Against Heresies: Book III

SOME SAY THAT JESUS MERELY SERVED AS A VESSEL FOR CHRIST: upon whom Christ, as a dove, descended from above. They claim that after He declared the unnameable Father, He entered the Pleroma in a way that was incomprehensible and invisible, not understood by humans or even by the heavenly powers and virtues. They say Jesus was the Son, but Christ was the Father, and the Father of Christ was God. Others argue that He only appeared to suffer, as He was naturally incapable of suffering.

The Valentinians assert that the Jesus of the earthly realm was the same one who came through Mary, upon whom a Savior from a higher region descended, also called Pan, because He had all the names of those who produced Him. This Savior shared His power and name with the earthly Jesus so that death was abolished, and the Father was revealed by the Savior who descended from above. They claim He was Himself the vessel of Christ and the entire Pleroma, confessing one Christ Jesus in words, but being divided in actual beliefs.

As noted before, they say there was one Christ created by Monogenes for affirming the Pleroma, another Savior sent for glorifying the Father, and yet another, the earthly one, who they claim suffered and also carried within Himself Christ, the Savior who returned to the Pleroma. I find it necessary to consider the complete perspective of the apostles regarding our Lord Jesus Christ and show that they never held any such views about Him.

Furthermore, they declared through the Holy Spirit that those who teach such doctrines were agents of Satan, sent to undermine the faith of some and lead them away from life.

JOHN UNDERSTOOD THAT THE WORD OF GOD IS ONE AND THE SAME: and that He is the only begotten and became incarnate for our salvation, Jesus Christ our Lord. I have sufficiently demonstrated this from John's own words. Matthew also acknowledges the same Jesus Christ, showing His birth as a man from the Virgin, just as God promised David that He would bring forth from his lineage an eternal King, having previously made the same promise to Abraham. He states: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." Then, to dispel any doubts about Joseph, he says: "But the birth of Christ happened in this way.

When His mother was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Ghost." When Joseph considered divorcing Mary because she was pregnant, Matthew tells us about the angel of God appearing to him, saying: "Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Ghost. She will give birth to a son, and you shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

This took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which means God with us." This clearly signifies that the promise made to the forefathers was fulfilled, that the Son of God was born of a virgin, and that He Himself was the Christ the Savior whom the prophets had foretold. It counters the claims of those who say that Jesus was merely the one born of Mary and that Christ descended from above.

Matthew might have said, "Now the birth of Jesus was in this way;" but the Holy Ghost, anticipating and guarding against false interpretations, states through Matthew, "But the birth of Christ was in this way;" and asserts that He is Emmanuel, to prevent us from seeing Him as just a man. For, "not by the will of the flesh nor by the will of man, but by the will of God was the Word made flesh;" and so that we would not separate Jesus from Christ, but understand them to be one and the same.

PAUL: in his letter to the Romans, explains: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, chosen for the Gospel of God, which He promised through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born from the lineage of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power through the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead of our Lord Jesus Christ." And again, writing to the Romans about Israel, he states: "Whose are the fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever." In his letter to the Galatians, he says: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption;" clearly indicating one God, who through the prophets promised the Son, and one Jesus Christ our Lord, who was of the lineage of David according to His birth from Mary; and that Jesus Christ was appointed the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, as the firstborn of all creation; the Son of God becoming the Son of man, so that through Him we may receive adoption—humanity supporting, receiving, and embracing the Son of God.

Therefore, Mark also says: "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; as it is written in the prophets." Knowing one and the same Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was foretold by the prophets, who was Emmanuel from the offspring of David, "the messenger of great counsel of the Father;" through whom God caused the dawn and the Just One to rise for the house of David, and raised up a horn of salvation for him, "and established a testimony in Jacob;" as David speaks on the reasons for His birth: "And He established a law in Israel, that another generation might know [Him,] the children to be born, and they rising up shall declare to their children, so that they might set their hope in God, and seek His commandments." And again, the angel said, bringing good news to Mary: "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord shall give Him the throne of His father David;" acknowledging that He who is the Son of the Most High is also the Son of David.

And David, knowing by the Spirit the plan of the arrival of this Person, by which He is supreme over all the living and the dead, confessed Him as Lord, sitting at the right hand of the Most High Father.

4.

But Simeon also—who had received a message from the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen Christ Jesus—took Him, the firstborn of the Virgin, into his arms, blessed God, and said, “Lord, now let Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word: because my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the sight of all people; a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel;” acknowledging that the child he held in his arms, Jesus, born of Mary, was indeed Christ Himself, the Son of God, the light for all, the glory of Israel, and the peace and rest for those who have passed away.

FOR HE WAS ALREADY FREEING PEOPLE BY REMOVING THEIR IGNORANCE: giving them His own knowledge, and spreading those who recognized Him, as Isaiah says: “Call His name, Speedy to the spoil, Quick to the plunder.” These are the works of Christ.

Therefore, He was indeed Christ, whom Simeon held and blessed the Most High; whom the shepherds saw and praised God for; whom John, while still in his mother’s womb and Christ in Mary’s, recognized as the Lord and greeted with joy; whom the Magi, upon seeing, worshipped, offered gifts to, as I have mentioned, and paid homage to the eternal King, departing by another route, avoiding the way of the Assyrians. “For before the child knows how to call for father or mother, He will take the riches of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, against the king of the Assyrians;” revealing in a mysterious but definite way that the Lord fought with an unseen hand against Amalek.

For this reason, He unexpectedly took those children of the house of David, blessed to have been born at that time, so that He could send them ahead into His kingdom; He, being an infant Himself, arranged it such that human infants became martyrs, killed according to the Scriptures, for the sake of Christ, who was born in Bethlehem of Judah, in the city of David.

THEREFORE: the Lord also told His disciples after the resurrection, “O thoughtless ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Should not Christ have suffered these things and entered into His glory?” And He also said to them: “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me.” Then He opened their understanding so they could understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “This is what is written: Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name among all nations.” This is He who was born of Mary; for He says: “The Son of man must suffer many things, be rejected, crucified, and on the third day rise again.” The Gospel, therefore, recognized no other son of man but Him who was of Mary, who also suffered; and no Christ who left Jesus before the passion; but acknowledged Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as Him who was born, suffered, and rose again, as John, the disciple of the Lord, confirms, saying: “But these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have eternal life in His name,”—foreseeing these blasphemous beliefs which try to divide the Lord, as much as they can, by saying He was made of two different substances.

For this reason, he also testified to us in his Epistle: “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, now many antichrists have appeared; by this we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but they left, that they might be made clear that they are not of us.

Know, therefore, that every lie is from outside, and is not of the truth. Who is a liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist.”

BUT BECAUSE ALL THOSE PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED: though they certainly confess one Jesus Christ with their tongue, contradict themselves by thinking one thing and saying another; for their ideas vary, as I have already shown, claiming that one Being was born and suffered, and that this was Jesus; but that another descended upon Him, and this was Christ, who also ascended again. They argue that the one who came from the Demiurge, or the one who was part of the dispensation, or the one who was from Joseph, was the Being who suffered; but upon this one descended the former from the invisible and ineffable places, whom they claim to be incomprehensible, invisible, and unable to suffer.

They stray from the truth because their doctrine deviates from Him who is truly God, being ignorant that His only-begotten Word, who is always present with humanity, united to and mingled with His own creation according to the Father’s will, became flesh and is Jesus Christ our Lord. He also suffered for us, rose again on our behalf, and will come again in the glory of His Father, to raise all flesh and to reveal salvation, applying the rule of just judgment to all made by Him.

Therefore, as I have indicated, there is one God the Father and one Christ Jesus, who came through the entire dispensation connected with Him, and gathered all things in Himself. In every aspect, He is also man, the formation of God, and thus He incorporated man into Himself: the invisible becoming visible, the incomprehensible becoming comprehensible, the impassible capable of suffering, and the Word becoming man, thereby summing up all things in Himself. So that, as in super-celestial, spiritual, and invisible matters, the Word of God is supreme, so also in visible and physical things He might hold supremacy.

By taking the pre-eminence and constituting Himself as the Head of the Church, He might draw all things to Himself at the proper time.

WITH HIM: nothing is incomplete or untimely, just as with the Father, nothing is out of place. All these things were foreknown by the Father; but the Son carries them out at the proper time in perfect order and sequence. This is why, when Mary urged Him to perform the miracle of the wine and wanted to partake of the cup of symbolic significance before its time, the Lord, restraining her premature eagerness, said, “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come”—waiting for that hour foreknown by the Father.

This is also why, when people often wanted to seize Him, it is said, “No one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come;” nor had the time of His suffering, which was foreknown by the Father; as the prophet Habakkuk also says, “By this, You shall be known when the years have drawn near; You shall be revealed when the time comes; because my soul is troubled by anger, You will remember Your mercy.” Paul also says: “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son.” This shows that all things foreknown by the Father were accomplished by our Lord in their proper order, time, and season, foreknown and fitting, being indeed one and the same, but rich and great.

He fulfills the generous and comprehensive will of His Father, as He is Himself the Savior of those who are saved, and the Lord of those under authority, and the God of all things that have been made, the only-begotten of the Father, Christ who was announced, and the Word of God, who became incarnate when the fullness of time had come, at which the Son of God had to become the Son of man.

8.

THEREFORE: all are outside of the [Christian] faith who, under the pretense of knowledge, believe that Jesus was one, Christ another, and the Only-begotten yet another, from whom comes the Word, and that the Savior is another, which these followers of error claim to be a creation of those who became Æons in a state of corruption. Such individuals appear outwardly as sheep; they seem like us by their public speech, repeating the same words as we do, but inwardly they are wolves.

Their doctrine is deadly, conjuring up multiple gods and simulating many Fathers, yet diminishing and dividing the Son of God in various ways. These are the ones against whom the Lord has warned us; and His disciple, in the previously mentioned Epistle, instructs us to avoid them, stating: "For many deceivers have entered into the world, who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Be careful, so that you do not lose what you have worked for." And he further says in the Epistle: "Many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that separates Jesus Christ is not of God, but is of antichrist." These words agree with what was stated in the Gospel, that "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Therefore, he again declares in his Epistle, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God;" acknowledging that Jesus Christ is one and the same, to whom the gates of heaven were opened because He took on flesh: who will also come in the same flesh in which He suffered, revealing the glory of the Father.

IN AGREEMENT WITH THESE STATEMENTS: Paul, speaking to the Romans, declares: "Much more those who receive an abundance of grace and righteousness for [eternal] life will reign through one, Christ Jesus." It follows from this that he knew nothing of that Christ who fled from Jesus, nor of the Savior above, whom they claim to be incapable of suffering. For if one truly suffered and the other remained incapable of suffering, and if one was born while the other descended upon him who was born and then left him again, it is not one but two who are shown.

However, the apostle did know Him as one, both who was born and who suffered, namely Christ Jesus, as he again says in the same Epistle: "Do you not know that many of us who were baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? So that, like Christ rose from the dead, we should also walk in newness of life." Again, showing that Christ did suffer and was Himself the Son of God, who died for us and redeemed us with His blood at the appointed time, he says: "For how is it that Christ, when we were yet without strength, died at the right time for the ungodly? But God shows His love towards us, in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more, then, now being justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." He declares in the clearest manner that the same Being who was captured, suffered, and shed His blood for us was both Christ and the Son of God, who also rose again and was taken up into heaven, as he himself [Paul] says, "But at the same time, it is Christ that died, indeed rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God." And again, "Knowing that Christ, rising from the dead, dies no more," for, as he himself foresees, through the Spirit, the divisions of false teachers regarding the Lord's person, and desires to remove from them any opportunity for argument, he says what has already been stated, and also declares: "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies." He does not say this only to those who wish to hear: Do not be mistaken, he says to all: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is one and the same, who by suffering reconciled us to God and rose from the dead; who is at the right hand of the Father and perfect in all things; "who, when He was struck, did not retaliate; who, when He suffered, did not threaten;" and when He underwent tyranny, He prayed to His Father that He would forgive those who had crucified Him.

For He did indeed bring salvation, as He is Himself the Word of God, Himself the Only-begotten of the Father, Christ Jesus our Lord.