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Against Heresies (Adversus Haereses)

Book II

By Irenaeus of Lyons

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Chapter I: There Is But One God: The Impossibility Of Its Being Otherwise.

Chapter II: The World Was Not Formed By Angels, Or By Any Other Being, Contrary To The Will Of The Most High God, But Was Made By The Father Through The Word.

Chapter III: The Bythus And Pleroma Of The Valentinians, As Well As The God Of Marcion, Shown To Be Absurd; The World Was Actually Created By The Same Being Who Had Conceived The Idea Of It, And Was Not The Fruit Of Defect Or Ignorance.

Chapter IV: The Absurdity Of The Supposed Vacuum And Defect Of The Heretics Is Demonstrated.

Chapter V: This World Was Not Formed By Any Other Beings Within The Territory Which Is Contained By The Father.

Chapter VI: The Angels And The Creator Of The World Could Not Have Been Ignorant Of The Supreme God.

Chapter VII: Created Things Are Not The Images Of Those Aeons Who Are Within The Pleroma.

Chapter VIII: Created Things Are Not A Shadow Of The Pleroma.

Chapter IX: There Is But One Creator Of The World, God The Father: This The Constant Belief Of The Church.

Chapter X: Perverse Interpretations Of Scripture By The Heretics: God Created All Things Out Of Nothing, And Not From Pre-Existent Matter.

Chapter XI: The Heretics, From Their Disbelief Of The Truth, Have Fallen Into An Abyss Of Error: Reasons For Investigating Their Systems.

Chapter XII: The Triacontad Of The Heretics Errs Both By Defect And Excess: Sophia Could Never Have Produced Anything Apart From Her Consort; Logos And Sige Could Not Have Been Contemporaries.

Chapter XIII: The First Order Of Production Maintained By The Heretics Is Altogether Indefensible.

Chapter XIV: Valentinus And His Followers Derived The Principles Of Their System From The Heathen; The Names Only Are Changed.

Chapter XV: No Account Can Be Given Of These Productions.

Chapter XVI: The Creator Of The World Either Produced Of Himself The Images Of Things To Be Made, Or The Pleroma Was Formed After The Image Of Some Previous System; And So On Ad Infinitum.

Chapter XVII: Inquiry Into The Production Of The Aeons: Whatever Its Supposed Nature, It Is In Every Respect Inconsistent; And On The Hypothesis Of The Heretics, Even Nous And The Father Himself Would Be Stained With Ignorance.

Chapter XVIII: Sophia Was Never Really In Ignorance Or Passion; Her Enthymesis Could Not Have Been Separated From Herself, Or Exhibited Special Tendencies Of Its Own.

Chapter XIX: Absurdities Of The Heretics As To Their Own Origin: Their Opinions Respecting The Demiurge Shown To Be Equally Untenable And Ridiculous.

Chapter XX: Futility Of The Arguments Adduced To Demonstrate The Sufferings Of The Twelfth Aeon, From The Parables, The Treachery Of Judas, And The Passion Of Our Saviour.

Chapter XXI: The Twelve Apostles Were Not A Type Of The Aeons.

Chapter XXII: The Thirty Aeons Are Not Typified By The Fact That Christ Was Baptized In His Thirtieth Year: He Did Not Suffer In The Twelfth Month After His Baptism, But Was More Than Fifty Years Old When He Died.

Chapter XXIII: The Woman Who Suffered From An Issue Of Blood Was No Type Of The Suffering Aeon.

Chapter XXIV: Folly Of The Arguments Derived By The Heretics From Numbers, Letters, And Syllables.

Chapter XXV: God Is Not To Be Sought After By Means Of Letters, Syllables, And Numbers; Necessity Of Humility In Such Investigations.

Chapter XXVI: "Knowledge Puffeth Up, But Love Edifieth."

Chapter XXVII: Proper Mode Of Interpreting Parables And Obscure Passages Of Scripture.

Chapter XXVIII: Perfect Knowledge Cannot Be Attained In The Present Life: Many Questions Must Be Submissively Left In The Hands Of God.

Chapter XXIX: Refutation Of The Views Of The Heretics As To The Future Destiny Of The Soul And Body.

Chapter XXX: Absurdity Of Their Styling Themselves Spiritual, While The Demiurge Is Declared To Be Animal.

Chapter XXXI: Recapitulation And Application Of The Foregoing Arguments.

Chapter XXXII: Further Exposure Of The Wicked And Blasphemous Doctrines Of The Heretics.

Chapter XXXIII: Absurdity Of The Doctrine Of The Transmigration Of Souls.

Chapter XXXIV: Souls Can Be Recognised In The Separate State, And Are Immortal Although They Once Had A Beginning.

Chapter XXXV: Refutation Of Basilides, And Of The Opinion That The Prophets Uttered Their Predictions Under The Inspiration Of Different Gods.

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Taken as published as ANF1-20.txt on http://www.ewtn.com. Book I was ANF1-19, and III-V were ANF1-21 through ANF1-23.

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About St. Irenaeus of Lyons, ca. 140 AD — ca. 202 AD

William A. Jurgens' The Faith of the Early Fathers has this to say about St. Irenaeus:

St. Irenaeus was the second bishop of Lyons, succeeding the martyred bishop St. Pothinus in the year 177 or 178 A.D., when he himself was perhaps about 37 years old. He was a native of Asia Minor, probably of Smyrna, where in his youth he had been a pupil of St. Polycarp. His passage to Gaul, where we meet him as an esteemed presbyter of the Church of Lyons immediately before the death of his episcopal predecessor, is one of history's mysteries. To exchange figs for frogs is incredible.

True to his name of Peacemaker, as Eusebius remarks, it was Irenaeus who sought to make peace between Victor of Rome and Polycrates of Ephesus, when Victor was threatening excommunication against the latter. After this incident of about the year 190 A.D., Irenaeus disappears from history and is presumed to have died about the year 202 A.D. Not until Gregory of Tours wrote his History of the Franks do we find Irenaeus mentioned as a martyr; and such late testimony is necessarily suspect, especially in view of the fact that Eusebius, who has good knowledge of Irenaeus, says nothing of his supposed martyrdom.

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Note from EWTN

(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected as much as possible without benefit of the original text.)

Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing intially before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi = ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute = ' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe, when necessary.

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Another note from EWTN

Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in 1867. (ANF 1, Roberts and Donaldson.) The digital version is by The Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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This document was last generated from the source XML document on August 21, 2006.