Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
They are deceived who invent, besides the maker of the world, another God the Father — one who must necessarily be weak and useless, or malicious and envious, if he either cannot or will not grant eternal life to our bodies. They call the Demiurge good, while making him out to be weak and useless and negligent — not to say, as they in effect do say, envious and grudging, in that they claim our bodies are not given life by him. For when they claim that those things which everyone acknowledges as plainly lasting and deathless — spirit, soul, and the like — receive life from the Father, yet another element, unable to receive life by any means except through that God, is left without life, they thereby expose their so-called father as either feeble and lacking strength, or grudging and jealous. For since the Demiurge gives life to our mortal bodies and promises them resurrection through the prophets, as we have shown, which of the two is shown to be more powerful, stronger, and truly good — the Demiurge, who gives life to the whole man, or their falsely-named father? The one who pretends to give life to those things which are by nature immortal, to which living belongs from their own nature, but who does not graciously give life to those things which need his help in order to live, but negligently abandons them to death? Does their father, then, not grant life to these also, though able to, or because he is not able to? If indeed he is not able, then he is no longer powerful, nor is he greater than the Demiurge; for the Demiurge does grant it, just as he is able to grant sight, which that other cannot grant. But if he is able to grant it and does not, then he is shown to be not good but envious and malicious as a father. And if they should give some reason why their father does not give life to bodies, that very reason must necessarily appear greater than the father, since it overpowers his benevolence, and his benevolence is weakened on account of that reason which they themselves allege. But that bodies are capable of receiving life is evident to everyone: for they continue living precisely insofar as God chooses that they should live; hence these people can no longer claim that flesh is wholly unfit to receive life. If, then, they are not given life on account of some necessity or some other cause, even though they are capable of sharing in life, their father will be shown to be a servant of necessity and of some external cause, and no longer free and master of his own will.