§ 1.
Again, in reply to the Valentinians and the other Gnostics falsely so called, who say sometimes, that certain of the statements of Scripture are uttered from the Highest place, because of the seed which is from thence; sometimes again from the middle space, because of the bold mother Prunica; many again from the Maker of the world, by whom also the Prophets were sent:—we say that it is very irrational to reduce the Father of all to so great poverty, as though He had not instruments of His own, whereby the things in the Pleroma might be set forth in their genuineness. For whom did He fear, that He should not peculiarly and distinctly make known His own will, freely and without admixture of that spirit, who has his beginning in decay and ignorance? Was He afraid lest very many should be saved, as more came to hear uncorruptly all parts of the truth? Or again had He no power in His own person to provide for Himself such as should announce the coming of the Saviour?
§ 2.
Whereas if the Saviour on His coming hither sent His Apostles into the world, purely setting forth His Advent, and teaching the Father’s will, in nothing partaking of the doctrine either of Gentiles or Jews; much more, while He was in the Pleroma, would He have marked out preachers of His own, announcing His future coming into this world, having nought to do with those Prophecies which are of the Demiurge. If on the other hand, when He was within the Pleroma, He employed the Prophets who belonged to the Law, and by them revealed the things which belong to Himself: much more, after He had come hither, would He have employed the same Teachers, and by them declared the Gospel to us. Here then they must needs affirm, that the Truth was not announced by Peter and Paul and the other Apostles, but by the Scribes and Pharisees and the rest, by whom the Law was set forth. But if at His coming He sent forth His own proper Apostles, in the Spirit of Truth, and not in the spirit of Error, this very same thing He did also in the Prophets; for the Word of God is always the very same. And if there was really a spirit from the highest place, according to their rule;—a spirit of light, and a spirit of truth, and a spirit of perfection, and a spirit of knowledge:—but he who was of the Demiurge was a spirit of ignorance, and decay, and error, and the offspring of a shadow1; how could there be in one and the same, perfection and decay, knowledge and ignorance, error and truth, light and darkness? But if in the Prophets these things could not be so, rather they from one God made proclamation of the word of the Lord, and announced the coming of His Son: much less would the Lord Himself ever have made His discourses, sometimes according to the original, sometimes according to the subsequent Decay, becoming a Teacher of knowledge and ignorance at once: nor would He ever have glorified, now the maker of the world, now again the Father who is above him;2 as He saith Himself: No man letteth piece of a new garment into an old one,3 nor do they put new wine into old bottles. Therefore let these also either in every way keep themselves from the Prophets as being old; instead of saying that they, sent before by the Demiurge, uttered some things according to that new system which belongs to the highest place: or again they are convicted by the Lord when He says, New wine is not put into old bottles.
§ 3.
And how could the offspring of that Mother of theirs know those mysteries which were within the Pleroma, and give an account of them? For the Mother, when she produced the aforesaid offspring, was outside of the Pleroma; and all that is so, they say, is without knowledge: i.e., it is Ignorance. How then could that offspring, which from its conception was ignorance, proclaim knowledge? Or how did that Mother know the mysteries which appertained to the Pleroma, being as she was without form or figure, cast out as an abortion, and there constructed and shaped, and forbidden by Horus to enter in; and even to the end abiding without the Pleroma, i.e., without knowledge? And again, whereas they say that our Lord’s Passion is a figure of the “Extension” of the Christ who is above,4 whereby, being “extended” upon Horus, He formed their Mother: in the other circumstances they are refuted, not having anything to shew which answers to the type. For where in those upper regions had Christ gall and vinegar given Him to drink? or where were His garments divided? or where was He pierced, so that there came out blood and water? or where did He sweat drops of blood? And so of the rest of what befel the Lord, having been spoken of by the Prophets. By what means then did either the Mother or her seed make conjecture of those things, which then had not as yet taken place, but were only just beginning to take place?
§ 4.
And over and above all this; when they are confuted by the relation given in Scripture of the coming of Christ,5 they affirm that certain things indeed are uttered from the highest place; but what they are, they by no means agree, but answer variously on the same subjects. Thus, if any one wishing to make trial of them, should ask the eminent among them severally concerning any passage, he will find that one will say the passage inquired about relates to the first father, i.e., the Deep; another, to the beginning of all, i.e., the Only Begotten: but another, to the Father of all, i.e., the Word: another again will say that the discourse is of one of those Æons, who are in the Pleroma, and others of Christ, and another of the Saviour. Then some one more clever than the former set, after long silence and delay, says, It is all spoken about Horus: and another, that it means that Wisdom which is within the Pleroma; a third that it sets forth the Mother who is without the Pleroma; and a fourth will assert that it is the God who made the world.
So many diversities are there amongst them concerning one and the same thing,6 maintaining as they do different meanings for the same Scriptures: and at the reading of one and the same passage, they all contract their eyebrows and shake their heads, and say that they themselves indeed perfectly comprehend the passage, in its exceeding depth, but that all cannot receive the greatness of the meaning therein contained: and therefore that silence is a main point with the wise: it being meet that the Sige who is above should be delineated by the Silence which is among them. And so they go their ways, all of them; and whatever their number, so many opinions do they take with them on one and the same subject: they bear about with them unseen their own sharp thoughts.
When therefore they have agreed among themselves about the things foretold in the Scriptures, then shall they be also confuted by us. For erroneous as their views are,7 yet for the present they refute themselves, by their not having the same thoughts about the same subjects. But we, following as our teacher One only, and Him the only true God, and having His sayings for the rule of truth, say all of us always the same words about the same things, knowing but one God, the Maker of this Universe; Him who sent the Prophets; Who brought the people out of the Land of Egypt; Who in the last times revealed His Son, to confound the unbelievers, and demand the fruit of righteousness.8