Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
A DEMONSTRATION THAT HE IS NOT IGNORANT OF ANYTHING OUTSIDE THE PLEROMA. 1. It is good, then, to begin from the first and greatest chapter — from the Demiurge, the God who made heaven and earth and all things in them, whom these men blasphemously call the 'fruit of the outermost region' — and to show that nothing stands over him and nothing succeeds him; that no one else set him in motion, but by his own resolve and freely made all things, since he alone is God, and alone Lord, and alone Creator, and alone Father, and alone contains all things, and himself supplies existence to all.
For how could there be, above this God, another fullness, or a beginning, or a power, or another God — since it belongs to God to encompass all these things within his immensity, and to be encompassed by none? But if there is something outside him, then he is no longer the Pleroma of all things, nor does he contain all things. For that God who is above all will then lack that which they say is outside him. And what is lacking, and has been diminished by something, is not the fullness of all things. Such a God will also have a boundary, a middle point, and a limit in relation to the things that are outside him. And if there is a limit toward the things below, there is also a beginning toward the things above. In the same way, and by the same necessity, this must hold true for the remaining parts as well — that each be bounded, defined, and enclosed by whatever lies outside it. For that which forms the boundary below necessarily circumscribes and encloses whatever is bounded within it. And again, according to them, the Father of all — whom indeed they also call the Pre-Existent and the Pre-Beginning — together with their Pleroma, and Marcion's good God as well, is founded, shut up within some region, and encompassed from outside by another sovereignty, which of necessity must be greater; for whatever encloses something is by that very fact greater than what lies enclosed within it, and the greater thing is also mightier and more properly lord, and whatever is greater, mightier, and more properly lord — that will be God.
For since, according to them, there is also something else which they say is outside the Pleroma — into which they suppose the higher, erring power descended — then of necessity one of two things must be true. Either the Pleroma contains what is outside it, so that what they call 'outside the Pleroma' is really within it, and God himself is encompassed by what is outside him — for where this 'outside' begins, God ends; and if he is bounded, he is not immense, but is measured and encompassed by something else greater than he, and this very thing they say is outside the Pleroma will itself turn out to be the Pleroma, and their Pleroma (within which the first God himself must then be understood to be) will be contained by what is outside it. Or else, on the other hand, the Pleroma and what is outside it are separated from one another by an immense distance. But if they say this, then there will be some third thing which separates the Pleroma and what is outside it by that immense distance, and this third thing will bound and contain them both, and will itself be greater than both the Pleroma and what is outside it, containing both within its own bosom — and the argument concerning what contains and what is contained will run on into infinity. For if this third thing has a beginning above and an end below, it too will of necessity be bounded on its sides, either beginning or ending at yet other things; and those things in turn, both the ones above and the ones below, will have their beginnings in still other things, and so on into infinity — so that their reasoning never comes to rest in one God, but constantly, in seeking for something beyond what exists, falls away into what does not exist, and departs from the true God.
These same arguments tell equally against Marcion's disciples. For his pair of deities, likewise, will be enclosed and bounded by the vast gap that keeps them apart from each other. And so it becomes necessary to imagine, throughout every part, many gods separated by immense distances, each beginning where another leaves off and ending where another begins; and by the very reasoning with which they strive to teach that above the maker of heaven and earth there is some Pleroma or God, anyone, using that same reasoning, will build above that Pleroma yet another Pleroma, and above that again another, and above the Depth yet another sea of Deity, and likewise on every side the same thing will hold. And so, as their notion runs off into infinity, it will of necessity never come to rest, but will always go on seeking other beings besides those already named. And it will remain uncertain whether the things that are, according to us, below are really the ones that are above, and whether what they call 'above' is really above or below; and no fixed standing or stability will hold our understanding, but we shall be forced to pass out into immense worlds and undetermined gods.
And since this is so, each god will be content with what is his own, and will not busy himself curiously with what belongs to another; otherwise he would be unjust and grasping, and would cease to be what a god is. And each created thing will give praise to whoever fashioned it, and will find its satisfaction in him alone, and will know none besides; otherwise, most justly judged an apostate by all, it would receive a most fitting punishment. For it is necessary either that there be one who contains all things and made each of the things that were made within his own domain just as he willed, or else that there be many indeterminate makers and gods, each beginning where another ends, throughout every region — all of them enclosed from outside by some other, greater being, so that each of them must be confessed to be shut in and confined within his own limits, and none of all these to be God. For each of them, holding only the smallest fraction in comparison with all the rest, will lack something, and the title 'Almighty' will be dissolved, and such a notion will of necessity fall into impiety.