THE FIRST BOOK OF SAINT IRENAEUS, BISHOP OF LYONS AND MARTYR, AGAINST THE HERESIES OF VALENTINUS AND THOSE LIKE HIM. PREFACE.

A small decorative initial P marks the beginning of the preface.

Rejecting the truth, some introduce false words and infinite genealogies, which provide questions rather than the edification of God which is in faith, as the Apostle says 1 Timothy 1:4. Through a plausibility that is craftily practiced, they lead astray the minds of those who are inexperienced and take them captive. They falsify the words of the Lord and become evil interpreters of things that were well said. They overturn many things, drawing them away from Him who established and ordered this universe under the pretext of gnosis knowledge. They act as if they have something higher and greater to show than Him who made heaven and earth and all things that are in them. By the art of words, they persuasively entice the simpler people into a way of searching, but they wickedly destroy them by making their blasphemous and impious opinion toward the Creator original: "Fabricatorem," the Maker or Demiurge so that they do not discern the truth from the false.

For error is not shown by itself, lest it should become understandable when stripped bare. Instead, it is craftily adorned with a persuasive covering, and it is ridiculous to say it presents itself as truer than the truth itself, so that it may deceive the more unlearned with a phantom. It has been well said by one better than us concerning such things: just as one might craftily assimilate glass to a precious emerald of great price to its insult, so long as there is no one present who can test it and prove the craftsmanship to be craftily done. For when brass has been mixed with silver, who, being unskilled, can easily prove this?

Therefore, lest perhaps some should be snatched away by our fault like sheep by wolves, being ignorant of them because of the outer covering of a sheep’s skin—about whom the Lord warned us to beware—speaking words similar to ours but thinking things dissimilar. I have deemed it necessary, since I have read their commentaries, as they call them, of the disciples of Valentinus, and have even met with some of them and grasped their opinion, to manifest to you, most beloved, their most monstrous and deep mysteries, which not all grasp because not all have the brain for it. I do this so that you, knowing these things, may know how to manifest them to all those who are with you, and may command them to keep themselves from the depth of senselessness and from that blasphemy which is against God.

And as much as our strength allows, we shall briefly and clearly show the opinion of those who now teach otherwise—I mean those around Ptolemaeus, who is like a blossom of Valentinus’s school. We shall give others the opportunity, according to our humble ability, to overturn it, showing that the things said by them are neither consistent nor suited to the truth. We are neither accustomed to writing, nor have we studied the art of discourse. Yet, with love encouraging us, we manifest to you and to all who are with you what was hidden until now, but is now made manifest.

1 Timothy 1:4
2 Timothy 2:23
Psalm 145:6
Revelation 14:7
The aim and substance of the Author.