Against Heresies: Book I

CERDO ADOPTED HIS SYSTEM FROM THE FOLLOWERS OF SIMON AND CAME TO LIVE IN ROME DURING THE TIME OF HYGINUS: who was the ninth bishop in succession after the apostles. He taught that the God revealed by the law and the prophets was not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The God of the law and prophets was known, while the Father was unknown; the former was righteous, but the latter was benevolent.

MARCION OF PONTUS SUCCEEDED HIM AND DEVELOPED HIS DOCTRINE: In doing so, he advanced the most daring blasphemy against Him who is proclaimed as God by the law and the prophets, claiming Him to be the author of evils, to delight in war, to be weak in purpose, and even to contradict Himself. But Jesus, being from that Father who is above the God that made the world, and coming into Judea during the time of Pontius Pilate, who was the governor under Tiberius Caesar, appeared in human form to those in Judea, abolishing the prophets and the law, and all the works of that God who made the world, whom he also calls Cosmocrator. Furthermore, he alters the Gospel according to Luke, removing all that is written about the Lord's birth and discarding much of the Lord's teaching, in which the Lord clearly admits that the Maker of this universe is His Father. He also convinced his followers that he was more credible than the apostles who handed down the Gospel to us, giving them not the whole Gospel, but only a piece of it. Similarly, he altered the Epistles of Paul, removing all references by the apostle to the God who made the world, indicating that He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as those passages from the prophetic writings which the apostle cites to show that they foretold the coming of the Lord.

SALVATION WILL BE ATTAINED ONLY BY THOSE SOULS THAT HAVE LEARNED HIS DOCTRINE: while the body, being made from the earth, cannot share in salvation. In addition to his blasphemy against God Himself, he also promoted this idea, truly speaking with the devil's voice and saying everything in direct contradiction to the truth—that Cain, and those like him, the Sodomites, the Egyptians, and others like them, and all the nations who lived in all kinds of abomination, were saved by the Lord when He descended into Hades and they went to Him, welcoming Him into their kingdom. But the serpent in Marcion declared that Abel, Enoch, Noah, those other righteous men who descended from the patriarch Abraham, along with all the prophets and those who were pleasing to God, did not partake in salvation. For he said that since these men knew their God was constantly tempting them, they now suspected that He was tempting them and did not go to Jesus or believe His proclamation, and for this reason, he declared that their souls remained in Hades.

BUT SINCE THIS MAN IS THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS DARED OPENLY TO MUTILATE THE SCRIPTURES AND: more boldly than others, to speak against God, I intend specifically to refute him, using his own writings to convict him. With the help of God, I will overthrow him using the teachings of the Lord and the apostles, which he considers authoritative and uses himself. For now, however, I mention him so you may know that all those who corrupt the truth and harm the preaching of the Church are followers and successors of Simon Magus of Samaria. Although they do not acknowledge their master’s name in order to deceive others more effectively, they still teach his doctrines. They present the name of Christ Jesus as a sort of lure, but in various ways, they introduce the impieties of Simon. By doing so, they destroy many, wickedly spreading their doctrines under a good name and, using its sweetness and beauty, extend to their listeners the bitter and harmful poison of the serpent, the great author of apostasy.