Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
HOW THE WHOLE ACCOUNT OF THE SEED IS SHOWN TO BE UNSTABLE. What, again, is their teaching about their seed — conceived by the Mother after the form of the angels who attend the Savior, formless, without shape, and imperfect; then deposited in the Demiurge without his knowing it, so that through him it might, in the soul which was sown by him, receive perfection and form? First it must be said that these angels who attend their Savior are themselves imperfect, shapeless, and formless, since a thing conceived after their likeness turns out to be of the same kind. THE DEPOSITING. Next, that they say the Maker was ignorant both of the descent of the seed into him, and again of the sowing that was afterward made through him into man — this is an idle and empty claim, which can in no way be demonstrated. For how did he remain ignorant of it, if the seed itself possessed some substance and its own quality? But if it had no substance, no quality, and was nothing whatsoever, then it stands to reason he could know nothing of it. For anything possessing a motion and a quality proper to itself — be it heat, or swiftness, or sweetness, or some particular radiance — never goes unnoticed even among men living among men; how much less could such a thing hide from the God who fashioned this entire universe, whose action extends to everything and who is in every respect [aware]? And for this reason it seems to me that the Lord also said: "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account of it in the day of judgment." For all who pour such idle words into the ears of men will stand at the judgment, giving an account of the things they have vainly conjectured and falsely spoken against God — so far do they go as to say that they themselves, on account of the substance of the seed, know the spiritual Pleroma, the inner man showing them the true Father (for they say there is need of instruction in perceptible things suited to the animal nature); while the Maker, receiving this whole seed deposited by the Mother into himself, was, they say, wholly ignorant of it, and had no perception at all of the things pertaining to the Pleroma. AND THAT THE SPIRITUAL [SEED] IS IN HIM. And they say that they themselves are spiritual, because a certain particle of the Father's universal substance was deposited in their soul, this seed being called [a Greek term, garbled in transmission] ... but that he who once received this whole seed from the Mother, and has it in himself, remained merely animal (psychic), and perceived nothing at all of the higher things which they themselves boast of understanding while still on earth — how is this not beyond all irrationality? For to hold that this same seed conferred knowledge and perfection on their own souls, but ignorance on the God who made them, is truly the mark of madmen, and of men utterly bereft of sense. Further, it is quite absurd for them to say that in this depositing the seed is given shape and grows, and is made ready to receive the perfect word. For the admixture of matter — which they say derives its substance from ignorance and defect — will then prove more fitting and useful to it than was their own paternal light, if indeed, as begotten according to the contemplation of that light, it was formless and unshaped, while from this matter it received form, appearance, growth, and perfection. For if the light that comes from the Pleroma was the cause of the spiritual seed having neither form nor appearance nor its own proper magnitude, while this coming down to earth supplied it with all such qualities and carried it through to completeness, then this dwelling here — which they themselves call darkness — will appear far more effective and useful than was their paternal light. And how is it not ridiculous to say that their Mother, on the one hand, was endangered in matter, so that she was nearly suffocated, and would have been corrupted, only somewhat more gently, had she not barely been rescued by the Father — and yet to say that her seed, in this very same matter, grows and is formed and made fit to receive the perfect word, and this while flourishing amid things unlike and unfamiliar to it — just as they themselves claim that earthly things oppose the spiritual, and spiritual things stand opposed to the earthly? How, then, could so slight a thing, dispatched among opposites and strangers to it, as they tell it, manage at once to grow, take shape, and reach completeness? A DEMONSTRATION THAT THERE COULD HAVE BEEN NEITHER CONCEPTION NOR GENERATION OF THE SEED. Further, this too must be asked concerning what has been said: did their mother bring forth the seed all at once, as she saw the angels, or bit by bit? If all at once and at a single time, then what was then conceived is by now no longer an infant — so that her descent to the men who now exist is superfluous. But if bit by bit, then the conception was no longer made according to the likeness of the angels she saw; for having seen and conceived them all together and at once, she ought to have brought forth at once those whose forms she had conceived all at once.
But what of this: that, seeing the angels together with the Savior, she conceived their images, but not that of the Savior, who is more glorious than they? Did she perhaps not take pleasure in him, and for that reason not conceive from him? Again, how is it that the Demiurge, whom they call psychic (animal), possessing his own greatness and form according to their system, was emitted perfect according to his own substance, while the spiritual element — which ought to be more excellent than the animal — was emitted imperfect, and had need to descend into a soul in order to be formed within it, and so, becoming perfect, be made ready to receive the perfect word? If, then, it is formed within earthly men and within animal souls, it is no longer according to the likeness of the angels, whom they call "lights," but according to the likeness of the men who are here. For it will not bear the likeness and form of the angels, but of the souls in which it is formed — just as water, once put into a jar, conforms to the jar's own shape, and should it then freeze there, it keeps the outline of whatever vessel held it while it froze — inasmuch as the souls themselves have the shape of the body, being fitted to that vessel, as we said before. If, then, that seed too coagulates and is formed here, it will have the shape of a man, not the form of angels. How, then, is that seed made after the images of angels, when it is shaped according to the likeness of men? And further, if it was spiritual, what need had it to descend into flesh? For flesh has need of the spiritual, if indeed it is to be saved at all, that it may be sanctified in it, and glorified, and that its mortality may be swallowed up by immortality; but the spiritual has no need at all of the things that are here. For it is not we who make it better, but it that makes us better. Further, the falsity of their teaching about the seed is shown still more plainly, and can be seen by anyone, in this: that they claim souls which have taken seed from the Mother turn out superior to the rest, and are therefore given honor by the Demiurge and set up as rulers, kings, and priests. Were this so, surely Caiaphas the high priest would have been the very first to believe, along with Annas, the remaining chief priests and scribes, the leaders of the people, and King Herod besides. Yet not Caiaphas himself, not any of the chief priests, none of the men in authority, nor the people's notable figures came running to him — it was rather those sitting as beggars along the roads, the deaf, and the blind, and those trodden down and despised by the rest — just as Paul also says: "Behold your calling: not many noble, not many mighty; but the things that were despised in the world, God has chosen" — such souls, then, were not better on account of the deposit of seed, nor were they for that reason honored by the Demiurge. Concerning the weakness, instability, and utter emptiness of their rule, then, what has been said suffices. For it is not necessary, as is commonly said, that one who wishes to learn that the sea's water is salty must drink the whole sea. But just as a statue made of clay, though its surface is colored so that what is really clay might be taken for gold, is revealed as clay by anyone who scratches beneath the coating and so delivers truth-seekers out of a mistaken notion — just so we too have laid out, not some trifling portion, but the main and weightiest points of their system, which bear on their own kinship — namely, with the Savior (to whom, they say, they are akin on account of that same seed). Now observe how clearly the aristocratic character of their Gnosticism shines forth in the contrast that follows. And these are but a few things reported out of many great ones. For just as those who wish to judge whether honey or wine is good in itself... [we have set out] all these things, unraveling the chapters, for everyone who does not wish to be deceived, showing what is wicked, deceitful, seductive, and destructive in the school of those who come from Valentinus and from the rest of the heretics — as many as mistreat the Demiurge, that is, the Maker and Fashioner of this universe, who alone truly exists as God — thereby exposing the dissolvable character of their path. For who that has any sense, and has grasped even a little of the truth, could bear to hear them saying that there is another Father above the Demiurge; and that one is the Only-Begotten, another the Word of God (whom they say was emitted in a state of deficiency); and another Christ, whom they say came into being after the rest of the Aeons, together with the Holy Spirit; and yet another Savior, whom they say was not even put together by the Father of all, but was contributed and assembled by those Aeons who came into being in a state of deficiency, and was necessarily emitted on account of that deficiency? So that, unless the Aeons had been in ignorance and deficiency, according to them neither Christ would ever have been sent forth, nor would the Holy Spirit, nor Horos, nor the Savior, nor would the angels, their Mother, or her offspring, nor the remainder of the world's making — and all these numerous good things would be absent and missing. In this way they show impiety not merely toward the Maker, naming him the offspring of a flaw, but toward Christ and the Holy Spirit, saying that these too were emitted on account of a defect; and likewise the Savior, after the defect. For who could bear the rest of their vain talk, by which, cunningly trying to fit it to parables, they have turned both themselves and those who believe them into the greatest impiety?