It is easy to see how Philonian ideas continued to exert their influence in Egypt, when absorbed into Christianity. It was these ideas which peopled the deserts of Nitria and Scete with myriads of monks wrestling with their bodies, those prison-houses of their souls, struggling to die to the world of matter, that their ethereal souls might shake themselves free. Their spirits were like moths in a web, bound by silken threads; the spirit would be choked by these fetters, unless it could snap them and sail away.
Part III. The Lost Pauline Gospels.
Under this head are classed such Gospels as have a distinct anti-Judaizing, Antinomian tendency. They were in use among the Churches of Asia Minor, and eventually found their way into Egypt.
This class may probably be subdivided into those which bore a strong affinity to the Canonical Gospel of St. Luke, and those which were independent compilations.
To the first class belongs—
1. The Gospel of the Lord.
To the second class—