The Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries, by the Late H.L. Mansel, with a Sketch of His Work, Life, and Character, by the Earl of Carnarvon. Ed. by J.B. Lightfoot (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 edition. Excerpt: ...tbv iraripa noraXGa-ai 5. irdvras robs Hpxovros, which admits 2 Innatum (hyivvrrrov, Hippol.), of either construction. The one which Neander understands to mean adopted in the text seems more pronot born of a woman. Cf. Harvey's bable in itself and more suitable to Irenaut, I. p. 197. A similar view the context. was afterwards held by Marcion. Epiphanius (Har, xxiii. 2) adds. The Latin translation of Irenseus 8vo yhp ireirAdVflai &t' ipxris kvBpti renders 'propter hoc quod dissolvere Ttovs iptiiTKti. eVa ayaObv Kal era tpavav. voluerint Patrem ejus omnes prin-Siv fiio that ra, yivn Tw avBpuirair cipes.' But the Greek text, as pre-iv K6apLtf, &, yaB6v T Kal irovij/xSv. angel, the enemy of the makers of the world, and especially of the God of the Jews.'1 In this description it is not difficult to discern the Persian accretions engrafted by Saturninus on the original teaching of Simon and Menander. The seven angels who made the world are obviously borrowed from Ormuzd and his six Amshaspands; only instead of being placed, as in the Zoroastrian system, as the highest rank of the celestial hierarchy, they are degraded to the extreme verge of the kingdom of light,2 and regarded as alienated from the Supreme Father, though hostile to the powers of darkness. A supposition of this kind was necessary in the scheme of Saturninus in order to make room for the work of the Saviour, just as in the theory of Simon and others, borrowed from the Alexandrian Judaism, the creation of the world is transferred from the Logos to an inferior order of emanated powers. The material world, as in the Persian theory, occupies the intermediate space between the regions of light and darkness; only the conflict for its possession is in the first instance...