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he says is the highest. He does not believe the dead will be raised. He denies Jerusalem, he proposes Mount Gerizim instead. Instead of our true Christ, he proclaims himself. And he allegorizes the things of the Law according to his own preconception. And he says there will be a judgment, but he does not expect one; for if he were convinced he would be judged by God, he would not have dared to act impiously against God himself. Whence some, not knowing that he uses reverence for God as a cloak and undermines the things of the truth, perish by believing, as if he were a believer, the hope and judgment he somehow says will be. But his entrance into the doctrine of godliness happened thus: A certain John became a Hemerobaptist, who also, according to the principle of syzygy, became the forerunner of our Lord Jesus; and just as the Lord had twelve apostles, bearing the number of the twelve months of the sun, so also he had thirty leaders, fulfilling the monthly number of the moon. In which number there was a certain woman named Helen, so that not even this might be without its own economy. For the woman, being half of a man, renders the number of the thirty imperfect, just as the moon, whose monthly course does not complete its circuit perfectly. Of these thirty, Simon was the first and most esteemed for John, who also had this reason for not becoming the leader after the death of John: For while he was traveling abroad to Egypt for the practice of magic, John was slain, and a certain Dositheus, desiring the leadership, after falsely announcing his death, succeeded to the sect. But Simon, arriving not long after and strongly claiming the position as his own, upon meeting Dositheus did not demand the place, knowing that one who has obtained the leadership against his will is not deposed. Therefore, with feigned friendship, for a short time he gives himself to the second place to Dositheus. But after not many days, having been ranked with the thirty fellow-disciples, he began to slander Dositheus, as not genuinely handing down the teachings. And he said that he did this not out of envy, but out of ignorance. And once Dositheus, suspecting Simon's artful slander was undermining the suspicion among the many that he was not the one who stands, came in anger to their usual meeting-place; finding Simon, he strikes him with a staff. But it seemed to pass through Simon's body as if through smoke. At this, Dositheus, amazed, says to him: If you are the Standing One, I worship you. When Simon said, 'I am,' Dositheus, recognizing that he himself was not the Standing One, fell down and worshipped, and abasing himself along with the twenty-nine leaders, he placed Simon in his own position of suspicion, and thus after not many days, Dositheus, when that one was standing, himself fell and died. But Simon, taking Helen with him, goes about, and until this day, as you see, he stirs up the crowds. And he says that he has brought down this Helen from the highest heavens to the world, she being the mistress, as the all-mother substance and wisdom, on whose account (he says) both Greeks and barbarians fought, having imagined an image of the truth; for she who truly exists was then with the first

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ἀνώτατον εἶναι λέγει. οὐ νεκροὺς ἐγερθήσεσθαι πιστεύει. τὴν Ἱερου- σαλὴμ ἀρνεῖται, τὸ Γαριζεὶν ὄρος ἀντεισφέρει. ἀντὶ τοῦ ὄντος Χριστοῦ ἡμῶν ἑαυτὸν ἀναγορεύει. τὰ δὲ τοῦ νόμου ἰδίᾳ προλήψει ἀλληγορεῖ. καὶ κρίσιν ἔσεσθαι μὲν λέγει, οὐ προσδοκᾷ δέ· οὐ γὰρ ἂν ὑπὸ θεοῦ κρι- θήσεσθαι πεπεισμένος μέχρι αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀσεβεῖν ἐτόλμα. ὅθεν ἔνιοι μὴ εἰδότες ὅτι προκαλύμματι τῇ θεοσεβείᾳ κεχρημένος ὑποσυλᾷ τὰ τῆς ἀληθείας, καὶ τὴν ὁπώσποτε ὑπὸ αὐτοῦ ἐλπίδα καὶ κρίσιν λεγο- μένην ἔσεσθαι ὡς πιστῷ πιστεύοντες ἀπόλλυνται. τὸ δὲ παρεισελ- θεῖν αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν τῆς θεοσεβείας λόγον γέγονεν οὕτως· Ἰωάννης τις ἐγέ- νετο ἡμεροβαπτιστής, ὃς καὶ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ κατὰ τὸν τῆς συζυγίας λόγον ἐγένετο πρόοδος· καὶ ὥσπερ τῷ κυρίῳ γεγόνασιν δώδεκα ἀπόστολοι, τῶν τοῦ ἡλίου δώδεκα μηνῶν φέροντες τὸν ἀριθμόν, ὡσαύτως καὶ αὐτῷ ἔξαρχοι ἄνδρες γεγόνασιν τριάκοντα, τὸν μηνιαῖον τῆς σελήνης ἀποπληροῦντες λόγον. ἐν ᾧ ἀριθμῷ μία τις ἦν γυνὴ λεγομένη Ἑλένη, ἵνα μηδὲ τοῦτο ἀνοικονόμητον ᾖ. ἥμισυ γὰρ ἀνδρὸς οὖσα ἡ γυνὴ ἀτελῆ τὸν τῆς τριακοντάδος τέθεικεν ἀριθμόν, ὥσπερ καὶ τῆς σελήνης, ἧς ἡ πορεία τοῦ μηνὸς οὐ τέλειον ποιεῖται τὸν δρόμον. τούτων δὲ τῶν τριά κοντα τῷ Ἰωάννῃ πρῶτος καὶ δοκιμώτατος ἦν ὁ Σίμων, ὃς καὶ τοῦ μὴ ἄρξαι αὐτὸν μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν τοῦ Ἰωάννου αἰτίαν ἔσχεν ταύτην· ἀπο- δημοῦντος γὰρ αὐτοῦ εἰς Aἴγυπτον ἐπὶ τὴν τῆς μαγείας ἐπάσκησιν, τοῦ Ἰωάννου ἀναιρεθέντος, ∆οσίθεός τις τῆς ἀρχῆς ὀρεγόμενος, θάνατον αὐτοῦ ψευδῆ καταγγείλας διαδέχεται τὴν αἵρεσιν. ὁ δὲ Σίμων μετ' οὐ πολὺ ἐπελθὼν καὶ τοῦ τόπου ὡς ἰδίου μεγάλως ἀντεχόμενος, τῷ ∆οσιθέῳ συντυχὼν τὸν μὲν τόπον οὐκ ἀπῄτει, εἰδὼς ὅτι ὁ φθάσας τῆς ἀρχῆς παρὰ προαίρεσιν οὐ καθαιρεῖται. διὸ μετὰ προσποιητοῦ φιλίας ἐπ' ὀλίγον μὲν εἰς τὸν δεύτερον τοῦ ∆οσιθέου τόπον δίδωσιν ἑαυτόν. ταγεὶς δὲ μετ' οὐ πολλὰς ἡμέρας τοῖς τριάκοντα συμμαθηταῖς, ὑποδια- βάλλειν ἤρξατο τὸν ∆οσίθεον, ὡς μὴ παραδιδόντα γνησίως τὰ μαθήματα. καὶ τοῦτο ποιεῖν ἔλεγεν αὐτὸν οὐχ ὡς φθονοῦντα, ἀλλ' ὡς ἀγνοοῦντα. καί ποτε ὁ ∆οσίθεος, ὑπαισθόμενος τὴν τοῦ Σίμωνος ἔντεχνον διαβολὴν λύ- ουσαν αὐτοῦ τὴν πρὸς τοὺς πολλοὺς ὑπόνοιαν, τοῦ μὴ αὐτὸν εἶναι νο- μίζειν τὸν ἑστῶτα, θυμῷ ἐπὶ τὴν συνήθη παραγενόμενος διατριβὴν ·άβδῳ παίει εὑρὼν τὸν Σίμωνα· ἡ δὲ ὥσπερ καπνοῦ τοῦ Σίμωνος διελθεῖν ἔδοξε σῶμα. ἐπὶ τούτῳ καταπλαγεὶς ὁ ∆οσίθεος λέγει αὐτῷ· Eἰ σὺ εἶ ὁ ἑστώς, καὶ προσκυνῶ σε. τοῦ Σίμωνος εἰπόντος· Ἐγώ εἰμι, ὁ ∆οσί- θεος ἑαυτὸν γνοὺς οὐκ ὄντα τὸν ἑστῶτα, πεσὼν προσεκύνησεν, καὶ τοῖς εἰκοσιεννέα ἐξάρχοις συνκαταβαλὼν ἑαυτὸν εἰς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ τῆς ὑπονοίας τόπον ἔστησε τὸν Σίμωνα, καὶ οὕτως μετ' οὐ πολλὰς ἡμέρας ὁ ∆οσίθεος, ἐκείνου στάντος, αὐτὸς πεσὼν ἐτελεύτησεν. ὁ δὲ Σίμων τὴν Ἑλένην παραλαβὼν ἐκπεριέρχεται, καὶ μέχρι τοῦ δεῦρο, ὡς ὁρᾷς, ἀναστατεῖ τοὺς ὄχλους. αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν Ἑλένην ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνωτάτων οὐρανῶν κατε- νηνοχέναι λέγει τῷ κόσμῳ, κυρίαν οὖσαν, ὡς παμμήτορα οὐσίαν καὶ σο- φίαν, ἧς ἕνεκεν (φησίν) Ἕλληνές τε καὶ βάρβαροι ἐμαχέσαντο, εἰκόνα φαντασθέντες ἀληθείας· ἡ γὰρ ὄντως οὖσα τότε παρὰ τῷ πρωτίστῳ