longer to suffer. For the power that went forth from the Son (and this power they term Horos) healed her, and separated the passion from her.
4. They moreover affirm that the Saviour[1] is shown to be derived from all the Æons, and to be in Himself everything by the following passage: "Every male that openeth the womb."[2] For He, being everything, opened the womb[3] of the enthymesis of the suffering Æon, when it had been expelled from the Pleroma. This they also style the second Ogdoad, of which we shall speak presently. And they state that it was clearly on this account that Paul said, "And He Himself is all things;"[4] and again, "All things are to Him, and of Him are all things;"[5] and further, "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead;"[6] and yet again, "All things are gathered together by God in Christ."[7] Thus do they interpret these and any like passages to be found in Scripture.
5. They show, further, that that Horos of theirs, whom they call by a variety of names, has two faculties,—the one of supporting, and the other of separating; and in so far as he supports and sustains, he is Stauros, while in so far as he divides and separates, he is Horos. They then represent the Saviour as having indicated this twofold faculty: first, the sustaining power, when He said, "Whosoever doth not bear his cross (Stauros), and follow after me, cannot be my disciple;"[8] and again, "Taking up the cross, follow me;"[9] but the separating power when He said, "I came not to send peace, but a sword."[10] They also maintain that John indi-
- ↑ That is, the "second Christ" referred to above, sec. 1.
- ↑ Ex. xiii. 2; Luke ii. 23.
- ↑ Not as being born of it, but as fecundating it, and so producing a manifold offspring. See below.
- ↑ Col. iii. 11.
- ↑ Rom. xi. 36.
- ↑ Col. ii. 9.
- ↑ Eph. i. 10.
- ↑ Luke xiv. 27. It will be observed that the quotations of Scripture made by Irenæus often vary somewhat from the received text. This may be due to various reasons—his quoting from memory; his giving the texts in the form in which they were quoted by the heretics; or, as Harvey conjectures, from his having been more familiar with a Syriac version of the New Testament than with the Greek original.
- ↑ Matt. x. 21.
- ↑ Matt. x. 34.
