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Against Heresies, Book 1

About this book
Chapter 28

1 Many offshoots of numerous heresies have already been formed from those heretics we have described. This arises from the fact that numbers of them — indeed, we may say all — desire themselves to be teachers, and to break off from the particular heresy in which they have been involved. Forming one set of doctrines out of a totally different system of opinions, and then again others from others, they insist upon teaching something new, declaring themselves the inventors of any sort of opinion which they may have been able to call into existence. To give an example: Springing from Saturninus and Marcion, those who are called Encratites (self-controlled) preached against marriage, thus setting aside the original creation of God, and indirectly blaming Him who made the male and female for the propagation of the human race. Some of those reckoned among them have also introduced abstinence from animal food, thus proving themselves ungrateful to God, who formed all things. They deny, too, the salvation of him who was first created.⁠ It is but lately, however, that this opinion has been invented among them. A certain man named Tatian first introduced the blasphemy. He was a hearer of Justin's, and as long as he continued with him he expressed no such views; but after his martyrdom he separated from the Church, and, excited and puffed up by the thought of being a teacher, as if he were superior to others, he composed his own peculiar type of doctrine. He invented a system of certain invisible Æons, like the followers of Valentinus; while, like Marcion and Saturninus, he declared that marriage was nothing else than corruption and fornication. But his denial of Adam's salvation was an opinion due entirely to himself. 2 Others, again, following upon Basilides and Carpocrates, have introduced promiscuous intercourse and a plurality of wives, and are indifferent about eating meats sacrificed to idols, maintaining that God does not greatly regard such matters. But why continue? For it is an impracticable attempt to mention all those who, in one way or another, have fallen away from the truth.

Book 2

Texts in conversation

Compare Gospel of Thomas 85 and Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.28

Nag Hammadi · Early Christian

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Summary

In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus points to Adam's death as evidence that he was unworthy. Irenaeus attacks people who deny Adam's salvation, showing that this criticism of Adam belongs beside an ancient dispute over whether he could be saved.

Passages

Gospel of Thomas 85

Nag Hammadi
84 Jesus said, “When you see your likeness you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before you and that neither die nor are revealed, how much you will have to bear!” 85 Jesus said, “Adam came from great power and great wealth, but he did not become worthy of you. For had he been worthy, [he would] not [have tasted] death.” 86 Jesus said, “The foxes have their holes and the birds have their nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head and rest.”
135–200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gospel of Thomas

Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.28

Early Christian
Springing from Saturninus and Marcion, those who are called Encratites (self-controlled) preached against marriage, thus setting aside the original creation of God, and indirectly blaming Him who made the male and female for the propagation of the human race. Some of those reckoned among them have also introduced abstinence from animal food, thus proving themselves ungrateful to God, who formed all things. They deny, too, the salvation of him who was first created. It is but lately, however, that this opinion has been invented among them. A certain man named Tatian first introduced the blasphemy. He was a hearer of Justin's, and as long as he continued with him he expressed no such views; but after his martyrdom he separated from the Church, and, excited and puffed up by the thought of being a teacher, as if he were superior to others, he composed his own peculiar type of doctrine. He invented a system of certain invisible Æons, like the followers of Valentinus; while, like Marcion and Saturninus, he declared that marriage was nothing else than corruption and fornication. But his denial of Adam's salvation was an opinion due entirely to himself.
175–190 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book 1

References

“... 85.2 For if he had been worthy, he would not have tasted death. On ‘tasted death’, see comments and bibliography ad GTh 1. Probably more than Adam’s physical death is envisaged here, since mere biological death (something experienced by Jesus as well—no doubt—as some of the Thomas movement: cf. 55.2) would probably not indicate unworthiness. An allusion to Adam’s death as penalty or Unheil is probably in evidence; Adam not only experienced physical death but expulsion from paradise (cf. GTh 19), and therefore forfeited the state of primeval innocence. Hence Thomas probably participates in the second-century discussion of whether Adam was to be saved, taking the negative position of Tatian which was so strongly to be condemned by Irenaeus (AH 1.28.1; cf. Irenaeus’s own view in AH 3.23.8). This is interesting in the context of the second century, when Adam became a subject of discussion in his own right in Christian texts, rather than simply as a type of Christ (only mentioned by name 9 × in the NT; cf. the depiction in Paul in Rom. 5.12–19; 1 Cor. 15.22, 45). He is not an object of any speculation in the Apostolic Fathers. ...”
Simon Gathercole, The Gospel of Thomas: Introduction and Commentary (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 517–518.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Gospel of Thomas 85 and Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.28

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