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| Carpocrates, Cerinthus, Ebion.
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Chapter III.—Carpocrates, Cerinthus, Ebion.
Carpocrates, furthermore, introduced the following
sect. He affirms that there is one Virtue, the chief among the upper
(regions): that out of this were produced angels and Virtues, which,
being far distant from the upper Virtues, created this world8373
in the lower regions: that Christ was not
born of the Virgin Mary, but was generated—a mere human
being—of the seed of Joseph, superior (they admit) above all
others in the practice of righteousness and in integrity of life; that
He suffered among the Jews; and that His soul alone was received in
heaven as having been more firm and hardy than all others: whence he
would infer, retaining only the salvation of souls, that there are no
resurrections of the body.
After him brake out the heretic Cerinthus,
teaching similarly. For he, too, says that the world8374
was originated by those
angels;8375
| 8375 “Ab illis”
is perhaps an error for “ab angelis,” by absorption of the
first syllable. So Routh has conjectured before me. | and sets forth
Christ as born of the seed of Joseph, contending that He was merely
human, without divinity; affirming also that the Law was given by
angels;8376
| 8376 “Ab
angelis:” an erroneous notion, which professed probably to derive
support from John i. 17, Acts
vii. 53, Gal. iii. 19, where,
however, the Greek prepositions should be carefully noted, and ought in
no case to be rendered by “ab.” | representing the
God of the Jews as not the Lord, but an angel.
His successor was Ebion,8377
not agreeing with Cerinthus in every point; in that he affirms the
world8378
to have been made by God, not by angels; and
because it is written, “No disciple above his master, nor
servant above his lord,”8379
| 8379 See Matt. x. 24; Luke iv. 40; John xiii.
16. |
sets forth likewise the law as binding,8380
| 8380 i.e., as Rig.’s
quotation from Jerome’s Indiculus (in Oehler) shows,
“because in so far as, Christ observed it.” | of course for the purpose of excluding the
gospel and vindicating Judaism.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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