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
In the _Bruce Papyrus_ mentioned in Chapter X, there is much said
about a god called Sitheus, so that it is by no means certain that the
Seth after whom they were named was the patriarch of Genesis. He might
be the Egyptian Set, whose name is transliterated in the Magic Papyri
as Σηϊθ. His appearance in Egypt first as the brother and then as the
enemy of Osiris has never been fully accounted for. See “The Legend of
Osiris,” _P.S.B.A._ for 1911, pp. 145 _sqq._ Epiphanius’ attempt in
the _Panarion_ (_Haer._ XXXIX. c. 3, p. 524, Oehler) to connect the
genealogy of Jesus with the Seth of Genesis is not even said to depend
on the doctrines of the sect, and the whole chapter reads like an
interpolation. Cf. Friedländer, _Vorchristliche jüdische Gnosticismus,
Göttingen_, 1898, p. 25.
Footnote 263:
Praedestinatus, _de Haeresibus_, Bk I. c. 17, p. 237, Oehler.
Footnote 264:
Matter, _Hist. du Gnost._ t. II. p. 176.
Footnote 265:
See _Acta Philippi_ before quoted _passim_.
Footnote 266:
Irenaeus, Bk I. c. 28, § 8, p. 241, Harvey. King, _Gnostics_, etc. p.
101, quotes from Tertullian, _de Praescript._, “Serpentem magnificant
in tantum ut etiam Christo praeferant,” which sounds like an Ophite
doctrine; but I have failed to verify the quotation.
Footnote 267:
Theodoret, _Haer. Fab._ I. 24.
Footnote 268:
_Pistis Sophia_, pp. 319, 320, Copt.
Footnote 269:
_Ibid._ p. 384, Copt.
Footnote 270:
Hippolytus, _op. cit._ Bk V. c. 13, pp. 188 _sqq._, Cruice.
Footnote 271:
See Giraud, _op. cit._ pp. 250 _sqq._ for references and editions.
English translations of some of them have appeared in the “Apocryphal
Acts” etc. of Clark’s _Ante-Nicene Library_, and in _Cambridge Texts
and Studies_.
Footnote 272:
This is the opinion of Lipsius. See _Dict. Christian Biog._ _s.v._
Gospels, Apocryphal.
Footnote 273:
Cf. the similar expressions in the speech of the soul on the Orphic
Gold Plates, Chapter IV, vol. I. pp. 131 _sqq._
Footnote 274:
Epiphanius, _Haer._ XXVI. c. 13, p. 190, Oehler.
Footnote 275:
_Ibid._ p. 172, Oehler. Cf. the “Logia Jesu” published by the Egypt
Exploration Fund in _Oxyrhynchus Papyri_, 1898, p. 3. “Wherever there
are two, they are not without God, and wherever there is one alone, I
say I am with him. Raise the stone, and there thou shalt find me,
cleave the wood and there am I.”
Footnote 276:
_Pistis Sophia_, pp. 206, 230, Copt.
Footnote 277:
Grüber, _Die Ophiten_, Würzburg, 1864, pp. 173 _sqq._, points out that
the Ophites, like the Valentinians, seem to have used the Peshitto or
Syriac version of the Canonical Books for their quotations. He says
the fact had been already noticed by Harvey. It is, of course, another
indication of the Anatolian or Syrian origin of the sect.
Footnote 278:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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