Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[The opening lines of this passage are corrupted beyond recovery in the source.] Thus their exceedingly wise Silence announces the generation of the twenty-four elements: that from the Unity there is a Oneness, from which come two emissions, as has been said before — the Monad and the One — which came to be: for twice two is four. And again, two and four, put together in the same reckoning, made manifest the number six. These six, multiplied fourfold, generated twenty-four figures. And the names of the first Quaternity are understood as holy of holies, which cannot be uttered; they are understood by the Son alone, who knows what things the Father knows. But the other names — [text corrupt] — for the name has in itself seven letters, Arrhetos five, and Sige five, which, put together, twice five and twice seven, complete the number twenty-four. Likewise the second Quaternity, Logos and Zoe, Anthropos and Ecclesia, showed forth the same number of elements. And the expressible name of the Savior also has six letters, but his inexpressible name has twenty-four letters, and his nameable name has thirty letters. And for this reason he says that he is called Alpha and Omega, so as to signify the dove, since this bird has this number. But Jesus, he says, was generated in this ineffable way: proceeding out of the Mother of all things — which is to say, out of the first Quaternity — he came into the place belonging to a daughter; a second Quaternity was formed, and there came to be an Ogdoad, from which proceeded a Decad; thus was made sixteen [text corrupt]. The Decad, then, joined to the Ogdoad and multiplying it tenfold, made the number eighty; and eighty again multiplied ten times made eight hundred, so that the whole number, proceeding from the Ogdoad into the Decad, is eight, and eighty, and eight hundred, which is Jesus. For the name Jesus, according to the reckoning of Greek letters, has the value eight hundred and eighty-eight [Greek numerals: I=10, H=8, S=200, O=70, U=400, S=200]. You have clearly, then, the generation of the supercelestial Jesus, according to them. Wherefore the Greek letter Episemon also has eight units, eighty tens, and eight hundreds, showing the number eight hundred eighty-eight, that is, Jesus, who consists of all the numbers; and for this reason he is called Alpha and Omega, since this signifies his generation from all things. And again in this way: the numbers of the first Quaternity, according to their own progression, when multiplied into themselves, produce ten times ten, which is a hundred, and this they wish to be Jesus. But Christ also, he says, has eight letters, by which the first Ogdoad is signified; and these, with Iota added, generated the number 888. It is said, moreover, that the Son is also called Christ, that is, twelve: for the name "Son" has four letters, and "Christ" eight, which, put together, showed forth the greatness of the Dodecad. But before this notable name — that is, of Jesus, the Son — appeared, humanity lay in profound error and not-knowing. But when this letter-name was made manifest — which was clothed with flesh so as to descend to the perceptible sense of man, having in itself Christ himself, and being itself both twelve and twenty-four — then, recognizing him, they ceased from ignorance, and ascended from death to life, this name having been made for them a guide to the Father of Truth. For the Father of all things had willed to dissolve ignorance and destroy death; and the dissolution of ignorance was the knowledge of him. And for this reason he chose, according to his will, that man who is according to his image, the power that is above, and appointed him. For from the Quaternity the Aeons proceeded. Now in the Quaternity were Anthropos and Ecclesia, Logos and Zoe. From these, then, powers emanated and generated him who was made manifest on earth, Jesus. And the place of the Logos was filled by the angel Gabriel, that of Zoe by the Holy Spirit, that of Anthropos by the power of the Most High, and the place of Ecclesia is shown by the Virgin. And thus he who is according to the arrangement was begotten through Mary's womb, chosen through the Word unto his own recognition. And when he came to the water, there descended upon him, as a dove, the one who runs back upward and fulfilled the number twelve, in whom was the seed of those who were sown together with him, and who came down together and went up together with him. And this power that descended he calls the seed of the Father, holding within it the Father together with the Son, and that unnameable power of Silence which is known through them, and all the Aeons. And this, he says, is the Spirit who spoke through the mouth of Jesus, who confessed himself to be the Son of Man, and made manifest the Father; descending upon Jesus, he was united to him. And he destroyed death, he says, ... Christ Jesus. So then Jesus is a name belonging to the likeness and figure of that Man into whom he began to descend, who is said to have in himself both Man himself, and the Logos, and the Father, and the Unspeakable, and Silence, and Truth, and the Church, and Life. These things are indeed beyond every "alas" and "woe," beyond all tragic exclamation and cry of grief. For who would not hate this man, so wicked a poet, the composer of such great lies, when he sees Truth made an idol by Marcus, and branded with the letters of the alphabet? Only lately — as one might say, "yesterday and the day before" — it is admitted among the Greeks that sixteen letters came to them at first from Cadmus; afterward, with the passage of time, further letters were devised on their own account, some aspirated, some doubled; and finally, so the account goes, Palamedes contributed the long vowels. So then, this discovery is later than even those who came before him, and later than those who added the remaining letters, and later in time even than you yourself, Marcus. But you alone have degraded into an idol that Truth which you claim to preach. Who could endure your much-babbling Silence, who names the Unnameable, expounds the Inexpressible, and utters him who is beyond investigation, and says that he opened his mouth — he whom you call incorporeal and formless — and sent forth a Word, as though one of the composite living creatures; a Word, too, that is like him who sent it forth, and has become the form of the Invisible, made up of thirty elements distributed across four syllables? Then, following that same likeness you assign to the Word, the Father of all will, on your own account, likewise consist of thirty elements across four syllables! Again, who could put up with you, when you confine the maker and demiurge and fashioner of all things, the Word of God, now to thirty figures and numbers, now to twenty-four, now to six only, and diminish him into syllables — [a portion of the text is here missing] — into four syllables, and thirty elements; and bring down the Lord of all, who established the heavens, to the number 888, just as you do the alphabet; and subject the Father, who contains all things and is contained by none, to a Quaternity, an Ogdoad, and a Dodecad, and, through such multiplications, actually expound — as you claim — that which is ineffable and unknowable of the Father? And him whom you name incorporeal and without substance, you fashion, out of many letters generated one from another, into matter and substance — you yourself proving to be a false Daedalus and an evil craftsman of that most sublime power; and the substance you call indivisible you subdivide into mute, and vocal, and semivocal sounds, lying against the Father of all things and his purpose in all this — and so you have plunged into the utmost blasphemy and great impiety all who believe in you. Wherefore, justly and fittingly, an elder, a herald of truth inspired by the divine, inveighed against such rashness of yours, speaking thus: "Marcus, fashioner of idols, inspector of portents, Skilled in astrology and in the magic art, By which you confirm the doctrines of error, Showing signs to those whom you seduce, The workings of an apostate power, Which your father Satan supplies to you, Enabling you, through angelic power, to do these things, Making you a forerunner of the wickedness opposed to God." Such were the words of this elder, beloved of God. As for us, we return to the remaining matters.