Hippolytus

“ These, he says, are the inferior mysteries, those appertaining to carnal generation. Now, those men who are initiated into these inferior (mysteries) ought to pause, and (then) be admitted into the great (and) heavenly (ones) . For they, he says, who obtain their shares (in this mystery) , receive greater portions. For this, he says, is the gate of heaven; and this a house of God, where the Good Deity dwells alone. And into this (gate) , he says, no unclean person shall enter, nor one that is natural or carnal; but it is reserved for the spiritual only. ”

“ Now he who makes these statements is, he says, the Perfect Man that is imaged from the unportrayable one from above. The Perfect Man therefore cannot, he says, be saved, unless, entering in through this gate, he be born again. But this very one the Phrygians, he says, call also Papa, because he tranquillized all things which, prior to his manifestation, were confusedly and dissonantly moved. ”

“ Concerning these, it is said, the Saviour has expressly declared that “straight and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there are that enter upon it; whereas broad and spacious is the way that leadeth unto destruction, and many there are that pass through it.” ”

“ Now they allege that the work of swine and dogs is the intercourse of the woman with a man. And the Phrygians, he says, call this very one “goat-herd” (Aipolis) , not because, he says, he is accustomed to feed the goats female and male, as the natural (men) use the name, but because, he says, he is “Aipolis”—that is, always ranging over,—who both revolves and carries around the entire cosmical system by his revolutionary motion. For the word “Polein” signifies to turn and change things ”

“ Adopting these and such like (opinions) , these most marvellous Gnostics, inventors of a novel [1] grammatical art, magnify Homer as their prophet—as one, (according to them,) who, after the mode adopted in the mysteries, announces these truths; and they mock those who are not indoctrinated into the holy Scriptures, by betraying them into such notions. They make, however, the following assertion: he who says that all things derive consistence from one, is in error ”

“ And those who come hither ought to cast off [52] their garments, and become all of them bridegrooms, emasculated through the virginal spirit. For this is the virgin [53] who carries in her womb and conceives and brings forth a son, not animal, not corporeal, but blessed for evermore. ”