Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 5) - VI - Refutation of all heresies Book IX

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

My summary
I still like Hippolytus' own summaries:

'The following are the contents of the ninth book of the Refutation of all Heresies:—
What the blasphemous folly is of Noetus, and that he devoted himself to the tenets of Heraclitus the Obscure, not to those of Christ.
And how Callistus, intermingling the heresy of Cleomenes, the disciple of Noetus, with that of Theodotus, constructed another more novel heresy, and what sort the life of this (heretic) was.
What was the recent arrival (at Rome) of the strange spirit Elchasai, and that there served as a concealment of his peculiar errors his apparent adhesion to the law, when in point of fact he devotes himself to the tenets of the Gnostics, or even of the astrologists, and to the arts of sorcery.
What the customs of the Jews are, and how many diversities of opinion there are (amongst them).'

Note that the 'customs of the Jews' includes comments about Jewish sects, including:
(i) the Esseni;
(ii) the Pharisees;
(iii) the Sadducees.

What grabbed me
I was interested in the descriptions of the Jewish sects that appear in the New Testament. 

Particularly the Sadducees: 'The Sadducees, however, are for abolishing fate, and they acknowledge that God does nothing that is wicked, nor exercises providence over (earthly concerns); but they contend that the choice between good and evil lies within the power of men. And they deny that there is a resurrection not only of flesh, but also they suppose that the soul does not continue after death. The soul they consider nothing but mere vitality, and that it is on account of this that man has been created. However, (they maintain) that the notion of the resurrection has been fully realized by the single circumstance, that we close our days after having left children upon earth. But (they still insist) that after death one expects to suffer nothing, either bad or good; for that there will be a dissolution both of soul and body, and that man passes into non-existence, similarly also with the material of the animal creation. But as regards whatever wickedness a man may have committed in life, provided he may have been reconciled to the injured party, he has been a gainer (by transgression), inasmuch as he has escaped the punishment (that otherwise would have been inflicted) by men.'

Not much room for God in that worldview.

Next week's reading
Read Book X 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.