6. Phrygians.[77]
19. But there are others also very heretical by nature, Phrygians by race, who have fallen away after being deceived p. 420. by certain women, Priscilla and Maximilla by name, whom they imagine to be prophetesses. Into these they say the Spirit Paraclete has entered and they likewise glorify [even] above these one Montanus as a prophet. Having endless books of their own, they are not judging what is said in them according to reason, nor giving heed to those capable of judgment; but, carried along heedlessly by the faith that they have in them, imagine that they learn more through them than from the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospels. They glorify these wenches[78] above Apostles and every grace,[79] since some of them dare to say that there are those among them who have become greater than Christ. They confess that God is the Father of the universals, and the creator of all things in the same way as [does] the Church, and also [confess] whatever the Gospel testifies concerning Christ. But they innovate in the matter of feasts and fasts and the eating of vegetable food and roots,[80] thinking that they have learned this from the women. And some of them, agreeing with the heresy of the Noetians, say that the Father is the Son, and that He by being born, underwent p. 421. both suffering and death. Concerning these, I shall later explain more minutely; for to many their heresy has become the starting-point of evils. We judge then that what has been said is sufficient, we having proved briefly to all that their many absurd books and attempts are feeble and not worth consideration, whereto those of sound mind need pay no heed.[81]
7. Encratites.
20. But others calling themselves Encratites[82] confess the [facts] about God and Christ in like manner with the Church. But with regard to the way of life, they having become puffed up,[83] have reverted [to earlier opinions]. They think themselves glorified through food by abstaining from things which have had life, drinking water, and forbidding marriage, and in the other things of life are austerely careful. Such as they are judged to be rather Cynics than Christians, seeing that they pay no heed to what was said to them aforetime through the Apostle Paul, who prophesied the innovations that would come by the folly of some, saying p. 422. thus:—“The Spirit says expressly: In the last times some will fall away from the wholesome teaching,[84] giving heed to deceiving spirits and the teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own consciences as with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and (commanding) to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected which is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified through the words of God and prayer....”[85] This saying then of the Blessed Paul is sufficient for the refutation of those who live thus and honour themselves as righteous men, and to show that this also is a heresy.[86]
But although some other heresies are named [to wit those] of the Cainites, Ophites or Noachites[87] and others such as they, I do not think it necessary to set forth their sayings and doings, lest they should thereby think themselves somebody or worthy of argument.[88] But since what p. 423. has been said about them seems to be sufficient, we will come to the source of all evils, the heresy of the Noetians, and having disclosed its root and proved plainly the poison lurking within it, we will hold back from such error those who have been swept away by a violent spirit as by a torrent.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Who these Docetae are is a puzzle. Although Cruice writes the name Δοκήται, Salmon (D.C.B., s.h.n.) gives it as Δοκιταί which is, he says, the spelling adopted by both Hippolytus and Clement of Alexandria. Their tenets as here described have nothing to do with the opinion that the body of Jesus existed in appearance only which we have seen current among the Simonians, Basilidians, Marcionites, and the followers of Saturninus and perhaps of Valentinus. Nor does it seem connected with any proper name such as the fictitious one of Ebion which was invented to explain to Greek ears the appellation of the Ebionites. It may be thought, perhaps, that it was a kind of nickname derived from this chapter’s opening metaphor of the δοκός or “beam,” but this is too far-fetched to be insisted upon. Clement is the only early author who mentions them, and then does so in a fashion (e. g. Strom., VII, 17) which makes it fairly clear that it is those who held Docetic opinions generally so called, and not any special sect to which he is referring. He also says that Julius Cassianus, a Valentinian, was the founder of Docetism of the Simonian kind and St. Jerome (adv. Lucifer, 23) takes this further back by the statement that the opinion in question was current in the life-time of the Apostles. Nor is there anything novel or peculiar in the doctrines set forth in our text of the Docitae or Docetae. The image of the fig-tree with which this chapter opens is but an amplification of the “Indivisible Point” put forward earlier in our text, and there is nothing here stated which is inconsistent with the teachings of Valentinus. This will be further discussed when we come to consider the source of this chapter.
[2] ἐκ φυσικῆς φιλοσοφίας. That is, drawn from the study of nature and natural objects such as trees and the anatomy of the eye, for which see infra.
[3] No further reference is made to the Indian Gymnosophists or “Brachmans,” and this sentence has probably slipped in from some other part of the roll.
[4] δοκός, the “beam” of the Gospels (Cf. Matt. vii. 3, 4; Luke vi. 41, 42). Hippolytus who here resumes his habit of punning tries to connect it with δοκεῖν, “to seem.”