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| Menander the Sorcerer. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter
XXVI.—Menander the
Sorcerer.
1. Menander,813
813 Justin, in the passage quoted just below, is the first one to tell
us about Menander. According to him, he was a Samaritan and a disciple
of Simon Magus, and, like him, deceived many by the practice of magic
arts. Irenæus (Adv. Hær. I. 23) gives a somewhat
fuller account of him, very likely based upon Justin’s work
against heresies which the latter mentions in his Apol. I. 26,
and from which Irenæus quotes in IV. 6. 2 (at least he quotes from
a Contra Marcionem, which was in all probability a part of the
same work; see Bk. IV. chap. 11, note 22), and perhaps in V. 26. 2.
From this account of Irenæus that of Eusebius is drawn, and no new
particulars are added. Tertullian also mentions Menander (De
Anima, 23, 50) and his resurrection doctrine, but evidently knows
only what Irenæus has already told; and so the accounts of all the
early Fathers rest wholly upon Justin and Irenæus, and probably
ultimately upon Justin alone. See Salmon’s article
Menander in the Dict. of Christ. Biog. | who succeeded
Simon Magus,814
814 Upon Simon Magus, see above, Bk. II. chap. 13, note 3. | showed himself in his conduct
another instrument of diabolical power,815
815 “Instrument of diabolical power,” is an embellishment
of Eusebius’ own, quite in keeping with his usual treatment of
heretics. It is evident, however, that neither Justin nor Irenæus
looked upon Menander with any greater degree of allowance. | not inferior
to the former. He also was a Samaritan and carried his sorceries to no
less an extent than his teacher had done, and at the same time reveled
in still more marvelous tales than he.
2. For he said that he was
himself the Saviour, who had been sent down from invisible æons
for the salvation of men;816
816 Simon (Irenæus, I. 23. 1) taught that he himself was the
Supreme Power; but Menander, according to Irenæus (ibid.
§5), taught that the Supreme Power continues unknown to all, but
that he himself (as Eusebius here says) was sent forth as a saviour for
the deliverance of men. | and he taught
that no one could gain the mastery over the world-creating angels
themselves817
817 He
agreed with Simon in teaching that the world was formed by angels who
had taken their origin from the Ennœa of the Supreme Power, and
that the magical power which he imparted enabled his followers to
overcome these creative angels, as Simon had taught of himself before
him. | unless he had first gone through
the magical discipline imparted by him and had received baptism from
him. Those who were deemed worthy of this would partake even in the
present life of perpetual immortality, and would never die, but would
remain here forever, and without growing old become immortal.818
818 This baptism (according to Irenæus “into his own
name”), and the promise of the resurrection as a result, seem to
have been an original addition of Menander’s. The exemption from
death taught by Menander was evidently understood by Irenæus,
Tertullian (De Anima, 50), and Eusebius in its physical, literal
sense; but the followers of Menander must of course have put a
spiritual meaning upon it, or the sect could not have continued in
existence for any length of time. It is certain that it was flourishing
at the time of Justin; how much longer we do not know. Justin himself
does not emphasize the physical element, and he undoubtedly understood
that the immortality taught was spiritual simply. Hegesippus (quoted
below, in Bk. IV. chap. 22) mentions the Menandrianists, but this does
not imply that he was himself acquainted with them, for he draws his
information largely from Justin Martyr. | These facts can be easily learned from
the works of Irenæus.819
819 Irenæus, Adv. Hær. I. 23. 5. In III. 4. 3 he
mentions Menander again, making him the father of all the
Gnostics. |
3. And Justin, in the passage in
which he mentions Simon, gives an account of this man also, in the
following words:820 “And we know
that a certain Menander, who was also a Samaritan, from the village of
Capparattea,821
821 The
situation of the village of Capparattea is uncertain. See
Harnack’s Quellen-Kritik des Gnosticismus, p.
84. | was a disciple of Simon, and that
he also, being driven by the demons, came to Antioch822
822 Menander’s Antiochene activity is reported only by Justin.
It is probable, therefore, that Tertullian used Irenæus alone in
writing his account of Menander, for it is unlikely that both of them
would have omitted the same fact if they drew independently from
Justin. | and deceived many by his magical art.
And he persuaded his followers that they should not die. And there are
still some of them that assert this.”
4. And it was indeed an artifice
of the devil to endeavor, by means of such sorcerers, who assumed the
name of Christians, to defame the great mystery of godliness by magic
art, and through them to make ridiculous the doctrines of the Church
concerning the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the
dead.823
823 Cyril of Jerusalem (Cat. XVIII. 1) says that the denial of
the resurrection of the body was a peculiarly Samaritan heresy, and it
would seem therefore that the heresy of these Menandrianists was in
that direction, i.e. that they taught rather a spiritual immortality
and denied a bodily resurrection (as suggested in note 6); evidently,
however, this was not Eusebius’ idea. He probably looked upon
them as discrediting the Christian doctrine of a resurrection by
teaching a physical immortality, which of course was soon proved
contrary to truth, and which thus, being confounded by the masses with
the doctrines of the Christians, brought the latter also into contempt,
and threw discredit upon immortality and resurrection of every
kind. | But they that have chosen these men as
their saviours have fallen away from the true hope.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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