[278]. The exceptional activity of the forces of nature in these districts of Asia Minor may have directed the speculations of the Ionic school towards physics, and more especially towards cosmogony. In Heraclitus there is also a strong mystical element. But besides such broader affinities, I venture to call attention to special dicta of the two philosophers mentioned in the text, which curiously recall the tenets of the Judæo-Gnostic teachers. Thales declared (Diog. Laert. i. 27) τὸν κόσμον ἔμψυχον καὶ δαιμόνων πλήρη, or, as reported by Aristotle (de An. i. 5, p. 411), πάντα πλήρη θεῶν εἰναι. In a recorded saying of Heraclitus we have the very language of a Gnostic teacher; Clem. Alex. Strom. v. 13, p. 699, τὰ μὲν τῆς γνώσιος βάθη κρύπτειν ἀπιστίη ἀγαθή, καθ’ Ἡηράκλειτον· ἀπιστίη γὰρ διαφυγγάνει τὸ μὴ γινώσκεσθαι. See above pp. 77, 92.
[279]. For the characteristic features of Phrygian religious worship see Steiger Kolosser p. 70 sq.
[280]. The prominence, which the Phrygian mysteries and Phrygian rites held in the syncretism of the Ophites, is clear from the account of Hippolytus Hær. v. 7 sq. Indeed Phrygia appears to have been the proper home of Ophitism. Yet the admixture of Judaic elements is not less obvious, as their name Naassene, derived from the Hebrew word for a serpent, shows.
[281]. The name, by which the Montanists were commonly known in the early ages, was the sect of the ‘Phrygians’; Clem. Strom. vii. 17, p. 900 αἱ δὲ [τῶν αἱρεσέων] ἀπὸ ἔθνους [προσαγορεύονται], ὡς ἡ τῶν Φρυγῶν (comp. Eus. H.E. iv. 27, v. 16, Hipp. Hær. viii. 19, x. 25). From οἱ (or ἡ) κατὰ Φρυγάς (Eus. H.E. ii. 25, v. 16, 18, vi. 20) comes the solœcistic Latin name Cataphryges.
[282]. Socrates (iv. 28) accounts for the spread of Novatianism in Phrygia by the σωφροσύνη of the Phrygian temper. If so, it is a striking testimony to the power of Christianity, that under its influence the religious enthusiasm of the Phrygians should have taken this direction, and that they should have exchanged the fanatical orgiasm of their heathen worship for the rigid puritanism of the Novatianist.
[283]. i. 28 νουθετούντες πάντα ἄνθρωπον καὶ διδάσκοντες πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ ἵνα παραστήσωμεν πάντα ἄνθρωπον τέλειον ἐν Χριστῷ κ.τ.λ. The reiteration has offended the scribes; and the first πάντα ἄνθρωπον is omitted in some copies, the second in others. For τέλειον see the note on the passage.
[284]. The connexion of the sentences should be carefully observed. After the passage quoted in the last note comes the asseveration that this is the one object of the Apostle’s preaching (i. 29) εἰς ὃ καὶ κοπιῶ κ.τ.λ.; then the expression of concern on behalf of the Colossians (ii. 1) θέλω γὰρ ὑμᾶς εἰδέναι ἡλίκον ἀγῶνα ἔχω ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν κ.τ.λ.; then the desire that they may be brought (ii. 2) εἰς πᾶν πλοῦτος τῆς πληροφορίας τῆς συνέσεως, εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ μυστηρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ; then the definition of this mystery (ii. 2, 3), Χριστοῦ ἐν ᾧ εἰσὶν πάντες οἱ θησαυροὶ κ.τ.λ.; then the warning against the false teachers (ii. 4) τοῦτο λέγω ἵνα μηδεὶς ὑμᾶς παραλογίζηται κ.τ.λ.
[285]. Col. iii. 11 after περιτομὴ καὶ ἀκροβυστία the Apostle adds βάρβαρος, Σκύθης. There is nothing corresponding to this in the parallel passage, Gal. iii. 28.
[286]. For σοφία see i. 9, 28, ii. 3, iii. 16, iv. 5; for σύνεσις i. 9, ii. 2; for γνῶσις ii. 3; for ἐπίγνωσις i. 9, 10, ii. 2, iii. 10.
[287]. ii. 4 πιθανολογία, ii. 8 κενὴ ἀπάτη.