Oath of Justin
the Gnostic, as reported in Refutation of
all Heresies, 5.23-24; 5.27:1-3
In the anonymous
Refutation of All Heresies, written in the third century in Rome, we are
told of the “Gnostic” heretic Justin, his book “Baruch,” and the oath by which
he binds his followers.
Source: Refutation of All Heresies.
2016. Trans: M. David Litwa. Writings from the Greco Roman World, Vol. 40. SBL
Press. p. 331; 333; 353.
[5.23] Justin
became a full-scale opponent against the teaching of holy scripture and in
particular against the voice of the blessed evangelists. This is because the
Word taught his disciples, "Do not depart to the path of Gentiles"
(that is, pay no attention to the futile teachings of pagans), while this fool
tries to lead his hearers astray to the fantastic tales and teachings of the
pagans by directly quoting Greek myths. He neither teaches nor hands on his
perfect mystery before he binds his dupe with an oath. 2. Then he sets out his
myths to capture their souls. Consequently, the readers of the boundless
blabbering in his books have his myths as a diversion. It is like when someone
on a long journey finds an inn and decides to rest. Justin uses this method so
that they will not despise diligent study when again they turn to their regimen
of readings. They pursue this course until, swelling with pride, they rush
toward the oft-trumpeted crime that he fabricated. He binds these people
beforehand with hair-raising oaths neither to declare [the mysteries] nor to
apostatize—and he forces them to consent. This is his method of handing on his
impiously invented mysteries! Some-times, as I said, he employs Greek myths, at
other times doctored books that in some respects reflect the aforementioned
heresies. All these heretics, driven by one spirit, flow together into a single
sewage "depth" as they variously narrate and relate the same
doctrines in different ways. But all of them independently refer to themselves
as “gnostics,” since they alone have gulped down the wondrous knowledge of the
perfect and good!
[5.24]
"Swear," Justin says, if you desire to know "what eye has not
seen nor ear heard nor has it risen in the human heart." Swear by the one
superior to all, the Good, the Highest one, to guard what is inexpressible,
these teachings covered in silence! For surely our Father, too, when he saw the
Good and was initiated by him, guarded the inexpressible secrets of silence and
swore, as it is written: "The Lord swore and will not repent!" So,
having sealed them by these words, Justin captures their souls with a host of
myths in a bevy of books. Thus he leads them to the Good, initiating his
initiates into unuttered mysteries!
So that
we can travel without frequent detours, I will expose his unspeakable secrets
from one of his books, a book that, in his view, is "glorious:' It is
entitled Baruch. In it, I will reveal one out of many of his mythological
discourses, a story with a prehistory in Herodotos. By reformulating this myth,
Justin presents it to his hearers as something novel and from it constructs the
entire system of his school.
[5.27:1-3]
There is also written an oath in the first book entitled Baruch, which they
make those about to hear these mysteries and become initiated into the Good
swear. This oath, Justin claims, "our Father Elohim" swore when he
arrived beside the Good. He swore and did not repent of this oath. The scriptures
refer to this, he claims, in the verse: "The Lord swore and will not
repent." This is the oath:
I swear
by the one over all things, the Good, to keep these mysteries and to tell them
to no one, nor will I backslide away from the Good toward creation.
Whenever
one swears this oath, one comes to the Good and sees "what eye has not
seen, nor ear heard, nor has it risen in the human heart," and drinks from
"living water" (which refers to their baptismal bath), which they
suppose to be a fount of "living, bubbling water." There was made a
division, he explains, between water and water so that there is a water of the
evil creation below the firmament, in which the earthly and animate are washed,
and a water of the Good above the firmament. This water is living, and in it
are washed the living spiritual humans. In it Elohim washed himself. When he
washed, he did not repent.
