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Against Heresies

Irenaeus of Lyons

Book 2 · Chapter 10

About this work

A five-book account and refutation of competing Christian movements that also develops Irenaeus’s positive theology of creation, Scripture, apostolic tradition, incarnation, salvation, and recapitulation in Christ.

Author: Irenaeus of Lyons
Date: c. AD 175–185
Origin: Lyons, Gaul
Genre: Heresiology

Perverse interpretations of Scripture by the heretics: God created all things out of nothing, and not from pre-existent matter.

Section 1

1. It is therefore in the highest degree

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irrational

,

that

we

should

take

no

account

of

Him

who

is

truly

God

,

and

who

receives

testimony

from

all

,

while

we

inquire

whether

there

is

above

Him

that

[

other

being

]

who

really

has

no

existence

,

and

has

never

been

proclaimed

by

any

one

.

For

that

nothing

has

been

clearly

spoken

regarding

Him

,

they

themselves

furnish

testimony

;

for

since

they

,

with

wretched

success

,

transfer

to

that

being

who

has

been

conceived

of

by

them

,

those

parables

[

of

Scripture

]

which

,

whatever

the

form

in

which

they

have

been

spoken

,

are

sought

after

[

for

this

purpose

]

,

it

is

manifest

that

they

now

generate

another

[

god

]

,

who

was

never

previously

sought

after

.

For

by

the

fact

that

they

thus

endeavour

to

explain

ambiguous

passages

of

Scripture

(

ambiguous

,

however

,

not

as

if

referring

to

another

god

,

but

as

regards

the

dispensations

of

[

the

true

]

God

)

,

they

have

constructed

another

god

,

weaving

,

as

I

said

before

,

ropes

of

sand

,

and

affixing

a

more

important

to

a

less

important

question

.

For

no

question

can

be

solved

by

means

of

another

which

itself

awaits

solution

;

nor

,

in

the

opinion

of

those

possessed

of

sense

,

can

an

ambiguity

be

explained

by

means

of

another

ambiguity

,

or

enigmas

by

means

of

another

greater

enigma

,

but

things

of

such

character

receive

their

solution

from

those

which

are

manifest

,

and

consistent

and

clear

.

Section 2

2. But these [heretics], while striving to explain passages of Scripture and parables, bring forward another more important, and indeed impious question, to this effect, “Whether there be really another god above that God who was the Creator of the world?” They are not in the way of solving the questions [which they propose]; for how could they find means of doing so? But they append an important question to one of less consequence, and thus insert [in their speculations] a difficulty incapable of solution. For in order that they may know “knowledge” itself (yet not learning this fact, that the Lord, when thirty years old, came to the baptism of truth), they do impiously despise that God who was the Creator, and who sent Him for the salvation of men. And that they may be deemed capable of informing us whence is the substance of matter, while they believe not that God, according to His pleasure, in the exercise of His own will and power, formed all things (so that those things which now are should have an existence) out of what did not previously exist, they have collected [a multitude of] vain discourses. They thus truly reveal their infidelity; they do not believe in that which really exists, and they have fallen away into [the belief of] that which has, in fact, no existence.

Section 3

3. For, when they tell us that all moist substance proceeded from the tears of Achamoth, all lucid substance from her smile, all solid substance from her sadness, all mobile substance from her terror, and that thus they have sublime knowledge on account of which they are superior to others,—how can these things fail to be regarded as worthy of contempt, and truly ridiculous? They do not believe that God (being powerful, and rich in all resources) created matter itself, inasmuch as they know not how much a spiritual and divine essence can accomplish. But they do believe that their Mother, whom they style a female from a female, produced from her passions aforesaid the so vast material substance of creation. They inquire, too, whence the substance of creation was supplied to the Creator; but they do not inquire whence [were supplied] to their Mother (whom they call the Enthymesis and impulse of the Æon that went astray) so great an amount of tears, or perspiration, or sadness, or that which produced the remainder of matter.

Section 4

4. For, to attribute the substance of created things to the power and will of Him who is God of all, is worthy both of credit and acceptance. It is also agreeable [to reason], and there may be well said regarding such a belief, that “the things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” While men, indeed, cannot make anything out of nothing, but only out of matter already existing, yet God is in this point pre-eminently superior to men, that He Himself called into being the substance of His creation, when previously it had no existence. But the assertion that matter was produced from the Enthymesis of an Æon going astray, and that the Æon [referred to] was far separated from her Enthymesis, and that, again, her passion and feeling, apart from herself, became matter—is incredible, infatuated, impossible, and untenable.

Notes

48
This clause is unintelligible in the Latin text: by a conjectural restoration of the Greek we have given the above translation.
49
Luke xviii. 27.