| The Marcosians were a sect of Gnostic Cabalists mentioned by Irenaeus. Marcus was an Egyptian and disciple of Valentinus in the 2nd Century AD, and well acquainted with magic and the use of numbers having studied the Pythagorian Mysteries. The Marcosians had a number of apocryphal books and espoused their personal versions of the story of Jesus Christ. (8) The Mandeans were one group of Gnostics in the Middle East around the time Christianity was taking over during the early 1st century. In Aramaic manda means “knowledge.” Bahram I was the fourth Sasanian emperor of the third Iranian Empire. His ascent in 273 AD and subsequent religious intolerance of competing belief systems is suspected to have led to a consolidation in Zoroastrian beliefs at the time in Persia. (9) It is not the scope of this book to explore every philosophy that grew out of primitive religious concepts, suffice to say, the Mandeans followed the religion of “gnosis” or “knowledge.” Many of the Gnostic texts reflect an aversion to the church stated philosophies or requirements. The general impression is one of the liberal minded. The Gnostics were not so much religious people, as spiritual philosophers. What can be seen by studying these texts is that the spiritual philosophical aspect of what was to become present in Christianity originated within the texts of the Nag Hammadi Library and Gnostic Gospels. (10) According to Hippolytus, the Naassenes took their name from the word Naas, which was the serpent in the Garden of Eden story. (11) The Naassenes were of a group of Gnostic sects called the Ophites, who we already mentioned. According to E.O. James, in The Cult of the Mother Goddess, most of the information we have about them is derived from Origen’s Contra Celsum (12) and from the Adversus Haereses of Irenaeus (13) as well as references by Epiphanius and the pseudo-Tertullian. (14) Irenaeus writes of the followers of Valentinus, a Christian Gnostic theologian: “But those who are from Valentinus, being, on the other hand, altogether reckless, while they put forth their own compositions, boast that they possess more Gospels than there really are. Indeed, they have arrived at such a pitch of audacity, as to entitle their comparatively recent writing “the Gospel of Truth,” though it agrees in nothing with the Gospels of the Apostles, so that they have really no Gospel which is not full of blasphemy.” (15) These people are being described no differently than the Manicheans were in Asia. The Theraputae had sects in Egypt who worshiped Serapis or Isis. (16) Philo of Alexandria, who lived in close proximity with them, described them in his writings. Philo stated: “no one of them may take any meat or drink before the setting of the sun.” Continuing: “They eat nothing of a costly character, but plain bread and a seasoning of salt, which the more luxurious of them to further season with hyssop; and their drink is water from the spring.” Also “They eat only so far as not to be hungry, and they drink just enough to escape from thirst, avoiding all satiety.” Philo goes on to say they avoided the “eating of human flesh” and wild debauchery that sometimes took place at the banquets of “others” when consumed with “a maddening kind of liquor.” (17) The Essenes and Theraputae were so similar that many scholars consider the latter to be Alexandrian Essenes. (18) |
The Essenes were a sect of healers who derived from the Theraputae. They avoided animal sacrifices, held an ascetic lifestyle, were experts in the use of plants and herbs for healing, practiced divination and magic, used precious stones and wore linen garments. Pliny described them as the strangest religious body in the world. They held a belief in a Western Paradise, which eventually became the Prophecy of the Coming Messiah. It was also thought that their influence came from Pythagoras, the Hyperborean. (19) Here is what Pliny has to say about them, in Natural History: “The Essenes, or Hessenes. These properly formed one of the great sects into which the Jews were divided in the time of Christ. They are not mentioned by name in the New Testament, but it has been conjectured that they are alluded to in Matt. xix. 12, and Col. ii. 18, 23.” From The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1, by John Bostock M.D. and H.T Riley (1893), we read “… They generally lived at a distance from large towns, in communities which bore a great resemblance to the monkish societies of later times. They sent gifts to the Temple at Jerusalem, but never offered sacrifices there. They were divided into four classes, according to the time of their initiation. Their origin is uncertain. Some writers look upon them as the same as the Assidians, or Chasidim, mentioned in 1 Maccabees, ii. 42, vii. 13. Their principal society was probably the one mentioned by Pliny, and from this other smaller ones proceeded, and spread over Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. The Essenes of Egypt were divided into two sects; the practical Essenes, whose mode of life was the same as those of Palestine; and the contemplative Essenes, who were called Therapeutoe. Both sects maintained the same doctrines; but the latter were distinguished by a more rigid mode of life.” (20) It has been suggested by Taylor, the editor of Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible, that John the Baptist belonged to this sect, (21) though there is no reason to assume he ever lived. (8) Apples of Apollo, p. 186-87; Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (9) Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, The Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and Modern People, New York: Oxford University Press 2002 (10) Nag Hammadi, p. 6 (11) Hippolytus, Philosophumena, v, 9; cf. Clement of Alexandria, op. cit., ii, 16 (12) vi. 24-38 (13) i. 30 (14) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 193-94; Cerinthus, ii (15) (Irenaeus, Heresies, Book III, Chapter 11:9) (16) Wilcken, Urkunden der Ptolemaerzeit, Berlin-Liepzig, 1922: 8.19, from the 2nd century BC; Inscriptiones Greacae II (4) 1226, from Delos, 2nd century BC (17) Apples of Apollo, p. 158 (18) ibid, p. 162, Note 64 (19) White Goddess, p. 149 (20) Pliny Natural History, V:15:29 (21) Fountainhead of Religion, p. 18 |