Are you referring to the account of Markos the Valentinian in book 6, sections 39ff and/or the account of Marcion in book 7?
39.1. ... Markos was an expert in magic. He deceived many people by practicing some feats by trickery, and others by demons. This fool used to declare that there was in him the “Greatest Power” from the “invisible and unnamable Places.”
2. he would often take a chalice as though offering the Eucharist. After far extending the formula of invocation, he would make the mixture appear purple, and then red. Consequently, it seemed to his dupes that a certain “Grace” had descended and supplied a bloody power to the drink ...
40.1 after mixing a chalice handed over by an assistant, he would give it to a woman to say the eucharistic formula while he stood alongside. Then he would take hold of a different chalice, empty and larger than the first. When the deceived woman had said the eucharistic formula, he would take the smaller chalice and tilt it toward the larger. Then, after many times pouring one into the other, he would pronounce over her the following words:
41.3. Through trickery, they suppose that they retain their listeners.
When they consider them to be approved and able to preserve what has been entrusted to them, they conduct them to this bath.
But they are not satisfied by this alone. They even promise something else so as to control them with hope, so that they never break away. 4. They mutter something in an inaudible voice, laying their hands on the one who received redemption. They claim that what they whisper cannot be blithely declared unless one be “super-approved” ...
42.1. Indeed, the blessed presbyter Irenaeus, attacking them quite boldly in his refutation, also presented these sorts of washings and redemptions and spoke more fully about their practices. When they read this, some of them denied that these were their traditions, because they are taught always to deny it. So the thought occurred to me to investigate more accurately and to research in detail what they pass on as tradition in the “first bath” (as they call it) and in the second bath, which they call “redemption.” 2. Not even their “unspeakable mystery” escaped my notice—but let this be relinquished to Valentinus and to his school.
Now Markos, in imitation of his teacher, also fabricated a vision, supposing that in this way he would be glorified. For in fact, Valentinus claims that he saw a child, an infant recently born. When he inquired to find out who he was, the child replied that he was the Word. Then, by adding a tragic myth, Valentinus wanted to establish from it his own trumped-up heresy.
3. Daring the likes of this man, Markos says that the Tetrad descended to him in the shape of a woman—since, he says, the world was not able to bear her male form—and disclosed both her identity and the origin of all things, which she had never before revealed either to gods or to human beings. To him alone she described it, speaking as follows:
7.31.5. Closely adhering to these doctrines, Markion entirely rejected the birth of our Savior, supposing it absurd that the Word that strives together with Love (that is, with the Good) be born in subjection to the bodily formation of destructive Strife. Rather, without birth “in the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar,”169 the Word—a being between evil and good—descended from above and taught in the synagogues.170 6. Since the Word is an intermediate between good and evil, he says, he is freed from all evil nature. Yet the Artificer is evil, Markion claims, along with his products.
For this reason, Jesus came down unborn, he says, to be free from all evil.
But he was also free, he says, of the good nature so as to be in between, as Paul declares,171 and as Jesus himself agrees: “Why do you call me good (ἀγαθόν;)? One is good (ἀγαθός).”172
7. These are the views of Markion, by which he deceived many. By using the theories of Empedokles and by adapting the philosophy invented by that man to his own theory, he concocted a godless heresy. 8. ... When they claim Christ’s disciples as their teachers, they slander them!
171. cf. 1 Tim 2:5: εἷς καὶ μεσίτης θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων (“and there is one mediator between God and human beings”). Marcovich suspects a lacuna here and was tempted to fill it with a quote from Gal 3:20: ὁ δὲ μεσίτης ἑνὸς οὐκ ἔστιν (“but a mediator does not mediate one party”). cf. Clem. Alex., Exc. 53.2.
172. Mark 10:18 par.; cf. Ref. 5.7.26 (Naassenes); Origen, Princ. 2.5.1.
But since it seems to me that I have sufficiently presented his views, let us see what Karpokrates affirms.173
32.1. Karpokrates says that the world and its contents were made by angels far subordinate to the unborn Father, and that Jesus was born from Joseph, substantially the same as other human beings, although he was more just. This is because his soul, born vigorous and pure, remembered what it saw when it circled round with the unborn God. For this reason, the Unborn sent down a power to his soul, so that through it Jesus’s soul might escape the makers of the world [cf. Seneca, Ep. 41.5]. He also sent the power down so that, when Jesus’s soul had passed through all, and had been freed from all, it might rise again to him, along with the souls that cling to what is similar to the soul of Jesus.
173 Our author’s account of Karpokrates is taken with modifications from Iren., Haer. 1.25.1–3, with bits from 1.25.4–5. Cf. Epiph., Pan. 27.1.1–6.11; Ps.-Tert., Adv. omn. haer. 3. See further Pétrement, Separate God, 347–50; Lampe, Paul to Valentinus, 319–20.
2. They say that the soul of Jesus, although lawfully trained in Jewish customs, despised them. For this reason, he accomplished miracles. Through these miracles, he disabled the violent emotions attached to human beings that were designed for their punishment.176
3. They say that the soul, empowered in the same way as the soul of Christ, despises the world-making rulers and receives equal power to perform the same actions. Consequently, they have stooped to such a pitch of pride as to say that some of their followers are equal to Jesus himself, while others are still more powerful than he, and some are even superior to his disciples—like Peter and Paul and the rest of the apostles!
4. These people do not in any respect fall short of Jesus. This is because their souls have come here from the superior authority.177 For this reason, they too despise the world makers, are worthy of the same power as Jesus, and in the future advance to the same state as Jesus.178
176. Healing was associated with rooting out negative emotions (cf. Corp. herm. 1.27; 1.32; 13.7–9 [Festugière and Nock]; Porphyry, Abst. 4.16).
177. Irenaeus reads “from the same revolution” (ex eadem circumlatione); cf. Epiph., Pan. 27.2: ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς περιφορᾶς.
178. For the account of the soul’s equality to Jesus, see Tert., An. 23.2. For Karpokratians, Jesus is not an inimitable God but a fellow soul who pioneers a path of enlightenment that others can follow ...
39.1. ... Markos was an expert in magic. He deceived many people by practicing some feats by trickery, and others by demons. This fool used to declare that there was in him the “Greatest Power” from the “invisible and unnamable Places.”
2. he would often take a chalice as though offering the Eucharist. After far extending the formula of invocation, he would make the mixture appear purple, and then red. Consequently, it seemed to his dupes that a certain “Grace” had descended and supplied a bloody power to the drink ...
40.1 after mixing a chalice handed over by an assistant, he would give it to a woman to say the eucharistic formula while he stood alongside. Then he would take hold of a different chalice, empty and larger than the first. When the deceived woman had said the eucharistic formula, he would take the smaller chalice and tilt it toward the larger. Then, after many times pouring one into the other, he would pronounce over her the following words:
- 2. May Grace, who exists before the universe, who is inconceivable and unspeakable, fill your inner person and multiply in you the knowledge of her, as she implants the mustard seed into good soil!
41.3. Through trickery, they suppose that they retain their listeners.
When they consider them to be approved and able to preserve what has been entrusted to them, they conduct them to this bath.
But they are not satisfied by this alone. They even promise something else so as to control them with hope, so that they never break away. 4. They mutter something in an inaudible voice, laying their hands on the one who received redemption. They claim that what they whisper cannot be blithely declared unless one be “super-approved” ...
42.1. Indeed, the blessed presbyter Irenaeus, attacking them quite boldly in his refutation, also presented these sorts of washings and redemptions and spoke more fully about their practices. When they read this, some of them denied that these were their traditions, because they are taught always to deny it. So the thought occurred to me to investigate more accurately and to research in detail what they pass on as tradition in the “first bath” (as they call it) and in the second bath, which they call “redemption.” 2. Not even their “unspeakable mystery” escaped my notice—but let this be relinquished to Valentinus and to his school.
Now Markos, in imitation of his teacher, also fabricated a vision, supposing that in this way he would be glorified. For in fact, Valentinus claims that he saw a child, an infant recently born. When he inquired to find out who he was, the child replied that he was the Word. Then, by adding a tragic myth, Valentinus wanted to establish from it his own trumped-up heresy.
3. Daring the likes of this man, Markos says that the Tetrad descended to him in the shape of a woman—since, he says, the world was not able to bear her male form—and disclosed both her identity and the origin of all things, which she had never before revealed either to gods or to human beings. To him alone she described it, speaking as follows:
- 4. When the Father, who is inconceivable, beyond substance, and neither male nor female, first willed his unspeakable nature to be spoken, and the invisible to take shape, he opened his mouth and emanated a Word similar to himself. He, standing alongside him, showed to him what he was, having become manifest as the form of the Invisible.
7.31.5. Closely adhering to these doctrines, Markion entirely rejected the birth of our Savior, supposing it absurd that the Word that strives together with Love (that is, with the Good) be born in subjection to the bodily formation of destructive Strife. Rather, without birth “in the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar,”169 the Word—a being between evil and good—descended from above and taught in the synagogues.170 6. Since the Word is an intermediate between good and evil, he says, he is freed from all evil nature. Yet the Artificer is evil, Markion claims, along with his products.
For this reason, Jesus came down unborn, he says, to be free from all evil.
But he was also free, he says, of the good nature so as to be in between, as Paul declares,171 and as Jesus himself agrees: “Why do you call me good (ἀγαθόν;)? One is good (ἀγαθός).”172
7. These are the views of Markion, by which he deceived many. By using the theories of Empedokles and by adapting the philosophy invented by that man to his own theory, he concocted a godless heresy. 8. ... When they claim Christ’s disciples as their teachers, they slander them!
171. cf. 1 Tim 2:5: εἷς καὶ μεσίτης θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων (“and there is one mediator between God and human beings”). Marcovich suspects a lacuna here and was tempted to fill it with a quote from Gal 3:20: ὁ δὲ μεσίτης ἑνὸς οὐκ ἔστιν (“but a mediator does not mediate one party”). cf. Clem. Alex., Exc. 53.2.
172. Mark 10:18 par.; cf. Ref. 5.7.26 (Naassenes); Origen, Princ. 2.5.1.
But since it seems to me that I have sufficiently presented his views, let us see what Karpokrates affirms.173
32.1. Karpokrates says that the world and its contents were made by angels far subordinate to the unborn Father, and that Jesus was born from Joseph, substantially the same as other human beings, although he was more just. This is because his soul, born vigorous and pure, remembered what it saw when it circled round with the unborn God. For this reason, the Unborn sent down a power to his soul, so that through it Jesus’s soul might escape the makers of the world [cf. Seneca, Ep. 41.5]. He also sent the power down so that, when Jesus’s soul had passed through all, and had been freed from all, it might rise again to him, along with the souls that cling to what is similar to the soul of Jesus.
173 Our author’s account of Karpokrates is taken with modifications from Iren., Haer. 1.25.1–3, with bits from 1.25.4–5. Cf. Epiph., Pan. 27.1.1–6.11; Ps.-Tert., Adv. omn. haer. 3. See further Pétrement, Separate God, 347–50; Lampe, Paul to Valentinus, 319–20.
2. They say that the soul of Jesus, although lawfully trained in Jewish customs, despised them. For this reason, he accomplished miracles. Through these miracles, he disabled the violent emotions attached to human beings that were designed for their punishment.176
3. They say that the soul, empowered in the same way as the soul of Christ, despises the world-making rulers and receives equal power to perform the same actions. Consequently, they have stooped to such a pitch of pride as to say that some of their followers are equal to Jesus himself, while others are still more powerful than he, and some are even superior to his disciples—like Peter and Paul and the rest of the apostles!
4. These people do not in any respect fall short of Jesus. This is because their souls have come here from the superior authority.177 For this reason, they too despise the world makers, are worthy of the same power as Jesus, and in the future advance to the same state as Jesus.178
176. Healing was associated with rooting out negative emotions (cf. Corp. herm. 1.27; 1.32; 13.7–9 [Festugière and Nock]; Porphyry, Abst. 4.16).
177. Irenaeus reads “from the same revolution” (ex eadem circumlatione); cf. Epiph., Pan. 27.2: ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς περιφορᾶς.
178. For the account of the soul’s equality to Jesus, see Tert., An. 23.2. For Karpokratians, Jesus is not an inimitable God but a fellow soul who pioneers a path of enlightenment that others can follow ...
Statistics: Posted by MrMacSon — Wed Mar 06, 2024 4:50 pm