Against Heresies 4.35.1–4.36.8

Against the followers of Valentinus, again, and the rest of the Gnostics falsely so called, who say that some of the sayings set down in the Scriptures come at one time from the height, because of the seed that is from there; at another time from the middle region, because of their bold mother Prunicus; but many from the maker of the world, by whom the prophets also were sent: we say that it is quite irrational to bring the Father of all to such poverty, as if he had no instruments of his own through which the things in the Pleroma might be purely announced. For whom was he afraid of, that he should not make his will known freely, properly, and separately, without mixture with that spirit which came into being in defect and ignorance? Was he afraid that too many would be saved, if more people heard purely the things of the truth? Or, again, was he unable to prepare for himself those who would announce the Saviour’s coming?

If, when the Saviour came here, he sent his apostles into the world to announce his coming purely and to teach the Father’s will, sharing nothing with the teaching either of the Gentiles or of the Jews, much more, while he was in the Pleroma, would he have appointed heralds of his own to announce his future coming into this world, sharing nothing with the prophecies that are … But if, while he was within the Pleroma, he used the prophets who were under the law, and showed his own things through them, much more, when he came here, would he have used those same teachers and announced the Gospel to us through them. Then let them no longer say that Peter and Paul and the other apostles proclaimed the truth, but the scribes and Pharisees and the others through whom the law was proclaimed. But if at his coming he sent out his own apostles in the spirit of truth and not in the spirit of error, he did the same thing in the prophets; for the Word of God is always the same. And if, according to their rule, the Spirit from the supreme principle was the Spirit of light, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of perfection, and the Spirit of knowledge, while the one from the Demiurge was the spirit of ignorance, defect, and error, and the offspring of shadow, how could perfection and defect, knowledge and ignorance, error and truth, light and darkness, be in one and the same person? But if it was impossible for this to be so in the prophets, but they preached the word of the Lord from one God and announced the coming of his Son, much more would the Lord himself never have spoken at one time from the supreme principle and at another from the deficiency below, becoming a teacher of knowledge and of ignorance at once; nor would he ever have glorified as Father at one time the maker of the world and at another the one who is above him, as he himself says: “No one puts a patch of a new garment on an old garment, nor do they put new wine into old wineskins.” So either let them too keep away entirely from the prophets, as from old things, and not say that they, sent beforehand by the Demiurge, said some things from the newness that belongs to the supreme principle; or else they will be refuted by the Lord, who says that new wine is not put into old wineskins.

And how could the seed of their mother know the mysteries within the Pleroma and speak about them? For the mother gave birth to this seed while she was outside the Pleroma; and what is outside the Pleroma they say is outside knowledge, that is, ignorance. How, then, could what was conceived as a seed of ignorance announce knowledge? Or how did the mother herself know the mysteries of the Pleroma, she who was formless and shapeless, cast outside like an abortion, and there arranged and formed, and forbidden by Horos to enter within, and remaining outside the Pleroma, that is, outside knowledge, until the consummation? Again, when they say that the Lord’s passion is a type of the extension of the upper Christ, by which, extended along Horos, he formed their mother, they are refuted in the remaining details, having no likeness of a type to show. For where above was Christ given vinegar and gall to drink? Or where were his garments divided? Or where was he pierced, so that blood and water came out? Or where did he sweat drops of blood? And so with all the other things that happened to the Lord, of which the prophets spoke. From where, then, did either the mother or her seed divine these things, which had not yet happened then but were about to happen?

Besides this, they say that some things were spoken from the supreme principle, being refuted by what is recorded in the Scriptures about the coming of Christ. But what these things are they no longer agree; different people give different answers about the same things. For if someone, wishing to test them, questions their leading men separately about some saying, he will find one saying that what is asked about refers to the Propator, that is, to Bythus; another to the Beginning of all, that is, to the Only-begotten; another to the Father of all, that is, to the Word; another again will say it is spoken of one of the Aeons in the Pleroma; others of Christ, and another of the Saviour. The more skilled among them, after drawing out a long silence, says it was spoken of Horos; another that it signifies the Sophia within the Pleroma; another that it announces the Mother outside the Pleroma; and another will say the God who made the world. So great are the differences among them about one thing, holding various opinions about the same Scriptures; and when one and the same saying has been read, all of them, knitting their brows and shaking their heads, say that the saying is very lofty indeed, but that not all can grasp the greatness of the meaning contained in it, and that for this reason silence is the greatest thing among the wise. For the Sige that is above must be represented by the silence among them. So they all go away, as many as they are, carrying so many opinions about one thing, taking their subtleties away with them in secret. When, then, they agree among themselves about what is foretold in the Scriptures, then they will be refuted by us as well. For, though they do not think rightly, meanwhile they refute themselves by disagreeing about the same words. But we, following the one and only true God as teacher, and having his words as the rule of truth, all say the same things about the same matters, knowing one God, the maker of this universe, who sent the prophets, who led the people out of the land of Egypt, who in the last times manifested his Son, to put unbelievers to shame and to seek the fruit of righteousness.

For the Lord does not refute this God, nor does he say that the prophets were from another God than his Father, nor from some other substance, but from one and the same Father; nor that anyone else made the things in this world but his own Father, when he teaches thus: “There was a man, a householder, who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, leased it to tenants, and went abroad. When the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to receive his fruit. And the tenants seized the servants; one they beat, another they stoned, another they killed. Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them. Last of all he sent to them his only son, saying, ‘Perhaps they will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance.’ And they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. When, then, the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? And they said to him, He will destroy those wicked men wickedly, and lease his vineyard to other tenants, who will give him the fruit in their seasons.” Again the Lord says: “Have you never read, ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruit.” By these words he plainly showed his disciples one and the same householder, that is, one God the Father, who made all things through himself; but various farmers, some insolent, proud, unfruitful, and killers of the Lord, others yielding fruit in their seasons with all obedience; and that the same householder sends at one time his servants and at another his Son. The Father, then, by whom the Son was sent to the tenants who killed him, is the one by whom the servants also were sent. But the Son, as coming from the Father with sovereign authority, said, “But I say to you”; while the servants, as from their Lord, spoke as servants, and for that reason said, “Thus says the Lord.”

The Lord, then, whom they proclaimed to the unbelieving, Christ handed on to those who obey him; and the God who had called the former, through the servile legislation, is the one who took up the latter, through adoption. For God planted the vineyard of the human race, first through the formation of Adam and the choice of the fathers; he leased it to tenants through the legislation given by Moses; he put a hedge around it, that is, he marked out the bounds of their worship; he built a tower, that is, he chose Jerusalem; he dug a winepress, that is, he prepared a receptacle of the prophetic Spirit. And so he sent prophets before the exile to Babylon, and after the exile others again, more than the first, seeking the fruit and saying to them: “Thus says the Lord: Make your ways and your conduct clean; judge just judgment, and show mercy and compassion each to his brother; do not oppress the widow and the orphan, the proselyte and the poor; let none of you remember his brother’s wrong in your hearts, and do not love false oaths. Wash, be clean, take away wickedness from your hearts, learn to do good, seek justice, defend the one who suffers wrong, give judgment for the orphan and justice to the widow, and come, let us reason together, says the Lord.” And again: “Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit; turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” By proclaiming these things the prophets sought the fruit of righteousness. But since they did not believe, last of all he sent his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; and when the wicked tenants had killed him, they threw him out of the vineyard. Therefore the Lord God handed it over, no longer fenced in but spread out over the whole world, to other tenants, who yield the fruit in their seasons, with the tower of election raised everywhere and beautiful. For everywhere the Church is glorious, and everywhere the winepress is dug, for everywhere there are those who receive the Spirit. For since they rejected the Son of God and threw him out of the vineyard when they had killed him, God justly rejected them, and gave the fruitfulness of its cultivation to the nations who were outside the vineyard. As the prophet Jeremiah says: “The Lord has rejected and cast off the nation that does these things; for the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord.” And Jeremiah likewise: “I set watchmen over you: Hear the sound of the trumpet; and they said, We will not hear. Therefore the nations have heard, and those who pasture flocks among them.” So it is one and the same God the Father who planted the vineyard, who led the people out, who sent the prophets, who sent his Son, who gave the vineyard to other tenants, who render the fruits in their seasons.

And for this reason the Lord said to his disciples, preparing us to be good workers: “Take heed to yourselves, and watch always at every time, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and worldly cares, and that day come upon you suddenly; for it will come like a snare upon all who dwell on the face of the earth.” “Let your loins, then, … and your lamps burning, and you like men waiting for their lord, when he returns from the wedding.” “For as it was in the days of Noah: they ate and drank, bought and sold, married and were given in marriage, and they did not know until Noah went into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. And as it was in the days of Lot: they ate and drank, bought and sold, planted and built, until Lot went out of Sodom; it rained fire from heaven and destroyed them all. So it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” “Watch, then, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” He announces one and the same Lord, who in the times of Noah brought the flood because of men’s disobedience, and in the times of Lot rained fire from heaven because of the multitude of the Sodomites’ sins, and at the end, because of this same disobedience and similar sins, will bring the day of judgment, on which, he says, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for the city and house that does not receive the word of his apostles. “And you, Capernaum,” he said, “will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the underworld. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

For the Word of God is always one and the same: to those who believe in him he gives a spring of water into eternal life, but the unfruitful fig tree he withers at once. In the times of Noah he justly brought the flood, to extinguish the most wicked race of men then living, who could no longer bear fruit to God, since the transgressing angels had mingled with them; and to check their sins, but to preserve the type of the ark, the formation of Adam. And in the times of Lot it was he who rained fire and sulphur from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah, an example of the just judgment of God, so that all might know that “every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” And in the universal judgment he says it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for those who saw the mighty works he did and did not believe in him or receive his teaching. For as by his coming he gave greater grace to those who believed in him and do his will, so he made known that those who did not believe in him will have greater punishment in the judgment, being just toward all alike, and about to require more from those to whom he gave more. More, however, not because he revealed knowledge of another Father, as we have shown by so many and such great proofs, but because by his coming he poured out on the human race a greater gift of the Father’s grace.

But if what we have said is not enough for someone to believe that the prophets were sent by one and the same Father by whom our Lord also was sent, let him open the ears of his heart, call on Christ Jesus the Lord as teacher, and hear him say: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who had been invited to the wedding.” And when they would not obey, “Again,” he says, “he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited: Come, I have prepared my dinner, my bulls and all the fattened animals are killed, and everything is ready; come to the wedding.’ But they went off, paying no attention to him, one to his field, another to his business; and the rest seized the servants, and some they treated shamefully and others they killed. When the king heard, he was angry, and sending his armies he destroyed those murderers and burned their city, and said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go out, then, to the exits of the roads, and gather to the wedding as many as you find.’ And his servants went out and gathered all they found, bad and good, and the wedding was filled with guests. But coming in to see the guests, he saw there a man not dressed in a wedding garment, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ … hands, and throw him into the outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.” By these words of his the Lord plainly shows all things: that there is one King and Lord of all, the Father, of whom he had said before, “Do not swear by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King”; and that from the beginning he prepared the wedding for his Son, and in his boundless kindness called the earlier people through his servants to the wedding feast; and when they would not obey, he again sent other servants to call them, and even so they did not obey him, but stoned and killed those who announced the invitation. Them he destroyed, sending his armies, and burned their city; but from all the roads, that is, from all the nations, he called guests to the wedding feast of his Son, as he says through Jeremiah also: “I sent to you my servants the prophets, saying, Turn back, each of you, from your most wicked way, and make your deeds better.” And again through the same prophet: “I sent to you,” he says, “all my servants the prophets by day and before dawn, and they did not obey me nor incline their ears. And you shall say this word to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord nor receive discipline; faith has failed from their mouth.” The Lord, then, who has called us from everywhere through the apostles, is the one who called those of old through the prophets, as is shown from the Lord’s words; and the prophets were not from one God and the apostles from another, even though they preached to various nations; but from one and the same God, some announced the Lord, others proclaimed the Father as good news, some foretold the coming of the Son of God, and others proclaimed him already present to those who were far off.

Further, he made it plain that, together with the calling, we must be adorned with works of righteousness, so that the Spirit of God may rest upon us; for this is the wedding garment, of which the apostle too says: “We do not wish to be unclothed but further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by immortality.” But those who have been called to God’s supper and, because of their wicked conduct, have not received the Holy Spirit “will be thrown,” he says, “into the outer darkness.” He shows plainly that the same King who called the faithful from everywhere to the wedding of his Son and gave them the incorruptible banquet orders the man who has no wedding garment, that is, the one who despises it, to be thrown into the outer darkness. For as in the former covenant “he was not pleased with many of them,” so here too “many are called, but few are chosen.” So it is not one God who judges and another Father who calls to salvation; nor one who gives eternal light and another who orders those without the wedding garment to be thrown into the outer darkness. But it is one and the same God, the Father of our Lord, by whom the prophets also were sent: in his boundless kindness he calls the unworthy, but he inspects those who have been called, whether they have a garment fitting and suited to the wedding of his Son, since nothing unfitting or evil pleases him. As the Lord said to the man who had been healed: “See, you have been made well; sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” For he who is good, just, pure, and spotless will tolerate nothing evil, unjust, or abominable in his bridal chamber. This is the Father of our Lord, by whose providence all things stand and by whose command all things are administered; he gives freely to those to whom he should, and according to desert he deals out most justly to the ungrateful, who do not perceive his kindness, as a most just rewarder. And so he says: “Sending his armies he destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” He says “his armies” because all men are God’s: “for the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness, the world and all who dwell in it.” And for this reason the apostle Paul says in the letter to the Romans: “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been ordered by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists God’s ordinance, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good work but to evil. Do you wish not to fear the authority? Do good, and you will have praise from it; for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is God’s servant, an avenger for wrath on the one who does evil. Therefore be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. For this is why you also pay taxes: for they are God’s servants, devoting themselves to this very thing.” So both the Lord and the apostles announce one God the Father, who gave the law, who sent the prophets, who made all things; and for this reason he says, “sending his armies,” because every man, insofar as he is a man, is his handiwork, even if he does not know his God. For he gives being to all, “who makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.”

And not only by what has been said, but also by the parable of the two sons, the younger of whom squandered his property living wantonly with prostitutes, he taught one and the same Father, who did not grant even a kid to the elder son, but for the one who had been lost, his younger son, ordered the fattened calf to be killed and gave him the best robe. And by the parable of the workers sent into the vineyard at different times one and the same Lord is shown: calling some right at the beginning of the making of the world, others after that, others about the middle of the times, others when the times were far advanced, and others again at the end; so that there are many workers, each in their own times, but one householder who calls them together. For the vineyard is one, since righteousness also is one; and the steward is one, for the Spirit of God, who arranges all things, is one; and likewise the wage is one, for all received a denarius each, the image and inscription of the king, the knowledge of the Son of God, which is incorruption. And for this reason he began to pay the wage with the last, because in the last times the Lord was manifested and presented himself to all.

And the tax collector who surpassed the Pharisee in prayer received testimony from the Lord that he was justified rather than the other, not because he worshipped another Father, but because with great humility, without self-exaltation and without boasting, he made confession to the same God. And the parable of the two sons sent into the vineyard, one of whom contradicted his father and afterwards repented, when repentance did him no good, while the other promised to go, promising his father at once, but did not go (since “every man is a liar,” and “to will is at hand, but he does not find how to accomplish it”), shows one and the same Father. And the parable of the fig tree, of which the Lord says, “See, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none” (signifying his coming through the prophets, through whom he came several times seeking from them the fruit of righteousness, which he did not find), openly made it plain also that the fig tree will be cut down for the reason stated. And without a parable the Lord said to Jerusalem: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I wanted to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! See, your house will be left to you desolate.” For what had been said in the parable, “See, for three years I have come seeking fruit,” and again openly, “How often I wanted to gather your children,” will be a lie, unless we understand his coming that took place through the prophets, if indeed he came to them only once, and then for the first time. But since the Word of God who chose the patriarchs is the same, both always visiting them through the prophetic Spirit, and us who have been called together from everywhere by his coming, he said truly, in addition to what had been said: “Many will come from east and west and recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will go into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” If, then, those who believe in him through the preaching of his apostles from east and west will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, sharing the feast with them, one and the same God is shown, who chose the patriarchs, visited the people, and called the nations.