Panarion (Against Heresies) 1 part 21/82

'And these,' they say, 'are those unspeakable words.'

And they teach these things and things of this kind, honoring the wicked and forbidding the good.

For they say, as I have said before, that Cain belongs to the stronger power, and Abel to the weaker.

And [they say] that these powers, having coupled with Eve, begot Cain and Abel, and that Cain belongs to the one, and Abel to the other.

And that Adam and Eve themselves were also begotten from such powers, that is, from angels.

And [they say] that the children thus begotten, Cain and Abel, I mean, contended with one another, and that the one begotten of the strong power slew the one from the lesser and weaker power.

These men, too, weave in the same mythical fabrications, along with the administering of the same poisons of ignorance, plotting against those who are persuaded, that every man must choose for himself the stronger power and separate himself from the weaker and feeble one — that is, from the one that made heaven and the flesh and the world — and pass over into the highest realms through the crucifixion of Christ.

'For this reason,' they say, 'he came from above, so that in him a strong power might be effected, taking up its trophy of victory against the weaker power, and surrendering the body.'

And some of them say this, while others say other things.

For some say that Christ was betrayed by Judas because Christ was wicked, Judas wishing to overturn the things pertaining to the Law — for they praise Cain and Judas, as I have said — and they say:

'For this reason he betrayed him, because he wished to destroy the things well taught.'

'No,' others say, 'but he betrayed him, being good, in accordance with the heavenly knowledge.'

'For the rulers knew,' they say, 'that if Christ were handed over to the cross, their weak power would be emptied out.'

And knowing this, they say, Judas hastened and set everything in motion so as to betray him, having done a good work for us unto salvation.

And we must praise him and render him praise, because through him the salvation of the cross was prepared for us, and through such a matter the revelation of the things above.

But in every way these people have been deceived, honoring or praising one who is not good.

It is clear that these things have been sown in them by the devil — I mean the things of ignorance and deceit.

And in them is fulfilled that which is written: 'Woe to those who call good evil and evil good, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who call bitter sweet and sweet bitter.'

For in every way the Old and New Testament proclaim, announcing the impiety of Cain.

But these people, on the contrary, being lovers of darkness and imitators of evildoers, hate Abel, love Cain, and give praise to Judas.

They fashion for themselves a corruptive 'knowledge', positing two powers, one weaker and one stronger, warring against each other, which produce in the world not a change of will, but that among the things that have come to be, some by nature have their essence from wickedness, and others from goodness.

And they say that no one is good or wicked according to will, but according to nature.

And first let us consider concerning Cain, how the Old Testament says: 'Cursed are you from the earth, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand'; and again, 'Cursed are you in your deeds, and you shall be groaning and trembling upon the earth.'

The Gospel speaks of this, when the Jews said, 'We have God as our father.'

But the Lord said to them, 'You are of your father the devil, for he is a liar, because his father was a liar.'

That one was a murderer from the beginning, and did not stand in the truth.

When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own, because his father also was a liar.

Whence also the other heresies, hearing this saying, assert that the devil is the father of the Jews, but that he too has another father, and his father again another father.

But they speak with an unbridled tongue, being blind in understanding.

For indeed they trace the kinship up to the Master of all, the God of the Jews and Christians and all people, saying that he is the father of that one's father — the one who legislated through Moses and did so many wonders.

But this is not so, O beloved.

For the Lord himself immediately says, taking care of us in all things, lest we depart from the matter at hand, cleverly devising and reasoning one thing instead of another, that their father is the devil — Judas, whom he also called Satan and devil, saying to the disciples, 'Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?' — not calling him 'devil' by nature, but according to intention.

And again in another place he says, 'Father, Lord of heaven and earth, keep these whom you have given me.'

'While I was with them, I kept them, and none of them was lost except the son of perdition.'

Again at another time he says that the Son of Man must be betrayed according to what is written concerning him, but woe to him through whom he will be betrayed.

'For it would have been better for him if he had not been born,' and so forth.

Therefore, from all this, we know assuredly that he was speaking about Judas to the Jews.

For to whomever one is defeated, to him one is also enslaved, and whomever one obeys, him one has as father and originator of one's obedience.

So the Lord says, 'You are sons of your father the devil,' since they obeyed Judas instead of Christ, just as Eve, turning away from God, from the beginning obeyed the serpent.

Furthermore, that he was not only a liar, but also a thief, according to what is said in the Gospel.

Therefore he entrusted to him the money-box, so that he would be without excuse, having betrayed his own Master into the hands of men because of love of money.

Who then is his father, the one who was a liar before him, if not Cain, whose imitator Judas is? For that one, having lied to his brother as though in brotherly love, deceived him and persuaded him through falsehood, and having led him out into the field, raised his hand and killed him.

So too Judas says, 'What are you willing to give me, and I will deliver him to you?' And, 'Whomever I kiss, he is the one; seize him.'

And the betrayer, coming, said, 'Hail, Rabbi,' honoring with his lips, while possessing a heart far removed from God.

So then, this Judas, having become their father through denial of God and betrayal, being Satan and devil not by nature but by intention — this one became a son in imitation of Cain, the murderer, the liar, since his father before him was also a liar, not Adam but the devil, whose imitation he had in the killing of his brother, and in hatred, and in falsehood, and in contradicting God by saying, 'Am I my brother's keeper? I do not know where he is.'

So too the devil says to the Lord, 'Does Job worship God for nothing?' For since the devil himself deceives Eve and Adam with a lie, saying one thing instead of another and displaying a feigned friendship — 'You shall be as gods, and you shall not die' — Cain, imitating him, under the pretense of brotherly love deceived his brother, saying, 'Let us go out into the field.'

For this reason holy John also said, 'He who hates his brother has not been perfected in love, but is of Cain, who killed his brother.'

...and envied his brother's works, because they were good.

So too these people, rather envying Abel who had good works, and honoring Cain, how are they not convicted, when the Savior expressly says, pronouncing upon them a severe sentence, that from this generation shall be required all the righteous blood shed from the beginning, from righteous Abel to Zechariah the prophet, whom you killed between the temple and the altar, and so forth?

Therefore, it is not the case, as these people say, that Judas betrayed the Savior out of knowledge, nor do the Jews have a reward for crucifying the Lord, even though we have salvation through the cross.

For Judas did not betray him in order that it might become salvation for us, but out of ignorance and envy and love of money — a denial of God.

For even if Scripture should say that Christ was going to be delivered up to the cross, or even if divine Scripture should speak of the absurd things to be accomplished by us in the last days, one would by no means find, for those of us who commit lawless deeds, an excuse by adducing the testimony of Scripture that foretold these things would happen.

For it is not because Scripture said it that we do it, but Scripture foretold it because we were going to do it, on account of God's foreknowledge, and so that God, being good, though bringing wrath upon sinners, might not be supposed to be gripped by passion.

For the wrath from God against each sinner does not arise from passion.

For the divine is impassible, and it brings wrath upon men not because it is seized by the passion of indignation, nor overcome and mastered by anger.

For God shows his impassibility by foretelling to us the judgment that will come and the just punishment that will be enacted by him, so that he might signify the impassibility of the Godhead.

Scripture, therefore, foretold according to foreknowledge, forearming and teaching us, lest we fall into the incurable wrath of God — a wrath not determined by passion nor arising from being overcome, but most justly prepared beforehand for those men who commit sin and do not repent in truth.

So too concerning the cross: it is not because the divine Scripture said it that the Jews crucified him and Judas betrayed the Savior, but because Judas was going to betray him and the Jews were going to crucify him, for this reason the divine Scripture foretold it in the Old Testament, and the Lord in the Gospel.

So then, Judas did not betray the Lord with knowledge of the benefit that would come to the world, as those people say, but knowing indeed that he was his own Master, yet not knowing that there would be salvation for the world.

For how could he be one caring for the salvation of men, he who hears from the Savior himself, 'son of perdition,' and 'It would be better for him if he had not been born,' and 'Friend, why have you come?', and 'One of you will betray me,' and 'He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me' (as the Gospel has it, from the preceding testimony of the Psalter), and 'Woe to him through whom the Son of Man is betrayed'? For Judas himself revealed the whole truth about himself, and refuted from his own action the folly of those who praise him, when, even though unwillingly, after receiving the price of thirty pieces of silver, he later repented and returned the silver, as one who had done something evil — evil for himself, and evil also for those who crucified him.

But the Lord, accomplishing good through himself for us and for the world, delivered himself up, that it might become salvation for us.

Therefore we do not confess our gratitude to Judas the traitor, but to the merciful Savior, who laid down his soul for us, his own sheep, just as he himself said.

'If it seems right to you, give me my wages; if not, refuse.' And again, in another prophet: 'And they gave the silver, the price of him who was priced, and he said, Cast it into the foundry, and see whether it is genuine, just as I was valued by the sons of Israel.'

And how many things can be gathered from the divine Scripture concerning the things accomplished in our Lord — not according to Judas's activity toward good, but according to the self-surrender, not by necessity but by his own free choice, of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God on our behalf, and the dispensation of the cross for our salvation.

But I know I am extending these testimonies to great length. As another prophet again says: 'Let his homestead become desolate, and let another take his office' — he who, falling headlong, burst asunder in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out; and at the end, having resorted to hanging himself, he showed that he had utterly destroyed the whole of his salvation, having fallen short of hope through his own disorderly and reckless plot against his Master, and, for love of money, into denial of God.

As also the apostles appointed Matthias into their number in his place, saying, 'From which Judas transgressed and fell away, to go to his own place.'

And what place is this but the one the Savior declared concerning him, saying that he is 'the son of perdition'? For this place of perdition was set apart for him, where he received, instead of a portion, a portion, and instead of apostolic office, the place of perdition.

Considering that what has been said concerning this matter is sufficient, let us proceed in order again to another subject, O beloved, again exposing the crooked and beastly and venomous teachings of those among the remaining sects who have been stupefied for the ruin of the world by a feigned diabolical inspiration; for since the mind of such people, reaching after that which is worse, resembles the kind of the buprestis beetle, having exposed it as being harmful and having crushed it by the power of God, let us, setting our mind upon the investigation of the others, call upon God as our helper, O children of Christ.

Against the Sethians (19), and in the sequence [of the whole work] (39)

The Sethians, again, are another heresy so called; and this one is not found everywhere, nor is the one before it, called that of the Cainites.

And perhaps by now the greater part of these has already been rooted out of the world.

For that which is not from God will not stand, but flourishes for a season, yet does not endure continually unto the end.

I think perhaps I encountered this heresy too in the land of the Egyptians — for I do not exactly recall the region in which I encountered them.

And some things concerning this heresy, as a matter of history, we know by our own actual eyewitness, while other things concerning it we learned from writings.

For these Sethians pride themselves on tracing their lineage from Seth, the son of Adam; they glorify him and refer to him all things that pertain to virtue, and the evidences of virtue and righteousness and whatever else of that kind there is.

Moreover, they also call him Christ, and they affirm that he is Jesus.

And they teach their doctrine thus: that, they say, all things came to be from angels, and not from the power above.

For in this respect these people say things harmonious with the first heresy, that of the Cainites.

They say that from the very beginning immediately two men came to be, and that from these two came Cain and Abel; and that the angels, contending over these, came to war with one another, and thus brought it about that Abel was killed by Cain.

For the strife was among the angels, contending over the races of men — these two races, that which had begotten Cain and that which had begotten Abel.

...a power, which they call Mother and Female.

For it seems to them that there are, above, both mothers and females and males; and they come close even to speaking of kinships and patriarchies.

Since then, they say, the one called Mother and Female prevailed, and, knowing that Abel had been killed, she took thought and caused Seth to be born, and in him she placed her own power, casting into him the seed of the power from above and the spark sent down from above, into the first deposit of the seed and formation.

And [they say] that this is the establishment of righteousness and the election of a seed and a race, so that through such an establishment and this seed the powers of the angels who made the world and the two men from the beginning might be overthrown.

For this reason, then, the race of Seth also, having been set apart, is traced down from this point, being one of election and distinguished from the other race.

For as time went on, they say, and the two races, that of Cain and that of Abel, existed together and came together into one on account of much wickedness and were mingled together, the Mother of all, looking upon them, wished to produce a pure seed of men, as I said before, because Abel had been killed, and she chose this Seth and showed him to be pure, and in him alone deposited the seed of that same power and purity.

And when she again saw much intermingling and disorderly impulse of the angels and of men, the two races having come into a mixture, and certain combinations of races having produced their disorder, the same Mother, who is also the Female, went forth again and brought a flood and destroyed every establishment of man and of every opposing race, so that, forsooth, the pure and righteous race from Seth alone might remain in the world, for the establishment of the race from above and the spark of righteousness.

But the angels again eluded her notice and smuggled Ham into the ark, he being of their seed.

For of the eight souls that were saved at that time in the ark of Noah, seven, they say, were of the pure race, but the one, Ham, belonged to the other power, and he slipped in unnoticed by the Mother above.

And this was thus accomplished, having been contrived by the angels.

For since, they say, the angels knew that all their seed was about to be wiped out in the flood, by a certain cunning they smuggled in the aforesaid Ham, for the preservation of the race of wickedness created by them.

And from this, forgetfulness and error came upon men, and disorderly onrushes of sins, and a great intermingling of wickedness arose in the world.

And thus the world reverted again to its original disorder, and was filled with evils just as it had been from the beginning before the flood.

From Seth, according to seed and according to succession of race, came Christ himself, Jesus - not by generation, but having appeared marvelously in the world, being himself that Seth of old, and now Christ, having visited the race of men, sent from the Mother above.

All these things, those people say, happened in this way.

But such teachings are foolish and feeble and full of empty talk, as is evident to everyone.

For not two men were formed, but one, Adam, and from Adam came Cain and Abel and Seth.

And no longer from two men, but from one, until the flood, all the races having their own establishments in the world from Adam.

And from the flood onward, again from Noah, the one man, and not from different men, but from the one Noah - who was, by succession, from the seed of Seth - the whole race of men descends, not divided into two, but into one race.

And composing certain books under the names of great men, they say there are seven books under the name of Seth, and they call other books by the name Allogeneis ('Foreigners'), and another under the name of Abraham, which they claim to be an apocalypse, full of all wickedness, and others under the name of Moses, and yet others under other names.

And bringing their own minds down into great folly, they say that a certain woman named Horaia (the Fair One) is the wife of Seth.

But observe, beloved, the folly of these men, so that in every way you may condemn their theatrical fabrication and mythical vanity of mind and contrived nonsense.

For there are certain other sects which say there is a certain power, which they call by the name Horaia.

That power, then, which is held by others to exist and is called Horaia, these men declare to be the wife of Seth.

Hence we are able to demonstrate, as you know, beloved, both that Seth was by nature a man and did not receive anything altered from above, and that he was by nature the brother of Cain and Abel, from one father and one mother.

For it says, 'Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and she gave him the name Cain', which is interpreted 'possession', saying, 'I have acquired a son through the Lord God.'

And again, concerning Abel: Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Abel.

And a long time after Abel's death, Adam again knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Seth, which is interpreted 'exchange'.

For God has raised up for me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.

And the phrase 'I have acquired through God' and 'God has raised up for me' show one God, the maker of all things and the giver of those who are born.

And it is clear that these had wives, both Cain and Seth.

For Abel, being younger, was killed before he had ever married.

And as is found in the Jubilees, also called 'Little Genesis', that book even contains the names of the wives of both Cain and Seth, so that in every way those who have rhapsodized these myths into human life might be put to shame.

For since Adam had begotten sons and daughters, it was necessary at that time for the sons to be joined to their own sisters.

For such a thing was not unlawful.

Since there was no other race.

For indeed Adam himself, so to speak, was joined to what was practically his own daughter - she who had been fashioned from his own body and bones - formed by God for him as a spouse, and it was not unlawful.

And his sons were joined in marriage: Cain to the elder sister, called Saue, and Seth, the third son born after Abel, to his sister called Azura.

And Adam had other sons as well, as the Little Genesis relates, nine after these three, so that he had two daughters and twelve male children, one of whom was killed, and eleven who remained alive.

You have an intimation of these things also in the Genesis of the world, the first book of Moses, which says thus: 'And Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years, and he begot sons and daughters, and he died.'

And as men multiplied and the generation of Adam extended further, the precision governing dignified marriage likewise broadened, advancing in succession.

And since Adam had children, and children's children, and daughters were born from these in succession of generation, thenceforth they no longer took their own sisters in marriage, but the institution of dignified marriage was established in good order, even before the written law through Moses, and they took their wives from among their cousins, the daughters of their father's brothers.

And thus, as men were now increasing, the two races were intermingled - that of Cain with the race of Seth, and that of Seth with the other, and likewise the other races descended from the sons of Adam.

Then, the flood having utterly destroyed the whole establishment of mankind, only Noah was preserved, having found favor with God, being found righteous in the generation of that time.

And, as we have already said before, he constructed for himself an ark at God's command, as the true Scriptures have it, in which - the very book of truth states - he was saved, together with the aforementioned seven souls who were with him, that is, I mean, his own wife, and his three sons, and likewise their three wives.

And the truth again establishes that from this there came to be remnants of the constitution of mankind in the world.

Whence, as men advanced generation by generation, and son succeeded father in succession, the age proceeded through five generations.

And at that time the founding of Babylon took place in the land of the Assyrians, and the tower that was then built by them.

And at this time there were, as I have already related in the earlier sections according to the sequence of the generations dealt with above, seventy-two men in all in number, chieftains and heads of tribes: of the race of Ham, thirty-two; and of Japheth, fifteen; and of Shem, twenty-five.

And thus the tower and Babylon came to be.

From this, tribes and languages were scattered over all the earth.

And since the seventy-two who were then building the tower were dispersed in languages, having been confounded even from the one language which they knew, being inspired by the will of God, one had one language, another another.

From these, even to this day, the constitution of languages has remained, so that whoever wishes may find the founder of each language: as Iounan had the Greek language, from whom also the Ionians are named, who have the ancient language of the Greeks; Theras had that of the Thracians; Mosoch, the language of the Mossynoeci; Thobel, that of the Thessalians; Loud, that of the Lydians; Gephar, that of the Gasphenoi; Mistrem, that of the Egyptians; Psous, that of the Axomites; Armo, that of the Arabs; and each of the rest - not to name each one individually - was inspired with his own language.

And thus the succession of each language has spread throughout the world.

Whence, then, did these men falsely speak their words, inserting their own myth-making, imagining and dreaming up things that do not exist as though they existed, and dispersing from their own minds the things that do exist? Rather, it is entirely the will of the devil, which he has incubated in the souls of men.

And it is possible to see and marvel how, in many monstrous acts, he deceived man and dragged him down into lawlessness - into fornications and adulteries and licentiousness, idol-madness and sorcery and bloodshed, plunderings and insatiable greed, dice-gambling and gluttony, and all such things - yet nowhere, before the coming of Christ, did he dare to utter any blasphemous word against his own Master, or to conceive of rebellion.

For he was waiting for the coming of Christ, as it says: 'It is written concerning you that he will command his angels concerning you, and they will bear you up on their hands.'

For he always heard the prophets proclaiming the coming of Christ, and the redemption that would come for those who had sinned and repented through Christ, and he supposed that he too would obtain some mercy.

But when the wretch saw that Christ did not accept his overture concerning salvation, he opened his mouth and vomited forth blasphemy against his own Master, instilling in men the suspicion to deny the One who exists and to seek after the one who does not exist.

Thus, then, these men too will be shown, in every way, to have been deceived.

For Seth has died, and his years have been recorded.

For having lived nine hundred and twelve years, he paid the debt of nature, having begotten sons and daughters, as the divine Scripture says.

...our life, having begotten sons and daughters, as the same book of truth has it.

Whence, then, will that Seth of old - who died, and whose sons too, after living in succession, ceased from life - ever be found to be the Lord who was born of Mary the ever-virgin, who was well-pleased to grant life to mankind; who was begotten outside of time, who exists eternally with the Father, God the Word subsisting in his own person, yet who came in the last of days and, forming for himself flesh and taking a human soul from a virginal womb, thus became man in the most complete way, proclaiming to us the mysteries of life, appointing his own disciples as workers of righteousness, and instructing the race of men in his teaching both through himself and through them - not revealing the doctrines of the Sethians, nor naming himself Seth, as these men babble and, gripped by a kind of drunkenness, have fallen away from the truth? But since this heresy is brief, I do not need to extend my refutation of it further, and I am content with what has been said already.

For the folly of these men is easily refuted, and able to expose and convict itself, not only concerning the account of Christ and the slanderously misrepresented teaching that would suppose and assert him to be Seth himself, but also with regard to the hypothesis concerning the two men.