Hippolytus of Rome, The Refutation of All Heresies

This fiery deity, then, after he became fire from light, proceeded to create the world in the manner which Moses describes. He himself, however, as devoid of subsistence, employs the darkness as (his) substance, and perpetually insults those eternal attributes of light which, (being) from above, had been laid hold on by (the darkness) beneath. Up to the time, therefore, of the appearance of the Saviour, there prevailed, by reason of the Deity of fiery light, (that is,) the Demiurge, a certain extensive delusion of souls. For the species are styled souls, because they are refrigerations900 The Greek word for soul is derived from the same root as that for refrigeration. This addition seems necessary from Stobæus’ account of Heraclitus. (See Eclog. Phys., i. 47, where we have Heraclitus affirming that “unity is from plurality, and plurality from unity;” or, in other words, “that all things are one.”) from the (Æons) above, and continue in darkness. But when (the souls) are altered from bodies to bodies, they remain under the guardianship of the Demiurge. And that these things are so, says (the Docetic), it is possible also to perceive from Job, when he uses the following words: “And I am a wanderer, changing both place after place, and house after house.”901 These words are spoken of the wife of Job, as the feminine form, πλανῆτις and λάτρις, proves. They have been added from apocryphal sources to the Greek version (ii. 9), but are absent from the English translation. The passage stands thus: καὶ ἐγὼ πλανῆτις καὶ λάτρις τόπον ἐκ τόπου περιερχομένη καὶ οἰκίαν ἐξ οἰκίας. The Abbe Cruice refers to St. Chrysostom’s Hom. de Statuis [vol. ii. p. 139, opp. ed. Migne, not textually quoted.] Dr. Wordsworth for δίκαιον suggests εἰκαῖον, i.e., “but that the Deity is by chance.” There is some difficulty in arriving at the correct text, and consequently at the meaning of Hippolytus’ extracts from Heraclitus. The Heraclitean philosophy is explained by Stobæus, already mentioned. See likewise Bernays’ “Critical Epistle” in Bunsen’s Analect. Ante-Nicæn. (vol. iii. p. 331 et seq. of Hippolytus and his Age), and Schleiermacher in Museum der Alterthumswissenschaft, t. i. p. 408 et seq. And (we may learn, according to the Docetæ, the same) from the expressions of the Saviour, “And if ye will receive it, this is Elias that was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”902 Matt. xi. 14, 15. παλίντροπος. Miller suggests παλίντονος, the word used by Plutarch (De Isid. et Osirid., p. 369, ed. Xyland) in recounting Heraclitus’ opinion. Παλίντονος, referring to the shape of the bow, means “reflex” or “unstrung,” or it may signify “clanging,” that is, as a consequence of its being well bent back to wing a shaft. But by the instrumentality of the Saviour this transference of souls from body to body was made to cease, and faith is preached for remission of sins. After some such manner, that only begotten Son, when He gazes upon the forms of the supernal Æons, which were transferred from above into darkish bodies, coming down, wished to descend and deliver them. When (the Son), however, became aware that the Æons, those (that subsist) collectively, are unable to behold the Pleroma of all the Æons, but that in a state of consternation they fear lest they may undergo corruption as being themselves perishable, and that they are overwhelmed by the magnitude and splendour of power;—(when the Son, I say, perceived this,) He contracted Himself—as it were a very great flash in a very small body, nay, rather as a ray of vision condensed beneath the eyelids, and (in this condition) He advances forth as far as heaven and the effulgent stars. And in this quarter of creation He again collects himself beneath the lids of vision according as He wishes it. Now the light of vision accomplishes the same effect; for though it is everywhere, and (renders visible) all things, it is yet imperceptible to us. We, however, merely see lids of vision, while corners (of the eye), a tissue which is broad, tortuous,903 Or, “a fleshly membrane.” Compare Aristotle’s Rhet., iii. 5, and Sextus Empiricus, Adv. Math., lib. vii. p. 152, ed. Aurel, 1621. (and) exceedingly fibrous, a membrane of the cornea; and underneath this, the pupil, which is shaped as a berry, is net-like and round. (And we observe) whatever other membranes there are that belong to the light of the eye, and enveloped in which it lies concealed.

Thus, says (the Docetic), the only-begotten (and) eternal Child from above arrayed Himself in a form to correspond with each individual Æon of the three Æons;904 Miller reads, “of the third Æon.” See Lucian, Vit. Auct., vol. i. p. 554, ed. Hemsterh. and while he was within the triacontad of Æons, He entered into this world905 The Abbe Cruice considers that the mention of the period of our Lord’s birth has accidentally dropt out of the ms. here. See book vii. chap. xix. This word seems necessary, see Plutarch, De Procreat. animæ, c. xxvii. just as we have described Him, unnoticed, unknown, obscure, and disbelieved. In order, therefore, say the Docetæ, that He may be clad in the darkness that is prevalent in more distant quarters of creation—(now by darkness he means) flesh—an angel journeyed with Him from above, and announced the glad tidings to Mary, says (the Docetic), as it has been written. And the (child) from her was born, as it has been written. And He who came from above put on that which was born; and so did He all things, as it has been written (of Him) in the Gospels. He washed in Jordan, and when He was baptized He received a figure and a seal in the water of (another spiritual body beside) the body born of the Virgin. (And the object of this was,) when the Archon condemned his own peculiar figment (of flesh) to death, (that is,) to the cross, that that soul which had been nourished in the body (born of the Virgin) might strip off that body and nail it to the (accursed) tree. (In this way the soul) would triumph by means of this (body) over principalities and powers,906 Col. ii. 11, 14, 15. This is a well-known anecdote in the life of Homer. See Coleridge’s Greek Poets—Homer. [The unsavoury story is decently given by Henry Nelson Coleridge in this work, republished. Boston: James Munroe & Co., 1842.] and would not be found naked, but would, instead of that flesh, assume the (other) body, which had been represented in the water when he was being baptized. This is, says (the Docetic), what the Saviour affirms: “Except a man be born of water and spirit, he will not enter into the kingdom of heaven, because that which is born of the flesh is flesh.”907 John iii. 5, 6. From the thirty Æons, therefore, (the Son) assumed thirty forms. And for this reason that eternal One existed for thirty years on the earth, because each Æon was in a peculiar manner manifested during (his own) year. And the souls are all those forms that have been laid hold on by each of the thirty Æons; and each of these is so constituted as to discern Jesus, who is of a nature (similar to their own). (And it was the nature of this Jesus) which that only-begotten and eternal One assumed from everlasting places. These (places), however, are diverse. Consequently, a proportionate number of heresies, with the utmost emulation, seek Jesus. Now all these heresies have their own peculiar Jesus; but he is seen differently according as the place908 Miller’s text has “type.” is different towards which, he says, each soul is borne and hastens. (Now each soul) supposes that (the Jesus seen from its particular place) is alone that (Jesus) who is its own peculiar kinsman and fellow-citizen. And on first beholding (this Jesus, that soul) recognises Him as its own peculiar brother, but the rest as bastards. Those, then, that derive their nature from the places below, are not able to see the forms of the Saviour which are above them. Those, however, he says, who are from above, from the intermediate decade and the most excellent ogdoad—whence, say (the Docetæ), we are—have themselves known not in part, but entirely, Jesus the Saviour. And those, who are from above, are alone perfect, but all the rest are only partially so.

[10] Οὗτος οὖν ὁ πυροειδὴς (θεός), ὁ πῦρ ἀπὸ φωτὸς γενόμενος, πεποίηκε τὸν κόσμον οὕτως ὥς φησι Μωϋσῆς, αὐτὸς ὢν ἀνυπόστατος, σκότος ἔχων τὴν οὐσίαν [καὶ] ἐνυβρίζων ἀεὶ τοῖς ἄνωθεν κάτω κατειλημμένοις τοῦ φωτὸς αἰωνίοις χαρακτῆρσι. μέχρι μὲν οὖν τῆς τοῦ σωτῆρος φανερώσεως πολλή τις ἦ(ν) πλάνη τῶν ψυχῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ [ἀπὸ] φωτὸς [γεγονότος], τοῦ πυρώδους, τοῦ δημιουργοῦ. ψυχαὶ γὰρ αἱ ἰδέαι καλοῦνται, ὅτι ἀπ(ο)ψυγεῖσαι [καὶ καταπεσοῦσαι ἀπὸ] τῶν ἄνω ἐν σκότει διατελοῦσι, μεταβαλλόμεναι [ἀεὶ] ἐκ σώματος εἰς σῶμα καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ φρουρούμενα[ι]. ὅτι δὲ τοῦθ' οὕτως ἔχει, φησίν, ἔνεστι καὶ ἐκ τοῦ Ἰὼβ κατανοῆσαι λέγοντος: «καὶ ἐγὼ πλανῆτις καὶ [λάτρις], τόπον ἐκ τόπου μεταβαίνουσα καὶ οἰκίαν ἐξ οἰκίας» καὶ [ἐκ] τοῦ σωτῆρος λέγοντος: «καὶ εἰ θέλετε δέξασθαι, αὐτός ἐστιν Ἠλίας ὁ μέλλων ἔρχεσθαι. ὁ ἔχων ὦτα ἀκούειν ἀκουέτω». ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ σωτῆρος μετενσωμάτωσις πέπαυται πίστις τε κηρύσσεται εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν τοιοῦτόν τινα τρόπον. Ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς ἐκεῖνος ὁ τῶν [τριῶν] αἰώνων, τὰς ἄνωθεν ἰδέας βλέπων [τὰς ἄνωθεν] μεταβαλλομένας ἐν τοῖς σκοτεινοῖς σώμασι, ῥύσασθαι κατελθὼν ἠθέλησεν. εἰδὼς δὲ ὅτι τὸ πλήρωμα τῶν ὅλων αἰώνων [αἰώνιον] οὐδὲ[ν] [οἱ αἰῶνες οἱ ἀθρόον] ἰδεῖν ὑπομένουσιν, ἀλλὰ καταπλαγέντες ὡς φθαρτοὶ φθορὰν ὑπομενοῦσι, μεγέθει καὶ δόξῃ [τῆς αὐτοῦ] δυνάμεως κατειλημμένοι, συστείλας ἑαυτὸν ὡς [ἂν] ἀστραπὴν μεγίστην ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ σώματι [ἀφανὴς ἐγένετο]. μᾶλλον δὲ ὡς [τὸ] φῶς [τῆς] ὄψεως, [τὸ] ὑπὸ τοῖς βλεφάροις συνεσταλμένον, ἐξικνεῖται μέχρις οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῶν ἀστέρων ἐπιψαῦσαν τῶν ἐκεῖ πάλιν ἑαυτὸ συστέλλει ὑπὸ τοῖς βλεφάροις τῆς ὄ(ψε)ως, ὅτε βούλεται: καὶ τοῦτο ποιοῦν τὸ φῶς τῆς ὄψεως καὶ πανταχῇ γινόμενον καὶ πάντα [ὁρῶν] ἡμῖν ἐστιν ἀφανές, μ(όν)ον δὲ ὁρῶμεν ἡμεῖς [τῆς] ὄψεως βλέφαρα, κανθοὺς λευκούς, ὑμένας: [ἶ]ριν πολύπτυχον πολυκτηδόνα, χιτῶνα κερατοειδῆ, ὑπὸ δὲ τοῦτον κόρην ῥαγοειδῆ, ἀμφιβληστροειδῆ, δισκοειδῆ, καὶ εἴ τινες ἄλλοι τοῦ φωτὸς τῆς ὄψεώς εἰσι χιτῶνες, οὓς ἐστολισμένον κέκρυπται: οὕτως, φησίν, ὁ μονογενὴς παῖς ἄνωθεν [ὁ] αἰώνιος ἐπενδυσάμενος κατὰ ἕνα ἕκαστον [τοὺς] τῶν τριῶν αἰώνων αἰῶνα[ς] καὶ γενόμενος ἐν τριακοντάδι αἰώνων εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τόνδε τὸν κόσμον, τηλικοῦτος ὢν ἡλίκον εἴπομεν: ἀφανής, ἄγνωστος, ἄδοξος, ἀπιστούμενος. Ἵν' οὖν, [ὥς] φασιν οἱ Δοκηταί, καὶ τὸ σκότος ἐπενδύσηται τὸ ἐξώτερον [τὴν σάρκα φησίν], ἄγγελος [ὁ] συνοδεύσας αὐτῷ ἄνωθεν τὴν Μαριὰμ εὐηγγελίσατο, φησίν, ὡς γέγραπται, [καὶ] ἐγεν[ν]ήθη τὸ ἐξ αὐτῆς ὡς γέγραπται. γεννηθὲν δ' ἐνεδύσατο [αὐ]τὸ ἄνωθεν ἐλθόν, καὶ πάντα ἐποίησεν οὕτως ὡς ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις γέγραπται: ἐλούσατο [δὴ] εἰς τὸν Ἰορδάνην [ἐλούσατο δὲ], τύπον καὶ σφράγισμα [σώματος] λαβὸν ἐν τῷ ὕδατι [ἀντὶ] τοῦ γεγεν[ν]ημένου σώματος ὑπὸ τῆς παρθένου: ἵν', ὅταν ὁ ἄρχων κατακρίνῃ τὸ ἴδιον πλάσμα «θανάτῳ [τῷ] σταυροῦ», [ἡ] ψυχὴ ἐκείνη, [ἡ] ἐν τῷ σώματι τραφεῖσα, «ἀπεκδυσαμένη» τὸ σῶμα καὶ «προσηλώσασα [αὐτὸ] πρὸς τὸ ξύλον» καὶ «θριαμβεύσασ[α] δι' αὐτοῦ τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς ἐξουσίας», «μὴ εὑρεθῇ γυμνή», ἀλλ' ἐνδύσηται τὸ ἐν τῷ ὕδατι, ὅτε ἐβαπτίζετο, ἀντὶ τῆς σαρκὸς ἐκείνης ἐκτετυπωμένον σῶμα. τοῦτό ἐστι, φησίν, ὃ λέγει ὁ σωτήρ: «ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος, οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν», ὅτι «τὸ γεγεν[ν]ημένον ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς σάρξ ἐστιν». Ἀπὸ τῶν τριάκοντα οὖν αἰώνων τριάκοντα ἰδέας ἐνεδύσατο: διὰ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τριάκοντα ἔτη, [φησί,] γέγονεν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὁ αἰώνιος ἐκεῖνος, [ἐν] ἐκάστου αἰῶνος ἰδέᾳ ἐνιαυτῷ φανερούμενος. εἰ[σ]ὶ δέ γε ἀπὸ ἑκάστου τῶν τριάκοντα αἰώνων ἅπασα(ι) [αἱ] ἰδέα(ι) (κ)ατειλημμέναι ψυχαί, καὶ φύσιν ἔχει τούτων ἑκάστη νοεῖν τὸν [κατὰ φύσιν] Ἰησοῦν, ὃν ἐκεῖνος ὁ μονογενὴς ὁ αἰώνιος ἀπὸ τῶν αἰωνίων τόπων ἐνεδύσατο. εἰσὶ δὲ οὗτοι διάφοροι: [καὶ] διὰ τοῦτο τοσαῦται αἱρέσεις, [φησί,] ζητοῦσι τὸν Ἰησοῦν περιμαχήτως, καὶ ἔστι πάσαις αὐταῖς οἰκεῖος, ἄλλῃ δὲ ἄλλος [φανερούμενος, ὡς] ὁρώμενος ἀπ' ἄλλου τόπου. ἐφ' ὃν ἑκάστη φέρεται, φησίν, καὶ σπεύδει, δοκοῦσα τοῦτον εἶναι μόνον, ὅς ἐστιν αὐτῆς συγγενὴς ἴδιος καὶ πολίτης: ὃν ἰδοῦσα [τὸ] πρῶτον, [ὡς] ἴδιον ἐγνώρισ[ε] μόνον ἀδελφόν, τοὺς δὲ ἄλλους [ὡς] νόθους [ἀπέβαλεν]. οἱ μὲν οὖν ἐκ τῶν ὑποκάτω τόπων τὴν φύσιν ἔχοντες τὰς ὑπὲρ αὐτοὺς ἰδέας τοῦ σωτῆρος ἰδεῖν οὐ δύνανται: οἱ δὲ ἄνωθεν, φησίν, ἀπὸ τῆς δεκάδος τῆς μέσης καὶ τῆς πρώτης, τῆς ἀρίστης, ὅθεν ἐσμὲν ἡμεῖς, [ὡς] λέγουσιν, οὐκ ἐκ μέρους ἀλλ' ὅλον αὐτοὶ τὸν Ἰησοῦν τὸν σωτῆρα ἴσασι: καὶ εἰσὶν [οἱ] ἄνωθεν τέλειοι μόνοι, οἱ δὲ ἄλλοι πάντες ἐκ μέρους.