January 24, 2015

Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 5) - IV - Refutation of all heresies Book VII

Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Vol 5) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Book VII of 'The refutation of all heresies' by Hippolytus.

My summary
Yet again, Hippolytus gave a good summary of today's Book at the beginning:

'The following are the contents of the seventh book of the Refutation of all Heresies:—
What the opinion of Basilides is, and that, being struck with the doctrines of Aristotle, he out of these framed his heresy.
And what are the statements of Saturnilus, who flourished much about the time of Basilides.
And how Menander advanced the assertion that the world was made by angels.
What is the folly of Marcion, and that his tenet is not new, nor (taken) out of the Holy Scriptures, but that he obtains it from Empedocles.
How Carpocrates acts sillily, in himself also alleging that existing things were made by angels.
That Cerinthus, in no wise indebted to the Scriptures, formed his opinion (not out of them), but from the tenets of the Egyptians.
What are the opinions propounded by the Ebionæans, and that they in preference adhere to Jewish customs.
How Theodotus has been a victim of error, deriving contributions to his system partly from the Ebionæans, (partly from Cerinthus.)
And what were the opinions of Cerdon, who both enunciated the doctrines of Empedocles, and who wickedly induced Marcion to step forward.
And how Lucian, when he had become a disciple of Marcion, having divested himself of all shame, blasphemed God from time to time.
And Apelles also, having become a disciple of this (heretic), was not in the habit of advancing the same opinions with his preceptor; but being actuated (in the formation of his system) from the tenets of natural philosophers, assumed the substance of the universe as the fundamental principle of things.
'

What grabbed me
A lot of material that is clearly heretical today.

For example: 'The Gospel then came, says (Basilides), first from the Sonship through the Son, that was seated beside the Archon, to the Archon, and the Archon learned that He was not God of the universe, but was begotten. But (ascertaining that) He has above Himself the deposited treasure of that Ineffable and Unnameable (and) Non-existent One, and of the Sonship, He was both converted and filled with terror, when He was brought to understand in what ignorance He was (involved). This, he says, is what has been declared:  "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."'

No biblical foundation to this teaching.

Next week's reading
Read Book VIII of 'The refutation of all heresies' by Hippolytus.

Now it's your turn

Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.

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