Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3.11
The Lord's disciple John proclaims this faith, writing his Gospel to uproot the error that Cerinthus had sown among men, and even earlier, the Nicolaitans, a false offshoot that sought to confuse them. He aims to convince them that there is one God who made all things through His Word—not one creator and another Father of the Lord, as the heretics claim, nor one son of the creator and another Christ from above who remained impassible, descended into Jesus the creator's son, and then returned to his Pleroma. They also teach that the Trinity is the Monogenes, the Logos is the true son of the Monogenes, and that our material condition was not made by the first God but by a far lower power, severed from the invisible and ineffable realm above (John 1:1-14).
Therefore the Lord's disciple, determined to fence off all such teachings and establish the rule of truth in the Church, grounds everything in the confession that there is one almighty God who made all things, visible and invisible, through His Word. He also shows that through the same Word by which God perfected the creation, He provided salvation for those who live in it. So John opens his Gospel doctrine with the words: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:1-5).
All things, John says, were made through Him; therefore this creation of ours is included in that all. The heretics cannot claim that everything belongs to their Pleroma and then exclude this world. If their Pleroma contains these things, then this world is not outside it, as we showed in the previous book; but if these things are outside the Pleroma—an impossibility—then their Pleroma is not all things. So this creation is not outside it either. John removes every dissension 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 did not receive Him (John 1:10-11).
According to Marcion and his followers, the world was not made through Him, nor did He come to His own but to another's. According to certain Gnostics, angels made this world, not the Word of God. According to the Valentinians, the Demiurge made the world, not the Word; they say he fashioned it by copying the things above. Yet the Gospel plainly states 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). The heretics deny that the Word became flesh, that Christ became flesh, or that the Savior from all things came. 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 the condition, announced the unknown Father, and then returned to the Pleroma.
Some claim Jesus from the condition was incarnate and suffered, passing through Mary like water through a pipe. Others say the Demiurge's son received the Jesus from the condition. Still 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. Examine all their systems and you will find that every one presents the Word of God and the Christ from above as without flesh and impassible. Some think He merely appeared as a transfigured man, denying He was born or became incarnate; others say He did not assume human form at all but descended like a dove into the Jesus born of Mary.
The Lord's disciple exposes all these as false witnesses and declares: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). So that we need not ask whose Word became flesh, John himself teaches: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John; he came as a witness to testify about the light. He was not the light, but came to testify about the light (John 1:6-8). John the forerunner, who testifies to the light, was sent by which God? Surely by the God whose angel is Gabriel, who also announced John's birth; the God who promised through the prophets to send His messenger before the face of His Son to prepare His way—to testify to the light in the spirit and power of Elijah. Elijah was the servant and prophet of which God? Of 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 to a light that, on the heretics' view, descended from the ineffable and invisible realms? All heretics decree that the Demiurge is ignorant of the power above him, yet John is found to be that power's witness and revealer. For this reason the Lord said John was more than a prophet (Luke 7:26).
All the other prophets announced the coming of the Father's light and longed to see the one they preached; John not only announced Him but saw Him come, pointed Him out, and persuaded many to believe in Him, so that he holds the place of both prophet and apostle. He is indeed more than a prophet: first an apostle, second a prophet; yet all things are from one and the same God.
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. est enim plus quam propheta: quoniam primo apostoli, secundo prophetw ; omnia autem ex uno et eodem ipso Deo.