DOCSLIB.ORG

Early Christianities and the Gnostic Gospels

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Early Christianities and the Gnostic Gospels Early Christianities and The Gnostic Gospels www.JeffreySmall.com Bart Ehrman (1955-) UNC Chapel Hill “Many Christianities.” New Testament Christianities Gospels: Synoptics vs John Religion of Jesus (Coming Kingdom of God) Religion About Jesus (Jesus as God) New Testament Christianities Paul “For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’” 1 Cor 1:11-12 New Testament Christianities Paul vs James Justification by Faith vs Works Mosaic Law “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works… You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” James 2:14-26 Nag Hammadi Discovery 1945 Mohammad Al-Samman 12 Papyrus Books 52 Texts 40 Unknown Coptic translations 3rd-4th Century Gnostic Gospels Gnosticism Secret Teachings “To you has been given the secret of the Kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables.” Mark 4:11 Gnosticism γνωσις gnosis = “to know” Gnostic teachings 1. Many different schools, teachers, texts 2. Dualistic Earth: matter evil, spirit good 3. Non-dual God: embraces male and female 4. Perfect spiritual God did not create evil world 5. God has divine offspring Aeons Gnostic teachings 6. Fallen Aeon gave birth to Demiurge 7. Demiurge creates Earth 8. Humans are descendants of this fallen Aeon 9. Spark of divine still within us 10. Salvation - realization of our origin and divinity 11. Jesus is light that shows us this path Marcion (85-160 CE) Creator God of OT - justice and punishment “eye for an eye” vs Jesus’ God of NT - love and forgiveness “turn the other cheek” Marcion (85-160 CE) Docetism Jesus fully spirit Physical body illusion Valentinus (100-160 CE) Alexandria to Rome St. Paul > Theudas > Valentinus “But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.” 1 Cor 2:7 Valentinus (100-160 CE) 1. God is the ultimate source of being: “The Depth” 2. Types of people: Spiritual, Intellectual, Material 3. Salvation only through the spiritual: a Return “I derive being from Him who is preexistent, and I come again to my own place when I came forth.” The Gospel of Truth Valentinus, Nag Hammadi “God’s children are His fragment breath.” “And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (nephesh), and the man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7 “Discover God in yourself, and yourself in God.” Resurrection Gnostic Orthodox Visionary experience Physical Event Personal Limited to apostles Experience now Closed Spiritual path Future for Believers Resurrection Gnostic Gospel of Phillip “Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error…[they must] receive the resurrection while they live.” Orthodox Bishop Tertullian (190 CE) “What is raised is this flesh, suffused with blood, built up with bones, interwoven with nerves, entwined with veins.” Gospel of Thomas 150 Sayings by Jesus Half in Synoptics - Half new No narration Q? Gnostic? Date? Apostle Thomas Synoptics: 1 of the 12 Thomas = “Didymus” = twin John’s “Doubting Thomas” Travels to India? St Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church Kerala, India Gospel of Thomas Themes NT Thomas Repent for the Look inward because upcoming kingdom the kingdom is here Gospel of Thomas “Recognize what is right in front of you, and that which is hidden from you will be revealed to you.” Thomas 5 “The seeker should not stop until he finds. When he does find, he will be disturbed. After having been disturbed, he will be astonished. Then he will reign over everything.” Thomas 2 Gospel of Thomas “If your leaders say to you “Look! The Kingdom is in the sky! Then the birds will be there before you are. If they say that the kingdom is in the sea, then the fish will be there before you are. Rather the Kingdom is within you and it is outside you. When you understand yourselves you will be understood.” Thomas 3 Gospel of Thomas ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’ Luke 17:20-21 Gospel of Thomas “Whoever drinks from my mouth will become as I am, and I myself will become that person, and the mysteries shall be revealed to him.” Thomas 57 “Whoever blasphemes against the Father will be forgiven. Whoever blasphemes against the Son will be forgiven. Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, neither on earth or in heaven.” Thomas 44 John vs Thomas Elaine Pagels (1943-) John a response to Thomas: Uniqueness of JC Sole Divinity of JC Elaine Pagels (1943-) “I wondered whether John could have been written to refute what Thomas teaches…it is John who invented the character we call Doubting Thomas, perhaps as a way of caricaturing those who revered a teacher—and a version of Jesus’ teaching—that he regarded as false.” Orthodox Response Irenaeus (c 180 CE), Bishop of Lyons Against Heresies No secret teachings Apostolic Succession Warns against forgeries Gnostic cosmology crazy Primacy of John bc JC divinity Orthodox Response Irenaeus (c 180 CE), Bishop of Lyons Against Heresies “Let those who blaspheme the Creator…as do the Valentinians and all the falsely so-called ‘gnostics,’ be recognized as agents of Satan…God has prepared eternal fire for every kind of apostasy.” Orthodox Response Tertullian (160-225 CE) Father of Latin Christianity First to use the Trinity Only Scripture relevant Philosophy dangerous Heresy subverts authority Gnostics invent to suit themselves Women among heretics Orthodox Response Tertullian (160-225 CE) Father of Latin Christianity “It is philosophy that supplies the heresies with their equipment… A plague on Aristotle, who taught them dialectic, the art which destroys as much as it builds, which changes its opinions like a coat, forces its conjectures, is stubborn in argument.” Orthodox Response Tertullian (160-225 CE) Father of Latin Christianity “As for the women of the heretics, how forward they are! They have the impudence to teach, to argue, to perform exorcisms, to promise cures, perhaps even to baptize.” Orthodox Response Athanasius (296-373 CE) Bishop of Alexandria Easter Letter, 367 CE All heretical writings to be destroyed List of acceptable canon - today’s Bible First Council of Nicaea, 325 CE Called by Constantine Council of Bishops Resolve diverse teachings Nicene Creed First Council of Nicaea, 325 CE What is the nature of Christ? First Council of Nicaea, 325 CE Arius Marcion Son < Father Docetism Humanity of Jesus Jesus all God “The Father is greater than I” Physicality illusion Athanasius “I and the Father are one.” Homo ouisa “One Substance” “Begotten not made” Wholly God AND Wholly Man Orthodoxy vs Heresy Orthodox = ορθος (“straight/right”) + δοξα (“belief”) Heresy = α’ίρεσις = choice Heretic = heretikos = “one who thinks for himself” “Winner writes history” Why Orthodoxy Won 1. More believed this was the “true” teaching 2. Gnostic cosmology too different from Judaic roots 3. Political power of apostolic succession 4. Need for consistency to grow 5. Esoteric nature of Gnosticism - difficult path for few 6. Baptism and Belief easier road Critiques of Orthodoxy 1. Focus on belief only misses the spiritual/mystical side 2. Rigid and static - cannot evolve with times 3. Ignores reality of diverse views from earliest days 4. Oversimplifies Christian path 5. Deifying Jesus not his purpose 6. Finger pointing to the moon is not the moon 7. Tool for power and abuse - Inquisition 8. Patriarchal - exclusion of women Belief vs Experience Doctrine vs Spirituality www.JeffreySmall.com.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Jesus in Galilee- NT220 Popularity & Misunderstanding LESSON 3 of 3 Can We Trust the New Testament Books?
    Jesus In Galilee- NT220 Popularity & Misunderstanding LESSON 3 of 3 Can We Trust the New Testament Books? Craig L. Blomberg, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of New Testament Studies at Denver Seminary in Littleton, Colorado I. In this lesson, we will discuss the development of the New Testament text with regard to the sources of the text and its canonicity. We will also begin to examine the New Testament settings in terms of the geography of the New Testament world, Palestine, and Jerusalem. II. Development of the New Testament Text The New Testament was originally written, as it is well known, in Greek. The Greek of the New Testament is Koine (common dialect), the stage in the development of the language from the classical Attic to the modern idiom. It prevailed from c. 300 B.C. to the sixth century A.D. Koine was the form of the language used, when Greece had attained its greatest territorial expansion, as the lingua franca of the Mediterranean world. The Greek, in general, used by Gentiles in the Koine period was the same as that in which the New Testament was written. Manuscript evidence for the text of the New Testament is vastly more abundant than for any other ancient document. The oldest known manuscripts of the works of some of the Greek classical authors are copies made 1,000 years or more after the author’s death. The number of manuscripts of the ancient classics is also limited: about 50 manuscripts of the works of Aeschylus (389-314 B.C.), 100 of Sophocles (496?-406 B.C.), and only one each of the Greek Anthology and the Annals of Tacitus (Roman historian, 55?-117?).
    [Show full text]
  • Archons (Commanders) [NOTICE: They Are NOT Anlien Parasites], and Then, in a Mirror Image of the Great Emanations of the Pleroma, Hundreds of Lesser Angels
    A R C H O N S HIDDEN RULERS THROUGH THE AGES A R C H O N S HIDDEN RULERS THROUGH THE AGES WATCH THIS IMPORTANT VIDEO UFOs, Aliens, and the Question of Contact MUST-SEE THE OCCULT REASON FOR PSYCHOPATHY Organic Portals: Aliens and Psychopaths KNOWLEDGE THROUGH GNOSIS Boris Mouravieff - GNOSIS IN THE BEGINNING ...1 The Gnostic core belief was a strong dualism: that the world of matter was deadening and inferior to a remote nonphysical home, to which an interior divine spark in most humans aspired to return after death. This led them to an absorption with the Jewish creation myths in Genesis, which they obsessively reinterpreted to formulate allegorical explanations of how humans ended up trapped in the world of matter. The basic Gnostic story, which varied in details from teacher to teacher, was this: In the beginning there was an unknowable, immaterial, and invisible God, sometimes called the Father of All and sometimes by other names. “He” was neither male nor female, and was composed of an implicitly finite amount of a living nonphysical substance. Surrounding this God was a great empty region called the Pleroma (the fullness). Beyond the Pleroma lay empty space. The God acted to fill the Pleroma through a series of emanations, a squeezing off of small portions of his/its nonphysical energetic divine material. In most accounts there are thirty emanations in fifteen complementary pairs, each getting slightly less of the divine material and therefore being slightly weaker. The emanations are called Aeons (eternities) and are mostly named personifications in Greek of abstract ideas.
    [Show full text]
  • I. the Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ: Ancient and Medieval Legacies
    I. The Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ: Ancient and Medieval Legacies Reinhard Ulrich, editor Part I. Consolidating the Christian Witness (United), 7 Prophets and Apostles 1.1.1 The Didache, (c. 100), 25 1.1.2 Clement's First Letter, (c - 95), CLEMENT, 25 1.1.3 The Faith in Scripture and Tradition from Against Heresies, (c. 189), IRENAEUS, 32 1.1.4 The Rule of Faith and the Uses of Scripture from Prescription, (c. 189), TERTULLIAN, 41 1.1 5 On the Right Way of Reading the Scriptures from On First Principles IV,(c. 230), ORIGEN, 48 1.1.6 New Testament Canon from 39th Easter Letter, (367), ATHANASIUS), 55 Persecution 1.1.7 Letter from the Churches of Lyon and Vienne (177) from The History of the Church, (4th century), EUSEBIUS, 58 1.1.8 The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas, (203), 69 1.1.9 The Problem of the Lapsed from Letter 33, (c. 250), CYPRIAN, 81 Defenders of the Faith 1.1.10 Letter to Diognetus, (c. 150), 84 1.1.11 First Apology, (c. 155), JUSTIN MARTYR, 94 1.1.12 Plea Regarding the Christians, (c. 177), ATHENAGORAS, 109 Visions of Church Unity 1.1.13 Letter to the Philadelphians, (c. 113), IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH, 123 1.1.14 Outside the Church, There Is No Salvation from Letter 73, (c. 256), CYPRIAN, 129 1.1.15 The Church as the Body of Christ from Commentary on John XI, 1I (On John 17:20-21), CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, (c. 430), 135 1.1.16 The Church as the Company of the Elect from On Baptism V, (c.
    [Show full text]
  • New Testament Canon.” the Word “Canon” Is Actually a Greek Word That Means “Rule” Or “Measure.”
    How We Got Our New Testament Greg Stiekes, Pastor, Bethany Bible Church, 2014 Introduction We call the 27 books that comprise our New Testament the “New Testament Canon.” The word “canon” is actually a Greek word that means “rule” or “measure.” For example, the word “canon” is used in Galatians 6:16—“As for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them.” In the overall context of the letter to the Galatians, Paul is saying that there is a standard by which he wanted the church to measure up, and whoever was not walking according to that standard was not living out the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Notice, then, that a canon is a standard that limits or confines. When applied to the New Testament, the word canon means those original, Greek writings which measure up to or meet the standard of being the Word of God. And the canon limits those writings to 27 “books”—no greater, no fewer; 27 books which are believed to comprise the authoritative writings divinely given by God to the church. Yet a 27-book New Testament canon raises several questions which God’s people should be able to answer, especially when skeptics attack the accuracy and authority of the Bible: 1. How do we know that these and these only 27 Greek documents are the writings God gave to the church? 2. Are the present Greek copies of these books accurate? 3. Do we have confident English translations of the original Greek? 4. Why are other early writings rejected from the canon, even though they claim to be from God or his apostles? Question 1: Why these and these only 27 New Testament Books? The Attack: The New Testament canon was formed by the followers of one version of Christianity which dominated in the first centuries A.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading #9 – from Constantine to Augustine
    Reading #9 – From Constantine to Augustine Athanasius – “Easter Letter of 367” Of the particular books and their number, which are accepted by the Church. From the thirty‐ninth Letter of Holy Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, on the Paschal festival; wherein he defines canonically what are the divine books which are accepted by the Church. 1. They have fabricated books which they call books of tables, in which they shew stars, to which they give the names of Saints. And therein of a truth they have inflicted on themselves a double reproach: those who have written such books, because they have perfected themselves in a lying and contemptible science; and as to the ignorant and simple, they have led them astray by evil thoughts concerning the right faith established in all truth and upright in the presence of God. 2. But since we have made mention of heretics as dead, but of ourselves as possessing the Divine Scriptures for salvation; and since I fear lest, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, some few of the simple should be beguiled from their simplicity and purity, by the subtility of certain men, and should henceforth read other books — those called apocryphal — led astray by the similarity of their names with the true books; I beseech you to bear patiently, if I also write, by way of remembrance, of matters with which you are acquainted, influenced by the need and advantage of the Church. 3. In proceeding to make mention of these things, I shall adopt, to commend my undertaking, the pattern of Luke the Evangelist, saying on my own account:
    [Show full text]
  • Marcion Wrote New Testament
    Marcion Wrote New Testament Is Gustavus kymographic or gonidic after eliminative Giffer botch so intransitively? When Vinod retyped his tamales diapers not unsafely enough, is Marlon close? Dibasic and ascensional Samuel admiring: which Johnathon is towerless enough? In his epistles some commentators have on the spotless virginal bride of new testament In only the war Gospel in Marcion's Bible is two thirds of Luke Actually overcome's it. The Lord there with Jehoshaphat because he followed the ways of just father David before him. Mountains, North Africa, it is of true theme the intention of the scribes has some association with the sublimation of violence. New Testament books are authoritative, as a kind of figure of enlightenment, so Luke would only need familiarity with the OT to record this. He completely rejected the Old Testament as being relevant for Christians. Marcionite-Scripture Original-Biblecom. God were accompanied by a just as revolutionary idea about the identity of Jesus and his relationship to God. Either that wrote luke, whether this god is at sinope and testament marcion wrote. The Story going The Storytellers The Emergence Of flame Four. The situation obviously changed in the second century, which is not appropriate to make public before all, and a backsliding from the truth. Separatio legis et evangelii proprium et principale opus est Marcionis. It is accepted in his canon, because they do a decade or ten pauline authorship attestation prior to any other. Who wrote the new Testament DVD video 2004 WorldCat. It gained some esteem elsewhere, which teaches that appear are two opposed divine principles, this new Marcionism is a distortion of the finish to precise it align more closely to current ideologies.
    [Show full text]
  • The Demiurge in Ancient Thought: Secondary Gods and Divine Mediators Carl Sean´ O’Brien Frontmatter More Information
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-07536-8 - The Demiurge in Ancient Thought: Secondary Gods and Divine Mediators Carl Sean´ O’brien Frontmatter More information THE DEMIURGE IN ANCIENT THOUGHT How was the world generated and how does matter continue to be ordered so that the world can continue functioning? Questions like these have existed as long as humanity has been capable of rational thought. In antiquity, Plato’s Timaeus introduced the concept of the Demiurge, or Craftsman-god, to answer them. This lucid and wide- ranging book argues that the concept of the Demiurge was highly influential on the many discussions operating in Middle Platonist, Gnostic, Hermetic and Christian contexts in the first three centuries ad. It explores key metaphysical problems such as the origin of evil, the relationship between matter and the First Principle and the deploy- ment of ever-increasing numbers of secondary deities to insulate the First Principle from the sensible world. It also focuses on the decreas- ing importance of demiurgy in Neoplatonism, with its postulation of procession and return. carl sean´ o’brien is Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat¨ Heidelberg and Research Associate, Centre for the Study of the Platonic Tradition, Trinity College, Dublin. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-07536-8 - The Demiurge in Ancient Thought: Secondary Gods and Divine Mediators Carl Sean´ O’brien Frontmatter More information © in
    [Show full text]
  • HISTORIES of the HIDDEN GOD Acumen
    Histories of the Hidden God Concealment and Revelation in Western Gnostic, Esoteric, and Mystical Traditions Edited by APriL D. DEConicK and Grant Adamson acumen CHAPTER 2 AdoiL OUtside the cosmos God Before and after Creation in the Enochic tradition Andrei A. Orlov … vessels shattered and collapsed, for they were not able to con- tain the light expanding and emanating from within them … the saints in their death transform these sparks of holiness. Chaim Vital, Etz Chaim Unlike other early Enochic writings, the 2 (Slavonic) Apocalypse of Enoch depicts a unique story of primordial creation, revealing an elaborate course of events that preceded the visible creation of the world.1 The importance of this mys- tical account is underlined by the fact that it was delivered to the seventh antediluvian hero by God himself. Chapter 25 of 2 Enoch recounts how, at the end of the patriarch’s celestial tour to the Throne of Glory, the deity unveils to the seer that prior to the visible creation he had called out from nothing the luminous aeon Adoil to become the foundation of the upper things. The account describes the enigmatic event of Adoil’s disintegration in the course of which the aeon becomes the cornerstone of the visible creation upon which the Deity establishes his Throne. Here, similar to the depictions found in the Lurianic Kabbalah, the bursting of the primordial vessel of light is envi- sioned as the first creative act of the deity that gives life to the visible order of everything. Even more striking is that this primordial act of establishing the visible reality is then paralleled in the later chapters of the Slavonic apocalypse that focus on the eschatological demise.
    [Show full text]
  • The Trinitarian Theology of Irenaeus of Lyons
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Dissertations (1934 -) Projects The Trinitarian Theology of Irenaeus of Lyons Jackson Jay Lashier Marquette University Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Lashier, Jackson Jay, "The Trinitarian Theology of Irenaeus of Lyons" (2011). Dissertations (1934 -). 109. https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/109 THE TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY OF IRENAEUS OF LYONS by Jackson Lashier, B.A., M.Div. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin May 2011 ABSTRACT THE TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY OF IRENAEUS OF LYONS Jackson Lashier, B.A., M.Div. Marquette University, 2011 This dissertation is a study of the Trinitarian theology of Irenaeus of Lyons. With the exception of two recent studies, Irenaeus’ Trinitarian theology, particularly in its immanent manifestation, has been devalued by scholarship due to his early dates and his stated purpose of avoiding speculative theology. In contrast to this majority opinion, I argue that Irenaeus’ works show a mature understanding of the Trinity, in both its immanent and economic manifestations, which is occasioned by Valentinianism. Moreover, his Trinitarian theology represents a significant advancement upon that of his sources, the so-called apologists, whose understanding of the divine nature converges in many respects with Valentinian theology. I display this advancement by comparing the thought of Irenaeus with that of Justin, Athenagoras, and Theophilus, on Trinitarian themes. Irenaeus develops Trinitarian theology in the following ways. First, he defines God’s nature as spirit, thus maintaining the divine transcendence through God’s higher order of being as opposed to the use of spatial imagery (God is separated/far away from creation).
    [Show full text]
  • “Wheat from the Chaff” — Establishing the Canon
    Wheat from the Chaff Establishing the Canon Donald E. Knebel May 21, 2017 Slide 1 1. This is the last presentation in this series looking at the human authors and contexts of the books that make up the Protestant Bible. 2. Today, we will look at how the books in the Bible were selected. 3. In the process, we will look at some other writings that were not selected. 4. We will then consider what it means that the Bible is the word of God. Slide 2 1. The Jewish Bible, on which the Protestant Old Testament is based, includes 24 individual books, organized into three sections – the Torah, meaning Teachings; the Nevi’im, meaning Prophets, and the Ketuvim, meaning Writings. 2. The Jewish Bible is called the Tanakh based on the first letter of the three sections. 3. Scholars remain uncertain about exactly when and how those 24 books were selected, with most believing the final selection did not take place until about 100 A.D. 4. By that time, most of the books comprising the New Testament had been written and Christianity had begun to separate from Judaism. Slide 3 1. At the time most of the books of the Protestant Old Testament were being written, the Jewish people did not have a conception of a single book that would encompass all their most important writings. 2. Instead, they had writings from various periods, some considered more reliable than others and all considered subject to revision and replacement. 3. In about 400 A.D., the prophet Nehemiah reported that Ezra had read to the people “the book of the law of Moses,” but says nothing about any other books being important at the time.
    [Show full text]
  • INTRODUCTION Writing in the Late Fourth Century, Epiphanius Of
    CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Writing in the late fourth century, Epiphanius of Salamis described a group of so-called Phibionite Gnostics that he encountered in Egypt as follows: “. having recognized one another, they hasten to dine. And they lavish meat dishes and wines, even if they are in penury. Th en, aft er a drinking party where so to speak they have engorged their veins with gormandising, they turn to their frenzied passion” (Pan. 26.4.3).1 Epiphanius, however, does not stop here with his description of the ethics and social interactions of these so-called “heretics.” We are later informed that the ritual performances of these sectarians include vari- ous immoral practices that should, for Epiphanius’ audience, revolt the moral sensibilities of a fourth-century Christian. We learn that these sectarians engaged in illicit sexual activities (orgies so excessive as to lead to male homosexual relations), the consumption of menstrual blood and semen, and even the ritual cannibalism of aborted foetuses that were conceived during these ritual activities. Epiphanius claims to have withstood the lure of these heretics, a lure that took the form of seductive women. Th ese polemical barbs directed by Epiphanius against those Christians he considered heretical, though recognized within scholarship as largely hyperbole if not outright fi ction, typifi ed much of how ethics within Gnosticism was viewed by not only ancient polemists but also some modern discussions of ethics.2 Irenaeus, when he moved to southern Gaul in the late second century, encountered what he referred to as followers of Valentinus, specifi cally of Valentinus’ disciple Marcus.
    [Show full text]
  • TERTULLIAN Five Books Against Marcion.Pdf
    TERTULLIAN THE FIVE BOOKS AGAINST MARCION -- BOOK I BOOK I.(1) WHEREIN IS DESCRIBED THE GOD OF MARCION. HE IS SHOWN TO BE UTTERLY WANTING IN ALL THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE TRUE GOD. CHAPTER I -- PREFACE. REASON FOR A NEW WORK PONTUS LENDS ITS ROUGH CHARACTER TO THE HERETIC MARCION, A NATIVE. HIS HERESY CHARACTERIZED IN A BRIEF INVECTIVE. Whatever in times past(1) we have wrought in opposition to Marcion, is from the present moment no longer to be accounted of.(3) It is a new work which we are undertaking in lieu of the old one.(4) My original tract, as too hurriedly composed, I had subsequently superseded by a fuller treatise. This latter I lost, before it was completely published, by the fraud of a person who was then a brother,(5) but became afterwards an apostate. He, as it happened, had transcribed a portion of it, full of mistakes, and then published it. The necessity thus arose for an amended work; and the occasion of the new edition induced me to make a considerable addition to the treatise. This present text,(6) therefore, of my work--which is the third as superseding(7) the second, but henceforward to be considered the first instead of the third--renders a preface necessary to this issue of the tract itself that no reader may be perplexed, if he should by chance fall in with the various forms of it which are scattered about. The Euxine Sea, as it is called, is self-contradictory in its nature, and deceptive in its name.(8) As you would not account it hospitable from its situation, so is it severed from our more civilised waters by a certain stigma which attaches to its barbarous character.
    [Show full text]