Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume II
David Hume · en
[Footnote 189: This Cerdo is only known to us as a predecessor of
Marcion, whose teaching he appears to have influenced, although in
what measure cannot now be ascertained. His date seems to be fairly
well settled as about the year 135 (see _D.C.B._, s.h.v.), which is
that of his coming to Rome, and it was doubtless here that Marcion
met him. According to Irenæus, his teaching was mainly in secret and
he was always ready to make submission to the Church and recant his
errors when publicly arraigned. His doctrine, so far as it has come
down to us, does not seem to differ from that of Marcion, Tertullian
(_adv. Marcion_) and the tractate _Adv. Omn. Haer._ giving the best
account of it. Of Lucian, we know nothing, save that, while Epiphanius
(_Haer._ XLII, p. 688, Oehl.) makes him out the immediate successor
of Marcion and to have been succeeded by Apelles, Tertullian (_de
Resurrectione_, c. 2) speaks of him--if he be the person there referred
to as Lucanus--as an independent teacher with no apparent connection
with Marcion’s heresy. He adds that he taught a resurrection neither
of the body nor of the soul, but of some part of man which he calls a
“third nature.” See _Forerunners_, II, p. 218, n. 2, and 220.]
[Footnote 190: Ἀντιπαραθέσεις. See n. on p. 88 _supra_.]
[Footnote 191: Of this Apelles, our knowledge is mainly derived from
Tertullian, for references to whom see Hort’s article “Apelles” in
_D.C.B._ He was certainly later than Marcion, for Rhodo (see Euseb.,
_Hist. Eccl._, V, c. 13), writing at the end of the second century,
A.D., speaks of him as still alive, though an “old man.” The same
author seems to consider that on Marcion’s death he founded a sect
of his own, in which he “corrected” Marcion’s teaching in some
particulars. This is doubtful, but Rhodo’s statements go to show that
he quoted from the Old Testament and did not hold the body of Jesus to
be a phantasm. Tertullian also mentions several times the connection of
Apelles with the “possessed” Philumene, on which he puts a construction
negatived by the evidence of Rhodo. Cf. _Forerunners_, II, pp. 218-220.]
[Footnote 192: Hippolytus here accepts the statement of Tertullian (_de
Præscript._, c. 30) that Apelles wrote a book called Φανερώσεις, or
_Manifestations_, containing the prophecies of Philumene. He repeats
this with more distinctness in Book X, c. 20, _q. v._]
[Footnote 193: ἄσαρκον.]
[Footnote 194: οὐσία.]
[Footnote 195: ἀνασκολοπισθέντα, lit., “impaled.” It is, however, used
by both Philo and Lucian as equivalent to “crucified.”]
[Footnote 196: This “giving back” of the component parts of man’s being
to the different powers from which they are derived is a frequent
theme among the later Gnostics, and is fully described in the _Pistis
Sophia_. Cf. _Forerunners_, II, p. 184.]