Gnosticism

1. Arising among these men, Saturninus (who was of that Antioch which is near Daphne) and Basilides laid hold of some favourable opportunities, and promulgated different systems of 2. He has also lai

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Chapter XXIII.—The Opinions of Sundry Heretics Which Originate Ultimately with Plato. Some suppose that they came down from heaven, with as firm a belief as they are apt to entertain, when they indul

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1. They proceed to tell us that the Propator of their scheme was known only to Monogenes, who sprang from him; in other words, only to Nous, while to all the others he was invisible and incomprehensib

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1. Such, then, is the account they give of what took place within the Pleroma; such the calamities that flowed from the passion which seized upon the Æon who has been named, and who was within a littl

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1. The following are the transactions which they narrate as having occurred outside of the Pleroma: The enthymesis of that Sophia who dwells above, which they also term Achamoth,And as Horos thus obst

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1. You see, my friend, the method which these men employ to deceive themselves, while they abuse the Scriptures by endeavouring to support their own system out of them. For this reason, I have brought

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1. These three kinds of existence, then, having, according to them, been now formed,—one from the passion, which was matter; a second from the conversion, which was animal; and the third, that which s

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1. There being thus three kinds of substances, they declare of all that is material (which they also describe as being “on the left hand”) that it must of necessity perish, inasmuch as it is incapable

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1. When all the seed shall have come to perfection, they state that then their mother Achamoth shall pass from the intermediate place, and enter in within the Pleroma, and shall receive as her spouse

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1. Such, then, is their system, which neither the prophets announced, nor the Lord taught, nor the apostles delivered, but of which they boast that beyond all others they have a perfect knowledge. The

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1. Let us now look at the inconsistent opinions of those heretics (for there are some two or three of them), how they do not agree in treating the same points, but alike, in things and names, set fort

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1. But the followers of Ptolemy say[Bythus] has two consorts, which they also name Diatheses (affections), viz., Ennœa and Thelesis. For, as they affirm, he first conceived the thought of producing so

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1. I judge it necessary to add to these details also what, by garbling passages of Scripture, they try to persuade us concerning their Propator, who was unknown to all before the coming of Christ. The

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1. The all-wise Sige then announced the production of the four-and-twenty elements to him as follows:—Along with Monotes there coexisted Henotes, from which sprang two productions, as we have remarked

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1. Blending in one the production of their own Æons, and the straying and recovery of the sheep [spoken of in the Gospel 2. I will not, however, weary thee by recounting their other interpretations,

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1. I wish also to explain to thee their theory as to the way in which the creation itself was formed through the mother by the Demiurge (as it were without his knowledge), after the image of things in

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1. And while they affirm such things as these concerning the creation, every one of them generates something new, day by day, according to his ability; for no one is deemed “perfect,” who does not dev

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1. It happens that their tradition respecting redemption 2. They maintain that those who have attained to perfect knowledge must of necessity be regenerated into that power which is above all. For it

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1. Simon the Samaritan was that magician of whom Luke, the disciple and follower of the apostles, says, “But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who beforetime used magical arts in that city, and

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1. Besides those, however, among these heretics who are Simonians, and of whom we have already spoken, a multitude of Gnostics have sprung up, and have been manifested like mushrooms growing out of th

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