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,

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 Father Almighty, and Christ Jesus the Son of God, who, being God, became man, to whom also the Father made all things subject, Himself excepted, and the Holy Spirit; and that these, therefore, are three. But if he desires to learn how it is shown still that there is one God, let him know that His power46    δύναμις. is one.  As far as regards the power, therefore, God is one. But as far as regards the economy there is a threefold manifestation, as shall be proved afterwards when we give account of the true doctrine. In these things, however, which are thus set forth by us, we are at one. For there is one God in whom we must believe, but unoriginated, impassible, immortal, doing all things as He wills, in the way He wills, and when He wills. What, then, will this Noetus, who knows47    There is perhaps a play on the words here—Νόητος μὴ νοῶν. nothing of the truth, dare to say to these things? And now, as Noetus has been confuted, let us turn to the exhibition of the truth itself, that we may establish the truth, against which all these mighty heresies48    i.e., the other thirty-one heresies, which Hippolytus had already attacked. From these words it is apparent also that this treatise was the closing portion of a book against the heresies (Fabricius). have arisen without being able to state anything to the purpose.

[8] πολλὰ δὲ καὶ ἕτερα, μᾶλλον δὲ πάντα ἐστὶ μαρτυροῦντα τῇ ἀληθείᾳ. ἀνάγκην οὖν ἔχει καὶ μὴ θέλων ὁμολογεῖν Πατέρα Θεὸν παντοκράτορα καὶ Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν Υἱὸν Θεοῦ Θεὸν ἄνθρωπον γενόμενον: ᾧ πάντα Πατὴρ ὑπέταξε παρεκτὸς ἑαυτοῦ καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου: καὶ ταῦτ' εἶναι ὄντως τρία. εἰ δὲ βούλεται μαθεῖν πῶς εἷς Θεὸς ἀποδείκνυται, γιγνωσκέτω ὅτι μία δύναμις τούτου: καὶ ὅσον μὲν κατὰ τὴν δύναμιν εἷς ἐστιν Θεός, ὅσον δὲ κατὰ τὴν οἰκονομίαν τριχὴς ἡ ἐπίδειξις, ὡς ὕστερον ἀποδειχθήσεται ἀποδιδόντων ἡμῶν περὶ ἀληθείας λόγον. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν, ἀδελφοί, δείκνυται ἡμῖν συμφώνως εἰρημένα: εἷς γὰρ Θεός ἐστιν, ᾧ δεῖ πιστεύειν, ἀλλ' ἀγένητος ἀπαθὴς ἀθάνατος, πάντα ποιῶν ὡς θέλει, καθὼς θέλει, ὅτε Θέλει. τί οὖν πρὸς ταῦτα τολμήσει Νοητὸς μὴ νοῶν τὴν ἀλήθειαν; ἐπειδὴ οὖν ἤδη καὶ ὁ Νοητὸς ἀνατέτραπται, ἔλθωμεν ἐπὶ τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας ἀπόδειξιν, ἵνα συστήσωμεν τὴν ἀλήθειαν καθ' ἧς πᾶσαι τοσαῦται αἱρέσεις γεγένηνται μηδὲν δυνάμεναι εἰπεῖν.