light (ἀποκατάστασις), the νοῦς united itself with the man Jesus at his baptism. Hence the followers of Basilides celebrated the festival of the baptism as the epiphany (τà ¿πipávia, on the 11th Tybi, the 6th of January). The man alone endured the sufferings, which, like all human sufferings, were expiations of guilt contracted, though in a former period of existence. The apyov of Basilides is not evil, but only circumscribed; and therefore he subjects himself to the higher arrangement of the world, as soon as it is made known to him. The later followers of Basilides,3 on the contrary, conceived him to be an open adversary of the world of light, and thus rejected Judaism entirely; in which, however, Basilides could perceive types and preparations for something higher. In like manner, they received into their system the views of the Docetae, and contrived by sophisms to make their moral doctrine more loose. They rendered themselves particularly odious, by supposing that they could deny the crucified One; thus they escaped persecution. The party was still in existence about 400.1

II. Still more ingenious is the system of Valentinus, who came from Alexandria to Rome about 140, and died in Cyprus about 160.5 From the great original (according to him ẞvlós, πрo. πάτωρ, προαρχή), with whom is the consciousness of himself (έν. νοια, σιγή) emanate in succession male and female aeons (νοῦς

6

2 According to Jablonski de origine festi nativitatis Christi diss. ii. § 8, ss. (Opuscul. ed. te Water, iii. 358), they borrowed this day from the Egyptians, who celebrated on it the inventio Osiridis. This application of the Egyptian festival, however, rests on an unfortunate alteration of the text in Plut. de Isis et Osir. c. 39. The festival of the inventio Osiridis occurred in November. See Wyttenbach. animadverss. in Plut. Moralia, ii. i. 225. Wieseler's Chronolog. Synopse der Evang. S. 136. In like manner Jablonski incorrectly infers from Clem. Alex. Strom. iii. p. 340, that the followers of Basilides celebrated not only the baptism, but also the birth of Jesus, on the Epiphany.

3 The genuine system of Basilides is given in Clemens Alexandrinus; that of his later adherents in Irenaeus, see Neander gnost. Systeme, S. 31.

4 The sources of information concerning Basilides are: the tradition of Glaukias, an interpreter (¿punvεús) of the apostle Peter, and a tradition of the apostle Matthias.Prophets Βαρκάβας, Βαρκώφ, Παρχώρ.-He wrote twenty-four books ἐξηγητικά, which may have also been called his gospel.

5 J. F. Buddeus de Haeresi Valentiniana appended to Introductio ad historiam philos. Ebraeorum. ed. 2. Halae. 1720. 8, p. 573–736. It is remarkable that Valentinus not only received the New Testament, but made constant allegorical use of it in his system. Thus he formed his system of Aeons for the most part after John i. Irenaeus i. 8, 5.-His secret doctrine is from Theodades, a disciple of Paul; his hymns, discourses, and letters are for the most part lost. From the work preserved in Coptic, entitled Fidelis Sophia, has been published D. Fr. Münter Odae gnosticae, thebaice et latine. Havniae. 1812.

On alúv see Numenius ap. Euseb. Praep. evang. xi. 10: Tò öv ovte totè ñv, ošte ποτὲ γένηται· ἀλλ' ἔστιν ἀεὶ ἐν χρόνῳ μὴ ὡρισμένῳ, τῷ ἐνεστῶτι μόνῳ. τοῦτον μὲν

7

In

Οι μονογενής and ἀλήθεια, λόγος and ἀλήθεια, λόγος and ζωή, ἄνOρwпоs and ккλnoia, &c.), so that 30 aeons together (distinguished into the ὀγδοάς, δεκάς and δωδεκάς) form the πλήρωμα. From the passionate striving of the last aeon, the copía, to unite with Bythos, itself, arises an untimely being (ý káτw σopía, έvoúunois, 'Axaμwo, i. e., ninan), which, wandering about outside. the pleroma, communicates the germ of life to matter, and forms the dŋuovpyós of psychical material, who immediately creates the world. In this three kinds of material are mixed— τὸ πνευματικόν, τὸ ψυχικόν, τὸ ὑλικόν. The goal of the course of the world is, that the two first should be separated from the last, and that τὸ πνευμ. should return to the pleroma, το ψυχικόν into the TÓTоs μεσóτηтоs, where the Achamoth now dwells. the mean time, two new aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit, had arisen, in order to restore the disturbed harmony in the pleroma ; then there emanated from all the aeons, Jesus (owryp), who, as future associate (ovšvyos) of the Achamoth, shall lead back into the pleroma this and the pneumatic natures. The owryp σωτήρ united itself at the baptism with the psychical Messiah promised by the Demiurgus. Just so is the letter of the doctrines of Jesus for psychical men. On the other hand, the spirit introduced by the Soter or Saviour, is for the spiritual. These theosophic dreams were naturally capable of being molded in many different ways; and, accordingly, among Valentinus's disciples are found many departures from their teacher. The most important of his followers were Heracleon, Ptolemy,' and Marcus.

8

III. To the system of Valentinus was nearly allied that of the Ophites,1o who, perhaps, existed as a party in Egypt even before the Valentinians." Their pleroma is simpler than that of

οὖν τὸν ἐνεστῶτα εἴ τις ἐθέλει καλεῖν αἰῶνα, κἀγὼ συμβούλομαι. (I have believed it necessary to place the un, which stands in the usual text before yévηrai, before ὡρισμένῳ). wpioμέvy). Thus among the Gnostics alwveç are developments of the Divine Being, who, as such, are elevated above the limitations of time.

Оn πλńрwμа see Baur's Gnosis, S. 157.

8 Of his Commentary on John there are numerous fragments in the commentary of Origen. 9 His epistola ad Floram apud Epiphanius Haer. xxxiii. A. Stieren de Ptolemaei Gnostici ad Floram epist. P. 1, Jenae. 1843, distinguishes in the letter two parts proceeding from different authors, both which, however, could not have been written by Ptolemy. 10 J. L. v. Mosheim Versuch einer unparteiischen u. gründlichen Ketzergeschichte. Geschichte der Schlangenbrüder der ersten Kirche. 2te Aufl. Helmstädt. 1748. 4. A. H. L. Fuldner Comm. de Ophitis. Part 1. Rintelli. 1834. 4. (A school programm.)

Origen c. Celsum. vi. § 28, ed. Spenc. p. 294: 'Opiavoì тocoûтov åñodéovoι TOŨ

Valentinus. From the Bythus emanate the first man, the second man or the son of man, the Holy Spirit. The last gives birth, by means of the first two, to the perfect masculine lightnature, the Christ, and the defective female copía, 'Axauw0, προύνοικος. πроúvειkoç. The creator of the world ('Iaλdaßaú0, probably 87? nin, son of chaos), the first of the seven planet princes, is ambitious and malevolent, and is therefore involved in continual strife with his mother Sophia, who endeavors to deprive him of the pneumatic natures. The 'Opióμoppos, the ruler of Hyle, and the cause of all evil, is an image of him. The christology of the Ophites is altogether like that of Valentinus, with this difference, that Jesus is the psychical, Christ the pneumatic Messiah.12 The Ophites were divided into various sects (ex. gr. Sethians, Cainites). One of them looked for the Sophia in the serpent of Genesis, and hence the name of the whole party. This continued the longest of all the Gnostic sects. (So late as 530 A.D. Justinian enacted laws against them, Cod. lib. i. tit. v. 1, 18, 19, 21).

13

IV. Carpocrates struck out an entirely different way." In his view, Jesus was a mere man, like Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, who had set an example of the mode in which the Gnostic must free himself from the Demiurgi (äyyɛhoɩ кooμoTOLOí), and unite with the highest divinity (uovás). As the Carpocratians had portraits of those Grecian philosophers and of Jesus in their sanctuaries, so they built in Cephalenia a temple to Epiphanes,11 a youth seventeen years old, the son of

εἶναι Χριστιανοὶ, ὥστε οὐκ ἔλαττον Κέλσου κατηγορεῖν αὐτοὺς τοῦ Ἰησοῦ. καὶ μὴ πρότερον προσίεσθαί τινα ἐπὶ τὸ συνέδριον ἑαυτῶν, ἐὰν μὴ ἀρὰς θῆται κατὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ. Mosheim (1. c. S. 19 and S. 127) infers from this that the Ophites formed a more ancient Jewish sect, which afterward adopted Christianity only in part. On the other side see A. L. Z. April, 1823. S. 846.

12 On the diάypaμμa of the Ophites apud Origines c. Celsum, vi. ed. Spencer. p. 291, ss. see Mosheim, 1. c. S. 79, ff. 178, ff.

13 G. H. F. Fuldner de Carpocratianis, in Illgen's historischtheolog. Abhandlungen, dritte Denkschrift der hist. theol. Gessellschaft zu Leipzig. 1824. S. 180, ff. G. Gesenius de inscriptione Phoenicio-Graeca in Cyrenaica nuper reperta ad Carpocratianorum haeresin pertinente. Halae. 1825. 4.

14 Fragments of this work πɛpì dikaioσúvns preserved by Clemens Alex. Strom. iii. p. 512, s. His moral principles: Οἱ νόμοι, ἀνθρώπων ἀμαθίαν κολάζειν μὴ δυνάμενοι, παρανομεῖν ἐδίδαξαν· ἡ γὰρ ἰδιότης τῶν νόμων τὴν κοινωνίαν τοῦ θείου νόμου κατέτεμεν καὶ παρατρώγει.—Κοινῇ ὁ θεὸς ἅπαντα ἀνθρώπῳ ποιήσας, καὶ τὸ θῆλυ τῷ ἄῤῥενι κοινῇ συναγαγών, και πάνθ' ὁμοίως τὰ ζῶα κολλήσας, τὴν δικαιοσύνην ἀνέφηνεν κοινωνίαν μer' loóτηтos. Hence, according to page 514, at the conclusion of their agapae, concubitus promiscui.

their founder, after his death. The sects of the Antitactes and the Prodiciani,15 allied to the Carpocratians, were branded like it by immoral principles.16

§ 46.

(CONTINUATION.) 2. SYRIAN GNOSTICS.

ine syrian Gnostics developed the doctrine of dualism ore decidedly than the Egyptian, to which the neighborhood of Persia may have largely contributed. With this was connected their fanatical asceticism, in which they exceeded the Egyptians, and their Docetic views.1 Saturninus in Antioch, a cotemporary of Basilides, taught that by the original cause (Tarp ayvwOTOS) the world of spirits was created by successive steps, and placed in the lowest gradation the spirits of the seven planets (ἄγγελοι κοσμοκράτορες). In opposition to them stood the evil principle (ó Σaravaç), who set in antagonism to the race of men of light animated by the highest divinity, a race of evil men, so that both kinds of men are continued beside one another. In order to avoid all contact with the evil principle, the followers of Saturninus abstained from marriage and the eating of flesh. The wide diffusion of the Gnostic opinions in Syria and the countries lying eastward of it may be seen in the case of Bardesanes in Edessa (about 172), who, although he believed

2

15 On the 'AVTITúkraι cf. Clemens Strom. iii. p. 526. Theodoret. Haer. fab. comp. i. c. 16: Respecting ПIpódikoç Clemens, 1. c. p. 525. Theodoret, 1. c. i. c. 6.

16 The inscriptions which, as pretended, were found in Cyrene, and brought to Malta, were regarded at first as Carpocratian (cf. G. Gesenius, 1. c.), but were afterward shown to be recent fabrications, like many other spurious productions, particularly Eumali Cyrenaici Hist. Libycae, lib. vi., all of which were made known by the Marquis Fortia d'Urban in Avignon. They were meant to confirm the hypotheses which this person had formerly put forth respecting an island, Atlantis, in the Mediterranean Sea, which was sunk at the flood, in which island a St. Simonian community of goods and wives is said to have prevailed. See Boeckh preface to the Berlin Lectionskataloge, Easter, 1832. Gesenius in the Hallische A. L. Z. 1835, August, S. 462. When M. J. R. Pacho, Relation d'un voyage dans la Marmarique, la Cyrénaique, &c. Paris. 1827. 4. p. 128, believed that he had found in a pit at Lameloudèh, in Cyrenaica, traces referring to a place where the Carpocratians assembled, he was led astray by the opinions at first pronounced on those inscriptions. A cross with a serpent is a common Christian symbol, according to John iii. 14; and Catholic Christians may as well have used that pit as a place of meeting, like those at Massakhit, p. 114.

1 A. L. Z. April, 1823. S. 833, ff.

2 Bar daizon (Bayer hist. Osrh. et Edess. p. 13) lived under the prince Abgar bar Maanu, and gave up his book, πɛрì eiμapμévnç, to Antoninus Verus, of which Euseb.

in two eternal principles, derived evil from the Hyle, and held many other Gnostic tenets, was still looked upon as orthodox in that place. Cotemporary with him was the Assyrian Tatian,3 who had been a disciple of Justin Martyr, but after his death had returned to his native land, and founded there a Gnostic sect, which was chiefly distinguished by abstinence (Εγκρατίται, Υδροπαραστάται, Aquarii), and continued till after the fourth century.

4

§ 47.

(CONTINUATION.) 3. MARCION AND HIS SCHOOL.1

The Gnosis of Marcion, the son of a bishop of Sinope, who attached himself to the Syrian Cerdo at Rome (between 140 and 150), and developed there a system of his own, has a character quite peculiar. He assumed three moral principles (ȧpxaí), viz., the θεὸς ἀγαθός, the δημιουργός δίκαιος, and the ὕλη (ὁ πόνη pós, ó diáßoλos). To free men-who had only to expect from διάβολος).

praep. Evang. vi. 10, has preserved a fragment (republished in Alexandri Aphrodisiensis, Ammonii, Plotini, Bardesanis et Gemisti Plethonis de fato quae supersunt graece, rec. et notas adjecit J. C. Orellius. Turici. 1824. 8. p. 202, ss.). He gained over many adherents by his hymns. The fifty-six hymns of Ephraem Syrus against heretics are important for the knowledge of his system. Cf. Bardesanes Gnosticus Syrorum primus hymnologus, comm. historico-theol. quam scripsit Aug. Hahn. Lips. 1819. 8. C. Kuehner Astronomiae et astrologiae in doctrina Gnosticorum vestigia, p. i. Bardesanis Gnostici numina astralia. Hildburghusae. 1833. 8.

3 Tatianus d. Apologet v. Dr. H. A. Daniel. Halle. 1837. S. 253. Respecting his εvayyέhiov Siù тεσσúрwv, see Credner's Beiträge zur Einl. in d. biblisch. Schriften, i. 437.

4 These names, as well as the appellation Docetae, certainly designate a heresy, which was common to many parties; but they appear to have been specially given to the followers of Tatian, because a particular sect-name for them does not appear.

1 Particular sources: Tertull. adv. Marcionem libri v.-(Pseudo-) Origenis díaλoyos περi τñç εiç Oεòv дρlñç пíσrewç s. dial. contra Marcionitas (ed. J. R. Westein. Basil. 1674. 4). The credibility of the fathers respecting Marcion is too much doubted by H. Rhode Prolegomenorum ad quaestionem de Evangelio Apostoloque Marcionis denuo instituendam, cap. i.-iii. Vratislav. 1834. 4. See on the other side Ch. E. Becker Examen crit. de l'évangile de Marcion. Première partie. Strasbourg. 1837. 4. Works on the subject: Neander gnost. Syst. S. 276, ff. Aug. Hahn Diss. de gnosi Marcionis antinomi. Regiomonti. 4. (Two Christmas programmes of 1820 and 1821.) Ejusd. Antitheses Marcionis Gnostici liber deperditus, nunc quoad ejus fieri potuit restitutus. Regiom. 1823. 8. The same author's das Evangelium Marcion's in seiner ursprünglichen Gestalt, nebst dem vollständigsten Beweise dargestellt, dass es nicht selbstständig, sondern ein verstümmeltes und verfälschtes Lucas-Evangelium war. Königsb. 1823. 8. Compare my review in the Hall. A. L. Z. Oct. 1823, S. 225, ff.