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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. The rule 275 The Latin here begins with the words “cum teneamus,” and the apodosis is found afterwards at “facile arguimus.” But we have broken up the one long sentence into several. of truth which we hold, is, that there is one God Almighty, who made all things by His Word, and fashioned and formed, out of that which had no existence, all things which exist. Thus saith the Scripture, to that effect: “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established, and all the might of them, by the spirit of His mouth.” 276 Ps. xxxiii. 6. And again, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made.” 277 John i. 3. There is no exception or deduction stated; but the Father made all things by Him, whether visible or invisible, objects of sense or of intelligence, temporal, on account of a certain character given them, or eternal; and these eternal 278 The text is here uncertain and obscure: eternal things seem to be referred to, not as regarded substance, but the forms assigned them. things He did not make by angels, or by any powers separated from His Ennœa. For God needs none of all these things, but is He who, by His Word and Spirit, makes, and disposes, and governs all things, and commands all things into existence,—He who formed the world (for the world is of all),—He who fashioned man,—He [who] 279 This word would perhaps be better cancelled. is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, above whom there is no other God, nor initial principle, nor power, nor pleroma,—He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we shall prove. Holding, therefore, this rule, we shall easily show, notwithstanding the great variety and multitude of their opinions, that these men have deviated from the truth; for almost all the different sects of heretics admit that there is one God; but then, by their pernicious doctrines, they change [this truth into error], even as the Gentiles do through idolatry,—thus proving themselves ungrateful to Him that created them. Moreover, they despise the workmanship of God, speaking against their own salvation, becoming their own bitterest accusers, and being false witnesses [against themselves]. Yet, reluctant as they may be, these men shall one day rise again in the flesh, to confess the power of Him who raises them from the dead; but they shall not be numbered among the righteous on account of their unbelief.
2. Since, therefore, it is a complex and multiform task to detect and convict all the heretics, and since our design is to reply to them all according to their special characters, we have judged it necessary, first of all, to give an account of their source and root, in order that, by getting a knowledge of their most exalted Bythus, thou mayest understand the nature of the tree which has produced such fruits.