They denominate themselves, however, Perat\u00e6, imagining that none of those things existing by generation can escape the determined lot for those things that derive their existence from generation.
\n…
\nFor they suppose little Egypt to be body, and that it crosses the Red Sea\u2014that is, the water of corruption, which is Cronus\u2014and that it reaches a place beyond the Red Sea, that is, generation; and that it comes into the wilderness, that is, that it attains a condition independent of generation, where there exist promiscuously all the gods of destruction and the God of salvation. Now, he says, the stars are the gods of destruction, which impose upon existent things the necessity of alterable generation. These, he says, Moses denominated serpents of the wilderness, which gnaw and utterly ruin those who imagined that they had crossed the Red Sea. To those, then, he says, who of the children of Israel were bitten in the wilderness, Moses exhibited the real and perfect serpent; and they who believed on this serpent were not bitten in the wilderness, that is, (were not assailed) by (evil) powers. No one therefore, he says, is there who is able to save and deliver those that come forth from Egypt, that is, from the body and from this world, unless alone the serpent that is perfect and replete with fulness. … This serpent, he says, is the power that attended Moses, the rod that was turned into a serpent. The serpents, however, of the magicians\u2014(that is,) the gods of destruction\u2014withstood the power of Moses in Egypt, but the rod of Moses reduced them all to subjection and slew them. This universal serpent is, he says, the wise discourse of Eve. This, he says, is the mystery of Edem, this the river of Edem; this the mark that was set upon Cain, that any one who findeth him might not kill him. This, he says, is Cain, whose sacrifice the god of this world did not accept. The gory sacrifice, however, of Abel he approved of; for the ruler of this world rejoices in (offerings of) blood. …This, he says, is that which has been declared: \u201cIn the same manner as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so also must the Son of man be lifted up.\u201d According to the likeness of this was made in the desert the brazen serpent which Moses set up. Of this alone, he says, the image is in heaven, always conspicuous in light.
\n…
\nConcerning this, he says it has been declared: \u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God, all things were made by Him, and without Him was not one thing that was made. And what was formed in Him is life.\u201d And in Him, he says, has been formed Eve; (now) Eve is life. This, however, he says, is Eve, mother of all living, \u2014a common nature, that is, of gods, angels, immortals, mortals, irrational creatures, (and) rational ones. For, he says, the expression \u201call\u201d he uttered of all (existences). And if the eyes of any, he says, are blessed, this one, looking upward on the firmament, will behold at the mighty summit of heaven the beauteous image of the serpent, turning itself, and becoming an originating principle of every (species of) motion to all things that are being produced.
\n— The Refutation of All Heresies V.XI<\/p>\n
According to them, the universe is Father, Son, (and) Matter; (but) each of these three has endless capacities in itself. Intermediate, then, between the Matter and the Father sits the Son, the Word, the Serpent, always being in motion towards the unmoved Father, and (towards) Matter itself in motion. And at one time he is turned towards the Father, and receives the powers into his own person; but at another time takes up these powers, and is turned towards Matter. And Matter, (though) devoid of attribute, and being unfashioned, moulds (into itself) forms from the Son which the Son moulded from the Father. But the Son derives shape from the Father after a mode ineffable, and unspeakable, and unchangeable; (that is,) in such a manner as Moses says that the colours of the conceived (kine) flowed from the rods which were fixed in the drinking-troughs. And in like manner, again, that capacities flowed also from the Son into Matter, similarly to the power in reference to conception which came from the rods upon the conceived (kine). And the difference of colours, and the dissimilarity which flowed from the rods through the waters upon the sheep, is, he says, the difference of corruptible and incorruptible generation. As, however, one who paints from nature, though he takes nothing away from animals, transfers by his pencil all forms to the canvas; so the Son, by a power which belongs to himself, transfers paternal marks from the Father into Matter.<\/p>\n
No one, then, he says, can be saved or return (into heaven) without the Son, and the Son is the Serpent. For as he brought down from above the paternal marks, so again he carries up from thence those marks roused from a dormant condition … This, he says, is what is spoken: \u201cI am the door.\u201d And he transfers (those marks), he says, … as the magnet (attracting) the iron and not anything else, or just as the backbone of the sea falcon, the gold and nothing else, or as the chaff is led by the amber. In this manner, he says, is the portrayed, perfect, and consubstantial genus drawn again from the world by the Serpent; nor does he (attract) anything else, as it has been sent down by him. For a proof of this, they adduce the anatomy of the brain, assimilating, from the fact of its immobility, the brain itself to the Father, and the cerebellum to the Son, because of its being moved and being of the form of (the head of) a serpent. And they allege that this (cerebellum), by an ineffable and inscrutable process, attracts through the pineal gland the spiritual and life-giving substance emanating from the vaulted chamber (in which the brain is embedded). And on receiving this, the cerebellum in an ineffable manner imparts the ideas, just as the Son does, to matter; or, in other words, the seeds and the genera of the things produced according to the flesh flow along into the spinal marrow.
\n— The Refutation of All Heresies V.XII<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Peratic Heresy They denominate themselves, however, Perat\u00e6, imagining that none of those things existing by generation can escape the determined lot for those things that derive their existence from generation. … For they suppose little Egypt to be body, and that it crosses the Red Sea\u2014that is, the water of corruption, which is Cronus\u2014and that it reaches a place beyond the Red Sea, that is, generation; and that it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[80,104],"class_list":["post-1054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hippolytus","tag-genesis","tag-moses"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1071,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/hippolytus-on-pythagoras\/","url_meta":{"origin":1054,"position":0},"title":"Hippolytus On Pythagoras","author":"Nemo","date":"February 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Pythagoras\u2019 System of Numbers Pythagoras, then, declared the originating principle of the universe to be the unbegotten monad, and the generated duad, and the rest of the numbers. And he says that the monad is the father of the duad, and the duad the mother of all things that are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hippolytus"","block_context":{"text":"Hippolytus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/hippolytus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1115,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/hippolytus-on-the-antichrist\/","url_meta":{"origin":1054,"position":1},"title":"Hippolytus On the Antichrist","author":"Nemo","date":"March 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"For it is certain that [the Antichrist] is destined to spring from the tribe of Dan, and to range himself in opposition like a princely tyrant, a terrible judge and accuser, as the prophet testifies when he says, \u201cDan shall judge his people, as one tribe in Israel.\u201d But some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hippolytus"","block_context":{"text":"Hippolytus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/hippolytus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1089,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/hippolytus-on-daniel\/","url_meta":{"origin":1054,"position":2},"title":"Hippolytus: On Daniel","author":"Nemo","date":"March 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Visions of Golden Image and the Four Beasts [1] In speaking of a \u201clioness from the sea,\u201d he meant the rising of the kingdom of Babylon, and that this was the \u201cgolden head of the image.\u201d And in speaking of its \u201ceagle wings,\u201d he meant that king Nebuchadnezzar was exalted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hippolytus"","block_context":{"text":"Hippolytus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/hippolytus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1099,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/hippolytus-on-the-psaltery-and-the-psalms\/","url_meta":{"origin":1054,"position":3},"title":"Hippolytus On the Psaltery and the Psalms","author":"Nemo","date":"March 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"David alone of the prophets prophesied with an instrument, called by the Greeks the \u201cpsaltery,\u201d and by the Hebrews the \u201cnabla,\u201d which is the only musical instrument that is quite straight, and has no curve. And the sound does not come from the lower parts, as is the case with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hippolytus"","block_context":{"text":"Hippolytus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/hippolytus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1105,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/hippolytus-on-the-body-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":1054,"position":4},"title":"Hippolytus On the Body of Christ","author":"Nemo","date":"March 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"For whereas the Word of God was without flesh, He took upon Himself the holy flesh by the holy Virgin, and prepared a robe which He wove for Himself, like a bridegroom, in the sufferings of the cross, in order that by uniting His own power with our mortal body,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hippolytus"","block_context":{"text":"Hippolytus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/hippolytus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1077,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/hippolytus-on-genesis\/","url_meta":{"origin":1054,"position":5},"title":"Hippolytus: On Genesis","author":"Nemo","date":"February 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"An Interpretation of Jacob's Blessings Gen. xlix. 3 Reuben, my first-born, thou art my strength, and the first of my children; hard to bear with, and hard and self-willed: thou hast waxed wanton as water; boil not over. 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