Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
THAT SOPHIA WAS NEVER IN IGNORANCE AND DEFICIENCY. 1. How is it not empty, then, for them to say that their Sophia too existed in ignorance, in deficiency, and in passion? These things are alien to wisdom and contrary to it; nor are they even her proper affections. For where there is lack of foresight and ignorance of what is useful, there wisdom is not present. Let them, then, no longer call the Aeon who suffered "Sophia"; let them instead drop either her name or her sufferings. Nor let them call the whole Pleroma spiritual, if within it this Aeon lived through such great passions while she was there. For not even a strong soul, let alone a spiritual substance, could endure such things. ENTHYMESIS. Again, how could her Enthymesis, proceeding along with passion, come to exist separately? For an "enthymesis" (a thought or intention) is understood as being directed toward something; it can never come to exist by itself, apart. For an evil enthymesis is destroyed and swallowed up by a good one, just as sickness is by health. What, then, was this Enthymesis of passion earlier? To seek out the Father and consider his greatness. And what was she persuaded of afterward, and grew strong in? That the Father is incomprehensible and cannot be found. It was not, then, a good thing for her to have desired knowledge of the Father, and it was on this account that passion took hold of her; rather, once she was persuaded that the Father was unsearchable, she grew strong. But that very Nous who was seeking the Father ceased, according to them, still to seek, learning that the Father is incomprehensible. How, then, could Enthymesis, separated, conceive passions which were themselves but her own affections? For an affection arises toward something; it cannot exist or stand by itself apart. Not only is this position unstable, it also contradicts what was said by our Lord: "Seek, and you shall find" — for the Lord, by seeking and finding the Father, brings his disciples to perfection. But their Christ who is above, by commanding the Aeons not to seek the Father, persuading them that however much they labored they would not find him, made them perfect! And they say that they themselves are made perfect in that they claim to have found their Bythos, while the Aeons are made perfect in being persuaded that he whom they sought is unsearchable.
Since, then, Enthymesis herself could not exist apart from the Aeon on her own, they bring in a still greater falsehood about her passion, again dividing her off separately, and declaring this to be the very stuff from which matter is made. As though God had no light in him, and as though the Word were absent to expose them and cast down their wickedness! For surely whatever the Aeon thought, this too he suffered; and what he suffered, this too... [text defective] ...they cannot have a separate substance, and here again their rule is dissolved. THAT SHE COULD NEITHER BE DISSOLVED NOR HAVE BEEN LIVING AMONG THINGS UNLIKE HERSELF. How, again, could the Aeon both be dissolved and suffer? Since he was of the same substance as the Father. For what is like, existing among what is like, is not dissolved into nothing, nor is it in danger of perishing, but rather it holds its ground and increases — flame within flame, breath within breath, water joined to water — while opposites, meeting their opposites, suffer harm, are altered, and perish. So too, if there had been an emission of light, it would not have suffered or been endangered in a light like itself, but would rather have shone forth the more and increased, as day increases from the sun — for indeed they say that Bythos is the image of his own father. Whatever animals are foreign and alien to themselves and contrary to their nature are endangered and corrupted; but whatever is familiar and akin to itself suffers no danger while living among such things — a principle not hard to understand — but rather draws safety and life from it. If, then, this Aeon had been emitted from the same substance as the whole Pleroma, he would never have undergone change, since he was living among things like and familiar to him, a spiritual being among spiritual beings. For fear, terror, passion, dissolution, and the like may perhaps arise from contraries in the case of things that are, like us, bodily; but among spiritual beings possessing a diffused light, such calamities no longer follow. IT PRODUCED IN THE AEON NOT RUIN BUT A STATE OF PERFECTION. Moreover, to reflect on seeking the perfect Father, and to wish to come to be within him, and to have comprehension of him, could not implant ignorance or passion — not even in a spiritual Aeon — but rather perfection and impassibility... [the manuscript here is defective, mixing in editorial matter about what Menander is said to have written] ...for not even men themselves, when they reflect upon one who is before them, and, as it were, already grasping the perfect one, being established within the knowledge of him, say that they are thereby in a state of consternation and passion, but rather in knowledge and apprehension of the truth. And indeed they say that the Savior said to the disciples "Seek, and you shall find" for this reason: that they might seek after him whom they themselves have fashioned by their own reasoning, above the Maker of all things — the ineffable Bythos; and they wish to consider themselves perfect, because, seeking, they have found the perfect one while still on earth; yet they say that the Aeon within the Pleroma, wholly spiritual, who sought the Forefather, and strove to come to be within his greatness, and desired to have comprehension of the paternal truth, fell into passion — and such a passion that, had he not met with the Power that establishes all things, he would have been dissolved into universal substance and utterly destroyed. THAT IT IS UNTHINKABLE THAT AN AEON WITHIN THE PLEROMA SHOULD HAVE FELT THE DESIRE OF PASSION. This presumption is insane, and truly the thinking of men bereft of truth. For since this Aeon is, by their own rule, better and older than themselves — they themselves confess this, saying that they are conceived from the Enthymesis of this Aeon who suffered, so that this Aeon stands as father to their mother, which makes him, in fact, their grandsire — then for the later grandchildren the seeking of the Father produces truth, perfection, confirmation, and refinement from fluid matter, as they say, and reconciliation with the Father; but for their own grandfather, this same inquiry, they say, implanted ignorance, passion, terror, fear, and consternation, out of which they also say the substance of matter was made. To seek and search out the perfect Father, then, and to desire communion and unity with him, becomes salvation for themselves — but for the Aeon from whom they have their origin, they say it was the cause of dissolution and ruin. How is this not utterly incongruous, foolish, and irrational in every respect? And those who assent to such things are truly blind, following blind guides, and justly fall into the abyss of ignorance that lies beneath them.