Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3.11
John the disciple of the Lord proclaims this faith. He wants to strip away the error that Cerinthus planted in people, and much earlier the Nicolaitans planted it — a false offshoot meant to confuse them. He wants to persuade them that one God made all things through his Word. Their teaching is different: they say one being is the creator and another is the Father of the Lord; one is the son of the creator and another is the Christ from above. They say this Christ is impassible and remained above, descended into Jesus the son of the creator, and then returned to his Pleroma. They call the Trinity 'monogenes' and say the Logos is the true son of the monogenes. They say the world we live in was not made by the first God, but by a certain power far below, cut off from the invisible and ineffable realm above. The Lord's disciple wants to draw a boundary around all such ideas and establish the rule of truth in the Church: there is one God, almighty, who made everything visible and invisible through his Word. He also shows that through the Word by which God finished creation, God also provided salvation for those who live in this creation. So he opens his Gospel teaching with these words: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made. What was made in him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it' (John 1:1–5).
He says, 'All things were made through him' (John 1:3); therefore this creation of ours is included in that 'all.' It will not be granted to the heretics to claim that 'all things' means only what lies inside their Pleroma. If their Pleroma contains these things, then this creation is not outside it — as we showed in the previous book. But if these things are outside the Pleroma, which is impossible, then their Pleroma is not 'all things.' Therefore this creation is not outside. John himself removes every dissension from us when he says: 'He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him' (John 1:10–11). According to Marcion and those like him, the world was not made through him, and he did not come to his own but to another's. According to certain Gnostics, the world was made by angels, not through the Word of God. According to the followers of Valentinus, the world was not made through him but through the Demiurge. They say the Demiurge fashioned this creation by producing copies that imitate the realities above. But the Gospel plainly says that all things were made through the Word who was in the beginning with God, and that this Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). According to them, however, the Word did not become flesh, nor did Christ, nor the Savior assembled from all things. They refuse to let the Word and Christ enter this world. They say the Savior — unincarnate and impassible — descended like a dove into the Jesus who came from the condition, announced the unknown Father, and then ascended back to the Pleroma. Some say the Jesus from the condition was incarnate and suffered, passing through Mary like water through a pipe. Others say he was the Demiurge's son, into whom the Jesus from the condition descended. Others say Jesus was born of Joseph and Mary, and the Christ from above — impassible and without flesh — descended into him. But according to no heretical opinion did the Word of God become flesh. If you examine all their systems, you will find that every one of them presents the Word of God and the Christ from above as without flesh and impassible. Some think he appeared only like a transfigured man; they deny he was born or incarnate. Others say he did not even assume human form, but descended like a dove into the Jesus born of Mary. The Lord's disciple shows all these to be false witnesses when he declares: 'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us' (John 1:14).
So that we do not ask whose Word became flesh, he himself teaches further: 'There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the light. He was not the light, but came to testify about the light' (John 1:6–8). John the forerunner, who testifies to the light — by which God was he sent? Surely by the God whose angel is Gabriel, who also announced John's birth. That same God promised through the prophets to send his angel before the face of his Son to prepare his way — that is, to testify to the light in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). Elijah was the servant and prophet of which God? The God who made heaven and earth, as Elijah himself confesses (1 Kings 18:36–37). Therefore John was sent by the founder and creator of this world. How else could he testify about the light that descended from the invisible and ineffable realm? All heretics have decreed that the Demiurge is ignorant of the power above him, yet John is found to be the witness and revealer of that power. Because of this, the Lord said John was more than a prophet (Luke 7:26). All the other prophets announced the coming of the Father's light; they longed to see the one they preached. But John not only announced him like the others — he saw him coming, pointed him out, and persuaded many to believe in him, so that he held the place of both prophet and apostle. He is more than a prophet: first among apostles, second among prophets; yet all things come from one and the same God.
Latin
Hane fidem annuntians Johannes Domini discipulus, volens per Evangelii annuntiationem auferre eum, qui a Cerintho inseminatus erat hominibus errorem, et multo prius ab his qui dicuntur Nicolaite, qui sunt vulsio ejus quee falso cognominatur ut confunderet eos, et suaderet quoniam unus Deus qui omnia fecit per Verbum suum ; et non, quemadmodum illi dicunt, alterum quidem fabricatorem, alium autem Patrem Domini: et alium quidem fabricatoris filium, alterum vero ®de superioribus Christum, quem et impassibilem perseverasse, descendentem in Jesum filium fabricatoris, et iterum revolasse in suum Pleroma: et Tinitium quidem esse monogenem; Logon autem verum filium unigeniti: et eam conditionem quze est secundum nos, non a primo Deo factam, sed a virtute aliqua valde deorsum subjecta, et abscissa ab eorum communicatione quze sunt invisibilia et innominabilia. Omnia igitur talia cireumscribere volens discipulus Domini, et ' regulam veritatis constituere in Ecclesia, quia est unus Deus omnipotens, qui per Verbum suum omnia fecit, et visibilia et invisibilia; significans quoque, quoniam per Verbum, per quod Deus perfecit conditionem, in hoe et salutem his qui in conditione sunt preestitit hominibus; sic inchoavit in ea que est secundum Evangelium doctrina: Jn principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum: hoc erat in principio apud Deum. Omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil. Quod factum est, in ipso vita erat, et vita erat lua hominum, et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebre eam non comprehenderunt. Omnia, inquit, per ipsum facta sunt ; in omnibus ergo est et hzee quae secundum nos est conditio: non enim concedetur eis, omnia dici ea que sunt infra Pleroma ipsorum. Si enim et hee Pleroma ipsorum continet, non extra est tanta ista conditio, quemadmodum ostendimus in eo libro qui ante hune est ; si autem extra Pleroma sunt heec, quod quidem impossibile visum est, jam non est omnia Pleroma ipsorum: non est ergo extra heee tanta conditio. Abstulit autem a nobis dissensiones omnes ipse Johannes, dicens: In hoc mundo erat, et mundus per ipsum factus est, et mundus eum non cognovit. In sua propria venit, et sui eum non receperunt. Secundum autem Marcionem et eos qui similes sunt ei, neque mundus per eum factus est ; neque in sua venit, sed in aliena, Secundum autem quosdam Gnosticorum, ¢ab angelis factus est iste mundus, et non per Verbum Dei. Secundum autem eos qui sunt a Valentino, iterum non per eum factus est, sed per Demiurgum. Hic enim operabatur similitudines tales fieri, ad imitationem eorum que sunt sursum, quemadmodum dicunt: Demiurgus autem perficiebat fabricationem conditionis. Emissum enim dicunt eum a matre Dominum et Demiurgum ejus dispositionis quee est secundum conditionem, per quem hune mundum factum volunt: cum Evangelium manifeste dicat, quoniam per Verbum, quod in principio erat apud Deum, omnia sunt facta: quod Verbum, inquit, caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis. 8. Secundum autem illos, neque Verbum caro factum est, neque Christus, neque qui ex omnibus factus est Salvator. Htenim Verbum et Christum nec advenisse in hune mundum volunt: Salvatorem vero non incarnatum neque passum; descendisse autem quasi columbam in eum Jesum qui factus est ex dispositione, et cum annuntiasset incognitum Patrem, iterum ascendisse in Pleroma. Incarnatum autem et passum quidam quidem eum qui ex dispositione sit dicunt Jesum, quem per Mariam dicunt pertransisse, quasi aquam per tubum: alii vero ° Demiurgi filium, in quem descendisse eum Jesum qui ex dispositione sit: alii rursum Jesum quidem ex Joseph et Maria natum dicunt, et in hune descendisse Christum qui de superioribus sit, sine carne et impassibilem exsistentem. Secundum autem nullam sententiam heereticorum, Verbum Dei caro factum est. Si enim quis regulas ipsorum omnium perscrutetur, inveniet quoniam sine carne et impassibilis ab omnibus illis inducitur Dei Verbum, et qui est in superioribus Christus. Alii enim putant manifestatum eum, quemadmodum hominem transfiguratum; neque autem natum, neque incarnatum dicunt illum: alii vero neque figuram eum assumsisse hominis; sed quemadmodum columbam descendisse in eum Jesum, qui natus est ex Maria. Omnes igitur illos falsos testes ostendens discipulus Domini, ait: Ht Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis. Et ut non inquiramus, cujus Dei Verbum caro factum est, ipse insuper docet, dicens : Fuit homo missus a Deo, erat ei nomen Johannes: hic venit in testimonium, ut testaretur de lumine. Non erat ipse lumen, sed ut testaretur de lumine. Preecursor igitur Johannes, qui testatur de lumine, a quo Deo missus est? Utique ab eo cujus Gabriel est angelus, qui etiam evangelisavit generationem ejus; qui et per prophetas promisit angelum suum missurum ante faciem Filii sui, et preeparaturum viam ejus, hoc est, testificaturum de lumine, i spiritw et virtute Helie. Helias autem rursus cujus Dei servus et propheta fuit? Ejus qui fecit coelum et terram, quemadmodum et ipse confitetur. A conditore igitur et fabricatore hujus mundi missus Johannes, quemadmodum poterat testificari de eo lumine, quod ex his que sunt innominabilia et invisibilia descenderit ? Omnes enim heeretici decreverunt, Demiurgum ignorare eam que sit super eum virtutem, cujus testis et ostensor invenitur Johannes. Propter hoc Dominus plus quam prophetam dixit eum habuisse. Reliqui enim omnes prophetze annuntiaverunt adventum paterni luminis; concupierunt autem digni esse videre eum quem preedicabant: Johannes autem et preenuntiavit similiter sicut alii, et advenientem vidit et demonstravit, et credere in eum suasit multis, ita ut ipse et prophete et apostoli locum habuerit. est enim plus quam propheta: quoniam primo apostoli, secundo prophetw ; omnia autem ex uno et eodem ipso Deo.