PHILOSOPHUMENA

BOOK VI

SIMON MAGUS, VALENTINUS, AND THEIR FOLLOWERS

Page 242, Cruice's edition.

1. These are the contents of the sixth book of the Refutation of All Heresies.

2. What Simon has dared, and that his doctrine is confirmed by quotations from magicians and poets.

3. What Valentinus has laid down, and that his doctrine is not based on the Scriptures, but on those of the Platonists and Pythagoreans.

4. What is taught by Secundus, Ptolemy, and Heracleon, and how they have adopted as their own—though with different terminology—the ideas of those whom the Greeks consider wise.

5. What has been held by Marcus and Colarbasus [and their disciples], and that some of them turned their attention to magic arts and Pythagorean numbers.

Page 243

6. Now, those opinions belonging to people who took their principles from the serpent^1—and, when the time arrived, brought their doctrines to light of their own accord—we have set forth in the previous book, which was the fifth of the Refutation of All Heresies. Here, however, I will not remain silent regarding the opinions of those who follow them^2; I will leave no one unrefuted, if it be possible.

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^1 He is, of course, referring to the Ophites, which makes it clear that he included Justinus among them. His language may imply that all these serpent-worshipping sects existed for some time before they began to write their doctrines, having first taken on a veneer of Christianity. This is highly probable, though there is no convincing proof as of yet.

^2 It remains difficult to determine whether "those who follow" means those who follow in chronological order or those who follow in the pages of this book.