Against Heresies: Book II
Chapter 10: Misinterpretations of Scripture by Heretics: God Created Everything from Nothing, Not from Pre-existing Matter
It is therefore extremely irrational that we should ignore Him who is truly God and acknowledged by all, while we question whether there is above Him another being who really does not exist and has never been proclaimed by anyone. For they themselves provide evidence that nothing has been clearly stated about Him; since they unsuccessfully attribute to the being they imagined those parables of Scripture which, no matter how they have been spoken, are sought after for this purpose, it is clear that they are now creating another god who was never sought after before. By attempting to explain ambiguous passages of Scripture—not ambiguous as if referring to another god, but regarding the plans of the true God—they have constructed another god, as I mentioned earlier, by building ropes of sand and attaching greater importance to a lesser matter. For no question can be solved by another that itself is unsolved; nor, to sensible people, can an ambiguity be explained by another ambiguity or riddles by a greater riddle. Such matters are resolved by what is manifest, consistent, and clear.
These heretics, while attempting to explain passages of Scripture and parables, raise another, more significant and indeed impious question: "Is there truly another god above the God who created the world?" They do not genuinely solve the questions they propose; how could they, really? Instead, they attach a complex question to one of less importance, introducing an unsolvable dilemma into their speculations. In their pursuit to understand "knowledge" itself (without recognizing the fact that the Lord, at thirty years old, went to the baptism of truth), they irreverently reject the God who was the Creator and who sent Him for the salvation of humanity. In their attempt to appear informed about the origin of matter, they deny that God, according to His will and power, created everything from nothing. Consequently, they have amassed a collection of pointless arguments. They reveal their disbelief, not trusting in what truly exists, and have strayed into belief in what has no real existence.
When they tell us that all moist substances came from the tears of Achamoth, all bright substances from her smile, all solid substances from her sadness, and all moving substances from her terror, claiming that they have superior knowledge because of this—how can these ideas not be seen as contemptible and truly ridiculous? They do not believe that God, being powerful and rich in every resource, created matter itself, because they do not understand how much a spiritual and divine essence can achieve. Yet, they believe that their Mother, whom they describe as a female from a female, produced the vast material substance of creation from the emotions mentioned earlier. They ask where the Creator got the material for creation from, but they do not question where their Mother (whom they call the Enthymesis and impulse of the Æon that went astray) obtained such an abundance of tears, perspiration, sadness, or what produced the rest of the matter.
To attribute the substance of created things to the power and will of Him who is God of all is worthy of both trust and acceptance. It is also reasonable, and one could well say about such a belief that “the things which are impossible for people are possible with God.” While people cannot create anything out of nothing, but only from matter that already exists, God is exceptionally superior to people in this way: He Himself brought into being the substance of His creation when it did not exist before. But the claim that matter was produced from the Enthymesis of an Æon going astray, and that the Æon was far removed from her Enthymesis, and that her passion and feeling, separate from herself, became matter, is unbelievable, foolish, impossible, and unsupportable.