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Hadrian (117-138), already wrote a polemic against him, so that his activity may perhaps be set back to a date earlier than 138. Basilides wrote an exegetical See also:

WORK

work in twenty-four books on " his " See also:

GOSPEL (O. Eng. godspel, i.e. good news, a translation of Lat. bona annuntiatio, or evangelium, Gr. evayyeXwv; cf. Goth. iu spillon, " to announce good news," Ulfilas' translation of the Greek, from iu, that which is good, and spellon to announce)

gospel, but which this was is not known. In addition to this there are certain writings by his son Isidorus Hepi rrpoackovs ,1ivxils; 'E r,'yriTLK6. on the See also:

PROPHET (Irpo4i ri7s)

prophet Parchor (Ilapxiap); 'M AL The surviving fragments of these See also:

WORKS

works are collected and commented on in See also:

HILGENFELD, ADOLF BERNHARD CHRISTOPH (1823—1907)

Hilgenfeld's Ketzergeschichte, 207-218. The most important fragment published by Hilgenfeld (p. 207), See also:

PART

part of the 13th See also:

BOOK

book of the Exegetica, in views that he taught the transmigration of souls (See also:

ORIGEN (c. 185-c. 254)

Origen in Ep. ad Rom. See also:

lib. v.; Opp. de la See also:

RUE (Fr. rue, Lat. ruta, from Gr. pur)

Rue iv. 549; cf. Clemens, Excerpta ex. Theodoto, § 28).

Isidorus set up See also:

CELIBACY (Lat. caelibatus, from caelebs, unmarried)

celibacy, though in a modified See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form, as the ideal of the perfect (Clemens, Strom. iii. 1 § 1, &c.). Clemens accuses Basilides of a deification of the See also:

DEVIL (Gr. &a,3oXos, " slanderer," from &ctflisXX sty, to slander)

Devil (Matey See also:

ROY, WILLIAM (1726-1790)

roy &48okov), and regards as his two dogmas that of the Devil and that ofthe transmigration of souls (Strom. iv. 12 § 85: cf. v. rr. § 75). It is remarkable too that Isidorus held the existence of two souls ii See also:

man, a See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good and a See also:

BAD, BCD

bad (Clemens, Strom. ii. 20 113); with which may be compared the teaching of Mani about the two souls, which it is impossible to follow F,, Ch. See also:

BAUR, FERDINAND CHRISTIAN (1792-1860)

Baur in excluding,) and also the teaching of the Pistis See also:

SOPHIA (1630-1714)

Sophia (translated by C. See also:

Schmidt, p. 182, &c.). According to Clemens (Strom. ii. 20 §;112), the followers of Basilides spoke of irveup. ra rlva 7rpoafpen,u6a, Tj] Xo-ytK'fi tf' x 1 Kara See also:

LAVA

lava -rapaxov K41 See also:

GIRY (JEAN MARIE JOSEPH), ARTHUR (1848-1899)

giry zoo v apxLKijv: that is to say, here also is assumed an See also:

ORIGINAL

original confusion and intermingling.

See also:

EPIPHANIUS, SAINT (c. 315-402)

Epiphanius too tells us that the teaching of Basilides had its beginning in the question as to the origin of evil (Haer. See also:

XXIV

xxiv. 6). Now, of this sharply-defined See also:

DUALISM (from rare Lat. dualis, containing two, from duo)

dualism there is scarcely a trace in the See also:

SYSTEM

system described by the Fathers of the See also:

Church. It is there-fore only with caution that we can use them to supplement our knowledge of the true Basilides. The See also:

DOCTRINE

doctrine described by them that from the supreme See also:

God (the innatus See also:

PATER, WALTER HORATIO (1839-1894)

pater) had emanated 365 heavens with their See also:

SPIRITS

spirits, answers originally to the astronomical conception of the heavens with their 365 daily aspects (See also:

IRENAEUS

Irenaeus i. 24. 7; Trecentorum autem sexaginta quinque caelorum locales positiones distribuunt similiter ut mathematici). When, therefore, the supreme God is called by the name A$paozaE or A,paEas, which contains the numerical value 365 , it is worthy of remark that the name of the See also:

Persian god See also:

MITHRAS

Mithras (MeiOpas) also was known in antiquity to contain this numerical value (See also:

Jerome in See also:

Amos 3; Opp. Vallarsi VI. i. 257). Speculations about the Perso-Hellenistic Mithras appear to have been transferred to the Gnostic See also:

ABRAXAS, or ABRASAX

Abraxas. Further, if the Pater innatus be surrounded by a See also:

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

series of (from five to seven) Hypostases (according to Irenaeus i.

24. 3; Nous, Aoyor, cl)povriais, Eocia, Ail papas ; according to Clemens, Strom. iv. 25 § 164, ALKawauvf and Eipityi may perhaps be added), we are reminded of the Ameshas-spentas which surround Ahura-Mazda. Finally, in the system of Basilides, the (seven ?) See also:

POWERS, HIRAM (1805-1873)

powers from whom this See also:

WORLD

world originates are accepted as the lowest emanations of the supreme God. This conception which is repeated in nearly every Gnostic system, of (seven) world-creating angels, is a specifically See also:

ORIENTAL

oriental See also:

SPECULATION

speculation. The seven powers which create and See also:

RULE

rule the world are without doubt the seven planetary deities of the later Babylonian See also:

religion. If, in the Gnostic systems, these become daemonic or semi-daemonic forces, this points to the fact that a stronger monotheistic religion (the Iranian) had gained the upper See also:

hand over the Babylonian, and had degraded its gods to daemons. The See also:

SYNCRETISM (Gr. o'vyKprlrurw51, from aim and Kep&vvv,uc, mingle or blend, or, according to Plutarch, from en, and Kprlri'ecv, to combine against a common enemy after the manner of the cities of Crete)

syncretism of the Babylonian and the Persian religion was also the See also:

NURSING

nursing-ground of Gnosticism. When, then, Basilides identified the highest See also:

ANGEL

angel of the seven, the creator of the worlds, with the God of the See also:

Jews, this is a development of the See also:

IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

idea which did not occur until See also:

LATE

late, possibly first in the specifically See also:

Christian circles of the Gnostics. We may See also:

note in this connexion that the system of Basilides ascribes the many battles and quarrels in the world to the privileged position given to his See also:

PEOPLE

people by the God of the Jews.2 It is at this point that the idea of salvation is introduced into the system. The confusion in the world has meanwhile risen to such a See also:

pitch that the supreme God sends his Nous, who is also called See also:

Christ, into the world (Irenaeus i. 24.

4). According to Clemens, the Saviour is termed vve0ga &axoeouµevov (Strom. ii: 8 § 36) or &euavos (Excerpta ex Theodoto; § 16). It is See also:

IM(K2+a2+h2—2 ah cos 0)

im- The materials are in Baur, Das manichaische Religionssystem (1831), p. 162, &c. 2 Whether the myth of the creation of the first man by the angels, which recurs in many Gnostic systems, found a See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place also in the system of Basilides, cannot be determined with any certainty. Philastrius, however, says: hominem autem ab angelis factum asserit, while according to Epiphanus xxiv. 2, men are created by the God of the Jews.possible certainly to determine how Basilides conceived the relation of this Saviour to Jesus of See also:

NAZARETH (mod. en-Ndsira)

Nazareth. Basilides himself (Strom. iv. 12 § 83) knows of an earthly Jesus and denies the principle of his.sinlessness (see above). According to the See also:

account given by Irenaeus, the Saviour is said to have appeared only as a phantasm; according to the Excerpta ex Theodoto, 17, the Diakonos descended upon Jesus at His See also:

BAPTISM

baptism in the form of a See also:

dove, for which See also:

REASON (Lat. ratio, through French raison)

reason the followers of Basilides celebrated the See also:

day of the baptism of Jesus, the day of the bri¢aveia as a high festival (Clemens, Strom. i. 21 § 18). The various attempts at See also:

COMBINATION (Lat. combinare, to combine)

combination probably point to the fact that the purely mythical figure of a god-saviour (Heros) was connected first by Basilides with Jesus of Nazareth.

As to what the conception of Basilides was of the completion of the See also:

PROCESS

process of redemption, the available See also:

SOURCES

sources tell us next to nothing. According to an allusion in Clemens, Strom. ii. 8 § 36, with the See also:

MISSION

mission of the Saviour begins the See also:

GREAT

great separation of the sexes, the fulfilment and the restoration of all things. This agrees with the beginning of the speculation of Basilides. Salvation consists in this, that that which was combined for evil is once more separated. Among the later followers of Basilides, actual magic played a determining part. They hand down the names of the rulers of the several heavens as a weighty See also:

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

secret. This was a result of the belief, that whoever knew the names of these rulers would after See also:

DEATH

death pass through all the heavens to the supreme God. In accordance with this, Christ also, in the See also:

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

opinion of these followers of Basilides, was in the See also:

possession of a mystic name (Caulacau Jes. See also:

XXVIII

xxviii. to) by the See also:

POWER [WILLIAM GRATTAN] TYRONE (1797-1841)

power of which he had descended through all the heavens to See also:

earth, and had then again ascended to the See also:

FATHER

Father. Redemption, accordingly, could be conceived as simply the See also:

REVELATION, BOOK OF

revelation of mystic names. In this connexion' the name Abraxas and the Abraxas gems must be remembered. Whether Basilides himself had already given this magic tendency to Gnosticism cannot be decided.

Basilides, then, represents that form of Gnosticism that is closest to Persian dualism in its final form. His doctrine is most closely related to that of Satornil (See also:

SATURNINUS, LUCIUS APPULEIUS

Saturninus). From most of the other Gnostic sects, with the exception perhaps of the Jewish-Christian Gnosticism, he is distinguished by the fact that with him the figure of the fallen See also:

FEMALE

female god (Sophia Achamoth), and, in See also:

general, the idea of a fall within the godhead is entirelywanting. So far as we can see, on the other hand, Basilides appears actually to represent a further development of Iranian dualism, which later produced the religious system of Mani. Accounts of the teaching of Basilides are to be found in all the more See also:

COMPLETE

complete works on Gnosticism (see bibliography to the See also:

ARTICLE (from Lat. articulus, a joint)

article GNOSTICISM). The original sources are best reproduced inHilgenfeld, Ketzergeschichte See also:

des Urchristentums (1884), pp. 195-230. See also See also:

KRUGER, STEPHANUS JOHANNES PAULUS (1825-1904)

Kruger, article " Basilides," in See also:

Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, ed. 3. (W.

End of Article: BASILIDES

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