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| Hermogenes; Adopts the Socratic Philosophy; His Notion Concerning the Birth and Body of Our Lord.
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Chapter X.—Hermogenes;
Adopts the Socratic Philosophy; His Notion Concerning the Birth and
Body of Our Lord.
But a certain Hermogenes,941
| 941 See
[vol. iii. p. 257, also p. 477] Tertullian, Præscript., c.
xxx.; [vol. iv. p. 245, this series] Origen, Περὶ
ἀρχ., i. 2; Eusebius, De
Præp., vii. 8, 9; St. Augustine,
Hær., lix.; Theodoret, Hær. Fab., i. 19; and
Philastrius, Hær., lv. | himself also imagining that he propounded
some novel opinion, said that God made all things out of coeval and
ungenerated matter. For that it was impossible that God could
make generated things out of things that are not. And that God is
always Lord, and
always Creator, and matter always a subservient (substance), and that
which is assuming phases of being—not, however, the whole of
it. For when it was being continually moved in a rude and
disorderly manner, He reduced (matter) into order by the following
expedient. As He gazed (upon matter) in a seething condition,
like (the contents of) a pot when a fire is burning underneath, He
effected a partial separation. And taking one portion from the
whole, He subdued it, but another He allowed to be whirled in a
disorderly manner. And he asserts that what was (thus) subdued is
the world, but that another portion remains wild, and is denominated
chaotic942
| 942
Literally, “unadorned.” | matter. He
asserts that this constitutes the substance of all things, as if
introducing a novel tenet for his disciples. He does not,
however, reflect that this happens to be the Socratic discourse, which
(indeed) is worked out more elaborately by Plato than by
Hermogenes. He acknowledges, however, that Christ is the Son of
the God who created all things; and along with (this admission), he
confesses that he was born of a virgin and of (the) Spirit, according
to the voice of the Gospels. And (Hermogenes maintains that
Christ), after His passion, was raised up in a body, and that He
appeared to His disciples, and that as He went up into heaven He left
His body in the sun, but that He Himself proceeded on to the
Father. Now (Hermogenes) resorts to testimony, thinking to
support himself by what is spoken, (viz.) what the Psalmist David
says: “In the sun he hath placed his tabernacle, and
himself (is) as a bridegroom coming forth from his nuptial chamber,
(and) he will rejoice as a giant to run his course.”943
These, then, are the opinions which
also Hermogenes attempted to establish.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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