Panarion (Against Heresies) 1 part 2/82

And never yet did any son among earlier men die before his father; rather, fathers, dying before their children, left their sons behind as successors. And let no one speak of Abel in this regard—

for his was not a death that came to him in the natural course.

But from the time that Terah, by his own craft of clay-working, set up a rival to God, he himself, in turn, received back from justice the like of what he had done, being himself requited through his own child.

Wherefore the divine Scripture, marveling at this, took note of it, saying, 'And Arran died in the presence of Terah his father, in the land of his birth.'

Up to this point a certain Scythian succession and appellation remained.

As yet there was no heresy, nor any other device, but only the first fornication—the invention of idols.

Whence also the Thracians are named after Theras, the surname of the one who was involved in the building of the tower.

The whole span of time from this point, when error took its beginning, extended to the aforesaid period, thereafter confounding the ways of men.

And writers and historians thenceforth borrowed from the pagan mythological error of the Egyptians; whence indeed the arts of sorcery and magic were discovered.

And these things were transmitted to the Greeks from the time of Cecrops.

And at that time there were, among the Assyrians, Ninus and Semiramis, contemporaries of Abraham; and among the Egyptians, it was the sixteenth dynasty.

And those in Sicyon alone were, at that time, ruled by kings, of which kingdom the beginning was Europs.

And God chose Abraham, marked with that same character which belongs to the holy catholic Church: faithful while yet uncircumcised, most perfect in piety, a prophet in knowledge, and possessed, in his manner of life, of an evangelical conduct.

For at home he was one who honored his father; yet, being called by the Word, he also parted from his own household, obeying the One who called him—just as it was with those around Peter and Andrew and James and John.

And that I may not again draw out the discourse, I will speak concisely.

For this patriarch, having reached ninety-nine years, was divinely instructed by God concerning circumcision, and from here begins the mark of Judaism, following after Hellenism.

And it was, from the foundation of the world, the twenty-first generation, three thousand four hundred thirty-one years.

For Scythianism lasted from the flood until the tower and Serug; and from Serug until Abraham and thereafter, Hellenism; but from Abraham onward there was not yet any named heresy, but only the designation of his own piety toward God.

Those descended from Abraham, then, were called Abramites.

For he had eight children, but Isaac alone was the heir, because he too lived according to his father's mind, devoted to piety, and had also been given to his father according to the promise of God.

But before this he had had Ishmael, by the maidservant Hagar; and Keturah bore him six children.

These were scattered over the region called Arabia Felix, the Blessed Arabia.

Zimran and Jokshan and Ishbak and Shuah and Medan and Midian.

And the son of the maidservant—Ishmael, as I said, was his name—takes possession of, and builds, the place called Pharan in the wilderness.

of these also come the Ishmaelites, now called Saracens.

And Isaac begets two sons, Esau and Jacob; and at that time the race of the godly was called both Abramites and Isaacites.

And Esau, having been assigned to Idumea, the region lying to the south and east of Canaan, becomes the settler of Mount Seir, and builds the city of Edom, also called Rekem and Petra.

And sons were born to him, and they ruled in Idumea, each in succession; and they were also called the chiefs of Edom.

From him, fifth in succession, was Job—Abraham being excluded from this reckoning, the count being taken from Isaac.

For Isaac begets Esau; Esau begets Ragouel; Ragouel begets Zara; Zara begets Job, who was formerly called Jobab, but afterward was called Job, a little while before the trial that came upon him.

And circumcision was still the practice of their common life.

And Jacob flees from the presence of Esau his brother, on account of his wrath, by the counsel of his father and mother, to Mesopotamia, to Padan, beyond Mesopotamia, to Suba.

And from there he takes, of his own kindred, four wives in number, and they bear him twelve children, who were also called the patriarchs.

And as he was returning to the land of Canaan, to his own father Isaac and his mother Rebecca, a certain vision from God came to him beside the fords of the Jordan—they call it the torrent Jabbok—where he beheld, it seems, encampments of angels.

'And behold,' it says, 'a man wrestled with him from evening,' and he wrestled with him until dawn—him whom Scripture designated as an angel.

who, by way of blessing, gives to Jacob the name of dignity, Israel.

And Jacob, rising up from there, named that place 'the form of God.'

And since the one who spoke to him in the blessing said, 'Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but shall be called Israel,' and made the distinction, saying, 'because you have prevailed with God, you shall also be mighty with men'—from that time they are called Israelites.

And Israel, after Joseph's descent into Egypt, goes down himself also, with his whole household—both sons and grandsons, and the aforementioned wives, and others—numbering seventy souls.

And the race of Israel abides in the land of the Egyptians for five generations.

For Jacob begets Levi and Judah and the other ten patriarchs.

Levi begets Kohath; Judah begets Perez.

Kohath begets Amram; Amram begets Moses.

Perez begets Hezron; Hezron begets Ram; Ram begets Amminadab; Amminadab begets Nahshon.

In the days of Moses and Nahshon, in the fifth generation according to the line of Levi, Israel goes out from Egypt through the Red Sea amid divine signs, and encamps in the wilderness of Sinai.

And when oracles were given by God to His servant Moses, to number, from twenty years old up to fifty, the men able to draw the sword and take up weapons of war, he found six hundred twenty-eight thousand five hundred.

And at that time there was, known among the Greeks, Inachus, whose daughter was Io—she who is also called Atthis, on account of whom the present-day Attica is so named.

from her also comes the Bosporus, after which is named the city called Bosporus on the Euxine Sea.

And the Egyptians call her Isis, whom they also worship as a goddess.

And there is also a river bearing the same name, likewise called Inachus.

—these, having gained strength from the time they began with Pythagoras and Plato, continued down to the Macedonian era and the time of Xerxes, king of the Persians, after the first capture of Jerusalem and the Nebuchadnezzar captivity, and after Darius, and into the time of those under Alexander the Macedonian.

For Plato was known at that time, as were, before him, Pythagoras, and, afterward, Epicurus.

Whence, then, as I said before, philosophy took its occasion, and the writings among the Greeks came to their settled form; and after this time arose the much-talked-of heresies of the philosophers, which, agreeing with one another in their error, and weaving together a kindred knowledge of idolatry and impiety and atheism, yet, being bound up together by that same error, differ from one another.

Against the Stoics: the third heresy from Hellenism, but the fifth in the succession of all.

And the Stoics hold the following concerning the deity:

They say that God is mind, pervading the whole visible mass—I mean of heaven and earth and the rest—as a soul in a body.

And they, moreover, divide the one deity into many particular substances: into sun and moon and stars, into soul and air and the rest.

And they teach transmigrations of souls, and reincarnations from body to body—souls being purged from bodies and then again entering in, and being born again in turn—weaving this impiety in through much error of their own.

And they consider the soul to be a part of God, and immortal.

And they had Zeno as founder of the Stoa, concerning whom much is bandied about.

For some say that he descended from a certain Cleanthes who came from Tyre; others say that he was a Citiean, an islander of Cyprus, and that he lived for a time in Rome, but afterward, having established himself in Athens, set forth this doctrine in the so-called Stoa (Porch); but some say there were two Zenos, the Eleatic, and the aforementioned one.

Nevertheless, both of them, even if there were two, held the same doctrines alike.

This one, then, also asserts that matter is coeval with God, just as the other heresies do, and that there is fate and generation, from which all things are governed, and by which all things are affected.

How much strength, then, does this brief composition of ours have, to set forth an antidote against the vileness of this man? And therefore I will not extend the assurance of this treatise into great bulk—

but I will speak against this man only briefly, that I may not merely pass him by in a hurry.

Whence have you taken, O you, this guidance for your teaching? Or what holy spirit has spoken to you from heaven concerning your error? For you assert, by sheer force, that two things are coeternal together—matter and God.

For your argument will collapse, and will stand without foundation.

For you confess that there is a certain demiurge, whom you also call almighty, yet you divide him into polytheism.

But of what would he be a demiurge, if matter were coeval with him? For whatever has not received its beginning from some cause, and is not subordinate to another, would be, by itself, master of itself.

But if the demiurge takes from this matter, having discovered it as something projected before him, this would be a kind of impotence, and a begged contribution made out of poverty by one who procures — not from his own resources, but from substances belonging to another — the means by which he is to bring his own creation into being.

And concerning the transmigration of souls, great indeed is the baseness of your corrupted mind, O would-be philosopher who promises knowledge to men.

For if the soul is a part of God and immortal, yet you join it — a soul which, according to you, possesses its substance from God — to pitiable bodies (and I would say not only pitiable bodies, but the bodies of beasts, reptiles, and ignoble vermin, in their very formation), what could be more depraved than this?

But you introduce Fate, as though from it come the things that befall man and others.

But by one saying, in brief summary of the argument, your myth-making shall be overturned.

For if it is from Fate that one becomes wise, becomes prudent, is born rational or irrational, and all other things as well, let the laws cease.

for Fate is the cause of adulterers and of others likewise.

But rather it is the stars that impose the necessity who ought to pay the penalty, rather than the one who is compelled to commit the deed.

But I shall also speak further about these matters in another way.

Let the schools be idle, let the sophists cease, and the rhetoricians and grammarians, the physicians and the other sciences and the countless multitude of manual arts, and let no one any longer teach — if indeed it is from Fate, and not from the learning of letters, that human nature attains the sciences.

For if Fate has prepared the educated and most eloquent man, let no one learn from a teacher, but let the Fates, who spin the threads, receive knowledge by nature — according to the pronouncement of your boastful error in words.

The Platonists: the fourth heresy of Hellenism, and the sixth in the overall succession.

But let these things have been said by me against Zeno and the Stoics.

But Plato too, likewise being carried along by the same currents — reincarnation and the transmigration of souls, polytheism and other idolatries and superstitions — did not think exactly the same as Zeno and the Stoics concerning matter.

For he himself knows God, and holds that all things that have come into being have come into being from the God who is.

And that there is a first cause, and a second, and a third.

And the first cause is God; but as second cause, certain powers came into being from God; and through him and the powers, matter came into being.

Heaven came into being together with time, and therefore it shall likewise be dissolved together with time — thereby overturning his own earlier statements about matter.

For he had once also said that matter is coeval with God.

The Pythagoreans: the fifth heresy of Hellenism, and the seventh in the succession.

But before this, Pythagoras and those who profess the Peripatetic philosophy characterize one God, yet they cling to other philosophies and to matters philosophized about.

And the same unlawful and most impious opinions again — the immortalizations of souls, the reincarnations, and the corruptions of bodies — he himself and those with him proclaim.

And he in the end ended his life in Media.

He says that God is a body, that is, the heaven, and that his eyes and other parts — just as in man — are the sun and moon and the other stars and the elements throughout the heaven.

The Epicureans: the sixth heresy of Hellenism, and the eighth in the succession.

And Epicurus, coming next after these, introduced the absence of providence for the cosmos.

He held that all things are composed of atoms and again pass back into atoms, and that all things exist by spontaneous chance, and the cosmos subsists thus — nature ever generating, and again being consumed, and again coming into being from itself, never ceasing, growing forth from itself and being crushed back into itself.

And he held that from the beginning the universe was like an egg, and that the spirit, serpent-like, encircled the egg like a crown or a girdle, thereby compressing nature at that time.

And this spirit, wishing at a certain time to compress all matter — or rather the nature of all things — more forcefully by a kind of constraint, thus split existing things into the two hemispheres, and from this, thereafter, the atoms were separated out.

For the light and finer elements of all nature floated upward — that is, light and ether and the finest part of the spirit — while the heaviest and most refuse-like elements sank downward, that is, earth, which is the dry element, and the moist substance of the waters.

And all things move of themselves and through themselves in the whirling of the pole and the stars, all things still being driven, as it were, by that serpent-like spirit.

And concerning these matters we have spoken in part.

But in the same manner these four heresies must be overturned.

For the sake of brevity of the reading.

The astronomers and those who introduced the other forms of error, who prepared the mind for countless evil causes and pursuits, darkened and muddied the understanding of humanity.

And this became the first error — the invention of idols, and the evil-demon teaching.

And all things were divided into Hellenism and Judaism.

But Judaism was not yet called by this name earlier; rather, it had acquired the epithet of the God-fearing religion through Israel, until five successions had come to pass.

From which point onward the kings in succession from his seed, son succeeding father, stood one after another in order.

For to this Jacob a first son was born, Reuben; the second, Simeon; the third, Levi; the fourth, Judah — whence they are called Jews after the tribe of Judah, the race of the God-fearers having passed over into this name.

At any rate, they were called both Israelites and Jews.

Up to this time the four generations of the earth had been joined together, these four divisions having been separated according to the earlier times, up to this moment which I have here indicated, and beyond.

That is: from Adam until Noah, Barbarism; from Noah until the Tower, and Serug two generations after the Tower, Scythian superstition; and afterward, from the Tower and Serug and Aram until Abraham, Hellenism; from him and afterward, God-fearing religion, joined to this same Abraham; from his seed in succession, that is, from Judah, Judaism.

As the Spirit-bearing and holy apostle of God, Paul, bears witness for me, speaking somewhat thus: that in Christ Jesus there is no barbarian, no Scythian, no Greek, no Jew, but a new creation — since, from the beginning, when the creation was created, being new, it had no name that made it any different.

And in harmony with these, again in another place, he speaks thus: 'I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish' — in order to show that the Jews are the wise, and the Scythians the foolish.

But lest I go off on a digression, passing over the matters concerning the religion of the Jews and not indicating in the least the substance of their doctrine, I shall set forth a few things out of many.

For, so to speak, the matters concerning the Jews are most manifest to all.

Therefore I shall not undertake very great labor to narrate this matter in the most minute detail; nevertheless it was necessary to set forth here a few things out of many.

The Jews, then, being those who exist in succession from Abraham and who have inherited his God-fearing religion, have the circumcision of Abraham, which he received by God's command in his ninety-ninth year, for the reason I stated above — namely, so that his seed, becoming sojourners in a foreign land, might not turn away from the name of God, but might bear upon the body a seal for the sake of remembrance and proof, so as to remain steadfast in the God-fearing religion of their father.

And it is agreed that circumcision existed then by God's command; but it had been ordained then as a type, as we shall show later, proceeding in due order concerning this matter.

So then, the descendants of Abraham himself, in succession, continued to be circumcised and to cling to God-fearing religion — from him, I mean, and in order, Isaac and Jacob and his sons — both in the land of Canaan, that is Judea, and Philistia as it was then called, but now called Palestine, and also in Egypt.

For Jacob, who is also Israel, went down together with his eleven sons into Egypt, being in the hundred and thirtieth year of his life.

But Joseph, his other son, was already ruling beforehand in Egypt, having been sold by his brothers out of envy.

But the dispensation of God, working good together with the righteous man, turned the plot against this same Joseph into an object of wonder.

So then, as I said before, Jacob went down into Egypt, along with his sons and wives and offspring, numbering seventy-five souls, as the first book of the Mosaic Pentateuch contains, clearly declaring all these things.

And they continued there for five generations, as I have also said many times, but now I have found it necessary to repeat this.

And Levi begets Kohath and the others; Kohath begets Amram; Amram begets Moses and Aaron the high priest.

This Moses brings the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by the power of God, as the second book, concerning the giving of the Law, records.

What, however, the polity of the sons of Israel was up to this time, it is not possible to say very clearly and manifestly, except only that they existed in God-fearing religion and circumcision.

Even though it is written that the sons of Israel multiplied in the land of Egypt and became a common multitude.

For certainly the time of their sojourning and intermingling, through negligence, produced this commonness.

However, what things they were to taste, or what things they were to forbid, or the other things which they were commanded to observe according to the distinctions of the Law, has not yet been most clearly indicated.

But when they went out of the land of Egypt, in the second year of their exodus, they were deemed worthy of the legislation of God through the hand of Moses himself.

And the legislation given to them by God, in the manner of a tutor — for the Law was indeed a tutor, distinguishing things on a bodily level, yet holding a spiritual expectation — taught them to be circumcised, to keep the Sabbath, to tithe all their produce and whatever was born among them, from man to beast, and to give first-fruits, and a fiftieth, and a thirtieth, and to know God alone and to serve him.

So then, the name was proclaimed in monarchy; but within that monarchy, the Trinity was always being announced and was believed by their most eminent men, that is, the prophets and those who were sanctified.

And various sacrifices and services they offered in the wilderness to God the King of all, in the worship of the holy tabernacle, which was constructed by Moses according to the patterns shown to him by God.

And these Jews had, up until the return from the Babylonian captivity, these books and these prophets, and these books of the prophets.

These are the twenty-seven books given by God to the Jews.

They are twenty-two in number, corresponding to the elements of the Hebrew letters among them, because ten books are doubled and reckoned as five.

Concerning this matter we have spoken clearly elsewhere.

There are also two other books among them that are disputed, the Wisdom of Sirach and that of Solomon, apart from certain other apocryphal books.

All these sacred books taught Judaism and the observances of the law until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And they would have fared well, being disciplined by the law as by a tutor, if they had received the Christ who was proclaimed beforehand and prophesied to them by the tutor—I mean the law—so that, having received his divinity and his incarnate coming, they might learn that this was not the abolition of the law but its fulfillment, since the types were in the law, but the truth is in the gospel.

For there was fleshly circumcision, serving for a time until the great circumcision, that is, the baptism that circumcises us from sins and seals us in the name of God.

And there was the sabbath, holding us in check until the great sabbath, that is, the rest of Christ, so that in Christ we might keep sabbath from sins.

And there was the irrational sheep that was sacrificed, guiding us to the great and heavenly Sheep that was slain for us and for the whole world.

And there was the tithing, safeguarding us so that the iota, the number ten, the first letter of the name of Jesus, might not escape our notice.

Since, then, they were led by the type and did not arrive at the perfection proclaimed through the law and the prophets and others and every book, they were cast out from the husbandry, and the Gentiles entered in, since those others could no longer be saved unless they should turn back to the grace of the gospel.

For all the ordinances have been abolished for them, as every testimony declares, just as it stands throughout all scripture.

But briefly, from a single testimony, we will state the irrevocable and unalterable character of the sentence against them, so that one may see precisely the verdict against them, as it says: 'Whatever soul will not hearken to that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from its tribe, and from Israel, and from under heaven.'

This shows that the Lord was about to confirm perfectly and savingly the things mysteriously handed down through the law, and that whoever does not hearken to him and does not endure him has no salvation, even if he keeps the law, since the law is unable to perfect a man, because its ordinances were written in a bodily manner and are truly fulfilled in Christ.

Let this much be said by me concerning Judaism.

For I have mentioned a few points, not in order to pass over all of it in silence, but to indicate it in part.

For, so to speak, the matter concerning them and the refutation against them is evident to all.

We have also shown the origin, whence they took their beginning: that from the beginning, from the piety of the patriarch Abraham, the pious are called 'Abramites,' because they are of his seed, and from his descendant—I mean Jacob, who is also Israel—they are called 'Israelites.'

And because of God's rebuke and the unworthiness of Rehoboam, the twelve tribes were split, and there came to be 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, being ruled by Jeroboam son of Nebat in Samaria.

But the two and a half at Jerusalem were called Jews, being ruled by Rehoboam son of Solomon.

And again there came successions of kings:

Rehoboam begets Abijah; Abijah begets Asa; Asa begets Jehoshaphat; Jehoshaphat begets Joram; Joram begets Ahaziah; Ahaziah begets Joash; Joash begets Amaziah; Amaziah begets Azariah, who is called Uzziah; Azariah, also called Uzziah, begets Jotham; Jotham begets Ahaz; Ahaz begets Hezekiah.

In the times of Hezekiah and Ahaz, tribes from Israel were taken captive into the territories of the Medes.

After this Hezekiah begets Manasseh; Manasseh begets Amon; Amon begets Josiah; Josiah begets Jechoniah, who is also called Shallum, and who was also called Amasias.

This Jechoniah begets a Jechoniah who is called Zedekiah and Jehoiakim.

And let no one be in doubt about this, but rather let him marvel at the precision, set forth here for the benefit of the diligent who, for the sake of sound learning, wish to grasp the exact sense of the scriptures—men who, together with the benefit received, will straightway be compelled to gratitude, having gained back a saying in the gospel that was obscured by certain ignorant men through doubt, as though by way of correction.

For up to Jechoniah they comprehend the periods of time.

But the third number is no longer found to have its full complement of fourteen generations in the succession of names, but only thirteen, because some, finding a Jechoniah together with another Jechoniah at the same point, supposed the number to have been counted twice over.

But it was not a duplication; rather, it was a clear and distinct number.

For the son was named Jechoniah after his father Jechoniah.

Some, therefore, driven by ignorance, removed the one name as though out of a love of refinement, and thereby made the matter deficient with regard to the promised total of the group of fourteen names, and effaced the manifold significance of the relationship.

From this point, then, from the time of Jechoniah, the captivity into Babylon takes place.

At this time of the captivity, the elders came to Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, urging that some of his own settlers be sent into the land of Israel, so that the country, overgrown with wild vegetation, might not be left desolate.

And he accepted their entreaty, for he did not delay; and he sent four of his own peoples—those called the Cuthaeans and Cudaeans, the Sepharvites, and the Anagogaeans—who, going up together with their idols, then settled in Samaria, having chosen this land for themselves because it was rich and most fertile.

In time, being torn apart by wild beasts—lions and leopards and bears and other savage beasts—they sent to Babylon, entreating him and marveling exceedingly at the manner of life of the settlers who had dwelt there before, wondering how they had been able to withstand the ravaging and violence of the beasts.

since there was havoc throughout that land.

But they showed him the legislation of God, and with understanding disclosed to him, in reasonable judgment, what followed, saying that no nation could settle there unless it should fulfill the law of the God of heaven that was given through Moses.

For God was the protector of the land, and he did not wish transgressions of idolatry and the like to occur in it on the part of foreign nations.

And he, taking care and being persuaded by the most truthful explanation of those who instructed him, asked for a copy of the law.

And they, having freely given it, sent, along with the law, a certain priest named Ezra as a teacher of the law from Babylonia, to instruct in the law of Moses the Assyrians settled in Samaria—the aforementioned Cuthaeans—and the others.

This took place in about the thirtieth year, more or less, after the captivity of Israel and Jerusalem.