Panarion (Against Heresies) 1 part 49/82

And the archons, whenever they see her adorned, are maddened with desire, and being unable to seize her, they burn terribly, their minds ravished by erotic longing.

So when, as they run after her, the virgin becomes invisible, then the great archon puts forth clouds from himself, so as to darken the world in his rage; and he, if he is greatly distressed, becomes exhausted, like a man sweating.

And his sweat is the rain.

Likewise also, if the archon of the harvest is despoiled by the virgin, he pours down pestilence upon the whole earth, so as to kill men.

For this body is called a world, in relation to this great world; and all men have roots below, bound together with the things above.

So whenever he is despoiled by the virgin, then he begins to cut the roots of men.

And when their roots are cut, then pestilence begins to occur, and thus they die.

And if the part above the root is shaken violently, an earthquake occurs and follows, Omophorus being shaken along with it.

And I will tell you this also, how the soul is transferred into other bodies.

First a small part of it is purified from it, then it is transferred into the body of a dog, or of a camel, or of some other animal.

But if it is a soul that has committed murder, it is transferred into the bodies of lepers;

and if it is found to have reaped, it is transferred into the mute.

And these are the names belonging to the soul:

mind, thought, prudence, reflection, reasoning.

And the reapers, as many as reap, resemble the archons who were, from the beginning, in the darkness, when they ate from the panoply of the first man.

Therefore they must necessarily be transferred into grass, or beans, or barley, or an ear of grain, or vegetables, so that they too may be reaped and cut.

And again, if anyone eats bread, he too must necessarily be eaten, having become bread.

If anyone kills a little bird, he too will become a little bird;

if anyone kills a mouse, he too will become a mouse.

And again, if anyone is rich in this world, then when he departs from his tabernacle, he must necessarily be transferred into the body of a poor man, so that he must wander about begging, and after this go away into eternal punishment.

And since this body belongs to the archons and to matter, it is necessary that whoever plants a persea-tree pass through many bodies, until that persea-tree is felled.

And if anyone builds a house for himself, he will be torn apart and scattered into all manner of bodies.

If anyone bathes, he fastens his own soul into the water.

And if anyone does not give devout offerings to his elect, he will be punished in the hells and will be transmigrated into the bodies of catechumens, until he gives many devout offerings.

And for this reason, whatever is best among foods they offer to the elect.

And whenever they are about to eat bread, they pray first, speaking thus to the bread:

'Neither did I reap you, nor grind you, nor press you, nor cast you into the oven; another did these things and brought you to me;

I have eaten you without guilt.' And when he has said these things to himself, he says to the catechumen, 'I have prayed for you,' and thus that one departs.

He who has baked bread will himself be baked.

And for this reason it is forbidden them to do any such work.

And again they say that there are certain other worlds, the luminaries setting from this world and rising again from among them.

And if anyone walks upon the ground, he harms the earth; and he who moves his hand harms the air, since the air is the soul of men, and of animals, and of birds, and of fish, and of reptiles, and of whatever is in the world;

for I have told you that this body does not belong to God, but belongs to matter, and is darkness, and it itself must be darkened.

Concerning paradise, which is called 'world':

the plants in it are desires, and other deceits that corrupt the reasonings of men.

And that plant in paradise, from which they come to know the good, is Jesus himself, and the knowledge of him in the world.

And he who receives it discerns the good and the evil.

The world, however, is not itself God's either, but was formed from a part of matter, and therefore all things vanish.

And what the archons despoiled from the first man, this is what fills the moon, being purified daily from the world.

And if the soul departs without having known the truth, it is handed over to the demons, that they may tame it in the hells of fire; and after this discipline it is transferred into other bodies, that it may be tamed, and thus it is cast into the great fire until the consummation.

Concerning the prophets among you, he speaks thus:

that they are spirits of impiety, that is, of the lawlessness of the darkness that arose from the beginning, and that, being led astray by these, they did not speak in truth.

For that archon blinded their understanding.

And if anyone follows their words, he dies forever, bound to the clod, because he did not learn the knowledge of the Paraclete.

And he commanded his elect alone, who are no more than seven in number:

'When you have finished eating, pray, and pour upon your head oil exorcised with many names, for the confirmation of this faith.'

But the names were not revealed to me;

for only the seven make use of these.

And again, the name Sabaoth, honored and great among you, he says is nothing but the nature of man, and the father of desire.

And for this reason, he says, simple people worship desire, considering it to be God.

Concerning how Adam was created, he speaks thus:

that the one who said, 'Come, let us make man according to our image and likeness,' or according to the form which we saw, is an archon, who said to the other archons, 'Come, give me from the light which we received, and let us make man according to the form of us archons, and according to what we saw' — that is, the first man.

And thus they created man.

And they created Eve likewise, giving her a portion of their own desire, in order to deceive Adam.

And through these things the fashioning of the world came about, from the demiurgic work of the archon.

And that God has no part with this world, nor does he rejoice in it, because from the beginning he was despoiled by the archons, and affliction came upon him.

For this reason he sends and takes back his own soul from them daily, through these two luminaries, sun and moon, by which the whole world and all creation is seized.

And he says that the one who spoke with Moses, and the Jews, and the priests, is the archon of darkness;

so that Christians, and Jews, and pagans are one and the same, worshiping the same god.

For by their own desires he deceives them, he not being the God of truth.

Therefore, all who hope in that god who spoke with Moses and the prophets must be bound together with him, because they did not hope in the God of truth.

For that one spoke with them according to their own desires.

And after all these things, at the end, he speaks, just as he himself wrote:

fire will also consume the whole world.

Then again he leaves the clod in the midst of the new age, so that all the souls of sinners may be bound forever.

And these things will happen then, when the Statue comes.

And all the emanations — Jesus who is in the small ship, and the Mother of Life, and the twelve helmsmen, and the Virgin of Light, and the third Elder who is in the great ship, and the Living Spirit, and the wall of the great fire, and the wall of the wind, and of the air, and of the water, and of the inner living fire — dwell together by the small luminary, until the fire consumes the whole world, in a certain number of years, the amount of which I have not learned.

And after these things there will be a restoration of the two natures, and the archons will dwell in their own lower regions, while the Father will dwell in the upper regions, having received back what is his own.

And he handed down this whole teaching to his three disciples, commanding each to journey into different regions;

Addas was allotted the regions of the East, Thomas was assigned by lot the land of the Syrians, and another, Hermeias, made his journey to Egypt.

and to this day they abide there, wishing to establish the foundation of the doctrine.

These are the things I have set forth from the aforementioned book of Archelaus.

And thus he established his school of tare-like sowing in the world, having vomited forth the tares of his teaching.

How much could one endure in the face of such great slander from this mime-teller — as must surely be evident to everyone.

And even if the words are not scraped over for refutation, it will suffice for their shame merely to know that these things are held as law among them, being incoherent and having no force.

For the first statements he overturns in the second, and the second utter things different from the first.

For at one time he wants the world to have come into being from God, and at another time from the archons — with God having no causal role at all in the world, but the world merely perishing; at one time he asserts that the firmament is the skins of the archons, at another time that they are crucified on high in the vault of heaven, running about and gathering into clouds and being roused with desire and driven wild with lust at the sight of the virgin and at the beauty of the youth.

For what is more wretched than this, more disgusting and more shameful, than that the Spirit of truth should fashion itself into a female form, and at another time appear to the archons in male form? For it is shameful, in drunken folly, for a man to be made effeminate and exist in the form of a woman;

but most shameful of all is that women should become mannish and bear the form of a man.

And how is it not the case that, being a spirit of virtue and divine, it will rather be found insulted by this fabricator Mani? And how do the flayed ones feel lustful frenzy? Tell me, you there.

And how, after being crucified, were they flayed? And if they have indeed been crucified, how do they run about with a power that has vanished? And who will tolerate this blasphemer, who lays it down that we are nourished from the sweats of the archons, and that rain is sent down to us from an excretion of shamefulness? And from where does he himself drink his beverage, drawing it from the rains along with his own disciples? And how is he not ridiculous, being overcome by bodily necessity, drinking sweats? For indeed sin varies, but the punishment will not be as great for one who sins involuntarily as for one who commits the sin with deliberate intent.

For other men, even if it were so — which God forbid —

For the madman imagines things, but they, not knowing that they are drawing water and drinking sweats and shameful excretions, are more excusable and rather obtain mercy than he who, with full knowledge, pricked in vain by his conscience, draws from the same drinks and from the other uses that belong to the flesh, because of the defeat of his own weakness.

And there are many points on which this man, with a mouth of false speech, has deceived those who were persuaded by him.

For what among his teachings is not ridiculous? For instance, holding that the seeds of plants, crops, and pulses are souls;

We shall attempt to say something ridiculous, in keeping with his myth-making, in order to refute him: that if the grains of lentil and bean and chickpea and the rest happen to be souls, and the soul of an ox is the same, then according to his own reasoning meat-eaters would be more praiseworthy than those who practice the ascetic way of life.

For according to his epic-poem-making, he fears that, by partaking of animate things — both animals and the rest — he too might become like them.

For if fifty or even a hundred men should come together, they would all be nourished from a single ox — according to his own vain slander;

Nevertheless, for the sake of refutation it must be said that the fifty or the hundred become guilty of a single soul, whereas he who eats the grains of seeds will rather, in a single mouthful, become guilty of thirty or forty souls.

And all his teachings are vain and ridiculous.

For to everyone who has understanding in the Lord, the proofs of the truth are surely evident from the true teaching itself;

for indeed nothing is truer than the Savior for the revelation of the life of mankind.

For this barbarian who has come forth among us — a Persian, and a slave in disposition (for it did not distress him at all to be a slave in body) — says that all souls are equal, and that the one soul is present in all things: in men and cattle and wild beasts and birds and creeping things and both winged and marine animals, and monstrous creatures, and in the seeds of crops, and in trees, and in all other visible things.

But our Lord has not shown it to be so.

For did he, when he came to save mankind, also concern himself with the healing and care of cattle, and gather up the fallen animals for resurrection? But it is not thus narrated, nor thus taught;

God forbid; rather, he knows how to save the souls of men, as he, comprehending it all in summary through the riddle, said, 'I came for nothing else but the lost sheep' — meaning thereby the whole of human nature.

And what does it say? He healed all whom they brought to him — those afflicted with lunacy and held fast by various diseases;

They brought to him the blind, the deaf, the crippled, the paralytic, the maimed, and upon all of them he extended his beneficence and healing; but nowhere is it written that they brought animals to him.

Then again, when he came into the region of the Gergesthenes, as Mark says, or into the borders of the Gerasenes, as Luke says, or of the Gadarenes, as Matthew says, or of the Gergesenes, as some copies have it (for the place lay between the three territories) — and behold, two men possessed by demons, exceedingly fierce, came out from the tombs;

'Ah, what have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God, that you have come before the time to torment us? We know who you are, the Holy One of God.'

Now a herd of swine was feeding there, and the demons besought him, saying:

'If you cast us out from these men, send us into the swine.'

And they rushed into the sea and perished in the waters.

And those who tended them fled and reported it to the city.

Now in Matthew it speaks of two demoniacs, but it indicates the swine simply, without stating the number.

But Mark related also the exact number of the swine, saying that he came into the region of the Gergesthenes, and there met him a demoniac, who was bound with iron chains and would tear the bonds apart, and who dwelt among the tombs and cried out:

'Ah, what have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? You have come before the time to torment us.'

And Jesus asked him:

'What is your name?' And he said, 'Legion,' because many demons had entered into him.

And they besought him not to be sent away out of the region, but to be allowed to enter into the swine;

for there was a herd of swine feeding there, and he permitted them to enter into the swine.

And the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea — they were about two thousand — and were drowned in the sea.

And those who fed them fled, and reported it in the city.

Having become man for our sake, did he not know the name of the demon before asking? But it is the custom of the divine to make the circumstances of each matter manifest from the mouth of those questioned.

So also here, in order to show the fearsomeness and the great number of the demons, he poses the question, so that the marvelous work might be shown forth from their own mouth.

And the demons besought him, saying:

'Do not send us into the abyss, but permit us to enter into the swine.'

And the demons went out and entered into the swine, and the herd of swine rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and perished in the waters.

O the great loving-kindness of God!

How he refutes falsehood, and shows forth the truth to his servants through deeds and through words and through all his careful providence.

For by his deed he showed that the soul is not the same in men, in cattle, and in animals.

For if the soul were the same, by what reasoning, wishing to cleanse one man, or to save a single soul — that of the demon-possessed man — did he not spare from destroying two thousand souls all at once? If it were the same soul, how does he cleanse the one, or save the one soul, while he permits the demons to enter into the other bodies, or rather souls? Are not the works of the light manifest? Have not these deeds been wrought in light? Is not the face of truth radiant? Are not all things smooth to those who understand, and straight to those who find knowledge? Who, hearing and comparing these things, would not convict Mani of stitching together things that ought not to be, so as to pervert the minds of men away from that which truly is? But once again these accursed men...

For I have also heard someone arguing in this manner:

When this brutish man heard from us this argument, he turned and supposed that he might somehow have some power against the truth of God, and putting forward for himself words full of mockery, † he thought to contrive against the true things by means of falsehood, and he says:

'But death made a difference for the swine;'

'for their souls were released from their bodies and were saved.'

Great indeed is the folly of those who do not see, and whose understanding is blinded, and who do not even take in with the sense of hearing the very things they themselves say.

For if he holds altogether that release of souls from the body is salvation, then the Savior ought rather to have killed the demon-possessed man, so that his soul might be saved by being released from a human body.

Then he loved the souls in the swine more than the soul of the man.

For by what reasoning did he not also permit the man, together with the swine, to be cast into the sea and to die, so as to cleanse and save the souls of both the man and the swine altogether? But we did not see it happen this way; rather, he calls Lazarus, four days in the tomb, and raises him and returns him to the world, doing him no evil nor working upon him anything foolish.

For, as Scripture says, he loved Lazarus.

Him whom he loved, then, how could he cause to return into the flesh, if indeed the flesh is evil? And why did he not rather let the one who had already died and been saved from the body remain so? And let no one suppose that Lazarus died again immediately.

For the holy Gospel clearly shows that Jesus reclined at table, and Lazarus reclined together with him;

moreover, we have found in the traditions that Lazarus was thirty years old at that time, when he was raised.

And after the Lord raised him, he lived another thirty years, and thus departed to be with the Lord.

And having fallen asleep, he was laid to rest with an honorable name, just as all people are, until the hour of the resurrection, when the Only-Begotten, as he promised, is to restore the body to the soul and the soul to the body, and to render to each according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

For if there were no resurrection of bodies, whence would come the gnashing of teeth? But let not some again, out of their derangement of mind, say that...

...one should not eat after the resurrection of the dead? For if after the resurrection Jesus ate a second time — a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb — and dwelt together with his disciples for forty days, will there then be no eating? Concerning eating, indeed, it is clear that 'blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of heaven,' and it is the Lord's own promise that 'you shall sit at my Father's table, eating and drinking.'

And eating and drinking are known to him alone, since 'what eye has not seen and ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him.'

But since we have arrived at this point, expounding the differences of souls—and this from the truth itself and from an example that is complete—that the soul of man is one thing and that of a beast another, and he did not come to save the soul of the beast, but that of man, because beasts are not judged.

For it is men who inherit the kingdom of heaven, and it is men who are judged.

'For these will go away into eternal punishment, and these into eternal life,' says the Only-begotten.

But what of those who scrutinize such questions? When they arrive at a passage and fail to grasp the clarity of its wording, they become vexed, devising objections against themselves rather than pursuing what is profitable for themselves—since Matthew speaks of two demoniacs, while Luke narrates concerning one.

For indeed one of the evangelists says that the robbers crucified with him reviled him, while the other does not, indicating that not only did both not revile him, but he even records the defense made by the one.

For he rebuked the other, saying, 'Do you not fear God, since we are under the same condemnation?'—but this holy one had done nothing amiss.

And besides this he cried out, saying, 'Remember me, Jesus, when you come into your kingdom'; and the Savior said to him, 'Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.'

Now these things seem to contain a discrepancy in Scripture.

For even if in Matthew there are two demoniacs, in Luke they are the very same persons.

But since Scripture is accustomed to give the reasons for what has occurred, for this reason Luke makes mention not of the two, but of the one.

For there were two who had been healed of the demons, but one remained in the faith, while the other fell away.

Therefore, because of his continuance in the faith, he followed Jesus, as the Gospel has it, to whatever place he went.

For this reason he passed over the one, and made mention of the one who belonged to the kingdom of heaven.

And nothing is opposed to the discovery of the truth.

Now the Gospel also relates another instance similar to this case, as concerning one person.

The Lord cleansed ten lepers, and the nine, having gone away, did not give glory to God, but the one, having turned back, remained—he who was also praised by the Lord, according as he said, 'Were not ten cleansed?'

'Why did not one of them turn back to give glory to God, but only this foreigner?' And you see that, because of his sensitivity and his deed of gratitude, Scripture makes mention of the one instead of the ten.

In the same way also, since one evangelist made mention concerning robbers in the plural—

for we are accustomed to speak of singulars as plurals, and of plurals as singulars.

For we say, 'We have told you,' and 'We have seen you,' and 'We have come to you,' and it is not two who are speaking, but one who is present; and this one, according to customary usage, speaks in the plural in the person of many.

Thus the Gospel narrative has comprehended it in the plural, while the other evangelist relates that one was the blasphemer, and the other confessed and obtained salvation.

And you see how all things pertaining to the truth are clear, and nothing is contradictory in Scripture.

But in going through all these matters according to Scripture, we have, I think, extended the discourse of our narrative to great length.

...of the healing remedies of the truth.

Then again let us examine the other teachings of the charlatan.

For he asserts that the two testaments are opposed to one another, and that the God who spoke in the Law is other than the God of the Gospel.

And to the former he assigns the name 'ruler,' while here he calls the Son and the Father his own good God.

And would that he spoke the truth, and were not blaspheming against himself through his error.

But in this very statement we ourselves agree, that the good offspring of a good Father—light from light, God from God, true God from true God—came to us, that he might save us;

he came to his own, and not to what belonged to another;

but his own did not receive him;

but as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the flesh, but of God.

And yet no one in the world has been born without flesh and blood, but all have become partakers of flesh and blood;

for what were they before they were born in the flesh, or what can we be without flesh? But since the world came into being from God, and we, having been created, are born of flesh from fathers and mothers, the Lord came to beget us of Spirit and fire.

For we were born, and this is true, and no one can deny the first birth, nor that it is of the flesh.

But as for the second birth, we have been born not of flesh nor of blood—that is, not by making abusive use of the flesh and of the blood, but by possessing flesh and soul in the Spirit, no longer fleshly, but blood and flesh and soul spiritually united together;

that is, he gave them power to become children of God—to those who change their purpose and, through flesh and blood and soul, have become well-pleasing to God.

He, then, who came to his own is not a stranger, but the Master of all.

And for this reason he who spoke in the prophets says, 'Behold, I am here'; and he said to the Jews, 'If you believed Moses, you would believe me;'

'for he wrote concerning me; and Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad'; and thus your fathers did to the prophets; and 'blessed are you when they revile you and say all manner of evil against you falsely,'

'rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven;'

'for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you'; and elsewhere, 'O Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often would I have gathered your children!'—and the word 'how often' shows that he, taking care through his prophets, sought earnestly to gather her.

For if he speaks of her reproachfully as one who kills the prophets, then indeed he exercises care for the prophets.

But he who cared for the prophets was caring not for what belonged to another, but for his own.

'And there shall be required,' he says, 'the blood that has been shed, from the blood of Abel to that of Zachariah the righteous,'

which was shed between the temple and the altar. And having taken up everything, he overturned the tables of the money-changers, and said, 'Do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise'; and to those with Mary and Joseph he said, 'Why is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?' And immediately the Gospel adds, saying that when he said, 'Do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise,' as it states, his disciples remembered that it was written:

'The zeal of your house has consumed me.'

'Do you not hear what these are saying? Stop them.' But he said to them, 'If these should keep silent, the stones would cry out.'

For nothing has been falsified in the truth.

But that I may not prolong this discussion, I shall be content with these testimonies, and I shall proceed to the other matters, refuting the charlatan.

If the body belongs to one god, my good fellow, and the soul to another god, what fellowship is there between the two? And I am afraid at how vast a mass of depths of speculation the small mind of our littleness is attempting to peer into.

Therefore I will restrain myself, lest I cause much toil of reading for those who are able, even from a single testimony, to refute the sorcerer.

For to share together in the same work does not belong to those who are at variance with one another.

Rather, it is the work of one, or the joint labor of two friends.

Since, then, the body and the soul act together toward the same end, this is the work of one God.

For there is no division, since both work together fittingly and glorify God together.