1. Some others are secretly introducing another doctrine, who have become disciples of one Noetus, who was a native of Smyrna, (and) lived not very lo

 2. Now they seek to exhibit the foundation for their dogma by citing the word in the law, “I am the God of your fathers: ye shall have no other gods b

 3. In this way, then, they choose to set forth these things, and they make use only of one class of passages just in the same one-sided manner that T

 4. Let us, as I said, see how he is confuted, and then let us set forth the truth. Now he quotes the words, “Egypt has laboured, and the merchandise o

 5. But what is meant, says he, in the other passage: “This is God, and there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of Him?” That said he righ

 6. Let us look next at the apostle’s word: “Whose are the fathers, of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever.

 7. If, again, he allege His own word when He said, “I and the Father are one,” let him attend to the fact, and understand that He did not say, “I and

 8. Many other passages, or rather all of them, attest the truth. A man, therefore, even though he will it not, is compelled to acknowledge God the Fat

 9. There is, brethren, one God, the knowledge of whom we gain from the Holy Scriptures, and from no other source. For just as a man, if he wishes to b

 10. God, subsisting alone, and having nothing contemporaneous with Himself, determined to create the world. And conceiving the world in mind, and will

 11. And thus there appeared another beside Himself. But when I say another ,

 12. Acting then in these (prophets), the Word spoke of Himself. For already He became His own herald, and showed that the Word would be manifested amo

 13. Now Jeremiah says, “Who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived His Word?”

 14. These things then, brethren, are declared by the Scriptures. And the blessed John, in the testimony of his Gospel, gives us an account of this eco

 15. But some one will say to me, You adduce a thing strange to me, when you call the Son the Word. For John indeed speaks of the Word, but it is by a

 16. And these indeed are testimonies bearing on the incarnation of the Word and there are also very many others. But let us also look at the subject

 17.  These testimonies are sufficient for the believing who study truth, and the unbelieving credit no testimony. For the Holy Spirit, indeed, in the

 18. Thus then, too, though demonstrated as God, He does not refuse the conditions proper to Him as man,

1. Some others are secretly introducing another doctrine, who have become disciples of one Noetus, who was a native of Smyrna,2    That Noetus was a native of Smyrna is mentioned also by Theodoret, book iii. Hæret Fab., c. iii., and Damascenus, sec. lvii. (who is accustomed to follow Epiphanius); and yet in Epiphanius, Hæres., 57, we read that Noetus was an Asian of the city of Ephesus (᾽Ασιανον τῆς ᾽Εφέσου πόλεως). (Fabricius.) (and) lived not very long ago.3    Epiphanius says that Noetus made his heresy public about 130 years before his time (οὐ πρὸ ἐτῶν πλειόνων ἀλλ᾽ ὡς πρὸ χρόνου τῶν τουτων ἑκατὸν τριάκοντα, πλείω ἢ ἐλάσσω); and as Epiphanius wrote in the year 375, that would make the date of Noetus about 245. He says also that Noetus died soon after (ἔναγχος), along with his brother. (Fabricius.) This person was greatly puffed up and inflated with pride, being inspired by the conceit of a strange spirit. He alleged that Christ was the Father Himself, and that the Father Himself was born, and suffered, and died. Ye see what pride of heart and what a strange inflated spirit had insinuated themselves into him. From his other actions, then, the proof is already given us that he spoke not with a pure spirit; for he who blasphemes against the Holy Ghost is cast out from the holy inheritance. He alleged that he was himself Moses, and that Aaron was his brother.4    So also Epiphanius and Damascenus. But Philastrius, Heresy, 53, puts Elijah for Aaron: hic etiam dicebat se Moysem esse, et fratrem suum Eliam prophetam. When the blessed presbyters heard this, they summoned him before the Church, and examined him. But he denied at first that he held such opinions. Afterwards, however, taking shelter among some, and having gathered round him some others5    Epiphanius remarks that they were but ten in number. who had embraced the same error, he wished thereafter to uphold his dogma openly as correct. And the blessed presbyters called him again before them, and examined him. But he stood out against them, saying, “What evil, then, am I doing in glorifying Christ?”  And the presbyters replied to him, “We too know in truth one God;6    The following words are the words of the Symbolum, as it is extant in Irenæus, i. 10, etc., and iii. 4; and in Tertullian, Contra Praxeam, ch. ii., and De Præscript., ch. xiii., and De virginibus velandis, ch. i. [See vol. iii., this series.] we know Christ; we know that the Son suffered even as He suffered, and died even as He died, and rose again on the third day, and is at the right hand of the Father, and cometh to judge the living and the dead. And these things which we have learned we allege.” Then, after examining him, they expelled him from the Church. And he was carried to such a pitch of pride, that he established a school.

[1] Ἕτεροί τινες ἑτέραν διδασκαλίαν παρεισάγουσιν γενόμενοί τινος Νοητοῦ μαθηταί: ὃς τὸ μὲν γένος ἦν Σμυρναῖος, οὐ πολλοῦ χρόνου γενόμενος. οὗτος φυσιωθεὶς εἰς ἔπαρμα ἀνήχθη. οἰήσει πνεύματος ἀλλοτρίου ἐπαρθεὶς ἔφη τὸν Χριστὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι τὸν Πατέρα, καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν Πατέρα γεγεννῆσθαι καὶ πεπονθέναι καὶ ἀποτεθνηκέναι. ὁρᾶτε ὅσον ἔπαρμα καρδίας καὶ φυσίωμα πνεύματος ἀλλοτρίου ὑπεισῆλθεν εἰς αὐτόν. ἤδη μὲν οὖν ἐκ τῶν ἑτέρων πράξεων εἰς τοῦτο φέρεται ὁ ἔλεγχος αὐτῶν ὅτι μὴ καθαρῷ πνεύματι ἐφθέγγετο. ὁ γὰρ εἰς πνεῦμα ἅγιον βλασφημῶν ἔκβλητος γεγένηται κλήρου ἁγίου. οὗτος ἔλεγεν ἑαυτὸν εἶναι Μωυσῆν καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ Ἀαρών. ταῦτα ἀκούσαντες οἱ μακάριοι πρεσβύτεροι προσκαλεσάμενοι ἐνώπιον τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐξήταζον. ὁ δὲ ἠρνεῖτο λέγων τὰς ἀρχὰς μὴ φρονεῖν. ὕστερον δὲ ἐμφωλεύσας ἔν τισιν καὶ συσκευάσας ἑαυτῷ συνπλανωμένους, καθαρῶς ὕστερον ἱστᾶν τὸ δόγμα ἐβούλετο. ὃν πάλιν προσκαλεσάμενοι οἱ μακάριοι πρεσβύτεροι ἤλεγξαν. ὁ δὲ ἀνθίστατο λέγων, Τί οὖν κακὸν ποιῶ δοξάζων τὸν Χριστόν; .... πρὸς ὃν ἀνταποκρίνονται οἱ πρεσβύτεροι, Καὶ ἡμεῖς ἕνα Θεὸν οἴδαμεν ἀληθῶς: οἴδαμεν Χριστόν: οἴδαμεν τὸν Υἱὸν παθόντα καθὼς ἔπαθεν, ἀποθανόντα καθὼς ἀπέθανεν, καὶ ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ καὶ ὄντα ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ ἐρχόμενον κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς. καὶ ταῦτα λέγομεν ἃ ἐμάθομεν. τότε τοῦτον ἐλέγξαντες ἐξέωσαν τῆς ἐκκλησίας. ὃς εἰς τοσοῦτο φυσίωμα ἠνέχθη ὡς διδασκαλεῖον συστῆσαι.