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of the apostles, along with Stephen the holy and first martyr, and Prochorus and Parmenas and the others. This man, hailing from Antioch, became a proselyte; but afterwards, having accepted the word of the preaching about Christ, he himself was joined to the disciples and was examined among the first of those to be preferred; whence also he was numbered among those chosen then for the care of the widows. But later the devil entered this man and deceived his heart, to be wounded by the same error of the aforementioned ancient ones, but more greatly than those before. For this man, having a beautiful wife 1.268 and abstaining from his wife in imitation of those he saw devoting themselves to God, persevered for a time, but did not manage to control his incontinence to the end, but, wishing to return like a dog to his own vomit, he hunted for certain not good pretexts for himself and devised an apology for his own passion of licentiousness; for whom it would have been better *. Then, having fallen from his purpose, he was joined to his own wife without scruple. And this man, ashamed of his own defeat and suspecting he would be found out, dared to say that if one does not have intercourse every day, he cannot partake of eternal life. For he was carried from one pretext to another. For seeing his own wife excelling in beauty but conducting herself with humility, he became jealous of her and, thinking others to be according to his own licentiousness, he at first continually acted insolently toward his own wife and brought certain slanders against her in words, but in the end he dragged himself down not only into the use of the flesh that is according to human nature, but also into blasphemous suspicion and the harm of evil ways and the error of the insinuation of wickedness. 2. And from this source those of the falsely-called knowledge * begin to spring up evilly in the world, I mean those called Gnostics and Phibionites and those called Epiphanians, and Stratiotici and Levitici and Borborites and the rest. For each of these, drawing his 1.269 own heresy to his own passions, devised myriad ways of evil. For some of them believe in a certain Barbelo, who they say is above in the eighth heaven, and they say that she was projected from the father; some say she is the mother of Ialdabaoth, others of Sabaoth. And that her son has taken possession of the seventh heaven with a certain audacity and tyranny, and says to those below, "I am," he says, "the first and the one after these things, and besides me there is no other God." And that Barbelo heard this word and wept. And that she always appears to the archons in a certain beautiful form and despoils the seed from them through pleasure and emission, in order, forsooth, that she might again recover her own power that was sown among different ones. And thus from such a hypothesis he introduced into the world the mystery of his shameful speech. And some, as I said, of the aforementioned, through much evil contrivance, taught to behave in a promiscuity of women and in incurable shameful deeds—things which are not right to speak of—as indeed the most holy apostle says somewhere, "For the things that are done by them in secret it is shameful even to speak of." 3. But for the one who wishes to see the contrary refutation from the Holy Spirit concerning this man's heresy, it is to be known from the Revelation of Saint John, how writing to one of the churches in the person of the Lord, that is, to the bishop appointed there with the power of the holy angel who is over the altar, he says, "But you have this good thing, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." But others honoring a certain Prunicus, as these too mythically again fulfilling their own passions toward this suspicion of shameful practice, 1.270 say: we collect the power of Prunicus from bodies, through the fluids, I mean semen and menses *; concerning which in a little while

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ἀποστόλων ἅμα Στεφάνῳ τῷ ἁγίῳ καὶ πρωτομάρτυρι καὶ Προχόρῳ καὶ Παρμενᾷ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις. οὗτος ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀντιοχέων ὁρμώμενος προσήλυτος γίνεται· μετέπειτα δὲ καταδεξάμενος τὸν περὶ Χριστοῦ κηρύγματος λόγον καὶ αὐτὸς συνήφθη τοῖς μαθηταῖς ἔν τε τοῖς προκριτέοις τὰ πρῶτα ἐξεταζόμενος ἦν· ὅθεν καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐκλεγεῖσιν εἰς τὴν τῶν χηρῶν τότε ἐπιμέλειαν ἐγκατηριθμήθη. ὕστερον δὲ τοῦτον ὑπέδυ ὁ διάβολος καὶ ἐξηπάτησεν αὐτοῦ τὴν καρδίαν τῇ αὐτῇ πλάνῃ τῶν προειρημένων παλαιῶν κατατρωθῆναι μειζόνως ὑπὲρ τοὺς πρώην. γύναιον γὰρ οὗτος ἔχων εὔμορφον 1.268 καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ γυναίου ἐγκρατευσάμενος ὡς κατὰ μίμησιν ὧν ἑώρα θεῷ προσανεχόντων, μέχρι τινὸς ἐκαρτέρει, οὐ μὴν εἰς τέλος ἤνεγκε κρατεῖν τῆς αὐτοῦ ἀκρασίας, ἀλλὰ βουληθεὶς ὡς κύων ἐπὶ τὸν ἴδιον ἔμετον ἐπιστρέφειν προφάσεις τινὰς οὐκ ἀγαθὰς ἑαυτῷ θηρώμενος ἐπενόει πρὸς ἀπολογίαν τοῦ ἰδίου τῆς ἀκολασίας πάθους· ᾧ μᾶλλον συνέφερεν *. εἶτα τοῦ σκοποῦ ἐκπεσὼν τῇ ἰδίᾳ γυναικὶ συνήφθη ἀπεριέργως. οὗτος δὲ αἰσχυνόμενος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἧτταν καὶ ὑφορώμενος φωραθῆναι ἐτόλμα λέγειν ὅτι, εἰ μή τις καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν λαγνεύῃ, ζωῆς μὴ δύνασθαι μετέχειν τῆς αἰωνίου. ἐκ προφάσεως γὰρ εἰς πρόφασιν μετηνέχθη ἑτέραν. ὁρῶν γὰρ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ σύμβιον κάλλει μὲν διαπρέπουσαν ταπεινότητι δὲ φερομένην, ἐζηλοτύπησε ταύτην καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν ἀσέλγειαν τοὺς ἄλλους εἶναι νομίσας τὰ πρῶτα μὲν ἐμπαροινῶν εἰς τὴν ἰδίαν γαμετὴν διετέλει καὶ διαβολάς τινας αὐτῇ ἐπιφέρων διὰ λόγων, τὸ δὲ πέρας ἑαυτὸν κατέσπασεν οὐ μόνον εἰς τὴν χρῆσιν τῆς σαρκὸς τὴν κατὰ φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰς βλάσφημον ὑπόνοιαν καὶ βλάβην κακοτροπίας καὶ πλάνην παρεισδύσεως πονηρίας. 2. Καὶ ἐντεῦθεν ἄρχονται οἱ τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως * τῷ κόσμῳ ἐπιφύεσθαι κακῶς, φημὶ δὲ οἱ καλούμενοι Γνωστικοὶ καὶ Φιβιωνῖται καὶ οἱ τοῦ Ἐπιφάνους καλούμενοι, Στρατιωτικοί τε καὶ Λευιτικοὶ καὶ Βορβορῖται καὶ οἱ λοιποί. ἕκαστος γὰρ τούτων τὴν 1.269 ἑαυτοῦ αἵρεσιν τοῖς πάθεσιν ἑαυτοῦ ἐπισπώμενος μυρίας ὁδοὺς ἐπενόησε κακίας. τινὲς μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν Βαρβηλώ τινα δοξάζουσιν, ἣν ἄνω φάσκουσιν εἶναι ἐν ὀγδόῳ οὐρανῷ, καὶ ταύτην ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς προβεβλῆσθαί φασιν· μητέρα δὲ αὐτὴν εἶναι οἱ μὲν τοῦ Ἰαλδαβαὼθ λέγουσιν, οἱ δὲ τοῦ Σαβαώθ. τὸν δὲ υἱὸν ταύτης κεκρατηκέναι τοῦ ἑβδόμου οὐρανοῦ ἐν θράσει τινὶ καὶ ἐν τυραννίδι, λέγειν δὲ τοῖς ὑποκάτω ὅτι «ἐγώ εἰμι, φησίν, ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ μετὰ ταῦτα, καὶ πλὴν ἐμοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν ἕτερος θεός». τὴν δὲ Βαρβηλὼ ἀκηκοέναι τὸν λόγον τοῦτον καὶ κλαῦσαι. ταύτην δὲ ἀεὶ φαίνεσθαι τοῖς ἄρχουσιν ἐν εὐμορφίᾳ τινὶ καὶ ἀποσυλᾶν τὸ ἐξ αὐτῶν σπέρμα δι' ἡδονῆς καὶ ἐκχύσεως, ἵνα δῆθεν τὴν αὐτῆς δύναμιν τὴν εἰς διαφόρους σπαρεῖσαν αὖθις πάλιν ἀνακομίζῃ. καὶ οὕτως ἐκ τοιαύτης ὑποθέσεως τὸ τῆς αὐτοῦ αἰσχρολογίας μυστήριον τῷ κόσμῳ ὑπεισήνεγκε. καί τινες ὡς ἔφην τῶν προειρημένων διὰ πολλῆς κακομηχανίας ἃ μὴ θέμις λέγειν πως ἐν πολυμιξίᾳ γυναικῶν καὶ ἐν αἰσχροποιίαις ἀνηκέστοις ἀναστρέφεσθαι ἐδίδαξαν, ὡς καί που ὁ ἁγιώτατος ἀπόστολός φησι «τὰ γὰρ κρυφῆ γινόμενα ὑπ' αὐτῶν αἰσχρόν ἐστι καὶ λέγειν». 3. τῷ δὲ βουλομένῳ ἰδεῖν τὴν ἀντίθετον ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου περὶ τῆς τούτου αἱρέσεως ἀνατροπὴν ἰστέον ἐστὶν ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰωάννου ἀποκαλύψεως, ὡς γράφων μιᾷ τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν ἐκ προσώπου κυρίου τουτέστιν τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ τῷ ἐκεῖσε κατασταθέντι σὺν τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ ἁγίου ἀγγέλου τοῦ ἐπὶ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου φησίν «ἔχεις δέ τι καλόν, ὅτι μισεῖς τὰ ἔργα τῶν Νικολαϊτῶν ἃ κἀγὼ μισῶ». Προύνικον δὲ ἄλλοι τιμῶντές τινα, ὡς καὶ οὗτοι μυθωδῶς πάλιν εἰς ταύτην τὴν ὑπόνοιαν τῆς αἰσχρουργίας τὰ ἑαυτῶν πάθη 1.270 ἐπιτελοῦντές φασι· τῆς Προυνίκου τὴν δύναμιν συλλέγομεν ἀπὸ τῶν σωμάτων, διά τε τῶν ῥευστῶν, φημὶ δὲ γονῆς καὶ καταμηνίων *· περὶ ὧν ὀλίγῳ