Panarion (Against Heresies) 1 part 17/82

for he wishes us to cease from evil works.

But he does not will us to keep a bodily fast, but a spiritual one, in which is the abstinence from all base things.

Nevertheless, the outward fast is also observed among our people, since, when it is done with reason, it can also contribute something to the soul—provided it is not done in imitation of others, nor out of mere custom, nor because of the day, as though a particular day had been appointed for it—

but at the same time also as a reminder of the true fast, so that those not yet able to keep that true fast may, through the outward fast, retain a remembrance of it.

And likewise, that the passover and the unleavened bread were images, the apostle Paul also makes plain, saying, 'Christ our passover has been sacrificed,' and 'that you may be unleavened,' he says, 'not partaking of leaven'—by leaven he now means wickedness—'but that you may be a new lump.'

Thus, then, the law that is confessed to be of God is itself divided into three: into that which is fulfilled by the Savior—for 'you shall not murder,' 'you shall not commit adultery,' 'you shall not swear falsely' are comprehended in not even being angry, not even desiring, and not even swearing at all;

and it is also divided into that which is entirely abolished;

for 'eye for eye and tooth for tooth,' being intertwined with injustice and itself involving a work of injustice, was abolished by the Savior through its opposite;

for opposites are mutually abolishing;

for, 'I say to you, do not resist evil at all; but if anyone strikes you, turn to him also the other cheek.'

and it is also divided into that which has been transposed and changed from the bodily to the spiritual—this symbolic part legislated as an image of transcendent things.

For images and symbols, being representative of other realities, served well so long as the truth was not present;

but now that the truth is present, one must do the things of the truth, not the things of the image.

And the apostle Paul made this plain: the part concerning images, as we have already said, he showed on our behalf through the passover and the unleavened bread; the part concerning the law intertwined with injustice, by saying that 'the law of commandments expressed in ordinances has been abolished'; and the part unmixed with what is worse, by saying, 'the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.'

To speak briefly, then, I think it has been sufficiently shown to you both the legislation that crept in from men, and that the law of God itself is divided into three.

It remains for us to inquire who this God is who established the law.

But this too, I think, has been shown to you in what has already been said, if you have listened carefully.

For if this law was established neither by the perfect God himself, as we have taught, nor indeed by the devil—which it is not even lawful to say—then this one who established the law is someone other than these two.

This one is the demiurge and maker of this whole world and of the things in it;

being other than the substances of these two, and standing in the middle between them, he might justly bear also the name of the 'middle.'

And if the perfect God is good according to his own nature, as indeed he is—for our Savior declared that only one is good, his own Father, whom he himself revealed—while there also exists the one of the nature of the adversary, characterized as evil and wicked in injustice, then he who stands between these two, being neither good nor evil nor unjust, might properly be called just, being the arbiter of the justice that belongs to him.

And this god will be inferior to the perfect God and lesser than that one's righteousness, inasmuch as he is begotten and not unbegotten—for one alone is unbegotten, the Father, from whom are all things, all things depending peculiarly upon him—but he will be greater and more sovereign than the adversary, and will be of a substance and nature different from the substance of each of these two.

For the substance of the adversary is corruption and darkness—for he is material and manifold—while the substance of the Father of all, the unbegotten one, is incorruptibility and self-existent light, simple and uniform;

but the substance of this middle being has brought forth a certain twofold power, while he himself is an image of the better one.

Do not let this trouble you now, since you desire to learn how, from the one first principle of all things—simple, and confessed and believed by us to be unbegotten and incorruptible and good—these natures also came into being, that of corruption and that of the middle, being of unlike substance, when it is the nature of the good to beget and bring forth things like itself and of the same substance.

For you will learn, God granting it, in due course, also the origin and generation of these, being counted worthy of the apostolic tradition, which we too have received by succession, together with the rule of measuring all our words by the teaching of our Savior.

These things, my sister Flora, though spoken briefly, I have not shrunk from setting forth, and I have set them down with brevity, while at the same time adequately making plain the matter proposed—things which will also contribute the greatest benefit to you in what follows, if indeed, like good and fertile soil that has received fruitful seeds, you show forth the fruit that comes through them. The Letter of Ptolemy to Flora is finished.

...not even knowing how to measure with their hands, yet professing to mark out heavenly things by certain measures, and adopting the sciences of certain 'midwife' mother-beings as though they were heavenly—sciences of things that do not exist, as though they did exist.

But if someone should hear from these men — supposing he be one of the most foolish — thinking, through their falsehood, that he has learned something lofty from them, he will easily be led on, as if confirming that 'every bird flocks together with its own kind, and a man cleaves to his like,' as Scripture says.

But if one of the intelligent, who possess sound reasoning, should encounter them, he will laugh at such great nonsense, and from the very premise of what they say he will know its refutation.

For these men are utterly refuted, arming the falsehoods of their own vain labor against themselves.

For whence, O you Ptolemies and Ptolemaic women, comes to you the knowledge of the measures of the Deep and the midwifing of the begettings and generative suppositions? For as though you were present and had beheld the natures of the heavenly beings, and as though you had pre-existed the very Deep so called among you, you profess to show us this knowledge — though none of the prophets has ever said this, neither Moses himself, nor those before him, nor those after him, nor the evangelists, nor the apostles — unless indeed you would cite the pagan mythical fictions concerning Orpheus, Hesiod, Hicesius, and Stesichorus, among whom the generations of men were transformed into the names of gods, and the deeds accomplished among men were dramatized poetically.

But there is no longer much need for me, O Ptolemy, to undertake your refutation and that of your followers, since your forefathers have already sufficiently received their refutation.

Having, through what has already been said, established your shame, I shall go on to recount the error of the others, calling upon God as helper of my humble effort, so that I may expose and triumph over the wickedly devised premise found among each nation, asking of God the grace for the fulfillment of this earnest task.

But so that your three little sayings — which you boastfully wrote, O Ptolemy, in a letter to that little woman Flora — may not go unexamined (for the serpentine teachings always deceive silly women laden with sins, according to the word of the apostle), I will here duly set forth these very sayings, together with their necessary refutation, so that no root may be left of your weedy sowing; this I shall proceed to do next in order.

For you claim, sir, that the Law is divided into three parts, and that one part is from God, another from Moses, and another from the elders.

And it is clear that you have nowhere any proof for what you suppose to have been written by the elders.

For nowhere in the Law are the traditions of the elders found.

But being ignorant both of the books and of the truth, you fabricate slanders, being ignorant also — the sequence of the text being corrupt here † — of the exact knowledge belonging to each matter.

For the traditions of the elders are called 'Deuteroseis' (Second Teachings) among the Jews.

The first is that ascribed to the name of Moses; the second is that of the one called Rabbi Akiba; the third is that of Adda, or Judah; the fourth is that of the sons of Asamonaeus.

Since where, O contentious and unstable-minded man, can you point out, in the five books of the Pentateuch and God's legislation, that the saying spoken by the Savior — 'Whoever shall say to his father, "Corban" — that is, "a gift" — shall not profit anything from it' — was ever said there? But you cannot show it.

Your argument, then, has certainly fallen through, since this saying is nowhere found in the Pentateuch.

It is not of God through Moses — a fact also shown by the Savior's own verdict.

For the very testimonies which you adduced, you have gathered together against yourself.

For the Lord says in the Gospel that Moses wrote this on account of your hardness of heart.

But what Moses wrote, he did not write apart from the will of God, but legislated it by the Holy Spirit.

For the Lord says in the Gospel:

'What God has joined together, let no man separate.'

And how He joined them, the passage has explained in full, so that we might learn, saying, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.'

Then he adds, saying, 'What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.'

And yet the Lord nowhere said this at the time when He formed Adam and Eve, but only, 'Let us make him a helper corresponding to him.'

Rather, this was said by Adam, when he arose from sleep and said, 'This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.'

'She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of her husband.'

Then it says, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.'

Since, then, it was not God who said this, but Adam who spoke it, and yet the Lord testifies in the Gospel that the word spoken through Adam is God's word, He has shown by this very premise that, just as there Adam spoke, yet spoke by the will of God, so also here Moses legislated, with God proclaiming the legislation to him.

And thus these two sayings of yours have already collapsed — and not from some distant source, but from the very passage you yourself cited.

And that it is legislation of God, this is clear.

And in every case God legislates — some things for particular times, some things as types, and some things for the revelation of the good things to come, of which our Lord Jesus Christ, having come, showed the fulfillment in the Gospel.

As for your other threefold division of gods, which you have again divided into three, taking this up as well, I will show that it too is a fabrication devised by you, and is nothing other than the work of a charlatan.

For what third god exists for us, composed of two likenesses, being neither the one nor the other of the two, having neither the evil and injustice, as you said, nor the goodness and luminous essence, but occupying the very middle and being 'just'? And indeed, being truly a stranger to all righteousness, you understandably do not know what righteousness actually is, supposing it to be something other than goodness.

But you shall be greatly refuted, O trickster and stranger to the truth.

For the just comes from nowhere else but from goodness, nor can anyone become good in any other way unless he is just.

Whence also the Lord, praising the Law and its righteous ones, said, 'You adorn the tombs of the prophets and build the monuments of the righteous, and your fathers killed them.'

But from what did the prophets and the righteous come to be, except from the goodness of the Father? And to show that the righteous stands within the domain of goodness, He said, 'Become like your Father who is in heaven, for He makes His sun rise on the good and the evil, and sends rain on the just and the unjust' — in order to show that the just is good and the good is just, and the evil is unjust and the unjust is evil.

But the intermixture which you claimed exists in the Law, you cannot demonstrate.

For you have been caught slandering the Law, attaching to it some sort of intermixture, on the grounds that the Law says 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' and that the Law puts the murderer to death.

But it will be shown, from the very dispensation of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, that it was not some intermixture, but the same legislation, and it accomplishes the very same thing as the commandment spoken by the Savior: 'If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.'

Long ago it was already preparing for this very thing, by saying 'an eye for an eye,' that is, 'turn to him your cheek.'

For in order that he might escape what he would suffer if he struck back, he would offer his cheek to the one striking him, knowing that if he took out an eye, he would suffer the same, on account of the Law.

For just as a father wishes to educate his children, and, adapting himself to each age, advances his instruction accordingly, and does not discipline the small infant as he does the adolescent boy, nor the adolescent boy as the young man, nor the young man as the mature man — but for the nursing infant, discipline comes by a flick of the finger; for the somewhat older child, by a slap of the hand; for the adolescent, by the strap; for the young man, by the rod; and for the grown man, punishment for greater transgressions comes by the sword, through law — so also the Lord legislated in succession what was fitting for each generation.

For those earlier ones He disciplined by fear, speaking as to small children who did not yet know the power of the Holy Spirit, whereas He deemed the mature worthy of mature mysteries.

For in the Gospel too He says something like this to the disciples in many places: 'You do not know what I am doing, but afterward you will understand' — that is, when you have become mature.

And again, they did not know, until He rose from the dead.

And Paul too says, 'For you were not yet able' — or rather, 'you are still not even able' — showing that, as the times advance, the commandments become more perfect, being the very same commandments, yet changed into another relation: shaped one way for the young, but differently for the more perfect.

For the Law, when it legislated 'an eye for an eye,' did not say to them, 'Gouge out an eye for an eye,' but rather, 'If anyone should gouge out an eye, the eye of the one who gouged it out shall be gouged out.'

And each one, sparing his own body, would give his cheek to be struck, and would not strike back.

And from that time onward, what is now clearly declared in the Gospel was already being observed — then by necessity, as befitting those being disciplined as the young, but now by free choice, as befitting the obedience of the mature.

But if you claim that this is an intermixture — the saying 'an eye for an eye' and the murderer being put to death — behold, concerning the day of judgment too, we see the Savior saying that his master will come (and He was speaking this about Himself, He Himself being the Master of all), and He says, 'And he will cut him in two, and will appoint his portion with the unbelievers.'

Will you not, then, arm yourself against the Savior too, slandering His words once again, and say that He is not good — although He was begotten of a good Father and is Himself good — but rather 'just,' and no different from the Father?

So you are able, then, even to alienate Him from the Father's own essence, O you who have come forward to us once again as a divider and surveyor of the laws, dividing everything into three.

And by saying that some things were written in the Law symbolically as types, you touched upon a small portion of the truth, so that through this small portion you might also be able to deceive people regarding everything else.

For indeed, these things happened to them typologically, but were written down for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come, as the most holy apostle says, speaking concerning circumcision and the Sabbath and the other matters.

Would that you had spoken the truth in everything, and no longer brought forward to us a third, middle god who does not exist — or rather, brought him forth for yourself and for those deceived by you.

I think, then, that in the present section enough has been said in response to your sayings, O charlatan; and having made this refutation of them, I shall proceed to the following heresies, calling as usual upon the same God to help our humble effort in exposing the refutation belonging to the counterfeit teaching of each heresy.

For that, by his own hissings — like a shark rising up from the sea and a viper calling forth its prey — he deceived Flora through his letters, both her and others along with her, has been demonstrated in what has already been said.

Having refuted him by exposing his wicked words, we have defeated him by the teaching of the true faith.

Having thus crushed him by the power of God, let us give thanks to God, and let us set about proceeding, as I said before, in like manner to the heresies that follow.

Against the Marcosians, Heresy 14 (of this book), but 34 in the overall sequence.

Now a certain Mark, from whom those called Marcosians take their name, setting out from these men and daring other evils besides theirs, vomited them forth upon the world.

For he succeeds those associated with Secundus, Epiphanes, Ptolemy, and Valentinus, but he was elevated to a still more charlatan-like assemblage of teachings.

For he drew to himself little women and men who had been led astray by him, this pitiable man being supposed to be a corrector of the aforementioned deceivers, while being most experienced in magical trickery.

Having deceived all the aforementioned men and women into paying attention to him as one most gnostic and possessing the greatest power from the invisible and unnameable realms, he has been shown to be, in truth, a forerunner of the Antichrist.

For, mixing the tricks of Anaxilaus with the cunning of the so-called magicians, and by means of these creating illusions and practicing sorcery, he cast into astonishment those who watched and were persuaded by him — just as those descended from him still perform this very thing to this day.

And those who see the effects of this curious trickery think that certain powers are being wrought in his hands, and in the hands of those among them who do these things.

For they too, having lost their minds, do not see the truth.

Not knowing how to test and discern that the substance of his trickery is accomplished, so to speak, by magic.

For they themselves have become utterly stupefied, having been led on by some evil suspicion.

For they say that three cups of white glass are prepared among them, mixed with white wine, and that in the incantation performed by him -- the so-called Eucharist -- they immediately change color: the one becomes red like blood, another purple, and another blue.

I, therefore, in order not to subject myself to a second labor, thought it right to be content with what has been set forth by the most blessed and most holy Irenaeus against this very Marcus and those who took their start from him, which things I have taken care to set forth here word for word, and they are as follows:

For the holy Irenaeus himself, in disclosing the things done by them, says as follows:

Pretending to give thanks over cups mixed with wine, and drawing out at length the words of the invocation, he makes them appear purple and red, so that Grace, who is above all things, seems to drip her own blood into that cup through his invocation, and those present passionately desire to taste of that drink, so that upon them too the Grace invoked through this magician may rain down.

Again, having given mixed cups to women, he bids them give thanks while he himself stands by.

And when this had been done, he himself, bringing forward another cup much larger than the one over which the deceived woman had given thanks, and pouring out from the smaller cup -- the one over which the woman had given thanks -- into the one he had brought, says at the same time as follows: 'May Grace, who is before all things, inconceivable and ineffable, fill your inner man and multiply in you her knowledge, sowing the grain of mustard seed into the good ground.'

And by doing certain other things similar to these, he deceived many and led them away after himself.

It is likely that he also has some attendant demon, through whom he himself seems to prophesy, and through whom he makes those whom he judges worthy to become partakers of his grace prophesy as well.

For he is occupied especially with women, and among these with those of fine dress, clad in purple, and very wealthy, whom he often tries to win over, flattering them and saying, 'I wish to impart to you a share of my Grace, since the Father of all continually beholds your angel before his face.'

'And the place of the Greatness is within us.'

'We must be established in the One.'

'Receive first from me, and through me, the Grace.'

'Prepare yourself like a bride awaiting her own bridegroom, that you may be what I am, and I what you are.'

'Establish in your bridal chamber the seed of light.'

'Receive from me the bridegroom, and make room for him, and be made room for in him.'

'Behold, Grace has come down upon you.'

'Open your mouth and prophesy.'

And when the woman answers, 'I have never prophesied, and I do not know how to prophesy,' he, uttering certain invocations a second time, to the amazement of the deceived woman, says to her, 'Open your mouth and say whatever comes, and you shall prophesy.'

And she, made vain and infatuated by the aforesaid words, her soul inflamed by the expectation that she is about to prophesy, her heart beating more than it ought, boldly ventures to speak nonsense and whatever comes to hand, all vainly and rashly, being as she is inflamed by an empty spirit -- just as one better than us has said concerning such prophets, that it is a bold and shameless soul that is inflamed by empty air -- and from then on she considers herself a prophetess, and gives thanks to Marcus for imparting to her a share of his own grace, and tries to repay him, not only by a gift of her possessions -- whence he has amassed a great quantity of money -- but also by communion of the body, being eager to be united with him in every way, that she may descend together with him into the One.

But already some of the more faithful women, who have the fear of God and were not deceived -- whom he likewise tried to win over, in the same way as the rest, by bidding them to prophesy -- having blown upon him in contempt and cursed him, separated themselves from that company, knowing precisely that prophecy does not come to men from Marcus the magician, but that those upon whom God from above sends down his grace, these have a God-given prophecy, and speak then and there when and where God wills, and not when Marcus commands.

For that which commands is greater and more sovereign than that which is commanded, since the one takes precedence, while the other is subordinate.

If, then, Marcus commands, or someone else -- as these people are accustomed always to play at lots during their dinners and command one another to prophesy, and to divine for themselves according to their own desires -- then he who commands would be greater and more sovereign than the prophetic spirit, though he is a man, which is impossible.

But such spirits, commanded by them and speaking whenever they themselves wish, are earthly and powerless, but bold and shameless, sent forth by Satan for the deception and destruction of those who do not firmly guard the faith which they received from the beginning through the Church.

That this Marcus, moreover, employs love-potions and charms upon some of the women, if not all, in order also to outrage their bodies, these women themselves, having often returned to the Church of God, have confessed -- both that they were defiled in body by him, and that they had loved him most passionately, in an erotic manner.

...the body of a woman who had been corrupted by this magician and had followed him for a long time...

Then, after the brethren, with much labor, had converted her back, she continued the whole time making confession, mourning and lamenting over the corruption she had suffered at the hands of the magician.

And some of his disciples also, going about in the same regions, deceiving many silly women, corrupted them, proclaiming themselves to be perfect, as though none could be equal to the greatness of their knowledge -- not even if you should name Paul or Peter or any other of the apostles -- but that they alone had known more than all, and had alone swallowed down the greatness of the knowledge of the ineffable power, and that they themselves were in a height above every power.

Wherefore they also act freely in all things, having fear of no one in anything.

For on account of the redemption, they become uncontainable and invisible to the judge.

But if he should even seize hold of them, having come to stand before him together with the redemption, they should say the following:

'O assessor of God and of the mystical Silence that was before the ages, whom the Greatnesses, ever beholding the face of the Father, use as guide and mediator, and by whom they draw their own forms upward -- the forms which that most audacious one, having conceived a fantasy, put forth as images of us for the goodness of the Forefather, having then a remembrance of the things above as though in a dream -- behold, the judge is near, and the herald bids me make my defense.'

'But you, since you know the affairs of both, present to the judge the account concerning us both, as one, on our behalf.'

And the Mother, having quickly heard these words, put upon them the Homeric cap of Hades, so that they might escape the judge unseen, and immediately, drawing them up, brought them into the bridal chamber and gave them back to their own bridegrooms.

Saying and doing such things, they have deceived many women in the regions of the Rhone around us -- women whose consciences have been seared, some of whom confess openly, while others, being ashamed, do so quietly to themselves in some way; and some, having despaired of the life of God, have utterly fallen away, while others waver between the two and have suffered the fate of the proverb, being neither outside nor inside, having this as the fruit of the seed of the children of knowledge.

This Marcus, then, saying that he alone has become the womb and receptacle of the Silence of Colorbasus, inasmuch as he is only-begotten, brought forth in the following manner the very seed of the Deficiency that had been deposited in him.

He says that the all-highest Tetrad herself came down from the invisible and unnameable places to him, in female form, since, he says, the world could not bear her male aspect; and she disclosed herself, who she was, and the generation of all things, which she had never revealed to anyone, neither of gods nor of men, but recounted it to him alone, speaking thus:

'When at first the Father, of whom there is no father, the inconceivable and without-substance one, who is neither male nor female, willed that his ineffable nature should become expressible, and his invisible nature take form, he opened his mouth and put forth a Word like unto himself.'

'Who, standing by him, showed him what he was, himself appearing as the form of the Invisible One.'

And the pronunciation of the name came about thus:

'He spoke the first word of his name, which was a beginning, and its syllable consisted of four letters.'

'And he joined to it the second, and it too consisted of four letters.'

'Next he spoke the third, and it too consisted of ten letters.'

'And the one after that he spoke, and it too consisted of twelve letters.'

'The pronunciation of the whole name thus consisted of thirty letters, but four syllables.'

'And each of the Elements has its own letters, its own character, its own pronunciation, and shapes and images; and none of them is such as to behold the form of that being of which it is itself an element.'