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Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies
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Chapter III.—Texts of Holy Scripture used by these heretics to support their opinions.
Chapter VIII.—How the Valentinians pervert the Scriptures to support their own pious opinions.
Chapter IX.—Refutation of the impious interpretations of these heretics.
Chapter X.—Unity of the faith of the Church throughout the whole world.
Chapter XI.—The opinions of Valentinus, with those of his disciples and others.
Chapter XII.—The doctrines of the followers of Ptolemy and Colorbasus.
Chapter XIII.—The deceitful arts and nefarious practices of Marcus.
Chapter XIV.—The various hypotheses of Marcus and others. Theories respecting letters and syllables.
Chapter XVI.—Absurd interpretations of the Marcosians.
Chapter XVIII.—Passages from Moses, which the heretics pervert to the support of their hypothesis.
Chapter XXI.—The views of redemption entertained by these heretics.
Chapter XXII.—Deviations of heretics from the truth.
Chapter XXIII.—Doctrines and practices of Simon Magus and Menander.
Chapter XXIV.—Doctrines of Saturninus and Basilides.
Chapter XXV.—Doctrines of Carpocrates.
Chapter XXVI.—Doctrines of Cerinthus, the Ebionites, and Nicolaitanes.
Chapter XXVII.—Doctrines of Cerdo and Marcion.
Chapter XXVIII.—Doctrines of Tatian, the Encratites, and others.
Chapter XXX.—Doctrines of the Ophites and Sethians.
Chapter XXXI.—Doctrines of the Cainites.
Chapter I.—There is but one God: the impossibility of its being otherwise.
Chapter IV.—The absurdity of the supposed vacuum and defect of the heretics is demonstrated.
Chapter VI.—The angels and the Creator of the world could not have been ignorant of the Supreme God.
Chapter VII.—Created things are not the images of those Æons who are within the Pleroma.
Chapter VIII.—Created things are not a shadow of the Pleroma.
Chapter XIII.—The first order of production maintained by the heretics is altogether indefensible.
Chapter XV.—No account can be given of these productions.
Chapter XXI.—The twelve apostles were not a type of the Æons.
Chapter XXIII.—The woman who suffered from an issue of blood was no type of the suffering Æon.
Chapter XXIV.—Folly of the arguments derived by the heretics from numbers, letters, and syllables.
Chapter XXVI.—“Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth.”
Chapter XXVII.—Proper mode of interpreting parables and obscure passages of Scripture.
Chapter XXIX.—Refutation of the views of the heretics as to the future destiny of the soul and body.
Chapter XXXI.—Recapitulation and application of the foregoing arguments.
Chapter XXXII.—Further exposure of the wicked and blasphemous doctrines of the heretics.
Chapter XXXIII.—Absurdity of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls.
Chapter II.—The heretics follow neither Scripture nor tradition.
Chapter X.—Proofs of the foregoing, drawn from the Gospels of Mark and Luke.
Chapter XII.—Doctrine of the rest of the apostles.
Chapter XXII.—Christ assumed actual flesh, conceived and born of the Virgin.
Chapter I.—The Lord acknowledged but one God and Father.
Chapter IX.—There is but one author, and one end to both covenants.
Chapter XVIII.—Concerning sacrifices and oblations, and those who truly offer them.
Chapter XXXVI.—The prophets were sent from one and the same Father from whom the Son was sent.
Chapter XXXVIII.—Why man was not made perfect from the beginning.
1. I judge it necessary to add to these details also what, by garbling passages of Scripture, they try to persuade us concerning their Propator, who was unknown to all before the coming of Christ. Their object in this is to show that our Lord announced another Father than the Maker of this universe, whom, as we said before, they impiously declare to have been the fruit of a defect. For instance, when the prophet Isaiah says, “But Israel hath not known Me, and My people have not understood Me,” 252 Isa. i. 3. they pervert his words to mean ignorance of the invisible Bythus. And that which is spoken by Hosea, “There is no truth in them, nor the knowledge of God,” 253 Hos. iv. 1. they strive to give the same reference. And, “There is none that understandeth, or that seeketh after God: they have all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable,” 254 Rom. iii. 11; Ps. xiv. 3. they maintain to be said concerning ignorance of Bythus. Also that which is spoken by Moses, “No man shall see God and live,” 255 Ex. xxxiii. 20. has, as they would persuade us, the same reference.
2. For they falsely hold, that the Creator was seen by the prophets. But this passage, “No man shall see God and live,” they would interpret as spoken of His greatness unseen and unknown by all; and indeed that these words, “No man shall see God,” are spoken concerning the invisible Father, the Maker of the universe, is evident to us all; but that they are not used concerning that Bythus whom they conjure into existence, but concerning the Creator (and He is the invisible God), shall be shown as we proceed. They maintain that Daniel also set forth the same thing when he begged of the angels explanations of the parables, as being himself ignorant of them. But the angel, hiding from him the great mystery of Bythus, said unto him, “Go thy way quickly, Daniel, for these sayings are closed up until those who have understanding do understand them, and those who are white be made white.” 256 Dan. xii. 9, 10. The words in the above quotation not occurring in the Hebrew text of the passage, seem to have been interpolated by these heretics. Moreover, they vaunt themselves as being the white and the men of good understanding .