Irenaeus — Against Heresies 3.11

Against Heresies, III.11 (St. Irenaeus) Search: Home Fathers Bible Library H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z SEARCH Fathers Bible Library --> Home > Fathers of the Church > Against Heresies (St. Irenaeus) > Book III, Chapter 11 Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter 11) Proofs in continuation, extracted from St. John's Gospel. The Gospels are four in number, neither more nor less. Mystic reasons for this.

1. John, the disciple of the Lord, preaches this faith , and seeks, by the proclamation of the Gospel , to remove that error which by Cerinthus had been disseminated among men , and a long time previously by those termed Nicolaitans , who are an offset of that knowledge falsely so called, that he might confound them, and persuade them that there is but one God , who made all things by His Word; and not, as they allege, that the Creator was one, but the Father of the Lord another; and that the Son of the Creator was, forsooth, one, but the Christ from above another, who also continued impassible, descending upon Jesus , the Son of the Creator, and flew back again into His Pleroma; and that Monogenes was the beginning, but Logos was the true son of Monogenes; and that this creation to which we belong was not made by the primary God , but by some power lying far below Him, and shut off from communion with the things invisible and ineffable. The disciple of the Lord therefore desiring to put an end to all such doctrines, and to establish the rule of truth in the Church , that there is one Almighty God , who made all things by His Word, both visible and invisible; showing at the same time, that by the Word, through whom God made the creation, He also bestowed salvation on the men included in the creation; thus commenced His teaching in the Gospel : In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God , and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God . All things w

2. John, however, does himself put this matter beyond all controversy on our part, when he says, He was in this world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own [things], and His own [people] received Him not. John 1:10-11 But according to Marcion , and those like him, neither was the world made by Him; nor did He come to His own things, but to those of another. And, according to certain of the Gnostics , this world was made by angels , and not by the Word of God . But according to the followers of Valentinus , the world was not made by Him, but by the Demiurge . For he (Soter) caused such similitudes to be made, after the pattern of things above, as they allege; but the Demiurge accomplished the work of creation. For they say that he, the Lord and Creator of the plan of creation, by whom they hold that this world was made, was produced from the Mother; while the Gospel affirms plainly, that by the Word, which was in the beginning with God , all things were made, which Word, he says, was made flesh, and dwelt among us. John 1:14

3. But, according to these men, neither was the Word made flesh, nor Christ, nor the Saviour (Soter), who was produced from [the joint contributions of] all [the Æons ]. For they will have it, that the Word and Christ never came into this world; that the Saviour , too, never became incarnate, nor suffered, but that He descended like a dove upon the dispensational Jesus; and that, as soon as He had declared the unknown Father, He did again ascend into the Pleroma. Some, however, make the assertion, that this dispensational Jesus did become incarnate, and suffered, whom they represent as having passed through Mary just as water through a tube; but others allege him to be the Son of the Demiurge , upon whom the dispensational Jesus descended; while others, again, say that Jesus was born from Joseph and Mary , and that the Christ from above descended upon him, being without flesh, and impassible. But according to the opinion of no one of the heretics was the Word of God made flesh. For if anyone carefully examines the systems of them all, he will find that the Word of God is brought in by all of them as not having become incarnate ( sine carne ) and impassible, as is also the Christ from above. Others consider Him to have been manifested as a transfigured man; but they maintain Him to have been neither born nor to have become incarnate; while others [hold] that He did not assume a human form at all, but that, as a dove, He did descend upon that Jesus who was born from Mary. There