Irenæus

Footnotes

Introductory Note to Irenæus Against Heresies

^[2997] Eph. iv. 6, differing somewhat from Text. Rec. of New Testament.

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.

^[2998] In the barbarous Latin version, we here find utrum … an as the translation of ἤ … ἤ instead of aut … aut.

^[2999] We have translated the text as it here stands in the mss. Grabe omits spiritalem et; Massuet proposes to read et invisibilem, and Stieren invisibilem.

^[3000] In præsentia: Grabe proposes in præscientia, but without ms. authority. “The reader,” says Harvey, “will observe that there are three suppositions advanced by the author: that the world, as some heretics asserted, was eternal; that it was created in time, with no previous idea of it in the divine mind; or that it existed as a portion of the divine counsels from all eternity, though with no temporal subsistence until the time of its creation,—and of this the author now speaks.” The whole passage is most obscurely expressed.

Chapter IV.—The absurdity of the supposed vacuum and defect of the heretics is demonstrated.

^[3001] Literally, “should also possess a vacant substance”

^[3002] The text has “reliquis omnibus,” which would refer to the Æons; but we follow the emendation proposed by Massuet, “reliquorum omnium,” as the reference manifestly is to other heretics.

^[3003] “Ab eo:” some refer “eo” to the Demiurge, but it is not unusual for the Latin translator to follow the Greek gender, although different from that of the Latin word which he has himself employed. We may therefore here “eo” to “labem,” which is the translation of the neuter noun ὑστέρημα.

^[3004] Labem is here repeated, probably by mistake.

^[3005] The Latin is fieri eos: Massuet conjectures that the Greek had been ποιεῖσθαι αὐτούς, and that the translator rendered ποιεῖσθαι as a passive instead of a middle verb, fieri for facere.

Chapter V.—This world was not formed by any other beings within the territory which is contained by the Father.

^[3006] See above, chap. i.

^[3007] The Latin text here is, “et concludentur tales cum patre suo ab eo qui est extra Pleroma, in quo etiam et desinere eos necesse est.” None of the editors notice the difficulty or obscurity of the clause, but it appears to us absolutely untranslateable. We have rendered it as if the reading were “ab eo quod,” though, if the strict grammatical construction be followed, the translation must be, “from Him who.” But then to what does “in quo,” which follows, refer? It may be ascribed either to the immediate antecedent Pleroma, or to Him who is described as being beyond it.

^[3008] Chap. ii., iii., iv.

^[3009] This is an extremely difficult passage. We follow the reading æternochoica adopted by Massuet, but Harvey reads æterna choica, and renders, “They charge all other substance (i.e., spiritual) with the imperfections of the material creation, as though Æon substance were equally ephemeral and choic.”

^[3010] The common reading is “aut;” we adopt Harvey’s conjectural emendation of “at.”

^[3011] The above clause is very obscure; Massuet reads it interrogatively.

^[3012] The text has “antiquius,” literally “more ancient,” but it may here be rendered as above.

Chapter VI.—The angels and the Creator of the world could not have been ignorant of the Supreme God.

^[3013] Matt. xi. 27.

^[3014] Massuet refers this to the Roman emperor.

Chapter VII.—Created things are not the images of those Æons who are within the Pleroma.

^[3015] Harvey supposes that the translator here read ἤ quam instead of ᾗ quâ (gloria); but Grabe, Massuet, and Stieren prefer to delete erit.

^[3016] Reference is here made to the supposed wretched state of Achamoth as lying in the region of shadow, vacuity, and, in fact, non-existence, until compassionated by the Christ above, who gave her form as respected substance.

^[3017] We have literally translated the above very obscure sentence. According to Massuet, the sense is: “There will some time be, or perhaps even now there is, some Æon utterly destitute of such honour, inasmuch as those things which the Saviour, for the sake of honouring it, had formed after its image, have been destroyed; and then those things which are above will remain without honour,” etc.

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