Chapter V.—Marcus and Colarbasus.

After these there were not wanting a Marcus and a Colarbasus, composing a novel heresy out of the Greek alphabet. For they affirm that without those letters truth cannot be found; nay more, that in those letters the whole plenitude and perfection of truth is comprised; for this was why Christ said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.”63    See Rev. i. 7; xxi. 6; xxii. 13. In fact, they say that Jesus Christ descended,64    Denique Jesum Christum descendisse. So Oehler, who does not notice any conjectural emendation, or various reading, of the words. If correct, his reading would refer to the views of a twofold Jesus Christ—a real and a phantasmal one—held by docetic Gnostics, or to such views as Valentine’s, in whose system, so far as it is ascertainable from the confused and discrepant account of it, there would appear to have been one Æon called Christ, another called Jesus, and a human person called Jesus and Christ, with whom the true Jesus associated Himself. Some such jumble of ideas the two heretics now under review would seem to have held, if Oehler’s be the true reading. But the difficulties are somewhat lessened if we accept the very simple emendation which naturally suggests itself, and which, I see, Semler has proposed and Routh inclines to receive, “in Jesum Christum descendisse,” i.e. “that Christ descended on Jesus.” that is, that the dove came down on Jesus;65    See Matt. iii. 13–17; Mark i. 9–11; Luke iii. 21–22; John i. 29–34. and, since the dove is styled by the Greek name περιστερά —(peristera), it has in itself this number DCCCI.66    Habere secum numerum DCCCI. So Oehler, after Jos. Scaliger, who, however, seems to have read “secum hunc numerum,” for the ordinary reading, “habere secundum numerum,” which would mean, “represents, in the way of numerical value, DCCCI.” These men run through their Ω, Ψ, Χ, Φ, Υ, Τ—through the whole alphabet, indeed, up to Α and Β—and compute ogdoads and decads.  So we may grant it useless and idle to recount all their trifles. What, however, must be allowed not merely vain, but likewise dangerous, is this:  they feign a second God, beside the Creator; they affirm that Christ was not in the substance of flesh; they say there is to be no resurrection of the flesh.

V.

0070A

Marcum item et Colarbasum.

Non defuerunt post hos Marcus quidam et Colarbasus, novam haeresin ex Graecorum alphabeto componentes. Negant enim veritatem sine istis posse litteris inveniri; imo totam plenitudinem et perfectionem veritatis in istis litteris esse dispositam. Propter hanc enim caussam Christum dixisse: Ego sum Α et Ω. Denique Jesum Christum descendisse, id est, columbam in Jesum venisse, quae graeco nomine cum περιστερὰ pronuntietur, habeat secundum numerum, DCCCI. Percurrunt isti ω, ψ, χ, φ, υ, τ, totum usque ad Alpha Beta , et computant ogdoadas et decadas, ita ut adferre illorum 0070B omnes vanitates ineptum sit et otiosum, quod tamen non tantum jam vanum, sed etiam periculosum sit. Alterum Deum fingunt praeter creatorem. Christum in substantia negant carnis fuisse. Negant carnis resurrectionem futuram.