Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3.11
John, the Lord's disciple, proclaims this faith because he wants to tear out the error that Cerinthus sowed in human hearts — and earlier still, the error that the so-called Nicolaitans planted. They are a counterfeit offshoot, wrongly named, whose purpose is to confuse people and to persuade them that one God made everything through his Word. The heretics deny this. They claim there is one creator and another, different Father of the Lord; one son of the creator, and another Christ from above who, they say, stayed impassible, descended into Jesus the creator's son, and then flew back to his Pleroma. They call the Trinity "the Only-begotten," and the Logos "the true son of the Only-begotten." They insist that our material condition was not made by the first God but by some power far below, cut off from the invisible, ineffable realm above. Therefore the Lord's disciple, wanting to enclose all such teachings and to establish the rule of truth in the Church — because there is one almighty God who made all things, visible and invisible, through his Word — also signals that through the Word, by which God perfected the creation, he has provided salvation for people who live in that creation. So he begins his Gospel teaching: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made. What was made held life in him, and that life was the light of humanity; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. "All things," he says, "were made through him"; therefore this creation of ours is included among those all things. The heretics cannot claim that everything they name exists only below their Pleroma. If their Pleroma contains these things, then this creation is not outside it — as we showed in the previous book. But if these things lie outside the Pleroma, which is impossible, then their Pleroma is not "all things"; so this creation cannot be outside it either. John himself has removed every dissension from us by declaring: He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But according to Marcion and those like him, the world was not made through him, nor did he come to his own — he came to what is alien. According to certain Gnostics, angels made this world, not the Word of God. According to the Valentinians, the world was not made through him but through the Demiurge. They say the Demiurge fashioned the creation by forming likenesses that imitate the realities above. They claim the Lord and the Demiurge were sent by the Mother, through whom they want the world to have been made — yet the Gospel plainly says that all things were made through the Word who was in the beginning with God, and that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). According to them, neither the Word nor Christ nor the Savior (whom they say was composed from all things) became flesh. They refuse to let the Word and Christ enter this world; they say the Savior did not become incarnate or suffer, but descended like a dove into Jesus — who came from their "disposition" — announced the unknown Father, and then ascended back to the Pleroma. Some say Jesus from the disposition was incarnate and suffered, passing through Mary like water through a pipe. Others say the Demiurge's son received the Jesus from the disposition. Others say Jesus was born of Joseph and Mary, and the impassible, fleshless Christ from above descended into him. By no heretical opinion did the Word of God become flesh. If anyone examines all their systems, he will find that every one of them presents the Word of God and the Christ from above as fleshless and impassible. Some think he merely appeared, like a transfigured man, yet they deny he was born or became incarnate. Others say he did not even assume human form, but descended like a dove into the Jesus born of Mary. Thus the Lord's disciple, exposing all these as false witnesses, declares: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And so that we do not ask whose Word became flesh, he himself teaches further: There was a man sent from God, named John; he came as a witness to testify about the light. He was not the light, but came to testify about the light. So John the forerunner, who testifies to the light — by which God was he sent? Surely by the God whose angel is Gabriel, who also announced his birth; who promised through the prophets to send his angel before the face of his Son to prepare his way — that is, to testify about the light — in the spirit and power of Elijah. And Elijah was the servant and prophet of which God? The God who made heaven and earth, as Elijah himself confesses. Therefore John was sent by the founder and creator of this world. How else could he testify about the light that descended from the invisible, ineffable realm? All heretics have decreed that the Demiurge is ignorant of the power above him, yet John is found to be the witness and revealer of that power. That is why the Lord said John was more than a prophet. All the other prophets announced the coming of the Father's light; they longed to see the one they preached. But John not only announced him like the rest — he saw him coming, pointed him out, and persuaded many to believe in him, so that he holds the place of both prophet and apostle.
Latin
Hane fidem annuntians Johannes Domini discipulus, volens per Evangelii annuntiationem auferre eum, qui a Cerintho inseminatus erat hominibus errorem, et multo prius ab his qui dicuntur Nicolaite, qui sunt vulsio ejus quee falso cognominatur ut confunderet eos, et suaderet quoniam unus Deus qui omnia fecit per Verbum suum ; et non, quemadmodum illi dicunt, alterum quidem fabricatorem, alium autem Patrem Domini: et alium quidem fabricatoris filium, alterum vero ®de superioribus Christum, quem et impassibilem perseverasse, descendentem in Jesum filium fabricatoris, et iterum revolasse in suum Pleroma: et Tinitium quidem esse monogenem; Logon autem verum filium unigeniti: et eam conditionem quze est secundum nos, non a primo Deo factam, sed a virtute aliqua valde deorsum subjecta, et abscissa ab eorum communicatione quze sunt invisibilia et innominabilia. Omnia igitur talia cireumscribere volens discipulus Domini, et ' regulam veritatis constituere in Ecclesia, quia est unus Deus omnipotens, qui per Verbum suum omnia fecit, et visibilia et invisibilia; significans quoque, quoniam per Verbum, per quod Deus perfecit conditionem, in hoe et salutem his qui in conditione sunt preestitit hominibus; sic inchoavit in ea que est secundum Evangelium doctrina: Jn principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum: hoc erat in principio apud Deum. Omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil. Quod factum est, in ipso vita erat, et vita erat lua hominum, et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebre eam non comprehenderunt. Omnia, inquit, per ipsum facta sunt ; in omnibus ergo est et hzee quae secundum nos est conditio: non enim concedetur eis, omnia dici ea que sunt infra Pleroma ipsorum. Si enim et hee Pleroma ipsorum continet, non extra est tanta ista conditio, quemadmodum ostendimus in eo libro qui ante hune est ; si autem extra Pleroma sunt heec, quod quidem impossibile visum est, jam non est omnia Pleroma ipsorum: non est ergo extra heee tanta conditio. Abstulit autem a nobis dissensiones omnes ipse Johannes, dicens: In hoc mundo erat, et mundus per ipsum factus est, et mundus eum non cognovit. In sua propria venit, et sui eum non receperunt. Secundum autem Marcionem et eos qui similes sunt ei, neque mundus per eum factus est ; neque in sua venit, sed in aliena, Secundum autem quosdam Gnosticorum, ¢ab angelis factus est iste mundus, et non per Verbum Dei. Secundum autem eos qui sunt a Valentino, iterum non per eum factus est, sed per Demiurgum. Hic enim operabatur similitudines tales fieri, ad imitationem eorum que sunt sursum, quemadmodum dicunt: Demiurgus autem perficiebat fabricationem conditionis. Emissum enim dicunt eum a matre Dominum et Demiurgum ejus dispositionis quee est secundum conditionem, per quem hune mundum factum volunt: cum Evangelium manifeste dicat, quoniam per Verbum, quod in principio erat apud Deum, omnia sunt facta: quod Verbum, inquit, caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis. 8. Secundum autem illos, neque Verbum caro factum est, neque Christus, neque qui ex omnibus factus est Salvator. Htenim Verbum et Christum nec advenisse in hune mundum volunt: Salvatorem vero non incarnatum neque passum; descendisse autem quasi columbam in eum Jesum qui factus est ex dispositione, et cum annuntiasset incognitum Patrem, iterum ascendisse in Pleroma. Incarnatum autem et passum quidam quidem eum qui ex dispositione sit dicunt Jesum, quem per Mariam dicunt pertransisse, quasi aquam per tubum: alii vero ° Demiurgi filium, in quem descendisse eum Jesum qui ex dispositione sit: alii rursum Jesum quidem ex Joseph et Maria natum dicunt, et in hune descendisse Christum qui de superioribus sit, sine carne et impassibilem exsistentem. Secundum autem nullam sententiam heereticorum, Verbum Dei caro factum est. Si enim quis regulas ipsorum omnium perscrutetur, inveniet quoniam sine carne et impassibilis ab omnibus illis inducitur Dei Verbum, et qui est in superioribus Christus. Alii enim putant manifestatum eum, quemadmodum hominem transfiguratum; neque autem natum, neque incarnatum dicunt illum: alii vero neque figuram eum assumsisse hominis; sed quemadmodum columbam descendisse in eum Jesum, qui natus est ex Maria. Omnes igitur illos falsos testes ostendens discipulus Domini, ait: Ht Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis. Et ut non inquiramus, cujus Dei Verbum caro factum est, ipse insuper docet, dicens : Fuit homo missus a Deo, erat ei nomen Johannes: hic venit in testimonium, ut testaretur de lumine. Non erat ipse lumen, sed ut testaretur de lumine. Preecursor igitur Johannes, qui testatur de lumine, a quo Deo missus est? Utique ab eo cujus Gabriel est angelus, qui etiam evangelisavit generationem ejus; qui et per prophetas promisit angelum suum missurum ante faciem Filii sui, et preeparaturum viam ejus, hoc est, testificaturum de lumine, i spiritw et virtute Helie. Helias autem rursus cujus Dei servus et propheta fuit? Ejus qui fecit coelum et terram, quemadmodum et ipse confitetur. A conditore igitur et fabricatore hujus mundi missus Johannes, quemadmodum poterat testificari de eo lumine, quod ex his que sunt innominabilia et invisibilia descenderit ? Omnes enim heeretici decreverunt, Demiurgum ignorare eam que sit super eum virtutem, cujus testis et ostensor invenitur Johannes. Propter hoc Dominus plus quam prophetam dixit eum habuisse. Reliqui enim omnes prophetze annuntiaverunt adventum paterni luminis; concupierunt autem digni esse videre eum quem preedicabant: Johannes autem et preenuntiavit similiter sicut alii, et advenientem vidit et demonstravit, et credere in eum suasit multis, ita ut ipse et prophete et apostoli locum habuerit.