[843] John v. 37.
[844] Deut. iv. 15.
[845] Ps. xvii. 8.
[846] Matt. xxiii. 37.
[847] Zech. iv. 10.
[848] Matt. v. 48.
[849] Philo Judæus (Leg. Alleg. I. 14. p. 52). Theou gar oude ho sumpas kosmos axion an eie chorion kai endiaitema, epei autos heauto tepos. So Sir Isaac Newton, at the end of the Principia, asserts that God by His eternal and infinite existence constitutes Time and Space: "Non est duratio vel spatium, sed durat et adest, et existendo semper et ubique spatium et durationem constituit."
[850] Is. lxvi. 1.
[851] John i. 3.
[852] The sacred name (hvhy) was not pronounced, but Adonai was substituted.
[853] Job xi. 7 (R.V.): Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? Cyril seems to have understood ta eschata as "the least," not as "the utmost."
[854] 1 Cor. ii. 9.
[855] Rom. xi. 33.
[856] Is. xliv. 17.
[857] The cat was sacred to the goddess Pasht, called by the Greeks Bubastis, and identified by Herodotus (ii. 137) with Artemis or Diana. Cats were embalmed after death, and their mummies are found at various places, but especially at Bubastis (Herod. ii. 67). "The Dogs are interred in the cities to which they belong, in sacred burial-places" (Herod. ii. 67), but chiefly at Cynopolis ("City of Dogs") where the dog-headed deity Anubis was worshipped. Mummies of wolves are found in chambers excavated in the rocks at Lycopolis, where Osiris was worshipped under the symbol of a wolf.
[858] The lion was held sacred at Leontopolis (Strabo, xvii. p. 812).
[859] "In the neighbourhood of Thebes there are sacred serpents perfectly harmless to man. These they bury in the temple of Zeus, the god to whom they are sacred." (Herod. ii. 74.) At Epidaurus in Argolis the serpent was held sacred as the symbol of Æsculapius. Clement of Alexandria (Exhort. c. ii.) gives a fuller list of animals worshipped by various nations. Compare also Clement. Recogn. V. 20.
[860] Juvenal Sat. xv. 7. Illic aeluros, hic piscem fluminis, illic Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam. Possum et caepe nefas violare et frangere morsu.
[861] Ps. civ. 15.
[862] Gen. i. 11.
[863] Ps. civ. 15.
[864] The early Creeds of the Eastern Churches, like that which Eusebius of Cæsarea proposed at Nicæa, expressly declare the unity of God, in opposition both to the heathen Polytheism, and to the various heresies which introduced two or more Gods. See below in this Lecture, §§ 12-18; and compare Athan. (contra Gentes, § 6, sqq.)
[865] Clement of Alexandria (Exhort. cap. ii. § 37), quotes a passage from a hymn of Callimachus, implying the death of Zeus: "For even thy tomb, O king, The Cretans fashioned." Adonis, or "Thammuz yearly wounded," was said to live and die in alternate years.
[866] By the word "falls" (apoptoseis) Cyril evidently refers to the story of Hephæstus, or Vulcan, to which Milton alludes (Paradise Lost, I. 740):-- "Men call'd him Mulciber, and how he fell From heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day."
[867] The "thunder-strokes" refer to "Titan heaven's first-born, With his enormous brood" (Par. Lost, I. 510). Cf. Virgil, Æn. vi. 580:-- "Hic genus antiquum Terræ, Titania pubes, Fulmine dejecti fundo volvuntur in imo." Ibid. v. 585:-- "Vidi et crudeles dantem Salmonea poenas, Dum flammas Jovis et sonitus imitatur Olympi." Clem. Alex. (Exhort. II. § 37):--"Æsculapius lies struck with lightning in the regions of Cynosuris." Cf. Virg. Æn. vii. 770 ss.
[868] The theory of two Gods, one good and the other evil, was held by Cerdo, and Marcion (Hippolytus, Refut. omnium Hær. VII. cap. 17: Irenæus, III. xxv. 3, quoted in note on Cat. iv. 4). The Manichees also held that the Creator of the world was distinct from the Supreme God (Alexander Lycop. de Manichæorum Sententiis, cap. iii.).
[869] 2 Cor. vi. 14. Cyril's description applies especially to the heresy of Manes. See § 36, note 3, at the end of this Lecture; also Cat. xi. 21. and Cat. xv. 3.
[870] So Irenæus (I. xxiii. 2) says that "from this Simon of Samaria all kinds of heresies derive their origin."
[871] Acts viii. 18-21.
[872] 1 John ii. 19.
[873] Irenæus (I. xxiii. 2): "Having purchased from Tyre, a city of Phoenicia, a certain harlot named Helena, he used to carry her about with him, declaring that this woman was the first conception of his mind, the mother of all, by whom in the beginning he conceived in his mind the creation of Angels and Archangels."
[874] Cf. Epiphan. (Hæres. p. 55, B): "He said that he was the Son and had not really suffered, but only in appearance (dokesei)."
[875] Irenæus (I. xxiii. 1): "He taught that it was himself who appeared among the Jews as the Son, and descended in Samaria as the Father, but came to other nations as the Holy Spirit." Cyril here departs from his authority by substituting Mount Sinai for Samaria, and thereby falls into error. Simon had first appeared in Samaria, being a native of Gitton: moreover in claiming to be the Father he meant to set himself far above the inferior Deity who had given the Law on Sinai, saying that he was "the highest of all Powers, that is the Father who is over all."
[876] "Justin Martyr in his first Apology, addressed to Antoninus Pius, writes thus (c. 26): There was one Simon a Samaritan, of the village called Gitton, who in the reign of Claudius Cæsar, and in your royal city of Rome, did mighty feats of magic by the art of dæmons working in him. He was considered a god, and as a god was honoured among you with a statue, which statue was set up in the river Tiber between the two bridges, and bears this inscription in Latin: Simoni Deo Sancto; which is, To Simon the holy God. "The substance of this story is repeated by Irenæus (adv. Hær. I. xxiii. 1), and by Tertullian (Apol. c. 13), who reproaches the Romans for installing Simon Magus in their Pantheon, and giving him a statue and the title Holy God.' "In a.d. 1574, a stone, which had formed the base of a statue, was dug up on the site described by Justin, the Island in the Tiber, bearing an inscription--Semoni Sanco Deo Fidio Sacrum, &c.' Hence it has been supposed that Justin mistook a statue of the Sabine God, Semo Sancus,' for one of Simon Magus. See the notes in Otto's Justin Martyr, and Stieren's Irenæus. "On the other hand Tillemont (Memoires, t. ii. p. 482) maintains that Justin in an Apology addressed to the emperor and written in Rome itself cannot reasonably be supposed to have fallen into so manifest an error. Whichever view we take of Justin's accuracy concerning the inscription and the statue, there is nothing improbable in his statement that Simon Magus was at Rome in the reign of Claudius." (Extracted by permission from the Speaker's Commentary, Introduction to the Epistle to the Romans, p. 4.)
[877] "Justin says not one word about St. Peter's alleged visit to Rome, and his encounter with Simon Magus." But "Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History (c. a.d. 325), quotes Justin Martyr's story about Simon Magus (E. H. ii. c. 13), and then, without referring to any authority, goes on to assert (c. 14) that immediately in the same reign of Claudius divine Providence led Peter the great Apostle to Rome to encounter this great destroyer of life,' and that he thus brought the light of the Gospel from the East to the West' (ibidem). Eusebius probably borrowed this story "from the strange fictions of the Clementine Recognitions and Homilies, and Apostolic Constitutions." See Recogn. III. 63-65; Hom. I. 15, III. 58; Apost. Constit. VI. 7, 8, 9. Cyril's account of Simon's death is taken from the same untrustworthy sources.
[878] Matt. xviii. 19.
[879] Ib. xvi. 19.
[880] It is certain that S. Paul was not at Rome at this time. This story of Simon Magus and his fiery car' is told, with variations, by Arnobius (adv. Gentes, II. 12), and in Apost. Constit. VI. 9.
[881] 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4.
[882] Cerinthus taught that the world was not made by the supreme God, but by a separate Power ignorant of Him. See Irenæus, Hær. I. xxvi., Euseb. E.H. iii. 28, with the notes in this Series.
[883] Menander is first mentioned by Justin M. (Apolog. I. cap. 26): "Menander, also a Samaritan, of the town Capparetæa, a disciple of Simon, and inspired by devils, we know to have deceived many while he was in Antioch by his magical art. He persuaded those who adhered to him that they should never die." Irenæus (I. xxiii. 5) adds that Menander announced himself as the Saviour sent by the Invisibles, and taught that the world was created by Angels. See also Tertullian (de Animâ, cap. 50.)
[884] Carpocrates, a Platonic philosopher, who taught at Alexandria (125 a.d. circ.), held that the world and all things in it were made by Angels far inferior to the unbegotten (unknown) Father (Iren. I. xxv. 1; Tertullian, Adv. Hær. cap. 3).
[885] Irenæus, I. 26: "Those who are called Ebionites agree that the world was made by God; but their opinions with respect to the Lord are like those of Cerinthus and Carpocrates."
[886] On Marcion, see note 5, on Cat. iv. 4.
[887] John xvii. 25.
[888] Luke xii. 28.
[889] Matt. v. 45.
[890] Marcion accepted only St. Luke's Gospel, and mutilated that (Tertullian, Adv. Marcion. iv. 2). He thus got rid of the testimony of the Apostles and eye-witnesses, Matthew and John, and represented the Law and the Gospel as contradictory revelations of two different Gods. For this Cyril calls him a second inventor of mischief,' Simon Magus (§ 14) being the first.
[891] Basilides was earlier than Marcion, being the founder of a Gnostic sect at Alexandria in the reign of Hadrian (a.d. 117-138). His doctrines are described by Irenæus (I. xxvii. 3-7), and very fully by Hippolytus (Refut. omn. Hær. VII. 2-15). The charge of teaching licentiousness attaches rather to the later followers of Basilides than to himself or his son Isidorus (Clem. Alex. Stromat. III. cap. 1). Basilides wrote a Commentary on the Gospel in 24 books (Exegetica), of which the 23rd is quoted by Clement of Alexandria (Stromat. IV. cap. 12), and against which Agrippa Castor wrote a refutation. Origen (Hom. I. in Lucam.) says that Basilides wrote a Gospel bearing his own name. See Routh, Rell. Sacr. I. p. 85; V. p. 106: Westcott, History of Canon of N.T. iv. § 3.
[892] "The doctrines of Valentinus are described fully by Irenæus (I. cap. i.) from whom S. Cyril takes this account. Valentinus, and Basilides, and Bardesanes, and Harmonious, and those of their company admit Christ's conception and birth of the Virgin, but say that God the Word received no addition from the Virgin, but made a sort of passage through her, as through a tube, and made use of a phantom in appearing to men." (Theodoret, Epist. 145.)
[893] Luke iii. 23.
[894] Irenæus I. ii. 2.
[895] 1 Cor. i. 24.
[896] Irenæus, l. c., and Hippolytus, who gives an elaborate account of the doctrines of Valentinus (L. VI. capp. xvi.-xxxii.), both represent Sophia, "Wisdom," as giving birth not to Satan, but to a shapeless abortion, which was the origin of matter. According to Irenæus (I. iv. 2), Achamoth, the enthymesis of Sophia, gave birth to the Demiurge, and "from her tears all that is of a liquid nature was formed." In Tertullian's Treatise against the Valentinians chap. xxii., Achamoth is said as by Cyril to have given birth to Satan: but in chap. xxiii. Satan seems to be identified (or interchanged) with the Demiurge.
[897] The account in Irenæus (I. ii. 6) is rather different: "The whole Pleroma of the Æons, with one design and desire, and with the concurrence of the Christ and the Holy Spirit, their Father also setting the seal of His approval on their conduct, brought together whatever each one had in himself of the greatest beauty and preciousness; and uniting all these contributions so as skilfully to blend the whole, they produced, to the honour and glory of Bythus, a being of most perfect beauty, the very star of the Pleroma, and its perfect fruit, namely Jesus." Tertullian, Against the Valentinians, chap. 12, gives a sarcastic description of this strange doctrine, deriving his facts (chap. 5) from Justin, Miltiades, "Irenæus, that very exact inquirer into all doctrines," and Proculus.
[898] This statement does not agree with Irenæus (I. vii. 1), who says that the Valentinians represented the Saviour, that is Jesus, as becoming the bridegroom of Achamoth or Sophia.
[899] 2 John 10, 11: "Neither bid him God speed" (A.V.): "give him no greeting" (R.V.).
[900] Ephes. v. 11.
[901] Eusebius in his brief notice of the Manichean heresy (Hist. Eccles. vii. 31) plays, like S. Cyril, upon the name Manes as well suited to a madman.