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Against the Cerinthians or Merinthians, 8, and in the sequence 28. 1. Cerinthus again, from whom the so-called Cerinthians come, arrives from this beastly seed, bearing his venom to the world; he is almost no different from the aforementioned Carpocrates, but gushes forth the same evil drugs for the world. For this man also, slandering Christ with the same things as the one mentioned before, explains that Christ was born of Mary and from the seed of Joseph, and that the world was likewise created by angels. For in the introduction of his teaching, he differed in no way from the first, except in this one thing, in that he partially adhered to Judaism. This man asserts that the Law and the Prophets were given by angels, and that the one who gave the Law was one of the angels who made the world. This Cerinthus was living in Asia and made the beginning of his preaching there. 1.314 We have already said concerning this man that he too preached that the world was not made by the first and highest power, but that from above, from the God who is above, after Jesus—the one born of the seed of Joseph and Mary—had matured, Christ descended upon him, that is, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove at the Jordan, and revealed to him, and through him to those with him, the unknown Father. And because of this, since a power from above came upon him, he performed mighty works; and when he suffered, the one who came from above flew up away from Jesus, but Jesus suffered and was raised again, while Christ who came upon him from above flew up impassible, which is that which descended in the form of a dove, and that Jesus is not the Christ. 2. This man also has fallen, as all you lovers of the truth see. For he claims that the one who gave the law is not good, whose law he seems to obey, clearly as if it were good. How then did the wicked one give the good law? For if it is good not to commit adultery and good not to murder, how much better must be the one who commanded it, if indeed the one who does not do these things is confessed to be good? How will he be accused of doing evil who advises what is good and gives a good law? But the man who undertakes such things is mad. This is one, beloved, of those who caused the disturbance in the time of the apostles, when those around James wrote a letter to Antioch, saying, ‘We have learned that some went out from us to you and troubled you 1.315 with words, to whom we gave no such command’; and this is one of those who opposed Saint Peter, when he went in to Saint Cornelius, when he had summoned him, having been counted worthy of the vision of an angel, and Peter was hesitating and saw the vision of the sheet and the things in it and heard from the Lord to call nothing common or unclean. This man, therefore, when Peter went up to Jerusalem, stirred up the crowds of the circumcision, saying that ‘he went in to men who are uncircumcised’. Cerinthus did this before he preached his own message in Asia and fell into the greater abyss of his own perdition. For because he himself was circumcised, he hunted for a pretext through circumcision, supposedly for the sake of contention against the uncircumcised believers. 3. But since the Lord always exercises care for humanity and secures the clarity of the truth among the sons of truth and gave to Saint Peter the apostle the refutation against him and his followers, the folly of Cerinthus becomes manifest. For Saint Peter says, ‘I was in the city of Joppa and I saw at midday around the sixth hour a sheet being let down, bound at four corners, in which were all the four-footed animals and reptiles. And it said to me: Kill and eat. But I said: By no means, Lord, for never has anything common or unclean entered my mouth. But it answered me

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Κατὰ Κηρινθιανῶν ἤτοι Μηρινθιανῶν ˉη, τῆς δὲ ἀκολουθίας ˉκˉη. 1. Κήρινθος δὲ αὖθις, ἀφ' οὗπερ οἱ Κηρινθιανοὶ λεγόμενοι, ἀπὸ ταύτης τῆς θηριώδους σπορᾶς τὸν ἰὸν τῷ κόσμῳ φέρων ἥκει· σχεδὸν δὲ οὐδὲν ἕτερον παρὰ τὸν προειρημένον Καρποκρᾶν, ἀλλὰ τὰ αὐτὰ τῷ κόσμῳ κακοποιὰ φάρμακα ἐκβλυστάνει. τὰ ἴσα γὰρ τῷ προειρημένῳ εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν συκοφαντήσας ἐξηγεῖται καὶ οὗτος, ἐκ Μαρίας καὶ ἐκ σπέρματος Ἰωσὴφ τὸν Χριστὸν γεγεννῆσθαι καὶ τὸν κόσμον ὁμοίως ὑπὸ ἀγγέλων γεγενῆσθαι. οὐδὲν γὰρ οὗτος παρὰ τὸν πρῶτον διήλλαξε τῇ εἰσαγωγῇ τῆς αὐτοῦ διδασκαλίας ἀλλ' ἢ ἐν τούτῳ μόνον, ἐν τῷ προσέχειν τῷ Ἰουδαϊσμῷ ἀπὸ μέρους. φάσκει δὲ οὗτος τὸν νόμον καὶ τοὺς προφήτας ὑπὸ ἀγγέλων δεδόσθαι, τὸν δὲ δεδωκότα τὸν νόμον ἕνα εἶναι τῶν ἀγγέλων τῶν τὸν κόσμον πεποιηκότων. ἐγένετο δὲ οὗτος ὁ Κήρινθος ἐν τῇ Ἀσίᾳ διατρίβων κἀκεῖσε 1.314 τοῦ κηρύγματος τὴν ἀρχὴν πεποιημένος. ἤδη δὲ περὶ τούτου εἴπαμεν ὡς καὶ οὗτος ἐκήρυττεν οὐκ ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης καὶ ἄνωθεν δυνάμεως τὸν κόσμον γεγενῆσθαι, ἄνωθεν δὲ ἐκ τοῦ ἄνω θεοῦ μετὰ τὸ ἁδρυνθῆναι τὸν Ἰησοῦν, τὸν ἐκ σπέρματος Ἰωσὴφ καὶ Μαρίας γεγεννημένον, κατεληλυθέναι τὸν Χριστὸν εἰς αὐτὸν τουτέστι τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ καὶ ἀποκαλύψαι αὐτῷ καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ τοῖς μετ' αὐτοῦ τὸν ἄγνωστον πατέρα. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐπειδὴ ἦλθεν εἰς αὐτὸν ἄνωθεν δύναμις, δυνάμεις ἐπιτετελεκέναι· καὶ αὐτοῦ πεπονθότος τὸ ἐλθὸν ἄνωθεν ἀναπτῆναι ἄνω ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, πεπονθότα δὲ τὸν Ἰησοῦν καὶ πάλιν ἐγηγερμένον, Χριστὸν δὲ τὸν ἄνωθεν ἐλθόντα εἰς αὐτὸν ἀπαθῆ ἀναπτάντα, ὅπερ ἐστὶ τὸ κατελθὸν ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς, καὶ οὐ τὸν Ἰησοῦν εἶναι Χριστόν. 2. Ἐκπέπτωκε δὲ καὶ οὗτος, ὡς ὁρᾶτε πάντες οἱ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐρασταί. φάσκει γὰρ τὸν τὸν νόμον δεδωκότα οὐκ ἀγαθόν, οὗ τῷ νόμῳ πείθεσθαι δοκεῖ, δῆλον δὲ ὅτι ὡς ἀγαθῷ. πῶς οὖν ὁ πονηρὸς τὸν ἀγαθὸν νόμον δέδωκεν; εἰ γὰρ καλὸν τὸ μὴ μοιχεύειν καὶ καλὸν τὸ μὴ φονεύειν, πόσῳ γε μᾶλλον ὁ ἐντειλάμενος βελτίων εἴη, ἐάν γε ὁ μὴ πράξας ἀγαθὸς ὁμολογῆται· πῶς δὲ κατηγορηθήσεται κακὰ πράττων ὁ τὸ ἀγαθὸν συμβουλεύων καὶ ἀγαθὸν διδοὺς νόμον; ἀλλὰ μανιώδης ὁ ἀνὴρ τοιούτοις ἐγχειρῶν. οὗτος δέ ἐστιν, ἀγαπητοί, εἷς τῶν ἐπὶ τῶν ἀποστόλων τὴν ταραχὴν ἐργασαμένων, ὅτε οἱ περὶ Ἰάκωβον γεγράφασιν εἰς τὴν Ἀντιόχειαν ἐπιστολήν, λέγοντες ὅτι «ἔγνωμέν τινας ἐξ ἡμῶν πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐλθόντας καὶ ταράξαντας ὑμᾶς 1.315 λόγοις, οἷς οὐ διεστειλάμεθα»· καὶ οὗτος εἷς ἐστι τῶν ἀντιστάντων τῷ ἁγίῳ Πέτρῳ, ἐπειδὴ εἰσῆλθε πρὸς Κορνήλιον τὸν ἅγιον, ὅτε μετεστείλατο αὐτὸν καταξιωθεὶς ὀπτασίας ἀγγέλου καὶ ὁ Πέτρος ἐδίσταζε καὶ εἶδεν τὸ ὅραμα τῆς ὀθόνης καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ καὶ ἤκουσε παρὰ κυρίου μηδὲν κοινὸν λέγειν ἢ ἀκάθαρτον. οὗτος οὖν παρεκίνει περὶ τοῦ Πέτρου ἀνελθόντος εἰς Ἱερουσαλὴμ τὰ πλήθη τῶν ἐκ περιτομῆς λέγων ὅτι «εἰσῆλθε πρὸς ἄνδρας ἀκροβυστίαν ἔχοντας». ἐποίησε δὲ τοῦτο Κήρινθος πρὶν ἢ ἐν τῇ Ἀσίᾳ κηρῦξαι τὸ αὐτοῦ κήρυγμα καὶ ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς τὸ περισσότερον τῆς αὐτοῦ ἀπωλείας βάραθρον. διὰ γὰρ τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν ἐμπερίτομον, δῆθεν ἀντιδικίας ἕνεκα τῶν ἐν ἀκροβυστίᾳ πιστῶν διὰ τῆς περιτομῆς τὴν πρόφασιν ἐθηράσατο. 3. Τοῦ δὲ κυρίου πάντοτε τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος ποιουμένου καὶ τὸ σαφὲς τῆς ἀληθείας ἐν τοῖς τῆς ἀληθείας υἱοῖς ἀσφαλιζομένου καὶ δόντος Πέτρῳ τῷ ἁγίῳ ἀποστόλῳ ποιήσασθαι τὸν πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ τοὺς αὐτοῦ ἔλεγχον, φανερὰ γίνεται ἡ τοῦ Κηρίνθου ἄνοια. φησὶ γὰρ ὁ ἅγιος Πέτρος «ἐγὼ ἤμην ἐν πόλει Ἰόππῃ καὶ εἶδον ἐν μέσῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ περὶ ὥραν ἕκτην ὀθόνην καθιεμένην, δεδεμένην ἐν τέτρασιν ἀρχαῖς, ἐν ᾗ ἦν πάντα τὰ τετράποδα καὶ ἑρπετά. καὶ εἶπέν μοι· θῦσον καὶ φάγε. ἐγὼ δὲ εἶπον· κύριε μηδαμῶς, ὅτι οὐδέποτε κοινὸν ἢ ἀκάθαρτον εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸ στόμα μου. ἀπεκρίθη δέ μοι