Book V.

Contents.

The following are the contents of the fifth book of the Refutation of all Heresies:294    [These were: Periander of Corinth, b.c. 585; Pittacus of Mitylene, b.c. 570; Thales of Miletus, b.c. 548: Solon of Athens, b.c. 540; Chilo of Sparta, b.c. 597; Bias of Priene; Cleobulus of Lindus, b.c. 564.]    Or, “Celbes,” or “Ademes.” The first is the form of the name employed in book v. c, viii.; the second in book x. c. vi.    [Consult Bunsen, vol. i. p. 35, always interesting and ingeniously critical; nobody should neglect his work. But for a judicial mind, compare Dr. Wordsworth, p. 182.]—

What the assertions are of the Naasseni, who style themselves Gnostics, and that they advance those opinions which the Philosophers of the Greeks previously propounded, as well as those who have handed down mystical (rites), from (both of) whom the Naasseni taking occasion, have constructed their heresies.

And what are the tenets of the Peratæ, and that their system is not framed by them out of the holy Scriptures, but from astrological art.

What is the doctrine of the Sethians,295    Or, “motions of the stars” (Roeper).    The ms. employs the form Sithians, which is obviously not the correct one. and that, purloining296    Or, “carried along” (Roeper).    This term κλεψίλογος is frequently applied by Hippolytus to the heretics. their theories from the wise men among the Greeks, they have patched together their own system out of shreds of opinion taken from Musæus, and Linus, and Orpheus.

What are the tenets of Justinus, and that his system is framed by him, not out of the holy Scriptures, but from the detail of marvels furnished by Herodotus the historian.

ΤΟΥ ΚΑΤΑ ΠΑΣΩΝ ΑΙΡΕΣΕΩΝ ΕΛΕΓΧΟΥ Ε Τάδε ἔνεστιν ἐν τῇ πέμπτῃ τοῦ κατὰ πασῶν αἱρέσεων ἐλέγχου: Τίνα οἱ Να[α]σσηνοὶ λέγουσιν, οἱ ἑαυτοὺς γνωστικοὺς ἀποκαλοῦντες, καὶ ὅτι ἐκεῖνα δογματίζουσιν ἃ πρότερον οἱ Ἑλλήνων φιλόσοφοι ἐδογμάτισαν καὶ οἱ τὰ μυστικὰ παραδόντες, ἀφ' ὧν τὰς ἀφορμὰς λαβόντες αἱρέσεις συνεστήσαντο. Καὶ τίνα τὰ τοῖς Περάταις δοκοῦντα, καὶ ὅτι μὴ ἀπὸ τῶν ἁγίων γραφῶν τὸ δόγμα αὐτοῖς συνίσταται, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ ἀστρολογικῆς. Τίς ὁ κατὰ τοὺς Σηθιανοὺς λόγος, καὶ ὅτι ἀπὸ τῶν καθ' Ἕλληνας σοφῶν κλεψιλογήσαντες Μουσαίου καὶ Λίνου καὶ Ὀρφέως τὸ δόγμα ἑαυτῶν συνεκάττυσαν. Τίνα τὰ Ἰουστίνῳ δοκοῦντα, καὶ ὅτι μὴ ἀπὸ τῶν ἁγίων γραφῶν τὸ δόγμα αὐτῷ συνίσταται, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῶν Ἡροδότου τοῦ ἱστοριογράφου τερατολογιῶν.