Hippolytus of Rome, The Refutation of All Heresies

This is the diversified wisdom of the Peratic heresy, which it is difficult to declare in its entirety, so intricate is it on account of its seeming to consist of the astrological art. As far forth, then, as this is possible, we shall briefly explain the whole force of this (heresy). In order, however, that we may by a compendious statement elucidate the entire doctrine of these persons, it appears expedient to subjoin the following observations. According to them, the universe is Father, Son, (and) Matter; (but) each of these three has endless capacities in itself. Intermediate, then, between the Matter and the Father sits the Son, the Word, the Serpent, always being in motion towards the unmoved Father, and (towards) Matter itself in motion. And at one time he is turned towards the Father, and receives the powers into his own person; but at another time takes up these powers, and is turned towards Matter. And Matter, (though) devoid of attribute, and being unfashioned, moulds (into itself) forms from the Son which the Son moulded from the Father.

But the Son derives shape from the Father after a mode ineffable, and unspeakable, and unchangeable; (that is,) in such a manner as Moses says that the colours of the conceived (kine) flowed from the rods484 Gen. xxx. 37–39. which were fixed in the drinking-troughs. And in like manner, again, that capacities flowed also from the Son into Matter, similarly to the power in reference to conception which came from the rods upon the conceived (kine). And the difference of colours, and the dissimilarity which flowed from the rods through the waters upon the sheep, is, he says, the difference of corruptible and incorruptible generation. As, however, one who paints from nature, though he takes nothing away from animals, transfers by his pencil all forms to the canvas; so the Son, by a power which belongs to himself, transfers paternal marks from the Father into Matter. All the paternal marks are here, and there are not any more. For if any one, he says, of those (beings) which are here will have strength to perceive that he is a paternal mark transferred hither from above, (and that he is) incarnate—just as by the conception resulting from the rod a something white is produced,—he is of the same substance altogether with the Father in heaven, and returns thither. If, however, he may not happen upon this doctrine, neither will he understand the necessity of generation, just as an abortion born at night will perish at night. When, therefore, he says, the Saviour observes, “your Father which is in heaven,”485 Matt. vii. 11. he alludes to that one from whom the Son deriving his characteristics has transferred them hither. When, however, (Jesus) remarks, “Your father is a murderer from the beginning,”486 John viii. 44. he alludes to the Ruler and Demiurge of matter, who, appropriating the marks delivered from the Son, generated him here who from the beginning was a murderer, for his work causes corruption and death.

No one, then, he says, can be saved or return (into heaven) without the Son, and the Son is the Serpent. For as he brought down from above the paternal marks, so again he carries up from thence those marks roused from a dormant condition and rendered paternal characteristics, substantial ones from the unsubstantial Being, transferring them hither from thence. This, he says, is what is spoken: “I am the door.”487 John x. 7. And he transfers (those marks), he says,488 There is a hiatus here. Miller, who also suggests διαφέρει instead of μεταφέρει supplies the deficiency as translated above. The Abbe Cruice fills up the hiatus by words taken from a somewhat similar passage in the third chapter of book viii., but the obscurity still remains. Miller thinks there is a reference to Isa. vi. 10. to those who close the eyelid, as the naphtha drawing the fire in every direction towards itself; nay rather, as the magnet (attracting) the iron and not anything else, or just as the backbone of the sea falcon, the gold and nothing else, or as the chaff is led by the amber. In this manner, he says, is the portrayed, perfect, and consubstantial genus drawn again from the world by the Serpent; nor does he (attract) anything else, as it has been sent down by him. For a proof of this, they adduce the anatomy489 This theory has been previously alluded to by Hippolytus in the last chapter of book iv. of the brain, assimilating, from the fact of its immobility, the brain itself to the Father, and the cerebellum to the Son, because of its being moved and being of the form of (the head of) a serpent. And they allege that this (cerebellum), by an ineffable and inscrutable process, attracts through the pineal gland the spiritual and life-giving substance emanating from the vaulted chamber490 καμαρίου: some would read μακαρίου [“the dome of thought, the palace of the soul”]. (in which the brain is embedded). And on receiving this, the cerebellum in an ineffable manner imparts the ideas, just as the Son does, to matter; or, in other words, the seeds and the genera of the things produced according to the flesh flow along into the spinal marrow. Employing this exemplar, (the heretics) seem to adroitly introduce their secret mysteries, which are delivered in silence. Now it would be impious for us to declare these; yet it is easy to form an idea of them, by reason of the many statements that have been made.

[17] Αὕτη ἡ παμποίκιλος σοφία [τῆς] Περατικῆς αἱρέσεως, ἣν ἐξειπεῖν πᾶσαν δυσχερές, οὕτως οὖσαν σκολιὰν διὰ τὸ ἐκ τῆς ἀστρολογικῆς δοκεῖν συνεστάναι. καθὸ οὖν δυνατὸν ἦν, δι' ὀλίγων πᾶσαν αὐτῆς τὴν δύναμιν ἐκτεθείμεθα. ἵνα δὲ (κἂν) δι' ἐπιτομῆς τὴν πᾶσαν αὐτῶν γνώμην ἐκθώμεθα, δοκεῖ προσθεῖναι ταῦτα. ἔστι κατ' αὐτοὺς τὸ πᾶν πατήρ, υἱός, ὕλη: τούτων τῶν τριῶν ἕκαστον ἀπείρους ἔχει δυνάμεις ἐν ἑαυτῷ. καθέζεται οὖν μέσος τῆς ὕλης καὶ τοῦ πατρὸς ὁ υἱός, ὁ λόγος, ὁ ὄφις ἀεὶ κινούμενος πρὸς ἀκίνητον τὸν πατέρα καὶ κινουμένην τὴν ὕλην: καὶ ποτὲ μὲν στρέφεται πρὸς τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἀναλαμβάνει τὰς δυνάμεις εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον ἑαυτοῦ, ἀναλαβὼν δὲ τὰς δυνάμεις στρέφεται πρὸς τὴν ὕλην: καὶ ἡ ὕλη ἄποιος οὖσα καὶ ἀσχημάτιστος ἐκτυποῦται τὰς ἰδέας ἀπὸ τοῦ υἱοῦ, ἃς ὁ υἱὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς [ἐξ]ετυπώσατο. ἐκτυποῦται δὲ ὁ μὲν υἱὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀρρήτως καὶ ἀλάλως καὶ ἀμεταστάτως, οὕτως ὡς, φησί, [λέγει] Μωϋσῆς ἀπὸ τῶν ῥάβδων τῶν ἐπὶ τῶν ποτιστηρίων ῥερευκέναι τὰ χρώματα τοῖς ἐγκεκισσημένοις. ὁμοίως δ' αὖ καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν ὕλην ῥερευκέναι τὰς δυνάμεις κατὰ τὸ ἐγκίσσημα τῆς δυνάμεως τῆς ἀπὸ τῶν ῥάβδων ἐπὶ τὰ ἐγκεκισσημένα. ἡ δὲ διαφορὰ τῶν χρωμάτων καὶ ἡ ἀνομοιότης ῥεύσασα ἀπὸ τῶν ῥάβδων διὰ τῶν ὑδάτων ἐπὶ τὰ πρόβατα διαφορά, φησί, γενέσεώς ἐστι φθαρτῆς καὶ ἀφθάρτου. μᾶλλον δὲ ὥσπερ, [φησίν, ὁ] ζωγραφῶν ἀπὸ τῶν ζῴων μηδὲν ἀφαιρούμενος τῇ γραφίδι πάσας ἐπὶ τὸν πίνακα μεταφέρει τὰς ἰδέας [αὐτῶν] ἐγγράφων, οὕτω[ς] ὁ υἱὸς τῇ δυνάμει τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐπὶ τὴν ὕλην τοὺς πατρικοὺς μεταφέρει χαρακτῆρας. ἔστιν οὖν πάντα τὰ ἐνθάδε πατρικὰ καὶ οὐδέν: εἰ γάρ τι, φησίν, τῶν ἐνθάδε ἐξισχύσει κατανοηθῆναι ὅτι ἐστὶ πατρικὸς χαρακτήρ, ἄνωθεν μετενηνεγμένος ἐνθάδε [καὶ] σωματοποιηθείς, ὥσπερ ἐγκίσσημα [τι] τὸ ἀπὸ τῆς ῥάβδου λευκὸν γέγονεν, ὁμοούσιον τῷ πατρὶ τῷ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς ὅλως, καὶ ἐκεῖ ἀνέρχεται: ἐὰν δὲ μὴ τύχῃ τῆς διδασκαλίας ταύτης μηδὲ τὴν ἀνάγκην τῆς γενέσεως ἐπιγνῷ, ὥσπερ ἔκτρωμα «ὑπὸ νύκτα γεννώμενον ὑπὸ νύκτα ἀπολεῖται». Ὅταν οὖν, φησί, λέγῃ ὁ σωτήρ: «ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς», ἐκεῖνον λέγει ἀφ' οὗ ὁ υἱὸς μεταλαβὼν τοὺς χαρακτῆρας μετενήνοχεν ἐνθάδε. ὅταν δὲ λέγῃ: «ὁ ὑμέτερος πατὴρ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ἀνθρωποκτόνος ἐστί», τὸν ἄρχοντα καὶ δημιουργὸν τῆς ὕλης λέγει, ὃς ἀναλαβὼν τοὺς διαδοθέντας ὑπὸ τοῦ υἱοῦ χαρακτῆρας ἐγέννησεν ἐνθάδε. ο[ὗτο]ς [δέ] ἐστιν, [φησίν,] ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ἀνθρωποκτόνος: τὸ γὰρ ἔργον αὐτοῦ φθορὰν καὶ θάνατον [ἀπ]εργάζεται. οὐδεὶς οὖν, φησί, δύναται σωθῆναι οὐδ' ἀνελθεῖν [εἰ μὴ] διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ, ὅς ἐστιν ὁ ὄφις: ὡς γάρ, [φησί,] κατήνεγκεν ἄνωθεν τοὺς πατρικοὺς χαρακτῆρας, οὕτως πάλιν ἐντεῦθεν ἀναφέρει τοὺς ἐξυπνισμένους καὶ γεγονότας [μνηστῆρας] πατρικοὺς χαρακτῆρας, ὑποστατοὺς ἐκ τοῦ ἀνυποστάτου ἐντεῦθεν ἐκεῖ μεταφέρων. τοῦτ' ἔστι, φησί, τὸ εἰρημένον: «ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ θύρα»: μεταφέρει γάρ, φησίν, [ἀνοίγων τοῖς] καμμ[ύ]ουσιν ὀφθαλμῶν βλέφαρα. ὥσπερ [γὰρ] ὁ νάφθας τὸ πῦρ πανταχόθεν εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἐπισπώμενος [ὁρᾶται, ἄλλο δὲ οὐδέν], μᾶλλον δὲ ὥσπερ ἡ Ἡρακλεία λίθος τὸν σίδηρον, ἄλλο [δὲ] οὐδέν, ἢ ὥσπερ ἡ τοῦ θαλασσίου ἱέρακος κερκὶς τὸ χρυσίον, ἕτερον δὲ οὐδέν, ἢ ὥσπερ ἄγεται ὑπὸ τοῦ ἠλέκτρου τὸ ἄχυρον [μόνον], οὕτω, φησίν, ὑπὸ τοῦ ὄφεως ἄγεται πάλιν ἀπὸ τοῦ κόσμου τὸ ἐξεικονισμένον τέλειον γένος ὁμοούσιον, ἄλλο δὲ οὐδέν, καθὼς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ [καὶ] κατεπέμφθη. Πρὸς τούτων τὴν ἀπόδειξιν φέρουσι [καὶ] τὴν τοῦ ἐγκεφάλου ἀνατομήν, αὐτὸν μὲν τὸν ἐγκέφαλον ἀπεικονίζοντες τῷ πατρὶ διὰ τὸ ἀκίνητον [εἶναι], τὴν δὲ παρεγκεφαλίδα τῷ υἱῷ διά τε τὸ κινεῖσθαι καὶ δρακοντοειδῆ ὑπάρχειν. ἣν ἀρρήτως καὶ ἀσημάντως ἐπισπᾶσθαι διὰ τοῦ κωναρίου φάσκουσι τὴν ἐκ τοῦ καμαρίου ἀπορρέουσαν πνευματικὴν καὶ ζωογόνον οὐσίαν: ἣν ὑποδεξαμένη ἡ παρεγκεφαλίς, ὥσπερ ὁ υἱός, ἀλάλως μεταδίδωσι τῇ ὕλῃ τὰς ἰδέας_τουτέστιν ἐπὶ τὸν νωτιαῖον μυελὸν διαρρεῖ τὰ σπέρματα καὶ τὰ γένη τῶν γενομένων κατὰ σάρκα. _ τούτῳ τῷ παραδείγματι χρώμενοι εὐφυῶς δοκοῦσι παρεισάγειν τὰ ἄρρητα αὑτῶν, ἀλάλως παραδιδόμενα μυστήρια: ἃ ἐξειπεῖν ἡμῖν οὐ θέμις, πολλοῖς δὲ νοῆσαι διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων εὔκολον.