Forerunners and rivals of Christianity : $b being studies in religious history from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D., Vol. 2 (of 2) — John Shaqi
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
Tertullian, _Scorpiace_, c. 1.
Footnote 42:
Neander, _Ch. Hist._ (Eng. ed.), I. p. 208, quotes a case from St
Augustine which I have not been able to verify.
Footnote 43:
Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, II. p. 110 and note 144 (Bury’s ed.). For
the search which the Christian emperors directed to be made for the
heretics’ books, see Eusebius, _Vita Constantini_, Bk III. cc. 64, 65.
Footnote 44:
The actual transcription and translation were made by Maurice
Schwartze, a young German who was sent over here to study the
documents in the British Museum at the expense of the King of Prussia.
He died after the completion of his task, and before the book could be
printed.
Footnote 45:
Amélineau’s transcription and translation appeared in the _Notices et
Extraits_, etc. of the Académie des Inscriptions, t. XXIX. pt 2
(Paris, 1891). He has also published a translation into French without
text of the _Pistis Sophia_ (Paris, 1895). Dr Carl Schmidt, of the
University of Berlin, has published translations into German of both
works under the title _Koptisch-Gnostische Schriften_, Bd I., Leipzig,
1905. None of these versions are entirely satisfactory, and it is much
to be wished that an authoritative edition of the two works could be
put forward by English scholars. The present writer gave a short
history and analysis of them in the _Scottish Review_ for 1893 under
the title “Some Heretic Gospels.”
Footnote 46:
Clement was so far from being a heresiologist that he has not escaped
the reproach of being himself a heretic. He repeatedly speaks in
praise of the “true Gnostic,” meaning thereby the perfect Christian,
and although this is probably a mere matter of words, it seems to have
induced Photius in the IXth century to examine his writings with a
jealous eye. The result was that, as M. Courdaveaux points out
(_R.H.R._ 1892, p. 293 and note), he found him guilty of teaching that
matter was eternal, the Son a simple creature of the Father, the
Incarnation only an appearance, that man’s soul entered several bodies
in succession, and that several worlds were created before that of
Adam. All these are Gnostic opinions, and it may be that if we had all
Clement’s books in our hands, as had Photius, we might confirm M.
Courdaveaux’s judgment, as does apparently Mgr Duchesne. Cf. his
_Hist. of Christian Ch._ pp. 244, 245.
Footnote 47:
Cf. A. C. McGiffert, _Prolegomena to the Church History of Eusebius_
(Schaff and Wace’s Nicene Library), Oxford, 1890, vol. I. p. 179 and
note.
Footnote 48:
Of the heresies mentioned in the _Philosophumena_ only two, viz. that
of Simon Magus and that of those whom Hippolytus calls the Sethiani,
do not admit, either expressly or by implication, the divinity of
Jesus. This may be accounted for by what has been said above as to
both being pre-Christian in origin.
Footnote 49:
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