[330] Lit., “washed”; but the context shows that it is baptism which is in question. It played an important part not only in all these heretical sects but in heathen “mysteries” like those of Isis and Mithras.
[331] Hosea i. 2. The A.V. has “departing from the Lord.” Here we have Edem clearly identified with the Earth goddess which is the key to the whole of Justinus’ story.
[332] ταῖς ἑξῆς ... τὰς τῶν ἀκολούθων αἱρέσεων. Macmahon, following Cruice, translates as above. It may well be, however, that the “heresies which follow” only mean which follow in the book.
[333] There is no reason to doubt Hippolytus’ assertion that this chapter is compiled from a book called Baruch in which Justinus set forth his own doctrines. The narrative therein is, unlike that of the earlier chapters, perfectly coherent and plain, and the author’s use of the historical present gives it a dramatic form which is lacking from the oratio obliqua formerly employed. Solecisms like the omission of the article are also rare, and the very long sentences in which Hippolytus seems to have delighted do not appear except in those passages where he is speaking in his own person. Whether from this or from some other cause, moreover, the transcription of it seems to have given less difficulty to the scribe Michael than some of the other chapters, and there is therefore far less need to constantly restore the text as in the case of the quotations from Sextus Empiricus. On the whole, therefore, we may assume that, as we have it, it is a genuine summary of Justinus’ doctrines taken from a work by his own hand.
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