New Translation of Agapius

I can't say enough about the work of Roger Pearse over the years. He has an amazing dedication to make ancient texts available to everyone. His most recent translation is that of the tenth century Universal History of Agapius the Greek, son of Constantine, bishop of Menbid. The full text is available here but what is perhaps the most interesting thing about his work is the reference to the beliefs of the various heresies which begins:

At Rome Anicetus also sat for ten years.

At that time, there appeared at Rome a man named Valentinus, and another named Cerdon, who were the teachers of Marcion. Valentinus said that the Lord Christ, may he be glorified, brought a body with him from heaven, and that it was found in Mary the virgin like water in a river-bed, taking nothing from her.

Cerdon said that several divinities gathered together and created the world; and he denied the resurrection.

Then at Rome there appeared a man named Marcus who said that 360 gods existed from all eternity; they all gathered together and created the world, and each of them governed it in turn; power belonged to each of them for one day a year during which he was the sole master of it; among them, some loved good, the others evil. But united they had the ability to do good and evil, and they could choose in this regard. The chief of the gods sent the Lord Christ, may he be glorified, who was a part of his nature, in order to get men to worship him alone and obey him. Learning of this, the gods stirred up mankind against him, and these crucified him. |56

The history of Marcion

Then there appeared a man named Marcion, who was the son of a certain bishop of the land of Pontus. He found there a pious girl who stayed day and night at the church; she was a virgin. Marcion seduced her and corrupted her. When his father learned this, he excommunicated him and expelled him from the church. He went to Rome; but the faithful of that church would not receive him and scorned him. Returning to Asia, he attached to himself a bishop of that land named Aristinus. Marcion went out in public, proselytised, and discoursed on religion. When the bishop died, Marcion was not there. When he arrived, he was given the testament which bishop Aristinus had written, and where he was given (his last wishes). Marcion took it and read it, but, seeing nothing favourable to himself, he left in anger and corrupted all the people that he had captured for his purposes by his teaching.

The Lord Christ, may he be glorified, he said, was not the son of the Creator, as I told you until now; on the contrary, he is a stranger to him. There are 3 divine beings; one the Good, which is on high; the other the Evil, which is below; the third the Just, which is in the middle. The just god |57 formed the matter which was in the depths and called the wicked being, there manifested his acts, and created the sky, the four elements, paradise and the stars of heaven. Then he took from the mud of paradise, fashioned from it [the body] of man, placed a soul of his own substance and nature in him and ... like him. Then he created from the dregs of matter Tartarus, the earth and its larger inanimate objects; he created all the animals of the earth and placed in them a created soul. Then he finished by creating Adam; and he married him off; they multiplied and their descendants were numerous. While the earth was being filled with men, he gave them the books of the Torah and all the ancient books which contained his commandments, his prohibitions, his promises and his threats. Then, as the good God watched this, he stirred from his inertia and was jealous of the Just Being, the creator, and was envious of him; and he sent his son, who was of his nature and substance, to be with the creatures of the Just to recall them to the worship of his Father and to redeem them by his blood. He traversed his regions and passed, with the Just being knowing it, until he came down on to the earth where the fundament of matter was found. He saw the corruption of the creatures and their estrangement from religion and he led them to worship his Father. When the Creator learned this, he stirred up his servitors against him, and the Son himself gave to companions of the Creator the power to kill him and redeemed them by his power and his blood; then he returned from death and converted them to the worship of his Father. Embracing the worship of the good God, |58 they reduced the Just being, the Creator, to impotence. The Good God gave them new books which did not agree with those that the Just Creator had given them with his commandments, his prohibitions, his promises and his threats. He took paradise from the Creator; he established there those who were obedient to his order; but those who disobeyed him. He threw them into hell and made them remain there for ever. Of the evangelists he only accepted Luke.

Marcion published this impure teaching and the bishops exhorted him for a long time to return to the truth; but as he persisted in his error, they excommunicated him and expelled him from the church.

All this took place in the time of Titus Antoninus, the first year of his reign, which is the year 449 of Alexander. In year 470 of Alexander Marcus began to reign, with his two sons Antoninus and Lucius, for 19 years.

In year 8 of his reign at Rome bishop Soter sat for 8 years; his successor Eleutherius sat for 30 years.

At Alexandria Agrippinus sat for 12 years; after him, Julianus for 10 years. |59

At Antioch Maximus sat for 18 years.

At Byzantium Protonicus (Pertinax) sat for 10 years; after him Olympianus for 12 years.

At Jerusalem Gaius sat for 3 years; after him another Gaius for 4 years; then Symmachus for 3 years.

In year 12 of the reign of Marcus, Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, was illustrious, who composed several books.

In year 16 of Marcus, there was agitation against the Christians, and they were persecuted extremely; many bishops underwent martyrdom and Justus the philosopher was also crowned with martyrdom at Rome.

At this time appeared a man named Tatian, who was a disciple of Justus, the philosopher of whom we have spoken as being crowned with martyrdom. After leaving his teacher he abandoned orthodoxy and was the author of a great heresy. There exists, he said, several divine beings and several invisible aeons; everything is a mixture of good and evil, because everything lives in pairs (Syzygy). He altered and reversed the order of the tribes (genealogies) which had been fixed; he said that the Lord Christ, may he be glorified, |60 [is of the race of] David 22. He composed a gospel which differed from that ... He said that after death, eating... his errors (produced) several difficulties.

Then there appeared [a man] named Montanus who claimed to be the Paraclete. The Lord Christ, may he be glorified, [he said], sent him into the world; some disciples gathered to follow him, and he set himself to teach a doctrine of impiety and error. Then he was excommunicated and expelled; but he made some proselytes and had some followers who remained attached to him until his death.

Then at Rome appeared another heresiarch named Florinus, who was a priest. He was the object of public indignation and was deposed from the priesthood. Then he left the church, full of anger, and attracted some disciples.

He said that there were three divine beings who agreed among themselves: one of them was established on high, the second below him, in the middle, and the third below the latter, at the bottom. Each of the last two honours, respects and considers as superior to himself those above him. The god which is in the middle calls the god who is above him the Father; and the god at the bottom likewise gives the name of |61 Father to him who is above him, so that each of them is like the Son to him that is above him. Together they created the world. (In the beginning) they formed and created a subtle substance; then they created man and placed him in the region located between heaven and earth; they embellished this location with fires and lights, making for him a paradise where they planted different species of pleasant trees, and established him in the newly created world. A certain angel, seeing this, envied the man; without the permission of the gods he came down and established himself with a certain number of his companions. He set himself to oppose the man and wanted to expel him from paradise; and he didn't stop opposing him and fighting him until he was expelled from it; then he possessed himself of Paradise. The man multiplied and his descendants were numerous; but they were unable to return to Paradise. When the gods saw this, they sent to him someone to get him to return to his place, and so that the man and his posterity might reenter Paradise; but (the angel) refused to do it. Then the gods were annoyed with the angel and his companions. Then the bottom god was himself entrusted with it. By a ruse he transformed himself into a man and appeared before Satan who was disobedient and before his companions; he didn't stop fighting against them until he expelled them from Paradise and had restored the first man to his place. Florinus denied the resurrection of the dead. Apart from that, he advanced some impious propositions which he had put forward. |62

At this time at Menbidj (Hierapolis) there lived a wise man, Apollinarius, who was bishop of Menbidj. He battled against the sectaries of this heresy, refuted their opinions and composed several books on this subject.

History of the damned Ibn-Daisan (Bardesanes)

In year 15 of Souhouq son of Narses, king of Persia, which is the year 465 of Alexander, a certain number of the inhabitants of his empire conspired against Souhouq, king of Persia, and wanted to kill him. He was informed of this, and had them arrested. There he found a man named Nouhama with his wife who was called Nahsiram. Learning what the king had ordered in this matter – he lived in the middle of the people – he and his wife left the city of the king and went to Edessa, where they settled. His wife Nahsiram was then pregnant. Then Nouhama was afraid that one of the Persian merchants who came from time to time to Edessa would notice him and have him arrested with his wife.

So he left Edessa and travelled towards the Euphrates, while his wife was |63 already on the point of giving birth. When he had left Edessa and come to the river, just below the town which is called Daisan, on the bank of the river his wife Nahsiram gave birth to a son, to whom they gave the name of Ibn Daisan, from the name of this river where she gave birth. They fled again, he and his wife, into a cave close to the road, where they settled and stayed for 25 days. Then he left that place, crossed the Euphrates and came to Menbidj (Hierapolis), where he settled. He found himself at Menbidj an old pagan priest, who had no children at all. The priest ... Nouhama and lived with him; his son became attached to the priest and the latter adopted him. When the child began to walk and was larger, he set himself to learn from the priest the teachings of the pagans and their mysteries, and he so arrived at the age of puberty. Then the priest who was instructing him sent him one day to Edessa so that he could bring back certain objects and certain things that he needed for the cult of the gods whom he worshipped. In walking in the streets of Edessa, he passed a church built by the apostle Addai; he heard the voice of thebishop of Edessa, who was preaching to the people from the sacred books. Ibn Daisan reflected in his heart and decided to learn the mysteries of Christianity. He went into the church, frequented it, and made known to the Christians that which had struck him. Then (the bishop) explained to him the truth of Christianity, baptised him, made him a deacon, and gave him a job at the church. |64

The young man bowed, went out, abandoned his family and his mother and began to make some treatises in which he refuted the false opinions that were current in that place; and he didn't stop doing this until the pagans had had a particular conference with him. So they corrupted him and sowed their weeds into his heart. He took up again the mysteries of paganism that the priest of Menbidj had taught him, adopted the teaching of Anathousois (or Scuthinus?) 23 and became the author of a heresy in which he had no predecessor. There are, he said, seven elements of which three are the principal ones, and the other four are less important. The three principal elements are: Intellect, Force and Spirit; the other four are Fire, Water, Light and Air. These seven elements are associated with one another, and from this union come 360 worlds. Man is likewise created from these seven elements: his soul is formed from the three principal and spiritual (elements); in another book, he admits that the body of man is composed of the four inferior elements. He affirms also the existence of seven and twelve (principles); he says: the brain of man comes from the sun; his bones from Saturn; his veins from Mercury; his blood from Mars; his flesh from Jupiter; his hair from Venus, his skin from the moon.

According to this teaching, man consists in these seven things. (Ibn Daisan) says: As the moon increases and then diminishes through thirty days, so the Mother of life removes her clothes each month and goes into the Father of life; he is united to her, and she gives birth to seven children. So, each year, her children number 84. (Ibn Daisan) denied the resurrection of the body. He said that carnal copulation with women is a purification for them and a dimunition of the sin which is in them, and that in this way they may become better.

This happened in the time of Marcus and his two sons, Lucius and Antoninus.