The Heresy of Artemon

In a carefully labored work by one of these writers against the heresy of Artemon, which Paul of Samosata has tried to revive again in our own day, there is an account that belongs to the history we are examining. [a] The work sets right the heresy mentioned above, which says that the Savior was a mere man, as a recent innovation, because its introducers wanted to dignify it as ancient. After setting out many other arguments to refute their blasphemous falsehood, the work gives this account, word for word:

“For they say that all who went before, and the apostles themselves, received and taught what these men now say, and that the truth of the preaching was preserved until the times of Victor, who was the thirteenth bishop in Rome from Peter; but that from his successor Zephyrinus on, the truth was debased. [b] What they say might perhaps be believable, if in the first place the divine Scriptures did not contradict them. And there are also writings of certain brothers, older than the times of Victor, which they wrote both to the nations in defense of the truth and against the heresies of their day: I mean those of Justin, Miltiades, Tatian, Clement and many others. In all of them Christ is spoken of as God. [c] For who does not know the books of Irenaeus and Melito and the rest, which proclaim Christ as God and man? And how many psalms and songs, written by faithful brothers from the beginning, sing of Christ as the Word of God, speaking of him as God? [d] How then, when the church’s mind has been proclaimed for so many years, is it possible that those up to Victor preached in the way these men say? And how are they not ashamed to tell these lies about Victor, when they know perfectly well that Victor cut off from communion Theodotus the leatherworker, the leader and father of this God-denying apostasy, the first to say that Christ was a mere man? For if Victor thought as they do, as their blasphemy claims, how could he have cast out Theodotus, the inventor of this heresy?” [e]

So much for Victor. He presided over the ministry for ten years, and Zephyrinus was appointed his successor about the ninth year of the reign of Severus. The writer of the book already mentioned, speaking of the founder of this heresy, adds another event that took place in the time of Zephyrinus. He writes in these very words: [g]

“I will remind many of the brothers of a thing that happened in our own time, which, I think, if it had happened in Sodom, might have warned even them. There was a certain confessor, Natalius, not long ago but in our own times. He was once deceived by Asclepiodotus and by another Theodotus, a money-changer. Both of these were disciples of Theodotus the leatherworker, who, as I said, was the first to be cut off from communion by Victor, bishop at the time, for this way of thinking — or rather, of not thinking. [h] Natalius was persuaded by them to be called bishop of this heresy for a salary, so that he received from them 150 denarii a month. [i] So he joined them, and he was warned many times by the Lord through visions. For our compassionate God and Lord, Jesus Christ, did not want one who had been a witness to his own sufferings to perish outside the Church. [j] But he paid too little attention to the visions, lured as he was by the first seat among them and by the shameful greed that destroys so many. At last he was whipped by holy angels through the whole night and tormented severely, so that he rose at dawn, put on sackcloth, and sprinkled himself with ashes. With great haste and tears he fell down before Zephyrinus the bishop, rolling at the feet not only of the clergy but also of the laity. He moved the compassionate church of the merciful Christ with his tears; and though he pleaded at length and showed the welts from the blows he had received, he was received back into communion only with difficulty.”

To these we will add other words of the same writer about the same people. They run as follows: “They have tampered with the divine Scriptures without fear. They have set aside the rule of the ancient faith, and they have not known Christ. They do not ask what the divine Scriptures say, but labor diligently to find whatever form of syllogism will hold up their godlessness. If anyone puts a text of divine Scripture before them, they examine whether it can be made into a conditional or a disjunctive form of syllogism. [k] Abandoning the holy Scriptures of God, they devote themselves to geometry, since they are of the earth and speak of the earth and do not know him who comes from above. Euclid, at any rate, is diligently measured out by some of them; Aristotle and Theophrastus are admired; and Galen, perhaps, is even worshiped by some. [m] As for those who make use of the arts of unbelievers and the craftiness of the godless for the opinion of their heresy, what need is there even to say that they are nowhere near the faith? That is why they have laid their hands on the divine Scriptures without fear, saying that they have corrected them. [n]

That I am not slandering them in saying this, anyone who wishes can learn. If anyone will collect the copies of each of them and compare them with one another, he will find that they differ widely. Those of Asclepiades, for example, will not agree with those of Theodotus. Many of these can be had, because their disciples have zealously copied out what each of them has ‘corrected,’ as they call it — that is, destroyed. Again, those of Hermophilus do not agree with these. And those of Apolloniades do not even agree with themselves: you can compare the copies they prepared earlier with those they distorted again later, and find them widely different. [o] How daring this sin is, they themselves can hardly be unaware. Either they do not believe that the divine Scriptures were spoken by the Holy Spirit, and they are unbelievers; or they think themselves wiser than the Holy Spirit, and what are they then but possessed by demons? Nor can they deny that the daring deed is theirs, since the copies are written in their own hand. They did not receive such Scriptures from those who instructed them, and they cannot show the copies they transcribed them from. Some of them have not even thought it worth the trouble to debase them, but have simply denied the law and the prophets; and so, by lawless and godless teaching under the pretext of grace, they have slid into the uttermost depths of destruction.” Let this account of these things suffice.