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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;”50 and again, “All things are to Him, and of Him
are all things;”51 and further, “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead;”52 and yet
again, “All things are gathered together by God in Christ.”53 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;”54 and again, “Taking up the cross, follow me;”55 but the separating
power when He said, “I came not to send peace, but a sword.”56 They also maintain that
John indicated the same thing when he said, “The fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly
purge the floor, and will gather the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He will burn with
fire unquenchable.”57 By this declaration He set forth the faculty of Horos. For that fan they
explain to be the cross (Stauros), which consumes, no doubt, all material58 objects, as fire
does chaff, but it purifies all them that are saved, as a fan does wheat. Moreover, they affirm
that the Apostle Paul himself made mention of this cross in the following words: “The
doctrine of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the
power of God.”59 And again: “God forbid that I should glory in anything60 save in the cross
of Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.”
50 Col. iii. 11.
51 Rom. xi. 36.
52 Col. ii. 9.
53 Eph. i. 10.
54 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 famil-
iar with a Syriac version of the New Testament than with the Greek original.
55 Matt. x. 21.
56 Matt. x. 34.
57 Luke iii. 17.
58 Hence Stauros was called by the agricultural name Carpistes, as separating what was gross and material
from the spiritual and heavenly.
59 1 Cor. i. 18.
60 Gal. vi. 14. The words ἐν μηδενί do not occur in the Greek text.
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Chapter III.—Texts of Holy Scripture used by these heretics to support their…