Against Heresies: Book II

WHILE THE DEMIURGE WAS IGNORANT OF EVERYTHING: they say the Saviour honored the Pleroma by creating [through his Mother] things that were like images of what is above.

However, I have already shown that nothing can exist beyond the Pleroma (where they claim these images were made of things within the Pleroma), and that this world was formed only by the Supreme God. It is satisfying to refute them in every way and prove them to be false; let us argue against them by saying that if these things were made by the Saviour to honor those above, resembling them, they ought to last, and those things which have been honored should always remain honored.

But if they indeed fade away, what is the use of such a brief period of honor—an honor that once did not exist and will again become nothing? In that case, I shall demonstrate that the Saviour seeks vainglory rather than truly honoring those things above. How can temporary things honor those that are eternal and everlasting? Or things that disappear honor those that remain? Or corruptible things honor incorruptible ones?—even among mortals, there is no value attached to honor that quickly fades, only to that which lasts as long as possible.

Things that end as soon as they are made can be said to have been made more to show contempt for those believed to be honored by them, and the eternal is insulted when its image is corrupted and dissolved.

But what if their Mother had not wept, laughed, or fallen into despair? Then the Saviour would not have had any means to honor the Fulness, as her final state of confusion did not have its own substance to honor the Propator.

ALAS FOR THE HONOR OF VAIN GLORY: which quickly passes and is no longer seen! There will come a time when such honor will not even be thought to have existed, leading to a disregard for the things above; or it will be necessary to bring forth another Mother, weeping and in despair, to honor the Pleroma. What a dissimilar and blasphemous image! Are you telling me that an image of the Only-begotten was created by the creator of the world, whom you want to consider as the Mind of the Father of all, yet you claim that this image was ignorant of itself, ignorant of creation, ignorant of the Mother, ignorant of everything that exists, and of those things made by it? Are you not ashamed to attribute such ignorance even to the Only-begotten Himself? For if the things below were made by the Saviour after the likeness of those above, and He, who was made in such a likeness, was in great ignorance, it necessarily follows that ignorance of that kind spiritually exists around Him and in accordance with Him, after whose likeness the ignorant one was formed.

It is not possible, since both were created spiritually and neither fashioned nor composed, that in some cases the likeness was preserved while in others the image's likeness was spoiled, the image that was produced here to be according to the image of the creation above.

But if it is not similar, the blame will then be on the Saviour for producing a dissimilar image, as if He were an incompetent workman. It is out of their power to claim that the Saviour lacked the ability to create, since they call Him All Things.

If, then, the image is dissimilar, He is a poor workman, and the blame, according to their hypothesis, lies with the Saviour.

On the other hand, if it is similar, then the same ignorance will be found in the Mind of their Propator, that is, in the Only-begotten. In that case, the Mind of the Father was unaware of Himself, unaware of the Father, and unaware of those very things formed by Him.

But if He has knowledge, it necessarily follows that he who was formed in His likeness by the Saviour should know the things which are similar; thus, according to their own principles, their monstrous blasphemy is overthrown.

MOREOVER: how can the things in creation—so varied, numerous, and diverse—be images of the thirty Æons within the Pleroma, whose names I've listed in the previous book? They will not only fail to match the immense variety of creation with the relatively small size of their Pleroma, but they can't even do this for any specific part of it, whether dealing with celestial, terrestrial, or aquatic beings. They themselves claim that their Pleroma consists of thirty Æons; yet anyone can demonstrate that, within any given category of these created beings, there are not just thirty but many thousands of species.

How, then, can these complex creations—so different in nature from each other, often in conflict and mutually destructive—be images of the thirty Æons of the Pleroma? Especially when, as they claim, these Æons are of one nature, with equal and similar characteristics and no differences among themselves? If these things are supposed to be images of the Æons, and given their assertion that some people are inherently wicked and others inherently good, they should also highlight such differences among their Æons.

They ought to argue that some Æons were naturally good and others naturally evil, to support the idea of a likeness between those beings and the Æons.

Furthermore, since the world contains creatures that are gentle or fierce, harmless or harmful, dwelling on land, in water, in the air, or in heaven, they are obligated to show that the Æons have such properties if the Æons are indeed their images.

Additionally, they should identify which of these Æons is represented by "the eternal fire which the Father has prepared for the devil and his angels," since it is also considered a part of creation.

4. If, however, they claim that these things are the images of the Enthymesis of that Æon who fell into passion, then, first of all, they will act impiously against their Mother by declaring her to be the primary cause of evil and corruptible images. Furthermore, how can things that are varied, dissimilar, and contrary in nature be the images of one and the same Being? And if they say that the angels of the Pleroma are numerous, and that these many things are their images, then their explanation will not be satisfactory either. First, they must identify differences among the angels of the Pleroma that are opposed to each other, just as the images below are of a contrary nature among themselves. Moreover, since there are many, indeed, innumerable angels who surround the Creator, as all the prophets acknowledge—saying, for instance, “Ten thousand times ten thousand stood beside Him, and many thousands of thousands served Him”—then, according to them, the angels of the Pleroma will have the angels of the Creator as their images, and the entire creation remains in the image of the Pleroma, but in such a way that the thirty Æons no longer correspond to the varied complexity of creation.

IF THESE THINGS BELOW WERE MADE TO RESEMBLE THOSE ABOVE: then in what likeness will they be made next? For if the Creator of the world did not directly form these things from His own ideas, but instead, like a beginner architect or a student learning for the first time, copied them from blueprints provided by others, then where did their Bythus obtain the forms of the original creation? It logically follows that He must have received the model from someone else above Him, and that one from another, and so on. Nonetheless, this endless talk about images, like about gods, will continue indefinitely unless we focus our attention on one Artificer and one God, who by Himself formed the things that have been created. Or is it really the case that when it comes to mere humans, we accept that they have invented what is useful for life on their own, but we do not grant that God, who formed the world, created the forms of what has been made and gave it an orderly arrangement on His own?

BUT: again, how can these things below be images of those above, since they are really contrary to them and cannot sympathize with them in any way? For things that are contrary to each other might indeed destroy those to which they are opposed but cannot be their images—for example, water and fire, or light and darkness, and other such things, can never be images of one another. Similarly, things that are corruptible, earthly, compounded, and transitory cannot be the images of those that are, according to these people, spiritual, unless these spiritual things themselves are allowed to be compound, limited in space, and of a definite shape, thus no longer spiritual, but diffused, spreading into vast extents, and incomprehensible. For they must necessarily have a definite figure and be confined within certain limits to be true images, and then it is determined that they are not spiritual. However, if these people claim that they are spiritual, diffused, and incomprehensible, how can things that have a figure and are confined within certain limits be the images of those that are without figure and incomprehensible?

IF: again, they claim that the things above are not images of these below through shape or form, but through number and the order of their creation, then, first of all, these things below should not be called images and likenesses of those Æons above. For how can things that have neither the shape nor form of those above be their images? Furthermore, they would align both the numbers and creations of the Æons above to make them identical and similar to those of the creation below. But now, since they refer to only thirty Æons and assert that the vast multitude of things within creation below are images of only those thirty, we can rightly judge them as completely lacking in sense.