Forerunners and rivals of Christianity : $b being studies in religious history from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D., Vol. 2 (of 2)Legge, Francis
Religion
Forerunners and rivals of Christianity : $b being studies in religious history from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D., Vol. 2 (of 2)
Legge, Francis
Christianity and other religions; Religions
Hatch, _op. cit._ p. 308. This visible change of the contents of the
cup of water to the semblance of blood is described in the Μέρος
τευχῶν Σωτῆρος (p. 377, Copt.), and with more detail in the Bruce
Papyrus. Cf. p. 183 _infra_.
Footnote 588:
Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος, p. 354, Copt.
Footnote 589:
Whether the author of the _Pistis Sophia_ really intended to describe
them may be doubted; but it is to be noted that the sacraments which
Jesus is represented as celebrating in the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος can
hardly be they, although Jesus calls them in one place (p. 374,
Copt.), “the mysteries of the light which remit sins, which themselves
are appellations and names of light.” These are administered to the
twelve disciples without distinction, and it is evident that the
author of these books is quite unacquainted with any division into
pneumatic and psychic, and knows nothing of the higher mysteries
called in the _Pistis Sophia_ proper “the mysteries of the Ineffable
One” and “the mysteries of the First Mystery.” We should get over many
difficulties if we supposed the two later books to be Marcosian in
origin, but in any event they are later than the _Pistis Sophia_.
Footnote 590:
p. 246, Copt. So in the Manichaean text described in Chapter XIII,
Jesus is Himself called “the Tree of Knowledge.”
Footnote 591:
So Irenaeus, Bk I. c. 1, § 11, pp. 58, 54, Harvey: Ἐπαιδεύθησαν γὰρ τὰ
ψυχικὰ οἱ ψυχικοὶ ἄνθρωποι, οἱ δι’ ἔργων καὶ πίστεως ψιλῆς
βεβαιούμενοι, καὶ μὴ τὴν τελείαν γνῶσιν ἔχοντες· εἶναι δὲ τούτους ἀπὸ
τῆς Ἐκκλησίας ἡμᾶς λέγουσι· διὸ καὶ ἡμῖν μὲν ἀναγκαῖον εἶναι τὴν
ἀγαθὴν πρᾶξιν ἀποφαίνονται· ἄλλως γὰρ ἀδύνατον σωθῆναι. Αὐτοὺς δὲ μὴ
διὰ πράξεως, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ φύσει πνευματικοὺς εἶναι, πάντῃ τε καὶ πάντως
σωθήσεσθαι δογματίζουσιν. “For the psychic (animal) men are taught
psychic things, they being made safe by works and by mere faith, and
not having perfect knowledge. And they say that we of the Church are
these people. Wherefore they declare that good deeds are necessary for
us: for otherwise we could not be saved. But they decree that they
themselves are entirely and in every thing saved, not by works, but
because they are pneumatic (spiritual) by nature.”
Footnote 592:
p. 249, Copt.
Footnote 593:
p. 250, Copt. It is to be observed that these “cleansing mysteries”
will only admit their recipients to the light of the Kingdom of
Jesus—not to that of the First Mystery or of the Ineffable One.
Footnote 594:
As did perhaps the Manichaeans afterwards. See _J.R.A.S._ for January,
1913, and Chap. XIII _infra_.
Footnote 595:
So Charles Kingsley in _Hypatia_. Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, vol. IV.
c. 60, n. 15, quotes a statement of Rufinus that there were nearly as
many monks living in the deserts as citizens in the towns.
Footnote 596:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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