it appears that it should be read as such, and these are to Irenaeus those who turn away from original: "παραπλησιώδιοι" the truth? original: "ἀληθείαν", just as Paul says to Titus in chapter 1, turning away original: "ἀποστρεφόμενοι". The interpretation would have been purer and easier if the translator had said "since some are turning away from the truth." However, I have judged that the ancient interpretation must be respected and retained, even because the Greek fragments that remain, and even the complete work if it should ever come to light in Greek, could be corrected and restored in many places through it.

3. Infinite Genealogies. He very aptly compares the ravings of the Gnostics to the empty fables of the Jews and the interminable genealogies genealogies with no end, which the Apostle forbids us to heed. Indeed, the Rabbis Jewish teachers twisted the oracles of the Prophets into impure dreams, by which they might cast a foul darkness over the Apostolic preaching about Christ the true Messiah, which was already spreading far and wide across the whole world. Book 2 against the adversaries of the law 64. 1. The Archisynagogus ruler of the synagogue Trypho says in the works of Justin that the Messiah would have no power, and indeed would not even know himself, until Elijah should come to inaugurate him with anointing. Augustine says they attributed two wives to the first man, from whom they wove infinite genealogies and most unfruitful questions. But the leaders of the Gnostics dared things even more varied and worse than these against the principal heads of our faith. Simon, the head of all these, claimed that Selene The Moon (others call her Helena), a certain common woman he took from a brothel, was Minerva. He claimed that he himself was Jupiter among the nations, the God the Father among the Samaritans, and the Son of God among the Jews. There were even those who believed these sayings. Witness the statue which the Romans erected in his name with this inscription: TO SIMON THE HOLY GOD. Justin, Apology 2. Augustine, Book on Heresies. Witness also the Emperor Nero, who, to please him, handed over the Apostle Peter to death. The impurities of the Nicolaitans, the idolomania idol-madness of the Ophites, the filth of Carpocrates, the impieties of the Cainites, and the blasphemies of Marcion surpassed the Jewish fictions by many parasangs a Persian measure of distance; here meaning by a great deal. What benefit did the syzygies pairings of the Aeons divine emanations of Basilides and Valentinus bring—the fables of the Profundus Depth, Silence, the Pleroma Fullness, Syncrasis Mixture, the Propator First Father, and the Ogdoads Groups of eight, Decads Groups of ten, and Dodecads Groups of twelve—which are more inextricable than any labyrinth? Therefore, we are rightly taught to turn away from these and other monsters of that kind.

4. Practiced. So says the ancient manuscript. We have deleted "exercised" original: "exercita". He means the art of persuasion, by which the Gnostics dragged many into their snare, was craftily prepared and acquired by them for nothing but fraud.

5. Words of the Lord. We have deleted the singular "word" by the authority of the ancient manuscript, with which the Greek reading in Epiphanius agrees: the oracles of the Lord original: "τὰ λόγια κυρία".

6. Evil Interpreters. He shows that errors are not drawn from the fountain of the sacred scriptures, but from the pits of perverse interpretations. Regarding this, Vigilius the Martyr complains in his second book against Eutyches in these words: "This is the origin of all impieties: while the power of the heavenly sayings, violated by the vice of a bad understanding, is not perverted according to the quality of its own sense, but is diverted into other things according to the will of the reader, contrary to what the reason of truth requires." And a little later: "It is most to be lamented that a man becomes impious from the same source whence another exists as pious: from whence liberty is acquired, he receives the miserable lot of captivity." Therefore, as Jerome says, let them never terrify us or flatter themselves Apology against Luciferians. if they seem to affirm what they say from chapters of the scriptures: since the Devil also spoke some things from the scriptures, and the Scriptures consist not in reading, but in understanding.

7. By the art of words. By deletions, according to the custom of the good, Erasmus had substituted "death" original: "mortem". If he had consulted Epiphanius, he would have learned that it should be read as through the art of words original: "διὰ λόγων τέχνης"; the ancient manuscript agrees with Epiphanius. Furthermore, the best interpreter of this passage will be Tertullian, who writes that those errors importunately pressed that phrase: "Seek and you shall find." By this, they might stir up the minds of Catholics with anxious curiosity to leave the secret doctrine of the Church and investigate another God, unknown in past ages, and thus drag them into their nets. "But for us," he says, "there is no need for curiosity after Christ Jesus, nor for inquiry after the Gospel." Otherwise, if we Book on Prescription. must always seek, when will the seeking end? Where is the station of believing? Where is the point of finding? At the house of Marcion? But Valentinus also proposes: "Seek and you shall find." At the house of Valentinus? But Apelles also struck me with this pronouncement, and Ebion, and Simon, and all of them in order have nothing else by which they might insinuate themselves and lead me to them, etc. It should be observed that heretics, breathing the habit of that winding serpent, perpetually struck the minds of the simpler people with the machinery of various questions. The Jewish words "Why?" and "How?" are continually occurring. Justin Martyr taught many centuries before Theophylact and Cyril of Alexandria, in his book on the Trinity, that these should be banished far from matters of faith. On Genesis 2; John.

8. In that which is blasphemous. These twenty-three words we have restored by the authority of the ancient manuscript and the wonderful consensus of the Greeks. We have deleted "unjust," as their deeds do not show their impious opinion.

9. Just as from one better than us. Eusebius observed long ago in the fifth book of his history that Irenaeus frequently mentions the discourses of a certain "Apostolic Man" whose name he keeps silent. This is most clear from chapter 11 of this book; chapters 19 and 35 of the third; and chapter 45 of the fourth. But as to who he might be, since he escaped the very sharp judgment of Eusebius, do not expect it from me. I would only dare to affirm that those things which he recites are nowhere found in the published books of those who preceded his age. Meanwhile, it is clear that this Blessed Martyr brings forward not only the Written Word, but also the things handed down by the Fathers against heresies.

Furthermore, not only Irenaeus, but also Tertullian openly states that the Valentinians did not preach their propositions openly or candidly, but hid much with tricks and ambiguities. "They care for nothing more," he says, "than to hide what they preach; if indeed they preach, they who hide." Book against the Valentinians, chapter 1. Then, comparing those things to the Eleusinian mysteries of the gentiles, which were hidden because of their foulness, he adds that they sealed their very vain and most foul fictions with holy names, titles, and arguments of true religion, etc.

10. Lest perhaps also with our fault. He seems to remind the pastors of the churches of that divine threat, by which the blood of the perishing will be required from their hands. The terror of this struck out those complaining words, interrupted by many tears, from Augustine when he was called to the fellowship of the Bishopric by Valerius: "There is nothing in the eyes of God more miserable, Letter 148. sadder, and more damnable than the office of a Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, if the matter is handled perfunctorily." The holy Ignatius writes that a Bishop Letter 1; Paul in the life of Ambrose; Nicephorus History; Letter 11 on the Priesthood; In the Monastic Rule. belongs not so much to himself as to others. Hence Ambrose, when chosen, meditated flight. Ammonius cut off his own ear. Synesius preferred many deaths to this ministry. Basil the Great hid himself. Chrysostom declined the burden as much as he could. And a certain man in the works of Saint Jerome feared Chrysostom, book lest he should be among the number of the damned if he were a Bishop. That horrendous lightning bolt now seems to be considered by many as an empty ghost.

11. Eyes of the skin. Sobriety original: "Νῆψις" of the eye, that is, he is entirely (for both are common) most solicitous. However, the ancient manuscript has "of the sheepfold" original: "ouilis".

Furthermore, I consider this passage of Irenaeus to have been excellently emulated and interpreted by Cyril of Jerusalem in his fourth Catechesis, in these words from the translator, which will also illustrate the following note. Wickedness imitates

Against Heresies, Book I.

7

virtue, and the tares strive to be seen as wheat. It is indeed assimilated to wheat in a certain appearance, but is easily discerned by the taste of those who perceive. And the devil also is transformed into an Angel of light, so that he may entangle men in the darkness of blindness and the pestilence of unbelief. Many wolves walk about in the clothing of sheep, and they indeed obtain the clothes of sheep, but not the claws or teeth. And indeed he puts on a mild skin and they deceive with the appearance of probity, but they emit a deadly poison from their teeth. Therefore, there is need of divine grace, a sober mind, and vigilant eyes, lest eating tares instead of wheat, we perish imprudently: or thinking a wolf to be a sheep, we be captured: or thinking our destroyer the devil to be a good Angel, Letter to Nomaisius. we be swallowed up. To this also pertains what Cyprian the martyr relates, that the Novatian heretics, in the manner of wolves, desired the dark gloom, by which they might easily, with their wild cruelty, snatch the sheep from the pastors and tear them in their dark caves. And concerning these and similar things the Lord foretold: "That many ravening wolves would come under the skins of sheep." And he writes elsewhere that such betrayers of souls lie that they may deceive, flatter that they may harm, promise good things that they may give evil, and promise life that they may kill. See the Letter to the People, concerning the five schismatic Priests. Let Chrysostom also be read, in the first volume, the Homily on Fasting and the reading of Genesis.

12. Speaking things similar to us. He reveals another fraud of the Gnostics: by the first appearance of their words, they seemed to agree with the Orthodox, but in reality, they only dazzled the eyes of the simpler people like jugglers, holding far different opinions. Therefore, one must always beware of heretics, lest they impose upon the unwary. For when they begin to be pressed, or when they must write, Jerome says, you may see wonderful tricks: they so Letter to Oceanus and Pammachius. temper their words, so turn the order, and arrange all ambiguities, that they may hold the confession of both our side and their adversaries, so that a heretic hears it one way, and a Catholic another. Letter to Ctesiphon. The same author accuses the Pelagians of this fraud: "The secrets of the bedchambers hear one thing, the platforms of the people another," etc. No one is ignorant of how strenuously the Sacramentarians those who deny the Real Presence in the Eucharist among the sects of the later Gnostics perform this same thing. Indeed, in their words, they pretend to believe with us that God is omnipotent, that the true substance of the flesh of Christ is offered to us, that Christ descended into hell, and many other things. But by adding conflicting and Letter to Theophilus. plainly blasphemous interpretations, they show themselves to be most vain and ruinous deceivers. But pure faith, writes the same Jerome, does not seek tricks: what is simply believed must be simply confessed. And Tertullian, against the Valentinians: "Truth blushes at nothing, except only being hidden."

13. Since I have read their commentaries. Not only, therefore, did Valentinus the arch-heretic publish certain writings, such as a Gospel, Book 2 on Prescription; Book 2 Stromata. Psalms, and "Sophia" Wisdom, as is found in Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Epiphanius; but he also had disciples who were polygraphos prolific writers, whose Commentaries Tertullian professes to have read after Irenaeus, in his book On the Flesh of Christ, chapters 15, 16, 17, and 20. But whether the reading of heretical books should be permitted to anyone, we will discuss later.

14. Those who are around Ptolemy. Irenaeus relates more about this man at the end of the first book; also in the second book, chapters four and forty-four. Tertullian, near the end of the book On Prescription, writes that he agreed with Valentinus in all things, only adding eight new Aeons to the thirty, and denying that the thirtieth Aeon had left the Pleroma. He mentions him again in the book Against the Valentinians, chapters four, eight, and twelve. Nicetas Choniates, in the fourth book of the Treasury of Orthodoxy, chapter five, testifies that this man attributed two wives to Bythos The Depth, whom they called God: Ennoea thought and Thelema will. Furthermore, in his letter to Flora (which Epiphanius transcribed), he attacked the law of Moses, claiming that only the Decalogue should be admitted as given by God to men. Moreover, after Irenaeus, Epiphanius, Euthymius, Nicetas, and Theodorus Scutariotes solidly refute his errors.

15. We will show. Because the Greek word we will report original: "ἀπαγγελοῦμεν" is in the future tense, and the ancient manuscript reads it so, in place of "we say" or "we have shown."

16. And on other occasions we will give. He knows that all others who excelled in the art of writing and speaking fought against heretics by his example, and in no way connived in their greatest crimes. Jerome boasts that he never spared heretics, but acted with all zeal so that the enemies of the Church might also become his own, in the Preface to the Dialogue against the Pelagians. In a letter given to him, Augustine exhorts him to consider it a sign of the greatest glory that all heretics detested him and pursued him with equal hatred, so that they might kill with prayers those whom they could not kill with swords.

17. Neither accustomed to writing. Perhaps one could not ineptly divine from this that these five Books are the first offspring of Irenaeus, which he sent out against Valentinus around the year of Christ 180, in the second year of the Pontificate of Pope Eleutherius; before he sharpened his pen against Florinus and Blastus, followers of the same impiety.

18. But you will not seek from us. Observe that the Fathers studied truth and simplicity more than eloquence. Hence Cyprian in his letter to Donatus: "In a speech before the platform, let wealthy eloquence be boasted with a voluble ambition: but when the word is about God, the pure sincerity of the voice does not rely on the strength of eloquence for the arguments of faith, but on the facts." And Augustine, in the fourth book of On Christian Doctrine, chapter fifteen: "Let the Doctor of the Church act as much as he can to be heard intelligently, willingly, and obediently; and let him not doubt that he can do these things more by the piety of prayers than by the faculty of Orators, so that by praying for himself and for those whom he is about to address, he may be an orator before he is a teacher."

19. Who are among the Celts. Pliny writes in his fourth book, chapter seventeen, that the third part of "Long-haired Gaul" original: "Gallia comata" is called Celtic and Lugdunensian, namely that which is between the Seine and the Garonne. Concerning these, see below in the first book, chapter three, note 5; and in Tertullian, On the Soul, chapter 57; also Strabo, Pomponius, Caesar, etc.

20. Commonly. original: "idiotice" That is, in the common manner, or even more correctly, privately: as it refers to the pronoun "to you."

21. And in the latitude of your sense. More clearly: "And according to the eloquence of your talent, you will make the things spoken briefly by us far more abundant."

22. To give provision. In Greek to give provisions for a journey original: "ἐφοδία δοῦναι"; we elegantly say, to provide a viaticum travel money or supplies. Here it means the same as resource original: "ἀφορμήν", help, aid, or subsidy.

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