Pistis Sophia

Pistis Sophia — G. R. S. Mead — Section 12

A man sufiereth for each separate sin .... Even the greatest of sinners, if he repent, shall inherit the kingdom Of the time favourable for the birth of them who shall find the mysteries The disciples beseech Jesus to have mercy upon them The preaching of the disciples ...... PAGE .379 380 381 382 .383 385 386 387 389 390 391 .392 393 894 INTRODUCTION. It is with somewhat of the feelings of one setting forth on a forlorn hope that the writer ventures to „. ^ phmge into the chaos of syncretism generally ments classified under the vague term Gnosticism. ^ , ^ _ general Indeed no subject connected with the history literature of religion is fraught with greater difficulty, as . ^^°^^'^- o o o ji cism. may be seen from the comparative paucity of general works on Gnosticism from the pens of European scholars. In fact the English reader, outside of a few translations, must content himself with Burton's Bampton Lectures, Mansel's Gnostic Heresies, Norton's History of the Gnostics, King's Gnostics and their Remains, and an article by Salmon. Not only did the persecution of the early Gnostics cause the loss of nearly all their documents, but also some of the most important writings of the Fathers, which might have thi'own more light on the subject, have disappeared ; among these may be mentioned the Syntagma of Justin, and the Syntagma of Hippolytus. Our chief authorities among the Fathers are Justin Martyr, Irenseus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, HijDpo- lytus, Philaster, Epiphaniiis, Jerome and Theodoret. But as all, with the solitary exception of Hippolytus, quote the Gnostic documents in the briefest possible manner, and devote almost all their space to the refutation of heretical opinions, it is exceedingly difficult to make out from such controversial writings what the real views of the various Gnostic schools were ; and this in spite of the immense labour and acumen which have been brought to the task h XVlll INTRODUCTION. by such men as Massuet, Beausobre and Mosheim in the last century, and in tlie present by Neander, Matter, Baur, Moller, Lipsius and others who will be mentioned later.