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| Chapter XXXI.—Doctrines of the Cainites.
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Chapter XXXI.—Doctrines of the
Cainites.
1. Others again declare that Cain
derived his being from the Power above, and acknowledge that Esau, Korah,
the Sodomites, and all such persons, are related to themselves. On this
account, they add, they have been assailed by the Creator, yet no one of
them has suffered injury. For Sophia was in the habit of carrying off
that which belonged to her from them to herself. They declare that Judas
the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he
alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of
the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus
thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind,
which they style the Gospel of Judas.
2. I have also made a collection of their writings in
which they advocate the abolition of the doings of Hystera.2982
| 2982 According to Harvey, Hystera
corresponds to the “passions” of Achamoth. [Note the
“Americanism,” advocate used as a verb.] |
Moreover, they call this Hystera the creator of heaven and earth. They
also hold, like Carpocrates, that men cannot be saved until they have
gone through all kinds of experience. An angel, they maintain, attends
them in every one of their sinful and abominable actions, and urges them
to venture on audacity and incur pollution. Whatever may be the
nature2983
| 2983 The text is here
imperfect, and the translation only conjectural. | of the
action, they declare that they do it in the name of the angel, saying,
“O thou angel, I use thy work; O thou power, I accomplish thy
operation!” And they maintain that this is “perfect
knowledge,” without shrinking to rush into such actions as it is
not lawful even to name.
3. It was necessary clearly to prove, that, as their
very opinions and regulations exhibit them, those who are of the school
of Valentinus derive their origin from such mothers, fathers, and
ancestors, and also to bring forward their doctrines, with the hope that
perchance some of them, exercising repentance and returning to the only
Creator, and God the Former of the universe, may obtain salvation, and
that others may not henceforth be drawn away by their wicked, although
plausible, persuasions, imagining that they will obtain from them the
knowledge of some greater and more sublime mysteries. But let them
rather, learning to good effect from us the wicked tenets of these men,
look with contempt upon their doctrines, while at the same time they pity
those who, still cleaving to these miserable and baseless fables, have
reached such a pitch of arrogance as to reckon themselves superior to all
others on account of such knowledge, or, as it should rather be called,
ignorance. They have now been fully exposed; and simply to exhibit their
sentiments, is to obtain a victory over them.
4. Wherefore I have laboured to bring forward, and make
clearly manifest, the utterly ill-conditioned carcase of this miserable
little fox.2984
For there will not now be need of many words
to overturn their system of doctrine, when it has been made manifest to
all. It is as when, on a beast hiding itself in a wood, and by rushing
forth from it is in the habit of destroying multitudes, one who beats
round the wood and thoroughly explores it, so as to compel the animal to
break cover, does not strive to capture it, seeing that it is truly a
ferocious beast; but those present can then watch and avoid its assaults,
and can cast darts at it from all sides, and wound it, and finally slay
that destructive brute. So, in our case, since we have brought their
hidden mysteries, which they keep in silence among themselves, to the
light, it will not now be necessary to use many words in destroying their
system of opinions. For it is now in thy power, and in the power of all
thy associates, to familiarize yourselves with what has been said, to
overthrow their wicked and undigested doctrines, and to set forth
doctrines agreeable to the truth. Since then the case is so, I shall,
according to promise, and as my ability serves, labour to overthrow them,
by refuting them all in the following book. Even to give an account of
them is a tedious affair, as thou seest.2985
| 2985 [Let the reader bear in mind that the Greek of this
original and very precious author exists only in fragments. We are
reading the translation of a translation; the Latin very rude, and the
subject itself full of difficulties. It may yet be discovered that some
of the faults of the work are not chargeable to Irenæus.] |
But I shall furnish means for overthrowing them, by meeting all their
opinions in the order in which they have been described, that I may not
only expose the wild beast to view, but may inflict wounds upon it from
every side.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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