Medicine Chest against Heresies
Panarion
Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 310/320–403), bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, devoted his life to naming and answering false teaching. Jerome, who knew him, called him his father in the faith.
The Panarion — the "medicine chest" (374–377) — is his vast antidote to heresy: sect after sect described and refuted in turn, from the beginnings of error to the controversies of his own day.
This volume opens at the beginning: Heresy I, chapter V, where no heresy has yet appeared — Adam as prophet of Father, Son, and Spirit.
© 2026 SaneApps. This translation is free to share and adapt, even commercially, as long as you credit SaneApps. Draft translation, prepared with AI assistance and not yet independently reviewed. Verify against the original before citing. Translated from PG 41 (Petavius/Migne); tip densify Haer. I Cap. V.
Haer. I Cap. V: no heresy yet; Adam prophet of Father, Son, Spirit§1
1And there was nothing upon the earth — no heresy, no opinion differing from opinion — but people were called only “human beings,” of one lip and one tongue.
There was only impiety and piety by the law according to nature, and each one’s natural choice of will; and there was not yet wandering from a teaching or from writers’ books — not Judaism, not any other heresy — but, so to speak, the faith that now has citizenship in the holy catholic Church of God, being from the beginning and later revealed again.
For to one who wishes to see with love of truth, the beginning of all things is the catholic and holy Church, from the aim itself. Adam, the first-formed, was formed not circumcised but uncircumcised in the flesh; yet he was no idolater. He knew God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, for he was a prophet.
Therefore, not having circumcision, he was not a Jew; and not worshipping images or anything else, he was not an idolater. For Adam was a prophet, and he knew that the Father said to the Son: “Let us make man” (Genesis 1:26). What then was he who had neither circumcision nor worship of idols, but showed the character of Christianity? So also it must be taken concerning Abel, Seth, Enos, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, and Eber, as far as Abraham.
Greek · §1
Καὶ οὐδὲν ἦν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, οὐχ αἵρεσις, οὐ γνώμη ἑτέρα καὶ ἑτέρα, ἀλλ᾽ ἢ μόνον ἄνθρωποι ἐκαλοῦντο, ἑνὸς χείλους καὶ μιᾶς γλώττης. Ἦν δὲ μόνον ἀσέβεια καὶ εὐσέβεια ὁ κατὰ φύσιν νόμος, καὶ ἡ κατὰ φύσιν ἑνὸς ἑκάστου προαίρεσις τοῦ θελήματος, καὶ οὐκ ἀπὸ διδασκαλίας, οὔτε ἀπὸ συγγραμμάτων συγγραφέων πλάνη· οὐκ Ἰουδαϊσμός, οὐχ αἵρεσίς τις ἑτέρα, ἀλλ᾽, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ἡ νῦν πίστις ἐμπολιτευομένη τῇ ἄρτι ἁγίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ καθολικῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ, ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς οὖσα, καὶ ὕστερον πάλιν ἀποκαλυφθεῖσα. Τῷ γὰρ βουλομένῳ φιλαλήθως ἰδεῖν ἀρχὴ πάντων ἐστὶν ἡ καθολικὴ καὶ ἁγία Ἐκκλησία ἐξ αὐτοῦ τοῦ σκοποῦ. Ἀδὰμ γὰρ πρωτόπλαστος πέπλασται, οὐκ ἐμπερίτομος, ἀλλ᾽ ἀκροβύστης μὲν τῇ σαρκί· οὐκ εἰδωλολάτρης δέ· ᾔδει Πατέρα Θεόν, καὶ Υἱόν, καὶ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· προφήτης γὰρ ἦν. Οὐκ ἔχων τοίνυν περιτομήν, οὐκ ἦν Ἰουδαῖος· ξόανα δὲ μὴ προσκυνῶν ἢ ἄλλο τι, οὐκ ἦν εἰδωλολάτρης. Προφήτης γὰρ ὁ Ἀδάμ, καὶ ᾔδει ὅτι ὁ Πατὴρ εἶπε τῷ Υἱῷ· Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον. Τί οὖν ἦν μήτε περιτομὴν ἔχων, μήτε εἴδωλα σέβων, ἀλλὰ τοῦ Χριστιανισμοῦ τὸν χαρακτῆρα ὑποφαίνων; οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἄβελ, καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ Σήθ, καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἐνώς, καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἐνώχ, καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ Μαθουσάλα, καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ Νῶε, καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἕβερ, ἄχρι τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ διαληπτέον.