The Carpocratians apparently connected the raising of the dead with being 'brought into acquaintance' (gnostikos) with a secret teaching which inseminates their bodies with the soul of Christ. This clearly must be connected with the redemption baptism of the gnostics where Jesus 'descends' into Christ (a term used in Latin in the sexual sense of 'penetration' in other texts).
Yet most striking of all is that their doctrine of gnostic resurrection involves a pueros investes (a covered neaniskos). Irenaeus denies that this resurrection ever happened. It is a made up story when compared to the certainty of Jesus' resurrection on the third day. I think this is one of the closest witnesses I have found yet from the writings of Irenaeus that the Roman Church Father was aware of Secret Mark.
I think the original text has been reworked by Hippolytus but this in no way obscures the obvious allusions to the central claim of To Theodore that the Carpocratians were openly announcing a variant tradition connected to LGM 1 (the first addition to Mark mentioned in the letter).
Here is the original material from Book Two of Irenaeus' Against the Heresies:
Moreover, those also will be thus confuted who belong to Simon and Carpocrates, and if there be any others who are said to perform miracles--who do not perform what they do either through the power of God, or in connection with the truth, nor for the well-being of men, but for the sake of destroying and misleading mankind, by means of magical deceptions, and with universal deceit, thus entailing greater harm than good on those who believe them, with respect to the point on which they lead them astray.
... And so far are they from being able to raise the dead, as the Lord raised them, and the apostles did by means of prayer, and as has been frequently done in the brotherhood on account of some necessity--the entire Church in that particular locality entreating with much fasting and prayer, the spirit of the dead man has returned, and he has been bestowed in answer to the prayers of the saints--that they do not even believe this can be possibly be done, [and hold] that the resurrection from the dead is simply an acquaintance with that truth which they proclaim.
Since, therefore, there exist among them error and misleading influences, and magical illusions are impiously wrought in the sight of men; but in the Church, sympathy, and compassion, and stedfastness, and truth, for the aid and encouragement of mankind ... they are altogether full of deceit of every kind, apostate inspiration, demoniacal working, and the phantasms of idolatry, and are in reality the predecessors of that dragon who, by means of a deception of the same kind, will with his tail cause a third part of the stars to fall from their place, and will cast them down to the earth. It behoves us to flee from them as we would from him; and the greater the display with which they are said to perform, the more carefully should we watch them, as having been endowed with a greater spirit of wickedness. If any one will consider the prophecy referred to, and the daily practices of these men, he will find that their manner of acting is one and the same with the demons.
Moreover, this impious opinion of theirs with respect to actions--namely, that it is incumbent on them to have experience of all kinds of deeds, even the most abominable--is refuted by the teaching of the Lord, with whom not only is the adulterer rejected, but also the man who desires to commit adultery ... [we should reject them] so that we should in no respect imitate the arrogance, lust, and pride of others.
Since, therefore, He whom these men boast of as their Master, and of whom they affirm that He had a soul greatly better and more highly toned than others, did indeed, with much earnestness, command certain things to be done as being good and excellent, and certain things to be abstained from not only in their actual perpetration, but even in the thoughts which lead to their performance, as being wicked, pernicious, and abominable,--how then can they escape being put to confusion, when they affirm that such a Master was more highly toned and better than others, and yet manifestly give instruction of a kind utterly opposed to His teaching?
... The fact indeed is, that they endeavour to learn none of these, although they maintain that it is incumbent on them to have experience of every kind of work; but, turning aside to voluptuousness, and lust, and abominable actions, they stand self-condemned when they are tried by their own doctrine. For, since they are destitute of all those [virtues] which have been mentioned, they will [of necessity] pass into the destruction of fire. These men, while they boast of Jesus as being their Master, do in fact emulate the philosophy of Epicurus and the indifference of the Cynics, [calling Jesus their Master,] who not only turned His disciples away from evil deeds, but even from [wicked] words and thoughts, as I have already shown.
Again, while they assert that they possess souls from the same sphere as Jesus, and that they are like to Him, sometimes even maintaining that they are superior; while [they affirm that they were] produced, like Him, for the performance of works tending to the benefit and establishment of mankind, they are found doing nothing of the same or a like kind, nor what can in any respect be brought into comparison with them. And if they have in truth accomplished anything by means of magic, they strive deceitfully to lead foolish people astray, since they confer no real benefit or blessing on those over whom they declare that they exert power; but, bringing forward covered boys [pureos investes], and deceiving their sight [i.e. the foolish people], while they exhibit phantasms that instantly cease, and do not endure even a moment of time, they are proved to be like, not Jesus our Lord, but Simon the magician, too, from the fact that the Lord rose from the dead on the third day, and manifested Himself to His disciples, and was in their sight received up into heaven, that, inasmuch as these men die, and do not rise again, nor manifest themselves to any, they are proved as possessing souls in no respect similar to that of Jesus. [AH ii.31.2,3;32]
