolve ignorance and abolish death. And the dissolution of ignorance was the recognition of him. Thus the Man was chosen who, by his will, was constituted in the image of the value on high.

10:1 For the Aeons issued from the second tetrad. In the tetrad there were Man and Church, Word and Life. Thus powers (= 'values') which overflowed from these, he says, brought into being the Jesus who appeared on earth.

10:2 The angel Gabriel took the part of Word, the Holy Spirit, of Life, and the power of the highest, of Man, while the Virgin played the role of Church.

10:3 And thus Marcus' 'man fashioned by dispensation' was brought into being through Mary; and when he had issued from the womb the Father of all chose him, through Word, to come to the knowledge of him.

10:4 And when he came to the water, the number which had withdrawn to heaven and become the twelfth descended on him as a dove. In this was the seed of these people, who were sown together with it, and have descended and ascended with it.

10:5 He says that the value itself which descended was the Father's seed, and contained both Father and Son, the ineffable value of Silence which is known through them, and all the Aeons.

10:6 And this is the Spirit which spoke through Jesus' mouth, which confessed itself Son of Man and made the Father known, and of course was united with Jesus in descending upon him. And he says that Jesus, the Saviour produced by the dispensation, abolished death; but that Christ made the Father manifest.

10:7 He says, then, that 'Jesus' was the name of the man framed by the dispensation, and that his office was to provide a likeness and form for Man, who was to descend upon him. In containing him Jesus possessed Man himself, Word himself, Father and Ineffable, and Silence and Truth, and Church and Life.

11:1 These things are already beyond 'Alas and alack!' and every outcry and lamentation in tragedy. For who can fail to detest the author of such big lies, badly put together, when he sees the truth made into an idol by Marcus, and scribbled on with the letters of the alphabet?

11:2 The Greeks admit that, compared with anything primordial, it was recently—yesterday and the day before, as we say—that they first received sixteen letters from Cadmus. Then later, as time went on, they themselves invented the aspirates at one point and the double consonants at another, and they say that last of all Palamedes added the long vowels to these.

11:3 Before these things were done among the Greeks then, there was no Truth! For what you call her body, Marcus, is of later origin than Cadmus and his predecessors, later than those who added the rest of the sounds—later even than yourself! For only you have brought down your so-called Truth, like an idol.

11:4 But who can put up with your Silence who talks so much nonsense, who names the unnameable, explains the ineffable, searches the unsearchable, and says that he whom you call bodiless and without form has opened his mouth and uttered a Word—like a beast, made up of parts!

11:5 And his Word, which is like the one who emitted it and which has become a form of the invisible, is composed of thirty sounds, but four syllables. So the Father of all, as you call him, will be composed of thirty sounds but four syllables, in the likeness of Word!

11:6 Or again, who can stand your confinement of the Word of God, the creator, artificer and maker of all, to shapes and numbers—thirty sometimes, sometimes twenty-four, sometimes just six—and your dissection of him into four syllables, but thirty sounds?

11:7 And your reduction of the Lord of all, who established the heavens, to 888, like the alphabet; your subdivision even of the Father himself, who contains all things and yet is uncontained, into a tetrad, an ogdoad, a decad and a dodecad; and your explanation of the ineffability and inconceivability, as you say, of the Father by multiplications like these?

11:8 You make the essence and subsistence of the One you call incorporeal and without essence out of many letters, with new letters generated by others, though you yourself were the false Daedalus and the bad sculptor of the power before the all-highest!

11:9 And by subdividing the essence you say is indivisible into mutes, vowels and voiced consonants, and falsely attributing their voicelessness to the Father of all and his Ennoia, you have thrust all who trust you into the very height of blasphemy and the greatest impiety.

11:10 Thus it was with justice, and appropriately for such insolence as yours, that the divinely-inspired elder and herald of the truth has cried out at you in verse and said,

11:11 Maker of idols, scanner of portents, Mark, Skilled in in the arts of astrologue and mage,
Through those confirming lessons taught by error:
To those deceived by thee hast thou shown signs
Which thy sire Satan giveth thee to perform
Through the angelic power of Azazel
For that he deemeth thee the harbinger
Of the villainy of the god opposed to God!

11:12 So far the elder beloved of God. But I shall try to go briefly over the rest of their mysteries, lengthy though they are, and bring to light things which have been concealed for a long time. May this make them easy for everyone to refute!

12:1 By combining the origin of their Aeons with the straying and finding of the sheep, these people who reduce everything to numbers try to give a deeper explanation, and claim that all things are made of a unit and a dyad;

12:2 and by counting from one to four they generate the decad. For one, two, three and four added together gave birth to the sum of the ten Aeons. But then again the dyad, by proceeding from itself to the episemon—as in 'two, four, six'—gave the dodecad.

12:3 And again, when we count in the same way from two to ten the triacontad is arrived at in which there are an ogdoad, a decad and a dodecad.

12:4 They say that since the dodecad has the episemon in its train the episemon is (its) accident (πάθος which also means 'passion'). Thus the sheep ran away and got lost when the error was made about the number twelve—since they claim that the defection was from a dodecad.

12:5 And they discover by divination that one rebellious value was similarly lost from the decad, and this is the woman who lost the drachma, and lit a lamp and found it.

12:6 After this the numbers that were left—nine in the drachma’s case, eleven in the case of the sheep—were also united and gave birth to the number ninety-nine. For nine times eleven are ninety-nine. They say that this is why 'Amen' yields this total.

12:7 But I do not mind telling you their explanations in another way, so you will despise their fruit in every respect. They hold that the sound, eta, is an ogdoad if we include the episemon, since it stands eighth after alpha. Then again, by reckoning up the totals of the sounds themselves without the six and adding them cumulatively through eta, they exhibit the triacontad.

12:8 For if one enumerates the sounds from alpha through eta, leaving the episemon out and adding cumulatively, he will arrive at the number thirty.

12:9 The total from alpha through epsilon is fifteen. Then seven added to this makes twenty-two. But when eta, or eight, is added to this, it has completed the wondrous triacontad. And from this they prove that the Ogdoad is the mother of the thirty Aeons.

12:10 Now since the number thirty is a combination of three numerical values, it was multiplied by three itself and made ninety, for three times thirty are ninety. But the three was also multiplied by itself and generated a nine. And thus, in their view, the Ogdoad gave birth to the ninety-nine.

12:11 And since the twelfth Aeon (i.e., the letter mu), when it rebelled, deserted the eleven (letters) before it, they say that the form of the (two) letters (found in the letter mu) is parallel to the shape of the lamda—for lamda, or thirty, is the eleventh letter—and that its place in the alphabet reflects the dispensation (mentioned) above.36 For, omitting the digamma, the sum of the letters themselves from alpha through lamda, added cumulatively with lamda itself included, is ninety-nine.

12:12 But from the very shape of the sound it is plain that lamda, the eleventh letter, came down in search of its like to make up the number of twelve (letters) and was made complete when it found it.

12:13 For as though it had come in search of its like, and had found it and clasped it to itself, lamda filled the place of the twelfth letter—the letter mu is composed of two lamdas.

12:14 And so they escape the ninety-ninth place by knowledge—that is, they escape Deficiency which is counted on the left hand—and reach the One. When this was added to ninety-nine, it moved them to the right hand.37

13:1 As you go through this, beloved, I am well aware that you will roar with laughter on hearing the kind of foolishness they think is wise. But people are worthy of mourning when they make this sort of feeble effort to disparage a religion of such dignity, and the amount of the really inexpressible value, and such great dispensations of God, with alpha, beta and numbers.

13:2 Any, however, who leave the church and put their faith in these old wives' tales, are truly self-condemned. These Paul tells us to repudiate after a first and a second admonition.

13:3 But John, the disciple of the Lord, extended their condemnation further and did not even want them to be greeted by us, 'For he that biddeth them godspeed is partaker of their evil deeds.'38

13:4 And rightly so, for the Lord says, 'It is not lawful to greet the impious.'39 And impious beyond all impiety are these persons who say that the creator of heaven and earth, the only God almighty above whom there is no other God, has been emitted by a Deficiency, which itself is the product of another Deficiency. As they see it, then, he himself is an emission of a third Deficiency!

13:5 It is truly imperative that we despise and curse this opinion, keep far, even very far away from them, and understand that the more they rely on their frauds and delight in them, the more they are animated by the ogdoad of the evil spirits—

13:6 just as people subject to fits are in worse condition the more they laugh, seem to have recovered, and do everything like persons in good health and some things even better. Similarly, the more these people appear to aim high, and exhaust themselves by shooting with a taut string, the more they are of unsound mind.

13:7 When the unclean spirit of folly had gone out, and then found them busy, not with God but with worldly philosophical inquiries, he took with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. Making their minds conceited—as becomes those who are capable of conceiving of something higher than God—and ready for entire derangement, he inserted the eightfold folly of the evil spirits into them.

14:1 But I want to explain to you besides how they say that the creation itself, which was wrought by the Demiurge in the image of things invisible, was made by the Mother without his knowledge.

14:2 They say that the four elements, fire, water, earth, and air, were emitted first as an image of the supernal first tetrad and that when their operations are reckoned in with them—that is, heat, cold, dryness and wetness—they are the exact image of the ogdoad.40

14:3 And next they enumerate ten powers as follows. Seven circular bodies, which they also term heavens; then the circle that encloses them, which they also call an eighth heaven; and the sun and moon besides. As these make ten in all, they say they are images of the invisible decad which issued from Word and Life.

14:4 But the dodecad is made known by the so-called circle of the zodiac. For they say that the twelve signs obviously represent the dodecad, the daughter of Man and Church.

14:5 And since the highest heaven has been counterpoised against the very swift motion of all (the others)—bearing down on their vault itself, and compensating for their speed with its slowness, so that it revolves from sign to sign in thirty years—they say it is an image of Limit, who surrounds their Mother for whom there are thirty names.

14:6 And the moon, in turn, which traverses its own heaven in thirty days, portrays the number of the thirty Aeons with the days.

14:741 The sun too, which makes its revolution in twelve months and follows its circular path back to its starting-point, makes the dodecad visible through the twelve months. But the days also, which are limited to twelve hours, typify the dodecad which is not luminous.

14:8 But indeed they say that even the hour, the twelfth part of a day, is composed of thirty parts in the image of the triacontad.

14:9 And the rim of the zodiacal circle itself is made of 360 parts, for each sign has thirty. And thus they say the image of the union of twelve with thirty is preserved even by the circle.

14:10 And further, they insist that even the earth is very plainly a type of the dodecad and its children. For they say that it is divided into twelve regions, and in each region, from its position directly below it, it receives a particular power from the heavens, and bears offspring in the likeness of the power that is sending its effluent down upon it.

14:11 They say further that when the Demiurge wanted to reproduce the infinity, eternity, boundlessness and timelessness of the Ogdoad on high, he could not portray its stability and eternity because he was a fruit of Deficiency himself. So he has sown its eternity in times, seasons, numbers, and long periods of years, with the intention of imitating its endlessness by the great number of the periods of time.

14:12 And here they say that since Truth deserted him falsehood has followed, and his work will therefore meet with destruction when the times are fulfilled.

15:1 And by saying such things about creation, each of them, so far as he is able, produces some further novelty every day. For with them, no one is ripe unless he bears big lies.

15:2 But I should tell you which prophetic passages they transform, and supply the rebuttal for them. For they say that when Moses was beginning his work on the creation he displayed the Mother of all at the very outset by saying, 'In Beginning God created the heaven and the earth.'

15:3 By naming these four then—God and Beginning, heaven and earth—he portrayed, as they say, their tetrad. And to make its invisibility and hiddenness known he said, 'And the earth was invisible and unformed.'

15:4 But they hold that he has spoken of the second tetrad, the offspring of the first, by naming an abyss, the darkness in themselves, water and the Spirit which was borne above the water.

15:5 After which, to make mention of the decad, he said light, day and night; a firmament, evening and what is called early morning; dry land and sea, and further, vegetation; and tenth, trees. And thus he made the ten Aeons known through the ten names.

15:6 And the value of the dodecad is represented in his work as follows. For he says sun and moon; stars and seasons; years and whales and further, fish and creeping things, birds and four-legged creatures; wild beasts. And in addition to all these, twelfth, man. They teach that in this way the triacontad has been spoken of by the Spirit through Moses.

15:7 Indeed even the man formed in the image of the value on high has within him the value from the one source—(it is seated in the cranial cavity) from which flow four so-called faculties42 in the image of the tetrad on high: sight; hearing; the sense of smell, third; fourth, taste.

15:8 And they say that the ogdoad is made known through the man in the following way. He has two ears, the same number of eyes and further, two nostrils and a dual sense of taste, the taste of bitter and sweet.

15:9 But they teach that the whole man contains the whole image of the triacontad as follows. He bears the decad on his hands with the fingers, but the dodecad in his entire body, which is divided into twelve members. (They divide it as the body of Truth is divided in their teachings—we have spoken of that.) And the ogdoad then, which is ineffable and invisible, is understood to be concealed in the viscera.

16:1 They claim in turn that the sun, the greater light, was created on the fourth day because of the number of the tetrad.

16:2 In their teachings the courts of the tabernacle constructed by Moses, which were made of flax, blue, purple, and scarlet, exhibited the same image.

16:3 They declare that the high priest’s robe, which was decorated with four rows of precious stones, indicates the tetrad. And anything at all of this sort in the scriptures, which can be reduced to the number four, they say has been put there because of their tetrad.

16:4 But the ogdoad, in turn, is exhibited as follows. They say that man was formed on the eighth day. (For they sometimes hold that he was created on the sixth day and sometimes on the eighth, unless they mean that the man of earth was made on the sixth, but the man of flesh on the eighth—for they draw this distinction.

16:5 And some of them even hold that there was one man created male and female in God's image and likeness, and this is the spiritual man; but the man formed from the earth is another one.)

16:6 And they say that the provision of the ark during the flood, in which eight persons were saved, makes the saving ogdoad known very plainly. David too, who was the eighth brother in order of birth, has the same significance. Furthermore even circumcision, which is performed on the eighth day, shows how ogdoad above is cut off from us.

16:7 And in a word, they say that anything in the scriptures which can be reduced to the number eight is applicable to the mystery of the ogdoad.

16:8 Moreover, they say the decad is indicated by the ten nations God promised to give Abraham for his possession. The provision concerning Sarah, that after ten years she gave him her maid Hagar to father children by, has the same meaning.

16:9 And the servant who was sent by Abraham for Rebecca, and who gave her ten gold bracelets at the well; and her brethren, who kept her for ten days—and further, Rehoboam, who received rule over ten tribes; the ten courts of the tabernacle, and its pillars ten cubits high; Jacob's ten sons, who were sent to Egypt to buy food the first time; and the ten apostles to whom the Lord appeared after the resurrection when Thomas was absent. These, in their opinion, portrayed the invisible decad.

17:1 They also say that the dodecad, on which the mystery of the Deficiency's passion centres—from which passion they hold that the visible things were made—is conspicuously and evidently to be found everywhere in scripture.

17:2 For example, Jacob's twelve sons, from whom the twelve tribes also sprang; the intricate breastplate with its twelve stones; the twelve bells; the twelve stones which were placed at the foot of the mountain by Moses, those too that were set up by Joshua in the river and others on the further bank; the bearers of the ark of the covenant; the stones Elijah set up at the sacrifice of the calf; the number of the apostles.43 And in a word, they say that everything which preserves the number twelve is a representation of their dodecad.

17:3 It is their contention that they can exhibit the union of all these things, which they call a triacontad, by the thirty-cubit height of Noah's ark; and Samuel, who seated Saul first among his thirty guests; and David, when he was hidden for thirty days in the field, and the thirty who joined him in the cave; and because the length of the holy tabernacle was thirty cubits; and whatever else they find to have the same number as these.

18:1 But to these I feel I must also add the passages they cull from scripture in the attempt to argue for their First Progenitor who was unknown to all before Christ's coming; and to prove that our Lord proclaimed a Father other than the maker of our universe (whom, as I said, they impiously call a fruit of a Deficiency).

18:2 They reinterpret the prophet Isaiah who indeed said, 'Israel doth not know me, and the people doth not understand me,'44 as having spoken of the ignorance of the invisible Depth.

18:3 They also force what was said by Hosea, 'There is no truth nor knowledge of God in them,'45 to pertain to the same; and they apply the words, 'There is none that understandeth, or seeketh after God; they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable,'46 to the ignorance of Depth.

18:4 They also argue that the words said by Moses, 'There shall no man see God and live,'47 refers to him. They tell the further lie that the creator has been seen by the prophets; but they hold that the scriptural words, 'There shall no man see God and live,' were said of the invisible majesty which is unknown to all.

18:5 (And that 'There shall no man see God' is said of the invisible Father and maker of the universe is plain to us all. However, that this does not refer to their further invention, Depth, but to the Creator, and that he himself is the invisible God, will be shown in the course of the treatise.)

18:6 They also say that Daniel meant the same when he asked the angel for the interpretations of the parables, as though he did not know them. Moreover to conceal the great mystery of Depth from him the angel told him, 'Go thy way, Daniel, for these words are sealed until the understanding understand, and the white be made white.'48 And they boast that they are the 'white' and the 'understanding.'

18:7 In addition to these they produce an unutterably large number of apocryphal, spurious writings which they have forged themselves, to the consternation of the foolish who do not know the true scriptures.

18:849 For this purpose they also employ the fraudulent story that when the Lord was a child and learning to read and his teacher, as is customary, told him, 'Say Alpha,' he answered, 'Alpha.'

18:9 And when the teacher in turn told him to say 'Beta,' the Lord replied, 'Tell thou me first what is Alpha, and then will I tell thee what is Beta.' And they interpret this to mean that the Lord alone understood the unknowable, and revealed it in the form of the Alpha.

18:10 They also adapt some of the Gospel passages to this type of thing. For example, the Lord\s answer to his mother when he was twelve, 'Wist ye not that I must be in my Father's house?'50 they say, proclaimed the Father they did not know to them. And this is why he sent the disciples out to the twelve tribes, preaching the God who was unknown to them.

18:11 And to the person who addressed him as 'Good Master,' he confessed the truly good God by saying, 'Why callest thou me good? One is good, the Father in the heavens';51 and they say that 'heavens' in this case means 'Aeons.'

18:12 And they explain that he has shown the Father's ineffability by not speaking, because he gave no answer to those who asked him, 'By what authority doest thou these things?'52 and they were baffled by his counter-question instead.

18:13 Moreover, when he said, 'Oft have I desired to hear one of these words, and have found none to say it,' they say that the 'word' was the word of a person who, by saying 'one,' would evidence the truly one God whom they had not known.

18:14 Further, by contemplating Jerusalem, weeping for it, and saying, 'If thou hadst known, even thou this day, the things that belong unto peace—but they are hid from thee,'53 with the word, 'hid,' he has indicated Depth's hiddenness.

18:15 Again, by saying, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and learn of me,'54 he has proclaimed the Father of Truth. For what they did not know, they say, he promised to teach them.

18:16 As proof of all this and a kind of cap to their argument they cite, 'I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden them from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Ah, my Father, for it was good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and the Son, save the Father, and he to whomsoever the Son shall reveal him.'55

18:17 For they say that with this the Lord has expressly shown that before his coming no one ever knew their falsely invented Father of truth. And they want to make it out that, since the maker and creator was always known by everyone, the Lord has said this too of the the Father whom no one knows, the one they proclaim.

19:1 Their conferral of 'redemption'56 is characteristically invisible and impossible to grasp, stemming as it does from the untouchable, invisible Mother and therefore, because of its instability, cannot be simply summarized—since they each hand it down as they choose. For there are as many 'redemptions' as there are mystagogues of this persuasion.

19:2 When I refute them I shall declare at the proper place that this type of thing has been fobbed off by Satan, as a denial of the baptism of regeneration to God, and for the abolition of all of the faith.

19:3 They say that redemption is a necessity for those who have received the perfect knowledge, so that they may be reborn to the power above all. It is impossible to enter the Pleroma otherwise, for in their view this is what transports them to the bottom of Depth.

19:4 They suppose that the baptism of the visible Jesus is for the remission of sins, but the redemption of the Christ who came down into him is for perfection, and that the one is soulish, but the other is spiritual. Baptism has been proclaimed by John for repentance, but redemption has been obtained by Christ for perfection.57

19:5 And it is of this that he says, 'And I have another baptism to be baptized with, and am in great haste for it.'58 Moreover, they say that the Lord added this redemption to the sons of Zebedee when their mother asked that they sit in the kingdom with him on his right and left, by saying, 'Can ye be baptized with the baptism that I am to be baptized with?'59

19:6 And they claim that Paul has often made express mention of the redemption in Christ Jesus, and that this is the 'redemption' which they hand down in complex, inconsistent ways.

20:1 For some of them get a bridal chamber ready,60 conduct the initiation of their candidates with certain invocations, and claim that the rite they are performing is a spiritual marriage in the likeness of the syzygies on high.

20:2 But some take them to water, and use the following invocation as they baptize them: 'In the name of the unknowable Father of all; of Truth, Mother of all; and of him who descended upon Jesus for union, redemption, and participation in the powers.'

20:3 Others pronounce an invocation with Hebrew names to terrify the candidates the more, as follows: 'Basema chamosse baainaoora mistadia rouada, kousta babophor kalachthei.' This means something like 'More than every power of the Father I call on thee, who art termed light, good spirit, and life, for in a body thou didst reign.'

20:4 But when others conduct the redemption in their turn they pronounce this invocation: 'The name hidden from every Godhead, sovereignty and truth, the name which Jesus of Nazareth put on in the girdles of the light of Christ—the Christ who lives by Holy Spirit—for angelic redemption, the name of the restoration:

20:5 Messia oupharegna mempsai men chal daian mosome daea akhphar nepseu oua Jesou Nazaria.' The translation of this is something like, 'I do not distinguish the spirit, the heart, and the merciful power above the heavens. May I enjoy the benefit of thy name, O true Saviour!'

20:6 And the officiants themselves pronounce this invocation but the neophyte responds, 'I have been stablished and redeemed, and do redeem my soul from this world and all that is of this world in the name of Iao, who redeemed his soul for redemption in the living Christ.'

20:7 Then the congregation add, 'Peace be to all on whom this name doth abide!' Then they anoint the candidate with oil61 of balsam; for they say that this ointment is a type of the sweet savour which is above all.

20:8 Some of them claim that it is unnecessary to bring candidates to the water, but mix oil and water and apply them to the candidates' heads with certain invocations like the ones we have given, and hold that this is redemption. But they too anoint with oil of balsam.

20:9 Others reject all this and claim that the mystery of the ineffable, invisible power must not be conducted with visible, perishable creatures, and that of the inconceivable and incorporeal with the perceptible and bodily.

20:10 The discernment of the ineffable Majesty is perfect redemption in itself.62 The whole system of ignorance which was brought about by Deficiency's ignorance and passion is dissolved by knowledge, so that knowledge is the redemption of the inner man.

20:11 And redemption is neither corporeal—for the body is mortal—nor soulish, since the soul too comes from Deficiency and is a sort of dwelling-place for the spirit; redemption too, then, must be spiritual.

20:12 For the inner, spiritual man is redeemed through knowledge, and they are content with the discernment of all things, and this is true redemption. This concludes the excerpt from Irenaeus.

21:1 The blessed elder Irenaeus composed this whole searching inquiry, and gave every detail of all their false teaching in order. Hence, as I have already indicated, I am content with his diligent work and have presented it all word for word, as it stands in his writings.

21:2 They will be refuted by the very things the holy man has said in opposition to their wickedness. For we believe, as the truth everywhere makes apparent, as sound reasoning indicates and as is in agreement with the standard of piety, the Law and prophets, the ancient patriarchs in succession, in accordance with the Saviour's own teaching—

21:3 for the Lord and his apostles plainly teach us to confess one God as Father, the almighty sovereign of all, and our Lord Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit, one holy Trinity uncreate; while all other things were created out of nothing, subsequent to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

21:4 Now since these things are confessed plainly and believed, by these holy prophets, evangelists, and apostles, no shifty device can withstand the truth’s bright beam, as I have often said at length in opposition to every sect.

21:5 It is thus perfectly plain that, precisely like the other sects, this murderous tramp is tailoring and devising these big things in order to show off and make a nuisance of himself.

22:1 But passing his wickedness by as well, and the wickedness of the people who are called Marcosians after him, let us hurry on to the rest, beloved, and in turn discover their roots and counteract the bitterness of their fruit by making public the refutation of it and all of the facts about them—

22:2 not for the harm of the readers but for their protection, so that they will not go near any of the sects before or after this one, but read what they have written, become acquainted with their cant and despise it, and flee from its viperous wickedness and, as I said, not go near it.

The naturalists speak of a viper called the dipsas, which does the following sort of harm. In certain places where there are depressions in the rocks, or little basins hollowed out of rocks as a receptacle, the dipsas finds water, drinks and, after drinking puts its poison into these pools of water. Then any animal that approaches and drinks its fill will feel refreshed because it drank, but it will fall right down and die from the viper's venom, beside the receptacle which has received it. Moreover, if the dipsas strikes someone, his pain from its extremely hot poison will make him thirsty and want a drink, and impel him to keep coming up and drinking. Each time the victim feels such deadly pain and has some water he will think that it does his injury some good but later, with his stomach filled by that very drink and unable to hold any more, he will vomit his life out along with the drink. Thus Marcus too causes the death of his dupes with a drink. But since we have been rescued from this poison by the power of God, let us go on to the rest.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: Panarion Addition Detailing Marcion Canon Was Added Late

Post by Secret Alias »

The point then is that Epiphanius's lack of interest in the early heresies has caused him to loosely cite Irenaeus. It is a very sloppy work which is being dictated. Only when the scribe goes back and adds:

1. the long section on Valentinus from Irenaeus (which we haven't cited here)
2. the Letter from Ptolemy to Flora
3. the long section on Marcus for Irenaeus

is the original sloppiness mitigated. Of course the redemption baptism is still with the invented material from the Heracleonites but notice that the last line of the Marcus citation from Irenaeus in the Panarion:
For the inner, spiritual man is redeemed through knowledge, and they are content with the discernment of all things, and this is true redemption.
is the very 'break' in Adversus Haereses where 'others' (identified as Heracleonites in the Panarion) are mentioned with the redemption baptism:
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. 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.
The account of the Heracleonites must have been original and the long citation of Adversus Haereses added later because there is overlapping material. For instance about Heracleon he says:
But he too intends to say more than his predecessors, and it is this. He 'redeems' those of their people who are dying and have reached the actual point of death,3 taking his cue from Marcus, but no longer doing it in Marcus' way—for his part handling it differently by redeeming his dupes at the point of death, if you please. 'For sometimes some of them will mix oil with water,4 and apply it to the head of the dying; others apply the ointment known as balsam, and water.' But they have in common the invocation as Marcus before him composed it, with the addition of certain names. And the invocation is this. 'Messia oupharegna mempsai men chal daian mosome daea akhphar nepseu oua jesou Nazaria.
The overlap here is impossible to explain unless - as I now confirm - the citations of material from Irenaeus were added subsequent to the original dictation.

In other words, Epiphanius had very little interest in the Valentinians and the material he appropriated from Irenaeus. In the original dictation he went through the early sects as a chore and only later polished up the account to gain some respectability (and make it less compromising to the integrity of the work as a whole). I can't help note that for instance in the earlier account of the Valentinians Epiphanius is particularly disinterested in attempting to deliver 'accurate' information:
Valentinus is the successor of the ones I have placed before him—Basilides and Satornilus, and Ebion, Cerinthus, Merinthus and the others. For all these sprang up evilly in the world at the same time; or rather, Cerinthus, Merinthus and Ebion did a little earlier. For (the Valentinians) grew up along with the ones I have already presented before them. Most people do not know Valentinus' homeland or birthplace; to give his birthplace has not been an easy business for any writer. But I have heard a report as though by word of mouth; therefore I shall not overlook it, and though I cannot give his birthplace—to be honest, it is a disputed point—I shall not be be silent about the rumour that has reached me. Some have said he was born a Phrebonite, a native of Paralia in Egypt, and received the Greek education in Alexandria.
Why doesn't Epiphanius just go through Irenaeus's account of the Valentinians as we see him do with other sects that follow? I think Epiphanius was not originally very impressed with Irenaeus's reporting and so began with another source for the Valentinians and only later happened to have a copy of Adversus Haereses and so went section by section because he happened to have that text in his hand. Indeed we can trace the development of 'Adversus Haereses' being in the hand of Epiphanius by the end of the section of the Valentinians. But first let's note the progression of 'Irenaeus' references in the Panarion.

The first time Irenaeus is mentioned is in the section dealing with the Basilideans (in Irenaeus Basilides appears near the end, here because of the Simon-first ordering, near the beginning). Epiphanius mentions in passing:
Then, he says, man also has 365 members for this reason, so that he can assign one member to each of the powers.35 His contrived, spurious teaching fails in this as well; there are 364 members in a man. But the blessed Irenaeus, the successor of the apostles, has gone into detail about him and given a marvellous refutation of his stupidity.
Indeed as Williams notes in this section:
The primary source of this Sect is Hipp. Synt., cf. PsT 1.5. However, Epiph also uses Irenaeus (1.24.3-7) and mentions him by name at 8,1.
In other words, as is borne out by a section by section comparison Epiphanius has available to him Irenaeus's Adversus Haereses and 'riffs' some of what he writes about Basilides from this 'at hand' source. However the scribe has not been instructed by Epiphanius's command to copy out any part of the section.

Then when he gets to the Valentinians, at the very beginning of the section Epiphanius makes reference to the end of Adversus Haereses as if it pertained to the Valentinians:
For all of these sprouted from the ground at the same time like toadstools and all came to life at once like stunted, smelly shoots and thistly grass and like a den full of scorpions, and, as I said, appeared in an instant like the ugliness of toadstools. This has been said of them already, by the most holy Irenaeus.
The section he is referring to is:
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.
But this hardly has to do specifically with the Valentinians and indeed Epiphanius utilizes the reference in the context of many heresies springing up from 'the Gnostics.' It nevertheless does not appear to be specific to the Valentinian sect and likely comes from memory.

The point here then is that Epiphanius treats Adversus Haereses as if it (a) acknowledged the multifaceted nature of 'the Gnostics' as a sect but that it was concerned specifically with (b) the Valentinians and their offshoots. Indeed he specifically adds a little later at the very beginning of the section:

Valentinus is the successor of the ones I have placed before him—Basilides and Satornilus, and Ebion, Cerinthus, Merinthus and the others. For all these sprang up evilly in the world at the same time; or rather, Cerinthus, Merinthus and Ebion did a little earlier. For (the Valentinians) grew up along with the ones I have already presented before them
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: Panarion Addition Detailing Marcion Canon Was Added Late

Post by Secret Alias »

To this end Epiphanius accepts Irenaeus as if he wrote principally against the Valentinians but with the understanding that they were only the latest in a long series of 'gnostics' dating back to Simon Magus.

All of this still points to Epiphanius having a number of books in front of him and him flipping through these sources and reading aloud loose citations of what was contained in them.

He does this mixing of various sources throughout the original dictation for the section on the Valentinians. However in due course a long section from Irenaeus was again added to this sloppy section. It is easy to discover the original 'seam' - we read:

But the soulish, after working hard and rising above the Demiurge, will be given, on high, to the angels46 who are with Christ. They recover no part of their bodies; just their souls are given as brides to the angels with Christ, when they are found to possess full knowledge and to have risen above the Demiurge. Such is the dramatic piece they offer, and it contains even more than this. I have merely enumerated the things I thought naturally needed to be brought to light as far as I have learned about them— where he came from, when he lived, from whom he took his cue, what his teaching is, together with which contemporaries his evil sprouted up in the world. And as I said, I give his teaching in part. Having related these few things thus far

and then the citation of Irenaeus interrupts the confession of 'inexactness':
for the rest I shall take the quotation in full from the man I have spoken of, a servant of God, I mean Irenaeus:
From the Writings of St. Irenaeus47

9:1 Certain persons have rejected the truth and are introducing novel falsehoods and 'endless genealogies which,' as the apostle says, 'minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith.'48 With the specious argument they have villainously hammered together, they are misleading the minds of the simple and take them captive,

9:2 tampering with the oracles of the Lord and becoming bad expositors of things that have been said well. And they are overthrowing many by leading them away, under the pretence of knowledge, from him who framed and ordered this whole creation, as though they had something higher and greater to display than the God who has made heaven, earth, and everything in them.

9:3 Persuasively, through the art of rhetoric, they win the innocent to the habit of inquiry. But they abruptly49 destroy them by making their opinion of the Creator blasphemous and impious—since they have no ability to distinguish truth from falsehood in anything.

9:4 For error is not shown as it is lest it become detectible when stripped. Villainously decked in a cloak of plausibility, it presents to the simple the appearance of being truer than the truth itself—an absurd thing even to say!—by its outward show.

9:5 As has been said of such persons by a greater man than I, when a piece of glass is artificially made to resemble the stone which is the real precious pearl and of very great value, it will mock some people, if no one there is competent to test it and expose the wicked trick. And when bronze is mixed with silver, what guileless person can readily assay it?

9:6 Now I have read the treatises of the 'disciples of Valentinus,' as they say themselves, and have met some and understood what they think. To see that—even through no fault of mine—none are snatched away like sheep by wolves since they may not recognize under their outer covering of lambskin the persons the Lord has warned us of, who speak as we do but think otherwise,

9:7 I feel it essential, beloved, that I disclose to you the monstrous, abstruse mysteries which 'all cannot receive,'50 since all have not spat their brains out! Thus when you have learned them too you can make them known to all who are with you, and urge them to beware of the abyss of folly and blasphemy of God.

9:8 And as far as I can I shall also give a brief, clear explanation of the doctrine of those—I mean the Ptolemaeans—who are now repeating the same teaching, a culling from the school of Valentinus, and give others the resources for its refutation, by showing, as well as my modest ability allows, that what they say is absurd, untenable, and incompatible with the truth.

9:9 This though I am neither accustomed to composition nor trained in rhetoric—even while love bids me disclose, to you and to all who are with you, the teachings that have been concealed till now, but by God’s grace have now come to light. 'For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid, that shall not be known.'51

10:1 As I live among Celts and chiefly occupy myself with a barbarian language, you will not look for rhetoric, which I have not learned, from me—or ability at composition, in which I have no practice, or elegance of style, or persuasiveness, of which I know nothing.

10:2 Instead you will accept with love what I have written you with love, simply, truly, and in everyday speech, and grow it yourself—as you can, being abler than I—as though you had received seeds and shoots from me.

10:3 In the breadth of your intellect you will make what I have said in brief bear fruit in abundance and will present powerfully, to those who are with you, the things I have feebly told you.

10:4 And as I have done my best—since you have been wanting to learn of their doctrine for a long time—not only to make it known to you but also to provide the means of proving its falsity, you too, by the grace the Lord has given you, will do your best to convey it to the rest, so that people may no longer be swept away with their specious argument, which runs as follows:

10:5 They say that, in invisible, heights that cannot be named, there pre-exists a perfect Aeon. Him they call Prior Principle, First Progenitor,52 and Depth.53 He is uncontainable and invisible, eternal and ingenerate, and has existed in calm and deep tranquility54 for boundless ages of time. And with him also is an Ennoia, whom they term both Grace and Silence.55

10:656 At some time Depth conceived of emitting a first principle of all things from himself, and like a seed57 he deposited the emanation he had conceived of emitting in his co-existent Silence, as in a womb.

10:7 Receiving this seed and becoming pregnant, Silence brought forth Mind,58 the like and equal of the One who had emitted him and alone capable of containing the Father's majesty. This Mind they also call Only-Begotten, and Father and first principle of all things.

10:8 But with him Truth has been emitted, and this is the first, original Pythagorean tetrad,59 which they also call the root of all things. For it is Depth and Silence, and then Mind and Truth.

10:9 Realizing why he had been emitted, this Only-Begotten himself emitted Word and Life:60 the father of all who were to come after him, and the principle and form of the entire Pleroma. But from Word and Life, Man and Church have been emitted as a pair.61

10:10 And this is the original Ogdoad, the root and ground of all things, which they call by four names, Depth, Mind, Word, and Man. (For each is male and female as follows: First Progenitor, to begin with, is united in a pair with his own Ennoia. Only-Begotten, or Mind, is united with Truth, Word with Life, and Man with Church.)

10:11 After these Aeons had been emitted to the glory of the Father, they too desired to glorify him with something of their own,62 and put forth emanations in pairs. Word and Life emitted ten other Aeons after the emission of Man and Church, and they say their names are as follows: Profound and Copulation, Ageless and Union, Self-Engendered and Pleasure, Immoveable and Intercourse, Only-Begotten and Happiness. These are the ten Aeons they claim have been emitted by Word and Life.63

10:12 But Man too, with Church, emitted twelve Aeons.64 They favour these with the names of Advocate and Truth, Paternal and Hope, Maternal and Love, Ever-Mindful and Understanding, Ecclesiasticus and Blessedness, Desired and Wisdom.

10:13 These are the 30 Aeons of their imposture, which have been kept secret and are not known. This is their invisible, spiritual Pleroma, with its triple division into ogdoad, decad and dodecad.

10:14 And for this reason they say that the Saviour—they prefer not to call him 'Lord'—did nothing openly for 30 years, giving indication of the mystery of these Aeons.

10:15 Moreover, they say, these 30 Aeons are made very plainly known in the parable of the labourers sent into the vineyard,65 For some are sent about the first hour, some about the third, some about the sixth, some about the ninth, and others about the eleventh. If you add these hours they give a total of 30—one, three, six, nine and eleven are 30—and they hold that the Aeons are made known by the hours.

10:16 And these are the great, marvellous, ineffable mysteries which they produce—and, of the things the scriptures say in great quantity, these are all that could be matched and compared with their fabrication.

11:1 They say their First Progenitor is known only to Only-Begotten, that is to Mind, who originated from him.66 To all the rest he is invisible and incomprehensible.67 Only Mind, they believe, enjoyed the contemplation of the Father and rejoiced in the perception of his immeasurable greatness.

11:2 And he intended to communicate the greatness of the Father to the remaining Aeons,68 what he was like and how great he was, and how he was without beginning, uncontainable and impossible to see. But by the Father's will Silence restrained him, because she meant to arouse them all to an intent and yearning to seek after their First Progenitor.69

11:3 Similarly the other Aeons also had a sort of silent yearning to see the originator of their seed, and be informed of their root which had no beginning.70

11:4 But the Aeon which was by far the last and the youngest of the twelve emitted by Man and Church—that is, Sophia71—sprang forth, Sophia appears when Eleleth speaks and Sakla and Nebruel are brought out and without a union with her consort,72 Desired, experienced a passion which had begun in Mind and Truth and fallen suddenly upon this errant Aeon—pretendedly a passion of love, but (actually) one of presumption, since she did not have perfect fellowship with the Father as Mind did.

11:5 Then, since she could not (find the Father) because she had set herself an impossible task, and since she had fallen into deep distress73 at the vastness of the depth, the Father's unsearchability, and her love for him, she stretched farther and farther forward. And she would finally have been engulfed and utterly dissolved by his sweetness74 if she had not encountered the power which makes all things firm, and keeps watch over them outside of the ineffable majesty.

11:6 This power they call Limit.75 Restrained and made fast by Limit,76 coming to herself with difficulty, and convinced of the Father's incomprehensibility, she abandoned her former Resolve, with the passion inspired by that terror-stricken wonder.

12:1 But some of them speak of Sophia's passion and conversion in terms of the following myth. In her attempt at something impossible and unattainable she gave birth to an essence without form,77 such a nature as a female could bear.78

12:2 On observing it she was first grieved at the unfinished character of its birth,79 then afraid that its very existence might come to an end as well—then distraught and at her wits end, from searching for the cause of what had happened, and how to hide it.

12:3 But after her submergence in the passions80 she experienced conversion and tried to return to the Father; and after some time in this venture was exhausted, and became the Father's suppliant.81

12:4 The other Aeons, and especially Mind, joined in her supplication.82 From this, they say, the essence of matter had its first origin: from the ignorance, grief, fear and distraction (of Sophia).

12:5 It was for this reason that the Father emitted Limit in his own image, unpartnered and with no female, through Only-Begotten. (They sometimes conceive of the Father as paired with Silence, but sometimes as above both male and female.)83

12:6 They call this Limit Cross, Redeemer, Emancipator, Limit-Setter, and Conductor.84 They say that Sophia was purified and made firm by Limit, and restored to her syzygy.85

12:7 For now that her Resolve, with the passion86 which had arisen later, was separated from her, she remained within the Pleroma. But her Resolve, with the passion, was separated and fenced off by Limit,87 and once outside him was a spiritual essence like a sort of natural germ of an Aeon, but shapeless and without form because it understood nothing. And for this reason they call it a sterile fruit and a female.

13:1 But after its banishment outside the Pleroma of the Aeons, and the restoration to her syzygy of its mother, in order that no Aeon would suffer as she had, by the Father's forethought Only-Begotten emitted yet another pair to fix the Pleroma and make it firm, Christ and Holy Spirit, by whom, they say, the Aeons were settled.88

13:2 For Christ taught them the nature of union, (that is), that only those who comprehend the ingenerate are fit for union with him;89 and to proclaim among themselves their realization that the Father is uncontainable and incomprehensible and cannot be seen or heard, or that he is known only through Only-Begotten—

13:3 also that the incomprehensibility of the Father is the cause of the others' eternal endurance, while the cause of their birth and formation is his comprehensibility, that is, his Son. And the newly emitted Christ performed this work among them.

13:4 But after they had all been made equal, Holy Spirit taught them to give thanks and explained the true repose.90 And thus, they say, the Aeons were made alike in form and sentiment, and all became Minds, all Words, all Men, and all Christs; and similarly the females all became Truths, all Lives, all Spirits and all Churches.

13:5 But when all things had been fixed in this state, they say, and were perfectly in repose, they hymned the First Progenitor with great joy because they partook of great happiness.

13:6 And in return for this benefit, with one will and purpose each of the whole Pleroma of Aeons, with the consent of Christ and Holy Spirit and with their Father's endorsement, pooled and contributed what was best and brightest in it. Fitly combining these things and becomingly uniting them,

13:7 they produced an emanation to the honour and glory of Depth,91 a kind of consummate beauty and star of the Pleroma, its perfect Fruit, Jesus.92 He is also called Saviour; Christ; Word after his father; and All,93 because he is of all. And angels94 of the same nature were emitted with him in his honour, to be his bodyguard.

14:1 This, then, is the affair they say took place within the Pleroma; and the misfortune of the Aeon who suffered and almost perished when she experienced deep grief because of her search for the Father; and her solidification after her ordeal by Limit-Cross-Redeemer-Emancipator-Limit-Setter-Conductor; and the production, because of her repentance, of the first Christ and Holy Spirit, later than the Aeons, by their Father; and the joint production, by public subscription, of the second Christ, whom they also term Saviour.

14:2 These things have not been said openly since not everyone can accommodate the knowledge of them, but they have been made known mystically by the Saviour in parables to those who can understand them, as follows:

14:3 The thirty Aeons are made known, as we said, by the thirty years in which they claim the Saviour did nothing openly; and by the parable of the labourers in the vineyard.

14:4 And they say that Paul often names these Aeons very plainly, and further that he has even observed their order by saying, 'unto all the generations of the aeons of the aeon.'95

14:5 Moreover, we too are giving indication of those Aeons when we say, 'unto the aeons of the aeons,'96 at the eucharist. And wherever 'aeon' or “aeons' are mentioned, they hold that the reference is to those.

14:6 The emission of the dodecad of Aeons is made known through the Lord's disputation with the doctors of the Law at the age of twelve, and by his choice of the apostles, for there are twelve apostles.

14:7 And the remaining eighteen Aeons are shown by the fact that, as they say, the Lord spent eighteen months with the disciples after his rising from the dead. Moreover, the eighteen Aeons are plainly made known by the first two letters of his name, 'iota' and 'eta.'

14:8 And they say that the ten Aeons are similarly indicated by the 'iota' which begins his name. And this is why the Saviour has said, 'One iota or one tittle shall not pass away till all things come to pass.'97

14:9 The passion encountered by the twelfth Aeon is suggested, they say, by the defection of Judas who was the twelfth of the apostles, and because (the Saviour) suffered in the twelfth month—they hold that he preached for one year after his baptism.

14:10 Further, this is shown very clearly in the incident of the woman with the issue of blood. For after suffering for twelve years she was healed by the Saviour's arrival, through touching the hem of his garment. And the Saviour said, 'Who touched me?'98 for this reason, to teach his disciples of the mystery that had been consummated among the Aeons, and the healing of the Aeon that suffered.

14:11 For the woman who suffered for twelve years is that power, which would have been completely dissolved, as they say, by her stretching and the endless running of her essence, if she had not touched the Son’s garment—that is, the Truth of the first Tetrad, who is indicated by the hem of the garment. But she stopped this and was rid of the passion. For the power of the Son which issued forth—they hold that this is Limit—healed her, and separated the passion from her.

14:12 And that Saviour, the product of all, is the All, is shown, they say, by the words, 'All the males99 that open the womb.'100 For since he is the All, he opened the womb of the suffering Aeon's Resolve, who was banished outside the Pleroma, the one they also call a second Ogdoad of whom I shall speak a little later.

14:13 And they say that, 'And he is all,'101 was obviously said on this account by Paul, and again, 'All are for him, and of him are all,'102 and, 'In him dwelleth all the Pleroma of the Godhead.'103 And they interpret, 'to gather all in one in Christ, through God,'104 in this sense, and anything else of the kind.

15:1 Then they declare of their Limit, the one they call by a number of names, that he has two activities, the stabilizing and the divisive.105 Insofar as he stabilizes and makes firm, he is Cross; but insofar as he divides and separates, he is Limit.

============= too big for the entire citation to fit in this forum =========================

19:5 But they say the Demiurge is a soulish son of their Mother, while the Ruler of the World is a creature of the Demiurge. And the Ruler of the World knows what is above him, for he is a wicked spirit; but the Demiurge, being soulish, does not.139

19:6 Their Mother dwells in the place above the heavens, the Intermediate Region;140 the Demiurge in the heavenly place, the Hebdomad; but the Ruler of the World, in our world.

19:7 As I said, the world's physical components are derived from the consternation and bewilderment, the more distracted (passions)—earth answering to the motionlessness of consternation, water to the movement of fear, air to the fixity of pain. But they teach that fire is inherent in them all as death and decay, just as ignorance lies concealed within the three passions.

19:8 After creating the world the Demiurge also made the man of dust—not by taking him from this dry earth but from the invisible essence, the overflow and runoff of matter. Into him, they declare, he breathed soulishness.

19:9 And this is the man created 'in an image and a likeness';141 and in an image he is the material man, very like God but not of the same nature. But 'in likeness' he is the soulish man; thus his essence is also said to be a 'spirit of life' since it originates from a spiritual effluent.

19:10 Later, they say, the garment of skin was put on him; this they hold to be the man with perceptible flesh.

19:11 But they say the Demiurge is also unknowing of their Mother Achamoth's spiritual embryo which she brought forth at the sight of the angels about Saviour, of the same spiritual nature as the Mother. Nor does the Demiurge know that it has been implanted in him surreptitiously, without his knowledge, so as to be sown through him in the soul which stems from him and in this material body, to be incubated and grown in these, and become ready for the reception of mature Reason.142

19:12 Thus, they say, the Demiurge was unaware of the spiritual man whom Sophia also sowed, with ineffable power and providence, through his breath.143 For as he knew nothing of the Mother, so he knew nothing of her seed144—the seed which they also call Church,145 a type of the Church on high.146

19:13 They regard this as the man within them,147 so that they have their soul from the Demiurge, their body of earth and its fleshliness from matter, but their spiritual man from the Mother, Achamoth.148

20:1 Since there are three principles,149 they say that the material, which they also call 'left,' must perish from its inability to receive any breath of immortality. But the soulish, which they also term 'right,' being midway150 between spiritual and material, goes whichever way it is inclined.151

20:2 The spiritual, however, has been sent out to be formed here in conjunction with the soulish,152 and educated with it in the course of life.153 And they say that this is the salt,154 and the light of the world.155 For the soulish was in need even of perceptible means of instruction; they say that this is why a world has been made.

20:3 And the Saviour has also come for this soulish principle, to save it, since it too has power of self-determination.

20:4 They claim that the Saviour has received the first-fruits156 of the principles he was to rescue. He has received spirituality from Achamoth, has donned the soulish Christ from the Demiurge,157 and from the dispensation has been clothed with a body the essence of which is soulish but which, by an ineffable art, has been made to become visible, tangible and passable. But they say he has received nothing material at all;158 matter is not susceptible of salvation.

20:5 The consummation will come when everything spiritual has been formed and perfected by knowledge.159 This means the spiritual persons who have perfect knowledge of God and are initiates of the mysteries of Achamoth;160 they suppose that they themselves are these persons.

20:6 But soulish people, who are established by works and mere faith and do not have the perfect knowledge,161 have been taught soulish things. We of the church, they say, are these people.162

20:7 And so they declare that good behaviour is essential for us—(we cannot be saved otherwise)163—but hold that they will surely be saved in any case, not by (any) behaviour but because they are spiritual by nature.164

20:8 For as the earthy can have no part in salvation—they say it is not susceptible of it—so the spiritual, in turn, which they claim to be, does not admit of corruption, in whatever deeds they may take part.

20:9 For as gold buried in mud does not lose its beauty but retains its own nature, since the mud has no power to harm the gold, they too, they say, in whatever material acts they may engage, cannot be harmed or lose their spirituality.165

21:1 Hence, the most perfect of them may do without fear all the forbidden things of which the scriptures affirm that those who do them will not inherit the kingdom of God.166

21:2 They casually eat foods which have been sacrificed to idols, and believe they are in no way defiled by them. They are the first to gather for any holiday celebration of the heathen, held in honour of the idols—and some do not even avoid the murderous spectacle, hateful to God and man, of battles with beasts and gladiatorial combat.

21:3 Some even serve the pleasures of the flesh to excess and say they are rendering carnal things to the carnal and spiritual things to the spiritual.

21:4 And some secretly seduce the women to whom they teach this doctrine, as women have often confessed together with the rest of the imposture, after being deceived by some of them and then returning to God's church.

21:5 Some, even open in their shamelessness, have enticed any women whom they want away from their husbands, and regarded them as their own wives.

21:6 Others again, pretending at first to live modestly with them as with sisters, have been exposed in time after the sister has become pregnant by the brother.

21:7 But though they do many other detestable, ungodly things, they cast off on us, who from fear of God guard against sin even in thought and speech, as boors with no understanding. But they exalt themselves above us and call themselves 'perfect' and 'seed of election.'

21:8 For they say that we receive grace on loan,167 and so will be deprived of it. But they, as their rightful possession, have the grace come down from above, from the ineffable, unutterable syzygy, and therefore it will be added to them. And thus it is absolutely necessary that they attend at all times to the mystery of the syzygy.

21:9 And they convince the stupid of this by saying in so many words, 'Whoever has come into the world and not loved a woman so as to possess her, is not of the truth, and will not depart to the truth. But he who is of the world and has possessed a woman will not depart to the truth because he has possessed a woman in lust.'

21:10 And so we, whom they call 'soulish' and say are 'of the world,' are in need of continence and good behaviour so that we may enter the Intermediate Region.168 But not they, the ones called 'spiritual' and 'perfect.' No deed brings one into the Pleroma, but the seed which is sent from there in its infancy, and matures here.

21:11169 But when all the seed matures, their Mother Achamoth, they say, leaves the Intermediate Region, enters the Pleroma, and receives as her bridegroom Saviour, the product of all the Aeons forming a syzygy of Saviour and Sophia-Achamoth. And this is the meaning of 'bridegroom and bride,' and 'marriage chamber'170 means the entire Pleroma.

21:12 The spiritual will doff their souls, become intellectual spirits, enter the Pleroma171 untouched and unseen,172 and be given as brides to Saviour's angels.173

21:13 The Demiurge will move too, to Mother Sophia's place,174 that is, in the Intermediate Region. And the souls of the righteous will also rest in the Intermediate Region—for nothing soulish can enter the Pleroma.

21:14 But they teach that after that the fire which is latent in the world will flash forth, catch, consume all matter,175 be consumed with it,176 and pass into nothingness. They declare that the Demiurge knew none of this before the Saviour's advent.

22:1 But there are those who say that he emitted a Christ too177—his own son and himself soulish—and has spoken of him through the prophets. This is the one who passed through Mary as water goes through a pipe, and to him, at the baptism,178 that Saviour from the Pleroma, the product of all, descended in the form of a dove. The spiritual seed from Achamoth came into him as well.

22:2 Thus they maintain that our Lord was compounded of these four, preserving the type of the original, first tetrad: the spiritual, which was from Achamoth; the soulish, which was from the Demiurge; the dispensation, which was prepared with ineffable art; and Saviour, who was the dove that came down to him.

22:3 And Saviour remained impassable; it was not possible that he suffer, since he could not be touched or seen. And so, when Jesus was brought before Pilate, the spirit of Christ that had been implanted in him was taken away. But the seed from the Mother has not suffered either, they say; it too is impassable, since it is spiritual, and invisible even to the Demiurge.

22:4 In sum, their 'soulish Christ' suffered, and the one who was mysteriously prepared by the dispensation so that the Mother could exhibit the type of the higher Christ through him—the Christ who was stretched out by Cross and gave Achamoth her essential form. For they say that all these things are types of those others.

22:5 They say that the souls which have Achamoth's seed are better than the rest. Thus they are more loved than the others by the Demiurge, though he does not know the reason, and thinks that he is responsible for their quality.

22:6 And so, they say, he appointed them prophets, priests and kings. And they interpret many passages as having been spoken through the prophets by this seed, since it is of a higher nature. They say that the Mother too has said a great deal about the higher things; however, they claim that many things have been said both through the Demiurge and through the souls he has created.

22:7 And to conclude, they cut the prophecies to pieces by holding that this one was uttered by the Mother, that one by the seed and the other one by the Demiurge.179

22:8 Jesus, moreover, has likewise said one thing by Saviour's inspiration, another by the Mother's, another by the inspiration of the Demiurge, as I shall show in due course.

22:9 But the Demiurge, not knowing what was above him, was angry at those sayings, despised them and thought that they had various causes: either the prophetic spirit, from some motion of its own; or the man; or the admixture of inferior things.

22:10 And he remained in this ignorance till the Saviour's coming. But when the Saviour came, they say, he learned everything from him, and gladly came over to him with his entire host.180

22:11 And he is the centurion of the Gospel, who tells the Saviour, 'For I also have under my authority soldiers and servants, and whatsoever I command, they do.'181

22:12 He will fulfil his function in the world as long as necessary, especially because of his concern for the church and is awareness of the reward in store for him—that he will go to the Mother's place.

23:1 They suppose that there are three kinds of men, spiritual, earthy and soulish, just as there were Cain, Abel and Seth—to illustrate the three natures even from these, here not as individuals but as types.

23:2 The earthy kind departs to corruption. The soulish, if it chooses the better part, rests in the Intermediate Region; if it chooses the worse, it too will depart to the like place.182

23:3 But they hold that when the spiritual (seeds) which Achamoth sows among them—having been trained and nurtured here in righteous souls from then till now, since they are sent as infants—will afterwards be awarded as brides to Saviour's angels, once they are deemed mature.183 But of necessity their souls will have gone to eternal rest in the Intermediate Region with the Demiurge.

23:4 And in turn they subdivide the souls themselves, and say that some are good by nature, others evil by nature. And it is the good souls that become fit to receive the seed; the souls which are evil by nature would never welcome that seed.184

24:1 Since such is their thesis—which the prophets did not proclaim, nor the Lord teach, nor the apostles transmit, (yet) which they take extreme pride in knowing better than the others—they read from uncanonical writings, busily plait what they say into ropes of sand and, not to let their forgery appear unevidenced,

24:2 try to adapt parables of the Lord, oracles of the prophets, or words of the apostles convincingly to what they have said. They violate the arrangement and sequence of the scriptures, and as far as they are able, dismember the truth.

24:3 They alter and remodel and, by making one thing out of another, completely fool many with their poorly assembled show of the accommodated oracles of the Lord.

24:4 It is as though a beautiful portrait of a king had been carefully made of fine gems by a wise craftsman, and someone were to destroy the image as it stood, reset those gems and recombine them, and produce a likeness of a dog or fox, and poorly made at that—

24:5 and then state categorically that this was the beautiful portrait of the king which the wise craftsman had made and, by displaying the gems the former craftsman had fitted becomingly into the king's portrait but the latter had reset badly as a likeness of a dog, defraud with the show of the gems the less experienced who had no idea of the king's appearance, and convince them that this latter poor effigy of the fox was the former beautiful portrait of the king.

24:6 In precisely the same way these people have cobbled old wives' tales together, and then they extract words, sayings and parables from here and there, and want to adapt the oracles of God to their yarns.

25:1 We have spoken of such things as they match with what is inside their Pleroma. Here are the sorts of thing they try to adapt from scripture to the things outside.

25:2 They say the Lord has come to the passion in the last days of the world to show the passion that overtook the last of the Aeons,185 and with this 'end'186 to indicate the end of the affair of the Aeons.

25:3 They explain the twelve-year-old girl, the ruler of the synagogue's daughter, whom the Lord came and raised from the dead, as a type of Achamoth, to whom their Christ gave form when he was extended, and whom he brought to an awareness of the light that had left her.

25:4 They say it was because Saviour manifested himself to Achamoth when she was outside the Pleroma like an untimely birth187 that Paul, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, has said, 'Last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.'188

25:5 In the same epistle he has similarly revealed the coming of Saviour to Achamoth with his companions by saying, 'The woman ought to have a veil on her head because of the angels.'189 And that Achamoth veiled her face in shame when Saviour came to her, Moses has made evident by covering his face with a veil.

25:6 And they claim the Lord has indicated the passions she suffered when she was abandoned by the light. With his words on the cross, 'My God, why hast thou forsaken me?'190 he has shown that Sophia was abandoned by the light and prevented by Limit from starting forward. With, 'My soul is exceeding sorrowful,'191 he has shown her grief; with, 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,'192 her fear. Similarly her bewilderment, with, 'and what I should say, I know not.'193

25:7 They teach that he has shown that there are three kinds of men in the following ways. The material kind by replying, 'The Son of Man hath not where to lay his head,' to the man who said, 'I will follow thee.'194 The soulish, by answering the man who said, 'Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first bid farewell to them which dwell in my house,' with, 'No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is suitable in the kingdom of heaven.'195

25:8 (This man was one of the intermediate kind, they say.) They claim that the man who professed to have performed the greater part of righteousness, and then would not follow but was vanquished by wealth so that he could not become perfect,196 was similarly soulish.

25:9 But he showed the spiritual kind, by saying 'Let the dead bury their own dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God';197 and by saying of Zacchaeus the publican, 'Make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house.'198 For they assert that these were of the spiritual kind.

25:10 And they say that the parable of the leaven the woman is said to have hidden in three measures of meal199 shows the three kinds. For they teach that Sophia is called a woman, but that 'three measures of meal' are the three sorts of men, spiritual, soulish, earthy. And they teach that 'leaven' means the Saviour himself.

25:11 Paul too has spoken expressly of earthy, soulish, and spiritual men—where he says, 'As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy';200 where he says, 'The soulish man receiveth not the things of the spirit';201 and where he says, 'A spiritual man examineth all things.'202 And they say that 'The soulish man receiveth not the things of the Spirit,'203 refers to the Demiurge who, being soulish, did not know the Mother who is spiritual, or her seed or the Aeons in the Pleroma.

25:12 Because the Saviour received the first fruits of those he was to save, Paul has said, 'If the first fruits be holy, the lump is also holy.'204 They teach that 'first fruits' means the spiritual205 but 'lump' means ourselves, the soulish church, whose lump they say he received and raised in himself, since he himself was leaven.

26:1 And by saying that he had come for the sheep that was lost,206 they say he made it known that Achamoth strayed outside the Pleroma, and was formed by Christ and sought out by Saviour.

26:2 For they explain that 'lost sheep' means their Mother, by whom they hold that the church here has been sown. But 'straying' means the time she spent outside the Pleroma, in all the passions from which they suppose that matter originated.

26:3 They explain that the woman who swept the house and found the drachma207 means the Sophia on high, who had lost her Resolve but found her later when all had been purified by Saviour's arrival. Therefore, as they believe, she herself was restored to her place within the Pleroma.

26:4 They say that Simeon, who took Christ in his arms, thanked God and said, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word,'208 is a type of the Demiurge. When the Saviour came he learned of his translation and gave thanks to Depth.

26:5 And they declare that Achamoth is very plainly made known through Anna, whom the Gospel proclaims a prophetess, and who had lived seven years with a husband and always remained a widow after that, till she saw and recognized the Saviour and spoke of him to everyone.209 Achamoth saw Saviour briefly then with his companions, and always remained in the Intermediate Region afterwards, awaiting the time when he would return and restore her to her syzygy.

26:6 And her name has been made known by the Saviour in saying, 'And Sophia is justified by her children,' 210 and by Paul with, 'Howbeit we speak of 'Sophia' among them that are perfect.'211

26:7 And they claim that in one instance Paul has spoken specifically of the syzygies within the Pleroma. For of the syzygy which relates to the world he wrote, 'This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and Church.'212

27:1 They teach further that John, the disciple of the Lord, has revealed the former Ogdoad. Their exact words are,

27:2 'John, the disciple of the Lord, desiring to speak of the generation of all by which the Father emitted all things, posits as the first to be generated by God a 'Beginning,' which he has called both 'Son' and 'Only-Begotten God.' In this, in germ, the Father emitted all.

27:3 And he says that 'Word' has been emitted by him, and in Word the entire essence of the Aeons, to which Word himself later imparted form. Since John is speaking of a first act of generation, he rightly begins his teaching with the 'Beginning,' that is, the Son and the Word.

27:4 'For he says as follows: 'In Beginning was Word, and Word was with God, and Word was God. The same was in Beginning with God.'213

27:5 After first distinguishing the three—God, Beginning and Word—he combines again, to show the emission of the two, Son and Word, and their union with each other as well as with the Father.

27:6 For Beginning is in the Father and of the Father, and Word is in Beginning and of Beginning. He was right, then, in saying, 'In Beginning was Word,' for Word was in Son. And in saying, 'And Word was with God', for Beginning was indeed with the Father. And accordingly, 'Word was God' for what is begotten of God is God. And by, 'The same was in Beginning with God,' he indicated their order of emission.

27:7 'All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made'214 for Word became the cause of the form and the generation for all the Aeons after him. But with 'That which was made in him is Life'215 he even made reference at this point to a syzygy. He said that all things have been brought into being through Word, but Life in Word.

27:8 'Thus she who came to be in him is more closely related to him than those who came to be through him, for she is his consort and bears fruit through him.

27:9 For since adds, 'And Life was the light of men,'216 by saying 'Man' now he has also made Church known under the same name, to show the partnership of the syzygy through the one name; for Man and Church arise from Word and Life.

27:10 And he termed Life the 'light of men,' since men are enlightened—that is, formed and made manifest—by her. And Paul says this too, 'Whatsoever is made manifest is light.'217 Therefore, since Life made Man and Church manifest and brought them into being, she is called their light.

27:11 'With these words, then, John has clearly indicated both the others and the second tetrad: Word and Life, Man and Church.'

27:12 But he has certainly made the first tetrad known as well. For in discussing the Saviour and stating that everything outside the Pleroma has been formed by him, he calls him the fruit of the entire Pleroma.

27:13 For he has called him the 'light' that shines in darkness and was not comprehended by it, because though the Saviour bestowed order on all that had resulted from the passion he was not known by them.

27:14 And John calls him both 'Son' and 'Truth,' and 'Light' and 'Word made flesh, whose glory,' he says, 'we beheld; and his glory was as that of an Only-Begotten, given him of the Father, full of Grace and Truth.'218

27:15 And he says it as follows, 'And Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of an Only-Begotten of a Father, full of Grace and Truth.'219 He made the first tetrad specifically known, then, by saying Father, Grace, Only-Begotten, and Truth.

27:16 In this way John has spoken of the first Ogdoad, mother of all the Aeons. For he has said Father, Grace, Only-Begotten, Truth, and Word, Life, Man, and Church.'

28:1 You see their method of deceiving themselves, beloved, their abuse of the scriptures to try to prove their fabrication from them. This is the reason I have cited even their actual words, so that from them you may realize the villainy of the craft and the wickedness of the imposture.

28:2 In the first place, if John intended to reveal the higher Ogdoad, he would have kept to the order of the emanation, and placed the first Tetrad, which they say is the most venerable, among the names that come first. He would then have added the second to show the order of the Ogdoad by the order of the names and not mentioned the first Tetrad after such a long interval, as though he had completely forgotten it and then recalled it at the last minute.

28:3 And then, if he meant to indicate the sygyzies, he would not have left Church's name out. He might have been equally content to name the males in the case of the other syzygies—they too can be understood to go with (their females)—to maintain uniformity throughout. Or, if he were listing the consorts of the rest, he would have revealed Man’s too, and not left us to get her name by divination.

28:4 Their distortion of the exegesis is obvious. Where John proclaims one God almighty, and one Only-begotten, Christ Jesus, through whom he says all things were made, saying that he is Son of God, he is only-begotten, he is maker of all, he is the true light that enlightens every man, is creator of the world, is the one who came unto his own, and that he himself became flesh and dwelt among us—

28:5 these people, speciously perverting the exegesis, hold that there is another Only-Begotten in the series of emanations whom they also call Beginning, and that there was another Saviour and another Word, the son of Only-begotten, and another Christ, emitted for the rectification of the Pleroma.

28:6 They have taken its every statement away from the truth and adapted it to their own doctrine by misusing the names so that, to hear them tell it, among so many names John makes no mention of the Lord, Christ Jesus.

28:7 For though he has said Father, Grace, Only-begotten, Truth, Word, Life, Man, and Church, on their hypothesis he has said it of the first Ogdoad, in which there is no Jesus yet and no Christ, the teacher of John.

28:8 But the apostle himself has made it plain that he has not spoken of their syzygies but of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he also knows as the Word of God.

28:9 For in his recapitulation concerning the Word whom he has already said to have been 'in the beginning,' he adds the explanation, 'And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.' But on their hypothesis the Word, who never even left the Pleroma, did not become flesh. That was Saviour, who was the product of all the Aeons, and of later origin than Word.

29:1 You fools, learn that Jesus himself, who suffered for us, who made his dwelling among us, is the Word of God! If some other Aeon had become flesh for our salvation, the apostle would presumably have spoken of another. But if the Word of the Father, who descended, is also the one who ascended—the only-begotten Son of the only God, made flesh for man at the Father's good pleasure—then John has not written 'Word' of any other, or of an Ogdoad, but of the Lord Jesus Christ.

29:2 Nor, in their view, has the Word become principally flesh. They say that Saviour put on a soulish body which had been prepared, by an ineffable providence of the dispensation, to become visible and tangible.

29:3 But flesh is God's ancient formation from the dust, like Adam, which, John has made clear, God’s Word has truly become.

29:4 And their first, original Ogdoad has been demolished. Once it is established that Word, Only-Begotten, Life, Light, Saviour and Christ are one and the same and God's Son, and that he himself was made flesh for us, the flimsy structure220 of their Ogdoad is destroyed. And with this wrecked their whole pantomime—which they falsely dream up to disparage the scriptures after fabricating their own hypothesis—has collapsed.

29:5 Then they gather expressions and names which lie scattered throughout scripture, move them away, as I said, from their natural setting to an unnatural one, and do the same sort of thing as the persons who set themselves subjects at random and then try to declaim them in lines from Homer,

29:6 making it seem to the simple that Homer has composed the words on that subject which has been declaimed extemporaneously; and by the artificial sequence of the words, many are rushed into supposing that Homer might have written these things in this way.

29:7 So with the person who wrote the following in lines from Homer, about the sending of Heracles being by Eurystheus for the dog in Hades. (There is nothing to prevent me from mentioning even these by way of illustration, since the enterprise of both parties is one and the same.)

29:8 So spake Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus
Persëides, and sent upon his way
Hard-laboring Heracles, to fetch from Hell
The loathèd Hades’ dog. With heavy sighs
He hastened through the town, like to a lion
Bred in the mountains, trusting in its strength.
All they that loved him bare him company,
Young maids, and elders worn with toil and care,
Mourning for him as on his way to death
But lo, grey-eyed Athena, in her heart—
For hers was kin to his—knowing his toil,
Sent Hermes to his aid.

29:9 What innocent person could fail to be swept off his feet by these words, and suppose that Homer had written them in this way, on this subject? But anyone familiar with the works of Homer will recognize the words but not their subject,

29:10 since he knows that some are spoken of Odysseus, some actually of Heracles, but some of Priam and some of Menelaus and Agamemnon. He will take the lines, restore each one to its own book, and get rid of the subject we see here.

29:11 So one who holds upright within him the rule of the truth which he has received through baptism will recognize the names, expressions and parables from the scriptures, but not recognize this blasphemous subject.

29:12 For though he will certify the gems, he will not allow the fox in place of the king’s portrait. By restoring each thing that has been said to its own position and fitting it to the naked body of the truth, he will prove their forgery without foundation.

30:1 But, since this jerry built structure is beyond redemption, I think it will be well, so that anyone who has perused their farce may apply the argument which demolishes it, to show first how the authors of this story themselves differ from each other, as though inspired by different spirits of error.

30:2 In this way too we may understand perfectly—even before it is demonstrated—that the truth the church proclaims is sure, and the one they have counterfeited is falsehood.

30:3 For the church, though it is dispersed the whole world over to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples, the faith in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven, earth, the seas, and everything in them.

30:4 And in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was made flesh for our salvation.

30:5 And in the Holy Spirit, who through the prophets has proclaimed the dispensations, the advent, the birth from the Virgin, passion, resurrection and bodily assumption into heaven of the beloved Son, Christ Jesus our Lord, and his coming from heaven in his Father's glory to gather all things in one and raise the flesh of all mankind;

30:6 that, by the invisible Father's good pleasure, every knee in heaven, on earth, and under the earth may bow to Christ Jesus, our Lord, God, Saviour and King, and every tongue confess him. And that he may pronounce a righteous judgment on all,

30:7 and consign the spirits of wickedness, the angels who have transgressed and rebelled, and wicked, unrighteous, lawless and blasphemous men, to the eternal fire;

30:8 but grant life, bestow immortality, and secure eternal glory for the righteous and holy, who have kept his commandments and abode in his love, some from the first, others after repentance.

31:1 Having, as we have said, received this message and this faith the church, though dispersed over all the world, guards them as carefully as though it lived in one house, believes them as with one soul and the same heart, and preaches, teaches and transmits them in unison, as with one mouth.

31:2 For even if the languages of the world are different, the meaning of the tradition is one and the same. The churches founded in Germany have not believed differently or transmitted the tradition differently—or the ones founded among the Iberians, the Celts, in the east, in Libya, or in the centre of the earth.

31:3 As the sun, a creature of God, is one and the same the world over, so the light of the mind, the proclamation of the truth, shines everywhere and illumines all who are willing to come to a knowledge of truth.

31:4 The ablest speaker of the church's leaders will say nothing different from these things, for no man is above his master221 nor will the feeble speaker diminish the tradition. For as faith is one and the same, he who has much to say of it cannot enlarge it, and he who has little to say has not diminished it.

31:5 For one to know more or less with understanding means, not changing the actual subject (of our knowledge) and—as though as though not satisfied with him—inventing a new God other than the creator, maker and sustainer of all, or another Christ or Only-Begotten.

31:6 It means giving further explanation of what has been said in parables, and suiting it to the subject of the faith. It means expounding God's dealings with mankind and his provision for them, and making it plain that God bore with the rebellion of the angels who transgressed, and the disobedience of men.

31:7 It means proclaiming the reason why one and the same God has made things temporal and eternal, heavenly and earthly, and why, though invisible, God appeared to the prophets, not in one form but present differently to different ones. It means making the reason known why men have been given a number of covenants, and teaching the nature of each;

31:8 searching out the reason why God confined all in disobedience so as to have mercy upon all; giving thanks for the reason why God's Word became flesh and suffered, and proclaiming the reason why the advent of God's Son appeared in the last times, which is to say that the beginning appeared in the end.

31:9 It means unfolding what scripture says of the end and the things to come; not leaving unsaid the reason why God has made the reprobate gentiles fellow-heirs, of the same body and partakers with the saints;

31:10 proclaiming how this mortal flesh will put on immortality, this corruptible, incorruption; declaring how God will say, 'That which was not my people is my people, and she who was not beloved, is beloved,'222 and 'More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife.'223

31:11 For it was at these things and their like that the apostle cried, 'O the depth of the riches both of the Sophia and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!'224 It was not at inventing his Mother up above the Creator and Demiurge, and the Resolve of their erring Aeon, and going on to such a degree of blasphemy.

31:12 Nor was it at teaching still more lies about the Pleroma above her in turn—of thirty Aeons then, innumerable tribes of them now—as these teachers say who are truly barren of divine understanding—while all the true church, as we have said, holds one and the same faith the world over.

32:1 Now let us also see their unstable views—how, when there are perhaps two or three of them, they cannot say the same about the same things, but make assertions which contradict each other in thing and name.

32:2 For Valentinus, the first of the so-called Gnostic sect to adapt its principles to a form characteristic of a school, blurted them out like this, with the declaration that there is an unnameable pair, one of which is called Ineffable, and the other Silence.

32:3 Then a second pair has been emitted from this, one of which he names Father and the other, Truth. Word and Life, and Man and Church, are the fruit of this Tetrad; and this is the first Ogdoad.

32:4 And he says that ten powers have been emitted from Word and Life, as we mentioned, and from Man and Church, twelve—one of whom, by rebelling and coming to grief, has caused the rest of the affair.

32:5 And he supposed that there were two Limits, one between Depth and the rest of the Pleroma separating the generate Aeons from the ingenerate Father;225 the other one separating their Mother from the Pleroma.

32:6 And Christ has not been emitted from the Aeons in the Pleroma, but together with a certain shadow226 was produced in memory of better things by the Mother, when she found herself outside.

32:7 Christ, being male, cut the shadow off and returned to the Pleroma but the Mother, abandoned with the shadow and emptied of spiritual essence, bore another son. And this is the Demiurge, whom he also says is Pantocrator of all who are below him. But like the persons falsely termed Gnostics of whom we shall speak, Valentinus held that a left-hand archon has also been emitted with the Demiurge.

32:8 And he sometimes says that Jesus was emitted by the one whom their Mother inhaled and mixed with all things—that is, by Desired—but sometimes by the one who returned to the Pleroma, that is, Christ—or sometimes, by Man and Church.

32:9 And he says that the Holy Spirit was emitted by Truth to examine the Aeons and make them fruitful by entering them invisibly. Through him the Aeons bring forth the fruits of the truth.
This concludes Irenaeus against the Valentinans.

33:1 By giving both these explanations and others like them the elder of whom we have spoken, Irenaeus—fully equipped by the Holy Spirit, sent into the ring by the Lord as a champion athlete, and anointed with the heavenly favours of the true faith and knowledge—went over every bit of their nonsense as he wrestled their whole silly story to the ground and defeated it.

And he demolished them further, superbly, in his next book, the second, and the others. He seemed to want to drag his opponent after he had already been thrown and beaten, to make a public spectacle of him, and to detect the shameless though feeble challenge of his weak-mindedness that was in him even when he was down.
however I am content with the few things I have said and the things these writers of the truth have said and compiled, and can see that others have done the work—I mean Clement, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and many more, who have given the Valentinians' refutation even remarkably well. Being content with these men and in full agreement with them I have no desire at all, as I said, to add to my labour, since from the very contents of the Valentinians' teachings the refutation of them will be perfectly plain to any person of understanding.

In the first place their own ideas vary, and each one sets out to demolish the other's. Secondly, their myths are unprovable since no scripture has said these things—neither the Law of Moses nor any prophet after Moses, neither the Saviour nor his evangelists, and certainly not the apostles. If these things were true, the Lord who came to enlighten the world, and the prophets before him, would have told us things of this sort in plain language—and then the apostles too, who confuted idolatry and all sorts of wrongdoing, and were not afraid to write against any unlawful teaching, and opposition.

Especially when the Saviour himself says, 'Unto them that are without, in parables; but to you the explanation of the parables (is given), for knowledge of the kingdom of heaven.'227 Plainly, he explained at once any of his parables in the Gospels. Of course he says who the mustard seed is, who the leaven is, the woman who put the leaven in the three measures, the vineyard, the fig tree, the sower, the best soil. Also, these people too are vainly inspired because they are in the power of demons. The most holy apostle Paul says of them, 'In the latter times some shall depart from the teaching, giving heed to fables and doctrines of devils.'

And again, St. James says of this sort of teaching, 'This Sophia descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. But the Sophia that is from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, easy to be intreated, without partiality, full of mercy and good fruits,' and so on. Not one fruit of this Sophia is to be found in these people. With them there is 'confusion and every unlawful work,'230 spawn of devils and serpents' hisses, with each one saying something different at a different time. No mercy or pity is to be found in them, only hair-splittings and disagreements; nowhere purity, nowhere peace, nowhere fairness.
So I think we can plainly see the later addition of the exact words of Irenaeus were used to combat the
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: Panarion Addition Detailing Marcion Canon Was Added Late

Post by Secret Alias »

So my point here is that it was the section against the Valentinians which prompted the direct citation of primary source material. Again Epiphanius was just blabbering on inexactly about heretical traditions no one knew much about any more. He dictated the following section:
But the soulish, after working hard and rising above the Demiurge, will be given, on high, to the angels46 who are with Christ. They recover no part of their bodies; just their souls are given as brides to the angels with Christ, when they are found to possess full knowledge and to have risen above the Demiurge. Such is the dramatic piece they offer, and it contains even more than this. I have merely enumerated the things I thought naturally needed to be brought to light as far as I have learned about them— where he came from, when he lived, from whom he took his cue, what his teaching is, together with which contemporaries his evil sprouted up in the world. And as I said, I give his teaching in part. Having related these few things thus far however I am content with the few things I have said and the things these writers of the truth have said and compiled, and can see that others have done the work—I mean Clement, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and many more, who have given the Valentinians' refutation even remarkably well. Being content with these men and in full agreement with them I have no desire at all, as I said, to add to my labour, since from the very contents of the Valentinians' teachings the refutation of them will be perfectly plain to any person of understanding.

In the first place their own ideas vary, and each one sets out to demolish the other's. Secondly, their myths are unprovable since no scripture has said these things—neither the Law of Moses nor any prophet after Moses, neither the Saviour nor his evangelists, and certainly not the apostles. If these things were true, the Lord who came to enlighten the world, and the prophets before him, would have told us things of this sort in plain language—and then the apostles too, who confuted idolatry and all sorts of wrongdoing, and were not afraid to write against any unlawful teaching, and opposition.

Especially when the Saviour himself says, 'Unto them that are without, in parables; but to you the explanation of the parables (is given), for knowledge of the kingdom of heaven.'227 Plainly, he explained at once any of his parables in the Gospels. Of course he says who the mustard seed is, who the leaven is, the woman who put the leaven in the three measures, the vineyard, the fig tree, the sower, the best soil. Also, these people too are vainly inspired because they are in the power of demons. The most holy apostle Paul says of them, 'In the latter times some shall depart from the teaching, giving heed to fables and doctrines of devils.'

And again, St. James says of this sort of teaching, 'This Sophia descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. But the Sophia that is from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, easy to be intreated, without partiality, full of mercy and good fruits,' and so on. Not one fruit of this Sophia is to be found in these people. With them there is 'confusion and every unlawful work,'230 spawn of devils and serpents' hisses, with each one saying something different at a different time. No mercy or pity is to be found in them, only hair-splittings and disagreements; nowhere purity, nowhere peace, nowhere fairness.

For not to drag my treatise out endlessly by attacking the same people, I shall end my exposition here, set a bound to their wickedness great as it is, and go on to the rest. I call on God to be the guide and help of my weakness, that I may be preserved from this sect and the ones I have mentioned before it—and the ones I plan to exhibit to the studious, who want a precise knowledge of all the foolish assertions there are in the world, and the chains which cannot hold For by sowing his dreaming in many people and calling himself a Gnostic, Valentinus has, as it were, fastened a number of scorpions together in one chain, as in the old and well-known parable. It says that scorpions, one after another, will form a sort of chain to a length of ten or even more, let themselves down from a roof or housetop, and so do their harm to men by guile.

Thus both he, and the so-called Gnostics who derive from him, have become authors of imposture and each, taking his cue from him, has been instructed by someone else, added to the imposture after his teacher, and introduced another sect clinging to the one before it. And thus the so-called Gnostics have been divided successively into different sects themselves; but, as I said, they have taken their cue from Valentinus and his predecessors. Still, since we have trampled on them and on this sect of Valentinus with the teaching of the truth, let us pass them by, but by God’s power examine the rest.
We can immediately see how Epiphanius's methodology in composing the Panarion would have led to a dissatisfying result. "I give his teaching in part. Having related these few things thus far however I am content with the few things I have said and the things these writers of the truth have said and compiled, and can see that others have done the work—I mean Clement, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and many more, who have given the Valentinians' refutation even remarkably well" lacks the bombast of other sections of the Panarion.

Clearly though the original dictation confesses to a multiplicity of source material but no instructions for direct citation of Irenaeus. We can already see the concluding words of this section betray the plan for the next few chapters. Epiphanius will mix things from the writings of Irenaeus, Hippolytus and Clement undoubtedly having the original manuscripts of each from which to draw haphazardly throughout. As Williams notes:
The material concerning Secundus himself, and Epiphanes, is drawn from Iren. 1.11.2-5; at 6,7 Epiph cites Irenaeus by name. To the Irenaean material Epiph adds Clement of Alexandria’s comments on Epiphanes and others, quoting verbatim from Strom. 3.2.5.1-2. The very summary accounts of Secundus at Hipp. 6.38.1-2 and PsT 4.7 represent Hipp. Synt. Tert. Adv. Val. 37-38 depends on Irenaeus. Fil. 40 might be based on Irenaeus, Epiph or both.
The point however is that the four direct citations of primary material (1) Irenaeus on Valentinus (2) the Letter of Ptolemy to Flora (3) Irenaeus on the Marcosians and (4) the treatise with the 118 citations from the Marcion canon were added subsequently in order to get away from the 'scattered' haphazard citation of source material in the original dictation.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: Panarion Addition Detailing Marcion Canon Was Added Late

Post by Secret Alias »

So when Epiphanius speaks of " ten varieties of Gnostic, each as afflicted as the other with one plague of dreams about their syzygies, ogdoads, and male and female aeons. I shall no longer arrange the treatise by the times of the (sects') succession, but (simply) pass from one to the other" he is acknowledging that the 10 chapters which follow are all loosely dependent on the aforementioned source material (i.e. Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Clement). So:
31. Epiphanius Against the Valentinians Being an account of the followers of Valentinus
32. Epiphanius Against the Secundians Being an account of that sect
33. Epiphanius Against the Ptolemaeans Being an account of the followers of Ptolemy, containing also his Letter to Flora
34. Epiphanius Against the Marcosians Being an account of the followers of Marcus
35. Epiphanius Against the Colorbasians Being an account of that sect
36. Epiphanius Against the Heracleonites Being an account of the followers of Heracleon
37. Epiphanius Against the Ophites Being an account of the worshippers of the serpent
38. Epiphanius Against the Cainites Being an account of the followers of Cain
39. Epiphanius Against the Sethians Being an account of the followers of Seth
40. Epiphanius Against the Archontics Being an account of that sect
It is only once the 'ten gnostic sects' are brought up - in fact the Valentinians, the first of the ten - that the reporting gets completely superficial. As noted Epiphanius brings up rumor or hearsay to help identify where Valentinus came from.

Here are the four places that Epiphanius went back later and added 'direct citations':
31. Epiphanius Against the Valentinians Being an account of the followers of Valentinus
31.8.2 "Having related these few things thus far, for the rest I shall take the quotation in full from the man I have spoken of, a servant of God, I mean Irenaeus ..." (ἕως δὲ ἐνταῦθα τὰ ὀλίγα ταῦτα διεξελθών, τὰ ἑξῆς ἀπὸ τῶν τοῦ προειρημένου ἀνδρός, δούλου θεοῦ, Εἰρηναίου δέ φημι, τὴν παράθεσιν ὁλοσχερῶς ποιήσομαι. ἔχει δὲ οὕτως)·
32. Epiphanius Against the Secundians Being an account of that sect
33. Epiphanius Against the Ptolemaeans Being an account of the followers of Ptolemy, containing also his Letter to Flora
33.2 But next, in further refutation of the fraud, I am going to subjoin and quote the seductive and dangerous words which were actually written by himself to a woman named Flora—lest anyone think that I am refuting the cheat from hearsay only, without becoming acquainted with his phoney teaching first. For besides the things I have mentioned, he is not ashamed to blaspheme God's Law given through Moses as well. Here are his words: Ptolemy's Letter to Flora (εἰς δὲ περισσότερον ἔλεγχον τοῦ ἀπατεῶνος καθεξῆς ὑποτάξας παραθήσομαι τὰ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ φύσει Πτολεμαίου Φλώρᾳ τινὶ γυναικὶ γραφέντα ἐπαγωγά τε καὶ δηλητήρια ῥήματα, ἵνα μή τις νομίσειεν ἡμᾶς ἐξ ἀκοῆς μόνον τὸν ἀπατεῶνα ἐλέγχειν, μὴ πρότερον ἐντυχόντας τῇ παρ' αὐτοῦ παραπεποιημένῃ διδασκαλίᾳ· πρὸς γὰρ τοῖς εἰρημένοις καὶ τὸν νόμον τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν διὰ Μωυσέως βλασφημῶν οὐκ αἰσχύνεται, ἃ καὶ ἔστι ταῦτα· Πτολεμαίου πρὸς Φλώραν
34. Epiphanius Against the Marcosians Being an account of the followers of Marcus
34.2.6 But for my part, so as not to commit myself to a second hard task I feel I should be content with the work written against Marcus himself and his successors by the most holy and blessed Irenaeus. I hasten to publish this here word for word, and it runs as follows. For St. Irenaeus himself says the following in his disclosure of the things they did: From the writings of St. Irenaeus (τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ λεπτολογίας οὐκ ἐβουλήθην ἀπ' ἐμαυτοῦ συντάξαι, εὑρὼν παρὰ τῷ ἁγιωτάτῳ Εἰρηναίῳ τῷ ἀρχαίῳ τὴν κατ' αὐτοῦ πραγματείαν γεγενημένην. ἕως δὲ ἐνταῦθα τὰ ὀλίγα ταῦτα διεξελθών, τὰ ἑξῆς ἀπὸ τῶν τοῦ προειρημένου ἀνδρός, δούλου θεοῦ, Εἰρηναίου δέ φημι, τὴν παράθεσιν ὁλοσχερῶς ποιήσομαι. ἔχει δὲ οὕτως· ΕΚ ΤΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΕΙΡΗΝΑΙΟΥ)
35. Epiphanius Against the Colorbasians Being an account of that sect
36. Epiphanius Against the Heracleonites Being an account of the followers of Heracleon
37. Epiphanius Against the Ophites Being an account of the worshippers of the serpent
38. Epiphanius Against the Cainites Being an account of the followers of Cain
39. Epiphanius Against the Sethians Being an account of the followers of Seth
40. Epiphanius Against the Archontics Being an account of that sect
41. Epiphanius Against the Cerdonians Being an account of the followers of Cerdonus
42. Epiphanius Against the Marcionites Being an account of the followers of Marcion, and the errors of his gospel
42.10 I am also going to append the treatise which I had written against him before, a your instance, brothers, hastening to compose this one. (Παραθήσομαι δὲ καὶ ἣν ἐποιησάμην κατ' αὐτοῦ πραγματείαν πρὶν τοῦ ταύτην μου τὴν σύνταξιν ἐσπουδακέναι διὰ τῆς ὑμῶν τῶν ἀδελφῶν προτροπῆς ποιήσασθαι)
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: Panarion Addition Detailing Marcion Canon Was Added Late

Post by Secret Alias »

So there are four clear later insertions of large texts which could not have been dictated in the initial composition of the Panarion. They are:
1. section on the Valentinians 31.8.2 "Having related these few things thus far, for the rest I shall take the quotation in full from the man I have spoken of, a servant of God, I mean Irenaeus ..." (ἕως δὲ ἐνταῦθα τὰ ὀλίγα ταῦτα διεξελθών, τὰ ἑξῆς ἀπὸ τῶν τοῦ προειρημένου ἀνδρός, δούλου θεοῦ, Εἰρηναίου δέ φημι, τὴν παράθεσιν ὁλοσχερῶς ποιήσομαι. ἔχει δὲ οὕτως)·
2. section on the Ptolemaeans 33.2 But next, in further refutation of the fraud, I am going to subjoin and quote the seductive and dangerous words which were actually written by himself to a woman named Flora—lest anyone think that I am refuting the cheat from hearsay only, without becoming acquainted with his phoney teaching first. For besides the things I have mentioned, he is not ashamed to blaspheme God's Law given through Moses as well. Here are his words: Ptolemy's Letter to Flora (εἰς δὲ περισσότερον ἔλεγχον τοῦ ἀπατεῶνος καθεξῆς ὑποτάξας παραθήσομαι τὰ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ φύσει Πτολεμαίου Φλώρᾳ τινὶ γυναικὶ γραφέντα ἐπαγωγά τε καὶ δηλητήρια ῥήματα, ἵνα μή τις νομίσειεν ἡμᾶς ἐξ ἀκοῆς μόνον τὸν ἀπατεῶνα ἐλέγχειν, μὴ πρότερον ἐντυχόντας τῇ παρ' αὐτοῦ παραπεποιημένῃ διδασκαλίᾳ· πρὸς γὰρ τοῖς εἰρημένοις καὶ τὸν νόμον τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν διὰ Μωυσέως βλασφημῶν οὐκ αἰσχύνεται, ἃ καὶ ἔστι ταῦτα· Πτολεμαίου πρὸς Φλώραν)
3. section on the Marcosians 34.2.6 But for my part, so as not to commit myself to a second hard task I feel I should be content with the work written against Marcus himself and his successors by the most holy and blessed Irenaeus. I hasten to publish this here word for word, and it runs as follows. For St. Irenaeus himself says the following in his disclosure of the things they did: From the writings of St. Irenaeus (τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ λεπτολογίας οὐκ ἐβουλήθην ἀπ' ἐμαυτοῦ συντάξαι, εὑρὼν παρὰ τῷ ἁγιωτάτῳ Εἰρηναίῳ τῷ ἀρχαίῳ τὴν κατ' αὐτοῦ πραγματείαν γεγενημένην. ἕως δὲ ἐνταῦθα τὰ ὀλίγα ταῦτα διεξελθών, τὰ ἑξῆς ἀπὸ τῶν τοῦ προειρημένου ἀνδρός, δούλου θεοῦ, Εἰρηναίου δέ φημι, τὴν παράθεσιν ὁλοσχερῶς ποιήσομαι. ἔχει δὲ οὕτως· ΕΚ ΤΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΕΙΡΗΝΑΙΟΥ)
4. section on the Marcionites 42.10 I am also going to append the treatise which I had written against him before, a your instance, brothers, hastening to compose this one. (Παραθήσομαι δὲ καὶ ἣν ἐποιησάμην κατ' αὐτοῦ πραγματείαν πρὶν τοῦ ταύτην μου τὴν σύνταξιν ἐσπουδακέναι διὰ τῆς ὑμῶν τῶν ἀδελφῶν προτροπῆς ποιήσασθαι)
My first observation is that παραθήσομαι (appears in two of the four citations) might be a clear sign of subsequent editorial expansion. In other words, in the second draft, Epiphanius added παραθήσομαι to note that something need to be appended here. For instance in the Panarion's Judaism section:
And so the entire nation of Israel were called Jews from the time of David. And all Israel continued to be called by their ancestral name of 'Israelites,' and to have the additional designation, 'Jews,' from the time of David, of his son Solomon, and of Solomon's son—I mean Rehoboam, who ruled in Jerusalem after Solomon.
3:6 But to keep from getting side-tracked, bypassing the topic of the Jews religion, and failing to touch on the subject of their beliefs, I shall append a few examples of them (ἀπὸ πολλῶν παραθήσομαι). For the facts about the Jews are, as we might say, perfectly plain to everyone. Hence I shall certainly not take the trouble to deal with this subject in great detail, but I must still give a few examples here.

4:1 Now Jews, who are Abraham's lineal descendants and the heirs of his true religion, have Abraham’s circumcision, which he received by God's command at the age of ninety-nine, for the reason I have given earlier. It was so that his descendants would not repudiate the name of God on becoming strangers in a foreign land, but would bear a mark on their bodies instead to remind and convict them, and keep them true to their father's religion.

4:2 And Abraham's son, Isaac, was circumcised on the eighth day as God's commandment had directed. It is acknowledged that circumcision was by God's ordinance then, but then it had been ordained as a type. I shall prove this of it later, as we go on in order.

4:3 So Abraham's own children in succession—I mean beginning with himself, and Isaac and Jacob next, and Jacob's children after him—continued to be circumcised and adhere to the true religion in the land of Canaan (called Judea and Philistia then, though its name is now Palestine) and in Egypt as well.

4:4 For Jacob, or Israel, went down to Egypt with his eleven children in the hundred and thirtieth year of his life. (Joseph, his other son, was already in Egypt reigning as king, though he had been sold by his brothers from envy. God's provision, which serves the righteous well, had turned their plot against this Joseph into a wonder.)

4:5 So Jacob went down to Egypt as I said, and his sons, wives and grandchildren, to the number of 75 persons—as the first book of Moses' Pentateuch, which clearly explains all this, tells us.

4:6 And they remained there for five generations—as I have said often enough, but must now repeat. For Jacob's posterity were the generations which are reckoned through Levi, the ancestor of the priests; and the ones which are reckoned through Judah, from whom in time came David, the first king.

4:7 And Levi was the father of Kohath and the others; Kohath was the father of Amram; Amram was the father of Moses, and of Aaron the high priest. Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt by the power of God, as the second book in the legislation says.

5:1 Still, it is obviously impossible to say distinctly what the regimen of the children of Israel was until this time, other than simply that they had the true religion and circumcision. (Though scripture does say, 'The children of Israel multiplied in the land of Egypt and became abundant.'6 It must surely have been due to laxity that the period of their sojourn and intercourse (with gentiles) produced this 'abundance.')

5:2 But it had not yet been indicated with full clarity what they should eat, what they should forbid, or the other things they were commanded to observe by the Law's injunction.

5:3 However, when they were departing from Egypt, in the second year of their exodus they were vouchsafed God's legislation at the hands of Moses himself.

5:4 The legislation God gave them taught them like a pedagogue—indeed the Law was like a pedagogue in giving its precepts physically,7 but with a spiritual hope. It taught them circumcision; Sabbath observance; the tithing of all their produce and of any human or animal offspring which was born among them; the presentation of first fruits both on the fiftieth and on the thirtieth days; and to know God alone and serve him.

5:5 His Name, then, was proclaimed under its aspect of Monarchy, but the Trinity was always proclaimed in the Monarchy and was believed in by the foremost of them, that is the prophets and nazirites.8 In the wilderness Israel offered sacrifices and various kinds of worship to the all-sovereign God in the service of the holy tabernacle, which Moses had constructed from patterns God had shown him.

5:6 These same Jews received prophetic oracles too, concerning the Christ to come. He was called 'prophet,' though he was God; and 'angel,' though he was the son of God, but would become man and be reckoned with his brethren. So say all the sacred scriptures, especially Deuteronomy the fifth book in the legislation, and the ones that follow it.

6:1 By the time of the captives return from Babylon these Jews had gotten the following books and prophets, and the following books of the prophets:

6:2 1. Genesis. 2. Exodus. 3. Leviticus. 4. Numbers. 5. Deuteronomy. 6. The Book of Joshua the son of Nun. 7. The Book of the Judges. 8. Ruth. 9. Job. 10. The Psalter. 11. The Proverbs of Solomon. 12. Ecclesiastes. 13. The Song of Songs. 14. The First Book of Kingdoms. 15. The Second Book of Kingdoms. 16. The Third Book of Kingdoms. 17. The Fourth Book of Kingdoms. 18. The First Book of Chronicles. 19. The Second Book of Chronicles. 20. The Book of the Twelve Prophets. 21. The Prophet Isaiah. 22. The Prophet Jeremiah, with the Lamentations and the Epistles of Jeremiah and Baruch. 23. The Prophet Ezekiel. 24. The Prophet Daniel. 25. I Ezra. 26. II Ezra. 27. Esther.

6:3 These are the 27 books given the Jews by God. They are counted as 22, however, like the letters of their Hebrew alphabet, because ten books are doubled and reckoned as five. But I have explained this clearly elsewhere.

6:4 And they have two more books of disputed canonicity, the Wisdom of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon, apart from certain other apocrypha.

6:5 All these sacred books taught Judaism and Law's observances until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

6:6 And the Jews would have been all right under the Law's tutelage if they had accepted the Christ whom their pedagogue, I mean the Law, foretold and prophesied to them so as to learn, not of the Law's destruction but of its fulfilment, by accepting Christ's divinity and incarnation. For the types were in the Law, but the truth is in the Gospel.

6:7 The Law provides for physical circumcision. This served for a time until the great circumcision, baptism, which cuts us off from our sins and has sealed us in God’s name.

6:8 The Law had a sabbath to keep us for the great Sabbath, the rest of Christ, so that in Christ we might enjoy a Sabbath-rest from sins.

6:9 And in the Law a lamb, a dumb animal, was sacrificed to guide us to the great, heavenly Lamb, slain for us and 'for the whole world.'9

6:10 And the Law ensured tithing, to keep us from overlooking the 'iota,' the ten, the initial letter of the name of Jesus.

7:1 Now since the Jews were guided by the type and did not reach the fulfilment which is proclaimed by the Law, by the prophets and others, and by every book (in scripture), they were put off the estate. And the gentiles came on, since Jews can no longer be saved unless they return to the grace of the Gospel. For every ordinance has been violated by them as each text says, in every scripture.

7:2 But briefly, with one text, I shall state the inevitability and unalterability of the declaration against them. Their sentence is plain to see as Scripture says, 'Whatsoever soul will not hearken unto that prophet shall be cut off from his tribe, and from Israel, and from under the heavens.'10

7:3 In other words the Lord is to give a final, saving confirmation of the truths he has imparted mystically through the Law, and a person who does not listen to him, and refuses to, cannot be saved even though he keeps the Law. For the Law cannot perfect the man, since the ordinances in it have been written physically and their real fulfilment is in Christ.

7:4 So much for Judaism—I did mention a few points, so as not to omit all the facts about them, but to give them in part. For the subject of the Jews, and the refutation of them, is known beforehand, as we might say, to everyone.

7:5 I also explained their origin, how they had their beginning. At first the godly people were named Abramians after the patriarch Abraham's godly self because they were his descendants, but Israelites after his grandson, I mean Jacob or Israel.
But all the twelve tribes were called both Jews and Israelites from the time of David, the king from the tribe of Judah, and until David's son Solomon, and Rehoboam, who was Solomon's son but David's grandson. And because of God's chastisement and Rehoboam's unworthiness, the twelve tribes were divided, and became two and a half with Judah—that is, with Rehoboam—and nine and a half with Jeroboam. The nine and a half were called both Israelites and Israel, and were ruled by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, in Samaria. But the two and a half at Jerusalem were called Jews, and were ruled by Solomon's son, Jeroboam.
The original dictation just had Epiphanius declare:
And so the entire nation of Israel were called Jews from the time of David. And all Israel continued to be called by their ancestral name of 'Israelites,' and to have the additional designation, 'Jews,' from the time of David, of his son Solomon, and of Solomon's son—I mean Rehoboam, who ruled in Jerusalem after Solomon. But all the twelve tribes were called both Jews and Israelites from the time of David, the king from the tribe of Judah, and until David's son Solomon, and Rehoboam, who was Solomon's son but David's grandson. And because of God's chastisement and Rehoboam's unworthiness, the twelve tribes were divided, and became two and a half with Judah—that is, with Rehoboam—and nine and a half with Jeroboam. The nine and a half were called both Israelites and Israel, and were ruled by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, in Samaria. But the two and a half at Jerusalem were called Jews, and were ruled by Solomon's son, Jeroboam.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: Panarion Addition Detailing Marcion Canon Was Added Late

Post by Secret Alias »

Similarly the next use of παραθήσομαι is consistent with it being employed by Epiphanius in a second revision of the manuscript. We read in the section dealing with the Nicolatians:
For there is a Greek expression which is used of men who deflower slave women, 'He seduced so-and-so.' And the Greek swindlers who compose erotica also record the word in myths by saying that beauty is 'seductive.' Furthermore, how can any knowledgeable person not laugh at Kaulakau? To plant their imposture in the simple by means of something imaginary, they turn the good Hebrew words, correctly rendered in Greek, still clear to those who read Hebrew, and containing nothing obscure, into images, shapes, real principles, practically statuary, for the sowing of their shameful art with its fictitious basis. 'Kaulakau,' is in Isaiah, and is an expression in the twelfth vision, where he says, 'Await tribulation upon tribulation, hope upon hope, a little more a little more.'19
4:5 I am going to append (παραθήσομαι) the Hebrew words themselves here in full, word for word as they are written. 'Tsav l'tsav, tsav l'tsav,' means 'tribulation upon tribulation.' 'Qav l'qav, qav l'qav' means 'hope upon hope.' 'Z'eir sham, z'eir sham' means, 'Await a little more a little more.'
Where does this leave their mythology? How did they conceive their fantasy? How did the world get these tares? Who forced men to draw destruction upon themselves? For if they knowingly changed the terms into an illusion, they are obviously responsible for their own ruin. But if they ignorantly said things that they did not know, there is nothing more pathetic than they. For these things are really foolish, as anyone with God-inspired understanding can see.
Epiphanius original dictation in the first draft read:
For there is a Greek expression which is used of men who deflower slave women, 'He seduced so-and-so.' And the Greek swindlers who compose erotica also record the word in myths by saying that beauty is 'seductive.' Furthermore, how can any knowledgeable person not laugh at Kaulakau? To plant their imposture in the simple by means of something imaginary, they turn the good Hebrew words, correctly rendered in Greek, still clear to those who read Hebrew, and containing nothing obscure, into images, shapes, real principles, practically statuary, for the sowing of their shameful art with its fictitious basis. 'Kaulakau,' is in Isaiah, and is an expression in the twelfth vision, where he says, 'Await tribulation upon tribulation, hope upon hope, a little more a little more.' Where does this leave their mythology? How did they conceive their fantasy? How did the world get these tares? Who forced men to draw destruction upon themselves? For if they knowingly changed the terms into an illusion, they are obviously responsible for their own ruin. But if they ignorantly said things that they did not know, there is nothing more pathetic than they. For these things are really foolish, as anyone with God-inspired understanding can see.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: Panarion Addition Detailing Marcion Canon Was Added Late

Post by Secret Alias »

The next appearance:
To this Defect they propose to join an unattached aeon with no female which has come here from the Pleroma in search of the soul which has come from above, from its mother Sophia whose name they like to imagine and represent as Achamoth. Him they want to call Saviour, Limit, Cross, Limit-Setter, Conductor, and the Jesus11 who passed through Mary like water through a conduit. He is a light from the Christ on high, and is therefore named Light for his father, after the Light on high; Christ, after the Christ on high; Word, after the Word on high—and is likewise termed Mind and Saviour. He is constantly ascending above his father the Demiurge, and bringing any who trust in him with him, to the supernal syzygies of the Pleroma. What foolishness of theirs, and silly talk to match!
But as I said, I am also going to show how they combined their drivel with the poetic fabrications of heathen mythology (παραθήσομαι δὲ ὡς προεῖπον καὶ ὡς αὐτοὶ συνέζευξαν τοῖς ποιητικοῖς καὶ ἐθνομύθοις πλάσμασι τὴν αὐτῶν ληρολογίαν). For after the thirty, Hesiod and the others also introduce the one name which stands in the middle and has no female with it; and after it again, the Ogdoad in pairs which is derived from the Demiurge. It too can be set side by side as follows, and these are the names: The first, Exepaphus.14 Porphyrion, Clotho, Rhyacus, Lachesis, Epiphaon, Atropus, Hyperion, Asterope. And this is the stage-piece of these poets. It also contains many other names of what they call gods, male and female, variously named by various of them. They can even make a total of 365,15 and they are still dreamed of as an occasion for the other sects, which have mounted this tragic piece in their turn. For after the names we have mentioned, Hesiod, Orpheus, Stesichorus and the others say that Uranus and Tartarus have come into being and Cronus and Rhea; Zeus, Hera and Apollo; Poseidon and Pluto, and then any number of what they call gods. For a great deal of deceitful error arose from their speculation, and it conceived nonsense and invented many myths to write poems about.
And this is the error which appears to be deceiving the minds of these deluded (Valentinians). But everyone with godly enlightenment of mind will find these things ridiculous at first sight.
But passing over these things, once again following the passages from their own books word for word and expression for expression, I am going to give the text of the literature they read, I mean their book. It is as follows (παρελθὼν δὲ ταῦτα αὖθις ταῖς ἀπὸ τῶν βιβλίων αὐτῶν ἀκολουθίαις πρὸς ἔπος καὶ κατὰ λέξιν τὴν παράθεσιν τῆς παρ' αὐτοῖς ἀναγνώσεως, λέγω δὴ τῆς αὐτῶν βίβλου, ἐνταῦθα ποιήσομαι, καὶ ἔστιν τάδε):

5:1 'Greeting from unsearchable, indestructible Mind to the indestructible among the discerning, the soulish, the fleshly, the worldly, and in the presence of the Majesty!16

5:2 'I make mention before you of mysteries unnameable, ineffable, and supercelestial, not to be comprehended by principalities, authorities, subordinates or all commingled, but manifest to the Ennoia of the Changeless alone.

5:3 'When, in the beginning, the Self-Progenitor17 himself encompassed all things within himself, though they were within him in ignorance18—he whom some call ageless Aeon, ever renewed, both male and female,19 who encompasses all and is yet unencompassed20—

5:4 then the Ennoia within him (softened the Majesty). Her some have called Ennoia, others, Grace,21 but properly—since she has furnished treasures of the Majesty to those who are of the Majesty—those who have spoken the truth have termed her Silence,22 since the Majesty has accomplished all things by reflection without speech.23

5:5 Wishing to break eternal bonds,24 the imperishable Ennoia, as I said, softened25 the Majesty to a desire for his repose. And by coupling with him she showed forth the Father of Truth whom the perfect have properly termed Man, since he was the antitype of the Ingenerate who was before him.

5:6 'Thereafter Silence, having brought about a natural union of Light with Man26—though their coming together was the will for it—showed forth Truth. She was properly named Truth by the perfect, for she was truly like her own mother, Silence—this being the desire of Silence, that the apportionment of the lights of male and female be equal so that the oneness which is in them might also be made manifest, through themselves, to the ones which were separated27 from them as perceptible lights.

5:7 'Thereafter Truth, having manifested a wantonness28 like her mother's, softened her own Father toward her. They were united in immortal intercourse and ageless union, and showed forth a spiritual tetrad, male and female, a copy of the tetrad already existent, (which was Depth, Silence, Father and Truth).29 Now this is the tetrad which stems from the Father and Truth: Man, Church, Word, and Life.30

5:8 'Then, by the will of the all-encompassing Depth, Man and Church, remembering their father’s words, came together and showed forth a dodecad31 of male and female wantons.32 The males are Advocate, Paternal, Maternal, Ever-Mindful, Desired—that is, Light—Ecclesiasticus; the females, Faith, Hope, Love, Understanding, Blessed One, Wisdom.

5:9 'Next Word and Life, themselves transforming the gift of union, had congress with each other—though their congress was the will for it—and by coming together showed forth a decad of wantons,33 they too male and female. The males are Profound, Ageless, Self-Engendered, Only-Begotten, Immoveable. These obtained their names to the glory of the All-Encompassing. The females are Copulation, Uniting, Intercourse, Union, and Pleasure. They obtained their names to the glory of Silence.

6:1 'On the completion34 of the triacad headed by the Father of Truth, which the earthly count without comprehension and go back and count again whenever they encounter it, having yet to find the sum35—but it is Depth, Silence, Father, Truth, Man, Church, Word, Life, Advocate, Paternal, Maternal, Ever-Mindful, Desired, Ecclesiasticus, Faith, Hope, Love, Understanding, Blessed One, Wisdom, Profound, Ageless, Self-Engendered, Only-Begotten, Immoveable, Copulation, Uniting, Intercourse, Union, and Pleasure—

6:2 then he who encompasses all things by unsurpassable understanding, decreeing that another Ogdoad be named in correspondence with the principal Ogdoad which already existed, which was to remain in the Thirty—for it was not the Majesty's intent to be counted—matched with the males (of the first Ogdoad) the males Sole, Third, Fifth and Seventh—and the females Dyad, Tetrad, Hexad and Ogdoad.

6:3 This Ogdoad, named in correspondence with the prior Ogdoad—Depth, Father, Man, Word, and Silence, Truth, Church and Life—was united with the lights and became a completed Triacad.

6:436 'And the prior Ogdoad was at rest. But Depth went forth with the support of the Majesty to be united with the multitude of the Triacad. For he consorted with Truth, and the Father of Truth came together with Church, and Maternal had Life to wife, and Advocate had Henad, and Henad was joined with the Father of Truth, and the Father of Truth was with Silence. But the spiritual Word consorted with .... by spiritual intercourse and immortal commingling, for the Self-Progenitor was at last rendering his rest indivisible.

6:5 'Thus the Triacad, having completed profound mysteries, having consummated marriage among immortals, showed forth imperishable lights.37 These were termed children of the Intermediate Region38 and—since they lacked intelligence—were without distinguishing features, reposing unconscious without an Ennoia. One who treats of this, unless he understands it in its entirety, is not treating of it.39

6:6 'Then, after the emergence of the lights whose vast number one need not count individually but must understand—(for each has been allotted its own name for the knowledge of ineffable mysteries)—

6:7 Silence, desirous of bringing all things in safety to the election of knowledge, consorted by immortal intercourse but intellectual desire with the second Ogdoad which answers to the first. Now her intellectual desire was the Holy Spirit which is in the midst of the holy churches. By sending this, then, to the second Ogdoad, she persuaded it too to be united with her.

6:8 Marriage was thus consummated in the regions of the Ogdoad, with Holy Spirit united with Sole, Dyad with Third, Third with Hexad, Ogdoad with Seventh, Seventh with Dyad, and Hexad with Fifth.

6:9 The whole Ogdoad came together with ageless pleasure and immortal intercourse—for there was no separation from one another and their commingling was with blameless pleasure—and showed forth a Pentad of wantons without females. Their names are, Emancipator, Limit-Setter, Thankworthy, Free-Roaming, Conductor. These were termed sons of the Intermediate Region.

6:10 'I would have you know: Ampsiou, Auraan, Boukoua, Thardouou, Ouboukoua, Thardeddein, Merexa, Atar, Barba, Oudouak, Esten, Ouananin, Lamertarde, Athames, Soumin, Allora, Koubiatha, Danadaria, Dammo, Oren, Lanaphek, Oudinphek, Emphiboche, Barra, Assiou, Ache, Belim, Dexiarche, Masemon.'
This ends the extract I have made from their literature (Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἀπὸ μέρους ἐκ τῶν βιβλίων αὐτῶν παρατεθέντα ἕως ὧδέ μοι εἰρήσθω).

7:1 Valentinus also preached in Egypt so that, like the remains of a viper's bones, his seed is still left in Athribitis, Prosopitis, Arsinoitis, Thebais and in Lower Egypt, in Paralia and Alexandria. Moreover, he came to Rome and preached.

7:2 But on reaching Cyprus—and really suffering an actual shipwreck—he abandoned the faith and became perverted in mind. For before this, in those other places, he was thought to have a bit of piety and right faith. But on Cyprus he finally reached the ultimate degree of impiety, and sank himself in this wickedness which is proclaimed by him.
As I said, both he and his school call our Lord Jesus Christ Saviour, Christ, Word, Cross, Conductor, Limit-Setter and Limit. But they say he has brought his body down from above and passed through the Virgin Mary like water through a pipe. He has taken nothing from the virgin womb, but has his body from above, as I said. 7:5 They claim that he is not the original Word; nor the Christ after the Word, who is above among the aeons on high, but that this Christ has been emitted for no other reason than just41 to come and rescue the spiritual race that is from above.

7:6 They deny the resurrection of the dead, and make some mythological, silly claim that it is not this body which rises, but another which comes out of it, the one they call 'spiritual.'42 There is salvation only of those 'spiritual' persons who are their community and of the others, the so-called 'soulish,' provided that the soulish practice righteousness. But the ones they call 'material,' 'fleshly,' and 'earthly' perish altogether and cannot be saved at all.43

7:7 Each essence returns to its own origins44—the material is abandoned to matter, and the fleshly and earthly to the earth.

7:8 For they believe in three classes45 of persons: spiritual, soulish and material. They say that they are the spiritual class—as well as 'Gnostics'—and have no need of work, but only of knowledge and the incantations of their mysteries. Each of them may do anything with impunity and think nothing of it; they say they will be saved in any case, since their class is spiritual.

7:9 But the other class of humanity, which they call soulish, cannot be saved of itself unless it saves itself by work and the practice of righteousness. But they say that the material class of humanity can neither contain knowledge, nor receive it even if a person of this class might want to, but must perish body and soul.

7:10 Since their own class is spiritual it is saved with another body, something deep inside them, which they imagine and call a 'spiritual body.'

7:11 But the soulish, after working hard and rising above the Demiurge, will be given, on high, to the angels46 who are with Christ. They recover no part of their bodies; just their souls are given as brides to the angels with Christ, when they are found to possess full knowledge and to have risen above the Demiurge.

8:1 Such is the dramatic piece they offer, and it contains even more than this. I have merely enumerated the things I thought naturally needed to be brought to light as far as I have learned about them—

8:2 where he came from, when he lived, from whom he took his cue, what his teaching is, together with which contemporaries his evil sprouted up in the world. And as I said, I give his teaching in part. Having related these few things thus far, for the rest I shall take the quotation in full from the man I have spoken of, a servant of God, I mean Irenaeus ...
From the Writings of St. Irenaeus
If we go back to our initial example of the four direct citations of primary source material - we now found a fifth and I believe an explanation why παραθήσομαι does not introduce the Valentinian additions. Epiphanius used παραθήσομαι to add his own section on Valentinus getting the aeons from Hesiod. Once he said he was appending that it seemed redundant to repeat it over and over again.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Post Reply