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Against Heresies

Irenaeus of Lyons

Book 1 · Chapter 31

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

Doctrines of the Cainites.

Section 1

1. Others again declare that Cain derived his

‹ Book 1 · Chapter 30 Book 2 · Preface ›

being

from

the

Power

above

,

and

acknowledge

that

Esau

,

Korah

,

the

Sodomites

,

and

all

such

persons

,

are

themselves

.

On

this

account

,

they

add

,

they

have

been

assailed

by

the

Creator

,

yet

no

one

of

them

has

suffered

injury

.

For

Sophia

was

in

the

habit

of

carrying

off

that

which

belonged

to

her

from

them

to

herself

.

They

declare

that

Judas

the

traitor

was

thoroughly

acquainted

with

these

things

,

and

that

he

alone

,

knowing

the

truth

as

no

others

did

,

accomplished

the

mystery

of

the

betrayal

;

by

him

all

things

,

both

earthly

and

heavenly

,

were

thus

thrown

into

confusion

.

They

produce

a

fictitious

history

of

this

kind

,

which

they

style

the

Gospel

of

Judas

.

Section 2

2. I have also made a collection of their writings in which they advocate the abolition of the doings of Hystera. Moreover, they call this Hystera the creator of heaven and earth. They also hold, like Carpocrates, that men cannot be saved until they have gone through all kinds of experience. An angel, they maintain, attends them in every one of their sinful and abominable actions, and urges them to venture on audacity and incur pollution. Whatever may be the nature of the action, they declare that they do it in the name of the angel, saying, “O thou angel, I use thy work; O thou power, I accomplish thy operation!” And they maintain that this is “perfect knowledge,” without shrinking to rush into such actions as it is not lawful even to name.

Section 3

3. It was necessary clearly to prove, that, as their very opinions and regulations exhibit them, those who are of the school of Valentinus derive their origin from such mothers, fathers, and ancestors, and also to bring forward their doctrines, with the hope that perchance some of them, exercising repentance and returning to the only Creator, and God the Former of the universe, may obtain salvation, and that others may not henceforth be drawn away by their wicked, although plausible, persuasions, imagining that they will obtain from them the knowledge of some greater and more sublime mysteries. But let them rather, learning to good effect from us the wicked tenets of these men, look with contempt upon their doctrines, while at the same time they pity those who, still cleaving to these miserable and baseless fables, have reached such a pitch of arrogance as to reckon themselves superior to all others on account of such knowledge, or, as it should rather be called, ignorance. They have now been fully exposed; and simply to exhibit their sentiments, is to obtain a victory over them.

Notes

328
According to Harvey, Hystera corresponds to the “passions” of Achamoth. [Note the “Americanism,” advocate used as a verb.]
329
The text is here imperfect, and the translation only conjectural.