We can perhaps gain a little context for this idea of a woman with the name Marcus coming to Rome perhaps as a little girl (hence the particular form 'Marcellina') in what we shall determine are two contemporary witnesses to the original hypomnemata. The first is Justin Martyr, who in the course of making a typically Samaritan statement attack against the person of king Solomon. It can be argued that the original Catholic editor of the Dialogue wanted to distract the readers from these words and so took his cue from the original reference to Solomon being led into idolatry by wicked women borrowed some ideas from the hypomnemata's discussion of Marcellina and her leading astray of the contemporary Church.
So it is that when Justin is recorded as referencing how "through a woman's influence he worshipped the idols of Sidon, which those of the Gentiles who know God, the Maker of all things through Jesus the crucified, do not venture to do, but abide every torture and vengeance even to the extremity of death, rather than worship idols, or eat meat offered to idols" the late second century editor appropriates some clear ideas from the hypomnemata. As we read in what follows:
And Trypho said, "I believe, however, that many of those who say that they confess Jesus, and are called Christians, eat meats offered to idols, and declare that they are by no means injured in consequence." And I replied, "The fact that there are such men confessing themselves to be Christians, and admitting the crucified Jesus to be both Lord and Christ, yet not teaching His doctrines, but those of the spirits of error, causes us who are disciples of the true and pure doctrine of Jesus Christ, to be more faithful and stedfast in the hope announced by Him. For what things He predicted would take place in His name, these we do see being actually accomplished in our sight. For he said, 'Many shall come in My name, clothed outwardly in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." And, 'There shall be schisms and heresies.' And, 'Beware of false prophets, who shall come to you clothed outwardly in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.' And, 'Many false Christs and false apostles shall arise, and shall deceive many of the faithful.' There are, therefore, and there were many, my friends, who, coming forward in the name of Jesus, taught both to speak and act impious and blasphemous things; and these are called by us after the name of the men from whom each doctrine and opinion had its origin. For some in one way, others in another, teach to blaspheme the Maker of all things, and Christ, who was foretold by Him as coming, and the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, with whom we have nothing in common, since we know them to be atheists, impious, unrighteous, and sinful, and confessors of Jesus in name only, instead of worshippers of Him. Yet they style themselves Christians, just as certain among the Gentiles inscribe the name of God upon the works of their own hands, and partake in nefarious and impious rites. Some are called Marcians, and some Valentinians, and some Basilidians, and some Saturnilians, and others by other names; each called after the originator of the individual opinion, just as each one of those who consider themselves philosophers, as I said before, thinks he must bear the name of the philosophy which he follows, from the name of the father of the particular doctrine. So that, in consequence of these events, we know that Jesus foreknew what would happen after Him, as well as in consequence of many other events which He foretold would befall those who believed on and confessed Him, the Christ. For all that we suffer, even when killed by friends, He foretold would take place; so that it is manifest no word or act of His can be found fault with. Wherefore we pray for you and for all other men who hate us; in order that you, having repented along with us, may not blaspheme Him who, by His works, by the mighty deeds even now wrought through His name, by the words He taught, by the prophecies announced concerning Him, is the blameless, and in all things irreproachable, Christ Jesus; but, believing on Him, may be saved in His second glorious advent, and may not be condemned to fire by Him."
It is difficult not to recognize that this section of Justin is channeling the section of the hypomnemata already cited in Eusebius viz. "Marcianists and Carpocratians, and Valentinians, and Basilidians, and Saturnilians. Each introduced privately and separately his own peculiar opinion. From them came false Christs, false prophets, false apostles, who divided the unity of the Church by corrupt doctrines uttered against God and against his Christ.” Yet notice that all reference to Marcellina and the Carpocratians has been overtly removed from the passage even though the idea of 'women seducing men into idolatry' is the connective reference.
The poem Against Marcion is another possible witness to the original hypomnemata. It clearly makes use of the same bishops list that ends at the reign of Anicetus (presumably in 147 CE). The poem has been slightly altered but we can still see Cerdo emerging as a 'wounded animal' into the Roman Church at the time of Hyginus the ninth bishop
- After him succeeds A comrade in the law, and master sure: When lo! the comrade of your wickedness, Its author and forerunner - Cerdo called- Arrived at Rome, smarting with recent wounds: Detected, for that he was scattering Voices and words of venom stealthily: For which cause, driven from the band, he bore This sacrilegious brood, the dragon's breath Engendering it. Blooming in piety United stood the Church of Rome, compact By Peter: whose successor, too, himself, And now in the ninth place, Hyginus was, The burden undertaking of his chair.
- And Anicetus the allotted post In pious order undertook.'Neath whom Marcion here coming, the new Pontic pest, (The secret daring deed in his own heart Not yet disclosed,) went, speaking commonly, In all directions, in his perfidy, With lurking art. But after he began His deadly arrows to produce, cast off Deservedly (as author of a crime So savage), reprobated by the saints, He burst, a wondrous monster! on our view.
Yet this offhanded reference to the author of an early Latin poem mistaking the original name 'Marcellina' (the feminine diminutive for Marcus in Latin) for 'Marcion' (the masculine diminutive for Marcus in Greek) has a startling among of significance. Was it just the author of this poem who made the blunder which brought into being the non-existent heretic 'Marcion' or was he merely transcribing an error in his copy of the hypomnemata? The fact that he has also anticipated the Liberian canon and switched the order of Hyginus and Linus suggests it was in the original manuscript of the hypomnemata.
There is one other contemporary reference to the hypomnemata which also might happen to suggest an early corruption in the original manuscript. Celsus's True Account was likely written in the aftermath of the revolt of Avidius Cassius (175 - 180) when Aurelius's son young son was actively being groomed to replacing his ailing father on the throne. There is little doubt about the period Irenaeus was active - the rule of Commodus - and the city from which both men wrote is undoubtedly also the same - Rome. Irenaeus makes explicit mention of a number of Catholics serving in the court of Commodus and the apparent resentment of at least some of the traditional gnostikoi for their influence over the Emperor apparently through their association with his beloved concubine Marcia Aurelia Ceionia Demetrias. We shall suggest that Celsus's reference to 'Simonians,' the 'Carpocratians' and the 'Marcionites' in the context of a discussion which appears - on the surface at least - to be of very similar nature from what appears in the hypomnemata.
Celsus begins his discussion of the contemporary disputes of Christian sects at Rome by rhetorically accepting the gnostic view that Jesus was an angel. All of this serves as a set up for his next argument that reported to us by Origen witness that:
the Jews accordingly, and these [Christians] have the same God" and as if advancing a proposition which would not be conceded, he proceeds to make the following assertion: "It is certain, indeed, that the members of the great Church admit this, and adopt as true the accounts regarding the creation of the world which are current among the Jews, viz., concerning the six days and the seventh" on which ... as Celsus says (who does not abide by the letter of the history, and who does not understand its meaning), God "rested," [ἀναπαυσάμενος] - a term which is not found in the record. With respect, however, to the creation of the world, and the "rest" [σαββατισμοῦ] which is reserved after it for the people of God," the subject is extensive, and mystical, and profound, and difficult of explanation.
We will see shortly that Celsus is indeed familiar with our hypomnemata. For the moment, let us ask how it is at all possible that Roman Church about a generation after the conflict between Polycarp and Anicetus over the place of Jewish religious customs in Christianity. We saw in a previous chapter that the two men battled over the place of the sabbath as well as the calculation of Easter. How then could Celsus identify 'the great Church' to be in agreement regarding the place of the sixth day as a day of rest "reserved for the people of God"?
The answer must be that Celsus was already writing in a period when Irenaeus's views had become dominant. Celsus was using the hypomnemata originally written by Polycarp but subsequently modified by Irenaeus which had come to speak on behalf of Christianity generally. The very term 'great Church' (μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας) actually emerges in the course of Irenaeus's discussion of the hypomnemata in Book Three - viz. "the very great, the very ancient, [maximae et antiquissimae] and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome, by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul."
Celsus and Irenaeus are clearly drawing from the same document. Their shared anti-gnostic polemic is undoubtedly appropriated from this same hypomnemata. Both Irenaeus and Celsus use this text to argue that Christianity can only be accepted as a tolerated religious tradition if it goes back to its Jewish religious roots. The self-described 'gnostikoi' who think they stand above the sacred laws owing to their communion with some super-celestial source must be officially condemned and the religion as a whole be brought 'back to earth' so to speak and its antinomian tendencies extirpated.
That Celsus is citing this same hypomnemata known to Irenaeus and later Church Fathers is clear when we follow the preservation of his original argument through the sections which follow Origen's work. Celsus again emphasizes that all Christians "give the same account [logos] as do the Jews, and deduce the same genealogy from him as they do" and that after the above remarks he adds "Let no one suppose that I am ignorant that some of them will concede that their God is the same as that of the Jews, while others will maintain that he is a different one, to whom the latter is in opposition, and that it was from the former that the Son came" and then we hear that Celsus clearly "imagines that the existence of numerous heresies among the Christians is a ground of accusation against Christianity."
This is unmistakably the very point at which Celsus cites directly or perhaps paraphrases loosely the contents of the original υπομνηματα which we can only glean the most general references from Origen's summary. I will cite all of the references here in full so that we can go on to prove - with absolutely certainty that Celsus had the υπομνηματα in front of him. Origen notes in order that:
Let it be admitted, then, that there are amongst us some who deny that our God is the same as that of the Jews ... And let it be admitted also, that there is a third class who call certain persons "carnal," and others "spiritual," ... And let it be admitted further, that there are some who give themselves out as Gnostics, in the same way as those Epicureans who call themselves philosophers: yet neither will they who annihilate the doctrine of providence be deemed true philosophers, nor those true Christians who introduce monstrous inventions, which are disapproved of by those who are the disciples of Jesus.
Let it be admitted, moreover, that there are some who accept Jesus, and who boast on that account of being Christians, and yet would regulate their lives, like the Jewish multitude, in accordance with the Jewish law ... [and] who either acknowledge with us that Jesus was born of a virgin, or deny this, and maintain that He was begotten like other human beings,--what does that avail by way of charge against such as belong to the Church, and whom Celsus has styled "those of the multitude?"
He adds, also, that certain of the Christians are believers in the Sibyl, having probably misunderstood some who blamed such as believed in the existence of a prophetic Sibyl, and termed those who held this belief Sibyllists [Σιβυλλιστάς].
He next pours down Upon us a heap of names, saying that he knows of the existence of certain Simonians who worship Helene, or Helenus, as their teacher, and are called Helenians ... But neither Celsus nor Simon could comprehend how Jesus, like a good husbandman of the word of God, was able to sow the greater part of Greece, and of barbarian lands, with His doctrine, and to fill these countries with words which transform the soul from all that is evil, and bring it back to the Creator of all things.
Celsus knows, moreover, certain Marcellians, so called from Marcellina, and Harpocratians from Salome, and others who derive their name from Mariamme, and others again from Martha. We, however, who from a love of learning examine to the utmost of our ability not only the contents of Scripture, and the differences to which they give rise, but have also, from love to the truth, investigated as far as we could the opinions of philosophers, have never at any time met with these sects. He makes mention also of the Marcionites, whose leader was Marcion.
In the next place, that he may have the appearance of knowing still more than he has yet mentioned, he says, agreeably to his usual custom, that there are others "who have wickedly invented some being as their teacher and demon, and who wallow about in a great darkness, more unholy and accursed than that of the companions of the Egyptian Antinous."
... Moreover, these persons utter against one another dreadful blasphemies, saying all manner of things shameful to be spoken; nor will they yield in the slightest point for the sake of harmony, hating each other with a perfect hatred." Now, in answer to this, we have already said that in philosophy and medicine sects are to be found warring against sects ... and we would not utter "all manner of things shameful to be spoken" against those who have adopted different opinions from ours, but, if possible, use every exertion to raise them to a better condition through adherence to the Creator alone ... [and] would not regard with hatred the corrupters of Christianity, nor term those who had fallen into error Circes and flattering deceivers.
Celsus appears to me to have misunderstood the statement of the apostle [viz. 1 Tim 4:2] and to have misunderstood also those who employed these declarations of the apostle against such as had corrupted the doctrines of Christianity. And it is owing to this cause that Celsus has said that "certain among the Christians are called 'cauterized in the ears" and also that some are termed "enigmas,"--a term which we have never met. The expression "stumbling-block" is, indeed, of frequent occurrence in these writings ... but neither we, nor, I imagine, any other, whether Christian or heretic, know of any who are styled Sirens, who betray and deceive, and stop their ears, and change into swine those whom they delude. [Origen Against Celsus 5.61 - 64]
Celsus's arguments were clearly drawn from the now lost hypomnemata and moreover it can be argued that the manuscript he was using caused either Celsus or Origen to read Μαρκιωνισταί for Μαρκιανισταί. Indeed the greatest scholarly minds of Biblical exegesis continue to make this error. It might be useful not to go back to Lawlor's original identification of references to the hypomnemata in Epiphanius, and develop a side by side comparison of Celsus's references to the lost text. The emboldened text will be argued to represent Celsus's citation of the hypomnemata:
... deny that our God is the same as that of the Jews
Carpocrates says in his turn that there is one first principle on high, and he introduces an unknowable, unnameable Father of all, like the others. But he says that the world, and everything in the world, were produced by angels far inferior to the unknowable Father [Epiphanius Panarion 27.2.1]
... give themselves out as Gnostics
During Anicetus's episcopate then, as I said, Marcellina appeared at Rome spewing forth the corruptions of Carpocrates teachings, and destroyed many there of her corruption of them. And that made the beginning of the so-called Gnostics. [Epiphanius Panarion 1.27.6.8]
... boast that they are Christians and would regulate their lives, like the Jewish multitude, in accordance with the Jewish law
And what is more, the souls like his pursue the same ends can be freed in the same way and soar aloft to the unknowable Father, once they are finally freed by performing all the acts, similarly finishing with them all. But though it had been reared in Jewish customs Jesus' soul despised them [Epiphanius Panarion 1.27.3]
[the Roman Church is divided into those] who either acknowledge with us that Jesus was born of a virgin, or deny this, and maintain that He was begotten like other human beings
But these people will be shamed again, from their other words as well. For if Jesus is not the offspring of a virgin, Mary, but of Joseph's seed and the same Mary, and yet Jesus is saved, then the persons whose offspring he is will also be saved. And if Mary and Joseph are of the demiurge, then they have said that the demiurge is the creator ; and the maker of Mary and Joseph, by whose agency Jesus has come from the unknowable Father on high, cannot be defective. [Epiphanius Panarion 1.27.8]
or deny this, and maintain that He was begotten like other human beings
But he says that Jesus our Lord is begotten of Joseph, just as all men were generated from a man's seed and a woman. He is like anyone else, but is different in life — in prudence, virtue and a life of righteousness. Because he received a more vigorous soul than other men's, and he remembered what it had seen on high when it was on the unknowable Father's carousel, powers were sent to his soul by the Father so that it would be able to recall what it had seen and gain power to escape the angels who made the world by progressing through every act there is and everything man can do, even strange, unlawful deeds done in secret —and so this same soul of Jesus, once freed by all he acts, could ascend to the same unknowable Father who had sent it the powers from above in order that it could win through to him on on high by progressing through all the acts and being released. [Epiphanius Panarion 1.27.2]
He next pours down upon us a heap of names, saying that he knows of the existence of certain Simonians who worship Helene, or Helenus, as their teacher, and are called Helenians, certain Marcellians, so called from Marcellina, and Harpocratians from Salome, and others who derive their name from Mariamme, and others again from Martha. He makes mention also of the Marcionites.
... among the people, like Simon from whom came the Simonians ... and Μαρκιανισταί and Carpocratians.[Eusebius citing directly from the hypomnemata AH 4.22.2]
I have now heard in some connection of a dupe of theirs, a Marcellina, who corrupted many people in the time of Anicetus, Bishop of Rome, successor of Pius and the bishops before him [Epiphanius Panarion 1.27.6]
... who have wickedly invented some being as their teacher and demon, and who wallow about in a great darkness, more unholy and accursed than that of the companions of the Egyptian Antinous.
The members of this unlawful school put all sorts of horrid, pernicious deeds into practice. They have thought up magic devices and invented various incantations—love charms and spells—for every purpose. What is more, they summon familiar spirits too, in order to great power over everyone with the aid of much magic , they say, each of them can be master of anyone he wishes, and in any activity he may venture to undertake. [Epiphanius Panarion 1.27.3]
The plain fact is that these people perform everything unspeakable and unlawful, which is not right to mention, and every kind of homosexual act and carnal intercourse with women, with every member of the body. [Epiphanius Panarion 1.27.4]
Moreover, these persons utter against one another dreadful blasphemies, saying all manner of things shameful to be spoken; nor will they yield in the slightest point for the sake of harmony, hating each other with a perfect hatred.
regard with hatred the corrupters of Christianity, nor term those who had fallen into error Circes and flattering deceivers.
Celsus reflecting on the general tone of the hypomnemata and its enmity toward supposedly 'fellow Christians.' As Origen notes to the first citation above "now, in answer to this, we have already said that in philosophy and medicine sects are to be found warring against sects ... and we would not utter "all manner of things shameful to be spoken" against those who have adopted different opinions from ours, but, if possible, use every exertion to raise them to a better condition through adherence to the Creator alone ..."
... are called cauterized in the ears
And this school of Carpocrates mark their dupes' right ear-lobes with a burning iron, or using a razor or needle. [Epiphanius Panarion 1.27.5]
... [called] "stumbling-block"
But they have been prepared by Satan, and put forward as a reproach and stumbling-block for God's church [Epiphanius Panarion 1.27.3]
... styled Sirens, who betray and deceive, and stop their ears, and change into swine those whom they delude.
They perform all magic, sorcery and idolatry, and say that this is the discharge of their debts in the body, so that they will not be charged any more or required to do anything else, and for this reason the soul will not be turned back after its departure and go on to another incarnation and transmigration.
Their literature is such that the intelligent reader will be astounded and shocked, and doubt that human beings can do such things — not only civilized people like ourselves, but even those who wild beasts and bestial, brutish men, and all but venture to behave like dogs and swine. For they say they absolutely must make every use of these things, or their souls may depart shy some work, and so be returned to bodies, to do all over again what they have not done. [Epiphanius Panarion 1.27.4,5]
Stop your ears, therefore, when any one speaks to you at variance with Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, and was also of Mary; who was truly born, and ate and drank. He was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate; He was truly crucified, and [truly] died, in the sight of beings in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth. He was also truly raised from the dead, His Father quickening Him, even as after the same manner His Father will so raise up us who believe in Him by Christ Jesus, apart from whom we do not possess the true life.[Ignatius Epistle to the Trallians 9]
And I can bear witness before God, that if that blessed and presbyter [Polycarp] had heard any such thing, he would have cried out, and stopped his ears, exclaiming as he was wont to do: O good God, for what times have You reserved me, that I should endure these things? And he would have fled from the very spot where, sitting or standing, he had heard such words. This fact, too, can be made clear, from his Epistles which he dispatched, whether to the neighbouring Churches to confirm them, or to certain of the brethren, admonishing and exhorting them.[Irenaeus Fragment]
There can be no doubt then that Celsus knew and used our hypomnemata. He seems also to be aware of Polycarp's personality lurking behind the original material. Indeed as Celsus pulls away from his source he goes back to using the υπομνηματα to demonstrate how hostile the tone of contemporary Roman Christian dialogue really was:
You may hear, all those who differ so widely, and who assail each other in their disputes with the most shameless language, uttering the words, 'The world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.'
Celsus's real interest of course was to extract the admission that Christians identified themselves as gnostikoi from Plato and so 'stole all their ideas' from Plato. As our Christian source summarizes the contents of what follows in Celsus's work the discussion is so extensive he decides to devote an entire book to the argument of Christian appropriation of Plato:
"Although they have no foundation for the doctrine, let us examine the system itself; and, in the first place, let us mention the corruptions which they have made through ignorance and misunderstanding, when in the discussion of elementary principles they express their opinions in the most absurd manner on things which they do not understand, such as the following." And then, to certain expressions which are continually in the mouths of the believers in Christianity, he opposes certain others from the writings of the philosophers, with the object of making it appear that the noble sentiments which Celsus supposes to be used by Christians have been expressed in better and clearer language by the philosophers, in order that he might drag away to the study of philosophy those who are caught by opinions which at once evidence their noble and religious character.
It is worth noting that the idea that the gnostikoi venerated Plato once again comes directly from the hypomnemata:
They possess images like these in secret, and of certain philosophers besides — Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and the rest — and also place other reliefs of Jesus with these philosophers. And having erected them, they worship them and celebrate heathen mysteries. For once they have set these images up, they then follow the customs of heathen; yet what are customs of the heathen but sacrifices and the rest? [Epiphanius Panarion 1.27.6]
Indeed if we look closely at Epiphanius's citation of the hypomnemata it is clear that he is aware that this material was indeed cited in a hostile pagan work against Christianity for he writes:
But they have been prepared by Satan, and put forward as a reproach and stumbling-block for God's church For they have adopted the name of “Christian,” though Satan has arranged this so that the heathen will be scandalized by them and reject the benefit of God's holy church and its real message, because of their wickedness and their intolerable evil deeds— so that the heathen, observing the continual behavior of the evildoers themselves and supposing that the members of God's holy church are of the same kind, will refuse the hearing of God's real teaching, as I said, or even, seeing certain (of us) , blaspheme us all alike. And so, wherever they see such people, most of the heathen will not come near us for conversation or an exchange of views, or to listen to sacred discourse, and will not give us a hearing, since they are frightened by the unholy deeds of the wicked people [Epiphanius 1.27.3]
I think it is impossible to argue that Celsus was not aware of the contents of the hypomnemata known to Irenaeus, Eusebius and Epiphanius. He most certainly employed this text as his source for contemporary controversies in the Roman Church. It was moreover central to the purpose of a work as a whole. As we noted earlier both he and Irenaeus had a vested interest in demonizing the gnostikoi. The question of course is whether the hypomnemata was established for the specific purpose of discrediting rival traditions to the newly emergent Roman Church.
Yet there is something else worth noting about Celsus's use of the Catholic material. The pagan is familiar not only with the hypomnemata but also with the 'personality of Polycarp' which seems to bubble through his report. This manifests itself in the reference to a figure who 'stops his ears,' describes the heretics as 'sirens,' one who assails his opponents 'with the most shameless language,' one who 'believed in the Sibyl' and who accepted Jesus, and who boasted on that account of being Christians, and yet would regulate their lives, like the Jewish multitude, in accordance with the Jewish law. Yet Celsus also seems to be aware of the additions to the original hypomnemata - i.e. those made 'at the time of Eleutherius' which include the disputes with Marcellina, the Harpocratians and those who denied Jesus was born of a virgin developed by "those of the multitude." This would seem to argue for the fact that the longer ending of the hypomnemata was already available to Celsus writing at the end of the reign of Marcus Aurelius.
dating back to conversations with his grandfather, Gaston Frank. "He said we represent one of the last descendants of the Frankist Jewish faith in the world," he muses. "I grew up thinking that our family was something like the Last of the Mohicans."