The Book of Various Heresies, Chapters 29–43: The Gnostic Schools

After the passion of Christ our Lord and his ascension into heaven, there was a certain Simon the Magician, a Samaritan by origin, from Gitta — a village in Samaria so called. Practicing magical arts, he deceived many, saying that he was a certain power of God which is, he said, above all powers. The Samaritans venerate him as a father and extol him as the founder of their pernicious heresy, and they strive to exalt him with many praises.

Having been baptized by the blessed apostles, he departed from their faith and sowed a wicked and pernicious heresy, saying that he had been transformed in appearance only — that is, as through a shadow — and that he had suffered in this way, though he did not, he said, truly suffer. He also dared to say that the world was made by angels, and that the angels were made by him through certain powers bestowed from heaven, and that they had deceived the human race.

He asserts that a certain other Intellect (Intellectus) descended into the world for the salvation of humanity — that Helena, he says, who is proclaimed in the Trojan War by the most vain of poets. And the powers that had made the world, he says, driven by desire for that Helena, were stirring up strife. For she, he says, arousing desire in those powers and appearing in female form, was unable to ascend into heaven, because the powers that were in heaven did not permit her to ascend. She was waiting for another power — that is, for the arrival of the Magician Simon himself — who would come and save her.

He also asserts by allegory that the wooden horse which the most vain of poets say existed in the Trojan War was the ignorance of all the impious nations — since it is established that that Helena who was with the Magician was a prostitute from Tyre, and that Simon the Magician had followed her, and with her had perpetrated various sorceries and various crimes.

When he fled from the blessed apostle Peter from the city of Jerusalem and came to Rome, and there fought against the blessed apostle before King Nero, he was vanquished on every side by the prayer of the blessed apostle and struck down by an angel, and so he deserved to perish — so that his sorcery and deceit might be made manifest to all people.

After him, a certain man named Menander, who became his disciple, followed his impiety in all things.

After him, a certain Saturninus, himself also taking from there the kindling of his deadly doctrine, asserted that the world was made by angels, and that the angels were distant from that supreme power, and that the world was divided by rank among the angels, and that they had conceived the idea of making a human being.

And so they made a human being, and man was their handiwork, he says. For from the power above, a light had been sent down which illuminated this world and drew the angels to desire it, and immediately it ascended back into heaven. But they, made eager for that light, desired to see its power. Being unable to do so, they said to one another: “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” And when man was made, because he was powerless, he could not be saved.

Therefore the power above, seeing that they had done this, sent a spark (scintilla), which corrected man and raised him up and made him live. They hold, therefore, that the spark is saved, but that all else is given over and abandoned to those powers that made it.

They affirm, moreover, that Christ appeared as a shadow — that he did not take on true human flesh and soul — and that he fulfilled the entire economy of the mystery of the Savior in this manner.

After these came Basilides, who is called by many a heresiarch, because by quoting and speaking about the Law and the Prophets and the Apostles while thinking otherwise, he violated the principles of Christian truth.

When he came to Egypt, he taught, defining thus: from the unbegotten and sole God was born Intellect (Intellectus); from Intellect, the Word (Verbum); from the Word, Sense (Sensus); from Sense, Power (Virtus) and Wisdom (Sapientia); and from Power and Wisdom were made diverse Principalities and Powers and angels. For these angels made a heaven, he says; after them, other angels made another heaven; and thus, some brought forth from others made a third heaven. And in this order, others, he says, made three hundred and sixty-five heavens.

He assigns angelic names to those powers, and being himself devoted to magic, he likewise deceives many ignorant people. He asserts that man was made by angels. He even dares to call the true omnipotent God an angel, and says that he received the Jewish race as his inheritance and led them out of the land of Egypt. This God, therefore, becoming more audacious, was exalted against the other angels, he says, and wishing to hold the others in subjection, he had opposing nations which hostile powers stirred up against him. And therefore diverse nations, he says, rose up against the Jews.

He says that Christ suffered as through a shadow, in appearance only. He also affirms that Simon of Cyrene came to the passion in his place — for he, he says, carried the cross.

He also wickedly permits his followers to live loosely and gives them license to cling to worldly vices. He also forbids people to suffer martyrdom for the name of Christ the Lord, saying: “You do not know what you desire. For Christ did not suffer, he says, nor was he crucified. How then can you confess him crucified, when he was not crucified, and you do not know who actually suffered?”

Let us also consider by what madness Nicolaus the Antiochene, a convert, was deceived. He lived under the apostles and was chosen by them as the seventh deacon, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles. Afterward, departing from them and from sound doctrine, he was overwhelmed by diverse errors and deceits. He was first with the apostles and with the most blessed martyr Stephen. He himself says that there are many powers — from which especially the Gnostics (Gnostici), who think they know something, emerged.

These venerate Barbelo and a certain woman Noria; others among them worship Ialdabaoth, and others a man called Calacaun. They set forth this teaching:

“Before all things,” they say, “there were only darkness and the deep and water, and from these a division was made in the midst, and a spirit separated these elements. Then the darkness, rushing upon the spirit, begot four Aeons (Aeonas), and these four begot four other Aeons.”

This, they say, is right and left — that is, light and darkness. They also say that a certain being lay with that woman and power, from whom were born gods and men and angels and seven spirits of demons. They also add that certain prophets were born from her, one named Speciosus and another Barcaban.

Others, moreover, assert a “gospel of consummation” and vain visions full of deceit, and they claim to see diverse dreams while raving.

Others established a heresy from Judas the betrayer, saying that Judas did a good work in betraying the Savior. “For he,” they say, “became for us the author of all good knowledge (scientia), through whom the heavenly mysteries were revealed to us.”

For the powers in heaven, they say, did not want Christ to suffer, knowing that if he suffered, he would give life to humanity. Knowing this, they say, Judas understood that if Christ suffered he would bring salvation to humanity — and therefore he betrayed the Savior.

This evil assertion of impiety seems to some vain and senseless people to be plausible at times, though it is in all respects contrary and execrable — since the blessed prophet David before him, and the Lord Savior himself, condemned him, and the blessed apostles confirmed the Lord’s judgment against him in their teaching.

After him, one named Carpocrates arose, himself also saying there is one principle, from which principle — that is, from God — emanations (prolationes) of angels and powers were made, he says. Those powers that are below made this visible creation where we dwell, he says.

He says that Christ was not born of the Virgin Mary and the divine Spirit, but considers him a man born from the seed of Joseph, and supposes him born in the flesh just like all other men.

After his passion, he says, Christ was found to be superior among the Jews in the integrity and conduct of his life. They proclaim that his soul was received into heaven, but consider that his flesh was left on the earth. They believe that salvation belongs to the soul alone, and that salvation of the flesh does not occur.

Cerinthus succeeded to this error and to the likeness of its vanity, teaching about the generation of the Savior and about the creation of angels in no way disagreeing with Carpocrates, except that he consents to the Law only in part — accepting that it was given by God — and considers the God of the Jews to be the one who gave the Law to the children of Israel.

He teaches circumcision and sabbath observance, and says that Christ has not yet risen from the dead but announces that he will rise. He does not accept the blessed apostle Paul. He honors Judas the betrayer. He accepts only the Gospel according to Matthew and spurns the three other Gospels. He rejects the Acts of the Apostles. He blasphemes the blessed martyrs.

Under the blessed apostles he stirred up a controversy, saying that men ought to be circumcised — on account of which, against him and his heresy, the blessed apostles decreed the judgment in their Acts: that people coming from the gentiles who believed in Christ our Lord and Savior should no longer be required to obey Judaism — that is, circumcision and other such vain superstitions of the flesh.

Ebion, the disciple of Cerinthus, erring similarly in many things, considered our Savior a mere man born in the flesh from Joseph, and taught that there was nothing of divinity in him. He asserted that Christ had the grace of God just as all the prophets did, yet he did not believe him to be the God of majesty and the Son of God the Father, coeternal with the Father — though the divine scriptures everywhere testify and proclaim him to be the eternal God with the true and eternal Father.

After him a certain Valentinus arose, more Pythagorean than Christian, belching forth a vain and pernicious doctrine and preaching what was essentially arithmetic — that is, a most deceitful science of numbers — and he captivated the souls of many ignorant people. At first, indeed, he was in the Church. But having become too proud, he was afterward deceived by no small error, and while living in the province of Cyprus he began to define his system thus:

“There was nothing else before in the world,” he says, “except the Deep (Profundum) and Silence (Silentium), which the vain poets assert as Chaos. From this Deep and Silence proceeded Intellect (Intellectus) and Truth (Veritas); from Intellect and Truth, the Word (Verbum) and Life (Vita); from the Word and Life, Man (Homo) and Church (Ecclesia). From Man and Church proceeded twelve Aeons — that is, Ages; from the Word and Life proceeded ten Aeons; from Intellect and Truth, eight Aeons. And this is the Triacontad of Ages — that is, the thirty Aeons of Aeons.”

From the Ogdoad, therefore, and the Decad and the Dodecad, he raves that the thirty Aeons consist.

He says that Christ was sent by the Father — whom he calls by the name Deep (Profundum) — for the salvation of the whole world, and that he brought flesh down from heaven and took nothing from the holy Virgin, but passed through her, he affirms, as water through a channel. He holds that the soul alone is saved, but that the body of man is not saved.

There are other successors of his: Ptolemaeus, who likewise introduced a vain doctrine, saying that there are four Aeons and another four — wishing to decree something new of false invention beyond what his teacher Valentinus had fabricated.

After him, a certain Secundus, likewise teaching about the Aeons, asserts that infinite ones were made. He suspects that Christ appeared to the human race as through a phantasm — that is, as a shadow — and that he did not have true human flesh.

After him, his disciple Heracleon arose, saying that there is one principle, which he calls God; then from this, another was born; and from these two he asserts the generation of many principles — raving likewise with his teachers.

After him, a certain Marcus, his successor, devising a system of number and measure and reckoning, and even a method of computing by letters — as if something plausible and the invention of some new thing, though he supposed he could win praise from certain people — fell into no small madness of error.

For he says thus: “There are twenty-four letters, which hold the perfection of all things. On account of which Christ also said: ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega.’” He also said that in the last time Christ descended upon Jesus in the figure and likeness of a dove, and he taught that Christ himself was the dove which descended, he says, to the twelve Aeons — that is, to the twelve apostles — and he believed that one of them had fallen: that is, Judas.

He says that Christ appeared in appearance only and suffered as through a shadow, yet he does not believe that he truly suffered in the body.

After him, Colorbasus, who similarly asserted that the life and birth of all people consist in letters and the number of the seven elements and the stars, did not perceive that the true salvation of humanity is to be hoped for in the majesty and power of Christ, and in his bodily presence.