Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
HOW THEY TRY TO INTRODUCE A FATHER UNKNOWN TO ALL. I have thought it necessary to add, further, how great an effort they make to persuade people, choosing texts out of the Scriptures, concerning their Forefather who, they say, was unknown to everyone before the coming of Christ — so as to show that our Lord proclaimed a Father who differs from the Craftsman of this cosmos — a figure whom, as noted earlier, they slander with impious contempt, naming him the offspring of a flaw. So they twist the prophet Isaiah's words, "But Israel has not known me, and the people has not understood me," to this same purpose. And what is said in Hosea, "Faithfulness is nowhere among them, nor is there any knowledge of God" — this too they try to bend to their meaning. And "there is none that understands or seeks after God: they have all turned aside, they have together become useless," they credit to the ignorance of their Bythos. And what was said through Moses, "No one shall see God and live," they urge as referring to their Bythos.
And they say that it was the Maker who was indeed seen by the prophets, but that the text "no one shall see God and live" was spoken of the invisible Greatness unknown to all. Now, that this saying "no one shall see God" was indeed spoken of the invisible Father who made all things is plain to all of us; but that it was not spoken of him — as it is in the catholic understanding, and by the plain sense of the word — but of the Demiurge, as if he too were the invisible God, is something they claim will be shown as the argument proceeds. They say that Daniel signifies the same thing when he asks the angel for the interpretation of the visions, as though not knowing it himself. And that the angel, concealing from him the vast secret of Bythos, says to him, "Go your way, Daniel, for these words are shut up until the wise understand, and the white ones are made white" — and they boast that they themselves are the "white ones" and the "wise ones.