Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
PREFACE. In the first book, which precedes this one, we exposed for you, dearest friend, refuting the falsely-named knowledge, that the whole lying doctrine devised by the followers of Valentinus was invented by many contrary methods — even as they expose themselves and each other, and far more so expose themselves before the truth itself. We also gave a careful account of the sorcerer Marcus's opinion, seeing that he too counts among their number, in that they try to bend the writings toward their own concocted fable, picking out passages that suit whatever they please; and we traced in detail how they attempt, and even presume, to build up their 'truth' through arithmetic and through the four-and-twenty letters making up the alphabet. We likewise made plain the teaching of Simon the Samaritan magician, and of all who succeeded him. We also stated the great number of those who from him are called Gnostics, and we noted their differences, their doctrines, and their successions, and set forth all the heresies established out of them. And since all these heretics, taking their beginning from Simon, produced impious and irreligious teachings, we set forth their account of redemption, and how they initiate those who are being brought to perfection — teaching that a single God, the maker of all, exists, and that no further fruit lies beyond this last one, with nothing whatsoever standing over him or coming after.
In this book, however, we shall set forth what is fitting for us and what the time allows, and by great chapters we shall overturn their whole system. For this reason we have given this composition the title: 'The Detection and Overthrow of Their Opinion.' For it is necessary, by pointing out and overturning their visible pairings, to dissolve their hidden pairings, and even their Bythus itself, and to receive proof that it neither ever was, nor is.