Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V/Hippolytus/The Refutation of All Heresies/Book V/Part 23

by Hippolytus

Chapter XXII.—Oath Used by the Justinian Heretics; The Book of Baruch; The Repertory of Their System.

Hence^[1] also, in the first book inscribed “Baruch,” has been written the oath which they compel those to swear who are about to hear these mysteries, and be initiated with the Good One.^[2] And this oath, (Justinus) says, our Father Elohim sware when He was beside the Good One, and having sworn He did not repent (of the oath), respecting which, he says, it has been written, “The Lord sware, and will not repent.”^[3] Now the oath is couched in these^[4] terms:  “I swear by that Good One who is above all, to guard these mysteries, and to divulge them to no one, and not to relapse from the Good One to the creature.” And when he has sworn this oath, he goes on to the Good One, and beholds “whatever things eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man;”^[5] and he drinks from life-giving water, which is to them, as they suppose, a bath,^[6] a fountain of life-giving, bubbling water.^[7]  For there has been a separation made between water and water; and there is water, that below the firmament of the wicked creation, in which earthly and animal men are washed; and there is life-giving water, (that) above the firmament,^[8] of the Good One, in which spiritual (and) living men are washed; and in this Elohim washed Himself. and having washed did not repent. And when, he says, the prophet affirms, “Take unto yourself a wife of whoredom, since the earth has abandoned itself to fornication, (departing) from (following) after the Lord;”^[9] that is, Edem (departs) from Elohim.  (Now) in these words, he says, the prophet clearly declares the entire mystery, and is not hearkened unto by reason of the wicked machinations of Naas. According to that same manner, they deliver other prophetical passages in a similar spirit of interpretation throughout numerous books. The volume, however, inscribed “Baruch,” is pre-eminently to them the one in which the reader^[10] will ascertain the entire explanation of their legendary system (to be contained).  Beloved, though I have encountered many heresies, yet with no wicked (heresiarch) worse than this (Justinus) has it been my lot to meet. But, in truth, (the followers of Justinus) ought to imitate^[11] the example of his Hercules, and to cleanse, as the saying is, the cattle-shed of Augias, or rather I should say, a ditch,^[12] into which, as soon as the adherents of this (heresiarch) have fallen, they can never be cleansed; nay, they will not be able even to raise their heads.

Footnotes

1. ἐντεῦθεν: this word stands at the end of the last chapter in the text of Miller, who suspects that there is here some hiatus. In this opinion the Abbe Cruice concurs. Schneidewin, however, transfers ἐντεῦθεν to the beginning of this chapter as above.
2. παρὰ τῶ ἀγαθῷ: or rather, we should expect, into a knowledge of the Good One.
3. Ps. cx. 4; Heb. vii. 21.
4. ουὐτως: some read οὗτος.
5. 1 Cor. ii. 9.
6. λουτρὸν: the ecclesiastical use of this word makes it stand for baptism.
7. John iv. 14.
8. Gen. i. 6, 7.
9. Hos. i. 2.
10. ἐντυχὼν: some read εὐτυχῶν, i.e., one who is fortunate enough to meet with the book.
11. Literally “ought, according to his Hercules, by imitating,” etc.
12. ἀμάραν. This word means a trench or channel in a field, for the purpose either of irrigation or drainage. Schneidewin and Cruice render it by the Latin Sentinam, an expression applied, for example, to bilge water.