PG 7 · cols. 707–707

Analysis libri secundi

Editors' preface

ANALYSIS LIBRI SECUNDI.

Analysis of the Second Book.

Falsa omnia haereticorum, atque in primis ea Valentinianorum dogmata, quae in primo libro Irenaeus enucleavit, illa in secundo argumentis a ratione petitis evellit radicitus, et funditus evertit. Ac primum quidem ipsum hydrae petit caput; et contra praecipuum haereticorum errorem variis rationibus probat, Deum unum esse, supra aut infra quem alius Deus, Principium, Pleroma, vel Potestas esse non possit: huncque esse supremum omnium, et Domini nostri Jesu Christi Patrem; a quo solo ut mente conceptus, sic et per Verbum ipsius conditus mundus; non a Marcionis Deo, vel ab Angelis, aut alio quovis, praeter sententiam illius. Vana proinde esse et absurda, quae Valentiniani de Bytho suo, Pleromate, Demiurgo, ejusque ignoratione, labe, umbra, et vacuo comminiscebantur: neque enim in iis, quae continentur a Patre, labes, vacuum, aut umbra supponi possunt, quin id in paterni luminis dedecus redundet, Christusque haereticorum, ignorantiae causa, Salvator vero ignorationi obnoxius arguatur. Tum probat ab Angelis, aut a mundi fabricatore ignorari non potuisse summum Deum, quem ratio naturalis demonstrat. Deinde ea insectatur, quae garriebant Valentiniani, in mundi creatione Salvatorem per eorum, quae sursum sunt, imagines atque similitudines, a matre Achamoth emissas, honorasse Pleroma: repugnat siquidem, res creatas aut Aeonum, qui rursum sunt intra Pleroma, imagines, aut Pleromatis umbram esse. Hinc variis rationum momentis confirmat, mundum, atque materiam verum unius, soliusque Dei esse opus.

All the false dogmas of the heretics, and first of all those of the Valentinians, which Irenaeus explained in the first book, in the second he plucks out by the roots and utterly overthrows by arguments drawn from reason. And first indeed he aims at the very head of the hydra, and against the chief error of the heretics proves by various reasons that God is one, above or below whom there cannot be another God, Beginning, Pleroma, or Power; and that He is supreme over all, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom alone the world was both conceived in mind and created through His Word, not by the God of Marcion, or by Angels, or by anyone else whatsoever beside His purpose. That consequently the things which the Valentinians devised concerning their Bythus, the Pleroma, the Demiurge, and his ignorance, defect, shadow, and void are vain and absurd; for neither can defect, void, or shadow be supposed in the things that are contained by the Father without that redounding to the dishonour of the paternal light, and the Christ of the heretics being convicted as the cause of ignorance, and the Saviour as subject to ignorance. Then he proves that the supreme God, whom natural reason demonstrates, could not have been unknown to the Angels or to the Maker of the world. Next he attacks what the Valentinians babbled, that in the creation of the world the Saviour honoured the Pleroma through the images and likenesses of the things that are above, sent forth by the mother Achamoth; since it is contradictory that created things should be either images of the Aeons that are above within the Pleroma, or a shadow of the Pleroma. Hence by various weights of reasons he confirms that the world and matter are the true work of the one and only God.

Post haec contra triginta Valentinianorum Aeones, et constitutum ab eis fictitiae eorumdem Aeonum emissionis ordinem, vanasque illorum conjugationes validissime disputat; atque ea omnia ab aliis scriptoribus etiam ethnicis desumpta, et mera vigilantium hominum somnia, anilesque fabulas esse aperte ostendit. Dehinc vero demonstrat eos absurde omnino asserere, Sophiam in ignorantia, deminoratione et passione fuisse, atque ejus enthymesim, id est cogitationem seorsim conditam, ab ea separari. Nec minus certe ridiculum illud esse probat, quod de origine sua iidem haeretici, et de Demiurgo plura illis notissima prorsus nesciente, nec non de animarum suarum ob semen a Matre conceptum, praestantiore caeteris ordine jactitabant.

After these things he disputes most forcefully against the thirty Aeons of the Valentinians, and the order of the fictitious emission of the same Aeons established by them, and their vain conjugations; and openly shows that all these things were borrowed from other writers, even heathen ones, and are mere dreams of waking men and old wives' fables. Next he demonstrates that they altogether absurdly assert that Sophia was in ignorance, diminution, and passion, and that her enthymesis, that is, her separately formed thought, was separated from her. And he proves that to be certainly no less ridiculous which the same heretics boasted concerning their own origin, and concerning the Demiurge being utterly ignorant of many things well known to them, as well as concerning the order of their own souls excelling the rest on account of the seed conceived by the Mother.

Inde vero ad diluenda eorum argumenta transit: nihilque levius aut imbecillius esse docet, quam id quod inepte objiciebant, cum Judam proditorem, tum haemorroissam Aeonis duodecimi, apostolos vera conjugationis Hominis et Ecclesiae, ac Christum tandem, cum annos natus triginta baptizabatur, totidem Aeonum fuisse typum et imaginem. Nec majoris profecto ponderis ea esse urget, quae ex litteris, syllabis, et numeris in errorum suorum confirmationem colligi posse arbitrabantur. Ex quibus concludit plura hominibus de Deo curiosius inquirenda non esse, quam quae in Scripturis sacris clara sunt et aperta, quaeque ipsis scire et intelligere concessum est. Scimus autem Deum esse simplicissimum: sed quomodo ab eo aut genitum Verbum, aut creata sit materia, plane ignoramus. Quamobrem ridiculam Valentinianorum de scientia sua jactantiam scite castigat: eosque merito arguit, quod negata corporum resurrectione, asseverarent animas justorum requiescere in medietatis loco, aut eas supra Demiurgum (quo se meliores esse impie dicebant), ad Matrem conscendere, fierique spiritualium Angelorum sponsas.

Thence he passes on to refuting their arguments, and teaches that nothing is lighter or weaker than what they ineptly objected, that both Judas the traitor and the woman with an issue of blood were a type and image of the twelfth Aeon, the apostles of the conjugation of Anthropos and Ecclesia, and finally Christ, when He was baptized at thirty years of age, of the same number of Aeons. Nor assuredly of any greater weight, he urges, are the things which they supposed could be gathered from letters, syllables, and numbers in confirmation of their errors. From which he concludes that men ought not to inquire more curiously concerning God into more things than those which are clear and open in the Sacred Scriptures, and which it has been granted to them to know and understand. Now we know that God is most simple; but how either the Word was begotten by Him or matter was created, we are plainly ignorant. Wherefore he skilfully chastises the ridiculous boasting of the Valentinians concerning their knowledge, and deservedly convicts them because, denying the resurrection of bodies, they asserted that the souls of the just rest in the place of the midst, or ascend above the Demiurge (than whom they impiously said they were better) to the Mother, and become brides of the spiritual Angels.

His autem Valentini erroribus ita subversis, caeteras omnes aliorum haereticorum falsas opiniones obrui et se ipsis ruere demonstrat. Quod quidem, sicut et fidei Christianae veritatem, eo egregie astruit, quod nulla unquam ab haereticis, sed duntaxat ab orthodoxis edita fuerint vera miracula, ac quotidie ederentur. Tum eversa flagitiosa haereticorum sententia: omne actionis, etiam pessimae, genus experiendum esse, solaque opinione humana quaedam justa, quaedam injusta esse, subinde metempsycosim, seu animarum de corpore in corpus transmigrationem, impugnat; manifestumque facit in unumquodque hominis corpus suum, quae cum eo nec nascitur, nec moritur, ita infundi animam, ut post mortem corpus debeat rursum ab ea informari. Tum vero destructa Basilidis, de falsa multitudine coelorum, opinione, ostendit a Gnosticis perperam asseri, varia prophetarum oracula ex variis diis manasse. Denique eorum occurrit objectioni, qui ex diversis nominibus Dei plures deos praepostere omnino inducere conabantur.

Moreover, when these errors of Valentinus have been thus overthrown, he demonstrates that all the rest of the false opinions of other heretics are overwhelmed and collapse of themselves. Which indeed, like the truth of the Christian faith, he admirably establishes by the fact that no true miracles were ever wrought by heretics, but only by the orthodox, and were wrought daily. Then, having overthrown the shameful opinion of the heretics that every kind of action, even the worst, must be experienced, and that only by human opinion are some things just and others unjust, he next impugns metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls from body to body, and makes it manifest that into each man's body its own soul, which is neither born nor dies with it, is so infused that after death the body ought again to be informed by it. Then, having destroyed the opinion of Basilides concerning the false multitude of heavens, he shows that it is wrongly asserted by the Gnostics that the various oracles of the prophets flowed from various gods. Finally he meets the objection of those who from the diverse names of God altogether preposterously endeavoured to introduce several gods.

Editors' notes and page, col. 707

Footnotes

(47) ‹anchor: arguatur› · call in col 707

Cap. 1 et seqq.

Chapter 1 and following.

(printed under page 362)

(48) ‹anchor: demonstrat› · call in col 707

Cap. 6.

Chapter 6.

(printed under page 362)

(49) ‹anchor: umbram esse› · call in col 707

Cap. 7 et 8.

Chapters 7 and 8.

(printed under page 362)

(50) ‹anchor: esse opus› · call in col 707

Cap. 9, 10 et 11.

Chapters 9, 10 and 11.

(printed under page 362)

(51) ‹anchor: aperte ostendit› · call in col 707

Cap. 12 et seqq.

Chapter 12 and following.

(printed under page 362)

(52) ‹anchor: not visible on this page foot› · call in col 707

Cap. 18.

Chapter 18.

(printed under page 362)

(53) ‹anchor: ordine jactitabant› · call in col 707

Cap. 19.

Chapter 19.

(printed under page 362)

(54) ‹anchor: typum et imaginem› · call in col 707

Cap. 20 et seqq.

Chapter 20 and following.

(printed under page 362)

(55) ‹anchor: colligi posse arbitrabantur› · call in col 707

Cap. 24 et seqq.

Chapter 24 and following.

(printed under page 362)

(56) ‹anchor: intelligere concessum est› · call in col 707

Cap. 26 et seqq.

Chapter 26 and following.

(printed under page 362)

(57) ‹anchor: plane ignoramus› · call in col 707

Cap. 28.

Chapter 28.

(printed under page 362)

(58) ‹anchor: in medietatis loco› · call in col 707

Cap. 29.

Chapter 29.

(printed under page 362)

(59) ‹anchor: Angelorum sponsas› · call in col 707

Cap. 30.

Chapter 30.

(printed under page 362)

(60) ‹anchor: quotidie ederentur› · call in col 707

Cap. 31.

Chapter 31.

(printed under page 362)

(61) ‹anchor: injusta esse› · call in col 707

Cap. 32.

Chapter 32.

(printed under page 362)

(62) ‹anchor: ab ea informari› · call in col 707

Cap. 33 et 34.

Chapters 33 and 34.

(printed under page 362)

(63) ‹anchor: inducere conabantur› · call in col 707

Cap. 35.

Chapter 35.

(printed under page 362)

(82) ‹anchor: qui priores exstiterunt› · call in col 708 (Liber II, Praefatio 1; next unit's text) (Q2)

Eorum qui priores exstiterunt. Veterum scilicet Gnosticorum, Simonis Magi, Nicolaitarum, etc., quos lib. I, cap. ult., Valentinianorum patres et proavos dixit.

Of those who came before. That is, of the old Gnostics, Simon Magus, the Nicolaitans, etc., whom in Book I, last chapter, he called the fathers and forefathers of the Valentinians.

(printed under page 362)

Analysis libri secundi

Footnotes

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