A QUICK-START TO ROMAN CARPOCRATIC THEOLOGY

AGAINST HERESAYS

Against Heresays

This account of "The Doctrines of Carpocrates" was written around 180 C.E. by,
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon

Rearrangements and interjections by The Sibyl of The Metacan,
Marcellina II (she/her)

Irenaeus's account of the Carpocratians is the earliest and most vivid. Subsequent polemics against them over the following centuries were little more than copies of this one. St. Marcellina herself may have still been alive when this polemic was written. The writing of Irenaeus is presented with little alteration, but rearranged by Marcellina II for coherency and emphasis. The translations of Irenaeus were sourced from the public domain.

Table of Contents

On St. Marcellina

Contraheareses 25.6.1
[Some Carpocratians] employ outward marks, branding their disciples inside the lobe of the right ear. From among [them] also arose Marcellina, who came to Rome under [the episcopate of] Anicetus, and, holding these doctrines, she destroyed multitudes.

Marcellina II
Had we a gravestone for St. Marcellina, it would read:
"She Destroyed Multitudes."
—Irenaeus of Lyon
🔥

Contraheareses 25.6.2
[Marcellina's Carpocratians] style themselves Gnostics.

Marcellina II
The Roman Carpocratic Church styles Herself Gnostic. And yes—I like "style." But this isn't just aesthetic. The definitive elements of Gnosticism are present here. If other Gnostics disagree, I welcome it. Let's see a revived Sethian Church! I wouldn't mind the company, or the competition.

Contraheareses 25.6.3
[Marcellina's Gnostics] also possess images, some of them painted, and others formed from different kinds of material; while they maintain that a likeness of Christ was made by Pilate at that time when Jesus lived among them.

Marcellina II
The portraits of Jesus and Mary Magdalene in gold frames are, as of 2025, the most accurate depictions created by human hands.

Contraheareses 25.6.4
[Marcellina's Gnostics] crown these images, and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world that is to say, with the images of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Aristotle, and the rest.

On The Demiurge

Contraheareses 25.1.1
The sensible world was made by the fabricating powers, or Builders, far inferior to the ineffable power of the unknown ingenerable Father.

Marcellina II
Yes, we have Demiurges. Our Demiurges are the seraphim from Isaiah 6.

Contraheareses 25.4.4
They also declare the “adversary” is one of those angels who are in the world, whom they call the Devil, maintaining that he was formed for this purpose, that he might lead those souls which have perished from the world to the Supreme Ruler. They describe him also as being chief among the makers of the world, and maintain that he delivers such souls [as have been mentioned] to another angel, who ministers to him, that he may shut them up in other bodies;

Carpocratian Gospel of Eve 1:1
This is the history of the first earthlings when they were created by The Builders, the divine council of seraphim: the pontiff (השופט hashoft), the judge of Souls [the Supreme Ruler]; the bailiff (הסוהר hasoher),the jailer of Souls [another angel]; and the sheriff (השטן hashtan), the accuser of Souls [the adversary].

The Book of Job 1:12
Yahweh said to the accuser [Satan], “Behold, all that [Job] has is in your power. Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand.”

Marcellina II
We have neither a fall of humanity nor a fall of angels in this religion.

On Metempsychosis

Contraheareses 25.4.5
for they declare that the body is "the prison."

Marcellina II
Epiphanes, son of Carpocrates, is the only Carpocratian whose writing survives. These quotes come from Clement of Alexandria’s Stromata, where Epiphanes's work is preserved in fragments. He was about 17 years old when he died—yet his insight still silences the heresiarchs. Here is what he has to say about "the body."

Epiphanes5:1The Stromata3.2.9.4
Consequently you must understand the law “You shall not desire” as if the lawgiver was joking, to which he added even more comedy, “Your neighbors goods.” For he himself gave the desire to sustain the race [yet] orders that it is to be restrained, though he restrains it from no other animals.

Marcellina II
To Epiphanes, it seemed common sense that bodies desired one another and that it must have been a "joke" of the "lawgiver" to attempt to restrain it as though the body were "the prison."

Contraheareses 25.4.3
They affirm that for this reason Jesus spoke the following parable:— "Whilst you are with your adversary in the way, give all diligence, that you may be delivered from him, lest he give you up to the judge, and the judge surrender you to the officer, and he cast you into prison. Verily, I say unto you, you shall not go out thence until you pay the very last farthing."

Marcellina II
The prison metaphor serves to provide an urgency to repent (really to overcome passions and wantings) in your lifetime for the more immediate salvation of your Soul. We believe salvation is universal and inevitable after The Passion, and one can understand the sensible world as a gymnasium for Souls.

Contraheareses 25.4.2
They deem it necessary, therefore, that by means of transmigration from body to body, souls should have experience of every kind of life as well as every kind of action

The Tachyon9:35The Gospel of Mary2:12 "If you remain discontented at heart, then seek contentment in the myriads of places and people this world has to offer—before your separation."

Marcellina II
Or, you know, go outside and see the world.

(unless, indeed, by a single incarnation, one may be able to prevent any need for others, by once for all, and with equal completeness, doing all those things which we dare not either speak or hear of, nay, which we must not even conceive in our thoughts, nor think credible, if any such thing is mooted among those persons who are our fellow citizens),

Marcellina II
Oh, please. The accusation is the confession.

in order that, as their writings express it, their souls, having made trial of every kind of life, may, at their departure, not be wanting in any particular. It is necessary to insist upon this, lest, on account of some one thing being still wanting to their deliverance, they should be compelled once more to become incarnate.

Marcellina II
The Ante-Nicene mind cannot cope with Karma.

On Christology

Contraheareses 25.1.2
They also hold that Jesus was the son of Joseph, and was just like other men,

The Story of Kingmas1:10 Then the sheriff, speaking for the silent bailiff, asked, "Kāmā bənayyā dələk?" ("How many children are to you?") Mary exhaled softly, glancing toward the child before answering. "He is my seventh."

with the exception that he differed from them in this respect, that inasmuch as his soul was stedfast and pure, he perfectly remembered those things which he had witnessed within the sphere of the unbegotten God.

Marcellina II
Not quite. First, we have a distinct unbegotten God in The Ancient of Days—the Infinite One.

Second, regarding the soul, Jesus identified three parts:

The Tachyon9:23The Gospel of Mary4:14 He replied, ‘[People] do not see [dream visions] in the soul or in the spirit, but in the mind. The mind exists at the center of the soul. The mind is what sees the vision in the dream.’

Marcellina II
This is close to the well-known Platonic partition of the soul into "soul, spirit, and body." We replace "body" with "mind" to emphasize consciousness.

Our reason for Jesus's soul having "perfect memory of witnessing the unbegotten God" is that the soul of Jesus—not His spirit or mind, which were His own— was actually someone who many Gnostics know as "Yaldaboath"—that is to say, "YHVH" or "The Lord" or "The Name".

Contraheareses 25.1.3
On this account, a power descended upon him from the Father, that by means of it he might escape from the creators of the world; and they say that it, after passing through them all, and remaining in all points free, ascended again to him, and to the powers, which in the same way embraced like things to itself.

Marcellina II
Our account is that "The Lord" Himself forsook His own "Throne of Glory" and Kingship to descend into creation and embody Himself as Jesus because Jesus would seek Wisdom to redeem "The Lord" and reunite Him with Wisdom.

Jesus wasn't "The Lord's" son. He was "The Lord's" apology.

Contraheareses 25.1.4
They further declare, that the soul of Jesus, although educated in the practices of the Jews, regarded these with contempt,

The Tachyon 9:28 The Gospel of Mary 2:5
"I said to Him, ‘Since You have explained almost everything to me, Rebbe, tell me one more thing—what is the sin of the world?
The Tachyon 9:29 The Gospel of Mary 2:6
He said, ‘Sin does not exist. But you are the ones who make “sin” when you act in accordance with your nature. For The Builders established the laws of Noah and Moses knowing your flesh would transgress them—so now all of you are “sinning.”"

and that for this reason he was endowed with faculties, by means of which he destroyed those passions which dwelt in men as a punishment.

The Tachyon 9:30 The Gospel of Mary 2:7 'This was my purpose: to restore humanity to its root—the spark of the divine in each and every Human Being—The Holy Spirit of The Ancient of Days.'

The Tachyon 9:33 The Gospel of Mary 2:10 'Passions come from the materials of our flesh. They have no analog to the human spirit, for passions come from what is contrary to the spirit’s nature.'

Contraheareses 25.2.1
The soul, therefore, which is like that of Christ can despise those rulers who were the creators of the world, and, in like manner, receives power for accomplishing the same results.

The Tachyon9:37The Gospel of Mary 5:14
I said to Him, ‘Wait, Rebbe! What was the prayer You told me to say to the faces of the seraphim when I am separated—to break the wheel?’ And He told me exactly what to say:
‘What binds me has been killed.
What surrounds me has been overcome.
My desires have vanished,
and my ignorance has died.
The Tachyon9:38The Gospel of Mary 5:15
My soul has been released from the earth,
my spirit freed from my body,
and my mind lifted from the fog of imaginary amnesia.
The Tachyon9:39The Gospel of Mary 5:16
From this moment forward,
I will receive the rest of this time,
of this season of the age,
in silence.’”

The Tachyon10:21The Gospel of Mary6:11
Then Matthew lifted up his voice and said, “Rather we should be unashamed—adorning ourselves in the Divine Presence of Wisdom, acquiring Her for ourselves as He instructed us...

Contraheareses 25.2.2
This idea has raised them to such a pitch of pride, that some of them declare themselves similar to Jesus; while others, still more mighty, maintain that they are superior to his disciples, such as Peter and Paul, and the rest of the apostles, whom they consider to be in no respect inferior to Jesus.

The Mystic Gospel of Mark 9:34 The Gospel of Thomas 12
The disciples said to Jesus, “We know that you will depart and be beyond our reach. Who will then be greatest over us?”
The Mystic Gospel of Mark 9:35 The Gospel of John 14:12
Jesus said to them, “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do even greater works;
The Mystic Gospel of Mark 9:36The Gospel of James the Just 4:15
Become greater than I
The Mystic Gospel of Mark 9:37The Gospel of James the Just 11:12
for I wish one day to be the lesser.
The Mystic Gospel of Mark 9:38The Gospel of James the Just 9:13
But take care not to attain hubris while attaining the light that enlightens. Rather, act towards yourselves as I have toward you.”

Contraheareses 25.2.3
For their souls, descending from the same sphere as his, and therefore despising in like manner the creators of the world, are deemed worthy of the same power, and again depart to the same place. But if any one shall have despised the things in this world more than he did, he thus proves himself superior to him.

Marcellina II
This sentence from Epiphanes doesn't read like someone who "despised the things in this world":

Epiphanes2:1The Stromata3.6.2.7
The Sun causes food to grow for all living beings alike; the universal justice is given to all equally.

On Soteriology

Contraheareses 25.5.1
And thus, if ungodly, unlawful, and forbidden actions are committed among them, I can no longer find ground for believing them to be such.

Marcellina II
Translation: "They’ve relativized sin so much that I don’t even know what they think is wrong anymore!"

Contraheareses 25.5.2
And in their writings we read as follows, the interpretation which they give [of their views],

Contraheareses 25.5.3
‘We are saved, indeed, by means of faith and love; but all other things, while in their nature indifferent, are reckoned by the opinion of men—some good and some evil, there being nothing really evil by nature.’

Epiphanes4:2The Stromata3.2.7.9
For God made vines for all to use in common, since they do not refuse the sparrow or the thief; and similarly wheat and other fruits. But outlawed sharing and the vestiges of equality generated the thief of domestic animals and fruits.

Marcellina II
Yes. ✅

1. ✅ We reject sin as a construct of The Builders.
2. ✅ We emphasize gnosis, faith, and love as paths to liberation.
3. ✅ We affirm that salvation is not about moral performance under law, but about awakening the divine spark and returning Wisdom to Her place as Goddess.

Contraheareses 25.4.1
So unbridled is their madness, that they declare they have in their power all things which are irreligious and impious, and are at liberty to practise them; for they maintain that things are evil or good, simply in virtue of human opinion.

Epiphanes3:5The Stromata3.2.7.4
Sight was given to all alike by a single command. As the [ten commandments] could not punish men who were ignorant of them, they taught man to transgress. For particularity of the [ten commandments] cut up and destroyed the universal equality of the divine law!

Marcellina II
Bad faith, Irenaeus! We have rules:

Marcellina II
The Great Commandment of The King:

The Mystic Gospel of Mark12:56The Gospel of Mark12:29
"Hear O Israel!
Love your neighbor as yourself
and likewise your God—
with all your heart,
all your mind,
and all your strength."

Marcellina II
The Law of Fire:

The Mystic Gospel of Mark12:59The Gospel of Matthew7:12
"Whatever you desire others to do to you,
you shall also do to them.”

Marcellina II
The Four Commandments of Wisdom:

These Are My Proverbs4:9Proverbs3:27
“You shall not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to do it.
These Are My Proverbs 4:10Proverbs3:28
You shall not excuse your withholding by saying,
'Go and come again; tomorrow I will give it,'
when you have it with you.
These Are My Proverbs 4:11Proverbs3:29
You shall not plan harm against your neighbor,
who lives trustingly beside you.
These Are My Proverbs 4:12Proverbs3:30
You shall not quarrel with anyone without cause,
when no harm has been done to you.”

On Magic

Contraheareses 25.3.1
They practise also magical arts and incantations; philters, also, and love-potions; and have recourse to familiar spirits, dream-sending demons, and other abominations, declaring that they possess power to rule over, even now, the princes and formers of this world; and not only them, but also all things that are in it.

Marcellina II
We don't make love-potions...

Marcellina II
Ok, fine. We make love-potions.

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