Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
WHAT THE FOLLOWERS OF VALENTINUS SAY. — Let us now look also at the inconsistent teaching of these men — for there are two or three schools among them — how they do not say the same things about the same subjects, but contradict one another both in the names and in the substance of things. For the first of them, coming from what is called the Gnostic heresy and transferring the old teachings into a system of his own, Valentinus defined it thus: there is a certain unnameable Duality, one part of which is called Ineffable, and the other Silence. Then from this Duality a second Duality was put forth, one part of which he calls Father, the other Truth. From this Tetrad, he says, sprang Word and Life, Man and Church. This is the first Ogdoad. And from Word and Life, he says, ten powers were put forth, as we said before; and from Man and Church, twelve — of which one, falling away and being left destitute, made the remaining arrangement of things. He posits two Limits: one between the Depth and the Pleroma, marking off the Aeons that were begotten from the unbegotten Father; the other separating their Mother from the Pleroma. And Christ, he says, was not put forth by the Aeons who are within the Pleroma, but was brought forth outside by the Mother, who had been made external, in accordance with a memory of better things, together with a certain shadow. And this one, being masculine, cut off the shadow from himself and returned into the Pleroma; but the Mother, left behind under the shadow and emptied of spiritual substance, put forth another son. And this is the Demiurge, whom he also calls the omnipotent ruler of the things subject to him. Along with him, he says, a ruler of the left was also put forth, similar to those spoken of elsewhere: at one time he says he was put forth by the one who was separated from their Mother and reunited with the rest, that is, by Thelesis (Will); at another, by the one who ran back up into the Pleroma, that is, by Christ; at another, by Man and Church. And the Holy Spirit, he says, was put forth by Truth for the examination and fruit-bearing of the Aeons, [an apparatus note here reports Tertullian's testimony that Valentinus said Jesus was put forth by the Father, or by the Depth, and passed through Mary as water passes through a tube] entering into them invisibly and more simply, so that through him the Aeons might bring forth the leaves of truth. So much for him. But the second of them handed down the first Ogdoad in this way: he speaks of a right-hand Tetrad and a left-hand Tetrad, and of Light and Darkness; and says that the power which fell away and was left destitute came not from the thirty Aeons but from their fruits.
But another of them, a famous teacher among them, striving to reach something loftier and, as it were, to a greater knowledge, sets before all things a Pre-Beginning, unthinkable and ineffable and unnameable, which I call Onefoldness; and with this Onefoldness there is a power which I also call Oneness. This Oneness and Onefoldness, though they are one, put forth — without putting forth — the beginning of all things, thinkable, unbegotten, and invisible, which reason calls Monad; and with this Monad there is a power of the same substance as itself, which I likewise call One. These powers, then — Onefoldness, Oneness, Monad, and One — put forth the remaining emissions of the Aeons.
"Alas, alas! and woe, woe!" — for it is truly right to speak in tragic style over such men, who under the pretense of a knowledge that surpasses all others invent names of their own devising, and who, without a blush, have coined lies as though they were names. [The apparatus here discusses parallels and manuscript variants at length, noting the passage's difficulty and its relation to other testimonies, without altering the sense of what follows.] For in saying, "before all things there is a Pre-Beginning, unthinkable, which I call Onefoldness," and again, "with this Onefoldness there is a power which I also call Oneness," it is plain that these are fictions of his own making, and he has himself confessed that he has imposed names upon his own fabrication, names given by no one before him. And if he had not dared to do this, the truth, according to him, would to this day have no name. Nothing, therefore, prevents anyone else from likewise inventing names for a similar system, saying: There is a certain regal Pre-Beginning before all things; and with it there is a power which I call Gourd; and with this Gourd there is a power which I also call Utter-Emptiness. This Gourd and Utter-Emptiness, being one, put forth — without putting forth — a fruit, everywhere visible, edible, and sweet, which reason calls Cucumber. And with this Cucumber there is a power of the same rank as itself, which I likewise call Melon. These powers — Gourd, and Utter-Emptiness, and Cucumber, and Melon — put forth all that remains of the crazed melon-crowd belonging to Valentinus. For if it is fitting to carry over into a first Tetrad the same kind of reasoning applied to the universe, and if, as one of these men prefers, a person may simply invent names for himself, who is going to object to using names that are far more believable, ordinary, and familiar to everyone? Others, again, among them have named their first and originating Ogdoad with these names: first, Pre-Beginning; then, Unthinkable; third, Unspeakable; and fourth, Invisible. And from Pre-Beginning, in the first and fifth place, Beginning was put forth; from Unthinkable, in the second and sixth place, Incomprehensible; from Unspeakable, in the third and seventh place, Unnameable; and from Invisible, in the fourth and eighth place, Unbegotten. This is the Pleroma of the first Ogdoad. They wish these powers to have existed before Depth and Silence, so that they might seem more finished than the finished, and more expert in gnosis than the Gnostics themselves; to whom one might justly say: O melons — sophists deserving blame, and no true ones! For concerning Depth itself they say it is nothing at all. Others again call it both male and female, giving it the birth of a hermaphrodite; and some again add Silence to it as a consort, so that it becomes the first conjunction.