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saving, that is, men only, but also the whole people of the Christians in truth, both men and women together, sealing them and for the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven abundantly *, and not deficiently providing the seal to one order of men only according to weakness, but to a complete people, through the seal and commandments and good teaching, revealing the kingdom of heaven. But if you wish to be as the Lord, O Ebion, that is, as the teacher, you have been greatly deceived. Do not be compared in circumcision, but call Lazarus from the tomb or raise another dead person, cleanse lepers or grant sight to the blind or heal a paralytic from birth, if you can; but you cannot, because you act contrarily, being held by unbelief and by the bonds of the flesh and by the unfulfilled ordinances of the law. And if you were able to do these things, which you cannot because of your evil belief, I do not say * as Christ. For you cannot be compared to God, being a corruptible and deceived man, nor can you call upon the name of Christ for divine signs, and even if you call upon it, you do not perform them. But if you were at all to perform the raising of a paralytic, he, having stood up through the name of Jesus, would have also received understanding from him, so that he would not endure your sabbatizing, but from the name of the one who healed * would learn that “take up your pallet and go to your house on the Sabbath.” But it has already been said by me how each of them suggests differently concerning Christ, sometimes Ebion himself saying that he was born a mere man from intercourse, and at other times the Ebionites from him that the Son possessed a power from above, from God, and that this one from time to time puts on and takes off Adam, whose different opinions we have overthrown in the power of God. 1.382 And why should I tarry longer in salty and ebbing places, in some places flooded and in others dried up, from which the cast-offs of fish often come, and which cause harm to the feet of those who traverse the banks of these places, since some among the fish are venomous—I mean stingrays and weeverfish and sharks and moray eels—as has already been said. Therefore I shall pass by the place again, giving thanks to God that we have turned back this heresy also, having refuted it not cursorily but also carefully. But let us turn ourselves to others in order, beloved, asking God as our helper, so that he himself may fulfill the promise through us. Against the Valentinians, who are also Gnostics ˉιˉα, but in the sequence ˉλˉα.

1. After these so-called Ebionites, having journeyed through their wickedness and having announced the others in succession by the power of God *—which have the forms of other beasts and the venoms of serpents, their bites and poisons, all of which can be seen in their teachings as if from a chasm, conceived † of a fire-breathing or terrible serpent and basilisk—I shall proceed to the heresy of the Valentinians, making their refutation according to my ability, who indeed gave themselves the name of Gnostics, whose differences are ten in one plague of their dream-1.383 mongering of syzygies and ogdoads and male-female aeons, one being stricken after another in equilibrium, no longer arranging the composition according to the times of succession, but proceeding according to the progression from one to another. For at one time all these sprouted from the earth like mushrooms and like ill-doing and foul-smelling shoots of herbs and thorny grass and like a den of many scorpions, they all sprouted into life at one time and, as I said before, like the formlessness of mushrooms they have appeared under one sharpening, as has already been said about them by the most holy Irenaeus. For all these were contemporaries, and each one from the other

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σῴζων τουτέστιν ἄνδρας μόνους, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅλον λαὸν τὸν τῶν Χριστιανῶν κατὰ ἀλήθειαν ἄνδρας τε καὶ γυναῖκας ὁμοῦ σφραγίζων καὶ εἰς οὐρανῶν βασιλείας κληρονομίαν ἀφθόνως *, καὶ οὐκ ἐλλιπῶς ἑνὶ τάγματι τῶν ἀνδρῶν μόνον κατὰ ἀσθένειαν τὴν σφραγῖδα παρέχων, ἀλλὰ λαῷ ὁλοτελεῖ διὰ τῆς σφραγῖδος καὶ ἐντολῶν καὶ ἀγαθῆς διδασκαλίας τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀποκαλύπτων. εἰ δὲ ὡς ὁ κύριος βούλει εἶναι, ὦ Ἐβίων, τουτέστιν ὡς ὁ διδάσκαλος, πολὺ ἠπάτησαι. μὴ ἐν τῇ περιτομῇ ἀπεικάζου, ἀλλὰ κάλεσον τὸν Λάζαρον ἀπὸ μνημείου ἢ ἄλλον νεκρὸν ἔγειρον, λεπροὺς καθάρισον ἢ τυφλοῖς χάρισαι τὸ βλέπειν ἢ ἐκ γενετῆς παραλυτικὸν ἴασαι, εἰ δύνῃ· οὐ δύνῃ δέ, ὅτι ἐναντίως πράττεις, ἀπιστίᾳ κατεχόμενος καὶ δεσμοῖς σαρκὸς καὶ δικαιώμασι νόμου ἀπληρώτοις. εἰ δὲ καὶ ταῦτα ἠδυνήθης ποιῆσαι, ὅπερ οὐ δύνῃ διὰ τὴν κακοπιστίαν σου, οὐ λέγω * ὡς ὁ Χριστός. οὐ γὰρ δύνῃ ἀπεικασθῆναι θεῷ, φθαρτὸς ὢν ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἠπατημένος, ἀλλ' οὔτε Χριστοῦ τὸ ὄνομα ἐπὶ θεοσημείοις δύνασαι ἐπικαλέσασθαι, κἄν τε ἐπικαλέσῃ, οὐκ ἐνεργεῖς. εἰ δὲ καὶ ὅλως ἐνεργεῖς παραλυτικὸν ἀναστῆσαι, εἶχεν ἄν, διὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἀναστάς, καὶ σύνεσιν παρ' αὐτοῦ λαβεῖν, ἵνα σοῦ μὴ ἀνάσχηται σαββατίζειν, ἀλλὰ παρὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ ἰασαμένου * μαθεῖν ὅτι «ἆρον τὸν κράββατόν σου καὶ πορεύου εἰς τὸν οἶκόν σου ἐν σαββάτῳ». ἤδη δέ μοι εἴρηται ὡς διαφόρως ἕκαστος αὐτῶν περὶ Χριστοῦ ὑποβάλλει, ποτὲ μὲν αὐτὸς ὁ Ἐβίων λέγων ἐκ παρατριβῆς ψιλὸν ἄνθρωπον αὐτὸν γεγενῆσθαι, ἄλλοτε δὲ οἱ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ Ἐβιωναῖοι ἄνω δύναμιν ἐκ θεοῦ κεκτῆσθαι τὸν υἱόν, καὶ τοῦτον κατὰ καιρὸν τὸν Ἀδὰμ ἐνδύεσθαί τε καὶ ἐκδύεσθαι, ὧν τὰς διαφόρους γνώμας ἐν δυνάμει θεοῦ ἀνετρέψαμεν. 1.382 Καὶ τί μοι ἔτι διατρίβειν ἐν ἁλίμοις καὶ ἀμπώτεσι τόποις, πῆ μὲν ἐπικλυζομένοις πῆ δὲ καταξηραινομένοις, ἐξ ὧνπερ ἰχθύων ἐκβράσματα πολλάκις γίνεται καὶ τοῖς ποσὶ τῶν τὰς ὄχθας τούτων μετιόντων τῶν τόπων ἐκ τοῦ ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν ἰχθύων τινὰ ἰοβόλα εἶναι, τρυγόνας δέ φημι καὶ δρακαίνας καὶ καρχαρίας καὶ σμυραίνας, ὡς καὶ ἤδη προείρηται βλάβην ἐμποιεῖ. παρελεύσομαι τοίνυν τὸν τόπον αὖθις, θεῷ εὐχαριστῶν ὅτι καὶ ταύτην τὴν αἵρεσιν εἰς τοὐπίσω ἐτρέψαμεν, οὐ παρέργως ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπιμελῶς ἐλέγξαντες. ἐπ' ἄλλας δὲ καθεξῆς ἑαυτοὺς ἐπιδῶμεν, ἀγαπητοί, θεὸν αἰτούμενοι βοηθόν, ὅπως τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τὸ πλήρωμα αὐτὸς δι' ἡμῶν τελειώσῃ. Κατὰ Οὐαλεντίνων τῶν καὶ Γνωστικῶν ˉιˉα, τῆς δὲ ἀκολουθίας ˉλˉα.

1. Μετὰ τούτους τοὺς Ἐβιωναίους καλουμένους, αὐτῶν τὴν μοχθηρίαν διοδεύσαντες τάς τε ἄλλας ἐπαγγειλάμενοι θεοῦ δυνάμει * τὰς ἑξῆς, ἑτέρων θηρῶν μορφὰς καὶ ἰοὺς ἑρπετῶν δήγματά τε καὶ δηλητήρια ἐχούσας, ὅσαπερ ἐν ταῖς αὐτῶν διδασκαλίαις ὡς ἀπὸ χάσματος ἰδεῖν ἔνεστι, πυρβόλου ἢ ἑρπετοῦ δεινοῦ καὶ βασιλίσκου † κεκυημένας, ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν Οὐαλεντίνων αἵρεσιν διέξειμι, τὸν ἔλεγχον αὐτῶν κατὰ δύναμιν ποιούμενος, τῶν δὴ καὶ Γνωστικῶν ἑαυτοῖς ἐπιθέντων ὄνομα, ὧν διαφοραὶ μέν εἰσι δέκα ἐν μιᾷ πληγῇ τῆς αὐτῶν ὀνειρο1.383 πολίας συζυγιῶν τε καὶ ὀγδοάδων καὶ ἀρρενοθηλείων αἰώνων κατ' ἄλλην ἄλλης ἰσορρόπως πεπληγμένων, οὐκέτι μὲν κατὰ χρόνους τάττων διαδοχῆς τὴν σύνταξιν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ πρόβασιν ἀφ' ἑτέρας εἰς ἑτέραν διερχόμενος. ἐν ἑνὶ γὰρ χρόνῳ οὗτοι πάντες ὡς μύκητες ἐκ γῆς ἐβλάστησαν καὶ ὥσπερ κακόρρεκτα καὶ δυσώδη βοτανῶν βλαστήματα καὶ χόρτος ἀκανθώδης καὶ ὡς φωλεὸς πολλῶν σκορπίων ἐξ ἑνὸς πάντες καιροῦ τῷ βίῳ ἐβλάστησαν καί, ὡς προεῖπον, δίκην μυκήτων ἀμορφίας ὑπὸ μίαν θῆξιν πεφήνασιν, ὡς καὶ ἤδη τῷ ἁγιωτάτῳ Εἰρηναίῳ περὶ αὐτῶν προείρηται. σύγχρονοι γὰρ γεγόνασιν οὗτοι πάντες, ἕκαστος δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑτέρου